Wikipedia:Help desk

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Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

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Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

• Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
• Answer questions,
• Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
• Check archives

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Add yourself with

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See also

• Wikipedia:Editor assistance (WP:ASSIST)
• Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer
• Wikipedia:Patrols (WP:PATROL)
• User:Useight/Highly Active

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
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• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).

Ask a question

June 26

Citations

Resolved

 – $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:13, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I was just wondering when you're citing a website, when you're using this template, if under the publisher parameter, if I should credit it to the copyright holder or the actual corporation. Mostly this doesn't happen but this is the website for Ontario Savings' Bonds. Now, note that its the website of Ontario Savings Bonds but at the bottom, it says Copyright information: © Queen's Printer for Ontario. I was just wondering which one to cite as the publisher. There are a few other sources that I have cited that have the same quality, so I'm just wondering
DA PIE EATER (talk) 00:27, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I recommend using the actual publisher of the content, so in this case, the Ontario Savings' Bonds. Gary King (talk) 00:30, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. =) --DA PIE EATER (talk) 00:32, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Mirror sites

I don't know if this is the right place to ask about this, but is Wikipedia still supporting mirror sites? A couple months ago, I asked Answers.com why they hadn't updated their Wikipedia content. They told me that the last dump they received was defective and they were waiting for a new one. Reference.com hasn't updated their content since March. Before that they were really good at keeping their site up to date. Are you not supporting mirror sites anymore?75.105.233.55 (talk) 00:53, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

A ton of dumps are getting aborted. This has been happening for months now, so people haven't been able to get fresh content lately. Gary King (talk) 01:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Personal Attacks

Sorry if I'm wasting your time. On a couple of pages I've been observing, there's a user who in all his edit comments has been aggressive, for example "Mr Extremist, history is history, lets not distort it", My Indian friends, Stop Distorting History, You have already accepted that you are an Indian spy, and Link states that Mardana was Guru Nanak's muslim companion. So, please tell us frankly "What do want to acheive with your distructive edits. And from what I can tell, he hasn't been warned at all. Should I report him? Deavenger (talk) 05:55, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for taking an interest in helping wikipedia:-) Based on what I know about the situation, I can't tell you if you should report him or not. If he has been warned a few times, and has been given a last warning, then yes, report him. If not give him appropriate warnings on his talk page every time he leaves a uncivil comment. Happy editing!--SJP (talk) 06:41, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

With 47,803,765 registered users from every conceivable background and point of view, Wikipedia has had plenty of content disputes. On Wikipedia, everything that happens, happens in writing, so we have plenty of writing on the subject of how to work out our disagreements. See the links under WP:EIW#Dispute. --Teratornis (talk) 16:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

You may want to leave him a note on his talk page pointing him at WP:CIVIL, and just remind him in particular to avoid personal attacks - which "an Indian spy" may be skirting a little close to depending on the context. If he is continually disruptive after the warning, then a request for comment or wikiquette alert might help. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:21, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Blocking a user from moving

Is their a way to request for a user to be blocked from moving articles. The user has been moving the articles using the cut-paste-move method, the user has been warned more than once. Most of the moves are to Mexican First Divison teams and seasons, and causing redirects to the articles talk pages. Or, is their a way all his moves can be reverted? Erik93 (talk) 07:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I assume you're referring to User:Kaka12o? I don't see any cut-and-paste moves in his recent contributions, the most recent warning was back in May. Can you give an example? I don't think it's possible to just exclude an editor from moving, you should instead try to talk to him about it if possible. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 10:30, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

English Article

How do you add an English version for an article that already exists but only in, say, Japanese? 71.174.16.91 (talk) 08:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)Ajisai

The same way you create a new article. See Wikipedia:Starting_an_article#How_to_create_a_page. --grawity 08:54, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

You can then add the "interwiki" links to the two versions of the article on their respective language editions of Wikipedia, so that they know about each other. For example, if you look at the bottom of Final Fantasy, you'll see a set of language-edition links, which show up in the sidebar. The Japanese article, for instance, is listed as [[ja:ファイナルファンタジーシリーズ]]. Meanwhile, on the Japanese article you can see the corresponding [[en:Final Fantasy]] at the bottom, which relates back to the English Wikipedia. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 10:34, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

More specifically, these are interlanguage links. --Teratornis (talk) 16:09, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

For a big ol' guide on translation, see Wikipedia:Translation. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:20, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Move of XChat to XChat Aqua

This page should be XChat due to the fact that Aqua is a fork from the original code and isn't supported on the official website. As seen here (1) (2) and various other times with the search page. And also there is this direct quote from their irc channel on freenode:

“ <LifeIsPain> p858snake: not much of any, xchat aqua used the backend of xchat and made a full replacement for the front end using cocoa, so it would be native on Mac

<LifeIsPain> but unlike xchat-gnome, it actually attempted to be similar to xchat's interface, so it was sort of (but not really) supported in here

”

.

Peachey88 ^{(Talk Page | Contribs)} 08:20, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Trouble uploading an image

Every time I try to upload an image I made of California's State Assembly districts:

“ Upload warning

The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again.

”

How to I get rid of that warning to upload this picture, since the pictures of other Assembly districts and all the Senate districts I uploaded, that have the exact same extension, uploaded just fine with no problems? Using PNG, JPG, and GIF did nothing to correct the problem. Socal gal at heart (talk) 09:35, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

You can search for this error message (with {{Google help desk}} and {{Google custom}}) in several places where people have discussed problems that elicited it:

• Search the Help desk archive for: The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension
• Search Meta-Wiki for: The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension
• Search MediaWiki.org for: The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension

Each of those searches finds several reports of this error message. Study them and see if they give any clues about how to fix your instance of this problem. It would be nice if the error message told how to "check the file." If you are running Unix, Linux, or a Unix-like compatibility layer such as Cygwin, you can check the file with the file (Unix) program. That may (or may not) say something useful. When MediaWiki receives a file, it checks the file with some program on the server to see whether the file format matches the file extension. If the program on the server dislikes what it sees, it displays the uninformative error message. Obviously, a better error message would explain the problem more clearly, and resolve the useless "or". In a well-designed program, every error message conveys two things:

• Exactly what the program thinks is wrong. (For example, if a value was out of range or invalid, the message displays the exact value that it thinks is incorrect, and why. Displaying the value which is allegedly incorrect is necessary for a sanity check, so the user can at least be sure the program received the value that the user provided, and it hasn't spontaneously turned into some nonsense value.)
• What the user should do to fix the problem.

Naturally, most programs are far from well-designed, so they display error messages that hardly any users can understand. This is an example of irony, because we build computers as tools to process information, and yet most computers seem incapable of processing and presenting even the information users need just to use the computers. Having to go outside the computer to answer questions that the computer itself generates is like using a mule to tow an automobile. Wikipedia partly closes the gap in that we can write the essential information that error messages omit, and then use search tools to find it. Of course error messages could facilitate this process by containing distinct error codes that would then serve as unambiguous search keywords. --Teratornis (talk) 16:29, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I do not have Unix or Linux, and most of the "advice" given in those links I have either already tried or are too complicated for a computer novice like me to understand. Most of the advice said to change the extension to PNG, which my files are already in, or JPG, which I tried and it still failed. Socal gal at heart (talk) 00:14, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you have anywhere else you could upload the file to so that someone can check it for you? Somewhere like http://photobucket.com for example, or a similar site. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 07:53, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Starting a new subject

I am trying to start a new subject line for an online class I am taking. I'm having a little trouble getting started. Any help is appreciated!Jjpref (talk) 13:57, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi, welcome to Wikipedia! When you say "subject line", to what specifically are you referring? Would you like to start a new article? Let us know and we can point you in the right direction. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Please see Your first article.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 14:53, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

The only kinds of "subject line" I can think of are in email and message boards, which is why I just made subject line a redirect. I'm not aware of either giving the possibility of a "new" subject, though. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:36, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright attribution on Wikipedia

I noticed on Wikipedia images (even the copyrighted ones) don't attribute the copyright on the page they are displayed. Rather, you have to actually click on the image to view any copyright information. How is this allowed?--217.227.87.251 (talk) 15:30, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I would be curious to know why you might think it would not be allowed? Perhaps if we knew the 'why' behind your question, we could better answer you. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 14:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

All copyrighted works used in Wikipedia are used under the Fair use doctrine. As far as I personally understand the situation, Fair use does not require us to attribute the holder of the copyright either within the image or in the caption of the image (or to provide a credit at all actually). Wikipedia feels that attributing all copyrighted works on their Image page is attribution enough and we are not required to make explicit copyright statements within the articles. Actually, in many cases this will make our case stronger in court, because it can be argued that providing credits in some situations gives companies an unfair commercial advantage because their name is being used openly in an article that is supposed to show/explain something in a neutral manner. Other companies might use that as an attack tactic in invalidating some of our Fair use claims by stating that we are not neutral at all, and thus commercial stakes are introduced in our articles more than there should be. As a service to our readers, we have been looking into techniques that mark the image thumbnails as being used under "fair use". At this moment however there seems to be little need to implement this idea. Any copyrighted image that is being used in a way that is not supported by Fair Use law in the United States should be removed/deleted fromt he encyclopedia and we welcome any such notifications. This is NOT an official Wikipedia statement, it is my interpretation as an editor of the current practices within Wikipedia. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

In any case, if you find any major modern book with lots of color pictures, chances are the credits are given in an appendix, and not the captions. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:39, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

fibroddysplasia

i was wondering if i could put an article asking if anyone out there has a child with this could help us my 18 month old niece has just been diagnosed with this and were wondering if we could get some info on how to get an inflateble sauit or something to stop her banging herself .we don't know where to look for help .the doctor said there are only 5 known cases in uk at the moment and if we could find another family i think it would really help us kind regards jenny lofthouse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.127.165.87 (talk) 15:34, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

We cannot offer medical advice. Please see the medical disclaimer. Contact your General Practitioner. If you are sure this is not a medical question, This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia: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....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 16:15, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

You could start with our disambiguation page about Fibrodysplasia and read the articles it lists, bearing in mind the the medical disclaimer. Since you mention "banging herself," you seem to be describing Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. The Internet has made it easier for victims of rare diseases and/or their families to find each other at great distances. It's unfortunate that the diagnosing physicians often cannot provide the kind of in-depth practical information you need, because of their heavy patient loads and the sheer variety of conditions they see, and because physicians do not yet carry around Google brain implants. However, Google has plenty of time and attention to lavish on anyone who wants it, so you could search with Google for: Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and possibly find a support organization (if that is, in fact, the disease you refer to). For example, the top search result is the International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association. --Teratornis (talk) 16:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Multiple lines in second column of table

Resolved

 – $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:55, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to create a table where the first column contains only one line of text, aligned to the top of the cell. The second column may contain several lines of text. I've almost managed to do it, but the first line in the 2nd column isn't aligned properly. I guess this needs to be aligned to the top also.

{| class="wikitable"
! Heading 1
! Heading 2
|-
|-valign="top"
| 1st column text
|
2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text"
<br>2nd column, 2nd line
<br>2nd column, 3rd line
|-
|}

Heading 1	Heading 2
1st column text	2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text" 2nd column, 2nd line 2nd column, 3rd line

I can't work out how to get the -valign code to work without messing up the rest of the table. Or am I on the wrong track entirely? Any ideas? Thanks in advance. Bazonka (talk) 16:19, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

{| class="wikitable"
! Heading 1
! Heading 2
|- valign="top" 
| 1st column text
| 2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text"

2nd column, 2nd line

2nd column, 3rd line
|}

produces:

Heading 1	Heading 2
1st column text	2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text" 2nd column, 2nd line 2nd column, 3rd line

207.58.235.243 (talk) 16:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, but that solution leaves bigger gaps between each of the lines, which isn't particularly desirable either. Perhaps I'm being too fussy :)

Any other ideas? Bazonka (talk) 17:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Well you could go

{| class="wikitable"
! Heading 1
! Heading 2
|- valign="top" 
| 1st column text
| 2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text"<br/
>2nd column, 2nd line<br/
>2nd column, 3rd line
|}

Heading 1	Heading 2
1st column text	2nd column, 1st line - should be level with "1st column text" 2nd column, 2nd line 2nd column, 3rd line

The important thing is to not have a new row after the | that starts the <td> — chandler — 17:08, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Perfect! Thanks. Bazonka (talk) 17:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Quantitative Technique in Management

Short notes on 1. Central Limit Theorem 2. Decision Tree Analysis —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arvindrbl (talk • contribs) 16:52, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a question? See Central Limit Theorem, Search Wikipedia with Google for: decision tree analysis, and {{dyoh}}. --Teratornis (talk) 17:26, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 17:32, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

My user Account

I cannot log into Adam Zarboni, my user account. Please respnd to <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.103.108.130 (talk) 17:00, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 17:28, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Logging in. Have you tried mailing a new password at Special:UserLogin? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:05, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

I've sent one, in case he doesn't check back here. Algebraist 10:06, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia election results?

Resolved

 – $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 00:59, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

They said they were going to be announced on June 26th. That's today. Where are the results? The Wikipedia signpost has nothing. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 18:36, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind. Found it. m:Board elections/2008/Results/en ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 18:37, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Printing in Printable Version

Sometimes when I try to print articles, using the 'Printable Version' link, the ending result has pictures over text. For example, First National of Nebraska, the picture is over the text in the History section. What can I do to fix this so that the document is printed in an easy-to-read format? Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 19:22, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

What browser (and version) are you using ? --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:44, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

I use IE 6 Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 18:02, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

OK, when I reboot to windows later today, I will take a look and see if I can find a way to fix this. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Redirects in WP:AFC

I was looking at the AFC recently, and I saw that someone had added requests for redirects using the middle name. For example, 75.47.147.40 requested that Adam Derek Scott be redirected to Adam Scott. There wasn't anything here about it, so how should these be reviewed? Thanks, --θnce θn this island ^Speak! 19:56, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Normally, this question would be better asked at WT:Articles for creation, but as a regular WP:AFCer myself, I would say that its fine to create the redirect. As it says in WP:R, they are cheap and may be helpful to someone. The real rule of thumb at AFC is "would this get speedy deleted?" If the answer is no, then its a good candidate to create. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 23:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

As a member of WikiProject Redirect, I feel compelled to point out that there's a little-used section for requested redirects. Perhaps AFC ought to link to it? $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 01:41, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Stalkers

I've noticed that one user in particular has been stalking me for some time now: specifically, finding the pages I have contributed to/edited and introducing inaccuracies/questionable edits. I'm pretty new to the intricacies of wiki admin, so is there a specific place where I can voice these concerns? Thanks. golden bells, pomegranates, prunes & prisms (talk) 21:33, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

WP:WQA might be the right place...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 21:46, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

June 27

wikiporno?

Is www.wikiporno.org part of wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.77.209.192 (talk) 01:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Heh, no. Wikis are used by many different organisations and people, and the Wikimedia Foundation (which runs Wikipedia) is just one of them. They're totally separate. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 01:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

For a list of all the projects operated by Wikimedia, see Wikimedia Foundation#Wikimedia projects. —Kal ^(talk) 02:30, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Like a lot of wikis, they use the same free MediaWiki software as Wikipedia, so many things in the sites look similar although Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation has no affiliation with them. http://www.wikiporno.org/wiki/About says "The project was begun in 2006 and was inspired by Wikipedia". PrimeHunter (talk) 10:47, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

My Signature

Hi! I just used this yesterday and I'm going to use it again. Today, I tried to change my signature from DA PIE EATER to [[User talk:ilikepie2221|<c=red>DA</c>]] [[User:ilikepie2221|<c=orange><big>PIE</big></c> <c=yellow>EATER</c>]]. I'm pretty sure that in the <c> tags, I need a number, not the color's word itself. I'm just asking what are the numbers? DA PIE EATER (talk) 02:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The <c> tag doesn't work here, you'll have to use <span style="color: red;">DA</span> and such, which makes DA. The <span> tag doesn't need to have hex codes (numbers) in them, words will work fine. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:35, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

For future reference, see Web colors for some common colors :) —Kal ^(talk) 02:48, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Cultural Backgrounds

How do I look up my cultural background or ancestors? If possible. --Tralene Sasso (talk) 04:51, 27 June 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. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:54, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hypercard - changes that eliminated a reference to my stack Unprotect XCMD

Several months ago I was reading about HyperCard and came across a reference to a stack that I had written called "Unprotect XCMD." Recently I went back to look for it again and the whole HyperCard section had been rewritten. It looked like the people who created HyperCard redid the story and replaced what was originally there and which had probably had been written by the users of HyperCard rather than the creators. Both versions seemed equally valid so I have no complaint with the new version. I hope though that it is possible to retrieve all previous versions of a page like uncovering one city on top of another at an archeological dig. If this is the case and I hope it is, how do I go about locating the previous layers of pages the lead back into the past? John Durocher <e-mail redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.102.105 (talk) 06:01, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

It is possible to see all old versions of articles if you click on the "History" tab on the top of the page. It is to the right of "edit this page". Have a nice day!--SJP (talk) 06:46, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

If you play around in the history section, you should be able to figure out how to compare versions — (these comparisons are known as "diffs"). See Help:Page history for more info. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 19:01, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Financial aid

(request for money removed). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Legesse desalegn (talk • contribs) 09:34, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Sorry but this is not a place to ask for money. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Differecnes

How is [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]] different from [[Category:Blue Ensigns|A]]?68.148.164.166 (talk) 07:58, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

In most cases, the text after a pipe is the "show text." [[The weather in London|Timmy]] produces Timmy. With categories, the text after a pipe is the "sortkey" -- when looking at pages in a category, they'll be sorted alphabetically (using the sortkey if one is provided, or the page name if not). Among other uses, this is helpful for biographies, since we want to alphabetize those by last name, rather than first name. WP:SORTKEY has some more information. – Luna Santin (talk) 08:20, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

But what about [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]]? Category:Blue Ensigns does not have a category: British Indian Ocean Territory.68.148.164.166 (talk) 10:08, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

It determines the sort order among the pages listed in Category:Blue Ensigns. If an article contains [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]] then it will sorted in the category like if the article had been called "British Indian Ocean Territory" (but the real name will still be displayed). It's practical to have an article like Flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory sorted under B for "British Indian Ocean Territory" instead of F for "Flag of ..." in a category like Category:Blue Ensigns. So I have reverted your edit.[1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:25, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Flag of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Flag of the Cape Colony are currectly listed under F in Category:Blue Ensigns because they have no sortkey for the category. If nobody else has changed it already then you can fix it by editing those articles and see how they change their placement in the category. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Citing References

I'm adding an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuzuyu) but I can't figure out how to make a reference (Like this^[1]) link to the URL on the bottom of the page. T_T —Preceding unsigned comment added by GentleSpringRain (talk • contribs) 11:20, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Use the syntax <ref>http://www.example.com</ref>. You can also put a template like {{cite web}} inside the <ref> tags. Xenon54 11:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

You would put the "<ref>http://www.example.com</ref>" where you want each^[1] to appear, and then just put <references/> where you want the list of actual reference text to be (i.e., in the "References" section of the article). I updated Kuzuyu to show you in-place.

If you wanted to use the same reference twice, you could name it the first time it appears — <ref name="reusable-reference">http://www.example.com</ref> — and then to point to that same reference in another place you can just do <ref name="reusable-reference/> to say that it is the same one. How's that? --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 11:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The chart below should help:

Formatting references using inline citations

Inline citation code; what you type in 'edit mode'	What it produces when you save
Two separate citations.<ref>Citation text.</ref><ref>Citation text2.</ref> Multiple<ref name="multiple">Citation text3.</ref> citation<ref name="multiple" /> use.<ref name="multiple" /> References {{reflist}}	Two separate citations. Multiple citation use. References
Templates that can be used between <ref>...</ref> tags to format your references {{Citation}} {{Cite web}} {{Cite book}} {{Cite news}} {{Cite journal}} Others Examples

--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:45, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much! GentleSpringRain (talk) 11:44, 27 June 2008 (UTC)GentleSpringRain

I have a tutorial at Wikipedia:WikiProject Scouting/References that includes troubleshooting. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Also see WP:EIW#Citetools and {{Google scholar cite}} for some tools for finding references and/or generating citation templates automatically. --Teratornis (talk) 16:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Forgottan Login Password

It is unfortunate that I have forgotton my login password. I havn't even supplied my e-mail ID when account was created, so I cannot receive the e-mail about new password. What is remedy? I just know my login ID. Please help by conveying way to retrive password and allow me to contribute again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.170.166 (talk) 12:01, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

This is why you should have supplied an emailadress. We are very sorry, but there is no way that we can retrieve your password. Your only option now is to create a new account. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:21, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Statistical analysis

Is it possible to search wikipedia for the number of articles that contain a specific phrase, rather than view every article? 87.86.35.34 (talk) 13:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the left-hand side of the page near the top, you'll see a search bar. Alternately, you can look here or here. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 13:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Search to learn about Wikipedia's built-in search feature and its limitations. See WP:EIW#Search for links to third-party search tools. You can use the {{Google wikipedia}} template to search for exact phrases on Wikipedia, for example:

• Search Wikipedia with Google for: "statistical analysis"

but Google's custom search feature provides no simple way that I know of to restrict the search only to articles; Google may also find the search phrase on pages in the other Wikipedia namespaces. (The {{Google custom}} template lets you search individual namespaces on Wikipedia; but unlike all the other namespaces, the main article namespace has no prefix, and thus nothing we can use to tell Google to search only there.) If you want to analyze Wikipedia statistically, see WP:EIW#Query and WP:EIW#Research. --Teratornis (talk) 16:15, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

LOOKING FOR A JOB AT SINGAPORE

DEAR SIR, I AM WORKING AS A CHIEF ENGR IN MSC. I HAVE 18 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE.I HAVE 54 MONTHS WORK EXPERIENCE AS A CHIEF ENGR. I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN YOUR GOOD COMPANY AS A SURVEYOR. NOW I AM AT HOME. I AM READY TO JOIN AND I WILL BE AVAILABLE BY 15TH JULY 2008.

PLEASE ADVISE. BEST RGDS.

CHIEF ENGINEER DHAKA, BANGLADESH. <redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.190.33.94 (talk) 16:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with an article on an association which is hiring or to which you would like to apply for a job. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question; we are not the organization to which your job application is intended, nor are we affiliated with that organization. Best of luck.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:06, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

And don't submit your application in ALL CAPS - it looks pretty terrible...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 18:04, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Not only does it look bad, it means that you are yelling which is frowned upon here at Wikipedia. Please do not do that again. Thanks, RyRy5 (talk) 00:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I did an ip trace to see if this was someone just goofing off. Or if it was something we might should delte. turns out the IP is in Bangladesh. I think I should atleast delete his name.Swampfire (talk) 00:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Signpost

What's going on with the Wikipedia Signpost? It used to be updated on Monday or Tuesday, but recently it's been much, much later. Last week, it wasn't updated at all, and it still hasn't been!75.104.128.59 (talk) 16:35, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

I had been wondering about this as well, but the new one came out yesterday, I think. Here is a note about the recent delay, looks like it was a temporary thing. AlexiusHoratius (talk) 16:39, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Drawn images, licensing?

I've drawn out a few very small resolution images for use in the article, Raven (game show). They are not screenshots, but they are a pretty accurate representation of the ones used on the show, which themselves look hand drawn; I drew these to solve an edit dispute with regards to their naming, and I uploaded them as free content. I'm now beginning to have my doubts as I am not the person that designed them, but I cannot find a license that would cover them under non-free content from the choices presented to me on the image upload box. As trifling as it might appear to other editors I am really interested in your opinions as I would like to get this one right, as I mean no offence to the show's crew, the producers, or the designers who originally came up with these, by claiming I have copyright, which is what the free-use template seems to be implying. Can they remain as free content, and regardless, if I do put them as non-free, what license would you choose? SynergyBlades (talk) 17:24, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The problem we face here is how close do they resemble the copyrighted images? If they are sufficiently original they are not a violation of the copyrights, but then again, if they are original then they may violate WP:NOR. Your talking about this image, right? ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 18:51, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Good point about NOR - I think, to avoid that possibility, they are close enough to be classed as something taken from the screen - just very clear, very specific screenshots. :) In that case I could use the TV screenshot non-free template; it just seemed like they didn't quite fit into one specific category (I even looked at logo, but that didn't seem to be appropriate either). Thanks for the help though, I shall consider which to put in. SynergyBlades (talk) 22:04, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Ancient Middle-Eastern Mythology Templates

These are a real mess. I'd like to clean them up, but such an action will likely result in toe-stepping, and I'm not sure where to discuss the issue because it spans so many pages, and most of the relevant Talk pages haven't seen any traffic in a long time.

There are a bunch of templates for the "Myths of the Fertile Crescent series", each of which differs from the rest in inappropriate ways:

• Template:Fertile Crescent myth
• Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Arabian)
• Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Levantine)
• Template:Meso_myth

And then there's this list which isn't part of that self-described "series", but is apparently an independent stab at the same info:

• Template:Middle Eastern deities

Anyway, my question is this: Where should I be talking about the cleanup I think is necessary, given the disjointed nature of the subjects in question? E^robson (T^alk) 20:12, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Look at the talk page for {{Meso_myth}} and you will see that is is under the purview of Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near East. Discuss this on their talk page, and consider joining that project. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:09, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I'll give that a try. Thanks! E^robson (T^alk) 21:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

How to use Contents in Navigation

I am trying to enter a backstory on a fictional character but cannot access the contents page to put in (i.e. Personal History, Background, etc..) Can you please ashow me the correct link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Miker3870 (talk • contribs) 20:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

You can simply click the "Edit" link at the top of the page to edit the page's contents. Gary King (talk) 20:54, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Remember titles are like this:

== History ==

And make sure it is notable.

See Help:Section (especially Help:Section#Table of contents (TOC)). --Teratornis (talk) 22:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The table of contents is generated automatically. You just put in the section headings in the articles with two equals signs on each side, as Teratornis suggested, and they will automatically appear in the table of contents. ☺ Coppertwig (talk) 02:23, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Just for the record, I did not give the example of formatting the section heading. A previous editor added that, but had an unclosed nowiki tag that ate the signature. I closed the tag, but then the previous editor's (unprocessed) signature tag was going to show up incorrectly as my signature, so I deleted it. My comment begins with: See Help:Section. --Teratornis (talk) 14:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Add

how do i add an "article" (thats what ill call it) i dont see it anywhere someone please help me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reesespiece100 (talk • contribs) 22:57, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi there. Type the name of your new article into the search box on the left, and press Go. It will tell you that "No page with that title exists". Now you want to look for "Create the page including your references" (should be a red link). Click that, and away you go. :) SynergyBlades (talk) 23:00, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Please see Your first article.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 23:02, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

June 28

No longer autoconfirmed

I'm sure that I was an autoconfirmed user (I moved a page a day and a half ago), but I can no longer move pages, I was required to type the words in a CAPTCHA to add an external link, and I'm not listed as autoconfirmed in my preferences. Why? Greg Neer 00:02, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

That's really strange. It happened to another user too... don't know what to say.. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 00:14, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... Oh, well... Greg Neer 09:42, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I've taken this up with the Village Pump. Per a query on the admin IRC channel, I was advised to block the user pending investigations. This should not happen; and technically, it can't happen. PeterSymonds (talk) 10:10, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Though I don't know the exact reasons given on the off site discussion that resulted in the idea to block this user "pending investigation", I don't think you were advised well and should reconsider this block. What goal of protecting the project from harm or future harm (the only reasons we block) warrants this? By the way, you should also be aware that there is a very long history of incredible drama and a general consensus that it is a very bad idea to block anyone based on a discussion conducted off site. I understand well that this block is considered neither preventative nor punitive, and that you posted to the user's talk page explaining that it's based on some type of technical concern, but I can't understand what technical concern could be addressed by the block, and of course, again, the discussion was off wiki, so I and everyone else can't see for ourselves.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:53, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Point taken. I know the dangers of off-wiki discussion, but this wasn't a discussion; I was just told to. The admin was Chris G (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), who's more experienced than I am. "Pending investigation" was my own term for it being brought up at the VPT; it's not endorsed by anyone else. I've unblocked and am leaving a note at Chris G's talk page. I agree that this should be kept solely on-wiki, even though there was no secret discussion that went ahead off-wiki. PeterSymonds (talk) 11:12, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok this was a bit of a misunderstanding on my part. To get everthing out in the open this is what was said in the irc channel(posted with permision)

<PeterSymonds> Anyone know why/how Autoconfirmed status would be revoked?
<PeterSymonds> Two users have complained about it on the help desk

I though he was asking about how to remove auto confirmed so I responded:

<Chris_G> PeterSymonds, block the user

PeterSymonds then blocked the user thinking it would do something to help get back to autoconfirmed. So all just a misunderstanding --Chris 11:29, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

GregNeer, you don't use Tor (anonymity network) do you? That could cause you to lose autoconfirmed status. Prodego ^talk 11:43, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

What? Why the hell would you block a user? — Werdna talk 10:00, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Adding a picture?

How do you add a picture to a wikipedia page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.125.82.244 (talk) 00:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Click on the fifth icon from the left in the edit toolbar to insert an image, or alternatively, simply type in [[Image:Example.jpg]]. Gary King (talk) 01:14, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Usually, images are uploaded to Commons, and can easily be displayed from there in a Wikipedia article. To upload an image to Commons, see commons:Commons:Upload. To display a file in a Wikipedia article, see Help:Images and other uploaded files or just use the filename of the image on Commons in a format as Gary suggested above, or for example [[Image:Example.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Put the image caption here.]] to display it at the right in 400 pixel size with a caption. ☺ Coppertwig (talk) 02:19, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to shrink an infobox?

I was hoping I might be able to shrink a UK school Infobox. Is this possible? They can be awfully cumbersome. 79.77.150.110 (talk) 02:21, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You can't resize it, if that's what you mean. You can adjust the horizontal width, however, but adding a fixed width to it. Is that what you want to do? Gary King (talk) 02:40, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean hide/show the box? Have a look at Seventh Doctor#Audio dramas; there is a box that you have to click on "show" to display the contents. That is called a Navbox - information about the template for these collapsible boxes may be found here. You can find more information about information boxes in general here. StephenBuxton (talk) 11:09, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

It helps if you are more specific. If you are asking if you can change the width of {{Infobox UK school}}, then the answer is not readily. That infobox—as are most others—has a set width, in this case 21em. That is a minimum, as an image that is too large will force it wider. If you want to change that set width, you will need to discuss it on the {{Infobox UK school}} talk page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:19, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Putting category= inside a thing inside a thing

I'm working on the new redirect meta-template {{This is a redirect}}, which embeds other templates as chosen by the user. I'm trying to get it so that if one uses the template with "cats=no", then none of the embedded templates give their categories. (With many templates that categorize, one can use the argument "category=" to cause no categorizing to happen, as explained here.)

Simplifying it somewhat, here's an example of what I'm dealing with:

{{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{R_{{{1}}}|{{#ifeq:{{{cats}}}|no|category=|}}|embed=yes}}|}}

Using tests with substing and {{R from brand name}}, I found that currently, what happens is that the embedded template takes "category=" as the content of its first argument (that is, it thinks "1=category="). (Everything else works.)

I've tried using a template whose content was literally {{{1}}}, so it might "print" the string "category=", but no luck. What does work is to put the "category=" before the ifeq, so that {{R from brand name}} takes the argument "category=result of ifeq" — but that won't ultimately work with what I'm trying to do.

Any ideas? $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 04:38, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

It's possibly due to having templates within templates confusing things. Hmmm... RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 08:33, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

This is weird, I can see no reason why it's not working. As Lenoxus mentioned, it seems to take the cats param as part of {{{1}}}. Odd indeed; I will have another look later. If anyone else solves it in the meantime, I would be very interested to know how! RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 10:21, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Just as a general observation, the MediaWiki parser may contain bugs. Some templates on Wikipedia do not work on other MediaWiki wikis that aren't running HTML Tidy - that's probably not a factor here, but it points out how MediaWiki's wikitext syntax isn't well-defined for some of the complex template stuff. And of course your example above uses the ParserFunctions extension. You might want to ask on WP:VPT which a larger number of technically-inclined users frequent. It would be nice if MediaWiki had a template debugger, that would let one step through all the transclusions and parameter expansions in the order that MediaWiki's parser (and possibly, HTML Tidy) apply them. --Teratornis (talk) 15:41, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Google picks up my sandbox contents

I was just Googling a subject about which I'm writing an article, and one of the search results was the very, very rough draft in my sandbox. Er, I don't think this is a good thing. Have I skipped some important step to prevent this from happening? --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 05:10, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

There isn't a way, the robots.txt at http://en.wikipedia.org/robots.txt prevents Google's web crawlers from seeing stuff like special pages, but doesn't prevent the search engine crawlers from crawling the user: space. Additionally, there isn't a way to hide your userspace from them. By posting your things to Wikipedia, you agree to let anyone with internet access see it. If you don't want to, don't post it. That's one of the fundamental rules of the Internet, as well as Wikipedia. So to answer your question: no, it's normal, and you haven't forgotten any step or anything. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 05:52, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Okay, makes sense. Thanks very much! --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 05:54, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

On an un-related note, it's interesting how there's a lot of questioners but almost no answerers around about right now. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 05:57, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You can hide your sandbox from Google by blanking it while you are not editing it. Google only indexes the current revision of a page. Google does not see into the page history (which is part of the so-called Deep Web). When you want to come back and work on your sandbox again, revert it to your previous revision that contains your actual content. Presumably you will only spend a few hours editing here and there, minimizing the "window" during which Google might happen to index your sandbox again, but most of the time your sandbox page will appear blank to Google's indexing bot. Thus the odds would be greater that Google would see a blank sandbox page. See: Help:History and Help:Revert. Also, Google appears to index all of Wikipedia except article talk pages, but that probably doesn't help in this situation because you aren't allowed to use an article talk page as your personal sandbox. --Teratornis (talk) 14:45, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Also, as Wikipedia is not your blog or personal web host, I don't see any valid reasons to hide things from Google. Oops, Calvin already said this... carry on. Tan | 39 14:48, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Google's PageRank algorithm tends to elevate Wikipedia pages in its search results. Thus the sandbox page might appear higher in the search results than its rough-draft status might warrant. Whether that is good or bad could depend on the person who searches - an extremely naive user might believe everything on the sandbox page, but such a user will be at risk from indiscriminately believing other Web pages. I have found some useful pages in the User: namespace by searching Wikipedia with Google, and I can usually figure out when I'm seeing a rough draft. For example, I might notice the word "sandbox" in the page title. --Teratornis (talk) 15:12, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You can add {{userpage}} to the top of your sandbox page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:22, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

(outdent) I think the reason for not wanting Google to index sandbox pages is obvious. I have literally dozens of half-formed articles in my user space at any one time. I do not care in the least who reads them and am certainly not going to go to the trouble of trying to hide any of it. However, it will do no good to the reputation of Wikipedia if innocent Google searchers are picking up these half baked essays and taking them to be "proper" articles. This could so easily happen, the average Google user is unlikely to be an experienced wiki editor able to distinguish article space from userspace. It should be possible for users to specify "norobots" on a userpage. Apologies for soapboxing, I am now going to the bottom to ask the question I came here for. By the way, I believe Google weights the results according to your past browsing history so it is quite likely to give you results from your own userspace near the top, but a long way down for everyone else. SpinningSpark 18:00, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

How would Google obtain my past browsing history? The PageRank article says nothing about that. --Teratornis (talk) 07:38, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Creating a new page: 2 persons with the same name

Hello, I am about to create a page on the ballet dancer Thomas Lund of the Royal Danish Ballet. But since there is all ready a Thomas Lund (a Danish badminton player) listed, I'd like to know what to do, so I don't mess up!!! Can you help me in this matter?

Kindly Henrik Emmer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Henrikemmer (talk • contribs) 05:58, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

The easiest thing to do, and probably the right thing to do, is create your own article at the title Thomas Lund (ballet dancer). Then add the text

  {{For|the ballet dancer of the same name|Thomas Lund (ballet dancer)}}

To the top of the existing article, Thomas Lund. This will place a notice at the top of the article that the other article exists. This is only one of several possible ways of doing this, which you can read about at Wikipedia:Disambiguation. But since there are presently many links to the existing article on Thomas Lund, it's easiest to leave that where it is. Also, make sure to read Wikipedia:Your first article before creating it. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:22, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

As you edit: Thomas Lund, ballet dancer, please type edit summaries. Also read Help:Talk page and follow Wikipedia's talk page guidelines, especially: sign your talk page comments. See WP:RS, WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:LAYOUT. If English is not your native language, you can request copyediting assistance. --Teratornis (talk) 15:25, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Article creation

how to makean article —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rexter (talk • contribs) 06:54, 28 June 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 Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:48, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

external links

How do I put in an external link while editing?

Pdavidh (talk) 07:08, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You copy the URL, and then you format the rest like the following, pasting the URL between the two brackets: [URL goes here link title here]. Thanks, RyRy5 (talk) 07:11, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

There are three basic forms: formatting the link as RyRy5 states above using a bracket on either side results in one of these: [2]; if you use no brackets, then you get the url as the link (http://www.example.org), and if you place a space before the trailing bracket and type something, whatever you type becomes a clickable link: [http://www.example.org example text] results in example text. If you want to use an external link as a reference in an article, please see WP:CITE and WP:CITET and {{Refref}}. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:45, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Also, you can use {{cite web}} to cite a website ass a reference. Anonymous101 (talk) 12:26, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

And see WP:FOOT. Some citation tools can sometimes help you fill out an appropriate citation template. If you told us the link you have in mind, and where you want to put it, we could give you a specific (and therefore more useful) answer. --Teratornis (talk) 15:44, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCH LOG

I was wondering if someone could tell me if there is a web site where I can go to and look up a fire department dispach call log for perris california. thank you Personal info removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.110.38.183 (talk) 12:47, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi there. The Help Desk is to ask questions about using Wikipedia, not to asking question about real life. Cheers, Juliancolton ^{Tropical Cyclone} 12:55, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

The place to ask questions about real life is our Reference desk. You can also try Google search:

• fire department dispatch call log for perris california

or call the fire department in question. --Teratornis (talk) 15:31, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright question

I am very confused and would appreciate your assistance. I have rewritten my father's biography and plan on publishing it for him as a gift. Although not for commercial use, there may be several copies printed for family members/history purposes. With that in mind, I have found it extremely difficult to understand the different copyright requirements (I assure you, not from lack of trying). That said, here are my questions:

1. I have included some historical information from Wikipedia (not the whole book, just a couple of excerpts located in different sections rather than on one page). What specifically do I need to include with regard to GNU copyright and where does it need to be located?

2. Does the entire license need to be included.

3. If the copy right information is placed after the title page, how do I delineate specifically those sections or paragraphs the license refers to?

4. When do I use a tag and how to I determine what tag (they are all greek to me)?

5. Lastly, If I use images from your site, is that a different license? What I need to do differently?

I would very much appreciate your assistanc........

Thank you------Rhonda Allenson

ps. What is invariant?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rallenson (talk • contribs) 13:09, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I have an answer to questions four and five:

• 4. If you're talking about tags like {{PD-self}}, those are only used when you are uploading images to Wikipedia.
• 5. Each image has its own license. You can find what license the image is under by clicking on it - this will take you to the image information page, where you should find the license tag by scrolling down. If you want to reuse an image, you must abide by the terms of the license the uploader has released it under. This may or may not be the GNU GFDL.

For the post-script, see our Invariant article. Xenon54 13:54, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Ignore everything else, all you have to do is read: WP:C#Reusers' rights and obligations (if you changed what you used from Wikipedia) or Wikipedia:Verbatim copying#Printed Copies if you just copied. Prodego ^talk 14:50, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello,

• The invariant section is an optional section to the GFDL - Wikipedia does not require an invariant section, so you can ignore that bit.
• Images have different licenses - click on the picture on Wikipedia to see its description page, where the license will be included. Most images on Wikipedia can be used freely, so long as you attribute the person who took the photograph.
• If you've only quoted a few paragraphs from Wikipedia, with a note saying where it came from, then this will probably be fair use. This is an exemption to copyright; if the quotes you used are fair use, you don't need to license your book under the GFDL.
• Using the GFDL means that the text you write for the book can also be used by others (this is known as copyleft). In this case, you would need to include a copy of the GFDL (most books put this in the appendix, see example).

--h2g2bob (talk) 16:44, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

import a photo into a article

with this embedd file icon I cant import a phota to a text, how to da that ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Heinz10 (talk • contribs) 17:24, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You are not allowed to upload images until your account is 4 days old. After that, a link to "Upload file" will appear in the toolbox on the left. Click the link and follow the instructions. Make sure that your image has valid copyright permission if you did not create it yourself, otherwise it will get deleted. Happy editing. SpinningSpark 18:24, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

As well as being four days old, your account needs to have made at least ten edits (at present you have two). Algebraist 00:19, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Article titles

Is it possible to place subscripts in an article title? If so, how is it done, I have already tried the <sub></sub> tags and it doesn't work. SpinningSpark 18:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Article titles can only contain unformatted characters.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 18:22, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I wasn't entirely sure, so I created a page and tried using the pagemove feature, but the destination field did not accept unformatted characters so no, there is no way.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 18:26, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You can put subscripts in the title as seen by the reader with {{downsize}}. Algebraist 22:01, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

You can also put any formatting into an article title by using {{override}}. This allows any formatting to appear at the top of the page. - tholly ^--Turnip-- 20:37, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Template for incomprehensible article

What is the right template for an article which is incomprehensible to the layman? DuncanHill (talk) 18:42, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps {{cleanup-jargon}}; see Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup for more. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:13, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps {{confusing}} or {{obscure}}? Bencherlite^Talk 20:16, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I went for {{technical}}, but all the above would be suitable too. Many thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 20:18, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Require List of India's pincodes by State in xl or Pdf file

Dear Sir,

Kindly go through our background or vision of Organization: -

Dada Bhagwan Foundation has been set up with the objective of spreading spiritual, social & moral awareness and upliftment amongst all the classes of society irrespective of caste, creed, religion or community. The Foundation is a non-profit making organization.

Visit at: - www.dadabhagwan.org

Our Requirement:-

We are distributing the monthly magazine under name “DADAVANI” to all over India and foreign in 3 different language(Guj / Eng / Hindi). We have more than 30,000 membership currently active.

For better distribution purpose and efficiently spreading the spiritual awareness amongst our community, we require updated India’s pin code database in xl or pdf format. With the help of this we can easily get the missing pin codes of India.

Also let us know if any charges / cost we have to pay?

Kindly reply as early as possible.

Thanks & Regards, Dada Bhagwan Foundation Dipesh Gangar Simandhar City Personal info removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.125.170.59 (talk) 19:09, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.

Alternatively, you might like to visit the IndiaPost website

Astronaut (talk) 23:40, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Sandbox

Can i create a own sandbox? AlwaysOnion (talk) 20:05, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Of course, simply create it in your own userspace (for example User:AlwaysOnion/sandbox). Click the link I provided and test there. If you want the page to be deleted at any time, then you can tag it with {{db-u1}} and an admin will (usually) delete it relatively quickly. RichardΩ612 Ɣ ɸ 20:08, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

New template Talkarchivehist

I wrote User:Flatscan/Template:Talkarchivehist based on Template:Talkarchive. It displays useful historical links below the header, as described in Help talk:Archiving a talk page#Cut-and-paste archiving: Increasing transparency. It appears to work in my limited testing, but any fixes or optimizations are welcome. Is there anywhere to request non-technical feedback?

Sample Special:ExpandTemplates input (currentpage parameter may be omitted):

• Context title: Talk:UCLA Taser incident/Archive 1
• {{User:Flatscan/Template:Talkarchivehist|188869483|197075453|20080204010900|currentpage=Talk:UCLA Taser incident}}

Thanks. Flatscan (talk) 02:56, 27 June 2008 (UTC) —cross-posted from Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#New template Talkarchivehist as suggested there

• Is there a specific place to request comments on templates? If not, I'll just mention it on the Talk page I linked above and start using it myself.
• When should I move it from my user space into the Template namespace? I'm confident that it works properly, but I want to make sure that there are no formal procedures that I missed.

Thanks. Flatscan (talk) 22:56, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Editing

I'm not really sure how to create links and put the links at the bottom of an article. When do I need to make a bibliography? What are Citations? Please post the answers of these questions in my talk page, thanks. John26razor (talk) 23:20, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Hey John26razor. Perhaps reading Wikipedia:Footnotes may help you? Best wishes, —αἰτίας •discussion• 23:25, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If you mean references, you put your reference between <ref> and </ref> where you want the little superscript number to appear in the text, and make sure there's a references section containing {{reflist}} where you want the list to appear. The easiest way to see this in action is to pick an article with references in it, and have a look at how they are done by looking at the wiki-markup (ie. click "edit this page" - you don't have to save any changes) Astronaut (talk) 23:30, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

June 29

Arabic wiki

Hello, arabic wiki, is run by three (more) sunni muslim administrators, they block, prevent, any one who tries to put facts on sensitive articles, related to islam, and even related to politics, such as: wikipedia, the caliph othman, etc... Help me please, to progress on this issue, arabic wiki seems to be a heaven for fanatics, nd retrogrades. --81.22.82.30 (talk) 23:29, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry but we have no control over events at another Wikipedia and their administrators. It may be that you can can get something out of bringing up the issue at Meta-Wiki, the site that coordinates all of Mediawiki's projects. You could try their help forum.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:12, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you refer to the Arabic Wikipedia? (The word wiki is a general term, and Wikipedia is a more specific set of wikis.) If you refer to the Arabic Wikipedia (as seems likely), note that Wikipedia#License and language editions says:

• ... the various language editions are held to global policies such as "neutral point of view," ...

The neutral point of view inherently conflicts with a literal interpretation of many religions. Religions are based on subjectivity and faith - that is, believing in things for which there is either no evidence, or no conclusive evidence, which is to say, imagination taken seriously - whereas the neutral point of view is more in keeping with the Western philosophic traditions of critical thinking, objectivity, and the scientific method. While millions of religious people from many traditions edit successfully on Wikipedia, they like everyone else with a strong point of view must avoid asserting their opinions, and merely describe them, when they edit articles that touch on their faith. This may be harder for some religious people than others, particularly people who follow the more aggressively proselytizing and intolerant varieties of religious fundamentalism, which may even regard the neutral point of view as a form of, or often leading to, blasphemy. (Someone who believes they possess the Absolute Revealed Truth may have difficulty understanding why any other point of view deserves an equal hearing, and may regard some expressions of other points of view as deeply offensive or even sinful and worthy of violent response - see for example Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.) Given the intensity of Islamic fundamentalism in some parts of the Arabic-speaking world, it seems inevitable that the objectivist nature of Wikipedia will lead to an ideological conflict. As far as what you can do about it, see the links under WP:EIW#Translate, perhaps: m:Wikimedia Embassy might help. --Teratornis (talk) 16:44, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Anyone who knows David Banner

Can you help and fix my articles David Banner production discography.

Thank you.

--Piazzajordan2 (Talk.) 03:06, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

cyclone, typhoon, storm

what is the difference between cyclone, typhoon and a storm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.60.243.110 (talk) 04:15, 29 June 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. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:19, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Instead, how about you save the RefDesk the effort and look at cyclone, typhoon, and storm? Paragon12321 (talk) 04:40, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Also see hurricane and tropical depression. --Teratornis (talk) 07:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

334 M.O.B.B.

Can somebody help me out with that page?

--Piazzajordan2 (Talk.) 04:21, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

We don't really do that (but we can tell you where to find help). Perhaps ask the relevant WikiProject to help out? Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

The article has been deleted. I think the speedy deletion tag was correct. One interview is not enough to show notability. If you find more sources, the article should be able to claim notability. Paragon12321 (talk) 04:37, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Firefox looses my cookie

I am a regular Wikipedia user. For some reason Firefox has started dropping my login almost immediately after registering. I have checked my cookie settings and am not otherwise having problems with cookies. What could be the matter? I'm tired of editing through MSIE. 78.149.160.242 (talk) 06:14, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Do you have any cookie-related extensions (see tools, add-ons for a list of extensions)? Also, look at Edit, Preferences (or is that Tools, Options on Windows?) - check the Privacy tab for how long you want cookies to be stored, and check you haven't added Wikipedia to the Exceptions list. Also check the settings of the "clear private data" option, if you use that. Finally, did you remember to check the "remember me" box when you logged in? --h2g2bob (talk) 14:26, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

main heading

Hi.. I was wondering how i can change the main heading for a text.. If you search for EFG International, International is spelled with a little i.. and I want it to be a capital I... Thank you for your help Regards 08:42, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I've  Done it for you - when autoconfirmed, you can do it yourself by clicking the 'move' tab...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 08:46, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Deleting my page

I wrote an article about myself while I was manic and in agreement with what wikipedia monitors initially told me, I would like to have my page removed. I have edited the "User:Ben.metelits" page by deleting the content, but it still comes up when I google myself. Is there any way to delete my username and all traces of my connection to wikipedia? Had I been psychiatrically stable at the time, there is no way I would have the arrogance and audacity to write a page about myself and now, I'm just embarrassed by the whole thing! How do I resolve this? Please help! Ben Metelits—Preceding unsigned comment added by Ben.metelits (talk • contribs) 09:01, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Put {{db-author}} on the page. I've just done it for you. If you want anything else to be deleted that you've made do the same. I've also removed your email address as it is likely to get spammed a lot etc if it's visible here. --Tombomp (talk/contribs) 09:10, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Google may maintain a cached copy of a page for some time after the original page disappears. Wikipedia has no control over what Google does. Some Internet archive sites such as the Wayback machine may maintain copies of some pages indefinitely. However, the PageRank of obscure pages may be low, pushing them down in Google's search results. On the other hand, if your name is unusual and appears on very few Web pages, a Google search might find all of them and list them on the fist page of results. The general rule with information is that once information is on the Web, not even the RIAA's lawyers brandishing the DMCA can precisely control what happens to it. --Teratornis (talk) 17:38, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

trees

am looking for a complete list of trees of united states —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.139.33 (talk) 09:11, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Did you mean types of trees? Or a complete list of trees? If it's the former, it's best to ask at the reference desk for humanities. If it's the latter, all I can say is "good luck". :) Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 09:54, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

The science ref desk may have better tree-related knowledge. Also look at Category:Trees of the United States (an incomplete list). --h2g2bob (talk) 14:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

can we find a user identity from a username

Hi, I've done some searching for this, and googled the helpdesk archives, but even though I assume it has come up before, I don't know where in the vast world of wikipedia it would be. The problem is this: someone I know has been defamed on a wikipedia page, and I need to know if there is a way we can find out anything about the identity of the perpetrator given the username. Can we get either the person's name, or even just the IP address which they used for their login? 121.221.143.204 (talk) 09:25, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

No. Usernames are hidden from public view. The only way to find an IP address of a user is to do a checkuser, which is limited to only a handful of trusted users. However, this is almost never done, and only in extreme circumstances. See the checkuser policy and the privacy policy. Thanks, PeterSymonds (talk) 09:34, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

We can fix pages if you post the information to the living persons' noticeboard. Please read Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from subject), which says "Due to privacy concerns, we will not reveal information such as the IP addresses of registered Wikipedia users, except when mandated by law." While you are considering using a legal route, please do not edit Wikipedia. --h2g2bob (talk) 14:48, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Resizing images already used on Wikipedia

I'm trying to resize some overly-large non-free images already in use on Wikipedia articles. Whenever I do this, I have to reupload the image using the "upload a new version of this image" link on the image page. I then have to re-enter the fair use rationale, re-choose the copyright tag, my "comment" winds up being a big huge ugly mess (generally, it's the entire fair use rationale), and the old image can still be reverted to. See w:Image:YGW Cover 1.jpg. But, I see image pages where the comment is just a concise "resized for fair use reasons" or such, and the old image is totally gone. See w:Image:ID eNTITYvol1cover.jpg. (Actually, I can't make a nice concise comment anytime I upload an image; there is no place to enter your "comment".) What on earth am I doing wrong? I'm so frustrated trying to read the help pages I'm about to rip my hair out. --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 09:39, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

When you re-upload an image, the Summary becomes the comment— it does not replace the current summary text. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:32, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Templates

I'm working with Template:Derivatives market and I just wanted to know how to hide it in the Credit-linked note article. Thanks, Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:46, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Add |state=collapsed to the transclusion in the article (it's a parameter I just added)...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 09:54, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I've just  Done it for you...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 09:55, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for that. What did that parameter do exactly? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:58, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

It tells the javascript that does the "collapsing" to display this transclusion on the article in the "collapsed state" when the page is first opened in your browser. Normal is to have it in "autocollapse" which means that all boxes will be open when there are fewer than 3 collapsible boxes, and collapse them all if there are 3 or more. See also the documentation section of {{navbox}}. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:39, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! Zain Ebrahim (talk) 15:56, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Multiple images

I have two images I'd like to add to an article but I'd like them to both be in the same image frame, one above the other so they look like a single image (they're both the same width). Is there a way to do this? In case I'm not clear, have a look at the graphs I did for Gompertz function- there's three separate graphs that I combined to a single image. Could I get three individual images into the same frame if I can't combine them into a single one (they are animated gifs)? Cheers. Reyk _YO! 09:48, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Try {{multiple image}}. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:36, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Editing a redirect

Need technical assistance. How to correct redirect(change name and spelling in redirect) without losing original article. I corrected a redirect and after saving there is only a double entry but not original article. Thanks.Caboga (talk) 13:10, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

If you redirect something, the article won't or shouldn't be there anyway. StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 14:52, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

When you ask about a page, always link to the page. Otherwise, Help desk volunteers have to waste time looking at your contributions to determine what you are trying to ask. On Wikipedia, we do not have simple general rules that work 100% of the time in every situation. Instead we have a set of complex rules which occasionally contradict and give rise to exceptions and special cases (much like law in the real world); therefore, we usually have to see the pages that led to a question, to see which conditional branch we are on. You appear to be asking about House of Kabudžić/Caboga and House of Caboga. The latter appears to be a redirect to the former just now, so whatever the problem might have been, I don't see the problem now. If you want to see the redirect page itself, you have to add &redirect=no to its URL, like this:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_of_Caboga&redirect=no

Please read Help:Redirect and WP:MOVE which explain how this works. --Teratornis (talk) 16:13, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

References causing gapping

Hi, I've noticed that when an article contains references this often leads to uneven gapping between the lines of text, see Dartmouth College for example. Is there anyway to overcome such gapping? Jamesmh2006 (talk) 17:02, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

There is a CSS edit that could possibly be made but I think it wasn't a good idea. I wouldn't worry about it - anything with a superscript messes up anyway. For example, ^this messes up this paragraph quite nicely. x42bn6 Talk Mess 17:23, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't see a problem with line spacing in Dartmouth College. I'm using Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 under Ubuntu 7.10 (gutsy). The problem may depend on the Web browser. You might find something useful in Wikipedia:Browser notes, or maybe in another link under WP:EIW#Browser. --Teratornis (talk) 17:46, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm using Mozilla Firefox 3 with Windows, and I don't have any problems, what browser are you using? - tholly ^--Turnip-- 20:31, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright and references

How is copyright related to references? How do I tell if a reference can be used in WP? See this page for example. It says "All rights reserved" at the bottom but can I use it as a reference wrt copyright? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 17:24, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

We take information from outside sources to write our articles. If the place we take the information from is in the public domain, or under certain types of free licenses, then you can use the actual words, sentences, paragraphs as they appear appear in the source. By contrast, and for the vast majority of text on Wikipedia, when we use a source, it is copyrighted and our task is to distill from the source the information and write about it in our own words; you must not copy the words used—it is the form of the sentences that is copyrighted, not the information conveyed. Referencing is the act of telling users where you got the information. It is never a copyright violation to tell users where you got the information. The only connection between the references and copyright I can see is that it's sometimes a good idea to state in the reference that the source material is in the public domain so that others won't delete your contributon as a copyvio or a putative copyvio. Likewise, if you add a whoe bunch of polished text to an article and don't cite your source, that has all the hallmarks of a text dump and is likely to be reverted as a likely copyvio.

All this means that with respect to the website you reference in your question, so long as you aren't copying the words used on the website, the copyright status of that page is irrelevant; you can use the website as a source of information and then cite. I suggest using <ref></ref> tags with {{cite web}} in between to format the reference (if you donlt know what I mean, please see {{Refref}}). However, pleae also be aware that what we want in references is reliability. This page is dedicated to explaining what consitute reliable sources. I'm not sure that site is very reliable as a source. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:48, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Probably a majority of Wikipedia's reliable sources are under copyright. As to whether this is a problem, it depends on what you mean by "can be used." You can cite a copyrighted source, but you cannot copy and paste from it at length. See: WP:V, WP:RS, WP:CITE, WP:FOOT, WP:CITET, and WP:COPYVIO. If you can be more specific about what you want to do with this reference, we can give a more specific answer. --Teratornis (talk) 17:53, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

You can cite a reference with {{Cite web}} template code like this:

<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.creditflux.com/glossary/funded+credit+default+swap.htm
|title=Funded credit default swap
|publisher=www.creditflux.com
|accessdate=2008-06-29
|last=
|first=
}}
</ref>

which I generated with the WPCITE plugin for Firefox. See: WP:EIW#Citetools. --Teratornis (talk) 17:56, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Firstly, thanks for those replies. Now let me explain what I'm trying to do here. I removed some unsourced information from Credit derivative that at best, is confusing but is also not entirely true. Now I want to include the proper information which is

"A funded credit derivative involves the protection seller (i.e. the party that assumes the credit risk) making an initial payment that would be used to cover any potential credit events."

I don't like to add something without a source and I found the page I linked to above which is not available for free use. May I go ahead? This will really help me because all of the text books I use when editing are also copyright protected.

I should add that I'm fully aware of the reliability policy but I unfortunately don't have anything better at the moment. You will agree that the wrong information had to go, right? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 18:14, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I went ahead and added the ref and the information. Please have a look at the last two sentences of the first paragraph under Credit derivative#Types and check if you think it's a copyright violation. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 20:01, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

citation bullets in References section

I have been unable to figure out how to create an anchor to the citations section and format it so that so the asterisk will be interpreted as a bullet, i.e., the reference will appear with a little square in front of it rather than an asterisk, as it does in your help section and tutorials.

I have cut and pasted suggested, properly formatted references from your tutorial into the sandbox, so I am pretty sure I am not making a typing error.

Here is what I put in the sandbox: (You will need to look at the actual text I typed rather than how it is interpreted in order to see what I am talking about.)

another article Ritter2002

I may be misunderstanding you but are you looking for something like this:

1. another article?

Zain Ebrahim (talk) 20:34, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

References

• Brown, R (2006). "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78).

* this is another citation

* Ritter, R. (2002). The Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860564-1

• Ritter, R. (2002). The Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860564-1

The Brown reference was cut and pasted from your tutorial, as was the Ritter "cite id=" reference (including the "cite id=Ritter2002" and "/cite" parts.

I then cut and pasted the Ritter reference, without the "cite id=" formatting, as a separate reference.

When Ritter (or anything else I type) is listed without "<cite id=" and I select "show preview" it displays a little square as a bullet.

When the exact same text is used with "<cite id=", the asterisk is not interpreted as a bullet, and appears as an asterisk. In your tutorial, it shows the asterisk being interpreted as a bullet, even when used with "<cite id=".

Am I missing something?

How can I make this work? Or when we use "cite id=" is is supposed to appear with an asterisk rather than a bullet?

Neuroscientist1 (talk) 20:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)Neuroscientist1

You are doing the following:

<cite id=Ritter2002>* Ritter, R. (2002). ''The Oxford Style Manual''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860564-1</cite>

But you should be typing the asterick before the reference, like so:

*<cite id=Ritter2002>Ritter, R. (2002). ''The Oxford Style Manual''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860564-1</cite>

This renders it properly as:

• Ritter, R. (2002). The Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860564-1

Ta-da! Also, it is unnecessary to type your name after ~~~~. –thedemonhog talk • edits 20:41, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

AfD mess

I entered a tag for a proposed deletion here, but the version of TW I'm using may well be out of date (or used incompetently). While I read up on the correct way to submit articles for deletion someone may want to check the mess I've made in case it seems like vandalism. The reason for prod noted on the talk page. --Raerth (talk) 21:22, 29 June 2008 (UTC) Now fixed, thanks anyway :) Raerth (talk) 21:41, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

SPAM OR VIUS ON YOUR SYSTEM ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jon_janes ==

But no on can submit the name | jon janes | in the search box to find me ?

I myself and a few companys, find your Wikipedia seems to be full of spam messages that keep deleting accounts and pictures that are owned by the user that owns the copyright depite placing then under a free licence

WHATS GOING ON ?

please help us before our company decides your just to complicated to use

Jon janes

http://www.jonjaneslive.com/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jon janes (talk • contribs) 21:36, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

The search box only searches the main article space, and not the userspace. Your article is currently at your userpage, so it will be ignored by any searches using the search box. PeterSymonds (talk) 21:40, 29 June 2008 (UTC)