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    December 31

    $now

    for things like timelines, is there a way to set a value $now which automatically sets to the current date/time? (eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Timeline_of_iPod_models ) Nicoli nicolivich (talk) 02:34, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    MediaWiki has several "magic words" dealing with time, which are listed on the linked page. When inserted, they are recognized by the software, which automatically replaces them with the appropriate information. Magic words should work in templates, such as your situation requires. This example is constructed using magic words and should update upon refreshing the page:
    The time is 17:34. Today is Monday, 15 July 2024. It is week 29 of 2024. Wikipedia has 6,852,526 articles.
    The time is {{CURRENTTIME}}. Today is {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}, {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}. It is week {{CURRENTWEEK}} of {{CURRENTYEAR}}. Wikipedia has {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles.
    Xenon54 / talk / 03:53, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    These tags should be used with great care. Articles are not always kept up-to-date, and these tags can give a false impression that the article is up-to-date when it really isn't. --Jc3s5h (talk) 04:27, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Nuclear Core Bonding

    You use to have an article on Nuclear Core Bonding. What happened to it and can I get a copy of it?

    (Email removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.189.86.173 (talk) 05:36, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I can't find any evidence that WP has ever had an article with that title (or any obvious variant). A bit of Googling suggests that the term "nuclear core bonding" is used, rarely, to refer to the topic treated in our article Nuclear force. Is that article, along with the articles linked therein, of any help? Deor (talk) 15:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Perhaps Atomic nucleus? It isn't really clear if the query refers to physical processes in the nucleus or to some nuclear reactor design or operational technique.LeadSongDog come howl 17:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Margins on articles in general

    Default margins on article pages are too wide for Aunt Tilly's aging eyes! Is there a way to shorten the line so that my eye doesn't lose it in wrapping back to the left margin? Aunt Tilly couldn't be the only one with this problem, although looking through the site for a solution makes it seem that way! Do I really need to sic my Java-speaking son on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.83.66.249 (talk) 07:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This sounds like a browser issue. You can resize the browser window horizontally to decrease line lengths, or you can increase the zoom in on the browser page (with numeric keypad: Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out and Ctrl and * to reset in Internet Explorer; Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out and Ctrl and 0 in Firefox). If everything in general is always too small, you could increase your computer's screen resolution as well. — Bility (talk) 07:33, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Search box suggestion

    This is a suggestion rather than a question, and nowhere on Wikipedia do I find a "suggestion box". That in itself may be worth doing, but now to my original (design)suggestion: I would suggest you highlight/outline/present the "search" box on the left, the part in which the search word needs to be typed, more prominently (darker or navy blue or black outline?). For regular wikipedia users it's easy to find and use, since they know where to go, but for newcomers it's difficult to identify the actual block in which they need to type. I notice this when I direct newcomers (mother in law, friends) by phone to a wikipedia search. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.189.43.172 (talk) 08:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You might try Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals), which is a place to make suggestions.--SPhilbrickT 23:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    RfA

    Resolved

    by SoWhy (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) Aditya Ex Machina 14:46, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Could someone close [1] properly? Aditya Ex Machina 09:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Have I found the right help desk?

    Sorry to have a question in the subject bar but you do seem to have a number of help desks.

    I would like to write a page on the Othona Community as you do not have one and I think it is worthy of a mention. I help as a volunteer with the Community, so I would not want to have a conflict of interest. However, reporting the facts would not be a conflict - would it?

    Jonney a (talk) 12:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Hmm...be mindful of it, and stick to information that has reliable sources and is verifiable and you should be fine. I suggest using the the article wizard as a step by step guide in creating the article. Ks0stm (T•C•G) 12:39, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Search Wikipedia with Google for: Othona Community finds a mention already in Church of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, which states one sentence about an Othona Community, with no sources. The sentence links separately to the articles Othona and Community, which I think are rather poor link destinations for the component words in the term "Othona Community". I.e., it would be better to have a specific article to link to. Note that on Wikipedia, we don't use the term "worthy" to determine what should have an article - instead we use the term "notable". Since the Othona Community has been around since 1946 and meets in a clearly notable church building, it probably meets the standard of notability here, but the burden of proof is on you to show it by finding reliable sources. See WP:ORG, Wikipedia:Advocacy, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause, and WP:FAQ/Organizations. --Teratornis (talk) 23:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Orphan

    Some of the articles are tagged orphaned. It seems there is a method to watch the links to an article. Is it a previlege of the admins or is it possible for a user to watch the links; if so how ? Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 14:36, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If you look on left side of the page, there is a section marked "toolbox". One of the options is "What links here", which will show all of the incoming links to a page. TNXMan 14:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Undoing Cluebot

    Hi,

    I split an article ("Binary tree") into 3 pages ("Binary tree" "Binary tree (data structure)" and "Binary tree (graph theory). Because "Binary tree" became short, Cluebot killed the revision to that page (but left the others). I don't want to "undo" Cluebot, because I believe it will just return the undo of my change. What do I do? Mike <blanked> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdnahas (talk • contribs) 15:02, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You can undo Cluebot, as it will only revert your edit once. TNXMan 15:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Composers births/deaths

    How can find composers born/died in 1711/1761/1811/1861/1911 withouth searching whole the lists? 88.112.93.159 (talk) 18:41, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    1711 in music, 1761 in music, 1811 in music, 1861 in music, and 1911 in music should include musicians and composers who were born and died in those years. Intelligentsium 18:46, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    index.php

    Dear Wikipedia Tech support help..

    I'm a new user trying to create my user page...I go to...

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

    and get a message stating that this user page does not exist yet and will need to be created... I then click on the link....

    Start the User:Peter Lindener page

    who's underlying URL would seem to be... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Peter_Lindener&action=edit

    I gather this is supposed to invoke a PHP sript on the server side.... My web browser is Firefox/3.5.6, running under MS_windows_7.... I also just installed Greasemonkey as I was preparing to use wikEd..

    when I click on the Start link my FirerFox browser instead of responding to a server side reply, asks me if i I would like to save the file "index.php" or open it with a specified program,

    I just now tryed the same link from MS_IE_8 and it also responds with the same query as if to save the index.php file....

    I directed it to use FireFox, and my browser then goes into an infinit loop creating untitled tab pages.......Help.....


    I'm gather your wiki page designers intended to invoke a PHP scrip to create my user page on the wikipedia server....but all does not seem well, be it with Firefox, IE_8 of on possibly on the server side of things.....

    see index.php file contents following this message..

    Can you help me get up and going so that I can contribute to the Wikipedia??

    all the best -Peter Lindener —Preceding unsigned comment added by Peter Lindener (talk • contribs) 19:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I restored your post but removed leading spaces from lines because they cause special formatting. Go to Special:Preferences and click the "Editing" tab. If there is a checkmark at "Use external editor by default (for experts only, needs special settings on your computer)", then remove it and click the Save button. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Putting Article Sections up for deletion

    Is there anyway to put sections of articles up for deletion as I have found a gallery of logo's on the Toys "R" Us article. Thanks Paul2387 (talk) 20:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Depending on how bold you're feeling, either create a thread about it on the article talk page, or follow WP:BRD. --Floquenbeam (talk) 20:18, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Agree with Floquenbeam about advice on removal from the article, but there's an underlying issue of the images themselves, which are suffering from copyright schizophrenia. They have fair use rationales, but are also marked as possibly in the public domain because they are not original enough to be within the ambit of copyright law (and for some icing on those two irreconcilable copyright statuses, they are also marked as possibly trademarked, though I don't think that matters for Wikipedia's use, but only for reusers). If they are in the public domain then it just comes down to whether they belong in the article for other reasons, but if they are fair use, I don't know that this particular use qualifies and if not, the images shouldn't just be removed from the article, but deleted.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:09, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    More information about copyright and trademarks is in Commons:COM:EIC#Trademark and Commons:COM:CB#Trademarks. There are many trademarked logos which are too simple to be copyrightable. For example, logos that consist solely of simple names in standard fonts, with no extra artistic embellishment. I don't know whether that applies to the Toys R Us logos. On the other hand, a photo like File:TOYSRUS Geoffrey Jr 01.JPG probably runs afoul of the prohibition in Commons:COM:CB#Comic and action figures. --Teratornis (talk) 23:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How do I find a page I edited in the past?

    Some time ago, maybe more than a year, I edited a page. I don't remember the subject. Is there a way to enter a search for pages edited by a specific person? If not, do you have a way of finding a paged edited by me? TIA- CR —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.33.55.222 (talk) 21:53, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Picking your (IP) signature goes to Special:Contributions/99.33.55.222, which is a list of all contributions made by that IP. Unfortunately, this question is the only contribution listed, so when edited you it a year ago you must have been on a different IP address.
    I'm afraid that if you cannot remember any details of the page there is absolutely no way of identifying the edit.
    This is one of the many advantages of creating an account: it only takes a moment, and doesn't cost anything, and then all the edits you make from that account will be traceable together. --ColinFine (talk) 22:07, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    (e/c) You are currently editing by your IP address. IPs are often dynamic, switching from person to person. This is the only edit the particular IP assigned to you right now has ever made. If your past edit was also by an IP, and you don't have some record of the IPs that have been assigned to you, then there is no way to check what edits you have made. If, in the other hand, you had signed up for an an account in the past, and made the edit using that account, you can then access the edit history of that user account. Otherwise, the only way to retrieve the edit is to know what article it was you edited and check the article's page history.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:07, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict) Logged in users have a link saying "My contributions" to a list of all their edits (except to deleted pages which can only be seen by administrators). If you were not logged in then the edit was registered to your IP address at the time. Special:Contributions/99.33.55.222 shows no other edits by the IP address used to post here. Many browsers keep a history of pages you have visited but probably not a year back. If you were not logged in and don't know the IP address of the used computer (which may have changed IP address since then), then I cannot help. If you have an idea which pages it might have been then you could try clicking the "history" tab and look for your old edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Music - popular children's song

    Who originally composed the children's tune Wheels on the Bus? Does anyone hold the copyrite?

    I'm not concerned with who has arranged it or performed it - many people have. I want to know how one gets to have the rights to arrange, perform and record another arrangement of the tune> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.136.91 (talk) 22:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    January 1

    Incomprehension

    I am at a complete loss as to how to insert a "citation needed". I find the whole thing completely incomprehensible.

    MB Bailey Dairyhouse (talk) 01:34, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Type {{fact}}, {{cn}}, or {{citationneeded}}. Intelligentsium 01:35, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It appears from your edits like [2] that you want to respond to a Citation needed request and not make a request for a citation. See Wikipedia:Citing sources and possibly {{Cite journal}}. Place the citation code right after the statement you are referencing, on the same line. If your reference satisfies the request then it can replace {{Citation needed}}. Don't sign article edits with ~~~~. That is for talk pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:14, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Why did you delete what i added?

    On the events page of december 31 I added a relevant event, which was true to the maximium information released at the time, the event was the shooting in a finnish shopping centre, yet when I look later it has been deleted, I have no idea why? You say we can edit your webpage so why aren't you letting us? Please email me an explanation at Email address removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.197.152.198 (talk) 02:02, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You'll have to give a specific article title. Also, we don't email answers to questiosn posted on the reference desk. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:07, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Portal:Current events/2009 December 31 still has the Finnish shooting on it. Nanonic (talk) 02:17, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Click on the "history" tab to see the page history. I guess you refer to [3] which was removed in [4]. If the mention is linked to the article Espoo shopping mall shooting then perhaps it will stay. The edit was not registered to the same IP address as your post here so you probably have a dynamic IP address. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:29, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia helping criminal activity

    Does it matter to Wikipedia, when people place articles on the web site, that is aiding their criminal activities, Does the law actually matter to Wikipedia?

    when it comes to accurate information,i am only trying to make the information wiki has correct —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.168.73.158 (talk) 02:56, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You'll have to be wayyyy more specific. Someguy1221 (talk) 03:02, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The post here is the only edit registered to that IP address so we cannot see what you refer to. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:18, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    3rd Civil Affairs Group

    How do I get this article locked out to IP editors & new users? It is frequently smacked with vandalism of the same type. Thanks. FieldMarine (talk) 03:23, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Normally you'd request at WP:RFPP, but this request would be declined; the page hasn't been edited since November and the vandalism was light enough that it could be handled by watchlisting alone, if it continues at the same rate. Someguy1221 (talk) 03:28, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    This is recurring; see prior to February 2008. It's the same guy with the same comment over & ovrer again about a person from the unit, a CWO. FieldMarine (talk) 03:38, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Requests for semi-protection need to have high levels of IP vandalism and need to be recent vandalism. There is no reason why it should be protected at the moment.
    (edit conflict) If it's one specific editor, then warn the user (using something like {{uw-test1}} or {{uw-vand1}}) and if they persist report them to WP:AIV. Cheers, — Deontalk 03:45, 1 January 2010 (UTC)1[reply]

    The person has been warned many times, but keeps using a new IP address & adding the same comment. FieldMarine (talk) 03:48, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Maybe raise this over at the administrators noticeboard for incidents. If they think there is sufficient evidence (which there may not be), they can contact a checkuser and have the IPs checked and correlated (technically any user can do this with some knowledge of how IPs are mapped, but if vandalism is involved an administrator is the best person to contact). — Deontalk 05:49, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I count 55 incidents of vandalism sinceOctober 14, 2007. IMHO, this seems excessive & disruptive. Thanks! FieldMarine (talk) 14:44, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Protect Cablevision

    You guys may wanna protect that page, cause I can guarantee there will be TONS of pissed off customers who will vandalize this article, due to the fact that they just dropped the Food Network and HGTV from their lineup as a result of a dispute over money between CV and Scripps Network (owner of FN & HGTV). 24.189.90.68 (talk) 08:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Thanks, but we don't protect pages pre-emptively. There's not much activity on that article, let alone disruption. If it does go as you say, then it will be protected. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 09:46, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Delinking dates

    Question: Is it preffered to delink dates in articles? Or to delink dates in the references of the articles? I noticed a robot doing that (here), that is why I ask — Ark25 (talk) 10:32, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See the link provided in the editsummary of the edit. WP:MOSUNLINKDATES —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:58, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Administrator

    How do you nominate another user so they can become an administrator? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gigogag (talk • contribs) 13:48, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The nominations happen at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. Please read and follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Nominate. --Mysdaao talk 14:15, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Before nominating someone you should be well aware of what RfA contributors look for and hope to see in a admin candidate and look for and hope not to see in an admin candidate. Many users nominate themselves or are nominated by another when they have no reasonable chance to ever pass an RFA at the time because of their experience level or other factors. The RFA process can be very harsh and people are often traumatized by a failed nomination process that could have been avoided if they knew in advance that they were not likely to succeed.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:45, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Notability

    Resolved
     – Mysdaao talk 19:07, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Where can I go to ask about the notability criteria per wp:prof? I have made an article for a university professor, Viacheslav V. Nikulin, with over 65 peer reviewed publications[5] and two published books[6]. He's also mentioned in B. H. Yandell's "The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers" as being a major contributor towards the solution of Hilbert's 16th problem[7]. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 15:10, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You can make a request at the noticeboard for discussing biographical articles at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. You can also ask at the more general Wikipedia:Requests for feedback or ask the members of Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Science and academia for guidance on the WikiProject's talk page. --Mysdaao talk 15:41, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    That's great, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr Dec (talk • contribs) 15:52, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You're welcome! --Mysdaao talk 19:07, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Moving

    Hi ,

    Please suggest , how to move this page from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Richfriend/new_article_name_here ) to article.

    How to move the page from work in progress page, to article for public view.

    Regards, Sri —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richfriend (talk • contribs) 15:19, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Sri, you will be able to move pages when you are autoconfirmed, which happens automatically when an account is at least four days old and has made at least ten edits. Your account is over four days old and you have currently made nine edits. Make one more edit to any page on Wikipedia, and you will be autoconfirmed. Then you will be able to move the page to an article by pressing the "move" tab on the top of the page and typing the name you want the new article to have. --Mysdaao talk 15:32, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Articles
    Accounts
    Richfriend (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
    JoostVoeten (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
    Srideep TestPlant (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · Spamcheck · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
    212.79.63.131 (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • blacklist hits • AbuseLog • what links to user page • COIBot • Spamcheck • count • block log • x-wiki • Edit filter search • WHOIS • RDNS • tracert • robtex.com • StopForumSpam • Google • AboutUs • Project HoneyPot)
    67.174.111.71 (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • blacklist hits • AbuseLog • what links to user page • COIBot • Spamcheck • count • block log • x-wiki • Edit filter search • WHOIS • RDNS • tracert • robtex.com • StopForumSpam • Google • AboutUs • Project HoneyPot)
    Returning blocked spam/advertising sock account Richfriend (talk · contribs). JoostVoeten (talk · contribs) claims "I'm working for Testplant..."[8]. Use of wikipedia as a vehicle for advertising and promotion for "Testplant" software. See Spam case--Hu12 (talk) 18:24, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I am a new contributor. I may have named my new article incorrectly

    Resolved
     – Moved by User:Fuhghettaboutit. Intelligentsium 22:11, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    A couple of hours ago, I "saved" an article named Santa Biondo. However, I may have mis-named it. When I open "my contributions", the title appears as User:AllanVLacki/"Santa Biondo"

    Is this an error? If so, can you fix it for me?

    Allan LackiAllanVLacki (talk) 20:21, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I presume you used the article wizard? You created a user subpage, wherein you may work on it without it getting deleted (with some exceptions). I see User:Fuhghettaboutit has do so for you. Intelligentsium 22:11, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
             Thank you for your help! Allan Lacki

    I got a message saying my edits would be subject to a filter

    Hello --I just edited and updated an entry about myself William Upski Wimsatt. There were major errors (wrong birth year, misspelled name etc) and a lot of out of date information. When I saved my entry, I got an auto message flagging my entry as having triggered a "filter" having to do with promoting an organization. There was a place to contest this decision (my edits were factual, non-controversial, non-promotional, etc), but I can't find the link anywhere. I tried to look through everything with the word filter in it... Thank you!Billywimsatt (talk) 20:21, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    An automated filter correctly identified you as having a conflict of interest. You are strongly discouraged from editing the article about yourself, except to correct unambiguous factual errors. These corrections must be backed up by citing reliable sources. Xenon54 / talk / 20:29, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    However, since you were correcting unambiguous errors, that's fine, and your edit was saved, the notification message was just for your information. Prodego talk 20:32, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:J%C3%A1nos_K%C3%A1d%C3%A1r_%28fototeca.iiccr.ro%29.jpg

    Good day, can please anybody "mercyfull" put this file an commons? Im want use him in other language versions of articles... many thnaks --77.48.153.172 (talk) 20:49, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I can't actually access Commons, but I think you'll find the file here: commons:File:001.Nicolae Ceausescu la varsta de 15 ani in 1933.jpg? SpitfireTally-ho! 21:30, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No, that's a different image. I'll move it. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:03, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
     Done commons:File:János Kádár (fototeca.iiccr.ro).jpg —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:08, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Original research

    How do I insert the Original research note into articles? Note: I don't mean the template. Thanks. Ahead 3 (talk) 21:22, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Do you mean like so: "experiments have shown that the great white shark preforms a barrel roll before attacking.[original research?]"?
    That is a template, located at Template:or, to use it simply put {{or}} at the end of the sentence that you think is original research. If this is not what you mean please say so below. Regards, SpitfireTally-ho! 21:27, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    start

    How do I start a page about myself and publish it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmellino (talk • contribs) 21:31, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm afraid that's against Wikipedia policy. why don't you try myspace, or some other such social networking service? Hello, My Name Is SithMAN8 (talk) 21:33, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Further reading: WP:AUTO, WP:COI, WP:NPOV, WP:Notability (people). Intelligentsium 22:14, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (e/c) For the reasons why, see Wikipedia:Autobiography. In a nutshell: the article will probably focus on how great you are (against our neutral point of view policy), even if you don't intend it to, and the article will likely have personal anecdotes (original research and unverifiable information are always prohibited). If you were notable enough to have an article - meaning in Wikipedia's eyes, you are important enough to deserve an article - chances are someone would have written one. There are several alternative websites that are not affiliated with Wikipedia, such as Wikipopuli, that have less stringent inclusion guidelines and encourage people to create biographies of themselves. Xenon54 / talk / 22:19, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Is there a way to find those articles that have two assessment characteristics? (i.e. High Importance, Stub) or such

    Sounds like a job for CatScan. You can find the tool here. (The toolserver seems to be down for the moment.) Under "Wiki", type "en" in the box. Then in the "search in category" box, type one category (e.g. Category:Top-importance articles). Then select "for pages by category" and type in the other category (e.g. Category:A-Class articles). Then hit "Scan" and after a while a list of all 12 pages in those two categories will appear. Xenon54 / talk / 23:59, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    search suggestions

    Could somebody please tell me how I can make my article name appear in the search suggestions? I wrote an article and it is not listed in the search suggestions, and I am not so sure what I should do.

    UniversityoffelicityUniversityoffelicity (talk) 23:06, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See WP:SEARCH. It can take a week or longer for Wikipedia to index an article. It can be reached immediately with the GO button.--162.83.137.52 (talk) 23:11, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    .. but it usually takes a day, so check back tomorrow. --rainman (talk) 23:18, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    William Songer

    william songer stoke by nayland was not arthur wakefields brother in law william was a servant of the wakefield family read the history and make it right this man william Songer was my ancestor who was a pioneer in new zealand —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.0.88.199 (talk) 23:20, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Please use a descriptive title in future questions.
    Thank you for your suggestion regarding Stoke-by-Nayland. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). --Mysdaao talk 01:22, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    January 2

    Strange Java Script

    I recently added a talk message to a user's page and the diff shows some strange inserted javascript in an unrelated section to my edit. Has anyone seen something like this before? It seems to reference a user named Henrik? Diff [9].--Torchwood Who? (talk) 02:46, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    User:Torchwoodwho/monobook.js imports User:Henrik/js/afc-helper.js which contains code like that, but I don't know enough about scripts to say more than removing this import should avoid the problem. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:40, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    This happens to users of Safari or Chrome, when scripts use document.write() to load new scripts. They should be using importScript(). I'll try to fix this for you. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:02, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How many pictures can I put up?

    How many pictures can i put up in my article? Is there a limit. Once, I did put up about six pictures, but five of them were taken down by an administrator. what is the maximum number of pictures that I can put up in one article?

    UniversityoffelicityUniversityoffelicity (talk) 04:15, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It would depend on the article, some articles like Barack Obama have almost 13, mostly because of notability, some like History (TV channel) only need one. so commonsense is the best rule of thumb. Weaponbb7 (talk) 04:51, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hey i just noticed on you talk page that some pictures you uploaded have had some issues this may also be a contributing factor on them getting taken down. Weaponbb7 (talk) 04:55, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If you can follow the instructions in Commons:COM:L#Acceptable licenses, you can upload as many pictures as you want to Wikimedia Commons and put them in a gallery page there. You can link from an article on Wikipedia to a gallery page on Commons with the {{Commons}} template. Incidentally, your username may violate WP:ORGNAME. --Teratornis (talk) 01:23, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Oldsmobile

    I have been trying to fine out how many of the Super 88 Oldsmobile 4 door cars where made in 1964 I have been looking and cann't fine out any thing on them Thank You Ron emailaddress is [details removed] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.226.95.115 (talk) 04:39, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If the info does not exist on Wikipedia (which is never guaranteed), you only options are to find it yourself (on the internet or in a book) and add it to Wikipedia, or to hit the "Discussion" tab at the top of the specific article and ask that someone add that information. MatthewVanitas (talk) 06:27, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address.
    You might find what you are looking for in the article about Oldsmobile 88. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. --Mysdaao talk 14:42, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How can i find out how many time a page has been edited?

    i looked around the only thing i can find is for users edit counts. i want to know how many times a article has been revised since its creation. Weaponbb7 (talk) 04:41, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You can use http://vs.aka-online.de/cgi-bin/wppagehiststat.pl. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:30, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    For future reference, you can find many such tools at Wikipedia:Tools. Here, you would be looking under the section header labeled Page histories. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:45, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How to direct WP:SICILY to Wikipedia:WikiProject_Sicily

    I've read up on the basics, but I'm still somehow baffled as to how I formally make WP:SICILY part of Wikipedia:WikiProject_Sicily. I can create an article and do a re-direct (which I've done), but how do I actually make WP:SICILY the formal designator for this wiki-project? MatthewVanitas (talk) 06:25, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    EDIT: I'm referring to this "Shortcut" box, as seen here at Wikipedia:WikiProject Firearms. MatthewVanitas (talk) 07:02, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Click edit this page on Wikipedia:WikiProject Firearms to see how it did something. You can place {{Shortcut|WP:SICILY}} on Wikipedia:WikiProject Sicily. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:18, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Names

    Are we allowed to use ordinary peoples' names in articles? This article uses such a name. jc iindyysgvxc (my contributions) 11:25, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I presume you mean the caption to the image Alex age 2, crosscountry sking with his parents - as the article is about a Ski Area then the child is not notable. If the image helps add value to the article then it should just have a neutral caption like Cross-country sking near badger pass, I have changed the caption but I do not have a view on if it adds any value to the article. MilborneOne (talk) 12:03, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    moving a page or aticle

    I created a new article and tried to move it, after it is ready. The title of the article is Bioproducts or Bioproduct. Once I am done moving, when I do a search in Wikipedia the page does not appear. Am I missing some thing in creating an article? Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bioguru1 (talk • contribs) 15:55, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It takes a little while - up to a day - for Wikipedia's search engine to "index" newly created articles. External search engines take longer. Xenon54 / talk / 16:50, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    hi

    Good day dear I am postgraduated student and i wanna start studying at oyur Univ.What are the requirements needed to register and could you please send me the cost for MBA in English language?

    Yours Mr Samba — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.251.135.68 (talk)

    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. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:48, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Disagreement on the move

    An editor has moved an an article created by me. I dissagree with him (or her.) The dialog over the talk page is fruitless. I prefer to crete newer articles rather than to spend my efforts on moving and removing the articles endlessly. But at the same time I insist on using the original name. What do you suggest? Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 19:26, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It's difficult to discuss theory. It would have been better if you had linked to the article. But if I were you, I would take the page to Wikipedia:Requested_moves to get a bit more input on the article move from non-involved editors. It's either that, or you will just have to stop caring and let it slide. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:02, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Seconded. The best course is to list this at Wikipedia:Requested moves (I assume this is regarding List of cities conquered by the Ottoman Empire).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:07, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I edited (minor updates/corrections to my bio) for two hours, Saved page, it looked fine, then I got a notice it couldn't be processed!

    All my laborious edits, including posting 17 references to book translations and updating outdated URLs, appear to have been lost. I don't have my own copy, nor time to start over. Can someone please recover and post the edits I entered? I can't imagine any would be objectionable. And I can't find any contact on your website from which I can actually get help. --Coloradophysicist —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coloradophysicist (talk • contribs) 20:20, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Your contributions show that you have only made two edits. If the edits you were working on did not save correctly, they are lost and there is nothing we can do to recover them. It might have been a software error, or it might have been something else like you were trying to add links with URLs that were blacklisted. Without knowing the message you saw, we can't know.

    GOOD NEWS: By hitting the back button lots of times in my browser, I was able to see a page with all my edits, and I pasted a copy of it into a Word document, so I do now have a copy of the work that seems to have been lost. But I have no idea what to do with it. I was properly logged in when I saved the page; it appeared to have saved and displayed correctly; then a few seconds later, an error message came up saying that my edit could not be processed, so I should try logging out and logging in again. (On returning later to the recovered page, I logged out, logged in again, but couldn't return to where I was. Also, when I returned to the original incorrect page, there was a message from Calmer Waters, but it disappeared before I could reply to him/her. This system is not very user-friendly.)

    When you say "to my bio", do you mean a biographical article about you? If so, please read Wikipedia:Autobiography.

    REPLY: I already had read that and everything else that seemed relevant. It says nothing about this problem.

    You should avoid writing a biographical article about yourself because it is difficult to write a neutral, verifiable article about yourself. --Mysdaao talk 20:34, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    REPLY: Yes, the bio is about myself. I did not write it; I only attempted my routine annual minor corrections such as outdated URLs and adding the missing references to translations of my three most recent books. Nothing changed the tone or should be objectionable in any way. I can't imagine any of the URLs were blacklisted. I am trying to maintain your standards in all respects, but can't if the engine won't keep the corrections I saved. Now what?

    SUPPLEMENTARY REPLY: I now have the corrected page back up (thanks again to my browser's back button) on a separate screen and will await the community's kind advice about what to do with it. The exact error notice is: "Preview. Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still does not work try logging out and logging back in." [which didn't help—it only lost the screen!] I can privately send you the URL for the corrected page if that would help. I hesitate to try pressing "Save page" again lest it get lost again. Thanks for any suggestions!

    SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION: Is there a way to enter special characters, like Czech and Polish diacritics, so as to get the foreign book titles right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coloradophysicist (talk • contribs) 20:59, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    ""Preview. Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again." That means that you took too long in the edit window. Save regurly and often, if you have the edit window open for over an hour, your edit will not succeed (This is not only on Wikipedia, it goes for most text submission on the Internet). —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:04, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict) That was a software error, which is rare but happens. It wasn't suggesting logging out and logging in ordet to retrieve what you edited, only to avoid the error in the future. If you try to edit it again, it will work.
    Even if you did not write the content, users are strongly encouraged not to create an article about themselves. Read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest for more details on this before creating it. Also, you may not meet the notability guidelines for people at Wikipedia:Notability (people). If you aren't considered notable, the article may be deleted.
    The message from Calmer Waters is a welcome message posted on your user talk page, which is located at User talk:Coloradophysicist. You are probably talking about the orange message bar you saw on the top of a page. When you went to your user talk page, the orange bar disappeared because you had viewed the new message, but the welcome message still exists and you can respond to it any time you want.
    I don't have the answer on how to use characters in other languages, so I'll let others answer that. --Mysdaao talk 21:10, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Below the edit box you should see either MediaWiki:Edittools or (if you have JavaScript enabled) a box (maybe saying "Insert" at first) where you can choose between different sets of characters that can be inserted in the edit box with a click. You can also usually copy-paste a special character from an external source or an existing page to the edit box. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:33, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Acid ( Mortal Kombat )

    ABOUT ACID

    ACID IS A MERCENARY FROM OUTWORLD...<balance of post removed>—Preceding unsigned comment added by Hillmike56 (talk • contribs) 20:25, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hello. This page is not for posting article content or proposed article content but for questions about using Wikipedia. No article (and no post here) should ever be typed in all caps. The subject you posted about does not appear to be a valid topic for an article. Even if "Acid" is a well known character from Mortal Kombat's Outworld, commonly, such in-universe characters do not have sufficient reliable third party sources written about them to verify article content or show notability. Such characters may be mentioned in a larger article on the topic. Here, A Google search does not even reveal that the character has any presence, and if this is about a user created character in a role-playing game, that would almost certainly not be a notable topic. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:16, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    There are lots of wikis that specialize in gaming, and accept a wide range of non-notable content which would seem vitally important to gamers but might be "cruft" to Wikipedians. See WikiIndex:Category:Games. --Teratornis (talk) 01:42, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Soxred's Tool

    Does anyone know a way to get Soxred's Tool (the main edit counter given for user contributions) to list the breakdown of "top edited articles" for users over a certain number of edits? It appears to work fine up to about 45,000 edits but won't any for users above some threshold near there. Maybe some add on to the url to limit how far back it goes? I really need this break down of edits feature for an RfA I'm writing. Alternatively, does anyone know of another tool that provides the same function? I checked the edit counters at WP:TOOLS and WikiProject edit counters and found squat.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:36, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Try WikiChecker - it does what you want (I think) but it might take forever with 45k edits. Xenon54 / talk / 21:47, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Referencing sources inside sources

    It would be a lot more useful to reference a book which is given as a source inside another book but i don't know how to, even with the current reference templates. Also what do i do if the book i am using gives the sources at the end of each section but does not cite within the text. From my past experience (and anyone's academically) it would be better to use or cite those sources within the book. Do i only use the author of the book (in this case Denis Smith - Civil Engineering Heritage of London and the Thames Valley) but it seems possible only to do this at the moment. Simply south (talk) 21:42, 2 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    January 3

    HELP ME FIND THE ADDRESS FOR A WEB REGISTRAR

    Dear Sir: I'm trying to find the email address and postal mailing address for the internet registrar; http://registrar.lundl.info Can you please help me? Sincerely Diana [details removed] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Traditionalcats (talk • contribs) 00:10, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address.
    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. Intelligentsium 00:38, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    A simple whois for the domain shows the registered address here. Nanonic (talk) 00:54, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Template:Vector version available

    Hi. There are two versions of an annotated map of Argentina (File:ARGENT.svg[10] and File:Argentina_-_Pol%C3%ADtico_2.png[11]) The latter is the original but it's in Spanish and I suppose an svg version is preferable anyway. The png version should be tagged with Template:Vector version available. Unfortunately, I don't know where the template should go. Does the Wikipedia image page have to be created or can it go in the Commons page? If so, whereabouts in the source? Thanks. --81.108.135.172 (talk) 02:59, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Music-CD Cover Scan

    Hi.

    I've scanned a local Funk-group CD cover formatting it as a .JPG, so that it could now be used in the group's article, which I had created, on he:wiki.

    Would you so kindly inform me, given that I DO NOT possess any sort of registered account in any of the Wikipedia editions - but have a WikiCommons account, can I, and how (and where), upload this file and feature it on he:wiki without crossing the legal guidlines we're bounded to as editors here.

    Thank you very much.

    /Orrling 82.166.53.7 (talk) 03:14, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    WikiMedia wikis have had Single User Login enabled for quite some time now, you should be able to log onto Wikipedias in all languages using your Commons account information and then (depending on whether the Hebrew Wikipedia requires users to be autoconfirmed or not) upload your image. Nanonic (talk) 03:18, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you, as a NON-REGISTERED he-wiki editor (now almost a year and a half) I am UNAUTHORIZED to upload files onto the project, though as said I can upload ORIGINAL pictures to Commons. Having little understanding in what this involves, and wishing to adhere the upload rules and yet to be able to have the cd-cover in that relevant article, could you please be more specific of how and where I can upload that picture, legally, WITHOUT REGISTERING to WikiPedia. /O 82.166.53.7 (talk) 03:27, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Please do not upload it to Commons. It is most likely copyrighted, and therefore explicitly forbidden at Commons. Intelligentsium 03:30, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I did have this in mind :) Thank you. Could I ask you (personally/systemwise) to receive that picture from me via mail, and upload it so I can then fix it in the article? (-or alternatively edit it into the article yourself?) Thanx so much. /O 82.166.53.7 (talk) 03:33, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Anyone?..? /O 82.166.53.7 (talk) 04:14, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    flight pattern leads in ducks

    cannot find answer to my question: when you see the ducks and geese flying in their v-formation, how is it decided which bird is at the head of the formation and leads the others?javascript:insertTags('207.5.122.150 (talk) 03:10, 3 January 2010 (UTC)',,)[reply]

    See V-formation. They alternate apparently. --81.108.135.172 (talk) 03:24, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Cannot 'search' my new article

    Hi,

    I just finished moving an article that I had created to the mainspace with the 'move' facility. However, I am unable to retrieve this article via the search function in Wikipedia. Have I misssed something when moving my article or is there a time lag before an article is 'searchable'.

    Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chammika.udalagama (talk • contribs) 04:20, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Im not an expert But I do think that there is a time lage for an article to show pu in the search. This has happened to me before as well.--Coldplay Expért Let's talk 04:49, 3 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Archiving a web document?

    Hi All,

    If I (1) link to a webpage as a reference, and (2) sometime in the future that webpage disappears, then (3) ...my reference is gone, right?

    So is there a Wikipedia format for uploading a .pdf file that archives reference information?

    for example: http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/PastProjects/NH/96-07/96-07-26/0052.html

    thanks! -j

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