Wikipedia:Help desk

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October 4

Backround on userpage

How do put another background on your userpage? And also is it possible to get a picture as your background. ForeverDEAD 00:03, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know, but see WP:EIW#UserPage for links to (probably) just about everything written about user pages. If you can't find it there, you probably can't find it. --Teratornis 00:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

How to edit

Hi, the wikipedia team! How d'you do? I try to edit a message but it seems the problem does not work out! Can you help?

Bye for now Regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rê Atoum Logos Onan (talk • contribs) 00:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, which message? What sort of problem? --Kjoonlee 00:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

how on earth do you tag an article?

I have looked everywhere on Wikipedia's help files to the answer for this question, but it simply isn't written down anywhere: How do I tag an article?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.188.56.92 (talk) 00:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, what sort of tag do you want to add? If it's a cleanup tag, you can put it on the article. If it's a request for a photograph or a call for help, you put it on the talk page. --Kjoonlee 00:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

If you're talking about tagging it for improvement or noting disputes, many of the common templates used on articles are gathered here. If you wanted to note that an article lacked notability, say, you would open the page for editing as usual and put the tag {{notability}} at the top of the page. When you save the page, the template expands to document your concerns. I hope that helps. :) --Moonriddengirl 00:32, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Right. Normally you can just edit the article to add cleanup tags. Look at Camel and how it starts, with a {{Cleanup}} template. If you don't want to add cleanup notices but want to add categories, try adding [[Category:Livestock]] or something similar onto the article. --Kjoonlee 00:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you had trouble looking up what you want under the word "tag" because the correct term is "messagebox" for what you (probably) mean. According to the Editor's index:

• Tags: see Wikipedia:Span tags, Messageboxes (using the term “tags” to refer to messageboxes is common but technically incorrect; messageboxes are templates)

so you needed to look here: WP:EIW#Messageboxes. --Teratornis 00:44, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

paragraph

how can i right paragraph —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.36.32.17 (talk) 00:55, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Would you mind explaining what you mean by "right paragraph"? — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 02:01, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

signature

I've been trying to get my signiture to be like this :

Maddie ^talk

but it keeps saying invalid html. what am i doing wrong?

Maddie was here 02:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hard to say, but are you sure the "Raw signature" box is checked? --Ybbor^Talk 02:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

This probably isn't it, but try switching the last </sup> and </b> tags, as shown below. It's unlikely, but the software could be getting fussy over the order of the HTML tags. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

<b>[[user:maddiekate|<span style="color:#9933ff;">Maddie</span>]] <sup><font color="1E90FF"> [[user_talk:maddiekate|talk]]</font></sup></b>

Yep, elements must be closed at reversed order. Also, consider using more up to date code instead of the deprecated font and b tags: --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Example: Maddie ^talk

<span style="font-weight:bold;">[[user:maddiekate|<span style="color:#93F">Maddie</span>]] 
<sup>[[user_talk:maddiekate|<span style="color:#1E90FF">talk</span>]]</sup></span>

Eligibility for owning a hand gun in the state of florida

Hello I just had a question and I could not find the answer. I wanted to know. does a person living in the state of Florida (Florida resident) have to be a US Citizen to own a hand gun in their home or can a US resident own a hand gun. I would appreciate it if this question could be answered for me thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.57.160.247 (talk) 02:51, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, I don't think you are in the right place. Have you tried the reference desk yet? They specialize in knowledge questions such as yours. The Help Desk is for questions about working Wikipedia. Hope this helps! Neranei (talk) 02:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer. Once you understand that Wikipedia does not guarantee its articles about legal topics to be in any way accurate, you can then read Gun law#United States of America, Gun law in the United States, and Gun laws in the United States (by state). If nothing else, at least you might know what information to ask a real attorney to confirm. --Teratornis 06:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Meaning of Cuisine

Meaning of cuisine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.246.218.1 (talk) 02:59, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, you should check out the Wikipedia article on that topic. If you still have any questions which are not answered there, please come back and ask and we'll try to help. GlassCobra (Review) 03:15, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I.e., see cuisine. Also try wiktionary:cuisine and google:define:cuisine. Then please cook us something tasty. --Teratornis 06:45, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

"Transclusion"

Would I be correct to assume that your word "transclusion" is a portmanteau of the prefix "trans-" and the word "inclusion"? Hallpriest9 (Talk | Archive) 03:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

If you click on this link, Transclusion, it will take you to a page where the origin of the word is cited. I don't think the article answers your question, but you will know where and when the word was originated. Accounting4Taste 03:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Wiktionary:Transclusion says "probably." I guess we would have to ask Ted Nelson since he allegedly coined the neologism in 1982. Also see Wikipedia:Transclusion for information about how Wikipedia uses the term. --Teratornis 06:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

straight edge

Hi,

Can you please see the discussion page on Straight Edge. I think the article focuses too much on the negative. Most straight edge people I knew were non-violent. It would be a shame for the article to get people thinking all straight edgers were like the idiots you mention. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.54.98.104 (talk) 03:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

This page is not for dispute resolution. If you want to pursue dispute resolution, see Wikipedia:Dispute resolution, and seek to resolve this with the editors who wrote the article. Leebo ^T/C 04:46, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Group e-mail

I am able to insert individual users on my Team Members page. Is is possible to create groups and be able to e-mail to these groups. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.23.150.83 (talk) 04:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you talking about something directly on Wikipedia? If you are, could you be a bit more specific as to which pages you are talking about? Leebo ^T/C 04:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Is the only reason to "create a username" and "log in" to Wikipedia to edit and create articles?

Same as above: Is the only reason to "create a username" and "log in" to Wikipedia to edit and create articles? Is there another reason to create a login? Thnxs! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Riptide7 (talk • contribs) 04:58, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Why create an account?. Specifically, some things you didn't mention include moving pages and editing semi-protected pages. You can edit without logging in. Leebo ^T/C 05:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Creating an account also provides some privacy - when not logged in, all contributions are logged using your IP address, which could be used to remotely access your computer. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:12, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

And if you want to be a Metapedian, you need a username to establish an identity other people can recognize. That way they can say things like, "God help us, another blathering essay from Teratornis" (to pick a random username as an example). --Teratornis 06:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding in nomination list

I have uploaded my image, can anyone help me in adding it to nomination list. My image is in Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/samsoncj snail 07.jpg, i want to get the feedback of the image. --Cj.samson 05:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You might get feedback faster by posting a link to your image, which appears to be: Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/samsoncj snail 07.jpg and Image:Samsoncj snail 07.jpg. The picture looks OK to me, but it looks like you have some competition, such as Image:Notophthalmus viridescens edit.jpg. --Teratornis 06:42, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

When you flag an article for speedy deletion, and that article gets deleted..

..does your edit count decrease? şœśэїŝәқι 05:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Your official edit count that is kept by Wikipedia will not decrease. However, Interiot's WannabeKate tool, a commonly used edit counter, will show a decrease. Hope this helps! GlassCobra (Review) 06:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I change a reference to a messageboard to my actual name?

Hello - I am the author of the messageboard post cited here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHPI#_ref-ri-55805_0

How do I go about editing that citation to reflect my actual name?

I may be reached via email (personal information removed).

Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.136.109.83 (talk) 07:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You only have to add your name behind the text and put a brace in front and behind the link. For example [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHPI#_ref-ri-55805_0 name of the link] looks like name of the link.--Thw1309 07:16, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay, second question... when I go to do what you've suggested, I'm presented with the following when I click to edit the references section: \\\ ==References==

\\\

Obviously without the \\\, which I have used to seperate the question from a code making a new section... but anyways, there is no "list" of references. What do I need to do from here?

There is no real list of references, written by editors. This list is created by the computer, searching for all the references within the text. If you edit the article, you find <ref>text of the reference</ref> For excample in line two you find <ref name="myhippie-aboutus">{{cite web | url=http://www.myhippie.com/aboutus.html | title=About Us | work=Hippie Radio 101.1 | date=2007-09-18 | accessdate=2007-09-24 }}</ref>, which creates the second reference. By editing this text, you change the text, shown within the section references.--Thw1309 07:38, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

One more thing. If you want to change the title within such a citation template, it`s even easier to change the name. You only have to change the text behind |title= .--Thw1309 07:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

about publishing an article-reg.

How can I publish my Articles in Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.141.141.54 (talk) 08:12, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Please look at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. This article will guide you through the creation of articles. Happy editing. --Thw1309 08:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's some additional information, in case you want to publish your articles yourself. :)

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. --Moonriddengirl 12:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Amherst College needs some help

Could someone - probably best an administrator - have a look at Amherst College, section on the "Origin of name"? There's some highly "discussion-reluctant" IP at work, and I don't seem to be able to communicate my request to find a consensus clearly enough using just the usual means of the article's discussion page, the IP's discussion page, and the source text of the article. (Besides, I neither can nor wish to watch that article day and night...) Thanks, Ibn Battuta 09:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Main problem seems to be the sentence about the reputation of Amherst. There is one thing, you should think about. Is this information relevant for Amherst College. I don't think that this was the reason to call the village (and the college) Armherst. I think this happened, because he was a war heroe and commander in chief. So that's the only information I would include to the article. All the rest should be in his own article (and it is there).

Nevertheless, you are right. You did everything, a polite editor could do to clear the situation and to prevent an edit war. I fear that there is no possiblity to help you. These edits do not reach the level to give you a chance to have the page protected or the IP address banished from Wikipedia. Perhaps you could contact Wikipedia:WikiProject Massachusetts to take care of the article, because it's within the scope of this project.--Thw1309 11:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The suggestion of involving the wider community seems to me a very good one. :) You might want to read over Wikipedia:Disruptive editing. If repeated efforts to engage the editor in dialogue with pointers to policy are ineffective and if wider community involvement as per the dispute resolution process does not help, you may—after all other avenues are explored—want to seek assistance at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. If you fail to get a response from Wikipedia:WikiProject Massachusetts, you might want to seek assistance at the conflict of interest noticeboard, which is for "conflict of interest issues which require outside intervention, such as disputes with tendentious editors and cases where editors are repeatedly adding problematic material over a longer period of time". Given this IP's editing history, it seems a fair assumption that he or she has a strong personal interest in the topic. :) --Moonriddengirl 11:59, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

hi

why i dont see the desibilities menu? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.62.97.111 (talk) 11:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The closest word I can think of that you might mean is "disabilities"—is that the word you intended? If so, it's still not clear to what you are referring. Can you please flesh out your question?--Fuhghettaboutit 12:10, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The question may refer to Accessibility features. See: WP:EIW#Ability for a list of links about these. --Teratornis 15:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

My preferences

HI for some reason the option to change my skin in my preferences has gone dead. It shows the options but I am currently locked in with cologne blue which has the quick bar option fixed right or left etc. Well I want to change the task bar from right to left but it won't work when I hit the save button. It also won't let me save it back as monobook default. I have changed skins many times -is there a maximum limit or something - as I am stuck with the setting now. In fact in looking all of my preferences are locked I can't change any of the other settings either such as Math or whatever. What is the problem? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:15, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The preference page offers this advice: After saving, you have to bypass your browser's cache to see the changes. Internet Explorer: press Ctrl-F5, Mozilla: hold down Shift while clicking Reload (or press Ctrl-Shift-R), Opera/Konqueror: press F5, Safari: press Cmd-Opt-E. I hope, this will help you.--Thw1309 12:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I have Internet Explorer 7.0. There are some skins (at least Cologne Blue but not all) I cannot change away from by clicking "Save" with the mouse. The advice doesn't help. It works if I activate "Save" by pressing Enter (when Save is blue). If Save is not blue then press Tab or Shift+Tab until it becomes blue. I don't know what causes this problem but I would like to hear whether it's the same for you. PrimeHunter 12:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It has always worked in the past. I have tried the control and F5 thing for my computer but it doesn't work. I mostly prefer the colgne blue setting which I have it on this is fine -but under this the quickbar choice of left or right should work and also all the other setting should be free to change . The save button is dead when before it alwaysw changed settings in a second ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The Save button is also dead for me when i click it with the mouse to get away from Cologne Blue. Have you tried activating Save with the Enter key? That works for me. PrimeHunter 12:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hits counted

I want to verify if we can get the number of hits your Florida Lottery pages receive per day for a specific period of time. Donna Riordan 12:35, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, only administrators can access to statistics pages. Sorry. Martial BACQUET 12:39, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Really? I've not heard of that, but if I can find out how I'm sure we could share said information. Leebo ^T/C 13:20, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes I don't know why they doesn't want to share these informations but take a look at Special:Specialpages and you will see at the page bottom that this is only for sysops. Am I wrong? Martial BACQUET 13:43, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The pages at the bottom provide the following info to sysops:

• Block user - this is the mechanism for issuing a block of editing privileges.
• Deleted edits - this shows all edits of a user that were made to articles that have been deleted.
• Import pages - I think this has to do with pages that are moved from other Wikimedia projects.
• Unwatched pages - this shows pages that are on no one's watchlist, and thus subject to unnoticed vandalism.
• View deleted pages - this is for looking at a deleted version of a page.

So, no, it doesn't seem like any of the sysop-only pages provide statistics on page hits. Leebo ^T/C 13:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I'm sorry. In the MediaWiki there is Special:Popularpages but this page has been apparently disabled here. Martial BACQUET 14:09, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

(undent) The MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia does provide a page hit counter feature, but Wikipedia's administrators have disabled this feature because Wikipedia does not have enough server power to enable it. See the past discussions about this somewhat-frequently asked question. --Teratornis 15:52, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Page rename help.

Hey, I just discovered in elc International school, the e is in small letters. The current article is Elc International School. When I tried to move it, an error pops out saying I'm using the same name as the old title. Is there any way I could use the small letter e in the title?? Help? --Hanaichi 12:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, you can use this template:{{ lowercase|elc International school }}. Martial BACQUET 12:42, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Ooo right thanks!--Hanaichi 12:44, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

But I still can't seem to do it. Apparantly there is invalid, empty, an incorrectly linked inter-language or inter-wiki title, or contained unsupported characters due to the template. I still don't get it lol.--Hanaichi 12:48, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I finally did it lol. Thanks alot Martial!--Hanaichi 12:50, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok, good. You're welcome ;) Martial BACQUET 12:52, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Pages removed...

Hi,

I'm new to Wikipedia and I put some new pages on there but they were quickly removed. Can someone help me to figure out how to get them to stay? They were marked for deletion apparently because they were advertising, but I see that they are no different than other pages out there.

Brian —Preceding unsigned comment added by Janbur (talk • contribs) 13:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

If your pages have been removed, there is a reason. Please read WP:DP to find out more. Martial BACQUET 13:31, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The only advice I would give, since your articles weren't that spammy, is to include reliable sources that establish how the subjects are notable and multiple independent sources to show that your information is coming from more than the company itself. Leebo ^T/C 13:32, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you should create a sandbox. There you can create an article without to fear that after the first saving your efforts are deleted, before you have the chance to improve them. You can find your sandbox here--Thw1309 13:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See: Why was my article deleted? --Teratornis 15:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Corrections needed on Texas Tech University Center at Junction page

To whom it concerns, I just visited the page for Texas Tech University Center at Junction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Tech_University_Center_at_Junction) I found two errors on the page. 1. Under the facilities usage title, where it list the Outdoor School, it states that the program is for High School Students. It should read K-12. The program is mostly used by the elemetary and middle school kids, and rarely do high school students attend. 2. Under External links, the link to the TTU Center at Junction Outdoor School Site is incorrect. The Proper address should be http://www.depts.ttu.edu/hillcountry/olc Leave off the /olcknow.htm.

Derrick Ard PC/Network Support III Webmaster TTU Center at Junction —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.118.101.209 (talk) 13:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). Leebo ^T/C 14:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I make a bot?

I want to make a bot that lists Special:Unusedcategories pages for deletion. How do I do that? Thanks. (PS please don't steal my idea).--Mostargue 14:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You can read about bot policy at Wikipedia:Bot policy. After you write the script, you'd need to get it approved at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval. I can't really help you with programming though. Perhaps asking at Wikipedia talk:Bot policy could move you in the right direction. Leebo ^T/C 14:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's a good idea. I already have this idea, but some categories are not used everytime. For example: wikipedians needing help, pages for deletion, etc... Martial BACQUET 14:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Well how about we just have those categories self-reference themselves to get them out of the list?--Mostargue 14:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You have to do it by yourself I'm afraid. Martial BACQUET 14:20, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

UserID

How do I get an user ID and Password if needed? Thank you PEggy Gunter —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.159.168.52 (talk) 14:14, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Go to this page and follow the instructions there. Leebo ^T/C 14:16, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

TIGI - Bed Head

Is it possible to completely re-write the Toni & Guy and Bed Head content? The founders of these two entities would like to write new articles including updated information. Is it also possible to block any future editing from the public? This is NOT for advertising purposes. Thank you. TIGI Bed Head 15:26, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• HI. To answer in order - Yes, of course this can be re-written - anyone can edit these pages. However in answer to part 2 you need to avoid a conflict of interest and also ensure any additions are verifiable. In answer to part 3 - no not at all - that's not what wikipedia is about I'm afraid. Pedro :  Chat  15:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• The answer to the second part of your question is absolutely not. It sounds like you wish to use the page for advertising purposes. Wikipedia does not allow any form of advertising. The only reason for full page protection is to halt edit wars, not to purposely restrict good faith additions to a page. Leebo ^T/C 15:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See WP:OWN for more information about part 3. If you want to write articles on a wiki and have ownership rights, you can use WikInfo (or one of the many wikiindex:other wikis which allow that), althrough if your goal is advertising, you may get resistance there. We do have user pages and user subpages which anyone can edit, but by convention we generally consider user pages to be under the control of a specific user. However, the content we put on our user pages is supposed to be in some way related to the encyclopedia project, rather than working like a general Web hosting service or MySpace. --Teratornis 15:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

User:TIGI Bed Head added the last sentence about this not being for adverting after the above 3 comments. If the intent was not advertising, why would the public need to be restricted from editing the article? As Teratornis pointed out, no one owns any article. Not the author and not the subject. Leebo ^T/C 16:34, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The current information posted now for both Toni & Guy and Bed Head is outdated and incorrect, and was not posted by a member of the Toni & Guy/Bed Head/TIGI team. Our sole purpose for this inquiry is to provide new and correct information to the public. In reference to the "blocking of future editing by the public", this was only a question regarding the ways to stop false information in the future if possible, but we understand that the articles are not owned by anyone. We do not wish to use this forum for advertising purposes. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TIGI Bed Head (talk • contribs) 17:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

In that case, I would recommend that you post the information you want to add on the talk pages for the articles (go to the article and click "Discussion" at the top). There you can discuss such additions with other editors so as to prevent a conflict of interest. Leebo ^T/C 17:33, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

One of Wikipedia's core policies is that anyone, unless disruptive, is able to contribute. For that reason, we can't protect articles from editing until it's been demonstrated that the article needs to be protected from multiple, independent vandals. (Like, for instance, George W. Bush.) We have to deal with the insertion of false information on a case-by-case basis, through the procedures set out at our vandalism policy. There's nothing wrong with keeping an eye on the article with the intent to address vandalism as it occurs as long as you're careful not to maintain it too aggressively. It is possible that editors may insert material of which you do not approve, but as long as it meets our core policies such material should not be reverted. Articles must remain neutral, without positive or negative bias.

I will suggest that you utilize the edit summary when making changes—this is always good practice, but is especially important when your edits may be misinterpreted. It would also be an extremely good idea, as Leebo says, to announce your intended changes and your personal interest on the articles' talk pages before implementing them, as recommended in the conflict of interest policy. If you do this a day or so in advance of implementation it will reduce the likelihood that your intentions will be mistaken and that your edits will be ill received. In the event that your changes meet opposition, you will need to seek consensus, which shouldn't be that hard to achieve as long as your suggested changes are verifiable and properly sourced. Information you know but cannot prove must not be used, per our policy on original research. Good luck with your edits. :) --Moonriddengirl 17:43, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Knowing the author

how to know the author/s of a certain article found in wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.60.248.143 (talk) 15:50, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Go to the article and click on the History tab to see the list of changes made to the article and who made them. Leebo ^T/C 15:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

People who ask for authors often want to cite an article. If that is the case then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. PrimeHunter 16:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

citation

I am writing an essay for school and was wondering how to site information from your site in APA format.

16:01, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Go to the article that you want to cite and click on the "cite this article" link on the left hand side of the page. That should give you all you need. If it doesn't then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Dismas|^(talk) 16:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It should be noted that many teachers and schools disallow the use of Wikipedia as a source (just as most would disallow the use of any tertiary source like an encyclopedia). Leebo ^T/C 16:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Leebo is, of course, spot on. :) If your teacher does not allow Wikipedia as a source, you may find it useful instead to follow the sources cited within the Wikipedia article and, if they suit your purposes, rely instead on those. --Moonriddengirl 16:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Do i have to include history

to make a page do i have to include history.mory1234 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.63.123.100 (talk) 16:41, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Making an article on Wikipedia you mean? A history page is automatically incorporated. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by history but the creator of a page does not have to do anyhting regarding history. The following is general help about page creation.

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter 17:39, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The Entry that speaks about my asks for sources

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

What do I need to add I am somewhat tech savvy but not sure what I need to site to give this entry the validity factor

Thank you

Joshua Estrin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.149.63.176 (talk) 16:46, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

First, if you are Joshua Estrin, note that under Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, it is recommended that you do not edit articles about yourself, or if you do, you mention that you did on the article's talk page. Furthermore, if you wish to establish the verifiability of your subject, then you would need to add information about yourself that has been published in reliable secondary sources. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:13, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Howto: text on left, table on right

Hi. I'm new to wikiing, and I would really like to create a page similar in layout to Usa. At the top you notice it has an introductory paragraph (beginning with The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic...) and on the right of that paragraph is a table with lots of information, the flag, etc.

I would like to accomplish this feat. I looked at the source for Usa, copied it, and pasted it in to my meadiawiki, but I don't get that table.

How can i get a table like that to 'float' on the right side of the page? I noticed that other articles have this as well, but none of them show up in the source, which makes me think that isn't really a table, but some spiffy feature i don't know about. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.154.43.244 (talk) 16:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The infobox can be found at Template:Infobox Country. Happy editing. --Thw1309 17:19, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See also Help:Template. PrimeHunter 17:27, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Ok, i can create templates now, thanks. But how do i get it to 'float' on the right side? See how the template on teh right for USA goes as long as it does, then as soon as it finished, there is text under it? I dont think the whole page is in two separate tds.204.154.43.244 19:07, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Table#Floating table. PrimeHunter 21:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

How do we publish article on our company.

I represent a company called Wiredred Software. We would like to publish an article about our company. We do web conferencing software and are growing quickly. Our major competitors have articles about there products and about them selves. How do we do this. I've read the rules and it clearly states that the author may not write an article about their own company. So what do we do. Here is the text of what we would like to post.

WiredRed Software is a privately held company that provides on-premise software and online services for web conferencing, video conferencing and online meetings for business-to-business and educational applications. The Company is typically referred to as WiredRed, or by its product brand name, e/pop. HISTORY The Company was founded in 1998 by Allen Drennan, who formerly managed nationwide network operations for financial service institutions. Mr. Drennan believed personal computers would one day be more useful than reading static web pages, word documents and spreadsheets, and to do so, meant successfully communicating between multiple offices via proxies and firewalls. Mr. Drennan developed a multipoint communications framework, which can be loosely described as an application-specific VPN that allows several employees, across branch offices, to simultaneously transmit and receive data in real-time. The first application of this technology was pop-up messaging, initially sold under the WinPop brand. In 1999 the second generation was introduced as e/pop; and in 2001 several security and multi-server capabilities were added as this market segment evolved into enterprise instant messaging and became distinct from consumer IM services. In 2003 the Company applied its VPN-like technology to web and video conferencing, offering multipoint web, VoIP and video capabilities in a single, on-premise software executable set. The Company’s high-payload communications technology was well suited to this application. In 2005, the Company introduced an online service variation of its e/pop product, offering customers a choice of on-premise software or online service. Today (September, 2007), e/pop is a popular choice for online meetings where high-quality video and desktop sharing tools are required.

SOFTWARE & SERVICES e/pop product line: e/pop Web & Video Conferencing, on-premise software. e/pop provides multiparty web, VoIP and high-quality video conferencing over existing networks using PC-based video peripherals. The latter include standard USB webcams such as Logitech and Creative Labs, and any Windows DirectX video source such as Sony high-quality PTZ conference room cameras. e/pop can be used with HD capture cards (requires Windows DirectX device drivers) and high-definition cameras such as the Sony HD1. The online meeting host can select automated video quality which dynamically adjusts for variations in bandwidth; or manually select video size, quality and frame rate; picture-in-picture, tiled or floating videos. Note: while video is a prominent feature of e/pop, use of video is optional. The on-premise version requires a Windows server and a static IP address. e/pop Web & Video Conferencing, online services. Same as above, except that the server component is hosted by WiredRed on behalf of the customer. e/pop online services are generally suited for easy activation and applications that cannot be supported by internal networks.

EXTERNAL LINKS WiredRed home page. WiredRed technology milestones on SDSIC History of San Diego Software. Internet Archive, way back machine archive for WiredRed. Wainhouse Research Bulletin, November 2006, Video Conferencing Industry Rocks. Frost & Sullivan, Conferencing & Collaboration Research Service.

SIDEBAR:

Type Privately held company, California C-Corporation Founded 1998 Headquarters San Diego (United States)

Key people Allen Drennan, CTO & Founder Steven Peltier, CEO Industry Telecommunications software and services Products e/pop Web & Video Conferencing Revenue WND Employees WND Parent None Website http://www.wiredred.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by AlecBergamini (talk • contribs) 16:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It is preferable that you do not write an article about your own company as per Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. You may request that the article be created at Wikipedia:Requested articles. However, the primary criterion that your company must pass is Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), meaning that it must be the subject of several secondary sources, ergo establishing its notability. It should be noted, however, that these mentions must not be trivial - read Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Primary criterion for more details. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Also see: Wikipedia:Business' FAQ, and here are some business-oriented wikis: wikiindex:Category:Business (Wikipedia is not the only game in town; there are lots of other wikis with different policies where you can develop an article). --Teratornis 03:29, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

For example, this page explains how a wiki called Wikicompany functions as a business directory rather than an encyclopedia. I'm not endorsing a particular alternative, just pointing out there are lots of them, and if you get tired of trying to get past Wikipedia's strict requirements, you might find another wiki that is more to your liking. --Teratornis 03:35, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Also it is possible to grease the wheels on Wikipedia to some extent. See: Wikipedia:Bounty board and Wikipedia:Reward board. --Teratornis 03:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Redirection giving a choice of more than one target page?

There already is a redirect page called "PTMS". If I edit that page by adding a second #REDIRECT line, pointing to an additional target page that I have already created, would this be allowed, and would it work (by allowing the reader to choose either of the two target pages)? My reason for wanting to do this is that "PTMS" is a comonly-used acronym for the topic described on my target page. Beckfoot 17:13, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

There can only be one working redirect on a name. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation for what can be done instead. PrimeHunter 17:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It would be preferable in that case to create a disambiguation page (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation) that would contain a list of possible targets. Alternatively, if one subject is more notable than another (which is usually decided by consensus amongst editors), then the redirect can lead to the more notable page, but a hatnote can be plcaed on the top of the page (see Wikipedia:Hatnote) with a link to the other page. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:26, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Posting new entry

I'm wondering what I click on to create a new entry? (technically how to do it, not content or writing tips) I've had trouble, even with the FAQ, getting this answer. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.3.166.160 (talk) 17:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The short answer is that you have to be logged in. You put the name of the article you want to create in the search box. Beneath where it says No page with that title exists is the red words "create this page". Click on that, and it opens the "edit" window. Again, however, you have to be logged in to create articles. Hope that helps. Now I'll launch into the form letter, just in case any of these policies prove useful to you. :D

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.--Moonriddengirl 18:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Lexicon Branding, Inc. Page is Missing

Hello-

I attempted to go the Lexicon Branding, Inc. page, but it seems to have been deleted. It says 'no page exists'. Did someone delete it? How do I locate the info that was on our page previously, so I can create a new page? Also, the link isn't visible anymore on the home page of Lexicon. I will need to redo that as well.

Thanks for your help!

Kaley —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.211.139.69 (talk) 18:39, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The page Lexicon Branding did not assert the notability of the company. As such it was deleted under speedy deletion criterion A7. You'll need to log in or create an account to create a new page. Lastly, Lexicon Branding does not belong on the lexicon page. Leebo ^T/C 18:43, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I also notice you have been spamming different pages with information on Lexicon Branding. Please review our spam guidelines. Leebo ^T/C 18:46, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You can find all our spam guidelines at: WP:EIW#Spam. --Teratornis 03:38, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Also see: Why was my article deleted?. And check out the other wikis I mentioned in answer to a question above: wikiindex:Category:Business lists a few dozen, and Wikicompany looks interesting for businesses that do not meet Wikipedia's notability criteria. Wikipedia does not want an article about every company, but Wikicompany apparently does. --Teratornis 03:46, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Finding articles where I can help most

I have scattered periods of a few minutes or a few hours when my workload allows me to contribute to Wikipedia. I have been answering questions on the Reference Desk, but sometimes there are no questions that have not already been answered and that I am capable of answering. At these times, or perhaps in lieu of working on the Reference Desk, I would like to improve articles. However, I don't just want to copy-edit random articles that need copy editing. I would like to focus on articles in my areas of interest (e.g. Germany, New England, archeology, European history) where I could not only improve clarity and style but also spot and correct factual errors or misleading statements. Is there any way of zeroing in on articles in a given subject area in most need of help other than random browsing? Thanks. Marco polo 19:09, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Try SuggestBot. —Ignatzmice^talk_contribs 19:15, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Many Wikipedia:WikiProject's have ways of identifying articles within their realm that need work. Take Wikipedia:WikiProject Germany, for instance. In their sidebar, under "things you can do", I see a number of articles tagged for various improvements. :) --Moonriddengirl 19:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

history

Dear sir or madam,

                Do you know anything about Clifton Christ Church's history? I need the history 

desperately please help. Love, Solar Green xxxxxxx p.s please... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Solar green (talk • contribs) 20:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The reference desk is probably a good place to ask this question. Cheers, ( arky ) 20:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

DNA

WHY DNA POLYMERASE CAN NOT ADD NWE NUCLEOTIDE IN DIRECTION 3'-5' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.205.109.205 (talk) 21:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried the science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter 21:20, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

city and settlement infobox templates messed up

City and Settlement infoboxes are repeatedly displying small icons of the UK flag in inappropriate places. What's up with that? -- Sfmammamia 21:16, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Seems like the problem has been fixed: [1]. --Hdt83 ^Chat 23:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

about a book called the rosary by FLorence L. Barclay

I have the first edition of this Book and it has been signed in the inside of the cover with the old ink bottle ink with a feather in very fancy writting. it reads to Mrs Margaret Higgins from george april 22/11. and the book has a published date of G.P.Putnam's sons New York and London the Knickerbocker Press.could you please tell me the value of the Book. thank you Hurmit2003 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.233.123 (talk) 23:13, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You should have the book appraised to determine that. Much of the value of a collectible book lies in its condition. However, you may be able to get some general idea if the book is generally collectible by asking at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. --Moonriddengirl 23:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The reference desk is probably a good place to ask this question. I can tell you that the inscription in the front will have lowered its value, because it is not written by the author. One thing that anyone who tries to value this book will need to know is its condition -- books in good condition are worth more than books in poor condition, and since you haven't said anything about the condition, no one could give you a proper estimate. Your best bet is to take the book to a book dealer in your vicinity and see what they have to say -- or, you can list the book on eBay and see what it brings. Value does not always equal price. But I can tell you in general, you should be prepared for an answer of "zero". This is not a famous book or a famous writer. Accounting4Taste 23:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

RE: Hi there

Hi there,

I have edited some information on a page before, and was not aware that my IP could be traced publicly by so doing without an account, can you please notify me of how to proceed, to remove my IP from that list, and to create an account?

Thanks very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.51.107.209 (talk) 23:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You can go to this page to create an account, but you agreed to license your contributions under the GFDL by contributing, so your IP address must be kept to attribute the edit you made. The only way it would be removed is if the article is deleted. However, you're not editing from the same IP address as you were then, since this is the only edit you have made from 72.51.107.209. Leebo ^T/C 00:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

October 5

What is that (+11) or (-217) next to the article name under the watchlist?

Never mind; it is the change of number of bytes in the article.

How do I control drawing a box around text?

I'm editing an article (in a local Wiki, not Wikipedia) and some of the text has a dashed-line box drawn around it. After staring at the editing box a while, I finally figured out that starting a line with a space causes a dashed box to be drawn around it. But the text is running off the right side of the box (and beyond the right edge of the viewport too), rather than line-wrapping as I think it should.

Is there a way to draw a box around text but still have it auto-wrap to fit in the available width? Or do I have to force line breaks and make assumptions about how wide the viewer's window will be? Bgoldnyxnet 00:00, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You can make a table with a single cell containing the text. That is what I did here. You can choose between many table formatting options and make a template if you want to use the same format multiple times. The dashed boxes when starting with a space are intentionally not line-wrapping. PrimeHunter 00:52, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Working with that same design, you can also set the width of the table to a certain percentage of the page - adding width="40%", for example, creates a much smaller box, as you can see here. That way you don't have to guess at the screen size - the computer figures it out for you.

Table with a relative width

Ta-da.

Help:Table can give you some more information about how to format your tables better. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 01:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Or use this simple style <pre style="width: 95%">Blah blah blah

--antilived^{T | C | G} 03:37, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

That doesn't line-wrap. PrimeHunter 09:18, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Personally I'd use a <div> with CSS styles.

<div style="border: 2px solid grey padding: 1em">Lorem ipsum dolor
 sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt
 ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud
 exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis
 aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu
 fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt
 in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</div>

gives

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

--Kjoonlee 16:40, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

--Kjoonlee 16:43, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Edit summaries

--Hmb 00:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC) hi whow can change the title of a contribution thanks

Nope, sorry. Edit summaries are set in stone as soon as you make an edit. Chaos would ensue if people could :p Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 00:18, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmb didn't say edit summaries [2] and may have an article name in mind (specifically the just created DJA FM‎). Accounts that are at least 4 days old can move an article to another name. Which move do you want? PrimeHunter 00:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I recently moved this article from Dja fm to DJA FM, per WP:NAME. Did I make a mistake? --Agüeybaná 01:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

It looks OK to me. I didn't find "Dja fm" with Google. "Dja FM" and "DJA FM" both appear common. PrimeHunter 10:21, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Changing my wikipedia username away from my email address

I inadvertently created my email address as my wikipedia login. I want to change and don't understand the instructions on how to do this. Please help. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Henry vehovec@mindfirst.com (talk • contribs) 00:41, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you have a specific problem with the instructions at Wikipedia:Changing username? PrimeHunter 00:56, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Note that the request must be made at Wikipedia:Changing username which contains this link to make it. The people with ability to change your name will not see the request on your talk page. PrimeHunter 01:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Refs

Can someone please help change the the 2nd and 10th reference here to look like the 8th ref. (I want the words to replace the the url adress while linking to it) I seem to be unable to do that for some reason. Thanks Aeuio 01:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I have fixed them by removing the linebreak they contained. PrimeHunter 01:06, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. (I couldn't see the line break on my screen, it looked like a normal new row to me) Aeuio 01:16, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Daoism

What are the ethics and morality of Daoism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.72.104.231 (talk) 01:32, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about Daoism. If you cannot find the answer there, click here to post your question at that article's talk page. If that does not solve your problem, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They will be glad to try and answer questions about anything in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 01:44, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

"Social inequality" page

The page Social inequality is a redirect to List of social inequalities, which as you can see doesn't exist. I'm not sure what the best way to fix this is -- I found it though a discussion of Marx's views of religion, but there are around 100 pages with a wide variety that have a link there, and I'm not knowledgeable enough with the literature to be able to write up anything decent. (It's been in this shape since it created in June 2006.)--BlackAndy 01:53, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That would be a candidate for speedy deletion by Criteria R1: Redirects to deleted pages and to nonexistent pages. It's gone now, but that's for future reference. :) --Moonriddengirl 02:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks much, and noted.:) ----BlackAndy 02:47, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Searching photos and diagrams

Is there a method to search and browse the photos used in Wikipedia, similar to that used in the Commons?KTo288 02:05, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Not easily. This link will give you a list of all images on Wikipedia, but in alphabetic order, so it's not the most efficient for searching for a particular subject. Some images are also listed at Category:Wikipedia images or one of the subcategories, which should be a little easier to search through, but it's by no means all-inclusive. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:11, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you'KTo288 02:25, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I believe that if you type a namespace into the search box, along with a search term, it will actually search that namespace (or give a remarkable facsimile of doing so). So, for example, try searching for (without quotes) "Image: hubble" to get all the images whose name or description includes "hubble". Confusing Manifestation 04:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

How to add other languages to a page if i want to translate them

I am a spanish-english linguist, and I am curious how to add spanish/english pages that mirror a previously written page in the other language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.188.63.207 (talk) 03:16, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

See WP:EIW#Transl. --Teratornis 03:23, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:Spanish Translation of the Week. If you are not familiar with our WikiProjects, see: WP:PROJGUIDE. --Teratornis 03:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Having done a number of Spanish to English article translations (an example), I found the best method for finding good candidates is to look at articles tagged with {{FAOL}} for Spanish, which places them in Category:Wikipedia featured articles in other languages (Spanish). For more good candidates, you can explore the Spanish Wikipedia's equivalent of our featured article candidates page, at Es:Wikipedia:Candidatos a artículos destacados. Please feel free to drop by my talk page if you need any technical help with an article you are or wish to translate, such as with formatting, converting references, and the like.--Fuhghettaboutit 05:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

What is the difference between these two images?

Why is Image:17_lachey_360x240.jpg a candidate for speedy deletion? I've listed where it came from. It is no different than Image:Ricedwts.jpg because they both come from the same website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by And1987 (talk • contribs) 04:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Both images need fair use rationales. You really shouldn't have taken off the speedy deletion template without rectifying the problem. Leebo ^T/C 04:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

What to do when falsely accused?

Today, for the second time, I have received a notice to STOP VANDALIZING Wikipedia, or I will be barred from editing Wikipedia.

My sole contribution is a pie crust edit in March of 2006.

The notion of labeling a pie crust edit as “vandalism” is beyond the pale.

I view Wikipedia is an excellent first source of information, and would never harm such a valuable resource. I do not speak or write in vulgarisms, and do not curse. I have never, knowingly, posted inaccurate information. More importantly, I know the difference between fact and opinion.

For reasons that I do not understand, a nameless and faceless (and overzealous) accuser is threatening to end my rights to edit Wikipedia, although I have done nothing to him/her(or to Wikipedia) past breathing and minding my own business.

Our Founding Fathers included the right to face one’s accuser and the right to examine evidence.

The “user talk” # was 4.242.195.137.

Please let me know how to defend myself against these false accusations.

Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suttonplacesouth (talk • contribs) 04:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

No one's posted you any messages. 4.242.195.137 hasn't made any edits since the middle of September. —Ignatzmice^talk_contribs 04:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you trying to say that User talk:4.242.195.137 was the IP address you were using? Did you consider the possibility that the IP address is shared and the message was not meant for you? Leebo ^T/C 04:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Mice: That is precisely my point. I haven't made an edit for 18 months (since March of '06) so I don't understand why anything would show any "edits since the middle of September." There is no doubt they have the wrong person; the notion of vandalism is preposterous.

Leebo: I do not know what a "shared IP address" means. This is my own computer in my own house and I don't "share" anything with anyone. I assume that when I log in with my name and password, that the name and address listed as mine, is for me and no one else. How could it have "not been for me" if it was on my computer? Thanks for advice on how to get this person to stop scolding me and find the actual person who is vandalizing.

As to where that number came from, I'll be more specific. Today, at about noon, I was looking for something on Wikipedia and I noticed a "message alert" (I used Wikipedia late last night and there was no message at that time). When I clicked to get the message, I was taken to “talk page # 4.242.195.137" (which I wrote down so I could get back to it, because sometimes I have a "nervous finger" and accidentally click off), but now I find that I don’t even know how to get back to the page where I can “plug in” a page number. The person who signed the order to "STOP VANDALIZING or else. . . . " had a one word screen name, but I don’t remember what it was, and I can’t get back to the page number, to see what his/her name was. I do not know who owns that page or number (# 4.242.195.137) but it is not familiar to me. Anyway, I was upset for being threatened, and tried to figure out what to do, and went “noodling” around, trying to find someone who could help me, but then I couldn’t get back to the Wikipedia “talk pages” to get back to that page again. Eventually I found THIS topic page. But, now I'm realizing that even if I find the person who is "reporting" me as vandalizing, I don't know how to get him to back off and go after the real vandals, since I don't know what he is looking at. Somehow, he has me confused with someone else, but I can't figure out how that is possible. Certainly our names and email addresses are separate, aren't they? IOW, there can't be another person who has my screen name and email address the same as mine, so what is this guy/gal looking at, to send incorrect messages to me, saying that I am vandalizing when, in fact, I’m not even editing, let alone vandalizing? Thanks again; I'm befuddled. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suttonplacesouth (talk • contribs) 08:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

OK here's what happened: when you saw that message, you weren't logged in. Your internet provider allocates you an Internet Protocol address (IP), and that's the number that Wikipedia uses to identify you if you aren't logged in. The vandalism warning was recorded against that IP address, which your internet provider had probably assigned to someone else last week. In other words, the warning wasn't addressed to you, and the message probably needs to be clarified to make this clear in the case of IP addresses. — PhilHibbs | talk 09:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it's likely that a dynamic IP addressing system is being used by your ISP. You can stop these messages by creating an account as you have done so (unless, of course, you vandalise on that account). x42bn6 Talk Mess 11:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

The message in question is from 2005, Suttonplacesouth just got confused by a message that was meant for someone else 2 years ago because his IP address changed. Leebo ^T/C 12:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Embedding videos on Wikipedia (Please WB ASAP!!!)

Is there a chance that we may soon be able to embed videos from YouTube, LiveDigital, Google Video and other sites on Wikipedia articles??? WIKIVUE Detroit (talk) FRI OCT 05 2007 12:33 AM EDT

Probably no.Kfc1864 talk _{my edits} 05:23, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia has never used links to media hosted elsewhere, if it's free content then it can be hosted on Wikimedia servers. — PhilHibbs | talk 09:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

However, in the cases when it's appropriate to link to a YouTube video as a reference, there is the {{YouTube}} template. The content may be legal on YouTube, but not sufficiently free for us to have it on our servers. Thus we just link it. Just don't link to copyright violations. --Pekaje 10:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean like this? The MediaWiki software can embed videos using extensions such as mw:Extension:VideoFlash, mw:Extension:YouTube (Iubito), and mw:Extension:EmbedVideo. See: mw:Extension:VideoFlash#Wikis using videoflash for some wikis that let you embed videos. Perhaps you can use one of them as an outlet for your urge to embed videos on wiki pages. Wikipedia tends to be a bit stodgy about providing such capabilities, because after all, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and as I recall from my days of childhood, encyclopedias were not exactly cool. When I told my peers that I used to read the encyclopedia, they rolled their eyes and mocked me. How remarkable that an encyclopedia today can actually be trendy. I suppose that in light of Moore's law, the Revenge of the Nerds is inevitable. --Teratornis 13:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Braddock, PA article

The link to the Braddock Carnegie Library should be www.braddocklibrary.org

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.167.3.95 (talk) 04:35, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). PrimeHunter 09:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

How to view and edit pages in malayalam wiki?

when i open pages in malayalam wiki i am not able to see the script what software i need to install ---from where to download it. i am a new user can any body help me out —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gowrikutty (talk • contribs) 04:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Help:Multilingual support (Indic) should help. - BanyanTree 10:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Can I recover my user name

I had a mental block and couldn't remember my password, so I clicked on the option to email me a new one. then remembered I had changed my email address a short while ago, hadn't updated to the new one on wiki and the new password email will have bounced. so now I am completely stuck. Any suggestions of how I can get to someone, prove I'm who I say I am, change the email to my new address and continue with my user name? I like it so much I don't want to start all over with a new one just because of a minute of brain fade. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.155.28.49 (talk) 06:28, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Help:Logging in#What if I forget the password? says you have to create a new account. You can link to the old account on a new user page. PrimeHunter 09:44, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

If you have any way to access the old email account, you could just send a new password reminder after regaining access (you may have to wait 24 hours first if you do this). Otherwise, it's unlikely that you'll be able to regain access to the account, because it's very difficult to demonstrate your identity. --ais523 12:10, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

The new password doesn't invalidate your old password. --Kjoonlee 16:46, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

adding in peer revieew

Can anyone help me out in adding my image in peer review? --Cj.samson 06:30, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

advertising

i am a marketing major and was wondering about how to find time to speak with people on how to promote my ideas of drunk driving commercials to the government agencies who create the driving responsibly commercials, if you could give me a website or anything it would be of great help.

Thanks, 72.177.104.29 07:45, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia is not a soapbox for advertising purposes. That said, it would be best if you directed your question to the reference desk. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 07:59, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you want to write pages on a wiki as part of your promotional strategy? That is not clear from your question. If you do, then you should look for another wiki which does accept promotional material. --Teratornis 15:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Starting an article

If you have a notable subject you want to write an article about like say a play, if you were the writer of the play, can you still write an article about it? ~ Bella Swan 13:22, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, what's the subject you want to talk about? Martial BACQUET 13:32, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia discourages people from writing about things for which they are heavily involved, as it can be difficult to create a neutral article (cf conflict of interest). Creating something like a simple dictionary definition wouldn't be a problem. --h2g2bob (talk) 13:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. WP:COI was exactly what I needed. Regards ~ Bella Swan 21:36, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Current version

I modified an article, and my changes are shown in the 'current version'

However, when I look for the article from the 'search' box, it shows an earlier version. To find the current version I have to go to 'history' and click on the current version.

Shouldn't the search engine direct you to the current version automaticaly?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.64.200.73 (talk) 14:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

The search function always takes you to the current version. You probably have to bypass your cache. A click on the most recent version in the history gives a permanent link to that version and has a different URL to the live article so your cache don't treat the two URL's the same. PrimeHunter 14:31, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Transclude a list of articles in a category?

This is more of general Mediawiki question, but is it possible to transclude the list of articles that are contained in a given category? TIA... jddphd (talk · contribs) 14:38, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

See mw:Extension:CategoryTree for instructions. An example and code for it:

Wikipedia Adopt-a-user

Help desk archives

Wikipedia Teahouse

Wikipedia village pump

Wikipedians looking for help

Wikipedians looking for help from administrators

Wikipedians looking for help with UTRS

Wikipedians with misplaced help messages

Wikipedia:Questions

Wikipedia:Admin coaching

Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Help desk

Wikipedia:Coaching

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/Early

Wikipedia:Editor assistance

Wikipedia:Editor assistance/Requests

Wikipedia:Help desk

Wikipedia:Help desk/Header/sandbox

Wikipedia:Instructional material

Wikipedia:IRC

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Mattermost

Wikipedia:IRC/Channel access and configuration guide

Wikipedia:Lectures

Wikipedia:Mailing lists

Wikipedia:Media copyright questions

Wikipedia:Mentoring for FAC

Wikipedia:New contributors' help page/questions

Wikipedia:Reference desk

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Entertainment

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science

Wikipedia:Teahouse

Wikipedia:Teahouse/About

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Guest lft

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Guests

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Guests/Left column

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Guests/Right column

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Header/testcases

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host breakroom

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host checkin about

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host lounge/Category guide

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host lounge/User scripts

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host start

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts/Database reports

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts/Database reports/Automated invites

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions-recent

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Suggestions

Wikipedia:Teahouse/The menu

Wikipedia:Teahouse/WikiProjects

Wikipedia:Village pump

Wikipedia:WikiProject Cooperation/Paid editor help

{{#categorytree:Wikipedia help forums|hideroot|mode=pages}}

Hope that helps! --ais523 14:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

white tiger wikipedia article

Dear Wikipedia: Any change I make to the white tiger article is being deleted within minutes or hours. Also somebody other than myself made a significant contribution to the article by explaining the connection with tyrosinase and white tigers and Siamese cats getting darker in cold. This tied in beautifully with why white tigers react strangely to anaesthesia. Lots of other solid factual information has been deleted and characterized as vandalism. I'll give you another example. I wrote that mice have been inbred brother to sister for 150 generations without ill effect, but they end up 99.999% genetically identical. I included this line in the section on inbreeding more than once. It has been deleted within minutes or hours by some ignorant person. I have added lots of information to a great many wikipedia articles. I have not had any problems before. Now anything I write is deleted and I see that what another person contributed, about tyrosinase, which greatly improved the article ( that was'nt me who wrote it, but I wish I could take credit for it) naturally disappeared within less than 24 hours and the article reverted to the previous much less informative version. I think I will just stop working on wikipedia articles. It's too frustrating when a lot of good effort is flushed down the toilet by Phillistines or Neanderthals. Somebody called CambridgeBayWeather has been largely responsible, but not him exclusively. Please fire these peoople or block them. They are destroying wikipedia. They are dumbing everything down to their own level. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.1.195.4 (talk) 14:55, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Apparently CambridgeBayWeather has reverted some unsourced edits. That is unlikely to lead to a block. If you give reliable sources to your edits then they are more likely to be accepted by other editors. See also Wikipedia:Verifiability. The best place to discuss the article is Talk:White tiger. If that doesn't work out then see other options at Wikipedia:Resolving disputes. PrimeHunter 15:17, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Sen. Brownback's page

I was just wanting to change the election information. There is a bit of it that is not truthful and that does not cite any sources. can you help me in how to change it? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tfunk198605 (talk • contribs) 15:59, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Just go to the page and click the "edit this page" tab at the top. You can take out unsourced information, but be sure to cite sources if you add any new information. Leebo ^T/C 16:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

ancient writtings

while hunting i stumbled on a small boxed canyon in the far n. corner nev. i found some very old writings. i drew them on paper. i saw no real disturbance of encroachment of human actievty. an thought it odd, maybe a new find ? dought that. so who would i contact?im not a student just some old guy asking questions. maybe you could direct me in the right direction. thankyou dc reno —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.78.17.231 (talk) 16:01, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

This page is for help with using Wikipedia. Perhaps someone at the reference desk could point you in the right direction. Leebo ^T/C 16:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

For general background, see: petroglyph and rock art. If by "nev." you mean Nevada, you might contact the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. --Teratornis 11:20, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

editing problems

Insert non-formatted text here

Do you have a question? --ais523 18:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

editing problems

HOW DO YOU EDIT A PAGE WITHOUT AN [edit] BUTTON NEARBY?!?!?!?!?!!????? can anyone answer me that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.228.94.19 (talk) 18:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Use the 'edit this page' tab on top of the page. --ais523 18:40, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

If you don't have an Edit button, you may be working with an old version of the page. Make sure you're on the correct one before using the tab at the top.--SarekOfVulcan 18:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Somehow the user was able to edit this very page to ask his question, so how come he couldn't find the "edit this page" button on other pages? My guess is that he was trying to edit a page that was protected and instead had a "view source" button. Sbowers3 23:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the revision history for this ip's first edit here. it has a greyed out message, meaning he or she clicked on an [edit] tab beside a section header, which is exactly consistent with the question asked, and his or her's lack of knowledge of the edit this page tab.--Fuhghettaboutit 23:38, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't "casinos" link to the Casino article?

Most people searching for "casinos" would be looking for an article about casinos. I doubt as many users would be searching for the municipality of Casinos, Valencia, so there doesn't seem to be much use in having a disambiguation here. 172.213.140.182 19:32, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Every plural that I can think of redirects to the singular for common terms. Casinos just happens to have an alternate meaning, therefore the disambiguation is put in. Dismas|^(talk) 19:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Brian Collins page

Hi, I just added a page for Brian Collins and linked it to the Massachusetts College of Art page under Notable Alumni. However, when I click on the MassArt link for Brian's name, it redirects to a page called "internet Phenomena" Can you help please?

Thanks,

Jimmysmith100 19:36, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Brian Collins is a redirect to the Internet phenomena article because there was no other notable individual with the name Brian Collins. If you want to create an article for this Brian Collins, you could probably create a disambiguation page for Brian Collins which links to both articles. Leebo ^T/C 19:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh wait... you created Brian collins with a lower case "c". Leebo ^T/C 19:47, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Brian Collins is mentioned in the Internet phenomena article (see the Video section of the article). There was probably once an article about Collins but he was deemed non-notable, thus a redirect was put in for his only notable contribution to society. Dismas|^(talk) 19:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Why no images?

Today there are no images appearing in any page. Always have before. Still see images in other web sites. Is there a particular setting/preference in Wikipedia to view images?

Thanks Djidji6 21:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Never mind. Figured it out myself. Djidji6 21:49, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Logging on

Your system refuses to log m,e on saying that I don't exist —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.74.85.146 (talk) 22:01, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

What Username are you trying to log on under? Woodym555 22:06, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

How to deal with Incorrect Redirection

When you type in 'Battle of Montreal' on the search box, you are directed to a list of items and it states that no page with that title exists. I recently did a report on the Battle of Montreal and have many sources gathered, so I would like to write a page, but there is already a page entitled Battle of Montreal, only it is an ambiguation page.

It comes with this message: This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

How should I proceed? Should I just create a new article and not worry about the disambiguation page?

Rain1337 23:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

The page does exist, it's Battle of Montreal. Even though it's not a standard "article", the page does indeed exist. But there are several things that may be referred to as the Battle of Montreal and each has its own article. If you would like to write about another battle which is known as the Battle of Montreal, then please do so under a different title but add a link to that article onto the list of the battles that are already listed. If your report is about one of the battles already listed, I would suggest adding your information to the appropriate sections of the article that already exists and not starting your own article about the same thing. Dismas|^(talk) 23:25, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

When did the battle you wish to write about take place? Woodym555 23:27, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I am writing about another seperate battle known as the Battle of Montreal, which occurred on November 12, 1775, it is different than the other three battles. Thank you for your help, I will create a new article titled The Battle of Montreal and add it to the list of battles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rain1337 (talk • contribs) 23:40, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You will have to create something along the lines of Battle of Montreal (1775) or a specific battle name if it had one. You cannot write one at Battle of Montreal because it is needed as a disambiguation page. Ask me on my talk page or on here if you need any help. Woodym555 23:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

New question: Battle of Montreal (1775) redirects you to the Battle of Longue-Pointe, will I mess anything up by editing the B o M 1775 page and taking off the redirection? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rain1337 (talk • contribs) 23:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Is the Battle of Longue-Pointe not the article that you are looking to edit? If you are sure that they are not the same then click on the link under the page title on Battle of Longue-Pointe, under the "From Wikipedia..." it will say redirected from..., just edit that page over the redirect and create your article. Are you sure that they are different events. Woodym555 23:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I am 99% positive, all the sources I've seen have completely different dates, commanders, and troops for the two battles. Thanks again for your help. --Rain1337 23:59, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure there was a real battle on November 12? Battle of Longue-Pointe is about a battle at Montreal on September 24 1775. The end says "In November, Montgomery occupied Montreal without firing a shot." I found sources saying Montreal was captured November 12 but they didn't mention a battle. PrimeHunter 00:03, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

October 6

Propaganda disguised as information

I am seriously concerned with the level of false and inflammatory propaganda exhibited in articles on the Middle East.

One featured article, "Wrath of God," was based on a discredited hoax. Others -- such as a featured story on Morcecai Vununu -- are entirely dominated by raging, anti-Israel, pro-Arab, propagandists. (My favorite wikigandist is "Zero")

Last year, I began an article on the Siege of Jerusalem (1948), but gave up because I realized that the propandists would never allow it to be maintained -- Arab propaganda opposes mention of the siege because it embarrasses their cause.

My questions -- Why doesn't Wikipedia doublecheck factually challenged articles? If Wikipedia can't maintain the quality of its Middle East articles, why not spin the topics off into a separate wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.5.64.178 (talk) 00:05, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is based on the idea of shared responsibility and continual upkeep of articles. Mordechai Vanunu is not featured. It was, but it was subsequently defeatured because it did not meet the criteria, mainly because there were not enough citations. Operation Wrath of God is featured because it meets all the criteria in the eyes of the reviewers. Looking through that article, it is a balanced account of what happened and it cites published, reliable sources. It seems to me to be neutral. What exactly do you have a problem with on these articles. Make specific points on the talk pages of the article concerned if you feel there is a problem. Woodym555 00:18, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

notoriety requirements

I have searched everywhere for Wiki's guidelines to notoriety requirements or notability requirements. This is in regards to Famous Business - of a particular city. Can someone point me to the correct article or information regarding these requirements. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.63.105.152 (talk) 00:13, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

WP:BUSINESS. Mistake, try WP:CORP instead. -Icewedge 00:14, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Script error/lost connection while trying to view Wikipedia

Over the last three weeks or so, most everytime I have tried to view a Wikipedia entry, the screen freezes and I have recieved a script error message from Internet Explorer. I have never had these problems before with this site.

Sometimes I would automatically lose my internet connection.

Over the past few days I have not recieved the script error message, but it is still freezing and I am still losing my connection.

This only happens when I use wikipedia.

My ISP is AOL. Thank you very much for any help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.247.22.199 (talk) 02:56, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

AOL is a proxy (I think), it may have been blocked. Try https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Special:Userlogin. —Ignatzmice^talk_contribs 03:00, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, AOL is a proxy when it's used as an ISP (I, for instance, have AOL, but use a local cable provider as my ISP). Could be blocked. Probably best to create an account, in any event. I strongly suggest against using AOL's internal browser. For Wikipedia, Firefox is my browser of choice, but Internet Explorer works well (outside of AOL) too. If you use IE and you still get script errors, you might consider disabling scripts in it. Into The Fray ^T/C 04:55, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

how to change "in other languages box" ?

there is a misstake in the page http://eng.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adage —Preceding unsigned comment added by Otij (talk • contribs) 03:32, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

If you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adage -- it's fine, technologically speaking. If there's something wrong with the article... Be bold. Fix it. Into The Fray ^T/C 04:50, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The French link is right. See [3] and Help:Interwiki linking#Interlanguage link. PrimeHunter 09:06, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I have a question about notability

I just got a Wiki account and I'd like to create a page, but I have a question about notability. I'd like to begin an article on my high school. It is Gilmer County High School, a division A high school in West Virginia. I know enough about it to start an article, but I'm not sure if it's notable enough, I need some guidelines on notabliity. Christianmetalcore 04:40, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I believe that all high schools are considered notable, but am sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong about that. I seem to remember reading where primary schools were perhaps not notable. Certainly, Wikipedia has a lot of high school pages. I would suggest you start by creating the page User:Christianmetalcore/sandbox there first, bring it up to snuff, then putting it in the article space. Cheers. Into The Fray ^T/C 04:43, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

THANK YOU for asking here instead of just creating it and getting mad if someone does somthing to it. For that I think you should be "allowed" to create it. —Ignatzmice^talk_contribs 04:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

(ec) You might want to look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools for information about how to format a school article. WODUP 04:49, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Although the Proposed Policy is now defunct, you may want to take a look at this old school policy proposal. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak out loud!} 16:31, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Elephant Intelligence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_intelligence This page seems to contain very suspicious information with no reference to credible sources. How do I flag it/report for check?

Quote: "In the 1970’s at Marine World Africa, U.S.A, there lived an Asian elephant named Bandula"

Senya —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.98.200.2 (talk) 07:00, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

First, check the history of the article to make sure that the article hasn't been vandalized recently. If it doesn't seem to be vandalism, and you want to mark that there are no references in the entire article, put {{Unreferenced}} at the top and explain your concerns on the article discussion page. If you wish to challenge particular assertions, add {{fact}} after each assertion. If no one has sourced or otherwise addressed challenged assertions after a reasonable amount of time (a week would be more than sufficient), they may simply be removed. - BanyanTree 10:53, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The article has some references although they are not formatted as they should be. Suspicious information with no reference can be tagged with {{fact}} or another template in Category:Citation and verifiability maintenance templates. In some cases it should be removed right away. PrimeHunter 14:20, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• In my time at Wikipedia I've seen a lot of suspicious looking info turn out to be true. Have you tried to find a source yourself? - Mgm|^(talk) 11:08, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

A suggestion for re-titling an entry

There's an entry for 'The British School' on Wikipedia. I don't want to undo any good work that people have been doing on this particular page but I've written the following in the 'talk' section of the above page suggesting the entry might be better titled.

"I suggest that editors take a look at the titling, 'The British School', of this entry. There is no umbrella organisation that I'm aware of that links the schools listed under this entry together, nor have they a common policy or common examination system. There are various associations of international schools in existence but they are commercial rather than governmental in nature.

As this entry stands it implies that there is semi-official or even official British government recognition of any institution with 'The British School...' somewhere in its name and accordingly that it enjoys some kind of special government-approved status. This is simply not the case.

A better title might be 'British Schools Abroad' and qualification for listing might be that any school listed teaches the National Curriculum of England and Wales but outside the UK, AND is registered with the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) in the UK.''

I'd like to know what moderators think about the suggestion.

Artdesigns2006 08:10, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

You can go to Wikipedia:Requested moves to get more input on the requested renaming of an article from people experienced with article renames. (Note that wikipedia doesn't have 'moderators', by the way; anyone can edit anything with only a few exceptions. There are 'administrators' who can do things like delete articles, but it's a different sort of role.) --ais523 17:23, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, ais523, for your help.

Artdesigns2006 04:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

query

how to make a search —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.190.148.3 (talk) 08:20, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

To search Wikipedia, write something in the search box to the left and click Search. See more at Wikipedia:Searching. PrimeHunter 08:58, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

log in

wikipedia tells me that I have an account but I cannot log in. What do I do ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.142.245 (talk) 09:36, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

What is your user name? And see Help:Logging in. PrimeHunter 09:50, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Moving the references

Has there been a proposal about moving references (which takes up more than half of the page in some articles) into their own place or module, much like any comment or question about the article is located in the "discussion" module? Could someone point me to a discussion of this sort? Thank you. CG 11:31, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of. You could always hide them in a collapsible box, but I don't know whether that would conform to the MoS. Recommend that you ask your question here: Wikipedia talk:Citing sources. Into The Fray ^T/C 14:04, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• That would make linking to the correct sentence to the correct source a pain, and accidentally deleting sources without people noticing too easy. What is wrong with putting them near the bottom? - Mgm|^(talk) 11:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Spamming user

User:EmmaPJs is a new accout that has created a spam article and added spam links as the user's only edits. I do not wish to deal with this myself right now. Where is the correct place to ask for someone to engage this user in a dialogue? -Arch dude 11:54, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

You can probably start at WP:ANI. Dismas|^(talk) 12:06, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind, I've put a deletion tag on the one article that they created and reverted the rest of their changes. Dismas|^(talk) 12:13, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Who is this boy?

I need to know who this boy is.

File:Color good- enhanced.jpg

--Rooedstuurdel 13:21, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The Help Desk is for questions about editing Wikipedia, not for identification of random photos that you upload. Into The Fray ^T/C 13:31, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

So much for your help desk, not very helpful indeed. Sod ya then! --Rooedstuurdel 13:43, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

In accordance with Wikipedia's policy of protecting living people, I have deleted this photograph of an underage person you uploaded but don't know the identity of and which you now, here, have displayed on a public forum for identification for unknown purposes.--Fuhghettaboutit 13:45, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeh whatever fuck off --Rooedstuurdel 13:54, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you applied this policy entirely correctly. It is a copyright issue. If this kid was likely to be famous, he could've uploaded the picture temporarily to ask a refdesk question despite BLP. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:02, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Wow are you not not contextualizing. When you find a mysterious package in a sensitive area, you remove it assuming it is a bomb. Under different circumstances where such concerns aren't raised it might just be a litter law issue. Must I spell it out?--Fuhghettaboutit 15:41, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

tamadum islam

bincangkan maksud politik menurut perspektif islam —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.26.136.5 (talk) 15:28, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

please speak english on the english wikipedia.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 15:41, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• We're always happy to help, but it can take quite some time for someone to come by who understands the language. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:57, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

One or more people who purported to speak (possibly) fictitious languages have trolled the Help desk recently. --Teratornis 17:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Meningitis

Is Menengitis a reoccuring disease? Can a person contact this more than one time ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.2.66.212 (talk) 18:04, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about Meningitis. If you cannot find the answer there, click here to post your question at that article's talk page. If that does not solve your problem, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They will be glad to try and answer questions about anything in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. --Moonriddengirl 18:05, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Note however that Wikipedia does not give medical advice. PrimeHunter 21:29, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• Meningitis can have many underlying causes, including a variety of viruses. So I would expect it to be possible for someone to contract two different bacteria that cause meningitis on different occasions. Your immune system would be no good because it would recognize the virus, not the disease. In short: yes, quite possible. P.S. THis is a reference desk question. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Red links

sometimes when am using wikipedia books i find some lines written by red colour .how could i reach those texts and read them ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Damnedchou (talk • contribs) 18:07, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

When a link to a page is red, it means that the page has not been created yet, or it has been deleted; in short, red-linked pages don't exist. However, if you wish to create it, you can make that red link turn blue :) Happy editing, ( arky ) 19:51, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

See more at Wikipedia:Red link. PrimeHunter 21:27, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Coloured Tables

hi,

basically: how do make the various 'bits' of a (wiki)table coloured eg like here? i tried to go and pretend edit the table but its something stupid that i dont understand so i cant find out that way

thanks, --Plague of Death 19:21, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Table#Color; scope of parameters. PrimeHunter 21:25, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Transistor History

There is an error (an understandable one) in the Wikipedia Transistor History. It states there that Gordon Teal made the first silicon transistor. I first came across this error in "Crystal Fire" (Riordan and Hoddeson). I contacted Riordan and provided him evidence that the first silicon transistor was made BY Tanenbaum et al at Bell Labs. (This work was published in the Journal of Applied Physics but overlooked.) Riordan corrected that error in his article "The Lost History of the Tansistor" (Spectrum, 41, pp. 48-49 2004) but it has found its way into Wikipedia.

While these two events were significant, the event that started the Silicon Age was the invention of the diffused base silicon transistor by Tanenbaum and Fuller in 1955. The use of diffusion technology greatly simplified manufacture and was the technology later used by Noyce and Little in their invention of integrated circuitry

How can I contact the person repsonsible for the Transistor History artcle and clarify these matter.

Morris Tanenbaum —Preceding unsigned comment added by Morristanenbaum (talk • contribs) 21:24, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). Dismas|^(talk) 21:31, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Linking an article with the one in the other language

How can I link an article with the one in other language? The article about the same thing, that while reading the article, down there in the languages menu on the left would be the link to the same article in another language. Thanx —Preceding unsigned comment added by BohaVasho (talk • contribs) 22:26, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Just use the language prefix, e.g. [[de:article name]] for the German Wikipedia. Which article do you want to link? Richard001 23:42, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The Beatmen - with the one in Slovak wikipedia. But I was probably misunderstood, I mean, when an article is available in more languages, there is a menu on the left, where the other languages are possible - espanol, deutch, cesky.... I mean that by my article "The Beatmen", there would be a link "Slovak" (Slovensky). - and as well on the slovak one there would be a link "English".

See: Help:Interlanguage links. --Teratornis 14:22, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Name clashes at Commons

The category Category:Images with another image under the same name on Wikimedia Commons doesn't explain what one should do if one can't link to the picture wanted. Is there some additional code I can add to, e.g. thumb, to link to the Commons version? Richard001 23:42, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

It does actually tell you what to do, but it's a rather complicated and annoying process. Basically, you need to save the local version to your computer, upload it to the Commons with the same copyright information under a different name, then tag the local one with {{ShadowsCommons}} so it can be deleted, thus finally freeing up the image you want to use. Unfortunately, that whole process is likely going to take several hours at best, up to a week or so at worst. Sorry, there's really no easy way about it. Using commons:Image:Secale cereale.jpg just produces a link. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:48, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. Richard001 03:00, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

art

I am a venezuelan artist,how can I be on the list of venezuelan artist?

eugenio espinoza —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.251.229.161 (talk) 23:55, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

If you meet our notability standards as defined WP:BIO, you can request that someone else write an article about you. It is strongly discouraged to make edits or create pages in reference to yourself, as this creates a conflict of interest that usually isn't very neutral. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. You may give me what you want on the article, and I will tweak it if necessary, if you would like. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonathan (talk • contribs) 03:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

October 7

Question

are there are no forums in wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.214.97.221 (talk) 05:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

We have forum for development of an article but not on the subject in the article. You may see a discussion tab on each page. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 06:53, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Talk page to learn about how we discuss things on talk pages. (You will see "talk" and "discussion" to mean the same thing - an instance of synonym disease on Wikipedia.) (In addition to talk pages for articles, we have lots of other pages for discussing other things; you can find some by browsing to the Editor's index and doing a ctrl-F search in your browser for "forum", "talk", and "discuss". Also see WP:EIW#News.) Someday our talk pages may get some of the forum features you are probably used to, while maintaining the advantages of wikitext markup; see: mw:Extension:LiquidThreads. --Teratornis 13:57, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding button

is there any code which can add some extra buttons like, Support, Oppose, Comment, Done, Not Done, Question . This may help while commenting in FAC, PR and other places. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 06:53, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

• You want Wikipedia:User scripts. I have additional buttons in my edit bar and it is even further customizable. I think the script was made by User:MarkS. Someone also created a script for AFC that might be adapted to other processes. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 16:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Small print

While I was viewing wikipedia, the print suddenly got very small and I can't figure out how to get it back to the way it was. I treid clearing my browser footprints, but it didn't help. Please advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Patrickhahn (talk • contribs) 11:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Assuming you're using Internet Explorer, you probably held down the ctrl key and used your mouses' scrol wheel, which will change the text size of every website you visit. Hold down control and move your mousewheel towards you to reverse this effect, or go to view (it's next to "file" and "edit") --> text size --> whatever size you want —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ybbor (talk • contribs) 13:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Question from David Brown - Organic Chemist

I am interested in your Wikipedia "list of chemists", which contains an alphabetical listing of several (both living and deceased) chemists. Upon noticing that several famous chemists were missing from your list, I began typing in their names individually into the search box only to find that they do indeed have their biographies already on Wikipedia, but their names are not linked to the list of chemists. How can I edit the list of chemists to add the names of these chemists to their existing biographies, so that their names will appear on and be linked to the list?

Currently I have never signed in with a Wikipedia username and password. Should I do that in order to be able to contribute and to view your response?

Thanks in advance for your help.

David Brown Organic Chemist 72.154.32.91 13:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey David! Adding a particular page to any category is simple; on the article, add the following: [[Category:List of chemists]] to the bottom. Of course, you'd change the name of the category for whichever you were doing. As for registering an account, it's definitely not required, but we do encourage it for the benefits it provides, including hiding your IP number, which is much safer. Happy editing! GlassCobra (Review) 13:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the question seems to be about the List of chemists article rather than about adding individual articles about chemists to a category. List pages differ from category pages in that human editors manually edit the list pages, while the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia generates category pages from those [[Category:...]] links in individual articles. See: WP:EIW#Lists for everything you could want to know about lists, and WP:EIW#Cat for categories. David, before you dive into editing real articles, you may want to check out the tutorial and cheat sheet. Also, if you do create an account, you will have your very own talk page where we can leave helpful instructions for you. --Teratornis 14:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, if you create an account, you can join Wikipedia:WikiProject Chemistry, and coordinate your editing work on Chemistry-related articles with other chemists. But this is optional. --Teratornis 14:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

And if all the above sounds too complicated and you just want to fix the missing items on the List of chemists article now, you can leave a note on Talk:List of chemists with the names of the chemists you want to add, and someone with more Wikipedia-editing experience will add them for you. It will help if you type the chemists' names as links to their articles, like this: [[Antoine Lavoisier]], so the next person will be sure we do have an article with that exact title, by seeing the link: Antoine Lavoisier. --Teratornis 14:37, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Finding More Information about References Citations

How do you find out more information abotu references cited in the srticles? For instance, if you search for <Alois Podhajsky> there is an article. At the bottom of the article are references that come from footnotes in the article. How can I find the full name or identification for those references so that I can do further research? billseq Billseq 14:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello Billseq! If the editor who added the reference did not use the template format, readers can click on the external link (if there is one), or go to a library to look up the book/periodical/journal/magazine listed as the source. However, Looking at the Alois Podhajsky article, it appears that whoever added the references, never gave the primary source, so you're right, it is impossible for you to refer to another item to either verify the footnote, or to learn more. This is indeed, an issue that should be remedied. For further information about references, you can see how to cite sources and footnotes to learn more about when, how, and what is considered a reliable, third-party source that should be used in citations. Hope that helps, ^Ariel♥Gold 14:38, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, they did give an example. :P The article seems to cite a work by the subject of the article, but there's no mention of the subject ever publishing anything. Tough call. GlassCobra (Review) 14:42, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Good question. Whoever prepared those references didn't do so in a way that would allow others to confirm the quotations, which doesn't meet the Wikipedia policy for verifiability. You might try doing a Google search for "Alois Podhajsky" and the last name of the reference cited -- that may lead you to a more complete citation. Another thing to do would be to leave a question on the talk page of the "Alois Podhajsky" article, because the person who put the references in may have that page on his/her watchlist and be able to help you. Accounting4Taste 14:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I see now that an example was given, but it wasn't wiki linked so I thought it was a hypothetical name. After reviewing it, I did clarify my response. Sorry for the initial confusion. ^Ariel♥Gold 14:44, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I looked at the Alois Podhajsky article, and on first glance it looks like a person would need extra-sensory perception to decode the references. Whoever edited those references appears to have cited only the last name of an author, and a page number. No links, no title, etc. The references do not follow our guidelines in WP:CITE, WP:FOOT, and WP:CITET. The talk page (Talk:Alois Podhajsky) does mention at least one book title, but the talk page does not follow the talk page guidelines either, suggesting that the people who worked on this article are not very experienced with Wikipedia editing yet. It looks like we need to add some cleanup messageboxes. --Teratornis 14:46, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The applicable WikiProject appears to be: Wikipedia:WikiProject horse training. I'm adding a {{talkheader}} template to Talk:Alois Podhajsky and adding topic headings there, to clean up the talk page at least. --Teratornis 14:52, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I'll be working on the article, adding tags, and a bibliography, and removing the references, as they are completely not relevant without knowing the primary source. If you look at the very first revision, it was clearly done by someone unfamiliar with Wikipedia or Wikicode, which explains it. Luckily, I'm actually quite familiar with this subject, so I think I can fix it up a bit. Thanks to all others helping, as well! ^Ariel♥Gold 14:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. While you're at it, how about creating a Template:Horse training because WikiProject horse training appears to have no project banner to put on Talk:Alois Podhajsky. --Teratornis 15:06, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey! Are you a mind reader? I had just reviewed the project, and it needs a lot of attention, but the most important thing is a banner for talk pages, which I plan on making, hee hee. ^Ariel♥Gold 15:24, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not a mind reader; I'm a talking horse. Of course. --Teratornis 22:23, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Folks, WikiProject horse training is a disaster that someone decided I should rescue, but it is such a mess, it's hard to know where to begin. (I tend to focus on cleaning up some of the articles, but there are so many...) However, I am a horse person, not a miracle worker...any assistance in generally cleaning up and organizing things would be appreciated. Montanabw^(talk) 22:52, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

(undent) You should start by reading WP:PROJGUIDE, but cleaning up a disastrous WikiProject will take some work. You might look at some well-run WikiProjects such as WikiProject Mathematics and WikiProject Biography to get some ideas (or, maybe, just to get really depressed). It might be better to look at WikiProjects of intermediate sophistication, such as WikiProject Cycling and WikiProject Backpacking to give yourself a feasible target to work toward. Just take what you like from other WikiProjects, and copy and edit it into your project. There seems to be a correlation between the quality of a given WikiProject and the existence of graduate-level academic interest in that topic (especially in male-dominated fields, since men outnumber women on Wikipedia, and in fields where computing is important, which leads to a large pool of experts in the field who also have computer skills to use on Wikipedia). There probably aren't a lot of Ph.D.s awarded in horse training, so this would be one of the marginal areas of human knowledge that will take longer to formalize properly on Wikipedia. But this will probably happen for every area of knowledge that has any sort of organization whatsoever, because Wikipedia has made it so (relatively) simple, at least compared to what it would take if you had to start completely from scratch. --Teratornis 17:23, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

ECLIPSES

WHY ARE ECLIPSES SOMETIMES TOTAL AND SOMETIMES PARTIAL? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pjcnic (talk • contribs) 15:55, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Read the Eclipse article. Sbowers3 16:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

FLOATING OF DEAD BODY

WHY DO DEAD BODY FLOAT IN WATER? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pjcnic (talk • contribs) 15:57, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Because their bodies still contain air RyanLupin (^talk/_contribs) 16:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

And also because the process of Decomposition generates gas which bloats dead bodies and makes them float, even if the victims inhaled water into their lungs when they drowned. Hence the invention of Cement shoes. --Teratornis 22:28, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

...and they may well be wearing life jackets! :P RyanLupin (^talk/_contribs) 15:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

LOUDNESS

WHICH INSTRUMENT IS USED TO MEASURE LOUDNESS? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pjcnic (talk • contribs) 15:59, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Read Loudness. In the See Also section it links to Sound level meter. Sbowers3 16:14, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Also note that on the internet, typing in uppercase can be used to indicate loudness or shouting. Astronaut 00:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

US Distinguished Flying Cross Recipients

How do I add my father's name to the list of recipients of this medal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlp4776 (talk • contribs) 16:56, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

There does not appear to be a list of recipients of that particular award. There does exist Category:Recipients of US Distinguished Flying Cross, but your father would have to have an article on Wikipedia in order to be placed into that category. In order for your father to have an article, he would have to pass the criteria at Wikipedia:Notability (people). If you are unsure as to whether he qualifies under this guideline, you may request an article be created for him at Wikipedia:Requested articles. Thank you. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:13, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I add Wikipedia to Microsoft Office 2007 Word lokkup resource?

How do I add Wikipedia to Microsoft Office 2007 Word lokkup resource? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kenhinz (talk • contribs) 17:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I would recommend the reference desk. This page is for aid with Wikipedia-related problems. Thank you. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 17:06, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

More about reference citations

Similar to the question above about references, this [4] at first glance does not look a good reference, but further down the page in a Literature section is a citation to the book that clearly is what the reference is "referencing". Might it be better to move the Literature section before the References or into the References section so that a reader will more easily decipher the references? I'm asking not so much for this particular article but about how to handle similar situations in other articles. Sbowers3 17:26, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Instead of having them as two separate sections, the article should be formatted so that the first reference to the book should be the full citation, and then the citations after can be formatted as they are at present. I'll go ahead and do it. GlassCobra (Review) 18:42, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

sub categories

I am working on an entry about the composer, Meyer Kupferman. I have listed his entire catalogue of compositions by instrument, so that someone playing any instrument that he has written for could find everything easily. Unfortunately, this creates a large number of duplicates. For example, something written for flute, violin, viola, and guitar would appear four times. In the interest of streamlining this, I'd like to have a complete searchable list appear somewhere else via link in order to shorten the page, and yet have a complete list of everything he wrote on the main page, without duplications. Do you have any suggestions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rguitphil (talk • contribs) 17:30, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

To be honest, having a list of every work that he's ever done doesn't really seem all that logical. As per WP:NOT#INFO, Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate list of information. I'm not sure of any benefits that a long list like this would have. GlassCobra (Review) 18:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

How can I add an infobox?

i tried so many times to add an infobox, but always ends up only showing -template:infobox-country- or something like that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.40.109 (talk) 17:32, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you included everything between the set of double curly braces {{ and }} including the braces themselves in the article? Did you save any of your edits so that we may see the difference between the two edits? Dismas|^(talk) 18:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

For more information you can also refer to Help:Infobox. As Dismas mentioned, you have to be sure you copy the infobox exactly as it appears on the infobox page, (for instance: Template:Infobox Person. If some of the lines don't apply, just leave them blank rather than remove them. If the main template page does not show the template, (such as Template:Infobox), check the template's talk page, it often will have it, and usually has information on how to use it. I hope this has helped. Cheers! ^Ariel♥Gold 18:35, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Did you see something like this: Template:This template does not exist. If so, that means you probably misspelled the name of the template you were trying to use. The template name will be the very first thing you type after the opening pair of braces: {{. It's much easier and more reliable to copy the wikitext of a working example of a template, either from the template's page itself, or from an article that uses the template. Were you trying to use {{Infobox country}}? If you stuck a stray hyphen in there, you could get: Template:Inbobox-country instead. --Teratornis 22:35, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The last example also has a typo in the third letter and should be Template:Infobox-country PrimeHunter 22:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

drawing based on copyrighted photos

If a famous person has many copyrighted picture but no free photo, can I draw a portrait based on physical feature of this person manifested on those multiple photos (instead of just completely imitate those photos) without infringing the copyright? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wooyi (talk • contribs) 17:52, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

That is an interesting question. It may become more important in the future, when I expect consumer-grade computer software will be able to do much the same thing: analyze a collection of photographs of a person, and from them create an accurate CGI model from which anyone could generate copies of the source photographs, along with other views of the person. Anyway, I think portraits themselves are subject to copyright by their creators, which would only be possible if they do not violate the copyright of whatever the portraitist used to create them. However, I'm not an attorney, so what do I know? To be on the safe side, you might try drawing a Caricature. I would bet that few subjects of a caricaturist agree to sit to have their "likenesses" drawn, so presumably the caricaturist must work from copyrighted material, and the resulting caricatures are themselves copyrighted to the caricaturist. --Teratornis 22:20, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations may also be able to help answer this --h2g2bob (talk) 23:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

depiction

Bala463531 18:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)what is the meaning of parsimonious depiction?

Is this in some way a reference to an article on Wikipedia or the use of Wikipedia? Into The Fray ^T/C 18:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The Parsimony article defines the term well, and introduces its meaning in several fields. I've been reading The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins and he mentions parsimony a lot, but probably not in the sense you may mean (parsimonious depiction of what?). --Teratornis 22:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

How to change Fonts?

Please Help!

I am using IE 6 SP! on Windows 2000 Pro.

Somehow, Wikipedia page displays different Fonts than any other page. I could not determine which fonts being used. It is very condensed and practically unreadable.

How to I change page settings to display normal fonts?

I have tried followings unsuccessfully:

Tools>Internet Options>Fonts>Language Script: Latin Based Web Page Font:Verdana Plain Text Font:Courier New

I tried all available plain text font options but no change in page display.

Any help is big help

Thanks, Vijay

Hello, Vijay. A couple suggestions, because I'm not really clear what the problem is. Is it the font size, or the specific font? Regardless, you might try creating an account and changing your skin. To do this, after creating the account, go to your preferences and, under the "my preferences" link in the upper-right corner of the window, select the "skin" tab and preview a couple skins to see if it improves your readability. Otherwise, you might change the "font size" in your browser configuration, else try another browser like Firefox. Into The Fray ^T/C 18:35, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The default font for Wikipedia articles is Arial, but when you are editing Wikipedia, the font in the editing window is Courier new, simply because all of it's letters have an equal width, and this makes formatting much easier. Cheers, ( arky ) 18:37, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Sortable wikitable

The sortable wikitable at Chicago Marathon that lists the winners does not sort on the 4th and above columns. Instead, these columns move the page to the top.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 19:01, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

This happened, because three columns were connected at the year 1987. The table only compares the content of one column. I changed the content. So now it works, although it looked better before. Perhaps someone else has a better solution.--Thw1309 21:06, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

That looks fine. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TonyTheTiger (talk • contribs) 05:36, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Ban vs. Block

I'm sorry, but I just don't see the difference between the descriptions of a ban and a block. One is meant to enforce the other - what do they mean? They both can be indef. or short-term.. but I still don't see a difference between banned and blocked user; some please explain this. Thanks! Domthedude001 20:20, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

A block is administered in order to protect Wikipedia from disruption and prevent damage to articles. A user who is banned has their editing privileges revoked for a designated (or indefinite) period. A ban is given by the community, or ArbCom (Jimbo himself and the Wikimedia Foundation as well can, but for the purposes of this discussion, we'll ignore that). While both blocks and bans can be of short length, a long duration, or indefinite, a block is given to halt disruption and damage, protecting Wikipedia's interests, while a ban specifically deals with an individual user and his or her ability to edit. It's confusing initially, but the distinction is there. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 20:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

To phrase it another way: a ban is an admonition not to edit an article/group of articles. For instance, someone who has been disruptive on articles relating to a particular religion may get a ban on editing those articles. It's essientially the community saying "Don't touch these articles anymore."

A block, on the other hand, actually restricts or completely removes a user's ability to edit on Wikipedia. Blocks are actually part of the Wikipedia code that prevents editing. These blocks are usually put in place when someone violates a ban; when someones editing has proven to be generally disruptive; or they have made legal threats or taken other actions in violation of Wikipedia's core rules. Often the block will be for a set period of time, and the user can still edit their own Talk page to respond to comments or challenge the block. Some editors are so disruptive they recieve indefinite blocks, effectively kicking them off Wikipedia altogether.

The most extreme kind of block is an IP block. This is when an actual IP address or range of addresses are blocked, not just a username. It's usually a last resort when individuals are using those addresses to get around other blocks, or conducting a coordinated attack on Wikipedia. Since IP addresses may be recycled to innocent bystanders, and a range block will also catch innocents, they are rarely implemented and (to my knowledge) always temporary.

So, short version: a ban is a community decision stating that a user should not edit on (parts of) Wikipedia, while a block is a mechanism that prevents a user from editing on Wikipedia. Occasionally, a ban is enforced by blocks, but doesn't necessarily have to be. Hope that helps! -- Kesh 20:47, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! I get it now, lol. Thank you both for the detailed explanations! Domthedude001 21:25, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Missing/removed article

Folks, I have been, in the past, to the article on depression (economic). I have a quote from it, in fact. However, when I just went to go back to it, which I haven't in many months, searching for Depression, and clicking on the economic link gives me Recession. Therefore, it appears to me that someone(s) have removed the article on Depression for political reasons. Any chance of getting it back? It quoted such people as John Kenneth Galbraith, and was excellent. mark roth <email address removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.229.181.54 (talk) 21:23, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Find out the admin who deleted it, and ask him for the contents you require. Domthedude001 21:28, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Depression has a link to Depression (economics) which redirects to Recession. Depression (economics) has never been deleted in the Wikipedia sense where article deletion means that only administrtors can see the content. You can see the old content before the redirect in the history [5]. The versions I examined did not mention John Kenneth Galbraith. He is mentioned in other articles, for example The Great Crash, 1929. PrimeHunter 22:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

October 8

submitting a question

I asked a question, but I don't know how to send it? How do I send it? I can't find no send button.

Please advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Robert Lucero (talk • contribs) 00:10, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If you meant your question at the reference desk, it went through just fine. The "send" button is simply the Save Page button right underneath the edit box. GlassCobra (Review) 00:16, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

editing

You have stated that there is vandalism that takes place...but if there is editing to do on someone i know as a friend, why am i not able to change this on her behalf, after all, there are stories about certain indivduals on here that other people can edit. i do hve an account - i want to make a permanante change to an edition that someone has falsely made! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Frederickalazlo (talk • contribs) 01:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If you personally know the person, it's very possible that you may have a conflict of interest in the matter. In order to try to maintain a neutral point of view, we do ask that people with personal relations to a topic avoid editing articles about it. Doing so could relate in a large amount of unverifiable original research, or a clearly biased viewpoint.

To relate to what edits you were making, removing references and referenced information is generally considered vandalism. If you could explain the rationale for your edits on the article's talk page (which you can reach by clicking the "discussion" tab at the top of the page), then you and some other editors may be able to establish a consensus as to what should be done. Since two people have now reverted your edits, please do not continue to make them without attempting to discuss this with other editors. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 01:44, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

strange behavior on all fronts

While following a link, I was presented with a page saying my account had been blocked - listing an ip address vastly different from my own. (page is http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Spanish_Gambit_%28novel%29&action=edit).

Following instructions, I tried to email the admin credited with blocking the account - but was told I couldn't do that because my email wasn't registered.

I went to my preferences and clicked "confirm email." I've now clicked the button three times, but no confirmation has come. (My email is listed correctly).

I went back to the "blocked page" and it now appears with no problem.

And I read that people with no edits - like myself - can have their accounts hijacked. Is that what's happened here, or is wiki suffering a nervous breakdown?

01:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If you can edit here, you are not currently blocked. I see no block notices on your user pages and can find no entries in the block log for you. I'm not sure what's going on there. As for your email, the confirmation email does take some time to arrive, possibly up to a full day. Remember also to check your spam folders - since Wikipedia is part of a large organization, it is possible that the email triggered your spam filters.

I doubt that your account has been hijacked, as such a thing is fairly rare. To ensure that this doesn't happen, you may wish to check your password strength and consider adding a cryptographic hash to your account with this template and the associated directions. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 01:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Number of biographies of living people

How many biographies of living people does Wikipedia have? a.z. 02:44, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Not the faintest idea. Category:Living people lists most of the BLP's, but not all, and good luck counting. Since the number changes every day, it's really hard to give a specific answer. It's safe to say several several thousands. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:02, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Aha! Someone already counted or used a tool to find out. According to the category page, there were 225,827 articles in that category as of October 4th. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:06, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the answer. I wonder how many people in the world are notable enough to qualify for an article. a.z. 05:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Yikes! Over 10% of articles are biographies of living people. Are we sure they ALL meet the notability criteria? Astronaut 15:51, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Come to think of it, that's only 0.004% of the world's population; but still, one in every 25,000 people have articles. There's hope for me yet :-) Astronaut 16:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I write my own article?

I was wondering how to go about writing my own article. I have figured out how to edit others pages but I don't know how to start my own. If you could help that would be great!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bakekari (talk • contribs) 03:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia. :)

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.

If this doesn't answer your question, please let us know. :) --Moonriddengirl 03:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I have been to those links and they were very helpful but what i'm not quite understanding is how to start my own page and I don't know what to click on or what link I should follow to being my own article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bakekari (talk • contribs) 03:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Printing Articles

how can I print a selected portion of a long article?

elvingsimonElvingsimon 03:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Depending on which browser you're using, you may be able to select the text you want to print (by clicking and dragging), then going to the Print window and looking for an option "Print Selection". If that doesn't work, you'll probably have to copy the text into a word processor program. Confusing Manifestation 03:56, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Reviewing a deleted page

A page on "Holy Tantra Jin-Gang-Dhyana" Buddhism has been deleted some time ago. Is it possible to (a) view the page and (b) review whether it should be restated? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Becky aus (talk • contribs) 03:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Head to Wikipedia:Deletion review and put a link to the exact location where the article was under "Requests to restore content to userspace". Confusing Manifestation 04:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

help starting a new page????

The links that I have followed I don't think I'm understanding them. I was wondering how to start a new article. I don't know what links to follow or where to go to actually start my own article. I just need to know what to do and where to go to actually start typing and wrtitng my own. bakekari —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bakekari (talk • contribs) 03:34, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi there: If you go to your own talk page at User talk:Bakekari you'll find a welcome message I left there that contains some links to useful pages, including a tutorial. Hope this helps; if you have further questions, leave a note here or on my talk page. Accounting4Taste 03:39, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

family

hi this is not really about using wikipedia but i wanted to know. if your parents divorce is stepsiblings still legally family?

As the box up the top says, for factual questions head to the Reference desk. I would guess probably the humanities desk will be able to help you the most, but you'll need to be more specific - mention what country you're in at the very least. Confusing Manifestation 04:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Maryland, USA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.85.48.16 (talk) 04:11, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

native american breast feeding

all satistics on breast feeding —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.180.255.134 (talk) 04:02, 8 October 2007 (UTC) \

Try the reference desk. Thanks. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 05:26, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I just wrote an article about lumpy skin disease and when i saved it the article was gone??

Where did my article go?? When I clicked the save button the article was gone when the page refreshed. Did I loose it or would it be somewhere that I missed when looking for it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bakekari (talk • contribs) 05:40, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The article doesn't appear in your contributions list, and I don't see any deleted edits in your history either. Can you recall the exact title of the page? Raven4x4x 08:07, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If the article was speedily deleted it won't appear in contribs. Prior to creating new articles, it is a good idea to get a feel for the guidelines and policies, to avoid having articles be deleted because they are poorly written, or not encyclopedic. Also be sure to use the search box to see if the article already exists. Here are some helpful links: Cite your sources, Manual of style, Layout guide, First article, Article development and How to edit for assistance. Reading over those should help you understand the basics of what an article should be prior to creation, and you can always use your userspace to practice, by creating a page such as User:Bakekari/Sandbox. Hope that's of some help! ^Ariel♥Gold 08:10, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Recovering password when IP address is blocked

I forgot my password, so clicked the option to have it emailed to me. Clicking that option got the following error: "Your IP address is blocked from editing, and so is not allowed to use the password recovery function to prevent abuse." My ISP is Earthlink -- not sure why the IP address would be blocked. Fortunately, I recalled the password. Just sending this notice that the above block makes the password recovery option pointless. Please let me know if there is a more appropriate place to send this software note. Data.Analyst 06:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It's likely that another user on the same ISP had vandalised recently and been blocked; their IP would also have been blocked automatically, and as some ISPs change who has which IP every now and then you might have ended up using whichever IP they'd just been using by coincidence. The reminder would probably have worked the next time the IPs were reassigned (maybe a few minutes later, maybe a few hours). The prevention is there to stop vandals sending lots of password-reminder spam to other users. Hope that helps! --ais523 17:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Log in

Hello, After several tries I cannot log in to my account. Is there a way you can send me a reminder for my password? Thanks, Van (stereo3d) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.207.165.105 (talk) 06:13, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I assume you were User:Stereo3d? If you were, it doesn't look like you specified an e-mail address when you registered your account, so I'm afraid there isn't anything we can do to help you. Raven4x4x 08:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

User:Stereo3d only has 5 registered edits. You can create a new account and optionally link to the old user page. PrimeHunter 10:18, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Flight ticket

how much is flight ticket to canada from namibia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.219.195.2 (talk) 07:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

This page is for question about Wikipedia only. Please ask knowledge questions like this at the Reference Desk. Surely though a local travel agent would have the information you are after. Raven4x4x 08:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Can a page be made lowercase?

I've written a page on a product called gridMathematica. It is spelt with a lower case g at the start, so it would seem sensible for wikipedia page to also have a lower case. If so, can someone please change it for me. Drkirkby 09:36, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

By default, the first character in a page's title is assumed to be uppercase. If that character ought to be lowercase, placing <code{{lowercase}} at the very top of that page will cause the first character in its title to be shown as lowercase in the page's title when it's viewed. --ais523 09:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Asfordby Parish Council

The weblink on your site for Asfordby Parish Council is incorrect. The new link should be www.asfordbypc.org.uk

Are you able to fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.215.241 (talk) 10:23, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Done! Everyone is able to contribute to Wikipedia, so you can fix things yourself if you like. Just click the "edit this page" button at the top of any article. You can get more information here. --Kateshortforbob 11:29, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

i want to list a hostel

there is a page called "wiki hostels"and its about free listing of hostels-i cant find this page here and don't understand how to list our hostel there.it says email us ,but there is no contact adres for sending mail,i tried really hard to do something before ascing for help!thanks in advance haloe —Preceding unsigned comment added by Haloe (talk • contribs) 10:46, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you referring to http://www.wikihostels.com/? That site is not associated with Wikipedia. We have no control over it and I don't know how to get a listing there. Their about page [6] mentions and links Wikipedia but makes no sense to me. They apparently claim to be a part of Wikipedia but that is not true. PrimeHunter 11:24, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that is one confused site. Only slightly better is http://www.wikihostel.com/ which does not appear to be a wiki in the usual sense of the word either. It looks like the popularity of Wikipedia is having the unfortunate side effect of causing semi-informed hoi polloi to corrupt the word "wiki" beyond all recognition. To find real wikis relating to travel, see: wikiindex:Category:Travel. --Teratornis 14:42, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Confusion Over Editing am I allowed to or not?

I do not understand, I am hoping to create my own page on company but am unsure if this is allowed. I looked at all your rules and regulations and it said there are basically none as long as everything is in reason.

So how come when I listen to the news there is always information about someone getting in trouble over editing wikipedia. For instance Microsoft, the BBC and no the officials in Japan have all been mentioned as editing the pages.

Does this mean I am allowed to create a page about a company or not? (I work for that company) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.123.43.98 (talk) 12:51, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

There is no absolute rule banning people from creating pages about companies they work for but it is strongly discouraged. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest for more information; Wikipedia strives to be neutral in its presentation of all subjects, and often is it difficult to achive that if you work for the company you are writing about. Raven4x4x 12:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Generally speaking, I suspect that those people who made the news have in some way violated the guidelines on neutral point of view and either removed criticism or promoted their companies. Some of the hoopla is also not about companies editing their own pages. For instance, the BBC made news because BBC employees allegedly vandalized articles, changing "George Walker Bush" to read "George Wanker Bush". If your edits are within guidelines, you may work on an article about your company. But as Raven4x4x points out, conflict of interest is discouraged because of the inherent difficulties of maintaining neutrality. You can also, as an unregistered user, write the article and post it at articles for creation where experienced will evaluate it to determine if it meets guidelines before creating it for you. --Moonriddengirl 13:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. And note that Wikipedia gets most of the news coverage because Wikipedia is the world's most popular wiki by far (strictly speaking, I mean collectively all the Wikipedias in various languages), not to mention one of the best-organized and best-administered wikis. The fact that Wikipedia has standards and vigorously enforces them prevents the site from turning into complete garbage and losing popularity. Because of those standards, Wikipedia is the not necessarily the best choice for every sort of article. If you want to create an article about your company, you might try one of the other wikis here: wikiindex:Category:Business, such as WikiCompany - see this page summarizing the differences between WikiCompany and Wikipedia in relation to articles about companies. --Teratornis 15:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

changing ip to username

Hi

I've made some edits but realise I was not signed in. Is it possible to assign my username to those edits I made that currently display only my IP.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sgt bilko (talk • contribs) 13:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

No, because of our licensing, re-attribution of history versions isn't possible. x42bn6 Talk Mess 13:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Not really. Such changes used to be done by developers, but they haven't done that for years, and nobody else can. If nobody has edited the page since, you can reclaim the edits by reverting them while logged out as that IP, then re-entering them as the username, and then asking an administrator to delete the original edit and the revert (for instance at the admins' noticeboard); otherwise, I don't think there is a way. --ais523 13:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies, looks like i'm too late. Not to worry,

regards Bilko 13:44, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

citation needed etiquette

When encountering a "citation needed" tag, if I can't find a citation to fit, is it OK to remove the offending sentence or must it be left for others to try to find an appropriate citation. Scotwriter 14:40, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Generally it's okay to do either. It really depends. If it's an obscure fact, and you just did a quick search, it might be best to leave it in. If, however, you did a more comprehensive search, or the citation should have been easy to find, take it out. Never be afraid to remove unsourced content. When it doubt: Remove the sentence, and post it and a short message on the talk page. --Ybbor^Talk 14:47, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Someday, maybe if Google gets its way, all the world's printed literature will be as easy to search as the World Wide Web is already. In the meantime, if a "quick search" (e.g., Google Search) finds no citation for a particular fact, see WikiProject Fact and Reference Check where you might find some help. Also read WP:CITE for the citation guidelines. Another option is to check the history of the article that has the "citation needed" messagebox (it's a messagebox, not a tag) to see who entered the unsourced sentence, and ask that editor if he or she can remember anything about where it came from: book, magazine, television show, hearsay, Web site, etc. If you have some idea of what the original source was, you might have a better chance of finding it. Any clues the previous editor can remember might help you formulate better search keywords. For example, if the source was a television show, maybe the editor can remember the name of the narrator or something similar that could help you track it down. --Teratornis 16:48, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

WA Chip & Pulp Co. Pty LTD v Arthur Young,

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.161.196.160 (talk) 15:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, do you have a problem or an enquiry? If you would like to test the features of wikipedia, try using the sandbox. RyanLupin (^talk/_contribs) 15:29, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Wilson_%28jazz_pianist%29

It looks weird and I don't know why. Would you please help me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by EricScottReed (talk • contribs) 15:58, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Mediawiki doesn't like leading spaces, and it doesn't handle line breaks very well either. A leading space causes the dashed box you saw,

like this

And you have to leave a blank line in between paragraphs for them to actually be separated. For more help, see Help:Editing. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 16:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Drop your pockets

Does anyone know if , "Drop your pockets", is some kind of a saying and if so, what it means? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.160.148.25 (talk) 16:02, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I've never heard it, but you'd be better off asking at the reference desk, which handles knowledge questions. We're here to help you use Wikipedia. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 16:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Google:"drop your pockets" looks to be pretty obscure, since Google Search only finds one instance of the phrase out of billions of Web pages. --Teratornis 16:50, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If you were planning to use the phrase in a Wikipedia article, don't yet. See: Wikipedia:Avoid neologisms. --Teratornis 16:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I think the phrase was somewhat in use at my high school recently, as the phrase "you dropped your pocket." It was just intended to indicate a nonsensical event, sorta like telling someone wearing sandals "your shoelaces are untied": it's a logical impossibility, the goal is simply to get the person to react and look down. --Ybbor^Talk 19:14, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Not that this necessarily applies, but I find it amusing: Wikipedia is not for things made up in school one day. --Teratornis 19:56, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Edit the author name in an article

I edited an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulfrich_effect) and saved it when I thought I was logged in. As it turns out I was not and the author appears as an IP address. How can I re-associate the edit with my name? Bittoe 16:49, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

See '#changing ip to username', five sections above this one. --ais523 16:51, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Unfortunately, you can't. However, you can edit the user page for the IP to say that it's you, if you want. Hope that helps! GlassCobra (Review) 16:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Disappearing photos

I recently added four photos to the parterre page (the gallery for the making of a modern parterre). The photos were there for a while; now they have gone but the captions are still there. Same thing has happened on Campbell Island, New Zealand‎ with a photo I added of the landscape with megaherbs. The photos are still on Wikipedia; they're just not showing in the articles. (Image:Parterre1.JPG‎; :Image:Parterre2.JPG‎; :Image:Parterre3.JPG‎; :Image:Parterre4.JPG‎ and :Image:Campbell Island and megaherbs.jpg) Any idea why? Jasper33 16:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

They appear for me. Try bypassing your cache to see if that solves the problem. --ais523 17:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, tried both bypassing my cache and clearing it, but the photos are still missing. Any other ideas? Jasper33 17:16, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Change Name

I wish to know how to change my username (not my signiture, just to avoid confusion).Does anyone know? Fear teh Happy! 17:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The relevant page to make the request is Wikipedia:Changing username (WP:CHU)). The change can only be done by bureaucrats, a subset of adminsistrators; you'll have to use that page to make the request for a change and to explain why. --ais523 17:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Present my company's unique line of business

Hello, I would like to present my company and its unique line of business on Wikipedia. The intent is NOT to advertise about my company but to educate Wikipedians on emergency medical assistance services.

How can I do it?

Thank you, —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abasse (talk • contribs) 17:48, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

• But is "emergency medical assistance" unique to your business? And if so, isn't the business sufficiently notable that others would be inclined to write about it? It is very difficult to ascertain one's own notability. Bessel Dekker 17:56, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Business' FAQ to help you decide whether to write about your own company. In the meantime, you might try Wikicompany which apparently wants to build a wiki directory of every business in the world. Wikipedia already has several articles relating to your subject of interest, which is not to say there could not be more, but be aware that Wikipedia deletes a lot of articles for violating various policies and guidelines. --Teratornis 20:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

podiatric medicene

how long does it take to be a podiatric? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.223.52.2 (talk) 17:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The Help Desk is for questions about using Wikipedia only. Perhaps you should try over at the reference desk. Hope this helps. GlassCobra (Review) 17:58, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It seems to say eight years here. Have a look! Sorry, Glass Cobra, you're right of course. Bessel Dekker 18:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Link to a subsection in an article

If I want a link to be directed to a section which is a part of a big article, how can this be done? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.217.164.237 (talk) 18:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Just put in code like this: [[ARTICLE NAME#SUBSECTION NAME|Whatever you want the link to be called]]. Hope that helps. Neranei (talk) 19:02, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

For more details, see: Help:Link#Section linking (anchors). --Teratornis 20:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

account hacking?

I logged into my wiki account this morning to discover that someone had added a dozen or so spurious, non-existent (and in some cases, offensive) pages to my 'watchlist'. I subsequently deleted these from the watchlist and changed my password, but would like to know whether the IP address resposible for making the changes can be traced? There are a few people who have access to my computer, and I'd just like to know whether this was simply a prank played by someone I know, or a case of hacking by some outside third party? Any advice appreciated 19:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong in this case with requesting a checkuser on yourself... in the meantime, change your password! --Golbez 19:36, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Or it could be the results of page-move vandalism. If someone moves a page you are watching to another name, both names remain in your watchlist; if the name is offensive, and the page is moved back, then the offensive name will be left over in your watchlist. It is quite common, actually. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 19:39, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Or, could be that you've checked the box to have all pages you've edited added to your watchlist. In this case you should be able to turn it off by going through preferences... 58.164.33.106 00:07, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

wikianonymous

how to create wikianonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.79.100.141 (talk) 19:50, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

If you want to create an account, go to WP:ACC and follow the directions there. If you want to create a page, go here. Hope this helps! Neranei (talk) 19:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

How to use a template without adding embedded categories into the article using the template

How can you use a template that automaticly adds articles that use it to a category without having the category added? Examples:

• {{Prophets of the Tanakh}} adds Category:Prophets of the Hebrew Bible to the article that uses it.
• {{Education by country}} adds Category:Education by country to the article that uses it.

It should be noted that the following code does exactly the same thing:

• <noinclude>{{Prophets of the Tanakh}}</noinclude>
• <noinclude>{{Education by country}}</noinclude>

You should add category suppression support to the template, which is possible by replacing something along the lines of <includeonly>[[Category:Example|{{PAGENAME}}]]</includeonly> with <includeonly>{{#ifeq:{{{categories}}}|no||[[Category:Example|{{PAGENAME}}]]}}</includeonly><noinclude>[[Category:Category suppression supporting templates|{{PAGENAME}}]]</noinclude>, and then adding the parameter |categories=no to the template when you call it, i.e. {{Example|categories=no}}. I'll go and fix the templates you named to support that, and you can see more info at Category:Category suppression supporting templates. Hope that helps, Nihiltres^(t.l) 20:20, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I will make a point of studying the changes you made to better learn how to fix other templates when I run into them. Dbiel ^(Talk) 20:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Signature distortion in Talk pages

When I first registered, I worked on the Skinhead article, in part collaborating with User:Sam Spade. I've been away for a while, and on returning see that Sam got into sort of a power struggle last year and vowed to quit. When I reviewed Talk:Skinhead to refresh my memory on our interactions, I discovered that many of his signatures now read "User:Example (talk . contribs)". Looking at the raw wikitext, it seems these signatures are sourced as "{{Vip|user=Sam_Spade}}", which I guess is a template that was deleted or moved (with redirection) to Template:User. I have verified that these distorted signatures also occur on other Talk and UserTalk pages.

On 10 March 2006 User:Bmearns discussed this usage and its consequence of not displaying the correct user name with Sam on his talk page, but Sam considered it not worth fixing.

I believe Sam used this signature code for well over a year, since at least January 2005 and probably earlier. This means there are many hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Talk and UserTalk pages where his identity is obscured, especially from nontechnical editors who wouldn't know how to view the wikitext.

The problem isn't limited to Sam's edits, of course. There may be other users who misused the VIP template and have the same problem. Is this a problem that needs addressing, to fix existing distortions and/or prevent future ones? Could a bot legitimately correct such signatures? --Unconventional 20:17, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

While I'm always surprised by how tech savvy some of Wikipedia's editors are, so it's possible that one of Those People will be along five minutes from now to answer you, I wanted to suggest that you might also like to ask this where they regularly hang out: Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Wish I could offer something of substance. :/ --Moonriddengirl 20:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

{{Vip}} was redirected to {{User}} after Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/Deleted/May 2005#Template:Vip. The discussion noted something should be done to make existing uses work, but apparently it wasn't done. PrimeHunter 20:43, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Notability of schools

I seem to remember once seeing someone say that all high schools were notable, but not necessarily middle schools or primary schools. I've been asked a question about it and I'm not sure how to answer; Is anyone aware of applicable guidelines or discussion? Thanks, Into The Fray ^T/C 20:26, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it is discussed in Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Common_outcomes and (I think) WP:NN. Neranei (talk) 20:30, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

See WP:SCHOOL for a list of old proposals about notability. I cant see anything linking to a guideline from the Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools im afraid. Woodym555 20:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks much! Into The Fray ^T/C 20:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

WHAT happened to the site layout??

THe site layout changed. it is not the same as the wikipedia yesterday. 99.229.27.189 20:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you using a different browser? No major layout changes have been effected, as far as I know. Wikipedia does look different in different browsers, though. Neranei (talk) 20:42, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

You made the above edit without logging in but if you log in then you can change layout by changing skin in Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter 20:45, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I must aquire your services.

How may I help you?

Could you please clarify? We are happy to help you. Neranei (talk) 20:42, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Linking Photo

I, today, uploaded a photo called "Grise Fiord Airport.jpg". If someone could please link it to the page "Grise Fiord Airport", I'd be very thankful. I buggered up somewhere..... --Conroyp 20:41, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

 Done Thanks for your upload :) Do you really live in the Nunavut? --Ybbor^Talk 21:11, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Checking if an image is loaded

Is there a way to detect if an image is loaded? I have tried #ifexist, but that only checks if the image is loaded on Wikipedia, whereas some of the icons used for the canal descriptions are loaded on Commons. The help page for #ifexist says there is an "exists" function, which looks like it should do the trick, but when I add it to a template, it appears in red, indicating that the Template:exists cannot be found. I am a bit stuck. Bob1960evens 21:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

YOUR IMMEDIATE & THOROUGH RESPONSE TO USER:LABS1950 QUESTIONS

INTO THE FRAY(?), is that your moniker? Forgive my -almost- total ignorance, but -as I described before- I feel lost in the midst of ALL the data in WIKIPEDIA, and no matter how many times I look into finding the name I ought to use in writing to you, I am still uncertain.

Once again, thank you for your assistance. This time for adding the label to my father's photo, as well as for your immediate, complete response.

Concerning the un-encyclopedic tone of the article, I would certainly wish someone would help w/getting it to sound correct for Wikipedia. Although, I have to admit, I did some research in Wikipedia on a number of Cuban artists and others as well, even on Chicagoan Ed Paschke, and I was not impressed w/the tone or content. But, I am glad you have called my attention to the matter since your two responses to my S.O.S assure me you know exactly how Wikipedia works. Also, I was impressed by your letting me know you did not have complete information on copyright matters, but that you would look into it. That is great, thank you!!!

So, next, I must add/be more specific about how I came to have access to the photographs of the 4 paintings by my father that I wish to include in the article. I will do so immediately after I send this to you.

I repeat my appreciation to you for your assistance and hope you will continue to respond to my messages.

Looking forward...

LABS1950 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Labs1950 (talk • contribs) 21:57, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

All users have a talk page which is located at "User talk:User name." When you leave a message on a person's talk page they get an orange bar across the top of their page alerting them to the fact that they "have new messages." The proper place for your message, above, is thus at User talk:Into The Fray, and I now see that you did find your way there and left a message, though not the same one you posted above. I have taken the liberty of informing Into the Fray of this post's existence. Note that it's a good idea to sign your posts on talk pages. To do so, simply add four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comments, which will automatically format to your linked signature and add a timestamp when you save. You can also place the tildes easily by clicking the button that looks like this: .--Fuhghettaboutit 10:40, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Removing Personal Information from Wikipedia

There is incorrect/personal information on Wikipedia. I have tried to edit off the page while leaving correct information but am being told that I am "vandalizing" the page.

How do I proceed?

Spheeris 22:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)Julie

What page is it? And what edit was it? Smartyshoe 22:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Umm, this was your first edit... look... *Cremepuff222* 22:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

That only tells it was their first edit with this account. ssepp^(talk) 22:41, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Jeezums, I was just a bit confused. *Cremepuff222* 00:18, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

And I was just giving a factual comment that seemed relevant... ssepp^(talk) 22:46, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

October 9

Manual of Style on Using Examples

I remember reading a policy once regarding the use of examples/anecdotes within articles which stated that they must be kept to a minimum and used only to ilustrate a point "(eg saying apples and stop signs are red rather than giving 100+ cases). Can someone link me to that page, I need to review it with regards to an edit I made 58.164.33.106 00:07, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

The Manual of Style is located here. Neranei (talk) 00:09, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you able to direct to the section which discusses using examples, I've scrolled through the manual and can't find it... Perhaps it's in a submanual or another section of the site entirely 58.164.33.106 00:18, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Manual of Style (command-line examples) (shortcut: WP:MOSCOMM) talks about command-line examples (obviously), but that may not be the kind of example you have in mind. --Teratornis 17:38, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Here is a list of all the Manual of Style pages. It's actually somewhat hard to find a complete (hand-edited) list anywhere. --Teratornis 01:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Static Copy of Wikipedia

I'd like to get an HTML copy of the English Wikipedia for offline use. Does anyone know why this page:

http://static.wikipedia.org/downloads/September_2007/

seems to have everything BUT "en"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.196.243.193 (talk) 00:48, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

It's pretty huge. Maybe the conversion of the dump to HTML isn't done yet. To tide you over, here's a link to the April copy: [7]. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 02:11, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

square root of 1.44

$Insertformulahere$

The square root of 1.44 is 1.2. <math>\sqrt {1.44}</math> renders as ${\sqrt {1.44}}$ PrimeHunter 10:07, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

The \sqrt marker is only used to insert a square root symbol, not to calculate a square root. After all, you would not want to see ${\sqrt {1.2}}$, as that is neither what you typed nor a correct calculation. 128.227.68.119 11:52, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Google Calculator can compute square roots, for example this interwiki link: Google:sqrt(1.44)= displays the result: sqrt(1.44) = 1.2. --Teratornis 17:35, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleting Notices

How do I delete a notice on a page that someone wrote that should not be deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.237.195.92 (talk) 05:04, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

If you mean Jessie Benedict then it has already been deleted. You can see the reason at [8]. Some links which may be useful: Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#G10, Wikipedia:Attack page, Wikipedia:Biographies of living people, Wikipedia:Notability (people), Wikipedia:Deletion policy, Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted?. You are only allowed to delete notices of suggested deletions if they say so, and only {{prod}} says so. PrimeHunter 10:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject banners

Are you allowed to put them before you are approved?Kfc1864 talk _{my edits} 05:37, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you referring to starting or joining a WikiProject, which one, and which banner to put where? PrimeHunter 10:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

WP:PROJGUIDE#Article tagging may be helpful, but the question is too vague for me to tell. --Teratornis 19:28, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I am starting an Useried Wikiproject that's still in its proposing stage.Kfc1864 talk _{my edits} 03:49, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Wait until everything is in order. If there isn't enough interest in the project, then you'll end up having to do twice the work. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 04:31, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, everyboy.Kfc1864 talk _{my edits} 10:30, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding New Article

I just want to add several new articales on Wikeipedia.How can I do it? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pvsdilhan (talk • contribs) 06:30, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter 09:56, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Robert Eringer page

I just wrote a page- read the tutorials and have proper citations- but when I select the preview and save page buttons, only a portion of my page shows up. Did I format incorrectly? Please help or tell me where to go so I can learn and then fix what I have done wrong.

Thanks for your time and help.

--FrankEThomas 07:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

You're editing a specific section, in which you clicked the edit button that pops up for specific headings. When you preview your edit, only that section appears. If you wish to edit the entire article at once, then click on the "edit this page" tab at the top. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 07:05, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. However, if you got to the top where it says "edit this page" you will see all my other text that just isn't showing up. I am making sure to go to edit this page rather than edit via the individual sections yet the rest of my typed text still won't appear. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FrankEThomas (talk • contribs) 07:14, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

The problem was that all the ref tags were closed incorrectly. They were all written as <ref><ref/>, but they needed to be like this <ref></ref>. That's why the page wasn't appearing; as the first ref tag wasn't closed properly the software was treating everything after that tag as being part of the reference. There also needs to be a <references/> tag under the References section to make everything show up. Raven4x4x 07:38, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you so much!! I can't believe I missed that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.46.133 (talk) 14:59, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleted article

Hi Helpdesk,

There used to be a link to the following article:

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

But now it seems to no longer exist. Why was this page removed? I could see nothing in the logs.

Thanks,

P.

The deletion log for the page is here, and here is the deletion discussion which is referred to in the log. It seems the conclusion was the page did not meet our notability guidelines. Raven4x4x 07:30, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

How to undo an error when editing an article

I was adding information to the Deakin University article and was trying to add a reference afterwards, i wasnt sure how to add it correctly with a hyperlink so i deleted it and accidentilly deleted the entire reference list on the article, i wasnt sure how to un-do this, it was an accident though, totally unintentional, so if someone could tell me how to undo it or could undo it that would be great. thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wiki-nivi (talk • contribs) 08:40, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Click on the 'history' tab at the top of the article to see a list of edits and previous versions; you can click on the (undo) link next to that edit to cause the edit to be undone. See Help:Reverting for more information about reverting and undoing edits. --ais523 08:42, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

LogIn ID & Password now Inoperative ? John A. Mehring - dukedom.

Have been logging into your site for many months.. Suddenly, it is not allowing me entry...??

John A. Mehring <contact details removed>—Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.5.106.116 (talk) 09:57, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Is Help:Logging in of help? If not then please say your user name and be more specific about the problem. PrimeHunter 10:46, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Casino Royale (1967 film)

This film article is well written and well referenced. It has been on the — Wikipedia:Good_article_nominations#Media list since 12 September 2007 — one month !

Can somevbody please go look at it and , hopefully, pass it for GA status ?

Tovojolo 11:02, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Firstly, today is October 9, which means that it has been less than one month. Secondly, there are many that have been on there longer (50+ days) because of a backlog that we are trying our hardest to remove. I have a nomination up there too, and mine has been up there since September 3, 2007 which IS more than one month. It will be gotten to when it gets gotten to. Cheers, CP 22:40, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Russian Translation (TV political detective)

Hi, I have a problem with my "Russian Translation (TV political detective)" wiki page - it looks like an existing but not could be found bu search machines and if opens looks like "delated". May be? I'm vrong with some wiki rules or copirights? then tell me? please, what possible violations are? Mutargim 11:47, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I answered you on the article talk page where you've previously ask this question. Martial BACQUET 12:15, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

hacked page

your page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives has been hacked by someone ... it's now displaying a jolly roger pirate flag.

John —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.8.3 (talk) 12:36, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism reverted by User:Jedibob5 [9] (what an innovative name!). x42bn6 Talk Mess 12:41, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

IE warning message when playing video

Discussion moved to the technical village pump.

Articles

how to insert an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Localhands (talk • contribs) 13:21, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Please see Help:Starting a new page or check the Very Frequently Asked Questions. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 14:00, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

linking link to correct existing wikipedia page...

If the item is underlined red it shows up as edit/create page, but if i search wikipedia the page exists. how do i send the link to it's right page not create a new one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kay444 (talk • contribs) 13:30, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

It probably means that whoever typed the link spelled it wrong of didn't capitalize certain letters. You can go back to the article and copy the title and then replace the name of the red link with the title of the article. If you need any further help WP:LINK might be able to help. ~ Bella Swan 13:35, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Images

how can i add an image?? eg- the profile image for that star?? eg- hiten tejwani has no image and i wish 2 add 1- how do i do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by HK 01 (talk • contribs) 14:10, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Images and other uploaded files. PrimeHunter 14:17, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi and welcome. Firstly you will need to register an account to be able to add the images. When you've done that you can go to Wikipedia:Upload (or you will see a blue link in the left hand boxes towards the bottom) to actually upload your file. To include it within the article you'll need to put something like the following in :
[[Image:YOUR IMAGE NAME.jpg|thumb|right|250px|DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE]].
Hope that helps. Pedro :  Chat  14:17, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Parking garages and vulnerability, and security

how do I find information on the vulnerability and the security used for parking garages? I also need to know what countermeasures that could be used to prevent crime. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.169.38.202 (talk) 14:11, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter 14:15, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Account deletion

how do you delete your account? —Preceding unsigned comment added by - lilchickxxx (talk • contribs) 16:21, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

You can't (the software needs to keep a record of everything everyone has done, and deleting an account would mean that there would be no user associated with an edit). You can, however, simply stop using the account you have at the moment - there's no problem with doing that. See also m:right to vanish and Wikipedia:Username#Deleting your account. --ais523 16:26, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Felix and the Fruit Monsters

Felix and the Fruit Monsters is an early 1980's computer game for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers.

Although it is a sequel to Felix in the Factory, it is infact a Pac-Man clone, whereas the original Felix game was a platformer.

Felix and the Fruit monsters never recieved the same success as the original, and neither did Felix meets the Evil Weevils, the third game of the trilogy.

Felix and the Fruit Monsters was released in the 1982-1984 era. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arbiter2007 (talk • contribs) 16:50, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Did you have a question, or are you suggesting this article be created? If so, please see Requested articles or Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 17:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleting an article I created

A few years ago I created an article about myself. I thought it would be helpful for people who use Wikpedia as a reference. It was recently tagged with questions about verifiability and neutrality. That being the case - and since I created the article and I don't want it any more - will somebody please delete it? Louantonelli 17:06, 9 October 2007 (UTC)Lou Antonelli

Wikipedia is under GFDL license. When you wrote your article you agreed to license your contributions under this license. Unless this article has not been modified yet, you can add {{db-self}} on the top of the article, but if someone else has edited the article, it will not be deleted. Martial BACQUET 17:12, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Kids virsion

Do you, or does anyone on the Internet, provide a service, such as Wikipedia, especially designed for younger students and slow learners. My student is having trouble reading and digesting the information about Issac Newton, due a lot to the larger vocabulary in the article. He has used internet before for research, but the articles he has used were not as complicated. Thank you for your help. Heaven with God 18:22, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

You may find the Simple English Wikipedia of use. This link [here] will take you to the article on Isaac Newton. Accounting4Taste 18:28, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

image searching

Some images did not appear in the alphabetical index when conducting an image search. I tried to find an image I know was in Wikipedia so that I could see images with similar names (to see naming conventions used for similar images), but the image need not turn up in the alphabetical index using “image” in the “namespace” field of the search. Any recommendations? FieldMarine 18:50, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I get in a Wikiproject?

Hi, I'd like some advice on how to get in a wikiproject?

Thanks, Alex RossiAlex Rossi 18:51, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello Alex! There's really nothing to it - just add yourself to the list of members. Many Wikiprojects are very informal, so just edit the "Participants" section of their project page and you're in! Just participate in some of their discussions so the other members get to know you and you know what's going on, and you'll be well on your way. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 18:58, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

recommended template

I recommend adding the following Infobox template for Sculptors, but do not know how to add it.FieldMarine 17:16, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Infobox Sculptor |image= |caption= |name= |nationality= |birth_date= |birth_place= |death_date= |death_place= |significant_works= |awards= |

We have an existing {{Infobox Artist}} that I believe serves most of the articles on sculptors - you could just use that. If you're really interested in creating a separate one (note that it may be considered redundant), you can copy the code from {{Infobox}} and use it to build a new template at {{Infobox Sculptor}}. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:04, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks!FieldMarine 23:31, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Semi-autonomous

what is semi autonomous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.163.91.68 (talk) 19:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:04, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Semi-autonomous on Wikipedia means using tools which involve edits made by using special software like AWB. These edits are partly automatic, and partly user input. For example, a spellchecker may fix errors on pages automatically, but require user input to pick the right word. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

References

Supposing one has a reference that can be used for a whole article. Should one have in-line citations of it at the end of every paragraph or should it just be mentioned at the end of the article or what?--Phoenix 15 19:06, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Presumably (well, hopefully), you'll have other references as well, so I'd suggest an inline citations, but only as needed (see Wikipedia:When to cite). If you have another source that provides the same info, use it instead, unless the main source provides more, then use both. So that you don't have to copy the whole code multiple times, remember to add a name="foo" parameter to the first instance, then use <ref name="foo"/> each time thereafter. I hope that helped/made sense. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:31, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I used that before I asked but now I've got two references that count a b c d e f g h i j k. Should I just mention them? where?--Phoenix 15 19:56, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

display of equations in articles

It is taking forever to download the png's in many of your math articles and at the end of all of the downloads, they don't display. I get the little "text" explanations of the equations (W = \frac{(N-k)}\frac....).

Specifically:

The "Levene's test" article has two equations, the first one long, the second one short. After waiting many seconds for all of the png's to download, The second one displays as an image. The first one does not.

That was the first time.

The second time I opened this article, I get none of the equations displayed, only the text coding for them.

The third time I clicked on the "analysis of variance" link in the Levene's test article, got the analysis of variance article with all of the equations, went back to "Levene's test" and this time all of the equations are now displaying as images.

What is happening?

19:19, 9 October 2007 (UTC)richard dowling < email removed for your security - read notice at top of page >

It sounds like your browser's just getting confused due to the lengthly downloads. If you create an account, you'll be able to change your preferences here to specify how you want to view math equations - always as images, a combination of text and images, or just plain text. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:36, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Erasing an inadvertent quote sign from a page title

Hello,

I just created a page for Sandy Tatum, the lawyer and amateur golfer.

Unfortunately, the page I created is called "Sandy Tatum.

(i.e.: it includes a preceding quote mark).

Can someone please tell me how to remove this?

Thanks,

Mkieran 19:27, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Michael Kieran

You can do this by using the move function. I have done it for you, so now the article is at Sandy Tatum. Leebo ^T/C 19:31, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Account recovery

Sevaral months ago I've stopped using the e-mail account I used to register on Wikipedia. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this fact and clicked on the button "E-mail new Password" what caused the password to be changed and e-mailed to the old e-mail address. What can I do to recover my username/account? Since I was receiving e-mails from Wikipedia forwarded from that account to my gmail account (which I still have) I have lots of e-mails to prove that I'm the real owner of my Wikipedia Username.

Domingos Soares Neto (Domingos)

Unfortunately, if you no longer have access to the email account you registered, the system is unable to give you your password. Nobody has the information for your account, so being able to prove your identity won't do any good, unfortunately. If you think you can remember what your user name was, you can try searching for it at Special:Listusers, but if you cannot remember the password, you will have to create a new account. Once you have done so, you can leave a note on your old account's user page noting that it is/was you. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:43, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I guess the user is User:Domingos. If you have an idea what the old password may be then note that it should still work after you have clicked "E-mail new Password" but not used the new password. PrimeHunter 23:29, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's true. Your old password will still work. Raven4x4x 02:15, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Login problems

Hi, I am a registered user but forgot my password. But I cannot let me send a new password because my registered email address doesn't work anymore. I have to change my email address ... but I cannot login.

Best regards Thg

Hello. If you forgot your password and that we are unable to send you a new one, you have to create a new one I'm afraid. Unless you provided a SHA committed identity on your user page. Did you? Friendly. Martial BACQUET 22:02, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, I'm not sure what SHA is, so probably not. If I create a new account, can I then rename it into my old name? I don't want to loose my name, since I am registered with it on two other wikipedia language sites. Isn't it easier, I send to some wiki official my new email to replace the old one? But to whom?

Only you can edit from your account with your password. A 'wiki official' (admin) can't change your e-mail address for you in your account. ~ Bella Swan 22:32, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Who can I contact ?

Who can I contact to tell them that the original author gave explicit permission to use her work on wikipedia and it is NOT an infringement of copyright!76.103.217.38 21:59, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

page is Alamo, CA

Steve

I don't see any problems on the page, was it an image that you were talking about or something else? I checked all the images on the page and none of them seem to have problems. ~ Bella Swan 22:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

There's a tagged section on the page. I'll answer on the user's talk page --h2g2bob (talk) 01:36, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

adding an article about myself

Hello A number of authors with a particular publishing company have been waiting for our publicist to enter articles for each of us in Wikipedia. So far she has not done so. We wondered if we could do the articles ourselves. Is this possible?

Technically yes (though it is strongly discouraged), however, you need to make sure each subject's article is notable, written according to the manual of style, has a neutral point of view, does not create a conflict of interest**, and follows all of our policies. Most importantly, see Wikipedia:Autobiography. If you want an article about yourself, I suggest you wait for them to be written by your publicist. Though I could be wrong. SmileToday☺(talk to me , My edits) 22:46, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

And be aware that your publicist is just as bound by the strictures of our conflict of interest rules as you are yourselves. --Orange Mike 01:18, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

October 10

Conflict with another user over a page's content

I do a lot of editing on articles related to the J-pop band BeForU. For a long time now, I've been trying to get along with a user who posts incorrect information and copyrighted images in articles, User:Dreamlover13. When the user wouldn't stop adding incorrect information to BeForU discography, I first attempted to communicate with them through their talk page, with no response. I attempted to contact an administrator about it (see [10]), and they gave them a final warning for the image uploading, but said the content dispute would have to be resolved through dispute resolution (see [11]). I attempted to start a Request for Comment (see [12] and Talk:BeForU discography), and got no responses. I have left the page since Dreamlover13's last revision, since I figured it was pointless to get into an edit war until after the RfC, but since nobody bothered to respond and it's now off of the RfC page, I don't really know what to do now. If I fix the content on BeForU discography to be correct, Dreamlover13 will eventually come back and revert it -- I know it's a relatively unimportant article and this is probably pointless, but the incorrect content on Wikipedia is really bothering me, particularly the fact that there seems to be no way to stop it. Is there something I'm missing here? What should I be doing to make this work? アンジェリーク★Angelique 00:12, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You may want to open an informal request for mediation. Neranei (talk) 00:17, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I can sympathize with this, I'm also in a very slow edit war. I'm hoping this will be solved by going through RfC. With your problem, Dreamlover13 hasn't edited those articles in a while, so there's probably no problem. Mediation isn't an option, as it requires both sides to be talking already which isn't happening here. I'd suggest you wait and see if DreamLover edits the pages again. You can use RSS feeds to keep track of changes to individual pages. --h2g2bob (talk) 01:33, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

How do I edit an information box (in regard to radio stations)?

I am trying to add the following notation to the information box for Pittsburgh, PA radio station, WTZN "B94:"

WTZN refers to "The Zone," the frequency's previous incarnation. New calls are expected.

I have attempted the edit twice, but have not been successful with getting it to show up in the information box. I have even gone as far as to copy the Wiki code from another station's information box and modifying it for the WTZN article as necessary, but that did not work for me, either.

Thanks! 67.97.45.186 01:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)InDeBiz1

You can only use parameters that are coded in the infobox (which is a template). See Template:Infobox Radio station. PrimeHunter 01:09, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I've fixed it. The template is a bit of a mess, so confusion there is not surprising. --h2g2bob (talk) 01:17, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Similar names

If I list a name can I find other names of similar meaning?

(given own section) --h2g2bob (talk) 03:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. I'm not sure I understood your question. If you want to find articles with a similar meaning, you have to do it by yourself. But if you want to create an article which already exists but yours has a different meaning, you can create a disambiguation page. But they are many things to do, not really easy for a newbie, so if you need help, please ask us before. Martial BACQUET 03:39, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

There isn't a thesaurus on Wikipedia but you can try Wiktionary which sometimes has related terms. Otherwise, there are plenty of thesauri out there. x42bn6 Talk Mess 09:27, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Solar Cell,

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

I work for Amorphous silicon (a-Si or a-Si:H) solar module manufacturing company (United Solar Ovonic). We currently have more than 50 MW of production capacity, and we are also efficient and posses good market share but there is nothing in this article that says about the A;Si on stainless steel substrate. We are the only one who makes flexible A:SI modules, and its also easier to deposit gases on steel with our process at large scale. Why only cd Tel technology with company name(first solar) is being praised here? Any comment?

Thanks,

Hello. The Help Desk is for questions for using Wikipedia only. Please ask your question on the Reference Desk Thank you. Martial BACQUET 03:33, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Um, that isn't a general knowledge question. Either way, first see our conflict of interest guideline which discourages editing for subjects you have a conflict of interest in. Read that policy then when you understand the guidelines, you can write about it. Noting, of course, that that guideline doesn't prevent editing, it just requires special care. x42bn6 Talk Mess 09:26, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Reviewing my article

I was wondering if someone could review my article the name is national dairy checkoff. if someone could do that i would appericate it. thank you Bakekari 02:27, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You should go to either WP:GAC or WP:PR. The folks there should be willing to help you. Neranei (talk) 02:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

IE and Wikipedia incompatibility

I noticed a number of pages are reporting script errors with Windows XP and IE6 or IE7. In fact, this has been going on with people in the US, and people overseas in Hong Kong as I last checked. Basically if you use IE, you get the following errors.

Line: 673
Char: 8
Error: Expected '}'
Code: 0

I want to say this is a bug having to do with multi-media box and non-English characters, but I am really not sure. Here are two pages to try (one and two). There is no problem at all with firefox. Does anyone else experience a similar problem with IE? Is there a wikipedia disclaimer for IE users? Benjwong 05:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of. Some scripting tools such as Twinkle won't work in IE, but I haven't heard of any standard pages having any issues. Unfortunately, I can't check as I'm running the wrong operating system at the moment (Linux = no IE). You might want to check at the Tech Village Pump as well - if something's going screwy, they're probably going to be the first to know about it without going to another project. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, This problem is coming from Wikipedia. You have to install additional tools in IE to be able to read some foreign characters. You can find them on the Microsoft's website. Martial BACQUET 06:04, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Multilingual support. I have IE7 and Windows Vista. The two pages work fine for me. PrimeHunter 10:10, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I meant this problem wasn't coming from Wikipedia, of course. Typing error. Martial BACQUET 13:13, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Well that's the thing. According to Microsoft help, you need the Asian fonts installed. But most of the people having these issues overseas have had the fonts installed long ago? They only have problems with some pages, but not all. And is isolated to IE6 and IE7?? Benjwong 16:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Signature Automatic signing not working

FYI, It seems that the automatic signing on the page WP:RD/S is not working. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 05:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hm. It would appear SineBot hasn't made any edits for nine and a half hours now... He hasn't been blocked, so he must have broken. He's not responding to his high-priority sandbox either. I'll inform the operator - thanks for the heads-up. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:30, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

special all pages for images ?

is there a special page for uploaded images on wiki? (like the [[Special:Allpages]] for articles) kernitou talk 07:21, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

All pages allows one to narrow its ambit to the image namespace.--Fuhghettaboutit 07:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

thanks kernitou talk 09:16, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You also can use Special:Imagelist Martial BACQUET 13:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

how to password protect one link from my main wiki page?

Dear Support, 1. I need to password protect one link from my wiki main page. is this possible? 2. could i make some links available only to my personal login?

regards Vlad

translation of article

Hi,

Where would I have to put the translation for an ongoing translation?

inside [...]] ?

|Translation_progress = 0|

[...]]

Talk

or some place else?

am doing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Translation/Ojibwe from English to Spanish

Thanks,

Romain

"REDIRECT"ed term

"REDIRECT"ed term is not posted by search engine by such as Google, why ?

If frequently used "term A" has the page or article in Wikipedia, and "term B" is redirect to "term A", why "term B" is not posted by search engine like Google. "Term A" is well posted by most search engine, Google too. I am talking on the case of Japanese wikipedia terms and Japanese Google's case, but Iguess this might be apply to US-English edition for both Wikipedia and Google.--Namazu-tron 10:56, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Uploading WikiCode

Howdy y'all!

Here's a weird one: Do you guys or perhaps the developers know if there some way to modify an article by sending a text file or perhaps through FTP, sort of like how one uploads images and audio files? Basically, I'm editing certain low-activity articles Category:Sesotho language and, instead of going to an internet cafe to implement my changes, I thought it might be great if I could transfer the edited text on my PC to my phone then just send it to the servers (no, where I'm from PC does not imply internet).

So, is it possible, or have I gone hopelessly bonkers? Tebello TheWHAT!!?? 11:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You will always need an Internet connection to edit Wikipedia (because you need some connection to the servers); the only current editing method requires a Web connection over HTTP. A new edit implementation (not yet available) is being worked on for the benefit of bots, which is also over HTTP but is simpler than trying to use an edit page; at present, I don't think there are plans for editing over connection types other than HTTP. (Both systems require a GET request to obtain the article's existing text and an edit token that allows it to be changed (at current, the edit page); they both then require a POST request submitting the edit token and the new text for the article (in the current system, this request is sent by the 'Save page' button). Note that you don't necessarily need a Web browser to make an HTTP connection; you might want to ask at the technical village pump or the bot owner's noticeboard (because many bots don't use browsers) for more information. Hope that helps! --ais523 11:12, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Of course editing Wikipedia requires an internet connection! My phone has GPRS (I'm actually using it to write this) and can even upload files to Wikipedia. If I knew how to write for Symbian I could've tried to write a little application that did GET and POST with index.php -- but that would just be overkill! I was just wondering if I could access the servers using FTP or if there was some other way to send the data other than through POST (as with images).

Thank you for your help. I think I'll try the technical village dump... Tebello TheWHAT!!?? 12:25, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Check the links under WP:EIW#Tools. You might find some sort of offline editor. Also, the Village dump is on Uncyclopedia and they probably won't help you, but they will probably make you laugh. (Yes, I know what you meant.) --Teratornis 19:48, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia coordinates and Google Earth

Please can you tell how i can add coordinates to an existing article created by someone else. also how does one get an article onto Google Earth. I have looked everywhere for the answers to both these questions and can find nothing.

Thanks

212.9.22.222 11:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

See {{coord}} for instructions about adding coordinates; for information about Google Earth's relationship with Wikipedia, it's probably best to read Google's FAQ at http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/geoweb_faq.html. --ais523 11:46, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Lots of related information is at: WP:EIW#Maps. For example, see: WP:GEO and WP:GEO#View Wikipedia in Google Earth. --Teratornis 19:52, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

University High School, West Los Angeles

I have just read the information regarding the subject and wish to add to what exists. I don't know anything about this but I think some of what I have added might be worthwhile regarding the history of that school. Perhaps I have used the wrong area, test edits. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.190.225.80 (talk) 13:23, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Information should be added to University High School (Los Angeles, California) and not where you edited [13]. Content should be based on published reliable sources. See Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Reliable sources, Wikipedia:No original research. You cannot use private knowledge or make your own speculation. PrimeHunter 13:53, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Benchmark Systems

The company name is not capitalized correctly. It reads Benchmark systems —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.103.158 (talk) 13:32, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I have moved Benchmark systems to Benchmark Systems. PrimeHunter 13:44, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

500 Error

Hi all, Is there a problem today? I am paroling recent changes and every 5 or so reverts I am getting a 500 internal error when submitting a page. Thanks DoyleyTalk 15:26, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

According to http://thewritingpot.com/wikistatus a moment ago (before I changed it), the site was down. As far as I can tell, viewing and editing normally work fine, but occasionally fail altogther. You might want to look at the technical village pump to see if there's more information there; when the site has serious problems, someone will normally ask what's happening and quite often someone who knows will answer. --ais523 15:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks DoyleyTalk 15:38, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there a how to on creating TABBED pages.

I like the look and use of TABs used in the help section. I am unable to find any real documentation on how to create a page with tabbs like in the help section.

Looking at the source,

To create a set of tabs, use these four elements. Keep the page tabs in the same order on all pages and use "Tab1" for the current page.

Wikipedia:Tutorial/TabsTop Current page name Other page name(s) Wikipedia:Tutorial/TabsBottom

So do I create a page called TabsTop, one called Tab1, and one called Tab2, and one called TabsBottom as the templates.

Does anyone have or know where more detailed instructions are for creating a tabbed page.

I turned the pages you were transcluding into links, because they caused the "[edit]" links on each section of this page to be removed. I think this is really just designed for the tutorial and can't really be created for another page unless you're willing to set up the whole infrastruction of tab related pages. It's really not necessary for any encyclopedia page. Leebo ^T/C 16:30, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I would like to for use on our wiki at work. It would help for some projects. Still trying to make sense of it, any suggestions?

Vijay Patel

Please edit in Patel's name

Vijay Patel is most qualified person Indian Born and Canadian Citizen having follwing qaulifications: Professional Engineer's of Ontario, Canada Master of Mechanical Engineer from M.S,University of Baroda, India Bachelor of Mechanical Engineer from M.S,University of Baroda, India Boiler Proficiency Engineer - 2nd Class, India Certified Industrial Mechanic, Canada Certified Industrial Electrician, Canada Stationary Engineer - 3rd class, Canada Certified Miscosoft Computer Professional MCP, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.75.48.150 (talk • contribs) 16:27, October 10, 2007

Are you hoping to create a new page? If you want to submit an article idea anonymously, follow the instructions at articles for creation. Leebo ^T/C 16:32, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

The articles I wrote are missing

hello:

I wrote 2 articles and thought I followed the guidelines - they were up for a few weeks and are down now. What happened?

1. Business Cash Advance

2. Merchant Cash Advance

Thanks

Andy Nauman andrewnauman@yahoo.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by AndyNauman (talk • contribs) 16:43, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

They were deleted because they were written like advertising. Wikipedia is not a platform for promoting products, and articles that sounds like such get deleted --Oskar 16:51, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

See: WP:WWMPD. You may wish to try writing your articles on Wikicompany, which wants to build a wiki featuring every company. --Teratornis 19:31, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Help with title of page and categories

I need the title of my page to have all four words in caps. Right now, only the first word is in caps and the next three are in lower case. It is the name of my company and I need it to be correct. Also, I think it's causing problems when I make internal links on other pages.

Also, the categories at the bottom of my page are not all working. I know the pages exist but when I click on the link, it doesn't go to the right place. It acts like those pages don't exist in Wikipedia.

Any suggestions? Rfcu 17:09, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia. I want to start by saying that it's not really appropriate for you to create an article about your company, as this often represents a conflict of interest. Your username indicates that you are treating this account like an official account of the company, while your user page is being used to store a copy of the article. I can try to help, but realize that there are policies and guidelines for content on Wikipedia that the page will have to meet. Leebo ^T/C 17:15, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. Wikipedia has several articles about credit unions, so your credit union may be notable enough for an article too, but if it is, someone who is not associated with the company will write it. You may wish to try writing your article first on Wikicompany, which wants to build a wiki featuring every company, and may not mind if people write about their own companies (although I haven't delved far enough into Wikicompany to know for sure, but from what I have seen of other wikis, very few are as persnickety as Wikipedia when it comes to what sort of articles they allow). Your user page content is still safely in the page history so you haven't lost your work yet. --Teratornis 19:42, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Now that the COI stuff has been taken care of, here are the answers to your actual questions (although it appears that someone else has actually fixed things for you). To change the title of a page, you have to move it, a function which becomes available to you when your account is four days old. (A "move" tab will appear up the top of the article, to the right of the "history" tab.) As to your categories problem, the ones you were having a problem with were not categories, but other articles, and so while Redstone Arsenal exists as an article, there is no Category:Redstone Arsenal. Links to other articles belong either as wikilinked text in the article (e.g. "RFCU was originally located in Redstone Arsenal"), or as a separate "See Also" section. Confusing Manifestation 01:08, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Turning off Pictures in Wikipedia.

Is there a way to customize my account to not show pictures in wikipedia? I would rather limit this to wikipedia than do it for all of the webpages i view. I'm at work and the pictures really give it away that i'm looking at something else ;PSkorp3on 17:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You could write

img {display:none}

in your personal styling file Special:Mypage/monobook.css, and then bypass your cache; I haven't tested this, but I think it will work. (Remove the line and bypass your cache again to turn them back on.) --ais523 17:20, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

If you can pick your Web browser, download Mozilla Firefox, install it, and select: Tools | Options | Content, and click the Exceptions button next to the "Load images automatically" checkbox. You can tell Firefox not to display images for particular Web sites. I don't know whether other browsers have this type of option; some probably do. Incidentally, I'm suprised your workplace doesn't allow you to view Wikipedia, given the vast amount of information in Wikipedia that is helpful in many businesses. Of course there is an even vaster amount of information which is merely distracting in a business setting. You aren't looking at that stuff, during that fraction of your fleeting lifespan which your employer has bought and paid for, are you? --Teratornis 19:28, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Colored text

How do I mark text to appear in a certain color, like red or dark green? —Angr 18:09, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Like this. (<span style="color:red">Like this.</span>). It's probably not a good idea to do this in articles, though. --ais523 18:11, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm planning on doing it at Wikisource to indicate a special font in the original book. I knew I'd get a faster answer here, though. Thanks for the answer! —Angr 18:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia ID and IP address

I have two technical question for using the Wikipedia

If I login to edit a page with a wikiperdia ID, does my IP address even matter?

Are Wikipedia ID's used to track edits, or IP addresses used to track edits, or is it both?

Thanks

-Stl0 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.111.4.25 (talk) 18:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Usernames are used in an article's edit history and all other publically viewable places when one is available (that is, the user is logged in); otherwise, the IP adderss is used. When a user is logged in and edits, their IP address is stored, but it is not publically viewable; only a small subset of administrators known as checkusers can view it, and even then they only access it when trying to deal with severe incidents such as ongoing pattern vandalism and serious sockpuppetry - and even then, they won't let anyone else know what it was, only just enough information to sort out the problem. See the privacy policy for more details about this. Hope that helps! --ais523 18:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Toolbar problems

Hey everyone. I have a problem with the edting toolbar - it doesn't work. There is no link access to its buttons (I mean there is no "hand" indicated when I try to use it) and it annoys me very much. The problem exists even when I'm logged out, and additionally, I did a check of that on other languages of Wikipedia, and it works there, so basically the problem in only here on the English Wikipedia. Do you have any idea of why it goes like this? Please help if you do. Thanks, Best regards, Shahid • ^Talk2me 18:39, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

This is almost certainly to do with a script that's being used to fix the display of some transparent images on Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6. I thought this bug in it had been fixed, but apparently it hasn't been (you're the second user to mention this). It does work in other browsers (including Internet Explorer 7 and browsers other than Internet Explorer), though. Hope that helps! --ais523 18:46, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your really quick answer. So you mean it's a temporal problem actually? Shahid • ^Talk2me 18:51, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

The problem's likely to be fixed properly eventually. (The script in question had some emergency modifications made to it because there was a server problem that was potentially either affecting it or affected by it (we're not sure which it was yet, or whether it was coincidence); it's possible that they caused a previous problem to reappear, or that the problem was never fixed in the first place and nobody noticed.) I'm not sure when it will be fixed for certain, though, but it's unlikely that such a problem will remain unfixed forever. --ais523 18:56, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I still wonder why on other Wikipedia sites (I mean, other languages) it does work properly. Does this problem exist only in the English Wiki? Anyway, thanks for your help, Shahid • ^Talk2me 19:07, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Editing our artist page

I don't know who controls the Fat Joe page, but we need to correct some information on it. Can you please give me the editing rights to that page?

Thanks,

Steven W Imperial Records/EMI NA —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sawhitak (talk • contribs) 18:53, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

The page has been semi-protected due to vandalism. If you are a registered user (which it does appear so), you will be able to edit the page when your account is four days old, or you may request unprotection here. I'm not sure when the protection is set to expire, as the log doesn't specify any time. Please note, however, that we generally discourage people from editing articles with which they have a personal relation or conflict of interest, in an effort to maintain a neutral point of view. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:00, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You could bring up concerns on Talk:Fat Joe in the meantime. Leebo ^T/C 19:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

It's semiprotected indefinitely, and has been since last December! That is not supposed to happen except for a few high-profile vandalism targets like George W. Bush. —Angr 19:13, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and unprotected it. Ten months is more than long enough, and the admin who protected it has since left the project. —Angr 19:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Userboxes

Hi again,

I'd like to know how to get userboxes on my page?

Thanks, AlexAlex Rossi 19:19, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

All the information you need is right at Wikipedia:Userboxes. Good luck! GlassCobra (Review) 19:20, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Tagging Issues

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have recently written an article but the blurb warns me of 'orphaned','unreferenced', 'unlinked, 'unveriable' etc etc matters. I am more than happy to put relevent links in but there is no way of finding out just HOW this is supposed to happen? ALL details I've placed in my article are 100% true, so no one can accuse me of making it all up.

Can someone please assist.

Many thanks in advance,

Rotterdam — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rotterdam1953 (talk • contribs)

Most of those template should provide links to pages that describe how to fix the problem, but here they are again:

• Orphaned: Search for topics related to the article you're working on (Arthur Benjamins) and add links to that article like so: [[Arthur Benjamins]]
• Wikify: The article needs to be formatted according to the Manual of Style, Wikipedia's guide on how to organize and write articles.
• References: Find some reliable, third-party sources about Mr. Benjamins and use them to cite any controversial or otherwise important information in the article. This is so that people researching this person can easily verify that the information is correct and find other places to look for information. See here for directions on how to use in-line citations that look like this:^[1]
• Notability: This one is a bit more urgent, as if it is not properly addressed, the article may be deleted. The article needs to establish why the subject is notable according to our guidelines on people. Providing sufficient sources as described above should take care of most of this.

For more information, check those pages or feel free to come back here for more explanations. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hope you can help me, Please!!

Hi there, my name is Linda Matteson and my yahoo Id is strawberrymilk1958 on yahoo messenger, but my question is I have a webcam and it's made by "creative" it has the same feature that wikipedia has and it's the same kind. How am I able to use my webcam? Thanks, hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks, Linda Matteson —Preceding unsigned comment added by Strawberrymilk1958 (talk • contribs) 23:37, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand what you mean by "the same feature that wikipedia has and it's the same kind." I was not aware that Wikipedia has features in common with Webcams. However, Wikipedia does have some interesting articles on the subject:

• Webcam
• List of computer hardware manufacturers#Webcams
• and you can search Wikipedia with Google for: creative webcam
• Google:"creative webcam" - or search the entire public Web

--Teratornis 00:34, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

We have a {{User webcam}} userbox that you can proudly display on your user page, if you want the world to know you use a Webcam. Although it sounds like you haven't figured out how to use it yet. Remarkably, it looks like you could be the first Wikipedia user to display that userbox. Wikipedia has 47,589,028 registered users, and you could be the first to say you use a Webcam. Wow! I think, anyway. In the meantime, you might ask your question on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing which is where volunteers answer general questions about computing. The Help desk (this page) is for help with editing Wikipedia. --Teratornis 00:54, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

writing a new article

How would one who has an account go about writing a new wikipedia article, starting one that doesn't already exist. I wish to write one about Third Eye Blind's song "Motorcycle Drive By". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.76.154.27 (talk) 00:29, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Start by reading: WP:FIRST, WP:WWMPD, Third Eye Blind, and check out {{Third Eye Blind}}. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes up to several articles per minute for failing to comply with our policies and guidelines. However, Third Eye Blind is already notable enough for an article, and several of the band's singles have articles (see: Category:Third Eye Blind songs). My suggestion would be to study all of the articles in Category:Third Eye Blind songs and try to write your article up to quality of the best of them. Also check the history of articles about the band and its songs (for example this one), to see what other editors have contributed. You might find some of those other editors who share your interest in the band and can help you avoid common beginner mistakes (which could end up getting your article deleted). And thanks for asking on the Help desk first. --Teratornis 00:44, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

forgot username

Is there a way to have your user name sent to you like you can request your password? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.88.52.180 (talk) 00:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

No, however you may be able to work out what your username was if you can remember an article (or other page) you edited while logged in. Go to that article, click on the "history" tab up the top, and go through all the contributions to see if you recognise any of the user names. Confusing Manifestation 00:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

dictionary wildcards —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.63.87.245 (talk) 01:13, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind, got it to work. Somehow the upload.wikipedia.com was listed as a site to block images from on Firefox.

help about biology

hello,I'm a student of class eleven & I've some problem with my newly taken subject biology.I need some pictures of botany.as I'm using Wikipedia for the very first time,I'm not being able to find my desired contents.can you help me?--59.152.90.105 01:43, 11 October 2007 (UTC)shihab hasan

Well, I would suggest going to the Botany article, and going to the reference desk. They should be able to help you much more than we can. Glad to see you here! Neranei (talk) 01:48, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

You also might want to try going to Wikimedia Commens which is basically a Wikipedia of pictures. If you search botany they have a wider range of pictures and that might help you out more. ~ Bella Swan 01:53, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Consent

how does a physician get consent for insane or minors

Hello, you may want to try the reference desk, as they will be able to help you with factual questions. It's great to see you around Wikipedia! Neranei (talk) 01:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

My user name

Hello! I have two questions.

1. My problem is that I have a number of sock puppets. (about 4 actually) They were not made because I was trying to fool anyone, I just didn't understand the system back then and kept changing my name because it was fun. Now I get how it works, and I want to know if there is a way that I can merge accounts together. Is that possible you think? I can still log on to all the acounts.
2. The other question is about User:Jason. Well, my name is Jason, and I thought it would be cool to have the User name "Jason". This account was created in 2001 and as far as I can tell, it has been inactive since 2001. Is there anyway I could have the username if it is not being used by anyone? I was just curious about that. Thanks!

Captain Phoebus 01:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Here are two things you need to do. Go talk to an administrator at the administrator's board; they will be able to block your sockpuppets and you will be able to only use your current account. I'm glad you've figured things out, and are here as a contributor! Unfortunately, there is no way to merge accounts, I'm sorry. As for your second question, you need to go to Usurpations and a bureaucrat will take a look at your request. You're very welcome; I hope this helps! Neranei (talk) 02:01, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

how

how do i make a encyclopedia page —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suckyskater123 (talk • contribs) 02:00, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Since you are a registered user, first search to see if the article already exists. You may want to check out What Wikipedia Is Not and Your First Article. They will give you important information on appropriate encyclopedia articles. Neranei (talk) 02:03, 11 October 2007 (UTC)