Wikipedia:Help desk

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• If your question is about a Wikipedia article, draft article, or other page on Wikipedia, tell us what it is!
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).

Ask a question

June 6

Patron Estates: speedy delete

My article about a corporation by the name of Patron Estates was "speedy deleted" and I would like to know why this is so, as well as how I can correct it so that I may place this article onto Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ppassword (talk • contribs) 00:41, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Patron estates was deleted because it didn't assert the importance or significance of its subject. The subject of Wikipedia articles must be notable. See WP:BUS and WP:BFAQ. —teb728 t c 00:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

RMS. LACONIA (1921) - found postard

My sister gave me a group of old postcards several years ago of various Cunard ships. Once of the postcards is of the RMS Laconia - an interior view of 4 scenes. (1921 ship that was also sunk by a torpedo). The postcard is a sepia tone. I would be thrilled to see it added to the article as the second postcard! There is no copyrighted information on the front or back. The back of the card has printed in England. I would be happy to email you jpegs of the the front and back. Can someone tell me how to submit it for posting? Thanks, Randy Lee Arnold —Preceding unsigned comment added by Randyleearnold (talk • contribs) 01:27, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Even if an image doesn't given copyright information, it's assumed to be copyrighted. You can't upload a postcard as public domain without the copyright holder's permission, which you would send to OTRS. For information about using an image as fair use, see WP:Non-free content. hmwithτ 04:29, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

However, it may be in the public domain soon, after the copyright expires. See WP:Public domain#When does copyright expire?. hmwithτ 04:32, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Copyright violation

Hi, in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (novel), the section "Book cover" is a complete copy of the book's back cover summary. I believe this is a copyright violation? I'm not sure how to fix this, so I'm posting here. An encyclopedia is not supposed to give summaries of books but information about them. 202.129.232.142 (talk) 04:19, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

You're absolutely correct on what WP should include. I've removed the information. In the future, feel free to remove the information yourself (make sure to use an edit summary explaining that it was removed as a copyvio). hmwithτ 04:26, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Right. Thanks :) 202.129.232.142 (talk) 04:30, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

How to alter image in Wikimedia Commons?

How do I replace an image in Wikimedia Commons with a new compressed one? Thanks. -- skylights76 (talk) 04:57, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Go to the picture, and in the "file history" there should be a link to 'Upload a new version of this file'.  Chzz  ►  08:35, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Why would you want to replace an image on Commons with a compressed version? Images on Commons should be the highest quality, uncompressed images available. – ukexpat (talk) 15:16, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

It's not a jpg, it's a png, and I was able to reduce its filesize by more than a factor of three (311 KB -> 96 KB) with no loss in quality. I did this by using IrfanView and its RIOT and PNGOUT plugins to reduce the color palette and compress it. This worked very well because the image has only a handful of colors (it's a chart). Looking at the file history, someone had already compressed the image once, but I figured even better results could be achieved, given the nature of the image. Anyway, thanks Chzz.-- skylights76 (talk) 16:19, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Chzz, I don't see the link you mentioned. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unix_history-simple.png#filehistory -- skylights76 (talk) 16:29, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

You must be logged in at Commons to see the link.--Commander Keane (talk) 07:49, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Can a blog be a reliable source?

Verifiability is one of the nutshells of Wikipedia. Each article should be sourced by several reliable sources for verification purpose. According to Wikipedia:SPS#Self-published_sources_.28online_and_paper.29:

"Anyone can create a website or pay to have a book published, then claim to be an expert in a certain field. For that reason self-published media, whether books, newsletters, personal websites, open wikis, blogs, Internet forum postings, tweets etc., are largely not acceptable."

Therefore, I have some question regarding to the above:

1. Can an official blog of a company be a reliable source?
2. How to identify whether a given website is a reliable source or not?

Thanks. - Justin545 (talk) 09:08, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not have firm rules; policies and guidelines can and do change. There is little point in looking at the exact policy wording, as a degree of common sense is required - and that's where consensus comes in.

My own common sense tells me that it is very unlikely that a company blog would constitute a reliable source. Opinions, however, may vary. If you are ever in doubt, then ask on the Reliable sources/Noticeboard.  Chzz  ►  10:00, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

So if a teamblog of a company described a featured on the product that you would consider unreliable ? For instance Micrsoft IE team explaining what in IE8 webslices and/or acceleraters are or how InPrivate browsing in IE8 is implemented ? Is that unreliable information because it is provided trough a comnpany blog ??hAl (talk) 13:44, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

I would use a company blog only to support facts (IE8 dispenses skittles or IE8 surfs the web at 10 terabits a second, etc.). I would not use it for any sort of review of the company's products. Those sort of statements need to be sourced to independent authors. TNXMan 14:52, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

This also sounds a bit like predicting the future to me, in addition to it being a primary source.  Chzz  ►  09:20, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Primary sources have their uses, but it should probably only be used for facts or to state an official opinion. In most cases, third-party sources do a much better job of presenting this information but sometimes its necessary to use the primary source. --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 09:54, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Terri Schiavo case

I have tried your Help links and they go no place and other avenues to contact someone! I have a question for you, the Link for the person in charge of the Terri Schiavo reference does not work or I would have sent this to them! I found in reading the Terri Schiavo case in the information up linked for the history of the on-going circumstances was not complete as at the time Joseph Sadowski, filed with Governor Bush and served the Legislators in Florida to continue the feeding and her right to Life as in http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/10-22-03/discussion.cgi.37.html, I ask why was this not included, After all it was Joseph Sadowski who sued President Bush the Brother of governor Bush before this case existed and President Bush and was familiar with Sadowski continued work in civil rights cases as in part seen at http://www.rense.com/general32/sude.htm and in the article Political correctness is killing America. http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/09-05-05/discussion.cgi.29.html, where in fact Governor Bush did sign the order to feed Terri as seen in http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/oct/03102101.html, President Bush did finally sign into Law Terri’s Law! When he saw some Heavy weights start to come into Play! it appears when those who donate there time to defend civil rights for there country #1 they are not noted for there actions and #2 they are put under microscopes and declared to be terrorist for defending that constitution which belongs to all said citizens! Thank You for your time! If you have an e-mail address for the one responsible for the up-loading of this page I would like it! Respectfully Joseph A.F. Sadowski —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.130.77.129 (talk) 09:08, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

If you want to discuss the content of a page, you may leave a message on the article's Talk page, or on the Talk page of the users who created or edited it (which you can see in the article's History page).

If you have information to add, you may edit the article yourself. Please remember that you have to provide reliable sources for your information, and opinion comments (such as "Political correctness is killing America") are not considered suitable in an encylopedia.KoolerStill (talk) 09:54, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

images

I accidentally blocked images in Wikipedia .now i don't see images in it . i have to images by clicking on them.how can i able to see images in articles and unblock the imaes? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.197.122.100 (talk) 09:36, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

I think you will find this is a browser setting. You will find it in Tools, Options, Content, "load images automatically" (for Firefox) and similar in other browsers.KoolerStill (talk) 09:57, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Troubleshooting#Firefox doesn't display images. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:48, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Clifford Brown, Trumpeteer. American.

I've looked for the above artist Clifford Brown's Vinyl album since 1960 (or CD)The name of the album/CD is "Tribute To Brownie" Has anyone got this album/CD or can provide me with information as to where I can purchase it? I had this album but it got lost when moving house. This album holds some sentimentle memories for me and if anyone can help me I would be very greatful.Afzalkhairafzal (talk) 14:25, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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) 15:12, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Tables in disambiguation pages

I decided to be bold and convert a couple lists in 850 AM into sortable tables. Thus is someone is wondering if there is a station with that frequency near them, then could sort by city or state to find it more easily.

If this violates some protocol, please let me know.--Sphilbrick (talk) 16:31, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

The guideline is Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages); you might want to discuss this there. The big problem I see is that disambiguation pages are not lists— they are linked directories of articles with similar names. A quick check shows that some of the US stations have articles, but not the Mexican stations. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:09, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

oops, good point. Fixed.--Sphilbrick (talk) 17:56, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Problem removing extraneous text

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 21:56, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Someone has added a large section of text about a performer named "Sledje" between the External links section and the stub tag of the article about Boyd Bennett. I cannot figure out how to remove the extraneous text; it doesn't appear in the edit mode. Thanks for any help. RadioBroadcast (talk) 20:57, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Someone erroneously moved the template to the mainspace and edited it to create an article. I have undone all that so I think it's fixed now. – ukexpat (talk) 21:17, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! RadioBroadcast (talk) 21:47, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Posting a Page

Resolved

 – Deleted as a copyvio and username blocked as a spamname. – ukexpat (talk) 21:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi ~

I created a page for posting in my contributions. I do not know how to publish it onto the actual wikipedia website so that it appears in an article search. Please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Auilr (talk • contribs) 21:06, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Your draft is currently on your user page. To appear in the mainspace it has to be moved there, but until your accout is autoconfirmed (4 days old and 10 edits) you do not have move rights. However, at the moment I don't think the draft is ready for the mainspace - it does not indicate why the publication is notable nor does it have any references to reliable sources. I will post a welcome message on your talk page with some useful links, but to start with please read WP:YFA. – ukexpat (talk) 21:22, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

It's also a copyright violation from http://www.wcl.american.edu/journal/ilr/, so it would be deleted if you were to post it as is. See WP:Copyvio for information about this subject. Sincerely, your friend, GeorgeLouis (talk) 21:33, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Well it's now been moved by the creator and tagged by me for deletion per WP:CSD#G12 as a copyvio. I also reported the username to WP:UAA as a spamname. – ukexpat (talk) 21:42, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Deleted as a copyvio and username blocked as a spamname. – ukexpat (talk) 21:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Something wrong with the mobile interface?

I think there's something seriously wrong with some mobile redirection stuff that seems to be launched quite recently. On my Android phone, I want to visit en.wikipedia.org. However, I'm automatically redirected to en.m.wikipedia.org. It shows 502 Bad Gateway.

Another example: If I go to www.wikipedia.org, then search for something in English wikipedia, I get what I ask for, but on "en.m.wikipedia.org". I would actually prefer the non-"m" version so I click on "View this site on regular Wikipedia". Boom, "502 Bad Gateway".

Please have a look, I think there's something wrong. This started happening some half an hour ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.162.228.104 (talk) 22:25, 6 June 2009 (UTC) Ok, this is work in progress I think? Because now I can access "en.m.wikipedia.org" without 502. However, "View this site on regular Wikipedia" still auto-redirects back to mobile version. I'm assuming somebody is looking at this... 217.162.228.104 (talk) 22:36, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Looks like someone was fiddling with the interface. See MediaWiki talk:Common.js#Mobile site redirecting. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

June 7

my name

how do i add a name to Wiki ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jodischram (talk • contribs) 00:02, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

If you want to create an article, see the template message below.

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. – ukexpat (talk) 00:17, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Do we have a list of WikiProjects?

Do we have a list of WikiProjects? If so, where can I find it? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:26, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:PROJDIR should get you started. – ukexpat (talk) 02:44, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Also, for a rather crude machine-generated list of filenames, see: Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:WikiProject. --Teratornis (talk) 20:01, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Column equivalent to line word wrap for long two column tables

I have a two column table where I can sort on each column and each column is of minimal width. So with my many entries I get a very long but narrow table and so have to scroll up and down many pages to find my entries as I switch back and forth between sorts. How can I make the length of the page presentation shorter by breaking the long table into three (or even more) parts that are beside each other and still be able to have the sorts include all row data from my original long table? Thanks. (P.S. I have also posted this on the WP:Table talk page) Newwhist (talk) 00:45, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I'll assume you're talking about the tables located in User:Newwhist/my sandbox, which look like different ways that you were trying to make this work. To my knowledge, there is no way to do multiple columns while using the sorting feature. Be definition, in Help:Sorting, "[A sortable table] will cause the table rows to sort based on the selected column". However, you can always make multiple columns and have them not sort, but then you'd have to choose whether to sort them by name or year. In my opinion, that would be of more use than an extremely long, sortable table. hmwithτ 19:35, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Other ideas:

• Ctrl+F search may be a faster way to jump to particular text strings in a long table, than to manually scroll and look with your eyeballs.
• Help talk:Sorting has some additional discussion. Something there might be relevant to what you want to do.
• I don't understand from your description exactly what you are trying to do. What problem are you trying to solve by making these tables? Your question would be more understandable if you gave a specific example, with a step-by-step description of what you are doing and why you want to do it. I suspect you are trying to perform some type of a query, but without a specific example it's not clear if you are even using the best approach.

--Teratornis (talk) 20:15, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Further explanation from what I understand: He is trying to create a table of players and years, all of whom can be sorted either chronologically by year or alphabetically by name. However, when all of those names (about 100) are in a single column in a table, that columns become very long. To combat this, he wanted to split the column into 3 sections/parts, side-by-side (for a tangible example, writing long grocery list on a thin roll of paper, then cutting it horizontally into 3 equal pieces, and pasting them side-by-side on a larger sheet of paper). Anyway, he wanted to do this, while still having all of the rows, regardless of column/part, be able to be sorted as a full group. This cannot be done, because the sort function can only together sort one column in one table. hmwithτ 23:06, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

That makes more sense. But it still does not explain "why". Does the original poster just want to admire the sorted, accordion-wrapped columns, or does presenting the information this way answer some question? If the latter, what is the question? --Teratornis (talk) 02:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Seems like a lot of Original Research to me. GeorgeLouis (talk) 02:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Reliable sources and external links

What is the policy regarding putting a link in the external links section of an article, if the site fails the criteria as a reliable source? The situation on the Burj Dubai article is that the external site in question is a useful source of up-to-date images (even if some of them are uncredited or possibly copy violations), and it is often claimed by some editors to be more up-to-date then the project's "official site", yet the text is often a haven of speculation, rumour, original research and other unverifiable claims. Astronaut (talk) 01:32, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Read WP:EL, especially the sections titled WP:ELNO and WP:ELYES and decide for yourself. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 03:38, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Category link lists

I'm trying to make a list of categories like this (see syntax):

• Stanimir Belomazhev

  Pepa Milusheva

  Kiril Nikolov

  Ivan Sirakov

How do I add an list square in front of the names?--Kslotte (talk) 02:10, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Use a asterix: "*" at the start of the line.

• Like
• This

Is that what you wanted? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 03:37, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I think that the editor wants to know a way of automatically listing the members of a category, prefixed by a bullet-point. They used {{#categorytree:Bulgarian orienteers|hideroot|mode=pages}} in the above example. I do not know of a way of doing this.  Chzz  ►  09:16, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that is what I want. Do anyone know how to achieve that? --Kslotte (talk) 09:44, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

For some reason, this intrigued me - mostly because someone said that it couldn't be done. They're half-right. You can apply formatting to the output of the category tree using span styes, which can change the font, colour and position - but it cannot prepend each entry - the special returns the list, and there is no way to make it add a character to the start of each line - short of hacking the wiki itself.

I did, however, think up a very crude solution; by using two columns, and in the first column putting 'n' blank bullet entries, where 'n' is the number of entries in the category.

{|
|-
|<ul>{{loop|{{PAGESINCAT:Bulgarian orienteers}}|<li>&nbsp;}}</ul>
|{{#categorytree:Bulgarian orienteers|hideroot|mode=pages}}
|}

Stanimir Belomazhev Pepa Milusheva Kiril Nikolov Ivan Sirakov

 Chzz  ►  15:16, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks --Kslotte (talk) 19:05, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

The solution is crude and not very wiki friendly and will not qualify on any official page in Wikipedia. Doing it the right way by automation is probably a bot. --Kslotte (talk) 23:58, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

A follow-up question...

I was thinking if making two lists:

• Orienteers by Country: ordered alphabetic of names under each country
• Orienteers by Surname: ordered alphabetic of all orienteers grouped by surname first letter

See my sandbox and category for wiki structure.

How can that be accomplished? any tips or tricks? semi-automated tools? --Kslotte (talk) 22:35, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Based on Wikipedia:Lists and Wikimedia Meta: Bot a proper solution is a bot that use script Category. Comments? Opinions? --Kslotte (talk) 23:46, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Help would be welcome

My dad was a member of wikipedia and he told me I should get involved but I never did. He passed away a few months ago and now I have decided to join. I have some learning difficulties (though I'm not stupid) and would like to learn how to contribute to wikipedia. Is there any way I can learn how to do this? If you think I shouldn't participate please say. Thank you. Wee Tuck (talk) 03:57, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Some places to get a general overview are:

• Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
• Help:Contents/Getting started
• Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Introduction
• Wikipedia:Community portal

Or find an article about something you like, but which needs fixing up, and jump right in. Being bold is a core principle here. Good luck! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 04:12, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Great to have you join us Wee Tuck! You're carrying on a fine family tradition. ;) I look forward to working with you in the future! — Ched :  ?  05:04, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Everyone is welcome here, and perfection is not required. There is plenty of help available. I will add some suggestions of my own to your talk page. Be bold,  Chzz  ►  08:47, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Also try the WP:TUTORIAL. If you tell us what type of articles you want to edit on Wikipedia, we can give you more guidance. Many topic areas have their own WikiProjects with additional guidelines specific to their articles. See for example Wikipedia:WikiProject Film, Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics, etc. --Teratornis (talk) 20:04, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

And there are things you can do besides editing articles, such as uploading photos. --Teratornis (talk) 20:05, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

changing the correct information of the person and abusing it.

hey wikipedia,

a person changed Sam Concepcion's information and abused it his/hers post is this,(i bold and italized the wrong and abused information)

Sam then joined Little Big Star where he became the eventual loser. Through this competition, Sam Concepcion's fanbase, collectively called the Gaysters, was formed and is still continuously deteriorating. Just prior to winning Little Big Star, Sam was not offered endorsements and projects. He is now a jester of various products, such as Stench (a smell line), Skechers Cow, and Karate Monkey Restaurant to name a few. He also appears in different pictures as its cover or in random articles from K-Zone, Total Girl, YES!, Hi, Inside Showbiz, Star Studio and other cheap magazines in the country. In the September 2006 issue of Candy magazine, Sam was announced as Candy Cuties’ Number One Gay Cutie and has held the title for three consecutive years already.

Then on October 18, 2008, Sam held his first major solo concert dubbed as I'll Find the Gays : First Solo Birthday Concert. The concert was held at the Music Museum in celebration of his 16th birthday, which was a dream come true for this Old performer.

Currently, Sam regularly appears on ASAP '09 in a dance segment with the Giggly Boys, who are the newest all-female teen dance group of ABS-CBN. As I ? Betty La Fea ended last April 24, Sam is now busy taping for Your Song Presents: Gaystown. Besides his TV appearances and various shows offcam, Sam has started recording for his second solo album. He also continues all his responsibilities as DepEd's Youth Role Model, BSA's Official Spokesperson and World Vision's Ambassador for Gay Children. In addition, Sam is set to hold a continuation of his concert this May 2009, dubbed as "I'll Find The Gays: Part 2."

he/she abused it, there are still more information that he/she abused but i was too late to save it because i changed it immediately since this report was reported, we REALLY want to know who did this, thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Poseidon101 (talk • contribs) 09:28, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Usually obvious vandalism like this is picked up by Vandalism Patrollers. If the user is caught doing this too many times, they'll probably get blocked. I wouldn't worry too much about it. --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 09:46, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

You can see who made which edits by looking through any page's history. Simply click the "history" tab. When I look through, it seems that User:WolfMaster2002 vandalized the article with (this edit). hmwithτ 18:51, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Citing references - same source, with and without page numbers

Hi everyone,

I am writing an article for which, currently, I only have one decent source (I have others, but they are far less informative/independent), and the author of that book seldom explicitly mentions his primary sources. To compound matters, there would have been a large number of primary sources, except that they were mostly destroyed. I therefore find myself using the same book to reference different points.

One of the most important points is assembled from a reference at the beginning of the book and a lengthy explanatory footnote at the rear of the book. I have therefore specified one reference for the book with the page numbers for the quote and its footnote, and a second, named reference (<ref name="X">) for all the other, more straightforward quotes.

Should I: a) Convert all instances of the reference into a generic named reference, so that the book appears just once in the references. b) Leave it as it is. c) Specify the page number for every use of the source, with the book then appearing multiple times in the references?

Thanks, James --James Chenery (talk) 11:58, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I would say that the best way would be to specify the page number on every occasion, this makes it easier for other editors to verify the information later and would go some way to avert disputes. That said, you should probably make efforts to find more sources as your article would be susceptible to claims of non-notability without them. Regards, Unomi (talk) 12:12, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Page numbers are a good thing. You can create a named reference, then add the page number inline using {{rp}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:18, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Create two sections: References and Notes. In the "References" section, list the books bibliographic info using the {{cite book}} template. In the "Notes" section do a Harvard-style cite using the Author + Page Number. See Plymouth Colony, a featured article, which uses this style. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 12:34, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Plymouth Colony does not use parenthetical referencing (Harvard)— it uses a mix of footnotes and shortened footnotes; see Wikipedia:Citing sources#Inline citations for an overview of the three systems. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 18:03, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you all for your advice. I will look at the systems you have suggested. I don't think I will have a problem with notability, as it is only the history section of the article where records are scarce. Thanks --James Chenery (talk) 08:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

BRD cycle and contested material in article.

Hi, I am wondering how to proceed. It is my understanding that contested material that is recently introduced should be kept out of the article until consensus has been reached, is that correct? I am facing a situation where a quote seems to be taken out of context to support a statement in the article. A slow edit war has ensued since the 27th of May and the material is still featured in the text and the lede of the article. Attempts at discussing the manner in which the quote is used have stalled and more recent attempts have not seen progress. I am concerned that discussion will not be engaged while the disputed material remains in the article, and I believe that the material should not be in the article while disputed. Please advise, Unomi (talk) 12:33, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

If the material is not a blatant WP:BLP violation, then the best thing to do is leave the wrong version (i.e. the one you don't like) visible, and seek dispute resolution via the methods described at WP:DR. Depending on the nature of the dispute, there are some other noticeboards where you can get the attention of editors who specialize in certain disputes. The Third Opinion Noticeboard is for getting an outside opinion where there are two opposing sides in a simple dispute. The Reliable Sources Noticeboard is for getting editors to review and give opinions on the reliability of source material. Template:editabuselinks lists a full list of noticeboards with specialized focuses. I would recommend against using the administrator noticeboards as admins aren't really here to solve disputes like this. You will likely just get refered back to one of the other ones anyways. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 12:39, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

alfred james taylor

I am trying to find out more information on the unpublished memories of Alfred Taylor, do you have any information on how to get anymore information on him —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.34.48.204 (talk) 14:07, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

To which Alfred Taylor were you referring? We have articles on several of them. TNXMan 14:40, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

He was talking about Alfred Taylor (soldier).--Launchballer (talk) 17:13, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm assuming you've tried Googling him. There are often resources in public libraries (both in online archives and at the locations), but those would be published. Are you trying to use them as references? If you are, unpublished memories would nbot meet our reliable source guideline and would be original research. hmwithτ 18:43, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Formatting

Hello. Can someone go into my subpage on the Sonic News Network and edit it so that if I was to type {{User:Launchballer/formatting|underlined=no}} it would read {{{1}}} instead of whats usually there.--Launchballer (talk) 15:40, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

This page is for help on how to use Wikipedia specifically. You can try to find your answer on Help:Template or Help:Advanced templates, though. hmwithτ 18:39, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

That I have done. I thank you for your advice.--Launchballer (talk) 14:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

answer to Todd

Since I do not find computers "user friendly to me", this was the only way I could find to answer your question about user name. Hickmangroup is simply the name our family uses as a username. I can certainly change it ifI can figure out how. Is Hickmanfamily ok? I am old and have trouble remembering all the different usernames and passwords. Incidentally, the reason I logged on is because of a pesky scrub jay in my yard. I tried to contribute to a chat page (if that's what it was), but couldn't figure out how. So, Todd. That is my story. Such as it is. S.H. from "Hickmangroupfamily"18:18, 7 June 2009 (UTC)18:18, 7 June 2009 (UTC)Hickmangroup (talk)

For who is this message meant? I don't see any username "Todd" on this page. If you're trying to have discussion with a specific user, try posting on his user talk page, located at User talk:Username (but use Todd's username). hmwithτ 18:35, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

I believe you're looking for User:Toddst1 who cautioned you about being a promo username. As long as it's not actually promotional, it should be fine. I've left a message on your talk page regarding sharing accounts; read through WP:NOSHARE. [flaminglawyer] 18:49, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

How to submit a question to Wikipedia ?

Good Day: This is the first time I have contacted Wiki.so please forgive if I have missed something, I typed a question but do not see any SUBMIT button. Where do I do this? EdmundoR —Preceding unsigned comment added by EdmundoR (talk • contribs) 21:18, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Click "Save page" below the edit box to save an edit. User:EdmundoR is your user page and should not be used to ask questions. Regarding the question I happened to notice there, see Highway and Freeway. Another time you can ask questions which are not about Wikipedia at Wikipedia:Reference desk. You can ask questions about Wikipedia here at the help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:54, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia BLP.

Where is the best place to get an authoritive answer regarding policy to a question about a WP:BLP. (Off2riorob (talk) 22:18, 7 June 2009 (UTC))

I imagine the BLP noticeboard would be a good bet. It's likely watched by editors knowledgable in this area. --Kateshortforbob 22:21, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. (Off2riorob (talk) 22:37, 7 June 2009 (UTC))

Wikilink to an image file

Is it possible to give a wikilink to an image file in an article without a "thumbnail" version of the image showing up in the article? --Roentgenium111 (talk) 22:19, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

You can preface the file name of the image with a colon [[:Image:Example.jpg]] to produce a link to an image like this--Kateshortforbob 22:24, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! --Roentgenium111 (talk) 22:25, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

June 8

Formatting

This isn't a big deal, however I can't seem to remember it nor can I find it, but isn't there some code that would fix the white space in the middle of the Robert Wadlow article? Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 01:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

A little {{FixBunching}} has helped but to fix it completely the width of the table needs to be narrowed and I don't know how to do that. – ukexpat (talk) 01:14, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I made the table narrower (you can make it wider or narrower by changing the %). I also moved the image so the fixbunching is not needed and the page looks more pleasing to the eye. hmwithτ 03:54, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

That's much better - nice work. – ukexpat (talk) 03:59, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all. The {{FixBunching}} was what I was looking for, but I probably would have been stuck with the table, too. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 11:26, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

New look?

Is it just my browser or does wikipedia have an entirley new look? I personally dont like it, the other was more user friendly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mus640 (talk • contribs) 01:37, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Looks the same to me. Did you inadvertently change the skin you are using in your preferences? – ukexpat (talk) 02:10, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Or maybe you downloaded an add-on for your browser that changes the way WP looks? hmwithτ 03:46, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Or possibly you changed the size text is displayed (which is easy to do). If so, just hit cntrl coupled with the plus or minus sign.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Yet another possibility is that your browser cache somehow got bad content which can be fixed by clearing your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:24, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

There is a place where "new looks" have been worked on. They can be found at the prototype wikimedia site. Also, I've noticed that if I open multiple tabs, I can end up with a page or two looking oddly formated. A refresh seems to resolve that. My guess would be the "skin" issue that ukexpat mentions though. — Ched :  ?  18:03, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

yah, i found it was i accedentally changed my skin. Thanks!23:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)Mus640 (talk)

Submission for reviewal?

Is there someplace (informal or formal) where you can submit your edit of an obscure article for reviewal by more advanced users? I just updated game replays, in this instance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GRHooked (talk • contribs) 05:04, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:PR (peer review) might be what you're looking for. — Ched :  ?  05:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Absolutely. It's called a peer review. Check out that page for more information. hmwithτ 05:28, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Where to find the archive of a redirected page?

Hi, i am quite new here and i am looking for the archive of the following pages: [[1]] [[2]] [[3]] Where can i find copy of the old articles, history and talk pages? Thanks for help. Iqinn (talk) 10:08, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I assume Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is what you are looking for. As for the redirects: It seems some were created as pure redirects, and not as seperate articles. However, since i saw the DRV you requested: Please note the WP:CFORK and WP:G4 guidelines before simply recreating a deleted page (if that would be the intention) :) Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 10:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

No that's not my intention. I just looking for more information that could help us to clear content issues like for example her age. No matter these information would go into Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi or the Mahmudiyah_killings. I respect the DRV outcome. There have been at least these two pages. [[4]], [[5]]. And there has been something like a move. [[6]]. Is there an archive on Wikipedia where i can find these old information? Thanks Iqinn (talk) 11:33, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

When an article is moved correctly (meaning it's not a cut-and-paste move), the page history, talk page and talk page history are also moved to the new title. The only content remaining in the page history of your first 3 links is redirects. Only administrators can see the former content of deleted pages like your next 2 links: Talk:Abeer Qassim Hamza and Talk:Abeer Qassim Hamza murder. The only content was redirects to other talk pages which eventually lead to Talk:Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:19, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I can't see any picture

I can't see any picture on the pages? Sfarah77 (talk) 11:33, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Which browser do you have? Is the problem only on Wikipedia? Does Wikipedia:Troubleshooting#Firefox doesn't display images help? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Tables (episode list format)

Hello all,

Looking for some help, i am trying to improve a epsiode list so that it displays the infromation more nicer, i have worked otu how to do the col spanning, however there is a time when some episode number are the same so i would liek to span the row that thqat hap;pens to be one field instead of two. for example of wha ti mean please see here test--Andy Chat c 12:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

This is htge page of the original content List of Monster Buster Club episodes--Andy Chat c 12:56, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I should have meantion it is episode 40 + is where i need to make it one field an dmove the title to under the epsiode titel coloum--Andy Chat c 12:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Canonical Law

is the canonical laws is a parallel law for christians?is it has any conflict with the national laws where they are living? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.96.226.88 (talk) 13:55, 8 June 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. TNXMan 13:56, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

And see Canon law. Might as well look at Sharia too. --Teratornis (talk) 18:07, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I can't find the move button

I created a page and misspelled the title. I am aware that I have to wait four days and 10 edits to change its name (or move it), but I was looking for the "move" button on eligible pages, and I can't find it there, either.

Where is the button to move pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by NWCPAO (talk • contribs) 13:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It will appear at the top of pages, near the history tab. It looks like you need 5 or so more edits before the button will appear. TNXMan 13:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How to stop a redirect and create a disabiguation in one foul swoop.

Currently there is a redirect on MALP to something in the Stargate universe, MALP also means Macrophage activating lipoprotein. I'm wondering how does one go about stopping the redirect straight to the stargate universe, and then creating a disambiguation page with the two on. MedicRoo (talk) 14:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Either use this link, or alternatively you can simply scroll to the top of the article you have been redirected to. There will be a small text link called "Redirected from <articlename>". Clicking that will get you to the page intended. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 14:43, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

If you need help on creating a disambiguation page at that link, see WP:Disambiguation. hmwithτ 15:20, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Efron's dice image

Hey folks. The image at Nontransitive_dice#Efron.27s_dice is wrong (the rightmost die should have something on the top face, and it doesn't). The talk page for the image said to request correction here. So here I am, request correction. Thanks. --Islomaniac 973 14:49, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I guess the selection of faces is intended to convey the probability of rolls. The first 3 dice have probabilities 2/6 = 1/3, or 4/6 = 2/3, or 6/6 = 3/3 of each possible roll, and this can be conveyed with 3 displayed faces of which 1, 2 or 3 shows that result. The last has 3/6 = 1/2 which doesn't work for 3 displayed faces, but it works for 2. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:15, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

your point is valid, but I agree with OP, it looks like someone made a mistake. A better solution would be to change the perspective on the fourth die to show only two faces. --Sphilbrick (talk) 16:14, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, especially if it's still recognazible as a die. If the simple style of the image is kept then it might require a perspective where the existence of a third face is barely visible but the content of it is not. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:50, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Author

Who is the author of this site?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Edog480g (talk • contribs) 14:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Everyone, really. You should check out this page for more details. TNXMan 14:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) There are thousands of authors. If you want to cite an article here then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Otherwise see for example Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia or Wikipedia:About. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:00, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Category:Manufacturer of recreational vehicles

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 19:49, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I don't have the right Category above -OR- there is no such category. I want to write up a new artile on Jayco, Inc., the second largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles. I don't see an article on this company. Would that Category above be the correct Category to put the company in after the article is written? Can someone THEN make such a Category? Other Categories that would be appropriate? Is there similar article companies that manufacture recreational vehicles? Can't find them. Apparently I am looking in the wrong Categories - help!--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

That would be Category:Recreational vehicle manufacturers (found by looking at the article about Winnebago Industries). --Orange Mike | Talk 16:11, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If you look at a similar article like Winnebago Industries, you will find Category:Recreational vehicle manufacturers. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:13, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Great! I had the right idea for the Category, however just had the words in another order. I thought maybe there should be other manufacturers of recreational vehicles. Now I can get some ideas on how to write up the article. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 18:41, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Deleted article but not one I wrote ???

As a new user I am attempting to write an article on the musician, Dan Pinto. However, before even starting the article, I am getting messages that come up saying that back in 2005 an article about a person with the same name was deleted for whatever reason. That article has nothing to do with me or about the person I am trying to write about, yet it is creating an issue for me. How do I go about handling this situation?

T —Preceding unsigned comment added by Write2Wiki (talk • contribs) 16:47, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How is this creating an issue for you? If you want to create an article about Dan Pinto, go ahead and do it. Algebraist 16:50, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

This should not be creating an issue. Go ahead and create your article in the text box below the red "You are attempting to re-create..." box. KuyaBriBri^Talk 16:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The 2005 page was vandalism and you can just ignore it. Please ensure your article satisfies Wikipedia:Notability (music) or it may be deleted. See also Wikipedia:Your first article. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:59, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Genealogy for families 17:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)~~

Am working on my family history & would like to find some links for Genealogy to help put it together. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ploesti3 (talk • contribs) 17:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at the Genealogy Project and possibly ask at the Reference Desk. – ukexpat (talk) 17:13, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Multilingual Wiki links

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 21:28, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

My en.wikipedia article on Merchant Street Historic District in Honolulu makes reference to Yokohama Specie Bank, which has no entry in en.wikipedia, but does in ja.wikipedia and zh.wikipedia. What is the best way to link from wikipedia in one language to wikipedia in another? I ended up treating it like an external link, but that doesn't seem very satisfactory. 横浜正金銀行 Joel (talk) 19:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:ILL should help. – ukexpat (talk) 19:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Perfect! Thanks very much. Joel (talk) 20:22, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How do I get my article removed from the orphan category?

I have created a new article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_Research_Committees titled FARMER RESEARCH COMMITTEE

But it is characterized as an orphan and a dead end page???? I added numerous internal and external links but this doesn't seem to succeed in the article being adopted.

Can someone explain what I need to do to remove the article from the orphan category and the dead end?

Puzzled. Jacashby (talk) 20:03, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:ORPHAN; WP:DEP; If you have implyed internal links using [[ ]], you can remove the DEAD END tag. Find relevant articles in which you can use [[Farmer Research Committee]]. Then you can remove the ORPHAN tag. ZooFari 20:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

But don't just scatter around links to the article wily-nily to avoid orphan status. They have to be relevant to the articles in which you place them. – ukexpat (talk) 20:12, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Jacashby, the tag was likely put there by an automated script (a bot) that adds the {{orphan}} tag to all articles with no links to them. The bot does not remove the tag, so if you've added internal links to the article you can remove it yourself and the bot won't re-add it. TastyCakes (talk) 20:17, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It seems you haven't added links, as shown in the "What links here" page for the article you can see that only a redirect page links to it. TastyCakes (talk) 20:18, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

You can search Wikipedia for articles that mention topics in the Farmer Research Committee article, and might possibly link to it. Note that fixing the "orphan" problem requires edits to other articles. Additionally, the Farmer Research Committee article has other problems which require edits to that article itself; see the other message templates at the top. In addition to those problems, the Farmer Research Committee article has no footnotes. See WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:CITET. Look at some featured articles to see examples of what our articles should look like. --Teratornis (talk) 21:59, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

question about "This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from other articles related to it."

Resolved

 – See above. – ukexpat (talk) 21:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

do you have suggestions for this? currently the wikipedia entry is the only one featuring the subject (cathy waterman). do i have to find relative articles & add my subject to their articles & then link those entries back? it seems tricky to do that without it being arbitrary or is there a better way to deal with that warning?

thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.81.234.84 (talk) 20:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Check out the section just above this one for some good answers. TNXMan 20:33, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

man. fast reply! thanks. i'll look into that & see if i can get it to work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.81.234.84 (talk) 20:37, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

My Addition to wikipedia

Hi i made a page about my friend moscow mark who is a rapper, and i got a message saying that it wasnt allowed? i dont know why that would be, i didnt lie about anything in the page. it wasnt offensive or innapropriate either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tmac4prez (talk • contribs) 20:46, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

In order for the article to be kept, it would need to demonstrate "notability" by Wikipedia's inclusion guidelines. In this case, the subject probably hasn't received significant coverage in reliable independent sources, or doesn't meet WP:MUSICBIO. --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 20:48, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Upload

I want to know why I can't upload images. :|

I want to add one to NeoCube. XRDoDRX (talk) 21:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Your account looks new. See WP:AUTOCONFIRM. Unfortunately, I cannot see what Wikipedia looks like from the perspective of a newly registered user account, so I cannot tell whether the page(s) you saw explain why you cannot upload an image yet. --Teratornis (talk) 21:47, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Oh, apparently I have to wait 4 days. D: XRDoDRX (talk) 21:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

And before you upload please take a look at our non-free use stuff. – ukexpat (talk) 21:56, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

If you want to upload free content images, you can upload them immediately on Commons. (Commons also has its own autoconfirmation requirement, but new accounts can upload new images, they cannot update existing images until after 4 days.) Unify your login with Special:MergeAccount first, so you don't have to create a separate account on Commons. See Commons:COM:L for information about licensing, and Commons:COM:EIC#Copyright for links to extensive documentation about what is and isn't free. Or tell us more about your images and we'll tell you whether and how to upload them. --Teratornis (talk) 22:07, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

A new kind of vandalism? Or no?

Lately I've seen edits that are normally unwanted but have no detrimental effect on the encyclopedia, such as the addition of a userbox reading "This user's page has just been vandalized". I've seen some editors accept the box, some remove it with a tongue-in-cheek message, and some remove the userbox and warn the vandal.

So my question: Should these kinds of edits be treated as vandalism? 69.250.171.249 (talk) 22:03, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd say treat them as meta-vandalism, the same as we treat other not obviously harmful experimental edits (i.e., start with a non-confrontational {{uw-test1}} template on the user's talk page, and escalate as necessary if they persist). Just my opinion. If you'd rather throw the book at them, I suppose that's another option. --Teratornis (talk) 22:11, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

All right, thank you. I'll go with the meta-vandalism approach along with a message. Thanks, 69.250.171.249 (talk) 22:14, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

When you see something that looks like vandalism:

• Check the page history to identify the user who added the vandalism or other unconstructive edit.
• Check the user's talk page to see if anyone else already warned the user.
  • If the user has received other warnings previously about other vandalism, you can consider using a stronger warning template.
  • Check the user's talk page history to see if the user has blanked any previous warnings.
• Check the user's contributions to see if the user has vandalized any other pages that nobody has fixed yet. Sometimes vandals work in bursts.
• If the vandal is doing a lot of harm, and ignoring many warnings, it may be time to escalate to a block.

If we all pull together, we may restrain the hordes of disaffected male adolescents who discover Wikipedia and behave much as we might expect disaffected male adolescents to behave when given free reign. On the bright side, at least we don't give them automatic weapons. --Teratornis (talk) 22:23, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

References Section

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 02:53, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Can websites be added to the References section of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurosawa --Stepusual (talk) 23:05, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Certainly if a website is being used as a reliable source, it should generally be linked to as a reference. Some templates like {{cite web}} aim to provide a uniform standard for doing so, but ultimately content is more important than formatting -- someone else can always come along and clean up formatting, but only you know what content you have in mind. Wikipedia:Citing sources can be quite a long read, but if you want to know more, it should have what you need. – Luna Santin (talk) 23:11, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks!--Stepusual (talk) 23:13, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Do we need an independent secondary source for a statement of opinion from the Anti-Defamation League?

In our article on 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, there is a reference to an article published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). My understanding is that for statements of opinion, you can cite significant viewpoints provided that they are attributed as such (which it is) per Wikipedia:Reliable_sources#Self-published_sources. Another editor says that we need independent reliable sources to establish the notability of the ADL's viewpoint citing that they are an involved party and not really experts on anti-Semitism. The paragraph in question is here[7]. The discussion is here [8]. So, my question is do we need an independent secondary source for a statement of opinion from the Anti-Defamation League? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 23:18, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It wouldn't hurt. The ADL is a significant organization and their opinions are generally notable; however the requirement that opinions are verified as significant by independent sources is important; otherwise every crackpot blogger's opinion could be cited in any article simply by qualifying it as "John Doe thinks that..." even if John Doe's opinion isn't all that important. I think in this case, it is not unreasonable to ask that someone outside of the ADL thought that the ADL's opinion was worth noting before WE say that it is worth noting... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 04:30, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The sentence is this:"According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews and Israel for the terrorist attacks of September 11 continue to gain ground around the world, and are contributing to a new form of global anti-Semitism.". I'm not sure why it needs an independent source, but there is this [9] which even talks about our article. Dougweller (talk) 11:20, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I can find WP:RS to support this, if needed. But at this point, I'm more curious about the general policy because I can see similar situations for other topics. Do we really need an independent secondary source for a statement of opinion from PETA on an article about animal rights? Do we really need an independent secondary source for a statement of opinion from the ACLU on civil liberties? Do we really need an independent secondary source for a statement of opinion from the NRA about gun rights? Etc. (BTW, I take no position on any of those topics. Those just happen to be the advocacy groups and topics that jumped into my head as similar examples.) A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

June 9

Create Biography

How to create a Biography? —Preceding unsigned comment added by USMC2007 (talk • contribs) 01:08, 9 June 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. TNXMan 02:27, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Page move gone wrong. Please help!

Ok to start off, I just want to say that I was not the user who did this. A user with good intentions who was trying to move the article Church of God (Anderson) to Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), but made a mistake when moving the page. He/she mispelled the name so moving the article to Church of God (Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). As anyone can see this can't stay this way. I was attempting to move it to the correct title, but I discovered that Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) already existed as a redirect to the article.

So my question is, how do I move an article to a redirect that already exists? If anyone can tell me how please do, or if you know what you are doing and have time by all means do yourself. Thanks. Ltwin (talk) 05:42, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I deleted the middle redirect under WP:CSD#R3 as an improbably redirect. It looks like the Church of God (Anderson) now redirects directly to Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) without any problems. I hope that helps! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:51, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks alot. Ltwin (talk) 06:03, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

eteeap policies for recruitment and admission

hi, good afternoon i spending to long time to find the answer to my problem can u help me about this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tadski (talk • contribs) 06:21, 9 June 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. -Optigan13 (talk) 06:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Solid Axles

How do differential action acts in an axle ? How differential lock performs and what they actually do to a differential and how and in what process? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piku komal (talk • contribs) 07:39, 9 June 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. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 07:50, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

login account lost?

I forgot my password and chose the email password option but I did not get the email. My username is Kifo. I even got a password reminder in november last year. What can I do now? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.255.210.207 (talk) 10:07, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Did you change email accounts in the mean time? If you got a password reminder last year, then why not use it to pull the password and access your account? (P.S. Check your email spam filter and trash can, sometimes email programs mistake password reminders as spam when they previously didn't. - 131.211.211.13 (talk) 10:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Annoying mobile redirection...

I see that Wiki automatically redirects my iPhone to the mobile site 'http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/::Home' Furthermore, when I click on 'View this page on regular Wikipedia' it redirects me back to the mobile site. I have tried setting the User Agent in my Windows XP Safari to 'Mobile Safari 2.2.1 -- iPhone' and am redirected to the mobile page as before. However, this time the 'View this page...' works just fine.

Please, please, can we have a URL that will always bring up the Main Page.

One of the main reasons for having and iPhone is that the Web can be used in the same way as from the desktop. I do not want to use the mobile sites.

Would it not be possible to recognise that the browser is the iPhone Safari and therefore do not redirect the URL?

Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Farfett (talk • contribs) 10:52, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Mobile site. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:03, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

want to join

sir,i am an Indian citizen and i am 25 years old. Can i join French army if what will be the procedure??

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. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 11:04, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

procedure to obtain an oekotex certificte for apparel garment

pls let me knoew the total system to obtain an oeko tex certificate for apparel garment? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.212.109.210 (talk) 11:30, 9 June 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. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 11:33, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Same file name

• I am having difficulties to put this commons [10] image on en.wiki because the same file name on en.wiki already existed, please see File:Nicol David.jpg. How on earth can this happen ? Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 12:45, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The English Wikipedia and Commons have independent files. If an image name exists in both places then only the English Wikipedia version can be displayed in articles here. See Help:Images and other uploaded files#File name. You can change the name at Commons. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:11, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Advice on request to remove a photo

I'm looking for advice on how to respond to this request for removal of a photo. I know that Wikipedia is not obligated to remove it -- it's correctly licensed and provides a good illustration for several articles -- but it could probably be replaced without too much trouble; there is no reason these articles need to be illustrated with this particular person. It's unlikely to generate much discussion on that talk page, so I'm trying to figure out where to go for advice on this? Thanks, cmadler (talk) 14:18, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

There seem to be two separate issues here: whether to delete photo altogether, or just remove it from certain articles.

• Deleting the photo seems unwarranted. See WP:CENSOR. If Wikipedia deleted everything that bothers somebody somewhere, we wouldn't have much of an encyclopedia left. For example, we have Depictions of Muhammad that bother a billion Muslims a lot more.
• You can illustrate an article with a photo of someone else, although in my opinion the case is weak even for doing this (see WP:NOTMEMORIAL which applies to the inverse case of memorializing non-notable people, and illustrates Wikipedia's lack of special concern for the sensitivities of the recently bereaved). To look for alternatives:
  • See Commons:Category:American Civil War Reenactment
  • Search for more free photos with {{Flickr free}}:
    • Search Flickr for images with the keywords: civil war reenactment under these licenses: cc-by or cc-by-sa - that finds hundreds of photos

See Commons:COM:EIC#Flickr for instructions on how to upload images from Flickr to Commons. I documented a complete example of uploading an image with the Flinfo tool. Regardless of the outcome of this case, if you are interested in the subject of reenactment, you could upload a lot of nice images from Flickr and help the project. --Teratornis (talk) 20:19, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions; I am not going to change the illustrations myself, but have suggested to the inquirers that they could both acheive their goal and help Wikipedia by finding and uploading a better image for these articles. Thanks, cmadler (talk) 20:34, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Sign Talk page automatically

Why isn't this automatic? Shouldn't MediaWiki know the difference between an article page and a talk page, and append a signature automatically in a talk page? How many hours have been spent encouraging and reminding new users to do something that a computer can do for us?--Sphilbrick (talk) 14:36, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

SineBot does just that, but it is a bot not part of the MediaWiki software. – ukexpat (talk) 15:12, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

And that's why slakr is awesome. However, it doesn't catch every single comment. hmwithτ 20:29, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

And remarkable as it may seem, some users specifically opt out of having their unsigned posts automatically signed. See Category:Wikipedians who have opted out of automatic signing. (No, I don't understand this either.) Thus if automatic signing became part of the MediaWiki software, some people would object. As far as spending hours encouraging and reminding new users, it's usually enough to put the {{Unsigned}} template after their unsigned posts (if for some reason SineBot doesn't do it automatically), which displays a link to a document page that will teach the new users what to do. If new users cannot learn by picking up clues and reading the friendly manuals, they aren't likely to get very far on Wikipedia. Plus I like using the {{Unsigned}} template because it's less personal - it doesn't give the new user the feeling of having been corrected by another person. People tend to feel less bothered when corrected by a machine, because nobody feels socially inferior to a computer. --Teratornis (talk) 20:32, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

For completeness, I might mention the variant template {{Unsigned2}} which is more convenient since it does not require reversing the order of the time and user name from the history. --Teratornis (talk) 20:37, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

How do I properly attribute my information to another article?

It says I am violating copyright laws, but I am citing the source for every sentence. How can I correctly attribute the information to this website? http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-124-5459_7097-174062--,00.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheRossmanGroup (talk • contribs) 16:30, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia cannot accept material that is copied and pasted from another website. If you look at the page in question, at the bottom, it states "Copyright © 2001-2007 State of Michigan". Since the material is copyrighted, we cannot use it. TNXMan 16:33, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

As a further note, you could re-write the info in your own words and cite the page as a source. Also, this page may be of use. TNXMan 16:38, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Citing sources is a remedy for plagiarism, not copyright violation. As Tnxman307 notes, rewrite in your own words, but still reference, to note the source of the concepts.--Sphilbrick (talk) 17:44, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

microsoft medications for bert sugarman

please tell me how I can retrieve my list of medications that were placed on 4-15-09 when i had a Dell computer.

I now have an IMAC> Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.37.13 (talk) 16:58, 9 June 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. – ukexpat (talk) 17:00, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'm sorry, but this help desk is questions about using Wikipedia. We have no way of retrieving info from your old computer. Someone at the computing reference desk may be able to help you. TNXMan 17:01, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

To histmerge or not to histmerge

I'd been casually helping out a new user with the new article John of Arderne, but have since noticed that we already have the more substantial John Arderne, and the newer article should be merged and redirected. Reading a question at RfA recently made me wonder whether this is a case for a histmerge. There's little from John of Arderne that's likely to make it into the target article, but do we need to preserve what edits we have for GFDL purposes? Or am I overthinking this? Gonzonoir (talk) 17:39, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd say go ahead and redirect John of Arderne to John Arderne. All the edits to the former will remain in its history, and if any material from it is added to John Arderne, simply indicating "information merged to John Arderne" and "information merged from John of Arderne" (with the wikilinks) in the edit summaries will ensure GFDL compliance. Deor (talk) 18:18, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Deor. I thought I was probably overcomplicating this. Gonzonoir (talk) 18:49, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Duplicate title, different info/person

I would like to contribute a biographical article about a jazz musician named Steve Hobbs. There is already a wikipedia article entitled "Steve Hobbs" about a congressman from the midwest (I think). How do I create anothwer article about a different Steve Hobbs? Thanks. Slappy645 (talk) 19:12, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Disambiguation. Someguy1221 (talk) 19:31, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

creating a new topic

how will I create a new topic and post it for general view?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.95.42.99 (talk • contribs)

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, 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. – ukexpat (talk) 20:22, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

List_of_Jewish_actors

I seem to have a problem reverting a particular edit. The history of the problem was that I made an edit earlier this week which was marked as Vandalism and deleted by another user. I don't want to enter into an edit war with the user, but my intention was made clear on the talk page for the article for two months prior to the edit allowing him or any other user an opportunity to object. I subsequently left him a message on his talk page asking him to discuss the reasons for his reversion which he has failed to do. So I sought to return the article to the format it was in before his editing - but every time I re-enter the content the server returns a http 500 error and fails to update the page. Is there something specifically wrong that I need to address in order to return it to the earlier state? I should add that the mass of formatting I had to do to fix the inherent problems in the previous article was all tested in Sandbox5 and successfully submitted both there and in the original edit of the article but can't be submitted since his reversion.