Wikipedia:Help desk

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June 11

Bruce7777777

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bruce7777777

I created the above page. I've heard nothing. How do I get it on Wikipedia?

Bruce Charnley

You should copy the content to a new page, an article (see Wikipedia:Article for what an article is). Hopefully Wikipedia's naming conventions will help you decide what to name the article; I think that List of Elvis Presley's favorite books would probably be a good title (click on the link to create the page), and the title could always be changed later. Gracenotes^T § 02:54, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

And if you want your article to last you are going to need better sources them the ones you have now.... see WP:RS. For example, the intro to "The Impersonal Life" would be considered a WP:RSSethie 03:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It looks like you want to create a list, which usually are not well received unless they are referenced, such as with in-line citations. You may want to use the information from Wikipedia:List guideline to create your list. The criteria most often overlooked is Criteria for inclusion in lists: Lists should always include unambiguous statements of membership criteria based on definitions made by reputable sources. My advise is to include such a membership criteria and use the lists at featured lists as models on how to create your list. -- Jreferee 18:44, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Images upload only for user space

What is the policy regarding images like this Image:0001fiat.jpg? The user has a ton of them on his userpage. —Gaff ^ταλκ 01:51, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

To tell you the truth, those look possibly unfree (editing a non-free image does not mean that you can relicense it). Of course, spamming the user's talk page with image notices is not going to help anything; a patient explanation of the image policy and a detailed inquiry about the image might help. (See User talk:Raberr#Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for a discussion on what makes an image free.) Gracenotes^T § 02:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Assuming that the images are free, the following quote applies:

Images used on userpages should generally not be nominated on this basis alone unless the user is violating the Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not policy by using Wikipedia to host excessive amounts unencyclopedic material (most commonly private photos).

From WP:IFD#UE. Intentions are important here, and assuming good faith could be useful. Gracenotes^T § 02:06, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand. Are we saying that if the person didn't know they were doing anything wrong, they can keep doing it? Corvus cornix 17:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

how do you make a new article?

how do you make an new article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SVegerotX (talk • contribs).

Hi SvegerotX, and welcome to Wikipedia. One way to create an article is to make a wikilink for it, by putting 2 square brackets around the article name (e.g. If you wanted to create an article on Green grass, you would type [[Green grass]], and that would render as Green grass). You can then click the link and create the new article. You can also create an article by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Article_Name_Here and replace the "Your Article Name Here" with the exact title of your new article.

I recommend you read Wikipedia's policies and guidelines before creating your article, especially the Wikipedia:Notability guidelines. Should you need anymore help, contact me on my talk page at anytime. Good luck! ;) –Sebi ~ 02:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Questionable licensing

This image Image:027(5494).jpg was uploaded as GFDL. I have suspicion that its not GFDL, but probalby a publicity photo of some sort. I hate to not WP:AGF. Should I nominate this image for deletion based on my suspicion that the license is bogus? —Gaff ^ταλκ 02:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

• Yeah, go ahead and list it for IFD. I've never seen a case like this before, but the image looks suspicious, and it was uploaded by a WP:NOOB who might not yet have full grasp of the rules. Of course, please notify her if you decide to act. YechielMan 03:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Want to know

how can i find the meaning of a word

I'd suggest Wiktionary. -M^ask? 02:59, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

As AKMask mentioned, try Wiktionary, a dictionary that is one of Wikipedia's "sister projects". Wikipedia does not merely have definitions of words, because it is not a dictionary—it is an encyclopedia.

I also use the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which is someone more complete than Wikitionary. Gracenotes^T § 03:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

my messages???

Every now and then I see that someone has sent me a message. I click on the "new message" button and get to that page. But when I try to find that page another time, it is nowhere to be found. It is not under any of the links to "my talk" or anything else realted to me in the top tool bar. Help!!! How do I find my message page?

Thank you Doug, Anyone7 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anyone7 (talk • contribs)

It's your user talk page. Go to your userpage and click "Discussion"--$UIT

Your user talk page is located User talk:Anyone7. When you're logged in, clicking "my talk" at the top of the screen will bring you to your talk page. Gracenotes^T § 03:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you saw the messages when you were not logged in. In that case you would have seen messages on the talk page of the IP number you had at the time (that number may change and may be used by other editors depending on your Internet connection). The messages should be about edits made by that IP number while not being logged in. If this is the case and you have a varying IP number then you may be able to refind some of the messages if you remember which articles they were about and you look for IP numbers in the article history. If you have a fixed IP number then just make an edit when you are not logged in, click on the edited page's history, and then on your IP number. PrimeHunter 03:25, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you all. I think that last suggestion is the one which will work, for the others didn't show me the messages I was trying to reread.Anyone7 03:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

how do I submit an article

how do I submit an article—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yosemiterv (talk • contribs).

To create your own article see Help starting a new page. Make sure that the article is well referenced and satisfies the notability guidelines here: WP:NOTABLE. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 03:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It depends. If you're brand new, go to Wikipedia:Articles for creation. If you've had an account for a week or more, type the title of the article carefully into the search box. It will say Wikipedia doesn't have an article, and there will be a red link. Click the redlink and write the article. See also Wikipedia:Your first article. YechielMan 03:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

(edited to remove redundancy after edit conflict) I suggest that you first take a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial. By the way, when you leave a message on a talk page or page such as this (but not for article edits) you should sign your post; just type four tildes at the end (~~~~) which will automatically format as your signature, linked to your userpage when you save. You can also add those tildes automatically by clicking on the button at the top of the edit screen that look like this:.--Fuhghettaboutit 03:29, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Moving PD images to Wikimedia Commons

While sifting through orphaned images, I found Image:Gheorghiu Dej inchisoare.png. I added the image to the appropriate article. There is a tag telling me to move it to Commons. What is the easiest way to do this, or do I have to download it to my computer, then re-upload on Commons? thanks. —Gaff ^ταλκ 03:29, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Now that its been added to an article it isnt orphaned anymore so therefore no longer needs the orphan tagMiraculousrandomness 19:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Okay. But that really doesn't answer my question about moving an image from here over to Commons. —Gaff ^ταλκ 18:27, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons. Does that help? - Mtmelendez ^{(Talk|UB|Home)} 17:58, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

How do I cite a school roll book?

How do I cite a college roll book? The roll book is referenced to prove notable people attended the college. The roll book is a register that has the names and signatures of all the people who attended the college. Is it ok to cite a primary source like this? Is there a template for citing a source like this? Is there a wiki guideline/policy/essay that deals with citing and the use of primary sources?

The roll book is only available to the general public if they visit the school and ask to view it. Is this ok?

The short answer is yes. Issues like this have been debated willy nilly at Wikipedia:Attribution and elsewhere, but any source is better than none at all.

Regarding the style of references, see the Manual of Style. I prefer to use the order "author, title, place, publisher, year." List the editors in place of the author, and the school as publisher.

Generally, it's better for someone who's famous if you cite from elsewhere that they attended your school. Thus, if you wish to cite that George W. Bush attended Yale, from our perspective it's better to get it from a biography on Bush than from the library of Yale. YechielMan 05:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It's one giant book across many years that people sign when they arrive so it doesn't really have editors. Would something like this be ok?:

College Roll, Melbourne, Rover College, 1921-present

Toadtoad 07:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Try using

<ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= |year= |publisher= |location= |isbn=}}</ref>

ignoring the fields that can not be filled. --Dark Falls ^talk 07:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Questionable St. Joseph High School (Westchester, Illinois) edit

Can someone take a look at this edit? I found it while patrolling Recent Changes and I don't know where to fact check for this. --JDitto 04:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Yeah and I found this too. For this one I just need confirmation if it is notable. Thanks. --JDitto 05:06, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I reverted the first edit and warned the user. For the second edit, I'm not sure. You could put on a {{fact}} template, which looks like this:. If there's no reference, it's probably not notable. YechielMan 05:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, YechielMan! --JDitto 05:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Helpdesk Analyst

I am a helpdesk analyst for the government. It sucks, I want a worthwhile career. Give me a job?

email removed

Try Craigslist. Wikipedia is not a job listing service. :) YechielMan 05:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

We're all volunteers here. You're free to man our helpdesk by clicking "edit this page" at the top, but all you'll receive is the satisfaction of helping others... Calliopejen1 07:15, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

You will also receive an eye-opening demonstration of the most remarkably efficient help desk technology I have yet seen. In the real-world technical support work I have done, when I did not know the answer to a customer question right off the top of my head, I was usually in for a rough time finding the answer - not always easy to do while on the telephone with the irate customer. In contrast, on Wikipedia the answers to a large fraction of Help desk questions are written down already and are often fairly easy to find, once the Help desk volunteer learns a few basics of search. As a result, answering questions on Wikipedia's Help desk is actually fun, even questions I knew nothing about initially, in stunning contrast to real-world technical support, which "sucks" as the questioner mentions in polite understatement. Seriously, technical support has a reputation for rapid employee burnout and turnover (try running a real-world support department and keeping your people happy). And yet here on Wikipedia, a group of geniuses figured out how to make it so much fun that people will answer questions for free.

I think every technical support professional should try answering a few hundred questions on Wikipedia's Help desk over a several-month period, to see how support should be done. The resulting epiphany (dare I call it a wikiphany in blatant violation of WP:NEO?) might then lead to a larger number of real-world support organizations wikifying their operations, improving service for the customers and job satisfaction for the employees.

Everything can be better, of course. One knock on Wikipedia's current Help desk technology is that it works better for help providers than it does for some of the people seeking help, given the need to know something about wikitext markup and Wikipedia's talk page conventions to write understandably here. Many if not most people who ask questions on the Help desk are new to wiki editing in general and to Wikipedia in particular, and some of them might benefit from having the guidance of a structured form or series of forms they could fill out to construct their questions. Using forms might make it more likely, for example, that every question has a section heading, that all the questioners would sign their questions, and if the question involves a page, the resulting question would contain a link to the page. --Teratornis 15:23, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The other huge advantage of Wikipedia's Help Desk model is if you don't know the answer to a question, it's entirely possible to just not answer it and wait for someone else to do it. As for technological improvements, something like an InputForm extension would be very useful in many places all over Wikipedia, but I don't think one exists at the moment. --ais523 15:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki is not TWiki (which allows for flexible input forms, I gather), but over time MediaWiki might accumulate some more of TWiki's features. Flexible input forms could certainly help out in lots of places. Having multiple volunteers to answer questions not only helps with the questions we don't know how to answer, but it also makes partial answers useful. For example, if a question involves some specific thing in the Wikipedia universe, but the questioner did not refer to it by the proper name, a volunteer can help to clarify the question, perhaps enough to help someone else who knows about the relevant topics realize what the question is really about. I learn a lot by reading the comments that successive volunteers add to an initial response; it's interesting to watch the way people get ideas by reading the earlier comments. E-mail discussion lists allow for the same sort of thing, but I prefer the cleaner formatting on the Help desk, compared to e-mail threads that tend to get gummed up with top-posting and untrimmed quoted text. I guess while we're on the topic, the Help desk could be better if there was a simple way to request some sort of notification whenever a new response appears to a given question, perhaps like the notifications we get for edits to our user talk pages, or like the e-mail notifications from Bugzilla. Another problem might be that the people who have the skills to make the Help desk friendlier to new users are generally not themselves new users, so perhaps they don't have a direct personal incentive to worry much about the problems that new users face (not that I'm questioning anybody's dedication, of course, just noting that most people tend to think more about the kinds of problems they find personally relevant). --Teratornis 18:47, 14 June 2007 (UTC)sjfdjklsdlsfkjfjk sdafsfljlfdlfdjlkx

Spam protection filter warning

I got this after I checked a questionable article (Ensparc), clicked on the company's link and tried to create an Afd. It talked about a blacklisted hyperlink (www.orkut.com/Comm if I wrote it down properly). I closed Firefox, ran Ad-Aware SE and Norton and got a clean bill of health from each. Am I ok, or is there something else I need to do? Clarityfiend 05:49, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It's Wikipedia's spam filter, so there's nothing you can do except remove the offending link and then safe with your desired changes. In any case, I've prodded that article.--Chaser - T 05:55, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I misunderstood the warning. So it was talking about the article itself. Thanks. Clarityfiend 06:19, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Music labels

Should distributing label be included in Labels line in an album's infobox? Daniil Maslyuk 06:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

• Maybe I don't know something, but to me that seems to be just what the field is made for. What did you think should be in there? - Mgm|^(talk) 08:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
  • Look: Eminem is signed to Shady Records and Aftermath Entertainment, their distributing label is Interscope Records, but Eminem isn't signed to Interscope directly. So I'm a bit confused whether or not a distributing label should be included in the line. Daniil Maslyuk 09:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
    • Template:Infobox musical artist states that the label parameter is for "The record label or labels to which the act has been signed, as a comma-separated list." If Interscope does not fit this criteria, then Interscope should not be included in Eminem's Infobox musical artist template. If it still is not clear, then you may want to post Template_talk:Infobox_musical_artist as they would be in the best position to clarify the scope of the label parameter in Template:Infobox musical artist. -- Jreferee 19:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

!!HELP ME! Accidental Deletion!

I was reading an aritical when I found a tiny mistake. I went to fix it when I accidently deleted half the section! What Do I Do!?!

Hi, how are you? Welcome to Wikipedia.

I had a look at your contributions and found the edit you were referring to- I jsut restored the version before the one where you accidently deleted some of a section.

If you have a look at the tabs on the top of a page, you'll see one that's titled History. Click on this tab, and click on the time and date of the version you want to go back to. Once at this version, click edit page and save- this is reverting. It's explained better at Help:Revert.

I hope that helped you- Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 06:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I had the same problem with earlier versions of Firefox browser. You might want to download the most recent version of your browser. Also I removed the template brackets from around your comment. Joie de Vivre 12:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Browser notes and m:Browser issues with MediaWiki. --Teratornis 14:48, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

how do i download  ?

how do i come about downloading the whole wikipedia encyclopedia

Wikipedia:Database download has the information you're looking for. -M^ask? 08:04, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

BLP interpretation has gone completly mad

THe current interpertatoin of wikipedia BLP has gone completly round the bend wiuth articles being reduced to absolute nothingness under claims of BLP the following arer a few examples.

1. William Danso [1]
   
2. Patrcik Mackay [2]
   
3. John Childs[3]
   

There are more but these are just a few the interpretation has gone round the bend and needs sorting out as a few users are being completly rediculous in the interpretation of BLP.--Lucy-marie 09:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

See User talk:One Night In Hackney for an explanation. You could have asked him before you brought it here. Anyway, this issue is beyond the purview of the help desk. You can seek further comment at WP:ANI (though I'd advise you to drop it). YechielMan 11:37, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

This Signpost article discusses the orgins in the recent surge in the use of BLP. As a second opinion, I agree with YechielMan's post. -- Jreferee 19:19, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

java core

i must prepare fr computer exam,i already attened three times for exams without proper subject so i want java core complete notes to prepare fr exams as well as fr improve knowledgethanks for giving me this opertunity there is no time fr exams to prepaer that is y iam asking u plz give me some nonets to prepare exams.

The help desk is for Wikipedia related requests only. Please try the reference desk for all other inquiries. Particularly for Java, I would try the computing department. E ^talk 10:59, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Separate account for Wikipedia in other languages?

Hi! I'd like to become an editor for de.wikipedia, too. I have read [[4]] and it doesn't seem to explain what the approved way of getting access to more than one wikipedia is. Then I read [5], which explains that it is necessary to sign up individually for each "wiki" - but I'm not sure whether this refers to wikipedia/wikimedia/wikicommons or individual wikipedia sites, too. So, should I just sign up from scratch on de.wikipedia or is there a better way? Thanks, Jenser 11:41, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

You have to create an account for each Wikipedia language. [6] suggests to pick the same user name on each. PrimeHunter 11:50, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. That was the link I found, too, but I wasn't sure whether I understood it correctly. I just signed up, but "my" username was already taken. Cheers, Jenser 12:14, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Cannot remove some articles from categories

Why is it that I cannot remove California Biblical University and Seminary from Category:Unaccredited institutions of higher learning? It should only be in the subcategory, Category:Unaccredited Christian universities and colleges. Is the article automatically included in the former category because of its inclusion on List of unaccredited institutions of higher learning? Please help. Joie de Vivre 12:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

It is automatically in the category because it uses Template:Unaccredited. PrimeHunter 12:10, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Can you explain how to make a similar template like (Unaccredited-Christian)? They really should be subcategorized. Joie de Vivre 12:14, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I figured it out :) Joie de Vivre 12:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm not a template coder. You can ask for help at Wikipedia:Requested templates. I don't know whether separate templates is the best solution. An optional parameter to the existing template could be added. The template can be discussed at Template talk:Unaccredited. PrimeHunter 12:25, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

interview

WHT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS ASKED WHEN A PERSON GOES TO JOIN AIRHOSTESS COURSE?

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. LaraLove^T/_C 14:15, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Change article title

how do I change an articles title. I started a new article "Victor kunonga". Discovered that its actually supposed to be "Victor Kunonga" with an Uppercase "K" since it is a musicians name. How do I make this change. I discovered the article doesn't com on automatically when a user search for "Victor Kunonga" with the upper case (it shows as a search result).

thanks

If your account is at least 4 days old, you can rename the page with the 'move' tab at the top of the page. If it's less than 4 days old, ask another editor to rename the page for you (for instance, here, at requested moves, or the assistance village pump). See Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page. --ais523 12:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Name Input on the Births Page(1977)

Hello, I recently tried inputing my name on the Births Page- 1977, Adrain Longo, United States. Unfortunately, to read and understand all of the Directions on how to do so, uhmmm, would take a BIT longer than I have for the next few weeks? Is't possible for someone to do this for me? Thanx, your time is preciously Appreciated.

Hi, Adrain. In order to be included in Wikipedia articles, you must meet WP:NOTABILITY. If you do, you would edit the page in the same way you did this one to add your question, placing your name in the appropriate place. LaraLove^T/_C 14:13, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Finding "The Lady Home Journal" November 1913 Edition with Amelia Airheart pictured on the cover

I have a cannister which features that specific edition. At the top of the picture of the cover of that magazine it reads "WITH 12 POPULAR STORIES". That peaked my curiosity and wondered what the other articles that ran along her famous flight were about?? It seems particularly interesting when you realize that was 7 years before women got the right to vote in The United States. Yours truly, Patricia

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. LaraLove^T/_C 14:20, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm intrigued all the same: a 1913 cover of the Ladies' Home Journal with Amelia Earhart on the cover? Our article says she started flying only in 1920... Lupo 14:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC) (P.S.: Also see here: it doesn't appear to be a 1931 cover either...)

Raymond James

The wiki for Raymond James is incorrect. The logo is an outdated one, as the J in the new logo is different. Please take the steps necessary to change to the new logo.

http://www.raymondjames.com

Not sure if this was fixed yet or not but if you wish to fix it you are free to, save the image and upload it to wiki, make very sure you include the proper copyright information and reason why the image can be used for reference. Then change the image name in the Raymond James wikipage to that of the new image. If you have other questions let us know. Hholt01 15:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Quote and infoboxes

Hi, I'm editing an article that features both a quote box and an infobox. The problem is that the box of the quote box is going behind the infobox, which looks a little odd. Is there any way of changing the templates so that this doesn't happen - I have edited templates before but have only really made minor changes so I don't really have much experience with the code. (EvilRedEye 13:59, 11 June 2007 (UTC))

Consider using {{cquotetxt|Deep in the caverns beneath Firetop Mountain lies an untold wealth of treasure, guarded by a powerful Warlock - or so the rumour goes. Several adventurers like yourself have set off for Firetop Mountain in search of the Warlock's hoard. None have ever returned. Do you dare follow them?<br><br>Your quest is to find the Warlock's treasure, hidden deep within a dungeon populated with a multitude of terrifying monsters. You will need courage, determination and a fair amount of luck if you are to survive all the traps and battles, and reach your goal - the innermost chambers of the Warlock's domain.}} in place of what you have now. LaraLove^T/_C 14:19, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Used a slight varient of that, thanks. EvilRedEye 16:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

How do I delete my account?

How do I delete my account? And if that's not possible how do I remove my information?

You can't. You can have your userpage deleted by adding {{userreq}} to the page. See also m:Right to vanish. LaraLove^T/_C 14:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

See How do I delete my user and user talk pages? -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:48, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

How do I add U.S. Open to the news page on the main page?

The U.S. Open of golf begins today at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh.

Please how do I add this news event???????

Hholt01 14:58, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I suppose you would go to edit current events for today (see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Current_events/2007_June_11&action=edit). LaraLove^T/_C 15:12, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Only admins can edit the main page. You can see Talk:Main Page for information about how you can help the process, and suggest possible Main Page items. (Wikipedia's Main Page's In the News section is for articles which were created or expanded as a result of news events; Wikinews may be more appropriate for news in general.) --ais523 15:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

See User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Mai for details. --Teratornis 15:36, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks all, I did post it under discussion for the main page and used LaraLove's link to add it as well, thanks again! Hholt01 16:09, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

How to suggest an article for ITN provides instructions on How to suggest an article for the In the news section on the Main Page. -- Jreferee 19:47, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Got a db spam notice on the page I'm creating for my company

Hi

I just received a db spam notice on the page I'm creating for my company (Basell Polyolefins). Our competitors (BASF and Exxon Mobile) have entries in Wikipedia - why are we getting labeled as Spam?

Please advise

Thanks

Mark —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mjtalley (talk • contribs) 13:30, 11 June 2007 (UTC).

Hi. When a page is tagged as {{db-spam}} (and many are, every day), it's not necessarily a reflection of the articles subject, but the article's content. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not mere advertising, and pages must always read as encyclopedia articles. In this case, Basell Polyolefins, reads exactly like an advert. Additionally, even if this were not the case, it would have been tagged as {{db-copyvio}}, for copyright violations. The text you submitted is (mostly) in a press release from your own website, and quoted web searches of parts of it reveal verbatim copies are elsewhere on the internet, also apparently under copyright, and thus would not be suitable for Wikipedia, where all contributions must be available under a free license, even if you originally wrote the text. See the page on Copyrights, and also, please read the page on Conflict of Interest.

To get your company into Wikipedia, please take a look at the articles for your competitors, such as Exxon Mobile. Notice that it is written in an encyclopedic format, with original content, citing reliable, published, 3rd party sources. Anakin 16:22, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

adding my profile/bio in wikipedia

is it possible to add my profile in wikipedia source is it legal/illegal to add my profile, if it is legal then please help me in editing my bio/profile thank you.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mic s1 (talk • contribs) 16:23, 11 June 2007.

Hi there and welcome.

First off you need to see if you meet WP:N requirements. Then there are other issues, but we can start there. Sethie 16:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi there. You are welcome to add bio / profile information to your user page (I think this is what you want), although if you want to add it to the main article space on Wikipedia, it will have to pass notability requirements for encyclopedia articles. Generally though, user pages are intended for info about someone that relates to the running of the encyclopedia. There's a lot of information on this, about what you can and can't do with user pages at Wikipedia:User page. If you only want a personal page for chat etc.. you'd be better off creating a page on MySpace or Virb or any similar site, which are made for it. Hope this helps. If you've any more questions please don't hesitate to ask. Anakin 16:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

editing a wikipedia entry

I represent an author whose entry in Wikipedia is not 100% accurate. We would like to copy and paste the current section which needs to be modified,into a user page,make the appropriate changes,make certain the functionality is correct,then import it into the production version as a new addition.

Please clarify if my user page is where I can do this? I thought the user page and subpages were personal sandboxes yet when I began to do this, the system told me to do this in a sandbox.Please clarify.

If weare on the right path, when we are finished, do we simply copy and paste the corrected version over the old (current version)

Your advice is appreciated.

Ed Reynolds/swiftsure1

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Swiftsure1 (talk • contribs) 16:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC).

Hi. There should be no problem with using your user page as a personal sandbox. However, a better idea is to create a sub page of your user page. E.g., User:Swiftsure1/Sandbox and make the edits there. Also (if you prefer) you can edit it in place on the article and use the Show Preview feature for tests. If you need to save it in a half-finished state you can always copy and paste the content into a text file on your computer. However, please read the pages on Conflict of Interest and No Original Research before you begin editing to make sure the content is okay. Remember that a Wikipedia article is not supposed to be edited by the person it's about because of difficulties in maintaining a neutral point of view.... Content which is original research, unsourced, or biased, may be challenged and removed at any time if you don't have reliable third party sources for it. Hope this helps. If you've any more questions please ask again. Anakin 16:59, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Also read the official policy at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. Selfpublished material by the subject can be used as source in some cases, but your private knowledge cannot be used. PrimeHunter 18:03, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Image Editing

I'd like to make a change to an image on Wikipedia (Image:ba4.jpg) but I don't know quite how. If I upload a new one, with the same name, will it overwrite it correctly? If so, what effect will my changes have on the existing summary and licensing options, or do I need to find out what they were originally and paste back in the same text?? The image is non-free, so is it okay to make any changes to it at all? My intention was to lighten the gamma and adjust the tone (slightly) to make the colors match the way they are on the series. Anakin 16:47, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

If you upload an image it will overwrite. I am not sure about your other questions though. -Ĭ₠ŴΣĐĝё 17:12, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

AK-47

Yes, how much would it coast for a AK-47? Email me at [email address removed for security] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.19.119.121 (talk • contribs) 17:08, 11 June 2007 (UTC).

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. For miscellaneous topics please see the Reference desk and ask your question there. Anakin 17:16, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

See AK-47#Illicit trade for some prices in war-torn parts of the Third World. --Teratornis 19:52, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Semi-Protection and Good Faith

I recently requested semi-protection for list of characters in Ed, Edd n Eddy because about 80% of the edits is either getting reverted, or a revert itself. The edits that get referted are in by far the most cases done by annons, and I believe mostly in good faith. The page itself is now full of comments what not to change straight away, but discuss on the talk page first. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to deter those edits. The semi-protection was denied on the grounds that most of the edits seem good faith edits. Although this is true, it doesn't mean that they are still fairly disruptive, and require a lot of reverting again. To me, semi-protection seems the most logical sollution still, but with that being denied, what would be other options to lessen disruptive edits? Martijn Hoekstra 17:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the target is but I might suggest that you put a HTML comments in there somewhere. Something like <!-- Do not do *such and such*. Please discuss things on the talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List%20of%20characters%20in%20Ed,%20Edd%20n%20Eddy) first. -->. It doesn't show up on the article but only when editing, so you can target certain sections. On the other hand, it still induces line breaks so don't do double line breaks between the comment and other text/code. But semi-protection, if discourages good faith edits, is bad. Good faith edits are hard to come by. x42bn6 Talk Mess 18:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

well, the article currently has this at the top <!-- Before attempting to contribute to this article, please read the discussion page first. Thank you. --> . And then comments at the beginning of every section. Im ust say, after rereading the comments they are not the most civil wordings in the world, probably due to the regular maintainers growing annoyance of having to revert almost every edit. When about 80% of the edits end up being reverted, or are reverts themselves, maybe some other measures are possible. Martijn Hoekstra 19:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Then consider leaving messages on the talk pages of the editors (a nice, non-bitey one), asking them to go to the talk page after reverting. I'll watch the page and familiarise myself with the stuff, then I'll help revert (if necessary). x42bn6 Talk Mess 21:46, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I usualy leave uw-v1s at the user talkpage. adding a link to the talkpage of the article might be a good idea, but it are usualy different annons who make only one edit to this specific article.Martijn Hoekstra 21:51, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Introductory Paragraph

I updated information in the main text of an entry, but I can't update the introductory paragraph, which is not up-to-date and therefore contradicts the updated body text. Is updating that intro something an Administrator would do?

• You might be clicking the "edit" button at the right-hand side of a section heading. If you want to edit the introductory paragraph, click the "Edit this page" tab at the top of the article. Then, you can edit the whole article at once. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 17:47, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

I assume that this is what your were talking about. The problem there is that you were only editing a section by clicking on one of the [edit] brackets on a headline. If you wish to edit the whole article click the edit button on the top of the page. Cheers.

P. to the S. please sign your post by putting ~~~~ after them. thanks! -Ĭ₠ŴΣĐĝё 17:49, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

If you for some reason (for example page size or edit conflicts) want to edit only the introduction and not the whole article, then you can first click edit on a random section and then change the URL to end with "section=0". PrimeHunter 17:55, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help (I'm new to this)! About signing my post - I clicked the "sign post" symbol, but it put my name at the beginning of the article. I don't want to claim credit for the whole piece - I just made one small tweak. Mosholu 18:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The advice to sign your post refers to your entries on this Help desk page, and on any talk pages you edit. When you edit articles, you do not sign your work. Also, since you are editing the lead section of an article, read WP:LEAD which is all about what should go in lead sections of articles. --Teratornis 19:46, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks again! - Mosholu 19:53, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Multiple page names

How do I redirect certain searches to a page, ie NIN and Nine Inch Nails both bring up the Nine Inch Nails page. How do I do the same for a page which can be called either Immanuel One Twenty Three or Immanuel 123?

Add #REDIRECT [[The destination article name]] to those pages, you might see WP:REDIRECT for more information. I hope this helps. Peacent 18:04, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Cheers! Thats cracked the problem ;) Jjmoreland 18:16, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Images

How do I create images from any website like Google Images, put it into the Editing Box of Wikipedia, and then making it into a picture akin to anyone who has done the same?

If by Google Images you mean Google Image Search, be aware that most images on the World Wide Web are under some sort of copyright restriction that makes them incompatible with Wikipedia's GFDL. See Wikipedia:Image use policy. --Teratornis 19:20, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

pictures

who do you add pictures to a wikipedia page?

See Wikipedia:Images and Wikipedia:Uploading images for detailed discussion and instructions on how to add images to a Wikipedia article. Please read and understand the key points of our image use policy before you upload images to Wikipedia. (Feel free to come here with any questions you might have.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Plantar Fasciitis

I would love to edit, actually practically re-write this whole page. Can I do that? There are so many opinions on this condition and the science on it isn't that great, but this current article says to avoid open back shoes and flip flops when in reality those shoes can be the best tool for healing plantar fasciitis (such as the Haflinger Grizzly Clog or a Birkenstock shoe or sandal) as long as they do not have soft mushy sole. I would present all sides of course and list treatments in a less biased way. I have written most of the website for BuffaloOrthotics.com and we talk a lot about plantar fasciitis. I would write the article with Dan Husom C.Ped., C.O. who has been in the business of shoes/feet for over 20 years and holds a patent for a shoe sole. Thank you, Adrienne Murray —Preceding unsigned comment added by BuffaloOrthotics (talk • contribs)

On Wikipedia, almost any user can edit most articles, so the software won't stop you from editing almost anything you think is wrong, but making one's edits stick may be harder. (The fact that you asked before forging ahead shows you are thoughtful and should be able to fit right in, but Wikipedia is a complicated project and you may need some time to understand how things work here.) Wikipedia has a number of policies and guidelines which articles are supposed to comply with, but some articles comply better than others at a given time. Since you appear to be new to Wikipedia editing, I suggest that rather than diving into large-scale article rewrites immediately, you begin by listing any problems you find with an article on its talk page, which in this case would be Talk:Plantar fasciitis. The most important thing is to provide reliable sources for all your claims. Other editors can discuss your suggestions and everyone can work toward consensus on what to do with the article. See the talk page guidelines so you understand how to edit properly on talk pages. There are also templates you can use to "tag" an article that has specific kinds of problems; see WP:TEMPLATE and Wikipedia:Cleanup resources. (Click on all the links in this paragraph and read all those pages carefully.) --Teratornis 19:06, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Cannot create account

I can't seem to create an account. It keeps telling me incorrect password or confirmation code. What am I doing wrong?

You might follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Request an account. Peacent 18:49, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Help moving trivia

Hello, could someone help me move the trivia section on Final Destination, around the article, it needs to be removed. Francisco Tevez 18:53, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Francisco. I suggest that you bring this concern up on the article's talk page. Editors interested in the topic are sure to lend a hand. LaraLove^T/_C 19:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Graphics editing question

I JUST STARTED A NEW BUSINESS AND I WOULD LIKE A 3D ADVERTISEMENT TO GO ON THE SIDE OF MY TRAILER.I HAVE 4 PICTURES THAT I WOULD LIKE TO BRING TOGER AS ONE IMAGE,DOES YOUR SOFTWARE PERFORM THS TASK — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.31.150.100 (talk)

Wikipedia is a wiki that runs on the MediaWiki software, which probably does not do what you want. You might have better luck with GIMP or a similar program. --Teratornis 19:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

When it absolutely, positively, has to be objective

Hi, FedEx has recently commissioned a report called Access (access.fedex.com) - this study was done by SRI. With that said, we would like to create a wikipedia entry for this study. The study reports on how companies like FedEx give access to information, people, idea, etc to small businesses, government, and the academic community. We understand that wikipedia needs to be objective - so would it make sense for us to put the initial entry in as a subset of the FedEx entry OR should we enter it as it's own individual entry. We just do not want to break any rules and violate any of your terms, so just are looking for some guidance. Thanks, Tracee Smith, FedEx Corporate -- 901.818.7422 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.18.173.72 (talk)

The relevant guidlines here are WP:COI and make sure you also keep within WP:V and WP:N as always. Martijn Hoekstra 19:39, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hello Tracee, and thanks for asking before acting. FedEx already has an article, so I would suggest mentioning this SRI study on Talk:FedEx and asking for comments from other editors who have worked on the FedEx article about whether and where to include content from the study. See Help:Talk page so you know how to use talk pages properly, and see WP:CITE and WP:CITET for the guidelines and mechanics, respectively, of citing sources on Wikipedia. Also see WP:COI and WP:PEACOCK for problems to avoid when you have a personal or institutional interest in a topic you write about on Wikipedia. Since you appear to be new at editing here, I recommend not trying to start a completely new article right away. New articles by new users often violate various policies and end up getting deleted. Even many experienced editors would have some challenge to write an article about their own company and having it "stick." I also suggest spending some time to study the FedEx article and Talk:FedEx in detail, along with other articles here about FedEx and its industry, so you get a feel for what constitutes encyclopedic content about a corporation. FedEx is a big company, so it certainly meets Wikipedia's notability guideline. If the SRI study you mention was published and you can cite it properly, it should meet Wikipedia's requirement for a reliable source. --Teratornis 19:41, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi Tracy. I would be happy to help you create a Wikipedia article related to the study The Power of Access: A Landmark Study on the Relevance of Access to People, Businesses and Nations. However, the only potential WP:RS references I could find to use in the article are:

• Washington Daybook. (May 22, 2006) Frederick Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx Corporation - News briefing. Section: General News Events - Update
• US State News. (May 23, 2006) Fedex gift of $5 million to support global education building, internalization efforts.
• Business Wire. (May 23, 2006) Access Is Critical to Global Economic Growth and Improved Human Welfare, Says Landmark Study by SRI International.

These really are not independent WP:RS since they appear to be produced by those that have an interest in the study. Also, I do not think the study itself could be cited in an article about the study since it is not independent of the topic of the article, namely independent of the Power of Access study. If you know of other WP:RS, please contact me on my talk page. The report itself might be posted at Wikisource or Wikiversity, but you would have to check with them. -- Jreferee 20:32, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Other people's answers a a bit cryptic, so I'll give an easier version.

Wikipedia frowns upon people directly editing pages if they have a conflict of interest (COI) such as being strongly involved with the thing the page is about, or being paid to promote it.

We ask that you post on the talk page (go to the FedEx page and click the "discussion" tab at the top of the page). I'd suggest posting a link to the study together with a few brief notes on what the main points to include are, and ask that it be included on the page. Other editors will make use of it - they may add a section or just use it to improve the article by adding information about the company.

Individual studies generally don't get their own entry (there are a few exceptions where the study is very well known, such as the Kinsey Reports. The formal standards for inclusion are notability and verifiability)

Please note that most people here are volunteers - if you need to get in touch officially for any reason, see the Wikipedia:Contact us page. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:50, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Seth Finkelstein

Is there a way to check Seth Finkelstein (talk · contribs) is the real Seth Finkelstein (perhaps in the same way people checked RichardDawkins (talk · contribs) was the real person)? Do I send an email and forward the reply to WP:OTRS? --h2g2bob (talk) 20:04, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

This is by no means a verifiable method but Seth Finkelstein (talk · contribs) put an edit summary of (rv vandalism - Folks, THIS is why I don't want an entry, it's just hate-bait) on that article. akuyume^T_C 20:28, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Additionally, his talk page contains a discussion for deleting the bio page. [7] akuyume^T_C 20:31, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Public Domain or free image

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was invloved in an important court decision today with implications for Bush administration policy regarding detention of enemy combatants. We need an image for his page. I'm trying to find one by browsing the resources at Wikipedia:Public domain image resources but getting nowhere. Any thoughts? —Gaff ^ταλκ 20:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

If he was arrested, would he have a mug shot? Aren't they PD? --h2g2bob (talk) 20:53, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

If you check out Google images, many sites use a single image. I'm guessing that this is an arrest photo taken by the United States government. If you can find the source of the original photo and if it is by the United States government, then you might be able to find a free license to use at US Image copyright tags. (Lots of "ifs" and "mights") There might be a fair use argument for using his arrest photo. The folks at Wikipedia_talk:Image_copyright_tags might be able to assist you with developing such a fair use argument. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 20:55, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing its PD as well, but I am not risking getting one of those ugly template tags on my talk page. I did post my question at Imager copyright tags. I may just put up a request for the image and leave it at that. Its not clear to me that all mug shots are PD. There was a big stink over this on the Paris Hilton talk page and they wound up having to call the county sheriff. —Gaff ^ταλκ 21:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

indicom mobile number

how to find out an address if the tata indicom mobile number is known?

I'm not sure that's a question Wikipedia can help you with, but you could ask at the reference desk. —Gaff ^ταλκ 22:04, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Which is here. x42bn6 Talk Mess 01:40, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

straw beach umbrella

Looking for a really good close up of a beach umbrella top view and underneath. Can anyone help me by posting a definition and picture of one? I was so sure I would find one on here..........

• Wikimedia commons has a collection of umbrella images here. You could also look at Beach umbrella. —Gaff ^ταλκ 22:02, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Disambiguation Titles

I have noticed that disambiguation titles sometimes have a "(disambiguation)" included in the title and sometimes not. Which method is perfeerd? -Ĭ₠ŴΣĐĝё 22:05, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes there is a opinion on that. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Page naming conventions, for the naming convention. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (ταlκ)

June 12

How do I add a new page?

hello, i have a problem - i don't know where to start to create a page - i uploaded an image but i can't seem to add a text to it ! i'm lost

Here are two links that may help you: Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article. Also, to add a page, start by searching for the page on Wikipedia. Unless the page already exists (in which case you don't need to create it!), the search will fail. One of the links on the resulting page will be a red link that you can click on to create the page. Hope this helps. --Tkynerd 00:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

grants

68.36.45.130 01:32, 12 June 2007 (UTC)In N.J. what governmental agency receives requests for grants and then issues the grant. Are there any internet info where one can find who has received grants and the amounts thereof?68.36.45.130 01:32, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 02:12, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I've copied this question to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous#grants, where you might be more likely to get a response. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:15, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Images w/false tags

What do I do with images that appear to have false license declarations/tags? In this case, I am concerned about Image:Hot16-mixtape.jpg, in which I doubt whether the user in question actually created the image. Astrovega 02:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Procedurally, such images are generally listed on IFD. If the source (or one of the sources) of the image is/are non-free, this makes the image non-free. However, this image actually looks free, but is probably unencyclopedic, since its subject does not appear to be notable. Of course, another good way to resolve the problem is to contact the user, explain the problem, and work out a solution (if the user is open to that). Gracenotes^T § 02:31, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I suppose you could also use Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images. Peacent 03:16, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

There's the {{PUIDisputed}} tag, as well. Corvus cornix 15:54, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Tags for hiding text

I noticed that some templates on Wikipedia have this "show/hide" button. Are there tags which can be used to show/hide text in an article? For example, I'd like to include a mathematical derivation in an article, but not have it overwhelm the rest of the content. Advice? --HappyCamper 02:39, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Make a table like this:

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="width: 100%"
! Title here
|-
| Text here
|}

style="width: 100%" makes it go across the whole page, wikitable makes the table gray colours, collapsible makes it show/hide and collapsed makes it hidden to start with. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:50, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The buttons are added by a script, located at MediaWiki:Common.js (see "Collapsible tables"). The details are too complicated and messy, but you can hide text using the above syntax.

I would advise not using the hidden section if there is a chance that a user could go to the article and want to learn about the mathematical derivation (I know that I usually do). It's generally discouraged, even for long, cumbersome sections. But, it is an editorial decision to make. Gracenotes^T § 02:53, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Wow! Quick responses! Actually, it was my intention to have the derivation show up by default. Could you tell me the keyword to use for this? --HappyCamper 02:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Sure. The syntax is this:

<div class="NavFrame"><div class="NavHead">Derivation of (X)</div>
<div class="NavContent">
Insert proof here
</div></div>

The result is this:

Derivation of (X)

Insert proof here

The style for NavFrames is:

        margin: 0px;
        padding: 4px;
        border: 1px solid #aaa;
        text-align: center;
        border-collapse: collapse;
        font-size: 95%;

The style for NavHead:

        height: 1.6em;
        font-weight: bold;
        background-color: #ccf;
        position:relative;

And for NavContent:

        font-size: 100%;

These can be overridden with CSS. If you need help doing that, just indicate how you want to look. Gracenotes^T § 03:23, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

By the way, see WP:NAVFRAME for general information; the javascript code is at MediaWiki:Common.js, and the CSS classes are at MediaWiki:Common.css. Gracenotes^T § 03:24, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

create a new page

1. I have installed wiki, now I need to add new pages.

2. How to rename Main Page title.

1. Please see Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article

2. If you're asking about the Main page (?), it shouldn't be renamed. In general, you could rename pages by moving them to the new titles.

Peacent 02:46, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean you've got your own webserver and have installed the MediaWiki software which Wikipedia uses? --h2g2bob (talk) 02:52, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

To answer your questions, assuming that you use MediaWiki:

1. I generally create pages by searching for them. If they do not exist, a red link will appear close to the top of the screen on the search page. Click on the red link, and you can edit the page and create it.
2. To change the title of the Main Page, do two things:
   1. Move the page called Main Page to the title you want it to be. By default, the "move" tab is at the top of the page for logged-in users, next to "edit this page", "history", etc. If the Main Page is protected, then you can only do this if you are logged in as an administrator of your wiki.
   2. Then, find a page called MediaWiki:Mainpage. It should contain the text Main Page. Change the text of the page called MediaWiki:Mainpage to the new title of the main page, and that title will appear in the sidebar. Once again, you can only do this if logged in as an administrator.

Hopefully this answers your questions. Gracenotes^T § 03:00, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

You might find the MediaWiki handbook useful too. --saxsux 18:46, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

want to add picture to biography

Hi, I am trying to adda picture I uploaded on Wikipedia to the Biography. The picture is on Wikipedia as Wayne Hardin and Roger Staubach.jpg but I want the pciture to show up on the biography page of Wayne Hardin.

Can you do this? I could not figure it out. It is from a December 2, 1963 picture in Sports Illustrated on Page 32. Thanks! John —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jcthomasjr (talk • contribs)

Please see Help:Image#Linking. Also, I notice the image you uploaded currently provides no source or license, please read WP:IUP and WP:TAG and consider adding the source from which you take that image, otherwise it would be deleted. Peacent 03:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Template?

I seem to remember a series of warning template saying not to remove the sandbox head or put offensive content in it but now I can't find them. Does anybody know of these? Help is appreciated. Cheers, JetLover (Talk) (Sandbox) 03:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Template_messages/Project_namespace#Projects shows an entry for {{Sandboxpaste}}. I don't know whether that is what you want. --Teratornis 05:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

i want to download the games in my computer folder

If you have a question about using or editing Wikipedia, please ask it here. If you have a question that is not about Wikipedia, it may be appropriate at one of the Wikipedia:Reference desks.—WAvegetarian (talk) 03:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Demographics

Recently, User:Nyttend has removed the demographics section from a large amount of Ohio town articles. Is there a Wikipedia policy related to this section? Are there plans to remove all of them, or is it only this user? Is the section even useful? 71.31.149.98 03:49, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

This user should have started a discussion somewhere prior to beginning this campaign of removal. Every US city and town has a demographics section, and to remove it from a subset would be to disrupt the standard layout of the articles. If he/she has no consensus to support the deletions, they should be restored. Corvus cornix 15:57, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

This IP should have been more accurate. I removed the section from two township articles (see civil township if you're unsure what I'm meaning). I've never been able to find detailed demographics for townships from the Census Bureau, and the section I deleted in one township (Claridon Township) claimed to be Census-Bureau based. Unless a source can be found for this information, I don't believe it proper to include. In the other township (Bainbridge Township), the article was about the township, but the demographics that I removed were those of a census-designated place, Bainbridge, within the township — because the article, although it was supposed to be about the township, mostly discussed the CDP. This is as if an article on New York, instead of discussing the state, discussed New York City and had its demographics instead. And by the way, the IP also deleted a section on the township names — against what is the norm in all Ohio townships that aren't tiny stubs. Nyttend 01:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

By the way, demographics articles are added to articles on municipalities and CDPs — Ohio townships don't have this information, because of their legal status. Most Ohio township articles, in fact, were created this year, not a few years ago when most US place articles were created. Nyttend 01:54, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Possible page eligable for speedy deletion.

I noticed a page that was called sometthing along the lines of 'the kung foo mummy' i accidently refreshed the page and lost the link, from what i saw of the text (it was a new page so it showed the new text) it seemed to be spam, please do the appropriate action.Ω§|Blacksmith2 06:16, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The kung fu mummy, it does need something done for it.--Commander Keane 09:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

my userpage/TOTD

at the top of my user page, i just put a tip of the day box, but i want it aligned to the right so that is could be next to the table of contents or whatever thats called. could someone show me how or just do it for me? Maddie ^{was here} 07:11, 12 June 2007 (UTC) right now you may have problems with this but lets have a go.type in <h2 style="font-weight:bold; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size:100%;">Column Name</h2></div> <div class="" style="padding: 2px; background-color:#fff; font-size: 90%;"> *{{totd}} </div> </div> try it out and look in Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 21, 2006 for different templates, dont worry about the date they have there٧|Blacksmith2 07:57, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Finding old responses to a question to the reference desk

Hello, First, thank you for taking the time to read this and answer! I posted a question to the reference desk and got two replies. I wanted to see if more replies came, but now I can only see the questions starting on June 9. I posted June 6. Is there an archive? I can't find a way to get there. Thanks!

Yes, there is an archive :) Peacent 08:56, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating new page.....

Hi there. I'm new to wikipedia and want to make a new page about a band "RESISTANTS!" How to do create an entirly new page? Thanks

Please make sure the band meets WP:BAND, and if so, see Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article next. Hope this helps Peacent 08:52, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating a new page is easy! You put in the name of the new page in the search box and press go. You will come to a page that tells you it is not found, with a link to create this page. To make it even easier for you, a WP:REDLINK will point directly to the blank new page, like this: Resistants!. As a side note, wikipedia is becoming more an more strict on what pages to include. Have a look at WP:BAND first to check if your band meets the notability guidelines. If you are in the band yourself, WP:COI and WP:PEACOCK may also apply. That beinng said, I don't want to deter you to start exploring the wonders that is Wikipedia. So if you feel Resistants! deserves a page, by all means make it. But if it doesn't meet with the notability guidline in WP:BAND you could find your page deleted. If you have any more questions, just give a shout. Martijn Hoekstra 09:00, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Why delete something of notability? Who is to say it is or isn't notable?

I added an article in an attempt to explain something from my perspective; the title was not listed nor was it present, yet it was "Speedily-Deleted". Who is to say it is or isn't notable? Wouldn't the action of deleting the article negate the notable importance of the article from certain perspective of others interested? Have you ordered a DDOS consciously? —Preceding unsigned comment added by GCJMcShane (talk • contribs)

Well, notability isn't solely based on your or my opinion :) Please read Wikipedia notability guideline (and its related pages). I hope this helps Peacent 09:02, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Articles in the Wikipedia should be notable and verifiable. In short: it should assert why it is notable and should have non-trivial external sources ( as a rule of thumb, newspapers and webzines tend to be non-trivial, and blogs and listings are trivial, although the line is a little blurry). I think you may find answers to your questions on what Wikipedia is not. If not, let us know what you are still having difficulties with, and we could provide you with answers. For personal musings, you can always use your own userpage, or make a subpage on your userpage. Happy editing. Martijn Hoekstra 09:08, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

out of interest - what's a DDOS? --Fredrick day 09:26, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Whether or not this is what he refers to, DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service Attack. akuyume^T_C 09:29, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Without the title of the article, I can't be sure, but the line "I added an article in an attempt to explain something from my perspective" and the bit about DDOS makes it sound like you either violated WP:NPOV or were involved in promotion/advertising of some sort. - 131.211.210.15 11:26, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Was for Rune - The Story of Boann written by Gary Christopher Johnson. No google hits on either. --h2g2bob (talk) 11:34, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Have you ordered a DDOS consciously? sounds like a threat, to me. Corvus cornix 16:01, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

And a pathetic one at that. Those that can do a substantial DDOS are busy making protection money off the big sites and don't waste time threatening Wikipedia. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:09, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

How to add a comment to a Discussion on a page?

I wanted to make a suggestion to improve the article on the Budapest Metro, but there doesn't seem to be any button to add a comment on the "Discussion" (Talk:Budapest Metro) tab.

I have now created an account and looked again, but there's still nothing.

I have tried looking through the help, but also: nothing.

Two possibilities, there is either a tab with a little + sign, that will add a new heading, or you can just click the EDIT button next to the last heading in the talk page, and make a new header with ==your header== and your text under it. Martijn Hoekstra 09:11, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

On most forums, threads and posts are all treated as being quite distinct -- on Wikipedia, however, talk pages are just like any other page, and can be edited by any user at will. Do be careful, though, to avoid editing the comments of others (among a few other talk page guidelines). For a little more general information, you can see how to use a talk page. Hope that helps! – Luna Santin (talk) 09:14, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that was a fast reply! - OK, I tend to associate the tabs paradigm as containing pages of different content, not with adding content to the tab I am currently in! The "how to use a talk page" could have made this clearer. I was looking for a button or something. Also, if I click back to the main content tab, the "+" tab disappears, meaning I cannot return to what I am editing!

Yes, as you say, it was exactly this accidental editing of others' comments that worried me. Also, do I add my comment to the top or the bottom?!? Wikipedia really could have tried to be more standard and less fiddly; but I guess others have gotten the hang of it, and so will I.

Thanks for the help! I successfully added my recommendation.

You should notice that the + thing only works when adding a new section, you have to hit a normal edit button (section or top) when replying. And add to the bottom of the page, please, top posting is generally obnoxious. Sorry about the ambiguity.

As a final recommendation, please sign your comments by typing --~~~~ at the end of your posts, that will automatically put a signature after your comments so people can tell who said what. --tjstrf talk 10:09, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Self Promotion

I have read this some where that new pages should not be about self promotion. What do you think of this page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebrahim_Moosa He uses his own publications and books for references. I hope I placed my question in the right spot if not please remove it and place it correctly Dr eng x (talk) 02:17, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Why?

Why don't we make it impossible to edit a page without using an edit summary? ∆ Algonquin 09:17, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Good question. Although I have Wikipedia prompt me before finalizing an edit without a summary via Preferences > Editing. Something similar exists on the Japanese wiki, which requires users to preview their changes before finalizing them. Besides this, afraid I can't say much. akuyume^T_C 09:25, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Because it's not actually a requirement, and if we did people would just fill it with unhelpful descriptions. More generally, we try not to load people down with extra restrictions on editing, there's enough overhead in learning wikimarkup and the like for new users as is. We do provide an option under your preferences (Special:Preferences) to prompt for edit summaries, so if want to remind yourself to use them, or are planning on running for adminship some day, you can enable that. --tjstrf talk 09:27, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes because otherwise you will get "This editor has 200,000 excellent edits across all areas but I notice that he only leaves an edit summary 99.5% of the time - I oppose his adminship and ask that he's banned indef" --Fredrick day 09:36, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

" Lynch! Not enough [[Portal:]] and [[Mediawiki talk:]] edits, forgot to sign a comment back in November, and doesn't share my POV on applying the fair use policy!" --tjstrf talk 10:14, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Username

is there a limit on how long a username can be? 195.194.74.154 10:46, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Please read Wikipedia:Username policy. I don't think there is a specific limit. However, if your name is (apparently) random, it'd better be short so that people can easily remember it. Otherwise I suppose 35 characters is fine :) Peacent 10:57, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

• Just keep it sensible and don't go looking for borderline cases. "Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me" is the longest acceptable username I can remember. - 131.211.210.15 11:23, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
  • I found an old list with some long names at Wikipedia:Long usernames, for example User:Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!. Some of the names are inappropriate (not just length problems). PrimeHunter 11:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Link in wikipedia opens with blank page for edit whereas a page (with contents) already exists in wikipedia

Can someone tell me why clicking on Musiri Subramania Iyer (wikipedia link) in the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnatic_music opens a blank page for editing whereas a Wiki page already exists for Musiri Subramania Iyer at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musiri_Subramania_lyer.

Need to know why this happens ? And how to fix this ?

Thank you --Antariki Vandanamu 10:52, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Because it was misspelled with a capital I instead of and l. It's fixed now. Martijn Hoekstra 10:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually the problem was that the article name was misspelled with lower case l (as in lion) instead of upper case I (as in India). I have moved Musiri Subramania lyer (lower case l) to Musiri Subramania Iyer (upper case I) and changed the link at Carnatic music back to the correct upper case I. The article move fixed 4 correctly spelled links at Special:Whatlinkshere/Musiri Subramania Iyer. PrimeHunter 11:28, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I must be getting old. I fixed a link yesterday with Microcredits v/s Microcredit and I realised the problem with "Musiri Subramania Iyer" must be similar but could not figure out what was wrong. May be the subject matter was close to heart and I knew the spelling was right ! --Antariki Vandanamu 11:51, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Colours

Where can I find the web colours to use on text and stuff. I can't seem to find it. Well actually i can find it, but when it comes up, its a blank page. Please help me. Note that my computer uses cable Internet and is Core Duo. Efansay ^talk_{Contrubutions} 11:20, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

You're probably looking for this :) Peacent 11:27, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

One problem. The page kind of works but the tables saying the codes for the colours are blank. Efansay ^talk_{Contrubutions} 11:31, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The tables work for me. They show colors and color codes. Some of the color codes are written in write on a colored background. If your system has problems displaying white text on colored background then maybe you can at least see the color codes with Ctrl+A (or whatever marks all text in your browser). See also Wikipedia:Colours. PrimeHunter 11:44, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Things keep getting stanger and stranger. Now I can half of the table, and the colour I need. But when i type the code to change the colour of my contributions link in my signature, it doesn't seem to work. Efansay ^talk_{Contributions}Userboxen 11:51, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Replied on user talk. Peacent 15:18, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Bots

How do you get and use bots, like how Hangerman uses the Hangermanbot to sign unsigned comments. Note that this comment is signed by me and not by HangermanBot. Efansay ^talk_{Contrubutions} 11:26, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Bot policy. PrimeHunter 11:36, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Dismissing extiw messages using user space css or js

Is this possible? (Should I be asking this here?) I have edited my user css and js (remove space), but still see the messages. - Tiswas^(t) 11:32, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

In your monobook.css, last line, you don't need the style="", just put display:none. --ST47Talk 11:41, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It's dismissed the wikimedia election banner, but not the wikimania 2007 banner - any ideas?- Tiswas^(t) 11:44, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Editing a page during Mediation process

After a formal Mediation request has been placed, following all the previous steps in dispute resolution, is it proper for either of the Mediation parties to make edits to the disputed article, other than non-controversial punctuation, etc.? Thank you for any help. --Tenebrae 13:11, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The article is John Buscema. There's no rule governing behavior during a mediation; if it were a problem, the article would be protected. (And if it is a problem, you can request protection at WP:RPP.) Use your judgment. YechielMan 15:26, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Posting an Artcle on Wikipedia

Dear Sir/Madam: I made a contribution to Wikipedia but I am not quite sure how to post the article to be visible on the internet. Help me somehow to post the file? The link to the file is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Petar_Mitrasinovic-wiki.pdf Thank you very much for your time and kindness. Regards, Prof. PM Mitrasinovic —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pmitrasinovic (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia does not contain pdf files. You have used image upload on the file. This is intended to upload images so they can be displayed in articles. An article in wiki markup could be created at Petar M. Mitrasinovic. Please read Wikipedia:Autobiography, Wikipedia:Notability (people), Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest if you consider creating an article about yourself. This is strongly discouraged and such articles are often deleted. PrimeHunter 15:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

There does not seem to be enough Wikipedia reliable source material to create a Wikipedia article on Petar Mitrasinovic, but some of the information may be included on your user page if you intend to participate in editing Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:User page for more information on use of a Wikipedia user page. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 17:51, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

NGO

what is teh advantages and disadvantages of working with non-governmental organizations? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.153.77.86 (talk • contribs)

Maybe our article on Non-governmental organization can be of help. This Help desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. The Reference Desk is for general knowledge questions. PrimeHunter 15:12, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Our info was reverted

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Dean_%26_DeLuca

Brokentuskk, the user that updated the article is a Dean & DeLuca marketing employee. Editor Tingalex reverted the stub, but was completely wrong in his reason for doing so.

We would like it restored to the March 21st edition please.

Actually he was completely right in his action - 1) how does he know that Brokentuskk is an employee? what proof has been presented? 2) it's a copyvio from the site - no permission has been expressly given to wikipedia to reproduce that information and 3) it reads like an advert and is unsuitable anyway. --Fredrick day 14:51, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Also - it is Wikipedia policy that companies (and their employees) should not edit their own articles. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:07, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, thats a little strong, but to avoid conflict of intrest wikipedia suggests

Wikipedia is "the encyclopedia that anyone can edit," but if you have a conflict of interest avoid, or exercise great caution when:

1. Editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with,
2. Participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors,
3. Linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam);

and you must always:

4 Avoid breaching relevant policies and guidelines, especially neutral point of view, attribution, and autobiography.

Martijn Hoekstra 15:13, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

• When editing articles that could cause a conflict of interest, always suggest the changes on the talk page and whatever you do, don't copy website or advertising material verbatim. Even if you get permission to reproduce it, it's almost certainly written in an unsuitable voice. - 131.211.210.14 08:31, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

abstracat algebra

which of the following statement is true?Give reason for your andwer. 1)if R is an Euclidien domain,so is R Χ R. 2)Every abelian group can be turned into a ring. 3)If I is a proper ideal of a ring R with identity then lЄI 4)Characteristic of a field is either zero or infinity. 5)iz is a ring with respect to usual addition and multiplication. 6)If e is the identity of a ring R then it is also the identity of R/I for every ideal I of R 7)If H and K are subgroups of G such that H intersection K is a normal subgroup of G then H is a normal subgroup of G and K is a normal subgroup of G. 8)Every group of order P raised to power n where p is a prime and n Є N is of the form G1×G2×......×Gn where |Gi|=p .........................................................................1)Find the distinct right coset of R in (C +) 2) Use the fundamental theorem of ring homomorphism to prove that Q×Z/Z~Q (~ denote isomorphism) 3)Let I=<m> and J=<n> be ideals in Z Then show that I+J=Z if and only if m and n are coprime. 4)Express the following permutation as the product of disjoint cycles:

  (12345678)(456)
  (82673145)(654)  Here lower elements are images of upper elements.

5)If A,B,C are three sets such that A intersection C= B intersection C then B=C is it true or false give reason also 6)Every group of order 4 has 3 elements of order 2 true or false give reason.

This is a help desk for using Wikipedia. Do your own homework. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:58, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Try the reference desk too. But, seriously, do your homework. The Evil Spartan 16:13, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Citing

how do you cite wikipedia

Please see WP:CITE and WP:FOOT. Peacent 16:12, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

This is handled under Wikipedia:Very Frequently Asked Questions - please see that section first. The Evil Spartan 16:13, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way is with the toolbox. There is a link for Cite this article which gives citation in various reference formats for every article available. Just click on it when you reach the appropriate article. Good luck!--Chaser - T 16:14, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Also, see How to cite Wikipedia in other works. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 17:57, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Create article with same name

I want to create an article about a person, but another article about a person with the same name already exists. How do I start creating my article on my person since when I search that name a page on this different person of the same name pops up? If I am able to create my article, how will the two articles be differentiated?

The most common way to do this is to add a distinguising fact behind the name, like for example John Doe (actor) instead of John Doe. Martijn Hoekstra 16:19, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflicted)Please make sure the person in question meets WP:BIO. If so, you can create a disambiguation page. (see also Help:Starting a new page) Peacent 16:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Who edited a certain paragraph last?

In an article with a very long revision history I want to know who is responsible for a certain paragraph/sentence, or who edited that paragraph/sentence last. In a VCS like svn this is easily possible with the blame command. I didn't find anything useful in meta:Help:Tracking_changes. If I have to wade through hundreds of diffs I go nuts.

X-Post: de:WP:FzW, WP:NUH (Interwiki links do not work.) -- 77.10.20.15 17:00, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm afraid you're out of luck. My advice, as a practical matter, is to space out the search by 20-30 diffs at a time, and if you see a change, narrow your search within that range. YechielMan 17:19, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

See the previous incarnation of this question: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 February 16#Finding when/by whom an edit was made. --Teratornis 17:38, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

To summarize that discussion: User:AmiDaniel/WhodunitQuery. 139.67.128.42 20:48, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Question

how do i find Sunchild First Nation Email Address

See our article on Sunchild First Nation and [8]. YechielMan 17:58, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Generally, to initially search for such information, try placing your request in the Google search box and hit search.[9] Then, refine your search string as needed. From First Nations In Alberta - Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, there is no email address listed for Sunchild First Nation. However, there are email addresses for First Nations Administrative and Political Organizations, who may know Sunchild's email address. There are phone numbers listed for Sunchild as well. Sunchild is in Treaty 6, which has a website here, and staff email contacts here. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 18:13, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

elephant-talk.com

I edited a guitar tab for Discipline, on elephant-talk.com In the edit box it shows up normal, but when I save it it's all screwed up. I also can't edit it, or remove it, because when I try the edit box is blank. My name/account is Evan. I would appreciated it very, very much if someone could help me out. My email is (E-Mail removed for security purposes) Thank you! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.7.210.150 (talk)

Im sorry if im wrong, but this is wikipedia not elephant-talk.com. You may want to try there! Regards Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I found no place to ask questions or contact anyone on elephant-talk.com If there is such a place, I would be glad to be informed.

Try Help:Contents at elephant-talk.com. Regards Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

ETWiki is a small wiki; it looks like they have only 50 user accounts so far. Small wikis typically lack Wikipedia's massive infrastructure, such as this well-served Help desk. (The speed and quality of free technical support available here is amazing.) That means if you want to do anything fancy on a small wiki, you have to be resourceful. One way to learn lots about MediaWiki editing is to read the Help desk (and WP:VPT) every day. Test your knowledge by answering some questions; you don't have to know the answers beforehand, because you can look up answers to many questions. By the time you have answered, oh, say 500 questions here, you will be ready to function productively on a "barren" wiki out in the frontiers of the wikiverse.

As to what you can do about your current problem, I suggest writing a user subpage on ETWiki in which you document your problem in detail, along with all the research you have done to find answers. Either you will find the answer in the course of documenting everything you know about it, or you will make it easier for someone else to help you. Your problem description above is too sketchy. We can't see what you are typing as input, for starters, and you did not provide a link to whatever page you are editing over on ETWiki. On your user subpage on ETWiki, try typing your guitar tab text inside <pre>...</pre> and/or <nowiki>...</nowiki> tags. That way, whatever you are typing will probably appear on your subpage in some sort of readable form. See: Help:Wikitext examples#Just show what I typed. You might also inquire over at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guitarists to see if any of the guitar enthusiasts there have experience with formatting guitar tabulation in wikitext markup. --Teratornis 21:35, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

That worked, thank you.

Signature help

I'm trying to customize my signature and I keep getting the following error: Invalid raw signature; check HTML tags. I've tried copying and pasting the signature code into a page and it works fine, but I don't know why I am getting this error. The code renders the following: Dream out loud (talk • contribs)

Here is the code I am using: [[User:Dream out loud|<span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic Medium, serif; text-align:center; font-variant: small-caps">Dream out loud]] <small>([[User talk:Dream out loud|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dream_out_loud|contribs]])</small></pre>

–Dream out loud 20:37, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

You never closed the span tag. ST47 20:45, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I closed the span tag and I still have the same problem. Here is the revised code:[[User:Dream out loud|<span style="font-family:Franklin Gothic Medium, serif; text-align:center; font-variant: small-caps">Dream out loud</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Dream out loud|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Dream out loud|contribs]])</small> –Dream out loud 03:41, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Please Help me

On Elephant-talk.com, I cannot make tabs, for in the edit box it appears normal, but when saved it is not normal. Any help is appreciated. thanks, —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vtech5.8 (talk • contribs).

I'm sorry but this help desk is for assistance with Wikipedia, not other wikis. I suggest that you ask for help on that particular site. Will (aka Wimt) 20:53, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

See the above question, titled elephant-talk.com. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:56, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

And there I'm guessing Vtech5.8 just needs to use one of the methods in Help:Wikitext examples#Just show what I typed to preserve the plain-text formatting he or she is (probably) typing in the edit box. --Teratornis 21:38, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia's reference desk might help you. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 02:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Nudist resort problem

I stumbled upon Hedonism's wiki pages, so created a page for the exact type of business as that. Mine was immediately deleted, yet Hedonism/Superclubs pages can stay? I'm confused as to why you allow their pages to remain? Did they pay money? Why the variable rules? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.152.11.250 (talk • contribs)

It would be much easier to respond if you would tell us the name of the article that was deleted. Friday (talk) 21:47, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

oh, sorry : Caliente Resorts. There's no difference between the two businesses. I'm confused why mine was immediately deleted??? here is their page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism_Resorts

See Special:Undelete/Caliente_resorts. It was deleted for being blatant advertising. Looking at the former contents, I can see why. Note also that an explanation is at User talk:Calienteresorts, which is the talk page of the account you used to create the page. Friday (talk) 21:51, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Only Wikipedia administrators can see Special:Undelete/Caliente_resorts. Everybody can see the stated reason for deletion here. If you are associated with Caliente resorts then please see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. PrimeHunter 22:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I still don't see the difference. How are the pages for Hedonism II (as listed above) not considered blatant advertising as well? They are saying they same thing I was posting.

There's a difference between an encyclopedia article about a business, and advertising for the business. Your "article" was written in pure marketing-speak. Friday (talk) 22:06, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

ah, ok. how can i get another shot at writing it in encyclopedia-speak? can i have access to it again?

No. I don't think that Caliente meets our relevant notability guideline, Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). There's no coverage of Caliente that I know of, whereas people have written entire books about the Hedonism resorts. [10].--Chaser - T 22:09, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Uh, if you are with Caliente Resorts, you probably don't want a Wikipedia article since the information about the lawsuit by 41 home buyers against Caliente Resorts contained in Caliente Resorts suit seeking to identify who stole e-mail is probably one of the few things that could go in it. It's nothing personal, it's just that Wikipedia articles are built from abailable material from Wikipedia reliable sources and if that's what's available, then it probably goes in. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 02:12, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Also note that a Wikipedia article is the first Google result on a lot of searches, for example Computers [11] where many companies must be working hard to do well. So searchers might come here to learn about Caliente Resorts instead of the official website. PrimeHunter 03:06, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

blackberry pda users

(( help me ))Does wikipedia have a setting to view its page in a more friendly version on a Blackberry / PDA device?

It sure does! See Wikipedia:Wikipedia_on_PDAs - G1ggy ^Talk/_Contribs 22:56, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Or get a Nokia E61 which has a full-featured browser that works fine with wiki! --Fredrick day 23:24, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Unicode Emoticons

How do you add the Unicode Emoticons into your signature. This is the code I want to use: U+263A.This should be the code to put the smile unicode emoticon on. Please help me. Efansay ^(talk)_{Contributions} 00:55, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Convert hexadecimal 263A to decimal 9786 (use computer's calculator program with view, advanced), and type: &#9786; -- this gives ☺ --h2g2bob (talk) 01:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Google Calculator can convert from hexadecimal to decimal; try this. For some odd reason, the interwiki link equivalent doesn't cause the Google Calculator to kick in: google:0x263A in decimal but it does run a Google search that finds some pages that go into more detail about this character code. --Teratornis 02:02, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Creating content link

how do i create the content link? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.53.92.72 (talk) 00:22, June 13, 2007

Do you mean to link to an article? If so then you can do this: [[Article title here]] and this will produce Article title here. Hope this helps! The Sunshine Man 08:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Roger Revelle College page

The College is named "Revelle College". It was named after Roger Revelle, but the College name does not include his first name. I deleted the "Roger" in the text, but there are three remaing on the page: On the title of the page, on the data box on the right with the logo and names of the Provost and Deans, and at the bottom where the six UCSD Colleges are named. Note the other Colleges all include the persons first name. Only Revelle College does not.

Verification: You can either take my word. I am the Provost of Revelle College or look on the Revelle College Website. There is a link on the Wikipedia "Roger Revelle College" page

Daniel Wulbert Provost, Revelle College

All fixed. Thanks for your help and thank you for editing Wikipedia!--Chaser - T 05:42, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I found one Wikipedia Reliable Source reporting the college name as Roger Revelle College, but the rest use Revelle College. Per Wikipedia:Naming conventions, the article should be named Revelle College. Chaser took the correct action. If you need any more help with the article, please feel free to ask! -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 17:59, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

how to contact threshold live by e-mail

send link please

This is for Wikipedia related questions only, sorry. The Sunshine Man 08:23, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

ABOUT CARBON DATING

DOES POSITRONS RELEASE ONLY DURING INDUCED RADIOACTIVITY. SOME INFORMATION ABOUT POSITRONS

• Do your own homework: if you need help with a specific part or concept of your homework, feel free to ask, but please do not post entire homework questions and expect us to give you the answers. Letting someone else do your homework makes you learn nothing in the process, nor does it allow Wikipedians to fulfill their mission of ensuring that every person on Earth – including you – has access to the total sum of human knowledge. The Sunshine Man 08:22, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
• (edit conflict) Please don't write your question in all capital letters. It's the internet equivalent of shouting. Also, see Carbon_dating#Basic_physics. I was under the impression that the Carbon 14 loses protons as it decays, so make sure you're right about your positron particles. Anyway, the answer to your question is no. The isotope is unstable and the reaction occurs constantly not only under induced radiation. - 131.211.210.14 08:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

• This help desk is where Wikipedia answers questions about Wikipedia. Wikipedia's reference desk is where Wikipedia answer questions not related to Wikipedia itself. reference desk probably is where you want to post your question. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 18:03, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Adding information on my Company

How can I create a profile for my company? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.227.140.154 (talk • contribs)

Such articles would quickly be found to be in violation of the policies on conflicting interests. It is best to wait until someone else decides to write an article about your company. However, Wikipedia does provide an infrastructure for requesting articles in which case a neutral third party creating the article must also provide the grounds for the notability of the company in question. akuyume^T_C 09:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

What is the name of the company? If it's been mentioned in enough Wikipedia reliable sources, it's possible that a Wikipedia article may be created on it. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 18:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Google Earth Locations

Dear Sirs, some days ago I found the article about the new town Parand in Iran, province Tehran. The coordinates and the given distance were wrong. I corrected them. But the Wikipedia button in Google Earth is still on the wrong position: in the province Kerman, nearly 1000 km from the right position. How can it be corrected? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbhartmann (talk • contribs)

Google Earth's locations do not directly come from Wikipedia and are instead scraped from Wikipedia and archived intermediately. Given this information, I would estimate it would take a certain amount time until another scrape of Wikipedia is completed. akuyume^T_C 09:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Coordinates information about foreign geographic feature names can be obtained from the GEOnet Names Server (GNS). Also, the best way to improve the Parand article is to make it look more like the article on Tehran. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 18:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

June 13

Intersect to categories

Is it possible to show the intersect of two categories? I am interested in Category:American_economists n Category:Nobel_laureates_in_Economics. Jann

Yes, with a customized Google search like this one. akuyume^T_C 09:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

• There's a tool called CatScan in one of the menus on my userpage that is made especially for this purpose. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:52, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Problems in Jeff Lawrence (unionist)

For some reason, this article doesn't show the reference list, the stub classification or the categories but when I go to edit it, the information is there. Can anyone help me as to what the problem it is? Capitalistroadster 11:04, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I have closed a ref.[12] PrimeHunter 11:08, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

member search

Is it possible to search members in Wikipedia by their usernames?

Yes: Go to Special:Listusers. Viridae^Talk 11:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

A PAGE ABOUT MY LIFE WAS DELETED- I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

Hello,

I'm very confused. About 4 months ago someone created a Wikipedia page about me and I was honored.

I checked it out. The Scary Guy is my legal name and that was the name used for this page about me.

I then signed up to make a few changes to make sure it was telling an accurate story.

It was deleted.

Everything on the page was real and is real about my life and who I am.

Help?

Will someone please explain to me why this action was taken?

thank you, Scary11:58, 13 June 2007 (UTC)11:58, 13 June 2007 (UTC)11:58, 13 June 2007 (UTC)~

• Is this a hoax? Someone verify this. If you are serious, I don't know. But maybe, it seemed like a hoax to someone.

Not a hoax, it was deleted as a self promotion article. Viridae^Talk 12:11, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

How could it be a self promotion article if it was completely factual about me and my life??? Thank you, ScaryThescary1 12:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps it was the language of the article archived here. It reads like "This guy is great. I love this guy. You should love this guy too." Then, read something like Brad Pitt. It reads "He was born. He did some things. He isn't dead yet." I didn't delete it, but maybe the person who did felt that the tone make it self promotion. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for that information. I will pass it on to the the people that created the page. Thank you, ScaryThescary1 12:30, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

The Scary Guy was deleted today [13] by User:KrakatoaKatie with edit summary "Speedy deleted per (CSD g11), was blatant advertising, used only to promote someone or something." You can discuss with the deleter at User talk:KrakatoaKatie and see Wikipedia:Deletion policy. Maybe The Scary Guy satisfies Wikipedia:Notability (people), but the deleted article sounded very promotional for Wikipedia. Note that the official deletion argument did not claim it was self promotion. PrimeHunter 12:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Hello. I did not create the page. I did however edit it a bit. It was not created nor edited to promote me or my cause. Who I am and what I do is real and everything on the page was accurate. I can understand that it may not have been put together properly and a suggestion of help to create the page to look or read like BRAD PITT as suggested above might have been very helpful. As I and the others that did create the page are new to Wikipedia . . . a few sugestions of help would have been very well received. Thank you, Scary GuyThescary1 13:01, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Found this page that should help: Help:Starting a new page StephenBuxton 13:07, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what is required to recreate a deleted article in order to rewrite it in an encyclopedic tone. That appears to be what the next step should be. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:38, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, maybe the person that deleted it, could re-instate the article and then the people that created it could fix it with help. it is factual and it was not self promotion. i do understand that my name is very different, so is my Mission to help people around the world. "The total elimination of hate, violence and prejudice worldwide. Maybe the Tattoo's and the look and the Name are or where not believable. I have experienced this before. I have been banned from 2 cities in the U.S.A, 4 restaurants in the United Kingdom and 3 Primary Schools in the United Kingdom (That I Know Of), just because of the way I look. Since it was such a quick delete, with no help from the administration of any kind ? ? ? What is the message here??? Scary24.31.250.3 14:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

If by administration, you mean administrators, they are the only ones that have the power to delete articles. According to the speedy deletion policies, administrators can delete articles they feel meet the criteria for speedy deletion on sight. Now the article had two problems- one, it was blatantly self-promotional. It doesn't matter if you created it or not. What mattered is that it portrayed you in a POV manner and promoted your mission. The other thing is, the article didn't make a big assertion of notability, another big problem. I don't see a reason to recreate the article, there wasn't much content. Normally I'd encourage you to try to recreate the article, but if you are indeed this Scary Guy as you claim, then conflicts of interest come into play, in which case I would discourage you from recreating it. The fact is, if the subject is notable enough for its own article, then someone will eventually create it. DoomsDay349 14:44, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Some problems I see with the cached article:

• It contains some undefined cant; for example, the word energy appears several times, but from the context, the article does not appear to be using the standard definition of the word. An important part of encyclopedic writing is linguistic precision - it must be possible for anyone of reasonable intelligence and language fluency to determine what the article is trying to say. This requires a style of writing unlike the normal patterns of speech for most people. Most people get away with speaking imprecisely because most people spend most of their time talking to people similar to themselves (with much shared background, prejudices, assumptions, values, etc.).
• The article contains no links to other articles on Wikipedia, aside from the two category links at the bottom. Another important part of encyclopedic writing is to fit the various claims and assertions in an article into the overall structure of human knowledge; on Wikipedia we call this building the Web. When an article contains no links to related Wikipedia articles, that is like a red flag to deletionists, who justifiably conclude the article was written by people who haven't made much effort to understand what Wikipedia is about. (Presumably, before The Scary Guy enters a school, he has some idea of why the school exists, and the proper way to behave while in a school, because he spent years in school as a child. An adult who had been raised in a culture that had no schools would probably not know how to behave in one. Wikipedia is more complicated than a school, and yet thousands of new users approach Wikipedia as if they already understand it.) Personally, I would rather see people try to repair an article's problems than delete it, but deletionists have an inherent advantage, because the number of articles with problems is vastly greater than the number of volunteers who have spent the time to learn the skills necessary to fix the problems. Consider that there might only be around 10,000 people who have much understanding of Wikipedia's policies, and there are 6,883,327 articles on the English Wikipedia, and something like 4,000 new article appearing every day. Wikipedia appears to be inundated with new articles, many created by relatively new users who chose to start writing before reading much.

• Why would such links matter? For starters, they might help define some of the article's cant, such as what the article might mean by the word "energy," and the behaviors the writers seem to view as "negative." Links to other articles are important for avoiding undue weight and maintaining a neutral point of view. For example, the article vaguely describes The Scary Guy's motivations and actions, but it does not place those things into the larger context of the study of, and debate about, the vast history of social reform movements. (Shortly after humans invented society, humans embarked on an endless treadmill to reform society.) Imagine if the articles about social reformers such as Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, or Adolf Hitler merely outlined the actions of those people without giving any clues about where they got their ideas, not to mention what some of the opposing schools of thought have to say about them. The Scary Guy did not invent every aspect of his current personal philosophy; his original contributions are likely to be minor (because almost everyone's original contributions are minor), and thus his philosophy should be classifiable in some way. Does it have a history? Does it have a name? Has anyone articulated it coherently? Has anyone criticized it? There should be articles describing that philosophy, as well as opposing philosophies, and The Scary Guy's article should link to them.

• From a content perspective, the article seems to imply a value judgement about criticism in general - namely, that criticizing people is bad and we shouldn't do it. This immediately raises a number of Elephant in the room questions, such as: what about professional critics? What about critical thinking? What about free speech? (We don't need Constitutional guarantees to safeguard speech that everyone is comfortable with.) Does a coach win the Super Bowl, the World Cup, etc., without criticizing anyone? The most famous and successful people (e.g., Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, etc.) come in for some of the most vicious criticism - might that mean that knowing how to accept and benefit from criticism is an essential ingredient to success? How about teaching children to handle criticism by facing facts, rather than fall apart when someone points out that they can improve?

To its credit, the article does link to some sources. However, that wasn't enough to sway the people who decided to delete it. What to do now? First, The Scary Guy should learn that Wikipedia is one of the most selective wikis. There are many other wikis with different policies, many of which are practically begging for content. I suggest searching WikiIndex for: education and writing an article about The Scary Guy on a wiki that is more interested in adding content than deleting it. If the article evolves into encyclopedic shape on that other wiki, then perhaps someone can try again with it on Wikipedia. --Teratornis 16:17, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Here is a copy of the original invitation, by email, from neantbrice - contributor at Wikipedia, inviting Scary to do exactly what he did... include further information to 'enhance' , as neantbrice phrased it, what The Scary Guy is all about. Scary did not submit the original entry. Or intend to self promote. He has added factual information. He is Real. He is notable. The initial entry was posted by somebody out there who thought so. The entry was brought to our attention by one of your contributors! So now - do you simply delete contributions if users do not 'get it right first time'?. You say: ""When an article contains no links to related Wikipedia articles, that is like a red flag to deletionists, who justifiably conclude the article was written by people who haven't made much effort to understand what Wikipedia is about...and yet thousands of new users approach Wikipedia as if they already understand it"" The situation you describe here that you are experiencing would suggest to me that offering guidance to people who have submitted information in error of the Wikipedia guidelines RATHER than deleting them would be logical. Whatevernext 16:55, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Here is the email - it didn't copy first time rm email, copyvio

Whatevernext 18:21, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

See this page: deletionists. The infobox in the upper right corner links to m:Conflicting Wikipedia philosophies, which describes the ongoing debate about what Wikipedia should be and how it should operate. Wikipedia is the world's largest collaborative project. Wikipedia is not a single unified intelligent entity. It is instead a community, with many aspects of a battleground and an ecosystem. Check out an ecosystem some time. From a distance, it looks quiet and peaceful, with birds chirping and animals grazing. But the more you study what is really going on, the more you see that an ecosystem is an endless war of everything against everything. Everything is trying to eat something else, or avoid being eaten by something else, while fighting for scarce resources of food, water, sunlight, territory, etc. What is "logical" for lions to do (eat the zebras) is the opposite of what is logical for the zebras to do (run from the lions). However, Wikipedia is not a truly wild ecosystem; it is more like a managed game park, with a hierarchy of wardens presided over by the Great Leader. But within this game park, there are wardens running around in splinter cells, shooting other wardens and some of the visitors, particularly visitors who arrive with preconceived plans to start rearranging things without first taking the time to learn how the game park "works."

I agree that the people who exert the most influence on Wikipedia should try to be informative about their motives and actions - and they have been. Wikipedia is one of the most extensively documented complex systems you will find anywhere. Almost everything you could need to know to function productively here has been written down. All you have to do is read it. Granted, for many people reading is hard work. Most people prefer the personal attention of expert human intelligence - someone to digest the complex rules and interpret them for each person's specific case. Unfortunately, expert human intelligence is scarce and expensive (only the super-rich can afford to hire consultants and attorneys and advisors to relieve them of the need to think and study on their own), and as you may have noticed, Wikipedia is almost entirely a volunteer project. In a volunteer project, everyone is expected to pull their own weight. The way you pull your own weight on Wikipedia is by reading the friendly manuals, rather than expecting someone else to read them for you. It's OK for beginners to ask a few questions, but for the most part, every participant has to read and study a lot of material on their own, because in the long run that is the only method efficient enough for an organization which does not pay its volunteers. Every participant should strive to gain enough expertise so he or she is answering more questions than he or she still needs to ask.

We do have a guideline called: WP:BITE, but the fact that we had to write that guideline should give some clue about how difficult it is to follow in all cases. Wikipedia is fantastically complicated; it has to be, because it is so huge. The massive complexity of Wikipedia, and the dire shortage of knowledgeable volunteers to hold the hands of the massive number of new users makes Wikipedia inherently hostile to new users who don't like to read instructions. However, for people who enjoy reading instructions, and helping to improve the instructions, Wikipedia is a paradise.

We also have a guideline called: WP:SOFIXIT, which is to say that if you see something you don't like about Wikipedia (for example, its hostility to a large fraction new users who don't like to read instructions), the only way that problem will be fixed is if someone does the heavy lifting necessary to fix it. So who will be that person? Would you like to help us fix that problem? Lots of people have complained about it. We don't need more complainers, we need doers. We need someone to solve the problem. That fact that all the smart people already here haven't been able to solve the problem suggests the problem is really hard to solve.

I tried to do my small part by starting the section: WP:WWMPD#If all else fails, try another wiki, to address the daily flood of questions such as this on the Help desk. Wikipedia's Articles for deletion machinery currently does what I consider to be a poor job of informing the people who contributed to articles that get deleted. I'm reminded of the opening section of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which, if I recall correctly, the Vogon constructor fleet arrived to demolition the planet Earth to make way for an interstellar bypass. The Earthlings protested, claiming they had not been informed, whereupon the Vogons replied that the demolition had been scheduled for years and the plans were duly on file at the Alpha Centauri field office, and yet no humans had objected. The story was set in the present day, so humans lacked interstellar travel and therefore had no awareness of these plans being made for them by space aliens. In much the same way, many users who are new to Wikipedia and discover how easy it is to create new articles usually have no idea of Wikipedia's equivalent of the Vogons and what they do to thousands of new articles per day. --Teratornis 17:53, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

""...the article seems to imply a value judgement about criticism in general - namely, that criticizing people is bad and we shouldn't do it."" Teratornis, These are your words and you have made a surface level interpretation. If you were to read the information fully and find out about the content you would see that the article describes how NOT to live in exactly that space of sweeping statements, generalisation, stereotyping, judging, closed minds. (Whatevernext 17:21, 13 June 2007 (UTC))

I see two things you can do: 1-Talk to the deleting admin and ask him for his reasons. 2-Nominate it for undeletion at WP:DRV. Corvus cornix 18:28, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Speaking of open and closed minds, those are two basic ways to approach Wikipedia. The closed-minded approach is to assume one already knows how Wikipedia operates (that is, by making sweeping generalizations about what the manuals say without actually reading the manuals), which usually amounts to stereotyping Wikipedia as being something other than what it is. The open-minded approach is to try to empty one's head of assumptions and instead read the friendly manuals to find out how Wikipedia really works, before proceeding. Most people take the closed-minded approach to most things simply because there isn't time to learn everything properly, and this frequently brings people to grief when they stereotype incorrectly. Wikipedia is especially hard to stereotype correctly, because Wikipedia is unlike anything else most people have experienced before.

Another Elephant in the room problem that the deleted article ignores is the unavoidable logical contradictions in its underlying philosophy of political correctness. Nobody can be equally accepting of everyone and everything. Those who claim to be "against" prejudice in the abstract are invariably prejudiced against something when we get down to specifics. For example, they may end up exercising prejudice against people they label as "prejudiced" (which might be, for example, everyone who argues with them about something). Every social movement invariably creates its own outgroups. That's because virtually all humans have some sort of value system, and they unavoidably classify other humans according to how other humans stack up against their values. For example, many people believe murder is wrong, so they tend to have less respect for habitual murderers than for people who share their disapproval of murder.

If Wikipedia didn't have any standards for its articles, the site would quickly turn into a complete mess. That fact that it is difficult to write articles here that stick is a big part of why Wikipedia is now one of the world's most popular Web sites. Unlike a random Web page controlled by a single author, on Wikipedia we know that everything is subject to merciless review.

We are digressing from the subject at hand, which is why the article got deleted. Article deletions are fully understandable (and debatable) in terms of Wikipedia's documented policies. The correct way to object to an article deletion is to examine the arguments for its deletion and show how they did not accurately reflect the Wikipedia policies they claimed to reflect. Read WP:WWMPD and keep reading it until you understand. The practical strategy, as I already stated above, is to try another wiki. --Teratornis 18:41, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

I know understand why the information about me was deleted.

And yes, this is in fact The Scary Guy. I was just reading what someone else created about me and found it was deleted. And I simply asked . . . WHY. It is clear now.

Thanks again. Scary

HELLO TERATORNIS RE Your Comment above ""Speaking of open and closed minds"" I referred only to your actual words, which were: """...the article seems to imply a value judgement about criticism in general - namely, that criticizing people is bad and we shouldn't do it."""

And I say to you again that this is not implicit in Scary's work. There are no references to ""criticism being bad and people shouldn't do it"" at any stage in his work. In fact - just the opposite - although I won't discuss that here, as that really would be digressing!!! I said to you ...If this is what you perceived (as you wrote the words, I take them to be a reflection of what you perceived) from your look at the article, then, you, in what you wrote, have made a surface level interpretation of what Scary actually says. And you are not accurate. I make no reference to Wikipedia, and no assumptions as to how it works. I am in the process of discovering about Wikipedia and how it works.

I would ask you again, why you (Wikipedia) would not reinstate the article? For example at the point at which it was in a basic form. For example, when neantbrice (a Wikipedia contributor) emailed us and invited us to add information.

Here is his email again:

rm email, again

Until we received neantbrice's email we didn't even know we were on Wikipedia! But we were really pleased when we heard. We had no intention of Self Promotion. Now we know more of the guidleines. We're happy for others / or us to make any changes so that it meets the guidelines. Whatevernext 217.44.52.14 19:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

• It's been restored and is now listed for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Scary Guy. - KrakatoaKatie 19:52, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Question about positive and negative numbers

I've noticed when looking at "My Watchlist" page, all the articles are followed by either a positive green number or a negative red number, sometimes in bold, sometimes normal font, and all of varying values. Could someone please explain what the numbers mean? Thanks StephenBuxton 12:10, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

• It's the netto amount bits/bytes added or substracted to track text dumps and blankings (see WP:VFAQ). - Mgm|^(talk) 12:11, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I must be going blind, as I can't see the question covered on the VFAQ page, but your explanation makes perfect sense. StephenBuxton 12:21, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Citation help

I've been adding citations wherever possible, but I'm not certain if I've been using the right format. I've had a look at the page that helps you with citations, but other than telling me I'm supposed to use a certain format, I'm still none the wiser. Could someone help me, please? StephenBuxton 12:10, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

• Have you tried Wikipedia:Citation templates? If you use them, you can't easily go wrong with the formatting. Can you give a few examples of citations you added so we can take a look at them? - Mgm|^(talk) 12:13, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I haven't used those templates, guess I'll have to try. As for a couple of recent citations Deus ex machina (mine is the only citation at the moment, regarding Doctor Who). Also on the topic of The Doctor, I added Blink (Doctor Who), reference number 10. Since then, I have found the need for using that reference earlier in the article. I understand there is a way of using "Name" to double up on references, but not sure how. StephenBuxton 12:25, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Had a go with Blink (Doctor Who) - Hope that's better. Now all I need to do is understand the multi-use of a reference... StephenBuxton 12:41, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Footnotes#Citing a footnote more than once is the page you need. Happy editing, mattbr 17:10, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I revised reference number 10 in Blink (Doctor Who) to a format I typically use. (e.g., Author last, first. (date) Publication. Title. Issue x; page xx.) to complete the footnote, you still need to add the name of the news article to reference number 10. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:22, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

WANTED JOHN LENNON REMCO DOLL 1975 GUITAR

I have the Beatles dolls made by Remco in 1975....John is missing his guitar. Please where can I find one?

You could try ebay, the website, not the article--VectorPotential^Talk 13:26, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

This help desk is where Wikipedia answers questions about Wikipedia. Wikipedia's reference desk is where Wikipedia answer questions not related to Wikipedia itself. reference desk probably is where you want to post your question. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:24, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

how do you change the color of your text?

how do you change the color of your text? i mean the color of your writing not your signature.

signeddarkness

I use <font color='#123456'>some text</font>. Change 123456 to the color you want. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Colours. PrimeHunter 14:47, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

BOT Edits

I have been working on the page Hill City, South Dakota and have noticed a couple of bot edits. They added the following lines at the bottom of the edit page

"lmo:Hill City, South Dakota"

"vo:Hill City"

both were inclosed in double brackets. I was just curious as to what "lmo" and "vo" mean. Thanks Lmielke359 14:04, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Those are interwiki links -- links to Wikipedia in other languages. If you look at the article, you'll see, on the left-hand side, a list that provides links to the article in other languages. "lmo" and "vo" are the codes for the languages, just as "en" is the code for English. Check that article and you'll find that Volapuk (which I can't spell correctly for lack of diacritics) is now one of the languages in the list; "vo" refers to Volapuk. --Tkynerd 14:51, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Interlanguage links and Help:Interwiki linking for more. PrimeHunter 14:54, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

And "lmo" stands for Lombard. --Brand спойт 14:57, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I learn something new about Wikipedia everyday! Lmielke359 15:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

ERC Help

Sorry to be so dumb -- but I'm a communications consultant to the Ethics Resource Center -- a non-profit that promotes organziational ethics. I am drafting an original entry (at present, there is no Wikipedia entry about ERC). I understand your basic rules about content, and have the content almost ready. But I CANNOT tell, from any of your instructions or FAQ pages, how to turn the raw content into a page that fits the style of others I have NO training in Web page design and probably do not know most of the technical terms. Do I need to engage someone with that skill, or are there templates where I can plug in the raw copy and have it formatted to fit Wikipedia's style?

This is a great tool and we're eager to post information about ERC as a resource on ethical issues. But I'm totally befuddled by your system!  :-)

First, ensure you read WP:COI to ensure you aren't involved in a conflict of interest. Second, there isn't a single "Ethics Resource Center". So, any article titled "Ethics Resource Center" must cover the Ethics Resource Centers in Washington DC, the AMA, Santa Clara University, Dubai... -or- the article should simply be a description of what an ethics resource center is as this is an encyclopedia, not an advertisement board for organizations.

As for editing the article, click on ethics resource center and click the "create article" link. Paste in your text and click "Save page". --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:04, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi - I have created a sandbox for you off your userpage, you can find it here. Post your content there and then people from here (who are so inclined) can help you format it. Also please sign your posts with --~~~~ this is so people know who said what. --Fredrick day 15:05, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi and congradulations on Ethics Resource Center's 85th year in building a stronger, ethical washington. There are so many Wikipedia reliable sources on Ethics Resource Center that Ethics Resource Center meets Wikipedia notablilty and there should be a Wikipedia article on the Ethics Resource Center. The article should be built from Wikipedia reliable sources. Unfortunately, the Ethics Resource Center website is not a Wikipedia reliable source since it is not independent from the Ethics Resource Center topic itself. Your best bet is to approach the Ethics Resource Center's media department and ask them for copies of the newspaper articles that discuss the Ethics Resource Center. You may build the article from those Wikipedia reliable sources and any other that you find. As for making it look like a Wikipedia article, the best way to do that is to look at Wikipedia articles your competitors or others who do similar work and use their piecies of their formats that best fit the article. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:34, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

How can an article in German Wikipedia be put into the English one?

How can an artcle in the German wikipedia be put into the Englih one?

Assuming that the article covers a topic that is notable and cites reliable sources, it can be translated by someone bilingual in both languages. Marco polo 15:34, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Try posting a request at Wikipedia:Translation/*/Translation Requests. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

And please do not just copy the content from German Wikipedia without translating it. That kinda article is speediable with {{Db-foreign}} --Shinhan 20:20, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Disambiguation tangle

The article Mark Brandenburg covers a baseball player who played for two seasons professionally. However, it is also a common name for the Margraviate of Brandenburg in Germany and is also sometimes used for the Province of Brandenburg or the state of Brandenburg in modern Germany. Of the articles that link to this page, only 6 refer to the baseball player, and 16 refer to the German region. Is there a more efficient solution than the following?

1. Move the current "Mark Brandenburg" to "Mark Brandenburg (baseball player)"
2. Create a new headword for "Mark Brandenburg" that redirects to a disambiguation page.
3. Create a disambiguation page pointing to "Mark Brandenburg (baseball player)" and "Margraviate of Brandenburg".
4. Change each existing link to "Mark Brandenburg" to a link to one of these two articles.

Thanks for any tips that would make this easier. Marco polo 15:34, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

(note: I reformatted your numbers so they are easier to read)

I would go for a disambiguation page that just asks which article the person wants, having (baseball player) added to the player's page - just as you suggest. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:38, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Note that it is against Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Page naming conventions to let Mark Brandenburg redirect to Mark Brandenburg (disambiguation). When there is no primary topic at Mark Brandenburg, the disambiguation should be placed there. PrimeHunter 21:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

abstract algebra

prove that Z/143Z is cyclic — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.177.147.188 (talk • contribs)

No. You prove it. It is your homework. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:39, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Please use the Reference desk for these types of questions, but: Do your own homework. The reference desk won't give you answers for your homework, although we will try to help you out if there's a specific part of your homework you don't understand. Make an effort to show that you've tried solving it first. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 15:48, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Did I create this category correctly? Server Appliance?

Did I create this category correctly? Server Appliance?

Also {{help}} does not seem to be functioning properly today.

--Akc9000 16:28, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I changed your call to {{help}} to merely display the template name (by using Template:Tl) rather than transcluding the template. Otherwise, your question became difficult to read. Category:Server Appliance appears to violate WP:TITLE, since you do not capitalize the word "appliance" when it appears within a sentence. The category name should probably be: Category:Server appliance. --Teratornis 16:39, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I see that both Category:Server appliance and Category:Server Appliance exist, but the latter category's title appears to violate WP:TITLE, and we should be using Category:Server appliance instead. Someone who knows how to move categories should chime in here. --Teratornis 16:42, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Question about logging in

I just created an account. The web page said that I was successful. I received an email and clicked the link. I am attempting to login with the user name and password that I registered. I know that I am typing the confirmation words correctly, but it is not recognizing my password or the confirmation words. I cannot login. Can you help? Is there something obvious that I am missing?

user name: bastedo {{help me}}

Does the user name need to be capitalized? I didnot capitalize it when I registered, but it looks like it is being capitalized by my browser or your site for automatic login.

Problem loggin in

I just created my account. The web page said that I was successful. I received an email response. I clicked the web link in the email. I just tried to login and it won't recognize my password or the conformation words. I have carefully checked as I type. Nothing is working. Can anyone help?

user name: Bastedo

There does not appear to be a user with the name Bastedo. See User:Bastedo and special. The logs show that such a user name was never created. Try creating the Bastedo user name again. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:43, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Computer Assembeling/ RAM not support MB driver.

Hi dear, This is jon, I face problem when I assembled a desktop PC of Intel D102 MB with 512MB DDRII 533MHZ speed RAM. At first Windows XP SP2 instaled properly but when I came to install driver CD it got hanged the machine. But when I used a 256MB 333MHZ DDRII RAM, its worked properly. Even I take 2 of 256MB DDRII RAM, it gives same problem. What is the best solution of that. Send me on this ID. <email removed> Bye.

This help desk is where Wikipedia answers questions about Wikipedia. Wikipedia's reference desk is where Wikipedia answer questions not related to Wikipedia itself. reference desk probably is where you want to post your question. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:45, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Or more exactly the Computing reference desk for questions about computers. Shinhan 20:23, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Kelly Services Page

Hi, Im representing Kelly Services Corp. temporary employment agency. When you go to the Information that wikipedia provides on Kelly Services it says that the article doesnot refrence any sources and another box saying this article was writtenlike an article or advertisement. Is there any way that we can give you sources and get these messages off our Wikipedia page? Thanks,

Yes. Though this is a wiki and you can edit any page, it would be a conflict of interest to edit your own page. What you should do is suggest the edits on the article's discussion page. If it is written like an advertisement, then you may consider rewriting it in a more encyclopedic tone, and asking for someone to read, verify, and update the text to the actual article. tiZom_(2¢) 19:57, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia reliable sources typically are newspaper articles and information from book and they are best presented as in-line citations (e.g., footnotes). Adding references is not something the help desk does. However, there is nothing wrong with you including the cites in the article. You may get guidance on how to do this by looking at the Wal-Mart article. However, it may be better to work with another editor on this. Terraxos seems to have an interest in the Kelly Services article. You may want to post a note on Terraxos's talk page and request such assistance. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 20:06, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Please note that it is not "your" Wikipedia page. It is a Wikipedia page about your company. And Tomtheman5 is totally correct, discussion on the article's discussion page is the best place for your concerns. Corvus cornix 20:47, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Listing my name

Hi, I just registered at Wikipedia. Is it allowed to add my name (I am a sculptress) at the sculptor list? (Photos, Biography etc.) Thank you in advance <email removed>

Hi Thesculptress. I'm not sure what list you are referring. However, you may be interested in joining Wikipedia:WikiProject Visual arts and Wikipedia:WikiProject Sculpture. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 19:49, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

If you're talking about adding an article for yourself, then the answer is generally no. Because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, it only covers topics that are noteworthy. See Wikipedia:Notability (people), under the "Creative professionals" sub-heading. If you think you meet these guidelines of notability, it's still not within our policy to write your own article, as it would constitute a conflict of interest. If you are in fact notable, someone else should really be writing an article for you based on reliable outside sources. tiZom_(2¢) 19:54, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Still cannot login properly

And my last question is gone

I'm connecting from an Ip that is banned! Does that have anything to do with it? It is a school and I am not the vandal etc.

Once more - I can login but as I load another page I am logged out and so cannot create new pages etc.

Don't connect at an IP that is banned. That's the only thing I can tell you. -- Kesh 01:06, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

How do I CREATE a userpage ?

Hi,

I'm a (completely, obviously) new User, and can't find out how to create a userpage. I followed various links after creating my ID, but in spite of all the info that IS on the "Userpage" page (which tells me in great detail what's allowed and not allowed), there doesn't appear to be anything to tell me HOW to CREATE it.

Help. Lorwood 20:18, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

See the red link in your signature? Click it, put something on the page, and hit "save page". Friday (talk) 20:19, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Also see: Wikipedia:User page. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:20, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Trading Spaces is a project where others will help you create your users' pages. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 21:01, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Movie Gallery

I work at movie gallery and I read your article. Some of the things in there are wrong.

1. Rentals are for 7 days- not 5 days 2. If you want to exchange a rental you have to bring it back within 5 days of renting it. 3. Rentals have to be in the store before they close to be checked in on time and avoid late fees- the article says customers can return them by midnight. If they do, they will have late fees. 4. Each store is different. Customers have to return the rentals to the store they rented it from. 5. If the rental goes past the due date, the computer automatically checks it out for another week of renting and then the people have to pay for it again. Ex. Person checks out 4 movies (12.99) on a friday and they bring them back the next saturday, that person's extended viewing fee is (12.99) even for one day late.

Please feel free to edit the article, make sure you cite the source for the info. Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:26, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

But please make sure that the source is a reliable source. Personal knowledge is not acceptable, that would fall under original research. Corvus cornix 20:48, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Arbcom

How do I request an arbcom? The direction son the page are not clear.Hajji Piruz 21:36, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

You don't - at least not yet. You need to proceed through other steps in the dispute resolution process first. Ask for a third opinion or mediation to start with, or if it's urgent, notify the administrators. Also leave a message for whoever you're arguing with so that you all can reach a peaceful resolution. YechielMan 22:26, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

What is the reason that you would like to request an arbcom? -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 00:15, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Protection Reasons

Is there a way to find out why a page is semi/fully protected, who protected it, how long protection is due to remain in place and where can protection be appealed? If replies could be posted on my talk page it would be appreciated. Xarr☎ 22:31, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Click on the history tab, then View logs for this page, assuming the protecting admin used a block summary, that should tell you why a page is protected--VectorPotential^Talk 22:34, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Cheers for that, I knew there must be a way. What is the procedure for getting an article unprotected? Is there a guideline on how long an article should remain protected? Xarr☎ 22:42, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Generally you can request unprotection of an article at WP:RFPP, specifically this section--VectorPotential^Talk 22:44, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Addition the "Baseball Cap" history

Wonderful website, please keep the great information comming, your references are terriffic!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_cap#External_links

Your history of the most popular hat worn needs updating. Our company www.zerino.com has invented the most superior luxury designer capwear on earth. Suggested updating to the site:

Luxury designer capwear invented by Robert J. Potochnik starting in 1998 and perfecting in 2007.

Luxury designer capwear a name coined by Robert J. Potochnik is comprised of premium fabrics made from high grade Silk, Wool or Select Cottons.

Features of designer capwear are:

Premier fabrics, "Voletes" top buttons made of 22k gold, sterling silver or diamonds, detailed micro embroidery on seam covers and headbands, high stitch count logos (clear crisp lines), additional stitching per cm as in a hand made designer suit, higher quality threading, offset headband and crown seams (reduces overlapping bulge in aft of cap) liners of 100% silk or micro-fiber mesh, interior logo covers (covering stitching on inside of capwear), elimination of heat trapping materials such as interior plastic sweatband lining, plastic crown forming strip, addition of composite brim insert (indestructible for washing).

Other innoavations/accessory options for designer capwear include:

Handmade luxury wood display cases (mahogany, cocobolo, etc), protective silken cap pouches, shape holders (former which cap sits on to hold shape when not in use), extra fabric top buttons included with cap.

Currently Zerino is adorned by over 75 celebrities such as Nicollette Sheridan, Deidra Hall, Christian Slater, Drew Lachy. Other available on www.zerino.com

For a product so universally worn to not have a mid to high end fashion form is unthinkable, Zerino International LLC is the original luxury designer capwear specialist. The world's one and only! For now at least!

Zerino designer capwear has been on sale at Brooks Brothers inc. since 2005 in the USA, Japan, Italy, Korea, (2007) Hong Kong and at various other locations worldwide.

Have a wonderful day!

Take care,

Robert Potochnik - CEO Zerino International LLC

cc. Zerino legal

• Hi Mr. Potochnik. Wikipedia's has policy on external links that does not permit advertising or promoting sites. See External link advertising and conflicts of interest. A link to www.zerino.com in the Baseball cap falls under external link advertising or promoting sites. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 00:32, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

How To Delete an Image?

HOW do I delete an image I uploaded?

Type {{db-author}} anywhere in the image's description and save. Make sure you've removed all instances of the image in the article namespace. tiZom_(2¢) 00:31, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

still don't understand!Abdalla 00:33, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

We can't really delete things, so we have to request it to be done. To do that, just go to the image page. Go to the edit screen for that image by selecting the edit tab. Put {{db-author}} at the top of the page, and save your edit. This will add a tag to the article, and an administrator will come around and delete it for you.

If you still need help, just let me know which image it is, and I'll take care of it for you. tiZom_(2¢) 00:40, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Crackhaven

On Google Earth, I clicked on my neighborhood, and your report said "locals refer to it as Crackhaven." I have lived here 14 years in "Crackhaven". 17 years in Florida. I have a nice home here, Hillsboro Lighthouse is less than 3 miles from here. South Florida is always under construction. We have had our roads, sewer, water, sidewalks added, new storm pumps, everything, new mall, new beach front.(woopps, power is "old school", generator is a must here) This is a city, and the walks of life is from all over the word. I would hate that my 14 year old son would see that we live in "Crackhaven".

Mike Cresthaven Pompano Beach Florida

I did not find any reference to "crack" or "crackhaven" in the Pompano Beach, Florida article. I believe that you are referring to the Collier Manor-Cresthaven, Florida article. I removed the unreferenced material from the Collier Manor-Cresthaven, Florida article. -- Jreferee ^(Talk) 01:00, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Music page error

A name is spelt wrong in the credits of a music album. How do I change it?