Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

Regular patrollers may add {{User HPP}} or {{user help desk}} to their user page:

This user is a help page patroller

This user volunteers at the
Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
Answer questions,
Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

#~~~ (Joined ~~~~~)

and if you are not using the userbox, add yourself to the Help Desk Patrol Category.

List

Levonscott User talk:Levonscott User:Levonscott (Joined 07:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC))[reply]
StewieGriffin! • Talk 07:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC) I'm Back Founder of the HPP[reply]
RyRy5 (talk) (Joined 00:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Hersfold ^(t/a/c) (Joined 21:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Soxred93 | talk bot (Joined 19:57, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
...... Dendodge.Talk^Help (Joined 09:34, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Alexfusco⁵ (Joined 14:32, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Bauani (talk) (Joined 22:31, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Kerotan ^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) (joined 06:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
::Manors:: talk to me (Joined 15:10, 22 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Sunny910910 ^{(talk|Contributions|Guest)} (Joined 02:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Teratornis (talk) (Joined 06:37, 5 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) (Joined 01:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Mr. Green^{Hit Me Up}Userboxes (Joined 16:13, 16 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Josh Powell (talk) (Joined 14:18, 23 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- ShinmaWa^(talk) (Joined 19:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- Natalya 22:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Active earlier this year, hope to regain that. Rudget (Help?) 13:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
ChristopherJames2008 (talk) (Joined 13:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Iamzork (talk) (Joined 11:22, 6 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Cedarvale1965-08 (talk) (Joined 02:30, 15 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
:-) Stwalkerster [ talk ] (Joined 16:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC), but have been doing this for ages)[reply]
–thedemonhog talk • edits (Joined 18:13, 15 June 2008 (UTC); made twenty-three edits to the help desk page prior to joining the patrol)[reply]
IaM7DeadlySins (talk)
Scottydude _talk (Joined 02:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]
TermyJW - The One and Only (Joined 13:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC))
Eric (mailbox) (Joined 04:53, 23 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]
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Lego K^ontribs T^alk M (Joined 00:51, 12 September 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Chamal ^talk _work (Joined 15:20, 16 October 2008 (UTC), but have been contributing to Help desk long before signing up here.[reply]
Genius 101 ^Guestbook (Joined 22:28, 18 October 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 06:46, 19 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
-Porchcrop ^{(talk|contributions)} 04:29, 28 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
$\xi ri\pi i\vartheta \alpha \xi$ (Joined 09:34, 1 August 2009 (UTC))[reply]
Unionhawk ^Talk ^E-mail 18:16, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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œ ^™ 23:08, 12 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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July 7

Signature

I went to 'my preferences' and noticed there was a 'Signature' box. What do I put there? Also, where can I change the color and font of my signature? --Raddude50 (talk) 00:20, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Signatures. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:26, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ummmmm... It doesn't say what I put in the signature box... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raddude50 (talk • contribs) 16:38, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The section of that article you want is here. I'll explain... Most people put links to their userpage and talk page while making it look more aesthetic. For instance, my signature (Scottydude _talk 16:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)) has a link to my userpage and my talkpage. The advantage of using the custom box is that I can make the talk link a subscript by adding <sub>PLACE TEXT HERE</sub> and putting the link to my talk page in between. Hope this helps! Scottydude _talk 16:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How come my signature shows up like this? --<span style="background:#a00;color:#000">:K<span style="background:#c00">i<span style="background:#d00">rby1</span>4</span>5:</span> (talk) 17:08, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Be sure to check "raw signature" on your preferences page. Corvus cornix_talk 18:20, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I should have remembered to say that. My apologies! Scottydude _talk 23:56, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Blocked images

I accidentally blocked all my images from wikipedia, how do I unblock everything? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.16.54.30 (talk) 00:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you're on Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Content > the second "Exceptions..." for "Load images automatically" > remove any "wikipedia" or "wikimedia" entry, such as "http://commons.wikimedia.org". Not sure if you can block images on Internet Explorer. x42bn6 Talk Mess 01:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think, in IE, it's the first option under 'Content' in 'Internet options' but I'm not sure...... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 11:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Offline Editing of Wikipedia article

Just asking this here, already asked as a registered user on the Italian Wikipedia: I'm searching for a software/plugin/etc. that could help me editing wikipedia's pages and make it possible to use the "Show Preview" function of the Edit Page. This would help me avoid mistakes, but i never found anything useful: the alternative, using a notepad application, hasn't the preview function. Anyone could help me? You can find me with the username "Reborned" on the Italian wiki, Thanks --83.147.85.32 (talk) 02:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Auto-Wiki Browser is useful for making a lot of very similar edits to several pages at once (mostly maintenance type work). wikEd is also a popular tool which can be activated under the "Gadgets" tab in your preferences. Wikipedia:Tools/Editing tools has a full list of tools and programs which should be along the lines of what you're looking for. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 03:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia article using another Wikipedia article as a source

I was going to remove such a reference because it just seemed wrong, but I wasn't sure which guideline, if there is one, I would be quoting in my edit summary. Any idea? Thanks Louis Waweru Talk 02:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WP:RS? – ukexpat (talk) 02:35, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Correct. Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source for other Wikipedia articles. It says this explicitly at WP:SPS. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 03:27, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Ukexpat and shinmawa. I actually read those (oops) I guess I need to pay more attention when reading. Louis Waweru Talk 04:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

We need Wikipedia to pass the Turing test and begin paying attention to us. Someday MediaWiki will be smart enough to tell when an editor violates a Wikipedia guideline or policy, and provide the relevant detailed warning. For now, we must make do with unreliable human diligence. --Teratornis (talk) 15:21, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Um, what?

I was just in the Circus (company) article, and under the 28th game listed, you can see that it's blank, but when you edit the section, you can see ''[[AR: Wasurerareta Natsu]]'' listed there. Why does this not show up in the article? Further, when you edit this section, look at the end of this sentence; when this particular phrase is wikilinked, it does not appear on the page: [[AR: Wasurerareta Natsu]].--十八 04:26, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. The reason for that is that ar is the language code for Arabic, so links starting with ar: are assumed to be interwiki links, which show up in the sidebar rather than appearing as in-article links (I've "nowiki'ed" your example here for the same reason). The only solution I know of is to create the article at a different title, and pipe the link - for example, as AR: Wasurareta Natsu. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:48, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, well that sucks; thanks for clearing that up.--十八 22:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism - I've run out of time

I have to sign off this computer shortly but I've found some vandalism in the Utah article that claims "The Great Salt Lake, the major remnant of Lake Bonneville, is so salty from the tears of local residents upon hearing that there would be no Fry's Electronics retail store built in the valley." I've gone as far back in the history as 23 June but can't find where this, and who knows what else, was put into the article. Could someone track this down? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 05:46, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The edits were made in revision 223179510, by user 24.10.243.154, should anyone feel like warning them about such vandalism. As for the vandalism itself, I've undone it. --DaRkAgE7 (talk) 06:05, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Still having trouble creating categories

I have created an article on Wikipedia. I am having trouble creating categories. When ever I put Category: CategoryName is becomes a link but there is no box. Also, when I try to add more Categories they appear on the page as Category: Name, Category: Name.

--61.129.99.234 (talk) 06:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. You are actually VERY close. What you entered was this:

[[:Category: Branding companies]] | [[:Category: Companies in Shanghai]] | [[:Category: China]]

The preceding : and the space after "Category:" are what's breaking it. The preceding colon is used to make links show up exactly as they did, rather than adding it to the category like you wanted. Also, you don't need to delimit the categories by pipes (|). This is done by the software automatically. Try this instead:

[[Category:Branding companies]]

[[Category:Companies in Shanghai]]

[[Category:China]]

Hope this helps. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 07:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using Wikipedia Content to Teach Marketing Courses in English

We are an online English teaching company. We teach various levels of English interactively and are planning to teach a Marketing course (in English), so that students can become familiar with English marketing terminology. We believe that your Wikipedia content is perfect for us to use. We also plan to integrate marketing case studies, video clips, voice, reading and writing exercises and exams online. I am not clear on if or how we can use your marketing related texts in conjunction with our website, unless we integrate it. I cannot understand the conditions you specify relative to our needs and would respectfully request a clarification of what we can and cannot do. Many thanks, 58.187.128.125 (talk) 09:47, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia's text is licensed under GFDL, so you can copy and modify it without attribution or limitation. Therefore you may copy any text you like and put it on your website. If teaching English, you might want to look at the Simple English Wikipedia, which is aimed more specifically at people who are learning English. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 09:50, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And see the links under WP:EIW#Reusing. --Teratornis (talk) 15:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The statement "copy and modify it without attribution or limitation" is very misleading (as in its not true). Use of Wikipedia's text, while exceedingly permissive, is not free of limitation or attribution requirements. Specifically, you are limited to the terms of the GFDL, which includes, under section 4B, a requirement that Wikipedia must be attributed if you modify the text. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 17:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User Profile

How do I delete my user profile page? I want my article to show up when I google the company not my user page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Labbrand (talk • contribs) 10:00, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can place {{db-user}} on it. Please also consider Wikipedia:Changing username as it's problematic per Wikipedia:Username policy#Company/group names to have the name of an organization you write about. See alsoWikipedia:FAQ/Business. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:20, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What's going on with this article please?

Check out Robin McLaren. Seems like two articles merged into one. 79.75.217.175 (talk) 10:10, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The problem was with Template:UK-bio-stub, which was transcluded onto this page. Fixed now. - Trevor MacInnis (Contribs) 10:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Locking Down Sites

Resolved

– See below Alex Muller 14:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I represent both Chalvedon and Barstable schools and would like to "lock down" their pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalvedon_School & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barstable_School) and delete their history edited pages as they contain false and offensive material in them. I am unsure if locking a topic from being edited further is even an option on WikiPedia..?

Obviously pupils seem to have great pleasure in defacing the image of the schools on such a popular public website.

Any advice or information would be appreciated please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.46.145.1 (talk) 10:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The situation has been looked into by a member of the Wikipedia society an has been sorted as best as is possible.

Thankyou very much Alex Muller. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AndyBaines (talk • contribs) 11:06, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi 217.46.145.1 (the Chalvedon and Barstable schools representative).

First, I'm not sure about the above message by "Alex Muller" because as far as I can see nothing's been "looked into by a member of the Wikipedia society" or "sorted as best as is possible".

Second, I've had a brief look at the history of the article and can't immediately see anything beyond the normal silliness that you get with articles on schools. So locking them down (termed "protection", and there are various levels of protection) is probably not warranted. However, if there's anything in the articles' histories that's libellous or revealing private information about individuals, then deletion of the corresponding edits could be considered. If you can identify particular edits that you feel should be erased for these reasons, please point them out - thanks.--92.40.193.196 (talk) 12:40, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify, User:alex.muller is an admin. After looking at the logs for the pages, it looks like Alex went in and did some selective deletion. My personal guess is that Alex is responding to an OTRS ticket. However, I can't be sure as there was no note with a ticket number left behind. This doesn't really change anything I said below, but it looks like the problem as already been resolved. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:57, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Due to restrictions of the GFDL, we can not delete the history of the page. However, in extraordinary circumstances, elements of the history can be hidden from view. If you truly feel that there are elements of the history that are libelous, there is a facility of Wikipedia called Oversight that exists for the sole purpose of hiding revisions. If such is the case, you may make a request by following the instructions at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. Please be prepared to indicate exactly which revisions need to be hidden and why. As for "locking down the page", the policy that covers this is at Wikipedia:Protection policy. However, to be frank, neither page is anywhere close to meeting the threshhold of page protection as both pages are editted exceedingly rarely (approximately 1 edit per month average) and neither show the history of vandalism that is required to invoke protection. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:37, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the general case, it is false to claim that the GFDL forbids history deletion. This is one of the more persitent myths, unfortunately.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 19:35, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify all of this - I've been through the histories of those two articles and removed the rubbish, so administrators can still see the whole page history if they want. Oh, and I'm not OTRS - I declined a speedy deletion of the articles which led to talk page posts. You can read it all on User talk:Alex.muller and User talk:AndyBaines. Ta, Alex Muller 14:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the clarifications, Alex. Much appreciated! -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 17:36, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ummm...looks like I misinterpreted AndyBaines's response. Anyway, at least it's all sorted now. --92.40.182.63 (talk) 22:37, 7 July 2008 (UTC) (formerly 92.40.193.196)[reply]

Globe thing

How do I get a longitude and latitude globe thingy at the top of a page? Thanks!--seahamlass 12:16, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use the Coor title series: {{Coor title d}}, {{Coor title dm}}, {{Coor title dms}}. Remember to plate them at the bottom of the article. Xenon 54 12:47, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I believe Xenon meant 'place' them at the bottom of the article. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I did. Another reason why I shouldn't edit Wikipedia just after waking up. Xenon 54 13:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

LINKING

Ive created a new page called Type dynamics indicator. i wanted to make it so the abbreviation TDI also linked to the page. how do i do this? im sorry if this is in the help pages but i couldnt find it or it wasnt very clear. Daniel —Preceding unsigned comment added by Danb14 (talk • contribs) 13:32, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Go to TDI, which is a disambiguation page, and add a link to your page at the bottom. Xenon 54 13:41, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) In most circumstances, you would simply create a redirect to the page. However, in this case, TDI already exists as a disambiguation page. All you need to do in your case is add type dynamics indicator to the list of things that can be referred to as TDI. I hope this helps. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

histories

how far does the recent changes history go back? to 2001? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 16:04, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Normally a maximum of 500 edits from 30 days ago. However, if you tweak the URL, you probably can. StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 16:13, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please explain "tweak the URL". I was to misunderstand that clicking "earliest" shows changes from begging of Wikipedia existance, but they differ for each article. I wish to view activity accross all of wikipedia in real time as Recent Changes offers, but I wish to see the logs from 2001 or as early as possible in virtual real time, to seem what activity was happening in Wikipedias early existance. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 16:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Stewie means adding options to the end of the URL, like http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&from=20020101000000&hideminor=0. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Xenon 54 16:26, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thank you. So what is the maximum time one can view the logs for? Are they deleted? It would seem a waste to loose such important information about the growth of wikipedia? Are they archived somewhere else for preservation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 16:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That link does not work. It gives todays changes. I wish to view past changes as far back as they go. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 16:36, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please answer: how far back into the past does the Recent Changes log go? Where can I view the furthest back logs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 17:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At this point, I think it is important to focus less on 'how' and more on 'why'. What exactly are you looking to do? It sounds like you are up to some serious data mining and this is fine. If this is the case, you might want to take a look at downloading the Wikipedia database and doing your data mining on your own computer(s) without the limitations imposed by working through the WikiMedia software. Specifically, I think you'd want the database dump called "pages-meta-history.xml.bz2". -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 17:48, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, thank you I will certainly check those out. To ask once more, how far back does the logs go? In looking around I find the length of a month quoted. Do the logs only go far back as a month or longer? This is recent changes I mean, not the page histories. I would like to no before I begin downloading. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 18:37, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The technically correct answer would be "$wgRCMaxAge". The dumps that ShinmaWa mentioned contain the complete history (except for some early edits around 2001 which got lost due to software changes), but recent dumps of the English Wikipedia are often unavailable due to technical problems. [1] Regards, HaeB (talk) 20:15, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Need to contact administrator.

I have a serious issue that I wish to bring to the attention of an administriator but do not wish to place it in the public domian. Is there an email address I can use? 163.1.251.74 (talk) 16:34, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At Wikipedia:List of administrators, there is an, well, list of administrators. You need to create an account with an email however, before you can use the Wikipedia email interface. « Milk's Favorite Cøøkie 16:37, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And once you've done that, go to the userpage of the administrator you wish to contact, and click E-mail this user in the toolbox on the left hand side of the page. Lra drama 16:38, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My i butt in here. Do all administrators have to have an email address? is it a stipulation of being an administrator that one must provide an email address? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mud Flood (talk • contribs) 16:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm an administrator should you need one. In answer to Mud Flood's comment, not necessarily, but it is advised. Any user can shut off email in their preferences. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:43, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on the issue, you can also consider Wikipedia:Contact us and in particular Wikipedia:OTRS. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:26, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Geography

Which planet is the lagest ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.207.18.107 (talk) 17:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the Solar System: Jupiter (and the topic is astronomy, not geography). Have you tried the Science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:29, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Link colors

What do the different colors for the links mean (blue, red, etc.)? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.241.144.20 (talk) 17:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Link color. Your browser may display already visited links as purple. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:39, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Parser Function

How can I make a parser function displays my number of edits? Melab-1 (talk) 18:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to Help:Magic words there is no such parser function. But you may use [2] or [3]. I hope this helps you. :) Best wishes, —αἰτίας •discussion• 19:00, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Need help spelling

Can you tell me how to spell Cheryl Azabeth in blackfoot. Idon't understand theway to do it.

Thanks Joseph

Hello. I'm StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen, I don't understand your question. StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 19:07, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This would be a question for Wikipedia:Reference desk. Thanks and good luck. Mike P ^{(wots all this, then?)} 19:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, ask on: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. You may find something useful in Blackfoot language, assuming that is what you mean by "blackfoot." --Teratornis (talk) 19:36, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

editting headline

The subject of the page named "Jim Broussard" is a man named Jim Brossard. The name is spelled correctly on the page but the headline is incorrect and therefore not showing up when searching.

How can I edit the headline to show the correct spelling? —Preceding unsigned comment added by William loeb (talk • contribs) 20:20, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jim Broussard appears to be the correct name.[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57960] --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:29, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

editting headlines

Actually there is much confusion soncerning his name because it has been misspelled by so many media outlets.

The man's name is Jim Brossard. This is easily proven by his own website http://www.jimbrossard.com/

Once again, how can I, or who do I contact so as to edit the title —Preceding unsigned comment added by William loeb (talk • contribs) 20:39, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Moving a page. Regards, HaeB (talk) 20:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This user could not perform the move as his account was created yesterday and isn't and won't be autoconfirmed until two days from now. User:Ukexpat has, however, performed the move.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:18, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Special:PrefixIndex

Is there a way to Special:PrefixIndex some thing without getting the sub pages of the subpages.

Ex.

You PrefixIndex Wikipedia

You get Wikipedia/A and Wikipedia/A/B

But you only want Wikipedia/A.

thankyou, E E 20:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like you were already answered here: Wikipedia_talk:Special:PrefixIndex#No_sub-subpages -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 21:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting a sandbox

How do I delete a sandbox that I no longer am working on? --LordGorval (talk) 20:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If this page is in your user space (i.e. User:LordGorval/Something), the easiest thing to do is put {{db-user}} at the top of the page. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 21:04, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Search Query Direction

Hello,

I was wondering why when I type in "Fuze" is brings me to the "Fuse (explosive)" and not the "Fuze (Beverage)" page. Also, is there a way to change this so when people type in "Fuze" they go to the correct page?

Thank You

—Preceding unsigned comment added by AlphaJaguar5 (talk • contribs) 21:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can edit the redirect here. If you replace the text with #REDIRECT [[Fuze (Beverage)]] it will start pointing to that article. I do think changing it is the best option, but a link to Fuze (disambiguation) should be placed at the top of Fuze (beverage) - see Template:Otheruses. If you think others may disagree you should bring the change up for discussion first at a talk page of one of the articles. =Species8473= ^(talk) 22:08, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to the manual of style, articles should point to the most common usage of a term. In US English, 'fuze' is an alternate spelling of an explosive fuse and is therefore the most common usage of the term.. Because of this, it is appropriate that 'fuze' redirect to 'fuse'. At the top of the fuse page, there is a link that reads: "Fuze" redirects here. For other uses, see Fuze (disambiguation). It is on this disambiguation page that you can find the link to the beverage. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 22:15, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

When I do a google search: Google: Fuze. Of the ten first results, number one and five point to the beverage (drinkfuze.com and bevnet.com). Other results include a sandisk product 1, and some webdesign pages. But none of them are about explosives. It doesn't seem like the beverage is dominant, but there is not a single page one result pointing to explosives. Perhaps the best option here is to direct Fuze to Fuze (disambiguation), where the SanDisk product is also mentioned? =Species8473= ^(talk) 22:35, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me. I'm cool with it. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 23:08, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New Parser Function

I made a parser function to display EST but I don't know how to get the 2 extra digits, which are the seconds, can someone fix it? It's at this page. It comes out looking like this 08:17:58. Melab-1 (talk) 21:47, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... it seems like you don't quite know what a parser function is... Parser functions aren't template pages, they just look like it. When you call one, the parser recognizes it and, instead of displaying what it normally would, displays whatever that parserfunction is supposed to return. The parser function code for your needs is {{#time: h:i:s | - 4 hours }} (source - m:Help:ParserFunctions#.23time:), which returns 08:17:58. Note that it doesn't auto-refresh, you'll need to refresh the page or sometimes purge the server cache of the page by appending action=purge to the end of the URL. For more on parser functions, check out Help:Parser function. There are some more at the source link in the parenthesis above. Hope all that helped. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks I didn't know there was one for it. Melab-1 (talk) 23:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Edit a semiprotect article

I think that i´ve seen a template for when an IP wants to request someone to edit a semiprotected article but i can´t find where it is Prietoquilmes (talk) 22:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just ask on the talk page. {{editprotected}} is only for fully-protected pages. And another thing: please make new sections using the "new section" button, not by editing the last section (the latter will often cause edit conflicts. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:54, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

{{Unanswered}} can be used. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 8

!vote?

I apologize if this is a "newbie" question, but what is a !vote? Cheers,VIVID (talk) 00:21, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Where did you see this? "!" in computer programming generally means "no" or "not". Is the question mark part of what you saw or is that your punctuation since you're asking a question? Dismas|^(talk) 00:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Even though Wikipedia is not a democracy, straw polls are sometimes used to form a consensus. AfD is an example of a place where straw polls (and thus the phrase !voting) are used. To stress the fact that you are not voting but forming a consensus, taking part in these polls is called !voting. The bang (!) is used in several programming languages to mean the opposite of whatever comes after it. So, !voting = not voting, !X is not X, or the opposite of X. Xenon 54 00:34, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What Xenon said is absolutely right in every way. For a more long-winded version, you can also look at (not surprisingly) WP:!VOTE. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 00:54, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Missing Something... Ashamed

I am having trouble with my design proposals for the Main Page ~~(proposal 1, proposal 2).~~ (proposal 1, proposal 2)I am missing something very obvious. Since the TFA refreshed the bottom of it gets cut off and moves to the top of the page. This is something that can be simply fixed but I cannot seem to do it. Alas, I am ashamed. Could someone please tell me what I am missing? Thank you very much! Scottydude _talk 00:35, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure why it happens, and haven't really looked at the template code. But putting them in a div seems to solve the issue: <div>{{Wikipedia:Today's featured article/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}</div>. =Species8473= ^(talk) 01:16, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much. That fixed it. Scottydude _talk 02:54, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Categorization

I was wondering if it possible (or rather, admissable) to categorize pages such as Sayumi Michishige under the categories of 'Japanese female singers' and 'Japanese pop singers', for example. It makes sense because you can be a female singer but not a pop singer and a pop singer but not female. Still, I wanted to confirm that. -- Ishikawa Minoru (talk) 08:23, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's perfectly admissible, providing she falls into the categories. See WP:CAT for more information. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 10:06, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

how can i upload my company's profile in wikipedia

please guide me to upload the profile of my company in wikipedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bhavana 2002 (talk • contribs) 08:56, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia isn't the place for company profiles; see WP:NOT and WP:SPAM. Providing your company is notable, it can be uploaded here with a neutral point of view, reliable and verifiable sources. If it is not, however, it is likely to be deleted. For more information about uploading articles, see WP:Tutorial and Your first article. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 10:04, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

AFD creation failed

Hi - I was using twinkle to create an AFD and it seems to have failed - it's done the log listing but not added the tag and has created a misformed AFD page. It's been so long since I did an AFD manually I cannot remember how, I'm trying to fix it but some assistance would be nice... see Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Khorne --Allemandtando (talk) 09:40, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to have fixed it but if someone could check it over, that would be great. --Allemandtando (talk) 09:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, all correct. It's in the log as well (Twinkle messed up for me and didn't put it in the AfD log, which caused a few minor issues). Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 10:01, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think that, every so often, Twinkle goofs an AfD. I'm not sure why, but your best bet is to check on all of the different components after submitting it. Make sure the original author is notified, the entry is listed in today's AfD log, the discussion page is displaying properly, and the links from the article to the discussion work. Most of the time it works, but every now and then, things get a little nuts. TN‑X-Man 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Creating halftone (gray) text

Could someone please tell me (i.e., give me the code) for creating black-halftone (i.e., gray) text? (I'd actually like to make bold gray text :) ) —Thanks, Catdude (talk) 13:41, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

<span style="color: gray; font-weight: bold;">text</span> which makes text. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 14:14, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:COLOR. --Teratornis (talk) 16:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks much, Calvin 1998 and Teratornis, for the help!! —Regards, Catdude (talk) 23:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Collapsible

I just noticed that this map I created for this article here will overlap other images when a smaller screen is used to view the article. Would it be okay to transform the map and its legend into a collapsible thing? If so, may I get some help with the task? :-) Húsönd 15:31, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The first improvement would be to move the "loose" small images that are alongside gallery tags into the gallery tags. See WP:GALLERY. It looks like several editors worked on the article, and only some of them had read the instructions for gallery tags. Dealing with the map image might be harder, since it wants to be taller than the images in the adjoining gallery. See m:Help:Collapsing for information on how to make things collapsible, but I don't immediately know if that would help here. My first inclination would be to move the map or the gallery which is currently next to it so they are vertically apart. I.e., have some text to the left of the map so it can wrap more gracefully on a browser resize. Maybe all the small images could go into one very large gallery in their own section? --Teratornis (talk) 17:07, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

recent changes

Thank you to everyone who replied to my earlier question. However, my core question remains unanswered. How far back on Wikipedia do the Recent ChaNGES GO? I can only see todays changes and there are no links to go back further into the past. How far back do they go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishoco (talk • contribs) 17:19, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Recent Changes are... well... recent. As I see it, you can technically view the list as the 500 most recent changes over the last 30 days. Because there are many more than 500 edits in one day, you can only see the last 500 edits made to Wikipedia. This however does not mean that all changes to Wikipedia are not recorded. You can see every users contributions to Wikipedia as well as the edit history of every page in the wiki. Scottydude _talk 17:25, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Recent changes. The section: Help:Recent changes#Viewing new changes starting from a particular time is confusing to me. On my first reading, I thought the section describes a method to view older changes, but apparently it does not. The wording in that section seems to be somewhat incoherent. In any case, Special:Recentchanges seems to be about recent changes; the people who designed that page apparently did not intend it as a method to look at old changes. It's easy enough to view old changes for a particular page or user, by "tweaking the URL". For example, these are some old edits to the Help desk:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&dir=prev&action=history

Also see Special:AncientPages, Help:User contributions, and Help:Page history. You might be able to generate other views of Recent changes with a query technique (see WP:EIW#Query). --Teratornis (talk) 18:45, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has to maintain a complete revision history to comply with the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content. That means the revision history should go "all the way back," recording every edit by every user to Wikipedia. However, it seems Special:Recentchanges is not a particularly good tool to view changes very far back in time. You can see more by editing the limit parameter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&limit=1500&hideminor=0

but I don't see a way to move the viewing window backward in time, the way we can with the history of an individual page. --Teratornis (talk) 18:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The page Special:Recentchanges purposely limits the amount of edits shown to 5,000, to avoid overloading the servers. The page is primarily made for recent-changes patrol, so it is unnecessary to make it go that far. The servers do have records of every single edit to the database, but where they are located is a mystery. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 19:40, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not much of a mystery. They're in the mw:Revision table and the mw:text table. You can access them via a database dump, or individual page history and user contribution listings. Algebraist 19:48, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Listing pages created by a specific user

Is it possible to list all pages created by a specific user? I'd like to add created articles list to my user page, but I can't remember all the articles I created and the Special:Newpages doesn't go very far back. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 20:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Escaladix's tool is the best for that. It shows all articles and redirects started by the user. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 20:30, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks PeterSymonds and thanks for rollback permission. :-) Admiral Norton ^(talk) 20:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks from me too, I've packed that shiny link into my nest. Followup question: am I right to think that Escaladix's tool does not show articles created and subsequently deleted? I tried a few recent examples, looks like it doesn't, but I don't know how well the toolserver DB is sync'ed up. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 21:04, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, it's only for articles that haven't been deleted. Deleted contributions are only available to administrators at this time. Sorry about that. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 21:11, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. Escaladix's tool, as far as I know, scans either your contribs or the newpage log for new mainspace pages you made. Deleted contributions are only available through either the preview links in Special:Undelete or Special:DeletedContributions, both administrator-only, blocking the data from the tool. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 21:16, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thx for the quick responses. I've said it before, I'll say it again - Help desk rocks! :) Franamax (talk) 21:44, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

An excellent tool. One thing to note: unlike most tools and logs, it's case sensitive as to the first letter of your username.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:52, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(undent) I agree with Franamax about the Help desk. I have never seen another technical support system that works so well, especially considering the broad scope and complexity of the possible questions. Being able to edit replies in wikitext sure beats using e-mail, since we can compactly link to Wikipedia's huge set of internal documents that answer almost every question. In many companies, technical support is one of the most hated jobs - by the workers and the customers. The collective genius of Wikipedia has made technical support fun enough that people will do it for recreation. --Teratornis (talk) 07:42, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Underage?

On Wikihow I was kicked off because they found out I was younger than 13 can I use Wikipedia if I'm under 13 does wikipedia have the same policy as wikihow? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.175.122.100 (talk) 20:35, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any user of whatever age can use Wikipedia. Age doesn't matter as long as you show maturity, both of which are two different things. Let me know if you need any help. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 20:37, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just know that Wikipedia is not censored. Of course, most kids your age might consider that a plus. Your parents, on the other hand, might not. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 03:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Archived talk page in main space

Archive Talk:Margaret Dryburgh seems to have ended up in the main space I assume as a result of an unsuccessful archiving attempt. Could anyone fix that or tell me how? I'm not sure if it would work to try and move it to a sub-page now or not...-Hunting dog (talk) 21:51, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done - moving it to a subpage of Talk:Margaret Dryburgh does work. It's now at Talk:Margaret Dryburgh/Archive 1. Not sure if we need to get Archive Talk:Margaret Dryburgh deleted or not... Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 21:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes {{db-maintenance}} would be appropriate for the page in the main space. I'll add it. Scottydude _talk 22:38, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks you both, it looks like that all worked :) -Hunting dog (talk) 05:19, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please Tersen Search Results pre-amble.

When I don't get an exact hit on an article, there are search results that come after a long preamble about contributing to wikipedia. I think it could be tersened to about three lines. If one or more of the search terms fits into a category, then I think that should be listed first. BrewJay (talk) 23:13, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You're probably better off bringing up your suggestions at the Village Pump, which deals with the technical side of Wikipedia. -- Natalya 00:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The text is from MediaWiki:Noexactmatch which can also be discussed at MediaWiki talk:Noexactmatch (but I don't know how many will see it there). PrimeHunter (talk) 01:19, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a port page.

The port I work at has expressed interest in the creation of a wikipedia page. It is a significant entity, however I have done very little wikipedia work before. Does a county port substantiate a wiki page (it runs an airport and a marina with a wiki page, and a business park), and if so, what kind of format should I be using? Cleverlycreated (talk) 23:38, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Replied on user's talk page. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:34, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 9

weird click errors

Okay, getting weirded out here. When I

click or double click on a word, like to select it for copying, one of two things happen.
1. .php extension pops up, and I am asked (in Mac or PC) what programme I want to use to open that .php?
2. Firefox 3 goes nuts! It keeps trying to open pages all over the show and piles .part files up the Mac desktop.
try to find a simple way to report these errors, I get every possible permutation of programming pish, but no simple links like report an error or submit an error or an email for webmasters or anything.

thanks,

jas

avaiki (talk) 00:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No help, but I fixed your numbering. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I cancelled an index.php download. I forget what I was asking for, but I seem to remember being in the upload interface. My system doesn't do php, as far as I know. BrewJay (talk) 06:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, that does sound like a strange error. You might want to try posting at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing; they get a lot of bug questions. —Pie4all88 (talk) 15:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Internet Archive

The two most important sources for Exelon Pavilions were 2005 press releases. The company just dumped the 2005 news releases from their archives. How can I find internet archives of these press release articles?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 00:30, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Archive.org? bibliomaniac 1 5 00:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They have one of the two. I also need need the following http://www.exeloncorp.com/aboutus/news/pressrelease/corporate/Press+Release+121505a.htm --TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 01:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here you go. It's an alternate, perhaps better way: look at Google's cache of the page by searching for "cache:<URL>". Most of those should return Google's cache of the page. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 01:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Run LinkChecker on the article and it can search Archive.org and update the links for you. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 10:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Inserting footnote?

This is undoubtedly Wiki-101, but I added material to a brief entry (Donald M. Nelson) and a footnote with a Web address, as the entry lacked any citation. When I saved the article, the new version had a superscript (1), but I didn't see a footnote below. What did I do incorrectly?

DonDiegoVega (talk) 01:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You have to place {{reflist}} or <references /> in a section called "References" at the bottom. I do believe using {{reflist}} is preferred over <references />. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 01:20, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:FOOT for the detailed instructions. --Teratornis (talk) 06:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Accessing deleted content

An article I recently created, Charles Bryant (actor), was deleted because some of the content had been taken from another website, even though I took sufficient care to paraphrase each sentence so it was not copied verbatim. I would now like to re-create the article and edit it so that it does not infringe WP’s copyright policies, and was therefore wondering how I can gain access to the previously deleted article as I had undertaken a fair amount of research on the subject which I would ideally not like to have to repeat. Jamesmh2006 (talk) 01:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can ask any administrator, but note that if it is a copyright-violation (hopefully it isn't), they can't give you the text. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:02, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Because of the copyright issue, I cannot provide you the deleted text on a public forum. However, I will email you the deleted article's text if you enable your account's email function. Go to your preferences, type your email address into the space listed under User Profile, save, drop a note here that you have, and you'll have it in a short time. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've done it. Thanks. Jamesmh2006 (talk) 02:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Email sent. Don't forget to check your spam folder if you don't see it. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:25, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Seth Patinkin and Jan Szatkowski

What is the particular reason those two are in the local title blacklist? Who were these people? 208.76.245.162 (talk) 03:10, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:WWMPD#First, check the deletion log, i.e.:

--Teratornis (talk) 06:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In case my answer wasn't clear, I found something about the first name, and nothing about the second. I clicked around some more and found this protection log entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&type=protect&page=Jan_Szatkowski

If your curiosity is still burning, you might ask for an explanation on User talk:MZMcBride as to why he or she protected that title. --Teratornis (talk) 07:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Question

What does destination filename mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheOnlyOne12 (talk • contribs) 04:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you're uploading a file, it means what you want the file to be called on the Wikimedia servers. The general guideline is (a) don't replicate the name of an existing file (you may also want to check on Commons) and (b) make the filename something descriptive, since digital cameras tend to give such helpful filenames as DSC35978.jpg Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:57, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using index.php

I was looking at {{Documentation}} when I realized that one of the mechanisms that the template used (as the create link) was to use a &preload= option of index.php to preload one of the template pages onto the new page. I tried a technique using a page as a variable (this fulfills my previous request Action Buttons) and tried to use the preload option to set the data of the page (to switch the traffic lights state, to tell users NOT to edit, etc...), but found that it didn't work. Is there a similar &load= option or something? Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Uhh... no. Preloading is only for creating new pages/sections. For appending/prepending such and such to articles, there's a user script that takes a URL parameter, not sure which script it is though... 05:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Whatever it is, it needs to be a link. This is one main criterion for my action button. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 06:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Monitor width template

Is there a template, class, or magic word that detects the user's monitor size and displays it as a numerical value? I know it's possible in Java Script (screen.width), but how is it done in Wikipedia? ChyranandChloe (talk) 05:34, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you need to know? Most box templates (like {{Divbox}} and {{Ambox}}) do this for you automatically. The only other use I can see is saying "your screen width is %d". Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:38, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure there isn't one. There probably is, however, a way to fix your problem (whatever it happens to be). Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 05:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In other words, could you be more descriptive? Gnorthup

Is wikipedia gonna be around for a while?

Cos i've put a lot of work in on here and I hope it's not gonna all fade away in a few years. 79.75.226.93 (talk) 07:06, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I was hoping to find something relevant in Wikipedia:Replies to common objections, but nothing jumps right out. Other than maybe the section about growth. At least the project funding looks pretty solid now; see:

Also, the major search engines such as Google rank Wikipedia articles high in their search results. This suggests the search engines regard Wikipedia as central to their business models. As long as that remains true, Wikipedia is probably about as durable as, say, Google. However, we know that everyone and every thing will someday be forgotten. See Heat death of the universe and Ozymandias. In the meantime, if you want to be sure not to lose your work, see Special:Export. --Teratornis (talk) 07:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:There is no deadline sort of implies Wikipedia will be around for a while, or at least whoever wrote that essay seems to think so. --Teratornis (talk) 07:35, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle

I'm using Twinkle to (among other things) nominate articles for Afd. However, the last couple of times, I've seen that the notice in the offending article is redlinked, even though the Afd page exists (see St. Olaf, Minnesota). Any idea what the problem is? Or is there a better tool? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:54, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The red link went away after I did a null edit on the article. (I find that null edits often fix inconsistencies like this. —teb728 t c 08:22, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think Twinkle creates the debate page and tags the article in a slightly odd order, so the tag is placed in the article a second or two before the debate exists. Hence, when that edit completes, the link is marked as red because the target doesn't exist (though the link does actually work). The page then does come into existence, but often the server still caches how the page looked after the most recent edit to the article page. A null edit to the page does indeed solve that problem. ~ mazca ^{t | c} 13:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Purging the page cache works too and avoids having to do a null edit. I use the clock gadget (available in one's User prefs) to do that. – ukexpat (talk) 14:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It has nothing to do with the order. It's just that they are created almost at the same time. This combined with caching by Wikipedia can cause this "issue". Not really much that can be done about that, unless we start introducing timers and consecutive processing of the request in Twinkle (which heavy users would find highly annoying). --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to centre a gallery

Hi, I would really like to centre this image gallery here, but I’m not quite sure how to. Thanks. Jamesmh2006 (talk) 08:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

done. Harland1 (^t/_c) 10:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Looks much neater now! Jamesmh2006 (talk) 10:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlisting categories?

I was wondering whether it is possible to watchlist categories? The reason I ask is because I am currently working on an article List of King's College London alumni as an accompaniment to the category Category:Alumni of King's College London. The problem is that it is difficult for me to update my list as new alumni are added to the category, thus I was wondering whether it is possible to track changes made to this category. Thanks Jamesmh2006 (talk) 08:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can watchlit a category, by clicking watch, but I don't think there's a way to be notifie when an article is added to it. Harland1 (^t/_c) 10:10, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using 'Related Changes' [4] from the Category page might help. More so if the person putting article into category left note in edit summary.-Hunting dog (talk) 10:27, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Another way (and one I use myself for a similar alumni list) is to use what links here for King's College, London, on the basis that someone creating a new page about a KCL alumni might wikilink KCL but not add the alumni category. Newest pages are at the end of the list: digging back a bit, I found Peter Hofschröer for you! Bencherlite ^Talk 10:36, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for for all your suggestions. Jamesmh2006 (talk) 10:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

for watching "additions" to a category (which Special:RecentChangesLinked does not detect), you can also use User:Ais523/catwatch.js. It works reasonably well. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting question

I want to have a bulleted list like this, and then some text:

Item one
Item two
Item three

Text element one
Text element two
Text element three

How do I make text element one indented to the same degree as item three without giving it a bullet? - Richard Cavell (talk) 09:22, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use a colon instead of a asterisk. It's not perfect, but I think that it is as close as you can get. Paragon12321 (talk) 14:57, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

<div style="padding:0em 1.5em;">Text element one</div> seems to indent the text to match that of the bulleted list, at least on my browser. For the "padding" parameter there, the first value (0em in this case) refers to the vertical indentation, and the second (1.5 em) sets the horizontal indentation. Here's what

*Item one
<div style="padding:0em 1.5em;">Text element one</div>

will output:

Item one

Text element one

Hope it's what you're looking for. Cheers! —Pie4all88 (talk) 14:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect web address for link in article on Harlem, Georgia

The correct web address for the Laurel & Hardy Museum which is mentioned in your article is www.laurelandhardymuseum.org The address you have listed is the old website which has incorrect hours and information. Please change. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.217.253.39 (talk) 12:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there, I edited the link on the bottom of Harlem, Georgia with the one you provided. If you find a mistake like this in the future, feel free to click "edit this page" at the top-middle of the page to change it yourself. Wikipedia:How to edit a page has some more information on how to do this if you need help. Cheers! —Pie4all88 (talk) 14:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removing a Flag

After edits are made to a page to respond to a content concern, how does one go about requesting that a flag be removed from a page? Such as "This article needs additional citations for verification." Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.156.194.3 (talk) 13:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's added by the template {{refimprove}}. You need to remove that code from the article. Algebraist 13:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c)Edit the page and delete the relevant template from the article (usually they are at the top). Also note in your edit summary why you have deleted it and add a message to the article's talk page noting how you have dealt with the concern. – ukexpat (talk) 14:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How would you?

Put this into correct Wiki en/em space etc: "The festivities included a 20 foot (6 metre)-high Whomping Willow" Thanks!--seahamlass 16:45, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use {{convert}}:

{{convert|20|ft|m|0}}

which gives:

20 feet (6 m)

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

offering help to edit the "Adstream" profile

I have noted that wikipedia is not happy with the recently posted "Adstream" profile. I am a business studies student and would be prepared to help produce a non-advertising profile. Could you give me some guidance please...

is the problem that the article is too long? or is it the content? do many companies of similar size get articles removed for similar reasons or is it perfectly reasonable for such sized companies to have factual entries about themselves.90.59.76.24 (talk) 16:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Before you start, please read WP:CORP and WP:SPAM. Wikipedia has articles not profiles because it is an encyclopedia not a directory of businesses. Notability verified by reliable sources are some of the key principals of WP. I will post a welcome message for you with more links. You will also need to create an account and be autoconfirmed before you can create articles. Hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 17:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism on Gregory Peck?

Can someone go check Gregory Peck? There's an "Avril Troll" vandalism, and I can't seem to find it in the revision history. I can't seem to get rid of it either. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 18:43, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see it. It may have been vandalism to a template that has been reverted. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:49, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's odd, I still see it. It's essentially a banner across the screen that moves with my screen as I scroll. It says "Avril Lavigne Rocks My Socks" and then "Brought to you by the Avril Troll- back from wikibreak". I don't think It's a template, but perhaps it's just my computer. Does anyone else see this?Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 18:54, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see it as well. I'm not sure where it is though. TN‑X-Man 18:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see it either. That is very strange. I can't seem to find a user Avril Troll (AvrilTroll) either. Scottydude _talk 18:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(unindent) There's an interesting thread at Wikipedia Talk:Reference Desk with this link here.Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can it possibly only show in firefox or something? I'm using Explorer and I don't see it. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:05, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in ie too. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in Firefox. I can see it in the page source too. I'm sure what that means though. TN‑X-Man 19:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see it now at Clannad. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(outdent) It appears to be fixed at Gregory Peck. TN‑X-Man 19:11, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the thread that had that link? ~ Bella Swan^? 19:13, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It was fixed at Clannad as well, but no edits in the history. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia talk:Reference desk#How disappointing... <- is the the thread, I think. TN‑X-Man 19:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's removed, but how? There's nothing in the diffs.Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:18, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How did that user at that thread know about that page in photobucket? Isn't that kind of weird? I'm doing searches for it on photobucket too, and it's not showing up unless I click the link. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:20, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to this, it's supposed to be at Jules Verne as well. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:23, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's his own work. Look at his signature, then look at his name in the screen shot. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's at Jules Verne. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see his username now, but I still don't see at Jules Verne. The user who created the photobucket image saw it just a minute ago though. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:29, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For those of you still seeing the vandalism, try WP:PURGE, then try WP:BYPASS while viewing the page in question. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 19:45, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

While I'm sure it's a good thing that the vandalism is gone, do we know how it happened? If we don't try to figure out, we might very well have more than one complaint scattered across the wiki about an avriltroll in the future. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:47, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

...speaking of which, an IP has just spotted it at Coldplay. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I no longer see it after using the purge command on the Coldplay page. Laenir (talk) 19:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK- if there is someone who can still see the vandalism: do not purge. View the page source and paste it into a user subpage. We should be able to pull it from that. I went through the templates and the .css, but did not see anything. It could have been in a Mediawiki message. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:19, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I may have part of the solution. I just blocked User talk:Wasy Ples, who had created the Avril vandalism on his talk page and was transcluding it onto pages. See his talk page for the history and code. I haven't searched for sockpuppets yet.- Trevor MacInnis (Contribs) 20:34, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. There was HTML code showing in the infobox, so it appeared to me that the problem was there. The code stopped where {{image class}} was used. That template in turn uses {{image class names}}, which was vandalized by transcluding User talk:RockerTed. The template has been protected and the user blocked. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you - Nice detective work, I couldn't figure it out! – ukexpat (talk) 21:02, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That made my head hurt. Took me a bit to figure out the talk page since he had the mess enclosed in a <includeonly>.[5] --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's a shame that someone like this vandal would choose to use their skills to vandalise rather than improve the project, but maybe some day they will see the light. – ukexpat (talk) 21:35, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Starting my own wiki

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question, but I need help. Where can I find good information on starting my own wiki? I've already got the newest mediawiki installed, but I noticed it does not have an "upload file" feature, which I would like to have. Where can I find the XML Help and Special pages, and such to import, and where is a better place to find this type of information? Mac Davis (talk) 22:37, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This help desk is only for Wikipedia. Maybe you can find something useful at mw:Sysadmin hub. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Default sort

I'm having a strange problem with the default sort. I have created a page (title: Antonin Sertillanges), and marked it as a stub in three categories (Roman Catholic, philosopher, theologian). I have the Default sort to be under S (for Sertillanges), and it is listed under S int he RC stub and the theologian stub categories. But it is still listed under A in the philosopher stub category. What gives? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Theloavesandthevicious (talk • contribs) 23:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First clear your computer's cache, and if that doesn't work, purge the category page's cache. I think one or the other will take care of it. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For category caching issues, do a null edit to force a refresh. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 23:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a caching issue. It's because {{philosopher-stub}} includes [[Category:Philosopher stubs|{{PAGENAME}}]] in it, which forces the page to be sorted by its actual name, rather than the default sort. I think you should ask at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting what their standard is for the templates. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:08, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 10

Liverpool Gay Quarter and Stanley Street, Liverpool articles

Hi, I started on wikipedia today, and have made two articles, one called Liverpool gay quarter, and one called Stanley Street, Liverpool. The Stanley St article has a big sign on it, which appeared about half an hour ago saying it is a candidate for deletion. Why is this so? It was cleared earlier yesterday by one of the admins called jimfbleak. Can you help to remove the deletion notice please? Also, when I try and upload an image, it says 'unauthorized', and I'm not sure why? Can you please help? (Richie wright1980 (talk) 00:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]

Comment: It would be helpful if the speedy template linked to the previous deletion discussion, given that this is the reason speedy deletion is being proposed. It may (or may not) be the case that the editor who re-added the previously deleted material is aware of the discussion, but certainly others in the community, like me, who would like to assess the situation would be aided by such a link. --Tkynerd (talk) 00:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For purposes of this discussion, the relevant deletion log entry is here. It's worth noting that the article does not appear to qualify under G4, as the article was previously speedied and there was apparently no deletion discussion. There is also relevant material on the talk pages of the deleting admin and the user who posted this question. --Tkynerd (talk) 00:48, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have acted boldly and removed the tags. G4 only applies to articles deleted per Afd not to those speedily deleted. – ukexpat (talk) 00:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

We have a long-standing problem with misapplication of G4. I recently changed the admin drop down menu of automatic deletion summaries to highlight that G4 only applies to XfDs. I would guess that almost half the time articles are tagged with G4 the article was only previously speedily deleted. The speedy template ({{db-g4}} does have a parameter for indicating the deletion discussion but gives a generic message if you don't use the parameter. What would really help is if the tag breaks when you don't supply a link to the discussion discussion. This would help in another way; no admin should ever delete an article under G4 without checking that the deletion discussion exists, and further that the the repost doesn't address and ameliorate the reason for deletion reached. So anytime the template is used without the parameter, an admin is (we should hope) inevitably going to have to track down the deletion discussion themselves.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Problem signing talk pages

Whenever I sign a talk page with four tildes, it always comes out without a link to my page, like this: Metakraid 01:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone know why it does that? If it helps, I'm running a PowerPC-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and using Firefox 3 for my browser. Metakraid 01:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not too sure why that is happening, but try change the raw signature in your preferences. (change it to something like this: [[User:Metakraid|Metakraid]] ([[User talk:Metakraid|talk]]) Hopefully that helps. Midorihana みどりはな 01:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Or uncheck the box "Raw signature" at Special:Preferences and leave the Signature field blank. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:52, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That was the problem: the raw signature box was checked. It works now. Metakraid (talk) 14:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

List of articles needing copyedits?

I came to the Altairnano page from a list of articles that needed copyediting. I patched that one up, and wanted to do another, but now I can't find the original page again. Anyone have a link? Maury (talk) 02:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can find the backlog at CAT:CE. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:49, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

long missing friend

good pm sir madam..i would like to ask for your assistance to locate my friend <redacted> i was watching the program reunion in which they seek the missing person through your kind assistance,,,, i will be in very deep favor if you can give me some information about my bestfriend,,<redacted>,,he likes to sing and also a quite handsome person,,,we lost contact for so long and only your help is my result,,,THANK YOU VERY MUCH,,,,<redacted>—Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.127.121.236 (talk) 03:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:38, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gameplay

Is "Gameplay" a proper compound word? --AeronPrometheus (talk) 03:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please ask this question at the language section of the reference desk. This page is for questions related to using Wikipedia.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, thought I was in the right place. Not very well marked. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 03:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It couldn't be much better marked. The top of the page says, in gigantic letters: "This page is only for questions about USING Wikipedia." :) --Tkynerd (talk) 04:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

is there a search feature for village pump discussions?

I use Firefox on Ubuntu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fourtildas (talk • contribs) 04:03, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to look at a discussion on User:Teratornis's talk page here, that discusses this very thing: User_talk:Teratornis#Search VP? The answer there is very complete. I can't directly speak for Teratornis, but this user is extremely friendly and helpful (and a frequent patroller of the help desk to boot). -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 05:37, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also -- if you look on Teratornis's user page, you'll find a link to do a Village Pump search (look under "helpful searches"). -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 05:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To add to the above information: you can transclude the {{Help desk searches}} template onto your user page, like I did in User:Teratornis#Useful searches. If you want to know the technical details behind the search, read the documentation on the {{Google custom}} page. Let us know if you have any questions or find any problems with the search(es). --Teratornis (talk) 12:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What's that image?

What is that image that appears on a Wikipediapage before the contents fully load? It is NOT the Wikipedia logo, but rather some strange watermark. Does anyone know what this image is? 64.136.26.230 (talk) 04:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC) (User:Gnorthup)[reply]

It's an open book. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can see it here if you want. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And at Image:Headbg.jpg: File:Headbg.jpg PrimeHunter (talk) 16:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Spaces vanishing after links

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Ocean#Reception In this section of this article, spaces vanish when putting a word after a wikilink. For example, this-- [[blahblahblah]] blah-- ends up looking like this when the page is saved or previewed-- [[blahblahblah]]blah--. I can't figure out why. Thanos6 (talk) 04:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a wiki table just before that text. I'm not quite sure what that table is supposed to look like when it's working—it's obviously broken and I don't want to just remove it—but I do know that tables must end with "|}" on its own line. Placing that to its own line fixed the proceeding text spacing issue. I'll let someone else sort out whether the table should stay (or even what the hell it is).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to create a wiki profile

Hi,

I want to know how to create a wiki profile...

I am very much eager to know about this. Please help me out.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.169.146.133 (talk) 05:22, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Your first article.

Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
Find references
Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
Click 'Create this page'
Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. You need an account, however, so you can't do it yet. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 07:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you mean by "profile." We don't use that word on Wikipedia. You can, however, create an account, make a user page, and edit your preferences. --Teratornis (talk) 12:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I should clarify: we don't use the word "profile" in the same way you may have seen other sites use it. If you mean something like a "user profile," then that falls under creating an account as in my answer; if you mean something like the profile of a company, a band, a famous person, etc., then that falls under creating a new article as in the first answer above. --Teratornis (talk) 13:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Article deletion

Hi there! I've been involved in editing Shadow Host article. I added band history, photos, discography and many more. But now it's all gone, and none of it is mentioned in the article history. The page looks just the way it looked in 2006! Can you please tell me what's wrong with it? Look how it looked recently (it's still in Google cache): http://74.125.39.104/search?q=cache:nwz3A_4DIMMJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Host+shadow+host&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3 Thank you! Ironguardian (talk) 05:54, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your contributions to that article were deleted from the history as copyright violations since you copied them straight from the band's official website. Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted material. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:23, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

user name

How do I change my user name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Diz67knee (talk • contribs) 06:34, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At WP:CU...... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 07:43, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that page will be very useful, try Wikipedia:Changing username instead (WP:CHU). The hazards of shortcuts! --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Calculating Seconds to YDHMS

Is there any template that aids in converting raw seconds to YDHMS (Years Days Hours Minutes Seconds) format? Not the current time, but an expression derived from it. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 06:35, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the ParserFunction #time may be able to do something like what you want. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 08:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Ft to m is out of order

At Cloud Gate {{Ft to m|33|66|42|wiki=yes}} is suddenly generating huge erroneous text. What is going on?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 08:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the template for now - I'm no good with parsers so I can't help further. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 09:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You'll have a better chance of getting a solution to this at the village pump. For what it's worth, {{rnd}} has been redesigned recently, so that might be the culprit. Algebraist 09:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For the moment, adding a precision parameter unbreaks it:{{ft to m|33|66|42|wiki=yes|precision=2}} produces Template:Ft to m. Algebraist 10:05, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Able to access deleted page through google Search

Dear Sir/Madam,

One of my colleagues had wrongly created one page for Bharti AXA General Insurance on wikipedia and published it. The person had wrongly named the page as BhAarti axa general insurance. Althought the page has been deleted from wikipedia.org, though it is searchable using the keywords- bharti axa general insurance+wikipedia which takes it to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BhAarti_axa_general_insurance

requesting you to plz remove the link so that no one can access this page.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Rgds,

Abhishek Sinha Manager- Website Marketing Bharti AXA General Insurance co. Ltd. India —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bhartiaxa (talk • contribs) 09:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It will probably be gone next time Google combs the website. There's no need to panic now. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 09:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Right. The html source at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BhAarti_axa_general_insurance contains: <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />. This tells search engines like Google to not index the page. Clicking "Cached" on the Google search results page shows that Google cached it June 12 which was before the deletion June 16. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Summary deletion of template

I am the creator an maintainer of, what was, RIP, Template:Fish market topics. This has just been through the deletion process and has been deleted and removed from all its article4s. However, although I have been thoroughly active during the deletion period, I had no idea this was happening. Can you please tell me what is the standard procedure for template deletions. Can anyone just go ahead and put templates up for deletion without the people who know about them being informed or being any part of the process? --Geronimo20 (talk) 09:30, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes messages are left on user talk pages, but the basic way to announce an XfD is to put the appropriate message on the page in question. It's assumed that users will put any pages they care about on their watchlist. In any case, the deleting admin has undeleted and relisted it. Algebraist 09:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... I have over 2000 articles on my watchlist and it's easy to miss something if it appears only once. That sort of makes watchlisting unpleasantly tense. --Geronimo20 (talk) 10:15, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple AFDs

I want to do some multiple AFDs - how do I set them up? --Allemandtando (talk) 09:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion#How to list multiple related pages for deletion.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:35, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Searching for a special template

Hi! I want to include a note into the article Mitteldeutscher BC about the team's name. "Mitteldeutscher" is an adjective meaning "central German" and therefore makes no sense without a noun to which it can refer to. I often see it misused by people who probably consider "Mitteldeutscher" to be the region's name or sth., so I'm wondering if there is a template for such cases as I haven't found one. Best regards, --Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 11:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed the article so that "Mittledeutscher" is never used singly. If you like, simply put a note on its talk page, describing why this is bad. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks. I had just searched for something a little bit more striking, but it might be enough for now. --Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 14:55, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

changing main headline

how can I change the main headline of an article I wrote? ... the headline which is used in the search feature of wikipedia.

I made a misspelling as English is not my mother tongue.

Thanks for your reply

(Runner&Skater (talk) 11:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]

I don't see any misspelling in the name of Firstbeat Technologies—is this the article you are referring to? I did, however, rename it to capitalize the "t" in Technologies. Is that what you were after? Note that the article is currently tagged for speedy deletion as a company that does not indicate the importance of the subject (section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion). The way to rename an article is to move it to a new title. However, your account must be autoconfirmed in order to do so, meaning it must have at least ten edits and be four days old, so you would have needed to make a few more edits and wait 3 days before you could have moved the article yourself.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, just as a friendly heads up, the "main headline" is generally referred to as the "title" of the article. Cheers! —Pie4all88 (talk) 18:21, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

what is the max amount of times you can change your username?

what is the max amount of times you can change your username? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.112.162 (talk) 17:33, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There's no limit that I am aware of; however, as the rename is done manually by bureaucrats, they reserve the right to deny a rename if they feel that you are making an unreasonable amount of requests. You should create a name that you will want to keep to avoid the confusion surrounding renames in the first place. Xenon 54 18:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure whether I completely understand your question, but you might find some answers here: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet#Alternative accounts. ☺ Coppertwig (talk) 01:12, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Death certificate

HI, this is L-E-O-S

My questions is I'm 7 months pregnant now , I finally built the courage to order my child's father death certificate because I have absolutely no recollection of how he passed, (he passed in March)not getting full story from family. Not only do I need to know how for myself and my child for when she gets older,but I would like to have it for my records.

I'ved checked with multiple death record services on line but he isn't listed why is that and how do I go about finding him?

Thankyou your advice would be greatly appreciated!

HAVE A GOOD DAY —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.58.250.221 (talk) 19:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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 is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. -- Natalya 19:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You don't say which country you are in, but your IP address suggests you are in the USA. It could take some time before recent records appear online, and depending on local laws you might have to show a family relationship before you can access the records. Astronaut (talk) 23:11, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Stanley Street, Liverpool

Hi, I made an article called Stanley Street, Liverpool yesterday. However, when I type in 'Stanley Street' in the wikipedia search, my article doesn't show up. It shows Stanley Street, Brisbane; Stanley Street, montreal; Stanley street, Hong Kong etc....but no Stanley Street, Liverpool. Does anyone know why this is? (Richie wright1980 (talk) 20:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]

I currently see Stanley Street, Liverpool in a search [6]. If you are referring to the page Stanley Street (which you get by typing Stanley Street and clicking Enter or "Go" instead of "Search", because it matches the search term exactly) then it's a manually edited disambiguation page where new links must be manually added which I have done for the Liverpool street. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:12, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well said, PrimeHunter. I was just about to advise Richie wright1980 to edit the disambiguation page, but you were too fast for me. Laenir (talk) 20:17, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I also found and added the last missing entry: Stanley Street, East Sydney. I guess there are a lot of notable Stanleys to name streets after. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:27, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks very much, this is all very new and daunting for me, lol. The weird thing is Stanley St in Liverpool is Liverpool's gay scene - Stanley St, Montreal is also Montreal's gay scene! Maybe this Stanley is worth further research eh? LOl (Richie wright1980 (talk) 21:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]

Mos SoS

Is there a tool I can download to help fix MoS problems? I have one already, which gives little peer reviews, but that misses more than it spots. Thanks.--seahamlass 20:48, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

IS IT OK?

qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmmnbvcxzlkjhgfdsapoiuytrewq!!!!!!! nyehehehe —Preceding unsigned comment added by ڰیݟۺݢݩۊړݢݭڱ (talk • contribs) 23:10, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is ok. Thank you for asking. Paragon12321 (talk) 23:52, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't log in - I'm a first time user

I have tried to log in, but I keep getting the prompt that I have a problem with my confirmation code. What does this mean and how do I successfully log in/on? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.214.147.71 (talk) 23:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What is your username? Have you been able to log in before with that password? Does Help:Logging in solve the problem? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Adding categories to images located on commons

do we currently have any specific policy/guideline about adding categories to otherwise non-existent image pages that are sourced from commons? -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 23:54, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm confused by your question. An image page you see here that is located on Commons cannot be edited here at all; no categories can be added because the page doesn't exist here. I'm probably just misunderstanding. Can you clarify what you mean?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:29, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Don't add categories to images on wikipedia which are redlinks but are in fact commons images. Your time would be more usefully spent fixing the category on commons of the image. -mattbuck (Talk) 00:44, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

so you're saying that if a free image is used off of commons we shouldn't bother categorizing it here? that doesn't make much sense to me, since there exists large numbers of images on both databases and while image transclusion is already incorporated into the software, categories are reasonably not. Does there exist any actual policy/guideline on wikipedia that explictly discourages this? (Heck, even a Wikiproject's guideline would be useful) -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 02:04, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 11

Mac Wiki Software

Is there anything like AutoWikiBrowser that works in Mac OS X? I haven't seen anything that breaks the various tools down by OS, so I'm guessing it's a "no". Dismas|^(talk) 00:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Page location

Can someone tell me where one can edit the text of the unauthorized page that not yet autoconfirmed editors reach when they attempt an action they cannot do, such as uploading a file? Somewhere in the Mediawiki space maybe?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:45, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It should be one listed at Special:AllMessages. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 02:31, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki:Badaccess, MediaWiki:Badaccess-group1, MediaWiki:Badaccess-group2, MediaWiki:Badaccess-groups. Those would be my guesses. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk ♦ contribs) @ 02:44, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Um Style...

Can anyone tell me why all the non mainspace pages just went blue? Adam McCormick (talk) 02:08, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I remember seeing somewhere (I'll look for it) that it so people realize that it isn't mainspace and isn't part of the "real" encyclopedia. IMO it is too subtle and wasn't announced wide enough to be effective, but whatever. Paragon12321 (talk) 02:21, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way to omit a particular bot's edits from your watchlist?

Lightbot (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) is doing its work on the de-linking of dates. Controversy over the edits notwithstanding because that's not my issue but rather I want to have bot edits show because some are relevant but I don't need to see these edits on what seems like every article on my watchlist. I don't think there is a way for one editor's (bot or not) changes not to show, but I figured I'd ask. Thanks! _{TravellingCari}^{the Busy Bee} 02:30, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Am I qualified for Autoconfirmed status?

Hi. I registered on this week's Monday afternoon and 'my preferences' page denotes that I have 20+ edits. The rule says that usually one will be Autoconfirmed once a user is registered more than 4 days and has more than 10 edits. I would like to use the upload function. Could someone check my status (I checked last time and I was not Autoconfirmed) and tell me how I can reach Autoconfirmed status please? Any help is appreciated! Ben K rox!! (talk) 02:47, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Log shows the account being registered at 05:13, 7 July 2008. Looks like you've got about 2 1/2 more hours before you'll hit 4 days. --Onorem ♠Dil 02:54, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Other statistics

I know that {{PAGENAME}} produces Help desk, and {{CURRENTMONTH}} produces 11

My question is... is there any other statistics besides this that I can use? (like number of edits, visits, etc.)

--Xizes^(talk) 03:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Primary Historical Documents and offline, published sources

I have several new wikis that I would like to write. I have also read all the applicable help pages but have not really found any concrete answers. The problem is a lot of the information I have gathered is from old bulletins, magazines, journals, (most of which are not on the internet) and a significant amount of primary historical documents (i.e. correspondence, meeting minutes, agendas, constitutions, etc.). Now, I know how to treat primary sources on wikipedia, that is, I can only use primary sources as sources of fact and am not allowed to interpret the primary source, and that's fine with me.

I have two questions:

1.)Can I cite off-line secondary sources, such as a phd thesis, magazine, journal, etc? Or do they have to be made available online somehow?

2.)What about primary historical documents? (letters, meeting minutes, briefs--stuff that you would find in a national archive or university library). Do they have to be scanned and uploaded first or can they just be properly cited, like in a magazine or peer-reviewed academic journal?Nocandu1976 (talk) 03:14, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In response to #1, YES! Secondary sources of any sort that are considered reliable are able to be used (as per WP:V), see Category:Citation templates, specifically those that are named as {{cite XXX}}. In answer to ur second question, you can sort historical documents like any other. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 03:25, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Picture Vandalism?

Someone added this picture of xkcd author Randall Monroe. It says it's been digitally modified by being "recropped." If you look at the original picture you'll notice the new version also has a digitally added mustache. I've undone the article changes to link to the modified picture, but I don't know what to do with the edited picture. Is it allowed to stay? Should it be deleted (IMHO, I think so, but I don't know WP's policies that apply here)? DaRkAgE7 _[Talk] 03:26, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Turns out the person behind it has already been warned for vandalizing pictures on their talk page. DaRkAgE7 _[Talk] 03:31, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

catwatch.js

I was recently directed to [7] by another user, however I am not sure how, or indeed where I should enter the js code. Thanks Jamesmh2006 (talk) 03:39, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Other statistics

I know that {{PAGENAME}} produces Help desk, and {{CURRENTMONTH}} produces 11

My question is... is there any other statistics besides this that I can use? (like number of edits, visits, etc.)

--Xizes^(talk) 03:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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