Wikipedia:Help desk

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May 24

What if I'd like to make a contribution/edit a page that is semi-protected?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 16:18, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm talking about the "Poetry" page. Is there a way to make suggestions?

L —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lauragoldstein (talk • contribs) 22:54, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

You may request that an edit be made to a protected article by leaving a message at the article's talk page. To do that, simply click on the "Talk" or "Discussion" tab (depending on whether you're logged in or not) located at the top of the article you want edited and create a new section along the lines of "Edit request". Describe the edit you want made in your message, and then place the following template along with your message:

{{editsemiprotected}}

That template will place the article in Category:Wikipedia semi-protected edit requests so others will be able to easily see it and make the edit. Hope that helps. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 23:02, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Super Hamster! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lauragoldstein (talk • contribs) 23:04, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

When a page is protected, there is a tab for "View source". If you click on it, it opens that page for editing so you can see the source markup, but you can't save. Protected pages show a notice at the top that include a link to "Submit an edit request." There is an ongoing discussion somewhere to change "View source" to "edit" now that this notice is in place. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:41, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Ooh, fancy, I wasn't aware of that. Do you, or anyone else, have a link to the discussion? I'd like to check that out. Thanks, ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 01:45, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

MediaWiki talk:Viewsource#Change View Source to Edit*. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:01, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 04:06, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

unable to access diffrent language in cellphone

Since the recent change in the wikipedia interface i am unable to change the language. e.g when i search for queen elizabeth in the english wikipedia and would like to change to the same page in hebrew wikipedia - it cant be done (the "language" option is un-linked) my cll is a nokia 6210.--Rzg (talk) 16:51, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Dictionary application for iMac

Why do articles no longer extend beyond their window, such that one needs to scroll, in the Dictionary application for iMac69.112.223.163 (talk) 00:56, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

This was also reported at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 May 17#Mac OS X dictionary. Dictionary (software) is developed by Apple and may not be fully compatible with a new Wikipedia design. Maybe Apple will make a fix at some time but I don't have inside information. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:07, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Redirect

I would like to redirect Wikipedia (keyword) searches on "Chaim Koppelman" or "Dorothy Koppelman" or "Carrie Wilson" to the article titled "Terrain Gallery". Can someone tell me how to do that? Thank you. LoreMariano (talk) 01:14, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Redirect but note that the article Terrain Gallery has not yet been indexed by Wikipedia's search function (see Help:Searching#Delay in updating the search index). When that happens the article will be included in search results for the names even if there is no redirect. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:23, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Wow, that's great, I didn't realize that. So the whole article is full-text indexed? LoreMariano (talk) 01:33, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it soon should be (it's already above the normal delay). Wikipedia does not have keywords assigned to an article but there can be redirects directly to the article. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:46, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

i was wondering if you need any help

hi i am a system admin and run a lot of servers and was wondering is there some thing i can do to help out wikipedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.221.125.118 (talk) 02:00, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

There are many things that you can help with - please see here for more details. Chevymontecarlo 06:30, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Meta account

In this list, what do the "unattached" SUL status and the pink background mean and why can't I log in at Meta with the password that is valid fot all Wikipedias? Thanks. --Магьосник (talk) 02:27, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Try this: at Meta, go to my preferences, then click on the "Manage global account" link in "Global account status". Reply here if it doesn't work. —MC10 (T•C•GB•L) 04:25, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I may not have formulated the problem properly. I am unable to log in at Meta anyhow, including by typing my username and password at meta:Special:UserLogin. When I do so, a box appears, which reads, "Login error. Incorrect password entered. Please try again." Just opening Meta while logged in here doesn't work either. Therefore, I'm unable to go meta:Special:Preferences. If you sort the table of the accounts named "Theurgist" by registration date, you'll see the account at Meta was registered very shortly before several other accounts were created automatically. So it must have been created automatically too, as a result of my browsing accros the wikis (if I'm somehow wrong, please correct me). But that very account is the only one with an "unattached" SUL status and the only one with a background colour other than the default colour of the table, and I don't know what that means. --Магьосник (talk) 07:08, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

The meta log [1] says "Account created automatically" so I don't know what is going on. Do you receive a new password if you click "E-mail new password" for the username at meta:Special:UserLogin? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:06, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I did that and I was then already able to log in at Meta. I then clicked on the "Manage global account" link in my preferences. Everything's OK now, including the list (with the minor exception that with opening Meta, I'm not automatically logged in and I have to do it manually - but I don't think that's anything to worry about.) Thanks very much! --Магьосник (talk) 07:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Disambiguation procedure/etiquette

I don't feel experienced/comfortable enough to insert a disambiguation page at "A People's History of the United States" to point out that historian [Charles] Page Smith wrote an eight volume history of the United States with the same name, published in 1976, four years before Zinn published his book. See the wiki "Page Smith" entry for details.

Can I recommend disambiguation to an experienced user?

sbw (talk) 02:34, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Is there an article on Page Smith's book? If so, I will make it. If not, you can make one on his book. (you can only disambungate if there is an article on that-not just mentioned on the author's)
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 04:01, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Thnx. Makes sense. I'll do it as soon as I can. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sbwaters (talk • contribs) 00:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Edit box size?

I am having trouble making my edit box larger. No matter what values I enter into the boxes in my preferences>Editing>, it does not change the box size. Is there a reason for this? Can it be fixed? I am a fairly experienced user, but this is troubling me. Andrew Colvin | Talk 03:48, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Make the change, save, log out and then log back in again. If that doesn't do anything try clearing your cookies and cache and then try again. They're the two most basic things you can do before you can say that there's a problem with Wikipedia itself, in which case I hope someone else can help you, as I am unsure as well :( Chevymontecarlo 15:32, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Still dosen't work. Andrew Colvin | Talk 20:17, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I can change the rows in Firefox but changing the columns has no effect for me. The browser's view source for the edit window contains <textarea tabindex="1" accesskey="," id="wpTextbox1" cols="X" rows="Y" style="" name="wpTextbox1"> where X and Y are the numbers I chose in preferences, but X has no apparent effect on the edit box. Both rows and cols work for me at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_textarea.asp. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:02, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm... I keep trying stuff but nothing works. It used to a while back when I was editing wikipedia on my laptop and computer at different times, but I changed it back and now it wont change again. Grrr... Andrew Colvin | Talk 01:24, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Approving An AFC Request

Hello, I just did an AFC request for someone, but can't figure out how to get it off of the pending submissions list. The Article How do you do that? ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 03:58, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

All you have to do is remove the template from the top of the article, as I have done. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:05, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, thanks! I never tried that because it was preventing me from finishing it. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 04:17, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

PS: You may want to look at the Malicious Link Claim above, on this page. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 04:17, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

your page on the Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva

Dear Wikipedia I am a great fan of your site but I have just read your page on the Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and was disappointed to see the tone of it was 90% negative. According to your website nearly everything he's done is tainted in some way. I'm surprised because I've lived in Thailand 20 years and he's clearly the most progressive Prime Minister the country has had in that time. You may know that recently there has been political turmoil in Thailand and a group of protesters (the 'Red Shirts') backed by ex Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, hate Abhisit for political reasons. I ask you to beware of bias in this article for that reason, to review this article and check its info against other sources. I checked who actually wrote this article and saw many entries from a user named 'Patiwat'. I laughed when I saw this. I think someone's sneakily showing their true colours knowing most Wiki editors will have no Thai language skills and won't spot it. If you go to this site http://www.thai-language.com/dict or similar Thai-English dictionary sites, you' ll see it's a Thai word that means " to overthrow or revolt against a government". This is the rallying cry of the anti-royalist and vaguely communist, vaguely anarchic 'Red Shirt' movement!! Do you think a user with a name like that is going to give a fair hearing to the current Prime Minister?? At the very least I think you should put one of those warnings at the top of the page saying some assertions here are disputed. For example a) it says that in late 2009 'Abhisit faced rising public discontent with his government and near-constant rumors of a military coup.' this is quite a contentious statement with no explanation given. I was living in Thailand at the time and have no recall of anything like this. Any 'discontent' was solely from his political enemies the red shirts. b) it says 'Censorship worsened under the Abhisit government compared to the government of Thaksin Shinawatra' again a very contentious statement given that Thaksin was famous for trying to shut down newspapers who criticised him. Abhisit's censorship focuses on websites that criticise the king (a very sensitive matter in Thailand for centuries) and websites which incite people to riot and violence. c) the Sondhi Limthongkul assassination attempt was a very controversial business but this article manages to make a direct connection to the Abhisit governemnet in the first lines of its summary of the events; that to me smacks of bias. Abhisit had no involvement. I could go on and on. In general it seems that in this article whatever the Abhisit government says is just a 'claim' but anything against them is suggested as factual. Also you'll notice there's not one good thing he's done mentioned; check this for example : http://publicaffairsasia.com:12080/publicaffairsasia/FeaturesView.do?id=982. He's also done a lot to improve welfare, health and education for the poor in Thailand. Also note that for nearly all foreigners living in Thailand the international media coverage of the recent riots May 16-19 was very unfair, looking for a David and Goliath story against a big bad governement when it was no such thing. See this for example. http://www.livetradingnews.com/international-media-wrong-on-bangkok-and-thaksin-shinawatra-13710.htm If you still don't believe me, maybe you could contact the two English language newspapers in Thailand- The Nation and the Bangkok Post- and ask them if they think the Wiki article is rounded and fair. I very much doubt it. Kevin —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevinpkavanagh (talk • contribs) 07:15, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Hello Kevin and welcome to Wikipedia! Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning that anyone can edit it, including you. We have many, many articles that are less than ideal, so if you see things that can be improved, please dive right in. Wikipedia editors are volunteers, meaning that problems often take time to get sorted, and we would very much appreciate you joining in. One place you might like to start it the talkpage for that article, at Talk:Abhisit Vejjajiva. You can discuss with other editors how you think it can be improved. Please make sure that any changes you make are backed up by references to reliable secondary sources, for example books and newspaper articles. Thai language sources are fine, as long as they're considered reliable.--BelovedFreak 09:11, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Editing page title

We would like to edit the title "Big Bus Company" to "Big Bus Tours" could you explain how to do so please?

Regards

John Butt <email redacted>Jwbutt (talk) 08:50, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Article titles can't be edited. The article must be moved to the new title. Dismas|^(talk) 08:53, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Please be aware that you have a clear conflict of interest, and you are strongly discouraged from editing articles about topics that you are involved with in real life. In this case, it appears that you work for the company. Also, given that the logo suggests the company is called The Big Bus Company, please gain consensus for such a move at the article talkpage, (Talk:The Big Bus Company).--BelovedFreak 08:57, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Reversed image?

Resolved

 – Still don't know what caused it, but it seems to be fixed now. TFOWR^propaganda 14:53, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Go to the Alaskan Klee Kai article, please. Then click on the image in the infobox. Notice how the dog in the image is reversed between the article and the file page? Why does that happen? Dismas|^(talk) 09:50, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

The image (File:WOWAKK-Kukai-Alaskan-Klee-Kai.jpg#filehistory) looks like it was edited to flip the dog around (facing the left), however the latest revision of the image still appears to be facing right. It gets murkier... clicking on the latest revision shows the dog facing left.

I saw something similar recently; in that case it was possible to revert back to an earlier version. In this case, though, I'm assuming that you'd prefer the latest, dog-facing-left version?

It might be worth posting on the Village pump (technical) if you don't get a helpful response here - the Village pump (technical) will attract more technically-minded editors.

Incidentally, that's one beautiful dog!

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 10:10, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. Though, I feel I should point out that it's not my dog. I just happened upon the article and the image. Dismas|^(talk) 10:23, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

No worries! I just checked the article and the image page and it all looks good now. I also posted at the Village pump, mentioning I saw the problem too, but that it seems to be fixed now. TFOWR^propaganda 14:53, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I just checked it again and they're right, it's fixed. I don't see how it could be a cache issue as they suggested since I've never seen that image before and never read the article. Oh well. Thanks for the help! Dismas|^(talk) 21:24, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

oxygen

WHY DOES OXYGEN SUPPORT FOR COMBUSTION.....?WHICH SPECIAL FEATURE IN IT MAKES IT TO DO SO......? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Durga.prasad.22121993 (talk • contribs) 11:13, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about Oxygen. 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. TFOWR^propaganda 11:25, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

But also note that we won't do your homework for you. – ukexpat (talk) 16:17, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Spoilsports! Quite right too - we never had the reference desk when I was a lad! TFOWR^propaganda 17:13, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Well we had it tough, didn't even 'ave computers when I were a lad, or pens or paper... – ukexpat (talk) 17:22, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Those little "who I am" boxes

I see a lot of people have these little boxes that sort of tell others who they are: I'm British, I'm 18, I'm a student, etc. Where can I find these little boxes, so I can put them on my page? Thanks. The Pebble Dare (talk) 11:55, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

They're called userboxes and you can find a directory of them at Wikipedia:Userboxes/Gallery. --Mysdaao ^talk 12:10, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

How do I publish my wikipedia article?

I've made an article in wikipedia however I can not find it in a search. Perhaps I didn't publish it fully? It still has my user name and the title of the article when I go to "my contributions", perhaps that is the problem? Appreciate any help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bdamora (talk • contribs) 16:27, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Hello you simply have to search for the page ..you will see there is no article with that name ... So you would place it in the red link --> AKE Group...However i dont believe the article is ready for main-space..Many things are need first like more references (see Wikipedia:Citing sources)...I dont want you to add it to main space and then it gets deleted (see Wikipedia:Your first article)...Moxy (talk) 16:59, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Notability is an issue, but there is a much bigger problem -- it reads like an advertisement and will have to be almost completely rewritten before it stands a chance of surviving in mainspace. – ukexpat (talk) 21:18, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Old user new question

Question for anyone that can answer... In the old layout of Wiki you had a choice to press "Go" and/or "Search" in the search bar..is there anyway to get the "Search" option back??..yes i could just revert...but i want to use what is the norm!!Moxy (talk) 16:53, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

To search for some text, type it in the box and then click the magnifying glass icon at the right. To show the old search screen, leave the box empty and click the magnifying glass. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:03, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Is my topic Encyclopediac in nature?

I'd like to create an article about a book I wrote. The book is regarding healthcare in American and discusses several suggestions for finding the best quality, affordable care with or WITHOUT health insurance. It's a very important book at this time and for the future of Americans. Although it is written by me, I feel that it is absolutely worthy and needs to reach more people. I'd be open to having someone else read the book and write the Wiki article so that it's not "self-promotion" but would like to have it up asap, which I would be able to accomplish myself. So....will it fly or be deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeheyns (talk • contribs) 17:18, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Two points: first, as it is your book you have a conflict of interest and should not be creating an article about it; second, we have notability guidelines for books at WP:NBOOK, if your book becomes notable, someone will write and article about it sooner or later. – ukexpat (talk) 17:25, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

If you believe your book does meet the notability guidelines linked to above you can request that the article be created at WP:AFC. Before you do so you should read Wikipedia's law of unintended consequences and think carefully about whether you want to request an article, given that you will have no control over the article's contents if it is created. Please also make sure you declare your conflict of interest if you make a creation request. You should note that any article written will not be promotional in nature, as Wikipedia has a neutral point of view policy.131.111.185.68 (talk) 09:33, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Have any reliable sources written about your book? so magazine reviews, journal articles that sort of thing? if not, then we would not have article about it. It's not enough that it exists, it has to have notability and if nobody is writing about, it's not notable for our purposes. --Cameron Scott (talk) 10:05, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

How do I get a cause put into your wikipedia page

Hi,

I have read up on your page of the Tiger Temple, and it is nice to see that you portray the pros and cons of the place. However, I do feel that there is a lot more pros and not enough to highlight the maltreation that is occurring there. I have personally been there and seen the place for myself, and it was upsetting. Hence that is why I started a facebook cause 'Ban the Tiger Temple' to further highlight the bad conditions. I would greatly appreciate it, if your medium could post an external link to the bottom of the information content to the Facebook cause.

Kindest Regards.

Here is the facebook link of 'Ban the Tiger Temple' http://www.causes.com/causes/200187 SonjaWilderness (talk) 18:10, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Facebook links are generally not considered appropriate and Wikipedia is not the place to promote your cause however worthy it may be. – ukexpat (talk) 18:16, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Facebook phenomena may be notable enough for mention but only if they meet our notability guidelines - i.e. having received significant coverage in reputable media sources independent of the subject. See for example Boobquake. Wikipedia is not the place to try to drum up this kind of coverage; see also WP:NOBLECAUSE. --Teratornis (talk) 18:39, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

the the

How does one search for the common typo "the the"? Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 18:50, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Search Wikipedia with Google for: "the the" is one way. Note that Google search has some limitations. --Teratornis (talk) 19:05, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Also see links under WP:EIW#Search for more third-party search tools. --Teratornis (talk) 19:06, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you both. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 02:26, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Also take care because, sometimes The The isn't a typo at all... --Jayron32 02:29, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks also to User:John of Reading for pointing out WP:AWB has a Google option. Likely the simplest solution for AWB users. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 15:04, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Invite people to an article in your userspace that you created

Resolved

How can I invite people to improve an article User:Chemicalinterest/Chromium(VI) peroxide that I have in my userspace? Thanks. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 20:54, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

WP:Requests for feedback. – ukexpat (talk) 21:14, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

What if there's no red link?

Resolved

 – Questioner blocked; chances of the proposed article being worthwhile are low.

I understand that to write an article you have to search it and then if it doesn't exist you click the red link. But what if there's no red link? I want to write an article on Howrse, but when I search it all that comes up is: did you mean horse? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Motheate999 (talk • contribs) 22:45, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Underneath that it says: You may create the page "Howrse" with the red link you seek. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:52, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

It seems that Howrse is protected against recreation. If you want to create an article with that title, you will have to use Wikipedia:Deletion review. Feinoha ^{Talk, My master} 22:54, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) By posting here, you attracted my attention and I then spotted your history of vandalism, including some edits that had not been reverted; you have now been blocked indefinitely for being a vandalism-only account. Bencherlite^Talk 22:56, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

May 25

Changing Interfaces

I am constantly falling between interfaces (the new one and old one) - I have the new one selected, but for no apparent reason, I keep going into monobook for a few pages and then going back to the new skin for few hours. Is there someway to fix this? ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:51, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You could try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:16, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I tried that - it just keeps happening

Grr! Just as I was signing that response, it happened again and I was sent back to the help desk (not edit mode) and I'm stuck in the old version right now. - Plus, I checked my preferences and it says that I have the new version\skin\interface chosen? ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 02:27, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

There are users reporting similar things at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Skin bug and the section after that. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:35, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll take a look. PS: It's gone back.* *(for now)~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 02:39, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Bad link in Eric Clapton discography

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:52, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

First, thanks for your very interesting and precise site.

Path : Eric Clapton discography

Albums
 Collaborations and guest appearances
  With other artists
   2006 Live at Montreux 1986 (live) ---> Talk Talk band ?????????????????????
                                          which also was at Montreux.

But there's no correlation, since Clapton was with Otis Rush and not Talk Talk.

If you can change. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cedalz (talk • contribs) 02:29, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You can change it. This is the encyclopedia anyone can edit. You are part of the group of people known as "anyone". --Jayron32 02:31, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

If you want, I can do it for you. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 02:33, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I can't find what you're talking about. —Preceding unsigned comment added by QwerpQwertus (talk • contribs)

I found the problem and fixed it.[2] We have no article about the Eric Clapton release. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:51, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I did not know very well how to do. Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cedalz (talk • contribs) 17:28, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

not receiving emailj

have been trying to reset password, not receiving email from facebook. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.41.10.78 (talk) 02:49, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

This isn't Facebook. This is Wikipedia. You'll need to contact Facebook about problems with their service. --Jayron32 02:51, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Uploading final file

How do I upload my final article to Wikipedia? I just can't figure it out. Thank you.

Heidi Crane 03:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Htcrane (talk • contribs)

Try using the Article wizard. --The High Fin Sperm Whale 03:35, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Since the user has created a page in their userspace, I suspect the question is about moving the page from there to the mainspace. In order to do this, Htcrane, you will need to be autoconfirmed, which means your account must be at least four days old and you have to have at least ten edits to your credit. Your account is mature enough but you have only made seven edits so three more and you can move the page yourself. However, what I suggest you do is ask for review of your article at Wikipedia:Requests for feedback. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:54, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Linking images

How do you link an image to an article? I know how to do this, but how would you link a thumbnail to an article when you click on it? Thanks, --The High Fin Sperm Whale 03:32, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

(does not work with the thumb parameter)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:43, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

An admin is accusing me of vandalism and blocked my access to edit articles even though what I was doing does not constitute vandalism

First of all, let me give some background information. For a couple of years now, there has been excesive editing of wikipedia articles by iranian, afghan, or tajik people where they edit the history of many modern countries. This results in incorrect and historically false articles written by persians who blatantly are excercising chauvenism and are not citing the articles with credible sources. Either their sources are dead links, or they are citing a book which is in another language and cann't be read, or they are citing encyclopedia Iranica. A simple example is the article "Uzbekistan". Central Asia, has a very diverse history and culture and linguistic background, it was not always persian as these peopple are claiming. Turkic empires were not "persianate" empires, and the excesive use of the words Aryan and Persian in these articles is what I believe is giving wikipedia a bad name since nobody is really doing anything about this nonsense that some persian users are writing. The few times I did edit wikipedia, And I'm sorry if I'm not a professional and I have a hard time editing" my changes were immediately undone. Last couple of weeks I've changed the article "Uzbekistan" to a version of history which is the most neutral and does not contain any exaggerated use of the word persian, or does not falsley claim certain parts of history to persians, or does not claim certain historical figures to be persian even though they were not (here is the text I used http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=history_central_asia ). I've removed the excessive use of the word persian when inappropriate and that was it. Certain users kept changing my version back and then a user, who happens to be an admin (Ckatz) kept accusing me of vandalism and changing it back and restricting me from editing the page. I think this is unfair since I was correcting the history section of my own country which is abused by persians and their supporters. How can I get back to editing properly (and what can I do to stop some people from accusing me of vandalism). I have all my sources and picture links ready I just need to figure out how I can edit, add pictures, put sources, and stop vandals who accuse me of vandalism from engaging in edit wars with me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Halq So'zi (talk • contribs) 04:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, Wikipedia. - I was not aware of this - disregard what I said. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but the above advice is absolutely 100% wrong. Firstly, you should most certainly not "just create a new account" in order to evade a block - this is strictly against Wikipedia's rules, and can lead to permanent blocking. You appear to have created this account in order to evade the 2-week block placed on your IP address here for the content dispute you describe above. That is unacceptable - see WP:SOCK. Your new account has also been blocked for returning to the edit war, but it should have been blocked anyway for block evasion. You now have two options.

• (1) Appeal to have your IP address block lifted. You do this by putting the wording {{unblock|1=Insert your reason to be unblocked here}} on your user talk page. ReadWikipedia:Guide to appealing blocks to find out how to do this effectively. Communicate with the blocking admin and explain your position calmly.
• (2) Wait until your block expires, then start editing within the rules. Do not get involved in edit wars and handle content disputes appropriately. Use article talk pages to reach consensus with other editors over wording. If you cannot reach consensus, use the guidance at WP:Dispute resolution to proceed further.

You should not continue editing under an account and an IP address, unless you clearly indicate on your user page that the two are being operated by the same person. You should not create any further accounts and use them to evade the block. Finally, edit summaries like this one [3] are totally unacceptable on Wikipedia, no matter how frustrated you are getting. See Wikipedia: No personal attacks. Karenjc 09:31, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

blackberry compatibility

I used to be able to read wikipedia on my blackberry. Now a java error pops up and the site can't be viewed on blackberry. How can I fix this? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmath4 (talk • contribs) 04:37, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Many people have been having problems with this.
I think I found a soultion to the problem below!

From your phone, use http://en.m.wikipedia.org - its the mobile version - it worked for me!
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 21:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

at the moment, a template in a DYK article looks haywire

Resolved

There is huge red bold error text in the first paragraph of Abyssal_plain which I think is caused by the {{convert}} template. I'm hoping someone can take a look, try to fix it, and mark this thread as {{resolved}} if the problem has been fixed already. Thanks. 75.4.18.242 (talk) 05:14, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't see anything, so I'll assume it was fixed. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 05:25, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I see it too. It's not fixed. And no it's not a cache issue since I've never seen that article before. Dismas|^(talk) 05:31, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Really, I must've missed it - Sorry! ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 05:33, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Someone came along and fixed it in this edit. Thanks. 75.4.18.242 (talk) 05:52, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I still see a number of errors in the second section (first after the lead). Dismas|^(talk) 06:13, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

milton keynes parish/coulcil

Hi, Could you please tell me an email address for me to contact the Milton Keynes Council or Parish or whatever yhey are called? I have a photo taken probably in the early 1800's which mentions the village of Milton on it and wanted to send on a copy to see if anyone can tell me anything about it. I live in Adelaide, South Australia. Hoping you can help Regards Len Brown —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.200.244.99 (talk) 07:10, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Reformatted question to remove spaces at start of line

Their website is http://www.miltonkeynes.gov.uk/ I guess you'll find some contact information there. --ColinFine (talk) 07:53, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Or you might need http://www.broughtonandmkv-pc.gov.uk/ for the historical Milton Keynes village as opposed to the modern "new town" city, which wouldn't have featured in any c19th photographs. Gonzonoir (talk) 08:04, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

There is a specifically historical and archive society here, with an email address. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:11, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you know it is the right village? There are many places called 'Milton' in England. --ColinFine (talk) 16:59, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

And the Reference Desk is here. – ukexpat (talk) 17:03, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Mysterious vandalism

A look at the article Luther College (Victoria) shows the word "dick" at the very beginning of the text. However, when looked at in Edit mode, that word is not there.

The article History shows this word being present right from the article's creation.

Has somebody done something particularly tricky here? HiLo48 (talk) 10:48, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The infobox created by the template {{Infobox Aust school}} was vandalized with this edit. So you would see nothing in the article's history. Dismas|^(talk) 10:55, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah. Thanks. I seem to learn something new quite often on Wikipedia. Glad that's sorted. HiLo48 (talk) 11:29, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

This is where the "Related changes" link in the toolbox comes in handy. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:20, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Very problematic page

Hi!

The page about Belle Plaine, Iowa is highly problematic. Can someone remove all these horrible things about people from Belle Prairie? Thanks in advance. - CheepnisAroma (talk) 11:13, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The article was vandalized yesterday. I see you removed some of the vandalism. I have reverted to a version in the page history before the vandalism. It's a good idea to check the page history of clearly vandalized pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:21, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

That's what I should have done. Thanks, good riddance! I mean, poor people from Belle Prairie! - CheepnisAroma (talk) 11:56, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, the Vandal was pretty local, the IP address is for an ISP out of Cedar Rapids, about an hour away. (Click on IP of Vandal, then the WHOIS in the bottom box, and then GeoIP up near the top of the page at the toolserver). Maybe there are only two people in the town. :)Naraht (talk) 14:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

A local conflict I'm sure! - CheepnisAroma (talk) 16:43, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Translations

I observed for a long time that Japanese and Korean editors like use just romanizations of there own languages (e.g. Chosun Ilbo, Asahi Shimbun), while Chinese editors try to translate every single character to English(In the previous cases, Chinese 99% may translated them as, e.g, Korean Daily, Morning Sun News).--刻意(Kèyì) 14:42, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Have you a question? --ColinFine (talk) 17:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Alphabetical "What links here"?

Does anyone know if there is any way to change the "What links here" to be Alphabetical? (Assume for simplicity no redirects). As best as I can tell, the output of the "What links here" is in the order that the pages were created (so that both pages A and B link to page C, and you ask for "What links here" on page C, page A will be before page B in the list if page A was created before page B). Also it seems like a fairly easy tool to create. The reason that I want to use this is to make it easier to check templates to see if every place that the template links to contains the template.Naraht (talk) 14:47, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

No, it cannot be sorted alphabetically. There is a request at bugzilla:2306. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

And apparently I'm not even the first person to suggest this. Has someone done this as an exterior tool then?Naraht (talk) 13:35, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

How can text blocks be numbered automatically?

I spent hours trying to find an answer to this question.

I wrote over 1,100 blocks in one wikipedia page. Up until now I have hand-inserted blocks enabling automated numbering in a TOC with header lines

("=== First line of a block ===")

I wrote a simple template to display blocks. It will become a lot more rich than this in the end with centering and other prettifying characteristics as well as optimized ways to navigate through when they are being reviewed on an iPhone.

Here is the template I wrote so far named {{Template:NumberedTextBlock}}:

'''{{{1}}}'''<br />
{{{2}}}<br />
{{{3}}}<br />
{{{4}}}<br />

I would prefer that a block begin with a cardinal number and that the number increments with each block. I envision something like the following:

'''{{NumberedTextBlockCardinality}}. {{{1}}}'''<br />
{{{2}}}<br />
{{{3}}}<br />
{{{4}}}<br />

How do I establish a page global variable and increment it for each use of the template within the page?

Also, how can the first lines be gathered into some kind of array that can be accessed by something like: {{NumberedTextBlock[297]}}?

Thank you for your help in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iapx86 (talk • contribs)

I don't understand what you are trying to do, and your contributions don't show that you have made any edits here recently. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:10, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I am also confused. Your account has no other edits at the English Wikipedia since 2007 and there is no Template:NumberedTextBlock. Are you referring to something here at http://en.wikipedia.org? PrimeHunter (talk) 20:53, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You are correct. I wrote the page on Jerome Lettvin with occasional more recent edits. I am soon to do more edits.

I have a half dozen mediawiki installations, some private, others public, for which I develop material. I am trying to learn how to develop mediawiki programming (as opposed to page editing) skills. The question was generic to mediawiki, and not specific to wikipedia. If there is a better forum to ask this question, please redirect me there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.117.179 (talk) 22:26, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The top of the page says "This page is only for questions about how to use Wikipedia". mw:Project:Help includes a link to mw:Project:Support desk for questions about the MediaWiki software. I'm still unsure what you are trying to do but if you seek help then note that "block" usually refers to blocking users from editing. Your question appears to involve what MediaWiki calls sections. Or maybe Wikipedia:Lists#Numbered lists can help you. I don't think Wikipedia has a way to make a "global variable" for a page. There are many MediaWiki extensions that are not enabled on Wikipedia. I don't know whether one of those can help. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:50, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Maybe mw:Extension:VariablesExtension? Note that MediaWiki's wikitext is not nearly as programmable as any of the common scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, Python (programming language), etc. However, the many MediaWiki extensions provide some of these features. If you find the wikitext syntax too restrictive, you should probably learn to write your own MediaWiki extensions, which involves writing your own code with PHP. See mw:How to become a MediaWiki hacker. --Teratornis (talk) 05:16, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your patience. I will seek out the resources you have offered and avoid confusing mediawiki with wikipedia as I have done. I appreciate the generosity you showed. I hope to repay it by contributing more content to wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.117.179 (talk) 06:16, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

One last comment: Extension:Variables and Extension:ParserFunctions did exactly what I wanted. I will share if there is interest. But it is very simple and probably only useful to authors like Nostradamus to number his quatrains. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.117.179 (talk) 12:50, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Special:Version shows that mw:Extension:Variables and mw:Extension:VariablesExtension are not enabled here. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Masks (1998 film)

collapsing draft article (?)

Masks (Polish: Maski) is a 1998 computer animated short film by Piotr Karwas. The film won numerous awards, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Silver Dragon at the Cracow Film Festival. Plot. In a workshop late one night, a skeletal, faceless creature is seens chiseling away at a mask. It tries the mask on, but is unhappy with it and discards of it into pile of other masks on the floor. The creature continues to make more masks for itself, but is always unsatisfied with the end results. While trying on yet another mask, the creature accidently makes a tear in its own faceless head. As the creature peels back its leafy, green "skin", it discovers a human face underneath. During the film's end credits, the creature can be heard tearing away at its leafy flesh. References IMDB title. Full film at Hideout Films

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Avantgardeguy (talk • contribs) 15:08, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a question about using or editing Wikipedia? – ukexpat (talk) 15:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Image corrupted?

File:Khastegi (Sex My Life) poster.jpg will not display for me at any resolution, even if I purge it; the same is true for the identical image at Commons. Could someone please check and either confirm that it's corrupted or explain that something's odd with my computer? Nyttend (talk) 15:17, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Not sure what the issue is, put I'm not having any problem with it. It both comes up fine in the hover over that I have turned on as well as on the page. I see two legs from the calf down on a sort of rose colored background with words in both English and what appears to be a Southwest Asian language (Probably Arabic or Farsi).Naraht (talk) 15:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

It may be a browser issue; or your system may have some kind of [employer or institution] filtering on that blocks the file because of its naughty name. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:17, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, I can't see it either (IE on Windows 7), so Nyttend isn't wholly alone. Deor (talk) 19:05, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Are you at work or in an environment where there's likely to be some kind of filter? I'm at home, using Firefox on Ubuntu 10.04 and see it fine (as Naraht described, much better than I could ;-)

TFOWR^propaganda 19:08, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Nope, I'm at home; no filters are involved. Deor (talk) 19:09, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Weird. I've just tried in Chrome, too, and can see it fine. Would an alternative browser be an option? Not sure it would necessarily be the answer, but could be worth a try? I suppose next step might be the village pump to see if any of the techy regulars there have any idea? TFOWR^propaganda 19:14, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Looking in IE8, I can't see it either (I only see an X), but it shows up in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera. Interestingly, in all browsers except for Safari, it shows brightly coloured with a rose background, whereas in Safari the background is black and looks more natural. Side note: the image's licence statement is obviously incorrect, and a fair use rationale needs to be added. Intelligentsium 22:59, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I've just seen the image is hosted on Commons. It probably needs to be deleted, optionally with a local re-upload with a valid Fair Use Rationale and image tags. Intelligentsium 23:05, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Ad-block? PleaseStand ^(talk) 23:35, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, there is something wrong with the image. It appears with a pink background in Firefox, but with a black background in Safari. As mentioned earlier, I suspect the black background version is the correct one. Also, I see that the file was put up for deletion; I have no comment on the image's license, but I suspect that the file existed for so long because the user who uploaded the file shares the same name as the director of the film. I have no comment on whether they are really the same person, though, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised. Gary King (talk) 00:03, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

(←) It appears to have been saved and uploaded as an Adobe four-component CMYK JPEG, which is not decodable with older web browsers. The thumbnailers simply rescale too accurately, down to the odd format. I was able to reproduce this with an old copy of Photoshop, simply selecting "CMYK" mode and exporting a copy as jpeg, and it was broken in an older browser. I wasn't able to upload this to Wikimedia though (gave me a MIME/extension match error). --Splarka (rant) 07:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Editing of "Boom (Containment)"

I signed in as Energy Tzar and edited "Boom (Containment)". I saved; however, I cannot see the changes as an outsider when I use another computer to check on the update.

Please advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.171.57.45 (talk) 15:29, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

It was reverted as advertising in this edit. – ukexpat (talk) 15:59, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Other language articles

Hi,

in the new layout, where can I find the links to the same article on other available languages?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.168.144.141 (talk) 19:24, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Similar place to where it used to be, except now there's a little triangle beside the word "Languages". Click on the triangle, and a list of available languages appears.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 19:27, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Need to upload a picture...

But I do not have a "confirmed" status. I am trying to upload this picture: http://twitpic.com/1qxu0f

to this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelda_%28turkey%29. A friend and I are the ones that took this picture today, and I added the following line to the Wikipedia page: "Zelda was again seen on May 25, 2010 outside of 55 Water Street, only a few blocks away from Battery Park."

Please let me know what to do, thanks! Shawn —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djshawnee (talk • contribs) 19:26, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You've made three edits, so you only need another seven (you registered your account ages ago, so you don't need to wait for four days, as a newly registered user would).

You can make edits to your userpage and edit most articles in the meantime. Once you've made another seven edits you'll probbaly need to wait a short while - I think there may be a slight delay before you'll get to be able to upload your picture.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 19:30, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Vandalism

When i want to warn users on their pages about them vandalising wikipedia,i know that users write something on their pages.Is there a code they put in to save them from writing it all out? Gobbleswoggler (talk) 19:45, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Use {{subst:test}}, like so:

Thank you for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test worked, and it has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you may want to do. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.

If you have a specific case of vandalism in mind, you can use {{subst:test|veeblefetzer}}, like so:

Thank you for experimenting with the page veeblefetzer on Wikipedia. Your test worked, and it has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you may want to do. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.

For repeated offenses, use "test2" or "test3" instead of "test". "Test4" is intended for administrators only, because it is intended as a final warning before blocking the vandal users. Non-administrator users cannot actually block anyone. JIP | Talk 19:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

That's just one set of the available templates. Many more are described here, covering many kinds of vandalism/mistakes/policy infringements/etc and many levels of warnings. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:20, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Is the image infobox on Wikipedia broken?

Look at, for example, this picture, which I both took and uploaded to Wikipedia myself. The infobox has this content:

== Summary ==
{{Information
 |Description    = A group of men and women participating in the [[Länsiväyläjuoksu]] event in [[Otaniemi]], [[Espoo]], [[Finland]].
 |Source         = I ([[User:JIP|<font color="#CC0000">J</font><font color="#00CC00">I</font><font color="#0000CC">P</font>]] | [[User talk:JIP|Talk]]) created this work entirely by myself.
 |Date           = 19:30, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
 |Author         = [[User:JIP|<font color="#CC0000">J</font><font color="#00CC00">I</font><font color="#0000CC">P</font>]] | [[User talk:JIP|Talk]]
 |other_versions = 
}}

The "Source" bit is intended to render as follows:

I (JIP | Talk) created this work entirely by myself.

What it ends up rendering as is:

I (JIP

The image infobox used to work all OK, even with my current signature. But it's been broken for several months now. What is the reason? JIP | Talk 19:47, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Your signature contains a "pipe" character, which is not recommended. On the "My Preferences" page it says "Also, if you are going to use a displayed pipe ("|") character (i.e. not part of a piped link), please use &#124; for the pipe character; it can otherwise cause templates to fail." -- John of Reading (talk) 19:57, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'll take a shot and guess that the pipe in your signature: | Talk) is mucking up the boxes code. Though if this was alright with your current sig previously then it's possible that the template was recently modified and now gives a bad reaction to said sig. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 20:00, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Hey, wow, it is the pipe character that is breaking the template. I just did a quick preview substituting &124; for |, and it worked. Too bad the template auto-substitutes my signature instead of rendering it on the fly. I've already fixed my signature, but it's not enough, now I have to go through every single image I've uploaded since the new template was taken into use and fix them. I guess the reason the old template worked OK is that it didn't try to include my signature, just a link to my user page. Thanks, John of Reading and Jeffrey Mall. JIP | Talk 20:04, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Please upload images to which you own the copyright to Wikimedia Commons rather than to Wikipedia. On Commons they are available to all Wikiprojects. – ukexpat (talk) 20:18, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The problem with your signature in the source field probably started 17 July 2009 with this edit, assuming you click the "Entirely my own work" link at Wikipedia:Upload. Your signature is also cut off at the pipe character in the author field (which is supposed to show the complete signature) since before the 2009 edit, but it's less noticeable for the author field because no text is supposed to be displayed after the signature there. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:40, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

uploaded images

I upladed an image but I do not know how to get it into the page I created. I found the logo I uploaded in the wikipeadia commons page. What's my next step to get the image into the company box I created on my page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Creativity123 (talk • contribs) 21:06, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You should replace your homemade infobox with one of the standard infobox templates, probably Template:Infobox company. If you paste the image's file name in the "logo" field of that infobox, the image will appear in the infobox. Deor (talk) 21:34, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

logged out while edditing

I have a problem where I get logged out of wikipedia during some point while staying on the wikipedia site even though I was originally logged in and never pressed the logged out button. Frequently I will navigate to a page I am currently working on by going to my contributions and clicking the page I want to look at/edit. Then after editing a discussion page I will see my comment signed with an IP address rather than my user name. Why is this happening? I am clearly logged in, after all I got to the page by clicking my user contributions. How am I getting logged out while editing? --MATThematical (talk) 21:32, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

See Help:Logging in for tips on staying logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:13, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Occasionally a registered editor will edit while logged out. While not usually an egregious issue, there can be some concerns about attribution and privacy.

• If you made an edit without logging in, you cannot go back and directly tie that edit to your account. If your desire to account for the edit overrides your desire for anonymity, you can log in, make a dummy edit, and add a note in the edit summary about the previous edit.

• If you make a comment on a talk page without logging in, then your signature will include your IP address. You can log in and edit the comment by replacing the signature. Be aware that the WikiScanner tool will retrieve these actions from the database and record them at the Poor Man's Checkuser, thus connecting your username and IP address.

• If you feel that the connection between the IP address and your username is an issue, then you can request that the edit be removed; see Wikipedia:Oversight#Policy and Wikipedia:Requests for oversight.

• Wikipedia has no built in safeguards to warn editors that they are logged out.

As a visual reminder, you can make the Save page button green when logged in, by adding this rule to Special:MyPage/skin.css:

/* Turn the "Save page" button green when logged in */
INPUT#wpSave {
    background-color:#88ff88;
}

If you use FireFox, you can disable the Save page button while logged out by installing Greasemonkey and the MediaWiki: Prevent anon editing script. This must be applied to each computer you use and will not be available on public computers.

---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:37, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Posting Pages to Foreign Languages Versions of Wikipedia

Hi,

We are an translation company and one of our customers has two English pages posted to Wikipedia. They want us to translated the pages into several Wikipedia supported languages. This is the easy part. The concern is how to post these to the native language versions of Wikipedia as we can not do that for them using their login information do to security issues, rights, etc. Alternatively they can't do it either as they do not speak any of the languages and can not figure out how to do this on the native versions of the sites.

Can you give any guidence on how to accomplish this?

Thanks for your help and guidence.

BJ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.123.114.226 (talk) 21:56, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You can create an account at ANY Wikipedia in ANY language and edit articles there (pursuant to that languages' guidelines and policies). A cornerstone policy of Wikipedia is that anyone can edit, and we mean it. There's no need to log in to anyone elses account, just create your own account, and edit or create any article you wish. Also, please be aware that English Wikipedia does not allow role accounts or corporate accounts, see Wikipedia:USERNAME#Sharing_accounts and Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry#Role_accounts. Accounts are one-person to one-account. Other languages maintain their own policies, so you'll have to ask at those languages help desks to find out more there. --Jayron32 02:08, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

This is not directly germane to your question, but it sounds from your description as if your customer believes that they 'own' pages in Wikipedia, and can employ you to do work on them (in this case, translation): I am presuming that the pages in question are about them or their products. Please make it clear to them that nobody owns pages on English Wikipedia, and that if the pages do indeed relate to them or their products, both they and you would have a conflict of interest, and are strongly discouraged from editing the articles. The rules may be different in other Wikipedias. --ColinFine (talk) 23:10, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I would also bear in mind that the editing standards of the english wikipedia and those of (for example) the spanish or japanese language wikipedias can be vastly different. So while your translation may initially be a mirror of the english article, after a few days or weeks or months, it may be change drasticly. Livewireo (talk) 19:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Requesting image updates

As my knowledge of image copyrights, rules, policies and etc (hence this) is minimal I tend to avoid the whole image area like the plague on Wikimedia sites. I was wondering if there was any specific way to request an image be updated? Not edited but actually updated? For example if we had a screenshot of a website's home page that has since been updated and no one had uploaded a screen of the current up to date home page would there be a process to request an up to date version of the file be uploaded? Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 22:06, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

You can request on the image talk page, but those are not often watched. Might be better to ask on the talk page of the article where the image is used. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

The image in question is File:Button sig.png which is a highly used and fully protected image, but, due to recent skin change requires updating. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 22:48, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

File:Button sig.png is at commons:File:Button sig.png and used in many other wikis where the default skin is still MonoBook, so the file should not be updated. Instead a new file could be uploaded with a new name and the English Wikipedia could change to use the new file. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:57, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I see. The primary concern is the {{uw-tilde}} template, at the moment it's telling users to sign their posts by clicking an edit button that isn't there anymore. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 23:00, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

I uploaded File:Vector_toolbar_signature_button.png for you. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:36, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies and thank you TheDJ, I've since updated the tilde template. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 23:42, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

{{uw-tilde}} used Image:Signature_icon.png which redirects to File:Button sig.png. I found File:Button sig new.png and changed {{uw-tilde}} to use that. You then changed my change! It would be possible to upload a file to the English Wikipedia at File:Button sig.png. It would override the commons file at the English Wikipedia but not at other wikis. I don't know whether this is a good idea. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:46, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Whoops lol. Sorry about that PrimeHunter, as for updating the local file version I'll leave that to anyone who knows and understands commons and images here on the en 'pedia. Cheers, Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 23:52, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

May 26

Movuy article

I am ready to move my article so it is live on Wikipedia. Do I delete my user/<username> in the new title field so that just the title shows, or will Wikipedia delete the user/<username> automatically when I move it? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Htcrane (talk • contribs) 01:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

When you move the article, in the field where you type the new name, just enter the name as the exact title you want the article to appear under. Please be sure to follow Wikipedia:Naming conventions when chosing a name for your article. --Jayron32 02:40, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Pioneer 11

TRW was in the Pioneer 11 space program. There was a daily news announcement by a young woman.was this an advertisement or done by NASA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.107.117.147 (talk) 01:54, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

First, this is the help desk which deals with questions related to editing this encyclopedia. The Reference Desk is for factual questions about various other subjects. So you should repost your question there. Second, you may want to better explain what you're referring to. I, for one, have no idea what "TRW" is with relation to the Pioneer 11 project. Dismas|^(talk) 02:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

When Pioneer 11 didn't mention TRW, you could have tried whether TRW mentions Pioneer 11... But it doesn't answer the original question. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:34, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, though my point is still valid. This is the wrong place and some additional background will help people understand the question. Dismas|^(talk) 05:22, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Repeat vandal

The user at 76.90.52.75 (Contributions) has repeatedly vandalised an article. Shall I warn them and if so what do I need to use to warn them of their bad edits. Thanks! Chevymontecarlo 06:32, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The user has been given a level-one warning, and the vandalism reverted. This page explains more about warning vandals, and how to respond to vandalism generally. Does that answer your question? Gonzonoir (talk) 07:56, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's great! Thanks. I'll bookmark the link. Chevymontecarlo 11:47, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Help in changing Text display size!

Hi, as a frequent user of Wikipedia, I have used several computers which display ALL the text on Wikipedia at a huge size where you literally have to scroll left to right 5 or more screens to read a single line! How is this amended? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.105.29.142 (talk) 06:41, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Try hitting Ctrl + the minus key (-) or, while holding down the control button moving your mouse's scroll wheel down. In most browsers you can also go to something like "view" in the browser menu and "zoom" in or out.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:48, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you're using Firefox, you can hit Ctrl and the zero key to return the text to the default size. Dismas|^(talk) 10:51, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a widget or a web gadget?

Hi,

I am a regular reader of your online encyclopedia and am particularly pleased about the content. Except in some rare cases, I find wikipedia a lot resourceful and hence rely on the information obtained therefrom. However I find a hitch, while many such information hubs have come up with their own widgets and addons to browsers or toolbars to make the search process more user friendly, yours I suppose is slightly short of one. Could you consider this and please work on this?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.192.197.156 (talk) 07:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you use a Mac (which you probably don't) the Dictionary application has the ability to search and view Wikipedia articles with the most basic formatting. There have been a few problems with the Dictionary app with the new Wikipedia design though, so keep that in mind. If you use a Windows computer (which you probably do) I don't think there are any Wikipedia widgets or addons that you can use, except there may be an addon for Internet Explorer somewhere... Chevymontecarlo 11:46, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There are search engines for Firefox that should be available in the Firefox seach bar when you are on any en Wikpedia page. The same may also be true for IE 8, but I cannot confirm that. – ukexpat (talk) 15:20, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Uploading a Picture with permission given by the UN

Hi,

I'm trying to upload a picture that I've gotten permission from the UN.

Please advise,

T —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.178.107.12 (talk) 08:08, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The advice on donating copyrighted materials here probably applies, if the picture is copyright. In a nutshell, you must be aware that only the copyright holder can donate the material, and that donating it means permitting it to be changed and used outside Wikipedia too. Practically, if the material is already online then you'd need to add compatible licensing notices to the site where it's already displayed, or if it's not yet online you'd need to upload it to Wikimedia Commons with a suitable license, or create an OTRS ticket confirming that permission is granted. Does that page supply the information you need, or do you have any more questions? Gonzonoir (talk) 08:16, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

phonetic words

Hello people,

when I type the word 'khela' which means game I found it on Wikipedia. But most people in write it in Bengali the word 'Khelaa' with 2 aa's. Is it possible to change this at wikipedia or to make a new page.

Again, most people use khelaa and not khela —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.130.97.35 (talk) 11:59, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I reverted your edit to Khela. This is an article about a film called Khela according to every source I found. It is not an article about a Bengali word called khelaa, and Wikipedia is not a dictionary. If Khelaa was a common misspelling of the film title then a redirect could be created at Khelaa. Do you have evidence of this spelling being used about the film? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Also note that Khela displays File:Khela.jpg, a poster for the film which clearly spells it Khela. It was odd that you changed [4] the file name to the non-existing File:Khelaa.jpg and wrote the title as "Khelaa" where File:Khela.jpg had been. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

social upliftment funding for western cape south africa

Hi Everyone We need finicial help in South Africa especially in a small village in Villiersdorp Western Cape where we need funding for social upliftment for farm workers and transients. We require land and a new large community hall ,as these poor peaple suffer from alchohol/drug/women and child abuse.If anyone can redirect this message of hope to someone who can help us the community would be very greatfull.

kind regards Lynne and George

Christian Familly Open Door Fellowship

<email redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.4.130.20 (talk) 12:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry. I'm sure it's a worthwhile cause, but Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a bulletin board, and it doesn't permit advertising or appeals of this type. I've removed your email address per the header on this page, as spammers harvest such details from this high-profile site. Karenjc 13:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

My username does not work i Think

I get this message everytime; "Login error There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please hit "back" and reload the page you came from, then try again."

I am very annoyed by this!! Please make my user work again. I feel like im being sen censored. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.98.231.105 (talk) 13:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Try closing the browser and open it again. Or restart the computer. If you are asked to enter words written in a strange way (a CAPTCHA) then do it. Does this help? If not then what is the username and browser? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:35, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Mysteriously, the last edit in this page does not show

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AList_of_cities_by_quality_of_living&action=historysubmit&diff=364295266&oldid=362926090 --94.69.80.118 (talk) 13:31, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It shows for me. Try to bypass your cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:37, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

That edit showed up. Because of the formatting, it was put on the same line as the previous comment, I have fixed it so it display properly and is easier to read. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:40, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Show only BOT edits

Is there a way to show only edits made by BOTS when viewing article history.--intraining ^{Jack In} 13:37, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There is none that I know of. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 14:19, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think bot flags appear in page histories; they only appear in Recent Changes and Watchlist. Gary King (talk) 14:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

This might or might not be "duh advice", but as a method of searching for edits by bots (which in almost all cases have "bot" as part of their name), I would suggest expanding the page history to 500 revisions, then using your computer's find function (Ctrl+F) to search for "bot".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:28, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

"Adding To What ForgetAbout It Said" If you have firefox, you can just type "Bot" when on the page, but not in a text find and It'll quick find\highlight everywhere on the page with it. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:03, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

help so my text is not delete

i have just posted an information about the competitor felipe costa, using atext from my website, now im afraid it will be delete, since that is a message saying that>

> > > my user name is felipepcs> > > > please help me as im new on that and the explanation was too complicated to me (im really stupid) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Felipepcs (talk • contribs) 15:49, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You seem to be saying that you are the author or publisher of the web site that the information was copied from. There are ways for you to grant a copyright license to that the copy can be used on Wikipedia.

But first, read the guideline, WP:ATHLETE, about how notable an athlete must be for there to be an article about him. If your website is considered to be an authority on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then the article on your site may allow the article to appear in Wikipedia. If not, you must cite other reliable sources that describe the athlete's importance in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:05, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Felipe costa has been deleted as a copyright violation of this site. That site does not contain a copyright release or license acceptable to Wikipedia so the text cannot be used here. Assuming that the subject is notable, you will either have to rewrite the text in your own words or ask the copyright owner to release the copyright as explained on this page (or you release it as described there if you own that site). However, if you are the subject, please read our advice about creating an autobiography or if you are connected to the subject please read our advice on editing with a conflict of interest. – ukexpat (talk) 16:06, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Deleting old username from talk page

I've changed my username, however my old username still shows up in an (unwanted) post on a talk page whenever you click the 'diff' button. I've tried to manually edit it, but it still keeps showing up in the old version upon clicking the 'diff' button. Is there any way at all to make that change? Help! Qwerty24601 (talk) 16:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)Qwerty24601

I'm not sure that you can, and my view is that that's correct behaviour for a diff - a diff shows a snapshot of a moment in time, and at that moment in time you were using your old username.

For what it's worth, I changed my username (from "This flag once was red"), and I simply acknowledge the old username on my userpage.

For the most recent version of the talk page, could you simply archive or delete/move the comment? Obviously that won't affect diffs, but I'd advise against trying to alter the past!

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 16:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You can ask for the revision to be oversighted but you will have to have good reasons for doing so, a mere change of name/new account would not usually be enough. – ukexpat (talk) 16:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Suggestion box

Does Wikipedia have a "suggestion box"? I have a suggestion that a flaw be fixed in the article search process. Duoduoduo (talk) 17:15, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Feature requests and bug reports should be posted to BugZilla. – ukexpat (talk) 17:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you start by posting here then we might say whether it's a known issue and maybe has a known solution. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:24, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The Village Pump has places to discuss bugs, policy corrections and numerous other suggestions. Livewireo (talk) 18:58, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

A concept with double meanings

Resolved

If a concept (in this case Domain specificity) has two different meanings, and an article has been written about only one of them, how do I add the second meaning to the article? (This second meaning would only require two sentences, so it's not worth an article, but just knowing what "domain" and "specificity" means is not quite enough to understand the meaning of the combination "domain specificity". Lova Falk talk 18:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I would recommend an "Other Uses" Section within the main article - something like - "Domain Specificity can also refer to a __ which ___. This is widely used for___."
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Full Page History Download

Resolved

I don't understand the reasoning behind the restriction on number of revisions in an article export. I am trying to set up a research project using a couple of hundred wikipedia articles and have run into the history export restriction on a couple of them. I would prefer not to have to download the entire Wikipedia since that would tax bandwidth and almost certainly overtax my system and storage capacity. However, the restriction on length of history poses a significant problem for the research program I have in mind. I may be able to kludge something with cURL, assuming I can get it to open the pages (as yet a failure, alas), but it seems there must be a simpler solution. If, indeed, there is no solution, can someone explain the logic of restricting history in the manner it is restricted through Special:Export? Thanks in advance. Nobboddoddy (talk) 19:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Not sure how asking a question about downloading full page history is construed as "intended to be disruptive". If the person who deleted it thinks it doesn't belong on this forum, that may be a reasonable contention, but that isn't the reason given. If that is the case, is there a more appropriate forum for more technical usage questions?

Try WP:VPT. Johnuniq (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, that looks like a good place to ask :) --Nobboddoddy (talk) 09:11, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I quit!

I created my first page and i was unable to come back to edit it when i got back it was completely different and whenever i try to add a new thing to it it is just deleted right away and when i made a new page it is nominated for deletion and i don't want to waste my time on something that is just going to be deleted and changed by careless people how can i quit Wikipedia? --A.m.c.1.9.9.9 (talk) 20:06, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You can just stop editing.

There are some other ideas at this page, but to my mind the easiest thing is just to stop and not sign in again.

Incidentally, when you created the page (this one, presumably?) you would have been shown a warning advising that all pages here can be edited by everyone. You don't "own" the page you created.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 20:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It can be very frustrating when you first start editing Wikipedia. Perhaps you could start by editing articles that already exist. Creating new ones (that don't get deleted!) can be a tricky thing at first, there are certain policies and guidelines you need to adhere to. Unfortunately lots of articles get deleted every day, and it can be disheartening. It's easier to "practise" your Wikipedia skills by making small changes to articles, and watching what others do. Do bear in mind though that edits don't always "stick". As TFOWR says above me, this is a wiki, and anyone can change what you've written. Even the most experienced editors find that. From your talkpage, it looks like you've run into trouble with our Notability guideline, so it might be worth reading over that. And feel free to ask any questions here if you need to.--BelovedFreak 21:55, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Unsuccessful adding links

I created an account today and tried to add external links for several individual pages (Gordon Parks, Stella Stevens, Martin Woodhouse) to articles/interviews at legitimate online sites that provide additional context to the main text. The new links appeared briefly, then disappeared, and Wikipedia then logged me out. Can you tell me if this is because I made formatting errors? Thank you.Dean Brierly (talk) 20:23, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

One user undid all your edits, perhaps either because they considered the links to be WP:LINKSPAM or because you removed the ==External links== section heading from each article. I don't think the logging out is related; you might have HTTP cookie problems. Gary King (talk) 20:46, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Gary. Two more questions, if I may. 1) When I try to add a link, I click on the word "edit" to the right of External Links, then click on the the link symbol, add the Target Page or URL, insert Text to Display, and hit Insert Link. That takes me the Edit section, where Edit Summary is highlighted above a text bar. What exactly should I type here? Something like: Added external link? And is there anything else I should be doing as part of this process? 2) When I tried adding links earlier today, and they appeared briefly, the header External Links had disappeared. Was that due to a formatting error on my part? Thanks in advance.Dean Brierly (talk) 21:32, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It appears that when you added the links, you overwrote the bit that says ==External links==; that's the text that produces the header. Typing "added external link" is a good edit summary, you could also say why you think it's a good addition. You need to be brief, but if you want to write more you can use the article talkpage. Before you start adding more links, please read Wikipedia:External links and What Wikipedia is not to understand a bit more about which links we tend to add and which we tend to remove. Many editors start off at Wikipedia by adding useful links, because it's quite an easy way to start getting involved, but find that their edits are reverted. It's important to make sure that articles don't end up becoming long lists of external links. Also, have a look at some of the links provided on you talkpage, they'll help you learn the ropes.--BelovedFreak 21:49, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Cheers!Dean Brierly (talk) 21:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There may be a Conflict of interest issue here, because Dean is posting external links to interviews that he conducted himself. -- John of Reading (talk) 04:44, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

May be? Most definitely a COI. – ukexpat (talk) 17:28, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

General Aristide Razu(can't find the article I made)

Hi,my name is Andrei Radu Georgescu,I made an article about my ggrandfather General Aristide Razu and I cannot find it on Wikipedia.Any ideeas?

Kind regards . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aristiderazu (talk • contribs) 22:57, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I can check for you if you please write the exact page name below. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 23:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You posted about him extensively here however, the post here is the only post you have made to Wikipedia, under this name. --SPhilbrickT 23:22, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

May 27

Photo gallery

Whilst looking at an article on Orb-weaver spiders, I noticed a comment had been made that the pictures looked like a photo gallery and this was not acceptable. What I'm trying to understand is why this is not acceptable. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Leeflea (talk • contribs) 00:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Try opening this page on Wikipedia's policy for this. It states that each must be important to the article's meaning and be used as such - that collections of pics can't be used on Wikipedia - it's an encyclopedia. Hope that helps!
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 00:57, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Avoiding Wrongful Association With Disruptive IP (Via CheckUser)

Hello, I was wondering if there is a way that I can notify Wikipedia that I do sometimes edit from one other computer (besides the two at my house) and (since it is extremely disruptive and vandalizes a lot, i'm sure), that I have no association with it? I read about a way to do this a week or so ago, but I don't remember what it was. Thanks in advance.
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:21, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

No one is going to checkuser your account if you don't do anything wrong with it. Checkuser's aren't stupid, they don't randomly block every user on a particular IP just because someone vandalizes from it. You have nothing to fear. --Jayron32 02:04, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Ok, good to know! ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 02:36, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Help

I have a hp pavilion dv5-1170ei and it had problems with the audio and the quick launch buttons after upgrading to Win 7. I decided to update the bios because that was the only thing that i had not updated. Now the computer is frozen with the BIOS update still running. I once had the same problem with a dv5-1199ei and it worked fine after upgrading the BIOS. By the way i upgraded from Vista Home premium to Win 7 Ultimate.

I don't know what to do. -129.78.64.100 (talk) 03:13, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

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.Template:Z38--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:42, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Purpose of Category Modification

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:31, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

An IP user has made a whole line of edits that i don't understand the point of: It appears that he is modifying certain categories, but it doesn't seem to have any effect or purpose. I've not seen anyone else do it, but i don't know a lot about categories, so: Is there some reason for doing this that i haven't come across in my simplistic understanding of how WP works? Cheers, Lindsay^Hi 03:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

What he/she is doing is piping the article categorization to the location of the peerage, and thus forcing the page to appear in the category alphabetically by that location. For example, if you look at Category:Dukes in the Peerage of England, under the listing for "C", you'll see listed: Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence This is categorizing under C because the IP piped the link for the category, here, to "Clarence". If the category was not piped in this way, it would categorizes by the first letter of the article title ("L"). The edits make sense. Now, if you look at the talk page of the category, you'll see a note suggesting exactly this, that the categorization should be alphabetized by the Dukedom rather than last name. I don't know if there has been vast discussion on that categorization alphabetization scheme, but rest assured this is not vandalism.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:52, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

...and now we both know why i stay away from categories and other things i don't understand!

Thanks, Fuhghettaboutit. Cheers, Lindsay^Hi 04:09, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Help With

Anyone know:

1. Rish/Safely of Magnesium carbonate
2. Number RTECS of Magnesium carbonate
3. Structure and properties of Magnesium carbonate

• Please contact at the following address:--I love chemistry (talk) 04:22, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you!

Most of those questions can be answered by reading the article linked in your question. There is also a link to the MSDS for the compound, which contains safety info. --Jayron32 04:25, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Piped Character

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:32, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

What is the substitute for "|" in signatures? I forgot and like twenty of my welcome templates have been messed up. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 05:53, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

It's &#124; as far as I know. {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 06:02, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

On the "My Preferences" page it says "Also, if you are going to use a displayed pipe ("|") character (i.e. not part of a piped link), please use &#124; for the pipe character; it can otherwise cause templates to fail." -- John of Reading (talk) 06:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that. Except I failed at using it. Fixed now. {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 06:09, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - Why didn't I see that before? ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 22:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Why you ban us

don’t understand what are the difference, just enter a booking engine in your search box and of course you will get a list of a booking engines or software related to (WuBook, Hotel-In Booking engine etc.), so what is the problem or difference when we add our Phobs Booking engine or any other listing? We rely don’t understand why you always ban us from your site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.3.23.146 (talk) 07:25, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Comment: the articles are Internet booking engine and Online hotel reservations -- John of Reading (talk) 08:23, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for drawing attention to these two articles. Both were in a poor state, contrary to the Wikipedia policy Wikipedia is not a directory, and both have now been cleaned up. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

There are various rules and policies in pace to help maintain the quality of the articles and content on here. Badly written articles will not be accepted and are likely to be just deleted. Chevymontecarlo 12:08, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Searching with Vector skin

Hi, when searching with the Vector skin, how do you actually search? For example, if I want to search for the word "Magic", and type it in the box, but it just redirects to the page "Magic" instead of showing a list of results.. How do I get the list of results?? 75.72.27.74 (talk) 08:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Two ways. (1) Type "Magic" and then click the magnifying glass icon at the end of the search box. (2) Look at the pop-up list of pages that start with the word "magic". At the bottom is an extra entry labelled "containing... Magic" - a click there will do a search. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:09, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Method (1) goes directly to the Magic page. If you start a search with an empty search field or something not matching a page name then you get to a search box. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:13, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

So it does. My apologies. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Emailing the company to ask them to help update/expand their own page

I recently created the Chiappa Firearms article and the Chiappa Rhino article. Is it appropriate to email the company to ask them to flesh out their own articles and/or provide images, as long as the article doesn't end up reading like an advertisement? Faceless Enemy (talk) 10:36, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I'd say it's fine to email the company, but be careful what you encourage them to do.

I think it's safer to point them at the article's talk page, and ask them to comment there. You could also explain this by pointing them at Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations and the conflict of interest page. That way they'll know that creating an advertisement is not what we're about, and they'll know how to engage other editors so that "their" article is as correct as possible.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 10:56, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Creating a new infobox

I wish to create a new template infobox for government services (as in template: infobox Government service) and I have tried many times but failed as I find the procedure difficult. Is there any way by which I can request some administrator or other Wikipedia contributor for providing assistance in creating this template infobox. If someone could just create the basic model, it would be very helpful as rest I can easily modify by looking and copying the pattern of the created template. Regards *Truth* (talk) 12:18, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requested templates.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:20, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Cheers! *Truth* (talk) 12:25, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Correction of information on our organization.

Our organization is mentionned in many articles in Wikipedia. However information about us isn't accurate anymore. Is it be possible to make these corrections ourselves or put a message somewhere for someone to check these pages and make these corrections? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.234.27.244 (talk) 12:29, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

what is the organisation? --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:32, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The general answer is that your input is desired, but it is best if you post a note on the article Talk page, ideally with references so an uninvolved editor can confirm the information and make the changes. If you provide the name of the organization, we could illustrate with more specific suggestions.--SPhilbrickT 14:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Hidden text in the new design

In the new look of Wikipedia, how can I insert <!-- and --> to surround text so it gets hidden? I couldn't find a button to do that automatically with. Do I have to either type those codes manually or copy them from somewhere? Thanks. --Магьосник (talk) 13:20, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

You can choose "Wiki markup" in the box below Save page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:46, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Rfc/u listing

Hello, I need assistance in listing a new RfC/U here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:RFCUlist. The subject is Chelo61, I am having difficulting listing it since there is no real clear instruction on how to add it correctly other then "List it at the top". Thank you. Phearson (talk) 14:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Re-use of articles

Hi. Much of the text in TRAXX has been reused in a published article "The TRAXX family" in Continental Modeller (by same publisher as Railway Modeller) June 2010. Can someone point me in the direction of where I can find out what copying is acceptable and under what terms. Thank you.77.86.125.207 (talk) 14:35, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

You are looking for this I think: Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:54, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

ok thanks. They've included a link to the article - but no license - some of the content in the published article is not directly from wikipedia, other information is directly copied word for word. The wikipedia page is labeled as a 'source' in the article.

The magazine also carrys a copyright notice of it's own "..no part of this magazine may be reproduced ... "

No mention of any license - where can I report this violation if anywhere?77.86.125.207 (talk) 16:47, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

ok found it.

Resolved

Number of articles in subcategories

Previously, when I visited Category:Proposed deletion, I could see the number of articles in each subcategory of that category next to the subcategory. Now I'm not seeing that. Did something change to make either that category or all categories in general no longer show how many articles are in each subcategory? Is there a way to get it to start showing the number of articles in subcategories again by modifying my settings? Calathan (talk) 15:12, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

mw:Extension:CategoryTree was disabled today due to performance reasons. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#What's happened to "categorytree"? PrimeHunter (talk) 18:57, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_%28Ciara_song%29

I keep typing in a sentence and adding a reference for proof as to my statement. WHY DOES IT KEEP GETTING DELETED —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dtwmjb12 (talk • contribs) 16:23, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The reference you're using is YouTube, which tends not to be regarded as a good source. I don't know if this is why you reverted in this case, however - I'm just guessing. Ideally, something from a newspaper's website or something similar would be used instead.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 16:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The fact that it's a YouTube video is very likely to be the reason why your edit keeps getting reverted though. I would try and find a more reliable source using TFOWR's suggestions. Chevymontecarlo 19:27, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Decision on submitted article

I submitted an article for the main space on Monday and I still haven't seen a decision. The article is The International Organization for Biological Control http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:The_International_Organization_for_BIological_Control. I submitted it previously, it was rejected and I made substantial changes and believe that I improved the article up to standards. PhyllisWeintraub (talk) 17:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

What decision are you looking for? The article is at International Organization for BIological Control. It has some problems but nothing that can't be sorted out judging by the quick look that I gave it. Dismas|^(talk) 17:50, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I moved it to International Organization for Biological Control to fix the typo. – ukexpat (talk) 18:14, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I must need a nap. I read that title three times trying to figure out why I had a red link. Dismas|^(talk) 18:17, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Does the subject of an article have the final say?

Hello If an article is edited from an anonymous IP address by someone purporting to be the subject of the article, should their contributions be taken seriously? For instance, if an edit is sourced by a newspaper but then amended from an IP address by the person concerned stating that the newspaper was in error, should their new edit stand? This has happened regularly at the article Bidisha, most recently today. Thanks for your help Alistair Stevenson (talk) 18:20, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

1. The subject has a gross conflict of interest, and seldom has much to say about what an article includes or excludes.

2. The IP may or may not be the subject; they could be the subject, or the subject's worst enemy, or my cat.

3. In any case, verifiability and reliable sourcing are our beacons in this matter; some anonymous account is not going to trump those. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:29, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

No the "subject" doesn't for the very reason that without evidence we have no way of verifying that the person claiming to be the subject actually is. See WP:BIOSELF for the recommended process. – ukexpat (talk) 18:32, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, that helps a lot Alistair Stevenson (talk) 18:41, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

In theory, the subject of an article is no way an absolute authority on what is allowed on the article, especially if it's a celebrity or other public figure. Of course intimate personal details can be removed on their request, but for example public statements can stay on Wikipedia even against the subject's wishes. JIP | Talk 18:45, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Transferring images to Commons?

It was suggested to me earlier that I upload images to Wikipedia Commons instead of the English Wikipedia. Now I have uploaded very many images to the the English Wikipedia, but none to Commons. Is there some sort of handy, simple-to-use procedure for transferring these images to Commons, or do I have to reupload them from my own hard drive?

And besides, if language-specific Wikipedias can freely use images from Commons with no special syntax required, why does language-specific Wikipedia image uploading even exist? Is it because of hysterical raisins? JIP | Talk 18:48, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

See WP:MTC. There are, however, images that do not meet Commons' licensing criteria, but which do meet en Wikpedia's non-free content policy (such as copyrighted logos), hence they are uploaded "locally". – ukexpat (talk) 18:58, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

(ec):There are some classes of images used on wikipedia (fair use within an article I think) that cannot be used on commons (no fair use rational).

about copying to commons - I believe there is a tag "this image is a candidate for copying to commons" Template:Copy_to_Wikimedia_Commons - you could add that to all your images (a bot might help if you have a list), and then perhaps oneday a bot will exist to do the copying across as well. There might be a better answer.77.86.125.207 (talk) 18:59, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See WP:MITC, and notes about my quest for efficiency in User:Teratornis/Notes#Move some images to Commons. The best method I have found so far for moving images to Commons remains unnecessarily awkward to some degree. The difficulty depends on how screwed up the image pages are on the source Wikipedia - there are seemingly an infinite number of ways for Wikipedia users to upload images that make them hard or impossible to move to Commons, and break the various tools that try to automate the move. As to why we have redundant upload destinations, there are several reasons, including:

• The various Wikipedias may allow more image licensing types, such as fair use.
• Commons came along after the English Wikipedia and several other major Wikipedias had been around for several years already. Forcing everybody to use Commons exclusively would have been seriously disruptive.
• Sometimes users on a Wikipedia purposely hide an image on Commons by uploading a different image with the same name to their local Wikipedia. You'd have to ask them why they do this.
• When there are several possible ways to do something, Wikipedia tends to allow all of them. See for example how we do not have one single citation format, and we allow both British and American spelling in articles. We let users choose their own skins, and monkey with their signatures. Etc. Forcing everyone to adhere to one procedure goes against ignoring all rules. We like freedom, even though it means complexity.

--Teratornis (talk) 19:10, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think license issues will be a problem. The only images that I have uploaded that still exist on the English Wikipedia are photographs taken by myself, which either portray public places or things like food dishes, or which have their subjects' approval for publishing. These images do not include images where the copyright belongs to someone other than me, such as film or computer game screenshots, or album covers. In fact, I use stricter rules for publishing photographs on Wikipedia than I do for showing them to my family or at my local camera club. I'm only concerned with the technical details:

1. I suppose I need an account at Commons?
2. Can I transfer images directly from the English Wikipedia to Commons or do I actually have to reupload them?
3. Can I get a list of every image I've ever uploaded to the English Wikipedia? JIP | Talk 19:17, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes you will need a Commons account but you can unify accounts using WP:SUL. There are tools for moving to Commons, see WP:MTC#Tools. – ukexpat (talk) 19:26, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

For a list of your contributions in the File namespace, go to your contributions, and change the option in the Namespace dropdown to "File", hit search. – ukexpat (talk) 19:30, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Everything looks OK so far, but I would still want to know (sorry if this has already been covered somewhere, but I'm just too dense to find it), seeing as I've uploaded the images to the English Wikipedia already, can I transfer them directly from there to Commons instead of actually reuploading them from my hard drive? It would help me in to ways: (1) I wouldn't need to search for the original file on my computer, and (2) it would be faster because of the greater bandwidth between Wikipedia servers than between them and my own computer. JIP | Talk 19:36, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

See my notes in User:Teratornis/Notes#Move some images to Commons. I documented how I followed all the steps in WP:MITC such as making a TUSC account so I could use CommonsHelper. See User:Teratornis/Notes#Improving the efficiency of using CommonsHelper which describes how I created a user subpage (User:Teratornis/Notes/CommonsHelper) to use as a template to partially pre-fill the CommonsHelper fields the way I like. Incidentally, I wish the usability people would stop fooling with the cosmetic appearance of Wikipedia, and instead give us something useful such as a completely simple and robust tool for moving images to Commons. All a user should have to do is click on an image and select "move to Commons" and everything should be automatic, with the software handling all the hitches and glitches and special cases of free license this and fair use that. --Teratornis (talk) 20:31, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

CommonsHelper handles the upload for you. In fact it is better to use CommonsHelper than to manually upload duplicate images to Commons, because CommonsHelper properly marks the new images and old images to indicate what just happened. When people do it by hand, they tend skip steps and we end up with duplicate images on Commons and the Wikipedias that someone else must then try to unscramble. --Teratornis (talk) 20:33, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

OK, thanks! I was going to reply "please just say 'yes you can' or 'no you can't'", but I see you have already replied with "yes you can". Now I have all necessary things set up: (1) Do I need an account at Commons? Yes, I do. (2) Can I transfer images directly to Commons? Yes, I can. (3) Do I have to worry about licenses? No, I don't, because I only have images on the English Wikipedia that I own the copyright to in the first place. (4) How can I get a list of all my images? Wikipedia has a tool for that. Now I simply have to find the time and motivation to do all this. JIP | Talk 20:42, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Let me know if you would like me to move a few of your image uploads for you, so you can see how I do it. Of course there are other ways besides the one I use. It also helps to know about the category structure on Commons, which is usually different than on the Wikipedias. Commons has a much more elaborate category structure for images than Wikipedia does, since categories on Wikipedia are mainly for categorizing articles. You can usually categorize images much better on Commons. --Teratornis (talk) 20:39, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'll first have to see how to go about uploading images to Commons in the first place. JIP | Talk 20:42, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I can't add a title to the collapsable sections on my user page

Resolved

Please help! What am I doing wrong? The problem is here. Thank you! Chevymontecarlo 19:34, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I have added some info for you ..should get it now..Moxy (talk) 19:38, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! I still struggle with the really simple stuff :( Chevymontecarlo 19:39, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

spam

I am receiving spam to my school's domain from soothe58@wikipedia.org . The subject is: 55% off. Famous Watches And the complete message is: "Make sure you dress the part with your new watch [possibly harmful link removed]" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.182.110.5 (talk) 21:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

It might very well be that the spammer is faking his sender address. SMTP, in its basic form, allows for any arbitrary address as the sender address. I have received spam claiming to be sent from my own email address. I am fairly sure Wikipedia has nothing to do with this. JIP | Talk 21:11, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

As fas as I know, the wikipedia.org domain does not have the required facilities to be a legitimate e-mail provider. There is absolutely no way the e-mail has anything to do with Wikipedia. All official e-mail relating to Wikipedia goes through the Wikimedia Foundation (the organization that runs Wikipedia). Although you should not normally be getting any email from the Foundation, it would always come from an e-mail address at wikimedia.org or, for local chapters, an equivalent address in the local TLD -- wikimedia.ch, wikimedia.de or wikimedia.org.il. Xenon54 (talk) 21:26, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Report Abuse

Hello. Someone, most likely a disgruntled former employee, has been vandalizing our company's entry in Wikipedia. I understand that I am able to revert back to the previous version, but is there any way to stop this person from being able to edit this entry? Is there some way to report their IP address (they have no user name) and have them blocked? The article title is A.D.A.M., Inc. and as you can see from the history of the article they have added erroneous information several times. Thank you. Erica Ryan eryan@adamcorp.com Ericarenzo (talk) 21:16, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Which IP address are you referring to? I looked at the page history of A.D.A.M., Inc. and didn't find any with more than 5 minutes before their first and last edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Phantom subcategory

In Category:Aviation films, it lists 5 of 6 subcategories. What's the 6th? I found the 6th under "U". Why does it do that, rather than display it at the beginning like the other 5? Is there a way to force it to show up at the beginning? (I'm thinking of adding another subcategory that starts with "W".) Clarityfiend (talk) 22:08, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Category pages without a sort key are sorted like other pages. The pages on the first category page of Category:Aviation films go to Fi, and so does the categories. Click "next 200" to see the next pages, and the next subcategories if there are any in that alphabetical interval. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:22, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

The currently disabled CategoryTree (see Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#What's happened to "categorytree"?) displays all subcategories together. It may be enabled again so don't start mass adding sort keys. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:25, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

CHAT

I think that you should add chat to wiki please... its no fun with out it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rbirdie101 (talk • contribs) 22:30, 27 May 2010 (UTC)