Jump to content

Wikipedia:Help desk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 173.169.137.113 (talk) at 14:48, 2 June 2010 (Political affiliation). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


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


    May 29

    page deleted

    i was writing a page about a company and this page was deleted. now, i have the complete page ready and want to post it in wikipedia. how do i do it?? thanks in advance.Chowdharyramineni (talk) 02:25, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Is it the company you work for? If so, understand that you are in conflict of interest and Wikipedia is not for advertising. Please don't spam; you've been warned. PleaseStand (talk) 02:32, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You seem to be referring to User:Chowdharyramineni/Saama Technologies. Its first sentence read Saama Technologies, Inc is a pure-play business intelligence solution provider that has revolutionized the way organizations make decisions through business intelligence. I wonder how many constituents (noun phrases, verbs, etc) in that don't merit the PEACOCK warning flag. Still, it was "sourced" -- to this page, which tells us (amid much else): (1) Saama Technologies, Inc. is a pure-play business intelligence solution provider that has revolutionized the way organizations make decisions through business intelligence and (2) © 2010 BioMedReports.com. All rights reserved. Now, when you posted this stuff to Wikipedia you agreed that Content that violates any copyrights will be deleted. Because it violated copyright, I have just now deleted it. -- Hoary (talk) 02:43, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The word "solutions" alone, unless in the context of solutes dissolved in solvents, is by itself a clear spam marker. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:11, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    In short:
    I understand this is a lot of rules. If you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia policies, Wikipedia:Your first article would be good reading to start with. / edg 02:59, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Question about user protection

    Hi, I've seen where users can request for their account to be closed, preventing hacking and such. I'm just curious whether that can be reverted? Because I may be leaving Wikipedia soon, and I'm just exploring my options. Thanks in advance!SwisterTwister (talk) 06:13, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Accounts are never really closed, I think, but just no longer used, usually a notice is added on the user page - though I may be wrong.
    ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 06:22, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Qwerp, you may want to read WP:VANISH to eliminate some of your guessing. Dismas|(talk) 06:24, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, so I'm at least partially right - but you can also vanish. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 07:12, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Another option that you may have noticed being used is page protection. Your userpage and talkpage would remain but wouldn't be able to be edited by anyone else. Please see Wikipedia:Protection policy#User pages for more info. This is not often done though, unless there is continued vandalism, or a specific reason that a talkpage would need to be protected. You can also request that your userpage be deleted at any time, by placing {{Db-u1}} on the page. User talkpages are kept though, the vast majority of the time (with the exception of the right to vanish, mentioned above). Most people find though that all that's necessary is to put a notice on their pages saying that they've left, and then just stop editing. No big deal.--BelovedFreak 12:58, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    An addendum: I gather from your talkpage that perhaps a negative experience is causing you to think about leaving. if that's the case, then maybe try having a wikibreak. Editing Wikipedia is, for most people, a hobby and shouldn't be stressful. If it gets to the point where you're not enjoying it, maybe a break would do you good, just step for a little while. Also, just try editing in different areas, for a change. Hope this helps, --BelovedFreak 13:01, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Frankly speaking Wikipedia does not care about your privacy, About a year ago I wanted to vanish and have my talk page permanently deleted because people IRL knew of my Wikipedia habits and I didn't want them reading about my wikirage while I was blocked. Long story short the admins get their kicks out of pointing to various conflicting policys. So yeah if it's privacy you're after you're screwed.--intraining Jack In 14:38, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Centering Short Image Captions to Improve Wikipedia

    Recently some editors have gotten together over a short period of time and decided to create new rules that don't exist in the Manual of Style or Guidelines regarding the centering of short image captions. Here are some of the messages I received over a short amount of time from users whom apparently seem to know one-another:

    collapsing several comments

    Centreing captions Just a heads up that it's inappropriate to centre the text on individual image captions (as you did here). Wikipedia is designed to have a coherent, uniform style across all articles, and the default layout is to have all image captions left-aligned. --McGeddon (talk) 10:27, 13 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Oman and image centring

    Hi

    I gather you have read and acknowledged the concerns being voiced here. With that in mind, I've reverted the image centre edits you made at Oman; I have not looked at your other edits, so you may wish to fix these.

    I'm sure that now that you understand the community's concerns you will avoid centring images in future, or will, at least, engage with other editors to discuss large-scale and widespread changes before you make them.

    Cheers, TFOWRpropaganda 11:05, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    ?? Would you answer me on the question you deleted on your page? Rave92(talk) 15:26, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    The images you use as justification for your edits do not have centered captions by the choice of an individual editor, but because the formatting of the article infoboxes are setup in that manner; that is quite clearly a different situation. Bottom line: stop centering images and their captions unless you obtain consensus that image captions are no longer supposed to be left aligned. As of now, your edits are not appropriate. --auburnpilot talk 06:17, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Image captions It seems you've been asked repeatedly to stop centering image captions, but have continued to do so. Please stop. --auburnpilot talk 05:18, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    Here was my response to this wikilawyering and subjective rulemaking without justification:


    It's okay to center image captions

    There is nothing in the Manual of style or the Wikipedia Policies stating not to center image captions. There is also no rule against centering image captions in Manual of Style - Captions.

    Per Manual of Style - Captions:

    There are several criteria for a good caption. A good caption

      1. clearly identifies the subject of the picture, without detailing the obvious.
      2. is succinct.
      3. establishes the picture's relevance to the article.
      4. provides context for the picture.
      5. draws the reader into the article.
    

    Different people read articles different ways. Some people start at the top and read each word until the end. Others read the first paragraph and scan through for other interesting information, looking especially at pictures and captions.

    Examples of articles centered image captions Examples of articles centered image captions that I did not center:

    There is no consensus to leave everything identically in Wikipeida articles, which discourages innovation and improvement. Having to obtain consensus for minor edits that clearly improve article quality isn't in the guidelines or Manual of Style.

    Please read:

    96.41.164.58 (talk) 06:20, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    Most print encyclopedias have centered image captions, and it seems reasonable and productive to do so with short image captions on Wikipedia. The main justifications I have received is that there is no consensus, and that Wikipedia is designed to be uniform in appearance for all articles, which defeats the purpose of being innovative, being bold, improving articles and making articles more encyclopedic. These stances all came in at once, which is suspicious, like these editors all know one-another and decided to base their opinions upon subjectivity, rather than actually improving Wikipedia. This in my opinion goes against the grain of what Wikipedia is all about.

    Therefore, I will await the help desk's response. Again, it is quite reasonable to center short image captions, the articles appear more aesthetically enhanced that way. There are several articles with centered captions, particularly in infoboxes (which I didn't center). It seems unreasonable that several editors above suddenly all have the same opinion.

    For example, at one time there were no portal boxes on Wikipedia. Then, somebody or a group of people decided to make a portal box template. Now there are portal box templates which improve the encyclopedia. Did these people go through some sort of exhaustive approval process, or did editor(s) simply innovate and the improvement was accepted because the quality was there?

    Anyway, these editors seem unreasonable, are overly-demanding, are wikilawyering, are creating rules that don't exist based on opinion and possibly based upon biased consensus by knowing one-another, etc.

    Furthermore, there is precedent in which people have centered image captions. Here is an entry from the help desk archives: Centered caption

    How do I center a caption under an image thumbnail? Dr. Kamarei (talk) 14:41, 5 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    <center>caption text</center>. – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 5 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Please respond at your earliest convenience, and please respond to the editors listed above that messaged me simultaneously. Thank you.

    96.41.164.58 (talk) 06:34, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Significant precedent for centering image captions Furthermore, there is precedent for centering image captions. Here is some data from the Wikipedia help desk archives: Centered caption:


    How do I center a caption under an image thumbnail? Dr. Kamarei (talk) 14:41, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

       <center>caption text</center>. – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
    

    Can you center a caption? I have inserted images with captions a couple of times, and the captions automatically justify to the left margin. Is there a way to center the captions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Voiceperson (talkcontribs) 20:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Personally, I don't think it's necessary to center except perhaps on a page-wide panorama. It is not specifically prohibited by WP:CAPTION so I guess it's OK - take a look at the {{Center}} template. – ukexpat (talk) 20:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Use <center>This caption is centered.</center> Gary King (talk) 21:16, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Template caption not centering properly

    Please see {{Earthquake}} at 1968 Illinois earthquake. It is not centering the caption properly.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 06:29, 27 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

    The caption was centred in the right column of a table. I changed it to span columns. Perhaps instead it should be put into the caption parameter of the image. —teb728 t c 07:43, 27 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

    —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.41.164.58 (talk) 06:51, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes, I see nothing on text alignment at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (captions). I suggest that you ask these editors to discuss the issue on the talk page, Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (captions). This help desk page isn't a good place for a long discussion, because each day's questions get archived fairly quickly. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:42, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How do I change the name of an article?

    Resolved

    I know this question already exists but 'Move' button is no longer right of the 'Edit' button, or I can't find it. So could you please either update the answer to that question or change the article 'Toplice Sv. Martin' into 'Toplice Sveti Martin'. Thank you! Claire_42 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Claire 42 (talkcontribs) 07:07, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Next to the watchlist button, there is a small arrow pointing down. If you hover over this, you will see an option to move the page. WackyWace talk 07:12, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Only autoconfirmed accounts have the arrow pointing down and the move option. Claire 42 created the account today and doesn't have 10 edits yet. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:47, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Referencing to wikipedia articles

    Resolved

    What is the policy on referencing to other wikipedia articles? For instance, in an article there can be a section with a "Main article tag". If this section is unreferenced, can I put in a reference to this main article (after having checked that the content in the section conforms with what is written in the article)? Lova Falk talk 08:06, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No, you can't cite Wikipedia as a source for Wikipedia content - see this policy. You'd do better to look in the "main article" to find the reliable sources listed there, and add those sources to the other article. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:12, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Fix Main Text to Thumb?

    Resolved

    I`m building a new page on portolan charts here. I need an edit tip to keep the main text close to the thumb images right. Just empty lines like now will not work in every browser. Could someone please suggest me a fix? -- Portolanero (talk) 08:48, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You could try some of the ideas from here, part of the Picture tutorial. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:28, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Perfect, Thank You! -- Portolanero (talk) 09:38, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia Categorywise XML Dumps

    Hi, I am trying to figure out the best possible way to get Health Category related wikipedia files for my algorithms to process. Is their a seperate XML dump for each category or is it that I will have to somehow get them seperated from the XML Dump that is available (I understand that this contains all the articles though). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.167.64.111 (talk) 10:32, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Know how to use the parser functions? Can you look at my code?

    Hi, I'm putting together a new template that will cite signs (we've already got consensus to do it from FAC and the RS Noticeboard) and I need someone to look at my code, which is at User:Noraft/Sandbox/3. I recognize that it is in sort of a basic form right now. My concern is that I'm not sure how to code it so that it doesn't return an error if someone doesn't use all fields (i.e. if someone doesn't put the publisher name, for example). Would appreciate a second set of eyes and some guidance. Documentation is included to make it easier. ɳorɑfʈ Talk! 14:48, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I certainly can't understand the syntax! But I compared your proposed template with one of the current set, Template:cite web. The code there does some pre-processing and then calls down to another template, Template:citation/core, which gets the real work done - there are hundreds of curly brackets in that one. I think you are more likely to succeed in the long run if you start with a copy of "cite web" and arrange for "cite sign" to make use of the "core" template in the same way. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:03, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I added a bit of markup to your template for the |title= parameter. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 02:10, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Since you have a location= field, you might want to add an extra= field to let users display location maps (or almost anything else they need). See for example the {{Infobox power station}} template such as at the top of Meadow Lake Wind Farm. --Teratornis (talk) 02:16, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for this. /core is only properly parsing three of the parameters. Gotta either figure out why, or build this without using /core. Hmmm. We're now working on a modified copy that lives at User:Wtmitchell/Draft1. If anyone knows how to get more of the parameters to parse right, I'd love to know what the problem is. ɳorɑfʈ Talk! 08:07, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    New Discovery

    How do you enter a new discovery and keep a page here if there are only the results of the new discovery? As in my case Reactive Plasmatic Mantle, There are only the results and causes and no thing to represent the discovery but photos.15:11, 29 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fulely (talkcontribs)

    Wikipedia is not a place for new discoveries and original research. We need information from reliable sources such as peer-reviewed journals and respected news publications. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:33, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    There's a prod on the page, Fulely, looking at the other articles you've created, you really do need to read the links above. Dougweller (talk) 16:11, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    Nominating pages for deletion

    A couple of times when I've nominated pages for deletion and added them to the AFD list, they don't appear. What do I need to do to make sure they appear? Those in question are Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Ruth_Coppinger and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Qassim Afzal (2nd nomination) Valenciano (talk) 16:50, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Make sure you've done everything at WP:AFDHOWTO, particularly step III. In the future, please put new questions at the bottom of this page. Xenon54 (talk) 16:53, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I have done step 3, but it doesn't show up on the articles for deletion list. Valenciano (talk) 17:04, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    My mistake -- you actually haven't done step II correctly. You need to add {{afd2}} to the discussion page. The AfD has been transcluded to the log page but since you haven't added {{afd2}} there is no section header or links. Xenon54 (talk) 17:09, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks, except that doesn't work - it just makes a mess at the top of the page and tells me to add subst:afd2 but when I do that, it just produces the same mess. Also the Ruth Coppinger one is first nomination so do I need to add afd1 for that? Valenciano (talk) 17:19, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Use the code {{subst:afd2 | pg=Ruth Coppinger| cat=B | text=(nomination goes here) ~~~~}}. Of course, you must change the page name and category for different pages. It looks like you forgot to subst: or specify the article name or something. I've done it for you on Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Ruth_Coppinger. {{afd1}} is the tag that goes on the article itself, not the AfD page. Xenon54 (talk) 17:25, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No article or section about side-exit exhaust pipes?

    Hi, I was hoping whether somebody could point me in the right direction. I was surprised at the fact that I could not find an article or section on side-exit exhaust pipes. I have looked in the obvious places (The Exhaust pipe article, search box, etc.) and could not find anything. I was hoping to make a few edits to it and if there is no article of this subject on Wikipedia where can I request that it be created, as I do not want to take on the job myself. Thanks and I hope this is the right place to ask for this, if it isn't please say. Chevymontecarlo 17:51, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You can ask it be created here., but it has huge backlog, so you should also just ask people\ post on the talk page for exhaust pipes. If you just want to add it to the exhaust pipe article, I don't think you can request that.
    ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 18:26, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I can't find the cat tag!

    Resolved

    I am cleaning up Category:Psychology and I found two articles that should not be part of this category: Easter egg (media) and Hidden message. However, when I try to edit these two articles, I cannot find the tag saying [[Category:Psychology]]. That is, this cat is visible in the article but not in the text that we can edit. What do I do wrong??? Lova Falk talk 18:01, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    When I use hotcat to take it out, it says it may be from a template. I'm taking a look now. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 18:22, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It uses the template "hidden messages", which is in the psychology category, thereby putting that article in it. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 18:29, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    How do I get the psychology category out of that template, or changed into Category:Perception, which is a subcat of a subcat of psychology, and a much more appropriate and exact category for these articles? Lova Falk talk 18:31, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I've removed the category from the template (it didn't belong anyway), thereby removing it from the article. I also added the perception category to the article. Hop that helps!
    ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 18:45, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you, and it did until somebody put it back in... However he said the cat could be omitted if desired, and I asked him how. So now I wait for his answer... Lova Falk talk 18:59, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict) Oops! In the confusion caused by an edit conflict, I accidentally overrode your change; I read this and went to make the template so that the category could be omitted if desired (see diff and documentation). Feel free to undo my rude overriding of your edit; alternatively, I could change the template so that editors opt pages into the category, rather than opting them out. Robert Skyhawk (T C B) 19:04, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Per Lova Falk's request on my talk page, I have opted for Querp's solution and removed the Category from the template entirely. Sorry about the mess my overzealous editing caused. Robert Skyhawk (T C B) 19:21, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Professor Julius A. Okojie

    Professor Julius A. Okojie

    Professor Julius Amioba Okojie was born on 27th July, 1948 and had his primary and secondary education at Government Primary School , Uromi Annunciation Catholic College Irrua, and Federal Government College Warri. In 1969, he was admitted into the University of Ibadan to pursue a degree in Forestry. He graduated in 1972 with Second Class Upper Division. A few years later he proceeded to Yale University, for his Master's Degree in Forestry. On his return to his quest for greater challenges in the academia, led him to enroll for a higher degree programme at the University of Ibadan in 1978. He was awarded the Ph.D in Forestry Resource Management by the University in 1981. Before proceeding for his Masters Degree in the , Professor Okojie worked briefly between 1972 and 1974 as Research Officer at the Forestry Research Institute, Ibadan . In 1978 he joined the University of Ibadan as Lecturer II and was promoted Senior Lecturer in 1983. He rose to the rank of Professor of Forestry Resource Management in 1990.

    Professor Okojie was appointed Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture Abeokuta in 1996, a position he held until 2001. He joined the National Universities Commission in August 2002. While in the Commission, he chaired the Standing Committee on Private Universities (SCOPU). It is to his credit that a large number of private universities established between 2002 and 2005 received the Federal Government’s approval during his tenure as Chairman, SCOPU.

    Professor Okojie has held many administrative positions at national and international levels. These include

       *  Sub-Dean Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Ibadan , Ibadan ;
       *  Dean, College of Environmental Resources Management , University of Agriculture , Abeokuta 1990-1994;  
       *  Deputy Vice-chancellor University of Agriculture , University of Agriculture , Abeokuta   1994-1995;
       *  Vice-President, Association of African Universities, 2001; 
       *  Vice-Chancellor, University of Agriculture , Abeokuta ;
       *  Member, Board of Association of Commonwealth Universities. 2001. 
    

    It is to the credit of this erudite unassuming scholar that during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor, the University of Agriculture Abeokuta was ranked No 1 Nigerian University from the NUC accreditation exercise.

    Professor Okojie has at different times served as Chairman and member of various Standing and ad-hoc committees, special panels as well as serving as external examiner/ assessor to a number of Nigerian Universities. A good number of professors and higher degree holders owe their successes to the tutelage and diligence of Professor Okojie. His outstanding performance as Vice-Chancellor, amiable character and humility endeared him to his fellow Vice-Chancellors who chose to elect him to the exalted position of Chairman, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities in 2001.

    A scholar of international repute, Professor Okojie has many chapters in books and scholarly articles in his field in national and international journals, in the sciences generally and on issues on higher education development.

    His numerous Fellowship awards include the Royal Society (Nuffield Foundation) Fellowship; Senior Fulbright Fellowship; and the United Nations University Fellowship. He is a Fellow, African Academy of Science (FAAS); Fellow Science Association of Nigeria (FSAN) and Fellow Forestry Association of Nigeria (FFAN).

    Following his excellent performance in previous administrative positions, the proprietors of Bells University of Technology, Ota, found Professor Julius Okojie worthy of appointment as pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Institution in July, 2005.

    Professor Julius A. Okojie is currently the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, a position he has held since August, 2006.

    The Professor of Forestry Resources Management has remained an invaluable force in national development and an inspiration to both town and gown in and outside the shores of . His consistent commitment to higher education has gained him national and international accolades. His unflinching concern for community development earned him the traditional titles of Aare agbe of Egbaland and Omotadese of Owu Kingdom which were conferred on him by the traditional rulers of both kingdoms.

    A devout Catholic, Professor Okojie is married to Erelu (Mrs.) Oluremi Okojie, Principal, St Louis Grammar School , Ibadan . They are blessed with many children. His new project is on Professional Education in Nigerian Universities. This will be a bridge between University and Industries.

    41.217.67.6 (talk) 18:44, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    What is your question - would you like an article on him to be made?~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 18:48, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It looks like someone just dumped an essay here. Its written with indents and things. I recommend to just remove it (its not NPOV anyway)  A p3rson  18:51, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I agree, I'll leave him a copy in his userspace. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 00:01, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Question about deleting contributions

    I was just noticing that a indefinitely blocked user's contributions were cleared out. I'm just curious about that, I've never seen that in the almost 4 years I've been here. How is that possible? I know that if it's something illegal, it would be possibly deleted. Thanks in advance!SwisterTwister (talk) 19:20, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Occasionally Wikipedia's Suppression feature may be used to literally delete all record of a user's contributions from the Wiki, so that even sysops cannot see them. This power is only given to very few users, and is used in a select few cases; that is, it is rare to see such a deletion. Robert Skyhawk (T C B) 19:28, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Restored file

    I restored someone else's image and loaded it as a new file (File:Fotothek df pk 0000241 046-restored.jpg) Now, how do I link this restored file to the original file? MiamiBrian (talk) 19:34, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Here's a link to the file for anyone who doesn't want to have to search for it... File:Fotothek df pk 0000241 046.jpg. Dismas|(talk) 20:25, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I have inquired at The Commons (the image collection wiki). I will post it here when they reply. ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 00:11, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    When viewing the page on the
    original image, scroll down and click on "Upload a new version of this file". Up load it to that - it may not be visible immediately though.
    ~QwerpQwertus·_Talk_·_Contribs_· The Wiki Puzzle Piece Award 07:27, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    NBA 2010 finals

    People seem to be making constant changes to this page, and when attempting to correct it (I.E. there is no definite winner of the Western Conference Finals), people change it back to state that the Lakers have already won, and a full background. Please lock this article until further notice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.208.82.136 (talk) 21:22, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If nobody has won it yet, it should say so (ex. undetermined), not as a team and you can have the page applied for semi-protection (locking) here if you want, however it usually won't be accepted for protection unless has been vandalized. You can make these changes - just click edit, if not, I'm sure somebody will come around and fix it - I don't think I should - I don't really understand the NBA system.
    ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_· ·_Contribs_· 23:59, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Now that the Lakers have won the series, this shouldn't be a problem anymore. If the article continues to be vandalized, go ahead and list it at RFPP. 95j (talk) 17:58, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    May 30

    Remove the deleting tag ?

    help me for removing the tags for deletetion. Syedalinaqinaqvi (talk) 00:01, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I archived your talk page (instructions at Help:Archiving a talk page) per the above request. I used the "permanent links archive" method on your page because I am not sure whether you want to maintain separate archive pages like I do. Actually, it is acceptable to just delete anything on that page since it is in the page history. PleaseStand (talk) 01:27, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Syedalinaqinaqvi has left a puzzled message on his talk page. I've left a message there asking him to post back here if necessary. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:36, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I want undelete the text of my Talk page and how i can remove the 2 tags on my article "Syed Ali Naqi Naqvi Qumi" about a famous scholar from pakistan. Help me please. thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Syedalinaqinaqvi (talkcontribs) 15:59, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I've fixed the talk page and will have a look at these tags now. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:11, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    OK, now for the tags at Syed Ali Naqi Naqvi Qumi
    The first one - red border - relates to Wikipedia's policy on articles about living people. All new articles about a living person must have at least one reliable source. At the time the tag was added, this article had no references at all. I see that you've done some more work since then, and have added a number of references. Most of them refer to your own works, so do not count as independent sources, and the "alibrary" web link doesn't seem to work; but the "jmuntazar" link might count as a reliable source. I have therefore removed this tag.
    The second one - yellow border - relates to Wikipedia's policy on autobiographies. Judging by your choice of user name, it looks as if you have created an article about yourself. This is strongly discouraged. The article is likely to be proposed for deletion again because of this, I'm afraid.
    -- John of Reading (talk) 16:46, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I'll try the second answer again now I've seen your message on the article talk page.
    The second tag - yellow border - relates to Wikipedia's policy on autobiographies. This was a reasonable guess by Toddst1 when he added the tag, given the close match between your user name and the article name. Since you have informed us that the article is not an autobiography, I have removed the tag.
    -- John of Reading (talk) 19:28, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Locating a company

    Gentlemen, I have been watching Clutch Cargo and Space Angle. I have not been able to do this since I was a kid. I have done several searches and I cannot locate Cambria Studios so I could not find them. I want to see about pur5chasing some videos. Could you please tell me where I could purchase any dvds of these two shows? Thank you for your time and help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.167.14.47 (talk) 01:22, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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.Template:Z37 ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 01:26, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Redirect

    Resolved

    via VPT {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 04:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC) [reply]

    If you somehow end up having an article become a redirect, how can you get the article you made come back? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tetobigbro (talkcontribs) 04:17, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Go to the redirect, then when it redirects to the article, click on the "redirected from X" link up the top. Edit that page. Actually, I see you've had help and solving from VPT, so never mind. {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 04:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I would like to redirect The Michelangelo to the Taft Hotel. I created both articles with the Taft being a redirect. However I see there are actually two hotels in the same space so I wanted to move it to a neutral name that could encompass both hotels but I can't since there's an article there. Thanks.Americasroof (talk) 07:56, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    According to Help:Redirect this needs an administrator because the redirect page Taft Hotel has more than one entry in its history. I suggest you post your request on your talk page with the {{adminhelp}} tag, and one should turn up. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:54, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I've removed a revision; should be good to go. -- zzuuzz (talk) 12:10, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks!Americasroof (talk) 13:28, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia access from BlackBerry Internet browser not working

    I cannot access Wikipedia articles from my BlackBerry Internet browser since the page layout was upgraded a couple of weeks ago. Previously all Wikipedia articles were just a Google search away from my BlackBerry.

    The BlackBerry Internet Browser is crashing (throwing a Java exception) every time I try to access a Wikipedia article.

    Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Busyhobbit78 (talkcontribs) 08:48, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    A possible solution has been posted at Wikipedia:Help_desk/Archives/2010_May_25#blackberry_compatibility. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:14, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    unable to access diffrent language in cellphone

    Since the recent change in the wikipedia interface i am unable to change the language. e.g when i search for queen elizabeth in the english wikipedia and would like to change to the same page in hebrew wikipedia - it cant be done (the "language" option is un-linked) my cll is a nokia 6210.--Rzg (talk) 16:51, 24 May 2010 (UTC —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.134.102.16 (talk)


    Sales extension counter

    Is there any scope for two wheeler sales extension counter at Thakur village Kandivali, Mumbai. Contact cell :

    —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.143.60.209 (talk) 12:50, 30 May 2010 (UTC) [reply]

    Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.Template:Z25 -- John of Reading (talk) 14:18, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Suggest Salting of Deleted Page(s)?

    How do I suggest that a deleted page be salted? Sanjaychitale (talk · contribs) has created a spam page for Ace Open University, an organisation they are associated with (as per the talk page), and re-created this after speedy deletion. It was also created and deleted at Ace open University. CosmicJake (talk) 12:53, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    WP:RFPP will, if I remember rightly, salt as well as protect/unprotect pages. TFOWRpropaganda 12:58, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I see they are working on it now in their user space. Dougweller (talk) 18:10, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Looks like that's per the comment at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion#Ace Open University. I'll keep an eye on the userspace version. Sanjaychitale has been advised to ask here or at WP:ARS for assistance - so we may yet see them here. TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 18:19, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How Do I create a userbox for my profile???

    I was wondering how I can create userboxes for my profile here on Wikipedia. I really need to know. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lildude200450 (talkcontribs) 13:31, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Does this page help at all? In particular, you may find this section (or the accompanying article) helpful, too. TFOWRpropaganda 13:41, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Healer; Merriam-Webster's definition; 1. One who heals 2. Christian Science Practitioner

    Healer; Merriam-Webster's definitions; 1. One who heals 2. Christian Science Practitioner


    Source; Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.155.198.27 (talk) 13:39, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    What is your question? This is the helpdesk, for asking questions about Wikipedia. CosmicJake (talk) 13:45, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Citing newspapers from Google News Archive

    Resolved

    Hello, is it all right to cite (and include links to) scanned newspapers from Google News Archive as sources? - ArCgon (talk) 16:44, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes, it's perfectly all right and even encouraged over regular websites in some situations. It's no different than citing an actual newspaper, just that a user can instantly see where the information is coming from. You can use either the {{cite news}} (preferred, with the URL filled in) or {{cite web}} template. Xenon54 (talk) 16:49, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Big thanks for helping :) ! ArCgon (talk) 17:04, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Change of the HTML-page-title, for Wikipedia pages, from vector.js ?

    Can this be done from a line of code in the file: [[User:<username>/vector.js]] (or monobook.js)?

    On Special:Preferences#prefsection-1 (Tab: Appearance) I use the Vector skin.

    • I always open multiple tabs when browsing the web. (And only a tiny part of each HTML-page-title is shown by the web browsers' tab-titles).
    • I use the Wikipedias of various languageges. Some of them have the exact same standard ending on their HTML-page-titles, namely: "- Wikipedia". (Which sometimes makes it a bit cumbersome to keep the various language-versions apart, when I save Wikipedia articles to disk for offline reading).

    It would be a gret help if I could:

    1. Automatically shorten the first part of the HTML-page-title on all wikipedia titles starting with: "Wikipedia:<The rest of the title>" into: "W:<The rest of the title>" and from: "Help:<The rest of the title>" into: "H:<The rest of the title>", and so on.
      This would make the tabs in the browser more navigable.
    2. Automatically change the ending of the HTML-page-title, on all wikipedia pages, from: "<The beginning of the title> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" into: "<The beginning of the title> - Wikipedia,EN".
      Of course, for instance on the swedish (sv.wikipedia.org) I will want to change the ending from: "- Wikipedia" into: "- Wikipedia,SV", and accordingly for other languages.
      This would automatically make the articles saved to my harddisk more navigable, because the browser's proposed save file name is based on the HTML-page-title.
    (In case you who read this, happen to only use English Wikipedia, I had better mention that each language Wikipedia has its own set of preferences setings, so even if one uses the same username everywhere, the different behaviour for the various language editions clearly will not be anyway difficult to set up).

    Now I wonder:

    • Can this be done from a line of code in the file: [[User:<username>/vector.js]] (or monobook.js)?
    • And, if so, :-) would anyone be so kind as to please tell me what to write (in the english Wikipedia .js-file)?
      --Seren-dipper (talk) 17:30, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Comment: This was previously posted at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(idea_lab)#Change_of_the_HTML-page-title_from_vector.js.C2.A0.3F -- John of Reading (talk) 19:33, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    authors

    I need to find the author of an article! HELP ME!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.197.129.10 (talk) 21:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If you want to cite a Wikipedia article in an outside work then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. If you want the contributors to a specific article then click the "View history" tab on the article or see Help:Page history. Articles often have many contributors. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:29, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Triple Entries

    I made my first entry today on Wikipedia, on the discussion page of the entry for Sir Thomas More. When I was finished writing it, and clicked to have it saved, it appeard on the discussion page three separate times. Someone was good enough to delete the two extra entries, and to provide an encouraging comment. I went to that person's home page, and wrote a brief note of thanks, which also appeared three separate times. I must be doing something wrong; do you know what it might be? Godfrey London (talk) 21:28, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It also happened here. It is registered as three separate edits each time at Special:Contributions/Godfrey London. Are you sure you only click Save page once? It can take some seconds or require you to bypass your cache to see your saved edit. Which browser is it? If you save and then use your browser back button followed by the browser forward button then it might also be registered as a new save. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    This has happened to me before - on a different site. It was fixed when I got a different browser. —Preceding signed comment added by ~QwerpQwertus·_Talk_·_Contribs_· The Wiki Puzzle Piece Award 03:09, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Thank you for the advice. I changed browser, from Explorer to Firefox, and the change seems to have solved the problem. Godfrey London (talk) 10:00, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    May 31

    Please delete

    Resolved

    Hello, can anyone delete the pages User:Sp33dyphil/monobook.css and User:Sp33dyphil/monobook.js for me please. I've created them under the intention of vandal-fighting but I don't know how to use them. Sorry for unintentionally wasting your time Thanks. Sp33dyphil (Talk) (Contributions) 06:06, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No problem. Done. BencherliteTalk 06:49, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks. Sp33dyphil (Talk) (Contributions) 08:38, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Infobox on geographical articles.

    Hi,

    I wonder can you help please.

    The infobox I have used for several (geographical) articles has a little green spot which can be moved about (I've discovered how to do this OK) to highlight the exact area under discussion.

    What I would like to know is how to make the little green spot into a little box instead? I remember seeing an article with a box instead of a spot so it must be able to be done but despite many attempts to find it again or to replicate it, I still don't know how to do it. It must be to do with putting something else in place of pin-coordinates but what?

    If you can, please send me something I can copy and paste and then manipulate into what I want it to show. I'm not very clever at doing HTML from scratch as its not something I ever studied in detail. Or direct me to an article which has a box and I can copy it from there.

    Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Comhar (talkcontribs) 10:27, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    There are many geographical infoboxes. Different infobox templates can use different images. I guess from your contributions that your interest is in Template:Infobox Place Ireland. It appears to have Image:Locationinireland.gif coded into the template source and cannot replace it. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:09, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Company Information profit/loss up/down arrows in red and green

    Dear helpdesk,

    I tried to edit the "Hannover Re" entry and changed net income / profit from (127) to 731. However, the arrow shown is red and goes down, I guess that indicates a down in figures while there should be an up. What mistake did I make? Can somebody fix this? Sorry, I am not a regular user.

    Thank you for helping. Akmathr (talk) 12:58, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    article link Hannover Re
    Since the information you want to change is sourced, you will need to change the source out when you change the information. Then to change the Decrease to Increase you will need to change the {{loss}} to {{profit}}. Hope this helps, if you need anything else let us know. ~~ GB fan ~~ talk 13:13, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (ec)The negative 127 is for 2008. Are you trying to update with 2009 values? That would be a good update, but you should add a link to the 2009 Annual Report. As a very new user, you might not yet know how to do that. In addition, you may have edited the number, but you didn't save your edit, as there have been no edits to the article since November. My guess is you tried to change the 127 to 731, previewed the result and saw it was still a down arrow, so did not actually save the change? If so, good call. If you look just to the left of the 127, you will see {{loss}}) which indicates it was a loss and adds the arrow. That is a template and should be replaced by a "gain" template. However, one needs to add a reference to the 2009 results, and update the other values (assets, employees) as well. As an aside, I note that the link to the 2008 annual report is bad. If you can find a link to the 2009 annual report, I can update it, or walk you though the changes, if you'd like to learn how to do it.--SPhilbrickT 13:14, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Thank you I tried again and hope everything is fine now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Akmathr (talkcontribs) 15:03, 1 June 2010 (UTC) Forgot to sign, still very green Akmathr (talk) 15:04, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    contributing photo to bio page

    Would like to contribute a personal photo to the Kiki Carter page. The photo was taken of me by me, and I am willing to release it to the public domain. I created an account to do this, but I do not have upload privileges as I am new to Wikipedia. Is there someone more established here that I should send the photo to? -kiki —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sunblossomrecords (talkcontribs) 13:28, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hi Sunblossomrecords. You should not upload it here at all but to the the Wikimedia Commons instead, so that all projects have access to the image. The best part is that there is no autoconfirmation threshold at the Commons; you can sign up there and upload immediately. Once uploaded, the image can be used immediately here, just add to the article syntax such as [[File:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text.]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information. By the way, I'd like to prophylactically tell you to have a look at our policy on conflicts of interest in editing, as well as our Username policy, the result of which is that your current username is prohibited and it's better to change it voluntarily before being surprised by a username block. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:56, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Request that an article be deleted

    For reasons unknown, someone decided to create a wikipedia page for my old high school newspaper (The Torch). Looking at this page, it is subject to repeated vandalism. I request that it should be deleted because it has no relevance at all, and a small high school paper has no relevance at all to the wikipedia community. Clearly, this article was created to inflate the egoes of current writers on staff. Again, I request this article for speedy deletion.

    Here's the article in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Torch_%28newspaper%29 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.254.58.96 (talk) 14:14, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It is not a candidate for speedy deletion. I have proposed it for deletion using WP:PROD. CosmicJake (talk) 14:22, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    And I have {{prod-2}}'d it, though another option is to merge it with and redirect it to the school article. – ukexpat (talk) 16:28, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Clement Attlee and Herbert Morrison

    Biographies of Herbert Morrison and Clement Attlee. You should note that co-incidentally, they share a birthday (not a birthdate) January 3rd —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.217.204 (talk) 14:25, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia is not a collection of trivia. Xenon54 (talk) 15:19, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    See January 3#Births which is where we would list this sort of thing (Attlee is there, but not Morrison yet), but probably not in the articles about the two persons. There are so many people born on any particular day that the biographical articles would become cluttered if each one had to list everybody else who shared a birthday. Only if a shared birthday was somehow notable for a pair of people, then we might list it in their articles. One example that comes to mind is the similar case of several US Presidents dying on July 4 - it might be notable that they would have died on the US Independence Day. See List of Presidents of the United States by date of death. Wikipedia is not organized as a list of trivia, but we have an awful lot of information that could go in trivia lists organized in various ways. In the future, when we have semantic wiki features, it should be possible to use software to synthesize all manner of trivia lists. You could do strange queries such as give me all the politicians with a Q in their names who were vegetarians and were known to juggle. We don't manually construct those sorts of oddball lists, even though that type of information might be harvested from Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 02:10, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Strange location for an article

    I stumbled upon Talk:VILLAGE DATA (HISAR), which was created by an IP. I assume it should be moved to article space, but I wasn't sure if there were any special procedures for cross-namespace moves. Dabomb87 (talk) 14:57, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Well, at the moment, it's actually speedyable under G8. But it could always be moved to Articles for creation I suppose, however, in it's current state, the page is lacking sources and is in dire need of a copyedit. Jeffrey Mall (talkcontribs) - 15:11, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I would just speedy it. It's hardly appropriate for an article in its current state, and if the user wants to contribute they need to learn for themselves how to do it correctly. I think this is a situation where the Help Desk has a potential to be too helpful. Xenon54 (talk) 15:19, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I agree. Jeffrey Mall (talkcontribs) - 15:41, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    RfA tool

    Why does it state that did not comment on two RfA's I recently participated in in this RfA tool? Immunize (talk) 15:55, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I supported one of the candidates and opposed another? This makes little sense. Immunize (talk) 15:56, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I presume you meant the two candidates at the bottom? It looks like the tool was unable to "parse" the RfAs. I'd imagine this was nothing to do with you - someone who !voted before you probably had a wacky signature and the tool got confused. Best thing to do, though, would be to check with Soxred93, the tool's creator. TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 15:59, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    For what it's worth, I'm gettign the same thing: I know I supported Ameliorate! - they were the first time I !voted in an RfA, and I supported them because "Wikipedia needs more admins in UTC+9 - UTC+12" ;-) TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 16:01, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    However, my !vote will still be counted? Immunize (talk) 16:02, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm fairly sure it will, yes - !votes are considered by bureaucrats (strictly: RfAs aren't votes at all - the 'crat closing the RfA will consider the reasons given for supporting or opposing). Soxred93's tool simply tallies the !votes. Incidentally, if you click onto the RfA itself in Soxred93's tool, it'll open the original RfA page - it looks to me like your !vote was valid, though to be honest it wouldn't have affected the outcome (you !voted with the majority, and the closing 'crat closed in your favour). TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 16:10, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually, in this case the RfA was closed by an admin, citing WP:NOTNOW. TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 16:13, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    However, the same error has occurred with the RfA counter and Xenos RfB, which I supported. Could someone please fix this error? Immunize (talk) 14:08, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    proposed deletion

    Hi! I put a proposed-deletion tag on a page, put a Old prod full-tag on the talk-page and was about to put a message on the talk page of the main contributor of this article, when I found out there was a speedy deletion warning there for the same page. I checked the history and discovered that a speedy deletion tag was put in by one editor and declined by another. Now, my question is: did I do something wrong? Should I remove the proposed-deletion tag and nominate the article for deletion in another way? Lova Falk talk 16:04, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I'd say "no", in as much as articles change, and your proposed deletion may well be valid now (whereas the previous prod may not have been. If it were me - and I'm very lazy - I'd simply leave the new prod in place and wait and see. If anyone complains, point them here and blame me ;-) TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 16:07, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If you're so very lazy, what are you doing here instead of doing nothing at all? ;) Lova Falk talk 16:37, 31 May 2010 (UTC) [reply]
    (e/c with above) Prodding is the logical next step if a speedy deletion candidate is declined. You didn't do anything wrong. The CSDs were deliberately constructed so they do not necessarily apply for every article. Xenon54 (talk) 16:46, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Posting info about a new invention at Wikipedia

    I am structural engineer (house builder) who has invented a class of devices I call Body Oars.
    

    They are essentially many different configurations of body attached and powered water paddles.

    My primary motivation to develop them to market readiness is that I noticed that all modern fitness devices and exercise methods that are cardio/core mobility strengthening overload knees to work body muscles. This makes these modern methods useless for people who can barely or can't walk, or stand, so their bodies just atrophy, and they become weak and sickly.

    In this case LOBOS (a type of lower body oars for mobility disabled) takes the place of useless legs, so the big body muscles that normally run legs have something they can easily run in full range motion, to override core atrophy and keep their hearts strong.

    After 24 levels of prototyping in my home garage, I have a device that for 2 years now has been massively strengthening disabled people, but the big press and US education systems won't talk about them, or even verify any of the people using them. My suspicion is because I am independent and do not have a college degree.

    However almost every search engine's first page is now dominated by Body Oars, if you search "Disabled fitness device".

    My question is about creating a Wikipedia page for Body Oars. I would rather not try this myself as being the inventor many may think I am not being fair and objective. So what do you recommend about posting a page about Body Oars? Do you recommend independent writers to post stories like this? Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bodyoars (talkcontribs) 18:08, 31 May 2010 (UTC) [reply]

    Hi Bodyoars. What you've described is essentially the poster child for an article that would be original research to advance original thought and thus improper to include in Wikipedia. This is not a reflection on the merits of your invention, but on the nature of what Wikipedia is, which is an encyclopedia, a tertiary source, the content of which, by definition, synthesizes already published sources for its content, and should never announce new things that are not verifiable through already published, reliable source. So, in short, I wish you luck on getting your device out there—it seems like a worthy product—but based on your description Wikipedia is uniquely unsuited for discussion of the product.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 18:23, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Benny Hinn

    When I search for Benny Hinn I get bumped to another website —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.117.230.123 (talk) 19:13, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Where do you make the search and which website do you get bumped to? If you enter Benny Hinn in the search box at top of the page then you should go to the article Benny Hinn. If you refer to a Google search and don' go to the Wikipedia page when you click on it then your browser may have been affected with malware but it's hard to say without knowing more. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:11, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    fyi

    Just an fyi, the general public can make changes to any article...I hope this is a glitch with you running in BETA otherwise I don't think this info is very reliable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.171.234.26 (talk) 19:40, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    That's intentional and has been how Wikipedia has worked since it was founded, to allow anyone to improve an article. I suggest you read the introduction to Wikipedia. PleaseStand (talk) 19:44, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    OTRS question

    How do I get OTRS to check if Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Hooked on Horses magazine has the proper copyright permission? The image has an OTRS ticket number on it, but some of the text was copied from another web site and I am unsure whether the ticket applies to that as well. PleaseStand (talk) 19:46, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hi. Where should I report a possible legal threat made? Nightscream (talk) 20:23, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Report it at WP:ANI CosmicJake (talk) 20:43, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    June 1

    How to challenge a reference

    What's the proper procedure for challenging references? I've seen quite a few that are nothing but links to vanity pages or self-published websites or blogs. I know the tag is WP:SPS but what do I do to challenge irrelevant or nonconforming references? Thanks JoKing (talk) 01:10, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Something in WP:EIW#Citeprobs should tell what you need. If a reference is obviously unsuitable, you could just be bold and remove it, but for courtesy you should explain your actions to the editor who added the reference. Also see WP:SPAMHOLE. Or give us a link to the questionable reference and someone on the Help desk could handle it. --Teratornis (talk) 01:55, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    samssung corby plus(hydrid)

    is there any widgets for samsung corby plus ? please i need some jave softwares and widget expessially for office applications —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.153.109.138 (talk) 02:05, 1 June 2010 (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. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:16, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    External Editor

    Hello, does anyone know how to use the external editor (mentioned in the editing prefs) - or what program to open the file that downloads in? ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_·_Contribs_· The Wiki Puzzle Piece Award 02:12, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It doesn't refer to a specific editor associated with MediaWiki. It's about external editors to browsers in general. See meta:Help:Preferences#Editing. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:58, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, thanks — I'll try that — also, why does the time in my signature go in a box all the time? ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_·_Contribs_· The Wiki Puzzle Piece Award 03:18, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I can't view your preferences, but I'm guessing there is a hard return between the time code and what precedes it in your signature. Go there and pull the time code back until its snug up against what precedes it, and then space forward once using the space bar.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:55, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Ok, I'll try that. Thanks! ~QwerpQwertus ·_Talk_·_Contribs_· The Wiki Puzzle Piece Award 04:21, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Permanent Wiki URL?

    Hi, I'm an intern for a nonprofit and was assigned to create a wikipedia page for our organization. There have been about 2 edits and my boss approved of the final draft. Just wondering how I could move the article to a permanent URL that doesn't show Username: on the URL, i.e make it "official." Mariabalilo (talk) 05:31, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    There's a much more fundamental issue that if you move this article into mainspace, it will be immediately deleted as an advertisement. Please note that Wikipedia is neither an advertising service nor a business directory. Businesses are not entitled to a Wikipedia article simply because they exist, and those that do have articles are not entitled to have the article appear in any form they wish. Articles only exist on notable subjects, and they are written in the neutral point of view (the point of view taken by indifferent, reliable sources, and not the point of view the company takes towards itself). Individuals are also strongly discouraged from writing about their own company, as this often leads to deletion of the article and the individual's being banned from Wikipedia. Someguy1221 (talk) 07:21, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Show your boss the conflict of interest guidelines here, and explain that what s/he asked you to do is in breach of Wikipedia's rules. Also consider showing him/her Wikipedia's law of unintended consequences. Once an article is established here then anyone can (and will) edit it, so your boss's "approved version" is liable to be changed at any time, and as Someguy explains above, your organisation will have no control over this process. You can request that an article be created about your organisation, using your sources and material, at WP:AFC. Karenjc 11:23, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Lisney Ltd

    Resolved

    Hi There,

    Please can you delete this Lisney Ltd article

    I posted by mistake


    Thank you

    djmabeizy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djmabeizy (talkcontribs) 09:07, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Sorry. I can't find the article anywhere. Where is it? Thanks. Chevymontecarlo 10:08, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If you check the user's talk page, you'll see that there's a notice that the article has been speedied. It's already gone. Dismas|(talk) 10:19, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How long does a new article takes to appear in Search Result

    I wrote an Article About Promotional Branding which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Andymutt/Promotional_branding

    There are two problems I have. Firstly, the article doesn't appears in the Wikipedia Search for "Promotional Branding" and Secondly the title of the article displays my user name i.e User:Andymutt/

    I can guess that the article haven't yet approved. Perhaps, how and when will it start appearing in search results?

    Many Thanks for answering! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andymutt (talkcontribs) 11:32, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Your article doesn't show in the main search results yet because it is still a "user space draft". See Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft for advice on what to do next - in brief, once you have made six more edits your account will become "auto-confirmed" and you will be able to move the page to its proper name.
    I've had a quick look at the article - it looks ok for layout and referencing, but does it say enough that isn't already said in the existing Brand article? -- John of Reading (talk) 12:12, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Time to celebrate?

    I've just made my 40,000th edit. How should I celebrate it? Suggestions welcome... -- ChrisO (talk) 11:35, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    A long holiday with no Internet access. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:50, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Or you might prefer WP:SERVICE. --AndrewHowse (talk) 14:18, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Except 40K is not one of the milestones. It skips from 35 to 50--SPhilbrickT 15:35, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Which seems harsh. Would a good cap-doffing from we lesser mortals suffice? Gonzonoir (talk) 15:36, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    What fraction of the 40,000 have stuck? --Teratornis (talk) 06:10, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Diff between two shortish bits of text

    If there a way, such as a template, to make Wikipedia display two shortish bits of text, side-by-side, and highlight the differences? I am sure I've seen it on a talk page somewhere. Yaris678 (talk) 11:56, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No, you can only link to a diff of two page revisions. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:04, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Yeah... I knew about that, but that's not what I am after... Yaris678 (talk) 14:34, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    As an alternative, why not create your own sandbox (perhaps in User:Yaris678/Sandbox), copy in one version of the text and save it, then edit the same sandbox again and replace the first version with the revised text. You can then use Wikipedia's version diff to see what changed. Astronaut (talk) 14:48, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How to delete temporary article

    I created a "temporary" article which was indexed under my user name, as in User:XYZ/Articlename. That article has now been accepted as a permanent work. I would like to delete all of the versions of the temporary article. How do I do that? Thanks. TopGun51 (talk) 13:05, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hi TopGun51 - just placed the {{db-author}} tag at the top of the user subpage (e.g.User:XYZ/Articlename) you created, and an admin will come along and delete it shortly. Gonzonoir (talk) 13:18, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    • Hang on a second. It looks like TopGun51 did all the edits to the userspace version (which is good!) but then cut-pasted the text into mainspace (not so good?). If the userspace version is deleted, the edit history and any GFDL attributions go as well. TopGun was the only one who did any of the edits there so it may not be a big deal, I just want to make sure there's no loss of attribution by this act. It may not be an issue at all - I'd just like a ruling on whether the attribution requirements need every temp edit accounted for, or whether "He wrote all X words" is sufficient, which the C&P move would certainly cover for the Day-0 state of the article. ArakunemTalk 16:17, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It's not a problem - as TopGun51 provided all the content of the article that went into mainspace, it's sufficiently attributed to him, and we don't need to retain the history of all his edits in userspace. TopGun, another time you can avoid this possible worry by using the "move" tab at the top of the page to take an article from user space into the main space, thus taking the history with it; then put {{db-author}} on the redirect that is left behind. JohnCD (talk) 17:09, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for the clarification John! Also be sure to nix the talk page of that userspace; I put the same question there. ArakunemTalk 17:21, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Done, thanks, I forgot that. JohnCD (talk) 17:40, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Lost login ID and Password i know which Email i made it from ...

    I have forgotten my login ID as well as my Password but i Remember which Email ID i made it from what can i do .. or are multiple accounts allowed from the same email. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.3.77.201 (talk) 13:27, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Can you remember the names of any articles that you edited under that user name? If so, then go to that article and use the "View history" tab to see the names of the contributors. Maybe that will jog your memory, and then you can ask for a new password. Otherwise I think you will have to start again with a new user name - as far as I know, there is no restriction on two accounts having the same registered email address. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:54, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict) Your username cannot be recovered from the e-mail address. Search your inbox for a confirmation mail from wikimedia.org mentioning the user name. If you cannot find the username there or at Special:ListUsers or in the page history of a page you have edited while logged in then you have to create a new account. If you find the username then use the "E-mail new password" button at the login screen – assuming you can still receive e-mail there. Otherwise you have to create a new account anyway. More than one account with the same e-mail address is allowed. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:58, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Deletion of Tri Shakthi

    Dear Sir, The page Tri Shakthi which was created has been deleted, is it possible to include because it is a charitable trust with objectives and a promising one for the future.Please revert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sreenivasan.biju (talkcontribs) 15:14, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    According to your user talk page, it was deleted because it gave no indication of why the organization was important. Pages can be deleted speedily (as this one was) if they are missing that information. Even with it, they may still be deleted if they do not cite substantial coverage in reliable sources to demonstrate that the article meets our notability inclusion criteria. I suggest reading up on these blue links, and the guide to writing your first article, for more information. It's also worth noting that being a charity is not in itself grounds for having an article. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:39, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Signing my post

    Look, maybe I'm dense but I just did not get all that tedious junk about the four tildes and the five tildes and the three tildes and the IP addresses and whatnot. You had lots of real nice examples of what folks ought not to do but nothing that was real clear about this is what you are supposed to do. Is this correct and all I need to do? ...or is there something more that I'm not getting? Melitota (talk) 15:30, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Short answer - you did it right. Longer answer - I think the process is unnecessarily conplicated, but my proposal to fix it was shot down. oh well, we move on.--SPhilbrickT 15:32, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If you can't remember what you did to make it work, five tildes will give you this 15:36, 1 June 2010 (UTC) four tildes will give you this Addihockey10 15:36, 1 June 2010 (UTC) and three tildes will give you this Addihockey10. Have a nice day! :D --Addihockey10 15:37, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    False Usernames

    Hello,

    I have read the "Wikipedia:Username policy". I have also been able to confirm that a recent edit to the following page was made under an assumed name:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony,_Florida

    According to the "Wikipedia:Username policy":

    "Explicit use of a name or url of a company, group or product as a username is not permitted. Your username should represent you. Accounts that represent an entire group or company are not permitted"

    In this case, the user name "GarnetKeeler" is not only a company name, but it is also a company name which was appropriated falsely. That is, an authorized representative of the company claims that no one associated with the company has ever made an edit to the above page.

    I think that I know the individual who made the change. On that basis I am convinced that the change as well as the use of a misleading user name was done in bad faith (i.e. not just a mistake). Thus it would appear that this is a clear example of a company name being intentionally misused as a user name. And in this case, the content of the edit can also be proven to be false.

    Other than undoing the false edit, what recourse do I have against the individual who made this deceptive edit? Can you reveal the IP address of this individual since the post was in reality made anonymously (i.e. with a bogus account)?

    Any feedback that you can offer will be appreciated.

    Thanks, Geo

    George Schiro 15:44, 1 June 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeorgeSchiro (talkcontribs)

    You can report abusive usernames at Usernames for administrator attention, where those that contravene policy can be blocked. Either a promotional username or a misleading (impersonation) username can lead to a block; the promotional case is easier to prove. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:57, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The edit has already been removed. I suspect that the person who removed it is in the process of filing for a block of the user name - if that isn't the case, I'll do it, so you shouldn't have to do anything. You can check to see that the change at Harmony, Florida has already been removed.--SPhilbrickT 16:00, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I have removed the edit (which was a personal attack). I have also blocked the user, although they can request a change of name if they are willing to indicate that they will not edit on behalf of the Marketing Communication company's clients. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 16:05, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Incidently, we cannot reveal details of accounts - even if we wanted to, there are very few people (34) who have access to the IP addresses associated with an account, and I don't think even they have access to the associated email address (although I may be wrong on that last bit!) There is no evidence that the person using this account is impersonating anyone else, or that they are not connected with the company - so even if I was a CheckUser (who can see the IPs associated with accounts), I would not look into this further - the block is enough - and even if they change their user name, this can be linked to their old name, and any edits the new account makes which go against the conflict of interest guidelines may cause the renamed account to be indefinitely blocked. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 16:09, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    "There is no evidence that the person using this account is impersonating anyone else, or that they are not connected with the company" - actually there is. I have documentation from the company that supports this.--George Schiro 16:45, 1 June 2010 (UTC)
    "I have removed the edit (which was a personal attack)", yes but you did not remove the edit which still makes the new content false. I assume that I will need to do this. Thanks.--George Schiro 16:45, 1 June 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeorgeSchiro (talkcontribs)

    Drive-By Downloads on the site! found by Norton Safe Web

    Hello My Norton 360 has been found a Drive-By Downloads in the location:

    http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%9C%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%A6%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%A6&v=NTZlOTk3NDRhYWUwMDg4NGQwZjA0NzZkMTJiOGM2YmUJMQlnb2xkZW4tcG9ydGFsLnVzNGI5MDM2ZWVhMjdlYzkuNTU5NDQxNjMJZ29sZGVuLXBvcnRhbC51czRiZjkwYjljMzFlNmE3LjM2MDc3NTUzCTEyNzQ2MTI2MzYJd3NfMTFfMw==&l=MQlBRFMJOTUxZWMyMGViN2EzNWM3MTZhNzg3MGEzNzY0OThhNDMJMAkwCTEzCTEJMzEJNgk0CTIJZmZiNGU0MTQ5ZDJjYjczODM1ODQwYTY2NDRmNDJhMzcJbWwud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZwk5NzIzMjQ0MwlzCTM4MzgxMjYJMwluZXcgbW9vbgkyMgkxMQk1CTU5CTEyNzQ2MTI2MzYJMAlOCTAJMAkxCQkwCQkJCQkwCWdvbGRlbi1wb3J0YWwudXM0YjkwMzZlZWEyN2VjOS41NTk0NDE2MwkwCTEJNDMxODg5CTI1OAkxMTA4
    
    I have unlinked the above hyperlink to a posing security threat, so noone by accident catches a bug. Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\Work 17:42, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    link to the report: http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=http:%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle=Wikipedia:Help_desk%26action=edit%26section=new%26editintro=Wikipedia:Help_Desk%2Feditintro —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.74.111.178 (talk) 16:51, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You'd need to raise that with the Malayalam wikipedia; each Wikipedia is different (this one is en.wikipedia.org, the one you have issues with is ml.wikipedia.org). TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 16:57, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    However, see the thread two below this one, and note in particular that another editor has raised this at the Village pump (technical). TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 18:28, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    RSS Feeds

    How do I get RSS feeds from Wikipedia. Please let me know the best possible way for the same —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmtindia (talkcontribs) 17:06, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    There are several RSS feeds available, see WP:Syndication. – ukexpat (talk) 20:10, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Computer threat from wikipedia.org

    Where do I turn to when Norton AntiVirus finds a security threat at wikipedia.org? This is a page describing the threat, and the location is on ml.wikipedia.org - even though I was accessing via en.wikipedia.org. I am now on secure login and do not get this warning. Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\Work 17:37, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You'd need to raise that with the Malayalam wikipedia; each Wikipedia is different (this one is en.wikipedia.org, the one you have issues with is ml.wikipedia.org). (See two items above). JohnCD (talk) 17:55, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You obviously do not understand that I get the warning when accessing en.wikipedia.org, so someone has bugged the servers with something uploaded to the ml.wikipedia.org website. By the way, I get the same warning when accessing other languages as well. Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\Work 18:02, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Another editor has raised this at the Village pump (technical). TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 18:27, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you. I will follow that thread as well. Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\Work 18:30, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Biography deleted

    A biography that I have created for an Executive Producer has been deleted twice now, what do I need to do for you guys to keep it up on Wikipedia? The article clearly stated the film/music video/ and commercial projects created by this producer as well as company information, please let me know what I need to do to keep this article up.

    Lrolfo (talk) 18:33, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It looks like you simply changed an existing article, in this case a disambiguation page. One of the comments left by another editor suggests you should create the article at Jeremy Barrett (producer) instead (click on the red link, and create the article). You can see your original article via "history", so you can use that to create the new article. TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 18:45, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I would strongly recommend that you create your new article in your user space first, rather than straight in the encyclopaedia. Looking at the content you added previously, it has a number of issues that mean it would probably be proposed for deletion if it was recreated in that form. You can use the WP:Article wizard to do this, and choose to save to a user sandbox space when offered the option to do so. Take a look at WP:BIO for the criteria you need to meet in an article about an individual person. Once you feel it's ready, list your article at WP:RFF to get feedback from other users before the article goes live. Doing it this way will give your article a much better chance of "sticking" without deletion. Karenjc 18:55, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Edit in infobox doesn't show

    I edited erroneous information in a infobox and I can't understand what I did wrong, but the second line (the one that I edited, with DSM-IV) doesn't show up in the article. Why not?? Lova Falk talk 19:23, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The template {{DiseaseDisorder infobox}} has no |DSM-IV = parameter. It will need to be edited directly to support one before you can use |DSM-IV = in the template's transclusions. Moreover, there is no template {{DSM-IV}} either. Intelligentsium 19:28, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Can pages be blocked from people editing?

    I'm doing a page for a pharmaceutical company on a specific drug. This is going to be full of approved info by the FDA about the drug including usage, side effect, etc. We don't want just anyone to be able to add or delete anything on this page. Is there a way we can block this function?

    Thanks! :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.126.7.94 (talk) 20:04, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes, via this page, however... if you're working for or with the company you should read this and this first. Remember, too, that other editors can and will edit the article - neither you nor the company own the article. TFOWRidle vapourings of a mind diseased 20:06, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    And also please read WP:PRODUCT and WP:SPAM. Also note that pages are only protected from editing if they are the subject of current and heavy vandalism. Requests for protection on other grounds will be rejected.  – ukexpat (talk) 20:07, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I agree with the above, and I would like to emphasis strongly that if, as appears, you want a page for your product which you will control, Wikipedia is not the place for you. At the bottom of every edit screen is the warning: "If you do not want your writing to be edited, used, and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.." JohnCD (talk) 20:14, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Article claimed to be vandalism

    I have been working for a long time to write a entry on my religious view/belief, many people share this with me and I hoped that a wiki article would help spread word and understanding. I have posted a early version of it twice but both times I have been insulted by it being claimed as Vandalism and a Hoax. I hope that this can be fixed somehow as it bothers me that people would think of it this way.

    The article was called Burtology, my village has lived using it's principles for years and want to spread the best rules it teaches. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Burtology (talkcontribs) 20:37, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia is not for spreading the word about new things that are not already established and the subject of independent comment. To have an article about your religion you would need to establish that it was notable by showing "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject." As the article claimed that it was "a common religion that was founded in Brazil and has now spread throughout the world", but searches in Google and Google News show no trace of it, editors who checked it decided that it was a hoax, and it was deleted under speedy deletion clause G3 which covers hoaxes as well as vandalism. Read Wikipedia is not for things made up one day for more advice. JohnCD (talk) 21:20, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    Burtology, thank you for your question. In order for any topic to qualify for inclusion in Wikipedia, it must meet certain criteria:
    • Verifiability - The material in the article must be attributable to a reliable published source to show that it is not original research. In other words, if you can't cite a reliable, third party source that covers the topic, then it is not verifiable.
    • Notability - The article topic must be notable, or "worthy of notice." You can read more about how Wikipedia defines notability in the notability guidelines.
    It appears that the article Burtology failed to meet the Verifiability requirements, and may have also failed the Notability requirements. Although Wikipeida uses the terms Hoax and Vandalism, please keep in mind that these are not intended to be attacks or insults to the editor(s) who created the article; the use of these terms is merely part of Wikipedia's procedure for handling articles that do not meet the standards for inclusion.
    You might also find it helpful to review the list of what Wikipedia is not; in particular, the following seem to apply in this case:
    Thanks! Davnor (talk) 21:43, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    After looking at things like Google's cahced version and the page preview, it also appears to not meet the NPOV policy, as it contains unneeded, promoting words. Fix this, find some good sources, and you're good to go!  A p3rson  22:46, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    "Although Wikipeida uses the terms Hoax and Vandalism, please keep in mind that these are not intended to be attacks or insults to the editor(s) who created the article". Uuuh ... sure ... 86.184.26.25 (talk) 02:38, 2 June 2010 (UTC).[reply]
    how about "they are not always intended to be..."  ;-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23:11, June 1, 2010 (talkcontribs) Active Banana (UTC)
    Yes, contributor from 86.184.26.25, these terms really are not intended, by Wikipedia policy, to be construed as insulting; it is the article or the edit that is being labeled, not the editor. Is it possible that the contributor might feel insulted anyway? Sure. Is it possible that the person who tagged the article as vandalism wants the contributor to feel insulted? Certainly. But that is not the intent of the policy. The goal is to be nice, even if we can't always live up to that ideal. Cheers! Davnor (talk) 14:32, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Created article

    Hi! I created an article on Wikipedia. Please look and tell me if it is relevant. Thanks! Dr. OS (talk) 20:39, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Presumably you mean Castle Comagena (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)? The English needs fixing but that's easy, the bigger problem is that the article has no reliable sources to support notability. – ukexpat (talk) 20:55, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It seems to be an attempt at translating the lead of the German WP article. I'll try to clean up and wikify the translation and add some sources. Deor (talk) 22:41, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Page tagged with template not showing up in category

    I recently created a template that would tag pages with a category. On the first page I tagged, the category is shown at the bottom as if the page is in it – yet the category page still shows no pages. It's been more than enough time for database lag to pass, if that were the case.

    I was able to find one other similar question that was asked here, but it didn't really help me solve the problem. Any ideas, anyone?
    -Garrett W. { } 23:05, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No, it hasn't been enough time for database lag to pass. You added it today. It can take much longer. I made a null edit to Talk:Longview, Texas and then it showed up in the category. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If the template had added the category at the time the article was last edited then the category would have been updated right away. But at the time [1] there was 4 minutes until it added the category.[2] Then you had to wait for the job queue to implement changes caused by the template edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:29, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, ok, I thought a few hours would be plenty of time for it to get processed. Thanks for the explanation and help!
    -Garrett W. { } 01:03, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    June 2

    Wiki stopped working on BlackBerry Fri May-07-2010

    It was working fine, but now I get the following error message

    Uncaught exception:java.lang.ClassCastException

    I spoke to Sprint Tues Jun-02-2010 and they do not have a solution

    The phone is a Sprint BlackBerry World Edition —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.68.134.132 (talk) 00:24, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    From the history of MediaWiki:Common.js: "Disabling mobile until mobile system upgrades can be completed". This was done by Hcatlin who seems to have done a lot of work on mobile access. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 00:35, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Problem

    I created my account Joe Chill 2 specifically for Commons with an explanation on that page as to why. Now, I see that it's appearing as a new user here also. How can I fix it so that the account is only usable on Commons? I don't want to be viewed as a sockpuppeteer. Joe Chill (talk) 00:50, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See m:Help:Unified login for why your account is propagating across Wikimedia projects. An account is judged only based on its edits. This has two effects. First, if you make no edits to any project but Commons using the Joe Chill 2 account it is effectively the same here as having a single login. The only difference is that if someone were to look at the logs for the account here they would see the account was created automatically by unified login and that it has never been used to edit. Second, socking is not just use of a second account but use of it with some bad intent, such as vote stacking and so on. Many users have two alternate accounts, often in the manner of account and account 2 (I have one); see Wikipedia:Sock puppetry#Legitimate uses. There is nothing to worry about, no possibility of being viewed as a sockpuppeteer unless you engage in sockpuppetry, which is not just editing with an alternate (doppelganger) account, much less having an alternate account name that was created automatically that has no edits.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:37, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Difference between Twinkle's built-in reverter and Rollback?

    I was thinking about (re)applying for rollback in order to use Huggle. However, upon looking at the actual rollback abilities, it appears almost the same as Twinkle. It appears that the only difference is that Rollback is quicker, isn't limited to Twinkle, and doesn't have any sort of confirmation dialog. Am I missing something? Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk) 01:48, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    As far as I'm aware, the rollback that's granted to accounts is actual rollback that is a function of the MediaWiki software. The rollback that is used with Twinkle isn't really rollback, it's just called rollback but basically just uses the undo tool. Jeffrey Mall (talkcontribs) - 03:13, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Ok. Because it seems like Twinkle's rollback tool is a clone of (A knockoff, if you will - No offense!) MW's rollback tool. Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk) 04:38, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Rollback is much, much faster. Twinkle is good for New Page Patrol, but Huggle is faster for general RC patrol. {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 05:46, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Is there a place to request help in verifying material in pay only sites?

    A number of times the results on a news.google search would appear to verify claims that I want to enter into an article, but when I click to the source itself, it is a pay site and the part of the article that is freely visible does not contain the actual information that I wanted. I am wondering if there is a place on Wikipedia where I could place specifc requests for verification of that material and someone who has an EBSCO or New York Times or other subscription to the paid site would be able to see the whole content of the article and be able to confirm or deny that the source actually says.

    In particular this time, I am wondering if [3] from the Irish Times would be able to confirm

    • In 2001, Ireland’s first case of internet defamation involved ads placed on Escort Ireland by a Galway businessman which included a rival businesswoman’s personal details and led to her receiving over a hundred calls asking for prostitution services.

    for the article Escort Ireland. Thanks! Active Banana (talk) 02:22, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Sounds like a case for Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request (WP:REX to its friends). BencherliteTalk 02:28, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    That does indeed! TYVM. Active Banana (talk) 02:33, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Performance

    Wikipedia seems to be getting very slow again just lately. Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing the same? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.184.26.25 (talk) 02:34, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Occasionally Wikipedia does go through periods of slowness; this is often marked with a banner on the top of one's watchlist notifying users of lag. A few minutes ago, that banner was up; so yes, the lag is affecting everyone. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 02:45, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually, I meant consistently over the past days and weeks, not just in the last few minutes. 86.173.36.183 (talk) 14:02, 2 June 2010 (UTC).[reply]

    Applying {{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}} to a different page

    Hello. I am trying to indicate when a certain page was last edited using the {{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}} magic word, but I want to call the last revision of a different page than the page that I'm actually putting the code on. The relevant help page states that the magic word can, "take a parameter, to operate on a page other than the current page." But how is this parameter specified? Using a pipe (|) or a colon (:) doesn't seem to work (mind, the page I want to specify is in the Template namespace, and so has a colon in its full name). Any help is appreciated. Robert Skyhawk (T C B) 02:58, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The notice on the page says "The above can all take a parameter, to operate on a page other than the current page" (emphasis added). The magic word at issue is below that notice. I can actually hear you smacking your forehead:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    D'oh! You have good ears. Well, is there some way to do what I'm asking, or will I have to find another way? Robert Skyhawk (T C B) 03:42, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    In the event that nobody knows how to do this, would you care to explain why you want to? Maybe there is a different approach. See the links under WP:EIW#Query; maybe the MediaWiki API can do what you want (I'm not sure). --Teratornis (talk) 06:37, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wayne Bonney

    Could someone please tell me why I can not be listed under my own name in Wikipedia. My name is Wayne Bonney I am a digital graphic artists. Living in Calgary,Alberta. Canada. You may find me at: http://waynebonney.com Yours truly, Wayne Bonney —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.75.30.52 (talk) 03:43, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Individuals are generally only listed who have an article on Wikipedia, or who can be demonstrated to be likely to one day have an article on Wikipedia. Please refer to Wikipedia's inclusion guideline for biographies.A list of every digital artist ever would simply be unmanagable, and also beyond the scope of Wikipedia. Someguy1221 (talk) 05:51, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Recently, I added photos of recycling bins around the globe on Recycling bin. I've considered adding the photos in turn to the cities they're from. I fear someone may believe this too much of a trivial contribution. But I feel that it still has some ties to the place they're from. I look forward to reading anyone's post to this question. Yours sincerely, SwisterTwister (talk) 06:03, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The typical thing to do when the photos start overwhelming the article's text is to build an image gallery page on commons, and place {{Commons}} at the bottom of the article (with appropriate parameters, according to the template's documentation). Someguy1221 (talk) 06:07, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    See Commons:COM:EIC#Gallery for more about that. --Teratornis (talk) 06:13, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You can also categorize images on Commons more thoroughly than on the English Wikipedia; see Commons:COM:EIC#Cat. I've seen image categories getting deleted on Wikipedia that do not get deleted on Commons. If you refer to images that are on the English Wikipedia and not on Commons, see WP:MITC. There is no account on Commons with your username yet: Commons:User:SwisterTwister. Go to Special:MergeAccount and grab it now. See WP:SUL. --Teratornis (talk) 06:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    See Commons:Category:Recycling by country and Commons:Category:Sorted waste containers. I did not see a related gallery, but I did not search very hard for one. --Teratornis (talk) 06:21, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Political affiliation

    In the future, please note that there are two political parties - Republican and Democrat. They are both in the democratic system. When stating the political affiliation of a Democrat, please use the term "Democrat" not, as you erroneously stated in the case of Theresa Heinz Democratic. I thought for sure you would know better. Sincerely Timothy E. R. Moulson —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.88.191.139 (talk) 06:16, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If you refer to the link with text: "Democratic" in the {{Infobox Person}} template in the Teresa Heinz article, clicking the link takes you to Democratic Party (United States). Do you dispute that this is the name of the political party of which Ms. Heinz is currently a member? --Teratornis (talk) 06:30, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Most readers aren't going to click through to see what is underneath. Many members of the Democrat Party find it offensive to use the term "Democratic" as a party affiliation.--SPhilbrickT 11:00, 2 June 2010 (UTC)Sorry, had it backwards. The party name is the Democratic Party. Some members are offended when the term "Democrat Party" is used.--SPhilbrickT 11:05, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Gentle reminder: there are many, many more than two political parties... internationally, and in the United States. TFOWRidle vapourings 11:07, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Democratic is misleading and can be though of as subtle propaganda by certain people. Do not to opinionate because it destroys Wikipedias reputation.

    Cannot change one detail of a page I moved and edited.

    I was successful in editing and moving the page Little Fugue in G Minor BWV 578 to Fugue in G Minor "Little", BWV 578. I wanted to change all references to Little in the title. I did all except one: the first link in External Links:

    Little Fugue in G Minor: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.

    The first word "Little" (part of the link to the external page) I edited by deleting. But, in the edited page, it is still there.

    How do I edit this word?

    I read the help pages on links, specifically external links such as www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links, but could not see how to edit the link.

    RGB2 (talk) 06:20, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Here's a link to the article for anyone who wants it: Fugue in G minor, "Little", BWV 578
    In general, it's polite to provide a link to the article that you're referring to. After all, if you're asking for help, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to see what you're talking about. Dismas|(talk) 06:30, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I've edited the first external link. Look here to see the change. Is this what you had in mind? -- John of Reading (talk) 06:56, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Article translated by friend - does he need an account?

    Hello, I was wondering if the following coule be an issue: Some of my friends would like to translate an article, but don't want to open an account for just this translation. Would it be ok if I added the translated version or would that be against the copyright-rules? Cheers, alias 79 06:45, 2 June 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alias 79 (talkcontribs)

    There shouldn't be a problem with that. Any derivatives of a Wikipedia text are implicitly licensed for re-use on Wikipedia. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 08:43, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    File extension does not match MIME type

    I keep getting the error "File extension does not match MIME type" when I try to upload a new version of a current file. It is ridiculous and I cannot seem to upload anything without getting this error. Can someone explain this to me in nonprofessional terms and tell me what to do to fix the problem? Thanks! Andrew Colvin | Talk 07:12, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Is the new version of the file in the same exact file format as the original. For instance, are you trying to overwrite a .jpg with a .svg? Someguy1221 (talk) 07:42, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No it is not the same format (jpeg to png) so I decided to make the image the same format (jpeg) and it worked but the image doesn't show up now. Grrr... Why is this so complicated!

    This is the original image that I wanted to overwrite with a new version. This is what happened:

    These are the other two attempts at uploading the image and it wont show up!

    Andrew Colvin | Talk 07:49, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You can only overwrite an image with another one of the same type. As for the thumbnail not showing in the second example, clicking through to the image page explains why: MediaWiki will not display thumbnails for collossally-large PNG images. If you want to display an image with over 3000x4000 pixels it needs to be in a lossy format. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 09:01, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Until recently, you could upload a new version of a different type and rename it, but this was fixed as a bug recently. Now you need to upload to a new file and include the licensing info, update the article and tag the old file as orphaned so it will get deleted. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 09:31, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Site change or is it me

    For the past short while, maybe a week, Wikipedia pages do not "level" at the bottom of my browser. What I mean is that when I drag the scroll bar to the bottom, or hit end page the screen travels down way past the bottom of the page into white space. A picture is usually easier, so here's a screenshot. The top of the browser screen shown is the bottom of this page. It's not a huge deal but I am finding it annoying and it does slow me down on certain actions. Maybe it's a change to the latest version of Firefox? Really just looking for confirmation of whether this is on my end or if it's a Wikipedia software change.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:18, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I do not see this in IE. 86.173.36.183 (talk) 14:01, 2 June 2010 (UTC).[reply]
    It's probably just a temporary issue at your end. -Reconsider! 14:03, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I had a login and it does no longer work. Please Help!

    Hi, and all apologies for bothering you.

    I had registered in wikipedia as a user quite some time ago, say in 2005 or 2006, under the user "IllegalKnowledge" (it may have had a space between, or alternately, a "@yahoo.com" at the end).

    I cannot log in using that name (there is no user by that name) and I have tried all forms and places, with and without spaces and/or @domains, including at the secure server and the merged login and what have you. Nothing works. Has it somehow been deleted? If so, Why?

    Illegal Knowledge is the name of a TV show that I produce on Access Tucson, in Tucson, Arizona, and is not a company name, but an Ad Hoc of my person, Michael Oatman, and should not be construed as a "Sock Puppet" since I have no account named "Michael Oatman", as I am leaving that name for the Artist in New York State by the same name as me.

    Incidentally, there is also no login of "Michael Oatman" (with or without spaces/caps/etc.).

    I had edited some sections of "October Suprise" in those years, under the IllegalKnowledge username and the edits I made have been erased. There were some other edits to articles under the same username from this time period and later; perhaps you could look that up and tell me what my user name is.

    I would like to continute using that user, with all of the previous edits, however abandoned, attached.

    I know you wrote in the instruction to not use my email, but I would appreciate a reply to IllegalKnowledge -=at=- yahoo -=dot=- com, if you could manage to invesigate this matter.

    In the interim, I will attempt to create a new user of the same name and character. If you manage to locate the former, could you please merge the two users for me?

    I just managed to create my user again. It is IllegalKnowledge, one word, like the email.

    Thank you, Michael Oatman —Preceding unsigned comment added by IllegalKnowledge (talkcontribs) 14:00, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wilhelm Scream soundbyte removed

    Many people might not recognize it from it's listed uses in film but will be able to know exactly what it is if they hear it. It's a public source why not keep it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.169.137.113 (talk) 14:43, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]