Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)

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

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

If you have a specific question to ask, you may go to Wikipedia:Ask a question or MediaWiki Help instead.

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Request for feedback page inactive?

I've started a discussion on what appears to be a well intentioned, but ineffective page at Wikipedia talk:Requests for feedback#Is this page still active? (Suggesting tag historical). Even the response to that is tame, so I'd appreciate some additional comments on the best way to proceed. -Optigan13 (talk) 08:23, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

If you feel that it is inactive to the point of ineffectiveness, or that it overlaps with WP:PR, then you can bring it to WP:MFD to see what the community thinks. There is always a possibility that new interest will be generated. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 14:23, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Sorry or the delay in responding. I think I'm stuck between making an effort towards recruitment, which I worry might be temporary, or just conceding that it isn't really that popular. I wasn't sure about MFD because I'm not really proposing it for deletion, just historical, but yeah that is the most likely to get a lot of feedback. -Optigan13 (talk) 04:30, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

In the past I've tried posting replies to items on RfF, but I don't always get a response. That could be a disincentive for some. I suspect that many of the postings to RfF would be as well served by the many WikiProject talk pages. The PR page seems like a better focal point for improving articles.—RJH (talk) 18:06, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Retroactively obscuring IP address

Hopefully I'm posting this at the right place. My concern is with someone finding my offline identity through pages I have edited, before creating an account at wikipedia. On these pages' history, my IP address appears, associated with the edit.

I have created an account today, and would like to know if I can have this account listed as the user responsible for those past edits, rather than my real IP address. My apologies if this has been answered before; this is a time-sensitive issue which I feel needs to be addressed for my "offline" safety. Thanks in advance Pokeysmotter (talk) 14:10, 22 July 2008 (UTC) pokeysmotter

Nope, contributions histories cannot be merged. Sometimes an admin will selectively delete a revision with an IP edit, but that is on a case by case basis. I suggest you email User:Oversight for more advice. MBisanz ^talk 14:12, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Best bet would be to change your editing habits so that nobody associates you with the old edits (and hope that the old edits don't attract attention in themselves). Listings on Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit don't really get done anymore, and in any case that would publicise the relationship between you and the old IP, which is hardly what you want. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 16:54, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

There should be an avenue for private requests of this nature. — CharlotteWebb 12:48, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Dental Technologists Association Council

During newpage patrol, I ran across the article on the Dental Technologists Association Council. It seems to me to be far too much detail on the members for something that should in my opinion be a tiny page saying who they are and what they do, but I don't really know what to tag it as. Any opinions? --Slashme (talk) 15:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeesh. I would suggest using {{Unencyclopedic}} and {{fancruft}}. PKT 17:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't agree with either of those tags. On the talk page, suggest that, if notable, the council members be split into daughter articles. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 23:07, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

"If" is the key word. PKT 23:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, I'd recommend talking to the user first, tagging a distant second. I have left a robust note on the user's talk page. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:52, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys, I'll continue to observe this to see how it pans out. --Slashme (talk) 08:48, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yup. We'll give the user in question a few days grace - I'm not online until sometime next week. If he does not do the decent thing, then I shall take my drill and attack the caries... --Tagishsimon (talk) 10:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

There's a {{Dental Technologists Association}} in use on that article too, might need an extraction if those biographies don't become full articles? :-P --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:15, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yup. I suggested that template needed to be removed in my note to Cleftlip. Odd that he has such a good grasp of the stricture, form & tools of wikipedia, and so little regard for notability policy/guidelines. Rather sad, that. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Some kinds of new user quickly get up to speed with the technical "how-to", but I think it's OK to jump in and pick up policy as you go (isn't there a page on that in projectspace somewhere?). Obviously they do need to actually pick things up! :-P Of course, the editor's conflict of interest makes it harder for him to judge the notability as well. Wait and see what happens, he might shape up fine! --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I see the "council" page is now redirected to the "association" page, which has a list of the council members, which I think is just fine. By the way, you guys have some WP:TEETH ;-> --Slashme (talk) 16:40, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

recommend url for blocking...

Hi,

Please see contributions from User:58.8.44.217 and User:58.8.34.65. they all promote the url nationmultimedia.com. is there some way to prevent a url from being posted on wikipedia

Cheers

Chirag

15:59, 25 July 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChiragPatnaik (talk • contribs)

That URL appears to be a newspaper in Thailand, and not a small one at that. As such, it appears to be a reliable source, even if a couple of editors are adding spam links. We don't block URLs that can be reliable sources. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:28, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Table sorting issue

I need some help in sorting tables for the article: Amateur radio frequency bands in India. The columns "Frequency" and "Wavelength" do not sort properly. If I do a sort on the frequency, the column contents sort on the value of the first digit. If I sort on wavelength, the sorting cannot recognize the difference between metres and centimetres. Are there any solutions? Thanks! =Nichalp «Talk»= 06:23, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You should probably use a hidden sortkey, as described in Help:Sorting. Algebraist 12:22, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

References in Foreign Language

(reposted here as language section reply was try village pump) Is the use of Foreign Language References acceptable as several articles are getting into revert battles with a poster who has put up a string of references in Russian to justify additions to the article edits. As 95% + of the English Language Wikipedia will not Read rusian the validity of such refs is questionable. see here for Articles; History_of_steam_road_vehicles Pipeline_transport History_of_the_automobile and associated talk pages, posted by user Special:Contributions/79.176.154.152 Related article also have posts by a user now blocked. (The main Question is about the use of references that are in other languages in an en language site )- BulldozerD11 (talk) 16:56, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Said editor has also posted the links on my talk, claiming POV for reverting per guideline on websites (& being in Russian), suggesting I "get a life". My reply is on the IP talk & here. TREKphiler ^{hit me ♠} 05:52, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

See WP:CITE#Sources in different languages and Wikipedia:Verifiability#Non-English sources. If the problem persists after these are pointed out, you might try WP:EA. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:22, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Greyhound dog anxiety and eating problems

I'm a pet sitter and have been petsitting two greyhounds now for over six [6] months and have never had a problem with these dogs eating for me. Recently they refused to eat and it was suspect that the food might be a problem. Knowing dogs as I do it seemed they might miss their owner and decided not to eat as a child might not eat as a protest. If anyone has a greyhound and reads and has had similiar behaviors please would you respond - because unless these dogs start eating while their owner is away I'll be out of a job. Thank you for any knowledge/feedback you may have on anxiety seperation and how it affects these gentle dogs. Thank you in advance. Jean —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeanfurs (talk • contribs) 01:30, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

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. -Optigan13 (talk) 04:51, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Replacing a PNG with an SVG

I recently replaced Image:Edible_toxicity_icon.png with Image:Edible_toxicity_icon.svg in Template:Mycomorphbox, but I then saw that it is still the PNG which shows up on Russula caerulea which uses the {{Mycomorphbox}} template. I am somewhat puzzled as to why this should be and would like some help with fully integrating the SVG in the aforementioned template. It Is Me Here (talk) 08:09, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

The image was only changed in the documentation section. It is hard to implement before all types are available as SVG. The relevant code is: image:{{{howEdible}}}_toxicity_icon.png. – Leo Laursen – ✍ ⌘ 09:19, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks, I'll wait for some more SVGs to be created first, then. It Is Me Here (talk) 07:31, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

There's no reason the template couldn't include an optional parameter to specify an explicit complete image name. I suggest that be done for cases like these. Dcoetzee 22:19, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Editing Special:Statistics?

I'd like some internal links to be added to the text in the Special:Statistics page. Namely, I would like:

" This number excludes redirects, discussion pages, image description pages, user profile pages, templates, help pages, portals, articles without links to other articles, and pages for Wikipedia administration. Including these, we have 14,025,995 pages. "

to be replaced with:

" This number excludes redirects, discussion pages, image description pages, user profile pages, templates, help pages, portals, articles without links to other articles, and pages for Wikipedia administration. Including these, we have 14,025,995 pages. "

- except keep the code behind the number, of course. If anyone could do that (and/or explain how it can be done, so that I know for future reference), then that would be very much appreciated. It Is Me Here (talk) 20:00, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

It's controlled by MediaWiki:Sitestatstext (MediaWiki pages can only be edited by admins). You could ask on its talk page, or maybe an admin will respond here...Someguy1221 (talk) 21:07, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll post a message over there - but was there any way for me to find out what the template was called myself? It Is Me Here (talk) 07:28, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

You can look at Special:AllMessages to find a particular system message. Careful, as it's a large page. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 09:32, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, just what I was looking for! It Is Me Here (talk) 10:12, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

A small public service

Ever had a discussion with people who acted as if wiki-consensus could overrule the law? Well if you've reached wit's end with that, here's a reality check you're welcome to deploy. Best wishes, Durova^Charge! 20:52, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Changing Copyright status

I don't know how to change the copyright status of this image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kotkapuramap.jpg I'm pretty sure it's safe as I got it from the government website http://faridkot.nic.in/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Profitoftruth85 (talk • contribs) 02:43, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "safe" - but a lot of governments do not automatically release their documents into the public domain; I'm not sure what India does. (The U.S. federal government, for example, doesn't copyright its documents).

As for changing the copyright status, notice that in this message, on the image page, that "copyright license tag" is a link:

This image or media does not have information on its copyright status. Unless the copyright status is provided, the image will be deleted after Thursday, 7 August 2008. Please remove this template if a copyright license tag has been added.

That link shows you what tags are available. Copy the appropriate one, then - at the image page - just click the "edit this page" tab, and add the tag. And you can then remove the warning template.

If you have further questions, you might try Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 13:28, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

How strange?

User User:Jiuguang Wang is a student in robotics at Georgia Tech. He is originally from Beijing. He came here 2000 at age 12. I think that makes him 19 now. He posted a robotics template in the discussion page of an article I started in May of 2007. I made the mistake of clicking on the link in the template and then answering his questions, discussing my work and then providing him with links to my articles on the Wikia without learning more about him first. He said that he disagreed with my Wikia articles and without warning posted a nomination for deletion on the article page instead of a reference tag or a not notable tag, or any other tag that might have given me time to deal with the problem. All of the sudden, wham there was the deletion tag. No warning. Next thing I know in the deletion discussion where I was trying to defend myself and the article in great haste, he accused me of a personal attack when he was attacking me through the nomination for deletion instead. Next user - Jameson L. Tai ^{talk ♦ contribs} 09:11, 31 July 2008 (UTC) joined the deletion discussion but strangely in the role of "good cop." I recal seeing his user signature on User:Jiuguang Wang's talk page. Other users joined the deletion discussion and next thing I know a couple of days later the article was deleted. This morning I finally has some time for a recap and to do a little research.

First thing. User User:Jiuguang Wang is posting his robotics template to a lot of discussion pages. Someone needs to check this out and see what Wang is up to. I'm sure he will have a good excuse.

{{WikiProject Robotics|nested=no|class=C|importance=mid}}

Second thing. I asked Henrik I Christensen, Director, Robotics and Intelligent Machines at Georgia Tech if he knew why User User:Jiuguang Wang would be back stabbing me, claiming my article was a hoax and Henrik replied:

"I am sorry that you have been attacked for an article in Wikipedia. I do not have any students named Jiuguang Wang, so this is really not a matter that I can address. - Henrik"

Third thing. I thought, "How strange?", when user User:Jiuguang Wang is editing the Wikipedia article about Henrik I. Christensen. Anybody have any idea what is going on?

Julie Dancer (talk) 14:21, 31 July 2008 (UTC)