Wikipedia:Help desk

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January 30

Adding a website to an article.

I tried to add.. http://www.carolinagourdsandseeds.com by editing a page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gourd and I saved it...but I am not sure it is the right way to do it. Is editing the proper way to do this?? Harry ````. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hhh3p (talk • contribs) 02:50, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

How long ago was this?--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 03:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I see that you were able to add the link, however I don’t think it meets Wikipedia’s guidelines for external links. I noticed that many of the other links also seem to fail the guidelines and I will note the article for later cleanup. —Travis^talk 03:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Resolved - 20 unnecessary external links have been removed. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 13:58, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Creating a page on wikipedia

I am in the process of opening my own business and i want to know if possible, could my company create a page on here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.82.218.95 (talk) 03:14, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

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 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. Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 03:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The short answer is “yes,” but it’s probably not advisable. As a new company, I doubt that it would meet Wikipedia’s notability guidelines for companies. Then there is the matter of conflict of interest. If you read all of the links MoP and I have provided and still think that the article would be appropriate, go ahead and create it. The worst that can happen is that it may be deleted. Cheers —Travis^talk 03:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I would say the short answer is “no.” Inasmuch as you are just now opening it, it is virtually impossible that your company could have the notability required for an article. --teb728 t c 04:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

This type of question comes up periodically on the Help desk. For some previous answers, see: Search Help desk for: wikicompany. --Teratornis (talk) 04:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

See also: Wikipedia:Business' FAQ - good all around answer to most questions of this sort. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 14:00, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Messaging categories and a problem with pop-ups

• I'd like to start an article which deals with a journalist in my hometown. Can/how do I send a message to other editors who are in the category of residents in my city to invite their contributions?

• I've enabled pop-ups on my preferences but top-of-page and bottom-of-page nav. boxes only appeared on the first day of use. They don't appear now although everything else is working. Retarius | Talk 03:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello there, welcome to the help desk! With regards to your proposed article; firstly, you'd need to establish notability of the person. Then, if you feel confident that they would satisfy notability criteria, I'd suggesting searching for a WikiProject for your hometown, or looking at all categories here. Then you would be able to individually contact each editor.

As for pop-ups, what do you mean by top-of-page and bottom-of-page navigation boxes? The ones that allow you to skip to the bottom and back up?

Hope that helps, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 03:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I was wondering whether there is a means of group-messaging the users who've placed themselves in a category (as with an Email to an address list) and yes, those are the boxes I mean. Retarius | Talk 03:48, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid there's no way from group messaging, though it might be possible with the autowiki browser, but I'm not sure usage of that tool would be necessary. Also, those boxes only appear on some pages (such as the help desk); hence, if you visit another page, they will disappear. Hope that helps, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 04:06, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah well, one by one then. I got the idea from seeing things like Christmas cards and roll-call notices on talk pages. I thought that those sending them might be using such a facility. Thanks for your help. Retarius | Talk 04:25, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Nope, those are usually delivered by hand (so to speak), though sometimes they get bots to do it. Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 04:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Can you erase or delete your own edits, allowing only the current version, of a page you created?

When a person creates a page, is it possiblle to delete edits by the original person (grammer errors, etc.)? How do you go back and list all edits as minor when the edits were a few edits back? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Winslow12 (talk • contribs) 03:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Past versions in the page's history are not removable barring the use of oversight, which should not be used for such purposes. Edits cannot be changed from minor to major or vice versa, either. Hope that helps, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 04:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Another time, it is recommended to use preview and possibly correct problems before saving. You are currently the only substantial contributor to Jesse McCargar so it would be possible to request deletion of the whole article with {{db-author}} and then recreate it in a single edit (though that is not really what db-author is intended for). PrimeHunter (talk) 12:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

guatamala in the 1992 olympic marathon is incorrect, should be guam

it is incorrecdtly listed as Guatamala in the 1992 women's olympic martahon. I am Jen Allred and competed for Guam, not Guatamala. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Powlesj (talk • contribs) 04:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to be bold and go change it yourself! It may be useful to add a reference to a reliable source that backs up your change. --omtay38 05:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Went ahead and fixed this. diff 1 diff 2 diff3--TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

how do i add a new article?

My Kruu (Muay Thai instructor) and i have created a new branch of martial art, and have been doing demos around the U.S.A on it, i would like to add information about it here on wikipedia, (so the new style can get a little More recognition) but i cant figure out how to make a new article, can you please help?

thanks alot

Wes —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xxc3lld4m4gexx (talk • contribs) 05:59, 30 January 2008 (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 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. --Evan Seeds (talk)(contrib.) 06:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If the style is as you say new and in need recognition, it is probably not notable enough to have an article. I’m sorry to say that Wikipedia is only for subjects that already have substantial recognition. --teb728 t c 08:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

how do i get a 6th and 7th book of moses

how do i get a 6th and 7th book of moses.please help me get one with all it necessities and i shall be greatful.

Do you mean Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses? --teb728 t c 09:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Possible legal concern

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

Relating to the above link, in the section marked 'History', there are two pars stating:

“ Though recently, there was an article in the national newspaper 'The Times' about Garstang's newspaper(The Garstang Courier) extreme views, labelling the newspaper as Fascist. The newspaper is also currently in a legal battle with Fergus Fraser Bowman. ”

I am Editor of the Garstang Courier and Longridge News and can assure you that we are not in any legal battle with anyone, and I have never even heard of Fergus Fraser Bowman. I also know of no reason why The Times would be writing about my newspaper and, having checked with that office, they have no recollection of any such article or any reference to The Courier as 'fascist'. Incidentally, it has already been noted by another user that there is no referencing or verification for any of these statements. Clearly I consider this posting hosted on your website to be highly damaging to the reputation of my newspaper and defamatory to me as Editor. I intend editing this posting myself but consider it important that you are aware of this situation and can advise me on the action you are taking.

Richard Machin, Editor, Garstang Courier/Longridge News — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.70.52.62 (talk) 10:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Probably vandalism by some user, I'll see if I can track it down. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I saw you removed the edit already. That is the appropriate action and you are always welcomed to make such changes. The vandalism (specifically these edits) was done by IP address 172.143.108.99. On January 23rd 9PM UTC and January 24th 4PM UTC. Hope this helps you. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:45, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Seems that in the mean time the edits were oversighted as well. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:48, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I have deleted the versions with the claims from the article history. That means only administrators can see them. If you also want them hidden from administrators so only a few people with oversight permission can see them then you can make a request at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight or ask me to do it. But your copy here is much more visible than the currently deleted versions. If you want to avoid public discussion of such a problem another time then see Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from enterprise) and Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. I will watch the article and remove the claims if they reappear. The article can be protected if it should happen repeatedly. It was added January 23 by an unregistered editor who has not edited since with that IP address which may have been dynamic. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:56, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

installation

Hi all i am not able to install windows vista could you help me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.200.95.130 (talk) 11:45, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

This helpdesk provides assistance to users who have trouble using Wikipedia. If you have a problem with Windows, I suggest calling Microsoft support, visiting a local computer store or asking a friend with some computer skills for assistance. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you have a more specific question then: Have you tried the Computing 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 (talk) 12:01, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Wife died in July 2007, was filing joint return?

How do I fill out a Georgia tax return jointly when my wife has passed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.6.100.226 (talk) 12:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello there, welcome to the help desk! Please consider asking at the reference desk, which is for questions about knowledge; the help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. See here for the reference desk; Wikipedia:Reference desk. Thanks! Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 12:37, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia does not give legal opinions. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry for your loss, and hopeful that we can help answer your question. You are at the Wikipedia helpdesk. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with more than two million articles. You may have found this site while searching for tax information, but we are not specialists on Georgia tax. Here in Wikipedia, we have a number of volunteers who try to answer questions in a number of different areas. The volunteers who work here at the help desk answer questions about how to use the Wikipedia encyclopedia itself. Several different sets of volunteers answer questions about more general topics at the reference desk. The volunteers at the "miscellaneous desk" are probably best able to help: click on the blue link. -Arch dude (talk) 01:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

ADD Article

I have added an article but has been erased automatically, why can I not add a company with its history on the WIKI,

PLease inform me how do I add some companies and brands with their history and foundation on WIKI

Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Noxelag (talk • contribs) 13:44, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Looking at the history of the article you created, it didn't meet our requirements for notability. For more information on what makes companies notable, please see: WP:CORP. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 13:50, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)If the company is notable enough, a company can have an article, it is also important to remember to make sure that the article reads does not read like an advertisement, and that it isn't a copy and paste job from the companies website. Also I am assuming here that your related to the company in question, so I would advise that you don't make the article, because you run the risk of having the neutrality of the article affected by your point of view. besides if you company is big enought, like Google or Metacritic, this shouldn't be a problem.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 13:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I have replaced "reads" with "does not read" in Kerotan's comment. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Changing title of an article undergoing AfD

If an article has been listed for AfD, but its title is wrong, is it possible to change the title by "moving" the article, or would that confuse the links to the AfD process? JohnCD (talk) 14:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You can move the article, and a redirect from the old title will be created automatically. But that won't affect the other links at the top of the AfD (history, logs, etc.), which will then be pointing to the redirect. It might be better to wait until the AfD discussion is concluded to keep things consistent, but if you choose to rename it now, I'd recommend noting the change clearly as a comment in the discussion to reduce confusion. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 14:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Company Logo in an article

Hello,

I have to write an article about the company I work for. I would like to add the company logo and I do not know how to proceed. Wikipedia explains that a non free logo or a copyrighted can be upload but I do not find how. I already write the article and by adding the logo, the article has been removed a few days later.

Would you please inform me how to proceed to add the logo in the article.

(the page is Knauf USG Systems)

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards

--- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Leonard.kleiber (talk • contribs) 14:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd be glad to help you select the correct license. However, Wikipedia's very strict image fair use policy requires that all copyrighted media actually be used in the article. So you need to have the article first. I note from the logs that the Knauf USG Systems article was deleted on January 22, according to the criteria for speedy deletion, that the article did not assert the significance of the company; that is, why an article should be about it in the encyclopedia. I'd recommend as a first step that you read Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted, and more specifically, the notability guidelines for companies, the Business' FAQ and conflict of interest guidelines. If after reading those pages carefully you still think an article is appropriate, please recreate it, citing to reliable, independent sources, and then ask again about the logo, either here on the general help desk or at the Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. Hope these links will help explain things. Any more questions feel free to ask again. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:07, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

What happened to free, open content encyclopedia, Wikipedia?

Since Oct 2007 I have been working on an biographical article of a former military man titled Leo J. Meyer published on the free, open content encyclopedia, Wikipedia. In January 2008 Wiki administrators in the US felt that the subject was not notable and removed the article. It was published in good faith intending to meet WP free and open content rules. Strangely enough an administrator in the UK thought the subject was notable enough. What happened to: free, open content encyclopedia, Wikipedia? I would rather have my article on Wikipedia than some other place. Meyerj (talk) 14:50, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It is still there, it just doesn't allow every topic anymore. For a large part due to the media's attention to "quality" vs. junk , the inclusion requirements are becoming more stringent every day. I would support bringing this article back. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:12, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

BTW. it would really help if there was a book that mentioned him in a bit of detail, and if you could get several other editors involved in the writing process. Writing on subjects to which you are related is always a difficult thing to do because its easy to fall into the pitfalls of "original research" and "opinionated editing". --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I wonder how many other people who published articles in good faith and made financial contributions to the project because they believed in the free, open content encyclopedia aspect have since found there information removed. I am not implying paying to publish, but rather supporting the concept and learning that the concept has changed. Meyerj (talk) 18:44, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry to hear your article got deleted. As I'm not an administrator I cannot review the deleted text to check whether it satisfied Wikipedia's guidelines. But some general links to help you are Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted? and Wikipedia:Notability (people). The deletion discussion was not unanimous or absolute, so if you feel the outcome was wrong, I'd recommend taking it to Wikipedia:Deletion review, stating clearly why you feel the article should be restored. It might not be absolutely non-notable, perhaps just needing a bit of tweaking, or additional references to assert significance. Failing that, there are other web sites in the world, such as http://www.wikibios.com/, which I'm sure would gladly host the article, or you could publish the biography on a personal web site, where you would have complete control over all the content (unlike a wiki). • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:20, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Here's what happened to "free, open content encyclopedia": WP:NOT. Wikipedia in its current design misleads some fraction of new users who see the positive results of the process that builds Wikipedia, without noticing the dark side (the stupefyingly complex rules and their enforcement). That's because the superficial face of Wikipedia (the things a new user sees first) appear to be very wonderful and encouraging. Wikipedia fires the newcomer's imagination, and stimulates ideas to run wild, without doing much to insure the new user understands the rules before diving in. The result is lots of people asking: Why was my article deleted? (In my opinion, if even one user still needs to ask that question, we should not feel too proud of ourselves.) If nothing else, hopefully your unpleasant experience with Wikipedia will teach you to question your initial impression of online sites, and to seek some sort of confirmation from a knowledgeable human before spending many hours guided only by your initial assumptions based on at best a very fragmentary investigation. As to what to do next, see WP:BIO for our notability guidelines for biography articles. The administrator who deleted your article probably does not know whether Mr. Meyer is or isn't notable enough; rather, the administrator is saying you did not show him to be notable enough. If you can do that, then he can have an article here. If not, then you can try another wiki such as WikiBios. --Teratornis (talk) 15:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

There are 6 billion people on this planet. Not every one of us can have a Wikipedia article about them. Your article did not establish sufficient notability to justify an article on this particular person. (U.S. v. U.K. had nothing to do with it.) --Orange Mike | Talk 15:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC) (proud son of a WW2 combat veteran and medal recipient)

Your attitude is lacking severly orange mike. are you actually implying and infering that your idea of heirarchical importance are better than anyone elses? Are you inferring that your ideas and views are superior? such arrogance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.210.96.173 (talk) 16:11, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually no, what he was stating were simple facts. I agree with those facts as well. However that does not mean that I do not consider our current set of rules as becoming too strict. You really should not be offended if people don't respond in full essays with reasoning, but with short blunt remarks. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Not that I really want to be part of your debate, but to clarify for orange mike, Europeans are much more mindful and respectful of their military and military history. American culture pooh-poohs its military unless John Wayne is in the picture. But to enlighten all: Soldiers who earned one Combat Infantry Badge in WWII (meeting the requirements for it) are bigger heroes than both Douglas MacArthur and Jimmy Doolittle who both were awarded the Medal of Honor in WWII. (In Doolittle’s case why just him when all of his men did the exact same thing) Soldiers who stayed with their Army (and the pay wasn’t all that good) and fought in subsequent conflicts that meet the criteria set forth by the Department of the Army and earned multiple combat badges are actually remarkable. The CIB has been, historically, the only badge worn higher than the Medal of Honor ribbon. Today American soldiers who are not infantry can receive an equally important combat medical badge or the newest, the combat action badge. There are regulations authorizing only four awards of the CIB, CMB and CAB. Of the first there has never been a 4th awarded and only 303 men, out of millions who served, have received the 3rd award. That 303 dates from the award’s inception of DEC 1941 up to Dec 2007. For the same period in Army history (note I said Army) there have been 575 Medals of Honor awarded and not all of them have received the CIB. The bottom line is that that small group of “heroes” are more often than not held with higher esteem by fellow soldiers than those awarded the MoH, and Americans in general don’t know that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.241.0.2 (talk) 17:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Ooh, of course the reason why the article was deleted must either be prejudice or stupidity, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with Wikipedia's requirements for notability and verifiability. Are we just supposed to take the word of someone that the person they're writing about is notable without the author providing any proof of the claims? And please note that not everybody who participated at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Leo J. Meyer is an admin. If you feel that you can provide reliable sources and verifiable claims of notability, then you can nominate the article at WP:DRV for a discussion as to whether or not the article should be undeleted. Corvus cornix_talk 19:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I think for once I'm speechless at the incredible length a vandal disparges the United States. I truly don't understand the anonymous user's comments, not can I begin to follow as he states no evidence of his claims. I for one would sternly content that the American population is proud of its military, and its military history, greatly due in part through our patriotism, and because of the immense numbers of friends and family serving in the US military. My brother currently at West Point, my uncle, grandfather, and great grandfather all served in the Marines. My roommate's mother served for a proud 20+ years in the Navy. I'm all atonishment at the lack of mutual respect and simple tolerance towards the United States, and especially when it flies in the face of hundreds of thousands of men and women who do so much for their country. Do you think that I enjoy the fact that my oldest, and dearest brother, the one who always managed to make my family laugh, or know just what to do what I felt terrible will be sent overseas? And in all possibility die from the foolishness and misery caused by war? That is sacriface. I could not do it. God, how can you be so...so apathetic and insulting to that? Can anyone truly? Do you not distinguish between the adminstration and the soldiers themselves? I'm disgusted, body and soul at you sir. We should not feed the trolls but I cannot let this mockery stand.

As for the claim that Americans do not value the CIB award is in and of itself a contradiction -- Americans value the service and awards of any soldier, and for any term. The issue is that the general populace is not aware of the CIB, whereas the Medal of Honor is well known as most recent recipiants were killed in action to recieve the award, in a (terrible) sense MOH recipiants have paid the ultimate price for this distinction. This connotation in the public's mind simply does not exist for CIBs. Zidel333 (talk) 20:43, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I repeat, while I am myself a Quaker, I am also the proud son of a U.S. combat infantryman, a fully-disabled veteran of World War 2, and an enlisted man (a class of soldier of whom I am always more respectful than I am officers). None of this is even remotely relevant to the simple fact that the article which has been deleted failed to establish to the satisfaction of the involved editors that the subject was notable, according to the standards we have set up here. If there is a new article created about this man (genuinely new, not a recreation of the deleted one), preferably by somebody without a conflict of interest, the new article will be judged on its merits. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:01, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Help starting a page

how do i start a pge of my own. and why wont it let me edit the Alex Ovechkin pageu —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hrendip (talk • contribs) 14:56, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Alex Ovechkin is currently semi-protected, which means that only accounts older than four days can edit it. Please read Wikipedia:Protection policy for more info. GlassCobra 15:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

As for 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.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see 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. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:25, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Why is my page not up?

I have been trying to put up my page but it keeps saying that something is wrong with it.. i keep looking to see what it is i did wrong but can not find it on your pages... please get back with me.. Muscoot Farm is the page! JonathonMuscoot (talk) 15:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It seems like the article was deleted, most likely due to concerns that the subject matter did not conform to basic Notability concerns. If you feel that this deletion is misplaced, you should try to find an administrator and discuss it with them. As an aside, your user page seems to be an extensive article on the article in question; 1) this is not allowed per se by User Page Guidelines that are currently enforced by the Wikipedia community, and 2) if there is no concerns with Conflict of Interest. Cheers! Zidel333 (talk) 16:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Zidel333, I have fixed several broken links in your reply. It's WP, not W. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 18:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I wondered why the links were light blue instead of dark.... Thanks Anakin. :) Zidel333 (talk) 20:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

speedy deletion expedience that is nearly inhuman!

I am impressed! An admin/sysop here seems to be able to read hundreds of articles in mere minutes, find them lacking and delete them speedily with half references. Is this the standard? One of the articles which was mine had been up for less than one day and no notice was sent of the deletion, the other had been up for the better part of a year and had been helped with and massaged by another admin here. I can only imagine how horrified the hundreds of other writers and editors must feel after they get taken out in this shotgun approach to things. I can understand how wiki administering can be trying, but if there is so much vitriol that deletions are done in such a frenzy, I wonder if some of the people who administer these pages should actually be doing it at all! Regards - A concerned reader and writer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.210.96.173 (talk) 16:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You are likely on a dynamic IP address. You should really register in order to make sure that you get deletion notifications. If you edit as an unregistered IP address there is a good chance you will miss such a message. (also there are 3000 admins and bots looking at edits and selecting sets of edits that are "suspicious", evaluating etc. not 1 )--TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

--99.224.75.100 (talk) 16:36, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The "anon" does appear to have a username, just didn't log in. Instead of requesting a deletion review, he is complaining here that his page was deleted. The nomination for speedy deletion was stopped because he refuted it here. After reading his comments, a series of editors nominated it for deletion. It was deleted. He continues to complain that WP:BIO doesn't address the notability of "entrepreneurs". -- kainaw™ 17:23, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Kainaw, how did you determine that that was the article that the anon is talking about? That AfD discussion was over a year ago, and pretty obviously wasn't up for "less than one day". Corvus cornix_talk 19:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the anon's contributions, he has signed multiple posts manually using a registered username. Checking that user's contributions reveals the apparent article at issue that Kainaw cites.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:03, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah. Thanks. Corvus cornix_talk 03:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Individual pageview statistics...

How can I get statistics on the page views (per day, week, month, year etc.) for an individual wikipedia article?

Thank you for answering,

NazarK (talk) 17:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

See this entry on the FAQ. Best regards. --omtay38 17:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Go to stats.grok.se and enter your article title. henrik•talk 17:57, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Breakdown of an individual's edits by prefix

I think there's a tool that partly does what I want, but can't find it, and in any case I'm hoping there's one out there that does all of what I want.

I'd love to be able to see what edits I made to a particular prefix; not just a particular namespace, but a prefix within that namespace. For example, if I want a quick way to see what edits I've made to AfD, I'd like to be able to enter "Barneca" in one box, and "Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion" in another box, and get a list of:

• diff for an edit to Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion/Article A
• diff for an edit to Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion/Article 2
• diff for a different edit to Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion/Article 2
• diff for an edit to Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion/Article III
• etc.

Sort of like the offspring of a marriage between Special:Prefixindex and Special:Contributions.

If no such thing exists, I'd settle for a linked alphabetized list of all the articles I've edited. Currently, the only way I can think of to do this is look at my contributions filtered by namespace, import them into Excel, and sort them by page name. But then I can't click on each link, I have to go into the history of each article to find my edit. So I'm left with scanning my contrib list myself, and trying to makes sure I catch them all.

Any tools that can help? Thanks! --barneca (talk) 17:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If there was such a tool, it would be at Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters, although I'm not aware of one which does specifically what you're saying. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 19:06, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. A quick look thru all of them doesn't lead me to what I'm looking for. Oh well, back to Excel. --barneca (talk) 22:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Archiving

Simple question, with a probable simple answer: How do I archive my talk page? It's gotten so big that it's spilling out over my borders. Thanks -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 17:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

There are three different ways to do it, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Or, you could get a bot to do it (one example is User:MiszaBot III, I beleive there are others} automatically. If you try wading thru WP:ARCHIVE, it should answer most of your questions, and you can always come back here with a more targetted question if something's still unclear. --barneca (talk) 18:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 18:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest doing it manually, since bot maintainers tend to disappear every so often. Corvus cornix_talk 19:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Linking to categories

Why can't I link to a category page in a talk page? -- Matthew Edwards | talk | Contribs 18:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You can, like this: [[:category:my category]] which shows up like this: category:my category. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 18:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matthewedwards (talk • contribs) 18:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

P2P wikipedia comunity

will i be allowed/able to set up a special wikipedia page which will basically be a community of file sharing program (FSP) users that could leave their IP addresses and which songs,artists, genres etc that they like and then P2P FSP can 'link' with them and get, mainly, music from them........could i do this......what about on my user page.....thanks, --81.79.201.21 (talk) 18:26, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

No. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a file sharing site. henrik•talk 18:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Besides which what you are talking about is illegal. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 19:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is very strict about copyright laws. Even if what you were talking about were possible, to attempt to do so would get you blocked, probably indefinitely. I'd suggest you stop doing it anyway, because as mentioned, it is illegal and could easily get you in trouble with local authorities, especially if you keep talking about it like this. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:02, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

FAQ not working

How do I submit an article to Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alanforray (talk • contribs) 18:52, 30 January 2008 (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 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. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 19:02, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

posting

where do i find the directions on how to post a new topic in wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thedevicesinshift (talk • contribs) 19:18, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I left a welcome message on your talk page that includes some links that should get you started. However, I believe WP:ARTICLE is the place you're interested in right now. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 20:02, 30 January 2008 (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 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. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 20:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Problem creating an account

I created an account with a username of MarkJ, which is the only reasonable one to use for my name. I wrote that, my password, and my e-mail address (<email removed>) down as I entered them (with the password having been entered twice when I created the account). However, when I try to log in I get "Incorrect password or confirmation code entered." If I click on "E-mail new password," I get the message "Error sending mail: There is no e-mail address recorded for user 'MarkJ'." When I try to create an account again, I get "Username entered already in use." So the system has grabbed my username, but not my password or my e-mail address, and there is no way to find out what it thinks my password might be since it thinks that I don't have an e-mail address. Is there some way to delete my username, so I can start creating an account from scratch again? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.22.236.230 (talk) 19:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

User:MarkJ was editing in 2005, so you probably didn't create that account. You might get somebody to allow you to WP:USURP the acount, since it has only ever made one edit. Corvus cornix_talk 19:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the IP may have created that account, as they have edited since 2003. --The Helpful One 20:12, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you mistyped the name of the account on creation, but you know roughly when you created it, you might have some luck looking through the user creation log. Bovlb (talk) 22:00, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Subpage

Am i alright creating this User:Dust Rider/NightWatch it's not violating any rules and it's suppose to be helping Wikipedia. →Dust Rider→ 19:57, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't really see any point to it, to be honest. There seem to be no features to differentiate it from the CVU. GlassCobra 20:20, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Shall i reword it or have it erased. →Dust Rider→ 20:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't go against Wikipedia user page policy if that's what you mean, which allows for a surprising bit of freedom. I'm not sure how your group is distinct from the general anti-vandalism force though. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 20:30, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

How does one link to a Wikipedia page?

I am trying to send a link in an email to a wikipedia page. How do I create the link in the body of the email? Thank you. 20:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)ArtInfo3 (talk) 20:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Go to the article's page. Copy the URL of the article from the address bar in your browser; paste it into the e-mail. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:03, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

If you want the link to be to the same page version as you see now then click "Permanent link" in the toolbox to the left before copying the URL. If you want to make a HTML e-mail then the details depend on the used program. If you make a plain text e-mail with a URL then it depends on the receivers mail client whether they can click it as a link or have to copy the URL to their browser. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:48, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Infobox on the left side of page?

Is there a way to put a infobox on the left side of the page. All I can seen to do, is put on the right side. Please respond. Thanks DJS --DJS24 (talk) 21:53, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, the "infobox" table class has the table on the right side by default, and general convention is to keep the infobox on the right, as this helps avoid formatting issues with the article. There is a way, but we'd prefer you didn't. May I ask which article you are seeking to do this in? Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:57, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It's for the WikiProject Xbox 360, I'm looking to have the Xbox 360 box on the left side, with the old xbox on the right side, with pictures of each in the middle. This would be put of a console section. --DJS24 (talk) 22:07, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The link should be Wikipedia:WikiProject Xbox 360. Do you mean an infobox on that page or on an article? The design of a WikiProject page doesn't seem important to the encyclopedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Down near the Participants section are infoboxes for each of the two Xbox consoles. XENON54 | talk | who? 22:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I know there's boxes down there, I designed the page. I'm looking to put a "Console" section on that page, where the Xbox 360 infobox is on the left and the old Xbox infobox is on the right, with two pictures of them in the middle. PrimeHunter, the page is important to me, as I'm the one making it. --DJS24 (talk) 23:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Ok, since it's not for an article I'll tell you. What is supposed to work is adding align="left" to the top of the table, next to the infobox declaration. For some reason, however, that isn't working; the infobox class is still overriding the local alignment setting, despite everything that is said at Help:Table. So, what you can do instead is force it to work by nesting it within a table. It won't be the most elegant solution (and in fact it's quite ugly), but it'll probably work best for what you're apparently planning anyway, and is in fact the only thing that will work as far as I can tell. Fortunately, people don't generally edit the main WikiProject page too much, so you should be ok. The code you need is posted below. Enjoy. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 01:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This is your left infobox blah blah blah blah

Here go all your pictures and whatnot.

This is your right infobox blah blah blah blah

Organise User Talk Page

Hello. I'm having trouble getting something to work on my User Talk Page. I would like the archive box to the right (you can't miss it) to stay there and I would like to insert this to the left. Next, the TOC would be in the center and they would be able to scroll up and down. Here is a link where you can edit my user talk page. Thanks for your help! - Milk's Favorite Cookie 22:06, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I can take a look at it, although for future reference, the Help Desk is for questions about using Wikipedia, not really userspace design. ;-) Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 00:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

American Stroke Foundation

I received the following message when I attempted to add The American Stroke Foundation as a link to the article on stroke. The American Stroke Foundation is in fact a national organization. The offices are in the Kansas City metro area, however, the information and education is perfomed on a nationwide basis.

Thanks

"Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Unfortunately, your recent addition of a link to a Kansas City-area nonprofit organization was removed. Wikipedia is a worldwide encyclopedia, and links to purely local organizations are strongly discouraged under the official external links policy. I would like to suggest that you read the external links policy before adding any more links to articles. Here are some other pages that you might find helpful:..." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Partagasx (talk • contribs) 22:46, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

For a different perspective on this organization, editors might want to see the ASF website, which says, "We are a local Kansas City non-profit organization that provides post-rehabilitative services to stroke survivors"[1] (emphasis added). They offer several classes and a monthly lecture, but these services are only available in person at their two rehab centers, which are seven miles (~10 km) apart in the same metropolitan area. For all I know, they may answer the occasional e-mail question, and they do provide a few short pages of basic information on their website, but there is no evidence on the proposed website that the inclusion of their website complies with WP:EL, and I begin to wonder whether the insistence on its inclusion actually has more to do with the big red letters on the main page: "Please consider a tax-deductible gift to fund programs and activities at ASF."[2] Perhaps my original note to the new editor should have also included a link to the conflicts of interest policy. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Email

How do I add an email address to one of my pages so that the person my click on it and go to their email sender —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.75.163.99 (talk) 23:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure that you can do that on Wikipedia. However, one of the benefits of registering an account is the ability to associate an e-mail address with your account and receive e-mails from other Wikipedians. XENON54 | talk | who? 23:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Just type it in with the text "mailto:" in front of it. e.g., mailto:address@example.com. You can hide the mailto part if you want. E.g., [mailto:address@example.com address@example.com] in the edit box displays as: address@example.com • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 00:09, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

January 31

Singing Shape Notes, Converted to Piano Playing Notes

My wife is trying to find a grand Staff Singing notes Converted To Piano Playing Notes, a chart between the two Differances side by side. She is learning to play piano and has a song she wrote ,but the notes were written in shape notes, my wife was a mennonite at the time,. A mennonite lady wrote shape notes to my wifes song. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Karla (talk • contribs) 00:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Try the reference desk.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 00:18, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Which is here. XENON54 | talk | who? 00:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Does Wikipedia take a couple of days to update?

I have just returned from Sydney doing a photo shoot of old terraced (row) houses and yesterday inserted a 'houses' section with a small gallery in the Wikipedia article on Camperdown, an inner city suburb of Sydney. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camperdown%2C_New_South_Wales When bringing up the article today I see that my section has not yet appeared. However when I go into "history" and look at latest changes then bring up the page from there, my new section is there in all its glory! I take it that the server takes a day or so to update? I have noticed this in the past with other articles. Just want to ensure that I'm doing the right thing. Cheers. --MichaelGG (talk) 01:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Did you try purging the server cache? --Hdt83 ^Chat 01:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Its because you browser in caching the page, preventing the page from updating, if your using IE hold shift and click refresh.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 01:35, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

See more at Wikipedia:Bypass your cache. Some ISPs cache some pages before they reach the customers. Bypassing the browser cache doesn't help in that case. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:53, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Translating Pages

Are there any licensing issue for translating wikipedia articles in English to other languages for wikipedia essentially verbatim? Commment (talk) 01:58, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

No, Wikipedia content is free to use anywhere. —Travis^talk 02:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

With the caveat that the GFDL license would seem to require that you acknowledge the source. On en.wiki, you can use Template:Translation/Ref; I assume your target wikipedias have a similar tamplate. If you can't find it on one of them, you can ask there. --barneca (talk) 02:08, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Translation. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:30, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Juandrezh: A new language

I have been looking for the rules and regulations for making a new article, and in order to avoid any future problems, I'd like to explain the article I plan to make. I and a fellow student have developed a new language, or creole as its a mix of several languages, and wish to publicize its grammar and vocabulary. Juandrezhconsists of completely unique verbal conjuguations, orthography, etc. These grammatical elements are controled by a bipartisan group called the Academuzia Juandrezha dilla Lenguzia - Reglamentum dilla Grammaticuzia e l'Ôrtôgrafuzia. Many people have asked to be taught this language and I thought putting its grammatical rules into a wikipedia article would be much more efficient than private lessons. Will any probelsm arise if I proceed to create this article? Juandrezh (talk) 02:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The subject of your article doesn’t sound like it would meet Wikipedia’s notability guidelines and would seem to violate the restrictions against original research. Wikipedia cannot be used to establish notability - notability must already be established. —Travis^talk 02:12, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought and is not for things made up in school one day. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 02:23, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

See the Constructed language article, and {{Conlang}}. For a constructed language to earn notice in Wikipedia, it would have to be the subject of independently published reliable sources. If you have not published any academic papers about your constructed language yet, you could write about it on another wiki which accepts original research, such as: WikInfo; also see: wikiindex:Category:Language. Good luck with your language, and thanks for asking before creating a new article here. --Teratornis (talk) 20:56, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Holy cross high school, Waterbury, CT

Hi, before i posted a picture on the holy cross high school page of waterbury, CT. I put it under basketball and it was the three captains of 2005 along with the coach. It came on first, but than was deleted. Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jumpshtocap25 (talk • contribs) 02:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Note: The image in question is Holycross.jpg —Travis^talk 02:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The license apparently said it was only allowed to use on Wikipedia. Wikipedia allows others to reuse images and does not accept images that are only allowed on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Uploading images. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

HTMAL MESAGE

HOW TI GET THE NET SITE UDSED FOR HTML MESSAGE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.172.7.157 (talk) 02:54, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Proper English please, I can't understand what you are trying to say. --FastLizard4 (Talk•Index•Sign) 02:56, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

What tags to put on brochure using a Wikipedia image

Hi there. I'm working on a brochure and we would like to use the following image [3] which is available for use under GNU 1.2. Thing is what tags should I put in the brochure? Couldn't see any firm instructions on this. Thanks for your help.Saganaki- (talk) 07:41, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Depending on your particular use, you will find usage instructions both at The GNU Free Documentation License, the General disclaimer page, and the image page itself. It may be some heavy reading, but it's important stuff. Hope this helps a bit! --omtay38 07:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I've already trawled these and still couldn't figure out what to put. Trying to find some examples of sourcing via the search engines, but not luck. As wikipedia itself currently seems to be silent on the issue, if anyone is able to offer anything definite, perhaps we could consider adding a section to the image use page itself? Saganaki- (talk) 07:53, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the GFDL is stupid. Thus you are required to include (as stated in part 2 of the license) not only a notice saying who holds the copyright and the 'released under the GFDL' blurb from the image page, but also the entire text of the GFDL itself. In addition, if making more than 100 copies, you are required to link to a 'transparent' version (i.e. the Wikipedia image page) and to take 'reasonably prudent steps' to ensure it remains there and is not deleted. Algebraist 10:37, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I thought you just had to credit the source in a little footnote and state what the license was, surely? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 13:25, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not own GFDL images and cannot legally decide how they are allowed to be reused. Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content and Wikipedia:Verbatim copying may have some tips but note that Wikipedia does not give legal opinions. Sorry this may seem unsatisfactory. You can attempt to contact the original Japanese uploader of [4] at [5] but I don't know whether English will be understood. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:29, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Anakin: I'm afraid not. Read the GFDL. Algebraist 18:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Why is our "little" companies profile not meeting the Wiki standard for publication?

Is a Starbucks or Game Stop wiki entry an advertisement? If these companies have wiki entries why are other companies and their corporate profiles rejected. Who decides when a company will be included in wiki? Would anyone within the wiki world help me write a profile correctly to meet the standard? Thank your for your time in advance! Treynia Treynia (talk) 07:55, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi there and welcome to the help desk! Wikipedia has a set of notability guidelines for organizations and companies. Basically, these guidelines are a measure of whether or not a company or organization is a valid subject for an encyclopedic article. If you would like assistance creating an article or an opinion as to whether or not an article meets these guidelines, I would suggest creating a draft of the article in a subpage of your userspace. Then feel free to leave a message on my talk page or re-post here asking that the draft be looked at for notability and merit. Hope this helps! --omtay38 08:04, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Assuming that you are T. J. Reynia, you also have a severe conflict of interest in writing about GamesXchange, and would be very strongly discouraged from attempting to do so. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not want articles about every company, but Wikicompany does. I agree with the opinion that Wikipedia's notability requirements have the side effect of handing free exposure to large, established companies, but there's nothing we can do about that. (Strictly speaking, Wikipedia does not accept any content about a company which reads like advertising, but merely writing neutrally about large companies indirectly increases their exposure to potential customers.) Wikipedia does not want to become a comprehensive directory of every company in the world (see: WP:NOT#DIRECTORY); that's what Wikicompany is for. --Teratornis (talk) 21:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

ans me

should pakistan enetr into free trade with india ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.38.58.7 (talk) 08:26, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Try asking at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities with heading "Pakistan" or something useful. CarbonLifeForm (talk) 11:29, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The Reference Desk is not an appropriate place for questions of opinion. Corvus cornix_talk 20:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The question is ill-posed because it asks for a normative answer, which makes the answer subjective, and thus a function of who you ask. A better question is:

• If Pakistan and India sign a free trade agreement, what effects will this have (on specific industries, etc.)?

That is a positive question, one which admits objective answers, which all sane people might potentially agree on if they have access to the same data, regardless of whether they support or oppose such free trade. --Teratornis (talk) 18:06, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I didn't do it!

I don't know if this is the place to go or not, but after reviewing the options, here goes. I was looking up "typhoon", and I saw a message box on the screen. The message told me to stop changing things, articles about high schools or sports I think, and I don't know how I could even have gotten messages. After looking everywhere, I saw someone else's message about the same kind of thing, and it was mentioned that someone might have used their IP address. 1 How coould someone use my IP address if that is what happened in this case? 2 I don't have an account, so how did I get this message? 3 How can I find the message again? --65.54.98.27 (talk) 08:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)--65.54.98.27 (talk) 08:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

1 precisely because you didn't register. You appear to be using a shared ip address. Best thing is to register an account.

2 see the bottom of the page.

3 by clicking the blue talk link against your IP address. CarbonLifeForm (talk) 11:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

User talk:65.54.98.27, the talk page for the IP address used to post here, has warnings but does not mention high schools or sports. It's possible you have a dynamic IP address and got a message on another IP talk page. If that is the case then we cannot say which it was. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:14, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

BUYING FROM WIKIPEDIA

Resolved

 – Wikipedia’s cafépress shop pointed out to user

Have asked before but didn't have the time to buy before my travel, and now I forgot where to find it... - Where do I find the page where one can buy posters, T-shirts etc from Wikipedia? Do I need an account to be able to buy? All the best, Charlie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.247.50.178 (talk) 09:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

There might be other places, but here is one. Algebraist 10:27, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

VERY MUCH THANK YOU !!!!! Now finally I could order. All the best to you - Charlie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.247.50.178 (talk) 11:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Editing a page with no Editing link

A well known personality has certain details displayed in Wikipedia which I have been asked if I can remove. I have created an account as normal, and logged in, but there is no link on his page to allow me to edit the details. Neither is there a padlock indicating that it is locked.

Am I missing something?

Bob Jury —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobjury (talk • contribs) 11:21, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You have a conflict of interest. If the details don't violate Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons then you are discouraged from editing the article. You can make a suggestion on the talk page instead (click "discussion" at the top to get there). See Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from subject) for some types of problems. Some articles have no edit links to the right but only an "edit this page" tab at the top. Protecting an article and adding the padlock are different actions which don't always happen together. Click "history" and then "View logs for this page" to see a log which will include protections. If it's only semi-protected then you can edit it when your account is 4 days old. If it's fully protected then you can place {{Editprotected}} on the talk page with your request. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Unresolved

Is there an opposite of template:resolved ? CarbonLifeForm (talk) 11:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

In some situations you can use one of {{Unresolved}}, {{Stale}}, {{Stuck}}. If it appears people have just overlooked an old section then it sometimes helps to make a new post there, visible on watchlists and the page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:17, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Reverting banned user

Can I remove the POV edits and POV statements in an article talk page by a sock of banned user. If I delete or revert the edits in article talk page by the sock, will it be violation of any policy? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 11:59, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Be bold and do it. CarbonLifeForm (talk) 13:11, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If the statements on the Talk page are not violating any Wikipedia policies (such as WP:NPA), I would simply leave them to be archived later. POV edits to an article, though, can be removed immediately. -- Kesh (talk) 16:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

log in

hi...i'm having trouble logging in...never had this trouble before...sent for a new password and still can't get in...what gives...thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.13.232 (talk) 14:00, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Is anything at Help:Logging in of help? Did you receive the new password and use correct capitalization? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

template format question

I am trying write {{sep entry}} to link to articles at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy but am having trouble with the code.

I need

Wikipedians (2008-01-31). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/Helpdesk/. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

to read

[6] entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Wikipedians, 2008-01-31.

Thanks in advance, and ignore this message if the two lines above appear identical. скоморохъ ^ѧ 15:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The above links don't appear to work...? Scarian^{Call me Pat} 15:39, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Apparently the goal was merely to make the template call {{sep entry|Helpdesk||Wikipedians|2008-01-31}} in the first line produce the text in the second line. The template has been edited since the post and currently produces an identical line so I guess the problem is resolved. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks like it is working to me. You got the template to append the "Helpdesk" page name to the link base. So, if you put that template on a philosophy page that has a matching entry at SEP you are all set. Seems like you should add a pipe (|) and repeat the page name variable so that the initial link shows up as word instead of a number. —Noah 15:55, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

My talk page is getting too long

Does somebody want to teach me how to archive?the juggreserection ^IstKrieg! 15:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I haven't done it myself, but this page seems helpful.—Noah 15:42, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I would like to replace Levamisole.svg with Levamisole2.svg but I'm a new user

Levamisole was listed as being in need of replacement in SVG so I went to the trouble of creating a nice .SVG image. But, someone beat me to it with what I think is not quite as nice an image. Look at how the wedge bond joins with the benzene and the proper ACS use of atom labels. (Although my image does have text issues with FireFox 2, but not FireFox 3). I thought I saw a notice saying I would have to ask the help desk to move the image for me.

oldimage

versus new image —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.71.243.155 (talk) 16:23, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

So could someone make a judgement and replace the original if it's deemed worthy. I will try to avoid replication in the future. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.71.243.155 (talk) 16:21, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Responded on user talk. --omtay38 16:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Template for something that needs translating into another language?

I have come across an Islam-related article (namely, Sadaqah) whose title needs translating into Arabic at the start of the article (like the other Muslim terms in their respective articles - see, for instance, Zakat). Which template do I need in order to flag this issue up and have someone provide a translation?

Thanks in advance! It Is Me Here (talk) 18:42, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know, but something on Wikipedia:Template messages/translation might work. --Teratornis (talk) 20:48, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

List of questions

Would I break a rule/law if I compile a list of most... well... dumbest questions on WP:RD and publish it in a website? --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 19:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You'd have to comply with the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Other than that... myself, I'd argue that it might be deemed a violation of WP:CIVIL to mock the querents like that; but then, I'm a Quaker, and take civility unusually seriously. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

WP:CIVIL only applies to Wikipedia; the list would be on another site, where WP:CIVIL does not apply. Wikipedia has no grounds for telling other sites what to do, other than comply with the GFDL as it applies to copying Wikipedia's content. The whole point of the GFDL is that we allow people to re-use our content as they please, even in ways we may personally dislike. Also, such a list would not necessarily constitute mockery, provided that it merely lists some questions which already appeared on WP:RD. (If some readers conclude on their own that a question is mockable, that's up to them to decide. Lots of people laugh at lots of things, and there isn't much we can do to stop them. But we can choose not to submit to our own "embarrassment genes.") To constitute mockery, the list would also have to include some commentary telling us what the site owner thinks about the questions. And even if the site owner expresses a negative opinion, it's still up to the reader to decide whether to agree with it. Making fun of other people is a comedic mainstay; people like Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien have earned fortunes from it, and have become extremely popular as a result. They probably would not be so popular if they habitually insulted their audiences - most people find it much easier to laugh at other people than to laugh at themselves. --Teratornis (talk) 20:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Userspace question

Is there an easy way to view a complete list of user subpages for a given user?--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 19:56, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Sure. Go to Special:Prefixindex, type the user's name and set the namespace first to user, then to user talk.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you want to put links on your user page to all of your own user subpages and user talk pages, this handy markup does the trick:

*[{{fullurl:Special:Prefixindex|namespace=2}}&from={{PAGENAMEE}} See all my user subpages]
**[{{fullurl:Special:Prefixindex|namespace=3}}&from={{PAGENAMEE}} and all their talk pages]

See it in action here: User:Teratornis#User sub-pages. --Teratornis (talk) 20:26, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick reply.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 20:36, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Display trouble

I'm not sure where to ask this question, or whether it might be a problem with my browser, but here goes...Until a few days ago, I always had a little bar across the bottom of the screen (when in WP) that would show the name of the link when I hovered over it with my pointer. Now it's gone and I don't know why and it's really bugging me...I didn't realize how much I used it! Anyone know how I can get it back? SlackerMom (talk) 20:07, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Chances are it's a browser problem. What browser are you using? --omtay38 20:14, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are using Internet Explorer, you need to go to View/Toolbars and make sure that Address Bar is checked. SpinningSpark 20:18, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The bar at the bottom of the screen is the Status Bar. --teb728 t c 20:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, perfect! Thank you VERY much. Yes, it was actually the "Status Bar" that needed to be checked. I must have unchecked it by accident in some editing fury! Much obliged! (All is now right with the world...) SlackerMom (talk) 20:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The Dim Mak

I was wondering if there is any documentation concerning the Dim Mak secrets in physiology? The time aspects etc are they an intrgral part of this study of Dim Mak(Oriental...Death Touch)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.135.162.85 (talk) 20:56, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello! This is the help desk, a place for asking questions about the usage of wikipedia. This question may be better suited for the reference desk. Best regards! --omtay38 20:58, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the 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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. The Helpful One 21:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

How to edit a section

How do you edit a section? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lmboone2 (talk • contribs) 21:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

See: Help:Section#Section editing. --Teratornis (talk) 21:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

How to create my own page

how do i create my own page-a completely new one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hurricaneroger (talk • contribs) 21:06, 31 January 2008 (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 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.

The Helpful One 21:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but I think that Hurricaneroger may have meant user sub-pages. Information on that can be found here. Icestorm815 (talk) 21:16, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

homeless people

hello i am doing a scince fair prodject on how homeless people might have mental problems do u have any pages that are about that?? it would be a lot of help.. from sarah —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.29.26.232 (talk) 21:37, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the 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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

See Homelessness which does detail this issue. Unfortunately, it is not a very well verified article. Be wary of any text that does not have a citation after it. Ideally, you should be looking to the sources cited, and not the encyclopedia article, for rigor in academic research.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Add text to a image

How do i add text to a image on wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ohrchodosh (talk • contribs) 21:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Use this code.[[Image:name of image|thumb|caption text]] The placement is defaulted to the right of the page, but you can add a placement parameter such as "|left" to change the default. You can also change the size (usually not recommended) by typing "|(numeral) px." Just a note on terminology. This place is Wikipedia. A wiki is any site using wiki software (there are thousands of them). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)

Loss of session data

On Jan 30, I attempted to create a new page/article (my first)titled, "Cooperative living arrangements"

After spending considerable time to input text,, I hit "Save page".

I then got a screen that said "Sorry! We could not process your edit due to loss of session data. Please try again."

My new article appeared on the screen as "Preview". When I clicked "Article", it disappeared.

In spite of much searching, I have not been able to find it again.

How does this happen?

Can I retrieve my input in any way?

Do I have to start all over again? If I do re-input all the text, how do I know that the same thing won't happen again?

Please advise.

Thanks!Speers (talk) 22:01, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

On my browser, at least, immediately clicking 'back' returns me to the edit screen with all my edits in place. If it's longer ago, you may be able to find your data in your browser history. 131.111.8.104 (talk) 22:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

No, if you click article, you will have gone to the article page again and lost all the text. You should have clicked on "Save" again. This error happens if you have been composing your message too long. The edit page is not sure anymore about who you are and where you are from, and needs an intermediate step to confirm that you really did press the submit button. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Your text is gone and no, you don't know that it won't happen again. This eventually happens to anyone who writes online a lot if they don't take precautions. The lesson learned is: never click save/post/submit on any online forum, website, etc. without at least highlighting and copying your proposed text, and if it's lots of text that you've slaved over, saving it somewhere such as in a wordpad document.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:16, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Even if you clicked "article", you may be able to get back to where you were typing in your text by clicking "back" on your browser. If you've done other things after that, you still might get there by clicking "back" a number of times, going back past everything you did after that, until you get back to where you were editing. I did that just now, to test: I clicked "project page" (which is like clicking "article", except that the help desk isn't an article) and I then clicked "back" and got back to the edit box with half this post still in it.

In other words, I don't think it's saved at Wikipedia, but it might still be in your browser's cache or whatever.

Sorry you lost all that work.

I'm not sure, but I think it might help next time if you click "preview" every couple of minutes. Then the Wikipedia server knows you're still there. If you're adding a lot of material, it's probably a good idea to click "save page" after every few paragraphs, so that if your Internet connection gets broken or anything, you only lose a few paragraphs at most. Or, save it now and then in another application as someone suggested above. Saving after every tiny little change is discouraged because it adds too many lines to the page history and to the Recent Changes log. --Coppertwig (talk) 00:46, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Creating a Wikiproject Banner TEMPLATE

I need help creating a template to house my wikiproject banner. I'm not confident enough to make one on my own, however with some help I might be able to have it done by weeks end.  :: RatedR ^{Leg of Lamb} 23:16, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

You can request templates at Wikipedia:Requested templates. However, if you provide some detail about what you want in the template, depending on its complexity, someone here might just bang it out for you; impossible to do without those details. You can explore other Wikiproject banners here. It would likely be very helpful in any request for the template for you say you want it to resemble/have the features of an existing template you can name.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:31, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

3.5 FLOPPY

3.5 floppy:how do i download WIKI erial to disk off the internet, and then retrievE the information off the disk whether online or offline ? i think i'm not finding a character somewhere. NOTE:I HAVE WINDOWS 98, AND AMERICA ONLINE. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.215.29.80 (talk) 23:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The Help Desk if for asking questions about using Wikipedia only. Cheers, LAX 23:35, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This is technically about Wikipedia. Anyway, in most browsers, including AOL, there should be a "Save" option in the File menu. Save the page (it should be an HTML file) to the floppy. As floppies can only hold ~1.39 MB of data, an article of average length should fit on there fine, however if you want to store pictures or multiple articles you will run into problems. XENON54 | talk | who? 23:36, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

3.5 floppy part 2

im trying to retrieve wikipedia material (error in last message)from the disk, i know it went through, i just can't call it up. looking for the proper setting and where to find it.63.215.29.80 (talk) 23:42, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This sounds like a question for the computing reference desk. The nice folks over there know everything there is to know about computers and hopefully can help you with your problem. XENON54 | talk | who? | 23:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Signature question

I have a question of my own about signatures. Some users (O and Mercury come to mind) have complicated signatures that display the post time in a format of their choosing. As you are probably confused by now, let me create an example of what I'm looking for:

• XENON54 | talk | who? | 31/01/08, 23:51_GMT

How do I do that? You can see that I've attempted to do this in my above posts, but I have been unable to override the time that automatically appears. XENON54 | talk | who? 23:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you can use Help:Magic words#Time. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:23, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but here are some things to try:

• Click "my preferences"-->"user profile" and click the "raw signature" box.
• Include the formatted date-time as part of your signature, then get in the habit of signing your posts using only three tildes (~~~), which leaves off the time.
• If all else fails, ask one of the users who has a nifty signature like that how they did it. :-) --Coppertwig (talk) 00:38, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I think Xenon is just looking for tildes -- Use ~~~~ to add your User name and the date and time to all Talk page edits. Corvus cornix_talk 03:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

No, no, I know all about tildes. I want to compress my signature by formatting the time a certain way. Anyway, as you can see, Coppertwig's method works - thanks! XENON54 | talk | who? | 01 Feb 2008 11:47_GMT

February 1

autohide TOC

Is there code that will auto hide a very long TOC? I don't want to remove it, I just want it to be hidden by default when people view the page. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 00:01, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

{{TOChidden}} PrimeHunter (talk) 00:18, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Is there a reason why every hidden alternative to a template I've seen looks horrible? I'd rather have a stick figure TOC than that. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 02:01, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You find the "Bar" that would be on top of the true TOC, to be ugly? I'm not really sure where your problem with hidden templates are atm. Perhaps you can explain a bit more. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 02:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Is it not technically feasible to code them to look like the regular templates but with a hide command? And if so there could only be one template with the ability to toggle hidden with parameter code. Why must the hidden TOC have the word CONTENT right above the word CONTENT, it's unbecoming of Wikipedia. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 08:38, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't think it is feasible, since the regular table of contents isn't a template, it's generated by the MediaWiki keyword __TOC__ What we'd need is a MediaWiki enhancement that would simply use a keyword to set the proper one to hidden by default (assuming JavaScript is enabled). But the need for an autohidden TOC is sometimes disputed as being only a matter of personal preference. • Anakin ^(talk) 11:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Brand Named Handbags

Why do people prefer Brand named bags like Gucci or prada, over non named brand bags? What do you all think? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.72.124.67 (talk) 00:10, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I think this question belongs on the reference desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

How do I Change my user page?

How do I Change my user page?JDog 00:23, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Your user page is User:JDog Powers. To edit it, go to that page and click "edit this page" at the top. If you mean you want to change your username, see Wikipedia:Changing username. Sign your posts using four tildes, like this: ~~~~ I hope this helps. --Coppertwig (talk) 00:28, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I tried and a pop-up came up saying do you want to find save of cancel.JDog 00:35, 1 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by JDog Powers (talk • contribs)

If "Use external editor by default" is checked at Editing in Special:Preferences then uncheck it. Your signature should link to your user page. Uncheck "Raw signature" at Special:Preferences or design a signature linking to User:JDog Powers. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:44, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

How do I add a picture to my user page? JDog 00:59, 1 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by JDog Powers (talk • contribs)

To add an image to your userpage and [[Image:<Image name>]] for example to add the Example image it would be [[Image:Example.jpg]], which would produce . Also note that only free images (not fair use) may appear on your user page. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 01:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

how do you start o whole new page on something

i am an artist and want to advertise my new band —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.234.247 (talk) 01:16, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

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 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. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 02:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

See also my instructions in the section "making" below. --Coppertwig (talk) 02:37, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Although Wikipedia has articles about bands, it does not advertise them. Any band covered must already be notable and the article must be written in a neutral encyclopedic tone. Inasmuch as your band is new, it is unlikely that it already has the notability required for a Wikipedia article. --teb728 t c 06:41, 1 February 2008 (UTC) Also, since you apparently are closely associated with the band, you have a conflict of interest in writing about it, and you are discouraged from doing so. --teb728 t c 06:53, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Using HTML Markup Codes

Can you use HTML markup codes, such as the color code <font=color=#9955BB>this color code? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnnydeppluvr3942 (talk • contribs) 02:19, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes Wikipedia does support color codes such as <font color="#9955BB">this color code?</font> which would produce this color code?. Also I think there was a page that listed the supported HTML codes, but I can't remember what the name of the page was. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 02:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

The page about HTML in wiki that you are referring to, can be found here. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 02:57, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I added the missing / in the second font tag, so it doesn't change the font for the rest of the page. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 03:02, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

And for a list of the available HTML tags in MediaWiki, see Help:HTML in wikitext. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 03:03, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

making

How do you make your own new page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.253.109.55 (talk) 02:26, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

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 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. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 02:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Once you're sure you want to create an article, you can type the name of the article into the search box and click "go". It will tell you there is no such article, and it will give a red link "Create this page". Click on that to create the new page. --Coppertwig (talk) 02:36, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Remove history

{{helpme}} I need help, someone writing about me and my name is still in the history despite the page being edited.

Hello anonymous user. People will help you here, but we need to know which page has this problem. Can you give us a link? An indication to where your name is in that page's history and why it should not be would also be appreciated. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 03:11, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You can submit a request at WP:RFO Soxred93 | talk count bot 03:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

hi

how can i create a new word and get the definition for it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neworleansalgiers (talk • contribs) 05:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

If it is a word that is in common use, you could add it to Wiktionary. If it is a new word that you have just created, I know of no place for it. In any case Wikipedia is an encyclopedia—not a place for definitions. --teb728 t c 06:29, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You also might want to check out the following links: Wikipedia:Avoid neologisms, Wikipedia:No original research, Wikipedia:Verifiability, and Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not for things made up one day. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 06:37, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You can go to the Urban Dictionary website and add it there. Corvus cornix_talk 23:22, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Contribution

What is my starting point in contributing an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aclopez714 (talk • contribs) 06:33, 1 February 2008 (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 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. VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 06:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Invader Species

list of invader specis found in south Africa —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.151.130.2 (talk) 09:59, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I tried a few searches and there does not appear to be any article on Wikipedia exploring this subject. 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.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:10, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

List of invasive species#Southern Africa looks like a place to start. ("Invasive" is the standard term here, rather than "invader," possibly explaining the search futility.) --Teratornis (talk) 18:14, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

adding a new section or page

Hi - I can see how to edit a section. How do I start a new section or page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Deborah M Bailey (talk • contribs) 11:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Section. Click "edit this page" at top to edit the whole page.

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 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 (talk) 11:39, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

list of all the articles of a category and it's subcategories

Can I see list of all the articles belongs to a category and all the subcategories of the category (recursively) ? Actually I need list of all the articles of "Mathematics" category and it's subcategories. But Category:Mathematic page shows articles which belongs directly to the Mathematics category and links to subcategories. That's not my wish. My wish is "a" list of all the articles of Mathematics category and it's subcategories. Is it possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.46.24.54 (talk) 12:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't believe so. You will have to click on the subcategory links to view articles in those categories. XENON54 | talk | who? | 01 Feb 2008 12:15_GMT

There are too many mathematics articles for a single list. Have you seen List of mathematics articles? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:20, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

There are some tools that can do this on the Toolserver (which seems to be currently down) including CatScan and CategoryTree. You can run CategoryTree directly from here using Special:CategoryTree, entering "Mathematics" as the category to display and selecting either "all pages" or "pages except images". Please note however that the output on Wikipedia is limited to only display a maximum of 200 pages per category. Nanonic (talk) 13:57, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Warning templates

Is there a series of progressively more severe warning templates, like those for vandalism, that apply to non-notable contributions? I am thinking here of schoolkids who add their own birthday to the October 17 article for instance or want to add the goals they got in the playground to a list of top goal scorers. This sort of thing seems to come up a lot but none of the templates I know of seems to say quite the right thing. The nearest I can find is {{subst:uw-unsor1}} but this is really aimed at something else. SpinningSpark 15:44, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

uw-unsorX is certainly the closest template you will find to match the behavior you described. To some extent it doesn't really matter too much as the kids doing the vandalism aren't going to care if you got it right. ;-) FWIW, When I'm not sure if the template is going to match I just fall back on the general vandalism template. —Noah 18:42, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I take your point that at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, if they stop, problem over, if they don't, then treat as vandalism. But my problem is for the first one, or possibly two warnings, I might well be dealing with a misunderstanding of Wikipedia rather than vandalism so I don't want to be throwing that accusation around at first. The uw-unsorX templates have the problem that they suggest (and even volunteer my help) that adding references will make the entry ok, when in reality, there are no such references to be had. SpinningSpark 22:14, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

People add non-notable birthdays to the days of the year article like fifty times a day. I just revert it and don't even bother warning the first time, because they tend not to do it again. • Anakin ^(talk) 11:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I give them a uw-t1 warning. Corvus cornix_talk 21:37, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

User ID?

In my user preferences, underneath my username, is a user ID number. What purpose does this serve? Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 16:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

A technical means. It is coupled to your username, and the primary means trough which your contributions to Wikipedia are tracked in the databases. Having it separate from your username is helpful in case a user wants to change his username. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:28, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Recommendation for using sortable tables in other articles

Sorry for this long winded & possibly confusing post, but I think it may provide a useful feature that could be used throughout Wikipedia…

Based on a recent separation of article List of museums in the United States into separate Lists of museums by state , there has been an ongoing discussion as to the standard format of the new state level pages, see Talk:List of museums in the United States. One of the new proposed formats includes a sortable table such as List of museums in Alabama. However, one shortfall of this method is inability for articles on cities to link to the museum pages by state to show museums in their town as done in San Francisco. I always believed one of the strengths of Wikipedia is the ability for pages to link to each other. With this in mind, is it possible to create a code so that a page like San Francisco can automatically sort a table via a specific column using a specific search word? For example, if the List of museums in California was reformated like the List of museums in Alabama with one table for the entire state instead of sectioned by city, would it be possible to link to that list so that all the museums in “San Francisco” show at the top of the table when linked to & accessed from the San Francisco page? In other words, when the table of museums is viewed, it automatically sorts with all museums in “San Francisco” at top of the “Location” column (& the same would happen if Los Angeles links to the table with all LA museums appearing at the top). This would preserve the way it works now for San Francisco. (The only way it works now is to create separate tables by city, which will no longer work if the entire state is merged into one table.) This would probably require some code writing, but once done, this would be very useful feature for articles across Wikipedia. This would allow articles to incorporate tables in many cool ways in the future. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 16:39, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm by no means an expert on what you're trying to do, but did you see Help:Sorting#Sorting with hidden sortkey and Help:Sorting#Secondary sortkey? Maybe there is already some feature you could use. If not, then while you're waiting for someone to code this feature, in the meantime what's wrong with using categories to build lists of museums by whatever attribute you need? Also note that the problem you describe above is an instance of a general class of problems that structured wikis and semantic wikis may someday solve a little better than we are partially solving now with categories and sortable tables. For an even more comprehensive solution, see Douglas Lenat's Cyc program:

• Computers versus Common Sense on YouTube

While you're watching Lenat's talk, notice how he mentions skilled human labor as a limiting factor in his attempt to build the Cyc system. The whole time you'll be shouting "Take a look at Wikipedia's collaborative model!" but unfortunately he won't hear you. --Teratornis (talk) 20:39, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Use of categories was discussed & I agree that using them has many merits in certain cases. However, in the case of Lists of Museums, it's a huge work-in-progress & many of the museums on the list do not yet have articles in Wikipedia, see List of museums in Florida. Maybe I'm missing something on that point, but it seems to me that using categories generally works well when articles are already included in Wikipedia? Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 21:00, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to export a sortkey into a table from a linked article? For example, could the San Francisco article plug in “San Francisco” into a variable sortkey at the “Location” column of the table to initiate a sort for San Francisco? If so, how could I do this? Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 21:21, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

On categories: yes, a page must exist before it can be in a category. To be in a category, a page must contain a category link, so the page must exist to do that. Categories are therefore for organizing pages which exist. If the list of museums contains many red links, it sounds as if you are also using it as a to-do list. Nothing is improper about that, but in general, to-do lists work better as subpages of the appropriate WikiProject. In other words, use the WikiProject to keep track of pending work, rather than article space, and you won't have to worry as much about overzealous admins deleting your stubs and so on. You can write pages under the WikiProject specifically for organizing the work, so they won't have to simultaneously meet all the standards for pages in the main article space. As far as how to dynamically insert sortkeys into a table from an article, the straightforward way would probably be to put the whole table into a big template so you can pass parameters to it. You might search Wikipedia's Template: namespace for examples first, that is, look for templates by other people that contain big tables with fancy sorting possibilities. For example:

• table sortable

finds some interesting templates: {{Nts}}, {{Dts}}, etc. that you could study for clues. --Teratornis (talk) 17:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

article traffic tracking

A few weeks ago, I went to some external site that generated little traffic charts for any wikipedia page you typed in. (Not just a list of the top pages). I think it was new when I went to it. Does anyone know what this page is? I can't find it in Google or in my Firefox history... Calliopejen1 (talk) 16:46, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, there's a stumper. I could not find anything like the site you describe by trying some Google searches either. I suggest reading the articles: Web counter and Web analytics and their talk pages. Maybe you will see some jargon term that jogs your memory about some specific text you saw on this site, enabling you to choose good keywords for a Google search. For example, the Web analytics article links to Web Traffic Data Sources & Vendor Comparison which lists a number of sites, maybe including the site you visited. --Teratornis (talk) 17:49, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Are you looking for the WikiDashboard from PARC.com? —Noah 18:38, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Nope, but hurray for google desktop! I totally forgot I had reinstalled it and could use it to search everything I've looked at.... It's http://stats.grok.se in case anyone else is interested. Calliopejen1 (talk) 20:44, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Writing an article

I would like to place an article on a person whom I and the martial arts community feels is important what is the best way to do this with Wiki? I have tried and I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Any advice? thanksGeorgear22 (talk) 16:47, 1 February 2008 (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 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. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 16:59, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

becoming a recognized authority

To Whom It May Concern,

I am one of the owners of www.dugoutcentral.com - a baseball site operated by former major leaguer Mike Pagliarulo and baseball scouts. One of our readers tried to link to one of our articles on Wikipedia, but it was taken down with the note "not a recognized authority". My question is how we become a recognized authority in the minds of the Wikipedia editor community.

As evidence of our authority, I submit to you two links.

1. Rob Neyer of ESPN writing about us: http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3220317&searchName=Neyer_Rob&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3220317%26searchName%3dNeyer_Rob

2. Scouting report posted in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/playoffs/2007-10-03-indiansyanks-watch_N.htm

Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.247.97.184 (talk) 17:08, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You will find this helpful in deciding what kind of links are considered desirable in Wikipedia articles; Wikipedia:External links.

Of the two links you provide, one is a blog, and therefore not considered an authoritative source and the other does not appear to mention your organisation as far as I can see. It is also helpful when asking questions on a specific edit to an article to provide a link to that article, or even better, a diff of the actual edit in question. SpinningSpark 17:40, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, beg your pardon, I was searching the USA Today page for "dugoutcentral" as all one word. I now see that you are there. SpinningSpark 17:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

country flags

Hi! How do I add a flag next to a title in level 4? For example:

Heading

works, but:

Heading

doesnt work!

Ferdinand h2 (talk) 17:14, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

You need to put it in the heading tag, as I have done. Algebraist 17:39, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

do i have to be a black man to join gods the earths?

im puerto rican and i would like to know what i have to do because im a muslin but im looking to get smarter and i know i still could surpass some knowledge so i would like to know what i have to do76.118.222.224 (talk) 19:37, 1 February 2008 (UTC)yusuf7777

Hey! By the sounds of your question, you might think we are directly related to the material in the articles. However we are not. If you would like to add to this Wikipedia, see Help:Editing. I recommend getting an account, as it has many benefits. Good luck! _{WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN}^{play it cool.} 20:06, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

new entry

Can I begin a new topic or page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blmf20 (talk • contribs) 21:27, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

yes, first search for it to make sure that it doesn't already exist, and then make sure the article is notable and has suitable references, and once your done editing the article hit save.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 21:31, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Hi there, you sure can!

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 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. --The Helpful One 21:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Gallary of User Styles

In the Gallary of User Styles under Voice of All's Admin Monobook, am i permitted in transferring the monobook,js into my monobook, most of the scripts on the list i use, however some of the scripts won't probably work because of my current posistion but am i able to. Terra ^{User page} 22:03, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Please elabourate. Are you trying to copy Voice of All's monobook and paste it into User:Terra/monobook.js? I am confused by the wording of your question. XENON54 | talk | who? | 01 Feb 2008 22:43_GMT

Here's the link which i'm wanting to have http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gallery_of_user_styles#Voice_of_All.27s_Admin_Monobook it leads directly to what i'm talking about. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 10:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I've decided to place the script into my monobook.js, there's nothing that new about it, all it includes is some of the scripts which i have already got, all i can see from the script is two new features on the toolbox which is New pages & the new users links. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 10:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

your copyright infringement comments to image

re copyright infringements against image of my product arresoe 6 system 6320 for which I am the sole proprietor of all rights inclusive all industrial and copyrights world-wide my rights as industrial designer and constructor have to be respected they can be informed immediately to a secure telefax or email address this regarding to french,german,belgian and us design patents as well as the awards received - at the file specification it is informed that the arresoe 6 system has the US Design Patent 267192 BRUYERE-VINCENT INDUSTRIAL DESIGN —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michel de la Bruyere Vincent (talk • contribs) 22:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

The image in question: Image:Mbv-arresoe-6-system-1981-bg-6320.jpg, needs a fair use rationale to prove that it is fair use. _{WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN}^{play it cool.} 22:41, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

It also needs a license/copyright tag from WP:ICT. Also, the page mentions something about public domain, but the watermark says “Copyright. All rights reserved.” I do not understand. --teb728 t c 23:04, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

It appears you are the designer of the item in question and wish to release the image into the public domain. If so, and if you (rather than the photographer) indeed also own the copyright to that specific photograph, then you should edit the image description page and add "{{PD-self}}" to it. You should also preferably upload a version of the image with the surrounding text removed, in order to fully comply with our image use policy (but if you don't, someone else will probably crop the image for you). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:38, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

AfD closure by non-admin

Resolved

 – Handed off to Wikipedia:AN/I#Pookeo9 - user has been admonished to refrain from closing AfD debates

Can non-admins close an AfD prematurely or is this vandalism? Example: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Southern Cat Rocks On (and look through the history). It looks like this user has been doing this a bit lately: Special:Contributions/Pookeo9. Wyatt Riot (talk) 23:14, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this needs to be brought up in WP:AN/I. Soxred93 | talk count bot 23:20, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism

I am a member on a couple other wikis so I know how to edit and stuff. What I am wondering is what really is Wikipedia vandalism and what can I as a user do to help? Swirlboy39 (talk) 23:28, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Hey, welcome to Wikipedia! It's not often a user comes to Wikipedia with some wiki editing experience! See WP:VAND for info on vandalism. Soxred93 | talk count bot 23:31, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Vandalism is the damage of articles, like removing large areas of text without a valid reason, or replacing a page with obscenity's, stuff like that. You can report obvious and persistent vandals at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Before posting there, a final warning in an escalating series should have been posted to the user's talk page (for example {{Uw-vandal4}}, {{Uw-spam4}} or {{Uw-speedy4}}), and the user must have vandalized within the last few hours, including after the final warning was given. Various warning templates can be found at Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace. Your block request is unlikely to be acted upon unless you follow these steps. Cases that are not simple vandalism can be reported at WP:AN/I. Of course, in conjunction with warning against and reporting vandalism, you have the ability, mandate and are encouraged to revert all instances of vandalism you find yourself.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 23:34, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Have a look at Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages, and consider watching a bunch of pages from there to find and undo vandalism quickly. Remember to always assume good faith unless an edit is obvious vandalism. • Anakin ^(talk) 12:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

If you are just looking to go on a vandal hunt rather than looking after specific pages, a good place to start is Special:Recentchanges. Click on the "diff" next to any suspicious item to see the edit. Most likely to be vandals are IP accounts, accounts without a userpage (red links) and edits without an edit summary. But as Anakin says, assume good faith. A redlinked IP talkpage with no edit summary might be a good editor who just wants to stay anonymous. Concentrate on edits to main article space rather than talk pages. Best vandal types for humans to go after are those that sneakily alter facts such as numbers. More obvious vandalism like obscenities and page blanking are usually caught by the bots much quicker than you can get to them. Good hunting! SpinningSpark 16:58, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

February 2

Renaming Users

How long does it take for a 'crat to rename users here? There are some outstanding requests. That is including mine. Thanks! Swirlboy39 (talk) 00:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Please be patient; it should be acted upon soon.   jj137 (talk) 00:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

What is Wikistalking?

If I'm aware of a user who's making a lot of spelling and usage errors, as well as inserting subtle POV language into articles, is it "wikistalking" to run down his contributions page and correct those problems? Is it better to just let the errors stand? --Hyperbole (talk) 01:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The spelling and usage errors are easy to fix and doing so would not be wikistalking at all. You may want to get a second opinion on any possible non-neutral point of view language to make sure it is not a difference of personal opinion. As long as you remain civil and assume good faith with the user and his/her edits, then any improvements would be great! Hope this helps! --omtay38 01:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Harassment#Wikistalking. As I understand it, if your intent in following the other user around is to annoy the other user, then it's wikistalking and is a very bad thing; but if your intent is to correct the user's errors, then it's a normal Wikipedia editing process and it's OK to use the user's contributions history that way. It's helpful to correct spelling errors. It's probably advisable to be extra careful not to annoy the other user, so that your intentions are not misunderstood. You might want to post a (carefully diplomatic) friendly message to the other user explaining what you're doing. --Coppertwig (talk) 02:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I understand the need to protect the hypersensitive and so on, but a poor speller has a problem that may cause him or her to lose respect and potential income in real life. In various books on technical writing, I've seen claims that people who write poorly have a difficult time getting promoted in their careers (this certainly seems intuitive - communication skill is fundamental to functioning in an organization, and even more critical to leading others). If everyone is afraid to tell the person with a problem that he or she has a problem, how is that person going to improve? On Wikipedia, a poor speller wastes the time of other users, by injecting errors that others must clean up, and by lowering the quality and thus the credibility of Wikipedia articles that contain uncorrected misspellings. I think Wikipedia works best when every user takes responsibility for the quality of his or her own work, and tries not to waste the time of others. That does not mean everything we do needs to be perfect, but we should thank others for pointing out our mistakes and giving us an opportunity to improve. Wikipedia has 47,839,027 registered users, so we can probably do just fine without the few who spell poorly and are content to stay that way. Wikipedia is hardly the place for shrinking violets anyway; all of our work is subject to "merciless editing" by others, and we must all continuously learn from other users who have more skill in various areas. --Teratornis (talk) 17:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Creating special characters within page title

I'm trying to create a page for an album that has "->" in the title... when I insert a link to start off, [[ladida -> hello]] doesn't work... how can I code it so that the eventual page title is "ladida -> hello"?

Thx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.106.82.156 (talk) 01:03, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

A page title cannot contain # < > [ ] | { } in it's title per the naming technical restrictions. However, it is also impossible to create a page without first creating an account. Hope this helps! --omtay38 01:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Deleted page

Resolved.

Hi, one of my pages was deleted, Cyrus Belt, and I contacted Lectonar to consider restoring it, and I told him that I would like to discuss it with him. He has not replied since, and I am dissatisfied with his delay. He edited in the time between the time I talked to him and now, and I am getting the impression that he is ignoring me. What should I do? Am I able to post on the deletion review page anyway? This is the third time I've tried to contact him, but nothing has happened yet. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, I think that he hasn't been on since. However, I'll still try to contact him. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

If we are talking about this page then please do not bother Lectonar. The article went through the Articles for Deletion process and the consensus was that the page should be removed. The place to go at this point is WP:Why was my article deleted. —Noah 04:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

But when I recreated it, I fixed all of the problems with it. I added a notability aspect, and it sounded less news-y. I read the page already, and I feel as if nobody's taking me seriously. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

And in Hawaii right now, this is getting a lot of coverage on the news. I understand that the 23 month old baby's not a rocket scientist, doesn't have three gold records or even completed high school for that matter, but it is notable in the sense that the government of Hawaii will pass a law regarding domestic violence because of the death of Cyrus Belt (and the death of Janel Tupuola). Thus, he does have some notability now, doesn't he? — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:02, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You should probably re-read the arguments in the Article for Deletion discussion. Making it less newsy does not address the points people brought up there. One thing you might try is to create a user sub-page and work on the article there. Then go to the editor assistance page and ask some experienced folk to take a look at it. —Noah 05:06, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The only other apparent argument made there that I can see is that he's not notable, but I took care of that in the article that he deleted. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Alright then. At the very very least, can you give me the code for the page and let me work on it in one of my subpages first? I read about that on here, that I could ask an administrator to receive the code for me. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Odds are very high that within a few hours an admin will wander by here and help out. Be sure that when you have someone review the article that you point out the previous arguments so that they are aware of the history. Good luck. —Noah 05:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much for helping out! — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(unindent)Cuyler91093, do you still need the info from this article? If so, I could create a subpage for you from your user page and paste it there. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 05:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC) Thank you. I saw it, and I'd like to thank all of you guys for being more supportive. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 07:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Created material - how does it get posted (subject: Pickering Ribfest)

Not used this resource before, so created material and now I'm wondering how it gets promoted into production like the Burlington Ribfest material?

Thanks ... June —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbug morrison (talk • contribs) 05:39, 2 February 2008 (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 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. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Noah Salzman (talk • contribs) 06:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

June, first go to Help:Starting a new page - there's a box on that page where you can enter Pickering Ribfest and, as it says, click "Go". However, a couple of points: 1. I see you're a new user you might not yet have the rights to create a new page yet - your account has to be at least four days old before you can create pages (this is to discourage vandals etc. creating all junk). 2. Noah above perhaps has a point - the subject of your article has to be notable, so there's a danger your work could end up being deleted. (I have no idea whether the Pickering Ribfest is notable enough so can't help on that point). I think you should just go ahead and try, and see what happens. Cheers, --86.149.54.19 (talk) 10:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

New accounts can create pages right away. They must be 4 days old to move pages and edit semi-protected pages. User:Jbug morrison would be unsuited as an article. It reads like an advertisement written by the organizers and it doesn't demonstrate notability of the subject. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. I guess the Burlington Ribfest material you refer to is Canada's Largest Ribfest. That article currently only has references from the subject's own website and isn't a good goal for a new article although it's much better than User:Jbug morrison. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

problems scrolling utilyzing the touch-pad

on my new laptop touch pad i seem to have disenabled the scoller on the touch pad and cant seem to figure out how to re-enable it.. some help would be much appreciated! thanks email me at [ email removed ] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.72.27.244 (talk) 05:53, 2 February 2008 (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.Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 05:57, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, they will likely want to know what type of laptop you have and what operating system it's running. And please don't post your e-mail address here. We don't answer questions that way, and it will just attract spammers. Bovlb (talk) 06:38, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Sigma Phi Epsilon Colorado Alpha

On the list of Sigma Phi Epsilon chapters it says that number 10 Colorado Alpha is SEC which is incorrect because Colorado Alpha officialy recieved a charter in November of 2007. You can contact Sigma Phi Epsilon nationally to verify this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.177.195.89 (talk) 08:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi 67.177.195.89 - I've looked at List of Sigma Phi Epsilon chapters but unfortunately I've no understanding of Sigma Phi Epsilon to enable me to see what has to be fixed. Could you go ahead and fix it yourself? Thanks.--86.149.54.19 (talk) 08:49, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

my contribution to Origin theories of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have tried to contribute with my knowledge to above subject but all I have written has been deleted. my problem is I dont know why. in HISTORY i have found the following: (cur) (last) 01:10, 2 February 2008 Lambiam (Talk | contribs) (19,846 bytes) (Undid revision 188371898 by Pedpau (talk): fails WP:V, WP:RS and WP:NN. Take it to talk) (undo) I dont know if LAMBIAN is a USER or a ADMNISTRATOR but I accept I may have made some mistakes which are prohibited The problem is I do not know which ones ? USER : Pedpau

yours truly Pedro d´Orey Kopernikusstrasse 22 D - 10245 Berlin - Germany Pedpau (talk) 12:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Note that Lambian's edit summary has 3 links: "fails WP:V, WP:RS and WP:NN. Take it to talk". Talk refers to the talk page at Talk:Origin theories of Christopher Columbus where material can be discussed with other editors. Lambian is not an administrator but that shouldn't be important. Lambian is an experienced editor and has already posted at Talk:Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Portuguese theory redux where you can comment. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

How to suppress the TOC

I seem to recall seeing an article where a template was used to suppress the table of contents. Now I'd like to do the same myself (short article, but several sections), but can't find the template. Thanks. --RenniePet (talk) 12:37, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{TOChidden}} is what you want. XENON54 | talk | who? | 02 Feb 2008 12:38_GMT

The other way is not a template as such, but a magic word, called __NOTOC__, although I'm not sure what the guidelines on using it on articles are, as having a TOC or not may be a matter of personal preference. • Anakin ^(talk) 12:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that was fast, thanks. But I think the template I'd seen before completely suppressed the TOC. Your suggestion reduces it to a small box, but it still distracts, and is unnecessary in this context. --RenniePet (talk) 12:44, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, the second suggestion (which I hadn't noticed when I wrote the above) does what I want. Thanks! --RenniePet (talk) 12:46, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Table with "not-bold" header

Hello, could you please explain to me how to create a header in a table, in such a way that the header is not bold ? I have searched in the MoS and in Help:Table but I have not found the solution. Part of the problem is that I also want the table to be collapsible, so I would like to avoid "brute-force" like HTML markup. SyG (talk) 12:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Depending on the circumstances, you can just omit a header row indicated by ! and make a normal row with | instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that is an idea, but in this case I cannot use the "collapsible" as the normal row will be hidden as well, can I ? SyG (talk) 16:21, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Monobook.js

I've recently installed a a number of Tools, into my monobook.js file, some of these tools adds (Block this user) into the toolbox section, am i able to block IP user's with this tool, or is it only administrators who are allowed to. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 12:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Only administrators can block users, I can tell you that without even looking at your monobook.js! I hope this helps, --The Helpful One 13:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Only administrators can block IP's and other users. The tools may make the link that administrators can use to block but the software will not allow you to use it. Just click it to see what happens. If you are afraid of accidentally committing an offense then try Special:Blockip/Terra (administrators have to do more so you will not be blocked if an admin accidentally clicks that link). PrimeHunter (talk) 13:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I've tested it on my user, and it said it was limited to only Administrator's and i wasn't able to do so. At least now i know, i'll leave the script on my monobook.js and will remove it if it conflicts with my other scripts which i've got. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 13:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Reassigning contributions made when logged out to user ID?

I have made several changes to pages when I thought I was logged in, only to find that I wasn't. Is there any way to consolidate those into my User ID, given that the IP address matches? Thanks! NjtoTX (talk) 12:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

IP edits cannot be assigned to your account. If you are the only who has edited with that IP address then you can write on the IP user page that it is you (I suggest creating the page with your account and then signing a confirmation while logged out). If it's a recent edit in the page history then you can make a dummy edit saying the edit was by you in the edit summary. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Adding map to infobox

Hi.I have tried without success to add a map to the infobox at South Raynham, Norfolk. Similar to the one at East Runton. Where am I going wrong? Thanks Northmetpit (talk) 12:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm..coordinates need to be added to the infobox, and then it should show the map automatically, but I keep getting an error message. Arthena^(talk) 13:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Ahh, found it. There was a problematic space in one of the infobox parameters. You can add the map now by placing the right coordinates in the infobox. Arthena^(talk) 13:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

18- edit

may people under 18 edit wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.104.189.237 (talk) 13:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh yes, absolutely you can. Please take a quick look at Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia before creating any articles. Good luck! SpinningSpark 13:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I edit Wikipedia, and I'm under 18 stone. --Teratornis (talk) 16:48, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

How much under? - perhaps more cycling and less writing about it are in order SpinningSpark 23:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Teratornis' one-liner above is unusual. He makes many help desk posts so long that the finger exercise may be equivalent to other people cycling ;-) PrimeHunter (talk) 23:25, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia also has administrators under 18. Note that Wikipedia is not censored and Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Galactic Dominance

Is this page ok now? Because an admin added a prodwarning to it... —Preceding unsigned comment added by KI114 (talk • contribs) 13:36, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

On a summary look over it, my reckoning is that it fails to assert any Wikipedia:Notability, is unsourced, and from the tone and person of the writing, is purely original research. If it survives the WP:PROD, somebody may take it to WP:AFD for those reasons. • Anakin ^(talk) 13:48, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Looking at the article, I would say not. The reason given for the proposed deletion is that the article does not assert notability. None of the edits subsequent to the prod do anything to assert notability. Even if you were to assert notability in the article, this will only prevent speedy deletion. The article may still be deleted if notability cannot be proved. If you can prove notability, by for instance, a review of the proposed game in a gaming magazing or newspaper, then you should insert the reference in the article. SpinningSpark 13:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Nav-Header

Could someone explain to me why two of the images on my Nav-Header has vanished, i've checked the coding and everything hasn't been changed. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 13:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That's strange. The images do still exist but they don't even work if put in a position that has a working image, so I think you must be right it is not the code. My guess is that this is connected with the move to the new pre-processor and should be reported there (link a the top of your watchlist page)). SpinningSpark 14:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Even stranger, it is back ok now. Wasn't me though, I did not save any of my preview edits. SpinningSpark 14:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It might be the upload servers playing up again. They've been excruciatingly slow (taking several minutes) at resizing images for the last few days. Just have to wait sometimes. • Anakin ^(talk) 14:31, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to be sorted out now, the two images have returned as well as the image of the Terra's Night Watch userbox which vanished had re-appeared. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage}

Getting rid of unwanted watchlist item.

The last entry on my watchlist is:

Wikipedia:SOURCE

It is marked as a dead link, but it isn't, of course. When I look at the redirect page, it does not have an "unwatch" tab. When I check it and click on "remove titles" it still remains on my list.

When I "edit raw watchlist" and delete it, it is still on my list.

I tried "watch" then "unwatch". It is still my list.

How can I get rid of it? --Softtest123 (talk) 13:47, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That sounds very strange. It's only possible to make general suggestions, not knowing what's causing it, but try "edit raw watchlist" again, making sure to hit the "Update Watchlist" button, and try clearing your browser cache. If that does not fix it, post at WP:Village pump (technical) - in case there is some strange database issue the devs should know about. Hopefully this will help. • Anakin ^(talk) 13:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It also sounds strange to me. The general treatment of WP: has changed. I don't know whether this can cause watchlist problems if you were watching a WP: page like WP:SOURCE. Does http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WP:SOURCE&action=unwatch or http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:SOURCE&action=unwatch work? PrimeHunter (talk) 17:55, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

This may be some side effect of the WP: to Wikipedia: "namespace alias" feature change in the MediaWiki software. Some discussion about this change has appeared on the Help desk: Search Help desk for: WP: Wikipedia: namespace alias. Speaking for myself only, I have not been too fond of this change where I have noticed it. It seems likely to break some things that subtly depend on the previous way things worked. Wikipedia is so intricate that it's hard to change any basic feature without breaking something. --Teratornis (talk) 19:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't tried clearing my cache, so I did, though it seems that when I have had cache problems with Firefox before all I needed to do was simply reload the page. The problem persists.

I get:

Your watchlist has been updated.

1 title was removed:

    * Wikipedia:SOURCE (Talk)

Your watchlist contains 25 titles, excluding talk pages. 

and

...
Voluntary Voting System Guidelines
Voting machine
Wikipedia:SOURCE
User:WimdeValk
Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
Wikipedia:WikiProject Citation cleanup
...

every time I delete it

I'll submit this section to WP:Village pump (technical).--Softtest123 (talk) 22:51, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Traffic Details

Is it possible to get traffic details on a specific wikipedia page? Will wikipedia provide any information regarding traffic? Cowboys08 —Preceding comment was added at 16:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

See the FAQ in Wikipedia:Very Frequently Asked Questions, number 12. SyG (talk) 16:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Two questions

Q1: I have uploaded a file into Wikipedia, but do not know how to provide a link to it in an article I want to submit

Q2: I want to add a new section to an article, but all it seems to let me do is edit existing sections —Preceding unsigned comment added by CycleTimeChart (talk • contribs) 16:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

For question one (assuming the file is an image; Wikipedia is not a file-hosting server), type [[Image:<Imagename>|XXpx]], which will produce an image which is XX by XX pixels. For example, typing [[Image:Example.jpg|250px]] will produce an image that is 250 by 250 pixels. For the second question, click on an edit link and type:

• == Section title ==

You can create different levels with a different amount of equal signs. For example, === Level 3 section heading === will produce (surprise) a Level 3 section heading. See Help:Section and Help:Images for more. XENON54 | talk | who? | 02 Feb 2008 17:09_GMT

See more about images at Help:Images and other uploaded files. Click the "edit this page" tab at top to edit the whole page. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

IP Confusion

I'm logged into my Wiki account, and yet when I clicked on "Talk" next to one of the items on my watchlist it came up with a list of warnings for edits I haven't made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:150.176.79.10

Alexannah (talk) 17:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That 'talk' link is to the talk page of the user who made the relevant edit on your watchlist, in this case User:150.176.79.10. You can get to your own talk page by clicking 'my talk' in the top right of the screen. Algebraist 17:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Rex Gildo

User:Euroadonis keeps making destructive edits on the article. I revert them when I'm online, but if some others would put the article on their watchlists that would be helpful! --Lamme Goedzak (talk) 17:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You meant Euroadonis1... and it looks like user omtay has given an appropriate warning. —Noah 18:58, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The user has repeated his additions after the previous warning, I have given a final warning. If he/she continues, a report will be filed. Best regards! --omtay38 19:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

User repeated vandalism, so I have reported them to WP:AIV. -- Kesh (talk) 04:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

New article

how do i write an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jinkygav (talk • contribs) 20:17, 2 February 2008 (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 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.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 20:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

After all that, to actually start it you can see Help:Starting a new page. --Coppertwig (talk) 21:23, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I am trying to discourage references to Help:Starting a new page because it doesn't tell people what to do and what not to do. If they read Wikipedia:Your first article, which provides much more information, then there is no reason to go to Help:Starting a new page. Sbowers3 (talk) 22:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Edit counter tool

At this tool I entered Wicked (musical) and for some reason my name did not show up in the count even though I have numerous edits. What is going on?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm just guessing, but maybe since it uses "intelligent caching" and your edits are relatively recent, maybe it doesn't show the most recent edits yet. You could ask the user who wrote the tool --Coppertwig (talk) 21:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Convert template imprecision

At Tyrone Wheatley something seems to be wrong with {{convert}}. What might it be?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You can't do 'stone' (st) and 'kg' with just a space between them. I'm not sure but I think you need to pick one or the other. —Noah 21:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

"st kg" is an allowed parameter. What is the perceived problem? Are you aware of Template:Convert#Rounding? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Whoops, thanks for the clarification PrimeHunter. —Noah 22:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Does [7] give the result you wanted? PrimeHunter (talk) 23:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

editing tables

I am working on fixing up the links in pages and there are some tables that have the reference in them that I can't work out how to edit. Example {{EP99Results}}. I need to redirect "Regionalism|Regionalists" to "Regionalism (politics)|Regionalists". There are dozens of these tables - one for each year there are result. I can understand why these results are difficult to change, but hope you can help. Stellar (talk) 21:38, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{EP99Results}} is a template and can be edited at Template:EP99Results. If you click "edit this page" on a page where a template is used then there should be link to the template at the bottom of the window. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Not necessarily at the bottom. At European Parliament election, 1999 for example, the link to the template (in double curly brackets) is at the top of the page. A template link can be anywhere on a page. --Coppertwig (talk) 22:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I think what PrimeHunter is saying is that when you edit, below the edit box is a list of templates that are used on that page. That is an easy way to navigate to the page for a template if you want to edit that template. Sbowers3 (talk) 22:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Exactly. The template use can be anywhere in the edit box but the place of use doesn't have a link to the template page. That link is at the bottom of the window. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:49, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I learned something. I had seen the list of templates but never had the sense to actually use them. What I did time after time was copy the name of a template, paste it into the search box, then click Go. Duh! Sbowers3 (talk) 23:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all. much obliged. Regards Stellar (talk) 03:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

punctuation in lists

In the following List of constituent assemblies some of the items in the list have a period at the end and some do not. I'm assuming that only items in a list that contain a complete sentence should have a period in them and that all others should not. Am I correct? Sjmcfarland (talk) 22:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's a standard guideline on it but I would put a period at the end of every item there for clarity and consistency. There aren't any very short items there anyway - they're all sort of sentence length. • Anakin ^(talk) 22:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

TV show link boxes

At the bottom of some TV-related articles is a collective of related links. I'm not talking about the "see also" lists, I'm talking about the boxes that you can choose "show" or "hide." I don't know what these link boxes are called, so I can't look them up in Wikipedia guidelines, but my question is, how do I edit these boxes? You can't access them through the "edit this page" option, but there has to be a way. Specifically, I created a page for the "Homicide" character Ed Danvers, but how do I add him to the list of characters that appears in those little link boxes at the bottom of all articles related to Homicide: Life on the Street? And what are those link boxes called, anyway? Minaker (talk) 22:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

They're called several different things because their internal workings keep changing and there's also some funny rumour going around that they're not supposed to be used any more (nonsense). But anyway, they called Navboxes and most have little "v • d • e" links in the titlebar. Those links refer simply to View, Discuss, and Edit, for the box, which is how you normally get to it. That particular box doesn't seem to have those links, but if you look at the source of a page with one on, you can see the code {{Homicide: Life on the Street}}. That refers to Template:Homicide: Life on the Street, and you can edit it from there, and then it will update on all the pages that use it. Happy editing! • Anakin ^(talk) 22:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Note: I've also added the "v • d • e" links to it now to make it easier to edit. • Anakin ^(talk) 22:31, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Anakin. I actually figured it out just before I read your response, but your advice is much appreciated anyway. Minaker (talk) 22:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

If you click "edit this page" then the bottom of the whole window (not just of the edit box) has links to the transcluded templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Technical question about Wikipedia's parser.

Resolved

 – Stwalkerster's code works. Thanks, that's all. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 23:47, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

How do you check undefined parameters using this wiki's parser?

I saw on M:Help:ParserFunctions that it looked like I needed to use either #ifeq: or #ifexpr:, but I was kind of confused about the correct syntax.

This is about my plan to re-vamp Wikipedia:Bots/Status. See the talkpage comments there.

To get an idea of why I'm asking, check out User:Zenwhat/Sandbox and Template:Botstatus.

For the Template:Botstatus, I would like to have an optional sixth parameter.

If the sixth parameter is left blank, it should output: [[Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/FIRSTPARAMETER]]

If the sixth parameter is not left blank, output: The parameter entered. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 23:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{#if:{{{6|}}}|{{{6|}}}|[[Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/{{{1|}}}]]}} - should work for the last request.

To check for undefined params, (I think) use {{#if:{{{1|}}}|param used|param empty}}, where that is param 1, and "param used" is the code where the parameter is used, and "param empty" is the code when the param is not empty. This should work, but it's not a guarantee, as it's been a while since I coded parser functions. Stwalkerster [ talk ] 23:39, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Policy breaches

What is the maximum number of Wikipedia policies and guidelines that can violated in a single sentence? Has anyone ever achieved this? SpinningSpark 23:52, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:BEANS, I think this should be left unanswered. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Can I delete

There are a few items I would like to delete on my user talk page. I am a bit reluctant due to a previous warning (# 3). I would like to remove this warning if I am allowed. Daytrivia (talk) 23:55, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It is not vandalism to remove threads from your talk page, whoever told you that it is was mistaken. Many editors feel it is "good practice" to put old items in an archive, but as I understand things that is up to you to decide. DuncanHill (talk) 00:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

If you do decide to archive your talk page rather than deleting items, pretty much all the information you need is at Help:Archiving a talk page.--Kateshortforbob 00:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks the quick response and the information. Daytrivia (talk) 01:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

February 3

Creating templates

Resolved

 – All up and running due to steep learning curve on parsing parameters

Hi, I want to create a template to link to a website that has UK Chart positions in the same way that the IMDb template links to actors, films etc., but can't find how to do this. A sample URL is "http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=2205" and I would like to parameterise the "id=" field such that all the editor has to do is fill in the template with the number. Any advice towards a suitable instruction page please? --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 01:02, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

You should bring this up at m:Talk:Interwiki, if you want to link like this: [[chartstats:XXX]]. However, if you want a template, just tell me the data that needs to go in, and I might be able to make it. Good luck! Soxred93 | talk count bot 01:42, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. That page doesn't seem to exist but it's not really an Interwiki issue, as I see it, it's limited to en:Wiki. What I would like to do is have a template that looks like {{ukchartstats|XXX}} linking to the appropriate page on that website; but of course it has to deal with the empty parameter if people forget it, as invalid parameters are passed to the website & handled there. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 01:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Try the following: {{#if:{{{1|}}}| '''[http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id={{{1|}}} Chart Stats]'''}}XENON54 | talk | who? | 03 Feb 2008 01:55_GMT

Looks good, thanks, I'll give it a go. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 02:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Anyway, the correct link I meant was m:Talk:Interwiki map. Soxred93 | talk count bot 02:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I've put the template in my userspace. User:Xenon54/ChartStats. If an id is passed it looks like :::

Chart Stats and if not

i.e. it doesn't appear. I haven't figured out how to get text to show up yet, I'll leave that to an experienced templater. XENON54 | talk | who? | 03 Feb 2008 02:16_GMT

Much obliged to you. I'll copy it over & work on it. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 02:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia as a search engine in my Internet Explorer Browser

On a couple of computers ago, I had Wikipedia as a Search Engine in my Internet Explorer Browser. That made it convenient to go straight to Wikipedia when I wanted to reference something. What happened to that option? There was an option to make Wikipedia my home page, what happened to that option? Has anyone on your staff ever heard of Letters From the Earth by Mark Twain. It had been banned until the 60's. Do you have any adults working for Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.164.57.39 (talk) 02:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems that you have a few questions, so I'll answer them one by one.

1. Re the search engine: It is still there. On the search engine menu (the down arrow next to the magnifying glass), click something to the effect of "Add more search engines...".
2. Re the home page: I believe that you have to do that yourself now - go to Tools -> Internet Options.
3. Re Mark Twain: You will be interested in Letters from the Earth.
4. Re the age question: We are all volunteers here from all age groups. Some of the best administrators are eleven- and twelve-year-olds, while some of the worst vandals are thirty-five- and forty-year-old adults. XENON54 | talk | who? | 03 Feb 2008 02:22_GMT

deleted

I am an attorney and the executive director of a 501(c)4 organization whose Wiki is being consistently deleted. The wiki is for "Better Courts for Missouri."

I would appreciate it if the wiki were not consistently deleted as the organization is the subject of substantial news coverage in Missouri in addition to being founded and headed by notable attorneys and physicians in that state.

Thank you for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mo supreme court (talk • contribs) 04:21, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Are you complaining about an article being deleted? If so this not the place to do this. This is a section for getting help on how to use wikipedia. Cryo921 (talk) 04:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

People are actually told they can ask questions about deleted articles here, and trying to create an article is using Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and (although it's not a busines) Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. You are strongly discouraged from creating an article about the organization you represent. See Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted? Better courts for missouri was deleted for not asserting significance and later for being blatant advertising. It's rare for an organization about a week old to have an article (unless the article was created by the organization as advertising against our guidelines). This is an encyclopedia and not a news site. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Edited Page Does Not Appear First Time

Hi!

I made some edit changes to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods page. When I try to access using the CISG redirect it sometimes redirects to the previous version of the page. If I then select, for example, the 'history' tab and then go back to the 'article' tab I can see my edited version. I don't know how to prevent users going to the old version and not realising it has been updated. Presumably I did something wrong in the edit. Can you suggest how I can fix this annoying glitch?

BTW, love your work! You volunteers are to be congratulated for the big effort you have all put into this project!

Regards, UTS10393609 (talk) 07:41, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi UTS10393609. I believe what you are experiencing is a cache issue, i.e., it's not that the page you're seeing is actually a different version, but that your computer has an older version its stored and is showing you that version out of its memory. To address this please see Wikipedia:Bypass your cache#Instructions for various browsers. Thank you very much for your kind words. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It may well not be his problem at all. There's currently a bug on the Wikipedia side in which redirect pages don't always get updated when the underlying page changes. See Wikipedia:Bypass_your_cache#Server cache and Wikipedia:Purge. —Steve Summit (talk) 14:40, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Aha, so either way it's cache-as-cache-can.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:38, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I need help doing automated editing.

I posted this elsewhere, but the help desk tends to be, well, "helpful," so I thought I'd post it here also.

I'm working on replacing Wikipedia:Bots/Status with a more intuitive system of templates. Now that the template is made, I need help populating the templates with the information in the old system.

For more, see Wikipedia:Bot requests#Need to populate a new list for Wikipedia:Bots/Status.

If anybody can do this with scripts that somehow subst the content, that'd be fine too. I don't really care how it's done, just so long as it's done and I don't have to sit there for 8 hours going:

CTRL-C *click*
CTRL-V *click*
CTRL-C *click*
CTRL-V *click*

*slams head on keyboard* ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 10:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd be glad to try. Or I'll give it a go at least. • Anakin ^(talk) 14:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

From the look of it, this can be easily done in notepad and excel (or another spreadsheet tool that accepts CSV inputs). Copy the table info into notepad or whatever, do a find/replace on the template active/inactive fields, replace "|-" with a carriage return and "| " with "," replace "{{User|" with nothing, replace "}}" with nothing, dump it into excel as a csv, change the date format for the entire date column with the one you wish, copy the user column back into notepad, replace [[User: with nothing, replace "|" with a "," and replace ]] with nothing. Import this column into a new spreadsheet as a csv, delete the duplicate column, paste this into the first spreadsheet, then add new columns for your template fields and |'s and copy them down the sheet. (Well when I said easily done.. ) Then when it looks correct, copy the lot back into notepad and do a find/replace on the blank characters the spreadsheet uses to delineate cells to get rid of them and et voila, you should have your desired output. 86.21.74.40 (talk) 15:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

It's not CSV, but even if it could be got into Excel, it's more complicated than that. I put it through PHP using various regexps to deal with it because an awful lot of the lines are malformed. • Anakin ^(talk) 15:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

looking for the home address and home phone number of Sukhpreet Singh

hello, i'm looking for the home address and home phone number of sukhpreet singh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.30.89.210 (talk) 12:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not give out private information like that. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Hoping I'm in the right area for a question on searching my own userpages

I've created a couple of draft articles under User:Hcberkowitz, but have forgotten exact titles. When I search userspace for User:Hcberkowitz, I got the most recent one, but then was overwhelmed with output from a bot. My guess is the bot has archived other user/talk pages where I commented, and that explains why there is so much output -- that I can't filter.

For people of UNIX-ish bent, what I'd like to do is search (recursively) on User:Hcberkowitz/*

I thought I've seen a way to do this, but I simply don't remember the technique and haven't been able to find it in documentation. Documentation is wonderful if you already know what term the documentation uses for what you are trying to find out.

Thanks! Howard Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 12:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Special:Prefixindex may be what you are looking for. Type your username into the box, then you can check the User and User talk namespaces (one at a time). --Kateshortforbob 12:56, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think you want Special:Prefixindex. Algebraist 12:57, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

oops, conflict Algebraist 12:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

(editconflict): For you convenience here is a link NanohaA'sYuri^{Talk, My master} 12:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

cannot retrieve forgotten password.

When I attempt to log in, I get an error message that my password is incorrect. The system promises to send me an email with a new password, but it never comes. I hesitate to create a new account, but I will if I have to.

I don't know what you mean to sign using that funny squiggle, but here goes: 14:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it takes time for the email to arrive. You would have to have entered your email in your preferences and I think you would have had to validate it by clicking on a link in an email around the time you entered it (as well as spelling it correctly). Maybe your spam filter is filtering out the emails. I forget exactly what email address they come from -- there was a question on this help desk about this a few days ago I think, and somebody suggested putting a certain email address in your whitelist, something like wikimedia.org. I suppose probably you forgot your password, but maybe there's a chance someone found out your password, logged into your account and changed your password and email address. You could check the contributions history of your account to see if there are any edits that are not by you.

Unless you have a large contribution history that you want to keep credit for, just creating a new account and abandoning the old one seems a good solution if you forgot your password. I don't think that would violate any policy or guideline. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppets.

Re signing with those sqiggly things (called tildes ~~~~ ) you've almost got it. I think that time you put five tildes, which posts the time only. You're supposed to put four tildes, which gives your username (or IP address if you're not logged in) and the time. --Coppertwig (talk) 15:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, new passwords come from wikimedia.org in a mail called "New temporary password for Wikipedia". If Help:Logging in doesn't help then you have to create a new account. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

"In-line footnotes" template?

Simple question: I can't find where the "this article lacks in-line footnotes; please integrate references into the text of this article" (or along those lines) template is. Could someone give me the link/code to it? Thanks! --JamieS93 (talk) 15:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I can't find anything like that either. The closest I found is Template:Citations missing. Template:Inline and Template:Inline citations both redirect to it.

To look for things like this: type in a combination of words such as "needs footnotes" into the search box. Click "search". Then, at the bottom of the page, there are checkboxes for the namespaces you want to search in. Check "template" and uncheck "article". Click "search" near those checkboxes. You can then also modify the words you're searching for. --Coppertwig (talk) 15:27, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Maybe {{nofootnotes}}? See Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:45, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Uploading a friend's pictures

What procedures should I follow to upload some nice pictures a friend took? How should I establish I have this friend's permission to use her pictures, preferably without posting her name onwiki or forwarding her name/email address to OTRS. I'd like to preserve the friend's privacy if possible. It might be easiest to just pretend I took the pictures and upload them as self-created works, but that would be mildly inaccurate.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 16:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello there! In regards to the upload; would it be possible for her to upload them herself? I think that would be the easiest route. Alternately, she could upload them to Flickr's creative commons and you could use them. Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 17:06, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Link my photos to the Wiki entry for Gian Lorenzo Bernini

I am uploading pictures of two sculptures by G. L. Bernini: Angel with Crown of Thorns and Angel with the Subscription, both of which are located at Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in Rome, Italy. I am the owner of these 2 photos. I am attempting to link the photos to the Wiki entry for Gian Lorenzo Bernini. At the end of the article is a listing of his major works and the article is showing two stubs for each of these sculptures. It is here I am attemnpting to add the photos. Please advise me how to do this. I have searched the Wiki help sources but have not been able to learn how to link my uploaded photos. This is the first time I have attempted to contribute to Wikipedia. Please forgive my rookie ignorance. Thank you.