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    July 17

    -Spaces

    I've come across a lot of Wikipedia: space and Help: space, but I never really questioned the fundamental difference between them. Can you explain to me what it is that separates them? :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 01:00, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    There's not a huge difference, as they are both directly related to Wikipedia. Pages in the "Wikipedia" space (more formally referred to as the project namespace) contains things such as policy, guidelines, essays, and discussions related to the project, while pages in the help namespace are there to explicitly help in using Wikipedia and its software. For example, take Wikipedia:Reverting: It's an essay that outlines what reverting is, along with providing some guidelines and policy regarding it. Help:Reverting, on the other hand, goes into more technical detail and explains how to revert pages. Some can argue that some pages belong in either mainspace; in my view, I also don't see that much of a difference, but it's there. Check out Wikipedia:Namespace for a description of each namespace. Hope this helps. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 01:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The Wikipedia namespace is for things like policies, guidelines, and other Wiki-related things. The Help namespace is for ONLY help topics. Also, the Wikipedia namespace is much more widely used, as opposed to the Help namespace.  A p3rson ‽ 01:21, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Personally, I've always wanted to write Help:Edit warring. --erachima talk 06:19, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Originally, pages in the Help space were copies of the Help from Meta, with some local content using a series of templates. Those pages on Meta were never updated, a lot of local changes were made, and much of the content was duplicated in Wikipedia pages. See Help:Footnotes and WP:Footnotes for an example. This got so disjointed that the Meta stuff was tossed on most of the Help pages about two years ago and most were rewritten. It is still rather messy. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 12:40, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The difference to me is: If I want to know how to do something, I go to Help; if I want to know when or why to do something, I go to project space. I find project space pages that have to do with a specific process often are needlessly complex, covering every single topic that could possibly be related to the page title, when a Help page is much better at providing a simple explanation so I can get back to work quickly. For example, Help:Table tells me how to make a simple table in the first subheading, and goes on to cover more complex tables if I need to know how to use color or do a rowspan. WP:TABLE goes to the Manual of Style entry which does not even cover how to actually create the damned thing, and someone who is just scanning the page may miss the italicised Main page: Help:Table. Xenon54 (talk) 14:10, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I agree. Help should be a how to do something, Wikipedia should be why. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 14:34, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Routemaster RMA

    My Mum was a clippy for over 25 years at Seven Kings and I am trying to find out that when she passes away our family would like to celebrate her time on the buses by using one for her funeral.

    Do you know how we can loan or hire one for the service

    Thank you for your help Sharon Jones —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.147.115.161 (talk) 08:15, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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. However, I suggest you begin with a Google search for "hire a routemaster bus". -- John of Reading (talk) 08:29, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    A quick Google search reveals several hits, the first two of which are this and this. Karenjc 10:42, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Need help with a WikiProject

    I'm developing a WikiProject (WikiProject American Old West to be exact). I created an assessment page and I also created categories where articles in a certain class and importance would go. I tried assessing an article, but the assessment didn't show up. What did I do wrong? The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 15:21, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Which article have you tried to assess and which category do you want it in? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:30, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    The article is American Old West (how the WikiProject got its name), and I want it to be in the Top-importance American Old West articles and B-Class American Old West articles categories. The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 15:36, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Done: [1][2]. I see you manually added Category:WikiProject American Old West articles to Talk:American Old West and you don't request all tagged talk pages to automatically be added so I haven't done that. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:46, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks! The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 19:59, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Done: [3]. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:07, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Much appreciated, thank you. The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 21:19, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    move images to commons

    I'm trying to get set up to move images to the Commons easily. I followed the directions at Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons (got a TUSC account). I added the script at User:Fran Rogers/CommonsHelper Helper to my monoblock.js file and reloaded. I have the preference to preview on first edit checked. But when I edit the page of an image file, the "move image to the Commons" button isn't there. (At least I don't see it and a search doesn't find it.) What could be wrong and how can I fix it? Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 15:35, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I don't know about CommonsHelper Helper. Instead I made a template in my userspace that creates a link to CommonsHelper with most of the critical fields pre-filled the way I like. See User:Teratornis/Notes#Improving the efficiency of using CommonsHelper. My method still requires too much clicking and editing, but it is self-documenting so I can easily remember what to do when I haven't used it for months. It would be nice to have a totally simple one-click method to move an image to Commons, but the process is difficult to automate due to the large number of images on Wikipedia with questionable copyright and ad hoc formatting of the description and licensing text. --Teratornis (talk) 18:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I was just trying to use CommonsHelper and CommonsHelper 2, but I can't get them to work. There is a red message about Commons not accepting bot uploads. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 19:16, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Does the message link to an explanation? Sometimes you can get answers about technical problems on Commons on Commons:Commons:Village pump. If there are server problems, sometimes the Wikimedia technical blog explains them. The most important thing to determine about such problems is whether and when they might get fixed. I.e., has anyone else reported it to whoever can fix it, and is that person working on a solution. --Teratornis (talk) 22:50, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Need an explanation? Well, I tried to follow it but it didn't work. Either it is wrong or not clear enough, or I made an error, or something else is wrong. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 02:03, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Changing an article name

    How do I change the name of the article on my grandfather (currently Gerhard Jack Zunz) to "Jack (Gerhard Jacob) Zunz"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toomuch2young (talk • contribs) 15:58, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See Help:Move. Also please read the notability standard for people and add additional references to that page, as the article you've referred to appears not to meet it at present. --erachima talk 16:01, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If he's most commonly known as Jack Zunz, the article should almost certainly be moved over the redirect at Jack Zunz. The article title "Jack (Gerhard Jacob) Zunz" is nonstandard. See WP:TITLE and WP:NCP. Deor (talk) 16:04, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Edit summary help

    Reduction in numbar of slept admins

    I am a Bureaucrat at Hindi wiki. There are a large number of admins, of which maximum number is of slept ones. A few ones visit at rare occasions, & 2-4 are active ones. This is unnecessary creating a mess. I therefore request that large number of sleeping admins may please be intimated & warned that there admin right may & will be seized if this continues for one more month. Some guidelines may please be framed like:

    • One month of inactivity (0 contribution) aur 3 months of (<100 contr.) may lead to a final warning. After that one month of <100 contr, straight seizure of the admin rights.

    Please help us out, I can even arrange for a vote from 3-4 active admins if required. Request a Talkback template at hindi discussion page. Thanks.--आशीष भटनागर (talk) 17:28, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You don't make it easy to understand you, by hiding your link to the Hindi wikipedia under the name 'wiki'. But this is the English Wikipedia, and has no standing whatever at the Hindi one. It is not clear what you are asking. --ColinFine (talk) 19:41, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It's fairly clear that he's asking help in getting more "sleeping" admins active. But as you say, we don't manage the Hindi wikipedia. I'm guessing he's posting everywhere, trying to get some help. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:45, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    An apology for missing the word Hindi before wiki, which I have corrected here. Now the second thing is that I have not posted it anywhere, but at Jimmy Wales Talk page, where it was suggested to write at this page. Now off course this is eng wiki help desk, but people here have much more experiences than our, further here might be some strategy existing to solve the abovesaid issue. This was what I expected. Either we can get sleeping admins active (which is next to impossible), or can we sieze adminship rights, firstly for a definite period, & then on no response, permanently? as they are even contacted on mails, wherever possible but to no response. Also most of them have no mail-contacts listed here. So they just addup to Hindi wiki admin list, but never reverted back. I think I am clear now.--आशीष भटनागर (talk) 03:17, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Uploading PDFs for use as references

    Over at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/K. A. Malle Pharmaceuticals Limited, someone suggested they could upload company PDFs to "Wikimedia" then use these as references for the K. A. Malle Pharmaceuticals Limited article. TBH, I doubt this is permitted, but I thought I would ask anyway. If it is permitted, which Wikipedia policy/guideline permits this. If it is not permitted, which Wikipedia policy/guideline prohibits this? Astronaut (talk) 18:34, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hmm... PDFs have to follow the same rules as other files (images), so that would pretty much be out of the question. In addition, references have to be to a reliable source that has already been published -- no original research. Calvin 1998 (t·c) 18:52, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    As Calvin says, PDFs based on non-published files mean nothing. If they are copies of published, verifiable sources, then what we need are citations to the published sources, not to PDFs of copies thereof. We get that occasionally: links to photocopies of clippings, which may (for all we know) have been altered in some way, instead of citations of the original published articles. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Vandalism?

    Is the most recent edit on the page Bugsy Malone vandalism so i know if i can revert it?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 19:33, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes. I've already reverted it.TMCk (talk) 19:42, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Or maybe not? Checking...TMCk (talk)
    I've removed the link. He's another Michael Jackson.TMCk (talk) 19:51, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Wrong again. It really was him.TMCk (talk) 19:54, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    dr who

    the number of dr who,s are wrong there have been ten dr,sin the tv series if you innclude movie dr,s also there have been twelve as paul mcgann [1986] and peter cushing[1965]92.25.199.57 (talk) 19:58, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Which article are you referring to? David Tennant is The Tenth Doctor at the official BBC site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/characters/doctor10. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:03, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Peter Cushing is not regarded as a canonical Doctor (neither are Richard E. Grant who played the Shalka Doctor, nor any of the actors who portrayed the character in Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death). Paul McGann was the eighth Doctor and is already included. Our article on the Doctor has some more info. AJCham 21:15, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Vandalism?

    Is the most recent edit on the page The Walking Dead (TV series) vandalism?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 20:00, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I think so. Clicking through to the cited source I find Michelle Maxwell MacLaran mentioned, not Dan O'Connor. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:40, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How to insert a TAB character when editing an article ?

    Well, the title says it all. For years I was able to insert a TAB character in all text zones just by pressing the TAB key on my keyboard, but now for some reason it will not happen and instead move to the next control field (damn all these automatic software updates...). Would anyone please have an easy way to do that ? (my actual concern is not to insert in a Wikipedia article but in a Wikibooks article, but I will recklessly assume the answer would be the same). SyG (talk) 21:30, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Copy and paste :) If you're using Windows you can type 09 on the number pad while holding down the ALT key (see Alt code). -- zzuuzz (talk) 21:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks, I am using Windows indeed, but your proposal does not seem to work: when I type 09 it just goes to the next field as if I had entered the TAB key, instead of inserting a TAB character (i.e. an indent) in the text zone where I was. SyG (talk) 09:00, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I can only suggest you ensure the numlock is turned on, that you use the number pad instead of the top keys, and that you hold down the ALT key until after the 9 is lifted. You might want to practice in a text editor. If that doesn't work, here's a tab character for you to copy and paste. -- zzuuzz (talk) 09:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks. Actually the method you propose works great in usual text editors (Notepad, Word, ...) but not in the text zones of Wikipedia or Wikibooks, so it is related either to the Wikimedia software either to the way my computer handles browsers (I have tested both IE and Firefox, so it is not a Mozilla bug). It seems I will have to use the copy/paste method after all. Thanks again for your help ! SyG (talk) 09:44, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    July 18

    Templates

    If I want to type {{Lorem ipsum|dolor}} and get 'This is foo', {{Lorem ipsum|sit}} and get 'This is bar', and {{Lorem ipsum|others=Wikipedia}} and get 'This is Wikipedia', then what is the template code for Template:Lorem ipsum? Kayau Voting IS evil 00:49, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Your question threw me a bit, as {{Lorem ipsum}} is an actual template, so I thought you were referring to that. But anyway, the following code would produce the desired output:
    This is {{ #if: {{{others|}}} | {{{others}}} | {{ #switch: {{{1|}}}
    | dolor = foo
    | sit = bar}}}}
    However I would recommend the following instead:
    This is {{ #switch:{{{1|}}}
    | dolor = foo
    | sit = bar
    | #default = {{{1}}}}}
    If the template is only to use one parameter, the latter code is the better option as it removes the need to specify others= when using the template: ie. {{Lorem ipsum|Wikipedia}} would produce 'This is Wikipedia'. The only problem you'd have with this version is it would be impossible to produce output such as 'This is dolor'. Hope that helps. AJCham 01:15, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks a lot, that is very helpful. Small request: Could you analyse and explain the code so I can remember it more easily? Thanks! Kayau Voting IS evil 02:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Okay, I've coloured the text in the first example to try and make this easy to follow:
    Output text: "This is". If a parameter named "others" exists, then output the text of that parameter, else compare the contents of parameter 1 with the following:
    If it is equal to dolor then output "foo"
    If it is equal to sit then output "bar". (Close SWITCH statement) (Close IF statement)
    I hope that's clear enough, and you should be able to figure out the second example from that. I'll just point out that the purpose of the #default line of the switch statement is as a fall-back – if the supplied parameter doesn't match any of the items in the list, then the default output is used (in this case, returning the value of parameter 1.) Regards, AJCham 03:04, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks! That is very helpful! Kayau Voting IS evil

    Kobe Kaisei College

    I report that there is incrrect infomation. Please fix it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Kaisei_College Kobe Kaisei College (神戸海星女子学院大学, ........ In 1998 it became a four-year college.

    ×In　1998 OIn　1965 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.19.40.92 (talk) 01:19, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You could be bold and fix it yourself... – ukexpat (talk) 01:22, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Brian O'Brian shorts

    Can you please help me find the video of the Disney Channel Brian O'Brian short where he is getting ready in the bathroom. It was one of if not the first episode. My daughters never got to see it and I cannot find it anywhere. Thank you Steph Brooks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.120.238.140 (talk) 02:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    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.Template:Z37 – ukexpat (talk) 03:19, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Page with an incorrect title that duplicates the subject of an additional page

    Hi, what is the correct practice for dealing with pages such as Create a mainpage on wikipedia? This example clearly needs to be deleted as the page title was created in error, but it expands beyond the article we already have on its subject, CampusEAI Consortium. Is there a way to keep the additional material while preserving the attribution history? Thanks in advance, ThemFromSpace 02:04, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See WP:HISTMERGE, and may god have mercy on your soul. Alternatively, you could move the page to Talk:CampusEAI Consortium/Draft and work on it there until you think it's ready to implement, then reference the draft for the actual edit history. Second is more work for history searchers, far less work for editors. --erachima talk 03:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It doesn't look as simple as you might think. CampusEAI Consortium started out being much longer. It was then very much reduced in size by more experienced editors to resolve various issues with the formatting and referencing. I could be wrong, but it seems like the original author then created Create a mainpage on wikipedia in order to reinstate much of the original article. I think the page should be speedily deleted as a recreation of an earlier version of the original article, and have therefore flagged it for speedy deletion. Astronaut (talk) 10:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Six tabs gadgets

    What do I need to put in my monobook.js/.css to use the six tabs gadget, so that the tabs go article, edit, hist, talk, edit hist? It's in the preferences of WB but not WP. Kayau Voting IS evil 03:16, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Grammar help needed

    Swedish Social Democratic Youth League need help whit gramma on dis page have dyslexia and not have english as my first languse.Wolfmann (talk) 17:32, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    English only?

    Is there any policy stating that conversation on a talk page or edit summaries be rendered only in English? It would appear a disruption otherwise. 71.40.78.186 (talk) 18:21, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    There is the talk page guideline about using English as a "good practice". Not exactly policy I guess, but important enough that there exists a Template:Uw-english about it. --Saddhiyama (talk) 19:00, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Need advice: What's the best way to fix articles that are poorly sourced?

    I've been trying to improve the sourcing of an article that is poorly sourced. So, I've been going through each sentence and finding sources to support everything the sentence says. But retrofitting sources into an existing article can be very tedious and time-consuming. You have to find sources that match the article's content and then sometimes have to tweak the article to match what the source actually says. I can't help but wonder if it would be easier to just throw out the old article and start over from scratch. That if I assemble my sources, read through them all, and just wrote the article based on what I just read, things would go a lot quicker. I'm the only editor actively working on the article. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 19:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It is, in general, easier to rewrite the article yourself than to retrofit citations into it. However, the means by which you should do this depends on the quality of the article. If your research is making it clear that the article has serious content errors, then by all means please restart the page immediately, a temporary stub is better than disinformation. Do note, however, that only material which is "challenged or likely to be challenged" requires a direct citation (per WP:V), so if your research of the topic is not bringing the article's content into question, there is no urgent need to replace the current content, and it's probably best to redraft the article on a separate page (Talk:Pagename/Draft or your userspace being the traditional locations) so that your rewriting does not interfere with the informativeness of the article while it is in progress. Once the draft is complete, then you can overwrite the page with it. --erachima talk 19:41, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    So far, the factual accuracy of the article appears to be excellent. The worst thing I found so far was one bit of minor vandalism which I removed. (It was minor, which is probably why no one noticed it.) Those are good points about using a separate page and keeping the page up during the rewrite. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 20:13, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How long should I wait for a response? and if I don't get it, what can I do?

    Someone reverted a massive edit I made to an article. They claim that my edit was vandalism. (For the record, it definitely was not vandalism) I went to their talk page and explained to them my intentions and motivations and concluded by asking if they would have a problem with me reverting their reversion. That was almost an hour ago. According to his history of contributions right now is right about the time he is usually online and editing but I have not gotten a response. Granted, he hasn't done anymore editing either.

    Although the edit I made was massive, it was nowhere close to what the article needs (its 220kb long, I'm working on splitting it up). I want to get back to work on it, but I don't want to have to worry about getting reverted again. How much longer should I wait? And if I don't get a response, what should my next step be?--*Kat* (talk) 21:47, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Continue your work. Your edit summary did not in any way explain what you were doing. So, if you continue your work, you should explain what you are doing. Otherwise, it only looks like you are deleting large chunks of the article. -- kainaw™ 21:59, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I agree that it is not vandalism, but without an edit summary, Avala may be forgiven for thinking it was. But an hour is an unreasonable time to expect a response in.
    It would have been helpful if you had linked to International recognition of Kosovo above, rather than leaving us to hunt through your contributions to find it. ----~~
    Yes, I realize that I did forget to put a descriptive edit summary. I'd put descriptive edit summaries on the other articles I'd created/edited and the category too but for some reason forgot to do so with the main article. Maybe because I was just stopping for a period of time. Never the less, a very quick glance at the diffs should have told any experienced wikipedian that I was NOT engaging in vandalism.
    I'm not surprised you went hunting through my contributions to find the article I was talking about, but the reason why I didn't link to it was because it wasn't really relevant to my question.
    I wouldn't go so far as to say that I was expecting a response, but I certainly was hoping for one. I didn't write him question that long after he reverted me.
    Anyway, thanks for getting back to me about this. I don't know if I want to edit the article again so soon after writing on his talk page (I don't want to appear as though I don't really care about his opinion)--*Kat* (talk) 23:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Edit the page ..and in your edit summary say- Info moved to new article on the subject New article name....00:08, 19 July 2010 (UTC)

    Creating a Family of Pages

    If I am working on a few pages (lets say 3-5) that will all be linked to one another, is there a way for me to save my progress as I work on them, before releasing them to the public? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hh73wiki (talk • contribs) 22:17, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes, create them as user subpages first. Then ask for feedback at WP:FEED. When you think they are ready they can be moved to the mainspace. Before you start take a look at WP:YFA, WP:N, WP:RS and WP:CITE. – ukexpat (talk) 23:14, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    July 19

    Right to vote

    I couldn't find an unambiguous answer to this, hence this thread. Am I eligible to vote for or against an article's deletion, granting adminship to a user, promoting an article to FA status, demoting an article from its FA status, etc, given my experience so far? --Магьосник (talk) 01:37, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The succinct answer is yes, as any user with a history of constructive contributions (broadly construed) can participate in discussions. The longer answer is that while you may be eligible to vote, keep in mind that these are discussions, where a vote with no explanation or context will often be weighted less (by the closing administrator, bureaucrat, or Featured article official, respectively) than a vote with a justification, hence the paradigm "!vote". Therefore, sometimes even users who have not any such history are allowed to participate, based on the merits of their arguments. However, this is not the case in "actual" elections such as for ArbCom, Steward, OS/CU, Board, etc., because in these cases voting more than discussion determines promotion or appointment, so there are requirements to prevent vote-stacking. These requirements vary with the election. Intelligentsock 02:31, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Table of Contents

    How do you add tocs to article-space? This page doesn't have one. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 02:28, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Pages with a minimum of four sections will automatically generate a Table of Contents. The Magic word __FORCETOC__ will force a table of contents, but I seem to recollect that its use in the articlespace is generally discouraged. Intelligentsock 02:34, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Note that I have moved the article to Extreme clipper in accordance with naming conventions. – ukexpat (talk) 14:43, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    How to refer to a user with no user page?

    Hi! Can someone please tell me what the right wikimarkup would be when, on a talk page, I want to (1) refer to a new user named "twelvefootzebra", let's say, who has yet to create a user page and, (2) simultaneously make the reference "clickable", and (3) keep it red, and (4) make the click land on the "special/contributions" page for that user? That's what you're supposed to do, right? Or am I out? Many thanks!  – OhioStandard (talk) 02:37, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Like this? Twelvefootzebra
    Using this: <span class="plainlinks"><font color="red">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Twelvefootzebra Twelvefootzebra]</font></span>
    :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 02:41, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Whoo hoo! You guys are the best! Cheers,  – OhioStandard (talk) 02:45, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I think the example provided by TeleComNasSprVen, while in line with your request, is not the best way to "refer to a new user...who has yet to create a user page ", and may in fact be a confusing and pointless use of code. I would recommend linking to contributions, piping the link so that only the username is shown, for example: [[Special:Contributions/Twelvefootzebra|Twelvefootzebra]], or better, using the template {{user}} to generate the relevant links to user, talk, and contributions, like so: {{user|Twelvefootzebra}}, which outputs Twelvefootzebra (talk · contribs). Incidentally, it seems that you have misspelt the username; there is no user registered under the name "twelvefootzebra". Intelligentsock 03:07, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    If it were me, I'd use {{user}} as well. The other example looks like a custom signature which I would take to mean that the user has a bit of WP knowledge and the sig was copied from somewhere. The red isn't the same shade of red as WP's redlinks. Dismas|(talk) 04:16, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Okay, thanks for that Intelligent & Dismas. The second method Intelligent suggests does seem preferable, since the first puts the link up in blue (by default) rather than red, and it seemed to make sense that it should appear in red (although I don't like forcing it to that color permanently with code). The "twelvefootzebra" literal was just an example, btw. I used it because I didn't want to mention the actual user account name here, is all. Thanks again,  – OhioStandard (talk) 04:22, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Lost Book

    I have just begun visiting Wikipedia and have been pursuing information on various aspects of history and current events related to Kosovo. I enabled Book Creator and accumulated quite a few articles which I began organizing into chapters. Imagine my dismay to return today and discover that my book is gone. I did finally discover a place that states we must have an account for four days and have done some work on Wikipedia articles. Unfortunately, I was not aware of this yesterday (7/17/2010) and did not create my account until today (7/18/2010).

    I gather there is no way to gain access once again to the material I had assembled without starting from scratch.

    --M1$ty$m0m (talk) 04:06, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    When I try to post a Wikipedia link in an email, all links work except the ones that end with a right parenthesis. They look OK in my email but they don't work when my email reaches the adressee. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla_Rising_(film)

    The addressee sees a message that says that the subject does not exist at Wikipedia, do you mean...

    Am I doing something wrong when I try to send such a link? Timoneer (talk) 06:04, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Try replacing the parentheses with escape codes, %28 and %29. eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla_Rising_%28film%29 AJCham 06:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks. Works great! Now if I can only remember to do this!Timoneer (talk) 11:57, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Uploading a .JPG image file to an article

    Hi I have created a new page entitled 'Cronulla Seagulls' about a soccer club. I am trying to upload the club logo. Via the Upload tool I believe I created a file called Cronulla_Seagulls_FC_logo.jpg. But when I try and link that filename into the atricle it doesn't recognise it. Have I done something wromg? Where is my uploaded file? Your help would be much appreciated. Regards, Nick.Nick palmer69 (talk) 06:20, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It would appear that File:Cronulla Seagulls FC logo.jpg has been corrupted, as it isn't diplaying at all on my screen. It looks like you uploaded something, as the image information page exists, but it looks like you're going to have to try to upload a new version. Click the link near the bottom of the page that says "Upload a new version of this file" and try again. Perhaps something is wrong with the image file, or something glitched during the upload. --Jayron32 06:24, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    No, it works fine for me and I've added it to the article (click on "edit" to see the syntax needed). However, the article needs references to third-party coverage of the club as at the moment it is rather difficult to see why it is notable in Wikipedia terms, and so is at risk of deletion. Has there been any newspaper coverage about the club, not just about its results, for example? Read WP:CLUB for more information. BencherliteTalk 06:27, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I don't see the image, though it's fine if I download it to my desktop. I'm using IE8. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:36, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I have fixed the problem - the original JPEG was in CMYK format which IE cannot render (Firefox can). I have uploaded a new version in RGB format and reduced the size to comply with WP:NFCC. – ukexpat (talk) 15:33, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Classic Cigarettes

    Hi, I uploaded a new article on Wikipedia today but I can't find it when I search for it. The article's name is Classic Cigarettes. COuld you please tell me what the issue is. prefix:Wikipedia:FAQ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Classic.cigarettes (talk • contribs) 06:55, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The page was created on your user page rather than as an actual article. It is also blatant advertising which is a violation of our rules, so I'm afraid the page will have to be deleted. Creating articles about your own company is very much discouraged – please see WP:Conflict of interest. Your username is also a problem, and I've noted this on your talk page. AJCham 07:06, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    And see WP:SPAMNAME. – ukexpat (talk) 14:36, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Blocked indef, adverts in mainspace and userspace deleted and mainspace page salted for good measure for a couple of weeks. Thank you for bringing your problematic editing so speedily to our attention. BencherliteTalk 14:46, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Citations and references

    I would like to contribute an article about some Irish bands that were popular in the 1970s but never quite made it in the UK. I have lots of original newspaper articles from the time but, because these all predate the internet revolution, it would be difficult for someone to verify them without physically going to the newspaper archives of, for example, The Belfast Telegraph or The Irish News. Are these sources still acceptable as article citations to verify the veracity and notability of such an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Terryfic10 (talk • contribs) 09:09, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes. A reliable source is one with a reputation for fact-checking an accuracy. It does not need to be available over the internet, or even easily accessible. As long as it was once published in a reproducible medium, and can still be accessed by someone, it's OK. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:18, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict)That's fine, as long as the publications are reputable, and the articles demonstrate the significant coverage required to meet notability guidelines. The {{cite news}} template is useful for these kinds of references. If you provide as much info as you can about the source (publication, date, issue no., page number(s), article title etc.) it makes it all the easier to verify. AJCham 09:22, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Is there a reason for the underlining on this page?

    On the page for Desert climate, the second paragraph is underlined. Is there a way to remove it? Or does it have to do with the Reference necessary template? DandyDan2007 (talk) 10:45, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The underlining is a deliberate side-effect of {{Reference necessary}}. It is trying to make it clear that the entire paragraph needs references. I've not run into this template before; it seems to be more usual to place {{Citation needed}} at the end of the paragraph. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:25, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Can someone tell me how much water there would be in a swimming pool that is 20'w X 40'l and at the shallow end it is 3' deep and at the deep end it is 9' deep. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.92.79.233 (talk) 12:58, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Please use the reference desk next time. Basically, you add up 3' and 9', then multiply that by 40', and divide by two, so you have the base area of the swimming pool. Simply multiply the result with 20 to get the whole volume of the swimming pool. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:12, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    This sounds like homework, let's not help too much.--SPhilbrickT 13:26, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Infobox question...

    In the "Swimming" infobox, there is a centered label for "size," as can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ddbruce

    The top infobox has three centered labels with faint lines underneath.

    How do I make these centered labels in a regular infobox?


    Thank you, ddbruce —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ddbruce (talk • contribs) 14:00, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    {{Infobox swimming pool}}, like most other info boxes, makes use of the {{Infobox}} template to get its work done. The parameters to {{Infobox}} are taken three at a time, eg header5, label5, data5. If you look at the source for {{Infobox swimming pool}}, you'll see that it uses label8 + data8 to get the word "Owner" as a label and, say, "D Bruce" as the text next to it. But for the "Size" it uses header23 and omits both label23 and data23, and this gets you a centred heading.
    Centred Heading
    Label at the leftText at the right
    ...but before you get carried away, remember that you are going to need reliable sources to demonstrate that the Senator P. Eugene Casey Memorial Pool meets the general notability guidelines. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:24, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    What if I am the source? I work there. -ddbruce —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ddbruce (talk • contribs) 23:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    With all due respect, no you are not a reliable source. Please see WP:RS and WP:V. – ukexpat (talk) 01:18, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    I do not take offense to that, however, if I choose to state hours of the facility or the size of the pool in gallons, I have to reference that? I highly doubt there is a book or article published on this particular swimming pool.

    Ddbruce (talk) 03:13, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Looking for a third opinion about revision to Rick Scott page

    Over the weekend I discussed a change I proposed to the Wikipedia article for Rick Scott with another editor, but I'm at a bit of an impasse. What I would like to do is replace this paragraph:

    In April 1987, while a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott, along with two former executives of the Republic Health Corporation, a Dallas-based hospital chain, made a $3.8 billion all-cash offer to purchase the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). HCA's board rejected the offer.[1][2]

    It's not technically wrong, but it was the first try on Mr. Scott's part to buy HCA, which he later succeeded in doing. So here is the expanded version I have suggested:

    In April 1987, Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). While still a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale.[3] With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA,[4] the proposed holding company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, intending to assume an additional $1.2 billion in debt, for a total $5 billion deal.[5] However, HCA declined the offer, and the bid was withdrawn.[6]

    I've kept all the existing sources and included some new ones, including the Washington Post and Associated Press. The other editor I spoke with does not seem very opposed to the change, but didn't think the new material added much. I disagree with that, as I explained on the talk page there, Mr. Scott made the deal with two executives from a corporation he had previously worked with in a big sale (Republic Health). In addition, the offer was not rejected outright, but considered and then declined. And of course, HCA did later agree to be bought by Mr. Scott.

    I did not make the edits directly because I do have a financial relationship to Mr. Scott, and then having read WP:COI before I approached this page, I want to be very careful. I'd like to make this page more informative and better-written overall, but I seem to have got stuck here. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of activity on that Talk page, so it has just been myself and this other editor so far. I'd appreciate it if somebody here looked at the proposed material, and if you agree it meets Wikipedia's criteria and is worthy of inclusion, please make the change or signal your consent on the Talk page. Thanks in advance. Thirteenth Florida (talk) 16:01, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    References

    1. ^ "Hospital Corp. Bid Is Dropped". New York Times. April 22, 1987.
    2. ^ "The Hospital World's Hard-Driving Money Manauthor=Milt Freudenheim". New York Times. October 5, 1993.
    3. ^ "Hospital Corp. Bid Is Dropped". The New York Times. April 22, 1987.
    4. ^ Milt Freudenheim (5 October 1993). "http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/05/business/the-hospital-world-s-hard-driving-money-man.html". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help)
    5. ^ "Bid for Hospital Corporation Withdrawn". The Washington Post.
    6. ^ "HCA Board Takes No Action on $3.85 Billion Takeover Bid". Associated Press. 17 April 1987.

    To blog, or not to blog

    When, if ever, can a blog be Wikipedia acceptable when it comes to using it as a reference? I want to use this interview with an author, which has been taken verbatim from the teensreadtoo.com website and used within a writing blog (with full credit given).[5]--Onthemap (talk) 16:08, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    The guideline is here. As I understand it, you can cite the interview as a source of information, but you need to provide, in addition, independent sources to establish that the author is notable. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:25, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Cheers John. Many thanks for the info. I want to do an article on his book, rather than the author, but i needed to know if I could cite the interview as a ref.--Onthemap (talk) 17:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Cite the interview from its initial appearance, not its "reprinting" in the blog; just as you would cite an article from a magazine on its original publication, rather than a reprint in an anthology. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:26, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    For establishing notability there are various factors involved, independance is one, an interview with the author isn't independant so isn't of much use. Teensreadtoo has a section entitled "Author Services" here which doesn't overall bode well for the neutrality of the source, from the sounds of it offer to do and interview or sponser a prize and they'll help promote "you". You can also get help on evaluating reliability of sources as the reliable sources noticeboard. --82.7.40.7 (talk) 19:25, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Good point, 82.7! If the website fails our reliable sources test, a republication of something of theirs in a blog is only more so. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:27, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Dear 82.7. Please get off my back and stop trolling my every movement. For your information, although had I wished to consult your good self I would have written on your talk page, I wanted to establish here if an interview on a blog could be used as a reference for information. Not to etstablish notability, just as a reference for information. I hope I have made myself clear.--Onthemap (talk) 15:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    prob with article

    hi, im a fan of the northern irish band "Therapy?" I know there is an entry for the band as it shows a blurb of the article on google but when i try to access the page i am redirected to the main article on the word Therapy with no disambiguation page? Is this an error or has the page been removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.132.139.229 (talk) 16:53, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    That's odd. Therapy? is still there, and when I type "Therapy?" into the search box that's where I end up. But I've added a hatnote to Therapy so that it's easier to find next time. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:12, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    It depends how you try to access a page name with a question mark. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions)#Question marks and plus signs. Typing it in the browser address bar doesn't work. MediaWiki and most other programs don't include it when generating links from url's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapy? doesn't work, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapy%3F works (see meta:Help:URL#URLs in external links). It works for me to click the link in Google search results. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:19, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    duplicated AFD report

    Resolved

    Hi, looking for Admin help to delete a duplicate AFD report. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Peter_Buttigieg_%282nd_nomination%29 thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 19:59, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Poof! TNXMan 20:06, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 20:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    accommodation in shostka ukraine

    hi can you help me i am going to shostka for a holiday and been looking on the internet for hotel or apartment in the city can you tell me any names of places and where can i book them thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.210.30 (talk) 20:13, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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 upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.Template:Z25 TNXMan 20:17, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Requesting closure

    Where is the best place to request a closure of a merge discussion? (located at Talk:Jack Conte#Merge?) Jujutacular T · C 21:49, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    CONFIRMING RESOURSES

    Im trying to start a page on record producer Kyle West. I need references so the page isn't deleted. My question here is that his credits are all over wikipedia and already and his work is on You Tube. Would that be sufficient enough as resources to "confirm" his page? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.101.115.217 (talk) 21:51, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No, that's not sufficient. You can see our standards at WP:N and at WP:BAND. --AndrewHowse (talk) 22:12, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    And for people, WP:BIO. – ukexpat (talk) 01:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Jellyfish

    Do jellyfish die when they are washed ashore during a high tide or do they stay alive until the tide returns to wash them back out to sea?

    If a jellyfish is squished in part of the top of its mantle will it die? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.164.160.4 (talk) 22:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Have you tried the Science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.Template:Z38 TNXMan 22:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    July 20

    1 billionth user

    I was wikipedia's 1 bilionth user and it said there was a prize i could retrieve....to see if this was real, i refreshed the page and the notification was gone. what do i do now? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.239.57.140 (talk) 01:27, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    It wasn't real. Currently 48,075,326 have made a Wikipedia edit or registered an account, of course nowhere near 1 billion. (Since I know there will be someone that says "What about being the 1 billionth hit?", that isn't the case either, since Google alone accounts for 1.67 billion hits per month, about a quarter of Wikipedia's total traffic in the same period.) And I can't imagine a nonprofit such as the Wikimedia Foundation having enough budgetary room to give away a prize that's worth anything. What did you do to arrive at the page where the notification appeared? Xenon54 (talk) 01:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Hold on. Wikipedia gets 7 billion hits per month? Hallpriest9 (Talk) 01:39, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    (edit conflict)

    First of all, there are not even near 1 billion users on Wikipedia. According to The statistics page in Wikipedia's software, there are only about 12.7 million users on Wikipedia (ATM). Second, you are an IP (anonymous) user, and not a registered user. Third, the page was likely a scam. Where, might I ask, did you see this "prize announcement"? Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk) 01:40, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    I think I saw the same thing in the article London. A blocked (not banned, blocked) user made the edit which is confusing, since blocked editors can't edit. Here is the link. The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 01:42, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Mmkay. First, the person was blocked 4 minutes later. Second, it was someone's cruel joke. Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk) 01:57, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    You should know that if you had clicked the link it would have geolocated you and given you a message saying, "A package of Viagra is on it's way to your home. Please enjoy!" Crude, in my opinion. Mr. R00t Talk 02:10, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Problem with staying logged in

    I logged in today and clicked on the link to my watchlist. But instead of taking me to my watchlist a screen came up that said "you must be logged in to view your watchlist." So I clicked the link to log in, and suddenly, without typing in anything, I was logged in again. This happened to me twice today. What's going on? The Raptor Let's talk/My mistakes; I mean, er, contributions 01:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Weird, so I'm not the only one having this issue. Does anyone else know why? sonia♫♪ 11:12, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    This has happened to me too. It used to appear very, very frequently but has decreased during the past few months. Kayau Voting IS evil 11:28, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Well, I'm no expert with this kind of thing but maybe there's a problem with the Cookies somewhere. The Cookies are used to remember that you're logged in. I know this is not much of a help, but that's what I suspect the problem's caused by. Chevymontecarlo - alt 11:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Hmm. For me, this has happened for the last week or so on my two most frequent computers, only for enwiki and not for any of the other Wikipedias. Also, my watchlist has started taking a horrendous amount of time to load when it does load. Can one have too many pages on a watchlist, and should I clean mine out? Can cookies cause that too? sonia♫♪ 11:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    1 billionth user

    i too received bold red notification that i was the 1 billionth user of Wikipedia - no "prize" icon to click on to retrieve information about prize - is this legitimate - wikiwiki in hawaii - mahalo —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.253.240.254 (talk) 01:43, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    No, that was vandalism that was performed by spam bot - you can disregard it. Thanks, ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 01:51, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    See the above. (Other billionth user topic) May I ask what the name of the article was that you saw this notification? Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk) 02:02, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, there's a plethora of them - see Irrypride's contributions. On July 14, we were also struck by several bot accounts (most of which were checkusered and blocked before they could do anything) who also added links to a similar website. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 02:05, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    D'oh my. That's a lot of spam! Now, it would be interesting to see whether all of the pages that the bot vandalized had some sort of common link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hmmwhatsthisdo (talk • contribs) 02:08, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Yep. In case you, or anyone else is interested, see this discussion regarding the previous spam attack. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 02:10, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    how do i get the instution on how to get started

    i really would like help non getting started —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimsisk63 (talk • contribs) 02:36, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If you mean getting started writing an article, read the standard advice below. I'll also leave you a message on your talk page.

    A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

    Thank you.

    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 Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at 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. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. TNXMan 02:40, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    "Congratulations! Wikipedia's one-billionth user. Click to collect your prize!"

    I got this message: "Congratulations! Wikipedia's one-billionth user. Click to collect your prize!" while on this Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil

    Is this an exploit? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.213.184.42 (talk) 03:10, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See above, twice. – ukexpat (talk) 03:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    one billionth??

    Congratulations! Wikipedia's one-billionth user. Click to collect your prize! <-----------------got that message on my phone a few minutes ago when I tried to look something up. Couldn't click on anything so I copied it and emailed it to myself and still can't click on it though it's in huge red letters. This some kind of joke or add or something?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Matpoe (talk • contribs) 03:25, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See the question immediately above yours. Dismas|(talk) 03:29, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Infobox, again...

    How do I add a list in an infobox, as seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator_P._Eugene_Casey_Memorial_Pool

    I would like to do this without a template.

    Thanks, Ddbruce (talk) 03:25, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Infoboxes are templates. Also, what do you mean by "a list"? Please be more specific. --erachima talk 03:31, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    See how the "Size" caption is centered with a faint line underneath, and all the text under it is centered?

    I want to do it without a "infobox swimming pool" template, per se, and add fields myself, etc.


    Ddbruce (talk) 03:35, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    One reason for infoboxes is so that the standard information can be displayed in a uniform fashion from article to article. If you go create your own infobox then that uniformity is lost and the encyclopedia loses a polished appearance. It's best to keep the standard infobox for whatever the subject of the article is. Aside from that though, you have a larger issue of showing how this particular pool is notable. If I were you, I'd concentrate on that first. Dismas|(talk) 03:42, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    Are you saying that a state park run by a particular organization is notable, yet a pool that is a MEMORIAL to a deceased senator, and run by the same organization, is not?

    Oh, and if you're concerned about Wikipedia losing that "polished" appearance, I suggest you change the "infobox swimming pool" template. If you didn't realize, I am trying to make my infobox look like YOUR template. NOT my own thing.

    Ddbruce (talk) 03:48, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm not saying it is or it isn't. What I am saying is that you haven't shown that the pool is notable. And no, I haven't looked up our notability standards for pools, if we indeed have any. At the least, it should pass the general notability guidelines.
    I do wish you'd calm down though. There's no point in making this an argument. There is no "your template" or "my template". You're entitled to make just as many changes to the standard swimming pool template as I am. Since you're new here, I would like to make sure to point out that if you do change the current template, it will affect several articles. So by changing something, you may end up breaking the way that those articles are displayed. Dismas|(talk) 04:41, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]


    I wasn't looking to change the current template, I was looking to make mine - without using that particular template - look the same. The reason for not using that template is that I want to put in fields that aren't normally accessible, i.e. "Renovated," "Builder," "Manager," perhaps.


    I'm not looking to change other articles, I just like how the "infobox swimming pool" looks, and I do not know how to make mine look like that.


    Thanks,

    Ddbruce (talk) 13:16, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Honoring Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer . This could be in a Rio newspaper ., but nowhere on internet was any space for this .

    This information should go t an appropriate newspaper in Rio . I have a very natural prperty along the Arrow Lakes in B.C. Canada. 3 acres is along Bowman Creek and this will be a nature conserve with only paths to walk on and enjoy beautiful nature . On part of it I want to make some signs honoring significant people whom the world knows for their contribution to moter earth . In this case Oscar Niemeyer has designed the most beautiful buildings in many places . As he is 102 years old , and still designing , I want to put this plaque with his picture at a beautiful, scenic spot overlooking the Arrow Lake . There will be some others honored there as well. For instance . Frank Lloyd Wright will also be honored there . There will be others honored and known far and wide throughout the world .. 

               Could  you please  send  a  copy  of  this  to  the  very  great , Oscar Niemeye 

                                  Thank  yoy,           Jack  Oswald  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.77.220.60 (talk) 04:47, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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 upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.Template:Z25 Someguy1221 (talk) 06:46, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    enwiki-20100130-pages-articles.xml.bz2

    Hi all, I downloaded a file (enwiki-20100130-pages-articles.xml.bz2)thinking that it has all the articles of Wikipedia (whole encyclopedia). I have expanded it using a compression utility but dont known from which application to open that mega file of 24.8 GB. Plz help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.193.110.186 (talk) 09:11, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    You're not likely to find it useful to view that XML file as one document. The only way you're going to be able to make sense of it is by installing the MediaWiki software yourself and then following the instructions here to import the file. At that point you'll basically have your own local copy of Wikipedia. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 10:47, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Article disappeared - help! New article appeared published but days later cannot find it and re-directing to another article.

    Hi! I recently tried to create my first article, on Desktops as a Service, which was sufficiently different to Desktop Virtualiation to have its own entry (it had previously redirected there).

    It wasn't perfect, but it was a starting point written by some expert IT implementers, to get the definition and online conversation started.

    Days later - it has disappeared and again redirects to Dekstop Virtualisation. DaaS is not the same as DVI and is in fact a sub-set of it.

    I cannot even find the original article. What happened and what can I do / change to have the article loaded? Would love some help and advice to get going again.

    Thank you! natasja —Preceding unsigned comment added by Moltentech (talk • contribs) 12:05, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Look at the history page for Desktop as a service. You will see that another editor recreated the redirect. Please discuss this issue with that editor. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 12:11, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Wikipedia is an inappropriate venue if you want "get the definition and online conversation started". Dougweller (talk) 15:07, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Can someone help me upload my article?

    Hi, a few days back I uploaded an article on Wikipedia by the name of Pritish Nandy Communications. There were some issues and another editor, karenjc, userfied the article for me and shifted it to my userspace saying that since the article was notable and verifiable, there was no point in deleting it. Karenjc even made some changes to the article in my userspace and was in touch with me for a couple of days but now, I have been trying to contact her and there has been no response from her or any other editor for almost 5 days now. The article still lies in my userspace without it going live and I don't know what to do next. Please help! Shishir58 (talk) 12:20, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    I will move it into article space for you now. --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:33, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Except for the fact that I can't as a page exists already with that name and an Admin needs to do it - anyone? --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:36, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Done by Fuhghettaboutit. Xenon54 (talk) 13:19, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    (e/c) Moved. You've put a lot of work into this; good job! Some constructive criticism. The article has far too much list material. You should attempt to convert to prose—instead of listing every movies, every book every television special, detail significant items in naturally text with context provided. Please also note that naked links as sources (while 1,000 x better than no sources!) really should be reformed to list the title of the entry, an author if relevant, the publisher and an accessdate. Using webcitation.org to archive URLs of links that may go away is also a good idea in my view. In any event, here's how I would (and have) reformat your first citation in the history section as an example:

    <ref>{{cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/News-Interviews/Pritishall-over-again/articleshow/5976606.cms|title=Pritish...all over again!|last=Manuel|first=Mark|publisher=Times of India|date=May 27, 2010|accessdate=July 20, 2010}}</ref>

    This particular source might work better with the template {{cite news}}, but since it appears many of the citations are web based, I wanted to use cite web because it will be more suitable example for other citations throughout the article. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:22, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Dear Cameron, first off, thank you! Finally someone's helped! Appreciate the compliment too, put in a lot of time researching every claim that I've made. I have some questions. Evidently, I'm very confused about the re-formating of the citations. I'll talk to you further on the article's talk page. Look forward to your support. Shishir58 (talk) 14:48, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Dear Fuhghettaboutit, thank you too. Karenjc did say that she would clean up all the re-directs. Up until now there was no article on the company, Pritish Nandy Communications. Just one on Pritish Nandy, an individual. Talk further on the article's talkpage.Shishir58 (talk) 14:48, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    2x silly questions

    1. What is secure.wikimedia.org for and why do editors link there for diffd
    2. What does it mean by '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' and how to avoid it

    Thanks. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:39, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    1. For people that are (or think they are) at risk of eavesdropping, either by others on a WiFi connection, an overzealous ISP, their government, or just because they're paranoid. People link there because they use it, of course; they aren't going to take the effort to convert the links to normal unsecure links because you still end up at the same diff.
    2. Most of the time, I find that appears because I've spent a long time on the edit window without pressing "preview" or "save". The way to avoid it, I guess, would be to do regular previews. I'll leave a more thorough answer to someone who actually knows what they're talking about. Xenon54 (talk) 12:53, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    1. See also Wikipedia:Secure server.
    2. If it happens then try your browser back button and if your edit is still in the edit window then click save again. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:07, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Posting Information to Wikipedia

    I am interested in having information on an individual added to Wikipedia. How would I go about doing this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.128.224.6 (talk) 13:19, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Before you do anything else, is the individual notable by Wikipedia's definition? In order to be notable, the individual must have significant coverage (i.e., a full story in a newspaper about him, not just a mention of his name) in several reliable sources. These sources then must be cited by the article to verify information about the subject. If the individual is indeed notable, and you are not related to him, then please register an account and read Your first article. Xenon54 (talk) 13:24, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Update my account

    Hi.! I just get a message who told me to update my account-and ask for password and everything-does this realy come from you-it have your logo and everything on.??? Brian M Sørensen. <blanked> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.172.85.94 (talk) 14:46, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    If you are editing from an IP, you have no username or password to update. If you are using an account, you can ignore these emails. They will not affect your ability to log in. TNXMan 15:01, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Articles created by user Wiki tool

    Due to the creators toolserver account being expired, my usual wikitool that shows a list of articles created by a specified user is not working anymore. Could someone please provide me with a link to a similar tool? --Saddhiyama (talk) 14:56, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Does this link work for you? TNXMan 14:59, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    Excellent. Link bookmarked! Thanks. --Saddhiyama (talk) 15:04, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

    Need help changing a heading

    July 20, 2010- Need help changing a heading Several months ago, the Morris K. Udall Foundation was renamed by Congress to the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. I have changed the content of the entry but cannot seem to change the header. Help!

    Vermont Grassroots Party

    I was the founder/chair of the Vermont Grassroots Party(VGP) and I just read an article about the VGP in Wikipedia with false information. There was never a Jason Scuglick in the VGP and he was never a candidate for the political party I founded/chaired. Everything else in your article about us is pretty much accurate. I'd appreciate it if you would delete this Jason Scuglick who had nothing to do with the VGP. Sincerely, Denny Lane

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&oldid=374507937"