Jump to content

Wikipedia:Help desk: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
Line 385: Line 385:


I see that [[Help:Page_name#Changing_the_displayed_title|this help page]] says "italic title," inside braces, is used for genera and species, although I see it it being used, for example, for the title of ''[[The New York Times]]''. Can/should this be used for all publications, albums, etc. where such titles should italicized in the body of the article? Thank you. [[User:RadioBroadcast|RadioBroadcast]] ([[User talk:RadioBroadcast|talk]]) 16:15, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
I see that [[Help:Page_name#Changing_the_displayed_title|this help page]] says "italic title," inside braces, is used for genera and species, although I see it it being used, for example, for the title of ''[[The New York Times]]''. Can/should this be used for all publications, albums, etc. where such titles should italicized in the body of the article? Thank you. [[User:RadioBroadcast|RadioBroadcast]] ([[User talk:RadioBroadcast|talk]]) 16:15, 28 September 2009 (UTC)
:No it cannot be used --[[User:Shivlingam|owner wikipedia]] ([[User talk:Shivlingam|talk]]) 17:39, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Revision as of 17:39, 28 September 2009

    Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)
    • For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
    • Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
    • If your question is about a Wikipedia article, draft article, or other page on Wikipedia, tell us what it is!
    • Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
    • For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
    • New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).


    September 25

    Gray contributions

    What does it mean when someone's contributions are gray and struck through? I came across this user's contributions and have never seen this before and I'm just wondering what it means. I can't seem to find any explanation for this on any of Wikipedia's help pages. Deli nk (talk) 00:18, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It mean's they've been oversighted. It's one step beyond deletion, it's usually only used for privacy violations. -- Vary | (Talk) 00:25, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    OK, thanks for the quick answer. Deli nk (talk) 00:28, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Possible illegal photograph

    I have recently visited the Yushukan museum located on the grounds of the Yakusuni Shrine in Tokyo. The museum specifically disallows any photographs to be taken in the portion of the museum where the purchase of a ticket is required. The Kaiten submarine is located in that paid portion.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KaitenType1.JPG

    Thus, if the above linked photograph is a personal photo as the uploader noted, then it is possibly in violation of the museum's policies, and possibly be subject for removal from Wikipedia?

    The image is on Wikimedia Commons, so I suggest you bring up your concern there (Commons and the English Wikipedia are separate projects). You could raise the issue and start discussion at commons:Commons:Deletion_requests. Personally, I have no idea where copyright law and museum policies meet, if indeed they do. ∙ AJCham(talk) 00:40, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Thank you!

    Museum policy and copyright law are completely different matters. Even if the photo was taken in breach of "policy" but is not otherwise a copyright violation, then there is nothing "illegal" about it and IMHO it is perfectly acceptable for Commons if the photographer provides an appropriate release. – ukexpat (talk) 14:23, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    besides, you can't just jump to the conclusion that the photographer violated that museum policy. many museums don't like everyone taking pictures for different reasons, but may give permission to certain people, or even if it's a quiet day, they may not care.--camr nag 18:17, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Hi, even if the photo does not violate copyright law, there are issues regarding image rights, trumped up 'security' issues etc. Any private companies that would wish to use an image taken of/in a private or corporate property (perhaps for marketing purposes etc.) often need to have a location disclosure agreement signed by somebody in suitably senior position in the body that owns said property. I am not sure what the position of Wikipedia would be in relation to being the host for the 'publication' of this image. Although, having said that, it is highly possible that the photo would have originated from the marketing dept. of the museum Darigan (talk) 13:36, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Removing page from categories

    How do I make a page not be included in any categories that are added from a template? ©Ξ 00:33, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    On the template page, wrap the categories in <noinclude>. Whatever is in those tags will only appear on the template page, not when it's transcluded. (Conversely, if you want something to only appear when the template is transcluded, use <includeonly>.) Xenon54 / talk / 01:11, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Maybe Scarce is working on a page which transcludes templates that normally add categories, but doesn't want the categories added to that particular page, for example a userspace draft. There is no feature to do that without editing the templates to give a parameter telling the template whether to omit the category. There is a feature request with different suggestions at bugzilla:835. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:34, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    promoting?

    Cheerwine has a list of their advertising slogans. Is this appropriate for Wikipedia? Mjpresson (talk) 02:19, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Not really, as it's unsourced and really just indiscriminate info. I've removed it. Thanks for the heads up! TNXMan 02:47, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Clay Walker song

    I am trying to find the music cd to the Clay Walker song I'd Love To Be Your Last, for a wedding. I have the c/d Fall, but I need just the music so someone can sing it. Can you help me?

    Have you tried the Miscellaneous 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. TNXMan 02:48, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Signbot

    Is signbot down?Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 03:11, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Yup. Hasn't yet caught up to the latest mw updates. See User:SineBot. --AndrewHowse (talk) 03:19, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    (e/c) I'm not sure what's the status now but as of a few days ago, following the software update, all bots were broken.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:21, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Starnge WIkimedia mention on non Wikimedia websites

    Most of the day yesterday, whenever I wanted to go to Twitter and pushed my hotkey on Firefox for the website, I got this webscreen

    thumb|200px

    Even by typing the webaddress, I got this all but once yesterday (when it actually went to the twitter screen). 30 minutes ago, I wanted to check out the Jay Leno show, as he was interviewing the Greatest American alive today. From both NBC.com and the link to the official site from WIkipedia, I got this screen:

    thumb|200px

    Is there some sort of Wikimedia cookie or virus or something doing this? It appears to be contained to me, but in case others get this problem, I wanted to give the first mention of this. Any idea what's up? (Don't seem to have that problem with IE).--King Bedford I Seek his grace 06:17, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This is generated by http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_missing_site_template and should only be seen at domains owned by Wikimedia. Try clearing your entire cache in Firefox. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:23, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    On front page wiki news section NO info on G-20 in Pittsburgh?

    Have you seen the tarmac at Pittsburgh International Airport, US Air Force One, Russian, Chinese, Australian, Italian, French, Japanese, Brazilian heck the king of Ethopia took his air force one to PIT too. NBC Nightly news is broadcasting from Pittsburgh last night and tonight, Jon Stewart has a crew there with the Daily Show, CBS ABC CNN MSNBC FNC FBC BBC CBC NYT WP AP UPI . . . need I provide more (trust me the links are red hot all over). Please add this to the news before the summit is over on Friday night. Thank you for your quick response in advance. Hholt01 (talk) 06:41, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What? Are you suggestion something for the "in the news" section of the main page? If so, go to Wikipedia:In the news/Candidates‎. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 06:44, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for the link, here is one for the news crew from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: [1] Hholt01 (talk) 06:57, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Fixing across languages

    Working on the Red Panda article, I have found that the current IUCN Red List status is listed incorrectly in many languages (all except English that I have checked so far). For parallel articles like this, is there some way to make systemic changes or are we stuck with going in and editing each language separately? I can confidently fix this in some languages, but not in others. Obviously I can also go in and comment in the Notes page on other languages. However, this seems like a lot of maintanance for something that changes internationally all at the same time.

    I've never actually tried this but Wikipedia:Local Embassy has a list of people willing to help coordinate between different languages. I haven't heard of any way to automate this though.--RDBury (talk) 17:15, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Template:Userspace draft

    Hi, I'm trying to have Template:Userspace draft show the date and time of creation and last edit, but I can't get the subst:ing to work. Ideally we'd be able to show the date/time the user will be able to move the page to mainspace, but creation date + guidance will do. Rd232 talk 10:34, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm not sure how you want it to work but note that substitution only happens if subst: is directly in the edit box when the page is saved. You cannot cause substitution by transcluding a page containing subst. You could make another template with documentation saying it must be subst'ed. That template could then subst the time and transclude Template:Userspace draft. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:32, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    If you want the creation time to be saved when the page is made via the article wizard then the source of Template:Article wizard/userpageskeleton is placed directly in the edit box by using <InputBox> with preload=Template:Article wizard/userpageskeleton in Wikipedia:Article wizard 2.0/subpage. So you could subst the time in Template:Article wizard/userpageskeleton. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Maybe you it would help if you take a look at {{AFC submission}}, which I think works in the way you mention. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 11:52, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    my page dissapeared

    Hi, I wrote a page a few months ago on Rose Reisman. A few editors had edited it and thought it was fine. I guess it stayed on the site for a while and reached the top ranking in search and then all of a sudden it dissapeared. i can't imagine it would have been subject to speedy deletion, otherwise wouldnt it have been deleted much earlier? I now can't even find any trace of this article. please help. thanks --Artoflivingwell (talk) 15:41, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It was speedily deleted as a copyvio of this page on September 5. NB, the "speedy" part of "speedy delete" refers to the process and not the time since creation.  – ukexpat (talk) 15:44, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    thanks, should i have referenced it then? and can i find the original article somewhere, so i can fix and repost? --Artoflivingwell (talk) 16:20, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You can't fix a coyvio just by adding references. You will have to rewrite the whole thing in your own words. I suggest that you start off by creating it in a user subpage so you can edit it without risk of deletion (unless it is a copyvio or promotional in which case it is open to speedy deletion). I have created a subpage for you at User:Artoflivingwell/Rose Reisman.  – ukexpat (talk) 16:50, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict)Even with a reference, you can't just paste into Wikipedia someone else's work (unless it's in the public domain or acceptably licensed for free use). In addition, it appears that the ultimate source of the copied material is Ms. Reisman herself (or her publicist), since it also appears on her Facebook page and here; so I doubt that it could be considered a secondary source. Most admins will refuse to userfy a copyvio article, I think, but since an acceptable article will have to be rewritten from scratch on the basis of reliable secondary sources, you're not losing much. Deor (talk) 16:58, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What does the manual of style say regarding alts on lists

    The question is more specific. On List of numbered roads in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, there are lists with the road shields denoting each road. Would every road shield require alt text under the manual of style, or is this a case where it can be skipped over? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 17:00, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Since alt text is for readers that cannot sea the image on their screens, I believe it would be necessary to provide it. Otherwise, they wouldn't know what is there, would they? If you were at WP:FLC, you will be asked to provide alt text. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 17:03, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The guideline is Wikipedia:Alternative text for images. The images do have content not in the list, so you need alt text. You could expand the content to include that content, then the images could be considered icons the alt text delinked. Examples: 7B and Kawartha Lakes 3 are not noted in the list text. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 17:10, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Theoretically though, I could just make the alt texts for every shield read "A city road sign for Kawartha Lakes Road xx" or "A provincial highway sign for Highway xx" and that would be fine, correct? Or would more details be necessary (the prose mentions the shapes and general appearance of the road signs)? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 17:17, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You would need a complete description: shield-shaped with a crown, etc.
    I know I've read not to over duplicate things, so would I need all these extra items describing the shape on every single picture the entire way down the list (49 times)? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 23:17, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You need to make sure you are not degrading the web usability in the attempt to improve the article. You might want to consider removing the images and instead using the actual numbers (List of numbered roads in Ottawa is an example). You are using the images in a purely decorative fashion which would negate the use of alt text if that column listed actual numbers. You might want to consider not using those images at all but instead using a higher quality shot of a road sign.10:09, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
    I hope to upgrade the others around Ontario to match Kawartha Lakes / York Region. The images provide a much better eye catcher for anyone that isn't still using a commodore64 to access the net. It is just personal opinion, but I cannot stand the look of the tables that merely use numbers. Perhaps the alt for the images could be simply the number, as that is the only important part of the image? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 00:57, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Re:File:Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom.jpg

    Where in Edo/Tokyo was the photographer taking the following picture from?

    I'd like to look it up on a map. — Rickyrab | Talk 17:18, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Apparently, some place called Atagoyama. I'll look it up. — Rickyrab | Talk 17:23, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Possibly Atago Shrine (Tokyo) -- "The shrine is located on Atago Hill, which is 26 meters above sea level. In old times, the shrine had an excellent view of Tokyo..."--RDBury (talk) 08:27, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Section lines crossing infoboxes or images

    is there a way to prevent section lines from crossing infoboxes or images? i mean, what happens in this article.--camr nag 17:18, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Looks fine to me - the section lines end before the ibox and image elements. – ukexpat (talk) 17:47, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    now you say it, i accessed the article using firefox. yep, no line. it's just with ie.--camr nag 18:11, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Was just going as ask about your browser. What version? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 18:12, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    the last one, which is weird. ie8. to be specific, v.8.0.6001.18813. but i bet every version does the same.--camr nag 18:28, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    IE8 and Wikipedia don't play well together in a number of areas. – ukexpat (talk) 18:38, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Correct template to use in deletion notification

    At Wikipedia:Guide to deletion, it suggests Place a notification on significant pages that link to your nomination, to enable those with related knowledge to participate in the debate.. It doesn't really suggest if there is a template to do this, or if you should just put a little warning at the top of your own design. Does anyone know? (Response here is fine :) Luminifer (talk) 18:15, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Are we talking about WP:CSD, WP:PROD or WP:AFD? Each has its own template that goes on the article page and the notice that is then displayed should give you the template code for the notice to put on the creator's talk page. If you use an automated tool like Twinkle for deletion tagging it adds those templates for you automagically. – ukexpat (talk) 18:37, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I was able to find the notice for the creator's talk page - what I wanted was the notice to put on significant pages that link to [the] nomination... It's an AFD, FYI. Luminifer (talk) 18:58, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh OK in that case take a look at Wikipedia:AFD#Notifying interested people, there are some templates listed at the end of that section for notifying people. To be honest I don't think anyone bothers with notifications on other significant pages - I have never seen such a notice. – ukexpat (talk) 19:21, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You can also notify relevant WikiProjects by using the templates listed at WP:DELSORT, which should attract "those with related knowledge". A list of active delsort pages can be found at WP:DS/C. Deor (talk) 19:34, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Style of titles in articles

    Why are the titles of sections in longer Wikipedia articles numbered in the contents lists, but not in the main texts of the articles?

    For example, in this article:

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

    the section "Modern history" is numbered 2.4 in the contents list, but the title has no number in the text below.

    This seems to be illogical and to make navigation more difficult. Why is it arranged in that way?


    Thanx in advance,

    Erland Gadde <email removed>

    I'm not sure why this is, but you can set Special:Preferences → Appearance → Auto-number headings. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 22:48, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    September 26

    Book Fees for public education

    What states in the USA charge book fees for public schools?

    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.

    Table sorting

    Resolved

    In List of districts of Sri Lanka, the three area columns do not sort properly. It was suggested at the FLC that this may be because it is not sorted numerically. The problem must be with the {{km2 to mi2}} template, since the other columns are sorting correctly. Any help on fixing this problem would be much appreciated. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 00:25, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I had a similar problem with the lists at List of numbered roads in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario where the image code made the roads and highways sort oddly. You can fix this by placing {{ntsh|#}} before any text or other items in the coloumn that is giving you trouble, replacing # with numbers. The coloumn will sort the numbers rather than considering what is actually in the cell, and the ntsh tag will make the numbers invisible to the reader. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ τ ¢ 01:09, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    W00t! It works. Thanks a lot Floydian :) ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 01:51, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Missing text

    Carbonation, in the "effervescence" section, text is missing prior to the chemical equation for AlkaSeltzer. I'm having trouble finding the revision and I'm not sure how to fix it. Mjpresson (talk) 01:37, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This was just fixed by user Vary. Thanks! Mjpresson (talk) 01:45, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    :) If you're familiar with the topic, it might be an idea to check the restored text for accuracy. Chemical reactions are not really my thing. -- Vary | (Talk) 01:46, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How to Rename a Category?

    Resolved
     – Thaejas (talk)

    How to rename a category? Thaejas (talk) 02:01, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You need to establish consensus first at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion. Xenon54 / talk / 02:08, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks --Thaejas (talk) 03:48, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What should I do about photos that don't show on my screen?

    Sometimes I find pages where one or more photos don't show - only a box with the caption in it and a short vertical line in the middle above the caption and a small box which, if clicked, takes one to the page fo0r the image. I find that if I shrink their size they show up all right - but I wonder if I should be doing this? My computer is a Lenovo notebook with a 15.1" screen running Windows Vista Business. Is there anything I can do to make them show up without shrinking the size? Can you help, please? John Hill (talk) 02:07, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Could you provide a link to a specific image that is causing you trouble? What do you mean by "shrinking the size?" It sounds to me like purging might help, but a bit more information is needed. Xenon54 / talk / 02:13, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Hi, thanks for your speedy reply. One such article is the 14th Dalai Lama where I cannot see several photos, just the following captions: "house where the 14th Dalai Lama was born", "Lhasa's Potala Palace, today a UNESCO world heritage site, pictured in 2006"; Abandoned former quarters of the Dalai Lama at the Potala. The empty vestment placed on the throne symbolizes his absence"; and: "The Dalai Lama's main teaching room at Dharamsala"
    I reduced the number of pixels on the following two photos, captioned: "The Dalai Lama and fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu share a joke" and "Dalai Lama at Tibetan Children's Village Dharamsala, 1993", and they now show up on my screen just fine.
    I have run into this same problem on other pages in the past and have, at least a couple of times, reduced the number of pixels of the photos until they showed up. However, it occurred to me today that perhaps there is some other problem here (and that maybe I should not be reducing the size of the images) - as I know I have been able to see these photos on the page of the 14th Dalai Lama previously with no difficulties. Hope this helps you work out what the problem may be. Many thanks, John Hill (talk) 05:34, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I can see those pictures with no difficulty. Are you still having the problem? If you are, you should purge each thumbnail that you are having trouble viewing; instructions are on the linked page. Xenon54 / talk / 11:39, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you very much for your help. The page is looking fine on my screen this morning and now I know how to "purge" if I have further difficulties. I really appreciate your patient and helpful assistance. Cheers, John Hill (talk) 00:58, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia Speech Posted?

    I wrote a speech on how Wikipedia should be allowed as a credible source. Is there any way to post it under any of the Wikimedia Sites as not for editing? Quintus314 (talk) 03:54, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Well, none of the Wikimedia sites are for posting speeches... you might want to look at a blog, hosting site, or another wiki. You could, on the other hand, post it as an essay, but I daresay there are already several on your subject, and there is no way to prevent editing (unless prompted by vandalism or the like). Calvin 1998 (t·c) 04:20, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    problem with juiced 2

    my game juiced-2 hot import nights does not start. it says to select smaller resolution.

    Have you tried the computing section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 06:27, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Lost word document

    How can i retrieve a lost word document. Is there a way i can view all word documents i have been working on? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.202.72.137 (talkcontribs) 09:37, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer 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 and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 10:21, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Cheap laptop

    what is the cheapest laptop in india

    It is not the responsibility of the Help Desk to answer questions unrelated to Wikipedia. Either do the research yourself or ask at the Reference desk. Xenon54 / talk / 13:20, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    See OLPC XO-1 and Netbook for general information. It could be difficult to determine exactly what would be "the cheapest laptop in india" as this could be different for different people in India, depending on what part of the country a person is in, one-time closeout sales, whether you qualify for charitable programs such as One Laptop per Child, the ongoing progress of Moore's law which pushes prices downward every year, etc. --Teratornis (talk) 17:56, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia for kids

    My daughter would like access to information that is suited to her age (8). Current pages, such as the ones about autism, are full of words she does not understand and she ends up getting frustrated and confused. Is there a child-friendly option? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.27.242.88 (talk)

    You might like to take a look at the Simple English Wikipedia. The main page can be found at http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 14:59, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The article on that Wikipedia is here -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:48, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The simplest link from here is: Simple:Autism. --Teratornis (talk) 17:50, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Way to make it confusing for the mom who probably doesn't care about the difference between pipe links and links guys. I have half the mind to make a link to something naughty.Cptnono (talk) 09:53, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Do we know that the original questioner is confused? Do we know that the original questioner is a mom? The question only indicates that the original questioner is a parent. --Teratornis (talk) 01:40, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    LAW

    what is the different between the positivist and naturalist approach is to be prferred and why?

    You are going to have to be more specific as to what you want to accomplish with this question. Note that Wikipedia will not do your homework for you. Xenon54 / talk / 16:32, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The help desk is for questions on how to use Wikipedia. For Humanities-related questions, such as yours, please use the Humanities reference desk. Intelligentsium 23:51, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Image alignment and missing table lines in Mozilla Firefox

    Resolved

    Since I updated to the latest Firefox version, I have two problems with Wikipedia pages:

    1. All images are displayed Wikipedia:Picture tutorial § Without flowing text.
    2. Some horizontal or vertical lines in tables are not displayed. I could not discern a pattern for that behavior.

    My configuration is Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729). — Sebastian 16:24, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    (For non-techies, that string of text says he's under Windows XP and using Firefox 3.5.3.) I think #2 is a known problem with Firefox and refreshing the page should fix it, but I'm not completely sure. I don't know about #1, though, and I don't encounter the issue on Firefox 3.5.2 under Ubuntu. Xenon54 / talk / 16:31, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Try view > zoom > reset. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 21:59, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you - that fixed the table problem. But the image problem still persists. — Sebastian 21:27, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually, this only occurs in en.WP, not e.g. in simple.WP. I'm wondering if that has to do with the skin. Ever since I tried beta once, my skin was reset. I didn't have a personalized skin, and when I went through all skins available, it looked like MySkin was what I had before. But now that I think about it, I also remember that the announcement for new messages on my talk page changed; it lost its orange background. Is there a skin that does that? — Sebastian 21:31, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Try Special:Preferences > Appearance > Restore all default settings (very bottom) ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 21:59, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you again. I wouldn't want to do that since I assume I can not undo it, and I have a number of settings that I wouldn't want to change. But I did switch the skin, and it went away. When I switched it back, it was just like before. I guess I should rename this section to "Skin disease" now ;-) Does anyone remember which skin shows the orange bar? I think I tried them all after I tried out beta, but I couldn't find any other that looked similar to what I had before. — Sebastian 22:24, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I use the default (monobook) skin, which shows an orange bar when there are messages - I'm using FF3.5.3/WindowsXP with SP3.  Ronhjones  (Talk) 23:35, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you! That's not the skin I had before, but I'll just keep that for now. My original two problems are solved:
    1. Image display: Change skin;
    2. Table display: view > zoom > reset.
    Sebastian 14:20, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How words in English of 自行車道 should be translated as?

    Resolved

    The zh:自行車道 in Taiwan has be faboulius in recent year, but it has no unified signing, even same one. Bikeway, Bikelane, Cycling paths, bike trail, cycle lane, ...????

    If official translation is declared, we follow the official, but if it has no official translation, but has chinese phrase of "自行車道", how should be translated as? Thamk you.Tratra22395768 (talk) 16:55, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    That article already links to our article Segregated cycle facilities. There's a picture there that calls it "bike path", but there are other names discussed at Segregated cycle facilities#Terminology. If you have any further questions, please discuss it at that article's talk page, Talk:Segregated cycle facilities or at any of the WikiProjects listed on top of that page. — Sebastian 17:02, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Activate My Account

    Please can you activate my account. Prenticelu (talk) 20:24, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Your account is working. I didn't know there was any sort of activation process... Xenon54 / talk / 20:58, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    All acounts are inherently active. You're good to go. --AndrewHowse (talk) 20:59, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    My guess is that you're trying to edit a semiprotected page? Or maybe upload an image? (I'm not sure about that once.) Your account will be fully active when you've been registered a few days and have made a few edits. There are some things that very new accounts aren't able to do, unfortunately, but you'll be able to do them soon enough. Sorry! -- Vary | (Talk) 21:04, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For autoconfirmed status, see Wikipedia:User access levels#Autoconfirmed users. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 21:07, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Your account is old enough to be autoconfirmed, but you need 10 edits. Right now you have 2 undeleted edits. (I am not sure if it counts the deleted edits on your deleted article.) BTW, Wikipedia does not accept promotional articles. —teb728 t c 22:19, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    More possibilities that the question might refer to:
    --Teratornis (talk) 00:45, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    September 27

    incorrectly made 2 pages

    Dear Wiki, While I was trying to make a wiki page for the band Doomfire, i made to two pages on accident. I am wondering on how can i delete them?Dethsoldier101 (talk) 01:46, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I've placed a CSD tag on the one I found, and the same tags have been placed on the others you created, so they should be taken care of shortly. ArcAngel (talk) 01:50, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Please read up on our notability guidelines for bands. Intelligentsium 02:01, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For future reference, if you create an article page which you want deleted (and you are the only significant author), just put the tag {{db-self}} at the top of the page. This will indicate that The author of the only substantial content has requested deletion in good faith, either explicitly or by blanking the page. Please note that if other editors have done significant editing, the deletion may not be allowed. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:27, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Infobox awards

    please someone create an infobox for the awards. I am facing great difficulty without it and I even do not know to create it. Please help me. please it is my earnest request to anyone.--Karyasuman (talk) 06:30, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What awards are we talking about? There is an award template at Template:Awards for acting awards, but looking at your contributions I would guess some kind of Cricket award such as one of the ICC Awards? As a rule, these are listed on the individual sportsperson's article as "honours" (for example, see David_beckham#Honours). -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:24, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How to remove an unwanted script?

    Resolved
     – Apparently... – ukexpat (talk) 15:40, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Someone,(a user Eukesh) probably trying to be helpful, put a script on the Dzongkha Wikipedia which is supposed to allow one to type Dzongkha (Tibetan script) by using translitteration - however Eukesh who wrote the script (which appears to be based on one for Indic languages)may be well intentioned but obviously doesn't understand a thing about Dzongkha translitteration. Consequently this script has to be manually turned off with each and every edit. I have suggested he correct the script - but that hasn't happened, and also asked him several times to remove it - but that hasn't happened either. I would remove the script myself, but don't know how to. Can someone please help with this!!! Unless turned off it only makes it impossible to edit Dzongkha Wikipedia articles (which may be one of the reasons why no one has been participationg there). Chris Fynn (talk) 06:58, 27 September 2009 (UTC).[reply]

    P.S. As a matter of principle, even if they work, shouldn't scripts like this which modify keyboard input be turned off by default and only enabled if a user chooses to? Dzongkha speaking users most likely to have a standard Dzongkha keyboard or IME installed on their system which works directly with their script and would prefer to use that rather than typing translitteration. (In this particular case it's worse as the translit script is not only on by default but is completly broken for Dzongkha.) Chris Fynn (talk) 07:42, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    While I agree with you that scripts modifying keyboard input should be turned off by default, there is little we can do on the Dzongkha Wikipedia. On the enwiki Help Desk we deal with issues related to the English Wikipedia only. You would be better off bringing this issue up on the Dzongkha Wikipedia itself. (Having said that, I can't even find a Dzongkha Wikipedia...) ƒ(Δ)² 08:01, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    FYI it's here! (I can't actually see the characters in IE8, but in Safari I can - there are ༡༢༦ content pages on the wiki, ༥༥༥ total pages and ༦ uploaded files - but I don't know what those are in English!) -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:43, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Unfortunately there is no place to report this on the Dzongkha Wikipedia itself. The fact is just now I am about the only one doing any editing there. I am currently trying to encourage students in Bhutan to contribute - but having a script like this installed which only messes up the input and makes editing difficult is not at all helpful to this endeavor. If someone familiar with the technicalities can explain to me how to remove such a template - which effects every page on the Dzongkha Wikipedia - I'll try to do it myself, though I don't know whether or not I have sufficient rights to change things at that level. This template is evil - it even messes up input in the Go / Search box in the left hand column making it useless. There is no obvious way to turn it off there and without that search box being functional a Wikipedia is totally crippled. Then people complain that no one is using Dzongkha Wikipedia - this could be one of the main reasons for that sad state of affairs.
    I notice the same person has installed a similar translitteration template on the Tibetan Wikipedia ~ it is just as much a mess for that language which uses the same script as Dzongkha. The person who created the script probably thought that because Tibetan and Dzongkha use a writing system which is derived from an Indic system then a transliteration input script that works for Indian languages would work for Tibetan and Dzongka. Obviously he is not familiar with either of these languages, the standard translitteration system used for them, or the fact that in the Unicode Standard Tibetan was encoded using a completly different encoding model from other Indic scripts. This translitteration input script has been installed on the Dzongkha Wikipedia for a long time. Unfortunately Eukesh the person who installed it has not responded to repeated requests via his main user page to do something about it. Anyway if no one can help me here, any suggestions as to where I should take this? Chris Fynn (talk) 13:26, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I have already answered to this problem in Dzonkha wiki a long time ago in CFynn's page. There certainly was nothing in Dzonkha wikipedia when I had inserted the script. The main page looked like this. Problem in input of Abugida script was present throughout South Asian wikipediae as per meta pages. Dzonkha wiki was virtually nonexistent back then with less than 10 articles. With this in consideration, I worked on a code for input system for all South Asian abugidas. The initial code was very rudimentary. However, considering its potential, users from Nepali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Panjabi, Kashmiri among others suggested on various aspects to improve the code some of which can be seen in my discussion page. The input system gradually improved in these wikipedias. However, due to lack of community in Dzonkha and Tibetan, this did not happen there, with the code still rudimentary when my tenure as temporary sysop was over. After years of no response and no edits, CFynn asked me to remove the code and I replied that I was not able to do this because I had no sysop access in his page in Dzonkha wikipedia. Also, I applied for sysop access here to remove the code but no one still responded. Now, I see this page in English wiki which states that I did not respond to the sugggestions which is NOT TRUE at all. By this time, the script has already been removed and I sincerely hope that, now, the "culprit" script is out, Dzonkha wiki develops at an astounding rate. Thank you.--Eukesh (talk) 06:10, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Copying messages from a talk page to article talk page

    Assuming editor X and Y are having a conversation about some article, and they're discussing possible problems. That conversation is taking place on Y's talk page, and its been started by X. The reason X took it to Y's page is because he wanted it to remain between them, and not between everyone else collaborating on the article. Then, suddenly, editor Z comes in and asks editor Y to post the conversation on the article talk. Editor X disagrees, but Z does it anyway. Can X remove the conversation from the article talk, or blank the comments he wrote, or some such thing? I think he should be able to do that. What d'you guys think? ƒ(Δ)² 07:50, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    See Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Strictly speaking, user talk pages are for discussing that editor's edits etc, and not for article collaboration (for which the place is of course the article talk page). However, there's no rule against such discussion taking place on the user talk page and it happens very often. If there are other users editing the article as well, then it is better to use the article talk so that everyone can participate. It may also look like cabalism if you try to keep others out of the discussion by posting it in pages that are not directly relevant. Editor Z can ask the other two to move it to the article talk, but he cannot do so himself without their consent. You can do whatever you like with your own comments, but remember that they will always be in the page's history. Also remember that substantially modifying or removing your comments is generally frowned upon, and will looks like you're trying to hide something. Finally, note that this situation may change depending on the nature of the discussion (for example, if the discussion criticizes others' edits then it's better to be on the article talk so that they can find it and respond, or it is obviously going to look like you're plotting behind their backs). ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 08:12, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm referring to this series of edits. I think my actions were justified. Can't be sure, though. ƒ(Δ)² 08:32, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How do i get my ex boyfriend back after 4 months

    k well i was with this boy for 6 wonderful months. the best time of my life. It was my first serious relationship and the first boy i actually cared about. but than we start fighting like crazy, and he never wanted to be the one to break up with me because he was scared to hurt me so he wanted me to break up with him cause he know how much the fighting hurt me so he cheated on me.But either way he hurt me. So i broke up with him.. But after we broke up he wanted me back but i already had a boyfriend. And even tho i did like the guyi was with i was only trying to filll the empty space he left in my heart i said no because i didnt want to seem pathetic. like i love him very much and everyone says that he still loves me ,like he always te lls me theres always a place in his heart for me But now where single and where friends and its been 4 months since we've been broken up and we still talk and hes always bring up the past. and i know he still loves me i just want to get him back .

    please help me get my first love back

    As much as I'd love to be matchmaker, this is way out of our scope. I'm sorry, there's nothing much we can do on Wikipedia. ƒ(Δ)² 08:10, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Note: Wikipedia cannot give relationship advice. As much as we would like to, we are not qualified to give such advice - and if I was in your situation, I would rather take advice from friends/family than complete strangers from around the world. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:15, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    And if we were good enough with relationships to give out advice, we wouldn't spend this much time on the Internet. =/ ƒ(Δ)² 08:30, 27 September 2009 (UTC) [reply]
    Lots of women have boyfriends, but how many have 10,000 edits on Wikipedia? --Teratornis (talk) 10:14, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Off the top of my head, I can name at least a few. :) hmwith 16:17, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The degeneracy of Tamil Wikipedia

    The Tamil Wikipedia is under the control of a cabal whose main purpose is to impose their version of an archaic Tamil instead of present day Tamil as in newsmedia, literature, government documents and so on. Just image English wikipedia is under the control of people who think only Chaucer's English is 'pure English' and much of the present day English is a corruption to be done away with. A similar situation of "Pure Tamil Taliban" exist in Tamil Wikipedia, who impose their version of 'pure Tamil', chiefly by doing away with a number of characters in the Tamil Keyboard.

    I would like Wikipedia foundation - or whoever in charge of matters like this - to take up the matter seriously. Because the present practices in Tamil Wikipedia violates Wikipedia rules, in letter and spirit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vijinuk (talkcontribs)

    If there is anyone who can help with this problem, they probably are not reading this Help desk on the English Wikipedia. The various language Wikipedias operate with considerable autonomy, so the first place to address a problem on the Tamil Wikipedia would be on the Tamil Wikipedia. If the Tamil Wikipedia is under the control of some group of editors, they probably have a list of arguments to support whatever they are doing. To change what they are doing, you would have to counter all their arguments with better arguments. For example, you might compile statistical data that shows a preference among Tamil speakers for a particular version of the language. I doubt that a directly comparable situation exists in English, since computers were largely invented by speakers of modern English. English speakers did not have any difficulty adapting computers to their language since that was the design from the very beginning. We have some minor differences between American and British English but this does not rise to Taliban intensity. When computers spread to other cultures then there were endless problems with other character sets and so on. --Teratornis (talk) 10:40, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Fact sidebar comes up when I want to edit article

    I have facts to add to the Trinity Preparatory School wiki page. I was able to update the sidebar but I do not see how to "get into" the main contents. I am a new user...obviously! Thank you,


    Katieseymour (talk) 10:36, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It's not clear what you want to do to the Trinity Preparatory School article. You were able to update the {{Infobox School}} template in the article - that's usually the part that would trip up a new user. To edit the rest of the article, just click the "edit this page" tab at the top and scroll down in the edit window past the template code. See WP:CHEAT for some basic editing commands, and Help:Editing for more. It's best to make a few small changes and then wait to see what other editors do to them. You can add the article to your watchlist. --Teratornis (talk) 10:48, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Sorting data

    Is it possible to sort the replies when searching. For example I want to search within Category talk:People of German descent for jewish people of German descent with any reference to "Hamburg". Or ordering a search of Village pump by date and subject. I cannot seem to work out how to do data sorting. --Alchemist Jack (talk) 12:44, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    So what you're looking for is something that will search Category:People of German descent for people that are also in Category:German Jews and Category:People from Hamburg? Such searching is probably out of the league of Wikipedia's (terrible) built-in search, or any external search engine, such as Google. You might want to check the Toolserver for a tool that does what you want, if one exists. Xenon54 / talk / 12:55, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Wow, I am amazed! That kind of thing would make Wikipedia really useful. Oh well. Thanks. I will check out the link. --Alchemist Jack (talk) 13:05, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Please see Wikipedia:Searching#Using Wikimedia search to find category intersections. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:12, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I found that and tried the example, but it doesn't seem to work anymore..."no results". Xenon54 / talk / 13:15, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Tried that with just Category:People of German descent and Category:People from Hamburg and got this [2]

    Which doesn't look write but then the example [3] doesn't work either. said above--Alchemist Jack (talk) 13:24, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I guess some change in the software broke such searches. Anyway I found another. Try this tool. It appears to be working. I found this as linked from Wikipedia:Category intersection which you might check out. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:56, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    CatScan ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 14:31, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Amazing! What a great tool! Jack, for your search, you need to set the "Deep index levels below each category" to 2. — Sebastian 14:40, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for that, --Alchemist Jack (talk) 15:52, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Also see WP:EIW#Cat and WP:EIW#Search. The Editor's index lists a lot of these kinds of tools. --Teratornis (talk) 19:41, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Article help

    Which article is the article for the Christian God?--Mikespedia (talk) 15:25, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    God in Christianity. Christian God redirects there. ZooFari 15:43, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    In the help desk, what does the "Resolved" box mean?

    Resolved
     – Looks resolved to me. – ukexpat (talk) 15:45, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What does it mean with sections that have a tick, and the "Resolved." text?--Mikespedia (talk) 15:28, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It means that the question has been answered. Either the question asker or answerer can add the {{Resolved}} tag, and it serves to identify which questions can be safely skipped over by prospective answerers. Xenon54 / talk / 15:34, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    If you feel Xenon's reply resolved your question, please add the following text (without the quotes) right beneath the headline: "{{resolved}}". (BTW, I hope you don't mind that I changed the headline; this is so in future people can easily find your question.) — Sebastian 15:50, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Do I have to sign after it?--Mikespedia (talk) 09:40, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    That would be helpful, so others can see who considered the question resolved. Gonzonoir (talk) 09:56, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For which the code would be {{Resolved|1= [optional text here].~~~~}}.  – ukexpat (talk) 15:44, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Uploading pictures to an exising page

    I created an account, mainly to add additional photographs to an existing page:

    Muscatine Avenue Moffitt Cottage Historic District http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffit_house

    I uploaded additional pictures, but they have not shown up on the article. How can I resolve this?

    Thank you very kindly,

    Ozzie F. Díaz-Duque

    I have removed you email for privacy. We will send you messages through your talk page, not email. ZooFari 15:47, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Add images to the article by adding [[File:YourImageName.jpg]] (replaced by the image's actual name) where you'd like the image to go. For more information, see WP:Images#Using images. hmwith 16:13, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    "edit this page" timestamp

    I am wondering how a timestamp is created/generated when editing has been performed on an article's page. I was looking at an article while listening to what I thought was supposed to be live radio on the day of the event and the article already stated what had happened. I was listening at around 10 or 11 am EST and the timestamp in the article showed 14:06 but I couldn't find a time zone. I noticed that time zones are not in general included in the timestamp for an edit and wondering why not. The is truly a mystery to me. Thanks.

    The time is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). 10:06 EDT is 14:06 UTC. Xenon54 / talk / 16:55, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Move

    I can seem to find out how to publish. I opened an account today and wanted to create a page on my Army Unit. I did a template under my account, but I can't see to figure out how to move it over. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeffrey.vaughan (talkcontribs) Please sign your comments, the robot that does this is currently down

    It looks like you used the Wikipedia:Article wizard 2.0 to create a user subpage at User:Jeffrey.vaughan/620th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. That is in fact the most advisable way for a new Wikipedia user to start a new article. Many new articles by new users get deleted here for failing to comply with Wikipedia's complex policies and guidelines, but you can improve your subpage before you move it to the article space. See WP:LAYOUT, WP:YFA, WP:CITE, WP:FOOT, and WP:MOVE. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    As your account is a day old and has fewer than ten edits, it's probably not yet autoconfirmed - that would mean the "move" tab is invisible to you. After four days and more than ten edits it should become visible. You could circumvent the problem, once you're ready for the article to go live, by copying and pasting the contents of the page (when viewed in "edit" mode) into a new page in article space. Gonzonoir (talk) 10:04, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I cleaned up some of the formatting. It needs some references and claims of notability before it is moved to the mainspace. – ukexpat (talk) 15:56, 28 September 2009 (UTC)  – ukexpat (talk) 15:56, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm an avid cruciverbalist. My preferred on-line dictionary, OneLook.com, indexes Wiktionary content which often has definitions not available in other dictionaries. Frequently a simple dictionary entry isn't enough to solve an obscure clue and I need to go to Wikipedia to look for some more context on the subject. This is especially so for obscure cryptic clues. Maybe I'm blind but I can't see an easy link from a Wiktionary page to Wikipedia. Ideally I'd want to automatically do a search of Wikipedia using the Wiktionary word but also have the option just to go to the Wikipedia home page. Am I not seeing the missing link? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.174.110.137 (talkcontribs) 14:32, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If an entry has a Wikipedia page, there should be a "Wikipedia has articles on: [topic]" box on the right-hand side of the page, lined up with the definition to which the entry applies. Xenon54 / talk / 18:36, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For example, the wikt:hydroelectricity page has a {{Wikipedia}} template that links back to Hydroelectricity here. However:
    • A human editor has to place the {{Wikipedia}} template in a Wiktionary entry by hand. That means not all Wiktionary entries that should have the template may have it yet, since Wiktionary is a work in progress like Wikipedia.
    • Wikipedia is not a dictionary, so there are potentially many Wiktionary entries for which no Wikipedia article exists with the same title.
    • You can search the full text of Wikipedia with several different tools. See Help:Search, WP:EIW#Search, and {{Google Wikipedia}}. I search Wikipedia with Google so often that I bookmarked the search link in my Web browsers.
    --Teratornis (talk) 19:33, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For example:
    finds some instances of the word, including the userbox: User:SJS1971/Userboxes/cruciverbalist. --Teratornis (talk) 19:37, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Further Reading

    Please tell me how to add a book under Further Reading in the Alma Reville entry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucygrayphotography (talkcontribs) 14:49, September 27, 2009

    The page is not protected, so you should be able to edit by hitting the edit button at the top of the page. Make sure it's appropriate - substantially related to the subject of the page and preferably from a reputable publisher. WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:simple/complex 19:19, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    User:Velioph added a text about Phoenix Astronomical Society as well as their logo. Some time ago these were deleted as a copyvio (see the article's talk page). Now he appeared again, declaring that he has the right to use both the text and the logo. Can somebody, who knows the rules, give him some advice, what to do? Thank you very much. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 21:29, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I think the bigger issue is that the whole article is a violation of WP:ORG and WP:AUTO. Have you thought thought about nominating the article for deletion?
    No I haven't and I won't. I consider this organization, which has been working in the field of astronomy for more then 60 years, notable enough. It is true that autobiographies are discouraged (although not forbidden), but an article about an organization is not an autobiography, although the major contributor is its member. I will write the author an advice to use some secondary sources, which would better prove the notability of the subject, but could somebody give him an advice what to do with the logo? Thanks again. Jan.Kamenicek (talk) 14:17, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Logos can be used without a copyright release, under an appropriate free use rationale, see WP:LOGO. That stub will need some significant editing with cited sources to demonstrate notability. – ukexpat (talk) 16:01, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    signing

    does this mean I dont need to sign here? This page is a member of 2 hidden categories:

    Category:Non-talk pages that are automatically signed Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 21:39, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Hell, no. That's so Sinebot knows to patrol this page, as it normally only patrols pages in the Talk namespaces. Xenon54 / talk / 21:48, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    At any rate, Sinebot seems to have been down recently, and may even be down at the moment. Intelligentsium 00:04, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Yes, the recent updates seem to have broken all of the bots. I assume that Sinebot will return eventually. Xenon54 / talk / 00:19, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    It doesn't seem to have stopped Scsbot from archiving or inserting date headers. —teb728 t c 01:01, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Scsbot is manually invoked by Ummit. I guess the outage only applies to automatically running bots. Xenon54 / talk / 01:19, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    mistake

    i have seen a mistake on a page titled "methane". i wonder who wrote this as it was so obvious to me. it talks about the history of measuring methane in the atmosphere. the problem is, the dates are 20 years before methane was even discovered. how did they measure it when they hadnt even discovered it for another 20 years. that makes no sense and defies logic. who wrote this article?

    It was probably vandalism. Most pages on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at any time, and there are "bad apples" who abuse this privilege by making unconstructive edits. These can range from replacing a page with nonsense to subtle date-changing, as is the case here. In the vast majority of cases, the vandalism is removed in seconds to minutes. Xenon54 / talk / 22:41, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You can also fix it instead seeking to place blame.Cptnono (talk) 23:13, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Methane does not talk about the history of measuring methane in the atmosphere. It talks about the methane level in history (specifically 1750) which is a different matter. Many things can be found out about the atmosphere and climate in the past without having measurements made at that time. The 1750 number has an inline source [4] which contains the number. The article doesn't claim the measurement was made in that year. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:22, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    We also know about dinosaurs even though no human was alive to observe them according to mainstream science. (The folks at the Creation Museum beg to differ.) There are ways to infer the composition of the Earth's atmosphere in the past by using various forms of fossil evidence, for example ice cores. --Teratornis (talk) 01:32, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    sorting an article by last name

    An article I wrote on Nathan Lebron comes up under "N" instead of "L" when you look at the categories I listed it under. How do I fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlotte4609 (talkcontribs) 23:32, 27 September 2009

    Add {{DEFAULTSORT:new key}} at the bottom of the article, replacing new key with Last name, first name. Also you should add {{WPBiography|living=yes|listas=Lebron, Nathan}} to the talk page. ~~ GB fan ~~ talk 23:40, 27 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    September 28

    edit/correcting factual errors in an article

    I tried to edit/correct a factual error in an article.I dont think it worked. Please advise Ufolarry (talk) 01:11, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What was the article? The only edit attributed to your account is posting above. --AndrewHowse (talk) 01:13, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    wikipedia merch?

    Where can I buy a wikipedia.org shirt?? That would definitely be a hit. Also help with some income. please PLEASE make some shirts! I don't want to get in trouble for any "copyright" crap so you need to produce it.

    Have you considered purchasing a shirt from here? -- kainaw 03:12, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How to user-override MediaWiki messages

    Is there a way to replace a MediaWiki message with my own message? In particular, I would like to replace MediaWiki:Edittools with my own version. (Obviously, I have no interest in modifying the real thing; I just want my user to display a different edittools (presumably in some subpage of my user page), in the manner of Monobook.css. Di gama (talk) 03:17, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    MediaWiki:Edittools is the non-Javascript version. If you see the version with the dropdown box when you edit, then it is from MediaWiki:Edittools.js. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 11:45, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I am bumping this because the above doesn't really answer my question. If I need to user-override MediaWiki:Edittools.js, then how do I do that? Di gama (talk) 02:20, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    See MediaWiki:Common.js/edit.js. The script Edittools.js is not loaded if you set window.noDefaultEdittools in Special:MyPage/monoboook.js. Then you can implement your own editpage loader code and your own edittools instead. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 14:46, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    electronics

    how does base current flows in photo transistor ?

    You might find what you are looking for in the article about photo transistor. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. —teb728 t c 09:52, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Adding colour to text

    I ve not done programming alot, i am wondering if any one could show me few code lines to adding color to text, box, and background i know the general color code is rgb(###)

    WP:COLOR has plenty of help, but please read the cautions about using color to convey information.--SPhilbrickT 12:08, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia Has Put My Page Up For Deletion Is There Anyone Who Can Write It For Me?

    Ive tried three times to put my page up named "Sparki Dee" but apparently it is not notable enough even though it has alot of links etc. If there is someone who does loads of pages please can you contact me and if possible can you do the page for me? I have all the info saved, it seems a friend of mine got his page up no problems and its very similar to mine yet of course its always me here that gets put up for deletion!

    Please can someone help

    <redacted>

    What's your friend's page like? We could model it on that? do you have a link to it? --Cameron Scott (talk) 11:32, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Could you add the information you have saved to the article's talk page, and i will ty (not promissing) to bring the article to scratch. (Talk)- Freshymail (Talk page ) the knowledge-defender 11:56, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    A plea for help at Feedback

    Those of you who like to help, but find the crack staff monitoring this page are answering all the questions before you can jump in will find gold at WP:FEED. Of the most recent 25 entries, no one has added feedback other than myself. Many articles have zero feedback. Even those with some feedback from me could use additional feedback, as I am only addressing some of the issues. (Cross-posting at Help and New Contributors Feedback)--SPhilbrickT 14:05, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I didn't even know that page existed! Watchlisted and will help out where I can. – ukexpat (talk) 16:13, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Hash signs as numbering

    Resolved

    Please see Roaring Forties (album), specifically the track listing. The track numbers are coded as hash signs. However, the numbering has been thrown out because of the bulleted list in track 4. There is a 1 where a 5 should be. How can I force the numbering to continue after the bulleted list? Thanks. --Richardrj talk email 14:59, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Fixed. Just add a colon or colons after the hash mark to indent items in the list without having them continuing the numbering. I added {{}} to place spaced bullets.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:08, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks, but those bullets are smaller than the ones I had before and they are also indented rather far over to the right. Is it possible to get the list looking like it was before, except with the 5 instead of the 1? If not don't worry. --Richardrj talk email 15:13, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Ah, another user did it by replacing the colons with asterisks.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:27, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Perfect, thanks both. --Richardrj talk email 15:28, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    No problem. DoktorMandrake 15:29, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Italicized titles

    I see that this help page says "italic title," inside braces, is used for genera and species, although I see it it being used, for example, for the title of The New York Times. Can/should this be used for all publications, albums, etc. where such titles should italicized in the body of the article? Thank you. RadioBroadcast (talk) 16:15, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    No it cannot be used --owner wikipedia (talk) 17:39, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]