Wikipedia:Help desk

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• 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.
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October 12

If there is a thread on a forum that was covered in 2 newspaper articles, would that be able to be used to say the forum is noteable for it's own article?

Please answer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Omegakingboo (talk • contribs) 00:22, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I doubt it. Indirect coverage generally doesn't establish notability. The coverage must be significant - i.e. the article must be about the forum itself. Xenon54 / talk / 00:31, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

A single thread in a forum? Not likely. The forum may have an article if it's extensively covered, but a single thread should probably be something exceptional. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 00:38, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

The notability guidelines state that we need significant coverage;

• "Significant coverage" means that sources address the subject directly in detail, and no original research is needed to extract the content. Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention but it need not be the main topic of the source material.

If you're still in doubt, ask again providing the links you have.  Chzz  ►  06:21, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Logging in to edit

I wish to append a note about your Blackface article. I had a piece published today in www.onlineopinion.com.au

and want to update the article on Wikipedia to say not all Australians are ignorant of the context of blackface BUT can't login I dont think I've used Wiki before but I'm constantly being told my login is incorrect 115.70.115.107 (talk) 01:16, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

The Blackface article is not protected, so you should be able to edit without logging in, though your IP address will be recorded as all edits require attribution. If you would still like to log in, be sure you've followed all the directions at Special:Userlogin/signup. Xenon54 / talk / 01:34, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

To be honest, the chances are high that you are not typing either the user name or the password exactly as you did when you created the account. It is case-sensitive. If you've forgotten the exact password, I suggest you simply create a new account, which is fine - as long as you don't use the old one.

If, instead, you are getting some message about the IP address being blocked or something, please let us know by posting the exact message here. Cheers,  Chzz  ►  06:18, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

What is your username? PrimeHunter (talk) 10:57, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Since you say "I don't think I've used Wiki before..." I think what might be going on is that you are attempting to login without ever having signed up for an account, and the username you are entering is already taken by someone else coincidentally. If so, you will get the message "Login error Incorrect password or confirmation code entered. Please try again." (rather than "There is no user by the name...") If this is what's going on, you have to first create an account through Special:Userlogin/signup, as Xenon54 provided above, and you will have to choose a different user name than the one you have attempted to log in under as ii is already taken (though note that if the name was signed up for but never used, then you may be able to usurp it). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:35, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Birds

Why don't birds get electrocuted on electric wiring? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.57.44.71 (talk) 11:03, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Because they only touch one wire (and the air which is a very poor conductor). See [1]. Have you tried the Science 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) 11:47, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

And before you ask the question, try using the search box at the top of the reference-desk page to search the archives. You will find that your very question was brought up and discussed not too long ago: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2009 August 4#electrical grounding. Deor (talk) 15:09, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Please do your own homework. Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia.--NotedGrant Talk 15:14, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Translation from Wikipedia.de

I am novice on wikipedia. I hve a relative who was VIP in E Germany. His bio can be found on wikipedia.de "Hans Schaul" I go to British Wikipedia and his name does not come up. i also do not see a way of translating from wikipedia.de Please advise procedures Thank You Hamakabim (talk) 15:47, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I think this is the article you are referring to [Hans Schaul]--NotedGrant Talk 15:51, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If you wish to translate the German article into English, you can find instructions at Wikipedia:Translation. Goodraise 15:56, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Page title

Will the page title be my user name or my signature? Thanks HLW International (talk) 16:17, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Page title for what? If you create a new article, it will be named whatever you'd like. If you're referring to your userpage, it will be listed at User:A and E. TNXMan 16:22, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

But your user page appears to be an article you are trying to write: this is not appropriate for a user page. It is appropriate to use a user subpage to work on articles that are not yet ready to be released to the main encyclopaedia, but not the user page itself. You should move User:A and E to User:A and E/HLW International. However, I suggest that the page would not be appropriate for Wikipedia without a complete rewrite, as it is not written from a neutral point of view, contains blatant advertising, and lists no independent sources. If you were to move it to HLW International, i.e. to the main Encyclopaedia, I have no doubt that it would be very swiftly deleted. Furthermore, judging by your signature, you are closely associated with the company: if that is so, you have a conflict of interest, and are strongly urged not to write such an article. --ColinFine (talk) 23:23, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing wrong with writing an article in one's own userspace, wherever. However, please do not write an article about a company you work for, own, or are otherwise affiliated with, this is, as noted above, COI. Intelligentsium^review 01:08, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I would recommend changing your signature to avoid the conflict of interest claims, as Colin implies. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 14:28, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

More on IPA tone

I begin a section on using IPA suprasegments on Oct. 10 (Wikipedia:Help desk#IPA tone), but there was not a satisfactory solution. Simple IPA symbols are easy from the IPA bar on the edit page, but most suprasegmentals are lacking. For the most part, I am successful in grabbing code from MS Word and copying and pasting into Wikipedia, like this: [ǎ]. (Any reason I shouldn't do that? This is not what others are doing.) Now I need a fall-rise tone and MS Word can't do it. (It is called the dipping contour-tone example here:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/IPA_suprasegmentals_2005.png.) I found what I needed on the Tone (linguistics) page [a᷉], but really this is a very inelegant and time-consuming way to edit Wikipedia pages, having to go hunting for every IPA symbol we need. Any ideas how else this can be done? How did the people who coded the Wikipedia pages I'm grabbing code from do their pages?--seberle (talk) 16:41, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

In my previous reply I linked to WP:IPA. The lead section of that page links to the International Phonetic Alphabet article, which appears to have a pretty complete list of IPA characters, and instructions on how to type them. See:

• International Phonetic Alphabet#Suprasegmentals
• International Phonetic Alphabet#Keyboard input

If that doesn't help, you probably need to communicate directly with some people who actually type the characters you want to type (it seems none of those people are reading the Help desk lately). You can determine who typed a given text on a page by using the WikiBlame tool. You could also ask on Wikipedia talk:IPA and read the archives of that page. A possible hint is here:

• Wikipedia talk:IPA/Archive 1#editing tools

You may be able to modify what appears in your editing toolbar. Or maybe you could lobby for a change to the standard toolbar. If it has an IPA entry, that entry should contain all the IPA characters, I think. At a minimum, you'd like to know the reasoning of the people who decided to omit some IPA characters from the IPA edit bar. --Teratornis (talk) 18:48, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, it appears that 3030 people watch the Help desk, out of 47,819,313 registered user accounts on the English Wikipedia. There might be more people who read the Help desk without watching it, as well as some of the 3030 watchers who don't regularly read it. Most likely, the Help desk only samples a small fraction of the overall Wikipedia community, so the helpers may not know the detailed answer to every question. But we can often point to the pages that would probably lead to the solution if a solution exists. Sort of like the way a reference librarian does not know everything, but knows where to find everything. --Teratornis (talk) 19:06, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, Teratornis, for your helpful input. I did read the WP:IPA article, but it is long and I did not notice the "Keyboard Input" section at the end. Even so, it is just 12 links... more technical material to slog through!

In short, this looks complicated. I was hoping for something simple, but at least I have a thorough answer now. Thanks!

One last question: For now, I can usually just copy and paste from MS Word, but I notice others are not doing this. I am nervous that there may be a good reason not to do it this way. If any of the 3030 people who watch the Help desk happen to know if this is bad practice, please let me know. --seberle (talk) 19:41, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I just found the solution! Most of the 12 links in International Phonetic Alphabet#Keyboard input are either useless for Wikipedia, or else offer no more than Wikipedia's own IPA bar. But one of them, the IPA Character Picker 7, is perfect: It is easy to use, has the complete IPA set with all markings, and apparently gives the same sort of coding that others are using. Thanks again, Teratornis. --seberle (talk) 19:56, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

It's surprising that WP:IPA doesn't seem to have an obvious section: "How to type IPA characters". Somebody should add one, or ask on the talk page why there isn't one. --Teratornis (talk) 21:04, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Note that WP:IPA (the project page) is distinct from International phonetic alphabet (the article). Since Wikipedia is not a how-to guide, that is the articles are not how-to guides, an experienced Wikipedia editor usually looks to the project pages to find how-to information for editing Wikipedia. Thus it is somewhat indirect for the how-to information for editors to be hiding at the bottom of a long article, while the obvious project page omits any how-to information. An editor should not need exceptional investigative powers to figure out how to edit something like IPA which is all over the encyclopedia. On Wikipedia, we count on everybody who had trouble figuring something out to edit the manuals to make it easier for the next victim editor. --Teratornis (talk) 21:16, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

There is also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)#Entering IPA characters. --Teratornis (talk) 21:22, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Ok, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation)#Entering IPA characters is helpful. I wish I had seen that first. It confirms that it is ok to copy and paste from other sources, as I had been doing. It looks like it has some helpful tips for the Mac, but I am working from a PC. I am surprised that IPA Character Picker 7 is not mentioned. This is by far the easiest way I have found to insert complex IPA symbols. I have added a reference to the manual. Thanks again for all your help. I am slowly finding my way around Wikipedia!--seberle (talk) 23:41, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Consider adding a link to your user page: Editor's index to Wikipedia. That's the most comprehensive guide to Wikipedia's internal manuals, tools, etc. Often there are several manual pages on the same topic. Sometimes it can take a while to make sure you found all of them. You have to read all of them to find where people hid things. In general, however, almost everything you could need to do on Wikipedia is documented somewhere. And when we are surprised to find that something isn't, we can fix that. --Teratornis (talk) 23:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again, Teratornis. Is it just me, or are the manuals a bit disorganized? Not to mention rather lengthy for occasional editors like me. "Where people hid things" is an accurate description, I think! --seberle (talk) 14:28, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

'what wikipedia is not'

Hi guys, I have just been accused of 'vandalism'. despite the fact there was a description of the edit and even comment on the talkpage. bit annoyed to be honest as it blatantly wasn't vandalism, but my question is.. i removed photos of the boxes that each type of xbox 360 comes in, and the 'xbox live logo' which is just the words 'xbox live'. the article is saturated with pictures, and im pretty sure photos of boxes, especially as they differ in each region is part of "wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information" or "A complete exposition of all possible details." can you confirm this please? and whether a logo of essentially text in the fonts of the 2 services "xbox" and "live", no icon etc, is the same thing? chocobogamer mine 17:43, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I've left my opinion on Black's talk page. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 18:28, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Whenever there is a topic area on Wikipedia which attracts enthusiasts, they have a tendency to add more content than a non-enthusiast (or a slighly less obsessed enthusiast) might consider to be "encyclopedic". Therefore, enthusiasts of that topic should be aware of the alternative outlets for their enthusiasm. Anybody can start their own wiki and fill it with any content which is legal, and many people have done this for topics which have enthusiastic communities. See for example Wikiindex:Category:Games. Many game wikis exist. Someone who wants to document every trivial detail of a particular game or gaming system should use a wiki which prizes that trivia. Note: this is just a general observation for lowering the intensity of a dispute, not an opinion about the merits of the given case. I suspect most people feel more personally insulted when their contributions are wiped out completely than they would feel if their contributions were merely moved to somewhere else. Thus if you want to delete people's contributions without offending them more than necessary, a good way to do it is make sure they end up with something rather than nothing. --Teratornis (talk) 19:00, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

center inline some templates

[2] I need to center inline these templates, otherwise these templates are pointless --W30984308 (talk) 20:12, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Could you explain a little more what you want to do? --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:34, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Is it that you want {{Former monarchic orders of succession}} to appear in the middle of the paragraph with text on either side of it? If so that would not be in keeping with our style guidelines for articles and I can't see how it renders the template less useful, much less pointless. If it's something else, please clarify your question.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:17, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

No, I need the templates to be independent. The text should _not_ be on either side of it. I need the template to stick to the left margin, not the right margin. As it is now, it does not make any sense because templates drift to the wrong sections. Thus, the templates cannot be sensibly used...--W30984308 (talk) 01:10, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

These templates do not have an option to float left. You need to ask for that feature on the template talk page. Frankly, I would think about converting these to navboxes to use at the bottom of the page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:30, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Help with LaTeX quirk

I'm having a problem with the built in math formating package. A bold mu is not obviously bold and some notation depends on having an obviously bold mu. $\mathbf {\mu } \mu \mathbf {\mu } \mu$ See what I mean? Is there a work around or a way to file a bug request? -Craig Pemberton (talk) 21:50, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I didn't even know LaTeX could be bolded... You can file bug reports at BugZilla, but the backlog there is longer than here! Intelligentsium^review 23:05, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Try the \boldsymbol command: ${\boldsymbol {\mu }}$. You need to be using the packages amssymb and amsmath; which, it would seem, Wikipedia does.

~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 13:00, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

October 13

Categories question

If there is only one page in a given category, is it possible to link directly to that page, even if you do not know what that page is, but you know what category it is in? Intelligentsium^review 00:14, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you could do something like this with mw:Extension:CategoryTree, which is enabled on Wikipedia according to Special:Version. You didn't mention what you have already tried, if anything. Nor did you mention why you want to do this. --Teratornis (talk) 05:13, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't think CategoryTree is what I'm looking for. I need to be able to list all page names in a category (I can sort them by parsing by myself), normally. For example, if the page bar were the only page in the category:foo, I would need a way to show "bar", in plaintext. I am trying to do this to configure my toolbox page to link directly to any users calling for help or trying to edit semi-protected pages, if there is only one. Intelligentsium^review 23:51, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Special:Export can list pages in a category, but I don't know if that yields a result you could use. You might get somewhere with the MediaWiki API. See WP:EIW#Query. --Teratornis (talk) 00:01, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Edit war?

Hey guys,

I was wondering if this qualified as an edit war.

i've never been involved in one so i wouldn't know.

Thanks

Tim1357 (talk) 02:34, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Not really. You could call it that, but since this is a removal of the AFD template, your revert is justified. It would have been better if you had warned the user with {{uw-afd1}} after reverting (another user has done so). The term "edit war" is generally used for disputes regarding content, however. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 03:13, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

found old Barton & Reed coffee/chocolate pot

i have a coffee/chocolate pot i picked up at a garage sale in the late 60's. i've since discovered an engraving on the bottom which says: "Reed & Barton Silver Sodered 3610 USN C 838". I'm just curious if anyone can tell me a little about it. I do believe it's actually solid peuter with a cherry wood handle. i do have pictures and hoping to be able to attach to this inquiry. otherwise, feel free to email me and i'll send pictures to you. Thank you. Greg Greggaspar (talk) 03:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but this page is for helping you edit Wikipedia. I don't believe there's much we can do to help you. You might want to see an antiques dealer, though.

I've also removed your phone number and location, because Wikipedia is a very public site and we don't provide answers except on this page. Thanks. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:47, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Spinning Wheel

I have acquired at an auction what seems to be a very old spinning wheel. From the online research that I have done, it seems to be from the 1800's, if not earlier. The wheel is a little over 41 inches in diameter. What it is mounted to is about the same, 41 inches. It has only 3 legs. Only 1 crossbar btween the 2 legs that are close to each other. I just noticed something very interesting. On 1 end of the main part that sits on the 3 legs, there is a name that was put on there(on the edge). It says Browns Mill. The inscription definitely looks original. Can you help and find out any more info? I would greatly appreciate a responce.

Sincerely, Rene Quintanilla —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.130.80.191 (talk) 03:59, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

See the answer to the above question. This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. You might ask on the Reference desk, or a local antiques dealer, or your local reference librarian. You might also tell us roughly where in the world you were when you bought this item. If the auction was in, say, Beirut, Lebanon that might suggest a different history for this item than if the auction was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. --Teratornis (talk) 05:18, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Help, please!

Resolved

 – Old version deleted, new version at commons. UltraExactZZ ^Claims ~ Evidence 14:11, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I uploaded the file 'Gyantse with Kumbum & fort - Edited.jpg'

today after editing the original, completely forgetting that I had already uploaded it a long time ago without editing as 'Gyantse with Kumbum & fort .JPG'

As this version is much clearer and brighter could some kind knowledgeable person out there please replace the earlier version with this one as I don't know how to do it? Also, would you be able to put it on Wikimedia Commons? Many, many thanks, John Hill (talk) 06:32, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The new edited version has already been uploaded to commons. I have removed the link to the older version from the article gyantse. If the old version is not useful, put up a request for speedy deletion, under the deletion requested by author category. LK (talk) 07:19, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I have tagged the older version for deletion, noting that a newer version has been uploaded to commons. LK (talk) 07:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

...And I've deleted it and removed the redlink here. Great picture! UltraExactZZ ^Claims ~ Evidence 14:11, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks so much to you all for your kind help. I do think the edited version is far easier to see. It's great to have it correctly listed - and really wonderful discovering others are enjoying it. Best wishes to you all, John Hill (talk) 02:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Bot to help fix citations?

Over at Sustainability we have a large number of badly formatted cites, some just to the raw http address. It would take quite a bit of time to fix by hand. Is there a bot that fixes refs? For example, for the internet refs, can a bot go out and verify it exists, grab the author, page name and organization name, and fill in the web cite template with those appropriate values? Seems like such a bot would be very useful, and so should exist. LK (talk) 07:11, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Have you looked at Wikipedia:Bots to see if any perform this (or a similar) task already? Perhaps they just need to be modified slightly. If not, you can post a request at Wikipedia:Bot requests. — QuantumEleven 08:39, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You would be better off asking at Wikipedia:Bot requests, as the folks there are in a position to either explain why it shouldn't/can't be done, or get it done! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:40, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Possibly Citation bot could help you out (although it is temporarily blocked). TNXMan 11:45, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

How do I report violations?

How do I report violations? There's an article with numerous policy violations, and I can't repair it:

U.S. military response during the September 11 attacks

I have tried to clean up this article, but there is someone there who is guarding it in its current form. (Edit warring?) There is almost no discussion on the discussion page beyond the other editor and me (though there's plenty of that), so no consensus is happening. I have asked for help from the WikiProject but haven't gotten a response from them yet. This is an article related to 9/11, so it's highly charged and vulnerable to fringe ideas and conspiracy theories.

I think these violations need attention. How do I report this? What else should I do? Dcs002 (talk) 08:18, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I recommend that you take a look at Wikipedia:Dispute resolution and Wikipedia:Requests for comment, these look like the best avenues to draw attention to the problems you perceive with the article. The page on dispute resolution also lists steps you can take if these measures fail. — QuantumEleven 08:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

adding links

i add links and every time i have to enter a code word! then when i try to fix my links it says editing too fast anti spam measure blah blah blah. dont the slow idiots like it when people edit too fast? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lorson (talk • contribs) 11:51, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

As an anti-spam measure, you are limited from performing this action too many times in a short space of time, and you have exceeded this limit. Please try again in a few minutes —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lorson (talk • contribs) 11:52, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The restrictions should go away when your account becomes autoconfirmed in 4 days. Some people make spam bots to automatically add links to many articles. Measures against such things can unfortunately give inconvenience to some new accounts. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:19, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

sounds more like age discrimination. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lorson (talk • contribs) 13:34, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The restriction applies to every new account regardless of the user's age. --Teratornis (talk) 00:06, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Gothic letters in HTML

Resolved

I'm trying to get the gothic letter ${\mathfrak {X}}$ in HTML form. Any ideas? ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 12:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Unicode 𝖃 renders as 𝖃 PrimeHunter (talk) 13:04, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm seeing that as a square. My laptop's only a few months old and runs on Vista. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 13:12, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Dr Dec, it might be your browser: the character displays properly for me in Firefox but as a square in IE8. Special character handling is largely determined by the application you're using, and what character sets you have installed on your machine. Gonzonoir (talk) 13:41, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

See e.g. Help:Special characters#Displaying Special Characters. Gonzonoir (talk) 13:43, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I see. I was using Google Chrome. I've opened Firefox and it works. It's a little unsettling then to know that if I use 𝖃 in any articles then people might not be able to see it... Thanks a lot for the help. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 13:56, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Hm, I am using Firefox, but I am also seeing that as a square only. The linked article says that Firefox should automatically show special characters. Any idea what is wrong with my browser? --Saddhiyama (talk) 13:59, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I use Firefox and see it correctly there, but now I have tested other browsers and see a square in IE8, Google Chrome and Opera. I know little about special characters and don't know whether there is a more portable version or something which renders as a normal X if the special character cannot be displayed. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:07, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Maybe Help:Multilingual support or Wikipedia:Gothic Unicode Fonts addresses the problem? I'm just giving the links, I haven't checked them thoroughly. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 14:12, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the second link offers some suggested free fonts you can install that can successfully render Gothic characters. I feel like there must be a cunning warning template somewhere that could be attached to articles replete with these characters, advising readers on how to make the characters display. Gonzonoir (talk) 14:17, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Saddhiyama: it's probably not a problem with your browser, then, but a character set absent from your machine, and there are a lot of variables determining how that should be rectified. If you happen to be running XP you may need to install extra font sets from the Windows install disk; you may also need to edit your font substitution preferences in the registry of your computer to tell the computer which fonts to check if it doesn't find a particular unicode character in the default. I can advise you based on my verrrry limited experience, but the computing reference desk might have more knowledgeable people. Gonzonoir (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes I am using XP. It was the sentence "Special symbols should display properly without further configuration with Mozilla Firefox, Konqueror, Opera, Safari and most other recent browsers" on the Help:Special characters#Displaying Special Characters that made me wonder, because it made it sound like it should automatically be fine just as long as you were using one of those browsers. --Saddhiyama (talk) 14:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I think in the vast majority of cases that's true, but Gothic characters are quite rare and I believe few font sets contain them (hence the list of a few that do at WP:Gothic Unicode Fonts). If you have a suitable font on your computer the listed browsers should be able to use it, but if you don't have one that can render the character there's nothing the browser can do about it. Gonzonoir (talk) 14:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Given all the discussion thus far; I'll explain why I ask my original question and then that will lead to another question. I'm going through mathematics articles trying to clean them up. There's a lot of articles with in-line LaTeX which messes around with the spacings and can really end up looking like a mess when displayed on certain web-browsers given certain settings. The manual of style recommends using HTML (or unicode) for the in-line mathematics and keeping LaTeX for those special display-line occasions. Given that so many people are having problems viewing the Gothic X, would it be better to keep the LaTeX ${\mathfrak {X}}$ in place of the unicode 𝖃? ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 17:09, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The unicode 𝖃 fails in so many browsers that it should be avoided if at all practical. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:31, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I agree, and this bit in the MoS seems close enough to a mandate. Gonzonoir (talk) 08:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Great, thanks! ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 21:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Error in the Stana Katic article

Resolved

Stana Katic: You have her birth date as April 31. THERE IS NOT 31 DAYS IN APRIL. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.1.129 (talk) 12:40, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Adminship

How do I become an admin?Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 13:12, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

If you need to ask that question then you're probably not ready to be one. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 13:13, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

i just want the answer so that someday in the future I can be one.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 13:14, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Head over to this page. There are directions listed near the top. TNXMan 13:15, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Best thing is not to edit with adminship on your mind. If you make it your 'goal' in wikipedia, you're not likely to get it. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 13:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Read WP:RFA every day, for as long as it takes to become completely routine to you. Especially study the failed requests for adminship. Note each reason why someone objected to each applicant. Make sure your editing record on Wikipedia presents none of those reasons. One general bit of advice would be to never express an opinion on Wikipedia on any subject other than what it is in the guidelines and policies. It also helps to have been the primary editor on several featured articles. Be very careful about getting sucked into any content disputes or even meta-disputes. Anybody you disagree with on anything can come to your RFA and vote against you. Regardless of the merits of your position, objections can snowball, as other editors notice the commotion and assume you are too troublesome to trust with the admin tools. You have to be like a politician rather than a pundit. Don't rock the boat. Also note that the RFA has its own sort of subculture which may differ from the subculture of the parts of Wikipedia you are used to, so head over there and lurk for as long as you need to learn that culture. You might also wait for at least a dozen other users to offer to nominate you for adminship, on their own initiative without you asking first. --Teratornis (talk) 18:08, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

When is it ok for editors to change other editors Talk Page

Hi help desk. When is it ok for a other Editor to change one's Talk Page Sir Floyd (talk) 14:00, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Other's comments should not be changed unless there's a very good reason. If you explain the situation more clearly, we can give a more specific answer. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 14:04, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi Chamal, well I'm getting these messages from block IP-Users (& I don't know who they are). User DIREKTOR who keeps editing my page stated "User:Sir Floyd, be sure I will remove any and all sock edits I encounter on your talkpage. You can call it whatever you like "vandalism", "harassment", whatever... " . Chamal I 'm finding this rather annoying and rude. Regards Sir Floyd (talk) 14:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

There does seem to be some kind of issue on Sir Floyds talkpage, but there is a lot to look ....Anyway if someone is coming to your talkpage and you feel harresed by them...You just tell them you don't want them to post or edit your talkpage (effectively banning them from posting on your talkpage)and if after that they continue to do it then report them to WP:ANI if you are getting harassed by IPs on your talkpage then ask at the Wikipedia:Requests_for_page_protection to get it semi protected so that users who are not autoconfirmed can not edit it. Off2riorob (talk) 22:07, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I see you have already asked User:DIREKTOR more than once to stop posting on your talkpage here and he continued to post, here this edit is interesting edit summary of "hiding my harrasment"? Off2riorob (talk) 22:31, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You could try dispute resolution and open a request at Wikipedia:Wikiquette_alerts .Off2riorob (talk) 22:35, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Off2riorob. I just thought because it had something to do with block IP-Users that gave him the right to do what he is doing (on my talkpage). I might just leave it for now, maybe User:DIREKTOR won't do it again :) Sir Floyd (talk) 00:35, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

LoL be advised, this is not a request for help, this is just another in a long, looong line of transparent attempts on the part of User:Sir Floyd at badmouthing me in the Wiki community and getting me blocked. Heh, maybe User:Sir Floyd has forgotten to mention that the IP I reverted was an obvious sock of banned User:Trusciante/Luigi 28/PIO/etc. an account that refuses to stay banned and continues to vandalize articles thanks to his ever-changing IP? I reported that account and he's been trying to get back at me ever since. User:Sir Floyd is a very hostile user with a highly pronounced political agenda who's been actively trying to get me banned for months with very silly reports on maybe a dozen various Wikipedia noticeboards (all of which were painfully transparent and ignored). The post from User talk:Sir Floyd which I removed was a call for assistance against me on the part of the sock IP. Perhaps after his latest sock (User:Trusciante) was summarily blocked following a WP:AN/I "block request" against me, the sock is looking for assistance from a hostile user that is not actually banned. :) I do not see why I should consider myself at fault here? (P.S. "Hiding my harassment" was a benign joke, obviously you can't "hide" anything. I removed my post after User:Sir Floyd told me he doesn't want it there as he considers it "harassment".) --DIREKTOR ^(TALK) 11:05, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

problem with article title

I have article which has an error in the title (partial name)...can it be changed by the user or must I delete the article and recreate it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bbcard1 (talk • contribs) 14:58, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The correct way to change an article title is to move the page to preserve the edit history. Your account should have become autoconfirmed when you made the above edit, so you get a "move" tab at the top of pages. After you created the new page with a copy-and-paste move, an administrator was required to make the correct move so I have done it. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:33, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Printing the editing page?

I need to print this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Sizemore&action=edit&section=4

showing the entire editing window to use as an exhibit in a legal matter. I'm using Firefox. When I hit print preview, only the first paragraph of the original article shows in the editing window; it's the second paragraph I'm most interested in.

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gelasticjew (talk • contribs) 16:35, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You have section 4 (Racketeering case) open for editing; when you do a print preview, only that section will show. Open Bill Sizemore, highlight what you want to print and print or print preview. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:39, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

One other thing, when the print dialog page opens, make sure you bubble "print selection"Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 16:57, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I have the editing page open because I need to show who added this section in line with the added text.

Is there a way to print the section I need showing the editing information?--Gelasticjew (talk) 17:08, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean by "editing information'?Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 17:10, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I need the exhibit to show the text, who added the specific text, and when.--Gelasticjew (talk) 17:12, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Just click submit. Once you do the time stamps should show up. Then just hit ctrl +P, then bubble "print selection" and print.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 17:15, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You probably want to go through the page history and find the difference— this will show the editor. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:54, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The page history lists all revisions to the article along with the editors responsible. If you click 'prev' next to one it will show you what change was made in the edit - for example, this is the most recent change. Is that what you're looking for? Olaf Davis (talk) 21:55, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Nobody seems to be addressing the concern of using Wikipedia editing history in a legal dispute. Is someone being sued in court over their Wikipedia edits? 99.166.95.142 (talk) 15:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Raname an Image file?

Is it possible to rename an Image file? Bubba73 (talk), 17:14, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

If the file is on Commons, see: Commons:COM:FAQ#How can I rename/move an image or other media file?. --Teratornis (talk) 17:44, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

If it is on Wikipedia, then yes. Tag it with {{rename media|new name}} and it will get moved by a bot. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:53, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

It is on WP. Thank you. Bubba73 (talk), 20:28, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

New Page

I would like to know if anyone can create a new page in Wikipedia? If so, what is the procedure?

Thanks. Cabbasse (talk) 20:13, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is available to walk you through creating an article. TNXMan 20:19, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I need to delete

I apologize but I have accidentally created documents which need deleting. I should not have clicked the save button (and will not do it again :-) until I am ready to go live) Can I delete my pages I have created so I do not inconvenience others by having to delete them? I can't seem to find this answer.

Many Thanks,

Trish Ritzer —Preceding unsigned comment added by TrishRitzer (talk • contribs) 21:01, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Only administrators can delete pages but you can request deletion by placing {{db-g7}} on a page if you are the only contributor to the page. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:24, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You might find it helpful to know that pressing 'show preview' in the editing window lets you check what your page will look like without making it live. Olaf Davis (talk) 21:51, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Seeking input on restructuring of Biomonitoring-related articles

The purpose of this question is to propose a series of changes to two articles -- Biomonitoring and Biomonitoring (chemistry) -- of some interest to an organization, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), with which I have a financial relationship through my employer. I believe these articles are confusingly named, and at least one is very much inadequate. I have done the most work on the latter article, as I will describe in detail below. The research and writing is my own, but ACC is supportive of what I have done here; it is a subject they would like to see represented in a clear and comprehensible manner. Because of this potential conflict of interest, I have created these new pages in my user subspace prior to seeking input here. The three new articles, detailed below, can be found here, or each may be directly accessed as such:

• User:NMS_Bill/Biomonitoring_restructuring_project/Human_biomonitoring
• User:NMS_Bill/Biomonitoring_restructuring_project/Aquatic_biomonitoring
• User:NMS_Bill/Biomonitoring_restructuring_project/Biomonitoring

As you may have guessed, the term is shared by two separate concepts: One about measurement of ecological health via aquatic organisms, and one about measurement of chemical substances in humans. Currently, the article Biomonitoring refers to the subject in aquatic ecology, and an article titled Biomonitoring (chemistry) refers to the human variety. I propose replacing these pages with the two above and disambiguation page for the following reasons:

• The article of interest to me is the former: when I began researching this project it was extraordinarily short[3]; it has since been expanded somewhat[4], but is still not a particularly strong article. I have written what I believe to be a particularly complete and scrupulously sourced article, with citations almost entirely from government websites (all available online) and academic journals (many with abstracts available online). This largely builds on the sourced material in the existing article, although replacing it would indeed constitute a complete rewrite. My version of this article is also to be called Human biomonitoring because humans are the focus of this scientific activity; the current version of the article lists "biological monitoring" as the alternate term, but I think this is incorrect. A Google search shows that term is very strongly identified with the aquatic variety. Meanwhile, a Google search also shows that "Human biomonitoring" is popularly used by governments and research institutions.

• The article now called Biomonitoring I propose be renamed Aquatic biomonitoring -- a Google search again shows this term is used by governments and research institutions to describe this activity -- but I have not worked on the article itself and have no substantive changes to propose besides the move.

• Because these terms are often simply labeled "Biomonitoring" within their respective fields -- a simple Google search for "biomonitoring" returns information about both (even though there is a tilt toward the human variety) -- I propose that they both be linked under a disambiguation page named Biomonitoring.

I am very interested in obtaining feedback about this, and to see if other editors here agree that replacing the current Biomonitoring articles with the ones I propose is indeed reasonable. Please feel free to move them if you think they are worthwhile and I have made the case for them or, if you prefer, let me know if there is any objection to my moving these articles instead. I realize this is quite a lot of material to digest so I have no problem waiting a decent interval for feedback on this question. Cheers, NMS Bill (talk) 22:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

You could ask for opinions on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Environment. --Teratornis (talk) 23:48, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I would also suggest discussing this on the Biomonitoring talk page and Biomonitoring (chemistry) talk page -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:49, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm afraid there isn't enough activity on those Talk pages to get a response, but it's worth doing in any case -- and the WikiProjects are worth asking. Will do shortly. Cheers, NMS Bill (talk) 15:47, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

How to become an administrator

The purpose of my question is to ask how to become an administrator, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

CEALIV (talk) 22:51, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

• Firstly, you need to get a lot more experience of wikipedia than your contributions would appear to indicate that you have. 40 edits is nowhere near enough!

Secondly, you need to show that you have an understanding of the various policies of Wikipedia (not off by heart, although some of them you would - but you certainly need to know them enough to be able to find the relevant one without having to look all over Wikipedia!)

Thirdly, you need to have contributed in a significant way to articles - firstly, having created substantial articles, or major contributions to existing ones; secondly to have a hand in getting articles to Good Article status and Featured Article status

Fourthly, knowledge of acting against vandalism on pages, the warning system

Fifthly (and most important, in my opinion), you have to have the trust of the Wikipedia community - as it is the community that would decide whether you can be an admin or not!

- and those are just for starters! See also the thread Adminship above.

Incidently, the most common response I see to your question tends to be either "You wouldn't want to be an admin" or "If you are asking, you aren't suitable!". As a non-admin, I couldn't possibly comment! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 23:10, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)By your statement, it seems you view adminship as a goal. Adminship is no big deal. Administrators are little more than janitors; people the community trusts with tools which would be dangerous in the wrong hands (such as corrosive cleaners and the keys to all the rooms). Administrators are no more respected than you or I. Please read over what adminship is not. That said, the following is technical detail:

• Administrators are chosen based on discussion on RFA

• Statistics show that successful admin candidates have about 20000 edits *Administrators must have experience in all facets of Wikipedia.

• Many good editors fail at RfA.

• Adminship is no big deal

If, after this, you still want to be an administrator, edit in all areas of Wikipedia for a few years, familiarize yourself with policy, then put yourself up at RfA. By that time, though, you probably won't want to be an admin anymore. Cheers, Intelligentsium^review 23:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I know it takes all sorts, but I'm having too much fun editing to have admin duties foisted upon me! Remember, anything an admin can do you can get done too – admins are very nice people and are (usually) very happy to do actions on your behalf. And if an admin won't do it, perhaps it shouldn't be done? Jan1naD - (talk) 13:09, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

October 14

How are links "blacklisted"?

Hi, in one of the wiki articles, I tried to use references from this site - http://cpjc.wordpress.com/about/ , and everytime I did so, a bot removed it. Could you please tell me what exactly it is violating? I have gone through the guidelines but could not figure out why. Thanks a lot.

Vinter-light (talk) 02:30, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Spam blacklist for more info. →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 03:55, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

If a bot is removing it, it isn't on the spam blacklist, it's on a site which has been identified to the bot as generally not containing useful information. If the site were on the blacklist, you wouldn't be able to save the page, period. 99.166.95.142 (talk) 15:59, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

transplanatation of tamarind tree

Sucess ratio of Survival of Tamarind tree when transplant Transplantation method of Tamarind tree —Preceding unsigned comment added by Greennilesh (talk • contribs) 07:26, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

• You might find what you are looking for in the article Tamarind. 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. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:40, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Using macrons

How do I put a macron over a vowel when editing text (both for caps and lower case)?

Shosai (talk) 08:24, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

How are you doing your editing? In Firefox, when I open for edit I get a pull-down list below the edit window with a number of symbols against it - it probaly says 'Insert'. Select 'Latin' and the symbols will change to a load of letters with various accents and other marks. With the edit cursor positioned in the right place in the edit window, simply click on the letter you want and it will be inserted, like this: āēŌȲ. Jan1naD - (talk) 08:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) There are three ways to do this:

1. When editing a page, if you look below the edit summary box, there is a box showing characters which you can click on to insert, such as ĀāĒē (you may need to click on the drop-down list to choose Latin). It looks like this:
2. There are methods of inputting macrons detailed at Help:Macrons if you are using Mac OS X or Windows XP.
3. You might find what you are looking for at Help:Special characters.

Hope this helps, if not just leave another message here. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 09:07, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Problem with the main page of Wikipedia in Occitan

Hello, we have a problem with the main/title of the wikipedia in occitan : [5], you can see, there is a problem with the box on the left which is under the normal level, someone can help us ? Regards ? Mertyl (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:28, 14 October 2009 (UTC).

I'm not sure where is the correct place to discuss this. I see that on the Occitan Wikipedia you are an admin - I'm guessing that there's no equivalent to the Help Desk over there?

I had a look at the page linked to, but I couldn't see the problem - could you perhaps give a bit more detail? Which box are you talking about? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:07, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

This might be a question for the Village Pump Technical page. 99.166.95.142 (talk) 16:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

is there trinity college and university in malaga spain that offers Phd degree is psychology

Is there any trinity college and university in malaga spain that offers Phd degree is psychology? if yes, what is its web address? We need to validate a degree, we also have its reference reference number. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.83.161.4 (talk) 12:38, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. TNXMan 13:17, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article List of universities in Spain. 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. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:59, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

BBC iPlayer

I created an article about a British television series, Life (BBC TV series). The series is currently airing and a user has started adding external links to the BBC iPlayer service for the episodes that have aired to date. I think content on the iPlayer site is only available in the UK, so is this acceptable on Wikipedia? Moreover, iPlayer content is only available for a limited time.Baguala (talk) 12:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

As you say, the content can only be seen in the UK. Also, content on BBC's iPlayer is onlt available for 1 week, so it's hardly worth it being there. I've actually removed them, and left a message for the IP that placed them there. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:04, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

On another point, the four episode summaries were word-for-word identical to the summaries on the BBC website. I've removed all four sections, giving the urls in my edit summaries. (This wasn't your doing, Baguala, as the summaries were added after your last edit). Bencherlite^Talk 13:07, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks very much for clearing that up Bencherlite & Phantomsteve - I hadn't realised those edits were plagiarised. I created the subsections with the episode titles but I shall be writing my own episode summaries.Baguala (talk) 15:41, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Email

Hi i am receiving Emails suggesting that i am inheritating millions....just so your site is aware they are using wikipedia as a source in the email itself....my email is [redacted] and i will send a copy of it as well. Thanks

ARTHUR WANG LIAN ASSOCIATES 9TH FLOOR,KOMPLEK MUTIARA, JLN IPOH BATU 3 1/2, 51200 KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA. TEL: 011 60178701635 or +60178701635

I am ARTHUR WANG LIAN,an attorney at law, A deceased client of mine that shares the same last name as yours died as the result of a heart-related condition on March 12th 2005. His heart condition was due to the death of all the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26th December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia. And in the record there is no known successor to this deposit of the deceased who died without a will. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake.

My late Client has a deposit of Seventeen Million Five hundred Thousand Dollars (17.5 Million dollars) left behind.

I can be reached on [redacted] for more information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.221.89.225 (talk) 15:31, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

I have removed your email address (and that of the spammer) from your message, to stop you getting more spam messages (this is a very visible page). I don't think that there's anything people on Wikipedia can do if someone wants to include a link to a Wikipedia article in a message such as this. Thank you for mentioning it, though. Bencherlite^Talk 15:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Hiding a page from search engines

Hi, I have a question about "hiding" a page from search engines. Specifically, I'd like to make it so that my user page doesn't show up as the #1 hit in Google when I search for it. (I realize this doesn't occur with my username, but it does with some friends who were a little more selective with their names). Is there a Template:Nosearch thing I can just put at the top of the page? Lime in the Coconut 18:01, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Indeed there is: {{noindex}}. Rd232 ^talk 18:22, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I can never remember the name of a template when I need it! Lime in the Coconut 18:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Thumbnail not showing

The thumbnail for File:Tim_Berners-Lee.jpg isn't showing in articles, e.g. in Tim Berners-Lee, I've tried purging the image and the article but it didn't make a difference. Could someone take a look and see what is wrong? Thanks Smartse (talk) 19:23, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Interstingly, it appears correctly in a template, such as {{Infobox UK place}}. It also appears (larger) if all the options (thumb, etc) are omitted. But no, I can't get it to work as you want. Sorry. Jan1naD - (talk) 19:46, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

The link generated into the web page here also works. Could it be a CSS thing - any gurus out there? Jan1naD - (talk) 19:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

When I went to the page, the image wasn't showing (although going to the file directly, it was). When I went to edit the 'Career' section, did nothing, but did a preview, it worked there. When I then looked at the article, it showed again, and seems OK now. Perhaps it was just a brief server glitch? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 19:56, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Seems so, works fine now anyway! Thanks for trying anyway :) Smartse (talk) 19:45, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

American Wikipedia?

I know this sounds compltely stupid and weird and i am 99.9% sure the answer is english wikipedia so incldues anything english. But i have been getting a few people in talk pages of things suggesting to me this is americna wikipedia and it only americna stuff that coutns and uk sources are inrevelent. If this is true i will gradally accept what there sayign but my knowledge has always been it a english wikipeida hosted in america mostly governed by american laws but follow english stuff regardles swher eint he world it is. If it americna wikipedia should we not be deleting ever uk asscaioted article and soruce from all articles?--Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 21:45, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

This is actually a Wikipedia for the whole world, which is written in English (as distinct from a Wikipedia for only English-speaking countries), so it's certainly not an American Wikipedia as far as content goes. Can you point out where people have been saying that UK sources are, by virtue of their country of origin, irrelevant? Steve Smith (talk) 21:55, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

(ec) No, that's total rubbish! All English language sources, provided they are reliable and verifiable, are perfectly fine. I can only assume that the editors of which you speak were American editors with some kind of complex. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 21:56, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

In fact, even foreign language sources are acceptable in many situations, though English sources are generally preferred on the English Wikipedia. Intelligentsium^review 02:22, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

[6] this is one example ther eis another the user just says it s regional site to uk so is invalid in basic terms they will only accept the american site. There is another case but that a different things. I have no problems with them being american editors and want to keep american shows americised but when you are disregard uk sources because they want it to be america only it annoys me as we are both right and i rather jsut solution ot the problem and not get told it american way only.--Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 22:42, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

The person you had that discussion with is Australian. You've pretty clearly misinterpreted what was said. The reason the American website was stated to be preferred was because "the program is produced (mainly) in the US and the US site is regularly referred to in the episode so that's the site we should be using for consistency." I have no idea how you got from there to that he was "suggesting to me this is americna wikipedia and it only americna stuff that coutns and uk sources are inrevelent."--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:14, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

October 15

Category articles per page

I'd like to retrieve the contents of a large category in a single page. Do we have a URL query parameter that can be used to get a page showing more than 200 items from a category? I tried num, per_page, perpage, and limit, but to no avail. • Anakin ^(talk) 04:16, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I've tried different things, but nothing works for me either. I'm guessing that answer is "no". -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:39, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

The tools CatScan, CatScan 2.0 and Category Intersection at the toolserver can be used to retrieve pages from a category. The output is in vertical format (one column). Their intended use is to return articles that belongs to two or more specified categories, e.g. "Category:Musical groups" and "Category:All pages needing cleanup" for finding musical groups articles needing cleanup. Iceblock (talk) 08:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. CatScan 2.0 does exactly what I need. • Anakin ^(talk) 14:08, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

How long before a new wikipage becomes visible?

I just created Timothy Lin wikipage but I cannot find when I do the regular search.

How long do I have to wait before Wikipedia visitors can find the article in the search box?

Please let me know. Thank you.

Kdl4082 (talk) 06:54, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi, it looks like the page on Timothy Lin has been deleted (Timothy_lin) by User:LadyofShalott. If you have any questions about why this page was deleted it would be best to take it up with them in a respectful manner (WP:Good Faith). Caleb Jon^talk 07:04, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

For your information, Kd14082, once you click on "save", the article is visible immediately. Whether it survives long enough to be seen by many people is another matter - as you have found out! However, do not be dismayed - as Caleb Jon suggests, contact LadyofShalott if you have any other questions about why this page was deleted. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Looking at your contributions, I see that you created Timothy Lin (Lin Dao Liang) - I have moved this to Timothy Lin with a redirect from Lin Dao Liang. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Question about whether several related events should each have their own article, or should be spread into several articles

What is the policy on how much related things should be clumped, and how things should be spread into their own articles?

I am asking this questions mainly because I am wondering whether [7] should be included in 2009_Pakistan_Army_General_Headquarters_attack or whether it should have its own article. Caleb Jon^talk 06:58, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

My personal opinion is that it should be included in the main article (as only the main facts from the news report are required), but you might want to read Wikipedia:Article size for further guidance - just bear in mind what those guidelines say: "No need for haste"! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:34, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Citing from foreign language sources

Hi. I am working on a page on an English illustrator on English Wiki, and have come across an Italian language interview on an Italian e-zine site which contains useful information not available anywhere else (to give a very basic example, it is the only source I have which actually gives the artist's year of birth). I have no problem translating the material into English myself, but have no idea what the guidelines are regarding the use of a foreign language source as a ref. Any ideas? LSmok3 ^Talk 11:05, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Citing a foreign-language source is acceptable, as long as a corresponding English-language source is not available. For more info, see WP:VUE. Regards, decltype (talk) 11:10, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

As Decltype says, it is perfectly acceptable to use non-English sources of information. In fact, many subjects may not have English-language sources (for example, a page I expanded yesterday only had Indonesian sources) - as long as they are verifiable by speakers of the language, and come from reliable sources. In the VUE guidelines linked to above, it says Where editors translate a direct quotation, they should quote the relevant portion of the original text in a footnote or in the article. Translations published by reliable sources are preferred over translations made by Wikipedia editors. English-language references are preferable, but not required.-- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:16, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

My only concern is whether the e-zine is a reliable source. Many "e-zines" are really just blogs with pretensions and pretty HTML. What language it is in, is the least of our concerns. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:48, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Column chart

Using the F1 example on the right hand side at the top of their Wiki page, how do I replicate something similar to this?

How do I input images onto a page and write a caption below?

How do I link words and names to external websites?

How do I get references at bottom of page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Slush129 (talk • contribs) 11:48, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll try to answer all of those:

1. To add images, use the format [[File:name-of-image.jpg|thumb|right|Caption-goes-here]] (see Wikipedia:Images#Obtaining_images for information on getting images, and Wikipedia:Uploading images for how to upload images - but be aware that you determine the copyright status)
2. In general, the only links to external websites should be in a list at the bottom of the page (see Wikipedia:External links) - but the way to do it there is to use the format [http://domain.com/page.html Caption]
3. To add references, see Wikipedia:Citing sources, but basically at the bottom of the article, have a section called References with the tag {{reflist}} after the header. Then in the article, after the sentence/paragraph which is being reference, add <ref>(details of reference)</ref> - but I'll leave a message on your talk page with more information on how to do that.

Hope this helps, contact us if you have other questions. Your draft article Powerboat P1 will need references from reliable sources before you can even consider moving it to main article space - but I'm glad that you have sensibly created it in your user page while you work on it. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 12:31, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Uploaded new logo but old logo still showing

Cargotec recently changed its logo. I uploaded the new logo here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cargotec.svg and the source is pointing to the correct logo. http://www.cargotec.com/cms/cargocms20.nsf/(Images)/New%20Corporate%20Logo/$File/cargotec_logo.gif?OpenElement

Old logo (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Cargotec.svg ) is still showing up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargotec.

Do I need to change is somewhere else too? You can see the new logo at http://www.cargotec.com/ too.

Kind regards, Susanna —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.37.255.5 (talk) 11:50, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

• The file doesn't appear to have been updated since August. It looks like for some reason, the new image wasn't uploaded. I would suggest that you try again, reading everything carefully: a common mistake is to click on preview instead of upload - if you still have problems, come back here and let us know the status. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 12:21, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

• Are you User:Cargotec who made this and this edit to the page File:Cargotec.svg on June 22? Those edits do not change the uploaded file. They only change a claim about where the already uploaded file was copied from. If you are logged in to an autoconfirmed account then File:Cargotec.svg will get a link saying "Upload a new version of this file". User:Cargotec will become autoconfirmed when the account has made 4 more edits to any page. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:47, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Not gonna happen; User:Cargotec was blocked as a role account username back in June. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:49, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Maps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_New_Mexico_highlighting_Santa_Fe_County.svg

Mr. Benbennick, Your name is associated with the map at the end of the above link.

Here is the situation. As brief as possible. I am involved with a hobby/sport called geocaching. I found a web site at WORLD66.com that allows me, by linking to them somehow on my geocaching.com website profile, to map which states I have been geocaching in. I would like to do the same thing with a map of New Mexico to show which counties I have been geocaching in. It looks to me like the Wiki map noted above could possibly accomplish that. With that brief overview, do you think there is a way you could assist with that? Is there a way to link to a NM state map and color in the counties at my discretion?

Thank you, Jeff Jdclark02 (talk) 14:04, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Jeff, as you note, the file was created by David Benbennick . His user name at Wikipedia Commons is Dbenben. It is possible, but unlikely that he will see the messgae in the help desk. However, he does have an active user talk page, so it would make sense to post a note there and ask for help. You can get to that page here. I’ll follow up with a post giving you thoughts on how you can do it yourself.SPhilbrickT 16:44, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

The New Mexico map is in a format called SVG. There are many programs that can manipulate .svg files, one I use is easy and free – Inkscape. Changing colors of counties is quite easy, although there is a learning curve as with any new software. If you want to use that map, keep in mind that not all browers auotmatically render .svg files (the SVG page will probably tell you more, but you could change the county in an svg editor, then save it as a different format such as .jpg.SPhilbrickT 16:56, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

On Wikipedia itself we have templates that we use to dynamically create location maps in articles: {{Location map start}}, {{Location map marker}}, and {{Location map end}}. See for example {{Location map USA New Mexico}} and some articles that use it. You could put a location map on your Wikipedia user page and use it for editing practice. A map of your geocaching adventures would probably not be suitable for use in a Wikipedia article. I don't know how you would go about "linking to them somehow on my geocaching.com website profile". Doing that sort of thing (a so-called Mashup (web application hybrid)) requires Web development skills that few people have. Most likely, the only methods you could learn in a reasonable amount of time would involve manually copying and pasting coordinate data from one Web site into another site or application. It turns out to be surprisingly hard most of the time to obtain data from one Web site and re-use it efficiently in ways that site's designers did not anticipate. Data on computers does not lend itself to the kind of flexible re-use a person comes to expect in the real world. For example, if you find some old bricks lying in your back yard, you can just pick them up and arrange them around your bushes in the front yard. In the world of computers things are rarely that simple. In general, nothing is straightforwardly compatible with anything else, unless you know for a fact that it is. Before you can do something that looks as simple as picking up some bricks, you may have to read a 500 page manual, assuming you can find one, learn new programming languages, and spend weeks in trial and error experiments and Googling for clues to decode a bunch of meaningless error messages. People who work with computers a lot tend to become fluent with profanity. --Teratornis (talk) 18:12, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Should I disambiguate?

Hello, there's a new article I saw called Thou Shalt Not... about an episode on TV. I don't know if it's notable enough to remain on Wikipedia. There are also articles on the Biblical Thou Shalt Not and the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not (musical). Should I try to make a disambiguation page for these, or should I wait pending on whether the TV episode article is deleted in the next few days? Thank you. LovesMacs (talk) 14:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I found a partial answer, the Thou Shalt Not page is already a disambiguation page. LovesMacs (talk) 14:47, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Notable or not, many of the Quantum Leap episodes have separate articles, as do the episodes of several other TV shows.--RDBury (talk) 17:52, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, I'll add the new article to the list. Thanks for your help. LovesMacs (talk) 00:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia architecture and administration

Has or Wikipedia ever or will Wikipedia ever publish the systems architecture and system managment practices involved in creation and maintenance of Wikipedia? I am interested in how Wikipedia can supply so much content AND make sure it's all protected.

I am interested in items like: operating systems hardware platforms data storage techniques data storage technology database type(s) database management tools used —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.71.62.137 (talk) 20:36, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

You may be better off by asking at the technical village pump, where you may receive a better reply to your question. TNXMan 22:27, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Article search keywords

hi,

i have been creating my contribute about the "Ontario Justice Education Network" a not-for-profit org., the acronym for which is "OJEN". I would like my article to come up when the acronym is used in a search engine. i am wondering if this has to be done with a tag, i have been going through those in the Wikipedia website but have not seen any. does this process require a tag, if so what is it? If this is not the way to accomplish this then what is the proper way.

Thank You, Ojen1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.57.16.15 (talk) 22:24, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Technically, it is done by creating a redirect. However, Wikipedia should not be used for advertising or promotion and all articles must be written from a neutral point of view. Remember, we're not here to increase pagerank, but rather to write an encyclopedia. TNXMan 22:26, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Reference templates

I'm looking for a specific template. It's used when an article lacks in-line citations. Even when there's a list of books at the bottom, the article doesn't say which statements are supported by which texts. I've seen the template used before, but I can't seem to track it down. Any ideas? ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 22:31, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

{{nofootnotes}}? TNXMan 22:34, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

It's easy when you know how! :o) Good work TNXMan. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 22:45, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

logging in

Dear Sir:

I have tried repeatidly, yet I am unable to create an accepted account .

Sincerely.

Jeanne —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.213.202.202 (talk) 22:44, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Which username do you want? The username Jeanne is taken along with 47,819,313 other usernames at Special:ListUsers. What happens when you try to create an account at Special:UserLogin/signup? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:55, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

If there is a technical restriction that is preventing you from creating an account, such as a hardblock, you may want to request an account. Intelligentsium^review 22:59, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

October 16

someone using my username?

Vandalism is shown on Pele done by "Makana Chai." Has someone hijacked my name? What should I do? I've looked around WP policies incl. user names and don't see this. Thanks for your help. Makana Chai (talk) 00:09, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Where is such a claim made? I don't see it. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:17, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

The article in question is Pele (deity). Arakunem^Talk 00:22, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It looks like on October 3, an IP added a nonsensical paragraph to the article. On October 9, another IP removed that paragraph with no edit summary. Makana Chai reverted that edit (I assume because it was an unexplained removal of content). As this edit restored bad information into the article, User:Rkmlai reverted Makana Chai. Nothing sinister here, just looks like a misunderstanding.

Unless of course you didn't make any edits to Pele (deity), in which case there's another problem, as those 2 edits did come from your account. Arakunem^Talk 00:31, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I think you're a bit confused. You might be concerned because the automatic TWedit summary is "Reverted 1 edit by 145.64.134.246 identified as vandalism to last revision by Makana Chai. (TW)". It is not Makana Chai that has vandalized, but Makana Chai to whose edit the script is reverting. Cheers, Intelligentsium^review 00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

That revert restored a bad rev though: [8]. So the next edit may have been seen as reverting vandalism by MC. Arakunem^Talk 00:37, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on Hawaiian mythology but this edit by Makana Chai certainly looks like it is restoring vandalism and falsely accusing 145.64.134.246 of vandalism both in the edit summary and then at User talk:145.64.134.246. I guess Makana Chai simply made an honest mistake. The best of us make them sometimes. I think you should apologise at User talk:145.64.134.246. You can change password at Special:Preferences if you are worried that your account may have been used by somebody else. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:47, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

id user

hi there, I want to copy some articles in wikipedia and I need to put a footnote about the source (writer of that articles) but I just got their username, how can I get their real name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.164.206.253 (talk) 00:30, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

You don't. You don't need to cite the contributor, only Wikipedia itself. Intelligentsium^review 00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

In each article, on the list of links on the left of the page, is a link for "Cite this page" which will tell you exactly how the article should be cited. Arakunem^Talk 00:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

See more at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:06, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I's hates parser functions

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm trying to de-Americanize a template by making it not always display 'Mile', but to give the user the option of selecting 'Kilometre'

The template at hand is Template:Jcttop, which contains the line

!Mile{{{length_ref|}}}

Which I've changed to an if statement... I think.

{{#if:{{{km|}}}|{{{!}} class="wikitable"|!Mile{{{length_ref|}}}|{{{!}}

This works fine and dandy for current pages, as it will not do anything until I put km=yes as a parameter in the template call. Once I put it in, all hell breaks loose and the table completely messes up.

For a substituted example, check my sandbox

Any help would be much appreciated! - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It seems at a glance that this template is only transcluded onto roads in the United States, which these guidelines cover. As I believe "miles" are widely used in the USA, this would probably be the correct unit. Intelligentsium^review 00:39, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but roads exist outside of the United States, where miles are never widely used.

I'm trying to allow the template to have kilometers, but only when it is overridden to do so (So as not to change the many American road articles that currently use it). - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 00:49, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Are you using an extra brace in {{!}}, or is it supposed to be {{{!}}? Intelligentsium^review 00:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Its three before and two after. Doesn't make sense to me (especially since there's one missing closing bracket), but removing it messes it up even more. On top of that, I copied that line from the same template. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 01:23, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I see, it's supposed to produce {|. Hmm, I'll get back to you. Intelligentsium^review 01:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I think its to keep the pipes in: {{!}} class="wikitable"|!Mile{{{length_ref|}}}

from messing up the if function - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 01:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Now try it. Intelligentsium^review 01:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

By the way, I've added a {{{unit}}} parameter, so you have to specify if your unit is km; default should be miles, if I did my parsing right. Intelligentsium^review 01:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Works for me now. Thank you a bunch. I still hate this wikilanguage, its impossible to read and interpret. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 03:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Transclusion question

Is it possible only to transclude one of the DYK, or one of the OTD? I think it would be interesting to put on my userpage. Intelligentsium^review 00:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

{{DYK}} for DYKs of the day. Not sure for OTD though. ZooFari 02:15, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I meant only one; {{DYK/1}} doesn't work. Intelligentsium^review 02:28, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

E-mail address

I ALREADY HAVE A USER PAGE UNDER THE NAME ZUBAIR HASAN FOR URDU POETRY. I NOW DO NOT REMEMBER MY PASSWORD AND I AM NOT GETTING NEW PASSWORD VIKIPEDIA IS SENDING ME BECAUSE MY E-MAIL ADDRESS WITH THEM IS DEFUNCT BECAUSE I HAVE LEFT MY OLD EMPLOYER IIUM AND JOINED INCEIF SINCE JULY 2008. MY NEW PASSWORD MAY PLEASE BE SENT ON PROF. DR. ZUBAIR HASAN <email removed> THANKS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.184.53.66 (talk) 02:05, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

If you cannot access your email address, I'm afraid there is no way to recover you password. The password emailing is automated, and it can be sent only to the email address you have registered with your account. That address cannot be changed by anyone else. The best thing is to create a new user account and use that. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 02:08, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Infobox

Hi, I'm trying to copy some of the content in the Infobox from the English page Formosan Mountain Dog to its corresponding Chinese page. However as I find out that apparently the English language Dogbreed template is different from the Chinese one so that some whatchumacallit -- tags? -- like maleweight, femaleheight do not show up in the Chinese page. Where do I go about asking someone to modify the Infobox template or how do I go about doing that myself if possible?