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December 31

Confidentiality Please - Wingfield Castle

Hello, my name is (Redacted) and my Father is (Redacted)

When you type into Google the surname '(Redacted)', a Wikipedia page comes up titled 'Wingfield Castle' and reveals my family name and information. I am currently in my last year of University and am applying for jobs. Recently, at a job interview, the interviewer pointed this webpage out to me and how easily available it was to find and warned me for future job interviews. I do not want my potential employer to know my personal information so easily, especially of where I live (and there's a photo!) as do not want any prejudice against me. Please could you take our name,(Redacted) off the webpage so it no longer comes up in the Google search? You can still write that a barrister bought it and his family still live there today, but I would be grateful if I never have to have this problem again. It is a very difficult time to get a job!

If you wanted to update your page on Wingfield Castle then you should add in that Baron Ash owned the Castle before and he was an incredibly interesting man. If you wanted more information on him I would be happy to supply it as my Godfather was friends with him, and my Father has a great knowledge of him.

I would appreciate it if you would get back to me about this matter, and please email me on the below address. This is important to me.

Many thanks and kind regards; Happy New Year! (Redacted)

(Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.193.254.245 (talk) 00:41, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Please do not post your email here. I have removed the information from Wingfield Castle as it was more like trivia and does not seem to be terribly important to the article in the first place. I have also removed your name here as this page is visible to Google as well. If you wish to completely expunge any records of your name being mentioned, you can also file a request at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight or directly send an email to oversight-en-wp@wikipedia.org to formally suppress any mentions of your name for privacy reasons.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 00:51, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

I sympathise with your concern that your confidentiality was compromised, but I am rather bemused that you have sought to redress this by plastering your name, your father's name, and your email address in an entry titled "Wingfield Castle" on a page that can be seen by anybody in the world! Obsidian Soul has kindly removed them for you, but I can't work out why you did it in the first place! --ColinFine (talk) 20:25, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Flash drive

I got my first flash drive ... and promptly screwed up. The second time I copied some files to it, I yanked it out without selecting eject. All of the files and folders are gone (no permanent loss). My question is, have I damaged the drive, or can I go ahead and transfer the files again? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:00, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

You'll want to ask this question at WP:RDC rather than here. --Jayron32 02:08, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Oops. Thought I had! Clarityfiend (talk) 02:41, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Can someone upload this picture for me and show me how to?

http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/kyle-orton-chiefs-waiver-wire-pickups.jpg

I want to update the Kyle Orton page.

The website is: http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/12/fantasy-football-week-16-waiver-wire-pickups-and-advice/

Thanks!

--Piazzajordan2 (Talk.) 02:33, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

It appears that it would be a copyright violation to do that. See WP:Copyrights. Also see WP:UPI. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 02:38, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Can you find a picture that is not copyrighted? I want a picture of Kyle Orton with the Kansas City Chiefs, so I can change it on his page.

--Piazzajordan2 (Talk.) 03:27, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Sure. Just take your camera with you the next time you go to see the Chiefs play in person. When you are there, take a picture with your camera of Orton warming up or something like that. You can then upload that picture. --Jayron32 03:37, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

URGENT: Book content has disappeared!

I am in the process of completing a Wikipedia Book compilation, a draft of which I was going to publish to PDF in the next few hours for a course I am teaching, but when I just entered Wikipedia and opened the Book Creator and it asked me if I wanted to continue with my book, which it showed as having 217 pages (articles), and I clicked OK, it opened showing EMPTY CONTENT. NO pages or chapters or anything else except the title and subtitle are visible. I tried opening Book Creator again, and again it showed my existing book with 217 pages, but again, once opened, it showed empty content. Where is the book I have been working to compile for the past several days??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr.thomas.gardner (talk • contribs) 02:46, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Dr.thomas.gardner shows a book at User:Dr.thomas.gardner/Books/Science Fiction Science. Is that it? It should have a link saying "Open in Book Creator". PrimeHunter (talk) 02:57, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

To PrimeHunter: Thanks for your reply. This isn't exactly it. I'm trying to recreate it from records of Wikipedia pages I've visited since the last save. However, I'm running into a new problem: When I try to create the PDF, it hits an error at about 80% completion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr.thomas.gardner (talk • contribs) 06:48, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

PDF creation also failed for me around 80% into User:Dr.thomas.gardner/Books/Science Fiction Science. Sometimes this is caused by incompatible code in one of the pages. You could try to experiment to see if the problem is limited to one page and then omit it, but I admit this can be time consuming if the error message doesn't give a page name and you have more than 200 pages. And I don't promise it can be fixed by removing an article. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks again. One more question: Is it possible to create and save multiple books? I ask because I can split the current book into individual volumes, if Wikipedia will let me save them under different file names. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr.thomas.gardner (talk • contribs) 16:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, you can create and save multiple books. At Special:Book you can save under a new name in the "Save and share your book" box. If you want to see your existing books and open one of them then click "User:Dr.thomas.gardner/Books/" in the box. See more about books at Help:Books. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

The statements made below are untruthful. They have been made, most likely, by Mr. Taiani's ex-wife, Elizabeth, who has tried nothing less than to ruin his reputation and career. Her father, William Abramsky, was the owner of Crossroads Wine and Spirits. Mr. Taiani resigned his position from that merchant due to conflict with his spouse/marriage and her family.

Micheal Taiani

The false statements below were made, most probably, by Mr. Taiani's ex-wife, Elizabeth H. Abramsky, who has tried nothing less than to ruin this man's reputation and career. Crossroads Wines and Spirits was owned and operated by her father, William ("Willie") Abramsky. Mr. Taiani resigned his sales position in 2001 after six years of diligent, professional service. For unknown reasons, the business closed in April, 2011 [1]. Question: How, in December 2011, could there have been a "Crossroads Management Team" in existence to make such defaming statements when the retail shop closed its doors permanently eight months prior?

This clearly explains why this author was unable to complete a Wikipedia article page about this dedicated wine professional.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Winesbytheglass/Ty_the_wine_guy

The article about Micheal Taiani "Ty the wine guy. He was fired from crossroads wines for is lack of knowledge of the products. He does and did NOT have a celebrity following only complaints. Nothing he stated in is article holds ANY TRUTH! You need to research a persons backround before you print articles about them. Crossroads Management Team — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.18.141.138 (talk) 02:52, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm afraid I cannot find any article under that name. Could you please indicate the exact title of the article which has the problems? --Jayron32 02:57, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

We are online and don't print, and I cannot find mention of this person here, so I'm unsure whether you refer to a Wikipedia article. This is a help desk for Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:17, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

User:Winesbytheglass/Ty the wine guy looks like the page that's being reported. fredgandt 03:25, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Ah. That's a draft article and not currently part of the article space. I don't know that its a problem, given that it isn't currently an article. --Jayron32 03:29, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Further investigation shows what looks like sock-puppetry and prior warnings about vanity. Too tired to do more. See diff (the edits between) and the contributors to User:Winesbytheglass/Ty the wine guy. fredgandt 03:33, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw that. I read that to mean that multiple people were working on the draft. There are no rules against that. --Jayron32 03:35, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

You saw the prior accusations of socks? All the contributors have done nothing else but that draft. They use the same crayon. fredgandt

I was not aware that I was bound to jump to the same unsubstantiated conclusions that other people have. --Jayron32 04:25, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Neither was I. fredgandt 04:56, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

To the OP (original poster). We take notability and verifiability very seriously here, but we are but a few volunteers trying to look after an expanding 4million(ish) articles. The page that seems to be causing the offence (as you see it) is in a User-space, and so is very unlikely to be stumbled upon by any editor. If it found its way out into the Article-space, it would be rigorously challenged, allowing that only the good bits survived (if any). fredgandt 03:47, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

So, what I don't understand about this is: Since when is the article in user space? The original post suggests that it was in article space, and it indeed is far more likely for such articles to be created in article space. So, has it been userfied, or did the SPU create it in user space to begin with? — Sebastian 02:40, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

To the OP (original poster): How did you find this article? Did you google for the name? — Sebastian 02:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

GeoHack, adding coordinates to an article

This article, to be specific.

Here's a link to it on google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=33.34236,43.86137&spn=0.02377,0.049739&sll=33.34236,43.86137&sspn=0.02377,0.049739&vpsrc=0&t=h&z=15

Here's an Example of a very similar similar article that has the coordinates in the upper right corner of article.

Someone point me in the right direction for how to go about doing that? Earthpig (talk) 03:00, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Your example Camp Fallujah (a redirect to MEK Compound) adds coordinates via a parameter in {{Infobox military structure}}. Clicking the Edit tab at MEK Compound shows that it uses the parameter coordinates = {{Coord|33|18|54.95|N|43|52|59.41|E|type:airport|display=inline,title}}. Your target article Dreamland (Fallujah, Iraq) does not have an infobox but you should be able to use {{coord}} anyway. See the link for documentation. Omit coordinates = before it when it's not used in an infobox with a coordinates parameter. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:10, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Sweet, done, thanks. Earthpig (talk) 03:24, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. I see you copied "type:airport" from the other article but I'm not sure it's appropriate in either article based on the current article content. See Template:Coord#type:T. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:38, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

stack overflow at line 2946/computer registry error

I googled the above and recd. notice on your site of a detail related to the above subject matter. How do I repair a stack overflow error on line 2946? I am Paul Klearman, e-mail: <email address removed>, thank you. The computer system is running very slow and the "hour glass" stays on way too long. The registry programs that I have used to date have had no positive effect... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.72.12.42 (talk) 04:18, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

I have removed your email address because publishing it on a public website is a phenomenally bad idea. As far as answering your question goes, you would have better luck getting an answer at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. --Jayron32 04:23, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

(ec)I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.:RudolfRed (talk) 04:26, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Keyboard shortcut for inserting signature

Resolved

Is there a keyboard shortcut for inserting the 4 signature tildes or a script that adds a short cut (preferably with a key combination of choice)? Searched the help desk archives but couldn't find a topic on it. --lTopGunl (ping) 05:06, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

importScript("User:Fred_Gandt/hotSign.js");

Works in Chrome. fredgandt 05:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Ooops sry, Alt+Ctrl+S to add ~~~~. fredgandt 05:57, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

That key combination doesn't work in Firefox or Opera on a Mac. - Purplewowies (talk) 06:51, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

You need to import the script written by Fred to your monobook.js or vector.js (whichever skin you use) by adding the code snippet above. Goodvac (talk) 07:03, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Sorry. Works in Google Chrome on Windows XP. And should work with most skins. I knew TopGun would know what to do with it, so forgot to mention what Goodvac just has. It was somewhat thrown together, but I'm sure some whizz-kid will swing by and drop some jQuery marvel on its toes, so no worries.I do find it amusing that 2 lines of jQuery is considered more efficient, even though it calls 50 lines of jQuery-library-JavaScript-functions in another script! I'll stick with JS thanks! fredgandt 07:27, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Well... oops. I TOTALLY missed the part about importing the script. That's embarassing... - Purplewowies (talk) 07:45, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Certainly there is a key combination. Just hold down the Shift key and push the tidle key 4 times. :-) —{|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|} 07:48, 31 December 2011 (UTC).

Mine is not to reason, why? Mine is just to do, 'cause it's fun! And actually, accidental 3's and 5's can be avoided this way. Shame I'm too bloody minded to make it more universal. Sorry Mac users and anyone not using a proper browser. fredgandt 07:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

• I'm using FF and Linux, looks like there's nothing in for me except building my triceps with repetitive clicks or Retro00064's suggestion... something for firefox by any chance? --lTopGunl (ping) 15:01, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Ok. I'll give it a go in a while. I was extremely tired/wired yesterday. fredgandt 20:02, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Ok. --lTopGunl (talk) 01:22, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Well either I am totally missing something or it should work in any browser that can read JavaScript now. In fact, I think it should have worked in any browser before. I've changed the hotkey to Ctrl+\ (easier). The obvious ctrl+s or alt+s already have assignments. Shift+s makes a big "S" and combinations of keys get more complex than typing 4 tildes. So, it should work with any skin, on any browser, on any OS (with a Ctrl key). Let me know if I'm wrong. fredgandt 01:46, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh god! The humanity!! I just tried testing the script with IE. I am never going back there. I mean NEVER! I cannot abide incompatible soft or hardware. Chrome works. I'll stick to writing things that work and let Chrome interpret my efforts. fredgandt 02:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Great... working good. Thanks alot! Who uses IE... lTopGunl (talk) 02:33, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Masochists? I'm glad it works for you. Let me know if fubars occur. fredgandt 02:52, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Umm, me? (Most of the time anyway...) Say what you want about IE; I've had physical pain inflicted on me by Google products more than once myself... - Purplewowies (talk) 04:31, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry Purplewowies, I can't deal with IE, but anyone is free to modify my code or supply other code that does work cross browser. I'm sure I could sleep on a bed of nails; I just really don't want to. fredgandt 04:39, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Eh, I'm fine with the ⇧ Shift+~+~+~+~ method, myself. I just felt the need to say that I used IE. :) - Purplewowies (talk) 06:03, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

what are the struck through items in a users contributions?

I was searching through an IP's contributions looking for unreverted vandalism, when I noticed that some of the items were struck through. what are they? [2] the edits here to the article gun are an example. thanks and a happy new year. Staticd (talk) 07:42, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

They will be edits (and edit summaries etc) that have been removed because the content was considered inappropriate for Wikipedia. It could have been abusive or libellous, or maybe contained personally identifying details. Whatever it was, an administrator considered it best to delete it from sight. fredgandt 07:46, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

The policies and guidelines for this feature are explained on Wikipedia:Revision deletion. Cheers. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:50, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Thank you!. very helpful.Staticd (talk) 08:34, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

I checked the specific example on the article Gun, and can confirm that it was quite rightly redacted under criterion 2 of revision deletion. Sometimes you will also see the username/IP removed from edit histories and logs, for reasons that are also described at the link Zzyzx11 gives above. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 07:22, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

worse than romania

Sometime in history some dick in Romania decided to outlaw contraception, resulting in a lot of children being born to an impoverished nation, who then became homeless. These dirty pathetic little rodents scurried around the streets and subways begging in desperation for everyone elses money because they never seemed to have any of their own. In 2011, it became apparent that Jimmy Wales is a romanian child. In late 2011 he came to the realization that no one gave a shit about his whinging on beside terrifyingly creepy pictures, so he got a bunch of other people to also whinge on with him. Further realizing no shat to care, he animated his massive whinge banners, further irritating everyone.

Look Jimmy, if it's a not for profit organization, fine. If you don't like advertising because Wikipedia is a special place, great. However, your huge banners of begging are precisely you advertising your sad story to try and profit from me and anyone else who will turn an ear to your dirty romanian face. Whining and irritating people won't make any of them want to give you money, don't you realize that?

Here's a link for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_emotion

It probably should have instead been given this term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_fallacy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.50.87.91 (talk)

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all" - Thumper.  fredgandt 08:41, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Let me get this straight... you're whinging about whinging in whinge banners? Here, let me patch you through. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:22, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Tell your story

After I donated to Wikipedia there were two options, tell your story, and tell the world - I clicked the facebook link then couldn't get back to the "tell your story" link about how Wikipedia has affected my life. Where can I find that link? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ursa major prime (talk • contribs) 08:51, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps not the slickest answer you'll get but; you'll find all pages you have recently visited in your browser history. In Google Chrome you can access the history by pressing Ctrl+H. I'm not sure about other browsers, but Firefox and Safari probably use the same shortcut. fredgandt 09:02, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

The links are at wmf:Thank You/en. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:51, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

When editing an article with a trademarked brand?

I am wondering if I need to insert a TM. after the iPhone name when editing the review of the iPhone 4s, as it is a Trademark of Apple INC.? Thank You. — Preceding unsigned comment added by UrsulaKayVos (talk • contribs) 12:05, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Trademarks should provide all the answers you need. I'm certainly no expert, so just offering the link is better than any guess I can make. good luck, and happy editing! fredgandt 12:27, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

As fred pointed out, that page has the answer: "Do not use the ™ and ® symbols". — Edokter (talk) — 14:04, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Login loop

Hi, I responded to an email from you this morning asking for additional donations. After donating (again) I decided to log in and check my status. It would not accept my login info because the password was incorrect. That doesn't make sense, I've used that same password forever. Anyway, when I asked to have the password info emailed to me, it said no email account was attached to my login ID. I can't re-register because I have an account, and I can't get a password hint because I don't have a email address as part of my account (I did, that's how you emailed me this morning), so now I'm stuck in a loop. I don't want to give up my ID because I've used that since the internet first started (that's why it only has 8 characters). Any help you can provide would be appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.206.106.207 (talk) 15:24, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Donors can give an email address which is not registered in their account if they even have an account. wmf:Donor policy/en says among other things that it can be used for "Informing donors about upcoming fundraising and other activities of Wikimedia". Donations are made at the domain http://wikimediafoundation.org but you cannot log in there with a normal account. Is the login failing here at http://en.wikipedia.org? What is the username? PrimeHunter (talk) 17:00, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm experiencing the same issue as the OP, however minus the donations. It's been probably years since I was logged in, but my user page hasn't been clipped. I have no email address associated with my account, or so I'm told when attempting to reset my password. Perfect case of look here before you ask a new one, I should say. 50.36.94.242 (talk) 22:24, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

See Help:Login#How to log in for general help. We can check a few things if we get a username, but we cannot recover a password or give a new password if the account has no email address. Accounts cannot be deleted and passwords never expire. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:06, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Retrieve article from 12/30/3011 on Ghana

I am trying to retrieve an article from Ghana that apperared on 12/30/2011. How do I do that? Frederick A. Johnson — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.214.6.122 (talk) 18:11, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Is this the version you want? The previous version link gives another veresion for that date. —teb728 t c 19:01, 31 December 2011 (UTC) You can get those by clicking on the "View history" tab at the top of the article. —teb728 t c 19:03, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Are you referring to a non-Wikipedia article published in Ghana? You can try posting a request at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request. And please provide all the relevant details of the article - title, author, date, name of publication, etc. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 19:10, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

It is an articel on a tribe in ghana but unfortunately i cant remember the name but was in the left column on the top of the english wikipedia on 12/30/2011. Frederick A, Johnson P.S. Sorry dont have more information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.214.6.122 (talk) 21:30, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

The left column top item is "Today's featured article". I looked at the archive of them at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 2011 and do not see any that sound like that topic. The item under that is "Did you know...". I looked at its archive at Wikipedia:Recent_additions#Did_you_know... and see several things related to Ghana and/or various tribal peoples. Go to that page and use your browser's "search" function to look for, for example, "ghana", to see if any of them look familiar. DMacks (talk) 22:02, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

How to Delete the Clown Face in Wiki Pages....

For the last couple months there has been some idiot's face appearing at the begining of every wikipedia page. It's driving me nuts.

How do I delete this clown's face from appearing ??

Can I use some sort of app to get rid of this idiot ???? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.147.248.157 (talk) 18:58, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

If you create an account and login, you can set a preference to hide the banner. —teb728 t c 19:06, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

If you use Firefox or Chrome, install the addon Adblock Plus (Firefox, Chrome), and block this url: meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:BannerLoader*. This will block all Wikimedia banners. Goodvac (talk) 19:16, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

See also this webpage for more ideas and alternatives: https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6347 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.147.248.157 (talk) 19:48, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Banners are down

You should not be seeing Jimmy anymore. Some thank you banners from Sue for a few days, and then it's done. -Philippe (talk) 09:23, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Donations 3

I understand that wikipedia is free and you are accepting donations. Why should I donate when I can view another encyclopedia for FREE. Besides, is the owner pocketing any of the donations. If he is then the site is not FREE. Too many scams out there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.19.165.98 (talk) 19:24, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

You can view Wikipedia for free. Or you can copy it, repost it, make money off it, use it in artwork. Unlike any other encyclopedia. We, the writers (and photographers, mapmakers, codewriters, etc.) are all the owners and we let you use our creation quite freely. Rmhermen (talk) 19:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Donating is voluntary and not required to read or edit Wikipedia. Wikipedia was founded by Jimmy Wales but he is not the owner today. Wikipedia is run by the American non-profit charitable organization Wikimedia Foundation which has a board and operates under American law. See also Wikimedia Foundation#Finances and wmf:Financial reports. I suppose any charitable organization has a risk of donations ending in the wrong place but I see no reason to special concern about Wikipedia. I'm a volunteer editor in another country and have no inside knowledge of or direct contact to the Wikimedia Foundation. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:57, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Contact us/Donations, which explains how funds are used. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:12, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

For the record, Jimmy Wales accepts no salary from the Wikimedia Foundation, and never has. -Philippe (talk) 09:21, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

templates/wiki syntax stuff

ok im lost, any1 pls help me out in this? the problem is that on Category:User pas-N, there r infinite subcats of the same, and on Template:User pas-N there is a template-looking thing i copied there from the other levels, but it -idk what it is- is not a template i can't edit it, and so cant modify that "N" do not point to pas-generic but the newly created pas-N. what it is and where can i edit it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aaa3-other (talk • contribs)

I fixed the subcat issue with a null edit of Category:User pas-N. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:30, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

thanks :) anyone else on the mysterious template?--Aaa3-other | Talk | Contribs 09:17, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

{{languages}} does not have a parameter to change where "N" links. You would have to add a new parameter to {{languages}} or avoid using it. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:17, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

oh thanks :) --Aaa3-other | Talk | Contribs 08:25, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Re: Content about the now defunct company Kozmo

I have worked for Kozmo and I have never heard of Robert McNamara and he is listed as one of the co-founders of the company. Please double check your sources, as his name should not have appeared in any documents related to this company and should be removed from this article. Thenantuckets (talk) 22:55, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. It was vandalism and I have removed it.[3] PrimeHunter (talk) 23:14, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

January 1

How to recruit others to help out

Is it possible to recruit other users in helping with a particular topic? If not, is there a way to get other's attention in order to get tasks done? I cannot possibly do it alone. I began this page: Wikipedia:WikiProject New Jersey/Requested articles, but no one part of the NJ-project seems to be around and help contribute. Tinton5 (talk) 00:00, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Number of watchers

Is there a way to find the number of watchers even if it is below 30. Or does it have to be 30 or more to view the count.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 01:42, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

It does have to be above 30. There are good reasons for not showing the number when it is lower than 30. I think developers can see it, but not anyone else.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 02:23, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Re: My Edits & Reverts

I need assistance and an opinion of Wikipedia editors as to wither my edits are constructive. Please look into my contribution history and note the edit summaries and explanations I have left in regards to my edits on several articles such as Jim Bob Duggar, Mario Lopez, Billy Bush and Maria Menounos. I'm trying to help make the article look more organized, with proper article bracket additions, sentencing and titling of persons in which the article is about. Recently, a couple of editors have reverted my edits, both on Twinkle and Huggle but my attempts to communicate with them about it have failed; and they have ended up removing them with no reason. If I am trying to make attempts to better the article but get met with resistance, despite the fact I'm following Wikipedia's MoS and common layout, how can I be productive on this thing at all? Thanks for your input. I'm following the guidelines as best as possible. --97.100.176.192 (talk) 02:08, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

User:SQGibbon explains his reverts per WP:OVERLINKING. I do not agree as the words linked do not fit the criteria of non-obscure/non-ambiguous words specified in WP:OVERLINKING. User:Amsaim reverted your edits on the basis that your addition was "unsourced". I also do not agree as the lead section is a summary of the article. It does not require references for uncontroversial information already sourced in the body of the article per WP:CITELEAD. I suggest pointing out those two guidelines either in your edit summary, in the article talk pages, or in your attempts to communicate with them. Please be careful not to get drawn into an edit war though. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 02:25, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Per WP:OVERLINKING, the content in question on his revert was ...television presenter... -- this is an uncommon use of the American English word for ...host... both having the same meaning but different words in the titling in British English. At any rate, you have mentioned that it does not require references for uncontroversial information; I agree! This is in-fact what I'm attempting to explain to them, thanks for the confirmation <--- This is actually what initially started with the first editor who claimed my edits were 'unsourced' -- Also, In regards to the MoS, I was actually following and adding the exact same bracket additions to the titles used on a Featured Article -- I figured that featured articles were the best examples of correct linking, sentencing, grammar etc. --97.100.176.192 (talk) 02:33, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

(P.S.: After looking it over again, WP:OVERLINKING states that linking of common occupations is not necessary. The subjects in question are celebrities and entertainment media figures, certainly NOT a common profession. Thanks again. --97.100.176.192 (talk) 02:41, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe "American", "author", "politician", and "actress" are all common English words/professions/geographic areas and therefore do not need to be linked as per WP:OVERLINK. SQGibbon (talk) 03:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

They are words, obviously, but ...common occupation... -- they are not; being a T.V. host is certainly not a common profession. The crux is not being able to understand that IT IS a word, but the meaning of the word; the original intent of a blue link. See Mariah Carey for example, a featured article that uses blue links in the introduction. Thanks --97.100.176.192 (talk) 03:32, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe what SQGibbon means (and this is correct), is that the meaning of the words is commonly understood by Englishers. Not that the occupations are common. fredgandt 03:41, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I believe your reading of "Avoid linking the names of major geographic features and locations, languages, religions, and common professions." is off. The guideline is not saying to avoid linking professions that a lot of people have (thus justifying linking professions that only a few people have (also, without doing a lot of research, what would even constitute a common profession?)) but to avoid linking the names of "common professions" of which "actor", "singer", and "politician" are clear examples of. People know what these professions are, linking to them clutters up the page which is what the guideline is designed to prevent. SQGibbon (talk) 03:43, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

FWIW, I think SQGibbon has a very good point.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 03:48, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Now if Mariah Carey was a Forensic entomologist, it might be worth linking! fredgandt 03:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

There is certainly a level of degree a person who is cited as a celebrity, not a politician, can have in the profession they chose, which ultimately made them famous for it. For example, Jim Bob Duggar is a politician, yes... but his success is primarily noted on his celebrity status because of his show 19 Kids and Counting. I believe it is appropriate to blue link titles of an entertainment/media figure because of just that. --97.100.176.192 (talk) 04:01, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The guideline is clear and has been thoroughly explained to you now. If you think there should be an exception then you need to build consensus to have it added (you can start that process here. Until then, please respect the community consensus view on Wikilinking and overlinking. SQGibbon (talk) 07:03, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Taking the article Jim Bob Duggar as an example, I see a tale of woe. Between the two revisions that make this diff there was a high degree of miscommunication in the edit summaries (alluded to by Obsidian Soul above), and some shameful reversions. The wikilinking (adding brackets) you were doing seemed fine to me. Not excessive at all. The tools some editors use (such as Twinkle), offer edit summary reasons (I believe). I don't think the reasons given were accurate or helpful in a few cases where your work was unnecessarily undone. The real problem started when you reverted work done by another editor, who added references to the lead, in what looks to have been an attempt to back your wikilinking up. That reversion thus made the previous claims that you were adding unsourced material kinda-sorta right. You actually reverted references that if left in place would have made your wikilinking more suitable.

Unfortunately, we are all human, and thus prone to error. We have to learn to get along the best we can. Disagreements may occur. Do the right thing, keep cool, carry on, be bold etc. etc. If things get out of hand, there are administrators ready and willing to get involved. Thankfully they are very competent people (on the whole), and can guide editors to reach satisfactory compromise (or issue bans if that fails).

Try and be more careful in future when reverting edits, as you may find the edits you revert contain details you really didn't want to remove. fredgandt 02:42, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I think I did undo an edit to an older revision, my mistake, and removed sources, and as WP:CITELEAD does not require sources I left it out again. Anyhow, thanks for the information and advice. I hope I can intake as much as possible if I need to edit again. :) --97.100.176.192 (talk) 02:50, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

You seem to know a lot of policies and guidelines. More than me for sure. It is frustrating sometimes (work being battered) , but the best advice I know of on Wikipedia is right there, under the edit window. "If you do not want your writing to be edited, used, and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.". this always reminds me of one policy/guide that seems to me to hit the nail on the head; WP:OWN. Do your best, try and collaborate, and mostly - let it go! fredgandt 02:58, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

non-breaking hyphen

how do I make a non-breaking hyphen?

And I really wish this was the default.

TCO (Reviews needed) 03:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

A non-breaking hyphen can be created by using the HTML code ‑ or by copying this character: ‑. Goodvac (talk) 03:33, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

See more about hyphens at Hyphen#In computing. I don't know what you want it for but WP:HYPHEN doesn't mention non-breaking hyphen. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I added it to the MOS. I had looked there and thought it odd that they did not list it.TCO (Reviews needed) 05:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

Riordon, William L., Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1993. (Originally published in 1905)

There is already a wiki page dedicated to George Washington Plunkitt, but I wanted to talk about this book- his speeches- do I create a new page or do I discuss this book on his page that is already there? (This citation appears on his page as a reference.) The book was required reading at the University of Texas while I was there, it gives real insight into that form of corruption. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DonnaWelles (talk • contribs) 05:24, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The notability criteria for books are at WP:Notability (books): basically, if there has been significant discussion of the book (as opposed to the subject) in reliable sources, then it may have an article. I don't know the answer in this case, but if it is his speeches that are the focus of your interest, I would have thought a section in the page on him would be appropriate. You can then cite the book as a reference, either for the content of the speeches, or for discussion of the speeches provided this discussion is in the book. Be careful not to add original research or synthesis which is not in your sources. --ColinFine (talk) 16:47, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for getting back to me. I found this in the link you suggested:

"The book is the subject of instruction at multiple elementary schools, secondary schools, colleges/universities or post-graduate programs in any particular country."

I am certain the book is taught in Universities throughout the United States as an illustration of that time period and of that government model. Do I need official permission to create the page or can I just start whenever I want? — Preceding unsigned comment added by DonnaWelles (talk • contribs) 14:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

a simple thank you!!

I just received a welcome message from DThomsen8, but I can't figure out how to reply directly to her/him. I'm sorry if this isn't the forum. I'm new and still stumbling my way through....but while I'm here, I just want to thank all of you who work full-time for Wikipedia. I LOVE Wikipedia, I use it all the time, and I'm an avid supporter in all ways. So, to DThomsen8, whoever you are, I hope this reaches you, and thank you for your message. Happy New Year to all!! Johngalt2788 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johngalt288 (talk • contribs) 05:37, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Very kind words. Very few people who edit Wikipedia actually work here. We are nearly all volunteers like you. The only editors who do work here, are employees of Wikimedia Foundation. They are the non-profit organization that run Wikipedia and develop the software it runs on.

I've let Dthomsen8 know that you've responded to his/her welcome here.

We contact specific users by leaving messages on their talk pages. Yours is here, mine is here, and Dthomsen8's is here. If anyone leaves a message on your talk page, you'll see a banner at the top of the page, alerting you to it. You can also get email notifications via a personal preference. fredgandt 05:55, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

It sounds like you're off to a good start here, and I hope you enjoy it. And excellent choice in reading too!! The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 07:13, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Indicating "sic" in reference title

When a reference has a misspelling, but that misspelling is part of the reference such as in a web page title, how do I indicate that? For example, on the page Tim_Donnelly_(politician), reference 16. The cited web page has suprise instead of surprise. I would like to indicate that so that readers know the error is in the source and it should not be corrected. Where in the reference (if at all), should I place the (sic)? RudolfRed (talk) 06:11, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

It's not a requirement, but you can place it in the |title= field within the citation template if it uses one or simply next to the word within the <ref> and </ref> tags. e.g.

• <ref>{{cite news|title=Donnelly is in for a suprise (sic)|url=http://www.topix.com/forum/city/glendora-ca/TR82SSR6O0LM8FJN4|accessdate=3 November 2010|newspaper=[[Topix]]|date=3 November 2010}}</ref>

Will show up as:

• "Donnelly is in for a suprise (sic)". Topix. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010.

However, the example reference you gave is to a forum discussion, hence, unsurprisingly, the misspelling. It's not considered a reliable source and should be removed. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 06:39, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Have a look at the {{sic}} template. For this case I'd use {{sic|nolink=y|suprise}}. It's a little more work, but makes it 100% clear even to automated text processors that only the one word "suprise" is dubious. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:22, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

See also {{typo}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:52, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, everyone, for the help. RudolfRed (talk) 02:21, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Feature request: displaying mathematical equations as png images with solid background

I would like to request the feature that mathematical equations be stored as png files with a solid white background.

Currently, equations in Wikipedia are already stored as png files, but the images have no background.

The Stylish plugin for Firefox allows one to customize themes with user-defined-css.

While browsing with a dark theme, equations in Wikipedia are essentially invisible, as they display with black text on a black background.

For example, while browsing with a dark theme, equations are visible here ...

http://plus.maths.org/content/chaos-numberland-secret-life-continued-fractions

With a dark theme, equations are invisible here ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continued_fraction

I'm am not suggesting to use MathML or to change how images of equations are generated with Tex.

I simply request that the generated images of equations have a solid white background.

Cheers, Leonard — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leonardnemoi (talk • contribs) 08:01, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Leonardnemoi. I think a better forum for your post above is Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). This page is geared towards asking and receiving answers to questions about how to use Wikipedia. By the way, when you add content to talk pages and administrative forums such as this one (as opposed to edits to articles), you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. You could also click on the signature button or located above the edit window. When you save, this will automatically format to your signature with a time stamp.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:28, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

This seems like an accessibility problem to me, so I posted a note at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Accessibility#Display problem with mathematical formulas in dark themes. — Sebastian 00:15, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Photo switching option

I'm looking for some help regarding the photo switch feature currently used at the India article (see the demographics section and sports section), which randomly rotates selected images all utilised for one section. I'm interested in using this feature for another article and would apparently like to how this template works and how frequently the images rotate. Thanks, Mar4d (talk) 10:34, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

{{#switch: {{#expr: {{CURRENTSECOND}} mod 8}}
|0=[[File:Coal Miner 1980.JPG|thumb|left|upright|A coal miner in Bachra, Jharkhand.]]
|1=[[File:Cropped Tripuri.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Children prepare for a traditional dance in Tripura.]]
|2=[[File:Girls in Kargil.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Women in [[Kargil town|Kargil]], Jammu and Kashmir.]]
|3=[[File:Handicrafts seller.JPG|thumb|left|upright|A handicraft seller in [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]], Andhra Pradesh.]]
|4=[[File:Inde bondo8658a.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A [[Bonda people|Bondo]] woman walks to a weekly market in Chattisgarh.]]
|5=[[File:India School.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Women at a literacy programme in [[Thiruputkuzhi]], Tamil Nadu.]]
|6=[[File:Lady in Bundi, Rajasthan.JPG|thumb|left|upright|A woman in [[Bundi]], Rajasthan.]]
|7=[[File:Sadhu Vârânasî .jpg|thumb|left|upright|An ascetic in [[Varanasi]], Uttar Pradesh.]]
}}

Here's the source for a quick ref which needs to be explained. --lTopGunl (talk) 10:41, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

But don't expect to see a new picture every time you visit the page. Pages are cached to reduce the load on the servers, and a new picture is only chosen when the page is purged or needs to be rebuilt when an edit is made. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:40, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

So this was not about broswer side cache? --lTopGunl (talk) 11:45, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

No. Obviously if a browser has cached the HTML of a page, the picture won't change. But if even you bypass your browser cache with F5 or Ctrl-F5, you still won't see a new picture. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:51, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Hmm... Thanks. --lTopGunl (talk) 12:41, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

userboxes

how do you create a user box 10:35, 1 January 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oscar45596524 (talk • contribs)

Everything you wanted to know about userboxes fredgandt 10:51, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

And more specifically: Wikipedia:Userboxes/Design and construct.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 11:21, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Android App

Dear Wikipedia,

Wikipedia is the website I visit more frequently, than my email account. I wish an Android App was available from Wikipedia itself, so that accessing it from android phones was easier.

Please help..

Thanks, Parampreet Singh. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Parampreetss (talk • contribs) 11:15, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

You can point your browser to http://en.m.wikipedia.org and then bookmark it. Then if you'd like faster access than going to your browser and choosing the bookmark, you can:

1. Long press on an empty space on your phone's home screen
2. From the menu that comes up, select Shortcuts
3. From the next menu, select Bookmarks
4. Choose the Wikipedia bookmark and place it anywhere on your home screen

There doesn't need to be an app. Dismas|^(talk) 11:48, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Offensive comment

Dear Sir/Madam:

I was reading the article at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_12

In that article, I came across the biased, offensive comment that was clearly added by someone with an axe -- including a personal axe -- to grind. In my opinion, the entire comment should be deleted.

Thank you,

Lou Sheehan

"Friedman has argued extensively that the government's refusal to release documents under FOIA somehow "proves" that they are covering up a "UFO Investigation". A little thought immediately reveals that this conclusion is not warranted at all. There could be many other cogent reasons why specific information cannot and should not be released - having nothing whatever to do with the existence of UFO's. Again, Friedman, if he has the background he claims, should not make such fundamentally erroneous conclusions." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.58.84.186 (talk) 12:49, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I have removed the material since it appears to be original research and because it is unsourced and challenged here (see WP:BURDEN). Just as a sidenote, the article needs a top down rewrite.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:20, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Donations 4

I have had no ends of trouble with Wikipedia. I have attempted to create pages, only to have people in the community take them down, siting that I was not putting the correct information up. It was an abusive and horrible situation, trying to add content to this site. And now, if I do come on, I am bombarded with posts on how I should donate. What would those donations do? Would they pay for a help desk so someone could actually help me make a page correctly? Would it allow you to pay some people who's job it was to scan new pages, so the power to delete them wasn't in the hands of 'egos with computers'? It's offensive to see you ask for money, and you give so little help to the people you are asking for money from. I will ABSOLUTELY donate, if things like this help center go away, and you begin paying for real amenities for your users. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.199.153.212 (talk) 16:23, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

You are speaking here to thousands of volunteers who individually have no more influence than you do on the policies of Wikipedia. For information about where donations go, see foundation:Fundraising. The Village Pump is the best place to discuss policies on Wikipedia, but fundraising is the purview of the Wikimedia Foundation, so you might find foundation:FAQ more helpful.

As to your particular experience: if the people who reverted your edits were abusive, that is not acceptable; but Wikipedia's policies are more restrictive than many people realise. If necessary there is a procedure for conflict resolution. I cannot see what edits you have attempted to make (your IP address shows only edits to this page), so there's not really anything more I can say about your experience. --ColinFine (talk) 17:04, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

First of all, have you attempted to understand why your previous pages were taken down? If the rationale was that you were not putting the correct information up, then maybe you really were not putting the correct information up.

There are usually very good reasons as to why some pages get deleted, since pages aren't deleted that easily on Wikipedia. Users will always try to salvage even the most badly written articles if the article deserves it. The problem is - not all articles deserve it. The most common reason is usually because the newly created page is a blatant attempt to use Wikipedia to advertise or promote a non-notable product, service, company, person, etc. See What Wikipedia is not. If your deleted articles fall within any of those categories, then the deletion is justified and no amount of money you throw at WMF will change the fact that it is NOT okay for those to be in here (WMF does not control content of the Wikipedias anyway). That misplaced sense of entitlement is just as offensive to the thousands of volunteers in here giving you access to knowledge for free. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 17:48, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Also check WP:CREATE --Neo139 (talk) 22:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

All of this is a perfect example of the non helpful, and combative nature of the people who volunteer their time here. This kind of stuff: "If your deleted articles fall within any of those categories, then the deletion is justified and no amount of money you throw at WMF will change the fact that it is NOT okay for those to be in here" and "First of all, have you attempted to understand why your previous pages were taken down? If the rationale was that you were not putting the correct information up, then maybe you really were not putting the correct information up." are not helpful, they are inflammatory. I have a real issue, and a real complaint, and there is no way for me to voice it. I dont know why it says I have no edits./ I worked on Pierre Clavleaux Davis' page, if that helps. And I thank the people who tried to say something helpful. Everyone else, though, just lets me know why I try to use other sites for reference, and I REALLY dont want to have to get involved with adding content here anymore. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.199.153.212 (talk) 22:24, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/71.199.153.212 shows the IP address you edited from here has no other registered edits while not logged in. Your other edits must have been from another IP adress or when you were logged in. There has not been an article called Pierre Clavleaux Davis and I couldn't guess which page you meant by searching. Without seeing your edits it's impossible to evaluate and comment on them. Instead Obsidi♠n Soul tried to speculate about what might have happened. I see that upset you and I will refrain from it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Charlie Brooks (Eastenders actress)

Hi

The entry refers to her death on 31 December 2011 in Bermuda.

I have a hard time believing its true but hey if it is then fine, BUT, the link for more information goes to a non-existant page.

Are you sure its not a wind up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Petestar1969 (talk • contribs) 17:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. It seems to have been deleted as vandalism - and the source website given wouldn't have been acceptable even if the link was valid. AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:26, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia

How does one get a wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.24.131.126 (talk) 18:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Can you clarify your question? What is it that you want? RudolfRed (talk) 18:12, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

If you want an instruction about how to create a wiki, then I recommend you this site. Regards.--♫GoP♫_T^CN 19:44, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

If on the other hand you are asking how to create an article in Wikipedia about you (that is, an article in the particular wiki out of thousands which is called Wikipedia), then the answer is that you don't. Please see WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY. --ColinFine (talk) 20:17, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Another thing out of the many possible things this could mean: If you mean you want to create a Wikipedia account, you can go to Special:UserLogin/signup. - Purplewowies (talk) 23:26, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Robert E Lee Museum, in Biloxi, MS

How can I find who the current caretaker is for the Robert E Lee Musemum, in Biloxi, MS.? I can be contacted by email at : Thank you, Clair — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.134.236.179 (talk) 18:46, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried the Miscellaneous 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 GB fan 18:48, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Blue dots show up only on thumbnail image??

Brugmansia sanguinea

Linnaeus first classified these plants as part of Datura with his 1753 description of Datura arborea . Then in 1805, C.H. Persoon transferred them into a separate genus, Brugmansia, named for Sebald Justinus Brugmans. For another 168 years, various authors placed them back and forth between the genera of Brugmansia and Datura, until in 1973, with his detailed comparison of morphological differences, T.E. Lockwood settled them as separate genera, where they have stayed unchallenged since.

Currently, there are 7 recognized species:

• Brugmansia arborea (L.) Lagerh. (Andes - Ecuador to northern Chile)
• Brugmansia aurea Lagerh. (Andes - Venezuela to Colombia)
• Brugmansia insignis (Rodr.) Lagerh. (Eastern Andes foothills - Colombia to Bolivia)
• Brugmansia sanguinea (Ruiz & Pav.) D.Don (Andes - Colombia to northern Chile)
• Brugmansia suaveolens (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Bercht. & J.Presl (Southeast Brazil)
• Brugmansia versicolor Lagerh. (Ecuador)
• Brugmansia vulcanicola (A.S.Barclay) R.E.Schult. (Andes - Colombia to Ecuador)

These species are then divided into two natural, genetically isolated groups. Brugmansia section Brugmansia (the warm-growing group) includes the species aurea, insignis, sauveolens, and versicolor. Brugmansia section Sphaerocarpium (the cold group) includes the species arborea, sanguinea, and vulcanicola.
Two of these species were challenged by Lockwood in his 1973 doctoral thesis. First, Brugmansia vulcanicola was said to be a subspecies of B. sanguinea, but this was refuted by Lockwood's former mentor, R.E. Schultes in 1977. Second, Lockwood proposed that the species B. insignis was instead a hybrid of the combination (B. suaveolens x B. versicolor) x B. suaveolens. This was later disproved by crossbreeding experiments done by the Preissels, published in 1997.

I have recently uploaded an image, and included it in a major rewrite of Brugmansia. In the Brugmansia article it shows up as having 7 blue dots on the left side of the image, but when you click the image to see the main file, the dots are not there. They only show up for a left placement of the image in the article. I can't make the blue dots appear on this page with the same code. Anyone know what those are? Many thanks! --Tom Hulse (talk) 19:48, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't see blue dots, here or in the article.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 20:04, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The "Taxonomy" section has an unordered list of seven items, which have bullets like this: . I think on your display they somehow got moved to the left of the image. Goodvac (talk) 20:08, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah, you're a genius of the obvious, thank you! Can't believe I didn't see that. Now any recommendation on how I can make the bullets work properly? --Tom Hulse (talk) 20:13, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

No problem, Tom. I don't see the bullets on the left, so I think it's specific to your window size. I know there's probably some CSS code or a template that can prevent that from happening, but I'll have to do some research. Fred Gandt (talk · contribs) is an experienced coder, so he may be able to help. Goodvac (talk) 20:17, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I've duplicated the section above to make the dots/bullets show up the left side of the picture (for me). I'm using IE9 on Windows7. Anyone else see them on the left of the image? --Tom Hulse (talk) 20:26, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes. Again IE9 on Windows 7. - David Biddulph (talk) 20:47, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello. I've put the list of species in a left margined div (html box). Makes little difference to users not seeing the bullets out of place, but the question is...Does it help at all for those who do see the error?

If Internet explorer is involved, I assume it might have something to do with the dreaded "compatibility mode" (everything seems to break in that mode). Try looking at an old revision of the page (before my div experiment), and switch your IE to "standards mode" (button on the top toolbar). That might help (anyone who knows to do that).

All of this is currently me guessing  fredgandt 20:59, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Excellent! That seemed to fix it, I like your solution. I edited it a bit further to indent a little more, so the bullets aren't hanging out in the margin (margin between the text & image). Does it still look ok on your browsers? --Tom Hulse (talk) 21:57, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The indent looks too large for me (Vector/Chrome/XP) but it's not so bad i would complain. If it means that other users don't see dots in totally the wrong place, successful hack! fredgandt 22:00, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) I moved the image to the taxobox per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images#Location and rearranged the sections a bit. It's never a good idea to place an image on the left side of a bulleted list imo, especially given that the taxobox is on the other side, sandwiching the text into a very narrow column. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 22:00, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you Obsidian for the italics fixes in the article, but I'm sorry I really don't like your change of my picture placement. Putting it in the Taxbox makes it much too large, IMO. It also disassociates it with the Taxonomy section which makes it look just awkwardly tacked on as a second addition for the overall article. I scoured the internet to find a free picture that lent an old-world feeling to the Taxonomy section, to go with the 1700's and 1800's info, and that feel is lost with your placement. I agree that the MOS technically says we shouldn't sandwich text between an image and a infobox, but I had thought this a reasonable exception because only 4 lines of text run into the box, whereas most of that section is naturally narrow in width because of the list of species. I thought overall it was a nice fit, asthetically pleasing, and at least in the spirit of the MOS guidelines. Plus it preserves the old-world feel to Taxonomy section and allows shrinking the image thumbnail to a better size. What would you think of a compromise, perhaps just removing the bullets all together and otherwise restoring the image to the size I had on left? In that particular list, since each line is already a link, the individual points are already highlighted as distinct from the text, and I think loosing the bullets would be no loss. --Tom Hulse (talk) 22:34, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Imho, it's not about the bullets, it's the actual placement of the picture beside a list. Like placing pictures on the left of quoted paragraphs or a series of closely spaced section headers, it disrupts the indent which (at least in my opinion, heh) is a bit messy. Does it need to be placed there? Can the taxonomy section be moved down perhaps? Past the taxobox? But no problem of course, feel free to move it back to the position you prefer.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 05:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

P.S. A bulleted list of species is best imo, especially since it includes the authorities which I think can't really be placed inline in normal text. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 05:11, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I've seen this before. Best to keep the bullets and right justify the image.TCO (Reviews needed) 05:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Seeking article feedback

• Windows Server 8 (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I know notability and verifiability have been passed, but I'm still seeking feedback on the rest of it.Jasper Deng (talk) 20:27, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Stats on Unregistered Editors

I know somewhere I have seen a Signpost article or some publication state something of the form:

"[x]% of (English) Wikipedia edits are made by unregistered editors, and their contributions account for [y]% of all Wikipedia content"

I've done some thorough searching, but haven't had a bit of luck in tracking down these numbers. Anyone remember the source? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 22:42, 1 January 2012 (UTC) Also, could someone help me with the statement: "Of all Wikipedias contributors, [z]% were unregistered". Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 23:14, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Statistics has various links. One of them is http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm. The "Tables" link for the English Wikipedia leads to http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm. http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm#anonymous says about the English Wikipedia: "All together 93,577,041 article edits were made by anonymous users, out of a total of 303,882,826 article edits (31%)". The bottom says "Data processed up to Wednesday November 30, 2011". Some of the total is bots but there are also stats about that. It's hard to say how much content is made by different edits. I don't have information about that but I think there has been attempts to estimate it. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:51, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

January 2

Fictional universe of Avatar

There's avatar pandora creature's like thanator that is not a wikipedia article. If you type thanator it goes to the special pages that has Fictional universe of Avatar with thanator in it. These creature are notable enough to have their own article like the mythical cyclops does. Plus it does not break down their physical attributes and all movie appearances in Fictional universe of Avatar. If you look at List of Disney's Hercules characters like hydros pyros and the other titans it does not explain the sequence of events they where involved in or have a separate article for themselves. Is it Okay if I copy the stats and story appearances and add myself from pandora's pedia wiki and make separate articles for the species and everything else. Plus not every pandora plant is not included into the Fictional universe of Avatar. Avatar is still making more avatar movies so these creatures and fauna plants will become more popular.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 02:02, 2 January 2012 (UTC) Its probably good to make articles for these creatures, weapons, and plants because the Fictional universe of Avatar will get to big and will take longer to download, these creature like the banshee will get over 50000 views in one month.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 02:06, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

And there is no picture for all avatar characters, creatures, flying vehicles like the C-21 Dragon Assault Ship, and plants.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 02:15, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

We are not in the business of being an exhaustive archive of everything Avatar, Star Trek, Pokemon, or any other franchise. So, tread lightly. And you may want to read WP:FANCRUFT and WP:POKEMON first. Dismas|^(talk) 02:16, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe fantasy pandora creature's and technology apply to real earthly planet creatures and technology. Pokemon is more off track into just fantasy and is less notable to avatar. The pokemon pikachu is probably the most notable pokemon creature with almost 50000 views a month, but a real life creature could not generate electricity except a eel or another unknown sea creature. Am pretty sure a few billion people have watched avatar in the world not including the universe. So do you guys think it okay to make it. Don't worry I won't make it to detailed or off track.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 02:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

We're not saying you shouldn't put it online. We're just saying Wikipedia isn't the place. Try the Avatar Wiki. Jim.henderson (talk) 02:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia has almost everything linking to something. Thanator's sensory quills applies to real life mammals that have sensory whiskers. So these creature trait attribute words of their anatomy will link to real Wikipedia articles compared to pandorapedia which does not explain how these sensors work in real life.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 02:57, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

So, insert links both ways. Special Wiki to Wikipedia and vice versa. Jim.henderson (talk) 03:51, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Take a look at the corollary to what you're talking about. In numerous articles, we have an "In popular culture" section. These are frowned upon because people will include every tiny instance of A in B. The mailbox baseball article is an example of this. The second paragraph, while not a pop culture section of its own, is basically a list of shows and movies that had mailbox baseball in them. These lists are not meant to be exhaustive and can often be trimmed to just a few examples. What you're suggesting is to have articles on all these in universe items/plants/animals/etc and try to justify the existence of those articles because you'll list instances of B in A. It's the Pop Culture lists in reverse. Dismas|^(talk) 03:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Team Rosters for phillips 66ers

Three of my uncles played basketball for the 66ers probably in the 1920s. Their birth name was Michalski but they changed it to Michaels to play basketball. Stanley, Joseph and Peter all from Kansas City, Kansas. Due to their playing they were given a job at the refinery in Kansas City, Kansas. Stan left Phillips to work elsewhere, Joe and Pete both retired from the Kansas City Plant. Have tried all sorts of Google Inquiries but have not been able to find anything about them. They were sports stars in Kansas City and I understand also as members of the Phillips 66ers. Maybe you could lead me to the right location. They have all passed away and I'm 72 years old. Charles Removed personal info — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.136.205.42 (talk) 02:11, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

(ec) Don't post personal information here. Also, the help desk isn't quite the right place for the question. This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. RudolfRed (talk) 02:18, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

My attempt at help is to see Portal:Genealogy and Genealogy. there may (and probably is) be lots of helpful info about tracing family trees and the like. fredgandt 02:21, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Can we use Australian Case Law in U.K

Hi I am trying to find some case laws to help in my defence. I live in the U.K and foung this case PERPETUAL TRUSTEE COMPANY LIMITED v Albert and Rose KHOSHABA and wanted to know if I could use it here please.

Thank you for any help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Apples333 (talk • contribs) 02:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

We cannot offer legal advice. Please see the legal disclaimer. Contact a lawyer. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:05, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Seeking article feedback 2

Moved to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chess

• Rotlewi versus Rubinstein (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

The feedback-giver should be very familiar with the game of chess.Jasper Deng (talk) 03:34, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Creating new article and copyright and more

Iv'e just created a Thanator and Mountain Banshee article I got a message from CorenSearchBot for copyrighting it from [[4]] and I did copyright it. How do I get it approved to copyright who should I ask in the avatar wiki to do this. And how do I add a picture to these articles. Would I have to change the style word format and just add and change the words.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 03:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

You got a message for copying it - you can't 'copyright' it, it is someone else's work, and you must not represent other people's work as your own - ever. As for the article, it isn't remotely encyclopaedic - it seems to be representing a fictional creature as fact. You have repeatedly had Wikipedia policy explained to you, and I suggest you either study it, and work within it, or stop editing - you are likely to be blocked otherwise. AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:58, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) You did not copyright it, you copied it from another site in violation of their copyright, or at least you did as to the latter one. Please read that blue link since your post makes me think you do not know what copyright is. I have deleted Mountain Banshee as a blatant copyright infringement under section G12 of the criteria for speedy deletion. In general, you may use external websites or other sources as a source of information (in fact, we want you to), but not as a source of sentences. This part is crucial: say it in your own words. Note also that it's not just a matter of minor changes in the wording. Please see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing.

Regarding Thanator, while it is plagiarism and a copyright violation since you did not provide proper attribution, the content may be able to be salvaged because the Wikia site you took it from uses the same free copyright license our content is licensed under (the CC-By-SA). I don't have time right now, but you might take a look at what I did earlier today at Jackie McLeod and its talk page for a start at addressing the problem.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:13, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Please run page size tool on Fluorine

Please report the different numbers for page size for Fluorine. Tool does not seem to work with IE9.

TCO (Reviews needed) 04:04, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

• File size: 567 kB
• Prose size (including all HTML code): 115 kB
• References (including all HTML code): 33 kB
• Wiki text: 142 kB
• Prose size (text only): 58 kB (8713 words) "readable prose size"
• References (text only): 1275 B

-- John of Reading (talk) 08:53, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you.TCO (Reviews needed) 11:50, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

element of set, how do i do it?

Hi, suppose i wannt to say 2 is an element of the set S. what is the procedure to get the little epsilon i need? thanks76.218.104.120 (talk) 04:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

You may want to ask this question at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics. --Jayron32 04:48, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Hey, the OP probably is asking for this in order to help improve our articles, so why not answer here? As our help page Help:Displaying a formula says, you can use &isin; to get ∈. — Sebastian 04:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

See also (for future reference) Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics. fredgandt 05:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

∈ is supposed to indicate set membership? I had hoped when i saw that in rational point it was a typo. It doesn't look like an epsilon and apparently also denotes the sum of two groups. --Rich Peterson76.218.104.120 (talk) 06:38, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Rich, when you enter "∈" in the search box, it will lead you right to our article Element (mathematics), which should answer your question. If you still have concerns about this, you can discuss it on that article's talk page. — Sebastian 09:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

• Ε - Ε - Upper case Greek Epsilon
• ε - ε - Lower case Greek epsilon

Not sure if they are mathematical symbols though. fredgandt 07:12, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

These are used in math, but not for what the OP asked about, so I fail to see a reason for listing them here. — Sebastian 09:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I was bored. fredgandt 09:32, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Year-end page view tool availability for 2011?

When is the year-end page view tool going to be ready for 2011. I.e, I can see monthly totals for http://stats.grok.se/en/2010/Bon_Iver but not http://stats.grok.se/en/2011/Bon_Iver.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 09:33, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Collaboration of the month nominations

Hello. I nominated Genome-wide association study for Wikipedia:WikiProject_Genetics/Collaboration_of_the_Month#Nominations in the wiki-project genetics. There's not a lot of throughput in this project, but it did manage to get two votes. How is this "election-victory" handled? Should I do something myself, or does it happen automatically (nothing have happened yet, now two days after voting deadline)? --LasseFolkersen (talk) 09:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

T'was me who edited your comment (to fix the link). Please don't scowl; my intentions were good.

Is there no details on the WikiProject page about how the process should work? fredgandt 09:53, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Mhmm. There's a link on the nominations page to Wikipedia:WikiProject Genetics/Collaboration of the Month/Update how-to. You'll find the instructions there. Congratulations. fredgandt 10:10, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! I totally overlooked that link. I did most of the steps, although it says there is one that requires admin-rights (step 7). If anybody admin, reads this please change. Also there were some other steps I omitted (like removing previous CoTM, because there is none) --LasseFolkersen (talk) 12:35, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

There's a template we can use to get admin help (never used it myself). Follow this link {{Admin help}} and read the instructions (I know it's complex but you get used to it). If you don't fancy that complication, admins are here on and off all day, so one is bound to read this. fredgandt 14:09, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Spelling of D'Arcy

There is an inability to spell surnames correctly.

D'Arcy, d'Arcy or Darcy are the only acceptable forms of the surname. The variant D'arcy only exists in computers or in the minds of the illiterate.

The article about Cecil D'Arcy VC is suspect, if only because of the spelling.

Stanton D'Arcy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.147.44.121 (talk)

Henry Cecil Dudgeon D'arcy? fredgandt 10:45, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

There is actually a redirect from Henry Cecil Dudgeon D'Arcy to Henry Cecil Dudgeon D'arcy. It was created in June 2008. Someone thought about this issue already and it seems to have been decided (one way or another) that the lower case "a" is correct. I suggest starting a slightly less aggressive conversation on the talk page of the article with the disputed name. fredgandt 10:51, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Could our requester please explain the seemingly incorrect spelling of "Stanton D'Arcy"? HiLo48 (talk) 10:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I have moved the article to the common name found in reliable sources, Cecil D'Arcy, fixing the capitalization of D'arcy at the same time. Fred, I wouldn't put too much stock in what redirects, but go straight to source material. In this case, a search of d'arcy in Google Books with the delimiter, "zulu" and then various separate searches of forms of his name in quotes from those results, shows the preponderance of the common form his name and that the "A" in D'Arcy is capitalized.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:09, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

That's been a long standing error there then. I'm really quite rubbish at finding references (I'll get better). I can't seem to judge (am not confident) what a reliable source is. Don't worry about explaining. I'll figure it out some day. Just letting you know why I didn't do more. fredgandt 14:17, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Donation

Please can someone tell me how to donate (I have just found out that I'm Bipolar) and I want to shout out and help other people. Kind regards,

Kristian Wade

Kris Wade :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.43.119.173 (talk) 11:23, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi, this list might be of interest to you Lotje ツ (talk) 11:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Kris. Based on your IP address you appear to be in England, so please visit this link If you have any problems, please feel free to follow-up here.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:44, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure if the OP meant a donation to Wikimedia or to a charity supporting people with bipolar disorder. If it's the latter, all we can really do is point you to the Google search results for "Bipolar charity".-- Obsidi♠n Soul 11:59, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

In the News section

I really do not understand the 'In the News' section that is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the Wikipedia home page. Sometimes there is something there but it does not link you to an article or anything about the headline teaser that it represents. Such as today:

Samoa and Tokelau switch to the western side of the International Date Line, skipping 30 December entirely.

There is a link to the 'Samoa' and to 'Tokelau' and a link to 'International Date Line' the later being bolder than the other two. But nothing about why the change, and such like that and any new article about it.

This is not the first time that this has happened

(Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.186.167.74 (talk) 15:06, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Please don't post your email here. As for your question, it's because it's not news. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and can never host news articles. The In the news (ITN) section, despite its name, is actually about encylopedia articles that have been updated because of current events. But it will never link to an actual news story.

To quote from Wikipedia:In the news: "The In the news (ITN) section on the main page serves to direct readers to articles that have been substantially updated to reflect recent or current events of wide interest. ITN supports the central purpose of Wikipedia—making a great encyclopedia. Unlike Wikipedia's sister project Wikinews, Wikipedia is not an online newspaper and does not accept original works of journalism or first-hand reports."

For the Samoa and Tokelau issue, you will note that the bolded article (International Date Line) has indeed been updated to include a mention of their 2011 decision to cross the IDL again. If you want to read actual news stories, the main page for Wikinews is here.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 15:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

It seems to me, however, that a piped section link to International Date Line#Samoan Islands and Tokelau would be in more helpful. —teb728 t c 20:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

todays featuread photo

hi, i am a photographer from india, is it any way that i can be a part of todays featured photo as i really want to be apart of it. is there any procedure to go through from which photos arr selected.? thankyu — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.0.10.26 (talk) 15:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Featured pictures. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:27, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Magic word variable for sections/anchors

I'd like to have a template automatically sense whether it is at the top of the page or within a section. Currently, the user needs to add a parameter (section=y) when inserting the template.

Is there is a Magic word variable (like {{PAGENAME}}) for section names, or section levels, or even just a boolean test to determine is the code is in a section? --Helena srilowa 16:11, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

There is no such feature. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:47, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I've requested this feature at Wikimedia. Anyone else who'd like to see this feature can vote for it at: http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33477 --Helena srilowa 00:14, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Missing image on Wikicommons

While patrolling, I found a broken red link to an image (File:1 2 2 canal.jpg) in the Transport section of the Shropshire article. Following the link takes me to a page that says the image was deleted in May 2009 because there is a duplicate Wikicommons image. However, there is no such image at Commons. Can someone please provide guidance on how to resolve this. Can the missing image be found? Or should its link in the Shropshire article be deleted? Thanks. Truthanado (talk) 16:00, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't know about that particular image, but Commons has a couple of images (File:Newport-4.jpg and File:Title Roving canal bridge, NewportFile Size 51.84 KBDimensions 500px x 305px.jpg) of the canal at Newport. You could use one of those (either of which might in fact be the original image) in the article in place of the "missing image". Deor (talk) 17:16, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

According to this page, the file was deleted from Commons as non-free (all rights reserved). —teb728 t c 18:41, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Is it OK to go back and changing a non-compliant signature from alternateretired account?

Hello. See Talk:Ross Barnett Reservoir. Notice the flashing signature for posts by user:The Eskimo...that was me as a wiki-rookie. I've since retired that account. I returned to the article the other day wanting to add some new sources, and noticed the horribly distracting sig (which is now kind of embarrassing). I'm a little skittish about editing posts from an old account with my existing one. Can someone advise if it is OK to do so...or at least fix whatever is causing the flashing? Thank you! Quinn ^{✩ STARRY NIGHT} 16:35, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Since it is your account, it is fine to remove inappropriate (and annoying) text formatting from your signature. I've removed the blinking. You may want to check if you've used that signature elsewhere and remove the text-decoration:blink;. AWB if you have it would be useful. Goodvac (talk) 18:14, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Looking for a French friend who was deported back to France in 1975 by Vietnamese communist

I've been looking for my friend for a long time but there's no luck.If someones know the websites i can find some information about French who left Vietnam in 1975,please email me at <email removed> Thankyou and God bless.Son Hoang — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.136.26.27 (talk) 17:13, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Singularity42 (talk) 18:26, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi

Pls hw can i get the content in the sun july 7,2007 page 25. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.190.8.31 (talk) 17:22, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.Template:Z25 —teb728 t c 17:35, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Moving to Commons

Most of the images I've uploaded were tagged for moving to Commons. While uploading the images the creators are free to choose whether or not to upload the images to Commons. But once the images are uploaded, a bot begins to move them to Commons, an action which I find somewhat contradictious. If it is compulsory to upload the images to Commons, why are the creators given a chance to upload the files to en Wiki in the first place ? Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 19:08, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

There are non-free files that are used in the English Wikipedia under the fair use laws of the US (movie posters or book covers for example). And there are also rare cases where an image may only be legally free in one country but not another. These can not be transferred to Commons, hence the option.

The rest (free files) will eventually be transferred to Commons to make it possible to use the images across different Wikimedia projects (including other-language Wikipedias) without having to upload them individually. See Wikipedia:Moving files to the Commons for more details.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 19:39, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

a question about some custom vector.css

Hej,
I tried to import some niftly little custom vector.css from the German WP - and it works 50%. I don't know **** with javascript, CSS, and such - Please help to get the other 50% working, too. This is the code :

a.mw-redirect { color: green; }
.bkl-link-inner { background-color:#F0E68C; }
.bkl-link-sup { display:none; }

The first line makes links to redirects display in green writing - this works well also here in en.WP. :)
The 2nd line is supposed to make links to dab pages display with a light orange background.
The 3rd line I have no idea what it is supposed to do.

bkl is German for dab as in wp:dab , so I tried changing the second line to :

.dab-link-inner { background-color:#F0E68C; }

but to no avail. :(
So would there be a more or less simple way to achieve what the second line tries to do ? Thanks Pardon my German (Fiiiisch!) (talk) 19:17, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

The script User:Anomie/linkclassifier.js may help you, as it colours links to redirects, links to dab pages and a few other types of link as well. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:30, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Exactly what I recommend as well— see User:Anomie/linkclassifier for installation since there are a couple of lines of JS. The CSS is at User:Anomie/linkclassifier.css. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:32, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Wow! That is nice, and documented how to get it working - nice! Thank you both very much. Tomorrow I will try to configure it to use not so aggressive colours. :D
Maybe, in a simpler form, it should go into the user prefs/ gadgets - there are surprisingly many dab links in articles, when one specific target was meant to be linked to.
well, woohoo! Pardon my German (Fiiiisch!) (talk) 00:37, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

!vote

In Wikipedia deletion debates and similar, why do people write "!vote" when they appear to mean "vote"? When I first saw it I thought it was just finger trouble, but I've seen it several times since, and I think it must be intentional. I have no idea what it signifies. 86.167.19.92 (talk) 20:36, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

In computer programming, a bang means "not", so "!vote" means "not-a-vote", which is technically true since in many instances !votes that do not have arguments behind them are disregarded in favor of those putting forward an argument with it. —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 20:39, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) It is intended to signify that while the person is registering their opinion on one side or another of an issue, everyone acknowledges that the "vote" is not going to be treated as a tally but on the strength of arguments made; Wikipedia works by consensus and discussion, not on pure voting. Please see WP:!VOTE.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:42, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See also Wikipedia:Glossary#.21vote. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:43, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

(yet another edit conflict, LOL) The exclamation mark is used for logical negation (cf. in certain programming languages: "A != B" means "A is not equal to B"). !vote means "not a vote". It indicates that the user understands that while a straw poll (a votation) is useful for quickly finding out the general opinions of the participants, it will never replace a good discussion. Having majority in a !vote does not automatically make you "win" an argument, nor does it mean that you have reached a consensus. This is an important Wikipedia guideline outlined in Wikipedia:Polling is not a substitute for discussion.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 20:49, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see, thanks! 86.167.19.92 (talk) 23:01, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Creating Bio Page

My professor has asked me to help him create a bio page on Wikipedia. Similar to his friends/colleagues: Stan Grof, Richard Tarnas, Michael Murphy (Founder of Esalen), etc. He has a draft of his document modeled after standard bio entries.

How does one go about doing this?

Gratitude for assistance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.7.89.59 (talk) 20:56, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Start with "Your First Article". The first thing to determine is if your professor is Notable. RudolfRed (talk) 22:24, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

... and, if he meets that criterion, then you should read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, though that doesn't prevent you from creating the article, and you have already disclosed the interest, so that's a good start. You might like to first create an account so that you can formally register your connection, then all will be seen as "above board". Dbfirs 23:11, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Read also WP:BLP, WP:V, WP:RS. All articles—particularly those about living people—must be verifiable by published reliable sources. Your professor may not realize that his autobiography needs to be sourced, and that his personal knowledge is not a "reliable source." —teb728 t c 01:34, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Pledge drive

WHEN is the pledge drive going to be OVER? I'm really sick of seeing the ad at the top of every Wikipedia page. Or is it just a permanent feature now? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.236.102 (talk) 21:15, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm currently seeing a "pledge drive is over, thanks!" type of message, so "a day or two ago" is the answer to your question. DMacks (talk) 21:18, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Hello - do you mean the fundraising banner ? answer : create an account, log in, then you can click my preferences -> "gadgets" and check "suppress display of fundraaising banner." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fiiiisch! (talk • contribs) 21:40, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm not logged in, and I just click the "close" button ("X" at the top right of the banner) and it goes away permanently. 86.167.19.92 (talk) 23:22, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Articles on California Smog Check - one is a treatise on air pollution, one is poorly written

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Smog_Check_Program - More than half of the article, the sections on Environmental Problem, Policy Tools, and Evaluation, are a collection of citations (and some lack of citations) in support of an agenda. Only the Smog Check Process and History sections are objective information. If the authors want to write a treatise on Air Pollution, Wikipedia is not the place to do it.

I expect that Wikipedia, as an Encyclopedia website, to provide unbiased, objective information.

The article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Smog_Check is more on subject, although there are a lack of citations and it is poorly written. One sentence that begins: The state figured that..." is just one example of poor writing.

I don't have the time or expertise to edit an article, but how we flag something that is inappropriate? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baffled33 (talk • contribs) 22:23, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm not certain, but from your description, the templates {{unbalanced}} and {{copy edit}} might be the right tags. Take a look at WP:TC for more options. RudolfRed (talk) 22:55, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

The use of the word LAME to describe edit wars is offensive to people with physical disabilites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disability-related_terms_with_negative_connotations#L

Lame is offensive to people with genuine physical disabilities, and yet you flaunt your hate speech here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars

How do you justify this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.30.144 (talk) 23:18, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't know if this post is meant seriously, but certainly the "Lamest edit wars" page should have been deleted long ago. It is not "humorous" to poke fun at people who have genuine disagreements about things that they feel are important. Some of the entries on that page are extremely ill-judged, such as the inclusion of the "Derry/Londonderry" and "British Isles" debates, to give two examples. I do not see anything very "humorous" in the former, that's for sure. 86.167.19.92 (talk) 23:28, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

"Lame" has two definitions (as an adjective), the latter is used in this instance. If voluntarily you choose to read it as the former definition no one at Wikipedia is unlikely to take responsibility or take any complaints seriously. Яehevkor ✉ 23:30, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

January 3

Need help with category

This category [5] has a link to Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard/Watchlist, can someone remove it? --Supreme Deliciousness (talk) 01:30, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

I removed it. Thanks for pointing that out. —teb728 t c 01:49, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

how to reference

hi,

i have a scanned articles and want to use that as reference on wikipedia, is that allowed?

i don't have their online link anymore cause the articles were 5-7 years ago.

thanks,

Boowhy (talk) 01:44, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

As in scanned from a magazine or other published source? You would reference the original publication. Not all references have to be online. See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. Dismas|^(talk) 01:51, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Use of minority languages

On the English wikipedia, is it always acceptable to include a minority language version of a name e.g. an airport, town hall etc, in the minority language of that country, if it is an official language?

I ask because someone has deleted my Irish language inclusion of Belfast International Airport stating that as Belfast is part of the UK English is the only official language, and thus Irish language is not needed. This is highly incorrect as the Irish language is an official language in Northern Ireland, and enjoys official status, therefore to me it seems highly acceptable to include it in brackets much like the airport pages for cardiff has welsh etc. thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dietcoke20122 (talk • contribs) 03:09, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

The reason for that being removed was an incorrect one by that editor, however there is good reason for it to be removed. Historically no reliable sources have been provided to prove that an Irish name is in common use, or indeed what an Irish name would be, for the Northern Ireland airports. Anything else is just a translation of the name which isn't the same thing per WP:OR and WP:Verifiable. Canterbury Tail talk 04:09, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

recent recessed article - list of adaptogens

hello,

there has been an article around, i seem to be unable to retrieve as it was deleted. i am not primarily interested in reanimating it, as it was lacking profound scientific backup, yet i'd like to have a copy of it. is it possible to get my hands on one- it was still available half a year ago (the last updated version would be nice, actually). well, i hope i'll at least find the answer on wiki help desk.

regards, thanks in advance, pax — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.109.117.199 (talk) 03:09, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

someone is deleting the updated info on my Wikipedia entry and leaving outdated info

My name is Thomas B. Edsall and I am a professor at Columbia University and an online columnist for the New York Times.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/author/thomas-b-edsall/ http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/35-thomas-b-edsall/10

Today I attempted to update the outdated information in my Wikipedia entry. My correct information is available from Marquis Who's Who 2011 edition, as I noted, and from my Columbia University faculty website.

Here is the email I received this evening from Wikipedia alleging (incorrectly)that the correct information I added to my entry is unsubstantiated. This allegation is incorrect:

I was the Political Editor of the Huffington Post from 2007 to 2009. I currently write an online column for the New York Times. My most recent Who's Who entry is for 2011 not 2006.

Please put me in touch with someone who knows how to restore my vandalized Wikipedia page.

Here is the misinformed email I received a few minutes ago from a Wikipedia editor?

Dear ,

The Wikipedia page "User talk:" has been changed on 3 January 2012 by Kumioko, with the edit summary: /* January 2012 */ Greetings

See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:((details_removed))&diff=0&oldid=469225139 for all changes since your last visit. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:((details_removed)) for the current revision.

To contact the editor, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kumioko

Note that additional changes to the page "User talk:((details_removed))" will not result in any further notifications, until you have logged in and visited the page.

            Your friendly Wikipedia notification system

--

This email notification feature was enabled on English Wikipedia in May 2011 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Email_notification. If you would like to switch off your notifications, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences

Feedback and further assistance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents — Preceding unsigned comment added by ((details removed)) (talk • contribs) 03:10, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

There were some concerns raised about sourcing. I'm currently in the process of adding back most of that material, using sources which will meet Wikipedia's requirements. It will take a little while, but it should be good soon. - Bilby (talk) 03:14, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

I have removed all the visible copies of your email address from this section to protect your privacy. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:28, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

speedy close requested

at Talk:Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)#Requested move, for reasons discussed there: parallel move requests at a number of separate pages. Thanks to anyone who can help. Milkunderwood (talk) 03:30, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Photo captions.

Please change the position of the photos on your pages. You show a face that has the name of the person or subject one is trying to find. Oddly, this page with the picture of Sue Gardner, fits. When I looked up Robert Irsay, your page showed up with the above photo of Ms. Gardner, as if Robert Irsay was her name. It just looks weird. A caption under a photo should relate to the photo, not to anything or anyone else. This happens on most, if not, all of your pages.

Honest, it's basic journalism. Thanks.166.248.2.235 (talk) 03:39, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Even people unfamiliar with banner ads should have no trouble distinguishing that the thank you for contributing banner from Sue Gardner, given the form of the graphic, is separate from an article they find it in and not part of the article itself, much less the vast numbers of Internet savvy people who will immediately recognize its form.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:51, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

My problem is I can't access the msg from Sue. Both the "Read me" button and the "please read" message do nothing. Is that just my browser (IE8) on my PC? Nurg (talk) 07:14, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Not certain, but I'll report to the fundraising team. Thanks! -Philippe (talk) 08:49, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

That little cross...

UI was reading an article and I saw a little cross near someones name. Does that signify that the person has passed away. I'm just wondering! Thanks! :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.112.37.117 (talk) 07:38, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

See Dagger (typography), especially the section Modern usage. Dru of Id (talk) 08:21, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

I want to register

Hi my name is lerato, i would like to know that do you have grade7 in this school. And please send me the fees details via my email address @ nombulelomashigo@ovi.com please ugently. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.22.108.105 (talk) 09:03, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Dear Sir,

I have constructed an article in the name of "Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain" in Arabic and in English, but when I examined the English article I saw many differences from the Arabic one, and many items were deleted from the English one.