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January 29

How do I add a comment to one particular article?

re http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Killed_on_British_Roads.png

I have studied road casualty data, trends, road safety policies and outcomes for thousands of hours and wish to point out some misleading aspects of the main graph and the annotations.

I have clicked on the Talk header and skimmed through the comments of others, but am unable to see how to add a comment of my own - as opposed to editing an existing comment. I do not wish to spend a great deal of time understanding the intracacies of Wikipaedia as I have so much else to do and there are probably few other subjects to which I could add anything much of value.

Can you tell me in simple terms how to add my comment - and also whether it is possible to type it elsewhere and then cut and paste it to you?

Also - it is far from clear (at least to me) how I wil be able to find your reply! And in a true chicken and egg situation you are unable to tell me where! Except that you could contatc me through my own web site about road safety and the many very serious errors of policy and analysis of the authorities over the last 20 years in particular.

00:25, 29 January 2012 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.155.193.143 (talk)

On the article's talk page, click the 'New section' tab between 'Edit' and 'View history' at the top. Dru of Id (talk) 01:03, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) There seem to be active discussions at File talk:Killed on British Roads.png. (Ordinarily there is not much disscussion on file talk pages.) Or you could contact the creator of the current version at User talk:PeterEastern. —teb728 t c 01:06, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

More instructions are at Help:Using talk pages and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. And just to make things extra confusing, the file itself is really on Wikimedia Commons at: commons:File:Killed on British Roads.png, although the file talk page there has no edits yet. The file talk page there is different from the file talk page here at: File talk:Killed on British Roads.png. It's unfortunate that as someone who is new to editing on Wikipedia, you have learn a large amount of technical detail just to comment on an image file, but that's how it is. Wikipedia is a vastly complex collaboration of millions of contributors, and as with anything else involving millions of active participants, elaborate procedures are necessary to keep everything coherent. --Teratornis (talk) 19:27, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Nanette Hassall

This article was deleted today for copyright infringement. The Bot hit on phrases that were organization and position names and I wasn't notified. Where do I dispute this? Pkeets (talk) 00:29, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

WP:DRV —teb728 t c 00:46, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Deletion review. Dru of Id (talk) 00:48, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. Pkeets (talk) 02:14, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content; Message on Wikipedia Page

Graham Diamond (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)

I would greatly appreciate your help. I am trying to edit the Wikipedia page for Graham Diamond with two new links to professional organizations to which he belongs and information about a new book that is being published currently. The error as cited in the subject/headline above keeps appearing and despite reading the help pages for editing I do not understand what is needed. The professional organizations speak for themselves. They can be verified by going to the links. How should this be referenced? How should the release of the new book be referenced? In addition some of the old information in the article is asking for citation. Although Mr. Diamond did not write the initial article it is accurate. What references does Wikipedia require? Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.72.95.55 (talk) 01:00, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

There was an extraneous <ref></ref> at the beginning of the article that was causing the cite error notice. I removed it. - Purplewowies (talk) 01:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

It appears you attempted to add his active membership in SFFWA; its listing of Current officers does not include him, and I find no members list or search matches there. The information would need an independent reliable source, or may be summarily deleted as unreferenced or self-published source, although if listed on his website, might be neutral enough to remain unchallenged. It was added as a template when no such template exists, resulting in the error message. Dru of Id (talk) 01:23, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Similarly CaAuthor attempted to add, "He was an Editorial Artist at the New York Times for many years." This also was deleted for lack of a reference. —teb728 t c 01:38, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I assume you are CaAuthor (talk · contribs)? I posted a short tutorial on referencing in your talk page. You can also see the longer explanation in Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners.

If that's too complicated for you, you can also just post in the talk page of the article, indicate what information you would like to change, and include a link to the website (just cut and paste it) where we can explicitly verify the information and do the changes for you. Please understand that "personal knowledge" and similar things are known as original research and are not acceptable as sources, since no one will be able to verify it (like Dru of Id has attempted to do). To determine which sources are reliable (and thus usable), please see Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources.

I also strongly urge you to read Wikipedia:Citing sources -- Obsidi♠n Soul 01:35, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Most of those error messages have a link to a help page. What can I do to increase the visibility of the help page? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:40, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Dunno. Some people panic at the sight of big red letters and will be more afraid to touch it again for fear of "breaking" something else (most don't know that changes can be reverted quite easily). Maybe a bot that posts on their talk pages like the signature bot?-- Obsidi♠n Soul 01:48, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Question about whether or not a citation can be used in a specific instance.

If an article says that someone is "very well known among preteen and teen audiences," can I use awards they've won where preteens/teens choose who wins, or would that be a form of original research? I ask because an actor winning an award like that could show that the actor is well known with that audience, but the source (for the award) doesn't explicitly state that. (Now I'm sitting here wondering if I answered my own question or not...) - Purplewowies (talk) 01:33, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

You should not say someone is "very well known" for anything, regardless - because, it is not neutral. Instead, it's better to just "state the facts" and let the reader decide their significance. For example, instead of Chzz is a very popular singer, we'd prefer Chzz has sold over a million records %lt;ref....

If the award is worth mentioning in an article, mention the award - but don't use it to infer the person is well-known amongst a specific audience.

An alternative might be to source a quotation from e.g. a newspaper saying the person is "well known amongst teens" or something, and use that (within quotes, with a ref).  Chzz  ►  08:45, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. I think I'll remove it. When the article (which is Dylan and Cole Sprouse) was peer reviewed, it was included in an excerpt of unsourced statements (and appeared to be deliberately included, since the excerpt started with it, and it's the last half of a sentence). However, the source for the first half of the sentence states that "teenage girls are crazy for" them and that "fans can't seem to get enough", and the second half of the sentence is a more professional-sounding paraphrase of that.

Still, I think it might be better to remove it. Thanks. - Purplewowies (talk) 18:17, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Font Size

How do I increase the font size of an article to make it easier to read? I'm using Google Chrome. 03:45, 29 January 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.198.165.122 (talk)

If you're on a Windows machine, you can probably hold down the control (CTRL) key and scroll your mouse wheel. Dismas|^(talk) 03:48, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

On many systems, Ctrl++ (control, and the plus-key, at the same time) makes the font larger, Ctrl+- (control and minus) makes it smaller.

It can also be set more permanently; see this help from the BBC.  Chzz  ►  08:27, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

How do I see "more hidden content"?

Over on the reference desk, there is a question about Israel that is hidden, along with a "Show" link. When I click show, it expands and I can see the question and some answers. At the bottom there is "more hidden content" in a box, but no "show" link. How do I see the rest of the hidden content? RudolfRed (talk) 03:50, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The user who hid the content probably copied the code from somewhere and forgot to remove the default text. I've removed it for clarity. Goodvac (talk) 03:57, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation, and the fix. RudolfRed (talk) 04:09, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Rainbow Rosaries

looking for a place in Kailua, Kona, Hi that makes the Rainbow Rosaries as I have someone interested in purchasing 18 of them — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.8.207.38 (talk) 04:03, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. RudolfRed (talk) 04:10, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

making tables the easy way?

Is there some easy way to insert tables? Like say if I have the data in excel or word (or I can save as tab delimited text). Is there some cut and paste method? I feel like I spend forever with Wikitables and have to put everything in cell by cell.TCO (talk) 05:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

If you're copying content from Word, you can enable "wikEd" at your gadget settings under "Editing". Then go to editing mode of a page and paste in the Word content. Highlight what you just pasted and click this button: . This will convert everything to wikicode. Goodvac (talk) 05:23, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I will try that. (not right now, but after I do some work. this could help me be a lot more efficient)TCO (talk) 05:42, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

There's several others; see Wikipedia:Tools/Editing tools#Wikisyntax conversion utilities.  Chzz  ►  08:21, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

searching foreign Wiki?

Let's say I want to make a stub for Hafnium tetrafluoride. It's well notable. Is there some easy way to search foreign Wikis (all at once) to check for it? Like German Wiki often has chemicals we are missing. Can I search all langagues at once somehow?

You can search a specific language's Wikipedia from the main Wikipedia page: [1]. Just choose the language from the drop-down list. I don't see a way to search all of them in one go. RudolfRed (talk) 06:04, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

You could Google for site:wikipedia.org "Hafnium tetrafluoride" - that checks all sites ending with "wikipedia.org", hence English (en.wikipedia.org), Japanese (ja.wikipedia.org), German (de.wikipedia.org) and so forth.

In the case of that specific phrase, there's no hits. A better example is, therefore, searching a botanical name; site:wikipedia.org Musaceae

Of course, this will only show the exact search word - thus my picking the latin botanical name as an example. If you're looking for something like "banana", it's only going to work for languages where the word is the same (such as Portuguese - it'll totally miss e.g. the French article Banane).

You could, however, look at the language links from our article on Hafnium in other languages, and thus some auto-translation (again, Google perhaps) to see if there's anything about tetrafluoride. For example, the language link to Español (Spanish) is "Hafnio", not Hafnium. And for 日本語 (Japanese), it's "ハフニウム" (ha-fu-ni-u-mu).

That may help track things down.  Chzz  ►  08:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

If it's a chemical you are searching for, you could try using the molecular formula, as that will be the same in any language. Mjroots (talk) 07:45, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Britney Spear's Biography

I have noticed that the Britney Spears information is omitting the "Right Now (Taste the Victory)" single by Jive Records in 2001. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.178.49.143 (talk) 08:27, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The article on Britney Spears does not include all singles. Instead, we have a separate Britney Spears discography. However, it does not include that single. It seems like it was a promotional release for Pepsi, so I am not sure if its inclusion is appropriate but, if you can provide reference/s to reliable source/s about it, then please make the suggestion on Talk:Britney Spears discography. (ie - was it actually released as a single? it could be discussed on that page)

It is mentioned very briefly in Britney Spears filmography#Commercials.  Chzz  ►  08:40, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Shapell.org

I notice that User:LFevas is posting dozens of links to shapell.org (Shapell Manuscript Foundation). I thought about leaving a spam warning and reverting them, but this just might be a legitimate site. Any thoughts? —teb728 t c 08:54, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

In cases like this, we need to determine whether the site being posted is actually beneficial to the articles in question, and whether it is presented in a promotional way. I have looked at the website and it seems relevant and helpful - we can certainly assume that the user has added the links in good faith. It is possible that they have been worded in a slightly promotional way (I'm guessing that this user has some prior experience with the website, so is likely not to have a neutral viewpoint on it). Where you see the website noted in a non-neutral way, feel free to fix it. I do not, however, believe that this is harmful or overly promotional - you were right to hold back on issuing a spam warning. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 11:02, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Editing and adding a link (which was from a Social Networking site)

Hi. Edited a page. I won't tell you which one and added a link from a social networking site. I won't tell either. Would I get arrested or be reprimanded for what I did? I really did not mean for it to happen. I won't do it ever again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.206.91.0 (talk) 13:32, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Not arrested, but your edit to Sungmin has been reverted. It's good that you now realise that the link is against Wikipedia's policies. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:01, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

In the interest of full disclosure, we can very easily see all the edits that have been made from your IP address here, just as you can see all of the edits I've made from my user account by looking at my contributions. Those lists exist for all users; I just want to give you a heads up, as you didn't seem to be aware that these are recorded. Falconus^{p t c} 14:57, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Category

How to you rename a category and create a redirect from the original title to the new one? X.One ^SOS 13:53, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

You don't rename a category. Nobody does.

Imagine that there's a category titled "Venezualan platypus researchers". Uh-oh, it should be "Venezuelan platypus researchers". You create the category "Venezuelan platypus researchers" afresh, and then edit every member of the old category so that it belongs to the new one and not to the old one. (This of course is a pain in the posterior.) You then put up the depopulated, misspelled category for deletion.

NB don't do this for category names as a matter of preference. You may prefer "US saxhorn players" to "American saxhorn players" -- indeed, I prefer it myself -- but you can't change conventions here merely because you (or I) disagree with them. (You can of course ask for them to be changed.) -- Hoary (talk) 14:04, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion. You shouldn't do it without listing it for renaming there. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:22, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Table of Contents on Live at the Apollo (TV series)

Shamed as I am to admit it, I'm an admin with very little experience in editing tables. I've found this table of contents on Live at the Apollo (TV series), and it is (at least on my monitor) interfering with the infobox.

What do I need to do to correct it? Stephen! ^Coming... 14:42, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

sort of resolved, in that I reverted to the default TOC, rather than use the box that is causing probs. If someone could explain how the table could have been corrected, that would be great. Stephen! ^Coming... 17:31, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I didn't see a problem with the previous version; what browser were you using? - David Biddulph (talk) 17:34, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Google Chrome. Small monitor, which might have something to do with it. I dare say if I was using my PC at work which has a wide-screen display it would have looked ok. Stephen! ^Coming... 17:42, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

creating a page for person

Hello, I have seen confilicting information regarding starting a page (article) for a person that one believes merits a page. Can you tell me the steps involved? From what I have read you create the page, and then place it, but I have also read you have to be a writer for wiki. thanks John — Preceding unsigned comment added by GoodKingJohn (talk • contribs) 15:56, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The starting point is to be sure that the person meets the notability requirements for people, and that you have reliable sources which can be given as references to demonstrate that notability. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:06, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

There are no requirements for you to create a page - you pass the minimum threshold of having more than 10 edits and 4 days of activity. As David said, do ensure that the article you create is in line with Wikipedia's guidelines on notability. Also, if the article you wish to create is about a person who is still living, be sure to read WP:BLP; we have much more stringent guidelines on biographies of living people which will need to be adhered to. If you're happy that your article will meet these guidelines, be bold and create the article. If you are unsure, you could first create a userspace draft or use the Articles for Creation process. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 18:00, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually you don't need 10 edits and 4 days of activity to create an article. That is a requirement for some other things like uploading images and moving pages. —teb728 t c 00:39, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Bad reference (misinterpreted source)

I have never edited wikipedia before and I could not easily find the answer so sory if it is obvious to you: What do I do if I find a source that has been misinterpreted (i.e. it does not really say what it is refered to for saying)?

My guess would be: remove the reference and comment on it on the talk page, but I thought I should check first. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Widebased (talk • contribs) 17:58, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I would suggest that you go ahead and remove the problematic content, and make sure to put a note on the talk page. If someone disagrees, they may revert your edit. If this happens, do not revert them; instead try to discuss the issue on the talk page. If you cannot resolve it, use the other forms of dispute resolution available. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 18:02, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

You shouldn't normally remove the reference and keep the statement at the same time. You can consider to use {{Failed verification}} if the statement sounds plausible but would need another source. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:22, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Mass deletion of security-related articles

A wikipedia user or a bot named "Skier_Dude" (and possibly others - I haven't checked every one) is deleting dozens of articles related to security certifications, and possibly more than that.

Check this person's path of destruction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Skier_Dude

A sampling of removed articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Certified_in_the_Governance_of_Enterprise_IT http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Certified_Secure_Software_Lifecycle_Professional http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Certified_in_the_Governance_of_Enterprise_IT http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=(ISC)%C2%B2 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Offensive_Security

...and many, many more. This amounts to wreckless vandalism. Can someone higher up in the food chain undo all of these destructive actions? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.113.72.210 (talk) 18:27, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The articles which existed were deleted (in July last year) under the criterion Wikipedia:CSD#G11, and not by the user to whom you refer. If an article doesn't meet Wikipedia's criteria for deletion, it will remain; if it is "Unambiguous advertising or promotion" it will go. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:36, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Book: Disconnected from my Account

Hello,

I created a book -- "Creative Writing" -- and revisited the project several times to add pages and rearrange. Now, the book is not connected to my account; I have the Book Creator tool activated, but set to a new (empty) book, even though my "Creative Writing" book is still there. Any ideas how I can re-connect and regain the ability to edit the book?

Thanks -- — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rlunday (talk • contribs) 18:43, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Go to Book:Creative Writing, and you (or anyone else) can edit it. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:47, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

List of Startling by Each Step episodes

Dear administrators:

I'm experienced edit war on List of Startling by Each Step episodes, because the episode summaries's written in a way that is not irrelavant and even full of grammatical errors and sloppiness. Someone removed my delete template, yet failed to improve it. If no action is made within the next few days, I will again put back the delete template of the page.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 18:52, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

If you're in an edit war, stop. Try to solve the problem via discussion on the article's talk page. If you can't, then try dispute resolution. WP:DR RudolfRed (talk) 18:57, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

I did put my inputs and concerns on the talkpage, but they ignores it. This user John of Reading, is the one who removed my template, yet I gets an impression that he didn't even read my inputs and concerns, and never even watched the show before, and just do it because he feels like it.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 19:04, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

JoR exactly followed the PROD process, and his edit-summary when he removed the PROD makes that clear. He doesn't need to read the article or know anything about the topic. PROD by definition is only for uncontested deletions, and once someone removes the tag, it's evidence of contesting the deletion, so the PROD process obviously no longer is viable. Your only possible dispute is with whoever first removed the PROD tag. DMacks (talk) 19:14, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The template you used was proposed deletion which can't be placed a second time. If someone contests the deletion (by removing the proposed deletion template) and you still want it deleted you will need to go to AFD (Articles For Deletion) and it will have a full debate. Alternately you could use the cleanup templates to indicate the article needs work.— Preceding unsigned comment added by RJFJR (talk • contribs) 19:16, 29 January 2012‎ (UTC)

(edit conflict) You are confused. The editor who removed your PROD template was 99.166.189.43. What John of Reading did was remove it again after you had added it again, which you were not permitted to do, and he explained this, along with the correct process, clearly in the edit summary. The template says very clearly "If this template is removed, it should not be replaced." - David Biddulph (talk) 19:18, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Check the edit history of the article to see who did what when and why. Note how easily many of us (even who have never looked at this article before) can understand part of the issue, because JoR used an WP:EDITSUMMARY to explain his action. NB, you should consider using them as well to help clarify your actions. DMacks (talk) 19:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Oaky, I've put a nomination of deletion template instead of a deletion template. Hopefully, that's relavant.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 20:57, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I missed this thread. I have fixed up the AfD nomination for you. They are quite fiddly; see WP:AFDHOWTO. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:30, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Account unification

Greetings,

my home wiki is the Czech wikipedia. I already have an unified account, but the English one is not included - I forgot password for my old account and I've succesfully requested its usurpation (see here). Is there a way to include my english account into my unified account? Thanks for reply. --Murúg (talk) 19:47, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

It appears to me that your usurpation request for User:Murúg was granted on 21 November 2011, and you are now editing as Murúg. What makes you think your English account is not included in your unified account? —teb728 t c 00:24, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Mur%C3%BAg says that enwiki is unattached. Set the same password for the English and the unified account. Then go to Special:MergeAccount or possibly cs:Special:MergeAccount. Does that work? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:34, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Special:MergeAccount made it, thank You very much, I won't find out without You. :) --Murúg (talk) 11:21, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Fixing dead external links

Pretty new at this (just a couple of grammatical edits), so in an abundance of caution, want to check before fixing some dead external links. Have read a dozen or so posts and articles, and there seems to be some questions about guidelines and a distinction between reference links and those in external links section. Saw tip re: using internet archives, but don't think that's necessary. In short, the intended changes seem completely unobjectionable to me, but I want to make sure that's not just me (this first time).

These are all existing links in external links sections. No new ones are being added, just dead ones fixed. In Database_normalization, First_normal_form, Second_normal_form, and maybe more, there are links to: An Introduction to Database Normalization by Mike Hillyer. They all point to dev.mysql.com and come up 404 at oracle.com. I found an article of the same title at http://mikehillyer.com/articles/an-introduction-to-database-normalization/ which seems a proper replacement. Are these proper edits?

Thank you Don Hammond (talk) 19:54, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The Wikipedia content guideline on external links is quite strict.

As far as I can see, the articles listed in {{Database normalization}} do seem to cover the topic well, and the material in those external links doesn't seem to add much. I have been bold and have removed all four external links from First normal form. That may provoke a reaction from the editors who are watching that article, in which case there will be a discussion at Talk:First normal form. If no one objects I may do the same to the other articles.

If you are not feeling as brave as that, then feel free to update the URL. An article with a working external link is better than one with a defunct external link, at least if the linked page isn't full of advertising or bad advice. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:38, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Tax deduction?

Am I able to use my volunteer work here as a tax deduction on a non-profit? CTJF83 20:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

You'll need to talk to a tax professional about that. We can't give advice like that. RudolfRed (talk) 21:07, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

fraud setup of my name 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_weese_(name)

remove this from your site!! i hv no clue how to work wikipedia and do not want to learn how..

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/People/Lara_Weese.html

u click that link above and it brings up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_weese_(name)

explain this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Funny1971 (talk • contribs) 20:39, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

There has never been a page on Wikipedia with that name. What exactly is the "fraud setup"? The external site you linked to is linking to an article that has never existed. - Purplewowies (talk) 20:47, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

In addition, people have added input at the first section you created about this: fraud setup of my name - Purplewowies (talk) 20:49, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Is this just a misunderstanding? The newspaperarchive.com link did a search for Lara Weese on Wikipedia and found nothing, perhaps that's been misunderstood. Dougweller (talk) 20:56, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

so let me get this straight..those links don't exist? I just posted them they are there so How do I remove them from your site? O thanks ms Purple for ur in site that was so helpful since i do know that it was addressed but it's still showing.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Funny1971 (talk • contribs) 21:06, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

The links are merely to a standard page that exists for anything linked to Wikipedia that we don't have an article on. Enter 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_J_Entirelymadeupname' (or another made up link of your own) into a browser and you'll get the same result. AndyTheGrump (talk) 21:14, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict):You can link to just about anything you can type in the search box. For instance, I can link to this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iojfop_joiejfjdsok_jiujgjkxc;lkdfif . There has never been an article there, and there will never be an article there. The page is telling you that the page doesn't exist. It's somewhat like a 404 error. If there had ever been a page at the article name you linked, there would be a light red box saying it had been deleted. But the page you linked to (which details that the article does not exist) cannot be removed entirely. That type of page (with no actual article) *shouldn't* be indexed by any search engines. For instance, this search (click here) for the page you linked to yields no results related to that page. - Purplewowies (talk) 21:24, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

http://www.newspaperarchive.com automatically makes such links to non-existing Wikipedia pages. Here is an example with a random string: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/People/asifwygfnwyrgfnwyrgfcnyng.html. It makes a link to the non-existing page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asifwygfnwyrgfnwyrgfcnyng_(name). Such Wikipedia url's return a HTTP 404 error as they should. It's an error in http://www.newspaperarchive.com that they don't discover this. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:55, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Help creating article about social action group

I'm a student in University and as a project I need to make a Wikipedia page about a social action group, the probem is I have no idea how to use this site, my teacher told us that there are people who might be able to help us creating our age on the site. I was wondering how I could contact anyone willing to help? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Steph kobe (talk • contribs) 22:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

This page on explains how to write your first article: WP:YFA. RudolfRed (talk) 22:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

But before you set about creating it, you need to read WP:CORP (which applies to all organisations, not just commercial ones), and make sure that your group meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability. If it does not, or if you do not include the references to independent reliable sources that are required to establish that it is notable, then your article will quickly get deleted, and you should choose a different project. --ColinFine (talk) 23:01, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Please note also that articles must be written from a neutral point of view; they may not be used for promotion of a group no matter how worthwhile it or its goals may be. —teb728 t c 23:47, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

False album page made

This false page was made with information on an album my client Yo Gotti is not making http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_from_the_Kitchen:_Reloaded and we need to know how to have it deleted. Not only is it not a real album, the reference to the article on HipHopDX.com is completely false. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/interviews/id.1836/title.yo-gotti-speaks-on-his-relationship-with-drake-explains-how-his-difficult-past-has-helped-lead-him-to-a-successful-rap-career No where in this article does he mention such an album project. How can we have this page deleted? Thank you for your time! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dovelyone (talk • contribs) 22:23, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for alerting us about this, I have nominated it for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Live from the Kitchen: Reloaded because in my own assessment it is likely to be a hoax. Thanks again, Quasihuman | Talk 22:50, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

January 30

editiing citation number sequencing

i want to edit the article at: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereopsis"

i've noticed an omission in this WIKI article that i would like to correct. 

in essence my editing task would require minor changes to the existing text, adding a few lines of additional text in the midst of what is there already, adding a reference citation to a journal article (the existing WIKI article already has some citations--i'm afraid of disrupting the sequencing numbers), and adding a graphic.

if you could steer me to any solutions or sources of enlightenment or help i'd be very grateful. thanks much, Tharring (talk) 00:29, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Try Referencing for Beginners. The footnotes should get numbered automatically. If you insert one, the numbering will reflow. Go ahead and edit (Be bold). You can use preview to look at your changes, or the undo button if something doesn't look right. RudolfRed (talk) 00:35, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Making a Page for Occupy San Antonio

I need help making a page for Occupy San Antonio. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Loveyk (talk • contribs) 04:50, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Start with WP:YFA. RudolfRed (talk) 05:53, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

But read WP:CORP and WP:PROMO first, and make sure any article you write is neutral and not promotional, and demonstrates in its text why the subject is notable. Also, if you are associated with the organisation, you should read WP:COI very carefully and make sure you follow its guidance. --ColinFine (talk) 12:34, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Keep in mind that we certainly by now have a defined article structure for the Occupy movement. The information you seek to add may already be there. Look around a bit, use our search function.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:47, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Population of Pashtun

Population of Pashtun as given in references is 35% while the article says 27%.

We are being made minority coming from 60% to 35% and still people are not happy with 35%. Correct it please. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.28.11.180 (talk) 08:13, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Could you give us an indication of what article this is about? Roger (talk) 08:56, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out this apparent old vandalism of Afghanistan. Fixed here. —teb728 t c 01:27, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Prospectus

Sir \madam, canyou please send me a prospectus of your studies to saveni phillip mbhiza. (Redacted) thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.31.169.252 (talk) 09:16, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.--Hallows AG 09:22, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Howto unwatch talkpge of articles + Howto watch specific section in Help Desk + Addon not working?

1. Howto unwatch talkpge of articles, they are cluttering up my watchpage that has almost nothing in it Thingstofollow (talk) 10:28, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

1. Howto watch specific section in Help Desk, what addon can you add? if you cannot, what is wrong with wikipedia, why hasnt it progressed anything?? Thingstofollow (talk) 10:28, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

1. One of the addons (no idea which, have too many) I have is supposed to autosign my name. Does addons not work on this page?? Thingstofollow (talk) 10:28, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

1. I'm afraid you can't, see WP:PEREN for the reasoning.
2. As for #1.
3. Your sig has appeared correctly, and it hasn't been autosigned by Sinebot, so I'm assuming your addon works. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:35, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

I fixed the formatting of your post, Never start a new line of text with a space, don't use odd characters at the start of lines; "~" has no function at the start of a line, "#" creates a numbered list and "*" makes it a bulleted list. Ok now to try to answer your questions:

1. You unwatch an article and it's talk page by clicking on the blue star near the top right, when it turns white the page is no longer on your watchlist. You cannot watch/unwatch a talk page separately from the article page, as far as the watchlist is concerned they are a single item.
2. AFAIK it is not possible to watch individual sections, only entire pages.
3. It worked too well! It autosigned every line of your post separately. I don't know why it did that. Roger (talk) 10:41, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Handling a potential edit war

An article I have watched had a section blanked by an IP address editor with no reason given. The section in question had been present for many months. I reverted the edit. (S)He blanked it again with a short explanation. There didn't seem to be a particularly good explanation so I reverted again, explaining why the entry was there. Once again the IP editor blanked the section. I then reverted and created a section on the talk page to get further opinions. A week later the IP editor again blanks the section, adds in the comment 'take it to the talk page if you really want to argue' and creates a new section in the talk page immediately below the one I had created. I reverted adding the comment that he should await a consensus before deleting again. The next day he once again blanks the section with the comment "nice try. Wait for a consensus that this belongs before putting it back in".

Now, it seems to me that if someone wants to remove well established text and someone else feels that it should be discussed (assuming there is no urgent reason for removal), then the text should remain until there is a consensus for removal - otherwise, anyone could delete anything on a whim and it would have to remain deleted until a consensus had been obtained to replace it. I'm not particularly attached to the text in question; I simply don't feel established text that is not in some way faulty should be deleted because one editor does not approve of it and it should remain deleted while discussion take place. i.e. the status quo should be maintained during discussion. Any thoughts on how to handle this would be welcome. PRL42 (talk) 11:11, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Start by reading Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. And consider whether it's really worth the trouble.

I'm not aware of any Wikipedia policy that text shouldn't be removed without consensus; that would seem to conflict with WP:BRD. But there are a lot of policies here, so maybe you can identify one that supports your case. --Colapeninsula (talk) 11:45, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

It's certainly not worth the effort in this case as someone has pointed out the the information should be elsewhere in the article anyway. I was more interested in the general concept of what happens if there is well established information (i.e. it has been there for some months) in an article and then there is a dispute over whether or not it should be there - should it remain until consensus is reached. It would seem to be sensible to have a specific policy on that to avoid potential edit wars. PRL42 (talk) 11:57, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Normally, one would add the information back again with a good reference. This principle hardly applies to a "see also" section, so don't revert, but follow up the suggestion to add good information to the article. Dbfirs 18:05, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Shanks Group plc format error

I was editing the text box on the right hand side of the Shanks Group plc page and now something has gone wrong with the formatting of the page which needs rectifying. There is now no text box and the logo is in the centre of the page.

Any help very welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hkemp (talk • contribs) 11:20, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

You hadn't closed one of your named <ref> tags in the infobox (on the page Shanks Group). I've fixed that but there still seem to be issues with the references (named reference missing a definition). --Colapeninsula (talk) 11:48, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

You don't define the reference named "AR" anywhere. In the first reference to this, you need to replace <ref name=AR/> with <ref name=AR>Author. Title. Etc.</ref>. I think you'd forgotten to add this on the first reference in the infobox. --Colapeninsula (talk) 11:52, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

False edit

There is an edit on my contributions page (14:45, 2012 January 29) which I did not make, and a previous editor of that file is upset with me that I would accuse him of vandalism, which I did not. I cannot figure how this happened, and I wonder if there is any way to explain this.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ 13:50, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

The edit is [2]. "TW" shows it was made with Wikipedia:Twinkle. It only takes one click to make that edit with Twinkle which automatically makes the edit summary and saves. See Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc#Revert and rollback. I guess you accidentally hit that link. You certainly wouldn't be the first to make an accidental rollback. I and many others have done it. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:01, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I never even heard of Twinkle, so it must have been accidental.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ 05:52, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

That's curious. At My Preferences > Gadgets tab > Browsing, do you have a tick in the Twinkle box? -- John of Reading (talk) 07:51, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

CSD for Unneeded Topics

As a newpage patroller, I often come across articles that cover a topic in an unencyclopedic manner, but do not technically duplicate an existing article, as they cover slightly different scope. For instance, if a user made an article that covered the dangers of computer viruses, which is slightly different than the scope of the Computer Virus article, would I be able to tag it as CSD, and if so, what criteria? If not, would I tag it with WP:PROD? Thanks for the help.-- Yutsi ^Talk/ Contributions 14:35, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Nope, no CSD category that covers that. The range of CSD-eligible categories is deliberately kept quite small. A PROD would be a good way to go. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:48, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Hieronymous Bosch article: what are “autonomous sketches”?

The article on Hieronymous Bosch contains the term, “autonomous sketches,” which i don’t remember hearing in the many art history classes that I took years ago. Perhaps it came into use after iI graduated.

Googling gave me a few other examples of its usage, in context, but nothing that explains its meaning. I do know the general definition of autonomous, of course, but this term has me stumped.

It seems to me that if a person who’s aced as many art history classes as I have doesn’t know the term, then it needs to be explained in the article.

Disclaimer and plea for help: Although I use Wikipedia several times each day, I’ve just now set up this account. I don’t think this is the best place to post my question, and I’m trying to figure out how to enter the discussion page for that, or any, particular article. This might not be the correct venue for my question, so feel free to set me straight, ok? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Got.Book.Learnin (talk • contribs) 17:42, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

You might have better luck at one of the Reference Desks, but I'm not sure which one. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 19:56, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities would be my guess. – ukexpat (talk) 20:11, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

pipe link not working

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? The piped link in the fn displays as if it were nowiki'd. — kwami (talk) 20:22, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

You've forgotten to put anything after the pipe! Mjroots (talk) 20:24, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

I've fixed it. Linking to something in the article namespace needs the right side of the pipe to have something in it. Linking to other namespaces with nothing after the pipe just removes the namespace. I assumed you only wanted the word "tone" to show up. - Purplewowies (talk) 20:28, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

But here's the weird part ... when I posted [[tone (linguistics)|]] here it came out like this: tone. So while your solution does indeed fix the problem, apparently including nothing after the pipe has the post remove any disambiguation info within parentheses (which apparently is by design). This suggests that the OP knows this is how it works but was surprised it didn't when appearing within <ref> tags. --McDoobAU93 20:36, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Well... I didn't know it did that with the disambiguation info! Learn something new every day. :) - Purplewowies (talk) 20:54, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

This is the "pipe trick". It usually saves typing but, sadly, doesn't work inside edit summaries or within <ref> tags. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:09, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

It never occurred to me the behaviour might be different between ref tags. (I thought maybe I'd typed s.t. that looked like a pipe but had a different Unicode value.) Well, now I know. Thanks! — kwami (talk) 00:42, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Severe layout problem on article!

Hi, I just recently found out about a severe layout problem on the page of the Treaty of Lisbon. Scroll down and you'll notice immediately. I have checked it using the latest Firefox and the latest Chrome, both show the same problem. 109.132.145.141 (talk) 21:56, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Y Done - someone broke the formatting when making changes, I reverted to the last good version. Thanks for the heads up! CharlieEchoTango (contact) 22:03, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Specifically, the edit [3] removed a table end |} at line 351. The rest of the page was then interpreted as part of the table. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:27, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Page corrupted?

The article on Mahatma Gandhi in Sinhala (http://si.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%84%E0%B6%AD%E0%B7%8A%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%8F_%E0%B6%9C%E0%B7%8F%E0%B6%B1%E0%B7%8A%E0%B6%B0%E0%B7%92) has apparently been corrupted with a pornographic french text. Who can look into that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.215.178.214 (talk) 22:09, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Y Done, removed the vandalism. In the future you can do so yourself by clicking on the 'edit' tab, in this case the 'සංස්කරණය' tab. Cheers, CharlieEchoTango (contact) 23:05, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

January 31

I need help with adding info to a page.

Bicycle sharing system

Im new at editing pages and such and would like help from someone who has more experience if I can. Id like to contribute to my school community sponsor by adding our comminity bike project into the "Bicycle sharing system" page. On the page theres a table with all the participating cities. Id like to add Bay st. Louis, Ms to that list, in the US of course. The name of the project is "BAY BIKE PROJECT" and it was started on October 6, 2011. heres a link to facebook owners page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bay-Bike-Project/177959978950238 if someone could add this to the table of cities id me much appreciated. if you could email me at (redacted) to let me know, id be so happy. thanks guys. -JESSE- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.17.35.69 (talk) 01:35, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I removed your e-mail address. RudolfRed (talk) 03:45, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Has your project received coverage in the media? Have a look at the other entries on that page; they are compiled from information that has been published in news reports. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:01, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

The wiki on "Sciatica"

I wanted to contribute to the wikipedia article on Sciatica, but was unsure how to word it. One of the "causes" of sciatica that is not listed, yet should be, is pregnancy. below is a sample article I have written:

Pregnancy

Sciatica may also occur during pregnancy. This is often the result of the Fetus applying pressure to the sciatic nerve at the bottom of the spine by either sitting, pushing, or extremity spasms. While most cases do not directly harm the Fetus or the Mother, the indirect harm comes from the numbing effect on the legs. This numbing often leads to loss of balance and falling, which will directly cause harm to both Mother and Fetus. There is no standard treatment for pregnancy induced Sciatica, outside of bed-rest and application of heat.

As I am neither a member, nor am I particularly skilled at articulating the point. I believe that this is important to add. My concern for this is personal. My Girlfriend whom is currently pregnant, is suffering from Sciatica directly tied to her pregnancy. I have enclosed a link so that this may be verified.

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/sciaticnervepain.html

This looks like it may be good information, but the correct place to discuss this would be at Talk:Sciatica. If you could repost exactly what you wrote here, and write it there instead, it will reach the correct people who have an interest in improving that article. --Jayron32 03:53, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Article feedback request

I created an article in my userspace titled, | "Effort Administrator." Now, I have not yet submitted for review and a move to the mainspace for two reasons. First, there was a previous version of the article that, upon doing research, I found was deleted under the speedy deletion criteria of notability and copyright violations, so I feel that I should ask for feedback first to make sure my version is ok to publish. I believe I meet the notability and sourcing requirements adequately, and I know I did not copy anything, so I am requesting feedback on this. However, (second reason) in visiting the "Request for feedback" page as suggested by the article titled, "So you made a userspace draft," it states it is an inactive page, and that I should post my requests here at the help desk. Yes, I know I could edit a few pages and get auto confirmed and move the article myself, but because a version was deleted before, I thought it would be wrong to do that, so here I am. I want to start editing on a regular basis, and I realize that I picked a strange one to start with, but I have been trying to edit other articles under Computer Security project, and I would like to create the articles in red under the same topic as Effort Administrator. So I guess I want to know whether I should be contacting the original editor who deleted the page? Should I auto confirm and move it myself? I am wondering what the best way to go about this would be. Thanks for your suggestions. JC.Torpey (talk) 04:34, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I have taken a quick look and made some edits to the formatting to comply with the house style. As for the content, the "Technical requirements" section reads a bit like a user manual and may not be appropriate for an encyclopedia. – ukexpat (talk) 14:10, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I looked at the changes made to the formatting, and I do apologize for missing the capitalization part of the MOS. I will remember that for future articles. Otherwise, I changed the Technical requirements section, took out the very specific requirements, and rewrote the basic compatibility information. Would appreciate another look. Thanks for your help! JC.Torpey (talk) 19:02, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Looking better but the tone is a little "Marketing 101" rather than encyclopedic. I have removed some of the puffery, but it needs more work: for example, using the word "solution", as opposed to product or service, is marketingspeak; similarly "...the integration typically results in online implementation of the entire methodology...". You may want to take a look at other product articles to see the kind of language they use. – ukexpat (talk) 19:17, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

OK, I went through it again and cleaned it up. To be honest, the "marketing" tone was not intended, and I had no idea it would be construed as that. It's become a habit to use that type of terminology, as I write about the tech industry constantly. That said, I simplified each of the sections after reading through a few software articles. Maybe this type it'll read OK? Thanks! JC.Torpey (talk) 23:08, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘I have now moved it to Effort Administrator. – ukexpat (talk) 14:59, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, Ukexpat. I noticed that another editor changed the punctuation of some references and suggested I use the cite template in the future. I am used to citing AP style, so some of the added punctuation comes from that. However, I am studying the changes, in addition to the MOS, and will use these suggestions in future articles. Thanks again for your help! JC.Torpey (talk) 17:03, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Capital lettered acronyms in page titles

Hello,

A couple of years ago I made a page on the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Network_for_Bamboo_and_Rattan) which also has the acronym INBAR. When searching wikipedia or the web with "INBAR", one gets the page of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbar. Is there a way to make a case sensitive page entitled INBAR (when I search for it it always defaults to the Inbar page) and then make a redirect? Or perhaps a disambiguation page for Inbar/INBAR?

What's the best thing to do?! Many thanks :)

Rattandy (talk) 09:03, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

If there is only the two of them, hatnote them to each other.--Wehwalt (talk) 09:10, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I have placed a hatnote at Inbar.[4] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:45, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Sandbox operation

Hello,

I'm working to become a new contributor and I have two questions:

a) Somewhere in my Wikipedia studies thus far I read that I can use a sandbox to develop an article. Yet when I am in such a page, I can't see how to save my work without making it generally available for editing before I am ready to publish it. How can I write an article without being forced to do it all in one work session? I have images and footnotes to add in and I just can't devote an entire day at a shot to do this. There must be some way to work on an article over a few days and save changes before it gets published to the encyclopedia. How is that acomplished?

b) I have an image for which I have permission from the owner to use in my article. If I post it to the commons area, won't that mean everyone can then use it?

Many thanks...

Steve Wheeler — Preceding unsigned comment added by July5ly (talk • contribs) 17:38, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

As far as the sandbox goes, you can use one in your userspace (something like User:July5ly/Sandbox). While the sandbox generally will not be edited by others, it is still publicly visible. TNXMan 17:43, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

And re b), yes, because permission to use just on Wikipedia is not sufficient. Copyright releases must be for all purposes. See WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 17:48, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Article appeared to be missing info, but it was there all along?

Can anyone shed light on this issue? At least one other user and I couldn't see credit ratings info in the sidebar. I now can, after a bit of faffing. Many thanks. -- Jcpren (talk) 18:39, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Since there were no changes made to the article that would cause the info to reappear, I can only imagine it was a caching issue. TNXMan 18:42, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

It was removed 30 December [5] and restored 17 January. At the bottom of a page you can see when the version you are viewing was last modified, for example "This page was last modified on 31 January 2012 at 16:47." PrimeHunter (talk) 20:58, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Please make the biography of the living person Herbert Guðmundsson semi protected because somebody just recently put slander on it wh.

Please make the biography of the living person Herbert Guðmundsson semi protected because somebody just recently put slander on it! — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFFG (talk • contribs) 18:43, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

It was a single case of vandalism 4 days ago. The vandal has been warned at User talk:Ingasorens. It takes more to semi-protect an article. See Wikipedia:Protection policy. Requests are made at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:50, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Vertical bar!

A somewhat esoteric matter and yet one that bares practical significance for me as an editor: How do you produce the |-sign on the standard Microsoft keyboard? I know, it's found to the top-right between Backspace and (+/=). But when I press the combined Shift+(|) it would type a tilde (~). I must switch to the Hebrew mode each time I need the (|). :-( Is my keyboard totally f***ed-up? Thanx, 31.210.183.246 (talk) 20:51, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't think Microsoft has anything to do with it. The pipe character | is right below the Backspace/Delete and just above Enter on QWERTY keyboards. Dismas|^(talk) 21:24, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

It can be in many places on QWERTY keyboards as keyboard layout shows. Your keyboard and keyboard driver may not match. Try ⇧ Shift or Alt Gr in combination with each key. See also Wikipedia:Piped link#Use. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:30, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much. 1. What's [Alt Gr]? (I know about [Alt]). 2. Any idea still about how to match my ketboard driver? (I have similar bug with " and @ that function inverted!!) 31.210.183.246 (talk) 22:04, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

AltGr key. - Purplewowies (talk) 22:12, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

The people at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing may be better to help. It may help if you can show a photo of your keyboard or describe where you see symbols, and say which operating system and language version you have. I see your IP address is in Israel. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:18, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

The system used here is an XP Home. Should I post my question at "Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing"? 31.210.183.246 (talk) 22:33, 31 January 2012 (UTC) (Funny, when coming to sign with the four ~'s I just press the alledged |-key which generates the tilde instead)

Yes, try at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. That really is a better place to get a more focused audience who is likely able to help you better. --Jayron32 23:59, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. Done this, and added a picture of the keyboard in question. 31.210.183.246 (talk) 00:19, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

February 1

interwiki links do not work

in all wikipedias interwiki links do not seem to work. is there a technical problem? --91.20.60.86 (talk) 00:19, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, was just edit conflicted: I have just edited Bungotakada and while I made no change to the links to foreign language Wikipedias, these links are all now appearing at the bottom of the page in red rather at the side in blue. Thanks, Maculosae tegmine lyncis (talk) 00:21, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:VPT#Interwiki_links. Dismas|^(talk) 00:26, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

User page not created after sign up

After I got to the wikipedia page after sign up that listed the articles that needed to be edited i did so, but after editing i clicked on my username on the top right corner (my username was red) and my browser displayed a could not find this webpage notice — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetechexpert (talk • contribs) 04:14, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

You should have gotten a page to let you create that page, but just in case I've created the page for you (as well as leaving a welcome message on your user talk page.) See if you can get to the page now. RJFJR (talk) 04:26, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Try to provide a verifiable link for "Niticeability".

Got this error message in my sandbox page - "Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a <references /> tag; see the help page."

My userid is ikjeft03. Please help. Thanks, Robert— Preceding unsigned comment added by ikjeft03 (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. Basically, you have references but you haven't put the template in to display them. Just put {{Reflist}} where you want them to appear. Dismas|^(talk) 05:05, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Trying to get some feedback: Did the help page in that message help you or did you not see the link? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:22, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

navigation box help

how can I make this box better? I mean what information typically goes here? Also how on earth do you change the colors and formatting ? thanks. Here is the box:

See Template:Los Angeles, :New York City, :Philadelphia at their respective pages for inspiration. I can't help with colors & formatting. Dru of Id (talk) 11:31, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Color is covered in the basestyle parameter. - Purplewowies (talk) 16:59, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, see Wikipedia:Navigation templates. - Purplewowies (talk) 19:08, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

How long do I have to wait before setting up a proposed new WikiProject?

How long is a WikiProject proposal supposed to be listed at WP:COUNCIL/P before I can create that project? Should I simply wait a bit longer? If the proposal does not get any responses, can I go ahead and start the project anyway? The proposal I made is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/NFCC Enforcement. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 12:18, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

The instructions at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals say you should wait until you have 6-12 supporters. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:50, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

It also says 'all failed proposals older than 3 months...'; so, up to three months... I've also verified that the acronym does not appear in the archives of previous suggestions. Dru of Id (talk) 21:12, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Dorial Green Beckham

Said on his national signing day he signed with the Mizzouri Tigers- I think it should be "Missouri" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.114.4.196 (talk) 16:18, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Looks like it's been fixed. When you see an error like this, you can fix it yourself. Be Bold. RudolfRed (talk) 16:28, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

PDF off computer as reference?

As a new user I would like to attach a pdf document as a reference to an article, I have the pdf on my desktop but would like this to be available for others to vies. Could anyone tell show me the coding required to upload the pdf and also how the pdf icon is shown. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cuttlebug (talk • contribs) 16:49, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

For a source to be used as a reference in Wikipedia, it needs to be something that has already been published. If it has been published elsewhere, are you sure that you can put in on Wikipedia without breaching the existing copyright? - David Biddulph (talk) 17:04, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, it has to have been published somewhere else (i.e. it should not be something you just wrote yourself for the purpose of proving the information you just added). If it exists elsewhere online (even if through a paywall), you can use a link to it and use it in the normal way you would use other references. If it is licensed to be freely available or in the public domain, you can also upload a copy to a file hosting site. But if it is copyrighted material, please do not upload it yourself.

You can, however, still cite it even then. Though you can not link to a full copy, identifying the source of information as accurately as possible is good enough. It's the same thing you do when citing offline printed material.

If it is an article in an academic journal or a serial publication, I recommend using the {{Cite journal}} template. If it is a book, use {{Cite book}}. Include as much details as possible - year/date, author, and title at the minimum; and ISBN/ISSN/DOI, publisher, editor, chapter, volume, pages, issue, etc. when appropriate.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:11, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

wp access

Please help!

I can't log in.

I started editing enwp in 2008, mostly from a Nokia cellphone, provided by a 3rd party. Other than that, mostly on public computers.

I lost access at home early last year, maybe March or April, I don't know, but you can look at my contribs, and you'll see that I came to a screeching halt. It's not like I was super-prolific, like some of your editors: I may have created one or two articles, probably deleted by now, but as I used WP, & Wiktionary, etc., if I saw a typo or poor grammer, or felt that I could contribute, in whatever small way, I did. I was "be[ing] bold"!!! I don't know who comes up with the WP philosophy, but I like most of it very much. WP is something I want to be a part of, to give back. I don't feel that way about much that I encounter on the web, or in the world, for that matter.

I know, I'm rambling Probably inappropriate at the help desk.

Anyway, I was Ragityman, and I think I was doing more good than harm. At first I blanked a few pages, accidently, I swear. I think a few Wikipedians finally decided I wasn't a vandal. I even received one or two emails fm WP.

At some point, I believe I must have changed my password. I had been using the same one almost from the first day, and it WAS a weak one. But I've tried and tried, and I'm not coming up with it.

I have, as I said, received email from Wikipedia in the past, at two different email boxes, so I know email was enabled at one point. I think one said,"click link to confirm," or some such, which I probably never did, as the link was "stale" by the time I saw it, recently. I get a lot of spam, so I don't bother with email so much.

I have repeatedly asked to reset my password, but I never receive a response. Even a negative response is helpful, as it lets me know I can stop wasting my time and effort.

On the subject of time and effort, I made some edits to an article called Sumunumus (which needs to be moved, see my entry on the Discussion page), and they were instantly reverted. Someone is being VERY territorial. And it's not like it's a showpiece article -- it needs A LOT of work: Just take a look at it. But I'm typing with one thumb on a tiny, tiny qwerty, and I'm not going to edit-war with this person.

I can tell you what my IP was for almost my entire editing career. I know my account number for WP, as well as many other of the Wiki projects. I could probably come up with the names of most of the articles I worked on. I could tell you the name of some of the Wikipedians I interacted with (some would remember me, I'm sure, as we tend to remember people who are tedious and worrysome, and I am sometimes both of those, but I mean well.) I know there is a project underway to encourage editors to create an account, and to continue to edit after that first day. I know that other people forget — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.187.14 (talk) 17:36, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Are you absolutely sure you are checking the correct email address? See this page. If nothing in there helps, there really is nothing anyone can do. You would have to start anew under another account, though you can disclose that you earlier edited under the previous name but lost your password. You would lose your editing history, watchlists, and list of contributions, but they might not be that important to you anyway. The contents of your talk pages, subpages, etc. in your past account can be moved and redirected to your new account easily enough.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:42, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Check if the password-reset emails have been filtered into your 'junk mail' folder, or similar.  Chzz  ►  19:24, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Why can't any adminstrators create a disambiguation heading, under or above the languages section on the left hand side of a page, instead of having either disambiguation or "for other Eric Johnsons see" because it spoils the BLP, its the first thing your eye is drawn to instead of the artical itself, or if not on the left hand side of the page then at the bottom of the artical, just above Categorys.188.28.200.233 (talk) 17:43, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Not everyone who lands in that page are looking for the same person or thing.

Imagine you were looking for Eric Johnson, the Canadian actor, but every time you type the name you are taken to a page about an American musician. Do you think you should have to scour the entire page for clues on where you might actually find the correct article that you wanted to read? No. You should find your way to the correct article as quickly as possible.

That's why it's at the top and is the first thing all the readers see. See WP:HNP.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:26, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Quick question

I'm new to Wikipedia & need some help. I see an article with a factual error - on Gwent, County. I look up the quoted reference - it contains no mention of the facts claimed. I remove the false claim, it is undone, I insert a link to another, better written article on Wikipedia which explains the point quite clearly - it is also deleted (apparently not permitted?). If I attempt to edit again, the author will simply re-edit again.....so, my question is: what's the point of being able to edit if the author then just deletes it, and who then ensures that the information on Wikipedia is not just a mass of muddled thoughts and misinformation? 12276631 (talk) 18:54, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

If you make an edit, and another user disagrees with it, you need to discuss it - do not keep repeating the edit. Refer to Wikipedia:Edit warring, Wikipedia:Consensus, Help:Using talk pages.

The correct place to discuss it is, Talk:Gwent (county).

If you check the article history, you'll see in the edit summary that that is exactly what the other user (Ghmyrtle (talk · contribs)) has suggested.

I'll let that user know about this discussion, but please discuss it on Talk:Gwent (county). Thanks.  Chzz  ►  19:16, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

My name on the list of Akoko Sons

I am Sunday Olorundahunsi, I am by the grace of God the current Chief Registrar,Supreme Court of Nigeria. My name was written as Idowu Dahunsi. I will appreciate if my name is corrected immediately. Thanks for the good work you are doing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.205.187.107 (talk) 19:15, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I have removed all of the unreferenced names from the article Akoko, with this edit, in accordance with our policy of verifiability, especially regarding living people.

Please supply appropriate references for any information for the article. For help, see WP:REFB.

Any unreferenced information may be removed, at any time.  Chzz  ►  19:21, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Speedy Deletions...

Our first post was flagged for "speedy deletion" and promptly removed. I did some research and learned that perhaps -- even though we intended for our post to be informative and not promotional in nature -- we were using too many superlatives and making statements that couldn't necessarily be substantiated. As such, we rewrote the piece and posted a new version. However, that was flagged too -- and "speedily" deleted. Is there any way we could get more/better feedback? Again, our post aims to be informative and not promotional. Thanks so much for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rentersguide (talk • contribs) 19:38, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

These issues are a bit complex, but please bear with me, I'll try to explain this as easily as possible.

• Not everything that exists merits a Wikipedia article about it. Wikipedia has standards over which subjects merit an article and which do not.
• Seperate from that issue, Wikipedia is not a vehicle for promotion of one's own interests. The fact that you are creating this article means you are trying to tell people about your business. That is called "promotion" and isn't allowed at Wikipedia.

The first problem is that the subject of your article is not the subject of extensive, independent writing. That means that people, who have no connection to your business, have NOT written extensively about it, there are no books written about your company, Forbes Magazine hasn't devoted a cover story to it, etc. etc. This means that your company does not appear to meet the miniumum standards of notability that Wikipedia attempt to uphold (see Wikipedia:Notability for more information). This is so that we can assure that all of the information in Wikipedia articles can be independently verified (see Wikipedia:Verifiability) to reliable sources (see Wikipedia:Reliable sources). If there is no independent reliable source material to use to help write an article, then there shouldn't be an article.

The second issue is related to the idea that Wikiepedia articles need to maintain a neutral point of view. To insure that all articles do, people are not supposed to write about things to which they are too connected, such as themselves, family members, businesses they are connected to, etc. More about this can be found at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.

In summation 1) It does not appear your company has been written about by other people before you tried to create a Wikipedia article, thus the article has no reason to exist (at least, not one which is in line with Wikipedia's core policies and values) and 2) Even if it did, you shouldn't be the one writing it. I hope that clears things up. --Jayron32 19:56, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

As a non-admin, I cannot be of too much help, as the pages you created are now deleted and invisible to me. However, if the pages you created were promotional in nature, then they will be deleted unless you write them from a completely neutral point of view. In addition, if the company is not notable (if there are no independent reliable sources), then it is not notable enough for Wikipedia, and will be deleted. Your username suggests that you might be creating articles about something with which you have a connection - is this the case? If so, I would recommend that you don't - our conflist of interest guidelines warns against that, as it is almost impossible to write neutrally on a subject you are involved in. Also you seem to refer to "we" and "our": are you the only user of your account, or are you editing on behalf of a company? ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 19:53, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Interwiki links are broken

I just noticed today that interwiki links are broken on Wikipedia. For example, the interwiki link to the German Wikipedia at Finnish markka doesn't go to http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnische_Mark, it goes to an English Wikipedia article called "de:Finnische Mark", which doesn't exist. Is this some bug in Wikipedia? JIP | Talk 19:39, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I have filed a Bugzilla bug report about this. JIP | Talk 19:44, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Seeing some odd interwiki behavior on the bottom of many pages. Links are displaying in the article as a bunch of red links. See January 27. If you don't see it, running this will make it show up.  !link to bug report? Swayback Maru ^{Mufka's alternate account (talk)} 19:53, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

This is being discussed at WP:VPT - pleas continue the discussion there. – ukexpat (talk) 19:55, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

No links to digital pages

Question:

You have a category called "Digital newspapers published in the United States". It seems that is all it is, a listing. All attempts to go to the actual digitzed papers failed. All you go to is the today edition of that paper. Example: I want to read an edition of the 1915 Albuquerque "Journal". But when I click on the link, I get the Feb 1, 2011 edition with no way to reach the 1915 edition as the newspapers themselves either do not have it or do no share it. Comment please? Thank you.

Jerry Jackson — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.55.185.189 (talk) 20:11, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

First, categories are only a listing, and so only link to our article of whatever is in that category. We cannot help with things off wiki, if you want to be able to view old editions of things please ask the people who maintain the website. Rcsprinter (lecture) 20:13, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

The category holds encyclopedia articles about the digital newspapers. It does not hold the newspapers themselves. JIP | Talk 20:20, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

The category should, however, give you an additional term in your search, possibly "in quotes", to narrow your results to information where you're looking. Dru of Id (talk) 21:02, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Category:Digital newspapers published in the United States says: "Newspapers in the United States which are available digitally (either downloadable or browsable online), format similar to the print version."

It doesn't claim the listed newspapers have digital archives of old editions. Perhaps you are more interested in Wikipedia:List of online newspaper archives. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:34, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Twinkle

Hi, twinkle is not really working, i get the dropdown thing but on the diff view i cant get rollback William George Dover [Willdude123] 20:57, 1 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Willdude123 (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc#Troubleshooting installation says: "You must be registered, and your account must be autoconfirmed (it must be at least four days old and have at least ten edits), to use Twinkle."

Your account is one day and has five edits. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:27, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Someone today twice has written on my account saying that I am selling cars on Ebay and that I am writing a book about selling fraudulent cars on Ebay. I have deleted the information but they keep coming back. Can you block them from my account please. That goes to Google and is libelous. I am reporting them to the FBI. Please help.

Larry Garrison President SilverCreek Entertainment — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gpinews (talk • contribs) 22:05, 1 February 2012 (UTC)