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September 1

Sandbox Use -- My Jane Austen

Resolved

As an example of real-world formatting, footnoting, etc., I copied the Jane Austen article to my sandbox under the title My Jane Austen. My intent was not to modify the article, but to see how the source code was formatted and not inadvertently modify the article.

I got a notice that I had vandalized the Jane Austen article.

1. 12:57, 10 March 2009 (hist) (diff) N User:RalphOnTheRailroad/Sandbox/My notes about references/My Jane Austen ‎ (←Created page with 'comment --Please do not change this image to the 1870 portrait, painted after Austen's death (see talk page)--Thanks-end-comment--comment Please do not add an infobox (see talk page)--…') end-comment

Isn't this a proper use of a sandbox?

How do I explain the problem to whoever sent this message? I see no ID as to who sent the message.

I thought a sandbox was private. RalphOnTheRailroad (talk) 22:57, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

You "sent" that message. It is an automatic edit summary, which the software inserts automatically when you create a page. Dendodge _T\^C 23:04, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

More specifically, when you create a page, the software automatically generates an edit summary that includes the first 100 or so characters of the created article. If you take a look at the Jane Austen page in an edit window, you will see that it starts with an internal comment that includes the "Please do not..." sentence. -Arch dude (talk) 23:09, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

OK. I understand that. But perhaps some message is automatically generated because of it. I recall a red stop sign and a message in red letters saying, in effect, if you vandalize the page a second time, your account will be deleted. Hence, I started searching for an explanation. Unfortunately, I can't find the page or warning again to quote it exactly. I had also received a message that my password had been changed to a temporary one. I don't know if this is all part of the same problem. Thank you for your help. RalphOnTheRailroad (talk) 23:59, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what warning you mean. I created your talk page at 23:15 UTC with the welcome message I left for you. There are no warnings about vandalism on it, and that's the page any such warnings would be put. As for the password message, I can't help you with that one - unless you tried to recover a lost password? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 00:08, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I've been around since 2007 but not very active. For example, I added a bit to the Wrigley Field article. I never had a talk page that had a welcome message before. When I couldn't log in, I checked my email and found a message that I hadn't noticed before. "Someone from the IP address 67.162.36.40 requested that we send you a new login password for the English Wikipedia" That password didn't work since it was sent several months ago. So I requested a new password and logged in again. That's when I saw the warning about vandalism and went searching for help. Going back to my talk page I saw your welcome message. So perhaps it was created on top of the old one. RalphOnTheRailroad (talk) 01:53, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

The 3 things (automatic edit summary, password mail, vandalism warning with stop sign) are completely unrelated.

If you don't write anything in the edit summary field when you create a page then an automatic edit summary is made with the start of the page source. That is what happened at [1]. If you create a page by copying an article then please satisfy the license requirements by linking to the source page in the edit summary, for example saying "copied from Jane Austen". And please remove categories from the copy so it isn't displayed in those categories.

Your account has stored an email address. If you or anybody else enter your username at the login screen and click "E-mail new password" then a new password is mailed to the stored address. It is intended for users who forget their password. If you know the old password then you can continue to use it and ignore the mail.

The warning you saw may have been made with {{Uw-vandalism4}} or a similar template but no warnings have been given to your account. Maybe you saw it on somebody elses talk page or when you were not logged in. If you are not logged in and others have edited with the same IP address as your computer has at the time then you may see an orange new messages bar with a link to a page containing warnings which were given to others. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:36, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

OK. I understand. I'll make the changes you suggested. As far as I'm concerned, you can consider this topic closed. Thank you everyone. RalphOnTheRailroad (talk) 02:57, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

photos in Wikipedia

I cannot see any photo or picture in wikipedia, instead of the photo there is a small white box and (X) in red like if you disable showing pictures in Internet browser, I do not have this problem in other web sites and I do not try to connect to internet via other provider. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.86.31.169 (talk) 01:08, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

That's the browser's indication that it tried to download a picture but was unable to. Most likely its because Wikipedia articles are too big for your otherwise slow ISP. If you have Internet Explorer then click on tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and then in the Multimedia section of the list, there's an item that says "Show Pictures". Best of luck..South Bay (talk) 04:42, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Table rowspan issue

The problem I'm asking about can be seen in the List of United States Senators from Massachusetts, and probably a few other similar articles. It is easier to show than explain.

This,

{| class=wikitable
! Name !! Congress !! Term
|-
| rowspan=2 | Kennedy || 110 || rowspan=2 | 38
|-
| 111 
|}

yields,

Name	Congress	Term
Kennedy	110	38
	111

So far, so good. But when you want 111 and 38 to also include a second row, things go wrong. This,

{| class=wikitable
! Name !! Congress !! Term
|-
| rowspan=2 | Kennedy || 110 || rowspan=3 | 38
|-
| rowspan=2 | 111 
|-
| Vacant
|}

Yields,

Name	Congress	Term
Kennedy	110	38
	111
Vacant

While it doesn't look like Kennedy and 111 overlap at all, they do,

{| class=wikitable
! Name !! Congress !! Term
|-
| rowspan=2 | Kennedy<br><br> || 110 || rowspan=3 | 38
|-
| rowspan=2 | 111 
|-
| Vacant
|}

Yields,

Name	Congress	Term
Kennedy	110	38
	111
Vacant

If forced line breaks aren't an option, is there a way to fix this? -Rrius (talk) 01:57, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I think that's the best you can do. This is not a matter of wiki formatting, but of HTML. The HTML spec leaves a lot of the implementation of tables up to the browser. In this case it says that there must be a second row, but it doesn't specify a height for the row, and there is no way to do so except by providing content (The HTML 4 specification allows a 'height' attribute on table cells, but it is deprecated, and its definition talks about a 'recommended cell height'. You won't necessarily get the same appearance from different browsers either.

If there were a cell that was in that row alone I suspect you would get more depth to it, but in this case I can't think of anything you can do except make the contents of the cell deeper as you have. --ColinFine (talk) 21:27, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. -Rrius (talk) 22:32, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Help with image fair use validation

Could someone knowledgeable about image copyright requirements check this image and help me understand if it is properly marked for legitimate "fair use" purposes or whether I should be submitting it for deletion? (As a note, the image cannot be found at its cited location.) Thanks, Askari Mark (Talk) 02:04, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, personally, I think you have fair-use problems in the "replaceable" category: since the plane was doing a flyover on a public demonstration, theoretically, anyone in Armenia could go out and snap a picture, thus, the image is replaceable. Additionally, there is no source, so it's a little hard to tell the original copyright status. 02:12, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

It's actually a flyby of Russian aircraft at an Armenian airshow several years ago, but since it doesn't appear in the claimed source, it could be from anywhere. Do we have a policy for what to do when the provenance cannot be verified? Askari Mark (Talk) 02:18, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

{ec}} :As the File:4armenianjetsa.jpg image tags show the source as http://www.mil.am/rus/?page=4, and the home page www.mil.am/ has a notice saying "Copyright © 1992-2009 Ministry of Defence of The Republic of Armenia", then I would say that that particular picture is not able to be used, as it is not a 'fair use'. I think it should be submitted to deletion. The fact that the image is not currently available at the cited location does not alter the fact that the copyright in the image is owned by the MoD-RoA. The uploaded is a blocked user, incidently.-- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 02:24, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Steve. Does that crossed-out "PD-AM-exempt" template tag have any bearing (like with public domain US govt. material)? Askari Mark (Talk) 02:26, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about the PD-AM-exempt bit. However, as there are no indication of source apart from the mil.am site, I'd probably go with that. The nearest image I could fin d was This one from the Military Parade Dedicated to the 15th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Armenia. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 02:43, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Steve, you seem to be suggesting that because it is copyrighted, it cannot be fair use. Fair use is an exception to copyright protection, so that cannot be what you are really saying. What are you saying then? -Rrius (talk) 04:28, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

In this particular case, I do not believe that it would be considered fair use, as there will be thousands of photographs like this that have been taken by amateur photographers around the world which are public-domain. OK, we might have to scout around for them (or perhaps contact the photographer), but since they would be available, the copyrighted image would not be required. At least, that is my understanding of the fair use provisions - the image used needs to be non-replaceable (e.g. a logo would fall under this category - even if I took a photograph of the "Shell Oil" logo, the logo itself would still be copyright to the logo's copyright owner - I can't find a replacement for the logo; whereas the photograph of 4 Armenian jets copyrighted to the MoD-RoA is their copyright, a photograph I take of the same 4 jets on my camera isn't, so could be used with my permission) - from Wikipedia:Fair_use#Images: Copyrighted images that reasonably can be replaced by free/libre images are not suitable for Wikipedia. I would say that in this case, free images would be available with a bit of searching. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:17, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I have tagged the image for deletion as a copyright violation, per Phantomsteve's comments above. – ukexpat (talk) 13:37, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to all who responded. The image Steve linked to is not the same photo. There used to be more pages of photos at that link, but they appear to have been removed – although I still cannot remember for sure that this was the proper source for them. No problem with listing it for deletion, Ukexpat; I suspected it might be problematical, which was why I posted it here (that plus the fact I’m unfamiliar with the Arcanum of fair-use imagery). Appreciatively, Askari Mark (Talk) 01:47, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Blocked users

Are all edits made by blocked users to be reverted? I've seen edit summaries to that effect but do not know if it's policy/concensus or just someone's opinion. Thanks Tiderolls 03:07, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Maybe it's just me, but I review the user's contributions and let good/innocuous edits slide. It seems like I'd just be making work for myself to revert them and then re-add the material myself (if it's a good edit). TNXMan 03:12, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't revert against common sense, but I was more concerned with "sneaky" vandalism. Those users that find it necessary to change DOB's by one day, or athlete's weights by six pounds. Changes that an everyday editor would be hard pressed to prove or disprove. I know I'm probably asking for an answer that is impossible to state in absolute terms. I'm just hoping against hope. Thanks for your reply, TnXman. Tiderolls 03:24, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

It's my policy to concentrate on de-spamming and otherwise reverting conflict-of-interest violations; but then, I block a lot of spammers and comparatively few vandals per se. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:24, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Id just ask them for a source on their changes (just my personal thoughts on this) manually, if their edits accompanied a source i would defineatly leave it alone. However without a source, the material can be disputed. and may be a form of sneaky. Ottawa4ever (talk) 13:56, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

map names

Why are so many wikipedia maps completely devoid of any names? As no results for "map names" from FAQ search, I'm wondering why no-one has apparently noticed this before. 121.91.94.232 (talk) 05:42, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

This is generally because maps used on Wikipedia cannot just be scans from a book or a 'steal' from a website. Wikipedia's guidelines on non-free content says A map, scanned or traced from an atlas, to illustrate the region depicted is counted as unreasonable use of copyrighted material - so we are limited in what maps we can use. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:21, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

If you are asking about maps like File:Queensland locator-MJC.png, probably one reason why it doesn’t have names is that it is on Commons, which is not just for English speakers. If a reader is at all familiar with Australia, the map effectively locates Queensland. So the lack of names makes it most generally useful: The same map can be used at ru:Квинсленд, ja:クイーンズランド州, ar:كوينزلاند, and zh:昆士蘭州. The maps at States and territories of Australia, on the other hand, do have names. —teb728 t c 07:36, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

A lot of maps are on Commons and are purposely unlabeled. These can be reused on each Wikipedia by adding names in the desired language. There are also templates that will superimpose a location dot. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:48, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Why can't I find my article?

I've created an article but can't seem to find it when I do a normal search. Is there a delay before articles go live? Or have I done something wrong? It appears in the 'my contributions' section of my account. -- preceding unsigned comment left by User:Holocausttaskforce (talk) 09:17, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

The article is at Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research - it's a long title! It may take some time to show up on the index. I have also added it to the disambiguation page for ITF. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:22, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

How can I change the Lemma?

Hello, I created an article, Magic lilli, and beside the fact that it should have been capital L in Lilli, it was hastily named - it should have been "Lilli the Witch (children's books)" - sorry! Is it possible to change the lemma? Thanks in advance, --Meielie (talk) 08:34, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I have moved it to Lilli the witch - the (children's books) isn't required, as there are no other Lilli the witch articles on Wikipedia. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 08:41, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Shouldn't that be Lilli the Witch as it is the title of a book? – ukexpat (talk) 13:29, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again --Meielie (talk) 13:45, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Ukexpat, it should. I've moved it & fixed the double redirects. hmwitht 14:11, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks hmwith. (Steve, lines: 500 times: I must remember that I used to be a teacher, and capitalise proper nouns). -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:28, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Not so much a proper noun as caps in titles... – ukexpat (talk) 20:04, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

How do you create a new page?

I am a newcomer to Wikipedia and I am not able to find any information on how to create a page

Aarathi Ganesan -- preceding unsigned comment left by User:Aarathirulz (talk, contribs) 10:50, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia. Have a look here WP:FAQ#CREATE Off2riorob (talk) 10:57, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Mobile version issues

I inadvertantly disabled the mobile version when browsing Wikipedia using Safari on my iPhone. How do I enable the mobile version again? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.27.131 (talk) 12:52, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Go to the URL bar to edit the address. Every page here begins with "en.wikipedia.org" Simple change that to "en.m.wikipedia.org" and you'll get the mobile site back. ~ Amory (user • talk • contribs) 13:37, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

putting the .m. Back in the URL simply redirects you back to the full HTML page on the iPhone once you've hit the "permenently disable mobile version" link. I suspect that we may have to clear out our browser cache/cookies until the devs figure out that they should put a reenable link on the home page. --Anthonzi (talk) 08:21, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

When I was a kid, I would often browse the encyclopedia in the bathroom. I can't do that with a desktop computer but with the right mobile apps it would be easier. Are there any wiki mobile apps or just mobile website? I'm working on shortcuts for BB and put one on my phone that launches a browser to the recent changes pages. I was going to add features for composing articles ( I wanted to make it easy to cite and quote various other sources onto a wiki-like clipboard or something like that) but wasn't sure what exists. Being able to keep going to random pages is a nice feature for killing dead time or browsing when away from a desk. Nerdseeksblonde (talk) 23:59, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Civility and IRC

Hi, does anyone know how the policy of civility is applied for IRC communication... to what extent? And, is it at all possible to bring issues on-wiki, provided logs etc? (Wikiquette?) -- Mentifisto 13:31, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't honestly think any civility is imposed at IRC. It's definitely possible to bring on-wiki disputes and such at IRC, and I know that provided logs have been used in this area, and even for in arbitration. ceranthor 13:38, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

(ec) In short, you cannot use logs without express permission from those you are quoting; so-called "public logging" isn't allowed in a lot of channels. The same guidelines for expression apply to IRC as to Wikipedia (common sense interactions, really) and the freenode guidelines say things nicely. I would personally avoid too much IRC<->Wiki stuff, as things off that nature tend to smack of some sort of IRCabal. This info is covered in the FAQ and the guidelines at m:IRC/FAQ and m:IRC/Guidelines, for future reference. ~ Amory (user • talk • contribs) 13:49, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

IP needs blocking.

User_talk:216.60.25.6.----occono (talk) 14:30, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Occono, I think you need to put this suggestion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:42, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Reports for persistent vandalism need to be taken to WP:AIV not WP:ANI. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 14:46, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for correcting me, Jeffrey. I'll try to remember that one in future! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:48, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I was in a rush at the time, so I thought it would be better to come here.----occono (talk) 20:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

private or intranet wikipedia

is there a way to setup a private or intranet wikipedia for use within our organization so that is has a password protection to the information? Lowell Bowie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.186.47.150 (talk) 15:37, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I have removed your e-mail address, as we will reply here.

It is possible to create your own Wiki - see the Wiki, Wiki (software), List of wiki software and Personal wiki articles - or to get a database dump of wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Database download. If you have any more questions, let us know after reading those! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 15:41, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

See also mw:Wikipmediawiki. hmwitht 16:47, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Cite conference grievance

Hi! I have a concern regrading the conference cite template ({{cite conference}}). I'm using a conference as a source quite extensively for the article Nintendo DSi and notice it is not possible to WP:CITESHORT the respective template. The article currently uses cite web for the conference, but I fear it is only a matter of time until the url suffers from linkrot. I would like to source the conference more directly, particularly using a "time" parameter like what the cite video template ({{cite video}}) has. Regards, « ₣M₣ » 15:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

The talk page would probably be the best place to bring this up Tiggerjay (talk) 22:52, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Discovery Air Incorporated

Hi, So it seems that I am having a lot of trouble writing an article about Discovery Air Incorporated since I am new to this Wikipedia thing. How can I make a suggestion that someone else writes the article? Perhaps then I can help out by just doing some editing, rather than writing the whole thing myself, which is proving to be very difficult! Thanks, BrittanyPaterson (talk) 16:06, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Head over to WP:AFC and follow the process set out there.  – ukexpat (talk) 16:11, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

New York City Gay Basketball-Post

I tried posting our information today, I can view the information via my own personal log in , but it does not come up when you search the Wikipedia site —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.142.140.155 (talk) 20:24, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

What was the user name that you used to create the article? – ukexpat (talk) 20:41, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the message on my talk page - replying here to keep the discussion together. At the moment the text is in your user space at User:New York City Gay Basketball. To appear in the mainspace it must be moved there. However, at the moment it has some issues. First, it appears to be promotional in tone even if that was not your intention, and I have nominated it for deletion accordingly. Second, it does not indicate why the subject is notable. Also, your user name is probably in breach of the user name policy. – ukexpat (talk) 21:03, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Need SMTP server to use air card with Livingston internet server

Need smtp server to replace smtp.vzmail.net My accountis: <blanked>

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 20:44, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

How do I edit section above External Links for Lake Forest Graduate School of Management?

Hello.

I need help on how to edit the section above external links in the Wikipedia entry for Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Can someone assist?

Patty —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lfgal40 (talk • contribs) 21:27, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Click the edit tab at the top of the article page. Looks like the article needs some extensive work so good luck! – ukexpat (talk) 21:32, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately the edit tab does not let me access the text I am trying to edit. Please advise. Lfgal40 (talk) 21:54, 1 September 2009 (UTC)Patty

Please provide an example of the ext you want to edit, and/or tell us what you see when you click on "edit this page" at the top. There are edit buttons on the right side that should give you access to a single section. There's a way to see one for the top section, which you may not have, but the one at the very top should allow you to edit everything.SPhilbrickT 22:02, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I am trying to remove the following sentence "The school is affiliated with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.". Let me know if you can assist. Thank you. Lfgal40 (talk) 22:20, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Click on the edit tab at the top of the page. You can enable an edit tab for the lead in Special:Preferences > Gadgets > Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:34, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Maybe this should be default. I've seen people having problems like this before, where they see the in-article edit buttons but can't see the one at the top for some reason and think they can't edit the lead section.----occono (talk) 13:56, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Can I use the same modem of my father, who has been banned?

Hi. I am the son of a banned user of en.wiki and I want to ask you if the fact that I am going to use the same modem of my father (I live with him and my family in Coconut Creek, a town inside the greater Miami metropolitan area) will create problems. I know (from a friend who is a wikipedia user) that I must pinpoint this close relationship with my father's IP in my user page. But I hope (in case of a future check up, for any reason) that I will not be banned simply because I have the same IP of my banned father. Sincerely--LittleTony (talk) 21:35, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

If you edit productively, don't cause trouble, and completely avoid the subject area your father edited in, no one will ever have reason to ask a Checkuser to determine your IP address, and this will be a moot point.

If you edit the same areas as your father, and cause trouble, someone is going to quickly put 2+2 together, a Checkuser will verify that the same problems are coming from the same place, and you'll be blocked whether you're the same person or not.

In other words, no, this story alone is not going to protect you from being blocked. What will keep you from being blocked is being productive, not taking up your father's cause and try to get him unblocked, not editing the same articles he edited, etc. In short, not giving anyone a reason to want you blocked. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:59, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Locked creation

Resolved

What is the review process for reworked articles that have been protected from creation?Cptnono (talk) 21:47, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

WP:SALT says, "Contributors wishing to re-create a salted title with more appropriate content should contact an administrator or use the deletion review process." Probably you should give them a link to a draft so that they can see that you have corrected the previous problems. —teb728 t c 21:56, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Do'h. Should have read that in more detail earlier. Thanks. I'll make a mention at the general admin noticeboard.Cptnono (talk) 22:07, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I dont want to be blocked...

So how can I help wikipedia? I can't seem to find any pages with errors...Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 23:15, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

First of all, let me put your fears at ease. You will not be blocked for not helping Wikipedia (unless of course, "not helping" constitutes vandalism). You can go at your own pace. If you have any areas of expertise, I encourage you to improve articles relating to them. If you really cannot figure out where to start, try sorting out a bit of WP:BACKLOG. This will help you get the hang of editing, as well as acquaint you with Wikipedia policies and guidelines. Intelligentsium 23:20, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

I advise you to go to Wikipedia:Community_portal. It has a lot of useful links for editors, including sections as "Help out" —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:26, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

When you ask a question on the Help desk, remember that Wikipedia is not one giant brain which is aware of all parts of itself. If someone gave you a warning on your talk page, such as at User talk:Accdude92#Reference desk..., Help desk volunteers may not know you are alluding to it unless you explicitly say so. As far as what you can do on Wikipedia, in addition to the suggestions by the other helpers above, look at the talk pages of articles to see if other editors have left any requests. Look at the contributions of other editors who have more experience editing the articles you find interesting, to get an idea of what they are doing. Ask them if they can think of anything you can do. Every established editor on Wikipedia is aware of many things he or she would like to improve. We have 6,870,711 articles, but only a few thousand have reached featured or good status yet. --Teratornis (talk) 20:42, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

September 2

Reference Number links

The reference number links (ex. [1]) are not beside their pictures on wikipedia's tony hawk and jonh robert colombo page. please help? and also on John robert colombo's page for some reason his list of humour books have a line above them which severs the tabe of contents internal link —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.95.8.144 (talk) 00:43, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Is [2] and [3] what you want? PrimeHunter (talk) 01:29, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes perfect thank you now to the other issue, why is "humour" considered its own section? it should flow with the other book topics, so thatthe table of contents matches it, instead of listing it as a seperate section of the page. (Studmuffin78 (talk) 06:08, 2 September 2009 (UTC))

Somebody fixed it here. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:28, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia irc

is there an off topic/general wikipedia irc channel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Accdude92 (talk • contribs) 01:29, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

#wikipedia on Freenode fits your description exactly. Kind of scary, actually, how close it is to your description. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 01:43, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

image description page

Hi,

I need to update copyright info for several images. For that I am told to go to the image description page.

But I cannt find them ? - I know the names of the images, but where to go ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Allangam (talk • contribs) 07:08, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

The image description page file for Galina Shubina 1940s.jpg for example is File:Galina Shubina 1940s.jpg. —teb728 t c 07:18, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Can I change the Wikipedia skin I'm using myself?

I use the green text on black background option with the Monobook skin (I'm a beta user). Is there a way I can change the green text to white, for example? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ioannes Climacus (talk • contribs) 07:13, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you can edit your own stylesheet (in your case, at User:Ioannes Climacus/monobook.css and change the appearance of text there. This needs to be done in CSS, you can find some help on that here: Wikipedia:CSS. — QuantumEleven 10:55, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Question about the Triangle of Death

WHY IS IT THAT I CAN LOOK UP THE TRIANGLE OF DEATH AND IT SHOWS 172 AS OPERATING UNIT AFTER 101ST? 10TH MTN DIVISON (LI) ASSUMED CONTROL OF THE AREA AFTER 101ST. AND TOOK ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF THE AREA. WHY IS AN ENTIRE DIVISION NOT LISTED WITHIN THE UNIT LIST, BUT 172 IS? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.187.202.252 (talk) 07:23, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

This is actually the help desk to ask questions about using Wikipedia, not for information about other things! Also, please don't type in all-uppercase, it is considered to be shouting. However, I assume you are referring to Triangle_of_Death_(Iraq). If you have a query about that page, it is probably best to leave a message on the article's Talk Page. It would be best if you have some independent sources of information showing what you believe to be correct. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:29, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Incidently, the list of units operating in the ToD is not meant to be exhaustive - it says at the top of the list that the units operating there 'include' the listed ones. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:35, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the questioner is shouting because he's got incoming fire just now. --Teratornis (talk) 20:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

remvoe a question

I put a question on but did not log in first. I thought if you did this people can access your email directly. how do I remove a question asap? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Payneham (talk • contribs) 08:59, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

You don't actually need to remove a question. Unless you mention what it was, for the vast majority of editors on here, there is no way to link the user Payneham with a numerical IP address, so almost no one can work out what your question was! (Incidently, the exception to this are CheckUsers, who could identify your IP, but they wouldn't in this case, as it is not a case of ongoing vandalism). -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 09:36, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

And no, they won't be able to access your email even if you didn't log in, unless you left your email in the message, in which case, well, it would be there for all the world to see whether you were logged in or not. Tim Song (talk) 09:46, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

If you make an edit without logging in then your IP address becomes visible, but it cannot be seen whether the owner of that IP address has a Wikipedia account (unless it can be guessed from the content of the edit). You can however request to have the edit and IP address removed from view at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:18, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

See WP:LOGGEDOUT for more information on editing while logged out. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:29, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Cluebot message

I recieved a message while browsing the site that an article I supposedly edited had been picked up by a 'cluebot' as being vandalism. The problem is this: I have never edited an article here, I don't even have a user account yet. How do I report this as a mistake? The instructions and links are too confusing on what I am supposd to do to fix this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.45.194.187 (talk) 09:15, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

The edit in question was made way back in 2007. You probably have a shared IP and the edit may have been made by somebody else. It's not a mistake on Cluebot's part, but you received a message intended for someone else. You can just ignore it; there's no need to worry about that message :) ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 09:32, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Howard joseland

I need to move Howard joseland to Howard Joseland, but there's no Move tab at the top of the page.

Hermione9753 (talk) 10:28, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

• That's because your account isn't WP:AUTOCONFIRMED. I've moved it for you. Black Kite 10:33, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Help with an image

I've just uploaded the photograph below but don't know how to edit it so it is straight. Can anyone help please? I don't mind if it is cropped as long as none of the stained glass is cut off. Thanks. Stronach (talk) 10:50, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I'd recommend posting a request at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab/Image workshop. hmwitht 12:48, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I've rotated and cropped it and uploaded it. Hope the new version is OK (you may need to refresh the image) - I've still got the original saved on disk if it's needed! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:02, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Fabulous! Thanks so much for your help, and so prompt too. Cheers Stronach (talk) 13:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

No problem - I learnt how to rotate and crop using the software on my machine, so thank you for the opportunity! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:11, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Creating a New Entry for Wikepedia

I just joined Wikepedia. If I find that there is something that I feel should be on Wikepedia but isn't how may I go about adding that subject to the data base? I've looked in the FAQ but I only seem to find tips on editing already existing articles.

Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jabodawe007 (talk • contribs) 11:33, 2 September 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 with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite 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. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 11:35, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I have left you a welcome message with some useful links. To create a new article, I would suggest that you read "How to write a great article". -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:36, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Boilerplate for Files

Where can I find the boilerplate for files? You know, the page where I can add my text and the license. Debresser (talk) 11:34, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

There are many at Category:Non-free use rationale templates. hmwitht 12:45, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Which one was used to create File:Walking cane.jpg? Debresser (talk) 13:00, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Ohh, I see what you mean now. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. The one used in that image is {{Non-free promotional}}. hmwitht 13:16, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) I'm not 100% sure I know what you are looking for but that image was uploaded in the normal fashion and given the license {{Non-free promotional}}. To find that template giving the license text (which I guess could be described as boilerplate text; is that what you meant?), just click "edit this page" and see what's behind the read mode curtain.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:23, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I mean something like Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring/Example when you file a notice on ANI/Edit warring. The page that is used to actually make File:Walking cane.jpg. Debresser (talk) 15:06, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

The page automically creates itself when you upload the file, with all the sections intact. All you do is upload the file and add a license inside of he edit box at Special:Upload, and the new image's page will look just like that page. Is that what you mean? Does that answer your question? hmwitht 17:57, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

The page creates itself, yes. But where is the boilerplate that lays down the layout of that page when it is created? That is my question. Debresser (talk) 18:47, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Another was of putting it. I am looking for the page that is to files, as Template:Documentation/preload is to Template:Documentation. Debresser (talk) 18:50, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Well since no one has answered many hours after your clarification of the question, and though this is far, far from my areas of expertise, I'll just venture a guess that it's possible there is no equivalent, no boilerplate, but that its simply coded that way directly in the page source (right click on the page and choose view source). I could be laughably wrong but really I'm here to say that if you continue to stump the users here for a definitive answer, you might try asking at the village pump technical.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:58, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Ok. Asked there. And rephrased, based on this discussion. Thanks to all of you. Debresser (talk) 08:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

What Links here - filter problem?

Resolved

 – Thank you.

When I'm looking at the "What links here" page for Alpha Phi Omega, I see a number of pages where the only link to Alpha Phi Omega on the page is from a template, for example Phi Beta where the only link to Alpha Phi Omega is in {{Professional Fraternities}} and Scouting in Kentucky where the only link to Alpha Phi Omega is in {{Scoutingportal}}. It would seem to me that selecting the "Hide Transclusions" Filter should eliminate the entries such as Phi Beta and Scouting in Kentucky from the list, but it doesn't do so.

If this is in fact a bug, please let me know where to report it. If not, I'd like to know what "Hide Transclusions" is supposed to do (and maybe an example WhatLinkshere that changes with show/hide transclusions) and also where to suggest an additional Filter to What Links here that might get rid of the links which occur due to templates. (I've tried this both in Beta interface for wiki and outside of Beta interface for wiki). Perhaps this should be asked in a more technical forum, but I wanted to make sure whether it was a bug first.Naraht (talk) 13:32, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

"Hide transclusions" hides links to pages where the page itself is transcluded. It doesn't hide pages where a link to the page is part of a transcluded page. See for example Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Scoutingportal, and see Help:What links here. Others have wished for a feature to remove pages where a link is transcluded. See bugzilla:3241, bugzilla:17728, and a recent discussion at Help talk:What links here#Question. How do we hide excessive linkage? Such a feature may be more complicated than it sounds if it should always be reliable. Some pages are built with non-trivial connections between page source and templates, for example through template parameters causing links which are neither in the source nor template. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:51, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

So, I'm not the first person to be confused by it and not even close to the first person to suggest that the capability that I desire would be a good thing. The discussion at Help talk:What links here#Question. How do we hide excessive linkage? explained it very well and I think I can contribute there as well as voting for the bugzilla bugs.Naraht (talk) 17:34, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

broken contents table on talk page

Hi, the talk Talk:Nuclear_magnetic_resonance does not have a contents for it. In addition, I see on in the HMTL, and it has test in it that is not on the page when I try to edit the discussion page. "NMR is a multiple Nobel-prize winning subject". What is going on? PDBailey (talk) 14:25, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I have added code to force a TOC on that talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 15:08, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

The quoted text can be seen by clicking the "show" link in the box at the top. It is transcluded from Talk:Nuclear magnetic resonance/Comments. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:31, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! When I went back and clicked show, the TOC was also shown, but above the transcluded section. I removed the three equals header in that comment and that fixed the TOC (which does not need an explicit call anymore). This is broken behavior, how can I report it? PDBailey (talk) 18:25, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

It is not a bug. If there is no __TOC__ to force the position of the TOC then it's displayed before the first section heading, whether or not that section heading comes from a transcluded page. See more at Help:Section. There are many cases where editors want the TOC to be displayed before a transcluded section heading. The software cannot read the mind of editors and place the TOC where they prefer it when they don't use __TOC__. If a transcluded comments subpage contains unwanted section headings then they can be removed like you did in [4], or __TOC__ can be added like in [5]. The template documentation says this at Template:Physics#Leave comments to explain the rating. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I am confused, how could placing a TOC inside a comments box possibly be (a) expected behavior, or (b) intended behavior? If a computer program does something that is not intended or expected I think it is called a bug, but maybe I'm crazy. PDBailey (talk) 04:25, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

A "comments box" is not a feature of the MediaWiki software. It is just a term sometimes used when describing the functionality of certain templates. In some cases editors deliberately want to hide the TOC by default, with a "show" link to display it. {{TOChidden}} is a template which can be used for this purpose, but there are other ways to do it. As I said: "The software cannot read the mind of editors and place the TOC where they prefer it when they don't use __TOC__". Human editors do all kinds of things with unintended consequences. If MediaWiki one day achieves artificial intelligence then maybe it can start trying to guess what editors really want instead of doing what their code says they want, but that's pretty complicated (and would cause other problems). PrimeHunter (talk) 12:42, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, The algorithm is currently this: (0) if there is a TOC tag, place TOC there, (1) otherwise, place TOC immediately before first section break. An algorithm that would work better (and require no mind reading). (0) if there is a TOC tag, place TOC there, (1) otherwise, place TOC immediately before first section break that is not in another container. No mind reading required. So, the __TOC__ and {{TOChidden}} both work as usual under rule zero, however rule 1 is updated to not place the TOC inside any other container because that is not expected behavior unless it is specially requested. PDBailey (talk) 15:26, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

It's not that simple to identify a relevant "container". MediaWiki is used by thousands of wikis with different templates and page designs. The TOC is often intentionally inside a table which may or may not be collapsed by default under different circumstances. Declaring something to be a "container" with special treatment of the TOC might break lots of existing page designs by moving the TOC around. And when the contents of a container is visible, it could be quite annoying if the TOC is displayed much later, after most of the sections it links to. Or should the TOC jump around on the page each time the user clicks show or hide or whatever functionality a given page in a given wiki has? And in addition to possibly complicated container-defining rules, there would also be a need for additional rules, such as what to do if all section headings are inside containers. Maybe the TOC should then go back to being placed before the first section heading of the first container. I prefer simpler rules that are easier to learn, and if they don't place the TOC where the users want then they can just control it with __TOC__. But if you want to suggest a change to the MediaWiki software then you can do it at Bugzilla where the developers see it. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:26, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Second request re: Dominion Resources warning template

Two days ago I posted a request for advice about whether the Dominion Resources article is good enough to remove the warning tags placed on it a year ago. I have been working to improve it, and whomever did the tagging has long since dropped their interest in the article. Normally I would remove them myself, but as I have a potential conflict of interest with the article, I'd prefer to seek an uninvolved editor's advice first. Looking forward to assent or suggestions about what should be fixed before this happens. Thanks, NMS Bill (talk) 16:38, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I'd say that you have done a pretty good job here. The only statements that stick out as being a little out of place are the last two in the Operations. The first involving planned air emission reduction seems a little too pro-company and possibly WP:Crystal and the second about Dominion Foundation *may* be out of place here, but I'm not sure. I'd like other comments.Naraht (talk) 18:07, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Naraht. I hadn't touched those sections yet, but I agree they need work, and certainly need sources. I'll work on the article a bit more before bringing the question back here. Cheers, NMS Bill (talk) 11:56, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Brackets in external link

Hi Deskers! Anyone know how I would format an external link that contains square brackets in the URL? It seems to break the wikicode no matter how I try to format it. Thanks! Arakunem^Talk 17:38, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

You could escape them: [6] Algebraist 17:42, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

You'll need to use the HTML entities for those characters, namely, &#91; and &#93; ([ and ]). TNXMan 17:44, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Duplicate citations / Consolidation of citations

Resolved

I have a question regarding citations. Let's see if I can explain adequately my quandry:

On a page I'm creating (currently in my "sandbox"), there are several passages in different locations on the page that will be citing the same reference. In an effort to be thorough I'm trying to make sure each statement requiring a citation is properly noted. The issue I have is that when you then look at my reference list - any citation being used more than once just repeats. It's redundant I think.

Is there a way to use the inline linking system in the text of a page in a fashion which will allow several citation links to refer to one citation in the reference list rather than have one citation duplicated over and over again?

Does this make sense? I look forward to any assistance with this.

Thanks!

Etrangere (talk) 17:57, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Short answer, yes, this issue has been discussed extensively recently. I'll return shortly with links.SPhilbrickT 18:00, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Yep, you just use <ref name=abc> (abc being whatever you want to name it) in front of the first instance (instead of just <ref>). Then, for all other uses, just use <ref name=chosen name abc/> without any other information whatsoever. See WP:REFNAME for more info. hmwitht 18:02, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

See Hazel Walker or nitrogen Narcosis for examples.SPhilbrickT 18:17, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

That was really helpful - I've completed the consolidation. Thanks

Etrangere (talk) 23:15, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Printing of Wikipedia

I have never been able print your subject matter. Is that because legal reasona or what? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.185.237.49 (talk) 18:08, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

There are a number of possible reasons you might have failed to print Wikipedia content, but legalities are not among them. Algebraist 18:11, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Please tell us which article(s) you'd like to print, which operating system you're using (e.g. OSX, Vista, Ubuntu), and which browser you're using (e.g. Firefox 3.5, IE6, Safari). That'll help us try to diagnose the problem. --AndrewHowse (talk) 19:53, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

This might be better handled here. ƒ(Δ)² 18:00, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

my page still not up

Hi

I registered last week (more than 4 days ago)

Created a page called Outlet Property Services but when I do a search, it does not appear.

Please let me know what the problem is.

thanks

Mark GraindorgeMarkG 18:14, 2 September 2009 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Markgraindorge (talk • contribs) 14:14, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Your contributions show that you edited a user subpage: User:Markgraindorge/Outlet Property Services. See Help:User page, Help:Subpage, Help:Namespace, and WP:WIAA to learn about the difference between user pages and articles. Your subpage needs more work before it would be advisable to move it to the article space where hungry deletionists prowl. See WP:WWMPD. It was actually smart of you to start the article as a user subpage, where you can work on it before throwing it to the wolves. --Teratornis (talk) 19:58, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Hi, It appears that you created a user subpage rather than a mainspace article. That's a good way of dong it, because you can then get some advice without risking outright deletion. Your work is at User:Markgraindorge/Outlet Property Services and it isn't ready to be published. You need to establish notability. It also looks a bit too self-promotional as yet. For example, "The company is always expanding its service offerings and enhancing its website" is not what we would consider to be neutral. Please come back here if you have more questions. --AndrewHowse (talk) 19:58, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

See WP:LAYOUT, WP:WIKIFY, WP:BFAQ, WP:PEACOCK, WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:YFA. It also helps to look at some articles that the Wikipedia community has judged to be of our highest quality: WP:FA and WP:GA. The more you can make your article resemble those articles, the less likely your article is to get deleted. Note that trying to write whole new articles from scratch as your first attempt at Wikipedia editing is one of the hardest ways to get started on Wikipedia. It's normally better to make several hundred small edits to existing articles first, see how other editors react to your edits, and read the friendly manuals to understand each thing you try. Writing complete articles from scratch requires an editor to know many different things about Wikipedia editing which are hard to learn all at once. --Teratornis (talk) 20:06, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Copyright center

I have been referred to the Copyright Center to get permission to copy an article in a publication. I get your definition and legal reference, but no link to actually request permission to use. How do I get to the resource I need when the company has obviously contracted with Copyright center to cover copyright permission? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.17.114.186 (talk) 18:23, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

You have been referred by what or by whom? Please be specific. Are you looking at a page of instructions, and if so, will you give us a link to it? What article do you want to copy, and in what publication? There are a million ways to interpret your vague question. The phrase "Copyright Center" does not show up in a Google search of Wikipedia in a way that would make sense in light of your question. Are you asking about an article on Wikipedia, or are you confusing us with another organization described in one of our articles? --Teratornis (talk) 19:49, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Searching sorted by date

Can I search the reference desk archives with the results sorted by most recent first? What are the results sorted by? 81.131.13.145 (talk) 18:25, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't know of a way, but if you want to see recent results, sometimes adding the current year to your search terms (2009) can help. This won't restrict the results to the current year, but considering that "2009" will appear many times on a reference desk archive page that is from 2009, such pages will tend to move up in the search results. This may or may not be useful, depending on the type of search you do. In general, search engines rarely do what you want. --Teratornis (talk) 19:44, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Cunning! That worked very well. 81.131.13.145 (talk) 19:48, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I guess this was one of those rare instances. --Teratornis (talk) 19:50, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

unable to edit a bio

Hello,

I am a new Wikipedia user trying to edit a Wikipedia entry on a person. The information in the bio is incomplete, and inaccurate. There is no <edit> button for the top biographic portion of the entry. I noticed that is the case on all of the other people entries I've searched. If someone could please explain how to edit a bio, it would be appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sbarie (talk • contribs) 18:37, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

in addition to the "edit" buttons at the top of each section, there's an "edit this page" tab at the very top of the page that gives you access to the whole article. i've posted some links on your talk page that you should find helpful to get you started editing ... if it's the biography of a living person, you may want to read WP:BLP first. Sssoul (talk) 18:46, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

This is the second person to be confused about this in two days. We should make the Lead Section Edit gadget default.----occono (talk) 22:24, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Can someone fix PER

The Player Efficiency Rating (PER) article is elongated horizontally because of the math formula under the #calculation section. Is there anyway to make the formula wrap and fit on 2 or 3 lines to prevent stretching out the page? -- GateKeeper^(X) @ 23:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Displaying a formula#Fractions, matrices, multilines; looks like the only way is to break it into separate lines. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:37, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

ParserFunction math

I'm trying to make a countdown clock for Portal:Christmas/Clock. I know {{#expr: -{{age in days|2009|12|25}}}} will tell me how many days are left, but is there any way to include hour/minute/second as well? –Juliancolton | ^Talk 23:11, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I just wrote this from scratch, but it seems to be working. First time doing this, so maybe there's a bug in there somewhere. {{#expr: trunc (({{#time:U|20091225000000}} - {{#time:U}}) div 86400)}} days {{#expr: trunc ((({{#time:U|20091225000000}} - {{#time:U}}) mod 86400) div 3600)}} hours {{#expr: trunc ((({{#time:U|20091225000000}} - {{#time:U}}) mod 3600) div 60)}} minutes {{#expr: ({{#time:U|20091225000000}} - {{#time:U}}) mod 60}} seconds . Tim Song (talk) 03:05, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Demonstration is here. Tim Song (talk) 03:07, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

September 3

Sister projects can not refer to or use each other?

I think any term should be possible to define in Wiktionary and then use in editing any WP article, ie, these sister projects should be able to refer to or use each other as a default, transparent to users/editors. I believe I established (by experimenting) that for a term which WP does not contain, but which Wiktionary does define, WP does not link to the definition in Wiktionary. Why not? What obvious-in-hindsight bad consequence am I missing? For7thGen (talk) 00:08, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

See WP:NOT#DICTIONARY. We have a {{Wiktionary}} template for linking to Wiktionary entries from articles in Wikipedia; see it in action. Your question is unclear since you gave no examples. The reasons for or against linking from anything in Wikipedia to Wiktionary or anything else will vary from one case to another. There is no single blanket rule that covers any possible link to any possible Wiktionary entry. What Wiktionary entries do you want to link to, and from which Wikipedia articles? --Teratornis (talk) 02:22, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Are you aware that you can link to any page in a sister Wikimedia project? For example, if you wanted to link to callipygian or another (wonderful) unusual word used in a Wikipedia article that had a Wiktionary entry, you would type [[wikt:callipygian|callipygian]], which would result in callipygian. The same is true of links to pages in Wikisource, Wikibooks, Wikinews etc., as well as all other language versions of Wikipedia. You just need to know the prefix to use. Please note, however, that we only link words sparingly and for good reason. Please see WP:OVERLINK. We only make links that are relevant to context and understanding. If we linked every word on Wikipedia to a Wiktionary definition whenever possible, we'd all be blinded by the actinic blue glare lancing out from our monitors.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:38, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify that what the querent wants to do is to create a Wiktionary entry for a term that he's made up and then link to that to explain its meaning when he uses it in Wikipedia articles. I think that he would do well to read WP:NEO. I doubt that Wiktionary would accept such an entry, and I've prodded the WP article he wrote to define Fathers-line table as failing WP:V. Deor (talk) 11:47, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Copyrighted problem still need help

So, I am the one who leave a question regarding the copyrighted problem like three days ago. Apparantly, my images still haven't got recovered. Is there really someone who can recover my images and give my images properly tagged? I have dealed with this issue for almost a month. I hope to get over this soon. Thanks (P.S. I left this message in a wrong page, sorry about that.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaseyng53 (talk • contribs) 01:30, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I presume from your talk page these are images you uploaded to commons? If you have sent the permission emails to permissions@wikimedia.org, be patient. That address is staffed by a small group of volunteers and sometimes they have a backlog. I similarly have an email waiting in the queue for over 3 weeks. This is as bad as I've seen it, usually it takes less than a week. But it is what it is. Maybe after you've been through the process a few times you could volunteer. If you have not sent the permission emails to that address, that is your next step. Ensure the email is explicit that the copyright owner will allow the wikimedia foundation free use of the images under a free license. Dave (talk) 02:59, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

As Dave says, it can take some time - my last one took about 2 weeks, but follow-up e-mails (a point needed to be clarified with the copyright owner) took a couple of days. The final part of Dave's response is important - if the response from the copyright owner is vague (along the lines of I give Wikipedia permission to use the image), then that would not be enough! When I request permission, I always send a copy of the 'Consent form' to be found at WP:CONSENT. Other than that, just double check you have followed the steps at Wikipedia:Requesting_copyright_permission#When_permission_is_confirmed. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 03:19, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

totally frustrated trying to place a picture on a page

Dear Wiki- I have used Wikipedia for two years now, and I have really enjoyed it.

However, I am totally frustrated- and demoralized. I have spent 2 hrs trying to place a picture on a page I helped to create. The page is called "Fred Russell".

Do I upload the picture to Commons? I did that. It is called "File: Russell Rice 2.0.jpg"

what do I type after "[[image:" ? The name of the file? The title at the top of the Commons picture file? Something else? I tried all different combinations, none worked.

It is just downright frustrating when the directions do not seem to say much or explain important aspects of this process: it says to upload to either Commons or English Wikipedia. I did both. The directions do not state specifically which "file name" or "title" to enter in the image text in the edit. Confused? Yes, I am. Completely. And hoping someone will help me out here.

Wiki gets so confusing and convoluted, I seem to run in endless circles trying to solve problems like this.

Jim Harwell aka relax777 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Relax777 (talk • contribs) 05:13, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I fixed it. The image at commons was under the filename File:Fred Russell Grantland Rice 1951.jpg so I just made that the name, and the image now shows fine in the article in question. --Jayron32 05:22, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Based on the apparent two sources of confusion you had placing the image, i.e., not using the full, exact name of the image and trying to use "Image:" rather than "File:", I have edited the image use policy to address them.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:25, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I see you have also uploaded File:Russell Rice 2.0.jpg. "Image:" and "File:" both work. The only problem in [7] and [8] was that you wrote "Russell Rice 2.0" instead of the full file name "Russell Rice 2.0.jpg". jpg is one of several file types allowed by the software and you have to give the full file name. You wrote the right file name with .jpg in your post here but not in any of your saved edits to Fred Russell. You can click the "Show preview" button to see whether an edit works as intended before saving it. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:21, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Non Latin title

I would like to know if it is invalid or not recommended:

• writing an article at en_wiki, in Arabic alphabet for example.
• Putting only the headline at en_wiki, in Arabic alphabet.
• Redirecting an Arabic headline into the English article.

There are cases such as the name of countries, towns, and names of people in which the original word is not Latin. Thank you --Email4mobile (talk) 07:53, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Hello!

• No, this is not allowed - all articles on the English Wikipedia must be in English, and English uses the latin alphabet.
• The title of the article (is this what you mean by headline?) must be in English, although the first line of the article will frequently give alternative names, for instance in the original language (see our article on Baghdad for a good example).

For more information, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). — QuantumEleven 08:41, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the title of an article should be located at the most common English name and transliterated if there is none, but you can create a redirect to the English name at the Arabic title and use {{R from alternative language}}. I looked and found no guidance on when this should be done. Certainly we should not have every Arabic related subject with an Arabic redirect but if you have good reason to believe it will be useful I'd go ahead. I note that thinking up very famous Arabic topics and checking their redirects, I found most do have a redirect from the Arabic name. For example, see here and here. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:01, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for clarification. In my opinion, there is some reason. The city name for instance, Sana'a can be also written as Sanaa, Sana, Sana' in some other sites. Hence, I thought it would be a good idea if I also redirect the original script صنعاء so that reader can type it in the en_wiki for example and be redirected immediately into Sana'a, without having to go through ar_wiki article because I assume they aren't aware of the language but did that as a kind of flexible search since it is a unique name.--Email4mobile (talk) 19:38, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

You're most welcome.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:15, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Searching for word

Hello, does anyone know if there is a way for a search to come up with all articles that contain a particular word, rather than opening an article which has that word as its title? If the search term is one after which no article is named, results show all articles containing that word, but if an article with that title exists, then the page comes up. Can anyone help? Thanks!Higginson21 (talk) 09:17, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Under the search box is a "go" button and a "search" button. If you press enter (or click on go) it will go to the article - if you click on the search button instead, it will search for the string in articles, not just in titles. However, you may find that as you type in a word you get a drop down list of suggestions, meaning you can't see the search button - just click somewhere on the page (where there isn't a link!) and this will go away, leaving the button visible for clicking. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 09:33, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Or just press tab twice and return (on most browsers). Algebraist 10:58, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I find Google is much better at searching Wikipedia than is Wikipedia. Just go there, type in your word and and limit your search to Wikipedia by also placing in the search field, site:en.wikipedia.org. You can also use a host of different advanced search options and search operators to target your search in various ways.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:45, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Proposed deletion

How do I remoce the proposed deletion notice it I added my sources? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Olgaleonard (talk • contribs) 12:23, September 3, 2009 (UTC)

You have done the right thing, remove the "proposed deletion" notice, although you should probably indicate on the article's talk page why you think you've improved the article sufficiently. You can find more information about the "proposed deletion" process here: Wikipedia:PROD#Objecting. — QuantumEleven 12:29, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

You'll want to read up on Wikipedia:Your first article. In its current state, the article might not meet Wikipedia guidelines (WP:N, WP:RS). ƒ(Δ)² 17:57, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Editing an already-existing page and the proper citation required

I'm very new to Wikipedia and apologize in advance for what may be a redundant question. I'm quite bewildered.

My father was an author and he has a page on Wikipedia which I'd like to edit.

I wish to add two books edited by my father which are not listed in his bibliography here on Wikipedia.

I have photographs of these unique editions and the titles can easily be found with a Google search.

My question is: Apart from the photographs, what would constitute a proper citation in this case?

Can anyone help me, please?

Thanks in advance,

Concomitant (talk) 13:00, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

You say they are unique editions - does that mean that they were not generally published? If you tell us who your father is, and the titles of the two books, we'd be able to look up information and see if they can be added to the article. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:08, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

PhantomSteve: Thanks for taking the time to answer. My father was Cornelius Ryan. The titles of the editions are "Across The Space Frontier" and "Conquest Of The Moon". They were, in fact, generally published and I essentially misspoke with the "unique editions" description. The editions I have are actually quite unique for a number of reasons which are not really germane to the question I posed. Please ignore the mention of "unique editions". My bad. Concomitant (talk) 00:53, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Adding a photo to a page.

I have been working on my friends page, he is an athlete, so I have been trying to add a photo to his page from a newspaper article. But have not been successful. Can you please assist me in this area??? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Skeahey (talk • contribs) 16:19, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I have added the image to the page per your request. Wperdue (talk) 16:25, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

The image will be deleted as its non-free (unless you get the newspaper to release it under a free license). Since you are his friend, you could easily click a free image with his face visible in it. 59.95.106.110 (talk) 17:14, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

As the previous poster said, the image can't be used on Wikipedia - just take a photograph of your friend and upload it to commons. As you would have taken the photo, you can release it under CC-BY-SA as your own work. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:03, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Names in different languages in wiki english

Wikipedia is an english site so why are there different language translations in some aticles for example this article( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty ) is about seljuq dynasty and it has traslations of the name in 3 languages(Turkish, Persian and arabic) why not just english? Is there a rule to do this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mystery.sin (talk • contribs) 17:33, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Because where a word or term refers to an individual, institution, place, animal etc that is closely associated with a particular place, its name in the language(s) of that place is encyclopaedic information about it. The article title should be in English (or transliterated into English), as mentioned above, but giving the original form in relevant languages is helpful.

I looked for information about this in WP:Manual of style but didn't find any: I don't know whether there are guidelines elsewhere. --ColinFine (talk) 17:52, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

It can be found at WP:UEIA: The body of each article, preferably in its first paragraph, should list all common names by which its subject is widely known. When the native name is written in a non-Latin alphabet this representation should be included along with Latin alphabet transliteration. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:59, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Directions

how do you get from hwy. 18 to hwy 203 washington? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.191.110.10 (talk) 18:18, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia: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. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:22, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Or, maybe Google Maps will be faster. Tim Song (talk) 00:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

biggest selling music artsit

It says on eminem home psge that he has sold 80 million albums worldwide but on biggest selling music artsit list it says he has only sold 70 million sales. And his album The Marshall Mathers LP has sold 30 million copys but on biggest sellimg albums of all time page it is not there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A968 (talk • contribs) 18:44, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Record companies have a tendency to exaggerate or accidentally-on-purpose miscount sales. The Wikipedia listings are cited with a reliable source. Dendodge _T\^C 18:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Image help

Hi. I'm interested in possibly adding an image to Wikipedia but don't know how to navigate the fair use/can't use logic and practice. The image is used in this news article, and is shown full-size here. Can we use such an image in Wikipedia under a fair-use rationale? This image reflects a design that is fairly unique and would very much improve an article I am working on: Floating wind turbine. The image appears to have been previously released by the copyright holder in a press release, here, where there is also a clickable link to a high-res version of the image. Does the fact that it was explicitly released as a press photo make it any easier to utilize an image in Wikipedia? Would someone with image experience be willing to help me on this. Thanks. N2e (talk) 18:46, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

That image would fail WP:NFCC#1. The fact that they used it in a PR doesn't affect the copyright status; its still non-free. You can try contacting the copyright holder and see if they are willing to release it under an acceptable free license (CC-BY/CC-BY-SA/PD/CC-0), though. 59.95.102.223 (talk) 19:30, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

If the image absolutely cannot be replaced by a free version (which is unlikely in this particular case), then it can be used on Wikipedia under fair use, provided it's low-resolution. Otherwise, try finding other, free versions. I'm sure there are other pictures of floating wind turbines somewhere...--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 22:17, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! N2e (talk) 03:23, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Download prompt when wikipedia link is clicked in Google search

This is about a Google search that offers a Wikipedia reference.

What is DISTURBING to me is the Windows Vista says the DOWNLOAD is suspect.

I did not instigate a download; just wanted to read what was there (Kubla Khan).

Since when does download the file normal for wikipedia?

It seems onyly at URL reading "en.wikipedia.com"

Ed Diephaus —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.224.123.201 (talk) 19:09, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Several Internet Explorer users have reported such problems when visiting Wikipedia from Google. Google attaches something to the link which can apparently cause miscommunication between Google, Wikipedia and the browser. It can be avoided by manually copying the url to the browser address bar instead of clicking the link on the Google page. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:31, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Also see this.----occono (talk) 22:05, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

It could also be the result of a virus or malware. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:05, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I meant this, sorry.----occono (talk) 22:06, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Biomass pellets

What is new in the Biomass Pellet/Briquet business. Are there uniform sizes for each cut (Pellets & Briquets)? Thank you Walter Hein <e-mail redacted> 19:57, 3 September 2009 (UTC)~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Whein19 (talk • contribs)

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.

Numbering table rows

How do I automatically number the rows of a wiki table? If not possible, is there a way to add a "total" row to the bottom of a table? --Pascal⁶⁶⁶ 21:12, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Not in Wiki markup. But you can create a spreadsheet in Excel, OpenOffice.org Calc, or Gnumeric (which has those features) and then convert it to Wiki markup. Xenon54 / talk / 21:51, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

instrument anagram of cart horse

instrument anagram of cart horse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.171.190 (talk) 21:36, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

orchestra? TastyCakes (talk) 21:41, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Orchestra indeed. Not necessarily an instrument, but it does have to do with music. Please visit the Reference desk for any further questions that don't have to do directly with Wikipedia. Xenon54 / talk / 21:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Problem adding information to page.

Resolved

 – Tim Song (talk) 23:50, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

In editing a page I get a box around my text and the text is totally different than the rest.... The information is not displayed correctly. What am I doing wrong and how can I correct it? The page in question is Blues Saraceno. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Filmkilla (talk • contribs) 23:31, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

 Done. Formatting fixed. The page needs wikification, though. You should not have leading spaces in front of paragraphs; that caused all the trouble because they stopped the reformatting. See WP:Formatting and Help:Editing. Tim Song (talk) 23:50, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

If there is a blank space at the start of a line you get

this --Orange Mike  |  Talk 23:50, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Picture description problem

In this picture's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_Boreanaz_Jaime_Bergman_May_2006.jpg description there is a link that is red even though the article exists. I tried to fix this but in the beta version of wikipedia there is only a create tab and in the old version there is only a view source tab which when chosen will show the following message "Wikipedia does not have a File page with this exact title." Any ideas what is wrong?--Sgv 6618 (talk) 23:42, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Name was not correct (one 'n' too many). Fixed by somebody else, not me. --Orange Mike | Talk 23:52, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I have sorted out the link - The picture is actually hosted on Commons not Wikipedia, where there are a load of photos for David Boreanaz, but none for Jaime Bergman - I've specified the link as explicitly to the English Wikipedia for Jaime Bergman (leaving David as a link to Commons). -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 23:54, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

To clarify, Sgv 6618, the reason why you only had a Create tab and no Edit tab is that your link goes to the Wikipedia version of the file, which links in turn to Commons. So, it is possible to create an image with that name on Wikipedia, but to edit the current image you would have to go to Commons. I hope that makes sense! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 23:57, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

UAA en français

Hello. Does anyone know the equivalent of WP:UAA on the French Wikipedia? I need to know because I saw a username there yesterday that was inappropriate, but no one may have caught it for a while because it was in English. Thank you. Intelligentsium 23:57, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

If you know French, fr:Wikipédia:Nom d'utilisateur is the username policy page. If there is an equivalent to UAA, it would almost certainly linked from there. Xenon54 / talk / 00:10, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I looked at it using Google Translate and didn't see an equivalent to UAA. If you want to sign up, it'd be different, the link is Créer un compte ou se connecter, but I can't find an equivalent to UAA, which is what Intelligentsium is looking for. The nearest I can find (and my French ain't brilliant) is Wikipédia:Vérificateur d'adresses IP/Requêtes. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 00:26, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

That's CheckUser. Intelligentsium 00:49, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I think I've found it. It seems to be grouped with the administrators' noticeboard[ there. Well, thanks anyway. Intelligentsium 00:57, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

September 4

What's the difference between a Wikiproject and a Wikiportal?

Thanks.68.179.108.25 (talk) 00:01, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Wikiprojects are involved in actively maintaining and setting guidelines for their topic. For example, WikiProject U.S. Roads is in charge of articles about roads in the US, and as such have extensive guidelines on how articles should look and read. Portals (not Wikiportals) are rather passive introductions to a topic. Portal:Radio provides an introduction to the topic, links to relevant articles, and a featured picture. Xenon54 / talk / 00:07, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Another way to look at it is that Wikiprojects are for editors and portals are for readers, primarily. Wikiprojects coordinate editors around a topic, where as portals provide readers with a way to navigate a topic. --Jayron32 03:45, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification.   :-D   68.179.108.25 (talk) 16:02, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Any cute variations of the "User Alternate Acc" template

By the way, how would I refer to it without creating the template?

Thanks.68.179.108.25 (talk) 00:01, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You could look at Category:Alternate Wikipedia account templates to see if that helps you. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 00:28, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Also, you refer to it without creating the template two ways, depending on how you want it to look:

• [[Template:User Alternate Acc]] produces Template:User Alternate Acc
• {{tl|User Alternate Acc}} produces {{User Alternate Acc}}

--Floquenbeam (talk) 00:39, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Ah yes, the nowiki, thanks.   :-D   ,68.179.108.25 (talk) 16:06, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

forgot to license image, now it is on commons, what can I do?

Hi, I made an image (here)and uploaded it on Wikipedia but I do not appear to have put on a license for that image, just for the software that created it. Can I add a license now? What are my choices for images? PDBailey (talk) 02:29, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I am pretty certain that, as the creator, you can add a licence tag now with no problems. If the image also exists at Commons, you should log in (or create an account) there and add the same licence to that page as well. --Jayron32 03:43, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You'll just want to be aware that wikipedia typically does not permit copyrighted material on the website. I'm not clear on what you're actual intention is. Perhaps it's just my own perspective, but simply using a graph application to visualize data that public domain isn't exactly something worth licensing. Tiggerjay (talk) 03:45, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually, per the image use policy, you are required to license all images uploaded to Wikipedia, or to tag images which have existing copyright (such as for use under the guise of fair use) or to tag them as Public domain should that apply. If it is an image created by the uploader, they are free to either license the image under a compatible free-use license such as CC-BY-SA or to formally release the image into the public domain. But the image page must still be tagged to indicate what its status is. --Jayron32 03:51, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I think I know what you mean—that Wikipedia doesn't normally allow non-free images, but note that much of our locally uploaded images are copyrighted images under no free license, displayed under fair use, and all material under free licenses such as CC-BY-SA and the GFDL is still copyrighted. Such free licenses remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others but the copyright is preserved. We often call the combination of freely licensing copyrighted material in this manner, "copyleft". Thus, as far as I know the only material you will come across on Wikipedia that's isn't actually copyrighted is public domain material.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Since (in this context) "public domain" is just another way of saying "uncopyrighted", that is trivially true. Algebraist 08:55, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually I was responding to Tiggerjay and when I edit conflicted with Jayron32, I carelessly increased the indentation level; it was very late for me. I think you'll see my post in a different light if you read it as directly underneath Tiggerjay's, as I meant it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

German Wikipedia

Not sure whether this is the right place to ask this question, but I've just discovered an account under my name on the German Wikipedia [9] This seems strange to me because firstly I activated my global account not long after registering and secondly I don't speak German so wouldn't attempt to edit something in the language. The edits appear to be good, but is it possible that someone has compromised my password? TheRetroGuy (talk) 12:05, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

The edits hopefully look familiar to you. ("Versionen" is history and "Unterschied" is diff. The edits were made in 5/09, 12/08, and 7/08.) It looks like a user on the German Wikipedia used Special:Export to grab a page you edited from the English Wikipedia, then Spezial:Import to import it to the German Wikipedia, then translated it into German. All previous edit history is preserved, which is why the edit summaries of those four edits are in English. I wouldn't worry about it. Xenon54 / talk / 12:14, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for that. Must admit I was a bit worried about it, but I've checked them against the English versions and everything seems to be in order. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 12:37, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Add a bio stub

I have created my page claudio basso and would like to add a bio stub because when you search for my name only the argentinean singer comes up. What do I do? Thank uou —Preceding unsigned comment added by Claudio Basso (talk • contribs) 13:13, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Adding a stub won't fix that. You need to disambiguate them. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:15, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

The page you've started is only in your userspace, not the encyclopaedia mainspace. That's appropriate at this point because you haven't demonstrated notability, and you have a conflict of interest. It's best to avoid editing articles about oneself, one's employer and so on, because it's difficult to maintain a neutral tone. I'll add some links to your talk page to expand on this. --AndrewHowse (talk) 15:09, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion & edit counts

I have recently been doing new page patrolling to increase my number of mainspace edits, but I noticed that my tagging pages for speedy deletion doesn't show up in my contributions. Does this mean that any edits I make to a deleted article don't count towards my edit count or show up in my contributions? Ks0stm ^(T•C) 14:19, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Hmm... It theoretically should show up. I do see the notifications showing up in contributions, but not the actual tagging.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 14:25, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) Once a page is speedily deleted, the edits to that page disappear from your contributions. Deleted edits are only accessible to administrators. However, the edits are still reflected in your edit count, as displayed in your preferences. Whether or not deleted edits show up when using an edit counter depends on which one you use. Xenon54 / talk / 14:27, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Only administrators can see your edits to deleted articles. There are different edit counters and it varies whether they include edits to deleted articles. The count at Special:Preferences includes them. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:28, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It will show up under your deleted contributions. Some edit counters display this total and some do not. For example, my edit count here shows about 5,000 deleted edits. TNXMan 14:31, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Discussing a redirect

What's the best place to discuss the target of a redirect? The redirect's talk page is also a redirect and so can't be used as a discussion forum. Powers ^T 14:46, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

To some extent, it depends on the specific case. The target's talk page, a "parent" article's talk page, a Wikiproject's talk page, or un-redirecting the talk page of the redirect and doing it there are all possible solutions, depending on what page you're talking about. --Floquenbeam (talk) 14:50, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) Redirects for discussion. It's sort of like Articles for deletion. Redirects are discussed for a week, and consensus can be built to either keep, delete, or retarget the redirect. Xenon54 / talk / 14:52, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Ah, yes, I forgot that RfD was "for discussion" and not "for deletion". Thanks. Powers ^T 15:43, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Are sockpuppets permitted if they are, like, blatantly obvious?

Would it be as bad as an 8 year-old attempting to rob a bank with a plastic transparent squirt-gun, an old coot cat-calling a group of women--any one of which could kick his ass in seconds, or a drunk driving his riding lawnmover to the liquor store? Username—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.179.108.25 (talk)

That's like a totally righteous question!! Gee, you are one smart cookie! I don't see why not. I think everyone should have a blatantly obvious sockpuppet. Username's sockpuppet 68.179.108.25 (talk) 16:20, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

What you've done isn't really socking, since both edits are attributed to the same IP address. For more details on sockpuppeting and legitimate alternatives, see this page. TNXMan 16:23, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Sockpuppets, as such, are not against the rules. Or maybe I should say "alternate accounts". It's the fraudulent use of such accounts that's against the rules - such as aiding in edit-warring, vote-stacking, and other rules violations. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 16:26, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

An admin will normally block a Sockpuppet if it passes the duck test. (aka, is blatantly obvious). In this case, you guys aren't socking, as it's the same IP, and not alternate accounts intended on disruption.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 17:24, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(←)IP has apparently asked another question about alternate account templates above...--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 18:02, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Uh huh. I've asked 2 other questions here today.    :-D
But as for my question, if the action is obvious, but not at all malicious; but used, uncommonly, for, say, examples, or even, in a rare case, humour, would it be wrong to create a sockpuppet account, that would be blatant, even using the word, and giving itself its own sock puppet template?68.179.108.25 (talk) 18:16, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Wiki Page Doesn't Show Up When I Search for It

I made a new wiki page and I can't find it when I do a regular search. Have I missed a step? The title of the page is Curtis J. Milhaupt. Thank you! 17:10, 4 September 2009 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dustynyfeathers (talk • contribs)

It works now. Sometimes the search engine takes a while to index a new article. Frankly, Wikipedia's search engine is terrible, and if you would like you can use Google to search Wikipedia. Simply type in site:en.wikipedia.org after your search term. Xenon54 / talk / 17:12, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

help

I dont KNOW WHERE TO GO ANYMORE IVE TRIED EVERYTHING I KNOW AND KEEP GOING AROUND IN CIRCLES I CANT GET IN TO MY FACE BOOK ACCOUNT I FORGOT MY PASSWORD AND EMAIL BUT MY NAME IS cHRISTINE SMITH BARTLEY AND IM ASKING ANYONE TO HELP ME GET BACK IN THERE IT HAS BEEN ABOUT 1 MONTH IVE BEEN GOING ROUNDS WITH THIS PLEASE HELP ME —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.21.27.233 (talk) 17:27, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If 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. TNXMan 17:32, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Editing A Protected Page

Hi,

I want to make a small addition to the article on Saturn, but the page is protected and has no Edit tab, just a View Source tab. How can I make or suggest an addition? Thanks in advance.Djcouture (talk) 17:53, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

The article has been semi protected, i.e, you can only edit it if you have an autoconfirmed account (been here for 4 days, with at least 10 edits). I know this is inconvenient, but it is necessary to prevent vandalism. You may discuss changes on the talk page, if you wish, or you could wait for 4 days. ƒ(Δ)² 17:59, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You can discuss on the talk page, or, make 9 more contributions, and wait 4 days.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 18:00, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You wrote "been here for 4 days, with at least 10 edits". Is that "4 days AND 10 edits" or "4 days OR 10 edits"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djcouture (talk • contribs) 18:31, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Both, 4 days old and 10 edits. – ukexpat (talk) 18:45, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, I re-read your post and understand. I went to the Talk page and suggested my addition. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djcouture (talk • contribs) 18:49, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Page Title

I work for a non-profit organization and we recently posted information about our organization on Wikipedia. Unfortunately, the person who posted this information did not list our name correctly in the title. How can I change the title?

MarnieKatzman (talk) 18:15, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

If you let us know what the article is, and what it needs to be called (and why), then it is possible to MOVE the article to the new name. I would recommend you post on the article's talk page first, explaining why the article name should be changed. Also, if you are associated with the organisation, I would suggest you read the conflict of interest policy. It shouldn't be a major issue, provided you are upfront on the talk page about your connections to the organisation. Stephen! ^Coming... 18:21, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

It appears to be The Long Island Arts Council At freeport, but I have tagged it for speedy as not indicating importance or significance. – ukexpat (talk) 18:42, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Adding Information

I added the name of a band to a page that described a well-known song and the names of bands that had duplicated it. The link of the band-name that I added links to something else that happens to share its name with the band. How do I fix the link so that it links to the correct page, the one about the band? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lupisluna (talk • contribs) 18:22, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I corrected the internal link for you, as you can see here. If you ever have this problem again all you need to do is add the destination before the actual text link you want displayed, like this for example - [[Jeff Beck|Jeff]] would show up like this: Jeff, as you can see although it displays "Jeff" only it will actually lead you to the Jeff Beck page. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 18:44, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I am disgusted with Wikipedia and Wikicommons and I want my account and all contributions removed and deleted.

I am disgusted with Wikipedia and Wikicommons and I want my account and all contributions removed and deleted.

Thank you Palmisano007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Palmisano007 (talk • contribs) 18:58, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

From both accounts, Wikipedia and Wikicommons. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Palmisano007 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Put simply, you cannot have your contributions deleted, you do however have the right to vanish. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 19:07, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Editors With Agendas

What do you do when an article's editor is making edits based on a personal political point of view to improve the image of a controversial subject? Is there a process for requesting that editors be removed?