Wikipedia:Help desk

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners.

Ask a question

December 3

English language problem

I'm not a native speaker of English,so can I still try to edit/creat some pages in English?(like some articles about my country or local culture of my country) ,actually I 'm a beginner of editing Wiki(I've been using wiki for several years,but,I can't editing anything because of online censor in china,and now,government seems changed some censor policy）,and I tried to creat a new article, but today I found "It may need copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. Tagged since December 2010. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since December 2010. "this 2 tags have been added to that,would any one tell me what gonna happen to that page? thanks!

Photo Hanayo

Hello,

I just wanted to contribute a FREE Photo of the japanese Singer Hanayo, which I took in 1997 in Kassel, Germany, while the art exhibition documenta. Since now there is no photo of Hanayo available in Wikipedia. But: Things are getting – surprisingly – difficult. Having created, just for this thing, an account with the user-name "Beatclub-Front", I don't get the choice to upload my picture – and I don't get the point, where I made any mistake. So I would be very pleased, if you could check this thing and tell me what I have to do to get my photo finally online.

All the very best, Beatclub-Front —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beatclub-Front (talk • contribs) 00:21, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Here at the English Wikipedia you can only upload files if your account is autoconfirmed. When the photo is free, please upload it to Wikimedia Commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org. You can do that right away and then it can be used in all language Wikipedias. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:35, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

My additions to an article were removed

Answered

 – Bbb23 (talk) 03:04, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi,

I modified this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeyore%27s_Birthday_Party

and added text about the Texas Juggling Society in the first paragraph, as well as a link in the External Links to the official TJS website. TJS has been a part of Eeyore's for over 30 years. It seems like this addition is relevant. Can you tell me why it was removed? TJS is a non-profit organization, so this is not a commercial advertisement or a solicitation for new members.

Thanks. Doug Fowler (member of TJS) —Preceding unsigned comment added by TravelinTexan (talk • contribs) 02:11, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

The editor who removed it explained that there was no reason to single out one particular group. In the future, if you want to add anything to any article that involves a group you belong to, you should raise the change first on the article's Talk page and explain your involvement in the group. See WP:COI.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:16, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Canvassing?

Would it be considered canvassing to contact a few fellow contributors that I've often came across/stalked/admire regarding a request for editor review? I don't think it would be since editor review is not a decision process, but I'm asking just in case it wouldn't be appropriate to do so! Thanks - «CharlieEchoTango» 07:23, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

No, that's probably fine. The problem only arises when you are trying to artificially affect the outcome of a community decision by inflating the numbers of "voters" who are likely to agree with your position. Asking people "What do you think of my editing" isn't a community decision; its no different than asking specific people to copy edit a specific article or help with something you know they are good at. --Jayron32 07:31, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

All right then! That's what I thought but thanks for providing the needed second opinion! Cheers «CharlieEchoTango» 07:35, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

German question

der typ da oben geht einem ganz schön aufn sack. jimmy wales nervt. soll doch selbst was spenden und nicht bei jeder seite die leser nerven. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.62.4.10 (talk) 10:39, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Dieses ist das englische Wikipedia, nicht der Deutsche. Versuch hier. - David Biddulph (talk) 11:49, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't matter if English or German: Jimmy is going on my nerves too: How to disable permanently (as a registerd user) from being displayed? Waiting some months is not an option! mabdul 13:18, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

While logged in, go to Special:Preferences > Gadgets and under the "browsing gadgets" heading place a check in the box next to "Suppress display of the fundraiser banner". Gonzonoir (talk) 14:12, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Wrong dog photo

This is a Black Russian Terrier photo not a Giant Schnauzer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.150.38.119 (talk) 11:57, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I am no expert but this should probably be flagged for attention as there appears to be some discrepancy. The picture in Giant Schnauzer says "Other names Riesenschnauzer, Russian Bear Schnauzer". The article Black Russian Terrier has a picture that says "Other names Black Terrier, Tchiorny Terrier, Chornyi, Russian Bear Schnauzer, Russian Black Terrier". Are they the same breed? Are the "also known as" entries wrong? I don't know. How do you flag this for attention by experts? -- Q Chris (talk) 12:17, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

You can solicit expert attention by posting the {{expert-subject}} tag on the article - it also allows a subject parameter to associate the request with a particular wikiproject. Here I think WP:DOG is the germane group, so I've put {{expert-subject|Dogs}} on the page and left a talk page note alluding to this discussion. Gonzonoir (talk) 14:06, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! -- Q Chris (talk) 14:17, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Category:Free software programmed in Tcl tkwww is listed under M

I wrote primary the article tkWWW and after adding some articles to the Category:Free software programmed in Tcl I recognized that the article tkWWW is under the wrong subsection although in the article the cat is added without any parameters. Is this a mediawiki bug? How to correct this? Adding the t-parameter by hand? mabdul 13:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I have fixed this. See Help:DEFAULTSORT for more on category sorting. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:29, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

 Done THX mabdul 13:35, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Logged in signal desired

Is there a feature that allows an editor to determine that they are logged in just before they post an edit? For example, is there a feature that chnges the color of the Edit summary box or area around the edit summary when a user is logged in? That way, if I am not logged in and am going to make a post, the lack of color adjacent to the edit summary may let me know that I am not logged in. Thanks -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 13:22, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

See User:Gadget850/FAQ#Logged out. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:33, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) Click on User:Uzma Gamal/monobook.css, add the following self-explanatory code:

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

You can also switch to a different skin, such as the much better Monobook skin from the awful Vector default. If you're logged out the skin will show it. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:38, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Agree with Fughettaboutit re: monobook. GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 13:39, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

• I added the code to my monobook.css and then switched my skin preference from Vector to monobook. That lit the save button green. However, I'm used to the Vector default - the gadgets seem to work only with theVector skin. I tried adding the Turn the "Save page" button green if I'm logged in code to my User:Uzma Gamal/vector.css page, but that didn't work. Is there a way to use the Vector skin and have the save page button colored green? -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:06, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

• Oh, I only needed to bypass my browser's cache by pressing cntl-F5. Now my Save Page button is lit green using Vector skin. I'd like to lite up the other buttons to give me more visual signals as well. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:08, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

• Hey, this seems to do it:

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

/* Turn the "Show preview" button yellow if I'm logged in */
input#wpPreview {
    background-color:#FFFF00;
}

/* Turn the "Show changes" button fuchsia if I'm logged in */
input#wpDiff {
    background-color:#FF00FF;
}

Now, if I could make them blink, that would be even better. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:21, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Bump. Anyone have any idea how to make it blink?Naraht (talk) 13:57, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

oxygen and carbon di oxide

which tree or plant leave produce more Oxygen and which tree or plant leave consume more carbon Di oxide. please answer. thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.215.15.151 (talk) 14:37, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Science reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 14:46, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Please note, however, that you must do your own homework. TNXMan 15:43, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

By the way, I don't think that question is susceptible to any definitive answer by the language used. It appears that either it's missing a part, stating which specific tree or plant are to be compared, or what you (or whoever wrote the question) intended by the word "more" was "most".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:39, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Where is the Artisian page?

I noticed that the page for the band Artisian has been deleted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisian). The only link I can find to it is via Steve Banks and then it states the following:

This page has been deleted. The deletion and move log for the page are provided below for reference. 01:58, 11 August 2009 Alexf (talk | contribs) deleted "Artisian" ‎ (A7: Article about a band, singer, musician, or musical ensemble, which does not indicate the importance or significance of the subject) 17:41, 7 November 2008 JPG-GR (talk | contribs) deleted "Artisian" ‎ (G1: Patent nonsense, meaningless, or incomprehensible) 03:36, 5 November 2008 JPG-GR (talk | contribs) deleted "Artisian" ‎ (Expired PROD, concern was: No reliable sources, no significant coverage, no releases on a notable label.)

However, I have asked on several occasions why has the page been deleted when i have 5 of the bands albums, they have toured both Europe and the UK with bands such as Gorgoroth, Marduk, Anaal Nathrak and could be considered one of the UK's most successful black mental bands. I do not understand this lack of support for this particular band. I for one, would like to see more about this band and would have thought that the site that prides itself on hosting information on everything would have information on any and every band.

Please can it by put back. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.250.115 (talk) 15:25, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

The last version of the article at which I looked listed no reliable sources and did not indicate why the band was notable enough to warrant an article. If you would like to create an article for the band, I would suggest you first read our guide to writing your first article and then draft a submission at the articles for creation page. TNXMan 15:38, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

(e/c)

the site that prides itself on hosting information on everything : On everything does not mean everything.

would have information on any and every band : see Wikipedia:Notability (music).

basically, not everything or every band should have an encyclopedia article about it. Some things are just too small and/or not notable enough.

But most importantly, if you feel it deserve a place here after reading the notability guidelines, why don't you write the article yourself keeping in mind that previous ones have been deleted for the following reasons; the first time because it didn't have any sources, either in the article or even to be found on the internet; six days later because it did not indicate the significance of the subject (meaning it was probably a very small stub with no references). Look at other band articles and see how they are made. Can you find reliable third-party sources (not MySpace, not YouTube), about your band?

Cheers - «CharlieEchoTango» 15:42, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Yugoslavian languages problem

[[1]]

Today this morning I translated article Jordi Savall from english wikipedia and I tried to put it on bosnian wikipedia, admin there did not permit me to do so, and I was angry and puted this article under sh wikipedia ([[2]]) where most of classical music articles are mine. Sh wiki is OK, but same problem I had and on serbian wikipedia with another article. On bs and serbian wikipedia they have some special rules, they want more then on sh wiki. On bs he told me that i must write on bosnian, but i told him why did not you correct the errors, I spend one hour on that article and he erase it. It is not good to do so, because there is a lot of laics and it is shame because there would be much more articles on bs and sr wikipedias if they have had more sense and feelings for correcting small errors, but what they do is to erase all and not permit development of more articles. My article about Jordi Savall is on sh wikipedia. Problem is because none is speaking perfect gramaticaly any of those yugoslav languages and what he told me is not truth. These languages is as a first the same language with small differences, that is the truth. He should only correct and not erase. On that way today that bosnian and serbian and croatian wikipedia should/would have much more artuicles. They are rigorous. Please keep sh wiki as she is. She is free. Thank you. I wanted that that bs and sr and hr wikipedias would be better. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zeljko7 (talk • contribs) 15:43, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry that you had issues submitting your article. However, this is the English Wikipedia and we cannot influence the policies of other language Wikipedias. TNXMan 15:45, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Maybe you can try to contact the admin on the serbian wiki to retrieve the article you spent time on, and work on it. Good luck - «CharlieEchoTango» 15:48, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Returning editor

I am a returning editor with a new account, how do I return to the old layout of Wikipedia? There is no option to so next to my username at the top of the page.Lord Chamberlain, the Renowned (talk) 15:57, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

If you mean how to change your skin to monobook (the one Wikipedia used to have as default), just go to your preferences, select the appearance -tab, select the skin you want to use from the list and save the changes. DARTH SIDIOUS 2 ^(Contact) 16:05, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Also a quick note about "returning editor". Have you read WP:SOCK#LEGIT? If you wish to make a clean start, you must abandon your old account, which was still active as of yesterday. TNXMan 16:08, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Click on the "preferences" link at the top of the page, then the "Appearance" tab, then in the "Skin" section click the radio button next to MonoBook. Click the save button, then bypass your browser cache and welcome back the MonoBook world with the rest of us fuddy-duddies who dislike Vector... – ukexpat (talk) 16:10, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I meant the overall appearance that was changed in the last few months. There was once an option to change from the new to the old at the top of the page next my username and watchlist. Several of my userscripts do not work with out it. Thanks. Lord Chamberlain, the Renowned (talk) 16:12, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Of, that was easy. Yes, I am well aware of the rules pertaining to sockpuppetting. I do not plan on editing the same pages with my new account. Lord Chamberlain, the Renowned (talk) 16:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you plan on operating a second account, you must identify your original account. You cannot operate two accounts without either establishing a link or abandoning the old one. TNXMan 16:18, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I do not intend to use the old account period. I want to nothing more than a casual user on this new account. I do not want any connection to my old account. Lord Chamberlain, the Renowned (talk) 16:22, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

OK. I just wanted make sure you were aware of the proper procedure. You may want to log into your old account and make a note there it has been retired. TNXMan 16:27, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Meaning of Wikipedia

At first Thanks Wikipedia . Wikipedia is a very useful website for my study. But I can not know that meaning of Wikipedia & Collection Some Statistical Book ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.39.34 (talk) 16:36, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean, but perhaps our article on Wikipedia may help? TNXMan 16:38, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

It appears that the user does not know English. The grammar looks very similar to what you get when you use an online translator to convert Hindi to English. Without knowledge of Hindi, it will be difficult to understand the original question. -- kainaw™ 16:56, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Question from 187.15.23.96

Claim I would like by speak on the absence by date by birth by death to side on, the name, masculine on, the name, on Writer American. My name is Vinicius.

... Carlo Collodi, pseudônimo de Carlo Lorenzini, Florença, 24 de novembro 1826 a 26 de outubro 1890. + 33 dias + 272 dias = A nasceu Antônio Americano do Brasil na cidade de Bonfim, hoje Silvânia, deste Estado, em 18 de agosto de 1891, e falecido na cidade de Santa Luzia, em 20 de abril de 1932. + 101 dias + 272 = John Champlin Gardner, Jr. Nascido a 21 de Julho de 1933, em Batavia, Nova Iorque e falecido a 14 de Setembro de 1982, perto de Susquehanna, na Pensilvânia. + 272 dias = 16 de junho de 1983... Obs: A menos que aconteca algo de mais grave com a cabeça na morte, ao que parece, o corpo do Ser humano não morre exatamente quando convenciona-se hoje que o corpo de um Ser humano morre.

I am Supondo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.15.23.96 (talk)

Your question is unclear. Are you talking about an article on English Wikipedia or some other language version?  – ukexpat (talk) 18:02, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

It looks like Portuguese. I can only make so much out with my GCSE knowledge of latin and spanish. The 'Obs' or 'Note' is particularly strange. IP is possibly trying to link these people together? Whatever the case, I think you need the Portuguese Help desk. Thanks. —Half Price 18:51, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Chem Symbols

Chem symbols I was wondering how I template something like this $Fe^{0}$ except as a chemistry symbol like this: Fe²⁺
when I try to put a zero charge it ends up like this: Fe
₀ which obviously not what I want it to look like. Anyone know how I do what I'm looking for? Besides just using a superscript which (presumably) looks slightly different. Abrahamschulte (talk) 19:14, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I checked Ion#Common ions and it looks like superscripts are the way to go. I'm not sure if that's the usual method, though. TNXMan 19:17, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

The questioner appears to be asking about how to use the {{chem}} template to accomplish the formatting, not about which formatting is correct. This template does not appear to support charge=0. Fe⁰ is the way to give the equivalent result--that is the same formatting result as the template. You could go half-way and use the internal formatting template that {{chem}} but not the wrapper template that can't handle your particular case: Fe{{su|p=0}} gives Fe⁰. Or <math> as you had done, but that gives less standard results (italicized element symbol). DMacks (talk) 19:26, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd go ask at Template talk:Chem, they've had things not work before and get fixed. But in some cases, they have to choose one scenario or the other...

Wikitables

I want to include a wikitable in {{archivebox}}. In particular, I want to include the table

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr
May	Jun	Jul	Aug
Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

in this archive box that I've got set up. Any ideas? — Fly by Night (talk) 20:46, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

I think the problem is related to passing the "|" (of the template-syntax) as part of the parameter to the template (where it's treated as parameter delimiter). That is, the following is the "obvious, and non-functional" type of solution:

{{archivebox|
{|
|-
|a
|b
|-
|c
|d
|}
}}

{{!}} is designed for this sort of case, but I can't make it work right. DMacks (talk) 18:03, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Picture Formatting

I know you can put a picture to the right of a page by putting "right" in the image command, but how do you put two pictures side by side on the right side? If I put two image commands right after each other or with a line between them, they just go on top of each other. Abrahamschulte (talk) 22:06, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

There is more than one way to do this, but I think the easiest and best way is to use Template:Multiple image. This allows you to put two images next to each other. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 22:13, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Is my article moving forward?

Hi there,

I just created an article for "Michelson Prize and Grants in Reproductive Biology" in the Article Wizard and hit Save Page. Does this mean it will go under review or do I need to "move" it? I can't move it because I just opened my account. Could you let me know what I need to do? Thanks!

Katy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Katy0726 (talk • contribs) 22:46, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Your draft is sitting in your userspace. For the next step, look at Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. - David Biddulph (talk) 22:52, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Mark up text

How do I format it so that it shows exactly what I want to be displayed rather than with formatting. Like how would I show the two apostrophes around that as opposed to italicizing it? Abrahamschulte (talk) 22:56, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

You would place nowiki tags around your text. For instance, in the example you give with the two apostrophes, you would use the following code to make the apostrophes visible:

<nowiki>''Hamsters are cool''</nowiki>

That produces the following:

''Hamsters are cool''

Hope that helps. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 23:15, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and in addition, you can easily insert the nowiki tags into the edit box by clicking on the button that looks like at the top of the editing box (it will look a bit different if you are using the Vector skin). ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 23:22, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

December 4

Two thing to discuss

1. I think there should be category created for Fictional People with Bipolar Disorder because for example Callisto_(Xena) from Xena has bipolar disorder. 2.I also think there should be category for American_people_of_isreail-Jewish_descent because that applies to such people as Natalie_portman and Oded_Fehr. Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 00:04, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

1. We already have Category:Fictional people with neurological or psychological disorders. I think Bipolar Disorder is too specific for fictional people. Callisto (Xena) is already in 11 fictional people categories and supposed bipolar disorder isn't a major character trait. The story is set a couple thousands years ago and I guess "bipolar disorder" isn't mentioned. See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 February 14#Category:Fictional sociopaths where Category:Fictional psychopaths and Category:Fictional psychopaths were deleted, and Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 February 10#Category:Fictional megalomaniacs where Category:Fictional megalomaniacs was deleted. The suggested category has the same problem.

2. We already have Category:American people of Israeli descent and Category:American people of Jewish descent. Most people in the former will probably be Jewish. I don't think we need a triple combo for American-Israeli-Jewish. See also Wikipedia:Categorization/Ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality. Wikipedia:CatScan can be used by people who want to find more category combinations than we have specific categories for. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:51, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Infoboxes of my own

Sometimes I use infoboxes in my personal sandbox. There are two things I would like to know: a) Who created all of the Infoboxes? b) If I can, how do I create my own and use it in my sandbox?

Thank you! Tmchead (talk) 00:05, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

If you click the "Edit" tab at top of a page then the bottom of the page will have links to the used templates. An infobox is a type of template. See the page history of an infobox to see the contributors. There will often be many, and other infoboxes may have other contributors. See Help:Infobox if you consider creating a new. This can be difficult. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:59, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Contents

How do I put a Contents box into my article?

Thank you for answering!

Tmchead (talk) 00:21, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Tables of contents should only be in articles when are necessary. If it has sections (it will know by the use or headings), it will automatically be added.  Hazard-SJ  ±  00:23, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

See more at Help:Section. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:53, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Uploading pictures

I have a book published in 1927 about WW1. I copied the 400 pictures and translated the German Captions to English. I wish to upload these photos. Please advise procedure. Johnwoods11 (talk) 01:47, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

You may be running afoul of copyright there. --Orange Mike | Talk 01:51, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Actually, as it was published 83 years ago, it is possible that the photos will be in the public domain. Do you know who the photographer was and when he died? Alternatively, ask about this at Media copyright questions where the real experts in copyright hang out. -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternate account of Phantomsteve]} 03:02, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

WP:NPOV and WP:TITLE

Good day,

I am having a bit of an issue in the Spanish wikipedia with some editors regarding the WP:NPOV pilar and the WP:TITLE guideline. Yes, I know that the best place to deal with this issue would be in the Spanish wikipedia, but this is just a general question (and I feel more comfortable writing in English than in Spanish).

The matter is, the title of an article is currently of a specific POV because it is associated with a particular theory. The title I am proposing is completely NPOV. After much analysis and discussion, we (as in my side of the argument and their side of the argument) came to the conclusion that both terms were "equal" in various aspects, except that the title I proposed had the "issue" of having two definitions (which aren't opposites, just simple two very similar varieties); and also that their title, though more precise, was NPOV.

Two questions thus come out of this situation, which I hope you can answer (or can lead me to the right place to ask them):

1. Does WP:NPOV have supremacy over WP:TITLE? If so, in what respects? If not, could you please explain why?

2. The "precision" problem of my proposed titled isn't one that is obviously terrible. According to the WP:TITLE guildeline: "For technical reasons, no two Wikipedia articles can have the same title." Yet, the "two varieties" of my proposed title are closely linked to each other, and there is no possible way of creating separate encyclopedic articles of both of these entries (If it was tried, they would amount to little more than content forks). In other words, in the same article both "varieties" would have to be mentioned. As such, based on this situation, would having this title be breaking the WP:TITLE guideline? If yes or no, please explain why.

The basic point is that both titles are "good" or "acceptable", but the main problem lies that with the current title there is a POV issue, and I don't know for sure if my proposed title is a better proposal or one that isn't worth anything.

Thanks in advance for the response.--MarshalN20 | ^Talk 06:39, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

This is a major problem on English Wikipedia as well; much of WP:LAME is filled with insane movewars over the names of places, see Derry/Londonderry or Bolzano-Bozen/Bozen-Bolzano. In English Wikipedia, the solution is usually to use whatever the most common term in English is for the name; whatever reliable sources call the concept you are talking about in the article, use that term. Spanish Wikipedia may have very different rules regarding this, however. YMMV. --Jayron32 06:53, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your help Jayron. I agree with you that this is really one of those WP:LAME situations. From what you tell me in your examples, this situation is silly, but still complicated. Your suggestion to use the "most common term" is a great solution, but the problem is that there are no reliable sources that determine the "most common term" in this case. Both terms, my proposal and the established title, are both supported by reliable sources, including specialized works (from PhD's), dictionaries, newspapers, internet articles, books, etc. Essentially, the "most common term" position has been agreed by both sides to be non-existant (there are no sources that validate the "most common", and there are plenty of reliable sources that validate both proposals).

The situation comes down to my proposal following WP:NPOV but having a minor "precision" problem, and their proposal breaking WP:NPOV but being mostly (though not completely) precise. In terms of Wikipedia policy, what should be the position to follow?--MarshalN20 | ^Talk 15:24, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

The big problem is there is no Wikipedia-wide solution. There is a solution on English Wikipedia but that isn't really applicable at Spanish Wikipedia. WP:NPOV is a foundational principle, but the actual application of that principle is left up to the individual Wikipedias to work out. WP:TITLE is even more specific to each project, that page was negotiated exclusively at English Wikipedia for use at English Wikipedia, so is completely inapplicable at Spanish Wikipedia. What you need to do is to go through whatever the established dispute resolution process is at Spanish Wikipedia and build consensus in that way. That's the best advice I can give, since I am not familiar with Spanish Wikipedia I don't know how their policies play out on this topic; their own rules will be different than ours, so you're really going to have to work this out there. --Jayron32 15:35, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks again for the response. I'll go the Spanish wiki and see what comes out of the situation there, though (after reading both WP:TITLE versions, in English and Spanish) it seems that the Spanish Wikipedia simply took and translated the concepts from the English Wikipedia (the only difference is that they ask for the "most common Spanish name", while the English WP asks for the "most common English name"). As a side note, we've tried the dispute resolution process in the Spanish wikipedia, but the problem is that users that have gotten involved claim that WP:NPOV does not apply to the title. They claim that the WP:TITLE guideline has supremacy over the WP:NPOV pillar, and they don't bother to explain why; which is why I came here to the English wikipedia in the hopes of being explained which policy has more weight (TITLE or NPOV) and why.--MarshalN20 | ^Talk 16:12, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Dear Wikipedia

I am a descendent of Daniel Mendoza (an article on Daniel is on your website) this article is linked to an article on Peter Sellers (also on your website). In both articles references are made to an autobiography by Roger Lewis who apparently claims that Daniel Mendoza is the great, great, grandfather of Peter Sellers. There are a number of websites that quote references to Peter Sellers ancestry, but some also correctly claim that Peter Sellers great, great, grandfather is Mordecai Mendoza who was the first cousin of Daniel Mendoza. As a family historian who has researched my family’s history for nearly 30 years I can say with absolute certainty that Peter Sellers great, great, grandfather is Mordecai Mendoza who was the first cousin of Daniel Mendoza. I learned this by trawling through historical census records and birth, marriage and deaths records and the link can clearly be found. Yet try as I might I can find no records that could possibly link Peter Sellers’ ancestors as direct descendants of Daniel Mendoza, so I am at loss as to how Roger Lewis' claim can be supported without any evidence.

I personally would have a vested interest in Peter Sellers being the great, great grandson of Daniel Mendoza, because it would mean that I could boast to being more closely related to Peter Sellers. But the fact is, is that this claim made by Roger Lewis simply is not true and it can be proven by anyone willing to research actual historical records for themselves.

I have linked several references to edit this article when making this edit, and yet each time the author reverts the article back to the false reference. As this is a factual error and can be proven, how can I make the author of the Peter Sellers article accept my edit. Please see below.

His maternal grandmother, Benvenida 'Welcome' Mendoza (1855–1932), maternal great grandfather, Israel Mendoza (1811–1897), and maternal great, great grandfather, Mordecai Mendoza (1774–1851), were of Portuguese-Jewish descent. Mordecai was a first cousin of English prizefighter Daniel Mendoza (1764–1836).

Please help

Pheadirean

Ps As a matter of interest, Daniel Mendoza may have been a great man but unfortunately many of his children went astray. Four were convicts, three of whom were sentenced to serve in Australia. I am a direct descendant of Daniel's daughter Matilda who was a free settler in Australia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pheadirean (talk • contribs) 06:51, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you have published sources which correctly list the Mendoza family tree in detail so anyone could check it? While we have no reason to doubt your own original research here, we also have no reason to trust it. Wikipedia articles must be based on verifiable sources, so we would need to be able to see that the above information is published somewhere. Because Wikipedia wants to make sure that every thing published in its articles is correct, it also wants the information to be checkable in reliable sources. That's why Wikipedia also has a policy against original research. What we would need to fix the articles in question is an actual published family tree or reliable geneology; your own research in this area isn't really helpful for people wishing to verify the articles later. We do want to get this right, which is why we need reliable sources. --Jayron32 06:57, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Jayron for your response to my concerns. I do not know of any verifiable sources (yet), however I also dispute that the biography by Roger Lewis (who made the blanket statement that Peter Sellers is the great, great grandson of Daniel Mendoza) could possibly be deemed a verifiable source without backing that statement up with any verifiable sources. Please tell me if any of these could be used as refs http://bootsalesounds.blogspot.com/2009/03/peter-sellers.html http://www.enotes.com/topic/Peter_Sellers http://www.zoodisk.com/post/the-many-faces-of-peter-sellers-ndash-part-1/157734 http://dictionary.sensagent.com/peter+sellers/en-en/ http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7342565 And the list goes on Please help me to set the record straight Cheers Pheadirean —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pheadirean (talk • contribs) 08:58, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

First of all, you should bring these matters up on the talk page of the article. I have gone there and put a link to this discussion. None of your sources are really worthy. See WP:SOURCES for more on why. You also might want to enquire on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard as to whether the Roger Lewis biography and your other sources are fit to be used as citation. Thanks. —Half Price 13:23, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I have found a book online that may be considered a verifiable source. I read this in the book synopsis. Please note the part last paragraph. I would like your thoughts as to whether you think this source may be acceptable. I have also posted this on the Peter Sellers discussion page. Thanks.

British People of Portuguese Descent Product Details • Pub. Date: May 2010 • Publisher: General Books LLC • Format: Paperback , 40pp • ISBN-13: 9781156804483 • ISBN: 1156804485 Synopsis Excerpt: Richard Henry Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 24 July 1980), commonly known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor best known for his roles in Dr. Strangelove, as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, as Clare Quilty in the original 1962 screen version of Lolita, and as the guileless man-child Chance in his penultimate film, Being There. Sellers rose to fame on the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. His ability to speak in different accents (e.g., French, Indian, American, German), along with his talent to portray a range of characters to comedic effect, contributed to his success as a radio personality and screen actor and earned him national and international nominations and awards. Many of his characters became ingrained in public perception of his work. Sellers's private life was characterized by turmoil and crises, and included emotional problems and substance abuse. Sellers was married four times, with three children from two of the marriages. Peter Sellers's birthplace on the corner of Castle Road and Southsea terrace, in Southsea. The blue plaques read "Peter Sellers, Actor and Comedian was born here "Sellers was born in Southsea, Portsmouth to a family of entertainers. His parents nicknamed him Peter at an early age, after his elder stillborn brother. He attended the North London Roman Catholic school, St. Aloysius College, although his father, Yorkshire-born Bill Sellers (1900-1962), was Protestant and his mother, Agnes Doreen 'Peg' née Marks (18921967), was Jewish. His maternal grandmother, Benvenida Welcome Mendoza (1855-1932), was of Portuguese-Jewish descent; her grandfather, Mordecai Mendoza (1774-1851), was a first cousin of English prizefighter Daniel Mendoza (1764-1836). Sellers was also a cousin... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=24518 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pheadirean (talk • contribs) 11:23, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

we would love to donate but....

Dear Mr.jimmy wales

first let me make clear that as always we will donate and as always it will be more then 2000$ as we are a group of 20 friends but what we dnt understand is, why do always, when a page is locked it is always in a state hiding the truth i mean see the page of Babari Mosque even after pictures were uploaded showing the mosque was demolished by Hindu extremist leaders that was removed and page locked, Dr. Zakir Nayek rebuttal page again locked when it is in wrong state why? and many many pages you need to check the pages do research on it and then lock once the truth is clear and proved, we have no problem if anything is writen against anyone as long as it is true!

Thanking You Mir <email address removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.97.67.76 (talk) 12:26, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

If you have issues with any pages, you should discuss them on their talk pages. This is the WikiPedia Help desk. For more information on page locks, see Wikipedia:Protection policy. Thanks. —Half Price 12:58, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I have removed your email address to protect your privacy. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:08, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Two sharks for sister Sarah

No questions asked, they will be assisted gladly by an unknown number of whales. They will envy only things that are not human, like swimmers on beaches, whales of larger size and the likes. Not a problem, they will go unnoticed, unmolested, ignored to the point of oblivion. It is already bliss for them, not a big change in their natural loving mother. Yes, mother nature will love them with hereditary gifts. They will satisfy their hungry habits without the use of garbage tanks, or containers of waste, for that fact. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.139.200.2 (talk) 12:27, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a question about using Wikipedia? -- John of Reading (talk) 14:10, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Could someone please remove Jimmy Wales' photo from Wikipedia? It's doing my nut in.

He looks very egotistical. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.159.165.126 (talk) 13:14, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

You can click the "x" in the corner to close the banner. Alternatively, you could sign in and set your preferences to permanently close it. wackywace 13:22, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Only users can adopt preferences, not IPs. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 14:43, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

August Heinrich Petermann

I am editing a page concerning August Heinrich Petermann. In the following paragraph the hyperlink to the image is not hidden, whatever I try, though I use the edit link for hyperlinks. All other hyperlinks, internal or external, work. How come?

He proposed to follow a course East of Greenland, for he and other geographers were convinced that Greenland stretched much farther North than was known in that time. Though Ferdinand von Wrangel started a four year long expedition in 1820 to find possible land North of cape Shelagskiy and couldn’t find any land he noted a Chucki chief saying: “One might in a clear summer’s day descry snow-covered mountains at a great distance to the North.” Heinrich Berghaus, Petermann’s teacher, included this information in the right hand corner on his "alexander+von+humboldt"+and+"isotherm-Kurven"+and+1838;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1 isotherm map of 1838 for his Physikalische Atlas with the text ‘possible polar land’ (Wahrscheinliches Polar-Land). So it might be possible that Petermann based his views on this information.

It shows in Wikipedia thus: He proposed to follow a course East of Greenland, for he and other geographers were convinced that Greenland stretched much farther North than was known in that time. Though Ferdinand von Wrangel started a four year long expedition in 1820 to find possible land North of cape Shelagskiy and couldn’t find any land he noted a Chucki chief saying: “One might in a clear summer’s day descry snow-covered mountains at a great distance to the North.”[26] Heinrich Berghaus, Petermann’s teacher, included this information in the right hand corner on his "alexander+von+humboldt"+and+"isotherm-Kurven"+and+1838;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1 isotherm map of 1838 for his Physikalische Atlas with the text ‘possible polar land’ [Wahrscheinliches Polar-Land]. So it might be possible that Petermann based his views on this information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Smi1 (talk • contribs) 15:03, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I've fixed this. The system was confused by the double-quote characters inside this URL; I have recoded them as ampersand-2-2-semicolon. This is described here.

Note that the guideline on linking from articles to external websites says that links should normally occur in references and in the External Links section only, and not within the body of the article text. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:29, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Ochromonas malhamensis and Vitamin B-12

I want to know why Wikipedia has no definition on "Ochromonas malhamensis" especially since it has shed important light on B-12, and is the most effective of the various assays at measuring metabolically active B-12. (This is because when grown in dark conditions is specifically requires B-12 and responds to B-12 in its natural form) Baker H, Frank O, Khalil F, DeAngelis B, Hutner SH. Determination of metabolically active B12 and inactive B12 analog titers in human blood using several microbial reagents and a radiodilution assay. J Am Coll Nutr. 1986;5(5):467-75. and "Hutner, Provasoli & Filfus, 1953" and "coates & Ford, 1955" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.54.116.175 (talk) 17:17, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't even understand the question. But if there is a subject which meets Wikipedia's notability criteria, and you see a need for the article to exist, why not create it yourself? -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 17:21, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not have an article on it because nobody has written an article on it. This might be because it is not a suitable subject (eg. because it is not notable by wikipedia's standard; or it might be because nobody has yet had the knowledge and interest to do so. Wikipedia is created entirely by volunteer editors, and articles get created when volunteer editors decide to create them. --ColinFine (talk) 18:27, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a dictionary so it shouldn't merely make a definition. Making a suitable article may require expertise and time. I had never heard of "Ochromonas malhamensis" but it appears to be notable from a Google Scholar search [3]. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:54, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Suddenly no possibility to edit

Since yesterday I see that there is no "edit" for me in the toolbar of the articles (only discussion, history etc) i don't not know why. Cpt.schoener (talk) 19:39, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Some articles are fully protected and only have an edit link for administrators. Do you see an edit link at top of this page? If not then try clearing your entire cache. If it still doesn't help then what is your skin under "Appearance" at Special:Preferences? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:06, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

My submission was declined

I recently (i.e., several days ago) submitted an article which, as I understand it, had to be approved before it was displayed because I had not edited the minimum 10 articles. The title of the article was "Eliza Anderson Godefroy." When I checked today, I found the following notice:

"Review completed.

This submission has been declined. The reviewer left the following comment:

   Hold issues not adressed within 24 hours

Your submission did not meet our criteria, but if you can address the reasons given, you are encouraged to make improvements and resubmit it. You can visit our live chat for assistance. When ready, please add the text {{AFC submission|||ts=20101204205953|u=Natwexler|ns=4}} at the top of the article to request a new review. The reviewer(s) who declined this submission will be listed in the page history. Last edited by Gfoley4 45 hours ago"

I have tried and tried, but I cannot find any explanation of WHY my submission did not meet your criteria. I would be happy to try to "make improvements and resubmit it," as suggested, but since I have no idea in what way the article failed to meet your criteria, I suspect that would be a waste of my time. If anyone can possibly tell me how I find out what the "hold issues" were that I apparently failed to address, I would be most appreciative. The situation at the moment strikes me as somewhat Kafkaesque! Natwexler (talk) 20:59, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

The revision before the one that showed the review was complete indicated it was on hold because it needed inline citations. The article lists references, one of which looks like it might be a book. You should place the <ref> tags just after the sentence or paragraph the reference supports, and for long sources, you should indicate which page supports the statement. See WP:CITE. Jc3s5h (talk) 21:13, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

See Help:Page history for how to find [4] where the hold reason "Inline citations needed" was stated. See more about referencing at Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. See also Wikipedia:Notability (people) and try to make enough references to satisfy that. I guess from your username that you are the author of one of the two current references so see also Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. It would be good with supporting references by others. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:22, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Subscribing

I want to know if wikimedia has a subscription that I can subscribe to, to "recieve" information via e-mail on upcoming or monthly events/festivals/parades locally and nationally. 21:04, 4 December 2010 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sf83ub (talk • contribs)

No, Wikipedia is an international encyclopaedia, not a directory or promotional site. --ColinFine (talk) 21:52, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

The way I read it, they are asking if Wikimedia (M, not P) sends out details of their own Wikimedia functions/fundraisers/get-togethers/etc. I, however, don't know the answer. Dismas|^(talk) 21:55, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

If you mean Wikimedia events then see meta:Events but I don't know of a general mail subscription for this. meta:Mailing lists/Overview shows some local lists. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:00, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

@Dismas: I considered that interpretation (though I missed "wikimedia" as opposed to "wikipedia"), but rejected it because of "festivals/parades". But you could be right. --ColinFine (talk) 12:23, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

wiki and lyrics

Hey,

Since wikipedia holds separate pages for songs,
I've been wondering why none of them contains any lyrics?

I was just thinkning it could have been nice if i searched google for a song,
and it'll come up with the wikipage of it and the lyrics in it :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.176.23.106 (talk) 22:09, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Song lyrics are usually copyrighted and cannot be reproduced in full here. See WP:Wikipedia:Lyrics and poetry for more on this. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:22, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

hmm this page doesn not exist --79.176.23.106 (talk) 22:27, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

It's Wikipedia:Lyrics and poetry. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:30, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

I was close... -- John of Reading (talk) 22:57, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Questions about donating...

It would seem that I want to donate to Wikipedia, but as this place is confusing and has no easy way to ask questions, I ended up here. I was reading a personal appeal (well.. several) from many supposed editors, and the founder himself, and have a couple of questions...

1) We are donating to keep Wikipedia ad free, correct? Wouldn't these "personal appeals" at the top of each page that aren't exactly small asking for money constitute as an ad in itself? Assuming I donate, will these be gone for me, or will I still have to manually close them every time?

2) I cannot tell you how much I've seen this redundent qoute thrown around: "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment." If that is true, then why does Wikipedia only accept articles on some subjects that potentionally (or likely) biased humans consider notable? The sum of all knowledge seems pretty clear to me, but it doesn't look like this place is commited to that at all.

I read articles on here regulary and since I am not an editor, I really do feel it is right that I donate. However, I simply would not feel comfortable doing so with these unanswered questions in my head. Thank you to anyone who may respond, and keep up the good work! 74.77.89.241 (talk) 22:41, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your interest in donating. Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation which is also running other less known projects based on volunteer editors and the same servers and small staff. Donations go to the Wikimedia Foundation and a large part is to servers and bandwidth where Wikipedia is the largest resource hog. I don't think it has been decided what to do if donations become too small to sustain current operations. One possibility would be to cut down on servers and bandwidth, for example resulting in longer waiting times and more page load failures and breakdowns. It varies what the Wikimedia projects contain but yes, there are things considered unsuitable for all of them. Some things considered unsuitable for Wikipedia can be seen at Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. One of the problems with accepting anything would be that there wouldn't be enough editors to make meaningful content out of the junk some people (for example vandals and spammers) would like to add, or to look out for legal problems like copyright violations and defamatory material (Wikipedia can ill afford lawsuits). I'm just a volunteer editor and don't speak on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation but I don't read "the sum of all knowledge" too literally. More like "all verifiable knowledge which is relevant for encyclopedic publication" in case of Wikipedia. Human decisions on relevancy are unavoidable even though Wikipedia:Notability tries to be objective with demands of existing coverage in multiple independent reliable sources. There is no relation between donating and seeing donation banners. Registered users have the option "Suppress display of the fundraiser banner" under "Gadgets" at Special:Preferences. It's free and easy to register and has several benefits. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:50, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Just to follow-up on your first question... You're not the first to notice the irony in banners promoting Wikipedia's lack of ads ([5]). The way I see it, the biggest reason for Wikipedia not to accept external advertising is to maintain its neutrality. If Wikipedia received funding by advertising a certain business, that business could pressure Wikipedia to select or present its content in a manner favourable to that business. Can you imagine how Wikipedia's article on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill might be different if Wikipedia received funding by advertising BP? There are other problems with external advertising listed at Wikipedia:Advertisements#Arguments_against_adverts. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 05:57, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Image name problem

If two different images on Commons and on English Wikipdia have an exact same name, how to use the one on Commons? --Tomchen1989 (talk) 23:28, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

It's not possible. One of them has to be renamed or the one at Wikipedia deleted. What is the name? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:53, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

It's possible to have two identical images on commons, but have different names. --Monterey Bay (talk) 05:28, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but one of them may be speedily deleted per commons:Commons:Deletion policy#Duplicates. I don't know whether a redirect at commons would work when the redirect target is also at Wikipedia. Anyway, a renaming in one of the places is usually best. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:30, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

December 5

Maps on Wikipedia

A problem I encounter regularly with Wikipedia is that it is very difficult to find maps of whatever region I want to look at that include surrounding countries, states, provinces, cities, or whatever the case may be. I can't be the only one curious, for example, about where East Berlin was in relations to the rest of East Germany, or where China is in relations to its neighbors. 66.108.223.179 (talk) 00:04, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, the problem is finding free maps. That is, maps released under a suitable license such as GFDL or public domain. Any map released by Rand McNally or DeLorme would be copyrighted and unable to be used here. I'm like you though, I'd like to see more maps. And I'm sure we're not alone in this. Dismas|^(talk) 00:13, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

There are Wikipedia cartographers who make maps on demand; I have one I used and he was excellent. If you buzz me on my talk page, I can give you his details. There are also map services availible online which are compatible with Wikipedia's image use policy. You could also see Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps where you can find people to help with making maps. --Jayron32 18:08, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

My Page Was Redirected & Maybe Deleted...Help!

Hello, I just got online after a couple of weeks away and noticed that my MigreLief page has been redirected to a Feverfew page. I worked very hard on the MigreLief page and linked to many notable references as this is indeed a notable subject. I understand why they feel my page should be deleted and can address and correct immediately if it is not too late. Is this possible? If not what are my options? Rewriting and resubmitting? That would take a lot of time...I prefer to fix the one I already made. I had to learn how to make the page myself as an editor who promised to help me backed out after a couple of months and I could find no other help from Wikipedia. I can start from scratch but would prefer not to. I can simply take out the "promotional" wording and add a couple references that they are looking for. Please advise the steps to remedy my situation. MigreLief is a very notable subject. Thank you for any assistance you may provide. ~ ~ ~ ~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sallybass (talk • contribs) 00:14, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

It was deleted per the discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MigreLief. You can ask an admin to put the text of the article in your userspace where you can work on the issues with the article but they cannot put back any text that is a copyright violation. Dismas|^(talk) 00:49, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I fully understand. I read the discussion and believe I can rewrite with a clear understanding of the concerns...how do I "ask an admin" to put it back into my user-space for reworking it? Your assitance is truly appreciated. ~ ~ ~ ~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sallybass (talk • contribs) 16:48, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

changes made to a "see also" section of a page on wikipedia.

I made changes to the "see also" section of "DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM" (DPPJ) because it contained INCORRECT information that did NOT relate to the DPPJ at all. My corrections were deleted and the original INCORRECT information was reposted. WHY? If the content of my (video) submission (which was created by the organizers of DPPJ) was unacceptable because it was deemed controversial (by whoever) then go ahead and remove it - but why repost a video from the same source as mine (youtube)that is completely unrelated to the main article and why repost the web address to a site that has nothing to do with DPPJ either? My web address was the official website for the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem - please explain to me how that could be unacceptable. I give you correct information and it is deleted so you could repost incorrect information - now I'm beginning to understand why so many people tell me not to trust the information provided here! Luvyalord (talk) 00:36, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I've removed the links in the See Also section. That section is for links to other related articles here on Wikipedia and not for external links to organization web sites or YouTube. And generally, links to YouTube should be avoided anyway. See WP:LINKSTOAVOID and WP:YOUTUBE for more on that. Dismas|^(talk) 00:53, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Like Dismas said, it's a matter of page "standards". The See also section is generally for internal links to other article of this encyclopedia. The removals have therefore nothing to do with information to trust or not, but have to do with guidelines and policy. Now if you deem that some content is "false", then you could bring the matter up on the talk page of the article. Cheers - «CharlieEchoTango» 01:06, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

disappeared?

Perhaps I am wrong or doing something wrong way. The article 'Zdenek Hanka'. Czech author, was successfully published and now it seems to be gone. Is it published? Thank you, user 'heleho' —Preceding unsigned comment added by Heleho (talk • contribs) 03:38, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Please see Why was my page deleted? The most common reasons are:

• The subject was not notable enough to have their own article
• It was a test page
• It was vandalism

To find the specific reason a particular page was deleted:

1. Go to the Deletion Log
2. Type the page title in the case-sensitive search field
3. The date, time and reason for deletion will be displayed  A p3rson ‽ 03:41, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Ah, no it was not. Here is the page, you posted it to your userpage. Plus, this page doesn't look all that good for a xFer into article space.  A p3rson ‽ 03:44, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)It was never deleted and it was never "published". The article is on your user page and was never in the main space of the encyclopedia. Dismas|^(talk) 03:44, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. It's currently unsourced and sounds like personal opinion. It would risk being deleted in mainspace. See Wikipedia:Notability (people), Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. And see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest if you are associated with the subject. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:11, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Time stamp

Is there a way to customize the time stamp in ~~~~ and ~~~~~? Thanks - [CharlieEchoTango] 03:52, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Not the one you save. It should be standardized so it can be read by archiving bots and other software. It would also annoy many people (such as me) if it wasn't standardized. Wikipedia:Comments in Local Time can change the way you see timestamps when you are logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:04, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - [CharlieEchoTango] 04:10, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

text deleted but did not save a copy.

Although I would usuallyhave saved a copy, I did not expect my contribution to be quite so speedily deleted, and wondered whether my text was still accessible somewhere on my account. It's a bit unfortunate as I was rather pleased with the wording Scribd24 (talk) 04:28, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I moved it to User:Scribd24/Ed Mirza--SPhilbrickT 04:45, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

When you think it is ready, please ask at Requests for feedback. That won't guarantee it won't be deleted, but some volunteers can point out potential problems.--SPhilbrickT 04:47, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

A quick glance does not reveal how he meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines for people. You also need some references from sources which are reliable (see here for guidelines about reliable sources) which are independent of the subject (i.e. Not his website, press releases etc) - see here for guidelines about independent sources -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternate account of Phantomsteve]} 06:38, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Donations from India

Dear Mr Wales I would like to donate. Please include INDIA in your list of countries for me to pay through my credit card colonel Subramanyam PV —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pvsubrp (talk • contribs) 08:15, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

added a header to the question. Dismas|^(talk) 09:05, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

infoboxes show up as half the width long for some people but not others!

Even people using the same version of the same browser can see different things when viewing any article with an infobox in it. Some of us see an infobox that stretches out to half the width of the article. Others see it loading up normally. The newest version of Firefox is version 3.6.12, which I'm now using, and I have this problem, while someone else posted in the infobox template talk page that they use the same version and browser and don't have this problem at all. This didn't happen until recently. Was something updated on Wikipedia that affected some people but not others? Dream Focus 08:54, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

The discussion is at Template talk:Infobox video game#When did the infobox get this wide? How to change that. I don't have the problem in Firefox 3.6.8, or any of IE, Opera, Chrome. Various things are often updated in Wikipedia. Does it happen for other infoboxes? Does it happen when you log out? Is the infobox wider than the longest line or element in it? Do you literally mean half the article width regardless of the window size? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:44, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Every single infobox. Half of the article's width, not the window's size. Even if there is no picture, it still does this. Is there a setting in "my preferences" which would cause this? I took a screenshot.[6] Dream Focus 14:46, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Problem solved! In Firefox I click the View tab, then Zoom, then Reset, and its all better now. I had the text larger than it should be, and this now causes that problem. Dream Focus 21:36, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Draft article

Some time ago I started an article on Aireville School Skipton North Yorkshire. It has never appeared and I cannot access it for further editing. What am I doing wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Retiredlancslad (talk • contribs) 10:25, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

It's stil sitting where you created it, in your userspace at User:Retiredlancslad/Aireville School. At the top of the article is a link to Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft telling you what to do next. Please read what it says there, particularly about sources. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:48, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

User sandbox

Hi there, I want to create a user sandbox but am having trouble doing so please help meeeee !! Rocketrod1960 (talk) 11:24, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Sure, just click here: User:Rocketrod1960/sandbox and start editing. Dismas|^(talk) 11:29, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I think you missed placing: {{usersandbox}} --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 13:46, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer

I am a reviewer who is able to find the list of PC-protected articles, but unable to find the list of pages with revisions currently pending. Will you please help me? Us441(talk)(contribs) 14:07, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Special:PendingChanges. —Half Price 14:12, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Format

I have added to an article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiliqua_rugosa#Hearing The layout looks bad. What have I done wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by RayJohnstone (talk • contribs) 14:36, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Article text should not be indented, nor should your contributions be signed. Indenting with : and signing with ~~~~ should only be done on discussion pages such as this one. I believe I have fixed your contribution. I suggest you read the tutorial. Xenon54 (talk) 14:41, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, it now looks fine.RayJohnstone (talk) 15:20, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Remove Intrusive Jimmy Wales Banner

Is there something I can add to the monobook.css to have the banner switched off by default? I searched the archives but didn't find anything. --Drogonov 14:48, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

in your preferences on the gadgets tab, last entry under browsing gadgets. ~~ GB fan ~~ 14:55, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Like GB Fan said, the easiest way is to enable the Suppress display of the fundraiser banner gadget. Or, you could somehow import MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice.css into your personal CSS file, but I think the first way is much easier. — Waterfox ^~talk~ 18:25, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

info box Netherlands

Something seems to be wrong with the infobox to the right of the article Netherlands. The notes in superscript do not correspond to the explanations below. No-one there seems to be able to solve it so I am asking for help here... L.tak (talk) 15:10, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I've improved it, though without knowing quite how it all works. Note that {{Infobox country}} only supports footnote1 to footnote7, so footnote 8 is still missing. This would need an {{editprotected}} request since that template can only be edited by administrators.

Alternatively, I think you could move those notes out of the infobox into a new "Notes" section of the article, and then you could have as many as you liked. I haven't tried that. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:54, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I am a bit confused about one thing. You seem to be agreeing with an IP on the talk page that note 6 saying the American dollar will replace the Guilder is nonsense, and this is what I thought you were referring to as the problem here (I actually didn't find any problem with the numbered notes corresponding the the text, though John of Reading apaprently did). This issue of the dollar does sound like nonsense and so I figured it wasn't that the display of the notes was not working, but that there was unreverted vandalism. So, using the tool WikiBlame, I tracked down the addition of this text and it was by you in this edit. Note that in order to find the text of a note and change it to something better, copy the text you want to find, click edit, then search for it using your computer's find function (on many browsers this can be done using ctrl+f).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:05, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

An hour ago there was a problem with the infobox footnotes - the note labelled "2" jumped you to the footnote text labelled "1", and so on; and I believe I've fixed this.

Footnote eight is still missing, but this version of my Sandbox has all eight footnotes visible, moved down to a new section near the bottom of the article. The formatting of the new section could be better, but at least all eight notes work. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:13, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing that all up and solving it within the hour....; I will request a footnote 8 at the infobox. Indeed my question could have been a bit clearer; as it was not content related and I only agreed with the IP that it would be non-sense that the EUR would be changed for the USD. However the Netherlands Antillean Guilder will be replaced by the US Dollar; I'll see how I can source that without breaking the infobox links (again?)... L.tak (talk) 16:49, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Fixing Horribly Malformed Talk Pages

There are some talk pages I've seen where comments somehow end up floating between the header and the contents box, and have no title; I guess they have no section is the best way to put it. Then there was one talk page where the header was buried somewhere in the comments section. Unfortunately I lost the links to those articles, but how the heck do you fix those types of problems? --WikiDonn (talk) 19:45, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

You aren't allowed to make alterations (even trivial ones) to the text of what people have written, but you can change the formatting of the text to make it readible. If you need to, you can add headers where people have forgotten to add them, you can remove leading spaces so those annoying unformated boxes

 like this

go away, that sort of thing. --Jayron32 20:00, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

If someone makes a comment that is about the subject, but isn't about the article itself (which the ones that float at the top usually are), aren't we allowed to delete them? Doesn't it say that talk pages are not for general discussion of the topic itself so therefore inappropriate comments can be deleted? Even when they aren't, how should we go about making up a header for a comment that doesn't have one. (I seriously wish I could give you examples, I had a bunch of articles in my browser like a 3 days ago, but they're gone now...) --WikiDonn (talk) 01:00, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Also, if people leave a comment and do not sign (which is very commonly associated with users who leave mal-formatted messages without section headers), you can sign for them using {{unsigned}}. For example, if I forgot to sign this reply you would add at the end: {{subst:unsigned|Fuhghettaboutit}}. which would format as —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fuhghettaboutit (talk • contribs) . Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:59, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't get it, how can you sign someone else's post for them if you don't know who they are? --WikiDonn (talk) 01:01, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

The record of all edits to every page can be found in the history for that page, and that includes talk pages; you can find their username or IP address if you click on the history tab and find the edit where they added the comment. GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 01:05, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

On other wikis

I've had a look at the global contributions and am surprised to find contributions to other Wikipedias i did not make. Why is this? Simply south (talk) 21:14, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

If they exported articles from this Wikipedia, and imported them elsewhere, then your contributions would be known. It is also possible someone else registered the same name as you. Dream Focus 21:32, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, forget that previous comment that i just deleted. So does that mean any article i've contributed to and the article has been exported to another Wikipedia will have my name show up on theirs? AFAIK, i have not contributed to the Azerbaijani and German wikipedias. Simply south (talk) 21:41, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes. For example, you made this edit to Template:Current/doc, and when the page was imported to the Azerbaijan Wikipedia, the doppelgänger diff was included here. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:52, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing that up. Simply south (talk) 21:55, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. I remember asking a very similar question at this help desk years ago, where the edit summary looked like something I would never add, though it turned out to only make sense by context looking at the English article's edit history.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:02, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I also might have got it wrong on it being the Azerbaijani Wikipedia. It is the Egyptian Wikipedia. Thanks again. Simply south (talk) 22:06, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Template

For Canadian Forces Artist Program which template is useful? Template:infobox national military or template:infobox military unit or...? « CA » (talk) 21:55, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

I think it's better to go with Military unit in this case, but maybe there is something more appropriate that I don't know about. Cheers - [CharlieEchoTango] 23:36, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Legitemate link removed

In the past, the James May page has had a link to his authorised website and its forum, The Pievy. The site is in hiatus until I can get it going again but the forum continues. I added a note to that effect and a link to the forum. It has been removed and I do not understand the reason for this. I can see nothing in the guidelines about links that is contravened by my entry. The link has been there in the past before the website went into hiatus, so I do not understand why the link to the forum cannot be there now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mircalla (talk • contribs) 22:48, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

See WP:FANSITE. One of the links to avoid are forums. Thanks. —Half Price 22:55, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

write the truth

patrick guibaud dublin is not achef and never has been he was a hairdresser in manchester before becoming a restranteur in dublin very good but NOT A CHEF!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.60.43.201 (talk) 23:31, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

If you have references backing your claim, you could edit the article yourself. Cheers - [CharlieEchoTango] 23:33, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

IP has edited Patrick Guilbaud. None of the references in the article show that he is a chef. So the IP may be correct. This is really a matter for the article's talk page though. Sometimes Wikipedia has inaccuracies, but we try not to! —Half Price 23:38, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Actually, this ref refers to Guilbaud as a chef, so I've reverted the IP's edit. —Half Price 23:41, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

December 6

Wikipedia pages not displaying properly

This only started a few days ago. I had no column down the side, no pictures, no text boxes, no wiki logo and any results came up in text only. I use Firefox 3.6.12.

I looked up help in Mozilla and by clearing cache and cookies, I got some of the display back (column down the side for example).

I still don't have any pictures or even the Wikipedia logo in top left hand corner. I have added you to all the exceptions possible, but as the pages were working a few days ago and no settings were changed in the meantime, this is very strange.

I did a system restore to see if that would do it, but nothing.

On another PC with the same version of Firefox, there are no problems - everything displays properly. I have cross-checked the settings and they are all the same.

Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.168.244.71 (talk) 00:45, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Click Tools, then Options, then Content, "Load images automatically" should be checked. Dream Focus 00:52, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

It was ticked, so I unticked and ticked again, rebooted and that did it! Very strange - thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.168.244.71 (talk) 01:01, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Language problem

why i keep receiving mails from wikiadmin written in Norwegian? can i change the language or if not can an admin do something? EXORKISTIS (talk) 03:09, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Your account was automatically created in the Norwegian Wikipedia 4 December.[7] I guess you clicked a link leading there while you were logged in at another wiki. Account creation can cause welcome messages in many Wikipedia languages. Just ignore them if you don't edit there and don't know the language. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:23, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Problem with "new external links" message

Just in case anyone cares, there is an occasional bug in the software that checks whether edits include new external links. I've noticed this a few times, the latest in this edit, which popped up the "your edit contains new external links" window and asked me to type the Captcha words, even though the edit did not add any new external links. It's no big deal, but I thought I'd mention it anyway... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.184.235.197 (talk) 03:43, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

The paragraph you edited contains external links generated by a template. You didn't edit the template calls but it may be related to this. If you edit with an autoconfirmed account then you can avoid Captcha's for external links and get other benefits. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:19, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

What is archive url and what is url?????????????????

On the page WP:CITET, there are mentions about archiveurl and url. I inserted an archived press release from Vietnam Airlines, using archivedate and archiveurl. But it tells me that I must add a url as well. What does it mean by this Error: If you specify |archiveurl=, you must first specify |url=.?????????? If the article has been archived, how I am supposed to know what the original url was?

Can somebody fix the formatting at Vietnam Airlines up, to show me what should be done? Sp33dyphil ^{(Talk) (Contributions)(Feed back needed @ Talk page)} 06:05, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

You always include |url=. If the original URL goes dead and you can find an archived version at Archive.org or some other site, then you add |archiveurl= and |archivedate=. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 06:10, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Please click on this link and see for yourself what I've put in.<ref>{{Cite press release|title=Using a new airport in Russia |publisher=Vietnam Airlines|archivedate=29/12/2003|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20031130143452/http://www.vietnamairlines.com/}}</ref> Sp33dyphil ^{(Talk) (Contributions)(Feed back needed @ Talk page)}

What is the original URL? How did you find the archived URL? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 06:50, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I was just browsing through the Wayback Machine. Sp33dyphil ^{(Talk) (Contributions)(Feed back needed @ Talk page)} 07:05, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia's sister projects

Why wikitravels is not mentioned in wikipedias sister project?? What are other sister projects of wikipedia not mentioned in the page122.162.18.150 (talk) 07:00, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello there; WikiTravel is not a Wikipedia sister project. The site is owned by Internet brands a company not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation. Sister projects are only those from the Wikimedia Foundation. Maybe you are confused with the prefix, wiki? Cheers - [CharlieEchoTango] 07:02, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Promostyl should be in Wikipedia

I think the French fashion editor company Promostyl http://www.promostyl.com should be in Wikipedia because it is a kind of paradigm in Fashion industry, pointing out the future routes of fashion. Their own description might do very well "Promostyl a French fashion trend company to anticipate the currents in design, fashion, and, marketing to give a strategic edge in the market place. Located in Paris France." Thing is that everyone in fashion business knows about them and very few outside. If someone out side hears about it it should be a quick info at Wikipedia, at least the English edition. You can get a quick note by the French page for fashion http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(habillement). I can't find out anymore how to create a page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.185.78.66 (talk) 07:04, 6 December 2010 (UTC)