Wikipedia:Help desk

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February 12

Pointmaster Joystick

I have a pointmaster joystick with a 9 pin serial plug it plugs into the 9 pin serial plug on my laptop but it say's in my control panel it is not connected what is the problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.19.150.153 (talk) 02:16, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

This really should be asked at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. My first question would be if this is the Discwasher Pointmaster joystick for the Arari 2600? Laptops do not usually have the 15 pin joystick port that has been replaced by USB on current systems. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 04:38, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

The computer won't recognize serial port devices... it is not Plug and Play. However, if you tell a driver or program the COM port number, it will work. However, I do not know of any drivers for it. Assuming it uses standard commands, it could work if you give it the correct COM port number (if you only have one, it is usually COM1). Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:26, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Random (specific) question about soccer goalkeeper pages

I wonder if it would be more relevant to soccer goalkeepers in particular if editors and authors would give goals conceded on goalie pages, rather than goals scored. (Hockey also?) I have looked up quite a few soccer goalies on Wikipedia in my time and always get excellent biographical information, but this is the one statistic that is a bit lacking! I am not an editor right now, but I would like to get involved at some point. I hope this is the right place for this suggestion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.77.236 (talk) 02:45, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).  Chzz  ►  02:49, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Since your suggestion would affect many articles, you could try posting it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject American football. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:27, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

American football is different than European (and almost everywhere else) football... so I'd recommend talking to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:31, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Is there an easy way for an anonymous user to check their contributions?

Thanks. 66.108.223.179 (talk) 03:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes: In an IP's signature, the address links to his/her contributions page. It can also be reached at Special:Contributions/<address>, such as Special:Contributions/66.108.223.179. -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 04:19, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

If you are not logged in then your edits are assigned to your IP address at the time. At Special:Contributions you can enter a given IP address to see its contributions. At Special:Mycontributions you can see your current IP address (or account if you are logged in) and its contributions. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Your browser may have a history feature that might be somewhat useful for recalling the Wikipedia pages you have recently viewed, some of which you will have edited. That might help if your IP address changes from one Wikipedia session to the next, as often happens. If you are serious about tracking your contributions to Wikipedia, create an account. If you edit anonymously, your IP address can vary and other anonymous users may sometimes edit with the same IP addresses as you. --Teratornis (talk) 07:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Whether the IP changes or not would depend on whether their ISP uses dynamic or static addresses, so IP addresses sometimes never change frequently.   ArcAngel   (talk) ) 09:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Page move documented but page unavailable

Hello Wikipedia Help Desk, I moved my new page from draft status to live status. Unfortunately, the page is unavailable online, Google search comes up empty. Page move was reported as successful on February 10, 2011. How does one publish a Wikipedia page? The directions are unclear and confusing. Your help will be much appreciated. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Htothtide (talk • contribs) 12:01, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You mean The_College_Club_of_Boston? This page is really not finished. It must wikified and there are more problems... mabdul 12:09, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

(e/c) The College Club of Boston (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Google has a very big Internet to index. It will get round to this new article eventually, but it may take a week or two. Meanwhile the article could do with more references to reliable sources to show that the club is notable. The "find sources" link suggests that this news item might help, but without a subscription I can't read the full text. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:12, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

We don't have any control over when Google indexes pages, although it often happens fairly quickly. The page does show up in a Google search. As others have noted, it needs work, and may get deleted if not improved. For example, it has zero references.--SPhilbrickT 17:31, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

WP:RFM Setup

I've never done a RFM, under the "involved users" section, do I need to list everyone who weighed in at Talk:List_of_The_Angry_Video_Game_Nerd_episodes#Request_for_comments, including IPs with very few other edits? CTJF83 19:46, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

• Never mind, found the answer. CTJF83 12:27, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

HELP

I am trying to find out why my postings are not live? I created them following instructions but don't see them - this was over a month ago. Can you let me know what happened and what I need to do? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mtsegal (talk • contribs) 20:32, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You edited a sandbox, a page for testing the wikimarkup which is constantly overwritten. Create a sandbox for example at User:Mtsegal/sandbox and start there a proposal - If you think the article is ready then submit it. mabdul 20:35, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You have asked this before - please re-read the replies which are now archived here before re-posting your text. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:40, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Street

I entered South Capitol Street and Southern Avenue for information on how to get to that intersection, but the search brought up Southern Avenue and East Capitol Street, NE, which is not an actual location in DC. I don't even know if I am in the right place to report this as I started out entering the location in Google, and followed a link to here. I did finally find the information I was trying to verify, but only because I already knew what I was looking for. Pity the person who tries to find this location cold. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.185.144 (talk) 22:06, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Please provide links to the articles. CTJF83 22:11, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You are at Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, and this is the Help Desk for people trying to use or edit it. Were you trying to use an online mapping service of some kind? -- John of Reading (talk) 22:25, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

I could not duplicate it. And no, this is not the place to report it. Try "Report a problem" at the bottom of the left pane of Google Maps Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

out side uk

my friend in canada, new brunswick cannot find what i have been writing on wiki. is it because no one outside the uk can access what someone has written in the uk? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Comnut (talk • contribs) 22:42, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

No, location has nothing to do with it. Your text on "men or gods" is on your user page, which is not part of the encyclopedia. An ordinary Wikipedia search only looks in the encyclopedia articles. Your friend will be able to read your text by typing "User:Comnut" into the search box. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:56, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Wet weather driving doesn't read like an encyclopedia article

It's more like a pamphlet or something. I know there's a template that can be put on the page for this, but can't remember what one it is (it's not wikify), so mentioning it here in the hope someone can appropriately tag the page. M0ffx (talk) 22:43, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

I think {{Howto}} is what you want. Goodvac (talk) 22:45, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

 Done. Monterey Bay (talk) 02:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Sent to AFD: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wet weather driving. – ukexpat (talk) 18:15, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

February 13

Southern University Sit-In at S H Kress 1960, Baton Rouge, LA

§§ (UTC)JJanette Harris (talk) 03:22, 13 February 2011 (UTC)jJanette Need to find out the role of the NAACP in this Sit-In Case And was it the first 1960 Sit-In case ( Garner v Louisiana), ( 369 US) to go to the U S Supreme Court.—–J Janette Harris (talk) 03:22, 13 February 2011

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Humanities 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. Danger (talk) 03:41, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Editing Glitch with Ref tags

Hi everyone, I asked last week about a glitch I'm having with the Reflist tag. I'm creating an article on my userpage about a business guru, but I can't continue because of a reference glitch. I can't edit, add sections, or more or less do anything to the article -- every time I do, about half my page is automatically deleted and the page insists there's a reflist tag error. I'm using Firefox and I've already tried on several browsers. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to fix this? Thanks. Catchthedream (talk) 09:52, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Assuming you're talking about User:Catchthedream/Issamar Ginzberg, I made a small edit. See if that helps you out. I'm not quite sure what you were having problems with. Dismas|^(talk) 10:00, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. It didn't work, but I appreciate the help! Catchthedream (talk) 10:12, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

EDIT: I also noticed that the reflist will not update. I have two references tags with "1" that lead to two different places. Help? Catchthedream (talk) 10:28, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

You had both the refs named the same thing. Dismas|^(talk) 10:30, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Reflist still malfunctioning. All I did was add a wikilink and entire sections vanished. Catchthedream (talk) 11:24, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't know how you did it, but your edit at 11:19 removed half the draft. I've restored it for you. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:38, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't know why the end of the source text often disappears when you save regardless of the used browser. I have worked at the help desk for years and don't recall reports of this problem. I don't think it has anything to do with references. Part of the disappearing source text just happens to be {{reflist}} and this causes an error message about missing {{Reflist}}. Maybe there is a problem with your account settings, computer or internet connection. Have you enabled something under Gadgets at Special:Preferences? Will you try editing while logged out? It will reveal your IP address. Can you try another computer? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:37, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, both of you. Problem solved :) Catchthedream (talk) 19:47, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Nevermind. Still a problem. I have no idea how to fix this, and I'm on a different internet server with default settings. Who do I go to about this??? Catchthedream (talk) 09:58, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Why is my ID in red?

Everybody seems to have a blue ID, what should I do to get that?

Eravian (talk) 13:38, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

It is only because nothing yet has been added to your user page. If you just put a full stop or dnfkhdhfkfh or something, then click save, it will turn blue.--Aspro (talk) 13:43, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Links to nonexistent pages are always red, not just user pages. See Wikipedia:Red link. And see Wikipedia:User pages for things you can put on your user page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:49, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Create your own user page. See WP:UP for details of what you can and can't have. I *cough* "borrowed" *cough* some of my stuff off other editors, and I also know that some other editors have done the same with stuff I put on my user page. There's no rule against that! Mjroots (talk) 16:49, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

alt + f

alt + f is supposed to search wikipedia, but i'm using google chrome and it just brings up the tools menu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.164.224 (talk) 21:00, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't think it's meant to search. Alt- keys combination are usually determined by your browser or OS, not the websites. Are you thinking of ctrl-f, which will (usually) search for and find text within the open page of the browser? Rehevkor ✉ 21:04, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

The tool tip when I hover over the search box says "alt + shift + f". --ColinFine (talk) 21:23, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I think he got that from Wikipedia:Keyboard shortcuts, where it's actually Alt+Shift+f which brings the cursor to the search box in later versions of Firefox, but I don't know about Google Chrome. -- œ^™ 21:28, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Alt+⇧ Shift+f works for me with Google Chrome on Windows Vista. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:39, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Wally George

Hello- I am a California artist/ art teacher and I'm Wally George's niece. I didn't really know Wally when I was a child but became closer when his 9th wife, Janis, had their baby daughter around the same time I had my daughter. His daughter is MY cousin. Ironically, without knowing it, we both named our girls Holly ! For the first time we started celebrating family holidays together and Janis and I took the 'Hollys' on fun day trips like apple picking in Oak Glen. Wally's divorce from Janis really upset him (shouldn't have been a big surprise since she was only 19 when he brought her here from England to marry,and he was almost 60 years old !) She may have been the only wife that decided to leave HIM! Wally and I continued to have outings with our girls (post divorce) and he'd come to our house for Christmas , Easter and Bar-B-Que in the summer. He didn't get along very well with my Mom (his sister) but my husband and I and our friends always thought he was fun to be with. He was also a kind man with a good sense of humor and I miss him.

I know little about editing but I wanted to add more information to his Wikipedia bio. Please feel free to fix and rearrange what I have written so it flows better. I realize I should have added the 'marriage info' at the bottom 'Personal ' section. I'm working on an illustrated children's book right now about celebrities (as kids) and I've done all the artwork and ideas behind the stories, NOT the actual proper wording and placement of sentences !! Thank you, Susan — Preceding unsigned comment added by Smilingbluecat (talk • contribs) 23:27, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

See WP:V and WP:RS. On Wikipedia, it doesn't matter what you know to be true, it only matters what you can verify with reliable published sources. Wikipedia is not a collection of original work; instead, Wikipedia's articles merely re-factor information that has already been published, to organize it better than the often chaotic World Wide Web. The most useful information you can provide to Wikipedia about Wally George or anything else is reliable published sources about the subject. One of the limiting factors on Wikipedia is finding sources. --Teratornis (talk) 03:41, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

February 14

Statistics: Wikipedia editors

How can i find a statistic listing out locations of wikipedia editors? eg. the number of wikipedia editors from country a, b, c, and so on? The closest thing i could find is through Category:Wikipedians by location. However, this would not give an accurate indication of the number of editors in those specified locations since some users may not include their userpage under the appropriate categories. Is there anything more accurate than this? ќמшמφטтгמ^torque 03:00, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I think I saw this type of data somewhere once, but I can't find it now with a small effort. Note that your question is somewhat ill-posed, because "editor" is a very broad term. That would include everybody who has made at least one edit to Wikipedia. You might consider narrowing that down, perhaps to "active editors" or "editors with significant contributions" unless you really do want to include every drive-by editor who typed "Hello world!" on the Sandbox and left. Also note that there are over 200 Wikipedias in different languages. By Wikipedia do you mean all of them, or just the English Wikipedia? The geographic distributions of editors for the various language Wikipedias will almost certainly be different, depending on the geographic distributions of people fluent in the various languages. Anyway, here are some more links where you can continue searching if nobody else provides the answer you want here:

• Wikipedia
• Academic studies about Wikipedia
• Community of Wikipedia
• Wikipedia:Geographic imbalance
• Wikipedia:Researching Wikipedia
• Wikipedia:Academic studies of Wikipedia

--Teratornis (talk) 03:57, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

A Google search finds User:Pseudomonas/IP editors by country. --Teratornis (talk) 04:03, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

The most thorough analysis of Wikipedians I'm aware of is the UMU-Merit survey, which sadly doesn't seem to have investigated country. Though I can offer my personal observation – and I'm not the first to notice this – that Australians are over-represented in lists such as Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits and Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by featured article nominations. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:19, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, when I say "editor" i meant registered users or active editors (whichever is easier to identify). And I was referring to only English Wikipedia. Alternatively, a breakdown of number of edits by country. eg from wikichecker there has been about 444millions edits on en.wiki - where did those edits come from? Im not sure if such statistics exist though, but any help is much appreciated. ќמшמφטтгמ^torque 05:55, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I found this, Wikipedia:Edits by project and country of origin, but it is outdated. ќמшמφטтгמ^torque 08:31, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

A few things to discuss

1. Is there a source to proves that British Actor Dominic_Keating who played Malcolm_Reed on Star_Trek:_Enterprise that he was born in 1962? He looks like he was born in 1965. Is there a verified source for this?

2. Wikipedia might want mention that Dustin_Diamond who starred on Saved_by_the_Bell was in a porn movie according to IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1328912/

3. Would it be ok to add a photo for British Canadian author Martyn_Godfrey since he is dead from this link: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/martyn-godfrey/?

4. Wikipedia might want to put The_oc under the Category:Serial_drama_television_series. Just a suggestion. Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 03:12, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Regarding #2, if you would like to add the movie to his filmography, you're welcome to. You're an editor, go and edit. But you should be aware that the movie that you point out is not a porn movie in the usual sense of the word. It's listed as a comedy at IMDb. Dismas|^(talk) 03:28, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually there's consensus that IMDb does not meet Wikipedia's requirements for reliable sources and should not be cited as a reference; see Wikipedia:WikiProject_Film/Resources#IMDb. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:22, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

...Although you could, of course, cite a different source that provides the the same information. Re #3: A person's death doesn't automatically terminate copyright on photos of them. See Wikipedia's Image use policy. Re #4: Sounds reasonable to me, assuming it meets the criteria described at Category:Serial_drama_television_series. You can add it yourself by adding [[Category:Serial_drama_television_series]] near the bottom of the article, where the other categories are listed. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Citing other articles

If a user creates an article and uses the same format as another article (obviously changing the words), do they have to cite the article from which they copied the format from?

For example, the original article says:

"Roswell is a city located in northern Fulton County; it is an affluent suburb of northern Atlanta, Georgia. According to the US Census Bureau's 2008 estimate, the population is 87,657. It is the seventh-largest city in Georgia."

And I place it in another article and modify it:

"Columbus is a city located in northern Muscogee County; it is an affluent suburb of southern Atlanta, Georgia. According to the US Census Bureau's 2008 estimate, the population is 190,000. It is the third-largest city in Georgia."

Would I have to cite the first article? Thechased (talk) 03:42, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

No. You'll find that most articles about a certain range of subjects pretty much read the same. Take most any actor. They'll usually start out with John Doe (born January 1, 1900 - January 1, 2000) was an American stage and screen actor It's just natural that they're all going to look the same. And in the case of cities, many articles on US cities were actually created with the help of a bot that just pulled various data from a census file. Dismas|^(talk) 03:46, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh, and in general, we should never cite ourselves. So let's say that you want to say that John Doe attended Yale University in the John Doe article. You should find some other source for that statement and not the Wikipedia article for Yale University. Dismas|^(talk) 03:53, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

See WP:CIRCULAR. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:58, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Search keywords/code

What keywords do I need to use so that I can easily use the search box to search Wikipedia-help? A list page would be very helpful also.

 IamIYouareYou 

05:20, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

If you click the magnifying glass to the right of the search box, you'll be presented with the option to restrict your search to certain namespaces. Click the button labelled "none" to uncheck all the namespaces, then check the boxes for Wikipedia, MediaWiki, and Help, then run your search. For the kind of technical questions you've asked below, you try checking only the Help namespace first.

By the way, you might want to read the guideline on signatures, as yours doesn't seem to comply: it lacks a link to your talk page, and looks like it might disrupt the flow of surrounding text. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 05:45, 14 February 2011 (UTC)Iamiyouareyou (talk) 06:04, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

code help

Ribbon Stacking

Specifically, I want to stack my acquired Award ribbons on the top of my user page. What is the code for accomplishing that? 05:20, 14 February 2011 (UTC)Iamiyouareyou (talk) 06:03, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

yes, the style you are looking for is "<div style="position:absolute"...>. You can add more extras, for example the position: <div style="position:absolute; z-index:100; right:20px; top:20px;">...</div> You may include a clickable picture, that would be the {{click}}-template. If you want examples, please examine this here from my user page. Regards.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:39, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Barnometer

What part of the barnometer code do I need to edit to make it's vertical length shorter? Meaning how do I make it smaller? 05:41, 14 February 2011 (UTC)<pre style="width:100px;height:20px; border:4px dotted red; color:red;"> IamIYouareYou </pre> (talk) 06:01, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Since the formatting of user pages can be so different from articles, there is a separate Help desk for them: the Wikipedia:User page design center. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:24, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Secure server

I've been logging onto Wikipedia through the secure server feature, which I believe has a few problems. Although it says "remember me for 30 days" or something like that, I was logged out a few times after only 3 three minutes. This frustrates me because while saving a page, I would be logged out, so the IP number is displayed instead on "Sp33dyphil" on the article's talk page. What's going on here with the "Remember me for 30 days" thing? Also, after using this feature, I found out that, if I log in without the secure server, the computer seems to reject me and log me out again. This means that I will have to be using the secure server whenever I want to edit the site. Can somebody please explain what's going on? Thanks Sp33dyphil ^{(T • C • I love Wikipedia!)} 05:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Does anything in the "I get logged out just after logging in" section at Help:Logging in help you? Also, when switching between secure server and the ordinary server, other users have solved problems by deleting the en.wikipedia.org and wikipedia.org cookies, so you might give that a try. If you need to have your IP address hidden from view where you disclosed it by accident, see Wikipedia:Oversight. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:35, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

How to insert a photograph

how can i insert a photograph in any article by uploading it from drive?? Yaaerodrum (talk) 08:02, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

You must first upload the photo and then place it in the article. See WP:UPLOAD for instructions. Dismas|^(talk) 08:19, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Referencing Figures/Images

How are figures/images referenced in the article? I found such a missing reference, which I would like to correct, in

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

"The autocorrelation function of the Rayleigh fading channel shown above with 10 Hz maximum Doppler shift is shown in the figure. It is periodic ..."

In a scientific article one would use numbers. I was unable to find anything on this subject in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Images —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.187.189.80 (talk) 10:31, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure if your talking about formatting for references, or for captions. References are created using the <ref> tags. This will automatically create a reference (what appears as a ^[1]) in the article. The number will match up with whatever numkber the reference is in the article and clicking it will take you down to the reference list, which you must list with either {{reflist}} or <references />. An example would be: "This is a sentence I want to reference. <ref>This is my reference and will show up in the reference list</ref>". References can be done in any style, and if the article is established you should use whatever style is already in place. But to make things easier we have a series of templates, such as {{citeweb}} which produce references in a standard format. For more information on referencing see Referencing for Beginners.

If your referring to images that has a slightly different syntax. Basicly it is the same syntax as for a interwiki link ([[ ]]). Basically it is [[File:(name goes here)|(size goes here)|(caption goes here)]]. For more information on images there is the picture tutorial and the wikisyntax cheatsheet. --nn123645 (talk) 13:55, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Wiki deletion issues

Hi Everyone

I am posting this here as I have been unable to get a response from anyone on any other platform. I have twice created informative pieces on two vietnamese restaurants in Shoreditch which I love and have been twice delted. I even went onto Wiki and followed the example of the River Cafe making the piece factual as opposed to an advertising format, taking down any pictures I didn't have the rights for and having references and Links to other pages with no contact details for the restaurant in the piece. However I have been deleted twice now and really wish to get the message across that these restaurants follow the real history of Vietnamese cooking ( a little of what I put in the piece) and the history of the restaurants. I certainly didnt mention anything about it being delicious or promotion of any kind.

Please help

Kind regards SimonWFCA (talk) 11:10, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

The notices placed on your talk page to notify you of the most recent speedy deletions say that your second versions of each article were deleted under criteria A7, which says that an article may be deleted if it does not indicate why its subject is important or significant. To find out more, I suggest you contact the editors who deleted the articles - links to their respective talk pages are in the signature at the end of each notice. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:24, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Also read the General Notability guideline - WP:NOTABILITY, as well as the notability guideline for companies and organisations WP:CORP. The subject of an article must "deserve" its place here on Wikipedia. Roger (talk) 11:30, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I have looked at the last article and agree with its deletion under WP:CSD#A7. Most restaurants are not notable as we use that term here. You said above that the article had "references"—citation to references would be the most important way you could show notability—but the article had none. External links are not references and in any event, what we need is independent, third party reliable sources (newspaper articles, books treatment, magazine pieces, etc.), not links to the restaurant's website.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:14, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I know it can seem frustrating, but Wikipedia has quite specific definitions of notability - it's to do with how much third party attention it has attracted. In the case of a restaurant, Le Gavroche or Le Manoir are probably notable - lots of reviews, chitchat in the Sunday supplements etc, chef's got himself a tv show and book deal. In the case of your local (probably excellent) Vietnamese, it's probably only got a couple of reviews in the local paper, which wouldn't be enough to achieve notability in Wikipedia terms. Elen of the Roads (talk) 16:28, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Help again with this table

hello,

if I push the sortable button in the "Dimensions" column, why is "Heydar Aliyev" the first (with "100×70"), even if the lowest number is "70". Could you find the mistake, please? Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:19, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Easy to answer that. The contents of the column are text strings. "100×70" starts with "1", and therefore comes before any of the other strings in that column, which start with "2" or higher numbers. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:28, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your answer. So I need to add for all measurements the {{nts}} template? If so, I should write like this: {{nts|100×70|70}}, right? Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:36, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

My reading of Template:Nts doesn't suggest that it works the way you suggest. Perhaps you were thinking of Template:Sort? - David Biddulph (talk) 12:58, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't know whether there's any conventional way to order stamps by size, but another option would be to have them sort by total area. You could do that using something like {{sort|7000|100×70}} in each line, where 7000 is the stamp's total area, which I derived manually. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 12:55, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Six Nations rugby 2012

For Week 3 of the Championship you have 2 games on Friday, 24th February which never happens. I think this should be Saturday 25th with Scotland v France on Sunday 26th Feb. The other fixtures look ok. Just incase someone is booking a flight using your info. May Sinclair —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.153.36.137 (talk) 14:29, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I've fixed it. Our dates were copied from the Daily Telegraph, which had got them wrong. Algebraist 14:36, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

A suggestion I have

Would it be ok to create a categories for wikipedians descent or ancestry? Please let me know. Neptunekh2 (talk) 15:37, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, as you know since you're in category Arab Wikipedians, we do have these categories. Are you asking if it's alright to create another one for one that's missing? Because I'm pretty sure that would be okay. If you need any help creating a category, let me know. --Danger (talk) 15:44, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

My user page

Well, I'm really not pleased how my user page looks, but I have no idea how to redesign it. If anyone can help me, I'll be very grateful. Also, I don't know is this a right place to put this up. If there's a place where this types of problems are resolving, please tell me. --Sundostund (talk) 15:43, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

We have a page just for that sort of thing. Good luck! --Danger (talk) 15:46, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Great! Thank you. --Sundostund (talk) 15:51, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

making a subpage a wikipedia article

hello all! i created a subpage and wanted to merge/ move it into the real wikipedia world... is this possible?

Ralphydanman (talk) 16:24, 14 February 2011 (UTC) Ralph

Will reply at user talk page Mjroots (talk) 16:32, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

edit / add content to existing page

You already have a page with recent history of the Afghanistan Scout Association. During my one year mobilization to Kabul, I worked as Scoutmaster to five troops aligned with various orphanages. I partnered with NGO PARSA, as they had access to the orphanages. We held many events including Scout Day at the US Embassy in February 2010 with the Afghan & International media present to interview Ambassador Eikenberry, PARSA's Exec. Director Marnie, and me.

How can I add a paragraph or two about our attempts to increase participation in the Afghan Scouts during 2009-10? -Steve M. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.223.116.201 (talk) 16:50, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Please discuss this at Talk:Afghanistan Scout Association and be prepared to establish verifiable sources per WP:V. I also suggest you create an account. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:00, 14 February 2011 (UTC) Lead coordinator, WikiProject Scouting

Clean up and Nutrality problem

Hi,

I have recently edited this page as I noticed there was a nomination for for its neutrality to be checked and that it may require cleanup.

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

I have amended some of the article to help solve this - however the flags are still showing at the top of the page. I have gone into the discussion page to see if there are any clues as to what was under dispute but nothing is listed.

As these were from 2008 and nothing further has happened, how do I get them removed? I do plan on adding a lot more information to this page in the coming weeks and will be adding references and citations.

Regards.

Hutchfish (talk) 17:02, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I think you mean the "tags". To remove them, you must go to "Edit" (at the top of the page) and remove {{POV-check|date=August 2008}} and {{Cleanup|date=December 2008}}. Regards.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 17:50, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Please do not remove the tags yet as the issues have not been dealt with, in fact I have added another -- the article does not cite a single reference to a third party reliable source to demonstrate the notability of the subject. I also chopped out the "Future" section as it was spammy and crystal balling. – ukexpat (talk) 18:29, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Gray bar

I'm not totally sure this is the right place to ask, but here goes. I'm seeing a gray bar across the top of all or most of the Wikipedia pages I go to. Is that normally there, or is there some weird setting I've set that would cause that? Thank you, all. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

There have been similar reports to this before: [1]. I don't think any full explanation or solution has been thought of so far though. Rehevkor ✉ 21:37, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

(ec) I don't think people know Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)/Archive_84#Mysterious_.27Grey.27_Bar_at_top_of_pages CTJF83 21:38, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

OK, I'll follow the advice on those pages and see what happens. Thank you! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:43, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

One suggestion said the de-select "compatibility mode" in IE's "tools" menu, and that indeed took the gray bar away. I'm guessing that gray bar sits in place of something that wikipedia tried to display that IE could not handle, but we'll see. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:47, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Summary style

I haven't been able to find an answer to this, when doing an article in summary style, what length should the summary section be?

In the Burger King article I have the History of Burger King section summarized with 5 relatively short paragraphs. Each paragraph summarizes a section in the spin off article, which is not yet finished but is at 58kb as it stands now. I think the summary is an appropriate length because it summarizes a pretty long article in a rather small section, while others have commented that the summary has too much detail.

So, what is the proper standard? Is there one? --Jeremy (blah blah • I did it!) 22:15, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure. Disclaimer: I only read Burger King. I think it is really to long. although I love to read a long story, everybody who wants to know more about the history about this company should read really the history article. The beginning of the history, big turning points (one sentence that it went nearly bankrupt) and a bridge to today is only necessary. mabdul 00:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

The suggestion at Wikipedia:Summary style is that the summary in the parent article will look similar to the lead section in the child article - which makes sense, when you think about it, since both are trying to summarise the contents of the child article, one at the start of the child article, and the other in the parent article. Personally, I think the summary in Burger King is too long at present judged by that approach. Bencherlite^Talk 01:01, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

February 15

Problems uploading images

I have been trying to upload a clean image for a page for ages now, and the upload sever keeps changing the color scheme on a perfectly clear image on my computer. Yet, when I insert the image into a file, it sometimes shows up perfectly clear. Why and how do I fix this? Catchthedream (talk) 09:55, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

...and this post also deleted half of the text you were editing! Looking at the history of File:Issamar1.JPG, were those first five uploads all from the same, unaltered, file on your computer? If so, then something is definitely damaging the bytes that you are sending. I will post at Village pump (technical) on your behalf. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you so much! :) Catchthedream (talk) 10:30, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I have tagged the image as not having evidence of permission. You state that the source is "Direct communication with subject." but this is insufficient for Wikipedia purposes (see the process set out at WP:IOWN) and on the face of it incompatible with the license given for the image. – ukexpat (talk) 15:54, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Moving problems with Scott Nicholson

Resolved

I was trying to resolve some issues with Scott Nicholson/Scott Nicholson (writer). I was trying to move the later back to the former as there was no conflict that required the more specific title. But it looks like the original move from Scott Nicholson occurred while it was under AfD discussion, which when resolved caused a notice to be placed at Talk:Scott Nicholson. This prevented the move of Talk:Scott Nicholson (writer). The history of the 2 talk pages should be merged. Thanks! Kuguar03 (talk) 05:44, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I redirected Talk:Scott Nicholson (writer) to Talk:Scott Nicholson, this should resolve the issues with it.   ArcAngel   (talk) ) 08:10, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

HELP!!

Can you please help me out with this article-Ooty? I was editing the infobox when suddenly the whole article went out of shape. It's LIVE now! Please help.--Suraj T 06:53, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

This has been fixed by Rich Farmbrough (talk · contribs) -- John of Reading (talk) 07:56, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Pileated Woodpecker page not proper

the page comes with no actual wikipedia layout around it, maybe somebody can fix this issue —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.63.13.213 (talk) 07:55, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

The page renders fine to me. Maybe you could clear your cache and see what happens? [[CharlieEchoTango]] 07:56, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

maths project

dear friends, i want to make a project on maths.our teacher told us to make a mathematical object out of waste..please suggest me something..i m an problem.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.183.50.171 (talk) 09:07, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps you could have a go at building an Icosahedron? -- John of Reading (talk) 09:20, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Infront Sports & Media Page - International versions / Can you help?

I've been directed here by helpful Wikipedians to establish the best method of creating different country versions of the content on the Infront page. I would like to provide translated versions of the English text for the German, French and Italian Wikipedia sites. The German one specifically is of greatest interest as there is currently incorrect information on there about the company. It is relevant to have this information in all country versions as Infront is international and active worldwide. I'm told I will have to translate the information which is no problem but was wondering if the English references would be sufficient or if I would have to find references in the individual languages as well? I was also wondering if you could advise on the best process for this - clearly I will link all pages to the original English Wikipedia page but would be grateful for any other advice you can offer.

Many thanks Clnatinfront (talk) 12:29, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Bear in mind that it appears that you have a conflict of interest, so you have to keep a neutral point of view when editing the articles. There is also a chance too that you may be blocked from editing because the username you have chosen is in violation of the username policy, because it represents a group or company, and not an individual.   ArcAngel   (talk) ) 13:51, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Username is a clear violation IMHO and reported to WP:UAA. – ukexpat (talk) 16:07, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Apparently not... – ukexpat (talk) 17:55, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Just a remark to ukexpat. Maybe next time you won't be quite so hasty to beat up the newbies with administrative action and rather just give them a friendly explanation of the problem first. I've noticed you doing this before, please try to assume good faith and be a bit more welcoming instead of immediately biting the newbies. Administrative action is for deliberate malicious acts, not newbie mistakes. Roger (talk) 18:21, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I report them as I see them. Reporting what I believe to be a UN violation isn't biting. – ukexpat (talk) 18:41, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Demetrias - the Nun

In 413, Pelagius wrote a lengthy letter to Demetrias, who had recently turned her back on wealth in order to become a nun. Pelagius' letter was to explain his position in the argument of "free-will" or the "freedom of will" with Augustine of Hippo. This was found under the Pelagian controversy. My Question: Who is this nun - Demetrias? And why did Pelagius write her? What role did she play during the period of the early Christianity and development?

Keep up the good work. God bless! Sincerely, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.219.178.2 (talk) 15:05, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

This page is only for questions about how to use Wikipedia. You may ask this question here.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 15:11, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Or, alternatively, you may be interested in reading about Demetrias (daughter of Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius). Bencherlite^Talk 16:19, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

747-8 PDF causes abort

After I download the article about the 747-8 in PDF format, both Firefox and Internet Explorer terminate. I had this result on Monday and again today, Tuesday. I am a computer person so I have tried many things without success. Please let me know when this is fixed. Thanks Raydiek (talk) 16:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Works for me. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:25, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Can you download any other articles in PDF format? Since you are a computer person, you understand the need to isolate the cause:

• Is the problem on your computer, or on Wikipedia? (Not likely to be on Wikipedia since at least one other user can download the PDF you want.)
• Is the problem only with this article, or with all articles?
• Can you view PDF files from other sites?

See WP:BROWSER for general information about using various Web browsers with Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 18:55, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Since there do not appear to be any other reports of this either here or at WP:VP/T, it seems likely - not certain, but likely - that the problem is in your machine. But then, as you are a computer person, you obviously realise this. --ColinFine (talk) 23:08, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

tagged as possible conflict of interest

Hi, I linked to an interview with Sally Fallon Morell this morning on the Weston A. Price page that would be helpful for those wondering how that organization began, but it was removed with a tag "possible conflict of interest". I am not affiliated with the WAPF and wondered if I could try again to put that link up. Although, I think I put it in the wrong spot today. Would my link HAVE to go to the "external links" section?

Thanks, KitchenKop (username) — Preceding unsigned comment added by KitchenKop (talk • contribs) 17:31, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

The source you provided, a page on "kellythekitchenkop.com", looks very similar to your username thus the bot quite reasonably assumed that you have a connection to that site. Your edit was not on Weston Price it was on Weston A. Price Foundation. Please provide specific links in your posts, I had to check your contribution log to find what you are talking about. If you are in fact connected to the "kellythekitchenkop.com" website please note that it is generally considered bad form to quote yourself on WP unless you are a generally recognised reliable source on the particular topic. BTW please sign your posts properly by typing four tildes at the end like this - ~~~~. Thanks. Roger (talk) 18:09, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I've brought KitchenKop's to WP:UAA because of the apparent WP:COI and WP:SPAMNAME problems.

As Roger mentions, this appears to be in reference to recent edits to Weston A. Price Foundation. In that case, a bot tagged the similarity between the username and the url, and Alexf removed the edits as spam.

The relevant policies/guidelines include WP:U, WP:COI, WP:SPAM, WP:EL, and WP:NOTLINK.

KitchenKop, I suggest changing your username or starting a new account that doesn't make you appear to be representing kellythekitchenkop.com. Also, note that kellythekitchenkop.com is very unlikely to be an acceptable link within Wikipedia as an external link (WP:ELNO, especially #11) or as a source. --Ronz (talk) 19:24, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Wow, I made a bunch of newbie mistakes, I'm sorry. On the username, I assumed that my whole url as a username would be a no-no, but thought this one would be ok. I can make a new one, but just didn't want to use my name. As far as quoting myself, I can see that would be bad form, but tell me this: do you think that an interview with Sally Fallon (WAPF president) on the beginnings of the Weston A. Price Foundation would be a helpful link on Wikipedia as an external link or no? I know it may not get through, but I'm hoping it will based on the "notability" clause: "significant, interesting, or unusual enough to deserve attention or to be recorded." If not, I won't bother trying to get it on there with a new username. (Is this something I should open a topic on on the Weston A. Price Foundation talk page??) Thank you for your help and again I'm sorry for all the screw ups! KellyKitchenKop (talk) 15:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Don't worry about the mistakes. They happen. You saw there was a problem and started a discussion on it. Kudos!

Fallon isn't notable, and the foundation is notable for it's activism and promotion of highly questionable dietary advice. I'd guess that an interview with the founder probably wouldn't be of much interest and would tend to WP:SOAP and WP:PRIMARY problems. Is there a way to get a transcript for review? --Ronz (talk) 18:15, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

A deaf reader did ask me if I could do a transcript for him, so as soon as I have a chance I'll do that and then let you know here. How can I get it to you, can I post a link here? (I don't want to screw up again!) Sorry for my ignorance of this stuff, but, are you one who could approve it? Thanks for your time! KellyKitchenKop (talk) 20:16, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Great! I think it would be best to continue this discussion on Talk:Weston_A._Price_Foundation so others interested in the topic could find and contribute to the discussion more easily. It would be fine to post the link there for review. --Ronz (talk) 23:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

delivery of passports

I live in a block of flats and a blank delivery card from "the dx delivery co." was on the stairs. after asking all my neighbours if they were expecting anything I came to the conclusion it could be my passport. Could not access their website and ot took several phone calls to get through to an automated service. I think this service is deplorable and another company needs to be considered for this service. They now want an extorshinate amount of money for it to be delivered, or else am going to have to sit in all day and wait. Needs to be looked at for security reasons if nothing else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.105.43 (talk) 17:43, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.5 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.Template:Z25

One of the reference desks is probably a better place to ask your question. However, I had no difficulty accessing DX's website and the service does seem above board. According to the FAQ, they're apparently happy to deliver to another address (eg: your work place) or let someone you trust sign for it (eg: a neighbour), and I can find no mention of a fee payable by the recipient (though they are a secure courier service, so I suppose it is possible the person you spoke with was in sales and thought you wanted something collected and delivered to someone else). You could call their customer services again (on 0844 371 0000 or 01604 496 798) and try to clarify the situation. Astronaut (talk) 02:07, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia kml or kmz file

Hello,

I am looking to embed Google Earth into my website for my 7th Grade students. I want to include the Wikipedia layer on the embedded GE browser app. I was wondering if there was a stand-alone kml or kmz file to place the Wikipedia layer on my embedded Google Earth. Panoramio has a stand-along kml file downloadable from their site and was wondering if there was such a file for Wikipedia.

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rigwald (talk • contribs) 18:49, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Does Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#Tools and applications based on coordinates from Wikipedia provide any useful clues? I found that by Googling around a bit. --Teratornis (talk) 19:10, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Luigi Lucioni

Dear Sirs, I am writing about the artist Luigi Lucioni. There is a stub atricle. I finished the article on user page and I feel it is complete. I can't figure out how to proceed to the next step. I've search the site and can't figure it out. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stuartembury (talk • contribs) 18:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your contributions. Since Luigi Lucioni already exists, you would simply copy-and-paste the information into the article. But you need to source your information. At present it is not good enough to be added to the article. Thanks. —Half Price 18:58, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

How to save an article without posting it

I am wanting to write an article, but I know it's going to take me longer than one sitting to get it done with. I was about to start, but I was apprehensive that if I pressed save it would automatically go online and I don't want it to do that. Is there any way I can save it without publishing it so that I can continue to edit it without other people seeing it until it's finished? — Preceding unsigned comment added by IRTLive (talk • contribs) 19:04, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes you would created it in a user sandbox, such as User:IRTLive/Sandbox, where you can work on it at your own pace. If you are connected with the Indiana Repertory Theatre (from one of your edits to the Tutorial sandbox) and are contemplating editing that article or related articles please read WP:COI. Your user name would also in that case probably be a violation of the user name policy. – ukexpat (talk) 19:11, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Your account shows few edits. If that is all the Wikipedia editing you have done, any brand-new article you create is at high risk of being deleted. It's much better to start by making small edits to existing articles, watch the articles you edit and learn from the changes other editors make to your edits, and read the friendly manuals. Before you even started to write an article, you already missed two things: you did not sign your post, and you created an account that may violate WP:ORGNAME. This is not to criticize you, but to point out that you may be venturing into something difficult (article creation) before you know enough about all the gotchas on Wikipedia. See WP:AFD and examine the remarkable number of new articles whose deletion is being debated right now. There are many rules for content and formatting that are nearly impossible for new users to guess without studying Wikipedia extensively first. You can ask for help with writing a new article at Wikipedia:Requested articles. Good luck. --Teratornis (talk) 19:30, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

But if you do decide to go ahead, Your first article and the article wizard may be helpful. --ColinFine (talk) 23:11, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I never clicked on that!

When I went back to the Steve Kean article, the computer itself clicked on the Swansea City A.F.C. article. I never clicked on that! I have a mug which says "I love my computer", but oh no that is wrong! Velociraptor888 20:12, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Do you have a question? -- kainaw™ 20:22, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, and it is, "Why did the computer click on a link itself?". Velociraptor888 08:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

We cannot say what happened on your computer but my guess would be that your mouse sent a click signal for some reason. Maybe it registered two clicks when you went to Steve Kean and the second was interpreted as a click on one of the piped Swansea City links in the article. Whatever happened it's unlikely that Wikipedia redirected you on its own. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:55, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Image Uploads

I have a question about the really complicated rules on this website. i have been struggling to edit a page for a while on here and everytime i finally upload an image under the "fair use" promotional option i go back to it and all the work i have done on the page has been deleted. the page i am working on is for musician promotional purposes and i have been working on the page trying to add images aand more information everyday to find i get no further forward. there is so much information on here regarding images and licences, the free use option that offers you to option of the fair use of a promotional photo hasn't worked for me yet and i'm really struggling to see where i am going wrong as i have seen various other users managing this option just fine. could you please help me out?

also, when you upload a image to wikicommons, does it have to have an existing link on a website online for it to work on here? ive just finished uploading an image that i was successful with the last time i tried and it just wont work.

i appreciate any information possible to stop my work on here being deleted day after day.

Thank you

1122hangover (talk) 21:38, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

I am afraid that the answer is: if you are working on a page for musician promotional purposes, you are in the wrong place. That purpose is fundamentally contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia: see WP:PROMOTION. Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 23:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

An image such as File:Dopebandpromo99.jpg does not satisfy the criteria for fair use if it depicts a person who is still alive. Also see Fair use for the relevant legal theory. Fair use of copyrighted images conflicts to some degree with Wikipedia's aim to be a free content resource. You can eliminate your difficulties by uploading only images to which you own the copyright, and releasing them under a free license such as {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}}. --Teratornis (talk) 06:42, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

how to make the changes in Sanbox

I want to suggest the changes for the business.com. Since I know it just sold to ResourceNation on Feb 14, 2011. But I do not want directly edit the page.

~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Olixps (talk • contribs) 21:51, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

You can suggest the changes at Talk:Business.com if you wish. Or the sandbox is Wikipedia:Sandbox, just clicked "edit" at the top. CTJF83 22:30, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Sandbox gets erased regularly. If you want to create your own personal sandbox for preparing an article revision or for some other reason, click this red link: User:Olixps/Sandbox. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 14:43, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Creating new discussion pages

I noticed that there aren't discussion pages for many IPA charts (**********). There is no Template talk:IPAhelp2col either. I think the talk pages should be created, because their lack hinders unregistered users from posting comments there. But I'm not sure what templates I should use to create them. --Theurgist (talk) 23:32, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Unregistered users can create discussion pages in all talk namespaces. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:00, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

If you want to create a talk page, and don't know what else to put on it, {{Talk header}} often works. --Teratornis (talk) 05:42, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

That template is usually only for talk pages with issues— see the documentation. As noted, anyone can start a talk page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

February 16

Rating bar on the article

On abortion, bottommost, there is a rating bar. I've never seen it before on any other articles and when I clicked edit I can't see any codes behind it. Do you have any links to explanation for this (perhaps) new feature of Wikipedia? --Rattakorn c (talk) 01:54, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

See Article Feedback Tool. At present, on the English Wikipedia, the pilot project is being used for articles within the scope of Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy. Bencherlite^Talk 01:58, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

(ec) It's a hidden category called Article Feedback Pilot. If you follow the link, you can learn more about it. It is in the code of the article.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:03, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you both :) --Rattakorn c (talk) 03:19, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

conversion unit

Hi

I spotted a glitch in the unit conversion script.

Eg in the page for Nikita krouchev, production values (section "agricultural policy"), the conversion ton / short ton produced a non natural value (1.074 E+8) for a number which should have been shown as 107,000,000 - or shown as "107 million" While I understand the scientific notation, 100 million is not a particularly large number, and showing it as 107 million is much more natural...

I corrected it manually by editing the text to remove the conversion and show the results in human readable form.

Cedric —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.50.128.34 (talk) 07:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Gordon Brown

You have made Gordon browns page unable to be changed, this is wrong, a lot of the bad things he did need to be posted on this page so people can see how very useless he is.Please sort this asap. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.42.190.52 (talk) 07:51, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Gordon Brown (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Sadly, even though this is the Encyclopedia that anyone can edit, some pages do have to be protected against vandalism. As described here, you have two ways to edit the article. One is to register an account and then make ten edits over four days; you will them be an autoconfirmed editor and will be able to edit the Gordon Brown article. The other is to propose your change at the article talk page and draw attention to it by adding {{Edit semi-protected}}.

For both methods you will need to include references to reliable sources such as books, newspapers and magazines to back up the information you are adding. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Since most of your edits have been vandalism, however, creating an account might be a waste of effort. For unless you become a serious editor, you would be blocked from editing before you would became autoconfirmed. —teb728 t c 13:27, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Any posting on Wikipedia which is put there because PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW is almost certain to be removed very swiftly: see WP:SOAPBOX. Only if you can find reliable sources which support what you are saying is the information likely to remain there - and if it is a contentious issue, it must be balanced by other views - see WP:NPOV. --ColinFine (talk) 19:29, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Tony Blair

you have locked the page of Tony blair, this is WRONG, see to it that it can be edited, he was a very bad PM, people need to know more. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.42.190.52 (talk) 08:07, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Tony Blair (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

This article is also semi-protected; my previous answer applies here. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:12, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Updating an image

I'm trying to update a .jpg version of an image with an SVG version, but I can't overwrite the .jpg because the new file has an SVG extension. Is there a way to do this, or do I need to upload the SVG as a new file and delete the .jpg version. The file is [File:Orange_Bowl_2011.jpg] and is a nonfree logo. If you're able to answer this, could you drop a note on my talk page? Thanks for your time. JKBrooks85 (talk) 10:01, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You have to upload the SVG separately and replace the JPG in articles, then tag the JP for deletion. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:50, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Favorites button

For logged in users who are browsing and reading articles, there should be an option to mark article as favorite. This will help save articles for future reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Greatidea8 (talk • contribs) 11:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Have you noticed the little star at the top right corner of your screen (beside "view history"). Clicking the star adds an article/talkpage to your "watchlist". Add your favourite articles to your watchlist.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 11:14, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

That’s one way to mark a page, and it works pretty well for pages that are frequently modified. (What it actually does is watch for modifications to pages you are interested in.) A couple of other way are to bookmark the pages in your browser and to create links to the pages on your user page. —teb728 t c 12:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Being harassed - what should I do?

Moved here from Wikipedia talk:Help desk -- John of Reading (talk) 11:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

To be brief, I added a link, another user removed it claiming it was spam, and when I left them a message explaining to them why it was not, a third member removed the message claiming it was vandalism.

is there any proceedure for dealing with or reporting harassment on wikipedia?

99.139.212.69 (talk) 07:57, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

That's pretty interesting, claiming that you're being harassed. Need I point out your own original harassment of us? Diff 1 and 2. — Preceding unsigned comment added by OnePt618 (talk • contribs) 08:04, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

the above unsigned comment posted by OnePt618, who has joined member Tbhotch in continuing to harass me, even when I tried to explain rationally to them why their beliefs that my link is spam are false.

99.139.212.69 (talk) 08:26, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

If you think that you are being harassed I suggest you first read dispute resolution policy and if it does not result in anything ask for a mediation. My advice for you, 99.139.212.69, is to first set up an account. --Rattakorn c (talk) 11:45, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Hello, everybody! I hope you are all doing well this fine day! I also suggest to the anonymous user that he or she dream up a good user name (funny if possible) and stay with us for a long time! I have left instructions on his or her user page on how to do so. Also a deep breath and a walk around the block does wonders. Sincerely, a friend to all, GeorgeLouis (talk) 17:08, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Harassment? since when anwer questions is harassment? If s/he do not want to be "harassed", then do not make questions, oh, and remember who is the vandal 1 2. Tbhotch* ^{۩ ۞} 21:08, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

How do I replace the edit toolbar to the original version?

I don't like this edit toolbar and I would like to replace it with the original, good one. Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 11:58, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Be patient; we're in the middle of a software upgrade. See the last few threads at Village pump (technical). -- John of Reading (talk) 12:36, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You can also uncheck "Beta features" from the "edit" tab in "my preferences" CTJF83 12:42, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I know that already, as I am not a noob. I was shocked by the time I saw this layout and changed immediately to the prior version. Now I wait until it will change. -- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:47, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

....so you came to help desk to provide an opinion on the toolbar? ;) CTJF83 12:53, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes I came here to receive an answer about my question :|-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:57, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

LOL, I gave you one, and you said, "I know that already, as I am not a noob"...but this is getting off topic, so ya.... CTJF83 13:03, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Calm down; we are talking about the edit toolbar and not about the beta layout. You are going off-topic I think.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:09, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh, I thought the beta tool bar stuff was the issue with the toolbar, nm, ignore me. CTJF83 13:14, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Jesus Lee Roth I thought we'd been coopted by Facebook. They're doing something weird at the Graphics Labs at the same time. Why spend so much time to fix that which ain't broke?--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 14:25, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, the advice above to uncheck "Beta features" enabled me to fix it. Yngvadottir (talk) 20:52, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

course

--68.194.124.188 (talk) 13:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I need to take a refresher course on sure trak / I live on L. I. N.Y.

James Farrell— Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.194.124.188 (talk • contribs)

Have you tried the Miscellaneous section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.Template:Z38--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:24, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

disruptive editing

I've been accused by another user of disruptive editing. The page in question is fro CHBN-FM. User 117 Avenue has taken issue with my removal of the "competitors" paragraph within the article. In the edit summary I stated that competition is not germaine to what CHBN is. 117 Avenue's argument is that competition affects a radio station. Encyclopaedia's only explain the nature of something, not everything that can affect what that something is. Weather, acts of God and the ionosphere can affect a radio station too. 117 avenue has posted none of that in this article so the argument is inconsistent. Inside his profile you can see 117 avenue is a fan of a competing radio station but not listed as a fan of CHBN so the opinion in this case is in fact, biased. Please advise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hot4vegas (talk • contribs) 14:19, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Talk:CHBN-FM is the place to discuss your content dispute, rather than edit-warring without discussion. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

incorrect weg page address

The web page address for Champlain College Lennoxville is incorrect, and I am unable to correct it (it appears in a box on the right hand side of the page). It reads www.lennox.champlaincollege.qc.ca but it was changed several years ago to www.crc-lennox.qc.ca. The old address still links to the new one, but this is for a definite time only. We would appreciate it someone could fix the error. Thx. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.236.4.254 (talk) 15:03, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

 Done I changed the web address. ~~ GB fan ~~ 15:12, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Following Citing Procedures, but not creating footnote

I'm testing the waters with Wikipedia. My first attempt was denied because of copyright. Therefore I'm writing my own description.

Here's my problem.... I'm using the format for citing as described and it looks like this...

Extended content

_________ The Three Secrets of John XXIII The secret of everything is to let yourself be carried by the Lord and to carry the Lord<rev>Cahill, Thomas, (c) 2002,Pope John XXIII, Penguin Company, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY</rev> ------John XXIII at his coronation ____ However, when I preview the page, it does not create the footnote, but comes out like the following: The Three Secrets of John XXIII The secret of everything is to let yourself be carried by the Lord and to carry the Lord<rev>Cahill, Thomas, (c) 2002,Pope John XXIII, Penguin Company, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY</rev> The ==References== section looks like this: References __

What am I doing wrong?????

Help me please... jeff359w

You may read WP:REF if you don't understand how to put references.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 15:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Hi Jeff359w. The problem was that you were using tags named <rev>, not <ref>. I've fixed these now and the references are showing up properly. I see you're still working and am sure you know that the article does need attention in other areas, so feel free to ask if you want help with them. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:24, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Article Wizard - Preview Feature Stopped Working

I initiated a new article in Article Wizard on 12 February 2011 and entered the "new article content" title. I have been developing / editing and previewing the new article in Article Wizard for the last 5 days without any problems. Today (16 February 2011), I made some edits and upon going to preview, the "article content" title was missing and there was no information in the preview section. How can I restore the "article content" title and the preview feature? Thank-you. Mdonovcanmoore (talk) 15:40, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Fixed here – you had opened a "hidden comment" but not closed it, so the rest of the text was sucked into the hidden comment. Bencherlite^Talk 15:50, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Specifically, you removed the comment close in [2]. See WP:COMMENT. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:35, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

list of user pages

hi. how do i generate a special page which lists all the user pages which i've created, which are subpages of my user page? I know there's a way to do this. also, how do I find this information in the help documentation? Couldn't find it. thanks. --Steve, Sm8900 (talk) 16:57, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that's Special:PrefixIndex. Just type the parent page name followed by a slash. For example, for all subpages of User:Example, type User:Example/ in the input box.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 17:02, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You can click the Subpages link at the bottom of Special:Contributions/Sm8900. There is documentation at WP:USERSUBPAGE and Wikipedia:Subpages#Using subpages. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:31, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Alternatively, you could click on "My contributions" at the top right of the page, scroll down to the bottom of that page and click on "Subpages". Dismas|^(talk) 18:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

This is mentioned in the help documentation here, but I agree that it is not easy to find. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:56, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

No more graphic — pfft!

A graphic has disappeared from Marie Mattingly Meloney and has been replaced by a message stating "Error creating thumbnail: Cannot get metadata from TIFF". What to do? Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 18:09, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Odd. Now the graphic has returned. I wonder what caused all this? ~!GeorgeLouis (talk)

It also failed for me before. I see you uploaded File:Marie Mattingley Meloney 1943 obituary photo.tiff. tiff is not among the allowed types at Wikipedia:Creation and usage of media files but see also commons:COM:TIFF. Can you upload in another format? PrimeHunter (talk) 18:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Uhh . . . if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload, you will see that .tiff is listed as an acceptable format. If there has been a change, this page should also be changed. I hope that somebody reading this can take care of reconciling these conflicting instructions, because I wouldn't know where to begin. Sincerely, your friend, GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:31, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Did you read my link to commons:COM:TIFF? It seems clear that even if tiff uploads are technically allowed, they should be avoided for files intended for article display such as yours. Can you upload in another format? If not then maybe somebody else will convert it for you. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

See also commons:Commons:Project scope/Allowable file types which explicitly says: "Images: SVG, PNG, GIF, JPEG, TIFF (not for display purposes, see COM:FT#TIFF), XCF (GIMP)".

The list at Special:Upload simply shows which file types it is possible to upload and doesn't talk about intended use (PDF files cannot be displayed in articles but are possible to upload). If the list is up to date and you try another type then you should get an error message and be unable to upload. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:48, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

New messages

What happened to the new messages banner? It's blue now. When was this changed and where is the discussion? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 19:15, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

See the (currently) last thread at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Dismas|^(talk) 19:20, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Still Having Problems Editing and Ref Tags; cannot revert

Resolved

After a short hiatus where my edits were going through nicely, there appears to be a bug again in my article (User:Catchthedream/Issamar Ginzberg) -- and I can't revert this time. Help! Also, since I seem to be on here quite a lot lately, some feedback on the article is always nice if you have time :). Thanks. Catchthedream (talk) 19:29, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Done ;) mabdul 19:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Bar above edit box has changed again

I assume this is part of the MediaWiki software update, and I see where I can get a few more things by hitting the arrow next to "Advanced", but where are the buttons for concealed comment and even more importantly for when I am on a laptop and don't have a tilde on the keyboard, for inserting a signature? I played with my settings under preferences and couldn't see how to get the old bar back. I am in MonoBook precisely because I don't like all the stuff Vector hides in places I can't find, or actively takes away; is there a fix in this case? Yngvadottir (talk) 20:13, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

isn't under the edit box a "composer" for special characters? mabdul 20:31, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

In MonoBook, yes. One of the things I prefer about it. I now see a thread above on this topic but it appears the advice is "Sit tight, they're still changing things"? After the whole experience with Vector, that does not inspire confidence. If there's any way I can personally revert this change, please let me know. Yngvadottir (talk) 20:47, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I tried the advice in that section above, to uncheck "Beta features" from the "edit" tab in "my preferences", and that did it. Thanks! Yngvadottir (talk) 20:52, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm using the modern skin ^^ So, don't ask me what the others look like. I only know that I hate the vector skin ;) mabdul 00:34, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Seconded, though I hate the way it was foisted on us even more, with utterly meaningless and deceptive testing being cited as warranting its implementation.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:51, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Log me in globally

Perhaps this is not new, but I just noticed it on my login page. What is "Log me in globally"? Backspace (talk) 20:36, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I would suspect that it's part of the process of logging you into other languages' Wikipedias. Dismas|^(talk) 20:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

It means that you can log into Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, etc... Monterey Bay (talk) 03:23, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Seek Catagory list, instructs for edit photo-summary, and detailed copyright end-point info.

Spent many many minutes searching about catagories... I tried to attach a catagory to a photo I uploaded, but could nowhere find a simple list of catagories. Lots and lots and lots and lots of pages about issues around catagories -- but no actual catagories, it seems.

1. 1)

Suggestion and request: A simple linear vector of high-level catagories that are currently defined. Then, maybe some click-down feature for sub-catagories, or whatever. But something, eh? I understand that there are likely lots of issues with catagories - but just do something simple, so if folks do useful effort on something, they can stick it somewhere that has some kind of catagorization. Otherwise, the whole effort is a useless waste of time, if people can't easily attach catagories to their upload efforts.

1. 2)

How do I just edit a spelling mistake in an uploaded file summary description? I made the edit, but the old version with the spelling mistake is not overwritten. Is this policy? As uploader/author, I assumed I could fix any spelling errors, but attempts to do this have failed.

1. 3)

Tech stuff and copyright issues. Look, I don't want to do anything bad, but I fear a lot of useful technical information that was common knowledge on many issues in the 1950's and 1960's is just being lost. I often seek the documents and technical schematics from certain obsolete products and designs, circa 1950's to 1970's. This info lives on low paper-quality engineering documents, that are often copyrighted by bankrupt and/or non- existant companies, or in rotting paper catalogues I would freely drop a bunch of my digital images, as public domain material, onto relavent Wikipedia articles, if allowed. I seek detailed guidelines on what I could upload. Been thru your notes on "What Wikipedia Is Not", and your image upload forms. An encyclopedic repository of technical schematics is needed. Patents expire after 17 years, but the US Patent Office has made its technical site *VERY* difficult to search and view - by plan, to protect US intellectual property, maybe? I have some technical material that will die when I do, if not placed successfully in the public domain. If a detailed technical article exists somewhere that indicates the limits of copyright restrictions. There is a "Greshams Law" happening to high-value data now. I seek to preserve, in the public domain, some valuable material, and seek specific, actionable guidelines. Thx for any info... - Rus. Rusfuture (talk) 20:56, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Categories: Take a look at Portal:Contents/Categories. This allows you to work down from high levels to sub-sub-sub categories. But you should also consider enabling the HotCat tool, which will help you by suggesting suitable categories.

Typo issue: Are you trying to alter an old edit summary because it contained a spelling mistake? That's not possible, unfortunately. All old edits, and their summaries, are preserved in the record because every Wikipedia edit has to be attributable. You can save an amended version of actual content, though.

Copyright: If you don't own the copyright in the documents you want to preserve, and if they are not old enough to be out of copyright in your jurisdiction, then you can't authorise their release into the public domain. Your point about preservation is understandable, but you need to speak to a copyright expert to establish what can and can't be done. The good people at WP:MCQ would probably be able to point you in the right direction. Karenjc 22:37, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia Use

I am currently writing a novel and would like to include your sites with particular subjects/objects/people that you have photo on your web site. I have known these people or flown or worked with the aircraft. I am a retired USAF member. Examples would be General William V. McBride the Vice Chief of Staff, President Dwight Esinhower, Several Movie Stars, B-50, B-52, C130, MinuteMan Missiles and so forth. All I plan to do is add in to the book the web address when I get to the subject of the person/aircraft etc. It would certainly not cause you any harm and bring more people to your sites. People that buy my book when published on line would be able to just click the address on line and with a hard copy just type in the sites address on any computer tied to the internet, If they want to. What is your policy on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.19.195.64 (talk) 21:02, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You may publish links to Wikipedia articles freely. If you quote content of articles or use photos or other images and media from Wikipedia in your publications please follow the guidelines on citing Wikipedia. Roger (talk) 21:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

What is the basis for quantifying number of edits?

I see everywhere about number of edits done or some number of edits to be done in order to autocofirmed etc.. Please could you clarify me how does this edits NUMBER is arrived or calculated? Are these edits count based on no. of edited lines, words etc. or one session of edit be considered as one edit made by a particular user?

Thank you! Kmkiran (talk) 21:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)KM

See WP:AUTOCONFIRM. You need 10 edits and an account 4 days old. I believe all you have to do is hit edit, change something, even adding a period, and then save, counts as 1 edit. CTJF83 21:34, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You can see all your individual edits by going to the top right-hand corner of your screen and clicking on "my contributions". Each entry there counts as one edit. You can use the edit count tool at any time by going to the bottom of the "my contributions" page and clicking on the "edit count" link. Karenjc 22:16, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

The number of edits you have made is also displayed on the "My preferences" tab (upper right hand of screen.) RJFJR (talk) 03:33, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Problems with edit toolbar and monobook

By this afternoon i'm seeing some strange changes on layout. Since the change in may 2010, i've used monobook on my preferences (it is simplest to me to work), but the edit toolbar is changed. It shows a strange mixage of monobook and vector and for me is difficult to edit and, also, to patrol quickly. Sometimes it appears a big sky blue space below the toolbar and, some hours ago, the navbox templates showed a double "show/hide" keys. Also the picture galleries under <gallery> are strangely changed. I'm having the same problems on Commons, and over there the below toolbar is disappeared. I suppose it is not a vector problem, because sometimes i use vector when i edit on other Wikipedias (fr, de, es...): Today i've seen this strange changes also over there (fr, de, es...). I suppose it is a general technical problem (or else), because sometimes is appears the "offline" message. Is it the possibility to restore the previous situation? By now i'm having some difficulties and it seems to me that WP (from my pc) is running slowly than yesterday. Thanks a lot and regards. --Dэя-Бøяg 21:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

From what I understand they are updating it. See several of the later posts on WP:VPT and a few above here. CTJF83 21:41, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

You can also uncheck "Beta features" from the "edit" tab in "my preferences" CTJF83 21:43, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you very much. Unchecking the Beta from my preferences the situation has been restored, also on Commons. --Dэя-Бøяg 22:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Note... The pictures under <gallery> still looks like changed... or reduced. Anyway, thanx again. --Dэя-Бøяg 22:42, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Interface issues

Cross-posting to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Goodvac (talk) 03:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I logged in today and the left bar is unusually shifted down (see screenshot). I'm using the monobook skin; is this recent MediaWiki updates (I noticed the new "Log me in globally" button on the login page and the "Deleted only" option in Special:Contributions or anything in my monobook.js (possibly the script labeled "Personal toolbox - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Brian0918/monobook.js", which appears below the standard links on the left hand side) causing this? Goodvac (talk) 23:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

I might have a similar problem, that looks a little different. I'm using the old, pre-May 2010 skin. All Hallow's Wraith (talk) 03:58, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

You might want to raise that at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical), since all the techies are there, and I'm sure they can find a way to fix it. Goodvac (talk) 04:17, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Hiding the left side of the Wikipedia page (Full page view)

I want a keyboard shortcut to show/hide the vertical strip along the left side of the Wikipedia page. Some people might call this "Full page view". It is the area that contains the Wikipedia logo, Main Page, Contents, and all the other links. (What is this area of the screen called, anyway? the quickbar?)

I actually hit something one day that did it, but (like The Lost Chord) I could never find it again. I use the Google Chrome browser on Windows XP. You can answer here or on my user page. Thanks so much.--Foobarnix (talk) 23:27, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

maybe you mean the printable version (use the access key (s) and hit p) or alternatively you mean the full screen mode (hitting F11) mabdul 00:30, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

February 17

Earth's Age

Your Article states the age of the Earth is over 4 Billion years old.there is no solid proof to support that claim..The Earth at it's oldest is 12,000 years & youngest is at 10,000..for more information on the age of the Earth go Mt. St. Helens Volcano explosions. & find out why rocks & trees were completely fossilized in four hours not 4 Billion years..look at the progression of mankind from 1492 to 2010.or if you are really adventurous look in the BIBLE Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 & 2..thank you for the opportunity to express my thoughts...Jerry Stoller —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.149.36.93 (talk) 01:50, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Hello Jerry. I don't think this has anything to do with helping you use Wikipedia (as is described at the top of the page). You could always present your case at Talk:Age of the Earth, but I don't think you'll have much luck. Perhaps Dating Creation and Biblical cosmology will be more up your alley. Cheers. Rehevkor ✉ 01:57, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

"the progression of mankind from 1492". LOL. Obviously from an American IP. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:39, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

[redacted] Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 03:36, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Jerry, you might find Conservapedia and CreationWiki more to your liking, although Wikipedia does have rather complete coverage of Creationism. You are right, there is no solid proof that God did not just create everything five minutes ago, with the appearance of age, along with our memories of the past. But science generally applies Occam's razor to rule out such unnecessarily complex hypotheses. The overwhelming weight of evidence from the past couple of centuries of progress in geology, biology, paleontology, etc. is consistent with an ancient Earth rather than a young Earth. Incidentally, how much of the Bible do you actually believe? I ask because I have never met anyone who behaves as if they believe all of it at all times. --Teratornis (talk) 03:21, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Jerry, you might be interested in this at the TalkOrigins Archive about the significance of rapidly formed fossils. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 03:36, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Folks, this kind of behavior is not appropriate. Outing and mocking an editor's background are not made alright because of his misguided attempt to proselytize. Poke-the-creationist is a game with many venues outside of Wikipedia. Danger (talk) 04:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

IP locations are publicly available, but on reflection the first part of my edit was inappropriate, and I've redacted it. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:31, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Verifying biography?

I'm trying to verify the information in the article Upton H. Pennyworth and I can't find anything in google that isn't a mirror of our article. The claims in the article seem notable enough that it is suspicious I'm having trouble finding anything. Any suggestions where to look? RJFJR (talk) 03:30, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Red links for some reason for me, but the article is there. The only references to this that I can find are Wikipedia mirrors. Hoax? Rehevkor ✉ 03:39, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

"The Itinerant Everyman" only seems to return this article too. Rehevkor ✉ 03:40, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Likewise "Phalaenopsis upton" and "Kornblum glacier", the latter being utterly implausible if it were real. The general oddness of the story also sets by b.s. detector beeping (7 year hiatus in a lighthouse?) Congratulations to RJFJR on finding a hoax that's stood for over 4 years. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I've prodded it as a hoax. It probably qualifies for {{db-hoax}}, but given it's been live for four years already... Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 04:15, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

I was about to db-hoax it but proding it is probably better. Will watch list and see how it goes. Rehevkor ✉ 05:06, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

It should make the top-10 at Wikipedia:List of hoaxes on Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:17, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

My search did not turn up any info. Article creator User:J.m.carpenter only has two edits, both to the article. The math's adding up to hoax. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Logo moving

Every time I open a new page, the logo moves from left to right, which slows down the opening time several seconds, each time. Is this part of the maintenance thing that was being mentioned yesterday, or is this permanent? All Hallow's Wraith (talk) 03:41, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia on PSP

As of today, the Wikipedia website when used on the Sony PSP has the search button disabled. Also, the links are no longer in blue, but they are in black. I was wondering if you might have known why that has occurred. If using the mobile version of Wikipedia on the PSP, then it's fine. But I prefer using the regular version on the PSP.

Thank you for your time.

Template function help

I need some help with the template code. Before that I'd like to say that this is on the other language version of Wikipedia so there are some language requirements in which there is none in English - please understand. Part of the template looks basically like this:

[[Category:Elections in the {{{country}}}|Elections]]

(to make it simple for English speakers to understand) In this language all countries begin with the like the France, the Belgium, and so on. Now a problem occurs when countries like "the United States" or "the United Kingdom" the outcome would be Elections in the the United States

I want to write a code like this:

[[Category:Elections in <if this is United States or United Kingdom = {{{country}}}> <if this is not = the {{{country}}}> ]]

Could anyone help me please? I know probably I should ask the language version that I belong to but I think English Wikipedia is faster and there are more template experts. Thank you very much. --Rattakorn c (talk) 04:25, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

As I understand it, you want to add "the " in front of {{{country}}} if and only if {{{country}}} doesn't already start with "the ". This should do it, and work with both "the " and "The" due to lc:

{{#ifeq:{{lc:{{padleft:|4|{{{country}}}}}}}|the|{{{country}}}|the {{{country}}}}}

It doesn't use string templates so it should work in all wikis. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:07, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you :) --Rattakorn c (talk) 06:49, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Deliberate attempt by another user to stop my edits.

Hi: If this is already answered elsewhere kindly guide me. For the last couple of years I have been updating the Wiki Page about Electronic City, ( an industrial park in Bangalore). Couple of users are deleting relevant content with citations deliberately & repeatedly with malicious intent. Earlier they had silently changed urls of refeences and external links to divert the traffic elsewhere. After I reverted those changes, they are deleting every useful info that I add. I am unable to proceed. I do not believe that talking to them is going to help because their edits are very unethical. How can I report abuse or flag it for neutrality? Please help. Thanks, Raji ect (talk) 04:28, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Electronics City (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

A discussion is taking place on the article talk page. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:05, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the assistance. I have justified my content in the article discussion page; have been asked to wait for 1 day by User: Sodabottle. However I see the other user making multiple changes to the article. Raji ect (talk) 08:50, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Unable to edit

I am currently connected indirectly to the internet (via a third-party) and am able to edit just fine. But when I connect directly, I cannot. I suspect that this is due to an IP block. How can I confirm that? For that matter, how do I tell what my external IP address is at all? Running ipconfig just gives a bogus address by which I'm known to my router. Ma^t_chups 04:51, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

What happens when you try to edit while connected directly? Do you see a message at Special:Mycontributions when you are logged out? It should at least show your IP address. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:11, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

How to cite obvious similarity between musical themes?

A contemporary pop song borrows its primary musical theme from a 1930's jazz song. Both songs have Wikipedia articles. I would like to cross reference them to one another and cite the older song as an influence to the newer song. However, I can't find any authoritative reference to this connection. I believe the similarity between the two songs is clear and obvious to any reasonable listener. But how can I substantiate this connection? It's conceivable that the authors of the contemporary song would want to dispute the connection for fear of copyright and royalty issues, rather than a true lack of connection. Both songs are available on YouTube. Can I reference audio examples from YouTube?

I think what you're suggesting might fall under Wikipedia:Original_research unless you can find reliable sources that confirm the similarities have been discussed outside of Wikipedia. Perhaps someone with more experience can confirm this. CaptRik (talk) 08:48, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Not every post in Wikipedia needs to be sources. The policy on sourcing is Wikipedia:Verifiability, which requires inline citations for any material challenged or likely to be challenged, and for all quotations. The policy is strictly applied to all material in the mainspace—articles, lists, and sections of articles—without exception, and in particular to biographies of living persons. I would say that, using Wikipedia to imply that the living person authors of the contemporary song violated the law without that Wikipedia post being sourced to a reliable source, falls under material likely to be challenged. You also might want to review Defamation#Libel. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:38, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Why would noting a similarity between two pieces of music necessarily be a libelous statement? Composers throughout history have freely "borrowed" inspiration from each other perfectly legitimately. Roger (talk) 09:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

It wouldn't necessarily be a libelous statement. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:52, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

It seems to me that what would be critical is the wording of the statement. A simple statement that two pieces of music are similar, where it is indisputably obvious and not "likely to be challenged", may be acceptable. What would not be acceptable is to suggest that the writer of the second piece "borrowed" - that is, plagiarised - the tune from the first piece. In my view that would be original research and potentially libellous. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:05, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

WAS INQUIRING

I was wondering if I could post a link to my radioblog show we do every week for CSI MIAMI

Thank you for asking; the answer is probably not. The Wikipedia guidelines on linking to external web sites are much stricter than many editors realise. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:01, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Grammar tools

How can i install a grammar tool for my spelling in Wikipedia. When i use words for text on the site, how can I control this! Peters01 (talk) 09:07, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

How do you actually install Twinkle

How do I actually install Twinkle? I built a new computer and I don't have it. I am working on a translation and I can't automatically do search and replace, to get the little tool at the bottom? My preferences say I have it but I don't have it, or at least, if I do it is not installed under Windows 7. THe installation instructions tell me to put a javascript into a skin but I am not sure quite what that means, I can do it if told but the instructions there are somewhat vague. Si Trew (talk) 11:22, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Account

How do I delete my account and make a new one?