Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 286

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How do I search for other people who are working on a similar article?

Is there a search function for sandboxes and drafts? I want to replace the present redirect at Keysight Technologies with my draft article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Keysight_Technologies because the new company was divested from Agilent Technologies. But I don't want to duplicate the effects of others. I imagine several people might be working on such an article. Of course once the article is live, there is an obvious focal point for collaboration. But right now I'm not sure where the focal point is or should be. Make sense? SageGreenRider (talk) 12:27, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Greetings SageGreenRider welcome to the teahouse. The first thing I want to say is I don't think you need to do this. I'll say more on that shortly but in case you still do want to I think this should do it: Try doing a regular search. Then when you get the results look right below the search box. Before you see the results of your search you should see a box with the following links: "Content Pages Multimedia Advanced" those are all options to control where you search (the default is just to search published articles in the main namespace). Click on "Advanced" you should then see a check box with lots of options as to where to search including things like "User" which is I think the user namespace and would include sand boxes. But as I said at the beginning IMO you don't need to do this. My guess is that like me you have worked in business environments where there are usually a lot of processes to control work and make sure that people absolutely never can overlap. That isn't really the philosophy here. If you are familiar with Agile software development IMO working on Wikipedia has similar philosophies to agile development: focus more on empowering the work and be willing to admit that at time there may be a bit of rework required. Rather than worry about who else is doing it the philosophy here is usually to be BOLD do the work and publish when it is ready. If others are also working you will eventually need to coordinate with them but let that happen if and when another editor wants to make additions or changes to what you have done. That is the one thing to remember though: wikipedia is a work in progress. Even if you did coordinate with everyone who might want to edit the same article before hand there will inevitably be people who will change the article after it's published. Editing here is a never ending process with the goal of continuous improvement of the content. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 13:37, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Good advice! Thanks! SageGreenRider (talk) 13:46, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi ColinFine, Thank you! Curious georgianna (talk) 03:08, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

3 related questions about uploading images

Hi all. I want to add a photo to an existing biographical page about an artist. My questions: (1) is it ok to contact the artist to get a photo of himself and permissions or is that "original research"? (2) there are pictures online attached to articles about him in newspapers, art-gallery websites, etc. what's the procedure for asking for permission to use one of these? (3) if I get the picture somewhere other than the artist, do I still need his permission to use his likeness (per personal rights)? Thanks for your help! Curious georgianna (talk) 11:33, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Curious georgianna. The crucial person in all these cases is the person (or company) who owns the copyright: this might be the artist himself, but usually won't be - it will be the photographer unless that photographer has explicitly or implicitly passed it to somebody else. What you need to be able to upload a picture is the copyright holder's agreement not just to use it on Wikipedia but to release it under a copyleft licence compatible with Wikipedia (such as CC-BY-SA). Since this allows anybody to use it for any purpose (including commercially) the copyright holder may or may not agree to this. If they do, they (not you, or the artist) must follow one of the procedures in donating copyright materials. If they don't, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, unless you can find somebody else who is willing take a picture of the artist and release it - you could do this yourself if you are able to. --ColinFine (talk) 12:07, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, ColinFine! I understand that I need to get the copyright holder's permission, but if I can manage to get it, do I also need permission from the person whose image it is (because of personal rights)? Plus, I wanted to double check if I can take a picture of this person (or ask him for one that belongs to him) without violating Wikipedia's prohibition on "original research"... I think you're saying I can, right? Curious georgianna (talk) 12:17, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

I said "personal rights" before, but I think the correct term of art is "personality rights" -- sorry about that!Curious georgianna (talk) 12:24, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Curious georgianna. As far as I know, personality rights don't enter into it; and you're right that the issue of original research is relaxed in respect of adding pictures (though indeed, the identification of the subject of a picture usually is original research). --ColinFine (talk) 13:03, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi ColinFine. Thank you! Curious georgianna (talk) 03:10, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Subcategory Editing

As an avid fan of the American reality weight loss program The Biggest Loser, I recently edited information on the program's current season page, entitled "The Biggest Loser: Glory Days". When I saved my edit, the drop down bar for each subcategory disappeared, creating one lengthy and overwhelming blurb of information. Could you advise me as to how I can make these return? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Biggestloserwalkingdeadfan (talk • contribs) 19:04, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Biggestloserwalkingdeadfan and welcome to the Teahouse. Please, SIGN your posts in the future. Could you be more specific? What exactly disappeared after your edits? I checked the old versions of the article before and after your edits, and I don't see anything disappeared. Vanjagenije (talk) 20:01, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

@Biggestloserwalkingdeadfan: They are called sections and not subcategories. In [1] you changed ==Contestants== to =Contestants=. It has been fixed. The number of equals signs at each end determines the section structure. Wikipedia articles never use a single equals sign. You can see more at Help:Section, but that page describes the desktop version. Some things look different in the mobile version you appear to be using. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:45, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Precisely which photos of living persons are okay to use?

I've read the various tutorials and articles about image use, but I'm still fuzzy on exactly which photos of a living person are acceptable, and want to be sure before I accidentally violate a copyright. For example, images of an author, musician, or similar public figure. One might assume that an official promotional photo would be ideal, but it sounds to me like those are off-limits. Other than a photo I personally have taken, what type of photo can I easily upload and use, without having to make inquiries? Any explanation in simple newbie terms would be great, thanks! FarnsworthCrossing (talk) 02:55, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

@FarnsworthCrossing: Hi FC. In general (there are some unusual exceptions which I think your post does not invite), you can only upload a photo of a living person if you learn that the person who owns the photo's copyright (usually the person taking it) has specifically released it into the public domain or given it a free copyright license (one of those listed here). In practice, this means that whenever you find a photo out there on the Internet of any living person, its verboten unless once you click on it you actually find an explicit free license or public domain release, and you must assume it cannot be used (is non-free-copyrighted) if you find no information about the copyright. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)

Welcome to the Teahouse, FarnsworthCrossing. Adding to to the previous answer, you can use only two types of photos of a living person. The first type is a photo you have taken yourself, and have agreed to freely license. The second type is a photo that someone else has freely licensed, or released into the public domain, or was created in a way that public domain status is assumed (works of the US federal government, for example). Otherwise, lacking any such evidence, we must assume that usage is restricted by copyright. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 07:44, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Complicated

I am a total novice newbee but have the sincere desire to learn and participate, however...this is complicated and this Wikipedia seems to have its own little language and secrets of how to do things. Is there a place to go to take a class or participate in a seminar or something to learn the ins and outs of how to do things? I'm getting exhausted and tired to the point of giving up with regards to trying to make some, what seem to be, pretty simple additions to a blank page that I have a vast amount of personal knowledge about. I'm trying to add information that is not documented anywhere, or I know it first hand....but editors keep asking me for "references"......what if they don't exist? Leguftek Leguftek (talk) 14:40, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Leguftek, and welcome to Wikipedia!

Firstly, I recommend you create a Wikipedia account].
The best way to learn how to edit in Wikipedia is The Wikipedia Adventure which shows you the ins-and-outs of Wikipedia in roughly an hour. After that, if you still need help, you can request adoption by putting this on your user page: {{subst:dated adoptme}} or by leaving a message on one of these experienced users' pages.

Hope this helped! Dathus (Talk | Contribs) 14:52, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Just to illustrate my point of confusion....you started out by saying you recommend I sign up and create a Wikipedia account...but I thought I have already done that, that's how and why I am on here asking for help, and my account name is Leguftek. So, right out of the gate I'm stuck based upon what you said in your first sentence. Have I not set up an account and created the username Leguftek?? Thanks! Leguftek Leguftek (talk) 15:00, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

You have - but you were not logged in when you added your question above, so the software recorded your IP address as your signature (if you'd like to remove the connection between your IP and account name let me know and I'll sort it out). Yunshui ^雲 _水 15:06, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi IP user (Leguftek) You weren't logged in while posting the question, welcome to the Teahouse. We appreciate your desire to improve Wikipedia. And yes you are right Wikipedia does have it's own language though it's very easy to learn. This language is called Wiki markup language and it's much similar to HTML. I don't wether there are seminars to help out new user because I've never heard of anything like that. However there are video tutorials that can help you out. This one teaches the basics about editing Wikipedia. Also Help:Editing is a good article for beginners. And about your last question. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia it only accepts verified and accurate information. You have to provide a reliable source in order to prove that your information is correct. Wikipedia readers can check whether information is accurate and reliable through these references/sources. If you didn't provide a source along with your information they might be considered as unsourced or original research. If everyone wanted to add facts in their minds to Wikipedia then this place wouldn't be an encylopedia. Cheers!--Chamith (talk) 15:06, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Just a thought: whilst it's geared towards students using the Education Program, Wikipedia:Training/For_students is quite a good introduction to Wikipedia's ins-and-outs. Yunshui ^雲 _水 15:11, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes please sort out the ID name and IP connection. I thought since I signed it as "Leguftek" I was fine and didn't realize I must also sign in to make it legitimate.....see how complicated this is?? Ok, I will try these online tutorials....but I still don't understand the concept of not being able to provide first hand facts. I am a very reliable and reputable person, well known, and I have first hand factual information about important topics which cannot be found on Wikipedia or frankly for that matter, anywhere on the internet substantiated by an accredited 3rd party source.....so I still don't understand how that gets handled. Let me give you an example.....I was a member of a military unit with multiple combat tours in multiple war conflict zones, and I am interested in creating a Wikipedia page listing and outlining some basic facts about this unit, their conflict factual activities, and times/dates/places of combat engagements. There is currently no such Wikipedia page for this military combat unit so I would be starting from scratch. The times/dates/places cannot be found anywhere online, but I can identify these because I was there. I also have orders and other military documents which verify this information, redacted for personal info. See.....how does this type of situation get handled with Wikipedia? Leguftek Leguftek (talk) 15:18, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

IP issue sorted, I've deleted the page revisions in the history so that your username cannot be connected to the IP. As regards fisrt-hand facts, the problem is that Wikipedia requires that its information be verifiable - that means anyone should, in theory at least, be able to check the sources on a page and establish the factual accuracy of the Wikipedia article. We can't therefore just take someone's word for it that a given statement is factually accurate. In addition, because anyone can effectively publish anything online these days, we also require that the sources used meet certain minimum standards of reliability.

If the documents you have access to are published in some sort of publicly-available form, then they could serve as sources for an article about your unit. However, information which is not publicly available (at least in theory - it doesn't have to be online or in print) doesn't belong on Wikipedia - that's just the way we work here. Yunshui ^雲 _水 15:28, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

@Leguftek: Regarding your military documents you might want to check out Wikisource:Community_portal Wikisource is one of the companion sites to Wikipedia. I'm not very familiar with it to be honest and have never used it but from what I do know I think they might provide a resource for you to save and publish things like time tables, order of battle, etc. assuming they aren't classified of course. Here is their article about what can be included there: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:What_Wikisource_includes --MadScientistX11 (talk) 15:41, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Leguflek,

I think your cited documentary sources don't necessarily have to be someone else's account of the facts; they can be your own account, as long as that account was recorded in another published forum which you can cite to -- like if you ever gave an interview for an article or written about it yourself in a published article or book, as long as those publications meet Wikipedia's minimum reliability standards as mentioned by Yunshui and Chamith. Curious georgianna (talk) 03:39, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Curious georgianna - Probably not a good idea to add too much of your own work to the project - could get into conflict of interest territory. See WP:SELFCITE for more information on this. LouiseS1979 (talk) 07:23, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Great point User:Lstanley1979! I agree that citing to your own work should be done very sparingly and with extreme caution. And as I said earlier, the publication itself must meet reliability standards. Your personal or company website is not the same kind of source as a peer-reviewed academic journal article that you might have written. And in any case, as it says on the "conflict of interest" page, it's "allowed within reason, but only if it is relevant, conforms to the content policies, including WP:SELFPUB, and is not excessive. Citations should be in the third person and should not place undue emphasis on your work. When in doubt, defer to the community's opinion." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest#Citing_yourself

Curious georgianna (talk) 07:58, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Others using ip

Hello everyone I am Learnerktm just a beginner in wikipedia, My ip address is 49.126.0.41 . So someone else is using this ip address and I sometimes get blocked when there is some unacceptable edits from the ip. I use cell phone. And ofcourse I don't share it . I have no idea how I am supposed to deal with this. Please help.

Learnerktm 09:42, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Learnerktm, the IP address you quote has never been blocked but of course your cell phone connects through a dynamic IP address so it will change and on occasions you might find that you are collateral damage in an IP range block. If so then you can apply for Wikipedia:IP block exemption but note that the block has go have happened first, you cannot apply for a pre-emptive exemption. Nthep (talk) 11:50, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Edit history and geographic location

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question (as it's not directly related to editing a page), so please let me know if there is a better forum for it. I'm searching for a tool that could provide an edit history for a specific article showing the locations of the edits, or if there is a place within the site itself that will allow me to do this. I've been using Wikireplay but, this does not provide locations. I'm just trying to get an overview of where edits are originating for a given article. Thanks for any help and, again my apologies if I'm in the wrong place. Aloblivion (talk) 15:25, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Aloblivion. As far as I know, there is no tool that does this - it would in fact be effectively impossible for registered accounts, since location data is tied to the IP address and only checkusers are privy to the connection between an IP address and an account (and even they can only access this data under certain circumstances). It might be possible to create a tool that could do this for IP editors only, using Geolocate, but even then, large numbers of IP addresses edit Wikipedia via multiple nodes, so the information you would get back would not necessarily be accurate.

One description of an approach to this problem that uses self-identification through userboxes to determine location is described here, but the accuracy of their results is debatable. Might be worth a read, though. Yunshui ^雲 _水 15:34, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Aloblivion, this isn't what you asked for but I thought you still might find it useful if you haven't already seen it: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm Lots of data about how Wikipedia (and that site also has the same data for related sites like the commons) is read and edited. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 16:15, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

How to edit article heading

I need to change the heading "User:Hari Singh Nalwa (Scientist)" to "Hari Singh Nalwa (Scientist)". Why the word "User" coming in the heading? Ukvariar (talk) 17:07, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

"User" is in the heading because the page was created by a user as his own biography, which is not appropriate. I have moved the page to Draft: Hari Singh Nalwa (Scientist)". Please do not move the page into article space. It needs a lot of work. The headings are in the wrong format (numbered rather than wiki), and the references need to be cleaned up, and puffery needs to be cleaned up. Robert McClenon (talk)

I want to add a photo to an Article I am submitting, but am stumped on how to do it.

I submitted an article which was rejected. I am re-submitting and need to add a photograph. How do I do this? I have looked up 'Adding an infobox to an article' and many other help articles, but cannot make any sense out of them. I am told the infobox (whatever this is) should be located on one of the top corners of the page. But I cannot see anything. I have my sandbox containing the article open and I have clicked the Edit button. What do I do next? EamonX1 (talk) 18:22, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hello, EamonX1. I think somebody has confused you. An infobox is one of those boxes of relevant information about a subject which often appears at the top right of an article: you may add an appropriate one to an article, but you don't have to. Many infoboxes allow you to include a photo in the box, but that is only one way to include a photo. Since your draft article is about an architect, the appropriate infobox would be {{infobox architect}}, and if you follow the link I just gave, you can find out how to add specific information to the infobox about Jones. In particular, it does accept an image - but in order to include one, you will have to find an image which is in the public domain or has been explicitly licensed by the copyright holder, and upload it to Wikimedia commons before you can reference it (see Help:Upload).

However, before worrying about an image, it is far more important that you add inline references to reliable published sources, to almost every sentence of the draft. Without these, the draft article will not be accepted into main space, irrespective of whether or not it has a photo. Please see referencing for beginners for how to go about this. --ColinFine (talk) 19:16, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi, EamonX1, and welcome to the Teahouse! I see Colin has answered your question, but the easiest way to find out how to add an infobox is to just look at another article about an architect and do what they did. For example, in the article on Frank Lloyd Wright, you can see up at the very top it says {{Infobox architect. You can copy that entire section, down to }}, and put it in the same place in your article, at the very top. Then edit the information as required for your architect. Actually I have done that already, by placing a blank infobox in your sandbox article, so you can just add the information that you have. If you don't have information for one of the items, just leave it blank. About the image, another place for help about uploading is Commons:First steps/Uploading files. But agree that maybe you should worry about the image later. The main thing with getting the article accepted is that it needs more proof that Jones was a notable architect. It would help a lot if you could add more footnotes to indicate where you got the information about his career. – Margin1522 (talk) 19:55, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Really grateful for your lucid and comprehensive reply to my question. I will follow it to the letter. Thanks again. Eamonn H EamonX1 (talk) 20:13, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Angela Cartwright

I see no mention of Angela Cartwright having a roll in the TV show "Daniel Boone" She was a regular on the show for many episodes. She played the roll of Daniel Boones daughter, Jamima Boone. Her little brother on the show was Isreal Boone played by Darby Hinton.24.231.134.207 (talk) 21:12, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

@24.231.134.207: hello and welcome to The Teahouse. If you have a reliable source for these changes, you can make them yourself. Or tell us where you got the information and one of us can do it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:18, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

how do I submit an entry on an internationally known colleague who does not yet have a Wikipedia entry?

I noticed that a distinguished colleague at my university does not have a Wikipedia entry. I would like to submit one to the individual or committee that decides whether an entry is warranted. How do I do this?Lgossman (talk) 21:25, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Greetings Lgossman welcome to the teahouse. There are no committees or anything. The way things work here is it's meant to be a meritocracy and the merit of any particular decision is based on the arguments one can make to support it and the appropriate citation of things like wikipedia:policies. The first thing you should look at is this article: wikipedia:notability and even more relevant this article: Wikipedia:Notability_(academics) The concept of notability has a specific definition on Wikipedia. It means is there enough coverage of the topic in reliable sources to merit a Wikipedia article. After that you should probably check out the Articles for Creation (AFC) process. That is what we strongly encourage new editors to use to create their first article. Other good places to start are the Wikipedia answer to live the universe and everything and Wikipedia's five pillars When you create the article using the AFC process it will go into a queue and will be reviewed (it may take a while there tend to be back logs) by someone and at that point the article will be approved or sent back to you with suggestions for improvement. Keep in mind that not every academic merits a Wikipedia article. That article I linked to on notability for academics had an overview of what is required in this case to merit an article. Also, if you want people to take a look at work in progress before you submit the article I suggest leaving a follow up request here in the tea house and an editor can take a quick look at your work before you submit it to the AFC to make sure you are on the right track. If the academic is in the field of computer science, evolutionary biology, psychology, or philosophy feel free to drop me a note if you want, I'm pretty well read in those fields and could probably give you some feedback on drafts. Hope that helps, let us know if you have further questions. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 21:55, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Talk page templates

Can someone tell me the template, which is used on article talk pages to stop the references appearing on the bottom? Vigyani_talk^{ਯੋਗਦਾਨ} 07:45, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Vigyani - you want {{Reflist-talk}}. Yunshui ^雲 _水 09:19, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. --Vigyani_talk^{ਯੋਗਦਾਨ} 09:21, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi there :)

I met a man who teaches at my school and he asked if i knew how to create a wiki page for him, i said i can give it my all, and it seems 6-7 times someone has tried to create a page for this cool dude and they didn't follow thro, he is a very noteable man and deserves me to create this page to the highest standards, but i can't find all the codes and buttons to create that main page for this main dude, any advice? or web pages u can lead me to to get that codes an platforms? :)

i thank you for your time

Viva ed impari!@ZieanteZieante (talk) 23:22, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

@Zieante: Hello and welcome to the Teahouse! :) If you want to create an article about him, I would suggest reading Wikipedia:Your first article. That'll guide you through the whole process. Make sure he's notable! Good luck! :) --AmaryllisGardener ^talk 23:53, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Zieante. Are you referring to the article Deepak Shimkhada? If you are, then, in addition to the advice AmaryllisGardener gave you above, I also suggest you read Wikipedia's policy on conflict of interest editing. In particular, I recommend "Wikipedia's Plain and Simple Conflict of Interest Guide", "Advice for editors who may have a conflict of interest" and "Writing about yourself and your work". In general, creating or editing articles about people you know or who are connected to in some way is discouraged on Wikipedia. COI editing is not expressly prohibited, but it's can be a tricky thing to do. If your teacher is really notable enough for a Wikipedia article, it might be better for you to leave the editing to others in order to avoid any misunderstandings. - Marchjuly (talk) 13:37, 19 December 2014 (UTC); edited 13:53, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

How is it determined if something is relevant enough for a Wikipedia page?

I'd like to create one for the company I work for. I think the company's wikipedia page would be a good resource for people to get an unbiased look at what we've accomplished since opening almost 20 years ago. We're a locally owned business in Springfield, MO, USA and have lead the market for over a decade. I don't say that for promotion, just to qualify my question about relevance. I'm well aware of the practices of creating a page, and my intention is not to include links or self promotion. Just curious if it would be considered relevant enough. 76.77.134.2 (talk) 21:33, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

@76.77.134.2: hello and welcome to The Teahouse. It is not recommended that people write Wikipedia articles about their own companies, but you have the right attitude. If you can write with a neutral point of view and find independent reliable sources such as newspapers, magazines and books that have written extensively about your company, you can certainly try. Start with someone independent of your company who can verify the claim that you "lead the market". Just be sure to disclose your conflict of interest. The best thing is to write a user draft so that the article can be evaluated before it goes to mainspace. Otherwise, it will likely be criticized and possibly deleted before you have a chance to improve it. The process is described at WP:AFC.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:58, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Internet user: I just wanted to add to the good info that Vchimpanzee provided above: a common mistake, I can't say how many times I've seen this happen, for people creating articles about their company is to copy text from the company web site and paste it in as the article. This almost never works and is almost certain to get the article rejected. For one thing there are copyright issues but even more importantly the text for a Wikipedia article is meant to be neutral where as the text for a company web site is almost always promotional. Just thought you might like a heads up so you can avoid a common pitfall. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 22:40, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hello, anonymous user. One more thing I want to add to the good advice you have already been given: your wording "an unbiased look at what we've accomplished", despite the word "unbiased" is already promotional language. Wikipedia is not about what anybody has accomplished or failed to accomplish (unless it cites a reliable independent source which talks in those terms): it is about what the subject has done, but it is not Wikipedia's business to describe that as "accomplishment". --ColinFine (talk) 16:40, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Do and Don't on Wiki

Comment added at end of Tea house by Internet user: @82.196.32.2: , moved to top by MadScientistX11

Hey All,

I am very new at wiki and i don't know much. So anyone can please tell me what are do and don't on Wiki and how write and edit post effectively.

Greetings 82.196.32.2 welcome to the teahouse. Well, the first Do is to remember to use the "Ask a Question" feature in the teahouse. You added your question to the end of the page so it didn't get noticed. BTW, don't feel bad about that it's a very common mistake and really barely counts as a mistake because it's more sort of a glitch in the tea house that we use a different standard than other talk pages. Anyway, here are some good overview articles: Wikipedia:five pillars, wp:42, wp:referencing for beginners A couple of personal observations: remember that the tone here is supposed to be (and usually is) very different than most of the Internet. It is much more collaborative here. We try to never get personal or insult people and always focus on the tasks at hand and questions about wikipedia:policies Another major difference is that we take copyright of text and images very seriously here. The kind of random copy and pasting, especially of images, that you see on sites like Facebook or other social media is not allowed here. Also, one bit of advise I always give to new editors is don't start by trying to create a new page. There are LOTS of existing pages that need editing. You can see those here: Wikipedia:Community_portal down where it says "Help Out" there are categories for various kinds of fixes (e.g., add references) as well as links that say "Learn how" with tips for how to do it. One last thing, if you ever watched Law and Order you may remember Jack McCoy had the saying "I only know what I can prove in court". I always think there should be a Wikipedia equivalent of the Jack McCoy rule: we only know what we can cite in reliable sources If it's not documented in a good reference then it can't be published here yet. Hope that halps. Happy editing. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 14:50, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@82.196.32.2: Two last things I forgot to mention, I actually should have said these first: I strongly recommend getting a Wikipedia:User name rather than just using an IP address and also once you have an ID always remember to login before making any edits and remember to sign all your comments on talk pages like this one (use five tildas or just use the signature icon in the editor). --MadScientistX11 (talk) 15:55, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

One more don't: Don't call Wikipedia "Wiki"! There are thousands and thousands of wikis on the internet. This particular Wiki is called Wikipedia --ColinFine (talk) 16:45, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Renaming a page's name

Hello,

I'm trying to change the name of a page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanco to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/globalCloudXchange

because the name of the company has changed. I'm also unable to change the title..

Can anyone please help me?

Many thanks. 82.196.32.2 (talk) 09:14, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Done --Ochilov (talk) 14:00, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

I already made the move...Not sure why you have changed it to all one word? Theroadislong (talk) 14:05, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@Ochilov:There seems to be some sort of mix-up here. If you do not have a, to us, unknown reason for moving the page to the "one-word-page", I think you should move it back to the place where Theroadislong placed it since that is how the name is written in the article and then perhaps delete the "one-word-page". Or discuss it with Theroadislong for a good outcome of this. Best, w.carter-Talk 15:01, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@Ochilov: Unless there is an obvious to reason to rename a page do not rush to move it just because someone requested. This wouldn't have happened if you have discussed it with other editors on article's talk page or here. I'm sure that you didn't notice that Theroadislong made the move before you. Anyways you better discuss it with Theroadislong as soon as possible otherwise some readers may not be able to find the correct article. Cheers!--Chamith (talk) 15:20, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I'm in trouble. What should I do now, W.carter, ChamithN? --Ochilov (talk) 15:40, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@Ochilov:I think it would be best if you discussed this with Theroadislong, and the two of you can agree on something. That is a very experienced editor who can give you good advice. - w.carter-Talk 15:49, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

I did check that the company actually changed their name to "Global Cloud Xchange" and it seems to be correct. Can the recent rename be undone or does it need an admin to sort out the redirects? Theroadislong (talk) 15:54, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

If you are absolutely sure that their new name is "Global Cloud Xchange" there is no need for an admin to get involved. Just be bold and move it correctly.--Chamith (talk) 15:59, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

I can see now why Ochilov got confused and moved to that page. The page move requested by the IP that started the whole thing, wrote the name in one block. So the next time someone writes a new address, check it against the article and also remember that the http and the Wiki-link are not always exactly the same, since there is no spacing in https save with "_". Best, w.carter-Talk 16:13, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

The company's website refers to the company as "Global Cloud Xchange" so I think the page needs to be moved to Global Cloud Xchange over the redirect.--ukexpat (talk) 16:29, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Done Philg88 ^♦talk 17:24, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

New page patrol too confusing!

I'm trying to figure out how to become a new page patroller but all of the stuff is weird. I don't get all of these strange rules. Can anyone explain what I have to do in English? EMachine03 (talk) 22:40, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi EMachine03 welcome to the Teahouse. New page patrol is a feature on Wikipedia that allow other editors to check newly created pages for defects or copyright violations issues. All you have to do is check new pages for obvious errors. If there are any issues regarding the page you can fix them yourself or notify the page creator. If there is a copyright violation you have to nominate the page for speedy deletion under specific criteria for speedy deletion. After reviewing the page you have to mark that page as patrolled. You can do this by clicking Mark this page as patrolled at the bottom of the page. You can access the list of newly created pages here. Cheers--Chamith (talk) 05:37, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

@EMachine03: Hi EMachine03. Doing newpages patrol as to all the things that falls under its purview (and doing each of those tasks properly), actually requires a great deal of experience; each sub-area has lots of ins and outs – marking for speedy deletion or other deletion; maintenance tagging; adding categories, recognizing if the title is proper and what it should be, stub tagging, etc. & etc. Luckily, there are many task involved that you can learn in smaller bites before tackling trying to do all of what's appropriate for each new article you open at Special:Newpages.

Because it's sort of the key gateway function, I would start with learning speedy deletion. You need to invest some time in study. Start with learning what the criteria for speedy deletion actually say. If you know no other, or if you want to take a smaller bite before moving on, learn CSD A7 backwards and forwards (the most common criterion used) – what is within its ambit and what's not and the various deletion tags (templates like {{db-band}}, {{db-person}}) associated with it (please also note the suggested warning to place on a person's talk page that you can copy and paste from the tag body). (You can use Twinkle to automate some of this, as well as Wikipedia:Page Curation through Special:NewPagesFeed though I personally believe learning manually at first is important.)

Once you learn one or more criterion can then go to newpages and just look for appropriate articles to nominate with the appropriate tags for the topics under that criterion, if they meet its basis. Once you gain some careful experience, you can learn other ones and so on. As I indicated this is just one aspect of newpages patrol but you have to start somewhere. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)

My accurate data on the dan Anton page is immediatley and constantly deleted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Anton

Edits and factual data I present on this page are immediately deleted by Antondb.

I do note that there is no documentation of any sort regarding the information presented on this page regarding Dan Anton.

I do see this as a problem because some person can create any biographical page they wish to create about themselves.

you may view the edit history and see that accurate data is immediately removed.

devadip334Devadip334 (talk) 03:37, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

I also created a talk page for this issue at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dan_Anton

devadip334Devadip334 (talk) 03:39, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

The page has been deleted. Robert McClenon (talk) 03:58, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

The page has been deleted twice in the last ten days. Not a good sign. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 05:44, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Consolidating sandboxes

I have too many sandboxes. I was thinking of consolidating many by using the "Move" featue. Is that the best way?```Buster Seven Talk 23:19, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Hello Buster7 and welcome to the Teahouse! I've added a template to your page that will make it easy to create new sandboxes and keep track of all of them. I'd be happy to help you move your sandboxes to be listed in that box if you need assistance! :) — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(e • t • c)} 23:34, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@Buster7: Hi Buster7. Wow, you have a lot of subpages. I know of no way you can do any consolidation using moves (well, actually, administrators can do a form of consolidation by doing history merges of pages which involves moves, but it is not in the slightest way relevant here). Since the pages you are here about, or at least the ones I looked at, only have edits by you, you can simply copy and paste the content from one or more pages into another below the existing text and save, and then tag the pages you copied from for speedy deletion using {{db-u1}}/{{db-user}}. (Doing this where the pages have substantive edits by other users would result in a copyright problem.) Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 06:24, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Technical 13 and Fuhghettaboutit. Those are the answers I needed. Tech...I will be getting in touch with you after the New Year to help me create the sandboxes I need ```Buster Seven Talk 06:57, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

How and why can we have "single-sided" two-person edit-wars? (Self-contradictory, isn't it?)

Hey, can I talk to an administrator, please?

What the hell is the deal with only one person in an edit-war getting the shaft while the other one, who's doing the same thing, gets to come away clean? (I'm not talking about a war where there are 2 or more editors in consensus against the one, so that means that maybe only the one is warring; I mean a one-on-one war!) It's like some admin.s think that the editor whom they agree with "isn't edit-warring," while only the other person "is," so they only block one of the two, even though the other one was doing the same thing, and even though WP policy say that even the one who is correct can still be warring! What the hell is up with that?

And then what's with you admins (assuming that I have gotten your attention now and are talking to one instead of just a regular-member host here) not being willing to continue a discussion in a user's talk page until it's actually done (like when they have a question like this, but then with follow-ups)?

75.162.177.35 (talk) 08:49, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Greetings 75.162.177.35 welcome to the teahouse. Sorry I'm not an admin but I'm going to reply anyway. Also, sorry your editing experience hasn't been good so far. A couple of points: first at Wikipedia there isn't all that much distinction between admins and regular editors. There are a few things only admins can do but those are more technical things. Most of the discussions, consensus, etc. are collaborations among editors and what counts in those discussions is not who the editor is, not if they are an admin or have a PhD, etc. but the strength and relevance of their arguments. In those discussions admins are just considered to be one more editor. Second, yes in edit warring who is making what changes absolutely matters. Here is a real example: last night someone vandalized a page I watch by adding their name, or at least a name, into one of the section headings. I reverted the edit. If that person had made the same edit and I reverted again I wouldn't worry about an admin looking at that and saying I was edit warring, the change was obviously vandalism and it makes no sense to leave some arbitrary name in a section heading where no rational person could think it really belongs. That's an extreme case of course and I'm sure your case is more nuanced but my point is just that this example shows when evaluating an edit war it's not just how many changes each user made but are they following wikipedia:policies. One last thing: remember the goal here is consensus, not perfection. Trust me we've all had work reverted and lost arguments about it and for some of us (me for example) it can really piss us off when that happens. In such situations I always try to remind myself that Wikipedia is huge and there are always other articles to edit and other editors to work with. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 14:31, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. But I was talking about situations where no vandalism is involved. What then?

75.162.177.35 (talk) 15:42, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

If you had a contribution history, I would look at it and see what article you had this experience in. However, you have no contribution history except here, so that it is hard to say what the problem has been. Other examples of what one editor might be said to be edit-warring and another would not are that the first editor is adding unsourced or poorly sourced material to biographies of living persons and the second is removing it, or the first editor is adding original research and the second is removing it, or the first editor is adding material without explanation in edit summaries and on the talk page and the second is removing it with discussion on the talk page. Until we look at the actual article, we can't say much more. In general, if you are warned that you are edit-warring, you should stop editing and should start discussing on the article talk page. If discussion on the article talk page does not help, read dispute resolution and follow one of the dispute resolution procedures. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:55, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I don't think there is anything we can say beyond MadScientistX11's good answer without knowing specifically what page or edits you are asking about. While Wikipedia has policies, it is almost always that case that general questions don't have good answers: it usually depends on the circumstances. --ColinFine (talk) 15:53, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Okay, guys, thanks for your responses. Please look at the edit-warring that was going on at One Magnificent Morning between sphsu, another IP, and IDriveAStickShift over whether or not 2 "sources" that falsely say that "Saturday morning cartoons are no more" (another implication of that is "R.I.P., Saturday morning cartoons"). For some reason, the admins who took hold of that seem to think that ..."StickShift" was supposedly "edit-warring," while spshu supposedly "wasn't."

Curious, I linked around to their talk pages, and eventually end up seeing a report by Stick about spshu's edit-warring. But then the report ends up showing "declined." But guess what happened to IDrive...! HE ends up getting blocked for "edit-warring" without spshu's being blocked too! WHY? If spshu was reverting just as much as the IP and StickShift were, then why doesn't he get in trouble for warring too? How can one of them not be considered as warring, while the other is, still, even though the one removing false "sources" was not vandalizing the article (which would then make the reversions against those removals not considered as warring because they're reverting vandalism instead)?

75.162.177.35 (talk) 07:49, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Turning off obnoxious donate banner?

I made a monetary contribution last year in order to access a choice to turn off the OBNOXIOUS ad banners. Has that choice gone away? I can't seem to locate it and I'm getting the OBNOXIOUS ad banners again.

Do I need to look to a third party app to reformat and delete the OBNOXIOUS (theme here...) ad banners.

Curmudgeonly.quilter (talk) 12:17, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Curmudgeonly.quilter, however FRUSTRATED you feel, you are OBNOXIOUSly screaming "OBNOXIOUS" at thousands of Wikipedia editors who have no control whatever over what the Wikimedia Foundation does with the user interface, and thus making yourself OBNOXIOUS. If you want to leave off being OBNOXIOUS for a moment and look at your user preferences, you'll find what you're looking for under "Gadgets". --ColinFine (talk) 12:53, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Curmudgeonly.quilter, just a few more points regarding the banners: remember that your preferences can of course only be in effect when you are logged in. And even if like me you work on computers that only you control and so you stay logged in (check the "keep me logged in" box on the login dialog) the system will log you out every few weeks and require you to login again just as a standard security measure. So if you happen to come back to Wikipedia when you have been logged out you will see the banners. Regarding blocking software -- this isn't needed for Wikpedia since you can just set the preferences but I find it very useful on other sites: I recommend https://adblockplus.org/ to block ads and also https://noscript.net/ to control scripting. Noscript can be kind of a pain sometimes, virtually all sites use scripts now so if you install noscript you have to be prepared that every time you go to a new site it's going to not work until/unless you explicitly tell noscript it's safe but I like it a lot especially for some of the Wikipedia editing I do which can take me to links I've never heard of and may not trust, it's nice to have script blocking be the default. It doesn't happen often but once in a while I'll end up clicking on some site that looks really iffy and be glad that said site was blocked ahead of time. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 14:52, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

All logged in users regardless of donations have the option "Suppress display of the fundraiser banner" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:12, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

PrimeHunter is right on the money here. No need for NoScript or AdBlock or anything of the sort to turnoff the banner. Tutelary (talk) 17:28, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

I guess "Regarding blocking software -- this isn't needed for Wikpedia since you can just set the preferences" wasn't clear enough. Next time I'll try to use words of one syllable --MadScientistX11 (talk) 17:43, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Being an adopter

How can I become an adopter? I went to Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user/Adoptee's Area/Adopters and I was figuring out if editing the page and putting my name directly is the correct way to do it. Thanks, DEW. Adrenaline (Nahnah4) 08:43, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Nahnah4, you see how to become an adopter at Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user/Adopter's Area, in the first two sentences. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 17:49, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

How do I add a background in my Portal?

I'm in the sandbox working on a new portal. I wish to add an image as the background ( in the black area). How do I do it? You can use any image as an example.

my sandbox

The code that is related to that black area is at the very top of the source. I don't think it is a good idea to copy and paste it here Tetra quark (talk) 01:17, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi @Tetra quark: and welcome to the Teahouse. I'm now an expert on portals, but I did a little bit of searching and I can't find any portals that actually do have background images. They tend to have simple layouts so I think the one that you have is good already. Thanks, ΤheQ Editor ^Talk? 04:02, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@TheQ Editor: You're now an expert on portals?

--AmaryllisGardener ^talk 04:05, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

I had a crack here, but I can't figure out how to float the image behind the table structure, which means the bottom of the page is cut off. Might be worth asking someone like Technical 13 for a hand; it's a bit beyond me. Yunshui ^雲 _水 09:37, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanaks again. I managed to make the box collapsed by default so it would fit in the page. I've published my portal now and created links to it on other pages: Portal:Cosmology. Once again, thanks for the help Tetra quark (talk) 19:44, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

Wow, that looks great! That's exactly the image I wanted to add by the way. I guess this is a first step at adding a background image. I'll check the source to see how you did that and perhaps I figure out how to make it not cut the page off. I was thinking that maybe I could open MSPaint and duplicate that image by hand, so it will have a greater height. Then I upload it to commons and try using it. Well, thanks for your work Tetra quark (talk) 12:53, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@AmaryllisGardener: Ahh... that was a horrible typo. "I'm not an expert on portals". Thanks, ΤheQ Editor ^Talk? 12:54, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Well that's a simple and obvious solution that didn't occur to me; just repeat the image. No need to do it off wiki - see what the draft looks like now. Yunshui ^雲 _水 13:09, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@Yunshui: and @Tetra quark: hope you don't mind some friendly kibitzing but I've been glancing at the Portal, btw, very cool awesome job and wonderful topic, and I liked it better without the image background. Part of this is just my style, I'm very much a minimalist and like a user interface to focus on the content and the task not on looking slick but IMO the topic is so interesting and the content so fascinating having a flashy background is not needed and is just a distraction. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 13:39, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm so glad you liked it! I don't believe the background is flashy. It is mostly black anyway :) Tetra quark (talk) 13:51, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

"@Yunshui:, that is great! If we make the "Celestial events by month" section hidden by default, everything will fit in just fine. However, I wonder what made the "About" box fall to the bottom? It should be on top. Tetra quark (talk) 13:51, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Fixed the errant "About" box. I don't really want to do anything to the Astronomical events page (or anything else in the Portal's namespace), so I'll let you deal with collapsing the Celestial Events section (personally I wouldn't bother, though). Yunshui ^雲 _水 14:58, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Since I was pinged, I took a quick poke at it. I've cleaned up all of your nonHTML5 compliant code, and I tinkered with the background image thing a little, but I just don't have time to get it working. You might want to look at examples of others doing this kind of thing on the userpages of The Earwig, Soni, and Yunshui. You may also want to ask Edokter for some help as he is my go-to guy for CSS trickery. Good luck! — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(e • t • c)} 15:57, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

@TheQ Editor: you can edit. ~~now~~not.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:35, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Help in Two Things

I want to add my old account ELreydeEspana to my new account MariaTudor1deInglaterra, I would also like to edit my name to add to the King Philip 2 in my username, thanks (user:MariaTudor1DeInglaterra)

Hi MariaTudor1DeInglaterra, welcome to the Teahouse. Accounts cannot be merged. You can request a change of your username at Wikipedia:Changing username. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:43, 20 December 2014 (UTC)