Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)

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The assistance section of the village pump is used to make requests for assistance with Wikipedia.

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If you wish to report vandalism, please go to Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress or Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism instead.

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Assistance archive

Discussions older than 7 days (date of last made comment) are moved here. These dicussions will be kept archived for 7 more days. During this period the discussion can be moved to a relevant talk page if appropriate. After 7 days the discussion will be permanently removed.

Is this spam?

User:Jaffer has been adding questionable-quality external links to videos across the project. I'm inclined to revert them, but he clearly thinks adding them is a public service. Is there a good reason to keep the links around? - EurekaLott 05:23, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks quite spammy to me. Whatever small educational use might be there is offset by the huge hunks of ads all over the pages and the clear attempt to sell a product and it being listed everywhere all over this site. He's clearly adding the links to make money. DreamGuy 05:47, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd agree its spam, given that there are ads on the site he links to. I couldn't play the video; perhaps it's in a format not supported by Linux. It didn't so much as ask me to download a Firefox plugin.-gadfium 08:08, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to assume good faith with these edits and I can still assume good faith while pointing out that his links don't comply with WP:EL:

What should not be linked to:

1. Sites that primarily exist to sell products or services. [on behalf of all his sponsors]
2. Sites with objectionable amounts of advertising
3. A website that you own or maintain (unless it is the official site of the subject of the article).

That second point is most important. His motives appear to be backed financially. He should definitely stop, at least until there's a clear consensus as to whether or not he should continue. Would a RfC be helpful in this case? Mrtea (talk) 05:45, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

That probably won't be necessary, since he's no longer adding links. We just need to be certain we've cleaned up after him. - EurekaLott 23:28, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay I wasn't sure what kind of consensus you were looking for. Looks like he might be taking the route of "spamming" talk pages now. I quickly replied to one of his posts just to let him know it's not a good idea. I'm sure he's got quite a few people keeping a watchful eye now though ;) [Overlooked his recent additions on his talk page.] Mrtea (talk) 00:49, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

translating from the original articles of english to other languages.

I have been curious to ask this but wereas I found things I wanted in english I could get the information straight away but in greek for example I could not or there was just a very vague description. Is t possile for someone to translate from someone's original research in english to another language? Is this permisible? Give me time I'm only a new one here! Any suggestions much appreciated!

I think you would have to bring this up on the wikipedia in your language of choice. I'm sure they all have translation departments. But as a rule we translate things into our target language, not out of it. pfctdayelise 02:26, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Changing the URL of a page?

This page:

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

is in dire need, not only of some simple rewriting into clear English, but also of a title change, from 'James edward wood' to the proper capitalized form. What's the best way to transport the article to a new page with the proper URL (with his name capitalized properly, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Edward_Wood), and delete the old page with the improper capitalization in the URL? Andrewdt85 23:15, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Pages are "renamed" by moving them using the "move" tab near the top of the page. If your account is less than a few days old, you can't do this yourself. If this is the case, please let me know. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:08, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I've done it this time. See Wikipedia:Page move for more information about doing it yourself. Superm401 | Talk 09:02, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Derived work of PD work

I hope this isn't covered somewhere else. If I take a map from the CIA World Factbook (public domain, work of the US govt) and add a dot to it to indicate some location, which license should I choose when contributing this to Wikipedia? I used to use the general "public domain", but since this is now deprecated, which of the various PD-* licenses should be used? Thanks. gspr 18:14, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

IANAL, but: public domain means that you are free to make derivative works, and to publish those under whatever license you want. Those licenses then cover your changes, and therefore also the derivative work as a whole. So if you put the resulting work in the public-domain as well, you could use {{PD-self}}. If your addition is trivial, you may want to use {{PD-USGov-CIA-WF}} instead. Whatever license you use, it is a simplification anyway, so as long as you explain the situation clearly ("map by CIA; location added by gspr"), it doesn't really matter which one you choose. IMHO. Eugene van der Pijll 18:45, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

If you're only adding a dot, that's not a creative input, so it remains under the public domain. You have no option to retain any copyright. The best PD tag is probably {{PD-USGov-CIA-WF}} in this case but {{PD-self}} is acceptable. Superm401 | Talk

Thanks a lot for the help! gspr 19:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Copyright

Is it permited ot use a template that is on this Wiki on another Wiki? --pevarnj ^(t/c) 22:06, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

If I'm understanding your question right, absolutely, but there's a catch. Pretty much everything on this wiki is licensed under GFDL, which basically means anyone can do anything they'd like with any of it BUT they have to in turn license it under the GFDL (well, not exactly, but pretty darn close). So, if the other wiki is a GFDL wiki, go to town. If not, you need to read Wikipedia:Copyrights and make sure you understand it. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I am referring to YPPedia --pevarnj ^(t/c) 22:35, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

EasyTimeline, anyone?

Hi, I'm just trying to make my first EasyTimeline. I've tried to copy bits from existing timelines, but I haven't seen one that does exactly what I envisage (which possibly means what I envisage is not suitable for EasyTimeline, but rather a plain table or something).

My attempt thus far is at User:Pfctdayelise/Template:2006 Australian Open and I'm happy it works how I want. (Nevermind I haven't got all the data filled in yet.) I have this line:ImageSize= width:150 height:1200 But what I really want to do is have ImageSize= width=150 height:auto barincrement:30. But it won't let me because I have TimeAxis = orientation:vertical. I have a feeling I am not really using it as it was intended. :)

Having the barincrement statement would be great because then when I put Round 2 next to it, all I need to do is make that barincrement twice as big, offset the things slightly somehow, and then it would emulate this tennis draw (PDF) perfectly.

Any help? If I'm abusing it and should really just use a table, please let me know that too. TIA, pfctdayelise 03:43, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

If I understand you right, you want a layout something like the table here. In that case, I think an ordinary table would indeed probably be best. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:01, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Cool, I will adapt a table from {{tree}} instead. Ta, pfctdayelise 02:31, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Adding Accent Mark

Hi-

How do I add an accent mark above the "a" in French?

Many thanks for your help.David Justin 01:47, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

If you have the drop down menu enabled in your "special characters" box below the edit window, you can select "French" and click on "à". If you don't see a drop down menu, click on no menu to see how to enable it.

Alternatively, cut and paste an existing character if you can find one. If all else fails, use the standard html method of adding special symbols: à which produces à. You can get a list of all such characters at List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references.-gadfium 02:52, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Also from Alt key: "On some keyboards, holding down the Alt key while typing in numbers on the numeric keypad allows the user to type special characters not normally available on the keyboard. For example, holding down Alt while typing 0169 on the numeric keypad will result in ©. These extended keyboard characters are useful for persons using foreign languages, mathematics, currency symbols, business use, etc." Using Alt-133 (on a PC, at least) will type an "à". I'm not sure if there's a list of these anywhere but you can guess and check with different symbols. The accents seem to be all around the 130's. Mrtea (talk) 04:18, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

The relevant table in your case is probably the one at Windows-1252, although actually using that with the Alt key requires you to convert the codes from hexadecimal to decimal notation. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 07:06, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Or, if you have an accent key on your keyboard, just press that and then A: "`" + "a" = "à". —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 06:57, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for all your help, everyone.David Justin 02:48, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Help contacting a user

hi. i need help contacting brendan moody. how can i do that? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.81.2.126 (talk • contribs) .

If you mean user:Brendan Moody, add a comment to his talk page at User talk:Brendan Moody. -- Rick Block (talk) 04:34, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Problem with copyright vio in history of page

Black Rock Rangers was originally a copyright violation (see Talk:Black Rock Rangers). All versions up through this one are a copyvio of this page. Because I was unfamiliar with the copyright violation policy I simply rewrote the page rather than flagging it and rewriting it as a temp (I figured that out just after, and did things right with Kenji Siratori). Anyway, what is the procedure now? How do I get an admin to clean out the old versions? Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 20:22, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Adult to write DMCA

Hey, I work at the Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks department. Many sites' admins are inactive so we have to ultimately contact the host/ISP to take the sites down. This process requires the writing of the DMCA, which looks like the following:

1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act
on behalf of the owner of the trademark or other intellectual property
interest;

2. a description of the trademarked work or other intellectual property
that you claim has been infringed;

3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is
located on the site;

4. your address, telephone number, and email address;

5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the
disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property
owner, its agent, or the law;

6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above
information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the trademark or
intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the trademark or
intellectual property owner's behalf.

Since many of us are not adults, we cannot send these letters to anyone. Which means that we require an adult to send such things. Is anyone interested in helping us out send such things? More discussions are located in User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Legal_help and User_talk:Simetrical#Legal_help. -- WB 03:09, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Maj IIM

The majority of Maj IIM's contributions appear in violation of Wikipedia:Spam. This especially considering many edits reference an organization named IIM, which is also conspicuously in Maj IIM's username. Looking for advice. jareha 07:14, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Seconded. Caravaca 16:18, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Space at start of article

Can anyone explain why Current science and technology events has a large gap at the top (down to the end of the calendar template) whilst Current events and Current sports events do not - even though they all include the same template. -- SGBailey 17:12, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Cant change skin back from currently (and very regretablly) installed Chick skin

Hi:

The link _Skin" is not a hyperlink in My preferences <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences> .

Cant change back to default skin. Help.

Rajesh

____________________________ Re:"Help desk for questions about Wikimedia projects" <helpdesk-l@wikimedia.org>, mailtorajrao@yahoo.com

Rajesh,

Unfortunately the helpdesk is not able to help you with technical matters such as this; can you make a note of it on the Village Pump at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29> or on the Mediawiki Bugzilla at <http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/>?

Regards, -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia "We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP

German Wikipedia article

I can't decide whether this brouhaha should be mentioned on the German Wikipedia article. There's no German Wikimedia article, so...? --zenohockey 02:39, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

German Wikipedia is still online as least. As I read the family is seeking an injunction to prevent their deceased sons name from appearing in an article.--Dakota ~ ε 10:07, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

The absurdity is that this judgment is left to a court which can't tell St. Petersburg, Russia from St Petersburg, Florida, yet seeks dominion over the Internet. - Nunh-huh 10:09, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Stage and Hierarchical Complexity of Tasks

I just put up a new page on stage and hierarchical complexity. How do I find it? How do I place it in a category? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Commons@tiac.net (talk • contribs) .

Please sign you edit so we can know who we are talking to. Could not find stage and hierarchical complexity. Are you sure of it's name?.--Dakota ~ ε 10:07, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

The question is apparently about Stage and Hierarchical Complexity of Tasks. I've responded on the user's talk page. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:29, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Is there an Admin here-need a little help

have a question about an afd i just put up.--Dakota ~ ε 09:40, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

You could ask your question here, or on the Help desk. Angela. 11:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

A picture has gone missing

Hi. I checked the South Pole article today, and noticed a picture I'd added some time ago is no longer there. I managed to find where in the history [here] it was deleted from the article, but I don't know how to determine when the actual picture itself was deleted (and why) from wikipedia. How do I find this out please? Thanks. --Rebroad 11:41, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Image:SPSM.05.5.JPG was deleted on December 10, 2005 by JesseW because the source of the image was unknown. See Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#Images/Media. You can find out this sort of information by checking the deletion log or by asking an admin to look in Special:Undelete. Angela. 11:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)