Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance): Difference between revisions

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Have I done my wiki right?

Hi. I just set up WikiMe (http://editthis.info/wikime/Main_Page). Question: I set my self up as the admin, the only one who can view, edit, etc. WikiMe. Have I done it right? If not, what do I need to change on Control Panel?

Also: I want to make sure I back up my wiki. How do you do this? Can you save a wiki to a usb key or something?

You are in the wrong place. You need to post your question to MediaWiki-l, a mailing list for people with questions about their own installation of the MediaWiki software (i.e., not Wikimedia projects). Hope that helps. Steve block Talk 12:01, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Photo not showing on home computer but visible on another computer.

I had an operator at Wikipedia kindly upload a publicity photo to the Gerald Mohr Wiki site recently. She added an infobox template to do so. Oddly, although the infobox is on screen, the photo is not showing at all on my home computer but is showing on my office computer. I've tried purging, cache cleaning, cache bypassing on my computer and also changing the level of protection from my firewell to medium for a trusted site, but all to no avail. Has anyone any other suggestions as to how I can get the photo to show on my home computer, please?

Image:Gerald Mohr Promo Photo Autographed.jpg is currently displayed in the Gerald Mohr article, is this the image you refer to and can you see it now? Steve block Talk 12:01, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vialardi

We appreciate your contributions to the Vialardi article, but for legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text: I am the owner of the Copyrights ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nicomo (talk • contribs)

You need to follow instructions given at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. Steve block Talk 12:01, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please help remove JPG artifacts

Hello, I recently uploaded a logo at Image:Lyria logo.gif. Even though the image is a GIF file, its original source is originally a JPEG and as a result suffers from JPEG artifacts. I can't really recreate the image and don't have a better source for it, so if someone has access to those artifact-removing programs/plugins, I would very much appreciate if you could upload a reduced-artifact version of the logo to that same name! Thanks! —lensovet–talk – 22:39, 22 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I tried to clean it up a bit in the GIMP. The usual caveats about silk purses and sow's ears apply, though. In the future, you may wish to post such requests at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:31, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Use of old photographs

I have a series of fake spirit photographs taken between 1920 and 1931 by a man who died in 1933, can I use 1 or 2 of them to illustrate the work this specific photographer?

The copyright for the photographs belonged to the photographer at the time of his death.

perfectblue 12:11, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They are in the public domain, at least in the jurisdictions with which Wikipedia is concerned. The licensing tag you want is {{PD-old-70}}. You are free to upload all of them. Since they are under a free license, please consider uploading them to Commons: so they may be used by all of the sister projects. Wherever you upload, I find the formatting template {{Information |Description= |Source= |Date= |Author= |Permission= |other_versions= }} useful in making sure I get all the relevant info in an easily readable format. Cheers - Banyan Tree 14:47, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent. I have started uploading them under then format Williamhopehoax#.jpg. I take it that I link to them in the same way that I would link to a standard wikiupload picture?

perfectblue 15:45, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, they can be formatted like any other image. - Banyan Tree 14:49, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

BanyanTree, are you sure about that? According to Public_domain the works must be first published before 1923 AND the author must be dead 70 years to automatically qualify as public domain. It's my understanding that works first published in the first few years following 1923 needed their copyrights renewed or they fell into the public domain. Unfortunately, it's difficult to prove a copyright was not renewed. A great many works from the 20s-50s are in this "difficult to track down" category. Davidwr 19:25, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's not a problem in my case. Most of the pictures that I have are from the period 1919-1922.

perfectblue 19:51, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

encouragement

Is there any place in wikipedia where one can gather encouragement ?--Smkolins 16:27, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There used to be Wikipedia:Esperanza/Reach out, take a look through the archives and see if any of the members are still available.

perfectblue 16:52, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

importing from other GDFL wiks

I would like to create this article Md5 (file format) and I found another wiki under the GDFL that has it in 3 pages.

What's the proprer way to import articles from other wiks under the GDFL? Should I write a note at the beginning of the page on wikipedia? Like "imported from http://www.modwiki.net"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Argento3 (talk • contribs) 02:55, 24 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Looking at http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/modwiki:About, I don't see anything about its licensing policy so I'd suggest not importing any articles from there. To reuse content that is properly licensed under the GFDL, you should include a link to the source of the text either in the text itself or in the summary of the edit adding the text. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:19, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Each page of the modwiki says "Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.", so I'd say it's safe to import text from there. Conscious 10:38, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Template problem

I'm having trouble with Template:Worldmusicassessed. It worked fine until just recently - could be a browser update on my end (Mac Firefox), but anyway, could someone fix it. I can't figure out the problem. It works fine unless both the quality and importance assessments are filled in, such as at Talk:Music of the Vatican City. There, the importance assessment is off to the right and distorts the whole box. I can't figure out the problem. Can someone may it look like the other similar templates, with the two assessments stacked on top of each other. Thanks, Tuf-Kat 06:35, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the problem was that leading spaces are trimmed off when specifying parameters for ParserFunctions, so I added an   which seems to have fixed it. Tra (Talk) 11:57, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Robert E. Lee, General CSA

I just wanted to suggest that since January 19, 2007 is the 200th Anniversary of General Robert E. Lee's birthday, that you feature him on the main page on that day.

Thanks,68.84.21.127 20:54, 25 December 2006 (UTC)Karen D. Colson in Florida[reply]

The article would need to be featured before it could appear on the main page. Currently Lee's biography is rated B-class. It's a little late to aim for that anniversary. Even if you raised it to featured quality overnight it would need to go through featured article candidacy. But you're welcome to start improving it today. Durova^Charge! 00:42, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image deletion

Is it possible to determine who deleted an image such as Image:Fiber optic bundle.jpg which I uploaded some time ago? --Deglr6328 20:16, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to [1], it was deleted by Shyam Bihari (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA). Tra (Talk) 20:35, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

interesting. thx. --Deglr6328 20:38, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Easy fix for an upload file name mistake?

I am brand new to editing. I was uploading an image, and when I browsed to the image source on my local computer, the edit page automatically renamed my upload file name. I didn't catch the error until I clicked upload, and thus had a bad image here on Wikipedia. I immediately realized my mistake and wanted to somehow undo the upload. Is there an easy way to change an image name, undo an upload, or delete a mistake like that? The image deletion nomination process was a bit of a hassle to remedy such a simple mistake. You can see the mistake image at 3988.jpg and the correct image at BlindersOnSeanWatkins.jpg. Chickendud 08:14, 27 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Have a look at the speedy template {{db-author}}, I think it fits your described situation exactly.--Gay Cdn (talk) (Contr.) 12:10, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How do updated photos appear in the articles?

I have uploaded two updated photos. The new photos have the same names as the older versions. The articles still show the old photo thumbnails, but clicking on the thumbnail shows the latest version on the home page of each photo. Was I supposed to have done something to update the thumb on the article page, or is this something that happens automatically after some auto update process? BBODO 01:52, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The images should update automatically, but sometimes they don't, so I've purged all of the images you uploaded to force them to update. Please clear your cache then check if the images are appearing correctly. If they aren't, please give the name of the article and the images affected to make it easier to solve the problem. Tra (Talk) 02:18, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Combine two articles under one name.

Two-states theory and Special state-to-state relations means the same thing. I checked on google, they are both commonly being used. So I suggest to combine those two together. In Chinese, it literally means "two states theory", however, the other name also seems to be popular. so I personally don't know which one to use. nevertheless, there is no need to have two articles for the same thing.

I suppose that two-states theory is better because it is the direct translation, but most people probably won't know what it means just by reading it directly. I want to expand the article, but I will wait till someone combined them. SummerThunder 11:52, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest that you start by placing a Merge tag on both entries. If there is no problem, take all of the content from one that doesn't exist in the other and transfer it across (with some editing for neatness etc), then simply place a redirect code on the empty page. That way, whichever page the reader visits, they will come to the same text.

perfectblue 11:55, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

i don't really know the details as how to do them. and it seems that it might take a lot of time, etc. so can someone just do it? SummerThunder 21:28, 28 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

oh, i didn't know that it was so easy just to redirect. however, it seems that whatever was in the "two states theory" was gone. and i don't know how to find its original content any more. i was going to add that to the new article. how do i find the old article for "two states theory?" SummerThunder 00:36, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The old text is here. Tra (Talk) 00:59, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

oh, yes, i found the way to do it. thanks. SummerThunder 01:04, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

how to?

I am trying to edit this article Golden Shield Project, that little box "contents" is always on top of the page. how can I can write some small intro on top of that box? SummerThunder 01:31, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Write your text at the very top of the article, above where it says ==History==. The contents box should be positioned in the correct place automatically. Tra (Talk) 01:41, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don't be afraid to post

How do you make cool user signatures around here? Any good examples? Help!

--DrZeus 02:20, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Sign your posts on talk pages gives some information on how to do signatures, alternatively, you find a user's signature you like the look of, look at its wikitext and substitute their user name for yours. Tra (Talk) 02:28, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cool-looking signatures are kind of cool to look at the first time you see each one, but before long, they seem to be a way for posters to attract attention to their comments, kind of like a neon sign, for when the comments may possibly otherwise be a little lacking in merit. (Silly me, I forgot to sign, quite unusual.) Hu 29 December 2006.

Template for language articles

Is there a template for language articles, or do I have to cut, paste, and edit? I mean something like the table on this page. Also, is there an effective way I can search for the answer to questions like these? You guys are really helpful, but I think it would be more efficient if there were a way. :) --Dblomgren 02:48, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's an infobox; you can find instructions on how to use it at Template talk:Infobox Language/Usage. As for searching for answers, I often find the best way is to guess what the name of the page answering the question might be, type it into the search box and hope for the best, e.g. in your example you could try serching for Wikipedia:Template and see what comes up or follow hyperlinks. Tra (Talk) 03:02, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please delete superfluous page

The Michael Yates (stage designer)‎ article is obsolete, having been superseded by the Michael Yates (television designer)‎ article, which is the correct title. As all the information has been transfered, kindly delete it. Thank you, Haiduc 02:52, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have restored the redirect created when the page was moved. It looks like the mover mistakenly re-edited the page when he meant to edit the moved page. If you believe the redirect should be deleted, please follow the procedures at WP:RFD. Thanks. -- JLaTondre 02:56, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm the person who moved it; I agree that there's no need for the original page title, since it's simply an error. Michael Yates was known as a television designer, and was a television designer; he was a stage designer only as a student and when he was totally unknown. Macspaunday 03:18, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I added a speedy deletion template to the page. -- kenb215 talk 07:34, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

this redirect doest not work?

I redirected Chinese Politics to Politics of China, but go see it for yourself. it doesn't work. how come? SummerThunder 04:56, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You edited Chinese politics, with a lower case "p". Please look in your your contributions. - Banyan Tree 05:03, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

oh, ok, somehow it is working now. i redirected Chinese Politics and Chinese politics. How come wiki can't do it automatically? SummerThunder 05:35, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Page names are case sensitive, save for the first letter. Compare Black coffee and Black Coffee. Conscious 10:32, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Using Images from Hebrew Wikipedia

I have put images on English Wikipedia from German Wikipedia and by simply changing the word Grafika to Image. This does't seem to work on images of the Hebrew version. Do they need to be uploaded again onto the English version? Chesdovi 11:40, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can upload them to Wikimedia Commons and then they can be used anywhere. Tra (Talk) 14:12, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hebrew is right-to-left, so you should probably replace what's to the right of the colon with "Image". If the image is a free one, it's best to upload it to Commons, indeed. Conscious 21:14, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on which Hebrew font is being used (especially 'pointed' fonts), attempting to get the word "image" in the right place can be extremely frustrating! I have taken to simply copying the actual image name, blanking the field, typing in [[Image: and then pasting the image name back in. A bit tedious, but attempting to get the Latin and Hebrew fonts to work together is a bit frustrating. SkierRMH 21:39, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Requesting outside editor opinion

On Honda S2000, where an editor has been removing the criticism section without any sort of valid justification (WP:AGF; he's not doing it maliciously but this appears to be a WP:ILIKEIT situation where the editor doesn't approve of the criticism section even though it is sourced). I've restored it twice now, but an edit war is not the answer so if someone else would take a bit of time to look at it and render an opinion on the Talk page that would be great.--Isotope23 20:24, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

AfD procedure did not seem to follow Wikipedia policies

The page Masters in Applied Positive Psychology was recently up for AfD, and though I am not particularly attached to the article, it seems to me that the decision to delete was a gross violation of Wikipedia policy. Even a relatively inexperienced editor such as myself (13 months, 1300 edits) has seen repeated exhortations that discussion and the content and quality of arguments are what matter, not votes. WP:NOT#DEMOCRACY (policy), for example, make this very clear. Three editors recommended deletion of the article based on lack of assertion of notability. I agreed, but since this was a subject with which I was familiar, and I knew that the program was in fact very notable, I rewrote the article. I made a recommendation to keep, and commented at length. The "assertion of notability" issue seemed to have been resolved (the basis for nominating for deletion). Subsequently two editors made comments about NPOV who seemed to be very ill-informed on what Wikipedia's NPOV policy actually is. Their comments had no merit, but I responded anyway, ponting out Wikipedia policy. Then an admin deleted with no discussion. Was my rewrite taken into account? If so, was the gross misstatement of policy regarding NPOV given more weight than my defense of it? I'm having a hard time seeing this any way other than that WP:NOT#DEMOCRACY was simply violated. I would like to see the situation reviewed. -Do c t orW 20:27, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion review is probably the best place for this. Tra (Talk) 20:37, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Second that... DRV is where you should list this.--Isotope23 20:39, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

But you may contact the deleting administrator first, asking them to expalin their decision. Conscious 21:11, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Help with signature

For several reasons, I was trying to change my signature. I played around in my sandbox until I got it so I liked it, then tried to change it in my prefs. It worked fine in my sandbox, but when I tried to save my prefs it said, "Invalid raw signature; check HTML tags." Could someone help me fix it? Here's what I want it to look like: ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving Thanks. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)} 21:44, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try this: ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving Conscious 21:57, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 22:10, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

POV pushers at AfD please help

I've been watching this AfD debate Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/John C. A. Bambenek (3rd nomination) and noticed that very few people who are voting are actually thinking through the issue and instead engaging in rampant POV pushing. For instance, and support for notability is claimed to be "puffery", then deleted, then the very same people claim there is no support for notability. Talk about stacking the deck. I'd appreciate some reasonable people vote on this debate that was overturned at WP:DRV with 5 votes to undelete, 2 to relist, and now is 12-1 for deletion. The whole situation is absurd. -- UIUC.rhh 22:32, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That an article was sent to AfD for full discussion does not mean the content should be kept. In this case, deletion review is just a bureaucatic layer that means people think there should actually be a discussion about whether to delete or keep the article. People seem to be applying WP:BIO correctly, since the first criterion requires the subject of the article be the "primary subject of...published works", and this person hasn't been.--Kchase T 22:51, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

gunslinger47 is giving me false warnings.

according to the list, [2], he is not listed as an adminstrator, but here is the false warning that he sent to me. --SummerThunder 03:45, 31 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is your second warning. If you continue to make personal attacks on User:Tjstrf, you will be blocked for disruption.
(first warning second offense) –Gunslinger47 03:22, 31 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 216: / Line 216: @@
 I've been watching this AfD debate [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/John C. A. Bambenek (3rd nomination)]] and noticed that very few people who are voting are actually thinking through the issue and instead engaging in rampant POV pushing. For instance, and support for notability is claimed to be "puffery", then deleted, then the very same people claim there is no support for notability.  Talk about stacking the deck.  I'd appreciate some reasonable people vote on this debate that was overturned at [[WP:DRV]] with 5 votes to undelete, 2 to relist, and now is 12-1 for deletion. The whole situation is absurd. -- [[User:UIUC.rhh|UIUC.rhh]] 22:32, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
 :That an article was sent to AfD for full discussion does not mean the content should be kept. In this case, deletion review is just a bureaucatic layer that means people think there should actually be a discussion about whether to delete or keep the article. People seem to be applying [[WP:BIO]] correctly, since the first criterion requires the subject of the article be the "''primary'' subject of...published works", and this person hasn't been.--[[User:Kchase02|Kchase]] [[User_talk:Kchase02|T]] 22:51, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
+== gunslinger47 is giving me false warnings. ==
+according to the list, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_administrators#G], he is not listed as an adminstrator, but here is the false warning that he sent to me. --[[User:SummerThunder|SummerThunder]] 03:45, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
+[[Image:Stop hand.svg|left|30px]]This is your '''second warning'''. If you continue to make personal attacks on [[User:Tjstrf]], you will be [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy|blocked]] for disruption. <br>([[User_talk:Tjstrf#STOP_REVERTING_everything_i_wrote.21|first</sup> warning]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AVillage_pump_%28miscellaneous%29&diff=97460285&oldid=97457689 second offense]) –''[[User:Gunslinger47|Gunslinger47]]'' 03:22, 31 December 2006 (UTC)