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January 24

References

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:01, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I have inserted links to websites that reference what I put it an article using the <ref> tag, and while it does created a number that looks like [1], clicking it does not do anything. How do I make it so clicking it will automatically make the article scroll down to a link to the website? --24.184.206.83 (talk) 23:37, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

If you're referring to Denver Oldham, an article you submitted through the articles for creation process, you were missing a {{reflist}} template. That is the template that causes your references to display. I have added one for you and you can see the results towards the bottom of the article. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 23:50, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh! Thanks a bunch. :) --24.184.206.83 (talk) 23:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Refer to ships as it or she?

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 02:58, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I checked the style FAQs and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (ships) but they were unable to answer my question: do we refer to ships as "it" or "she" here on Wikipedia? Thanks in advance for any insight. 3Juno3 (talk) 02:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships/Guidelines#Pronouns. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:25, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you much! 3Juno3 (talk) 02:29, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Convert template not closing

At Fountain_of_Time#Installation the {{convert}} template is not closing.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 03:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I think this change fixes it. 250 short tons (223.2 long tons; 226.8 t) —teb728 t c 05:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of fixing the above. Trying to get rid of the non-standard MT. JIMp _talk·cont 08:47, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

How do you search for keywords located in articles?

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:54, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I know how to find articles that link to specific pages. But I can't figure out how to search for what articles have a specific keyword that isn't wikilinked to another article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Belasted (talk • contribs) 05:09, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

If I understand your question: Put the text you are looking for in the Search field in the sidebar of every page and click the Search button. (There are no keywords as opposed to text.) —teb728 t c 05:58, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe I shouldn't have said "keywords". What I mean is (and I don't know why it's so hard for me to explain) I want to search for what articles have a specific word, not just in the title or that is wikilinked to another article, much like a regular search engine. For instance, if I want to find what articles have the word "calcium" somewhere in their text. Now, I could go to the article for Calcium and then see what pages link to it. But what if I also want pages that mention calcium but perhaps the word isn't wikilinked? Belasted (talk) 17:25, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It is still unclear to me whether you want something different from the standard search described by teb728. Here is a standard search on calcium: [1]. The first results have calcium in the title but not many of the thousands of other results. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I got it. Consider this issue RESOLVED. Oh, and thanks for the help. Belasted (talk) 21:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

get a substring in a template

Resolved

 – Chamal ^talk 11:01, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I want to get a substring from a variable used in a template, something like substring function in javascript, is it possible?

189.131.150.97 (talk) 06:58, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You probably want mw:Extension:StringFunctions but it's not running on any Wikimedia Foundation wikis including Wikipedia according to the extension's documentation page. However, if you tell us what you are trying to accomplish, someone might know another way. --Teratornis (talk) 07:21, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't need this anymore, thanks for answer189.131.150.97 (talk) 08:47, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello

I need to know where all the template codes are, like how many contributions i did "template". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aidarhaynes5 (talk • contribs) 07:17, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Your contributions can be found here. The full list of templates are here. If you can be more specific on what you are looking for, we can help you better. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 07:21, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

If you are asking how to write templates, see Help:Template and Help:Advanced templates —teb728 t c 07:28, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Another possible interpretation of this curiously worded utterance (it's not really a question) might be: "I want a template that will display my edit count (on my user page)." If it helps, we have a {{userinfo}} template. --Teratornis (talk) 09:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Sarcasm is not helpful, Teratornis. Please assume good faith. --Thomprod (talk) 13:47, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually I was critical rather than sarcastic, and I echoed the puzzlement of the first two respondents. I stated a fact which the above text makes clearly evident. To be sarcastic, I would have to pretend something is other than what it plainly is. For criticism to be unhelpful here, it would have to be the case that the original poster does not care that the first three respondents are unable to understand what he or she wants. That would act against the o.p.'s own interest in getting useful information. Would you expect a person who feels bothered by what I wrote to manage well when, say, he or she experiences the tender mercies of deletionists? (Now, "tender mercies of deletionists" is sarcastic.) Wikipedia is often a cruel place, and I think we sometimes do a disservice to new users by trying to pretend otherwise. Lure them in with a friendly welcome, and then clobber their work. There is a difference between acting friendly and being friendly. I think when I am giving correct information, I am being friendly, even though it might not seem that way to someone who wants something other than correct information. --Teratornis (talk) 21:57, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

{{sp-contributions-footer}} is also useful. – ukexpat (talk) 16:48, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Red link appears even though there is definately a page.

On the article for 'Komatsu PC200-8 Hybrid' I created a link around the words 'Komatsu Limted' but it appears as a red link. But if you do a search for 'Komatsu Limited' the page DOES exist. Whats going on please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dtldinosaur (talk • contribs) 07:41, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It's "Komatsu Limited", you had linked "Komatsu Limted" (no i). The spelling is important for the link to be added correctly. Article is at Komatsu Limited. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 07:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Elements song

What is the name of the song using the Periodic Table —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.170.63.159 (talk) 11:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Not sure why you asked it under this section on links, but it's called The Elements Song --DFS454 (talk) 11:57, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

For future knowledge questions please use the reference desk. This page is about questions related to using Wikipedia.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:03, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Question about adding a new article regarding notability and referencing

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 20:46, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I would like to add a new article, but would like to discuss its references and notability before adding it. Is there somewhere I can do this. I am sorry if this is mentioned somewhere, I have read the FAQ's and searched, but have not found the answer yet. The article would come under spirituality or spiritual practice.#

Many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Waitandsee (talk • contribs) 13:04, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

• Sounds like you need WP:DRAW. - Mgm|^(talk) 14:07, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much, I will post there --Waitandsee (talk) 18:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

How to display Ming typeface cross-platform

<font face="pmingliu"><big>[[User:Marluxia.Kyoshu|~九尾の氷狐~]]</big> ^{(「[[User:Marluxia.Kyoshu/talk|Sumimasen]]!」 「[[Special:Contributions/Marluxia.Kyoshu|Dochira samaka]]?」)}</font> was what I was going to use in my signature, which would look like so:

~九尾の氷狐~ ^{(「Sumimasen!」 「Dochira samaka?」)}

The problem is that with this, the Japanese text '九尾の氷狐' is using PMingLiU font, wich is decidedly windows only... so how do I make text display in the user's native Ming face?

(I was originally worried about the <big></big> tags, but if you check here, it seems to not break the text spacing at all.)~九尾の氷狐~ ^{(「Sumimasen!」 「Dochira samaka?」)} 13:39, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Just leave out the font tag, like this: "<big>[[User:Marluxia.Kyoshu|~九尾の氷狐~]]</big>^{(「[[User:Marluxia.Kyoshu/talk|Sumimasen]]!」 「[[Special:Contributions/Marluxia.Kyoshu|Dochira samaka]]?」)}", which gives this: "~九尾の氷狐~^{(「Sumimasen!」 「Dochira samaka?」)}". This looks just the same on my computer. — Sebastian 22:24, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It may look similar but it is NOT the same. The default font on many browsers is a thick line font, not Ming. See:

Regular:

九尾の氷狐

Ming:

九尾の氷狐

~九尾の氷狐~ ^{(「Sumimasen!」 「Dochira samaka?」)} 23:48, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Adding an External LInk

I have added an external link to a wikipedia page about 15 minutes ago - how long does it take to show up on the page ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2008traveller (talk • contribs) 14:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It should appear immediately, though sometimes it doesn't for various reasons. What page are you talking about? Algebraist 14:35, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It was on the Faro Portugal page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2008traveller (talk • contribs) 14:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

If you mean Faro, Portugal, there is no item of history to suggest the page was edited in the last 24 hours - might you have not saved, only previewed perhaps? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 14:46, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Your edit is now showing up in the page history. --Thomprod (talk) 16:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

If you are still not seeing the link, I suggest bypassing your cache, done on many browsers by clicking control+F5.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:27, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I've removed it - and several others - per WP:EL (and in some cases WP:SPAM. Also, the link you added renders, in my fully up-to-date browser, as "Your Browser is not updated. This content requires the Macromedia Flash Player, click on the Link to the Right to download Flash Player.". Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:23, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Template help

Two related questions regarding {{Hasty}}, which I created some time ago and seems to get some use.

First, I would like to know how often it has been used. However, given that use, which is on articles marked for speedy deletion and likely to be deleted in most cases, I cannot figure out any way of searching even with access to deleted articles. I'm pretty certain there is no way, but I wanted to get a confirmation on that from your collective experience before giving up entirely.

Second, I was wondering if anyone had the ability to code the template so that when a person used the sole parameter of adding the time of expiration, and the one hour grace period passes, an expiration message would automatically pop up, similar to what happens with expired prods. The automatic message there is in the form: The article may be deleted without further notice since this message has remained in place for five days. The expiration text here would be along the lines of "Note: the requested one hour grace period has expired".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:56, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

FWIW, I've used it, and I'm happy that it exists! — Sebastian 06:27, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback! I've seen it used a few times by others during CAT:CSD patrol but that's entirely hit or miss.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:24, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Pages created

Resolved

Does anyone know if there is any other tools/scripts to show how many pages a user has created and what they are, since the one which everyone normally uses seems to be down? --^{SteelersFanUK06} ReplyOnMine! 16:55, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

• http://toolserver.org/~sql/created.php?user=SteelersFan+UK06 Chamal ^talk 17:04, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
• There's one at the bottom of your contributions page. If that one is down, I'm afraid you're out of luck. Patience is a virtue ;) - Mgm|^(talk) 17:05, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

That's the one I gave. Seems to be working for me. Chamal ^talk 17:07, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

The toolserver one worked. Thanks! --^{SteelersFanUK06} ReplyOnMine! 17:08, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Rename of articles

I constantly find articles that are improperly named...I wonder if there are any ways to rename the articles? Well obviously it would be too much power granted if a normal member can do that...but is there a fast and efficient way to rename it through other means?

I tried the discussion page but for unpopular topics no one actually read the discussions lol Salmon (talk) 17:41, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Articles are renamed by moving. Any autoconfirmed user (you are one) can do this, unless the page is move protected as is this one. Go to the article you want to rename and click "move" tab at the top. –Capricorn42 (talk) 17:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

But please see Wikipedia:Naming conventions and Wikipedia:Requested moves first. Many moves would be inappropriate without first getting consensus, even if you personally feel confident that the page is improperly named. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:46, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation

I'm trying to disambiguate Eduardo Parra Murga from Eduardo Parra Pizarro and I've followed this format:

Eduardo Parra may be the name of:

• Eduardo Parra Murga, Spanish advertising executive and writer
• Eduardo Parra Pizarro, member of the Chilean rock fusion band Los Jaivas

But when I try to create this intermediate page I get all sorts of warnings that I shouldn't -- maybe because there is an Eduardo Parra page that corresponds to Eduardo Parra Pizarro.

Help!

parraed Parraed (talk) 17:43, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you talking about the blue-bordered box at the top of the page when you click on Eduardo Parra Pizarro (and appears on every non-existing [red-linked] article when you are in edit mode), or something else that is displayed as a warning? ~AH1^(TCU) 17:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Or are you maybe talking about a message if you try to move User:Parraed to the already existing Eduardo Parra? That would require Eduardo Parra to be moved away first and then an administrator to make the move to Eduardo Parra. If there are only two Eduardo Parra with articles then it can be handled with hatnotes instead of a disambiguation page. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:39, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Default English IPA

Hi. If there is no context whether the article is about something that's in a rhotic or non-rhotic-speaking country, which dialect do we default to, when we have an article that requires IPA in English? The article in question is noosphere. Or does it not matter or something because it's a word coined by non-English people? Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 17:46, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

This question might have more success of being answered at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language‎. — Sebastian 22:28, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I would recommend using {{IPA-en}} with the broad transcription recommended at Wikipedia:IPA for English, namely /ˈnoʊ.əˌsfɪər/. The broad transcription is noncommittal between dialects: The long o, /oʊ/, is pronounced as one pronounces beau, hoe, and poke. And the R-coloured vowel, /ɪər/, is pronounced as one pronounces beer and mere. The template also includes a link to the pronunciation guide. —teb728 t c 02:10, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Fair Use of Commercial DVD Screen Captures

Hi. I would like to take screen captures from TV Show DVDs (one per character, in character) to illustrate an article that is a list of fictional characters of a TV series. I am pretty sure that is OK for fair use (I've found a Wikipedia article that notes such a thing is OK for an animated series, but couldn't anything either way for a non-animated one.) First question, is it OK? Second question is whether anyone can point me to a good example a copyright tag for such a thing? All of the examples of such JPGs that I have found on Wikipedia don't seem to have a copyright tag (or I'm not smart enough to find them...). Thanks for your help. Bill From DDT Digest 20:09, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Reference or template problem on The Bahamas

There is some strangeness in the HDI field in the infobox on the page for the Bahamas but nothing I changed seemed to have any effect. Anyone know how to fix it? Rmhermen (talk) 22:31, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I removed a reference [2] which cannot be placed in that parameter. The template uses the parameter as displayed wikilink text and that apparently fails when it contains a reference: [[List of countries by Human Development Index|49th<ref name="hdi">United Nations, 2007.</ref>]] renders as 49th[1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:44, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Rolf Steiner

Is he still alive? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.221.94.82 (talk) 22:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I tried a Google search at http://www.google.com/ and found statements that a famous German mercenary by that name died in the 1970s. Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:24, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

ecce homo

i need help in knowing how to pray the ecce homo. i have the chaplet but no good instructions for praying on each bead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.215.136.38 (talk) 22:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism on Eclipse (novel)

Resolved

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_(novel) found vandalism on first line of plot summary —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.8.159.224 (talk) 22:56, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

The vandalism has been removed. You are welcome to revert vandalism on your own. See Wikipedia:Vandalism for some tips. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Strange virus alert trigger when viewing an article

My antivirus software triggers a virus alert whenever I view a particular Wikipedia article, claiming the article page to be infected. I find this very unlikely and presume it to be a false positive, but I do use a reputable antivirus suite so felt this was worth reporting regardless. I realise this is the place for help on how to use Wikipedia so my question is this - should I bother anyone with the details and if so who/where? Thanks, Wiw8 (talk) 23:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It would help to know which page you're referring to. Thanks —Travis^talk 23:08, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Wasn't sure if I should post the details here or not but since you ask - the article is Witch Doctor (song). I use ESET NOD32 Antivirus and the virus alert it triggers every time I visit that article is called "BAT/Bomgen virus". Cheers, Wiw8 (talk) 23:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like a (rather strange) false positive. Norton doesn't alert me to anything when I visit, and saving and running a scan also does not turn up any viruses. Xenon54 (talk) 02:24, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The "Ooo, eee, ooo ahh ahh, zhing, zhang, walla walla bing bang" virus?!? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:24, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Haha :) Yeah, kind of weird. Perhaps something in the article's html code matches something NOD32 looks for in that virus. Anyway I submitted a report to ESET so I'll see if it still triggers it after the next few definition updates. Cheers, Wiw8 (talk) 16:41, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

meta description tags

is there a way to set the meta description tags to pull data from the article content for SEO purposes?

Alexruimy (talk) 23:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

No, not in Wikipedia as far as I know. If you have your own wiki using the same MediaWiki software as Wikipedia then you can try installing mw:Extension:MetaDescriptionTag. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I post a video?

I am confused. What do I do if I want to post a video? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ts41596 (talk • contribs) 23:48, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files and meta:Video policy. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:54, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

January 25

adventure game

I do not know how I found this page but I hope it will lead me to what i am looking for

I am look for the original ADVENTURE game to play on line. I found it on line many years ago and now i can not find it It starts off: you are standing out side a building. then you go inside and pick up keys,lamp.(i forget what else) You then go outside (I WILL LIST THE REST) GRATE CAGE ROD DROP ROD GET BIRD FREE BIRD AND KILL SNAKE ECT IF YOU OR ANYONE CAN PROVIDE ME WITH THE WEB SITE TO PLAY THIS GAME OR DOWNLOAD IT ON A DISK PLEASE E-MAIL <redacted> THANK YOU PS. PLEASE EMAIL SO I KNOW YOU RECEIVE THIS THANK YOU —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.231.123.106 (talk) 00:41, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Our article Colossal Cave Adventure has links to many versions. Algebraist 00:46, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Date relative linking

Is it possible using parserfunctions or a template to link to an article using functions of the current date or week and year. What I'm trying to is to provide a link from a portal's main page to articles such as Premier League 2008–09 for the current season which generally ends on July 31 and begins on August 1 (week 31) -

If todays date is before August 1, link to Premier League 2008–09 (i.e. [[<name> <last year>-<last year+1>]])

If todays date is August 1 or after, link to Premier League 2009–10 (i.e. [[<name> <current year>-<current year +1>]])

I'm guessing this would be some function of {{CURRENTYEAR}}, {{CURRENTWEEK}}, {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} or {{#time:}} but this is making my head bleed. Nanonic (talk) 02:44, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

[[Premier League {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}}-{{#time: y}}]] gives Premier League 2023-24

[[Premier League {{CURRENTYEAR}}-{{#expr:{{#time: y}}+1}}]] gives Premier League 2024-25

But this does not work for 2007-08, since if {{#time: y}} expands to i.e. 07 then {{#expr:{{#time: y}}+1}} expands to 8 missing the leading zero, I can not find a right function that gives only x right most characters from a string, if that function exists which I assume it does this can be fixed. --Stefan ^talk 06:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Found it, you need #sub: from mw:Extension:StringFunctions which is not running ... see #get_a_substring_in_a_template above, maybe there is a alternative? --Stefan ^talk 06:51, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, final fix to get a dynamic link to the current season this should work, but this does not work for previous season, it only works from 2009 and onwards.

{{#ifexpr: {{CURRENTMONTH}} < 08 | [[Premier League {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}}-{{#time: y}}]]}}

{{#ifexpr: {{CURRENTMONTH}} > 07 | [[Premier League {{CURRENTYEAR}}-{{#expr:{{#time: y}}+1}}]]}}

Which renders like: Premier League 2024-25 --Stefan ^talk 07:16, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You're a superstar! That works perfectly, thanks. Nanonic (talk) 15:42, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I rename a page and redirect a page.

The word sephira[3] is a religious term and currently a band is using the page. They are not a noteworthy band and the page should be redirected to the sephirot page. I am not sure what to do with the band page but the word should definitely be a re-direct to the sehpirot article. Should I create a new page for the band (even though their noteworthiness is in contention) or should I just delete the page, create a new one and redirect? I am confused and there is too much crap to sort through to find an answer.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Luckynumbers (talk • contribs) 03:10, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You can use {{Otheruses}} to direct people to the correct page. Chamal ^talk 03:14, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but you cannot just redirect articles willy nilly. I have reverted your redirect of Sephira and edited Sephira (disambiguation) to point to the band and the religious term with equal weight, and I will add appropriate hatnotes to each. – ukexpat (talk) 03:42, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

And Sephira (band) which you had created by copy and paste is now a redirect to Sephira.  – ukexpat (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Why can't I find a page in AllPages?

Resolved

Why does Piping (sewing) not appear in http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:AllPages&from=Piping+&namespace=4 ? — Sebastian 05:35, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You are looking in the "Wikipedia" namespace (for guidelines etc), but Piping (sewing) is in the "article" namespace.--Commander Keane (talk) 05:46, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

But of course! I made that same mistake years ago already! — Sebastian 06:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

(Invalid) new messages alerts?

I have occasionally (on various pages in the last 10 minutes) been seeing the "You have new messages" bar, yet when I click on my talk page, I find that there aren't any new messages nor have there been for over 12 hours (and I had previously seen the most recent ones from over 12 hours ago). Is anyone else having a similar experience? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 10:35, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Something seems to be wrong somewhere. I'm currently editing a new page, and when I save changes, it takes me to the page saying that "Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name". But when I purge it a few times, the page appears fine. Chamal ^talk 10:37, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The system is randomly logging me out and back in:/–Capricorn42 (talk) 16:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

It's WP's time system. Sometimes it gets like a fraction of a second off, but that means that you get weird messages like the ones yall are talking about. flaminglawyer 21:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Solved: Correct use of double curly brackets/ aka braces : templates (and variable delimiters)

At the top of the methanol page, you can see some "See..." links, created with...

{{For|climate changing methane-water "ice" see|Methane clathrate}}
{{For|resolution of hydrate / clathrate confusion, see|hydrate}}

I was trying to look up the correct form and function of the double curly brackets, and (after 40 minutes of trying to RTFM!) have turned to this "Help" page for advice.

I did find...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Variable

... but nothing there quite covers what appears on the methanol page.

(BTW: Yes, tkbwik and tkbsimple are both me... I wasn't trying to be "clever", but I couldn't get into simple.wikipedia.com to edit something without a "new" id, and didn't realize that my "unsimple" wikipedia log-in had changed after I went into "simple")

Tkbwik (talk) 12:19, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello there! Double Curly Brackets are used to referred to a, much in the same was as double square brackets refer to links. In this specific case, the brackets were referring to Template:For, which produces the See... links at the top of the page. Help:Template is a good page for more information on templates and how to use them. Hope that helps, » \ / (⁂) 12:22, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Regarding your mention of variable delimiters, {{For}} has nothing to do with a for loop. This template just happens to be called "For". PrimeHunter (talk) 13:01, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

(Further from original poster:) Thank you, respondants. I was getting cross-eyed reading the template page, but when I got down to the chess board example, I perked up! Neat functionality!

For others reading this... the "answer" in a nutshell is that....

• "{{" will be the start of a template... a way to insert things into a page.
• Everything up to the first "|" is the name of the template.
• Things after the "|" are parameters passed to the template.
• For help with a template, e.g. the "for" template that I wondered about, search on, e.g., "template:for".

Templates are useful for achieving a consistent style for a common element. They're a bit like using CSS or macros or subroutines.

Certain words, enclosed in braces, work like variables, but in fact are essentially parameterless templates. See the Magic Words entry for the list of "certain words".

Tkbwik (talk) 14:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Searching

As a frequent user I'm frustrated with having to type in the main subject everytime I would like to refer to the drop-down listings. Is there a method I could use to get back to the drop-down list witout re-entering the subject?

Thanks, Wally in Iowa173.20.5.142 (talk) 13:45, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

• Are you talking about the list of previous searches you've done in the search box. Usually, it shows up after typing just a few letters after which I can use the arrow keys to select one. - Mgm|^(talk) 14:34, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
• Special:PrefixIndex may be of interest to you. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Far East people name order policy

I am quite puzzled concerning the order of names for Far Easterns. While most of Chinese and Koreans names appear in the traditional way (family name first), Japanese names are usually reversed and first name appears first (in Japanese, family name goes first). However I noticed that there are some Japanese that are listed in the traditional way, frequently historical personalities. Is there any official policy in wikipedia concerning this topic? --HIZUMI (talk) 15:15, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people) (designated a guideline and not policy). PrimeHunter (talk) 15:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, thank you. That makes things clear. But I think it is quite strange to use double standards. To be honest I can not find any good reason to reverse the names of the Japanese... --HIZUMI (talk) 15:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I remember reading somewhere that it is bordering on conventional (in the real world) for Japanese names to be reversed when presented alongside western names - much more so than other similar countries, at least. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 16:02, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I see. By the way I noticed that the Hungarian version keeps the traditional order (Family Name First) for all Japanese. To be honest, I think it would be better to be close to the original. Speaking about the hungarian version, I also noticed that they are the only version along with Turkish, that do not refer to Asian Names with the official latinized version, but they use their own latinized version which I guess is easier to achive correct pronunciation. E.g. "Teng Hsziao-ping" instead of "Deng Xiaoping" or "Koidzumi Dzsunicsiró" instead of "Koizumi Junichiro". I think this will make easier correct pronunciation, since I don't know how many english speaking people can read pinyin or other romanized names with a correct pronunciation. --HIZUMI (talk) 16:28, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Just diffs, not current version

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 17:31, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Is there an easy way to access just the differences between two versions and not the current version from the watchlist? Diff's good, but on long articles with only small edits it loads the rest of the page. Or does it have to do this anyway for the diff to work? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 16:16, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The "Misc" tab at Special:Preferences has the option "Do not show page content below diffs". This applies to all diffs. I don't know any other method to switch between showing and not showing page content. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:22, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

(ec)I was going to suggest the same thing. Also you can use WP:POPUPS; mouse over the "diff" link and it will quickly show you the changes that have been made. –Capricorn42 (talk) 16:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, wp:popups is ideal. Thanks! - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:20, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Mariana Bridi

Please do not delete the content on Mariana Bridi. Perhaps others will live because of what she went through. She died of a bacterial infection within 30 days!

Articles_for_deletion/Mariana_Bridi_da_Costa

Please keep. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.119.25.222 (talk) 16:50, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, this is the help desk for questions about using Wikipedia. Whether or not the article is to be kept will be decided at the AfD through consensus. You can read about notability requirements here. Canvassing is inappropriate if that was your intention. –Capricorn42 (talk) 17:21, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

• Your reasoning doesn't hold water 70.119. For the article to have effect on someone, they'd have to know where to find it first and although misdiagnoses do happen, and even if they do, it's still a bad idea to self-diagnose. That's why Wikipedia doesn't give medical advice. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:34, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Request for Netural Party

I would like to submit a request to have an administrator's privileges looked into being revoked. I'm not making this request lightly or superfluously, I'm making it as a result of a detailed examination of the administrator's editing practices as well as his lack of neutrality while resolving issues. But most importantly, I'm making this request due to his interaction with members of the community. The administrator is too quick to personally attack people and is too quick to block, often with no other explanation than "stop doing this". The sad part is that the administrator did a good job in the early days, but has now become drunk with power. How do I start the ball rolling?72.66.3.14 (talk) 17:53, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Third opinion is the first step in dispute resolution I think. –Capricorn42 (talk) 18:04, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

No, it's not. The first step - in any dispute - is to talk it out with the adminstrator on their talk page. Tell them that you think they are abusing their power. If they don't change or respond in a hostile manner, a good place discuss a broken admin is at WP:AN/I. Xenon54 (talk) 18:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Names

Can I Ask How Can U Apply To Change Your Wikipedia User Name? ChillaxNOW (talk) 19:08, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:CHU –Capricorn42 (talk) 19:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Details of WP:OR

If someone works for a film studio or production house of some sort, has copied various documents to verify employment, and then put various details (legal name, birth date, etc) onto a public web site, does this violate WP:OR or WP:RS? If you want to look more into it, see the last entry on my talk page. Dismas|^(talk) 19:41, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure, although a simple verification of employment isn't enough to confer notability (as I'm sure you know). This information isn't particularly verifiable, so I'd say it's not acceptable just based on that. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:59, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not looking to confirm the notability of the article subjects. They're already notable.

And it seems I wasn't quite right about the business of the source. It's a blog that does reviews. For some reason, they have copies of the IDs of the actors on file. Dismas|^(talk) 20:08, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

• It depends on whether the documents can be reliably linked to the person in question. Personal data is exactly the sort of data that can be reliably confirmed by the subject without breaking rules. I'd still not recommend they'd do it because putting such material only makes you an easy target for identity theft. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:01, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
  • Mgm, please reword that. Your last sentence is a mystery as far as what you're trying to communicate. Dismas|^(talk) 00:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

style question

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 01:23, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I've searched both here and google, and can't find the type of info I want. I'm looking for options for {style coding. An example:

{|style="border:solid gray; background:lightblue; margin:0pt; width:100%;" |-valign=top |align=left width=40% rowspan=2 height=0%|__TOC__ | |- |align=center valign=center colspan=3| {| style="border:solid blue; margin:1pt; width:80%" |align="center" valign="top" bgcolor=lemonchiffon|some text here |} |}

I'm looking for what colors can be used, and perhaps even the hex equivalent. Hopefully one of you kind folks can point me where I want to go. (as opposed to where most people tell me I should go.) .. thanks Ched (talk) 20:29, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe you want Web colors. Algebraist 20:59, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes - that's extremely helpful for the colors. I also found that if I just added the html, to my search for "style" - it showed me MUCH more of the relevant pages. Sometimes this brain of mine just doesn't work like it used to. Thanks for the link Algebraist, even with coffee and rest, I wouldn't have thought of that. Ched (talk) 00:40, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia page on "Samar Chatterjee"

The page has been edited. References [9] and [10] have not been inserted in the right manner. Please help to correct it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sushila69 (talk • contribs) 21:28, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll take care of it - and some other problems with the article.... --Cameron Scott (talk) 21:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

EDITING ("Fascism/Etymology of the word "fasces"") & TALK PAGES

Okay, in all modesty, I have a Ph.D. in art history from Brown, and I wrote a fully annotated, 300-page dissertation. But your Help pages and especially the instructions and templates for adding references when I edit an entry, are the most intimidating thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

I had wanted to start editing, as well as (politely) talking through some suggestions I have for the entry on the "Etymology" of "fascism" -- especially the word "fasces." But I'm getting nowhere. Partly because, as much as I admire what you're doing, all webpages are visually, something of a mad screaming mess; partly because I am a MAC person & your templates look to me like PC nightmares:

{{cite book}}: Empty citation (help)

SAY WHAT????!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, with all respect, I couldn't make head or tails of the "Talk Pages", (which I wanted to use to discuss my changes -- or maybe that's what THIS is?), which are mysterious to me in terms of where it is I write my messages or "talk." There doesn't seem to be any box for typing, and when I click on hyperlinks I get more and more pages and instructions, etc...

Can you suggest anything before I simply throw in the towel? Many thanks

Gianni101 (talk) 22:38, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

• Talk pages are are the pages labelled "discussion". When you are at an article, it is one of the tabs at the top of your screen. You can click it to get to the talk page, and click the "edit this page" tab to start editing the page. It's customary for comments on talk pages to be added on the bottom. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:57, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
• For template: You wanted to use {{cite book}} to get to the documentation that tells you what to fill in in what spot of the code you copied here, you write Template:Cite book. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:57, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I've put a "welcome box" on your talk page, which may help. Personally I would agree that most of our Help pages are very difficult to use, and that templates and infoboxes are extremely counter-intuitive to use. As to "talk pages" - the easiect way to start a new section on a talk page is to click the "add bew section" tab at the top of the page. I do hope you saty with us and persevere - and if you have more questions please do ask them! DuncanHill (talk) 22:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia can be hard to start with, depending on what you try to do first. Referencing in particular is often a nightmare for the new user. Which is why many articles on Wikipedia lack references, or have ad hoc referencing styles. Plenty of users with months or even years of editing experience have not yet slogged through and mastered the instructions in WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:CITET. Wikipedia's instructions are certainly complex, but Wikipedia is allegedly the number five Web property in the world now. The four sites ahead of us: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AOL. As a thought exercise, imagine what you would have to do if you wanted to edit a site owned by one of those four companies - how many hours of effort would it take to get yourself into position to put your stamp on any one of those properties? You would have to interview for a position, get hired, probably relocate, go through some training program, get absorbed into the company's culture, and make a major life commitment. Would that be simpler than figuring out Wikipedia's instructions? I doubt it. Is there any possible way to make a top five Web property substantially simpler than any of the current top five? I doubt that too - if it were possible, someone would probably have done it. However, one of the biggest problems with learning Wikipedia is that it's not obvious where to start. If you start with something difficult (such as citation templates), the instructions assume you have previously absorbed a massive amount of background by doing simpler edits. A saner way to get started is to buy a book such as Wikipedia - The Missing Manual, which presents the introductory material in a logical order. --Teratornis (talk) 09:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

January 26

Same template

I recently discovered two same templates. {{Taiwan Provincial Highways}} and {{Taiwanese provincial highways}}. What do I do? Merge them? or delete one of them??? _{(Ps. I'm not very good at manipulating template codes)} impactF=_{check this} 00:43, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you could delete one.. you can't merge two of the same thing. Layout is different, that is all.--Staka (T) 02:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

List one of them at WP:TFD. – ukexpat (talk) 02:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

• Make sure that there's no project-related reason to have both templates and also make sure that there is a consensus before you migrate all articles to the use of either one or the other. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:44, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Style Guidelines?

Does Wikipedia have any style guidelines for the creation of a new page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.13.246 (talk) 01:51, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes it sure does. Take a look at WP:YFA and WP:MOS. – ukexpat (talk) 01:52, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You must also create an account first. Of course, you may have one but have simply forgotten to log in. Creating an account has many benefits, but if you don't want to, you can request an article's creation at WP:AFC. —La Pianista ^(T•C) 02:40, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

And keep WP:LAYOUT handy. There are also many subject-specific guidelines, so what do you want to write about? Your choice of subject to write about has the largest influence over the fate of your article. If you write about the "wrong" subject, you will next be asking "Why was my article deleted?" --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Image linked to page?

Resolved

Is it possible to link an image, that's not in an article but in a template or an userpage, to a specific page on Wikipedia? --Staka (T) 02:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean - please explain. – ukexpat (talk) 02:38, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Images found in the template/userspace should be linkable in the mainspace. Please clarify. —La Pianista ^(T•C) 02:42, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll hazard a guess that you're trying to get your fancy image there to link to your userpage. Please remove the image at once. It's a security risk, plus the image can be vandalised. Imagine you sign 5000 posts, then a vandal uploads, say, a not-safe-for-work image. Not only is Wikipedia now peppered with this NSFW image (probably leading to mass sackings of Wikipedians who edit at work), but while the 5000 instances of the image are being replaced we could see another server lock-up like the one Scientizzle famously caused. If you can remember, he deleted the sandbox. See WP:SIG#Images. Xenon54 (talk) 02:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Alright, I've removed it from my signature. It'll be text linked to userpage from now on. I just saw some people using it and thought it was okay.. never knew there was such guideline over this. --Staka (T) 03:52, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Should I go to every talk page I used this signature? I'm not sure how many but probably less than 10.. And also, even though "famously caused", I never knew such problem happening before. --Staka (T) 03:56, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You should, just to be safe. Don't remove the time and date you originally signed, though. I said "famously" because I thought most would probably remember it (it happened this time last year) - nothing but error pages for a good few hours. Xenon54 (talk) 12:31, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

"Famous" on Wikipedia is kind of a Blind men and an elephant situation. Wikipedia is so huge that it's quite possible for random user X to be very familiar with some things while completely oblivious to others. For example, I thought the Editor's index to Wikipedia was pretty famous, but when I posted a note to that effect, several users with 10,000+ contributions mentioned they had not yet heard of it. I can't recall this "famous" incident you mention here. It would be interesting to make a list of the things that every Wikipedia user knows. I bet it would be a short list. (I say it would be interesting because if I could make that list, I would practically be omniscient, and being omniscient would be cool, I think. Although I cannot be sure because it's hard to know how many horrifying truths I have no inkling of now.) --Teratornis (talk) 20:38, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Alright, I'll go change the images to text without simply using tides. --Staka (T) 20:47, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, someone has already changed all of my signatures.. well thanks for informing me about this information. --Staka (T) 20:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

User subpage name showing on Category page

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 04:05, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

While I'm working on a new page that belongs in the category German architects, my user page is showing up in the category list as User:Laura schnak/Mathes Roriczer. I understand why this is happening but is it a faux pas and should I somehow comment out the line until I actually merge the article? Thanks. Laura schnak (talk) 03:15, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes you should comment out (or nowiki) the categories (and images, if there are any) until you move the article into mainspace. You can also add a colon before the category name, thus—[[:Category:German architects]]—as another way of keeping the page from being added to the category. Deor (talk) 03:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Perfect, thanks. Laura schnak (talk) 03:48, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Are financial donations the only way to express gratitude for articles?

I often wish I could click something on a wikipage just to show the contributing authors that I found their work helpful.

I already donate financially to wikipedia but that's very different from the desire to express a sincere thank you for your work.

Could you help me find the best way to circulate this idea? I'd like to see if there is widespread support to help put something in place to facilitate readers being able to quickly and easily express thanks for helpful articles.

Thanks, LChrisB (talk) 04:28, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You can award barnstars to particular editors or just leave a note on talk pages. – ukexpat (talk) 05:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, since most pages have many authors (especially true with the higher-quality articles, which often use peer review processes to get feedback), barnstars aren't terribly practical. Chris, we do appreciate your thanks, but there's not much of a way to express it besides a small donation to the Wikimedia Foundation. GlassCobra 07:33, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

• On the history page of an article there's usually a link on the top left that will give you a sorted list of contributors with the most-contributing user at the top. You can given those a barnstar and encourage them to award other stars to the people that helped them best.. - 131.211.210.199 (talk) 08:26, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You can also leave a general thank-you on an article's talk page, or on the talk page of the overseeing WikiProject. Thank you for donating financially, by the way. --Teratornis (talk) 08:54, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Airport code history

Why is Columbia, SC's airport code CAE? Some say it because it is in Cayce-West Columbia, SC. But the airport itself cannot verify this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.215.18.51 (talk) 04:44, 26 January 2009 (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. – ukexpat (talk) 05:03, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

See Columbia Metropolitan Airport, International Air Transport Association airport code, and Airport ABCs: An Explanation of Airport Identifier Codes. I don't see the exact answer, but the last reference gives the rules for choosing codes. The airport's history page does not say anything about the airport's code. If nobody at the Reference desk knows the answer, you might have some luck by asking a reference librarian at your local library, or checking with your local historical society. When the IATA first assigned the code, a local newspaper may have run a story about it. That story is unlikely to be online, because the code probably predates the Internet by several decades. --Teratornis (talk) 10:15, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Clean up references

Could someone who's better with citing medical references than I am (that includes everyone :-) ) please fix the references in the Side stitch article? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 05:55, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

edit war

Resolved

Triple J Hottest 100, 2008 is beyond my current abilities. Ched (talk) 06:25, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't see any content dispute there, sneaky vandalism perhaps? Go to WP:RFPP if you want it protected. –Capricorn42 (talk) 06:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

doesn't matter to me, I just noticed a lot of IP edit changing and BS at the page, half dozen edits per min., and not all good faith edits. I do appreciate the link to that page protection thing though ... bookmarking now. Thanks for the info ;) ... Ched (talk) 06:44, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

LOL ... guess I'm too slow ... I see it's already listed there. Ched (talk) 06:46, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

adding a new language

Resolved

My cities Wikipedia page contains many languages but Spanish is not one of them. I would like to translate some of the english page into Spanish, and possibly add my own information. How can I go about doing this?

Many thanks, —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dscharb (talk • contribs) 07:25, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

To do that you will have to go to the Spanish Wikipedia. Create the page there and then add an interwiki link to the English article. –Capricorn42 (talk) 07:28, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Translation has information on translation to English. I don't know Spanish but es:Categoría:Wikipedia:Traducciones solicitadas may be of use for editors translating to Spanish. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

thanks for your help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dscharb (talk • contribs) 14:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

resolving disputes

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 15:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

So I looked up an article on "The Apostolic Faith Church," and found a big "!" telling me that the neutrality or factuality of the article was being disputed; I edited the article to meet the objections and clear up the issue. How can I petition to have the "!" removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.157.205.73 (talk) 08:59, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Presumably you refer to the {{Totally-disputed}} template at the top of the Apostolic Faith Mission article. Anyone can put such a template on any article, and anyone else can remove it, but this might not necessarily satisfy the person who put the template on the page.

• The bold method is to just remove it when you think you have fixed the problem.
• The civil method is to determine who put the template on the page, and tell them to inspect your changes. If they think you have fixed the problem, they will remove the template. It's nice to do things this way because otherwise you could get into an edit war if the other user does not agree that you have fixed the problems.

Also see Talk:Apostolic Faith Mission where some users have been discussing the page. Note that articles on Religion can be tricky on Wikipedia, because they are usually edited by adherents of the various religions, which leads to conflicts of interest. Wikipedia's neutral point of view is completely at odds with faith, so religious people must be careful when editing articles about their religions, particularly when discussing unverifiable faith claims. The temporal history of an organized religion, on the other hand, is much like the temporal history of any secular organization, in terms of how one would reliably source factual claims about it. --Teratornis (talk) 09:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

thanks alot !! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dscharb (talk • contribs) 14:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome, and thanks for responding to let us know the answer helped (many supplicants on the Help desk never reply, so we never know if we helped them). If I may add some unsolicited advice: you seem to be making some edits while logged in to Wikipedia, and some edits while not logged in. Before you edit on Wikipedia, check in the upper right corner to see if you are logged in. You should see your username up there, rather than an I.P. address. If you make all your edits while logged in, it will be easier for you to keep track of your contributions. For example, six months from now you might want to find an article you remember editing, but you cannot remember the name. If you edited it while logged in, it will be on your contributions page. --Teratornis (talk) 20:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

IP address impersonation

Resolved

From these diffs it appears that one or two users are impersonating a different IP address (and in the latter case, acting uncivilly). Where exactly should this be reported? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 09:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

• It's a blockable offense, but since they didn't do much with it yet, I recommend warning them first. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:50, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) I added unsigned template at RD/C and asked user not to fake signature on their talk page. –Capricorn42 (talk) 09:51, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

That was quick! Thanks! -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 09:54, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Newpages offset

Is it not possible anymore to offset the number of new pages without being specific (i.e., it's not possible anymore to go to the back of the log and offset it by the last 500 pages, instead a date must be specified)? -- Mentisock 10:52, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying you cannot change the number of new pages shown in the log (for example, 20, 50, etc.)? TN‑X-Man 16:23, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Location map in infobox

Resolved

Is there any way to add a location map to the military conflict infobox? I've been trying to add it, but it keeps going off center, either to the left or right side of the space provided in the infobox for the image. Chamal ^talk 12:53, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Infobox Military Conflict does not support a map. Add {{[[Template:|]]}} as separate template. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Or, if the template talk page is active ask there if the ibox can be edited to allow use of a location map. If that page does not seem very active (last edit appears to be October 2008), raise the issue on the talk page of the Military History Project. – ukexpat (talk) 15:35, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Damn... OK guys, thanks. Chamal ^talk 00:44, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

M-Tech(Master of Technology) Construction Managment

indus institute of higher education karachi pakistan is the first degree awarding institute have been succefully launched the M-Tech Programm in jan-2006 first badge of M-tech passed out DEc-2007. please enter to your record.

thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.96.166 (talk) 15:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

This help desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. Is there something with which we can help you? If you are interested in creating an article, you would first have to register an account, which has many other benefits. TN‑X-Man 16:20, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Starting over again

This is a bit complicated, and I apologize in advance for my carelessness. Hope I'm not telling you more than is necessary, but I thought you should get the full picture.

My first article (although I made a substantial contribution to Tannu Uriankhai, but that was through the edit function) was "Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1911." I apparently did that correctly. By the time I started on my next article, I had forgotten what I did to publish the first, and did this one differently (and incorrectly). I wrote the second article on my user page, used the "move" feature to give it a name ("Outer Mongolia in the Bogd Khaan Era, 1911-1919"), believing that the article was safe. Well, of course, I was wrong. Anyhow, that seemed to work well enough. So I wrote a third article (my last, you will be pleased to know). I went to my user page, deleted the text "Outer Mongolia in the Bogd Khaan, etc." through the "edit" feature, cut and paste the new one, and then again used the "move" feature to give it a name ("Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921"). It was then I discovered that the "Bogd Khaan" article was gone, but not its name. Finally, in my effort to fix things and before I had thought things through, I did another "move" action to create an article "Outer Mongolia, 1911-1919." That just created a "redirect" action (or something like that).

I want to start again, and publish the two articles correctly. However, their names are now taken. I could create new titles but this will just clutter Wikipedia up. So, the question is: How can I (or you) delete the three titles: "Outer Mongolia in the Bogd Khaan era, 1911-1919," "Outer Mongolia, 1911-1919," and "Outer Mongolian Revolution of 1921"? The two texts are safe in my own hard drive. Thanks and apologies for this inconvenience. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mongolia62 (talk • contribs) 16:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Do not delete the existing articles, but instead add the additional information you have uncovered to the articles already in Wikipedia. You cannot own an article or topic, and it is against the spirit of this project to replace sound information just because you prefer your own presentation of the same or similar data. Always recall: if you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly... do not submit it. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:50, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Arrangement of images beneath headings

How can one arrange a page such that a number of images are forced to render beneath their collective header, with this pattern repeated a number of times?

Thanks.

--Coosbane (talk) 17:39, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

It's hard to comment in the abstract. Is there any article in particular that you can point us to? – ukexpat (talk) 17:42, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Looking at contribs, perhaps Scottsville Photo Gallery? It's a page of photos having to do with Scottsville, NY. Xenon54 (talk) 17:46, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Are gallery pages even appropriate on Wikipedia? In any event, you could create a gallery under each heading using the {{Gallery}} template. – ukexpat (talk) 19:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

It should probably be merged into the main Scottsville article. Galleries like that belong on Commons. Xenon54 (talk) 20:07, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

<p align="justify">

Should editors ever use the above? Is there a guideline against their use? When I say use, I mean for paragraphs just on their own, not in tables or anything. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:45, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I can't think of a reason to justify a particular paragraph and not others, and there's already a preferences option for people who want to justify everything. Did you have any particular case in mind? Algebraist 17:51, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Erm, yeah, I'll just find it for you... St John's College, Cambridge - lots of constructive edits by the same author, but also adding these in (seemingly randomly). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I removed them. – ukexpat (talk) 19:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Non-free use rationale Questions

Can someone please check the rationale that I posted on the edit page of the logo/image used for abcdefg35/ITG. I need to know if this rationale is good enough and if there is anything else I need to do. Thanks Abcdefg35 (talk) 17:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

To start with, non-free images must be used in articles, or they will be deleted. Then the image description page needs a separate rationale for each use. Algebraist 17:55, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Creating a page name for an event with advertising in its name

There is a new event in American college basketball called the Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament. I cringe at creating a page with that name. I'm wondering what other editors thing of it. There are other examples like the "MasterCard National Invitation Tournament" being under National Invitation Tournament, but it doesn't really make sense to shorten this case to Postseason Tournament as that would be too generic. Relaxing (talk) 19:09, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

No way to avoid it; it's a marketing thing, like Miller Park. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:45, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Policy Page

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 20:03, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Does anyone know where might be some policy or guideline pages which says that we shouldn't link policy pages to articles. Meaning that the article itself should not contain links to policy pages. Thank you Ched (talk) 19:23, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Mainspace pages can contain links to policy pages for different reasons, for example in cleanup templates, in hatnotes, and in articles about Wikipedia. Can you be more specific about which situation you have in mind? PrimeHunter (talk) 19:33, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

This one? If not, then there is a list of policies here, try searching there. –Capricorn42 (talk) 19:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The person that mentioned it to me was an admin. I think she may have been referring to the first link. I had found the list of policies, but couldn't find one that seemed to fit. Thank you, I'll try to understand how it applies. Ched (talk) 19:46, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Creating a new article with a title which already exsists

I'd like to create an article about Tom Jenkinson, but there is a different Tom Jenkinson who already has an article under this title. Is there any way I could make an article under this tile and create a disambiguation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Trish92 (talk • contribs) 19:54, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Make it Tom Jenkinson with an additional detail in parenthesis that describes him, like John Doe (politician) or John Doe (actor). Grsz¹¹ 19:56, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If the person is a guitarist, create it at Tom Jenkinson (guitarist); if they are a footballer, create it at Tom Jenkinson (footballer). Then add {{Otheruses}} (or one of its relatives) to the top of the other article, directing the user to the one with the parenthesized term. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 19:58, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

(e/c x2)The way to do it is to add a disambiguating term in parentheses in the title, eg Tom Jenkinson (artist) or whatever term is appropriate - see WP:D. If there are only two Tom Jenkinsons with articles, there is no need for a disambiguation page, a hatnote is sufficient, probably {{otherpeople4}}. – ukexpat (talk) 20:00, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Can you center a caption?

I have inserted images with captions a couple of times, and the captions automatically justify to the left margin. Is there a way to center the captions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Voiceperson (talk • contribs) 20:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think it's necessary to center except perhaps on a page-wide panorama. It is not specifically prohibited by WP:CAPTION so I guess it's OK - take a look at the {{Center}} template. – ukexpat (talk) 20:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Use <center>This caption is centered.</center> Gary King (talk) 21:16, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Redistrubuting information from Wikipedia?

Hi, I was wondering what the rules are (if, indeed, there are any) reguarding taking information from a wikipedia article and republishing it elseware. The specific example that I'm interested in would be in using large sections of an article to make up help text for a computer program I've written. The program is a Hanjie puzzle game and I'd like to take sections from the wiki article to explain to the user what Hanjie puzzles are and how to solve them. Would that be allowed or would I be breaking copywrite or a license or some kind? —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Farwall (talk • contribs) 21:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

See WP:REUSE. – ukexpat (talk) 21:24, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Height

How tall was Elvis? Sorry, I haven't been able to find it list. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.47.88.86 (talk) 22:39, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

About 6', according to Google. Algebraist 22:43, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

If you have any other factual (i.e. not having to do with Wikipedia) questions, please ask them at the reference desk. Xenon54 (talk) 23:28, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Adding medal box to athletic profile

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 02:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I am wanting to add the box I see on various Olympic and Pan American athletes that shows results and medals. I have searched everywhere and haven't been able to find how to put it in and edit it. I am looking to place one on my father's (Albert Hall)page. Thank you Ghosttowner33 (talk) 23:56, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you asking about the infobox like in the upper right corner of Larry Hart? If so, see here for how they did it. —teb728 t c 00:09, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

You can see documentation at Template:MedalTableTop. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:14, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

That's it! I just didn't know if I could copy the technical stuff for the box or not. So I can just use that as a base and build it from there... Thank you! Ghosttowner33 (talk) 00:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

January 27

Wikitionary Quick Links

How come the wiktionary quick link (:d) example isn't working? Is there new shortcut notation? Theornamentalist (talk) 01:31, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The only Wicktionary code I am aware of is wikt: wikt:example. —teb728 t c 01:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

d: was added [4] and removed again [5] in 2008. See meta:Talk:Interwiki map#d. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:59, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I create a page and save it but when I come back it is not there?

I searched and did not find a page so when offered to create it I did. Once dome I reviewed it, liked and hit save, that took a bit but seemed to work fin. I logged out and tried a basic search and got a no page exist that matched my search? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bramleyr (talk • contribs) 01:44, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Your only undeleted edits are to your own talk page and here. What was the title of the page you've lost? Algebraist 01:46, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to this edit to your talk page which you later blanked? If not then maybe you didn't create it at the English Wikipedia? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

adding stub template

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

If I propose a stub at WP:STUB and it successfully got many supports and I created the stub template and category, how do I quickly add to many stub articles without going to page just to add the stub template myself? Is there an easier way?? impactF=_{check this} 02:47, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

You can make a request at WP:Bot requests to get the job done by a bot. –Capricorn42 (talk) 02:56, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh I see you have done that already.. –Capricorn42 (talk) 02:58, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I don't want to talk behind people's backs, but my requests and general speaking all the request progresses at WP:Bot requests are sort of slow. That's why I'm asking if there is another way...thanks anyways :) impactF=_{check this} 03:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

How to delete my account?

I would like to delete my account. But it seems that the web site offers no distinct way to delete it. So within your convenient days, please make sure to post the reply for my question. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gi2707 (talk • contribs) 03:20, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Your account cannot be deleted but you can exercise the right to vanish. – ukexpat (talk) 03:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

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