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January 10

ultra sound said i had thick womb lining witch is moving

I have poly sistic overies, the other day i went for a scen which showed i had a thick lining of my womb which they said looked like i would have a period a of yet nothing has happened and i have had a very small light sot of blood. What is wrong? Is there any chance i could be pregnant in the very early stages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stacey18 (talk • contribs) 00:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

We cannot give medical advice here. If you are worried, consult a doctor. Algebraist 00:05, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Created Articles

I Just wanted to know who has created maximum number of articles in english wikipedia. is there any tool available ? 59.92.128.134 (talk) 01:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't know. This tool shows article creations by a given editor (I have a whopping total of 3, not counting redirects), but I don't see a way to list editors by article creations (see for example the links under WP:EIW#NewA, which would be the logical place for someone to have listed such a tool). Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits only gives edit counts (I'm #3721 on that list, which means 3720 Wikipedia editors are running scared). Presumably the editor with the most article creations is somewhere on that list, probably toward the top. You might have to be more specific: do you mean maximum total article creations, or only of articles that survive? Do you only care about articles started by a human? I think some bots have mass-created articles. If nobody answers your question here, you could try asking on Wikipedia talk:List of Wikipedians by number of edits, where the discussion looks active. --Teratornis (talk) 05:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Why Are Edits Not Showing Up On the Page?

I edited copy on a page however they are not showing up on the main page. How can you edit the content so the changes show up on the public page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dedecker (talk • contribs)

The edits by you that I'm seeing are to The International Cat Association and to Rachel Hirschfeld (attorney). Your edit to the former still stands as the most recent edit to the article; your edits to the latter have been in part removed and in part revised by User:Orangemike (we don't, for example, include ^TM symbols in articles). You can see the edit history of an article by clicking on the "history" tab at the top of the page. Are there edits you've made other than these, which aren't showing up? Deor (talk) 02:27, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

It's also possible you have to bypass your cache to see the current version. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:02, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Someone deleted our link

Resolved

Someone deleted our link, www.vacreepertrail.us, from this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Creeper_Trail

How do we replace the link, and how do we find out who is doing this?

Thanks for any information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metayel (talk • contribs) 01:45, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Probably because it was considered linkspam. The best thing to do would be to discuss it on the article's talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 03:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

It was deleted by User:842U in this edit. See Wikipedia:External links. The talk page is Talk:Virginia Creeper Trail where a section can be started by clicking the "new section" tab. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:14, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your prompt response. We are new at this and your answer is very helpful. How do we award you a Barnstar? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metayel (talk • contribs) 11:10, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Not many users who are new to Wikipedia know what a barnstar is - I'm impressed. See WP:EIW#Award. But why not be original? You could name your next two cats "Ukexpat" and "PrimeHunter", respectively. All seriousness aside, if your use of the plural "we" is not because you are Monarch, then see Wikipedia:Username policy#Company/group names. --Teratornis (talk) 19:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Citations

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:55, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

If I am using shortened notes with wikilinks for the citation format, how do I handle different papers written by the same person in the same year? Thanks, Reyk _YO! 03:23, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I have not used that citation style before, but in the example you linked to, the link format appears arbitrary, so you could probably just append letters a, b, c, etc., after the year. For example, in the example you linked to, an id like this:

*<cite id=refHaines2007>

could probably just as well be:

*<cite id=refHaines2007a>

and so on. You can probably use any alphanumeric string for the id, as long as it is distinct. The id is just creating an anchor you can link to. See Help:Anchors for more about how that works. If you are editing an article that is in a topic area with many similar articles, you might see how people have styled the other articles. You don't have to follow their style, but if you do it might remove a pretext for edit warring. If you can find a good article or featured article that uses this citation style, maybe this problem has come up before. But that might be tough, because I think citation templates are getting more popular. (Do you not like citation templates?) Also see the note on Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Example edits for different methods#Shortened notes with wikilinks vs. HTML 5. --Teratornis (talk) 05:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I think I've got it worked out now. Thanks. Reyk _YO! 06:01, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Creations

Am I able to create my own article on someone who i may feel from my community would possibly be searched one day? Or for anyone really as a cool gift? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Im.Krispy (talk • contribs) 05:21, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not the place for giving someone a "cool gift". There are a lot of articles like that being created everyday, and they are deleted within a few minutes. For Wikipedia to have an article on someone, they should meet the biography notability guidelines. Also, the facts must be verifiable and neutral. Chamal ^talk 05:29, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a great place for giving a person a cool pillar based gift. For instance, let's say that person is a big fan of Cincinatus... you could spend hundreds of hours making Cincinatus a Featured Article and then, on your talk page, dedicate the work to them. That would be a great gift! —Noah 05:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

That would be cool for a editor you really wanted to thank! Empire3131 (talk) 16:11, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree. Everyone should dedicate a page to the user in this signature: --Teratornis (talk) 17:44, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

For example, someone could dedicate this page. --Teratornis (talk) 17:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Logins Repeatedly Stop Working

I was using LittleHawk as a loging a few times, then could not login and was directed to create a new user account. I created BraveLittleHawk and that worked twice and then again I was directed to create a new account. My actual email has always been <email removed>. I am having the same problem with Facebook and Delicious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.50.104 (talk) 08:39, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Check your computer for spyware. Or maybe you forget your password after creating new accounts?--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 08:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

For the record LittleHawk (talk · contribs) and BraveLittleHawk (talk · contribs) have not been registered as yet. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 08:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

please, tell me

I want to write a page "umaglesi liga" in georgian and infobox in that georgian page, but I can not write the infobox. How can I write an infobox in Georgian? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delibashvili (talk • contribs) 09:53, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

This is the English Wikipedia, therefore it is for English language articles only. If you want to create a page in Georgian, you should do so on the Georgian Wikipedia. haz (talk) 11:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Since not many Georgian speakers read this Help desk page on the English Wikipedia, we can only provide general advice on how a bilingual person would investigate the problem.

1. The first step is to be aware that the English Wikipedia is the largest and best-developed of all the Wikipedias. Several of the other large ones (German Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, etc.) are also well-developed. Once you get past the top ten or so, the remaining Wikipedias tend to fall off a cliff in terms of their level of development. That means many things which are easy on the big Wikipedias may be very difficult on the small ones. In particular, the big Wikipedias have a vast selection of templates written by highly skilled users, which the less-skilled users can use very simply. On the small Wikipedias, it is like going to a frontier colony, where the comforts of civilization may be absent, and the users must be more self-reliant.
2. See if the Georgian Wikipedia has a Help desk, and ask your question there. It seems a link to the Georgian Help desk appears in the "languages" box to the left of the top of this Help desk page (i.e., ka:ვიკიპედია:ცხელი ხაზი). See if you get an answer there.
3. If nobody on the Georgian Wikipedia can help you, then you are on your own. You will have to search the Template: namespace on the Georgian Wikipedia for a suitable infobox. If none exists, then you or a more skilled Georgian user will have to translate a template from the English Wikipedia (assuming the English Wikipedia has a suitable one).
   • The details of how to do this are far too complex to explain in the answer to a Help desk question. However, everything you need to know is in writing already, as part of the massive internal documentation of Wikipedia. See for example the links under WP:EIW#Translate. To survive on the frontier, you need a frontiersman's skills. Which means you need to read lots of friendly manuals.
4. Alternatively, you can simply wait a few years, by which time other users will presumably develop the Georgian Wikipedia into something more usable by people who don't want to read all the manuals.
   • Note that the English Wikipedia had no infoboxes at all when it started. I'm not sure when infoboxes first appeared or became widespread, but it seems the documentation about them only goes back to around 2006. Regardless of the exact timing, the English Wikipedia was able to grow rapidly for its first few years without any infoboxes at all. Infoboxes are nice to have, but I'm sure there are many other needs on the Georgian Wikipedia that you might address more easily. I.e., on the Wikipedias you should pick the low-hanging fruit first. Only do the difficult things when you have run out of the easy things. Maybe by then, the difficult things will have become easier, because other users will have improved the tools, and your knowledge will have increased.
     • As an example of some very low-hanging fruit: Wikimedia Commons has an enormous number of media files which all the Wikipedias can use. Not even the English Wikipedia is using all the existing media files that it could. All you have to do is browse around Commons, find some interesting photos, and then find articles on the Georgian Wikipedia to put them in. It's usually easier to start with the photos and then find the articles, rather than go the other way (start with an article and try to find a photo for it, which often becomes a Needle in a haystack problem - it's much easier to start with the needle, and put it in the haystack).

--Teratornis (talk) 18:25, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Inasmuch as Umaglesi Liga is a football league, you might be able to translate Template:Infobox football league to Georgian. It is built on top of Template:Infobox, which apparently has a Georgian version at ka:თარგი:ინფოდაფა; so you might be able to use that. Or you might be able to use ka:თარგი:ინფოდაფა directly. —teb728 t c 21:48, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

New Page

How do I start a new page, after 6,000++ edits I still dont know how to do this.--Woogie10w (talk) 11:24, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Wow, that's surprising! Anyway, you just have to search for the title using the searchbox, and if the article isn't already there, there will be red link right on top saying "you searched for....". Just click on that and you can start editing. Or just below it, there will be another redlink saying "Create the page". Click on that and start editing. I guess you would know about how the article subject should be notable and all that, so no need to give you all the prep talk :) Cheers. Chamal ^talk 11:32, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Have a look at Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article for help and guidance. Hope that helps! haz (talk) 11:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

• You can also make a subpage in your userpage like User:Woogie10w/NewArticle to work on your article in peace and move it to the article namespace when it's ready to face the crowd. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 15:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

6000 edits and you haven't found the Editor's index yet? I hope that is a record. If not, then Wikipedia's user interface may be seriously broken. You should put a link to WP:EIW on your user page. The answer to almost every question about using Wikipedia is somewhere in there. For example see WP:EIW#NewA. Also, you should consider reading the Help desk more often, or try to answer questions here. You can learn a lot about Wikipedia by reading the Help desk, in much less time than by experiencing all the same problems yourself. --Teratornis (talk) 18:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I didn't find out about the EIW until I had around 7,000 edits and saw you answer a question and link to it - you're the only person I've ver seen mention it actually, despite how useful it is. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 20:39, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

30,000 edits in and that's the first I've heard of it. Looks like a very useful reference page. --Onorem♠Dil 21:54, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Now I'm wondering what useful things I haven't heard of yet. --Teratornis (talk) 05:32, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

First time I've heard of EIW too. Chamal ^talk 05:45, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

16,000+, an admin too, and I can't recall ever being pointed its way :-(- Do the 5 pillars mention EIW ? I've just tried the obvious shortcut of WP:INDEX, which is a pleasant surprise ! WP:CONTENT mentions it, but frankly I've probably run a mile away from that page as it talks about Portals. David Ruben ^Talk 19:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

18,000+ edits, 1000+ newly created articles, and I never came across EIW until just now. It seems very useful! Rosiestep (talk) 19:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Placing tags in wrong places

Why do people place Reference shortcuts and Citation Tags after sentence and before full stop? 92.25.199.151 (talk) 13:44, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia:MOS#Punctuation_and_inline_citations, they shouldn't. I recall a style guideline stating that both could be used as long as each article is consistent but I can't seem to find it. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

You're thinking of WP:Footnotes#Ref tags and punctuation. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:22, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

That's it. Thanks. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 18:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

One would think a bot program could find reference tags that violate WP:REFPUNCT (does anyone know of one?). When you fix one of these, be sure to put something like: "fixed ref tag per [[WP:REFPUNCT]]" in your edit summary to help educate the other users, and to possibly guard against another user reverting you incorrectly. As hard as it may be to believe, not every Wikipedia editor has read and memorized every friendly manual page yet. And of course the manuals are continuously growing and changing despite the fantasy view in WP:CREEP that Wikipedia can somehow remain simple even as it becomes the largest compendium of human knowledge ever assembled. --Teratornis (talk) 18:42, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

And of course, one finds, as here, contradictory policies/guidelines. For what it's worth, I would delete the MOS as unreadable. DuncanHill (talk) 18:48, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

You might describe the contradictions on the talk pages of the contradictory guideline pages. Sometimes the talk pages are active, with a lot of users who take the documentation seriously and try to improve it. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Image Dilemma

I wish to upload a set of scientific diagrams about a star system called Epsilon Aurigae, but I'm not sure of exactly how I can incorporate it. Are there any set copyright laws on diagrams from scientific papers? I do not know which license I should choose. The link that contains a two that I am eyeing can be found here. --Starstriker7^(Talk) 16:31, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

That website does not state that its contents are available under a GDFL license or something similar so we must assume they are copyrighted. The only way for them to be used on Wikipedia is for the copyright owner to release them following the process set out at WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 16:42, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

A strange stub template

I was taking a look at the article about Christian von Koenigsegg. At the bottom of the page I found a strange piece of text that looked like an ad (it can be seen here [1]). I tried to remove it but I just couldn't find this text when I hit the edit button. When I tried removing this stub template ({{automobile-bio-stub}}) and hitting the preview button this text disappeared. Could anybody here explain what this is? Should any action be taken? J-C V (talk) 17:01, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

See [2]. Someone mistakenly started an article inside a stub template. DuncanHill (talk) 17:09, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Reverted. You can add the template back. It seems that Alltwodogs figured out that wasn't the correct place to make his article (he created it as Matthew McGinn) but forgot to undo his edit. Xenon54 17:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Signature

I tried to change my signature to the default one, but it didn't work. Schuym1 20:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

In Special:Preferences, clear the textbox and untick the 'raw signature' box. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 20:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Paraphrasing terms definitions from published books

I am a new article contributor, and I have a series of articles I'd like to add, several of which were inspired by a book published in 1978, Managing for Responsive Research and Development, Stewart P. Blake, author.

Mr. Blake coined in his book several useful terms related to the meta-science of multidisciplinary research and problem-solving.

My first question is, can I enter articles that paraphrase his definitions (he wasn't particular formal at defining them) and use his book as a reference for those terms?

My second question is, I wrote (and published in the journal of the California non-profit corporation Synthesis Institute) an article that extended Mr, Blake's ideas. Is that article an appropriate source? (Note, full disclosure, I was at the time and still am Synthesis Institute's CEO.)

Thank you for your help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by BruceTow (talk • contribs) 23:28, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

This is not really an answer. But I have some concerns about what you propose to do. In the first place Wikpedia is an encyclopedia not a dictionary. Even if the scope of your proposed articles goes beyond definitions, the subjects of Wikipedia articles need to be notable. This means that to be included here a subject needs significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. —teb728 t c 00:36, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

January 11

Associating user id with talk page id in wiki dumps

I'm processing the most recently finished en-wiki-...-stubs-meta-history.xml dump for a research project and have run in to the following questions:

1. Is there an easy way to associate someone's user id with their talk page id (as well as their user page id)?
2. If a user changes their user name, does their associated talk page keep the same page id? How about subpages of their talk page (eg. User talk:User_Name/old)?
3. How does user name changes affect user name collisions over time? For example, the user name "Angela" has had about 28 different user ids associated with it over Wikipedia's history. If an user edited "User talk:Angela" who were they talking to, the current (as of the dump) user id associated with "Angela" or the user id whose user name was "Angela" at that time?

I asked this question on Village Pump (Technical) earlier today but am unsure if that was the appropriate forum for this question, hopefully this is the best place for this question. Thanks for the help!

Andlarry (talk) 00:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:VPT was actually closer to the mark, given that questions of greater technical difficulty go there, but if you're not getting a response, it's probably because you are asking a question that goes well beyond what most Wikipedia users normally think about. Your question is sort of like asking a ski instructor to explain the physics of snow. (The Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia.) If you want to research Wikipedia, you have to learn a lot of specialized material, and figure out who the other users are who know that material. If you aren't an expert with MySQL or interested in becoming one, I'd say you're probably in for some tough sledding. There may be some limited help available from the small community (if we could call it that) of people (mostly academics, I suppose) who research Wikipedia. The first step would be to read everything linked from WP:EIW#Research, WP:EIW#Download, WP:EIW#Query, and WP:EIW#MediaWiki. You should either find answers there, or at least a better idea of who might know what you need. Are you doing this research project entirely on your own, or do you have an advisor? --Teratornis (talk) 00:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis, I appreciate for your help! I'm happy to dig into the media wiki software to find my answer, I posted because I ran out of places to look. Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to explore them. Other than a direct answer to my questions, that is the sort of help I was looking for. I do have an advisor, who I can talk to about getting in contact with other wiki researchers. Thanks again! --Andlarry (talk) 01:23, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And I am sure there is much helpful material over at MediaWiki. – ukexpat (talk) 01:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm slightly curious about who is formulating the questions you are trying to answer, and what information he/she used to formulate these questions. Namely, I'm wondering why the information sources that motivated the questions aren't enough to guide the path to answering them. That's a circuitous way of saying that I think before someone could formulate meaningful questions to answer about Wikipedia, one would have to know a lot about Wikipedia, e.g. more than I know about Wikipedia. Because without such detailed knowledge of Wikipedia's internal workings, how would one have any idea whether one was asking the right questions? Generally a thesis advisor should know a lot about whatever he/she sends the graduate student to investigate, at least enough to be able to know what the meaningful questions are, and if not how to answer them, at least where to send the student to learn the existing state of the art which the student will presumably attempt to extend. So I'm a little puzzled by what I'm seeing here - the student asking for help on the Wikipedia Help desk. This is unnervingly consistent with the hypothesis that the thesis advisor is kind of shooting in the dark. What specific background does your advisor have with wiki technology? You don't have to answer here, just take these as thought questions, but for the kinds of questions he/she seems to be sending you to investigate, I'd say the minimum qualification for an advisor to have any idea what he/she is doing would be something like:

• Has edited extensively on at least one wiki. (If there is a way to understand wikis without actually using them, I cannot imagine it.) I'd look for an edit count in the 5000+ range on at least one well-developed wiki and on at least one poorly-developed wiki (so the advisor clearly understands the role of the user community along with the raw capabilities of the software). The standard is high here because we are talking about someone who should have authoritative knowledge and thus be capable of extending the state of the art.
• Has installed and administered at least one wiki from scratch, and preferably written extensions for it. Granted, this is getting into technician stuff, but there is no comprehensive theory of wikis yet that academics could carve out as a domain entirely separate from banging on some code. (Try to imagine a theory of glassblowing which doesn't involve actually blowing any glass. That would probably be more attainable, actually, than a theory of wikis that wouldn't require any direct experience, since glassblowing is just physics.)
• Has published in a peer-reviewed journal on some relevant topic.
• Uses impressive jargon such as "Commons-based peer production" and "Social production of value".
• Is utterly irresistible to women. (Sadly, this doesn't seem to be a consequence of developing expertise on wikis. But fortunately it is also not a prerequisite.)

I don't mean to get all Simon Cowell here, but if you're writing a thesis, you're going to defend it before a committee, and there's a slim chance someone on your committee might have a minimal degree of competence in this topic. In which case you'll have to explain yourself to the satisfaction of someone with my minimal degree of competence. You want to be sure that when you go to defend, you know more about your topic than anyone else in the room. While you're plowing through the voluminuous reading material I linked to above, also read everything I linked from User:Teratornis/Theory of Wikipedia, which lists some authors who are trying to develop a theory for this stuff. You want to read everything by Clay Shirky and Yochai Benkler, for example. If nothing else, Benkler's The Wealth of Networks will cure any insomnia problem. --Teratornis (talk) 06:08, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

My reply at the village pump might also be a good insomnia cure for some people. :-) In short: "probably not", "yes if the page is moved", and "dunno". I've done a lot of research on page history to try to find old edits - see User:Graham87/Page history observations - but I'm not a MySQL expert by any stretch of the imagination. Graham87 06:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

PAGESINCATEGORY question

{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is, at the moment, returning a count of 35:

Count: 33

But the count is (as I understand it) supposed to include pages within subcategories. Since Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories; the total, inclusive count is obviously much, much greater than 35.

I've read the relevant (I think) help page at Meta: m:Help:Category#Count, which is rather terse, and gives no clue as to what might need to be done (null edit? separate new page?) in order to get this magic word to work correctly with this category. Suggestions?

(By contrast, {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Living people}} seems to work correctly, returning a number around 330,000.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

m:Help:Category#Count contains a misunderstanding of the source it mentions: m:Help:Magic words#Other_2. The latter says: "Returns the number of pages in a given category, including sub-category pages and file description pages." Here "sub-category pages" only refers to the category page a subcategory is displayed on, and not the pages in that subcategory. Category:Living people really does contain hundreds of thousands pages directly and not in subcategories. The category is not intended for manual browsing. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:16, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories as you say. Adding the currently 14 articles gives 35 category members in total so {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is correct. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:20, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit no-show

Resolved

I've just deleted some vd at Portal:Contents/Portals#Mathematics_and_logic. The "edit" page looks clean but the actual page still shows the vd version. The page is semi-protected and I'm autoconfirmed. Help? hydnjo talk 02:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

strange. It's looking good half the time. Empire3131 (talk) 02:18, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Did you try purging the page? Your edit was made to the subpage Portal:Contents/Portals/Mathematics and logic and not [[Portal:Contents/Portals, so possibly the older version is still showing on the transcluded page. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 02:21, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You edited [3] a transcluded page. That can happen without noticing it when you click a transcluded edit link. If you want the edit to propagate quickly to a page where it's transcluded then you can purge that page. It appears Portal:Contents/Portals has either been purged already or the software automatically updated it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Oops, my bad. I shoulda' realized that when "Save page" returned only the transcluded section. Thanks all. hydnjo talk 02:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Delete

I had previously created a template page, which I have now placed within an article. How can I delete the Template page now that there is nothing there? --Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 03:36, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Only administrators can delete pages. You can place {{db-author}} on it. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:48, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• If the template is useful for repeated use, I'd like ask you not to delete it. By the way, the template will still exist unless you blanked it. Using subst: to get the material in the article doesn't affect the template and simply adding {{template}} to the page means that deleting the template will also result in the deletion of the content, since the template is still being called. - Mgm|^(talk) 14:33, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

The content of the template - Template:FNBO Direct Rates - was copied and pasted into a bigger article - FNBO Direct, so I think the template can be deleted without adverse consequence. I have tagged it. – ukexpat (talk) 16:06, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

assessing articles

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 02:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I assess an article without a wikiproject template? Also, how would I assess an article as a 'set index' or 'disambiguation' class page? OlEnglish (talk) 03:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

First I would ask why the article has no WikiProject template. Is this because:

• There is no suitable WikiProject.
• There is a suitable WikiProject, but no member of that project has noticed this article yet.

I think you need to resolve that conditional branch before doing anything else. If you tell us the title of the article, someone can tell you which branch you are on. As to the second question, I've heard of disambiguation pages, but what do you mean by "set index"? Can you give an example? There are list pages, if that's what you mean. I'm not sure how someone would assess a disambiguation page. I don't think I've heard of that before (which doesn't mean nobody is doing it, I just haven't heard of it yet). There are, however, featured lists, so there is some rigmarole for assessing them. For more information on assessment, see WP:EIW#Quality which for all I know might contradict everything I've said. Trust the consensus guidelines, not the individual editor, no matter how glib and compelling he thinks he is. --Teratornis (talk) 06:25, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Assessments are either for an individual WikiProject or for Wikipedia 1.0, with the exception of the separate featured article, featured list, and good article processes. So, if you want to assess an article, you have to add a WikiProject template. Most WikiProjects support assessing pages as disambiguation pages or set index articles, but you'll have to look at the specific WikiProject template to see if it does. I think that WikiProject templates that don't support those use NA-Class instead. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 19:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. However I have come across articles that are 'assessed' as disambiguation or set index without any wikiproject template at all in their talk pages, and some like Dodge Charger have the template assessing the article as a stub yet it still reads 'set index' at the top of the article. I guess what I'm asking is how is this done? I have "Display an assessment of an article's quality" checked in my preferences. Is this just an obsolete Wikipedia 1.0 leftover feature? Also, does every article NEED to be associated with a wikiproject? Should this be criteria for an article to be upgraded to good article status? OlEnglish (talk) 00:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like you're talking about the assessment information displayed by this user script, which only partly relies on WikiProject assessments. For disambiguation and set index pages, it just looks for the DOM objects produced by the templates used to mark such pages. These are essentially page types rather than assessments. (By the way, if you notice a bug with that script, please report it at this page.)

In the case of Dodge Charger, the article is correctly detected by the assessment script as being a set index article; note the {{SIA}} template at the bottom of the page. I'm pretty sure the stub assessment on that article's talk page is incorrect, since a set index article follows the style guidelines for stand-alone lists rather than for articles.

As for whether every article needs to be part of a WikiProject, I don't think it's required. However, there are so many WikiProjects that almost every article will be associated with at least one, and it's helpful to place articles under all applicable WikiProjects so they can better keep track of articles under their scope. It's not strictly required for good article status, though. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Awesome, thank you very much. OlEnglish (talk) 02:43, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Google

Hello,

I was wondering how to post my Wikipedia article on Google. It is all set when I search for it on Wikipedia, but it doesn't show up at all under Google.

The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morristown_UFO

Thanks so much for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soron616 (talk • contribs) 06:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe there is nothing we can do to influence Google's indexing schedule. You just have to wait. I've seen delays as long as four days. --Teratornis (talk) 07:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It might take a while to get indexed. There are no incoming links from other articles in the mainspace, so adding links from relevant articles might be a good idea. It will help the spiders find the page quickly. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 07:07, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

You should also add categories. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And folks, let's not forget that we are here to create an encyclopedia, not win points for getting articles to show up in Google searches. – ukexpat (talk) 16:08, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm still fairly new, so I hope it's ok that I add my 2-cents. First, as the article does see more views, it will probably change. That's to say that an article isn't "owned" by any one person here. Don't be offended by this Soron616, it's simply our way of being open to all, and improving all the articles here. Your hard work is duly noted, appreciated, and preserved in history. Regarding links: wiki markup seems to work in such a fashion that words that are "internal" links get added to the "keyword" tag in the html markup. (yes, I know the phrase html markup is redundant ;)). This, (along with many other factors), typically causes topics on Wikipedia to eventually rank very highly in Google search results. So, if you have the words that will be searched for "linked" to other wiki articles (UFO, Morristown, etc.) it will eventually be ranked quite high. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ched Davis (talk • contribs) 16:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC) oops ... sig: Ched (talk) 16:53, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

After reading through it ...I might add .. "Job well done" by the way. Ched (talk) 16:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Children/people who inspire

How can I use your directory to find a list of children or people who inspire others? I am trying to generate a list of names for my students to then use the internet to locate the information on such people. Thank you for your help. Theresa Murray —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.156.89.4 (talk) 10:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but Wikipedia's neutral point-of-view policy would likely prevent such a category from being created. The person would have to have some sort of magazine or newspaper article written about how they are so inspiring. Xenon54 12:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

You could try looking at selected subcategories of Category:Children which shows some children who have become notable for different reasons. But it varies whether they can be called inspirational and it's not the kind of judgement Wikipedia makes. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Just for fun, I searched Wikipedia with Google for: "inspirational children", and I found a glaring example of peacock language and non-neutrality in St Matthew Academy#The Three Houses of St Matthew Academy. In particular, the glowing praise for Mother Teresa deserves a modicum of balance. --Teratornis (talk) 20:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Time lag for updates to "What links here"

I've poked around enough to understand that, when I change a link in a template, there are a couple of tasks that get thrown into the job queue. The first is to update each page that transcludes the template, so that it shows the updated information. The second is to update the "What links here" for the article that used to link from the template, but now no longer does.

I also understand that the length of time before these actions get completed depends on the length of the job queue. Unfortunately, I don't have any context regarding that number. The job queue is currently at almost 1 million — is that long?

I'm asking because it appears to be taking a very, very long time for "What links here" to update, even though the transclusions have gone through. For example, back on December 20th, I changed a link in {{Template:Country Radio Stations in Illinois}}, from WAAG (FM) to WAAG, following a page move. Three weeks later, the "What links here" for WAAG (FM) still shows the pages that transclude that template. I have a number of similar cases. While this often happened in the past, it seems that the lag for this has stretched from a day or two back in the summer to three weeks and counting now.

So, is this normal? Aside from null edits at every single transcluding page, is there anything I can do about it? It's not a huge problem in that the correct information is showing in the articles themselves, but it makes the job of monitoring incoming links to disambiguation pages very difficult when links that have been fixed appear not to be. Mlaffs (talk) 18:33, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It may be me grasping the wrong end of the stick, but are you sure you've followed the redirect from WAAG back to WAAG (FM)? When I look at the "what links here" for the latter it only shows the following, none of which are transclusions, and all of which are links.

Wikipedia:Help desk (links)

WBWN (links)

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/WikiProject Illinois articles by quality log (links)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Illinois/Assessment (links)

User:AlexNewArtBot/IllinoisSearchResult/archive5 (links)

WLUV (links)

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Radio station articles by quality log (links)

Again, I may be missing something, but all of those appear to be correct, and wouldn't need to update following your change in December. _Gb^T/c 19:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake, it's WBWN and WLUV that are the issue, isn't it. To clarify, then, the problem is the fact that WBWN and WLUV are still showing up as linking to WAAG (FM) even though the template transcluded onto those pages has been updated to point directly at WAAG? _Gb^T/c 19:19, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's the problem exactly. Here's an example that's a day older, and much more wide-spread. {{Template:Cumulus Media}}, edited on December 19th to change a link from KBED (AM) to KBED. There are a huge number of articles transcluding this template, all of which are showing the updated version — some of them have been cleared from the KBED (AM) "What links here", but a huge number of them remain. Mlaffs (talk) 19:34, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok, well, just to double check it's not anything else, let me edit one of the two pages to see if that pushes it out of the links list for WAAG (FM). _Gb^T/c 19:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And it's just done that - WLUV is no longer on the list. Must be a job queue issue, then, I guess, although why it's taking so long is beyond me - I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts? _Gb^T/c 19:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Updates not appearing

Trying to update electoral results in the riding of Leeds-Grenville from 1988 and before. However when I try and save my updates within the result charts, my updates do not show up! However when I go back to re-edit, they show up on the edit page. Click re-save? They don't show up on the actual page!

Please help!

Political junky (talk) 19:57, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you bypassed your browser cache and done a server purge? – ukexpat (talk) 20:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

MOTD lag

Is anyone else experiencing a server lag at MOTD? Click the link; what is the last motto in the 'in review' section? TopGearFreak 20:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

If you mean the latest one, ie. the top one, then I've got "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute". _Gb^T/c 20:40, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

No, I meant the bottom one. Also, on top, I've got "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt". TopGearFreak 20:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

For me, bottom is "Toot and come in." The weather one is 10 from the bottom. The top one is the same. Xenon54 20:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

In that case bottom one for me is "be a person and respect others as persons". It's number 4.14. "Toot and come in" is 4.11, "let me win..." is nowhere to be seen. _Gb^T/c 21:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Although on the actual page in question - Wikipedia:Motto_of_the_day/Nominations/In_review - (rather than the one being transcluded onto WP:MOTD) "Let me win" is .1, "toot and come in" is .25 and "if you don't like the weather" is at .15. _Gb^T/c 21:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Bottom motto for me is "Be a person and respect others as persons", yet when I go to edit it the motto that comes up is "no guts no glory". I purged the cache and it's the same. Help? TopGearFreak 21:07, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Clicking on edit alongside "Be a person and respect others" from Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations will open up section T-20 on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review, which (because it's not being transcluded properly) corresponds with "No guts no glory" - likewise, clicking on edit alongside "You write with ease to show your breeding", the section above "be a person" on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations will open up the section above "no guts, no glory" on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review, which is "what do we live for". The question, therefore, is why isn't it transcluding the latter onto the former properly? _Gb^T/c 21:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Have purged both pages, and it looks like the two tie up to each other (to me, at least) now. _Gb^T/c 21:46, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I have seen this problem before at the MOTD nom page. Even after purging, I saw ones that were not there anymore. Maybe some techy guy can help us with this? Chamal ^talk 00:31, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

image weirdness

Resolved

See WP:RD/C#svg 2 png curious. The image, to all who see it, is a white box, but the image exists. I've tried purging the image page and the RD page, but to no avail. This is seriously weird. Any help? flaminglawyer^c 21:32, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• I commented on the reference desk page. May be on to something, maybe not. —Noah 22:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• It's fixed now; there was an error in the SVG code. - Erik Baas (talk) 23:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Tweaking Special:LinkSearch

When using Special:LinkSearch, I can't seem to find a way to limit returns by namespace. Does anyone know of a tweak to LinkSearch (or of a different utility altogether) which would allow me to filter or sort returns? At the moment I'd like to be able to limit results to links in the article namespace only. Ultimately it would be handy to be able to sort LinkSearch results by namespace or by Wikipedia page name, rather than just by external link name. Cheers! TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

January 12

pictures

why i can't see picture son wikipedia anymore? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.6.72.253 (talk) 00:36, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, they are there. But browser setting can change the displaying of images. Or it might be a connection problem. Chamal ^talk 00:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it just some pictures that don't display, or are all images on Wikipedia not loading? Can you see images on other websites? Also, what browser are you using? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:GA

What's wrong with the WP:GA team? I have a couple of articles nominated, one from January 5 and nothing. Is there a problem? Mario1987 09:15, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You just have to wait and be patient. I've seen nominations that have never been reviewed in over a month before. Also, I think asking at WT:GA would be the best place to ask that. — RyanCross (talk) 09:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience. Mario1987 09:51, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

No problem at all. — RyanCross (talk) 09:52, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Signpost on my Watchlist?

Resolved

I used to have Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Tools/Single on my Watchlist, so every week I would see the update and read the Signpost. Now this doesn't work as that page is automatically updated. Which page I should Watch to get the same effect?--Commander Keane (talk) 11:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• If the page is updated automatically, chances are a bot is doing it. Does your watchlist watch bot edits? You might also want to take a look at the top of my talk page. I have a template there that shows the latest stories and updates automatically too (it's much easier to notice if the update is shown in a visible place. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:39, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• In your watchlist, it's possible to turn on and off minor edits, anonymous user edits, registered user edited, etc. One of those choices include bot edits. You might have that on. Try turning it off. — RyanCross (talk) 11:54, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is automatically updated by transclusion. I found Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Issue which is what I think I need, so it is ok now. Thanks for your help anyway Mgm :-) --Commander Keane (talk) 11:55, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Company listing has disappeared

The entry for NetCracker Technology no longer exists. I last touched it in November, I believe, and it was fine then. Why did it get deleted? What do I need to do to restore (and modify) it?

Thank you. Donna Bastien, Director of Marketing at NetCracker Technology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Donnabastien (talk • contribs) 11:41, January 12, 2009 Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)

NetCracker Technology --this article was never created. We need to know the exact title of the article if you want to know the exact reason why its missing but I can tell you that if it was deleted it was probably due to or notability or "advert tone" issues. –Capricorn42 (talk) 11:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is NetCracker I believe. It has been speedy deleted on 9 December 2008 under criteria G11 (blatant advertising). Please read Wikipedia:ADS for more info. Wikipedia is not the place to advertise your business or organization. Also, our articles have to be neutral and verifiable. Wikipedia:Conflict of interest might also interest you. Chamal ^talk 11:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:FAQ/Organization has a good overview of the applicable policies and guidelines. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Uploading images without being auto-confirmed

I would like to upload 2 images for a company page but I do not fall under the status of auto-confirmed due to the '10 edits' criteria. Is there any way that I can do this?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brendanbourke (talk • contribs) 12:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

If the images are free, you can upload them at Commons. You can immediately start uploading images there. Also there is a special user right, Uploader, that allows you to this here too. I'm not sure how you apply for this user right, I'll look into it now. Chamal ^talk 12:31, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I edit a Category title?

Hello,

I am wondering how to edit a category title. A trademark is being used as an uncapitalized generic term in a category title, which implies business associations where none exist. This kind of generic use could damage the trademark (i.e. calling copy machines xeroxes)

I need to edit the category title to remove the trademark and insert a generic term in its place, but I can find no information on how to do this.

Thanks for your time.

Greg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:23, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Categories cannot be moved or renamed. Just create a new category, replace the category tags in articles with new ones and then request deletion of the old category. See the help page –Capricorn42 (talk) 13:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Many Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• Surely Wikipedia:Categories for discussion is the place to go? Once a rename is agreed, a bot goes around changing the category tags in the articles for you. DuncanHill (talk) 14:58, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Agree - that's a more organized and less tiresome way to do. –Capricorn42 (talk) 15:03, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Discussion pages and policies

Resolved

 – per this diff

Hi. Can someone point me to a policy page on discussion pages (if such exists)? Discussion pages are useful to find the NPOV between different POVs. But what if it is a personal attack like "He should be shot." referring to the person the discussed article is about. May such edits simply be deleted? Michbich (talk) 14:45, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you're looking for Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Article talk pages are used for discussing matters related to the article only. Such comments are not, and therefore can be removed. Chamal ^talk 14:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Can and should be removed, and the user posting such a comment should be given an appropriate warning on their user page. Such behaviour is unacceptable. – ukexpat (talk) 15:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the above and would also mention the no personal attacks guide. It's content that matters, not the contributor or personal opinions about the subject. TN‑X-Man 16:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does it matter who the article is about? Granted, writing one's unfavorable opinions about the subjects on Talk:Adolf Hitler or Talk:Osama bin Laden would probably do little to improve the associated articles, but would there be a problem with citing reliable sources that find X% of poll respondents favor shooting some individual? Can we list some of the prominent politicians who have vowed to kill Osama bin Laden? We already know, of course, that many people want to shoot many major world figures, which is why major world figures tend to have heavy security. I read somewhere that every U.S. President receives at least 1000 death threats per year. Having people who want to shoot you seems to be a natural result of attaining a position of political consequence. That some wannabe assassin would tip their hand on Wikipedia may be imprudent on their part, but should hardly surprise us. We have articles about people who have enemies, some of those enemies may find their way to us. --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Notice

Has the fundraising notice been put on pages again? I thought they removed it on the 9th. 212.219.0.20 (talk) 16:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It just reappeared for me too. DuncanHill (talk) 16:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, me too. Hm, I thought they disabled this. Anon, if you sign up or login, you'll be able to collapse it. The gadget for users has, however, been removed. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Which answers my question about why I can't get rid of the bloody thing. I shall not contribute to mainspace until I can remove it. DuncanHill (talk) 16:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I suppose the code for the gadget could be used as a .css skin in individual monobooks. See simple:MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice.css for a copy of the code (just one I have available). PeterSymonds (talk) 16:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The gadget appears to have reappeared. DuncanHill (talk) 16:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

random on mediawiki -- how/possible?

Hello,

I would like to put in an article an image that randomly changes among a set of images. I found some info on how to randomly pick among ALL images, but how about randomly pick among a set (or even a category) of images? Is it possible, and if so, how?

Thank you.

--Agamemnus (talk) 17:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to do this in an article. Where and why do you want to do it? Algebraist 17:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, in terms of Wikipedia, nowhere quite yet. This is for a different wiki. (sorry..., and thanks again in advance!)--Agamemnus (talk) 18:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

One way of doing this is shown at Portal:Middle-earth/Random-article. How often it'll update will depend on exactly how this other wiki operates, though. Algebraist 18:14, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

But, that relies on caching. How do I make it do something different every time without having the user having "reset" it manually? --Agamemnus (talk) 20:20, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does the {{Wikipedia ads}} template do something like you want? Also, what do you mean by "every time"? --Teratornis (talk) 20:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

By "every time", I mean every time a page loads. And yes, that is what I want. However, I am *extremely* confused by how exactly I would use this... I need to make a new template, right? ... what would that template look like? I don't know which code to cut out, and which to leave...--Agamemnus (talk) 22:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis's example works in essentially the same way as mine, and has the same caching problems. I doubt what you want is possible with pure wikicode. You might be able to do it with javascript, but that's beyond my ken. Algebraist 22:35, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The principle behind {{Wikipedia ads}} could work in your case. You can try something similar to the following in your article:

[[Image:Rotating image {{#expr:{{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}} mod N}}.png]]

where N is the total number of images. This would show a pseudorandom image between Image:Rotating image 0.png and Image:Rotating image (N-1).png when called. This method of pseudorandomness only works in MediaWiki v1.10+ and generates a number between 0 and (N-1) depending on the number of edits made since MediaWiki was installed. Clearly, you can adapt this to your specific implementation. That algorithm is only really effective on wikis with high edit rates – if your wiki is less frequently edited, something like the formula at Algebraist's example might be more effective. haz (talk) 22:47, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Addition of climate information

I notice that many city locations have graphical information added to their climate sections. I too would like to add such graphs, yet catn seem to find where the current "standard" graphs often added are located. An example is found under Atlanta, "Climate" it shows that the graph comes possibly from The Weather Channel. However, on their website, the graphs are very different. Where do i find the graphs found here on wikipedia?

The data within the climate table at Atlanta come from this page at The Weather Channel. One of the article's editors has created the table from that data. – ukexpat (talk) 18:16, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, the table was made using {{Infobox weather}}. Algebraist 18:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How to write an article in Wikipedia?

How can I write an article on Wikipedia then subbmitting it? So when I like open Wikipedia and open the article I wrote it would be there. Thanks. AKhShaheen (talk) 18:27, 12 January 2009 (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. TN‑X-Man 18:28, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Polish Question

I have problem switching to polish languish

Are you possible looking for the Polish Wikipedia? TN‑X-Man 18:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Or do you mean that you cannot change your default language to Polish here on English Wikipedia? – ukexpat (talk) 18:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit Count

I've been on Wikipedia for a while and I would like to know the total amount of edits I have done, does anybody know where I can I get that information?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 20:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:EIW#Count. --Teratornis (talk) 20:50, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

At the top of the page, you'll see "My Contributions" .. once there, scroll to the end of the page and you'll see links to edit counts, summary and so forth. Ched (talk) 20:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

For your specific link, go here. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 21:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Canada Election Map

Hi, I'm trying to upload a map of the 2008 Canadian federal election but it's going all weird. It's not showing the page and I can't display the page anywhere... Could someone look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong? It is here, I suspect it has something to do with the SVG being given a different name of the file, but it auto renames it to have no spaces... TastyCakes (talk) 20:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks like you made the same mistake I did (while trying to upload File:VASR 7 map.svg). I get

        Error creating thumbnail: 
        librsvg-ERROR **: _rsvg_acquire_xlink_href_resource called for external resource:         
       Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png base: (null)
       aborting...

when clicking on this link to the image. Your SVG references a png on your computer (probably some sort of base map); it can't be accessed, and an error message is thrown. I fixed this problem by using File-Import rather than copy and paste. Try that and see if it works. Xenon54 21:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, what is file import? I uploaded by clicking the "upload file" on the left bar in the commons main page. Could the error have been caused by me leaving the file open on my desktop while I was trying to upload it? TastyCakes (talk) 21:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for not being clear. The SVG references Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png, but the server, when it goes to make the thumbnail, can't find it. Likely what this means is you copied and pasted the png into whatever program you used to create the SVG, and it wasn't embedded correctly when you saved the file to upload. I rectified this problem by going to File -> Import in Inkscape and imported (rather than pasted) the images, which embeds them. You can also embed (again, in Inkscape) by going to Effects -> Images -> Embed all images. I hope I didn't confuse you more! Xenon54 23:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

StatusBot

Is there a bot that updates your status as to whether you're in or out when you edit? I'm almost certain I saw something like that before. TopGearFreak 21:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Soxred93 (talk · contribs) used to run one such bot, but it was blocked. –Juliancolton ^{Tropical Cyclone} 21:30, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I use a script -- User:Misza13/statusChanger.js - it requires you to set up the appropriate subpages first, but it works great. It installs "in", "busy" and "out" links at the top in the same row as your user page, user talk page etc links. – ukexpat (talk) 21:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Some problems caused by renamed image

I just noticed a red link to Image:LoCiconRevised.svg, and it turned out it was deleted because the editor had replaced it with Image:LoCiconRevised.png. Now, I could seen that because I have admin rights; but this is something everybody should be able to see. Ideally, this should just automatically be changed to a redirect. But I can imagine that that may not be possible technically. Is there any way to at least make users aware of that move? Also, I did not see a "what links here" button. Is there a way to see if this is actually used? (If so, I'm thinking of requesting a bot to crawl this list after each image renaming.) — Sebastian 22:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The way to make users aware of the move is for the deleting admin to mention it in the deletion summary. Unfortunately, the admin here did not do so. What links here works fine for me. Algebraist 23:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Use of references inside templates

Where can I find documentation on how to use references - <ref> etc. - INSIDE templates? Iterator12n ^Talk 23:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It should generally work as normal, though you might have to use {{#tag:ref|reference content}} instead of <ref>reference content</ref> in some circumstances. That's documented here. Algebraist 23:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Username conflicts

Hi,

I am using "IndiaWiki" username for Wikimapia.org

I want to use the same for wikipedia for contributing in it.

I am not able to create this user name or any other user name with my email id which I used while creating ID for wikimapia

do I need to create a separate one which is not mapping with wikimapia ? if user database is same, why am I not able to use the same username and password for wikipedia..

Please assist

Thanks Amit Dhumash —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.10.219.38 (talk) 23:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean, you are 'not able to create this user name'? What exactly happens when you try? The name 'IndiaWiki' is not taken here, and WikiMapia is nothing to do with Wikipedia, so I can't see any obvious problems. Algebraist 00:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the computer won't allow names containing "Wiki"? I thought that administrators could create accounts for people who request them. Let's see... WP:USERNAME and WP:ACC are two pages you should read for more information. LovesMacs (talk) 00:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

User:Indiawiki is registered and IndiaWiki is too similar. See Wikipedia:Request an account. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

January 13

linking articles

I am trying to make the name of the sportsman Robin Mcbryde on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_athletics_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_Ireland, link to his wikipedia page. I did try, thought I did it right but I don't think I did, I can't make head nor tail of the instructions on linking articles. Any help/advice will be appreciated.

Uploading photo

Hi,

I'm having trouble uploading a new photo to a pre-existing wikipedia page. could you please contact me to help me resolve this?

thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cali12345 (talk • contribs) 00:45, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

What sort of problem are you having? —teb728 t c 01:04, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Your account needs to be autoconfirmed (10 edits and at least 4 days old) before you can upload images. – ukexpat (talk) 01:21, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

KenConklins Page on Hawaiian Epistomology and Native Hawaiian Education

My name is Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith and I am a Native Hawaiian Educator, who teaches at a Hawaiian Language Immersion School on a Hawaiian Homestead (similiar to an American Indian Reservation)in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. As I was doing research for a professional development course I am taking, I came across a page in Wikipedia that writes about Native Hawaiian Education written by Mr. Ken Conklin. As a Native Hawaiian I take great offense to pretty much everything in his article, because he paints what I do as a language teacher as racist. What I also note about his page is that there isn't any way that I can edit what he says, most of which are his personal insights that not widely accepted notions of Native Hawaiians and our educational system in Hawaii, the US mainland, and across the globe. I believe he made it this way because he wants to promote an agenda of hate because of his number of negative encounters with native peoples. That's too bad because while there are many natives still living, most of us are of mixed background and have family members that are not ethnically Hawaiian. We truly are a people who have for years been one of inclusiveness. Intermarriage in Hawaii was happening back in the 1800's, years before this idea was acceptable in America and many people who are not Hawaiian speak our language and employed in our immersion schools. There is much in our history and many examples which disprove any assertions made by Mr. Conklin. The idea that are Hawaiian-focused charter schools are exclusive and we only teach kids to play in taro patches is not only not true but really shows that Mr. Conklin at best has a superficial understanding of our native traditions and doesn't appreciate the hardwork we do to teach the children in our schools to be both bilingual and bicultural. We, like any other school in Hawaii have to meet the state performance and content standards; students at our school take these state monitored assessments in both Hawaiian and in English.

If Mr. Conklin is unwilling to open up his page so we can provide comments or counter-arguments, like seems to be the case, I was hoping that Wikipedia would be open to the idea of "us" Hawaiian Language/Culture (not all Native Hawaiians)creating our own page to counter all the negative stuff Mr. Conklins says about Native Hawaiian like myself. Freedom of expression is important and in the past I found myself intriged by many of Mr. Conklins articles because they presented a different view of looking at my people, but lately all of his articles have centered on attacking all that is good that is happening in our community. I know he says alot and writes alot of negative things, but he himself doesn't have a command of the Hawaiian language and to the best of my knowledge doesn't participate in anything in the community to provide solutions to things he see's as problems. He sits behind a computer and just writes nasty things. His article in Wikipedia is no exception. I suppose that if people were to have the ability to edit his article in Wikipedia you would in fact end up with an entirely different page. You and the rest of the world would not be able to recognize the article because there would be so many challenges to everything that he wrote.

I would really like the opportunity to present information on the same topic from the point of view of the Native. There is alot of stuff we need to do better in our Hawaiian-focused Charter Schools. I am the first to admit this, but if Mr. Conklins pages are allowed to stand uncontested, that would be a huge disservice to all the hard working parents, children, teachers, and community members across the nation that have put so much into creating schools that meet the needs of all students, Hawaiian or otherwise.

Me Ka Ha'aha'a (with humility and resolve),

Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith Hilo, Hawaii—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.212.165.182 (talk) 00:59, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I found an article on Conklin at Kenneth R. Conklin, but I cannot find the articles to which you are referring. Would you please post links to them? In any event the best way to deal with issues like this is to discuss them on the talk pages of the relevant articles - click on the "discussion" tab on the article's page. Thanks. – ukexpat (talk) 01:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to Conklin's own Wiki? If so, that site is not connected in any way with Wikipedia, although it does use the same software. You will have to take up your issues with Conklin directly, I am afraid we cannot help you here on English Wikipedia. – ukexpat (talk) 01:24, 13 January 2009 (UTC)