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February 28

Is wiki broke?

Due to high database server lag, changes newer than 15250 seconds may not appear in this list??? Ryan4314 (talk) 03:40, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Seems to be OK now :) Chamal ^talk 05:08, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

It was discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 126#Watchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:51, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Signature problem

I have a signature worked out that should look like this I Grave Rob_«talk» but when I check the raw signature box so the WikiMarkup becomes part of it and save my preferences it says Invalid raw signature. Check HTML tags.

How can I fix this? '''<font size="2">[[User:I Grave Rob|<span style="color:darkred">I Grave Rob</span style>]]'''</font>_{[[User talk:I Grave Rob|<span style="color:black">«talk»</span>]]} (talk) 06:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• Signature taken out till I can fix this. I Grave Rob (talk) 06:15, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

In terms of HTML, it should be:

I Grave Rob«talk»

I'm sorry, I haven't been able to test it, but that should do it. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 10:02, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, the element is called 'span', not 'span style'. </span style> is nonsense. Algebraist 10:59, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

COI

I am new to wikipedia and see a conflict of interest box at top of page for "Gavin Lurssen". I apologize for the deletion of one of the COI notices. Did not understand the meaning of this and that they should be left there even after reverting to previous version. I had added some factual points to this page and did not realize there would be a conflict of interest because I am related to this person. I thought I had reverted to a previously saved version where the page was started by an outside individual. Please advise what needs to be done to remove this COI box on the page. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeanlurssen (talk • contribs) 07:01, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

From the discussion on User talk:Jeanlurssen it appears the problem you are asking about is fixed now. However, it is obvious from the problems you ran into that you got in way over your head by trying to start with a tricky type of editing that requires an advanced level of skill, along with knowledge of how to communicate with other users on Wikipedia: editing an article in which you have a personal association with the subject. Wikipedia is extremely complex and unlike anything most people have experienced before, so there are a tremendous number of things you have to learn before you can really understand what that whole situation was about. If you are serious about using Wikipedia, you should read Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. That book will give you all the background you need to make sense of what you are experiencing here. --Teratornis (talk) 23:08, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

disambiguation

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

Resolved

 – Karenjc 12:12, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

My page "John Cook (musician)" does not currently appear on the John Cook disambiguation page. This makes it impossible to find the article on this person unless one searches for the exact title. Is there a way to change this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brenterstad (talk • contribs) 07:08, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Then edit the disambiguation page and add his name (and his link via [[ ]])there.

Angdl (talk) 08:35, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I've done it for you. Take a look at the diff to see what I did. Feel free to do it yourself in a similar situation. Karenjc 12:07, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Would any of the actresses/actors in this reliable local newspaper article pass as notable?

http://www.goldstardailynews.com/content.php?sectionid=4&id=1429

Look at the last sentences in the article to find the names of the said actors/actresses. They are mentioned in a local newspaper, so that does mean they pass as notable as an actor/actress right? There are many famous people from the country Philippines, which are featured in the said local newspaper Gold Star. Angdl (talk) 08:34, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• You can't say from the single mention. You'd have to find out if their role in the performance is relevant and if there's actually any other information to build an article with. (I know several people who are notable under the guidelines. But I wouldn't write an article on them, simply because there's too little information I can use) - Mgm|^(talk) 10:54, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

The Tagalog Wikipedia may have more lenient requirements for notability of Filipino celebrities. Since the Tagalog Wikipedia is much smaller than the English Wikipedia, perhaps the Tagalog user community is more interested in adding content than deleting it, but I have no idea. I also have no idea whether you speak Tagalog, since you don't have any Babel boxes on your user page. If you do speak Tagalog, I would expect you might have an easier time developing articles on the Tagalog Wikipedia first, and then translating them to the English Wikipedia once they were well-developed there. Just something to consider. --Teratornis (talk) 23:15, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

It might help the case for an article's notability on the English Wikipedia if well-developed articles already exist on other language Wikipedias for the same subject, but I don't have direct experience with deletion debates in which the existence of other language versions of an article was a deciding factor. I would expect it to help. If nothing else, it would give grounds for browbeating any would-be deletionists as blinkered ethnocentrists. --Teratornis (talk) 23:20, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Twin cities of U.S. cities

Whenever I go onto a "Twin cities" section of a city, I always see something like this:

• Pierre, South Dakota, USA
  

Should it be this or:

• Pierre, United States?
  

Filper01 (Chat, My contribs) 09:02, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't know the answer (though I prefer the first) but one quick comment: in the first example "USA" should either be "United States" or piped to United States, e.g. [[United States|USA]] (this avoids a redirect). Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 09:24, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• The US is such an enormous place, that - to me - it seems reasonable to narrow it down by mentioning the state in the link. It gives the reader a general indication on where the twin city is located which your suggestion wouldn't do. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:51, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

For larger cities, I think Los Angeles, United States would probably be fine. The problem with smaller cities is that there is often another city in the US by the same name. According to our disambiguation page, there are 31 Springfields, and I'm willing to bet that every medium to large British city has at least two American towns named after it. This doesn't apply to all US cities, just enough that it's probably something to keep in mind when making a twin towns list. AlexiusHoratius 15:59, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#United States says:

• The canonical form for cities in the United States is [[City, State]] (the "comma convention").
• A United States city's article should never be titled "city, country" (e.g., "Detroit, United States") or "city, state, country" (e.g., "Kansas City, Missouri, USA").

However, that refers to the naming convention for an article title, not for the text to display when linking to an article. In an article which is about a city outside the United States, it could be ambiguous to omit the trailing "United States" or "USA", for example when the state name is also the name of a country ("Georgia"). You might ask this question again on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (geographic names) after searching the archives there. --Teratornis (talk) 21:31, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I am not finding my name

I uploaded my research paper, thesis and photography. But when in search box i write my name or topic of the article, i didnot get it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AminaTara (talk • contribs) 12:36, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

For some reason, you created these on Wikipedia talk pages, not in article space. I will respond further on your talk page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:16, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

User page rediredcting to article I created and moved.

Hoping someone can tell me how to either unconnect my user page from the article I created or create a new user page.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kreiny (talk • contribs) 14:00, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Simply open it for editing and remove the redirect. The trick is that after it redirects to the article, you will see a small "(Redirected from User:Kreiny)" at the top; click on this link to get to the redirected page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:14, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I have blanked your user page so it doesn't redirect. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:41, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

font

why do every page in wikipedia had a font in script? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marius zephius (talk • contribs) 15:07, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Do you see all of the article text as a script font? --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:13, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

How to add images

I wish to upload an article written by me. This is in MS Word and has a table, and a few graphics drawn using MS drawing tool. How can I upload this? I am a registered user. 91.140.201.155 (talk) 15:29, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, firstly you don't appear to be a registered user (unless you forgot to log in). You need to have an autoconfirmed account, which means you have to have 10 edits, and been registered for 4 days. If these are currently applied, you can log in a upload them. Sunderland06 (talk) 15:37, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article about creating an article. Unfortunately you cannot upload an MS Word file. You will have to convert it to Wikitext including the Wikipedia:Table. Each graphic will have to be uploaded separately as a Wikipedia:Image and licensed under a free license. —teb728 t c 18:35, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Please note also that the subjects of all articles must be notable, and the article must demonstrate that notability with references to reliable sources. Articles cannot be used for advertising the subject: they must be written from a neutral point of view. —teb728 t c 18:45, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

How to format a second response in a Talk page thread

In the Talk pages, what is the proper way to indicate the start of a new response to an entry, when there is already a response to it?

Assume that there is an entry at a certain heading level, and one response at the next higher heading level (the customary way to format a response). I wish to respond to the first entry (not to the first response).

If I simply append a new entry to the section, at the same heading level, it is often not clear that it is a new entry. At first glance, it appears to be part of the first responder's entry.

If, instead, I append to the section, increasing the heading level by one, it appears that I am responding to the first responder.

In the example below, the first three response lines are from Ivan, and the last by me.

Example:

(New Section:) The sky is blue --signed by Mary

Good point, Mary. But why is the sky blue?

Many reasons have been given.

I will research this and update this page. --signed by Ivan

According to reference xxx, the sky is purple. --signed by me.

Mark.camp (talk) 15:39, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Personally I prefer your way - i.e. indent by the same amount as "Ivan" - and I consider this "the one true way". I've noticed some people indent as if they were replying to Ivan, and of course some people simply don't indent at all ;-) Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 15:47, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

To Mark.camp: when I want to respond to someone's comment which is not immediately above mine, I type "To: (whoever I mean)". That way I can use indenting to distinguish my comment from the comment immediately above it, yet still make clear who I am responding to. Wikipedia:Indentation says to indent according to the comment you are replying to, but the illustrative example is misleading because it shows only two short replies. When replies get long, as mine like to do (why state in a few words what can fit comfortably in twelve paragraphs?), having successive replies at the same indent level rapidly becomes unreadable, in my opinion. --Teratornis (talk) 21:38, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

More points:

• On the Help desk, most users successively indent their replies, although most replies are to the original questioner.
• On a talk page elsewhere, the style in Wikipedia:Indentation may be more appropriate.
• If a reply comes after several successively indented replies, then it can be clearer to indent one level below the entry to which one is replying (since the entry immediately above will be indented farther, helping to distinguish the new comment from it).
• If a discussion thread is evolving considerably away from its first comment, it may be better to start a new section.
• Summarizing the points you are responding to can be helpful if you are responding to points after a large amount of intervening text, regardless of what indentation you use.
• Be aware that MediaWiki's talk page feature is not perfect. It is really an example of opportunistic design, a reuse of wiki technology originally developed for the article pages. People realized later that having pages to discuss things was useful, so the talk page feature got tacked on cheaply. Notice that we use no special markup codes for talk pages - because there aren't any. There was no attempt (initially) to create a real threaded discussion feature. However, see WP:EIW#LT for information about an attempt to fix that.

--Teratornis (talk) 22:00, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Prayers for the sick-

My name is rev. Miguel A Urrea; Catholic Chaplain at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, <contact details removed> I would like to respect your beliefs especially with the patients that come to our hospital. I would like to know what prayers I may pray with them and in which way I can help the patient as well as the family when they are terminal ill. Will you please help me in this matter. Thank you very much for your time. Respectfully yours, Rev. Miguel A Urrea/Catholic Chaplain —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.164.246.221 (talk) 16:22, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Algebraist 16:26, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

hello

why do i keep getting emails saying that im vandalising? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.4.37.177 (talk • contribs) 16:54, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Somebody using your IP address made these edits. If you do not want to receive messages that someone else is responsible for, you can create an account and login. That would also protect you from being blocked from editing due to someone else's vandalism.

By the way when you post to discussion forums like this one, please sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~). That will add a signature like this: —teb728 t c 17:55, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

downloading music score

I went to the I.M.S.L. project to get some Bach and Beethovan ..I can't figure out how to find it or down load itKennyYoung (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:13, 28 February 2009 (UTC).

You may find information at the IMSLP article. Otherwise ask at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities; they answer general knowledge questions. This forum is for questions about using Wikipedia. —teb728 t c 18:18, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Keep getting logged out

I keep getting logged out. One of your FAQs tells me I might be able to fix this by removing all my Wikipedia cookies. Unfortunately it gives me no clue how to go about this. How do I remove all my Wikipedia cookies please?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:54, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

This will depend on your browser. On FireFox it's tools/clear private data. Algebraist 18:05, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

On Internet Explorer up to 6.0 it's Tools > Internet Options > "General" tab > "Delete Cookies" button. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 20:35, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

See also Help:Logging in for tips on staying logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:35, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Uploading picture

Hi, Ive never uploaded a picture of my own and am not familliar with the process. I think a picture of mine can help an article im working on but have never uploaded one before, can some one direct me to the pages I need to upload a picture, and also how to clear the copyright thingies so it doesnt get removed, thanks a bunch, Im sure its probably something silly to ask Ottawa4ever (talk) 18:26, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

If I understand correctly that you have not used anyone else's work in making it, go to Wikipedia:Upload and click on the link in the first bullet. That will describe the applicable free licenses and give you an upload form. —teb728 t c 18:55, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

If it is an image that you created yourself, a better option is to upload it to Commons so that it is available for use on all Wikimedia projects. – ukexpat (talk) 19:04, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

WP:MOS

Resolved

What part of the Manual of Style deals with appropriate linking in "See also" sections? THF (talk) 19:18, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Does WP:SEEALSO give what you are looking for? —teb728 t c 19:30, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Just so. THF (talk) 19:39, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

How can I fix a GFDL historical issue long after the violation?

If an article was forked into another or merged in violation of the GFDL, but discovered much later, is there a standard way to deal with this? I have come across an article that has its entire content taken from another. The content was deleted from the first and placed in the later one without giving any attibution for where the material came from. But this was two years ago. It looks today like the new article was created by the person who forked it. But the prior article history has a over a hundred edits adding the material. There's no way for anyone, looking at the history of the newer article, to know that the material was not created and added in one edit as a new article by the forker. Can we fix the GFDL problem by making a banner note at the top of the forked article talk page? Is there some other way? I know that there are history merges. Can I ask that just the part of the history of the prior page which added the material be merged to the beginning of the other article history page? I thought this might be very difficult since the old article history has lots of other edits that are not dealing with this material that are interspersed (and some that were edits to the forked material and also to other material in the article). So I do not think a clean history merge is possible. 70.19.64.161 (talk) 19:41, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

You may want to ask at Wikipedia:Copyright problems, which is a noticeboard designed for questions like this. At the least, someone who patrols that noticeboard may be more likely to know how to answer your question. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 21:21, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

{{Splitfrom}} and {{Split-to}} may be appropriate. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:32, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

And see Help:Moving a page#Fixing cut and paste moves. (These situations can become nightmarish.) --Teratornis (talk) 23:23, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

New Account

I know that there is a list of every Wikipedia user account ever made somewhere, but I con't remember where it is. I want to create an account and keep running into the "username is already taken" message. 86.45.153.52 (talk) 20:05, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Special:Listusers. Xenon54 (talk) 20:07, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm lost...

I was editing the Fort Kent, Maine article, and placed one of my own photos [1] of the town in that section. A few months later, user Fame uploads a copywrited picture [2] of the town from Paul A. Cyr of NorthernMainePhotos [3], the same one that's there now. I know this because I have his DVD, and that is on there.

I reverted it, but soon I got some whining from him, complaining that my picture did not reflect the town. I countered by saying that his photo was not fair use, according to the allegations on his user talk page, and my DVD I have. I even took a picture ( [4] ) of the DVDs and the original picture. Still, this did not satisfy him, so he fired back at me and made me feel guilty, so I ended up reverting to the picture HE uploaded, since I didn't want to have to fight with him.

I actually LIVE here, and that picture DOES convey an actual sense of the town, but my picture was taken looking down Main Street, and that is the liveliest part of our town. Should I just put mine back up and forget about Fame unless he does this scheibe again, or should I just let it go? Did I do the right thing?

Draconiator (talk) 21:19, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• You're right, if that picture is uploaded without the permission of the photographer, fair use has to be asserted and in this case that would fail because at least a couple of hundred people could make a free alternative. Since you live in the area, it's a good idea to listen to ideas for improvement if he has specific complaints about your image, but otherwise reverting is indeed the right thing to do. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:28, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
• Alternatively, you could ask the original photographer to donate the image if you feel adventurous. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:30, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• • You are certainly in the right here. A picture taken and specifically uploaded by the copyright holder is always and forever prefered over a copyrighted photo claimed under fair use. There is no fair use where a free equivalent is availible, regardless of arguements over which picture is "better". Quality is not a consideration on fair use with regards to Wikipedia policy. If you need some back up on this, post your complaint to Wikipedia:Copyright problems, a noticeboard designed to deal with these issues. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 21:36, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• • • Thanks, if he does this AGAIN, I will take it to the Copyright Problems page, but I'm just going to revert to my picture and see what happens. Thanks, y'all! Draconiator (talk) 21:44, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

(undent) And read Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria so you can authoritatively cite the rules in this dispute. Wikipedia's rules are complete enough to resolve most disputes. Often in a dispute, it's a simple matter of one side or both not being fully aware of the rules that apply to their situation. Wikipedia has so many users doing similar things that the same kinds of disputes tend to come up repeatedly. --Teratornis (talk) 21:48, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

When you revert, add a link to the guideline or policy page you are following, to your edit summary. That will make your actions easier for other interested users to understand. --Teratornis (talk) 21:50, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I could also add that WP:CIVIL and WP:AGF suggest we should not characterize another editor's communication as "whining" even if it seems to be. Just describe objectively what another user has done, and allow other editors to independently decide how to characterize it, if they choose to characterize it at all. What may seem like whining or ranting to one editor might seem like an honest mistake or even reasoned discourse to another. Try to be aware of how different other minds can be. On Wikipedia the challenge is to work harmoniously with the staggering diversity of our 48,227,657 registered users and the unknown number of unregistered users. (Life would be so much simpler if everybody thought like I do, but so far I haven't really found one person who does, across the board.) --Teratornis (talk) 22:48, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree with Teratornis that you should not characterize the other editor’s posts as “whining.” Is File:Fort kent.JPG the other photo? The uploader claims to have created entirely by himself. If you know that is false, you could tag it with {{db-imgcopyvio|source url}}. (It is odd that the photo has not been tagged {{di-no license}} since it was uploaded in November.) —teb728 t c 01:19, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

force category to show all its subcategories

Resolved

Is there an instruction to force a category to show all its subcategories on the first page? Debresser (talk) 21:57, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Does Special:CategoryTree do what you want? Algebraist 22:00, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Or mw:Extension:CategoryTree? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:03, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

• This is how you do it [5]. DuncanHill (talk) 22:43, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

That one I knew. But these add the cattree in addition to the subcategories.

I remember that there is a command to force the category page to show all its subcategories on the first page (if there are more than 200 members and so more than 1 page in that category). Debresser (talk) 22:59, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I have not heard of such a command. Wikipedia:Categorization#Split display only says <categorytree> can be used. It's possible to place a sort key like space or * in each subcategory to list it before articles starting with normal characters. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:36, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

I must have been mistaken. Debresser (talk) 16:48, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Homeowner Associations (HOA) Problems and Solutions

How does one add this entry to start a discussion on HOA horror stories and solutions? Let's move beyond rant and rave about the injustices and provide each other with constructive solutions through education and advocacy at the local, county, state, regional and national levels. Include links and letters to elected officials and media contacts as a beginning.

65.91.82.62 (talk) 23:16, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Hello. Wikipedia is not for discussion or sharing a point of view. Should a HOA article exist, you could include a criticism section providing reliable sources are used. Computerjoe's talk 23:34, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

How do you create an article?

How do you create an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Williscool123 (talk • contribs) 23:41, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:46, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

March 1

Purge Problem

I have a link to purge my page and whenever I click it some other links cover up my rollback logo can anyone help? L07ChLeo3 (talk) 00:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

That's normal, purging the page messes up where divs put stuff. It will only occur for that page load though - whenever you don't purge it will not occur. — neuro^(talk) 17:15, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm New to Wikipedia...

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 19:07, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Just curious...about how long does it usually take to get a response on a discussion page? Eatanorange (talk) 00:38, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Most replies usually take up to 5-15 minutes but as you can see with my post above this is not the case :). L07ChLeo3 (talk) 00:41, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

It depends entirely on the page and the post. An easy-to-answer question on the help desk will be replied to very quickly. An obscure or confusing post on the talkpage of a minor article can sit there for years. Algebraist 00:43, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Also you can think about making a userpage; you can view mine for ideas. A userpage is a way of telling editors who you are so that they can interact with you on subjects with shared interests. L07ChLeo3 (talk) 00:45, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know if it applies to anything in particular you're trying to find a solution to, but I thought I'd mention: You can place the {{helpme}} tag on your talk page. Several experienced editors who enjoy helping new editors become acclimated to Wikipedia monitor those. It allows you to interact with an experienced user without being confined to a particular topic. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 02:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll take your advice into account. I'll definitely make a userpage sometime in the near future. I'll also keep the {{helpme}} tag in mind. Thanks again for the help! Eatanorange (talk) 18:27, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Every new user should read this book, to avoid having to learn many things the hard way. --Teratornis (talk) 02:23, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Section

What would the URL be to edit a specific part of a page. L07ChLeo3 (talk) 01:05, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

You can edit a section by clicking on the edit link next to it. The exact URL cannot be given, since it changes from section to section. But it's something like this:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Page_name&action=edit&section=section_number

Where "Page_name" is replaced by the name of the page you're editing, and "section_number" replaced by the number of the section you're editing. Chamal ^talk 02:25, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Talk page squeezing

I just did my monthly archive and now my talk page is squeezing stuff. I don't see that I removed anything that I shouldn't have.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 01:10, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

It looks fine to me. DId you, like, purge the cache and check again? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 01:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Left align header template

Can I left align my header at User:TonyTheTiger/Header template?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 01:12, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Which bit? — neuro^(talk) 17:14, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I want to move all the GA and FA icons to the left.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 05:12, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Protection of a user talk page?

I noticed that Shalom Yechiel is retired from wikipedia according to his talk page. I then noticed that his user talk page was under full protection, so I checked the prot guidelines. There is nothing to indicate that a talk page can be protected simply because a user has retired. I see the user exercised WP:RTV, however there is nothing about protection there as well. Sephiroth storm (talk) 02:43, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The page history indicates the user had specifically requested protection as part of his Right to vanish. Normally, user talk pages are only fully protected if a blocked user is abusing the {{unblock}} template or are otherwise being disruptive. Xenon54 (talk) 02:46, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there any precedent for this? I cant really see any reason to do it. Sephiroth storm (talk) 02:51, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

• I recommend you take it up with the editor who did the protecting and courtesy blanking (Hersfold). From what I've seen of him, it's a reasonable editor who'd be quite happy to explain if asked. Just point out the policy and ask him what his reasoning was. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:06, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

This follows both precedent and common sense. An unwatched user page is an open invitation to vandalism. Users can request this from any admin, and often make the request at the admin notice board. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:31, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

wrongly accused

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 19:08, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

i have a brother 12 hours away and is being accused of a crime and has no help what can i do for him —Preceding unsigned comment added by JONATHANCHAISSON (talk • contribs) 02:53, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

We cannot offer legal advice. Please see the legal disclaimer. Contact your lawyer. Chamal ^talk 02:56, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

• Unless he has other family already involved in getting him a lawyer, I suspect he'd appreciate it if you got him one. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:00, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
• If your brother is being wrongly accused by the authorities for something he didn't do, then the best thing to do is for him to get an attorney, who, if not affordable by your brother, is provided for free. If your brother is being wrongly accused outside of the legal system—for example, a fried of his accuses him for sleeping with his girlfriend—then you might want to phone the person who is wrngly accusing your brother; or, if you really love your brother, you might wanna travel and "fix" whatever's wrong. Either way, Wikipedia usually abstains from these suggestions, and a Q-and-A website, such as Yahoo! Answers, would be more appropriate. --96.232.59.156 (talk) 18:43, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

please define 'established registered users'

I checked the "why create an account page" but it doesnt define it for me. I am trying to edit a page that is semi protected. The page zombie at the bottom there is a reference.(number 6 to be exact) that seems to be wrong. It seems to be referring to number 5. I was going to play around with preview to see if I could get it to work but i need to be an established user. What does this mean? And if the page needs fixing could someone do it? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ivtv (talk • contribs) 03:42, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia messages often link to relevant pages on words in the message. MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext has a link on established user which explain the requirements. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:54, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I have added the ten edits requirement to Wikipedia:Why create an account? [6] The ten edits is a more recent requirement than the four days. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:03, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

My Username

How may I change my username? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joey090879 (talk • contribs) 06:41, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

• See WP:CHU. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:59, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

House centipede pages

Hi, our House centipede pages don't work properly. There's a disambiguation page that should be the first stop. Instead the link goes directly to Scutigera coleoptrata from the side bar. From the "Search" page neither "house centipede" nor "Scutigera coleoptrata" get proper results. Instead one has to go via the "Centipede" page and a link in a table there. The second species known as "House centipede" isn't even listed there and is impossible to get to unless s.o. remembers the scientific name. Could someone please see if you could fix this. It goes way beyond my wikipedia-fu. THANKS.76.97.245.5 (talk) 09:23, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Capitalization matters in search when there are pages with different capitalization. I have redirected House Centipede to House centipede (disambiguation page) instead of to Scutigera coleoptrata. Does this solve your problems? If not then exactly what with which capitalization are you entering in the search box? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Would this stage actress pass the english wikipedia's bio notability guidelines?

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Donna_Rugay —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angdl (talk • contribs) 09:51, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

She would if I was in charge. But I'm not. The main factor is the number of reliable sources. The article you link to is a little thin on sources. It's hard to predict how the deletionists would react. Probably by doing what they usually do - deleting things. To secure the article, you'd like to have at least ten reliable sources. Maybe that is overkill, but most of our deletionists will never have heard of this actress, and she is young and just starting her career, which means you need to assert her notability beyond any question. You could skim around Deletionpedia for tens of thousands of examples of what the deletionists don't like around here. But it looks like you already have a perfectly fine wiki to edit over there, so why fight an uphill battle here? When someone is truly notable, they get an article here in due course. --Teratornis (talk) 11:22, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

A quick Google search indicates she would be notable. You could always create a sandbox in your user space while you work on digging up the required refs. At least it would be a little safer from the ... ahhh ... "non-notable, non-encyclopedic, patrolling personnel" — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 14:20, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

But the newspaper article is a notable source. 210.4.62.239 (talk) 15:54, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Only one notable source is not enough to satisfy the deletionists. See for example Wikipedia:Victim Lists. I personally do not find the arguments in that essay convincing, but lots of other editors do, so you'd better make sure a new article is not vulnerable to that line of attack. Consider, for example, what it means to truly be notable, like Christopher Hitchens. Googling for Hitchens finds 5,800,000 hits, and thousands of them are reliable sources by the Wikipedia definition. Hitchens is clearly notable, so nobody wastes time arguing that we should delete the article about him. I used the rule of ten reliable sources above because if you can't scrape together at least that many reliable sources about a person the deletionists have never heard of, they are going to be biased against him or her. Yes, this may be yet another example of English-speaking ethnocentrism, and terribly unfair, but that's what you get when you play on the English Wikipedia. You have to anticipate the likely attacks and counter them in advance. If the deletionists haven't heard of someone, make sure their first impression is that plenty of reliable sources are there. You don't want to leave any opening for deletionist sentiment to begin building against an article. Once people start thinking that way, it tends to become self-reinforcing. Confirmation bias kicks in, and people start looking for more reasons to delete. Another way to look at it: if you have to ask whether someone is notable, the deletionists will also ask, and more vigorously. Put yourself in the mindset of a deletionist, who is looking for any possible reason to delete an article. You'd better make sure a new article gives no possible reason. --Teratornis (talk) 20:24, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Robert Godwin

I believe that the preface of the Robert Godwin article should contain a brief description of why the person is notable. A while back somebody added the fact that he was an author to the openening sentence, but then for some strange reason a user reverted this. I am unable to edit the article because it is protected. Thanks. 79.75.208.7 (talk) 14:12, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Done - give me a shout (either here or on my talk page if you want is changed, expanded, painted pink etc.

(Possibly joking about painting it pink - my pink paint has run out).

Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 14:24, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

How to create an article??

I am new to wikipedia and I have NO IDEA how to create an aricle. How can I do this? I want to do an article on my favorite DJ, a local DJ in Miami, to help her get more exposed. How can I start making an aricle abou her? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Doworkfool (talk • contribs) 15:55, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Algebraist 16:00, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia should not be used to get your DJ friend more exposure. In particular, Wikipedia uses the "no follow" attribute (I think that's what it's called) which means that a Wikipedia article will not generate a higher Google ranking for your friend. If they are truly notable by Wikipedia's standards, then somone will come by and create an encyclopedia article. Astronaut (talk) 18:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Odd font

I am getting an odd font all the time on every page. I don't know what's missing. What's the "normal" font? I may have uninstalled it with a font manager. This one is difficult to read. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by BongoBern (talk • contribs) 17:33, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The normal font is Arial on article pages, and Courier New when actively editing. — neuro^(talk) 17:42, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Technically speaking, the default font is set by your browser, not Wikipedia itself. Arial is certainly the default here on my Windows Vista; a completely different font is the default on my Ubuntu Linux. If you're running Firefox (3, pos 2 also) you can see your default fonts by going to Options -> Content -> Advanced (under Fonts and Colours, about halfway down). There is listed the default font for most of the site ("sans-serif") and in the edit window ("Monospace"). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:03, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I thought we had something in the CSS defaulting to arial, hm. — neuro^(talk) 18:19, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

As far as I can see the default is sans-serif:

body { font: x-small sans-serif; ... }

...which will then be evaluated by the browser. On a Windows machine the browser will probably use Arial as the default sans-serif font, but on a Mac or *nix machine Helvetica will be more likely. Interestingly, the CSS tends to specify Serif more explicitly:

font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;

Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 18:53, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I remembered it specified TNR, I guess that's why I thought it was explicit with Arial. — neuro^(talk) 19:49, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

See Font family (HTML). --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:06, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Placement of marker dots on maps in Settlement infobox

Looking at Waverly, Tioga County, New York, I noticed that the dot placed on the map of NY state appears to place the town in PA. The town is just in NY, right on the NY/PA border and indeed, using the geo location, Google Earth puts its marker on the town, on the NY side of the border. I couldn't work out how the red dot was placed in the infobox map, so perhaps someone can explain here (or provide a link) so I can fix it myself; or perhaps someone familiar with the settlement template can fix it for me. Astronaut (talk) 18:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

It looks like {{Infobox Settlement}} uses {{Location map}} to place the marker on the map in {{Location map USA New York}}. You could check the backlinks:

• Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Location map USA New York

to see if other locations have the same offset to the south. If they do, then the coordinate boundaries in {{Location map USA New York}} may need adjusting. If only Waverly, Tioga County, New York is getting misplaced to the south, and all the other locations show up in the correct places, then I wouldn't know what to do. --Teratornis (talk) 20:05, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The same displacement also occurs with other NY towns along the NY/PA border. I now believe it is a problem with the map "edge coordinates" in {{Location map USA New York}}, but I'm nervous about changing it because it links to a hell of a lot articles. Astronaut (talk) 05:15, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Dumb question, but I'm offering it along the lines of the old advice "fix the simple stuff first": have you verified that the correct latitude & longitude are being used for Waverly? In working with geo locations of Ethiopian settlements -- where the datum often varies by up to 5 minutes of arc -- there is an awful lot of inaccuracy out there. (I have seen two maps, produced by otherwise reliable sources, which differ on the latitude/longitude grid over the Somali Region of Ethiopia by a full degree; yes, that part of the world has not been accurately surveyed, but not that inaccurately.) One doesn't notice these inaccuracies until they're used in an environment where you can detect variations of a few minutes of arc -- which has been the case now with the common availability of GPS units. -- llywrch (talk) 21:31, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, the geo-location provided in the article goes to the correct place (here is the link [7] which will go to Google Maps). Astronaut (talk) 05:15, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I edited a page and that part got deleted?

I put in a new section on the Sheffield page, called Twin towns, but it got removed later that day. The next day i put it in again, and it got removed again. Why does this keep happening?

Thanks, Hazzertbr —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.230.84 (talk) 18:32, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

• Though your information is correct, it was already covered in another section. If you take a look at the edit history, it's explained why your changes were reverted. --96.232.59.156 (talk) 18:49, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
  • Click the "history" tab at top of a page to see the edit history. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:25, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Double redirect + lost history

Is there someone more technical that can fix this history to merge into this current history? There is a double redirect also here that should probably be fixed also (removed). The end result there should be one redirect of the spelling "Tertia Aemilia" to the current article of Aemilia Tertia. This way then all the history of the article will show, from "Started Article" on 18 January 2007. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 18:51, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Funny, user:Teratornis just pointed me to Help:Moving a page#Fixing cut and paste moves in a similar case. I'm too tired to try this now, but I can try it tomorrow. If it still needs to be done in 18 hours, please drop me a note on my talk page. — Sebastian 08:47, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

PDF Version with Mozilla Firefox Plugin

When I open a pdf version of a page with the mozilla firefox adobe acrobat plugin, mozilla firefox crashes. Is this because it is new; I haven't noticed the tool before but it could just be me being really inobservant. God Emperor (talk) 18:56, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The function is new but it's not a problem with WP, but with the way Adobe Viewer and Firefox interact, that causes Firefox to crash. You'll want to download the PDF (right-click, save as) rather than view it in Firefox. Firefox addons are available help you with this (I seem to remember one called "Nitro PDF"). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:08, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

You could download Foxit Reader, which is a much better and faster application; it's free, and it comes with an almost perfect Firefox plugin. - Erik Baas (talk) 21:06, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

The Firefox extension PDFDownload offers several options for dealing with PDF document links in web pages. – ukexpat (talk) 19:12, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Help With Deletion

Resolved

How do i get an administrator to restore a page to my userspace so that I can work on it. My page was on speedy deletion but i have changed and redone it excluding any language which could be regarded as advertisement. I would also appreciate if i would run the new edition through someone who can look at it to determine if it is passable before i save and upload it.Wamaina (talk) 20:32, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

See WP:WWMPD which leads you to CAT:RESTORE. --Teratornis (talk) 20:48, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Teratornis for your response. I have decided to contact one admin. to provide me with the copy of deleted articles for redoing.

I am not sure how that will work. Wamaina (talk) 21:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Userfication which will lead you to same place. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:26, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all for your help. Have written now awaiting the admins response. Wamaina (talk) 21:44, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I see from Wamaina's discussion with the deleting admin that Wamaina is well aware of the issues with this page, and I therefore just restore it to User:Wamaina/The Village Market.

BTW, what's the correct way to do it? The way I did it right now was by copying and pasting the text, because I couldn't see a way to restore it to a different name. — Sebastian 22:47, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

It cannot be restored directly to a different name. Restore it, move it (leave a redirect behind so the actions can be traced later), delete the redirect. Copy-paste destroys the page history and should generally not be done unless you email it. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:16, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you - I see the point about the page history. (It now looks like I was the first contributor - I hope people won't think it was me who wrote it.) I will fix that. — Sebastian 00:04, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Help:Moving a page#Fixing cut and paste moves might be worth skimming. --Teratornis (talk) 02:29, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Teratornis! Luckily it wasn't that complicated in this case, since the move target had no history other than my erroneous paste. — Sebastian 08:43, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for all of you for your help in this discussion. Teratornis and especially Sebastian.Wamaina (talk) 14:31, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Making a "stub" for a topic.

How do I create a "stub" for my wiki page that was deleted ("New Energy Movement"). I just want to preserve the title while I edit the article to be more WIKI-worthy. I got the idea from another user who was the driving force behind getting the article deleted. I'm terribly strapped for time and only wish to reserve the title New Energy Movement for now.John W. Cornett (talk) 22:18, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

There's no need to "reserve" the title. There is no hurry. Just work on the article in your own time, perhaps in a user space subpage. Once you have an article that establishes the notability of the subject, and cites reliable sources you can create it again with that title. The only thing that could happen in the meantime is that someone else might create such an article with that title. In that case you could help by editing the article to improve it, add references, etc. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 22:27, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

According to the AfD, your original article was an unencyclopedic essay full of original research. And it was not just one person who thought so. Before you spend time writing a new version, be sure you understand that Wikipedia does not publish original research or personal essays. There is no way to reserve a title, and I agree with Amos E Wolfe that there is no need to do so. —teb728 t c 23:06, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

See WP:OR for WP policy on original research. – ukexpat (talk) 19:18, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding images to the user page

How do I include a personal picture on my user page without uploading it to the Wikimedia Commons? Is it permissible to upload a picture to the Wikimedia Commons for the sole purpose of displaying it on one's user page? Minetruly (talk) 23:10, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

If you don’t want to upload to Commons, you could upload to the File space of English Wikipedia. In either case you would have to license it under a license that allows anyone to reuse it for anything. —teb728 t c 23:17, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:User page#Images on user pages. An image can only be displayed if it's uploaded to either Commons or the English Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:21, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

And if an image is appearing in user space, then it has to be freely licensed no matter where it's uploaded to. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:42, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

"Based out of"

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:06, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

As in "the company is based out of Dubai". Is this standard American English or is it horrible in any variety of English? Should I always change to "based in Dubai" etc.? Itsmejudith (talk) 23:12, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

They are probably both acceptable in all but the most formal forms of American English, neither sounds wrong to my ears, but I would hedge towards the latter if I were concerned about being pedanticly correct. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:02, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

"Based out of" sounds like a midwestern idiom. Or maybe it is slightly hip-hop. See Straight Outta Compton and Straight Outta Lynwood. English is a tough old language, but one wonders if it can survive the never-ending assaults. --Teratornis (talk) 02:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Midwestern? I've heard this in several places and not all of them were in the midwest. But yes, I agree with Jayron. Dismas|^(talk) 04:29, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

• I agree too. Where in doubt, I prefer the more commonly used phrase. In this case "based in". - Mgm|^(talk) 09:08, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Seconded, in my experience the "based out of" usage is solely an American English form, same goes for "outside of" as in "located outside of Philadelphia". IMHO both should be avoided. – ukexpat (talk) 19:21, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Good, I'll keep changing to "based in", then. Strange that "in" and "out" can be synonyms, but there's no accounting for idiom. Itsmejudith (talk) 20:51, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

English is like that. Think of "up the street" and "down the street"... Mean the same thing. Or "pissed off" and "pissed on". Because, whenever I am pissed on, I am invariably also pissed off. c'mon people. That was a little funny. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:28, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

It could also be a hybrid of "based in" and "operates out of". The second may be a more appropriate phrasing in some situations. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:40, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

The people who know for sure are based out of Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. --Teratornis (talk) 09:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Pre tags help

Is there a way so that a pre tag can scroll? Like

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah

but make that scrollable? kind of hard to describe, sorry.--Speakleft1 (talk) 23:29, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Like this?

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah
blah blah blah

— Sebastian 23:56, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, just adding "height:40px;" or whatever does exactly what I want. Thanks for showing me that, didn't think of it.--Speakleft1 (talk) 00:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

March 2

cannot login to Wikipedia

username codestone paassword <redacted> email <redacted>

everytime I create a new account, as soon as the account is created I cannot use it. this problem began about 5 months ago when a login was recovered after several weeks since then the logins are premanently blocked. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.50.104 (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Removed password and email. If you have any accounts on other websites with the same password, change them immediately. Xenon54 (talk) 03:08, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

This is a help desk for the English Wikipedia. At Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 January 10#Logins Repeatedly Stop Working you said you had logged in with two user names BraveLittleHawk and LittleHawk but they are not registered in the English Wikipedia. There are many other wikis and Wikipedia languages. At which website are you creating accounts and trying to log in? And how are you directed to create a new account? The username codestone was created at the English Wikipedia on 4 May 2008.[8] It has no edits. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:36, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Help:Logging in may be of help. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:38, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Nonsense in Burn Hall School page

Looks like someone inserted nonsense in the Burn Hall School article. I removed some obvious crap, could someone please take a look and rewrite whatever useful text was deleted by the abuser? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by SpaceRocket (talk • contribs) 04:09, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. In the future, it would help if you'd provide a link to the article that you're talking about such as Burn Hall School. This way, people can just click right on that link instead of having to go to the search box or look through your contributions to find the article in question. Dismas|^(talk) 04:27, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

You can do that by putting double brackets around the article title .. [[Burn Hall School]] would then look like: Burn Hall School. You can find more about linking here — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 07:43, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

speech topic

anyone know were to go to get somethings on the speech topic"handicap is not a problem if one has the determination".i dont have any idea what to write .please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.7.62 (talk) 05:05, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

We can't do your homework, but maybe you could get something from our articles on Disability and Determination. Good luck! ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 05:49, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

PDF file map

Resolved

Is it possible to upload this PDF file and import it into an article.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 05:14, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Programs like Corel and various other PDF converters might give you what you're looking for, but could you just link to it, or perhaps do a screenshot (providing there was no copyvio)? — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 07:39, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Go to WP:Upload.Smallman12q (talk) 14:57, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I converted it with Adobe Reader 8.0, Scansoft PaperPort 9.0 and Microsoft Paint on my old laptop. I was unable to do it on my new laptop with Adobe Reader 9.0 and Paperport 11.0. Go figure. I had the same problem with my taxes this year and pre-2008 forms.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 15:06, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

JPG is designed for photographic images (the P in JPG). Your file contains text and line drawings which JPG is poor for. Converting to GIF would probably give a better result than File:JCCIC-2009 Inaugural Map.JPG. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Tools#Importing (converting) content from other formats to Wikipedia (MediaWiki) format has a link to Appropedia:Help:Porting PDF files to MediaWiki. I haven't tried it. If you want to display the image in the PDF file in an article then the best solution may be to convert the pdf file or part of it to an image type listed at Help:Images and other uploaded files#Supported file types: PNG, JPEG, GIF. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:07, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Garbo - German Actors

Is there any reason why Greta Garbo isn’t included in the list of German Actors (Category:German_actors)? Please note, this list includes both actors and actresses, so it is not a sex/gender thing.

Because she's not German by any means? If you read Greta Garbo's article, you'd know that she's Swedish. And please sign your posts. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 05:35, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

She has appeared in German films but German actors refers to the actors and not the films they make. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:50, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

File:New York Islanders logo (1995–97).svg

I'm experiencing an issue with an image. I just recently received a message on my talk page stating that the image (mentioned in subject title) is not being used on any articles. However, currently the New York Islanders page is using it (near bottom). I tried refreshing to no avail. Thanks in advance. — Hucz ^{(talk · contribs)} 05:27, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

It now shows as used (maybe as a result of my doing a null edit on the article). —teb728 t c 05:54, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Someone keeps undoing my corrections

Resolved

I am a new user and am trying to make important corrections and additions to the page about Kentucky author Gurney Norman. Someone keeps undoing my page and reposting the incorrect page. Why is this happening? The corrections are important. What can I do?Spudsparo (talk) 06:06, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello Spudsparo, I've left you a welcome message on your talk page. Some of those links may help you get an understanding on how wikipedia works. What article are you asking someone to look at? - (I will try to look through history, and see if I can find an answer for you - and be back shortly) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 06:19, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

You appear to be involved in a content dispute at Gurney Norman. It also appears that you are familiar with how to revert edits made by another editor. Not being familiar with the subject matter, I don't feel qualified to supply an opinion on the content. It is good procedure to discuss the changes on the article talk page (may be marked discussion or talk on the tabs). If you have questions, you could approach the editor who is also making changes here. I will close with the note that when dealing with an article about a WP:BLP (biography of a living person) - content should be referenced by reliable resources. If you are unable to resolve the issues on the talk pages, you can seek further assistance at: WP:DR — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 06:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Thanks so much for looking into this. The content I am supplying is (indisputably) correct, so I will try to communicate with Badagnani on the talk page as you suggest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spudsparo (talk • contribs) 06:44, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

No problem, best of luck ;-) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 06:57, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

• Answered on talk page. Neither of them appears to be providing references. _ Mgm|^(talk) 09:05, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

An update from Spudsparo (talk) 20:41, 2 March 2009 (UTC): I have added references. Thanks to all for your help to a new userSpudsparo (talk) 20:41, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Easy template problem

The template I'm having problems with is Template:PhylomapA. It's pretty straightforward, but I can't figure out why the parameters aren't working. There's a demo at my sandbox. I'm sure it's something silly, but any help is appreciated! -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 06:18, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

a relevant page is the ImageMap explanation at mediawiki. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 06:22, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Admins protecting their own userpages

Why do virtually ALL admins here fully protect their userpages? 89.242.183.73 (talk) 08:07, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure about the "ALL" part, but many of the admins are involved in reverting vandalism, and when it's persistent - they must block people to prevent further disruption to the site. Given their high rate of visibility to vandals, they are often subjected to having their pages vandalized. That means instead of building a better wikipedia, they have to spend time fixing the vandalized page. It's simply a matter of "Better to just lock the door" ... than to have to come in and clean up every 10 minutes. Why would you want to edit another users (admin or not) pages anyway? all ... IMHO — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 08:24, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

• I'm an administrator and if I'm the target of a vandal I ask another administrator to temporarily protect my userpage. I rarely see admins protect their own userpage. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:00, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

There really aren't a lot of good reasons to edit an experienced user's userpage. I have mine protected because it avoids this, this, this, this, this and many others, all retaliation for one admin task or another. Recentchanges patrollers and users who deal with ethnic dispute messes, fringe theories and other contentious areas have it worse. One user moved my userpage to User:IAMLAME (lol, he got me) and many other instances which are now unavailable from the page history since someone who was trying very hard to figure out who I am, did in fact do so, and I had to delete earlier versions of my userpage based on personal information posted. The protection also has the side effect of avoiding newish users posting to your userpage rather than your talk page by accident, which has happened to me a number of times.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:04, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

In the case of User:Curps, his user talk page is protected. Why on earth would he do that? 89.242.183.73 (talk) 19:25, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

He's taken a "very long term Wiki-vacation", and his talk page has suffered vandalism while he's been gone. He did not protect his page, Jéské Couriano did. Xenon54 (talk) 19:28, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry if it inconveniences vandals intent on placing libellous material on my talk page, but after wasting time undoing the repeated assaults of vengeful vandals, I protected my user page. If someone sees something on my user page which should be changes, they are welcome to call it to my attention on my talk page. Especially if one is on vacation, disturbing pictures or statements left on a user page by vandals might be assumed by others to actually represent the views of the editor whose page it is. Edison (talk) 19:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Degree symbol (superscript)

I'm trying to type map coordinates in a query ("new section") I want to post on the Ref Desk but can't find the degree symbol among the various copy/paste text edit options. What to do? -- Deborahjay (talk) 10:12, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

It's the eighth option under 'insert'. Algebraist 10:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Car Dealerships

What is the estimated cost for a dealer to buy a car from a manufacturer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.6.250.199 (talk) 16:24, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Gonzonoir (talk) 16:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

releasing it to the web

I have wrote a bio on me but I can't seem to release it. Because some of my friends from Syracuse can't find it. How can I release it so it can be read in the web? Thanks Boca247 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Boca247 (talk • contribs) 16:36, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

The page you created is on your talk page, not the main article space. To put the article in the main space would require a page move. However, the article is not ready for the main space. I suggest you look at the biography guideline and conflict of interest information before proceeding. TNXMan 16:45, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Arnold M. Zack

I don't know what happened to my earlier request for help, but here I go again. I wrote the entry at the suggestion of several clients who thought I should be listed. I am not familiar with Wikipedia and apparently failed to adhere to your protocols. I can assure you the entries are all accurate and confirmable, even though the one commentator seemed to challenge my veracity. I don't really need the entry, my resume is readily available from a Google search and at age 77 I am no longer bent on building a resume. I dont have the knowledge, experience or interest to spend considerable time to fix the entry.If some one could do it, or tell me how to do so <personal information removed> I would be most appreciative.Otherwise, just delete it.

Arnolsd M.Zack —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zackam (talk • contribs) 16:59, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

It is not the "veracity" that is at issue. The article Arnold M.Zack has several problems. First, you wrote it - per our conflict of interest guidelines users are strongly discouraged from writing articles about themselves because of the extreme difficulty in maintaining a neutral point of view; as a consequence, it reads like a curriculum vitae and not like an encyclopedic article, and is very promotional in tone and IMHO should be speedily deleted as such; there are no references to indicate that you are notable - a list of books and Harvard bio are not reliable sources as that term is defined on English Wikipedia. – ukexpat (talk) 19:31, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

How to prevent a vicious circle of account creation and blocking

Resolved

As a mediator in conflict areas, I often encounter new users who start with some angry edits, but who, after some mediation, learn the ropes and turn into normal editors. Now a situation happened that seems inevitable; in hindsight I'm wondering why I haven't seen that happen before: User:X1 (name changed) got blocked for "trolling" (I don't know what actually caused it; I only see a couple of opinionated, but legitimate talk page contributions in the user contributions), and created user:X2. That got blocked again, ... and so on.

In all that time, I haven't seen any behavior of the socks that would be blockable in itself. So, whatever the user did initially to get them indef blocked, he/she learned to behave now. Blocks should not be punitive, but preventive, and there's nothing to prevent now anymore. All we got out of this is a confusing diffusion of user histories, a lot of admin time spent on researching and blocking, and a lot of nice user names which were rendered unusable in the process. How can we stop this vicious circle? — Sebastian 17:29, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

• If a user doesn't commit the "crime" they received the initial block for, there is no reason for checkusers to investigate the user's IP history and if they create the same username with a different number appended on the end, they should disassociate themselves from the previously blocked account by choosing something entirely different so the link isn't made by username. If you don't know what the trolling was that got them blocked, ask the blocking admin. With a bit of luck they'll remember. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 17:40, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
  • Users who stop bad behavior don't get checkusered on their new accounts, and so never get blocked again. In fact, for some stuff (like username vios) we recommend abandoning the old account and starting a new one. Secondly, the creation of "sockfarms" (not just one new account, but often hundreds) is of itself disruptive, especially where those farms are being used as "good hand/Bad hand" accounts, i.e. maintaining some "vandal" accounts and some "good" accounts". Such behavior is intolerable, and such blocks are applied to the person, and not to the account. Finally, in order to be unblocked, a user needs to convincingly let us know that he does not intend to perpetrate the violation. With a user who is creating a rediculous number of sockpuppet accounts to dodge a block, they need to convince administrators that they have no intention of creating more socks to dodge the block. This only can take time, you can't show up a few hours after your last fresh sock block and apologize, you need to PROVE that you intend to abide by the rules. And it does happen. I have personally shepherded back into the fold 3-4 recidivist sockpuppeteers when they agreed to abide by the "one person one account" idea. These people do get unblocked, but not when they keep doing the violation they were blocked for in the first place! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 18:04, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
    • Thank you, that's very good advice! I'll post a note on the user talk page. — Sebastian 18:10, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Uploading new image

I'll preface this by stating that I haven't done much editing of Wikipedia. But I did create an SVG version of File:EffectOfTariff.png but I don't think I have the rights to change it, or have somehow completely overlooked how to. How can I replace that old png with a snazzy new svg? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gandhizero (talk • contribs) 19:23, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Your account must be autoconfirmed (at least 4 days old and 10 edits) before you can upload files. – ukexpat (talk) 20:41, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Gubernatorial elections?

There are a lot of pages about United States governors that include the word "gubernatorial." This is originally a word to describe Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship, but it's not a real word, and definitely shouldn't be on all of the US governor election pages. Any ideas for what might be going on or how it could be fixed?

Examples: Kansas gubernatorial election, 2006, Virginia gubernatorial election, 2005, Governor of Wisconsin, New York gubernatorial elections.

I'm concerned that if I'm not just hallucinating, this is incredibly widespread and will probably require sysop involvement. Thanks for the help. AnEmptyCageGirl (talk) 19:33, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

"gubernatorial" has 358,000 Google News hits for all dates, including 185,000 before 2000, and 10,800 before 1900. I don't know where you have your information from but it looks like a real word to me. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:47, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, weird. Okay, then. I'd always heard of it as a slang term, so I guess it never occurred to me that it could actually have a history. I still think it's a horrible abuse of the language (like "yoghurt," ugh) but if it's real then I'm happy with that. Thank you! AnEmptyCageGirl (talk) 20:15, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

You may also want to see Wiktionary entry. TNXMan 20:17, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Briefly, gubernator is the original Latin word (originally meaning "helmsman") that has been anglicised into "governor". However, the adjectival form "gubernatorial" still retains the original Latin root. All this is probably to be found in the links posted above, but I am a Latin nerd... – ukexpat (talk) 20:33, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

On "yoghurt": see also yoghurt and wikt:yoghurt. —teb728 t c 20:39, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) Yep, gubernatorial is a real word. On the other hand, if you start seeing governator in real articles, then you can start worrying :) rʨanaɢ ^talk/_contribs 09:43, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not American and did'nt know "governator" but it's mentioned in Arnold Schwarzenegger and maybe what AnEmptyCageGirl was thinking about. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:18, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Missing footnote links

While reading a recent "on this day..." article about Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game, I noticed that several of the footnote links in the main Wilt Chamberlain article produced a link to "ESPN File not found". Specifically footnotes 3, 7 and 14. Should these footnotes be corrected or deleted? How are old footnotes handled within Wikipedia? Pardon me if this is covered in a FAQ but I could not find an answer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Salazar45 (talk • contribs) 19:52, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Dead external links and the template {{Uw-deadlink}} which I created upon request to advise users not to simply delete dead external links. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)!

After some searching I found that all 3 links work if "static." is inserted before espn.go.com. For example, http://espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110905.html can be replaced with http://static.espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110905.html. But ESPN doesn't give that information. What the hell were they thinking when they broke a huge amount of links and made a useless message to look at the site map? At least it was useless to me. I went to the Internet Archive to check that the url once worked and then used the archived headline in a site search with Google on espn.go.com. I don't know how many Wikipedia articles this affects but based on a brief look at [9] it could be hundreds. If nobody else volunteers then I will look into this issue later today when I have more time. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:41, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

If you need a hand, just drop me a line and we can split up tasks so we don't edit conflict.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:25, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Many ESPN links still work. Maybe a bot could assist in sorting it out. I'm not going to edit for at least 2 hours if you want to look at it before that. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:40, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

In my personal experience, I've noticed that links that begin with "sports.espn.go.com" are fine, but the older "espn.go.com" links were removed a few months ago. Of course, I have no way of knowing if that's universally true, but it's one possibility. Didn't know that adding "static" to the old links makes them work again; that's a useful tip. Giants2008 (17-14) 00:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I have posted to Wikipedia:Bot requests#Broken ESPN links. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:36, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Canadian & American Government Parties.

I am a Canadian and my question. In Canada, The colour for Liberals is Red. The colour for Conservatives is Blue. What colour is the Demograts? What colour is the Rebublicans? My email address is <blanked> Thanks Gordon E Mayhue, Truro, Nova Scotia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.137.86.220 (talk) 20:11, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

In the U.S. we generally associate blue with democrats and red with republicans. However, this is not any type official party line or color. It actually is a rather recent development (from 2000 I believe) resulting from the colors used on television during the past three elections to demarcate states or regions that have a majority for one party or the other. See Red states and blue states and Political colour. Note that in the U.S. Democrats are associated with a donkey symbol, while Republicans are associated with the elephant.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:35, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

(e/c)In the US the colors are not official, but the Republicans are red and the Democrats blue, which is contrary to most other places where red is usually the colour of left-of-centre parties (like the British Labour Party) and blue for the right-of-centre (British Conservative Party). – ukexpat (talk) 20:39, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I thought the association was fixed in the late 1990s. But Fuhget is correct that this is a fairly recent development: I remember reading that when the television networks broadcast the 1976 US election results, at the time the Democrats were red, & the Republicans were blue. And in response to Ukexpat, I for one enjoy the irony of seeing the Republican Party associated with the same color that invokes the evuhl spectre of Communism. (Let's all say it together now: Newt Gringrich is a cowardly Red!) -- llywrch (talk) 21:45, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I will note, however, that most American socialist, syndicalist, social-democratic and communist organizations still use the color red with all its historical associations. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:07, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

book references

what is the correct way to reference a book?. LOC permalink ok googlebooks html etc —Preceding unsigned comment added by Varnesavant (talk • contribs) 21:08, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Do WP:CS and {{Cite book}} help? – ukexpat (talk) 21:14, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Image gallery

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 17:05, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there a tool (like all the edit counters) that allow you to see all the images you uploaded? Like the one on Wikimedia Commons. This tool is no longer working (for me at least). --Ted87 (talk) 22:21, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

On your contribs list, there's a pulldown menu for "namespace". Change this to the "File" namespace. That should show every edit and/or contribution you have made to any image files. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:30, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) For a gallery of all uploaded media files, go to your contributions, then go to the very bottom of the page and click on "Files uploaded". Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:31, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you and thank you. --Ted87 (talk) 22:34, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Question about a speedy delete

Resolved

User:Citizenmeyer created Kevin meyer, with content identical to the IMDB page on this person. So three potential issues: copyvio, COI, and probably not notable anyway. I've done a speedy for copyvio, but is that correct? I'd be grateful if someone would have a quick look. I'm wondering whether IMDB is copyright, for example, and should I have mentioned the COI? Itsmejudith (talk) 23:45, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

If it's a word-for-word copy, then a copyvio tag is appropriate. The COI tag is also OK because if someone cleans up the article (thus nullifying the copyvio tag), then the COI tag would need to be there. TNXMan 23:51, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. Itsmejudith (talk) 20:36, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

March 3

Unprotected Article

I was about to creat a page for one thing. Figured the thing I was about to wirte about has been unprotected for almost two years. I was about to request unprotection. However, on one page, it is said that please do not contact the protecting administrator. On another page, it is said that If you do want a page that exists unprotected, please try to ask the protecting admin first before making a request here. I am so confused and would like to get someone's help! Plus, how do I find a protecting admin? (sorry, I am a newbie here! ) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelsy (talk • contribs) 00:15, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

What page are you asking about? —teb728 t c 00:40, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Angelsy's contributions show that the page is LG CNS, which has been deleted 5 times earlier because of copyvio and advertising. The page has since been "salted". I suggest you go ahead with requesting unprotection, or contact an admin. If you want the admin who protected the title, it's User:MZMcBride. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 01:21, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I see that Angelsy requested unprotection at WP:RFPP, and the request was declined because he gave no reason for unprotection. —teb728 t c 01:34, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for making things crystal clear! :)

What does this edit do?

An odd (IMO) edit was made to an article on my watchlist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leo_Major&diff=274277819&oldid=261741284

Can someone please tell me what this edit does and if it is a valid edit? Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 02:05, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

It does nothing: The img tags are not allowed; Wikipedia displays only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia or Commons. This leaves the gallery tag empty. —teb728 t c 02:17, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Wanderer57 (talk) 02:56, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Following up on this question. The two images (which can be viewed on another website - "uploader.ws") look to me to be excellent additions to the article. This edit, adding the img tags, was the initial contribution of a brand new editor.

Is another editor willing to work with the new editor in regard to both the copyright status of the photos and the technicalities of putting the images into the Commons and into the article? I know just enough about these issues to know that I am not qualified to do this. Thank you. Wanderer57 (talk) 03:39, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Everyone Else

Resolved

What's that WP guideline that's about "everyone else" as that points out that a statement such as "everyone else's article states the hair color of the person and so this one must" is not a valid rationale? I read it a while back, can't remember the tile, and a gander of the help only finds Wikipedia:Assume the presence of a belly-button which I assume is required reading for all admins. Thanks! --Marc Kupper|talk 06:16, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps you're thinking of Wikipedia:Other_stuff_exists? Alternatively, Wikipedia:Arguments_to_avoid_in_deletion_discussions#Individual_merit. --Evan ¤ Seeds 06:25, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you - it was Wikipedia:Other stuff exists though the Arguments to avoid article is a good one too. --Marc Kupper|talk 07:31, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Mathematics / symbols

there is no information about order symbols —Preceding unsigned comment added by Naveed14382 (talk • contribs) 06:39, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

You may be looking for Help:Math#Relations. --Marc Kupper|talk 07:35, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

query

dear sir, the word "sodha" appears nowhere on your website.i don't know whether this is the right place to ask this question,if not please help me for the same.

sir "sodha" is basically a rajput caste found in present india and pakistan border area. please help me get some more information on this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.161.9.88 (talk) 06:41, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities 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. Or you can try to request the article. Best, Zain Ebrahim (talk) 07:25, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

If you enter "sodha" in the search box on the left side and then press Enter then in the lower part of the search result page is a list of the 25 articles the word appears in. --Marc Kupper|talk 08:01, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Category:Club software

Came across this new category page that appears so confused I've no idea what to do about it - unable to understand it, I can't even identify an appropriate template. Do I just ignore it, assuming that someone else will happen upon it or is there some template you can suggest for such cases? 69.106.246.15 (talk) 08:25, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

It looks like some linkspam by a new user who is off to a shaky start, blanking his/her user talk page to hide warnings. --Teratornis (talk) 09:32, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Logged in but cannot edit a semi-protected page

I've created an account 8 days ago. I want to edit a semi-protected page. I log in but cannot see a way of editing the page. It does not seem like I can edit the page even if i am logged in. It says somewhere "create an account and after a while you will be able to edit (semi-protected) pages". How long is "after a while"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alpy01 (talk • contribs) 08:51, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Your account needs to be autoconfirmed to edit semiprotected pages. A "while" is usually four days. Your account is older than that but you also need to make ten edits to be autoconfirmed. You haven't done that yet. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:59, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Where did you see that message? It sounds like it needs to be updated. Algebraist 09:16, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't match your quote exactly but I guess you refer to MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext which is displayed when somebody tries to edit a semi-protected page without being autoconfirmed. I have updated it.[10] PrimeHunter (talk) 13:09, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Conflict of Interest?

I have a listing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Clemo that has been flagged as having a possible conflict of interest. I have read the description on C o I and I don't feel this is the case. This listing was based on two biographies written by Chris Fortescue and Nick Royle and other sources. It was not written by the artist. How do I get this flag removed?

Thank you

Chloe Fellerman assistant to Philip Clemo —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pclemo (talk • contribs) 09:45, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Regardless, it was written by a close associate/employee of his (you) which makes it a clear conflict of interest. You may also be interested in reading This Page. Good day. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 12:40, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

David Bryce

Hello,

I have a tiny small English Dictionnary, very old, edited by David Bryce and sons - Glasgow. 2 centimetres,8 x 2 centimetres. 384 pages. I received it from my Grandfather, many years ago. I should like to know if you are in a position to give me few information about this David Bryce.

Thank you for your kindness. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.92.55.76 (talk) 10:14, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the 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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Algebraist 10:15, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Difference between negative "Deleted edits" and positive "Deleted edits"

• Can someone tell me the differences between those two ? — Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 11:24, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean the red and green numbers on Special:RecentChanges and Special:Watchlist? Those indicate the net gain or loss of characters by that edit. Adding the word "Wikipedia" will cause a (+9) to appear, while removing the word will cause a (-9) to appear. Xenon54 (talk) 12:04, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Where did you come across this? I'd guess that positive deleted edits are stuff like CSD tagging, whereas negative would be the creation of articles that are deleted later. Chamal ^talk 12:03, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Does Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 56#Deleted edits under "my contributions" apply to your question? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:49, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

How to patrol an article ?

• Pls answer it in detail. Thanks. — Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 11:29, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Pages on Special:Newpages that are not higlighted in yellow have a small "mark this page as patrolled" link in the bottom right. Xenon54 (talk) 12:00, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

But only when you visit them directly from Special:Newpages. Algebraist 12:47, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

You may be looking for the information at Wikipedia:New pages patrol, or perhaps you're just asking about keeping a general eye on changes to a particular article, in which case Help:Watching pages may be of use. Karenjc 20:56, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Notability requirements for YourStory.in, The Indian Website for Entrepreneurs

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 17:03, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I have tried submitting an entry for YourStory.in on two occasions without any luck. I have been informed that the entry does not meet the notability requirements for wikipedia. Since I'm rather new to wikipedia, I'm still feeling my way around and trying to educate myself by browsing through entries on similar subjects.

In India, YourStory.in is now being recognised as one of the foremost webportals for entrepreneurship. I would like to know how it would be possible to prove the notability of a subject if evidence lies outside the websphere? Also, in this particular case, what exactly needs to be added so as to have the article accepted? In case you would like to take a look at the website, here is the link -- www.yourstory.in Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

D'artagnan7 (talk) 12:30, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Well you need multiple independent sources that provide evidence of this notability - if they don't exist, we can have an article on a subject. So you need newspaper articles (NOT press releases), magazine article etc etc. --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:34, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the prompt reply, Cameron Scott. At present, YourStory.in has two sources in newspapers/magazines -- the Economic Times [11] and Mint Magazine, The Wall Street Journal [12] The Economic Times article refers to the site in the context of recruitment from the IIM institutes while Mint Magazine speaks about the collaborative strategy adopted by the site to stay afloat during the recession. Firstly, I would like to know if these two sources meet the notability standards on wikipedia? Secondly, could you please give me the approximate number of independent sources required for an entry to stand? Lastly, is it possible to create an entry and have it critiqued by a wikipedia volunteer in an dashboard like editing space rather than having it listed for speedy deletion? Thank you. D'artagnan7 (talk) 13:58, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I've made you a sandbox in your userspace - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:D%27artagnan7/sandbox if you work on it there, I'll take a look and help you with sources. --Cameron Scott (talk) 14:07, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you I've added the article I had done before to the sandbox space. Thanks again. --D'artagnan7 (talk) 14:52, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia to Commons image transfer

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 17:01, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there a method by which I can tag images for transfer to Commons, eg Public Domain, CC 3.0 licensed images.

AshLin (talk) 13:26, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

You can use {{Move to Commons}}. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:36, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! AshLin (talk) 16:21, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I knew this existed but could not locate it from image & media help, so I added Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons as a link in the 'Others' section. Others should find info on this topic easily now. AshLin (talk) 18:46, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Proper protocol for requesting rename for the Village Pump subpages

What is the best way to start a discussion about this? The subpages are in the format "Wikipedia:Village pump (subpage name)", but i think it should be "Wikipedia:Village pump/subpage name". I want to make sure that all regulars of these pages see the discussion, even though it's quite likely they don't visit the talk page, and may miss a brief thread about it on these pages. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 14:26, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Mishehu (I'll hold off on calling anyone "old" ...lol). I haven't been to the Village Pump for quites some wiki-time, could you post a link to the thread where it's being discussed? I'd be happy to look through it and offer my humble thoughts ;) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 14:41, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I haven't yet started the discussion - I want to know where to put it, and what the best way to notify people about it, before I start it. I'm talking, for example, about moving Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) to Wikipedia:Village pump/policy. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 14:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, ok - you're probably looking for input from more experienced editors then. But, while I'm here offer my 2-cents. I would put a notice right on the main WP:VP page that "A current discussion concerning Village Pump name changes is currently in progress at" .. Wikipedia:Village pump/Naming Conventions - that way anyone coming to the main page would see it. Start the page, then also post to the Wikipedia:Village pump (policy), Wikipedia:Village pump (technical), Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals), and Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) page headers as well. That way you get them all centralized to the same discussion page. Just IMHO, full disclosure: I haven't been here long enough to really offer much more than my opinion/guess. I'll keep an eye open though, and chip in when I see it. ;) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 15:42, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps "Tophat" is the more proper term than "Headers"? — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 15:45, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

For my son's 16th he wants to eat at every fast food place in the area.

Resolved

 – see local phone book  – ukexpat (talk) 17:04, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

In three weeks time my 15-year-old son will become 16.

I've asked him what he wants to do for his birthday, and he said he wants to eat out at every McDonald's, Burger King and Pizza Hut in the area.

I've said to him he can go to one of those restaurants, not all of them, but he's become insistent we have to eat out at all of them.

I've told him there's no difference between them, but he insists "WE HAVE TO GO TO ALL OF THEM!! PLEEEASE!!"

He does have a big appetite, but isn't overweight.

I spoke to my husband about it last night and he said I was right, our son shouldn't get everything he wants and that we'd be in debt if we did it.

Our son keeps on insisting that we go to ALL the restaurants (McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King) that he mentioned, but we've told him no and he refuses to accept it.

His 21-year-old brother, who is in university, agrees with us. He said to him: "It's not healthy, don't eat loads of fast food, have fun but don't do it to excess!"

However, he refuses to accept his brother's advice, and said "I WANT to eat out at every McDonald's, Burger King and Pizza Hut in the neighborhood!"

I asked him if he wanted to do anything else on his birthday besides fast-food, but he said no. He told us "Food is my favorite thing. Gawd, isn't fast food great??" and said "On my birthday, we MUST go to all the McD's, Pizzahut and Burgerking outlets in the area and sample their great foods!"

What can me and my husband do to convince him that it's not possible, and it's a bad idea?? He refuses to listen to us.

We've only got 3 weeks before his birthday, how can we deal with this without getting overly stressed??

(I'm posting from an Internet cafe right now, so sorry for it being rushed!)

Concerned Parent —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.45.219.185 (talk) 14:52, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a directory. Your local phone book would probably be the best place to check. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 14:57, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, what do we do about this sort of thing?? We've tried reasoning with him but he refuses to listen.

He still insists that he should eat at every fast food outlet in town.

A Concerned Parent —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.45.219.185 (talk) 15:03, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Not our problem. We don't supply people with such information. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 15:42, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is neither a directory of addresses nor an advice column... I'm sorry, but you're really going to have to work this out on your own or somewhere other than Wikipedia. We're only here to be an encyclopedia. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 21:01, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Disclaimer; the following represents only my opinion, and you alone are responsible for independently verifying or refuting any claim I offer. Fast food in the United States has expanded in lockstep with automobile dependency. Fast food and automobiles together have contributed to the obesity epidemic, one of the greatest public health problems in the United States. Your son may be falling victim to this twin scourge. The cure is simple: adopt the car-free lifestyle. When people have to actually expend physical effort to get around (if such a thing is still imaginable), they typically feel less eager to visit so many destinations. For example, if your son had to walk or bicycle for an hour to reach the first restaurant, he would probably feel disinclined to walk or bicycle additional hours to reach more restaurants. He probably only has his strange desire to visit several restaurants because (if yours is a typical motorized family) motorized travel makes it effortless. Your son's emotions, like those of every human, are the product of millions of years of natural selection which have optimized humans to survive in the ancestral environment. The modern environment in developed countries is very different than the conditions our ancestors faced during the Pleistocene. Our ancestors lived on the knife edge, always in danger of starving to death if they could not find their next meal quickly enough. Our ancestors never experienced an environment of physical ease and sustained abundance of food. Thus it is no surprise that so many people, given the opportunity, become fat and lazy - there was so little risk of sloth and gluttony for our ancestors that they never needed to evolve resistance to these hazards. The automobile is the great facilitator of laziness, since it removes what was historically a constant source of strenuous activity for everyone: walking long distances to get around. In any case, you can assert some influence over your son's behavior while he is still a child, but soon he will be an adult and he will have to decide how to behave. If you have spent his first 15 years training him to become automobile dependent, he may be approaching adulthood with a substantial behavioral risk. When asking your son what he wants to do for his birthday, I suggest constraining the choices to what he wants to do that does not involve using a motor vehicle. I'm also somewhat puzzled about this custom of asking children what they want to do for their birthdays; I don't recall getting such an offer to dictate to my parents. --Teratornis (talk) 21:16, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Accessing user page

I am a new user. each time I click on my user name at the top it directs me to an ERROR 404 page. how do I open a new user page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MartiniGoddess (talk • contribs) 18:35, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I created your user page, see if it works now. Queenie 18:52, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

How do you edit the title for a page

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 22:24, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

There's this page Spunge where the title is simply "Spunge", and the band's name is actually "[spunge]". Is there a way to edit this?

Cheers —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomflaherty (talk • contribs) 21:30, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

There are technical restrictions that prevent the use of brackets in titles, so I have added the {{Bracketed}} template to the article which at least displays the proper title. – ukexpat (talk) 21:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The notice at the top of page indicates that article titles cannot include braces ([ or ]). This is due to a technical restriction. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions) for more info. TNXMan 21:45, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks very much! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomflaherty (talk • contribs) 22:09, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Dunno what i should edit

I wanna contribute to wikipedia, as i'm bored and have nothing else to do, but i dunno what article i should contribute too, any suggestions? 79.75.132.65 (talk) 21:48, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

The Wikipedia:Community portal has some great suggestions for you to help out. See the section titled "Help out". There are links all over to some small things you can do, if you learn a little WikiMarkup, there's lots of little tasks that need doing, such as Wikification and Categorization and things like that. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:05, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

How to test templates by supplying test argument values on the template page?

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 16:18, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I've created a userbox template that accepts optional arguments. However, I can find no way of testing it without involving a second page to invoke the template and supply argument values. Is there a way to test this on the template page itself by introducing some temporary test code and using the Show preview button? Thanks. Jim Ward (talk) 23:20, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

You may want to ask this question at The Technical section of the Village Pump. People who patrol that forum may be more adept with the more esoteric technical questions such as this one. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 23:34, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. I've posted my question there; thank you. Jim Ward (talk) 23:41, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Apollo astronaut Lovell's family

Why are Marilyn Lovell and the Lovell children not documented in the Wikipedia article on astronaut Jim (James) Lovell ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.137.91.156 (talk) 23:59, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

The Lovell family is mentioned in the Jim Lovell article at the bottom of the page. If you have more info on the family that is supported by reliable sources and is written from a neutral point of view, then feel free to be bold and add it in! TNXMan 00:02, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

March 4

Article Title

How can I make a minor change to an article title?...such as changing The Order of the Greek Horsemen to Order of the Greek Horsemen. Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whitey4man (talk • contribs) 00:02, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

You can change the title of an article by moving it. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:07, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I ain't nobody's sockpuppet

Okay, it took long enough to notice, but it seems that my userpage has been tagged for sockpuppetry. What does it mean (am I on the verge of being kicked out)? What do I do? How do I remove this unsightly tag? Comments welcomed. Thanks for your help.
Yartett (talk) 00:22, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

• I'd ask the editor who put it there to follow up on it and actually make a request for a sockpuppet investigation. If they don't want to go public with the accusation, there's no good reason to keep the template there. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:52, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Not being able to submit pict

I would like to know the proper steps I have to follow in order for me to be able to include a picture of public domain in one of the pages of Wikipedia. What is exactly "autoconfirmed"? Does the editing of typos count as an 'edit' in my record? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocketonio (talk • contribs) 01:52, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

The definition of autoconfirmed, as you can see on that page is at least 4 days and 10 edits, and any edit will count, as far as I know. Then you should be able to upload files, as well as edit semi protected pages and mark new pages as patrolled. -Evan ¤ Seeds 01:56, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See Wikipedia:User access levels#Autoconfirmed users. Typo correction or any other edit counts towards the 10 edits. Public domain images can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons at http://commons.wikimedia.org where you can upload right away. Commons images can be used in Wikipedia articles just like images uploaded to Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:59, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. Last but not least: Are the 10 edits measured by 10 typos being corrected or by any number of typos found and corrected in 10 different pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocketonio (talk • contribs) 02:42, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Your edit count increases by 1 every time you click "Save page" after making any change to any page at http://en.wikipedia.org. Your two edits here also count so there are 8 left. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:48, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Since I have been member of this site I have noticed that some pages shown bias towards representatives of certain ethnic groups, for example: some pages don’t even mention the existence of certain actress or actors, or don’t show the picture of them regardless that there may exist many of those under public domain. Can you tell me how to address this issue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocketonio (talk • contribs) 03:13, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

You can address them by uploading said images, but make sure you understand what public domain is first. Copyright law is often misunderstood and you'd be surprised how many photographs of actors are actually not free to use. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:49, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Subject: The page called INDIGO CHILDREN

Resolved

 – Message left on user page by Arch dude  – ukexpat (talk) 16:25, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Subject: The page called INDIGO CHILDREN - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children

I am Lee Carroll, author of the Indigo Book series, the one that introduced the term Indigo Children in my 1999 publication. I edited this page for factual content. Then I returned and found the edits were not accepted. In my personal area there was a message from a user named Eugene Krabs, who said:

"You can't just go claiming to be the author. WikiPedia is going to need proof that you are the book's author before you go editing an article you "claim" to be about something of yours. Please show us proof. Thank you. - Eugene Krabs (talk) 21:47, 27 February 2009 (UTC)"

So, does he represent Wikipedia? I will supply any proof needed.

I am the author.

What next?

LEE CARROLL

Lcarroll (talk) 04:12, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Without knowing the edits, the topic, or any of the history - my guess is that the editor is referring to the WP:COI, which could lead to the WP:NPOV policy. Check through those two articles and see if they may apply. It's very difficult to edit articles that you are closely tied to sometimes. Good Luck ;) — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 05:34, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Responded on Lcaroll's talk page. -Arch dude (talk) 16:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Huggle

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 16:26, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

How do you enable Huggle in your preferences? Okay15 Blah - What I've done 05:17, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

You have to have have rollback in order to use huggle. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 05:21, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

OK. Okay15 Blah - What I've done 05:28, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks like you'll need a little more time and a few more edits under your belt to be granted rollback, but it doesn't take too awfully long. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 05:36, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Google Books

Is it possible Google Books can be discounted as valid source. Here's why. Not every user can access every page that is linked. In one instance, I clicked a link to a Google book page only to get a message saying the page is unavailable due to me reaching the limits of the book. It appears some users can see the page and other users such as myself, cannot. It's a problem. A-Kartoffel (talk) 08:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

• No, access has no effect on the reliability of the source. I can't access BBC News videos because I don't live in the UK and loads of books because my library doesn't carry them. But BBC News is still reliable and those books are too. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:00, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

"Google Books" is not the reliable source. The reliable source is the book itself, and the reference should be to the book, not to Google books. The reference should be a {{cite book}} rather than a {{cite web}}, and should include the ISBN. It is perfectly acceptable to include the link to Google books as a "convience link." this inclusion neither enhances nor detracts from the reliability of the book as a source. -Arch dude (talk) 15:37, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Electronic siganture software?

Is there any electronic signature software that supports Open Office format that you know of?

If yes, can you please provide me with the relevant company or software that can help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thembanim (talk • contribs) 11:28, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Computing 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. Algebraist 11:30, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Computing 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. TNXMan 12:56, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

How do I add clean up templtes which I do not find in the list...

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 16:27, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

to the "Pickleball" article? It seems to be, merely, a very short summary, an image, and two very long lists. The summary has a too-short template added, but I can not find a template for the lists which should be converted to prose, other than the "trivia" template, which does not seem right. I askéd at the IRC but they said there is one and maybe it will repair in time, but I just wanted to confirm... Thanks for any help. P. S. Why did a bunch of new buttons (horizontal line, redirect, strike, line break, superscript, subscript, small, insert hidden comment, picture gallery, block quote, table, and reference) appear on my toolbar recently?--Ecw.technoid.dweeb (talk) 12:54, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps {{Not list}} or better yet {{Prose}}? Nanonic (talk) 13:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you.--Ecw.Technoid.Dweeb|contributions|talk 16:15, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Information about Economice trends

Hi

I need information about Economic Trends & Structural changes :Economic growth (trends),Economic develpoment (Structural changes), Issues in economic development.Long run strategy &policy of economic develpoment.

Since I am new to this... please guide how to see my request (this one) in wikipedia.

You can rech me on <blanking>

Thanks, Sumanth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sumanth.vankadaru (talk • contribs) 14:21, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities 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. Also, see our articles on Economics, as they may have the answers you need. TNXMan 15:20, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

copyrights

would like to know copyrights for printing information in our book or letting people pick the information up at our office? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.112.201.55 (talk) 16:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to Wikipedia content that you want to re-use? If so, please see WP:REUSE. If you are seeking legal advice as to copyright of materials that you have produced for use outside Wikipedia, we cannot give legal advice, you should consult a lawyer. – ukexpat (talk) 17:44, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding links

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 17:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

How do I add links to another article in Wikipedia? Sorry if it's obvious, but I'm new. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CeresVesta (talk • contribs) 17:03, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Link. The basic syntax is to wrap the name of the linked page in double square brackets. For example, my link was created with [[Help:Link]]. Algebraist 17:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by CeresVesta (talk • contribs) 17:20, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Video question

i need to see the video of president samuel doe's torture. --213.210.245.231 (talk) 17:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.. – ukexpat (talk) 17:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

NO PICTURES

all the web pages don't display the pictures, they show a little red square in a box where the picture should be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.141.183.211 (talk) 21:05, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Just to confirm, does this happen only on Wikipedia pages or on all internet pages? – ukexpat (talk) 21:17, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

changing the text at the top of a page

I am trying to edit the very top portion of the "Young Life" page, but I don't see and edit option. the first edit option starts with "History" but I need to edit what's above history. Thanks for you help!Sjknott (talk) 21:10, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Just click the edit tab at the top of the page and the whole page will open in edit mode. – ukexpat (talk) 21:15, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

You can enable this at Special:Preferences → Gadgets → Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

quick question

Thought I'd break the "research, find info, provide helpful links" mindset for a second here at the help desk. Perhaps one of you kind folk have been around long enough to notice certain behavioral patterns in us wikipeidans. My question is this:

1. I noticed that I have begun to sign my email messages with " ~~~~ ". Does this mean that I am developing a "wiki-addiction" problem?, and is there any cure? .. Thanks. Cheers — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 21:29, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Just don't use {{fact}} tags in your work e-mails. – ukexpat (talk) 21:34, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Or worse, marking memos for {{db-nonsense}} --Evan ¤ Seeds 22:01, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

LMAO - sigh .. I'm still waiting for 74, TnXman, or someone to throw one of those "We can't give medical advice" templates in. (and I actually did do that .. Well, I'll pick up my "wiki-demerit" for socializing on the way out - you folks have a good one =D — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 22:20, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question in the Wikipedia:The real world. They specialize in knowledge questions about the real world 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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. -Optigan13 (talk) 22:32, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

In my learned medical opinion, you appear to be developing moderate to severe wikipediholicism. I'm sorry, but your prognosis does not look good. TNXMan 22:45, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Sicilian Language

How can I find articles written in Sicilian? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.229.41.179 (talk) 21:49, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

You can find them here. You can also look on the left side of any Wikipedia page, and there is a list of alternate languages that the article appears in. But there's a Sicilian article only for every 1 in ~200 English article, so you usually won't find one. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:57, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

New Template

I created a new template called Template:Numerical PDE and included it in several articles, but changes I made to the template do not appear in the articles. Now the template appears differently in different articles. What is going on ? How do you repair this ? Example: the article Finite difference method displays an older version of the template. Charvest (talk) 22:17, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Sometimes it can take a while for template changes to be visible in articles where the template is used. Have you tried a server purge. – ukexpat (talk) 22:24, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

(ec) try it now - sometimes you have to do a null edit to the article after you mod a template, that way it doesn't pull from cache. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 22:25, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

cool ukexpat, I didn't know we had access to purge - ?action=purge huh? good deal! — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 22:27, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Brilliant, ukexpat, thankyou. Charvest (talk) 22:40, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Also, clicking on the clock that is displayed in the upper right of the page purges the page. TNXMan 22:47, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

The clock is an optional setting under Gadgets at Special:Preferences. It's off by default. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:34, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Siouxsie Sioux

I've been wanting to replace the picture of Siouxsie Sioux in her article, because that picture is nearly thirty-years-old and obviously she's changed since then. I found what I deemed to be a couple of suitable images under the Creative Commons CC-BY and CC-BY-SA licenses acceptable for uploading images on Wikipedia. However, I've recalled seeing the first image elsewhere on the internet, so is it ok to use the image anyway, being that it is under the proper license? --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 22:32, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, seeing it somewhere else on the net means that if Wikipedia uses it, it wont be troublesome, because the picture is already on other websites. Raaggio 22:55, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the best idea is to ensure that the person who uploaded the images under the licenses you mentioned actually has permission to license them that way. A picture may be used in different places across the internet, but we have still have to have the correct licensing info. Another good place to ask would be at the media copyright desk. They may be able to point you in the right direction. TNXMan 22:59, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 00:04, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Edit to article just disappeared

This AM I edited the page on Ben Bernanke by adding some non-controversial details provided in 3 New York Times articles on him. I also included the reference links to the NYT articles. I saved and the changes were immediately visible. When I checked back this PM my additions were gone and are also not listed in the editorial history for the page. What happened? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sevalt (talk • contribs) 22:49, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. I'm not sure what you mean. Your account shows no edits to the Ben Bernanke article. Nor are there any edits to the article that match your description. Might you have possibly hit "show preview" at the bottom of the page instead of "save page"? TNXMan 22:54, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Help with redirect/shortcut mess

Resolved

 – TNXMan 00:28, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

I think that I messed up and need help recovering. There has been a long-standing redirect WT:RD for the Reference desk talk page. Wanting to make it more visible and available to others I tried without success to make that link into a shortcut (with its top of the page notice/advert and all). So, I thought I could outwit the Wiki software by creating a shortcut named WP:RDTK (which worked fine as a shortcut) and thought that I could then move that shortcut name to the more preferable WT:RD name. Well, stupid me - of course I wouldn't be allowed to do that because WT:RD was already taken. Rather than messing around and possibly making things worse I thought that by begging forgiveness here that someone would be sympathetic and fix this without calling too much attention to my screw-up to the community at large :-( Thank you, -hydnjo talk 23:04, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

If I understand this correctly, there are two steps you can take to put everything back the way it was. Simply remove the {{shortcut}} from the top of reference desk talk page and mark WP:RDTK with {{db-g7}} (author requesting deletion). You can also change the {{shortcut}} to say {{shortcut|WT:RD}}, which should provide the correct redirect. I don't think it's a major problem, however. The only issue I see is that the templates at the top of the talk page appear to overlap a little, but there's nothing that can't be fixed. Hopefully I've understood your question, but let me know if there's something I missed. Best, TNXMan 23:21, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

OK thanks, I hope I didn't make any triple redirects on the way!  ;-) hydnjo talk 23:56, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and thanks for your helpful edit ;-) hydnjo talk 00:07, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Not a problem. Happy editing! TNXMan 00:28, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Talking to an administrator

Does anyone know how to contact an administrator? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jss5104 (talk • contribs) 23:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Right this way, please. TNXMan 23:39, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

March 5

Editing organisational pages

Hi, I am an employee of an organisation and have been asked to overhaul our Wiki page. The information is badly out of date and there are major omissions. Basically I need to completely re-write and add to what is there. I am aware that when an organisation makes major edits to it's own Wiki entry it can sometimes be seen as unethical. Can you please tell me what the policy is on this and if there is some way that I should indicate that the page was edited by an employee?

Yours sincerely David Wiltshire —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwiltshi (talk • contribs) 00:09, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

The relevant guideline is Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. Basically, you are strongly discouraged from editing the article on your own organization, and if the edits are seen as problematic, you'll get substantially less leeway. It would be much more advisable than editing the article yourself to suggest changes on the talk page of the article, assuming the talk page is well trafficked by other editors. If that doesn't suit you, you can also write what you think the article should look like in your userspace, and then suggest that on the talk page, or ask for feedback at Wikipedia:Drawing board. The key concepts for someone in your position to keep in mind is that article content is supposed to be based on reliable sources, and the content must be neutral (part of that being, it must honestly report what reliable sources say, and not be littered with subjective terminology). These concepts tend to cause a lot of the trouble for users like yourself; you have to keep in mind that press releases and the company's official website are not reliable sources (they're find for mundane factoids like John is the CEO, but not XYZ corporation is the most respected manufacturer of widgets in the world). The prefered sources tend to be books and journals from academic publishers, newspapers, industry and trade magazines, etc. You're also unlikely to see negative information about the organization removed if it cites a reliable source. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:22, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Revert vandelism "to last version by____"

How do I revert article vandelism "to last version by____" or "to last good version by _____" going back three or four edits (for example)? I assume the words "to last good version by _____ " are automatically generated (somehow) if the proper steps are done. Lets say I want to go back four edits to the last known good version before all the vandelism started. Can you tell me how to do that without just clicking on "undo" - which is only for one edit back. I assume it then generates automatically the words "to last good version by _____." You can answer HERE. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 00:15, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

If you notice the little buttons between (cur)(prev) and the date in the history, you can select two revisions to compare. If the later revision is the latest revision to the page, pressing undo while viewing the diff will undo the entire series of edits. Just make sure that no good edits were made in the meantime. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:24, 5 March 2009 (UTC)