Wikipedia:Help desk
- For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
- Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
- Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
- For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
- New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).
May 8
Article cropped
I've submitted an article for review, but when I read it everything I've written has disappeared except for the first sentence.Elisabeth Yarbakhsh (talk) 01:07, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- References should start with
<ref>
and end with</ref>
. You tried to end them with<ref>
in Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Jon Charles Altman. This causes the following text to be interpreted as part of the reference. I have fixed it but after the article had already been declined. You can resubmit it. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:17, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Hi Elisabeth. Every time you use one of these → <ref> you must close it with one of these → </ref> (note the forward slash). When you don't place a closing tag all the content of the page after its use gets swallowed. Hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:16, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
pornagraphic material ????
the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chastity_piercing clearly shows a penis wtf dude?
- Wikipedia is not censored. See WP:CENSOR RudolfRed (talk) 02:52, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Novice editor here. Just found a large anonymous omission from an article.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
Yes it is tawdry and perhaps pedantic but I found a large section of an article omitted by an anonymous user (just an IP address). Omitted was a well sourced section of the page for Steven Tyler. I say well sourced because Steven Tyler himself admits to as much as it was stated in the "Family and Relationships" section before the omission. The omission was careless as well, leaving an orphaned sentence from the previous version (references Holcomb ...which was the main target of the omission.)
As a new user I am not comfortable making any of these changes...I was able to search the article history to find the removal. I am not certain of any other reversals. I am not versed in identifying the appropriate link either. Below are the links I believe show the relevant information.
This link from the article's history shows the article just before the anonymous omission.Article before omission.
Also The user contributions shows just this omission as the only activity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mavaction (talk • contribs) 02:41, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Looks like an anti-vandal bot restored the deleted content. But, feel free and use the revert button if you see that again. Be bold, since the worst that can happen if you mess up is we just undo it in less than a second.D O N D E groovily Talk to me 03:13, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Oops, looked at the wrong revision. Give me a moment... D O N D E groovily Talk to me 03:30, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Content has been restored. D O N D E groovily Talk to me 03:34, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you Mavaction (talk) 03:51, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Puzzling "new messages" notice at IP address
This past weekend I called up the article "The War" (Ken Burns) and was surprised to see "You have new messages" alert at top of page. I couldn't figure out how that was possible. I clicked it and found that this IP has a talk page, which surprised me, since I have not done any editing from this IP. The message was new: I have been accessing WP articles occasionally since December 2011, but the new-message alert had never appeared on my screen before this past weekend. I have been the only user at this IP since the beginning of December. The message was dated October 2011 and was a warning about an act of vandalism from this IP at the article Avallo, also stating that all the vandalism had been reverted. I had never heard of the article/topic before. I clicked the signature-link at the end of the warning, left a message at the sender's talk page that I was surprised by the message; that attempts from this IP since December to edit minor errors in punctuation, syntax, and spelling had each been rejected because of an "indefinite block"; that I had no idea what Avallo meant; and that the vandalism had not come from here. Some minutes later another "New message" alert appeared after I had returned to a WP article—it was from the same editor, who pointed out that the original message had been sent in October, that there was no record of a block of this IP (if there had been one, he said I would not have been able to edit a reply on his talk page and I must have been using a different IP), and that it had come from this IP, and that if I was reading it only now it was to someone else using this IP. I accessed the "contributions" link and was shocked by the entry (first, it's not my style! and second, I hadn't done it.)
Question: what would cause an old "New Message" alert dated October to suddenly appear this past weekend, and how is it possible that any vandalism was done to the cited article from this IP (or possibly was falsely attributed to it even with your safeguards in place) since I have been the only user and had never done anything to the article Avallo? (I still haven't accessed it.) I wonder if a virus is at work? or maybe a hacker/pirate/vandal/whatever? Whatever the reason, I thought you should be alerted to this occurance.
—I see from "Show preview" that Avallo now appears in red, which I understand means the article does not now currently exist on WP, and the (talk) link at the IP user page for this IP address has also turned from blue to red, so apparently there have been some changes since this past weekend. In any case, I wanted to be helpful and constructive, and alert you to an apparent problem. Respectfully, 75.162.4.130 (talk) 04:49, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- As much as you might think you are the only user of the IP, you're probably not. Most internet service providers reassign IP addresses as needed, so most likely several other users of your ISP/institution have been assigned the same IP that you are using. It is quite likely that one of these other users has been vandalizing pages. The only way to avoid this problem is to sign up for an account, which guarantees you're the only one using it. D O N D E groovily Talk to me 05:02, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Your answer is much appreciated. Thank you. For the past 2 hours I have been struggling with another technical problem from the Wikipedia server having technical difficulties. After trying 10 times (so I've been told) to submit the question and always getting the same message about the server having difficulties, please try again in a few minutes, I laboriously re-copied the question (which is physically painful for me and time-consuming), then exited out of the system in hope that this move might by-pass the problem in some way, then accessed WP again to try to submit it in hope the problem had been corrected after 2 hours of frustration, and immediately found the message "You have new messages (last change)". I clicked it and was appalled to read the message that said I had submitted the question 10 times and would I please stop! and that my question had already been answered! Nothing on the screen, during the 2 hours when I was hoping the problem would be resolved, indicated that it had already been submitted and answered. After reading the message I submitted an explanatory answer to that help-desk editor's talk page with deep regret and sympathy, then came back to this page and read the answer. To all of you who suffered from the technical problem generated by the WP server you have my deepest sympathy. I am so sorry for you and me as victims of the machine and of electronic "progress". (Isn't there any way of correcting this defect?) Meanwhile, I will take your recommendation and sign up for an account. Today. Thank you. Respectfully, 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:43, 8 May 2012 (UTC) Here we go again!—technical servers are experiencing problem, please try again in a few minutes—there is no way I'm going to do THAT again! 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:58, 8 May 2012 (UTC) And, to add to all this, an edit conflict too! (Wikipedia hardly seem worth the trouble.) Respectfully, frustratedly, 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:58, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think they are implementing an update to the Wikimedia software, and that is what causes the technical problems at the moment. --Saddhiyama (talk) 09:09, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Your answer is much appreciated. Thank you. For the past 2 hours I have been struggling with another technical problem from the Wikipedia server having technical difficulties. After trying 10 times (so I've been told) to submit the question and always getting the same message about the server having difficulties, please try again in a few minutes, I laboriously re-copied the question (which is physically painful for me and time-consuming), then exited out of the system in hope that this move might by-pass the problem in some way, then accessed WP again to try to submit it in hope the problem had been corrected after 2 hours of frustration, and immediately found the message "You have new messages (last change)". I clicked it and was appalled to read the message that said I had submitted the question 10 times and would I please stop! and that my question had already been answered! Nothing on the screen, during the 2 hours when I was hoping the problem would be resolved, indicated that it had already been submitted and answered. After reading the message I submitted an explanatory answer to that help-desk editor's talk page with deep regret and sympathy, then came back to this page and read the answer. To all of you who suffered from the technical problem generated by the WP server you have my deepest sympathy. I am so sorry for you and me as victims of the machine and of electronic "progress". (Isn't there any way of correcting this defect?) Meanwhile, I will take your recommendation and sign up for an account. Today. Thank you. Respectfully, 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:43, 8 May 2012 (UTC) Here we go again!—technical servers are experiencing problem, please try again in a few minutes—there is no way I'm going to do THAT again! 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:58, 8 May 2012 (UTC) And, to add to all this, an edit conflict too! (Wikipedia hardly seem worth the trouble.) Respectfully, frustratedly, 75.162.4.130 (talk) 08:58, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
There are several things I'd like to say here, First I know your pain !! :)
Next, the fast workaround for your problems with the technical difficulties is to use additional tabs (windows on your browser). when you want to edit, do not click edit, right click edit instead and open in a new tab, then write and attempt to save. When you get the error message, return to your original window/tab and right click page history and open that in yet another window/tab. Check if it has saved, if it has, that's great. If it has not saved, make sure you have allowed it 20 seconds between your first save attempt and opening history, if it looks like it has not saved, you can usually refresh the error message page and it will usually ask you if you would like to resend the information, to which you answer yes. then you wait the 10-20 seconds and see if it has saved in the history tab.
To copy the sections, or guard against losing your text, click anywhere on your text then hold down the Ctrl key and press A and release, which highlights all of the text, then hold Ctrl and press C which copies all text into the clipboard. If you seem to have lost it a moment later with the clicking, edit the page, click in the edit window, hold down Ctrl and press V, the text should be pasted in.
Next, for the messages, if it is actually true that you IP has made edits, then the first most likely cause is that your IP was re-assigned to someone else for a while after you switched off your computer, and then reassigned to you when you switched back on, or even more likely you were given a fresh IP someone else had used to edit wikipedia. These IP's are called dynamic IP's, if it is irritating, just sign up and sign in, that fixes the problem, the other alternative is to ask your Internet company for a static IP, then that IP is just for you. An IP address usually allows people to see where in the world you are, but this is not always true.
If you have been getting messages whilst your computer is switched on and they arrive in the middle of an edit session, but they refer to editing your IP appears to have done, but you didn't do, you might be using a wireless network, or have wireless on your modem activated by default. That allows someone in close proximity to you to be sharing your internet, sometimes by accident, sometimes they know. If it bothers you because you live in a country where people are hostile or if you need to pay for the internet according to usage, then either deactivate wireless in the modem according to the user manual, or if the little (usually black plastic like a short pencil) antenna unscrews from the modem, just unscrew it and stickytape it to the side so you don't lose it. The wireless will no longer work.
If it persists or you don't have a network then there are other technical possibilities. People with basic technical knowledge can clone your IP and pretend to be you, and basically that occurs when you have upset someone with serious technical ability, or they are using your IP randomly and mean you no harm. They may be either doing everything remotely, or using your own computer to do it, having installed software on your computer or having tricked you into installing it yourself. The easiest way to make that difficult is to use a Live CD when you edit wikipedia, or just install Ubuntu for everyday use, it's easier and better to use than windows, a lot less hassle, and is immune to virus and malware for all practical meanings of the definition. These scenarios are not likely however, it will be most likely just your IP being reassigned, 98 % probability, and 2% your wireless is being shared (varies according to your home country). Other possibilities are only worthwhile considering if you are actually an interesting person to computer geeks, make up your own mind there.
The workaround for the error page wikipedia displays when overloaded should include help text indicating how to check your work using another window if the error message is being display by the wiki server because of actual technical issues. If it is being displayed to reduce traffic and bandwidth, then probably not, just a try again message would suffice. Penyulap ☏ 10:50, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
How to remove line of text
how to permanently remove this line-this is wikipedia user page from my user artical — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abenezer inder (talk • contribs) 06:52, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I've added a title to your question. It's best not to just tack your question on to the previous question. Having a heading helps it stand out to those who might answer you. As for your question, I don't understand what you want. Could you be more specific? Or possibly provide a link to the page that you're thinking of. Thanks, Dismas|(talk) 07:26, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- This appears to be about User:Abenezer inder, Abenezer Inder, and Abenezer inder, as well as this help request with no text. Dru of Id (talk) 07:45, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Just remove the
{{user page|noindex=yes}}
template from the page in edit mode. And read WP:NOTCV while you're at it... Yunshui 雲水 12:32, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Symbol of Christian fish
In sharing this the best way I know how:
The focus is not the fish. The prophet Habakkuk asked, "God, why do You make me like fish of the sea; like creatures who wander as if they have no ruler over them?" This is the focus Christians have altogether missed. Useless on a personal level is the Christian explanation of 'signs'. These are the 'lost' Jesus spoke of when He said, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men," Put your name in the symbol of one who was lost and is now saved in Christ.
For lack of a better way to express this, I want to thank you for taking a moment to consider the hidden meaning of the Christian fish. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.180.98.18 (talk) 07:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- See Ichthys - you'll find more information about the symbol there. Roger (talk) 08:24, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Numerical sort in tables
The sort button for tables works very badly for numerical entries. For example, 20 is viewed as larger than 1000 because the first digit of 20 (i.e. 2) is higher than the first digit of 1000 (i.e. 1). Isn't it time to find or to write a new sort function which will work for numbers as well as for words? I am looking for a kind of suggestion box rather than a FAQ, but couldn't find one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Topdown bottomup (talk • contribs) 08:02, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Can you provide a specific example? Ruslik_Zero 11:56, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- That's not quite the case. If the field has characters, e.g. 30 miles and 100 miles, it will treat everything as text. if it has just numbers, it will treat them as numbers. see Help:Sorting for more info, including solutions when you do have a mixture of text and numbers. --SPhilbrick(Talk) 13:14, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Bare url
hello,
in Paul S. Walsh I am unable to remove the bare url in reference 4. I wonder if the suffix ".ece" causes this problem. Thanks.--GoPTCN 10:49, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- The title is missing. Ruslik_Zero 11:51, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I found the missing title in archive.org and added it.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:58, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Error message
Maybe someone who knows where to ask can ask if the error message is being used to throttle traffic, or if it is simply an error message, in which case it could be improved with a short message suggesting opening a new tab, then selecting the original page from history (and updating it) to check to see if the post was a success.
Actually, after my last long post, I got the message as well. (same with the one and only Great Orange Pumpkin) Penyulap ☏ 11:01, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- What is the exact message that you received? Ruslik_Zero 11:55, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Error
Our servers are currently experiencing a technical problem. This is probably temporary and should be fixed soon. Please try again in a few minutes.
You may be able to get further information in the #wikipedia channel on the Freenode IRC network.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organisation which hosts some of the most popular sites on the Internet, including Wikipedia. It has a constant need to purchase new hardware. If you would like to help, please donate. If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request: POST http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=submit, from 10.64.0.140 via cp1010.eqiad.wmnet (squid/2.7.STABLE9) to 10.2.1.1 (10.2.1.1) Error: ERR_ZERO_SIZE_OBJECT, errno [No Error] at Tue, 08 May 2012 12:03:50 GMT
Penyulap ☏ 12:07, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think we've all been getting that error message. After seeing it, hit the back button twice and reload this page, and your edit should be there despite the error message. D O N D E groovily Talk to me 12:14, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- yes, I made an explanation in a section above, but this only helps us, we need to add it to that message, but where is that message ? Penyulap ☏ 12:56, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Mobile site android permanently disable button
Previously I was able to permanently disable mobile view by clicking on a link (which set a cookie I presume). Although it is still referred to on Wikipedia I cannot locate said link and mobile view layout has changed such that it does not work with my browser. How do I permanently disable mobile view? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.175.248.231 (talk) 12:30, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- You could try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:42, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Where to reply to the points brought up by a GA reviewer
This might be a dumb question, but where should a reply to specific concerns of a GA reviewer? For example, where should I reply to point 1. at Talk:Wieferich prime/GA1#GA Review? Should I leave a reply directly under 1. a? Or should I start a a new section or subsection? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 14:03, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I've seen both methods being used but my own preference would be to reply under each point. Roger (talk) 06:37, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 18:34, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Free labels in Infobox don't show up!
Hello everyone. Actually I have a query regarding my article here Central National Herbarium. I have added some free labels to its infoboxes but they won't show up. Kindly suggest any workarounds any any type of constructive additions if possible. Vivek Rai (talk) 14:45, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- As far as I can see, Template:Infobox museum doesn't have parameters such as "free label 1" and "free data 1". The parameters in use by the template are shown on the template page. (And I've deleted your duplicate question.) - David Biddulph (talk) 15:07, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Why is editing on Wikipedia so SLOW?
When it comes to editing, Wikipedia is by far one of the slowest websites I've visited. Saving an edit often takes upwards of 30 seconds when other websites load large multimedia files in a fraction of the time. Speaking for Wikipedia editors in general, I think that much more could be accomplished if the website didn't crawl during each edit attempt. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate the issue? Thanks. --81.100.44.233 (talk) 15:17, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- More servers; but they cost money. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:41, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
How does X work?
Acoustic transmission line (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Your question. Slapper4 (talk) 15:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
hi, i cant understand your help interface so im hoping this will get through
someone has vandalised the page on acoustic transmission lines, that i painstakingly built a few years ago. i added information about the difference and definitions of acoustic transmission lines and to reflex enclosures, and pointed to the fact that the only authentic retail product available was the SUHTL.
someone representing PMC, who in fact dont make transmissio lines, has deleted all that, fraudulently representing their product and reflex design as transmission line.
I met the cheif designer and his team at the UK national hifi exhibition 2005 and 2006 where we discussed TLs, and he admitted using the proper definition of a TL as invented by Bailey, theirs was a reflex and mine was a TL, so this is blatant vandalism
please review the edit history of this article, and the other refereces to PMC this vandal has created elsewhere.
if this is to the wrong recipient please forward on as i cant.
nick le feuvre B.eng (holder of a GB patent on TL loudspeakers with a special enclosure material)
- Is the removal of this what you are referring to? If so, the entire section was unsubstantiated by reliable sources. I have left a note on the page that it is entirely unreferenced, and will try to find some experts in the subject to take a closer look at it. Ryan Vesey Review me! 15:36, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Editing that you disagree with is not vandalism. Please read WP:Assume good faith, and WP:Content dispute. Claims that something "is the only authentic retail product available", and more importantly that somebody is "fraudulently representing" anything is permissible in Wikipedia only if an independent reliable source says so: otherwise they are original research, and the latter contravenes our policy on biographies of living persons. --ColinFine (talk) 17:34, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Music producer / Musician requiring uninvolved editor
Hi, my name is Ronnie Pollock and I am the music producer / artist who creates and releases music under the alises DySFUNCTIONAL and DySFUNCTIONAL RoTARY EnCODER.
I am requiring a wikkipedia entry to allow for the completion of my BBC music page found at the link bellow. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/c28db782-cbd0-4b0f-8465-0d8da5074fc5
DySFUNCTIONAL Has over 20 thousand people following on the website souncloud.com which cen be viewd / verified at the link bellow. http://soundcloud.com/ronniepollock
There are no online articles to add or additional information.
All that would be required would be a statment similar to " Ronnie Pollock from Glasgow, Scotland in the UK is a music producer / artist who to this day has over 20 thousand followers on the website soundcloud.com
The only source for this information would be my soundcloud page http://soundcloud.com/ronniepollock
Addtional info would be that to this date DySFUNCTIONAL has been supported / played on BBC Radio 1 Scotland by the DJ Ally McCrae A source for this info would be this page http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/c28db782-cbd0-4b0f-8465-0d8da5074fc5
Not sure if this is enough for an article or that the sources are of a high enough standard really.
However a page is required and I do have a decent following a lots of comments and likes on soundcloud so my music is reasonably popular.
I suppose my question is can some please create an article regarding this subject?
Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.222.224.217 (talk) 17:06, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- If you can't find more/better online sources how about magazines or newspapers - have you ever been interviewed for an article about yourself? Roger (talk) 17:18, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Wikipedia is not a mechanism for promotion or publicity. If you are notable by Wikipedia's criteria, then somebody (not you!) may create an article about you; but if nobody independent has yet written about you in reliable organs, then I am afraid the answer is no. --ColinFine (talk) 17:45, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Someone "official" (WMF?) should probably inform the BBC that their "advice" to "go forth and post all sorts of crap on WP" is not acceptable. Roger (talk) 18:04, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- The BBC site says "If you know that a biography for DySFUNCTIONAL already exists in Wikipedia, you can add a link to DySFUNCTIONAL's entry in MusicBrainz". It's not exhorting people to create inappropriate articles in Wikipedia, though the OP evidently read it that way. --ColinFine (talk) 22:08, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Try reading the previous sentence - I parse "You can contribute biographical information for DySFUNCTIONAL to Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia." to mean "go ahead and create an article". Note that it is a separate sentence, so the "If" that starts the next sentence is not imposing a condition. Roger (talk) 07:13, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- The BBC site says "If you know that a biography for DySFUNCTIONAL already exists in Wikipedia, you can add a link to DySFUNCTIONAL's entry in MusicBrainz". It's not exhorting people to create inappropriate articles in Wikipedia, though the OP evidently read it that way. --ColinFine (talk) 22:08, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Someone "official" (WMF?) should probably inform the BBC that their "advice" to "go forth and post all sorts of crap on WP" is not acceptable. Roger (talk) 18:04, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- This is an encyclopedia, not a promotion website. Having a large number of soundcloud followers does not make you notable, especially since now all you have to do is pay someone to add people. - filelakeshoe 18:08, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Well this is why I have created no such article and the BBC website has no suggested people just crete Wikkipedia pages. I am trying to do everything the right way and this is in regard to all my online profiles entites. I do not pay to have followers added and if you had checked my soundcloud account you would see I have a realistic yet very potent following with lots of comments 300 + pre track and the favorite numbers match, I hate cheats. All the accounts that follow me are for real individual humans. My Reason for hating these cheats so much is that I was cheated out of a MTV Brand New 2012 top 20 spot by someone who I exposed to have used thousand of phony accounts.
I thank you for your time. I find your response slighty negative but that is ok.
I have had some online reviews and what not but without a managment or an agaent and not having the contacts to persue possibel interviews with magazines.
I thank you tho you have shown me what I need. No doubt I will gain these and return.
I feel you should note I did not create an article but rather tried to do things correctly, an element of your replie suggests I have been wrong even to post my message here on the help desk when it was in fact suggested in the help documentation hence how I found my self here.
Thank you
Ronald — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.222.224.217 (talk) 23:13, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Unwanted numbering
This edit of mine introduced additional unwanted numbering which seems to be caused by the indentation of my replies. How can I avoid that my replies are numbered while keeping them indented? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 18:52, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
(Btw posting a question multiple times by me is not intentional. I repeatedly get server error messages while trying to submit edits, but the edits seem in fact to be submitted.) -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:01, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Fixed with this edit. The # doesn't appear when followed with colons (:) however it is necessary to keep the numbering flowing correctly. Here's an example :
# first #: comment #:: reply # second # third ## first sub ## second sub ##: comment ##:: reply ::::: reply # ouch! broken # etc. # ouch! broken
- Which shows:
- first
- comment
- reply
- comment
- second
- third
- first sub
- second sub
- comment
- reply
- comment
- reply
- ouch! broken
- etc.
- ouch! broken
- Hope this helps. benzband (talk) 20:57, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you. :) -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 21:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Pedophile Sex Gang
I would like to solicit help in constructing an article about the Rochdale Sex Traffickers Gang. How would I go about doing that? (Apologies for the sensationalism)Ankh.Morpork 20:45, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- Some more eyes might be useful, as Ankh seems to have a bit of a sensationalist bent and keeps adding info that is definitely not in the sources. cheers. CaptainScreebo Parley! 14:49, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Requesting translation from English to Vietnamese
Hi, I tried looking for translation templates that can help request translation from English article to Vietnamese Wikipedia, but apparently the template that works here does not work over there. Does anyone know where I can find them?--NeoBatfreak (talk) 22:24, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- I thought maybe vi:Bản mẫu:Đang dịch 2 might help. It's the Vietnamese Wikipedia equivalent of {{Not English}}. However, its application is for when someone has already posted the article but has done so in English rather than Vietnamese. I haven't yet found a forum for making general requests to translate not-yet-created articles.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:42, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
Title of Browse article
I have just been editing the page "Browse". This is not the correct term. "Browsing" is the term universally used in information science. I have been unable to find how to change the TITLE of an article.Mjbinfo (talk) 22:37, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
- You can only change the title by moving the article. You should discuss your concern on the article's talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 23:16, 8 May 2012 (UTC)
I have been editing the entry "Browse." This is not the correct term. It should be "Browsing," which is universally used in information science (and elsewhere). I could not find information on how to change the TITLE of an entry. Help! Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjbinfo (talk • contribs) 00:31, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Please see my previous reply. Also, Browsing already redirects to Browse. The talk page for the article is here:Talk:Browse RudolfRed (talk) 01:44, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I have moved the page. The gerund form of title, which is specifically endorsed by WP:NOUN, does appear to be more common, and certainly it is more natural sounding.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:17, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- The same logic should apply to hanged, drawn and quartered, but I didn't get much support on the talk page.--ukexpat (talk) 03:29, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Only two people commented and one said "perhaps it should be". But did you check usage in reliable sources?
Hanged, drawn and quartered
is something of a stock phrase, and it is vastly more common ([2]) thanhanging, drawing and quartering
([3]) so unlike browse vs. browsing, application of WP:COMMONNAME would appear to argue for the opposite outcome. Also, because it is a stock phrase, application of "naturalness" also is the reverse situation, at least to my ear.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:07, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Only two people commented and one said "perhaps it should be". But did you check usage in reliable sources?
- The same logic should apply to hanged, drawn and quartered, but I didn't get much support on the talk page.--ukexpat (talk) 03:29, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
May 9
Incorrect: Catherine Woolston as Azelma, the younger daughter of the Thénardiers. The character was present during the original French production but cut from subsequent productions. The film reinstates the character. Correct: Catherine Woolston to be included in minor roles- not this character 212.183.128.141 (talk) 10:59, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- If you have a source for your information so that it can be verified, you can go ahead and fix it yourself. If you aren't comfortable doing that, then you should raise this issue at Talk:Les Misérables (2012 film). --Jayron32 11:36, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Citation needed tag for citation???
Can a citation get its own 'citation needed' tag? See reference #9 in the Halo Burger article. Steelbeard1 (talk) 11:15, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- That makes no sense. The user who added it [4] apparently wants a non-primary source. {{Primary source-inline}} can be used for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:31, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks. I made the change which makes better sense. Steelbeard1 (talk) 18:34, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
your best price on proforma
[1]seal-13b0283..quty.8 [2]o-ring-12B0216..quty..8 [3]O-RING-12B0424..QUT..8 [4]GASKET-81A0080..QUTY..4 [5]SAEL-12B0422..QUTY..4 [6]SEAL-12B0421..QUTY..4 [7]O-RING-12B0423..QUTY..4 [8]O-RING-88A0456..QUTY..4 [9]GASKET-81A0112..QUTY..4 [10]STEEL WIRE-75A0128..QUTY..8 [11]SEAL-13B0169..QUTY..2 [12]O-RING-12B0105..QUTY..4 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.255.169.193 (talk) 12:22, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.9 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--ukexpat (talk) 12:56, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
"What links here"--is there a way to eliminate the nav box links?
This is probably a dumb question, but when I click on a "What links here" link for an article, sometimes there is a huge list of links because of numerous nav boxes which link to the page. It makes it cumbersome to find whether a specific page is linked. Is there a way to eliminate these nav box links from the list? I've tried the various options/filters on top, but I can't seem to get what I want. I would like to see just the links that are within "real articles", not articles which just link to the page due to the nav box. I hope this makes sense. Thanks. --Logical Fuzz (talk) 13:23, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- This cannot be done. See more at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 69#What links here and navboxes. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:04, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for the quick response. I don't feel so dumb now! --Logical Fuzz (talk) 16:28, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
how do I
refer in my contribution to Wikipedia to an unpublished paper in PDF form 84.20.238.83 (talk) 13:28, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I am afraid you cannot - unpublished materials are not reliable sources for Wikipedia purposes.--ukexpat (talk) 13:33, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Huggle
Is it possible to get Huggle to work on a Mac? Hghyux (talk to me)(talk to others) 15:07, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yes. I haven't tried it, but this page explains it: Wikipedia:Huggle/Wine RudolfRed (talk) 16:42, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Need help at editing Infoboxes
I wish to add free label to an article's infobox here Central National Herbarium. However, they don't show up. Where is the problem? and also kindly suggest some constructive ideas. VIVEK RAI : Friend? 15:15, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Er, your request is not that clear, but if I understand correctly you wish to add "free labels" to the infobox for information not supported by the {{Infobox Museum}} template, this would appear to be impossible as far as I know, (other editors?), I have however added the "curator" line to add the scientist-in-charge's name. CaptainScreebo Parley! 15:35, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- See above #Free labels in Infobox don't show up!.--ukexpat (talk) 15:52, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks Expat, was just dropping to the bottom to see if I could help out, that's all cleared up then. CaptainScreebo Parley! 17:24, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- That is okay, but the information I wish to list is of great importance. May be you can suggest some alternative ways to do so. VIVEK RAI : Friend? 05:47, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Tutankhamun age of death.
On the Tutankhamun page in the "foreign policy" section it states he died age 18, but in the "probable product of incest" section it states age 19. If someone know's which is right can they edit it? It's nothing major, but im a pain for spotting mistakes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.156.225.244 (talk) 15:26, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- If you have a reliable source stating the information, yes. Otherwise, someone might revert your change because they consider it vandalism or otherwise doubt what you changed.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Searching only Wikipedia for images
Is it possible to search for a given search string (e.g., DSC) within the File namespace but without receiving results from Commons? Cheers, Nikthestoned 15:30, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I tried and failed. You might ask at wp:VPT where the experts hang out.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 18:41, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I don't think it's possible with Wikipedia's search. A Google search can achieve something like that with DSC -"This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons" site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 97#Wikipedia search (2012-02-21). PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Removing unintended italics
Can you please help out with something? I recently edited the article on Katie Boyle, adding a sentence to note that she used to be an agony aunt for the TV listings magazine TV Times. However, for some strange reason, when I added this sentence, it ended up in italics. It should not be in italics - could some one please look at this article and explain how I can get this back to ordinary type? I left a note on the talk page of this article about this issue, but no has responded as yet. Many thanks in advance for any help, ACEOREVIVED (talk) 15:57, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Fixed - there was a '' at the beginning of the sentence, which I've now removed. Cheers, Nikthestoned 15:59, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Can I put name of photographer while uploading a photo
Hi I want to upload some pictures in Darbhanga Raj section of WIKIPEDIA, I want to show my name below every photograph, which will depict that this photograph has been taken by Alok Shankar, is this allowed ?? Please let me know.
Thanks Alok Shankar — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alok Shankar (talk • contribs) 16:11, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Nope. By posing your photo to Wikipedia you release it under a CC-BY-SA license, or into the public domain. Adding a signature would be pointless as you are mentioned on the file page in the documentation. Hghyux (talk to me)(talk to others) 16:15, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
MoS:CURRENCY formatting question
The following is clearly wrong (no dashes with "between" constructions allowed):
"The production budget was estimated between $15–18 million."
But how is it formatted properly? (Obviously, it will involve "between ... and ...", but are "$" and "million" to be used more than once? And where to put them?)
Also, maybe the corresponding guidelines should be amended? – ὁ οἶστρος (talk) 16:12, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- The fifth bullet point under "Formatting" at MOS:CURRENCY says that the dollar sign should be used only once. If the estimate was an in-house, pre-production one, you could write, "The production budget was estimated at $15–18 million"; if it was an after-the-fact estimate by others, you might replace "at" with "to have been". (Back when I was working as a copyeditor, we tried to avoid such uses of the en dash, though, to prevent people's misreading the meaning [even momentarily] as "between 15 dollars and 18 million dollars". We'd probably have gone with either "between 15 million and 18 million dollars" or "between $15 million and $18 million".) Deor (talk) 19:31, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'm not following. What rule(s) do you see that would imply "$15–18 million" would be incorrect? Rwessel (talk) 19:40, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Hey, thanks for your replies.
- ("$15–18 million" would be correct, but not "between $15–18 million", like, "between 1928–1935" would be wrong, it would have to read "between 1928 and 1935" – but putting the Dollar sign and the word million in there makes it more complicated)
- So, Deor, in keeping with the structure that was there, should I change it to "The production budget was estimated between $15 million and $18 million.", then?
- (And, again, could someone bring this to the attention of the people engaged in the writing of the MoS or make the changes themselves? I don't feel confident enough in such matters to touch that.) – ὁ οἶστρος (talk) 19:58, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, but I might insert "to be" after "estimated" just for clarity. Deor (talk) 20:07, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- OK, thanks for your help – ὁ οἶστρος (talk) 20:11, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, but I might insert "to be" after "estimated" just for clarity. Deor (talk) 20:07, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- (And, again, could someone bring this to the attention of the people engaged in the writing of the MoS or make the changes themselves? I don't feel confident enough in such matters to touch that.) – ὁ οἶστρος (talk) 19:58, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Adding bussiness website links to City/County information.
Is it permissible to add business directories to city/county artificial. For example add a new heading "Local Business in the area" and link back to their respective websites? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mperdue 116 (talk • contribs) 17:00, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- In short, no. See Wikipedia:NOTPROMOTION. CaptainScreebo Parley! 17:28, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Looking for images in the public domain
Can you please tell me if the images you use on Wikipedia are in the public domain? I want to use the following historical photographs in a learning environment, but I will be charging for the workshop. I understand that copyright permission is in order if it is not within the public domain.
Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison Thank you!209.203.137.3 (talk) 17:14, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Not all images on Wikipedia are public domain. Images on Wikimedia Commons are freely licensed (which doesn't mean public domain, but...). Public domain images on Wikipedia are seen at Category:Public domain files and its subcategories. Commons files in the public domain can be found at Category:Public domain and its subcategories. To find out if your specific file is PD, you can look at the "Licensing" (or sometimes "Summary") section of the specific file's page. - Purplewowies (talk) (How's my driving?) 17:26, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Does WP:REUSE help? --ColinFine (talk) 22:47, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Old Georgian Club
Dear Sirs, there is information about the Old Georgian Club on Wikipedia, which is incorrect. The Old Georgian Club is a club which gets together the former pupils of St George's College, a high level education school located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It states that our Club does not play rugby any longer and that was the case till last year, when we made a re entry to our rugby union association.
I am the administrator of the Old Georgian Club. How do I go about correcting this issue?
Thanks and regards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.194.136.43 (talk) 17:25, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- If you go to Talk:Old Georgian Club, you can let someone know exactly what needs to be changed. Please also indicate a source for the changes, as we wish to get information at Wikipedia correct, and thus information should ideally be verifiable so that people with questions can look it up. --Jayron32 18:26, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Can you provide a link to some published document, maybe a local newspaper, or a newsletter from your RU Association, as evidence? If you can, I or another editor will be willing to update the article. Maproom (talk) 18:27, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Email on talk pages
Could you please tell me if it's proper etiquette to paste the content of offline emails into a talk page? I was contacted via email by an editor about some articles where I had placed maintenance tags. Some of what was said would be relevant to a talk page discussion, and I think the comments should be posted publicly where they may be properly addressed. Thanks. --Drm310 (talk) 17:28, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- In general, I'd say no, but if you really want/need to do so, you might ask permission from the editor whose email you would posting. - Purplewowies (talk) (How's my driving?) 17:48, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think they are covered under privacy laws of most countries. You can't repeat anything said by others without written permission.--Canoe1967 (talk) 20:39, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Very good, I have replied to the editor and asked their permission to post it. Thanks for the guidance. --Drm310 (talk) 04:35, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think they are covered under privacy laws of most countries. You can't repeat anything said by others without written permission.--Canoe1967 (talk) 20:39, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
I Do Not See The Wikipedia Page I Created When I Do A Google Search
Hello,
I submitted an article today for "DJ Mell Starr". I do not see the wikipedia name when I do a google search for that name. Did I miss a step or is there another process that I should have completed? Please advise....
--DJ MELL STARR 17:51, 9 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DJ Mell Starr (talk • contribs)
- New webpages take some time for Google to find. If you just created the article, it may take anywhere from a few hours to a day for Google to pick it up, aditionally Google has its own criteria for ranking and displaying web pages, and Wikipedia has no control over when, where, and how prominently a Wikipedia article will appear in Google. --Jayron32 18:18, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Please use four tildes ~~~~ to sign your posts or use the signature button in the toolbar above the edit window, do not try to simulate the signature manually. Roger (talk) 18:28, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- It has only been live for 3 hours, give it a little more time.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 18:34, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
OK. Thank you so much for the responses & suggestions.
DJ MELL STARR 18:52, 9 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DJ Mell Starr (talk • contribs)
- You're not paying attention - Do not write your signature manually - use the button or tildes. Roger (talk) 18:58, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Autobiography is strongly discouraged in Wikipedia: please read WP:AUTOBIO. --ColinFine (talk) 22:51, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Could someone with more knowledge of wiki markup please improve the layout of this article, so that the tables can perhaps fit two next to each other? Interchangeable 18:41, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'm really not quite sure what you're looking to do. I might be able to help, but let's move this discussion to the talk page for the article. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 04:40, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Done. Please see the talk page. Interchangeable 16:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Responding to an unconstructive talk page section
A new section on the Afrikaner talk page is troublesome: This is why scholars disregard wikipedia as a reliable source of information... It's not constructive, and clearly violates the talk page policy to "Keep headings neutral" (see WP:TALKNEW). Something should be done about the section, but I'm wary of feeding the troll or violating policy myself. --TSchwenn (talk) 19:30, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- The post is a few months old. It does not explain what "error" or "dipute" it is referring to. There are "bias tags" in the article but no discussion about them on the talk page. IMHO such undiscussed tags should simply be deleted per the "put up or shut up" principle. Tagging something as biased without any explanation of the percieved bias is unconstructive. Roger (talk) 21:05, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I agree about removing the bias tags, but what about the useless talk section? Can I simply delete it (with a helpful edit summary, of course)? TSchwenn (talk) 21:09, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Don't delete the talk page post - just ignore it. Roger (talk) 21:19, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
Parenthesis in title
Is there a way to use a parenthesis in a title so that the full URL has a parenthesis, not percent coding? I know how to do per cent coding when certain characters cause a problem, but in this case I want to go the other direction.
For example:
Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC)
renders as
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal_microcalorimetry_%28IMC%29 --SPhilbrick(Talk) 20:01, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- "full URL" where? And renders where? In IE, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari I get http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal_microcalorimetry_(IMC) if I go to Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) and copy the url from the browser address bar. In Firefox I get http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal_microcalorimetry_%28IMC%29, but I get wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal_microcalorimetry_(IMC) if I omit the start when copying. Are you using Firefox and hinting at this Firefox feature when you say "full URL"? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:54, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yes Firefox. I was telling someone to use the full url (until it is indexed in Wikipedia) and thought it looked ugly. Interesting that it looks better in IE, and other browsers. No big deal, I just thought it might be easy.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 22:01, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Ah, I see,
- Yes Firefox. I was telling someone to use the full url (until it is indexed in Wikipedia) and thought it looked ugly. Interesting that it looks better in IE, and other browsers. No big deal, I just thought it might be easy.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 22:01, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal_microcalorimetry_(IMC)
- works
- and so does
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC)
- Actually such acronyms/abreviations are not meant to be used in article titles. Parenthetical disambiguation is used but thats not the case here. The article should simply be Isothermal microcalorimetry - the abreviation should be introduced in the lead. Roger (talk) 07:32, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I agree, so I have moved the page title to the unambiguated form over the redirect. BencherliteTalk 08:31, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Sagnificant country and politic issue
Please review this artcile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_2012 and remove the word "Macedonia" as a name of the country participated. There is no country with this name. The right word for this is FYROM or Skopje. Please remove it as soon as possible. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.132.46.10 (talk) 20:05, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- You might want to check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Republic of Macedonia where some of the participants may be able to give you feedback.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 20:16, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- Any such renaming edits would conflict with the established Wikipedia naming convention (Macedonia) for the country. --TSchwenn (talk) 20:22, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- It's high time Greek chauvanists got used to the fact that a country exists that happens to have the same name as one of their regions - just suck it up already! Americans don't complain that the European country of Georgia has the same name as one of their states. Roger (talk) 21:09, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- There is no country with the name "Greece" either. Or "Germany". Or "United States". ... --ColinFine (talk) 22:55, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
time zones
My question is about time zones. the article for US time zones example Alaska UTC -9:00
Wake Island +12:00
does this mean + or - 9 hours or 12 hours I am in US Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this is for my personal information. How will I get an answer--69.249.215.234 (talk) 22:16, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- See Time zone for an explanation. (Incidentally, this page is for asking about using or editing Wikipedia. For general information, try searching for a relevant article, or else post a question at one of the departments of the reference desk). --ColinFine (talk) 22:57, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
User namespace redirects for user names
I have created some redirects to my username of User:Alan Liefting. They are User:Alan, User:A Liefting and User:Liefting. Is this cool or am I going to get a sound wiki-thrashing? Can I have User:Green dude, User:Diodehead, User:Techie dude and User:Ecodude as well? Please...? Since I am vehemently opposed to sock puppets and I cannot use these to be a sock puppet anyway I cannot see a problem. In fact wiki-squatting on the alternatives to my name may prevent identity theft. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 23:01, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- You should only redirect usernames you actually own. See WP:DOPPELGÄNGER. By redirecting them you are implying that you own them. The account User:Alan was registered years ago (before registration date was stored) but has no edits. It's a common name and http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Alan shows users who have edits with that name in many other Wikimedia wikis. Special:ListUsers/Alan also shows a lot of Alan's here. If it isn't your account then you have no right to the name. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:21, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- I have speedily deleted the last two under WP:CSD#U2 (no such registered user) and the first one I have simply speedily deleted on the grounds that it's not your account, so you shouldn't be redirecting his userpage to yours. BencherliteTalk 23:35, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
- However you simply create the last two and tag them as doppelgänger accounts, like I did with User:Salvadrim & User:Salvid. Salvidrim! 00:46, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I have speedily deleted the last two under WP:CSD#U2 (no such registered user) and the first one I have simply speedily deleted on the grounds that it's not your account, so you shouldn't be redirecting his userpage to yours. BencherliteTalk 23:35, 9 May 2012 (UTC)
May 10
Edit Conflicts
Almost all of my edits have been resulting in edit conflicts as of late, but when I check the page history there is usually no edit I can see that would have conflicted with mine. This generally only happens to me when I am editing articles, not anything else. Additionally, this has only started happening since I completely revamped my preferences, but I have been unable to locate which preference or gadget may be the source of the problem. Can someone help me out here? Thanks. Bzweebl (talk) 01:44, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Sometimes trying to send an edit through twice may cause such conflict -- although usually the first edit ends up going through. If it's a Preferences thing, just try them one by one see which one was the issue -- and make sure to report the bug! :) Salvidrim! 02:29, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
I would like to be able to edit my edit descriptions
I would like to be able to edit my edit descriptions.
I find it quite astonishing that after correcting grammar or spelling mistakes in an article, if I then make a spelling mistake in my edit description I can't correct it.
Editors who are logged in should be able to correct or change their edit descriptions. If its a case of "then everyone will be back-tracking through thousands of their edit descriptions" - then at least allow us one revision of the last edit description we wrote. Thats all thats needed really.
It also quite disconcerting to see that you've spent quite a bit of time editing and then you've let yourself down by making the same mistake in your edit description as the one you were trying to correct in the article.
I think allowing editors to change mistakes in their edit descriptions would improve the article's history page. Its also quite nice for editors to feel as though the article and edit description are under their full control and that the edit description is of equal importance.
It would also allow for those silly moments to be redressed. For example, someone vandalised the article on "William the Conqueror". I spotted the vandalism because I was reading the whole article and the vandal had buried the vandalism half-way through. It was quite a big article and for most people scanning the article it may have been missed. I corrected the vandalism. The thing about this vandalism was that it could have only been done in that way by the vandal reading the article; at least to the point of the vandalism. In my edit description I wrote jokingly "at least he read the article before he vandalised it". Obviously vandalism is a serious matter on Wikipedia and my flippant comment may have been seen as counter-productive by admin and other editors. I should have been able to change it.
Does anyone else have an opinion on this or is there some reason this is not practical
Sluffs (talk) 02:07, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- What do you mean by "edit description"? Do you mean edit summaries? Nyttend (talk) 02:16, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think he is quite clearly and unambiguously referring to edit summaries. However, this might be more suited to the WP:Village Pump, since it is a proposal, not really a question. :) Salvidrim! 02:31, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Serious issues are rare but see Help:Edit summary#Fixing for options. bugzilla:10105 - "Allow editing of edit summaries after the fact" is a WONTFIX. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:48, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Thanks for the info. The "dummy edit" may be an option and I will go to the Village Pump to see if it may be put as a proposal. Quite right that most edit summary mistakes are not serious issues but editors do take pride in their work. The future may think better of us if the edit summaries had less mistakes. Imagine if every edition of Encyclopedia Brittanica had mistake-ridden footnotes to articles that were never corrected and were carried forward to the next edition and with new mistakes added. Just as we have trouble reading Chaucer without an understanding of old English; so we are leaving future historians and editors a minefield of mistakes in the edit summaries which will be made more problematic by the simple fact that language evolves.
Sluffs (talk) 00:53, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- But an edit summary isn't anything like a footnote. I agree, the EB would look somewhat unprofessional if footnotes were riddled with typing errors, but think of an edit summary as something "behind the scenes", with which a user of the encyclopædia (the person for whom WP articles are intended as well) is unconcerned. Edit summaries need to summarise the edit; as long as they're accurate and unambiguous that's enough. Tonywalton Talk 01:07, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Why Is This Page Uneditable?
The page on James Randi [[5]] is higly biased and one-sided. Any attempts to provide supplemental information that indicates his "One Million Dollar Challenge" might be a hoax is constantly deleted, giving the impression that Randi's honesty is above reproach. Is there some particular reason to keep readers from fully evaluating the integrity of his "Challenge?" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.222.81.105 (talk) 02:35, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- This page is not currently protected, it is thus editable. If you find yourself in a content dispute where you believe some content should be added but you find others disagree, perhaps you would be interested in reading our policy on dispute resolution. :) Salvidrim! 02:39, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Your edit worked just fine, it's just that you were reverted and rightly so. The content you added besides being motivated by an apparent agenda, was mostly unsourced, a blatant copyright violation, and the source you infringed by copying and pasting its content is utterly unsuitable, not being a reliable source but an anonymous internet posting.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:03, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Contact if someone purposely and erroneously accuses you of sockpuppetry?
Who would you contact to report such an individual when they are personally attacking you and accusing you of sockpuppetry instead of solving the dispute? TylerDurden8823 (talk) 03:27, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- You can dispute the sockpuppetry here Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/DoctorK88. Bryan Hopping T 03:31, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Two things, first, I would prefer that someone other than the person accusing me answer my question. Second, if you read the policy on defending yourself from these accusations that is not the protocol. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 03:58, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- There's a helpful page Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Guidance discussing how to go about defending yourself. Bryan Hopping T 04:11, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I am aware. That's the page I was referring to. I would appreciate it if you did not answer my question and allowed someone not involved to answer. Thanks in advance. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Understood. I'm sorry for any unpleasantness. I'll step out if that would be helpful. Bryan Hopping T 04:24, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Please do, your acts have had nothing but malicious intent behind them. You know you are in the wrong. I think the fact that you have been unpleasant to say the least is apparent. As I said, please refrain from answering a question clearly directed at everyone but you. Thanks. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:28, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- What would I possibly have to gain by being malicious? I have no agenda. No ax to grind. I'm sorry that you interpret all of this through that lens, but its not my point of view. I've been an editor on WP for a while, and I've learned one gains nothing by being rude, and one gains much by being kind and civil.Bryan Hopping T 04:32, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- You talk the talk, but you do not walk the walk. You have refused to engage in a civil discussion as I initially asked for and when I decided to talk to DRN which was the course of action recommended to me by many users due to your inappropriate reversions, you respond with the puerile action of suggesting a sockpuppetry investigation. That is hypocrisy with malicious intent if I ever saw it. Your gain would be the absence of an opinion in opposition to your own. You clearly chose not to actually be constructive and have an open discussion and allow others to join in as well and see how it pans out. Furthermore, you shared information on this page that did not belong here such as the link you provided. Quite frankly, this is nonsense what you said. You would not be launching a character assassination were there no malicious intent and your intent is evident through your actions which speak far louder than your words here. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:37, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- What would I possibly have to gain by being malicious? I have no agenda. No ax to grind. I'm sorry that you interpret all of this through that lens, but its not my point of view. I've been an editor on WP for a while, and I've learned one gains nothing by being rude, and one gains much by being kind and civil.Bryan Hopping T 04:32, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Please do, your acts have had nothing but malicious intent behind them. You know you are in the wrong. I think the fact that you have been unpleasant to say the least is apparent. As I said, please refrain from answering a question clearly directed at everyone but you. Thanks. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:28, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Understood. I'm sorry for any unpleasantness. I'll step out if that would be helpful. Bryan Hopping T 04:24, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I am aware. That's the page I was referring to. I would appreciate it if you did not answer my question and allowed someone not involved to answer. Thanks in advance. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- There's a helpful page Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Guidance discussing how to go about defending yourself. Bryan Hopping T 04:11, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Two things, first, I would prefer that someone other than the person accusing me answer my question. Second, if you read the policy on defending yourself from these accusations that is not the protocol. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 03:58, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- (after multiple edit conflicts...) If you were accused you basically just go to the case page and post your defense, which I see you've done. If the outcome is that you're not socking in violation of policy, and you continue to be accused by this editor, you could report it at WP:ANI. Of course, if the outcome is that you are socking in violation, Hopping's report was warranted and this account will probably be blocked. And Hopping, stop poking the bear please. You've made your point, now back away. Also see WP:HOUND. Equazcion (talk) 04:38, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you for your input Equazcion. I'm well aware of what you have said here but the point remains that his accusation and his reversions were unjustified for many reasons. You can see his behavior clearly displayed here as you noted with the "poking the bear" I don't know if that is a wikipedia/wikiquette term or not but either way it's clear that is what he is trying to do. It does not make sense though that his report is warranted based on the outcome that sounds like post hoc fallacy to me. Either way, I think anyone who is objective will see what is happening. I've already explained at length to an administrator. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TylerDurden8823 (talk • contribs) 04:45, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- If there are issues other than this sock allegation and you think he's targeted you for some reason, the best thing to do would be to report it at WP:ANI. Just be aware that your own history will also come under scrutiny there. I'm not privy to your actions other than here or your disputes with Hopping, so I can't say how that will go, but if you're in the right, it will hopefully come out there. Equazcion (talk) 04:50, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I may just take your advice. Thank you for the information Equazcion. I appreciate it. TylerDurden8823 (talk) 04:56, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- If there are issues other than this sock allegation and you think he's targeted you for some reason, the best thing to do would be to report it at WP:ANI. Just be aware that your own history will also come under scrutiny there. I'm not privy to your actions other than here or your disputes with Hopping, so I can't say how that will go, but if you're in the right, it will hopefully come out there. Equazcion (talk) 04:50, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you for your input Equazcion. I'm well aware of what you have said here but the point remains that his accusation and his reversions were unjustified for many reasons. You can see his behavior clearly displayed here as you noted with the "poking the bear" I don't know if that is a wikipedia/wikiquette term or not but either way it's clear that is what he is trying to do. It does not make sense though that his report is warranted based on the outcome that sounds like post hoc fallacy to me. Either way, I think anyone who is objective will see what is happening. I've already explained at length to an administrator. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TylerDurden8823 (talk • contribs) 04:45, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Tool to separate out references while editing
I'm sure I remember a tool to separate out references into a separate editbox when editing an article. Can anyone help me find it again? Rd232 talk 09:50, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Do you mean RefToolbar, by any chance? Yunshui 雲水 10:55, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- No. There are a number of tools that try to make editing references easier; what I remember was a tool that separated the references out of the wikitext. That separation made editing the body text easier (when you have lots of references in a paragraph, it becomes impenetrable and very hard to edit), as well as the references. Rd232 talk 11:24, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Sounds like you are after WP:WIKED. It is a gadget you can select in your preferences. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 11:34, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I don't think that was the tool I was thinking of. WikEd has the right idea (with the "hide refs and templates" button), but it's much heavier and clunkier than the tool I remember. Playing with it, it seems more trouble than it's worth, which certainly wasn't the case for the tool I'm thinking of... ... it's possible my memory is flawed of course. Any other suggestions? Rd232 talk 11:50, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Maybe ProveIt? Do we win a prize if we guess right? Yunshui 雲水 11:57, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Apparently the script at User:M/monobook.js will remove references from the edit window, though I've never tried it... Yunshui 雲水 12:03, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- ... and this script gives you a "hide refs" option in your toolbox. Yunshui 雲水 12:06, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I believe you're looking for User:PleaseStand/segregate-refs.js.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:11, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- YES! Thank you! That is indeed the one. Simple but brilliantly effective. Why isn't that a gadget - or included in another ref-type gadget? Rd232 talk 17:02, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- You're welcome. Maybe you should suggest that? I personally have it and don't use it much, but it's quite unobtrusive with its little green link.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:12, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- YES! Thank you! That is indeed the one. Simple but brilliantly effective. Why isn't that a gadget - or included in another ref-type gadget? Rd232 talk 17:02, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Category-like articles
Is there a guideline on whether category-like articles need references or not? What I mean by "category-like" are for example list articles that could also exist as categories. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 12:26, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- From Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists#Listed items: "The verifiability policy states that material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable published source." The page mentions category-like lists briefly. Dru of Id (talk) 16:53, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Contributors - what do the bracketed numbers mean?
If I check the contributors page on an article it shows (for example)
34 (24/10) Chaheel Riens
What is the significance of the 24/10? Undo? Rollback?
Just wondering thanks. Chaheel Riens (talk) 12:27, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Where exactly are you seeing this? When I check the page history of an article, I see entries such as
- 2012-05-10 T00:52:15 ClueBot NG (talk | contribs) m . . (26,390 bytes) (-15) . . (Reverting possible vandalism by 76.110.38.226 to version by Dac04. False positive? Report it. Thanks, ClueBot NG. (1065896) (Bot)) (undo)
- Do you have any scripts installed? What skin is selected in your preferences? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 12:38, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- In page history, above the actual contributions there is a selection of links:
- External tools: Revision history statistics · Revision history search · Contributors · User edits · Number of watchers · Page view statistics
- If you click the Contributors link, you'll see what I mean. No scripts, and default skin. Chaheel Riens (talk) 12:50, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- My guess is that these numbers show which edits decreased the size of the article (the first number) and shows the size in bytes by which the article was decreased and the second number shows an increase in bytes. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:00, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- The first number is simply the number of edits made to an article by that editor - in my case above I had made 34 edits to the article in question. What I don't understand (and I admit it's not an earthshakingly important question) is what the split in the brackets are for. I don't think it's to do with bytes - the numbers just aren't enough. Chaheel Riens (talk) 13:06, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Translation: 34 edits total, 24 regular, 10 marked as minor.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:10, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks! Chaheel Riens (talk) 13:18, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Before I "Go Live"
Dear Wikipedia, I have reedited my article and want to go live again, but have a few questions; 1) When I last went live, my name appeared online before the subject name, which of course was very embarrassing. Why did this happen, and how can I avoid it happening again? 2) When I press “Show preview”, the box on the top right that shows my subjects name, birth place and website, is missing other bits of information that I intended it to contain (ie “medium”, “active” and “instruments”. Why is this? 3) Also when I press “Show preview”, the “Categories” do not appear at the bottom. Will they appear when I go live with the article,or have I made an error? Thank you very much for your kind help. Maya Frida Barr (talk) 12:30, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I rearranged the sections for you - "Early life" should come before the details of the subject's career/work. You might want to separate the events in his career into subsections such as "Music", "Television", "Stage", etc. Categories are not shown in a preview. The references are not properly formatted and I'm not too sure if some of them are really acceptable reliable sources. BTW if it's not clear to everyone the draft under discussion is at User:Maya Frida Barr/sandbox. Roger (talk) 12:42, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Actually, categories do show up in preview. They're way down at the bottom below the editing box and all the licensing fine print. I've commented them out though. If they aren't they still work and place the sandbox article in the live categories. I made some other tweaks per WP:SURNAME and WP:DATED. Also, titles of television shows, movies, plays, and albums should be in italics. Song titles and other short works go in "double quotes". Dismas|(talk) 14:06, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for catching my error - yes categories are no supposed to show up on drafts. Roger (talk) 14:36, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Actually, categories do show up in preview. They're way down at the bottom below the editing box and all the licensing fine print. I've commented them out though. If they aren't they still work and place the sandbox article in the live categories. I made some other tweaks per WP:SURNAME and WP:DATED. Also, titles of television shows, movies, plays, and albums should be in italics. Song titles and other short works go in "double quotes". Dismas|(talk) 14:06, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- You need at least to spell out titles of references. Ruslik_Zero 15:41, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Nobody's answered your first question: see WP:SYMUD. --ColinFine (talk) 20:48, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Input on newly created article
On NPP, I came across this article Documentary film of the Netherlands and don't know what to do with it. Although passably well-written and well-intentioned it seems to be original research if one takes the lede sentence "A Dutch Documentary film is a documentary film made by a director of (partly) Dutch origin. Dutch documentary films are not necessarily bound to Dutch topics or locations in the Netherlands."
This would appear to be the page author's opinion and a rather vague definition. Also no other articles exist along the same lines (i.e. documentary films by country/nationality), is this SYNTH? I mean if a half-dutch guy/gal makes a film about the taco trade in Mexico, is that a Dutch documentary? Some input from other editors required. Cheers. CaptainScreebo Parley! 13:19, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- For a start, the title is poor English. It should be Dutch documentary films (as in the lede, which redirects to this article) or Documentary films of the Netherlands. The definition given is clear and self-evident, not to say obvious. (I'm not sure it needs a definition at all.) The list of documentaries is rather pointless because it's so open ended. Maybe just include the notable ones.--Shantavira|feed me 16:12, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, well obviously the title is not good English, I didn't page move it immediately because I was just wondering if it should exist at all. CaptainScreebo Parley! 17:31, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- An AfD discussion would receive input and determine whether to keep/delete. benzband (talk) 18:33, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you Benzband, I was hoping for more, but this will do. CaptainScreebo Parley! 20:17, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- An AfD discussion would receive input and determine whether to keep/delete. benzband (talk) 18:33, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Which ISO 15924 template?
I need to import a template to Wikibooks that will turn a name of a script into its ISO 15924 code. (For example, Latin
→ Latn
). There are many ISO 15924 templates on Wikipedia, but I am not sure which one does what I want. Please advise on the one that will best do what I want. Thanks, Liam987 14:16, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Try WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:44, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
'see also' links on article?
Hi, I was wondering how to put the 'see also' links all onto one line on the following article...Liverpool City Region. The links are found on the Transport section of the article. Also, I'm not sure if I've written the links in the correct format...for example one see also link reads 'St Helens, Merseyside#Transport and infrastructure'. Is this the correct way to write it, looks a bit strange to me?
Richie wright1980 (talk)Richie wright1980 (talk) 14:27, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I've compacted them into one line as you can see here. I don't know how to the the anchor tags (#) out though. Dismas|(talk) 14:32, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Much appreciated, thankyou! Richie wright1980 (talk)Richie wright1980 (talk) 15:00, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Image
It is certain I may have the right to keep this image I uploaded to "Lessing Photo Archives", whereas, a number of users have (I was once a student of Erich Lessing in his arts class). Although, I have the right to upload certain images I have uploaded to Wikipedia, from what I have photographed and yet have permission, from the person who created it, and yes I took the photo, but may upload the photo
to the main site of a zodiac sign is my question, sir. I know some administrators will pick on others due to they may not like the photo or just becoming rough, but delete another permission photo of a snake decoration from North America on the Snake (zodiac) article is inappropriate as the rest of the zodiac articles as well have different photos from other countries, unlike, User:Future Perfect at Sunrise who only picked on the snake (zodiac), because of a simple edit I have made, and the rest the user did not seem to bother, so please at least give me some assurance of might to add this photo and stop disruptive edits by this high ranking ,yet doing the right-thing user calledUser:Future Perfect at Sunrise and I know the user means well. I am looking forward talking --GoShow (...............) 14:04, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Because copyright infringement is a potentially serious issue, Wikipedia cannot just take your word for it that you have the necessary permission to upload the image. Please take a look at the advice set out at WP:CONSENT and follow the instructions there to provide an appropriate permission. Hope this helps.--ukexpat (talk) 16:23, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Okay, I did thanks--GoShow (...............) 17:04, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Close a merge discussion please
To this day I have not yet figured out how to pick the right venue to resolve simple questions. I don't think it's WP:3O or WP:DRN. Can somebody just pop over, peruse a couple articles, Brammo and Craig Bramscher, and then close Talk:Brammo#Merge proposal? Merge, don't merge, {{resolved}}, {{unresolved}}, whatever, just something so we can move on. Thanks! --Dennis Bratland (talk) 17:47, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Closed as "stale" (no discussion for 18 months) without prejudice to future proposals. BencherliteTalk 18:21, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
I need help with a hidden template
The idea was to drop off a semi-personal message on another's talk page--more to h/h benefit than mine. I tried it a number of times in the sandbox. The latest is here. When I click "show" all I see is "{{{2}}}". I've tried to see if there was any breaks in the script, and being still a bit of a novice, I've spent a few hours on this to no avail. What am I doing wrong (and I doing anything wrong)? Thanks.Civic Cat (talk) 18:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- You need to put
|2=The origin of my username
etc (and "You’re user pages" should be "Your user pages", incidentally!) BencherliteTalk 18:25, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks! It works!! Mind you, I didn't see it in the Template:Hidden. As for "you're" and "your," where did I err there--so that I might correct it. After al, wile won Canne use a spell check, won can still err. Good word choice and being Abel to catch the rung words is like suite smelling colon. :-D Civic Cat (talk) 18:45, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Usually, the apostrophe indicates one or more missing letters (except in possessives, like "Peter's"). So "you're" is an abbreviation for "you are". "Your" means "belonging to you", which is what you want here. HTH Rojomoke (talk) 12:37, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Style change?
Not sure what has happened but everything that is links in watchlist an contrubitions etc instead of beeing the normal it appears to be bolded so very vibrante in colour and quite off putting--Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 18:38, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Watchlist - bold letter article titles!.--ukexpat (talk) 18:40, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Article Disappeared
An article was recently submitted from this account about entrepreneur Dan Carey. Now the article can't be found and the deletion log on the account is also empty. I also can't find any record or saved version of the article. Is there any way I can find out where it is or what happened to it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tjasc (talk • contribs) 19:24, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Sorry but your account has only this section as a contribution, deleted or otherwise, I'm afraid you must not have saved it properly--Jac16888 Talk 19:27, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Edit summary (Briefly describe your changes)
This is a minor edit
Watch this page
By publishing changes, you agree to the Terms of Use, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License and the GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
If you do not click on Save Page, the edit will not be kept. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:15, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Bold watchlist items
How can I turn them off and have my watchlist appear as it was before? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:11, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Watchlist_-_bold_letter_article_titles.21 follow the bit near the bottom about css--Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 20:17, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- See #Style change? above.--ukexpat (talk) 20:27, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- A nice workaround, and one I'll use until they give us an option to turn the eyesore off, but it does have the downside of removing the bold from watchlisted pages in recent changes. --Onorem♠Dil 20:28, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Watchlist, annoying green star
Why is there an annoying green star next to the page names in my watchlist? Fifelfoo (talk) 22:05, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- It's a new feature. The green star means you didn't look at the page since the last change. It looks like this is still being tweaked, and there will probably be a preference or gadget to disable it. See WP:VPT#Watchlist - bold letter article titles!. Equazcion (talk) 22:08, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Because you need help knowing which pages you've looked at since the last time they've been edited. strong.mw-watched a{background:none;padding-left:0;} on your /common.css page will remove them...and there are several discussion going on about it. I think the most active one is at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). --Onorem♠Dil 22:10, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you, it is visually appalling design. Fifelfoo (talk) 22:16, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Another "feature" foisted on us without any well advertised community discussion. In that regard, some shameless canvassing: for anyone who moves pages with any regularity and cares about the interface (and the English language) please vote for bug 34961.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:36, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- I do not care for the star either. Perhaps the developers can allow us to select an icon.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:38, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Another "feature" foisted on us without any well advertised community discussion. In that regard, some shameless canvassing: for anyone who moves pages with any regularity and cares about the interface (and the English language) please vote for bug 34961.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:36, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you, it is visually appalling design. Fifelfoo (talk) 22:16, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Rollback
What is the difference between rollback (AGF), rollback, and rollback (VANDAL)? Tboii99 ✉ 23:29, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Those extra buttons are part of Twinkle, a userscript to assist editors you must've installed. See the relevant Twinkle documentation item for your answer. Allmightyduck What did I do wrong? 23:32, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Oh, I see. I'm mostly comfortable with Twinkle, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it. Thanks. Tboii99 ✉ 23:34, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
- Agf and just rollback is used to revert things that are not vandalism (like unsourced), but still needs to be reverted. It is generally what's used to revert non-obvious vandalism and unsourced content. The Vandal revert is used to revert obvious and blatant vandalism.--Deathlaser : Chat 17:17, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Oh, I see. I'm mostly comfortable with Twinkle, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it. Thanks. Tboii99 ✉ 23:34, 10 May 2012 (UTC)
Democrat Party
What is wrong with calling the the Democrat Party "The Democrat Party?" The party isnt comprised of democratics. Its composed of democrats. Also how is the name "democrat" a slur as I was told?
What a crock of BULLSHIT!!
01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC)01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC)01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldies5161 (talk • contribs)
- "Democrat" as an adjective is used as an insult by Republicans. This is pretty well-known. See Democrat Party (phrase). Drmies (talk) 01:13, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- The help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. This question belongs on the reference desk at WP:RD RudolfRed (talk) 01:21, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Just a disgruntled user. Drmies (talk) 02:09, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
May 11
Diffs
An excerpt from User:Jfd34/common.css used for diffs:
table.diff {border-collapse:separate; border-spacing:4px; margin:0 !important; width:100% !important;}
td.diff-marker {font-weight:400 !important; color:#009900; width:3% !important; text-align:center}
td.diff-deletedline {width:54% !important; background-color:#FFE9E9; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 2px 2px 5px; border-color:#E20000;
border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-addedline {width:54% !important; background-color:#E9FFE9; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 5px 2px 2px; border-color:#00E200;
border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-context {width:54% !important; background-color:#F0F0FF; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 3px 2px 3px; border-color:#9696A4;
border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-empty {width:54% !important; margin:0}
td.diff-addedline .diffchange {background-color:#FFC900; border-radius:0px !important}
td.diff-deletedline .diffchange {background-color:#FFFF25; border-radius:0px !important}
However, with this style diffs of blanked pages appear somewhat like this:
− | {{User sandbox}}
|
||
− | <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE -->
|
||
− | {| |
||
− | |
|
||
− | <div style="position:absolute; top:20px; left:10%; border:1px solid #000000; background-color:#FFD567; color:#FFF0F0; height:50px; width:50px">12345</div>
|
||
− | |}
|
Any way how to fix this and make the column widths equal? jfd34 (talk) 04:52, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Inserting an image into text of an article
--Oldteched (talk) 05:28, 11 May 2012 (UTC) My attempt to insert (per available Wikipedia Commons instructions) an image into the text of my Wikipedia article titled "Operation Phototrack" resulted in a box which contains the name of the image file (a file located in Wikipedia Commons) rather than the image. What to do?
- The article is actually at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Enter your new article name hereOperation Phototrack. And the reason it wasn't working was because file names, including the file suffixes, are case sensitive. You had the right file name but you didn't capitalize the ".JPG" at the end. Dismas|(talk) 05:39, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Dandenong Foothills Encounter - A really doubtful new article
Dandenong Foothills Encounter is a new article describing a claimed alien abduction. It was written as if there is no question that the events described actually happened. One of the two sources provided is an obviously biased one. The other is actually a critique of the story, but I don't think the article's creator noticed that. The article is written in appalling English. The event was placed in the wrong Australian state. Overall, it's a disaster of an article. I've tried editing it a little, but the task of turning into something great is one I've decided now is beyond me.
I've come here to ask what should be done about this article. HiLo48 (talk) 08:23, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Well, the article is unbalanced and badly written. Personally I'd say that the subject matter is a load of bollocks and there's no evidence of notability. The whole thing seems to use a brief webpage by someone in the UFO community and a Wordpress blog as its references, neither of which seem reliable. For what it's worth, I think that our article on the Rendlesham Forest incident would be a pretty good standard to use for this sort of thing. Brammers (talk/c) 09:07, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'd disagree on the notability front - searches for "Kelly Cahill Encounter" (the more common name for this event) or "Kelly Cahill adbduction" turn up loads of usable sources in Google Books and a few in GNews. However this article is indeed a horrible mess, and the sources therein are useless. I'm not going to attempt a rewrite myself - not really an area I'm very interested in - but I'd suggest moving the article to Kelly Cahill encounter or similar, removing virtually all of the current content, and rewriting from scratch using different sources. Yunshui 雲水 09:47, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for the responses. I too think it's a load of bollocks. I have neither the time nor energy right now to address the mess. Do we just leave it sitting there in it's current appalling condition? And, while I've heard this story before, I've remembered the other geographic problem with it since I first posted. Dandenong, Victoria "is a suburb and major urban centre in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia". Mount Dandenong "is both a mountain and small township/suburb of Greater Melbourne", 25 kilometres away. They are related only in name. "Dandenong Foothills" is an ill-defined defined area around the mountain, covering perhaps 800 square kilometres. It's a crappy name. HiLo48 (talk) 21:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'd disagree on the notability front - searches for "Kelly Cahill Encounter" (the more common name for this event) or "Kelly Cahill adbduction" turn up loads of usable sources in Google Books and a few in GNews. However this article is indeed a horrible mess, and the sources therein are useless. I'm not going to attempt a rewrite myself - not really an area I'm very interested in - but I'd suggest moving the article to Kelly Cahill encounter or similar, removing virtually all of the current content, and rewriting from scratch using different sources. Yunshui 雲水 09:47, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
I note that the article is now proposed for deletion. A wise move. Thank you. HiLo48 (talk) 22:17, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Citations
In your guidelines on citations, you write:
Controversial, poorly-sourced claims in biographies of living people should be deleted immediately.
I suggest you make it clear whether the first comma means 'and' (ie Controversial and poorly-sourced claims...) or 'or'.
Morten Berg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.107.101.42 (talk) 08:52, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Please specify which page, I searched that on a few I thought it might be, and couldn't find it. CTJF83 10:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- My search indicates this text appears in Wikipedia:Citation needed and Wikipedia:Verification needed (this is not found using the internal search engine but by using Google with
site:en.wikipedia.org
).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:19, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- My search indicates this text appears in Wikipedia:Citation needed and Wikipedia:Verification needed (this is not found using the internal search engine but by using Google with
- The meaning of the comma is unambiguous: multiple adjectives should always be separated with a comma. __ Gareth Griffith-Jones (talk) 11:48, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Talk page notifications
I have my alternate account talk page redirected to my main account. Is there a setting or a bot that will let me know I have messages on my main talk page when I log in to my alternate account? CTJF83 10:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Anyone? CTJF83 20:13, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I would ask at BOTREQ. Perhaps someone there can make a bot that monitors your main accounts talk page and leaves a message at your alternate accounts talk page. I believe for the more experienced bot coders this would be an easy coding task although this is not meant to imply that I could do it. =P -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks! CTJF83 23:56, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I would ask at BOTREQ. Perhaps someone there can make a bot that monitors your main accounts talk page and leaves a message at your alternate accounts talk page. I believe for the more experienced bot coders this would be an easy coding task although this is not meant to imply that I could do it. =P -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
microprocessor design
i need pin architecture block diagram of my microprocessor(intel celeron M) wid details.... PLS HELP!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by TZRINZ (talk • contribs) 11:12, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Have you tried the computing section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.Template:Z38--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:56, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
CSD'ing Vector.css
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
I replaced my vector.css by {{db-userreq}} but it is displaying as code rather than a template. Is there another way to get it deleted or will this show up to the admins still? --lTopGunl (talk) 12:46, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- You can requset an administrator to delete it by posting a message on his/her talk page. See Special:ListAdmins for a list of administrators.
- An admin did it, though I never found out if it showed up in their panel or through this discussion. --lTopGunl (talk) 13:23, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Further replied by Fuhghettaboutit at my talkpage - the CSD still does show up to admins, if some one else wanted to know too. --lTopGunl (talk) 22:39, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- An admin did it, though I never found out if it showed up in their panel or through this discussion. --lTopGunl (talk) 13:23, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Signature problem
A new editor has asked me on my talk page about the strange result of his attempts to sign his posts with the usual four tildes. Basically the correct text is produced but without links to his user and talk pages. (The signature button gives the same result) The autosign bot then arrives and does it's thing even though the broken signature is visible in the post. Please take a look at the post on my talk as I have no idea what the problem might be. Roger (talk) 13:32, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- If he created a custom signature and ticked the checkbox below it in preferences, those aren't linked automatically -- he would need to code the link himself. Or simply remove the custom signature in preferences, which will generate the usual username-user talk signature with proper links. Equazcion (talk) 13:36, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- For more info see WP:SIG
'cite this page'
Didn't wikipedia articles used to come with a link on the left for 'cite this page'? WP:CW seems to still think it's there. Is it gone, or am I just not seeing it? Llamabr (talk) 14:01, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- You probably need to click "Toolbox" to expand that submenu. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 14:58, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- If my memory is correct, "Cite this page" was put into the "Toolbox" when we changed to Vector skin. I've updated WP:CW accordingly. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Also it only appears on articles that are in the main namespace. benzband (talk) 15:20, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- If my memory is correct, "Cite this page" was put into the "Toolbox" when we changed to Vector skin. I've updated WP:CW accordingly. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Citing studies in medical articles
Hello, I work with Clear Passage Physical Therapy, a network of physical therapy clinics treating chronic pain, infertility and bowel obstruction. I attempted to post information to pages relating to conditions we treat but the information was removed for the following reason: "We should be using secondary reviews, not primary studies."
I understand that there are guidelines for the types of sources we can cite on Wikipedia, however the studies I was referencing are from recognized leaders in mainstream medical research – namely mainstream medical journals and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. These journals require independent peer-reviews by experts in the field. Several of the journals (Medscape General Medicine, Fertility and Sterility, Contemporary Ob/Gyn), are among the most respected journals in medicine.
I'm not sure how to proceed -- I don't want to keep re-posting the information and have it taken down each time. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks very much!
Anna — Preceding unsigned comment added by Annaclear (talk • contribs) 14:30, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I left a note on your talk page.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Wikilinks to redirect pages
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
The page Tweening has been renamed Inbetweening. There lots of wikilinks that still direct to tweening. Is it important that these all get fixed, and can it be done by a bot?--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- No, it's not important. See Wikipedia:Redirect#Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:08, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I was confused. I had earlier messages from a bot about my links to dab pages, not redirect pages. I won't bother reverting the few that I did change.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:19, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Stray bracket symbol below infobox image
The image located at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brennan_Gilmore_at_Solly%27s.jpg is used at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker%27s_Run at Wikipedia (in the infobox at top). Just below the image appears a stray right bracket symbol ("]"). I've looked over the code both in the image file page at Wikimedia, and also in the infobox at Wikipedia and don't see what could be making this happen. Can anyone tell me what I might be missing? Artaxerxes (talk) 15:10, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Fixed The caption had an external link. Captions do not include credits; see WP:CAPTION. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:24, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Right. For interests sake, I discovered this workaround that permitted the external link without breaking the formatting, though I've no idea why that worked. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 15:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Bolded pages in watchlist
I noticed that several pages in my watchlist were displayed in boldface type. I hadn't seen this happen at all until yesterday, so I guess it must be a new feature on the MediaWiki interface. Would someone tell me what the bolded pages on the watchlist exactly mean? Thanks. User:Davidfreesefan23 (talk) 16:26, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- It means you have not looked at the page since the last change. Roger (talk) 16:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- We currently have a discussion on this at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Watchlist_bolding.--Deathlaser : Chat 17:06, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- The discussion at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Watchlist_-_bold_letter_article_titles.21 is longer, has far more participants, covers the issues more comprehensively and was started first. Roger (talk) 17:26, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Deleting details of a lawsuit which is dropped by the Plaintiff
What is Wikipedia's policy regarding the deletion of content detailing a lawsuit which has been dropped by the Plaintiff. A suit with damaging and contentious information about living persons. A Wikipedia contributor added 3 long paragraphs with alleged causes, which has since been dropped. Is it permissible to delete this information, and replace it with an encyclopedic statement that a suit was filed, but dropped. A basic statement of events, without all the 'he said', 'she said'. As is, the content reads like a tabloid. Thank you for your guidance on this matter. Ellen Brichetto — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ellen Brichetto (talk • contribs) 17:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Generally, I agree with what you just said; however, this is something that differs on a case by case basis. Can you please refer us to the page you are referring to? Ryan Vesey Review me! 17:41, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Adding info to an article
I'm a very old lady who doesn't understand many things. 2 years ago I corrected an article. Can't even remember how I did it.-- I want to add my father to West Point Alumni. I also don't know under what heading as he had diff titles-commanding officer of bases etc.... Is there any way someone would help me by going step by step? I don't even know if I'm doing it right on this page!18:54, 11 May 2012 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Imperlette (talk • contribs)
- Who was he? Do we have an article about him here? If not, should we? --Orange Mike | Talk 19:02, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Would Category:United States Military Academy alumni work, or one of the more specific ones?--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:51, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- That only works if there is an article about him. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:02, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Would Category:United States Military Academy alumni work, or one of the more specific ones?--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:51, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Oops. I misread the OP. I assumed you had edited the article on your father. You may wish a new biographical article that is possibly COI, may be BLP and may not meet NOT. You may wish to get help from your family and read Wikipedia:Your first article. All those terms should have links from there. --Canoe1967 (talk) 20:18, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- The bit that Canoe and OrangeMike haven't spelled out is that he should only appear in that list if he has, or could have, and article of his own, i.e. he meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability. If everybody who has ever attended West Point could appear, the list would be so long as to be nearly useless. --ColinFine (talk) 21:25, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think that two years ago you attempted to make the correction, but for some reason, your edit never posted. Because you think you actually corrected the article, what I suspect happened was that after you wrote your edit, you pressed the show preview button button rather than save page. The reason I think this is that you created this account on August 4, 2010, just about two years ago, but it has no live or deleted edits. Anyway, as above, you need to tell us who your father was in order for us to give you targeted advice.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:24, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Need help with adding new heading to existing page
I am trying to edit an existing page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tarasov. This page currently does not have a section for External links and I would like to add it. In editing mode I have added line == External Links == for the new heading and saved the page but the new heading is still not seen at the bottom of the page. What am I doing wrong? Thank you for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatiana.grehan (talk • contribs) 21:17, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- You had added the header inside some commented-out text. I have moved it after the comment ended, and removed the two test links you inserted. Adding more inline citations to the article is more urgent than adding some external links. --ColinFine (talk) 21:35, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Botched move from sandbox to mainspace
DJ Mell Starr/sandbox is a botched move. DJ Mell Starr is the correct article. The first needs to be deleted, please help. Roger (talk) 21:17, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- I tagged it with {{db-g6}} Ryan Vesey Review me! 21:28, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
Unable to reset password
So I wanted to log in to Wikipedia. To my knowledge I don't have an account yet, so I went to create one. But after filling in the details Wikipedia said an account with that username already exists. OK, no problem, I guess I must've created an account before and forgot about it. Of course I don't know my password anymore, I tried a few I've been known to use and none of them work. So I tried using the password reset page, but after entering my username, I got the message:
- The username XXX is not registered on this wiki, but it does exist in the unified login system.
So what can I do now? It doesn't make sense that I register again, I would rather just use the account I already seem to have. Also not sure what the said message even means to me. How come your "unified system" can't send me an email to reset my password anyway? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 23:27, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Basically, when you create an account on any Wikimedia site, it becomes a global account. That means, someone must have tried to create an account with that name on another site so it isn't available. You have two choices, try to create an account with a different user name, or request it at Wikipedia:Request an account. Ryan Vesey Review me! 23:30, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- We can say more if you tell the username. Maybe it was you who created it at another wiki, or maybe you can usurp it at that wiki. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:42, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for responding. I tried using the page suggested to request the username, but I got this message:
-
- I'm sorry, but the username you selected is already a part of a SUL account. Please try another username, or look at this page for more information on SUL.
- Please note that Wikipedia automatically capitalizes the first letter of any user name, therefore User:example would become User:Example.
- So clearly that won't work. It could've been me who created that account or it could've been someone else - who knows, sadly I have no recollection of it. Either way, I'd much rather use my usual username, the one I use most other places, than have to create a new account. My (desired) username is 'ravilov'. Hope I can get it back. :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 23:55, 11 May 2012 (UTC)
- Special:CentralAuth/ravilov shows that the username was created at the French Wikipedia in April 2009. The user has not stored an email address so you cannot attempt a password reset to see if it was you. The user has no edits so you have a chance to usurp it. This has to be requested at the French Wikipedia at fr:Wikipédia:Demande de renommage de compte utilisateur/Usurpation. You can write English in the request. There may be a waiting period. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:06, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- (edit conflict)So the account exists on French Wikipedia. It hasn't made any edits so I will leave a note there. You should be able to usurp the account there and then merge your account using Special:MergeAccount. Ryan Vesey Review me! 00:08, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Special:CentralAuth/ravilov shows that the username was created at the French Wikipedia in April 2009. The user has not stored an email address so you cannot attempt a password reset to see if it was you. The user has no edits so you have a chance to usurp it. This has to be requested at the French Wikipedia at fr:Wikipédia:Demande de renommage de compte utilisateur/Usurpation. You can write English in the request. There may be a waiting period. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:06, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yeah, I did a little research of my own and came to the same conclusion - originated on French Wiki, no edits. I left a note there requesting an usurpation. Thanks for all your help, cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 00:24, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Still problems I'm afraid. I've requested usurpation on the french Wiki as is visible here [6], they granted it (allegedly renamed the other account to 'ravilov_old') and now Special:CentralAuth/ravilov says Home wiki: unable to determine, but everything else is still the same, and I'm still unable to register, it says the username is taken. I tried registering both on english and on french wiki, no luck on either. What now? Would it help if I go request the username now?
- 88.207.35.169 (talk) 15:43, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Try to create the account later. It can take time to propagate the French rename information to the right places. http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Ravilov mentions a server is down. I don't know whether this problem affects the time. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:01, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Still no luck. Now http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Ravilov no longer reports SQL servers are down and actually displays user info, but apart from that nothing else has changed - the username is still taken and I can't register. I'm sorry this has turned into this endless soap opera... Not sure what to do now, guess I have no other choice but to wait some more...
- 88.207.35.169 (talk) 16:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Question about article I created
I have created a Wikipedia page about Emil Kazaz and it perfectly displays the page with all my edits, the artist's infobox and references. However, whenever I try to view it through another computer, it shows the article the day I first created it. Whenever I log into my account, it shows my polished page. I don't understand why it will not show my newly edited page to the public. I tried clearing the Internet cache, but it did not work. I appreciate any help, thank you very much.
Arthur Muradyan Amuradyan12 (talk) 01:09, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Hi, when i look at the Emil Kazaz article it shows the current version of the page (last edited 12 May 2012, see history). benzband (talk) 10:11, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- For some reason though, it does not show when I am not logged in. I have tried couple of different computers and it only shows the previous version (very first version to be exact). However, when I look on my mobile phone, it shows the current version without me having to log in. I would like to know why it's doing this, is it because it takes time for it to update? Also, does it take a while for it to appear in the search engine? Please let me know. Thank you. Amuradyan12 (talk) 19:02, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Kindly guide me further
Respected Sir,
I wanted to publish all the syllabus of an course on the wikipedia. And then create a book in the wikipedia.
Nearly 80% of the topics are already available on the Wiki, just I need to add 20% and combine a book, is it ok?
Plus an article highlighting the availability of the collection?
Regards, <email address removed> — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eternallypunished (talk • contribs) 06:02, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Your questions are very unclear. Perhaps you could reword them and provide more detail. Do you want to place syallabi from courses you teach on Wikipedia? Do you want to write a book and post the entire book on Wikipedia? If so, neither of those options is permitted. Wikipedia is not a website to post personal collections of writings. But perhaps you mean something entirely different? Cresix (talk) 14:54, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- I guess it's about Wikipedia:Books but I'm also uncertain about some parts of your post. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- You are welcome to write or edit articles in areas where Wikipedia is lacking, provided that your work meets the criteria for inclusion in Wikipedia: see WP:PILLARS, WP:N and WP:YFA. But your work should be targeted to a general audience, not narrowly to a particular syllabus you are teaching. --ColinFine (talk) 15:44, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
About my file NUDO Namibia.jpg
I uploaded my file from the page http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/9/96/Logo_NUDO_Namibia.jpg (I don't know the author), which belongs to Wikipedia. I downloaded it from this page, because the file does not appear in the Russian Wikipedia, whereas in German it appears. Now I got a message saying that if I did not point out the author in the near future, the file will be deleted. What should I do? Weißekatze (talk) 12:21, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Logos. The version at the German Wikipedia is at de:Datei:Logo NUDO Namibia.jpg. It says in big bold "Do not transfer this file to Wikimedia Commons without an individual review!" The copy you uploaded at commons:File:Logo NUDO Namibia.jpg will probably be deleted. It's a copyrighted logo used in specific Wikipedia articles as fair use. Commons does not allow fair use images. If you want to use it in the Russian Wikipedia or another Wikipedia language then you can upload it there as fair use. I don't know Russian. You may have to be autoconfirmed at a language to upload files there. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:52, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Why some names are in red
I have a question.....I would like to know why some names are in red..... I read Wikipedia every morning and enjoy it as a reference site, I mainly read notable deaths and notice often names in red!!! Sincerely — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.232.94.108 (talk) 12:35, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- It means there is no Wikipedia article about the subject. See Wikipedia:Red link. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:40, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- It basically means that page doesn't exist.--Deathlaser : Chat 15:08, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- ...at the specified title; some merely need to be fixed [7]. Dru of Id (talk) 15:14, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- It basically means that page doesn't exist.--Deathlaser : Chat 15:08, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Articles linking to an article
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
When browsing I may have a number of interests and go from one page to another, and then occasionally I may wish to recall how I made the trip through the pages entirely or just through one step. Is there a way to get the list of articles that link to an article? For example, though I may be able to remember or figure it out because it was recent, I do not know now what article led me to look up Eddie Cantor yesterday and would like to.Julzes (talk) 16:01, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Click "What links here" in the toolbox to the left. See more at Help:What links here. Your browser may also story a history which shows the pages you have visited. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:06, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Ah! Thanks.Julzes (talk) 14:36, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
New way to show UFC events sucks!
Please don't show it like this no more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_on_FX:_Maynard_vs._Guida
go back to old way of showing the list of events like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_145
Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.195.170.135 (talk) 16:48, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- I think you should raise your concerns at Talk:Ultimate Fighting Championship, where it's likely to be seen by editors who frequent related articles. Cresix (talk) 17:01, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- In future if you think something is wrong with an article either fix it or raise it at the article talk page.--Deathlaser : Chat 17:04, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
This page should use our corporate name etyres not Etyres - the e should be lower case, please change. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.161.234.199 (talk) 18:03, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- All Wikipedia articles begin with an uppercase letter. You could add something to the article explaining that the name is lowercase, but make sure to read the conflict-of-interest policy first WP:COI RudolfRed (talk) 18:51, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- While the name is still physically starting with an uppercase letter (which is a limitation of WP), I've changed the article to display the title with an initial lower case letter, similar to what's done in the article eBay. Rwessel (talk) 19:02, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Don Preston wiki page..
has a link at the bottom of it, to the grandEmothers.com site, which is an offshoot of the zappa bands.
the link, however, leads to grandmothers.com which is some crap incest site. you might want to have someone go edit that, and chase down whoever added that URL in the first place and see if they are right in the head or not.
thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.95.170.133 (talk) 19:36, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- The current link doesn't work for me, the page it tries to serve is just a bunch of server errors. There is no domain thegrandemothers.com and grandemothers.com is a placeholder with advertisng. I've removed the external link. If anyone can provide a working correct link, please put it in. The next time you see a problem, please be bold and fix it. RudolfRed (talk) 21:38, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Reference URL problem
S. E. Cupp (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Please look at the first reference (the one to salon.com). I get an unusual error when I try to load the page with Firefox (or with IE). I then did a search of the Salon website and found the article, but I'm having trouble with Salon's site to get to the S.E. Cupp section. I finally gave up. Can someone help, or is the problem with Salon?--Bbb23 (talk) 21:27, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- It looks like the problem is on Salon's end. The server is doing a bad redirect to localhost. RudolfRed (talk) 21:40, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Yeah, that's what I think, too. I've e-mailed them with the details of the problem. We'll see if they fix it. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:06, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php says that http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/22/hack_list_21/index.html redirects to http://://politics.salon.com which is not a valid address. The url http://www.salon.com/2010/11/22/hack_list_21/ works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:11, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- Me, too, but I couldn't find it - thanks much.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:27, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php says that http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/22/hack_list_21/index.html redirects to http://://politics.salon.com which is not a valid address. The url http://www.salon.com/2010/11/22/hack_list_21/ works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:11, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
Major problems with new Wikipedia mobile site - Please revert back
The new Wikipedia mobile website is really bad. It has many problems when viewed on Android mobiles:
- If you scrolll down while the page is loading, it scrolls back up to the beginning after page loads, unexpectedly. Why does it forcefully scroll the page when the user didn't request it?
- The arrow button (in each section for "Show more content") is hard to press, because it's too small. The previous version had a proper "Show" button which was bigger.
- Sometimes the full content doesn't appear when you press the arrow button. It might show only the first half of a paragraph, for example.
- When you use the arrow button a few times, it's virtually impossible to escape out of the page with the Back button. You have to press it so many times, and it's difficult to tell what's going on.
- Using an arrow button is not good for usability anyway, because you can't tell what it's supposed to do.
- The link "Jump back a section" usually does nothing.
- Please could someone revert it back to the old mobile version ASAP, which didn't have any of these problems.
--IE (talk) 23:22, 12 May 2012 (UTC)
- You will probably get a more useful response at WP:Village pump/technical: this page is about using and editing Wikipedia, and nobody here has any power over the software as opposed to the content. --ColinFine (talk) 15:48, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Searching within ALL subcategories? Is it possible?
I'm doing research on plays, and am looking to limit my search to the category "20th-Century Plays". However, all entries are listed within subcategories by year. (e.g. "1993 plays") Is there a way to do a "incategory:20th-century_plays" search and return results from the subcategories? Thank you very much in advance!
169.233.31.41 (talk) 23:32, 12 May 2012 (UTC)David-UCSC(Student)
- You could try CatScan, I don't know if it will do you any good though. Ryan Vesey Review me! 00:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
I have a recommendation for a cite on a the articular for 'Anti-lock braking system'
in the 'Early systems' section in the first paragraph at the end it says (This citation has no mention of Gabriel Voisin, who was not involved in aviation at the time; neither are there patents to substantiate this claim). if this website is used as a reference it will solve this problem: http://www.absbrakes.co.uk.
thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.93.135 (talk) 03:07, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- It's better to discuss this at Talk:Anti-lock braking system. Cresix (talk) 03:11, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Andrew Petrie
Andrew Petrie (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
The picture of the man with the young boy is John Petrie and his son Andrew Lang Petrie. It is not Andrew Petrie (Snr) and his son John. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.231.64.118 (talk) 03:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- I am trying to confirm now and have duplicated your post at the talk page of the article. The photograph detail at Onesearch is singularly unhelpful—a date would have nailed it down since we know when he lived and his approximate age in the photograph within twenty years. One thing I would have done is contact the main contributor to the article, but unfortunately, they last post in 2008, so it would be useless. Do you have any information to support this contention that you could provide?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:45, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Watchlist styles
Reagarding WP:VPT#Watchlist styles, is there a page listing all available styles somewhere (preferrably with images of how it looks live)? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:36, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Customizing watchlists. Not too many images there though. Equazcion (talk) 09:40, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- Thank you. The italic text for pages I haven't visited since the last change is very nice. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:47, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Edit count link not working
The Edit count link at the bottom of a user's User contributions page is broken as of today; it was working yesterday. The link should take you to toolserver.org. Instead, an error is displayed "Bad Gateway". Can someone please look into this. It's a useful link. Thanks, Truthanado (talk) 14:00, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- I got the same message, but tried again seconds later and it was fine.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:07, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'm still getting the same error, even after clearing cache. I'm using Firefox 12. What browser/version are you using? Truthanado (talk) 14:22, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- ... and the same error with Chrome. Truthanado (talk) 14:27, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- Firefox 12. I just tried again, and it worked fine.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- It's working now ... not sure what the problem was. Maybe my ISP? Truthanado (talk) 16:55, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- Firefox 12. I just tried again, and it worked fine.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- ... and the same error with Chrome. Truthanado (talk) 14:27, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- I'm still getting the same error, even after clearing cache. I'm using Firefox 12. What browser/version are you using? Truthanado (talk) 14:22, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Sandbox
I tried to save an article that I wrote in my sandbox and was told one like had been blocked for SPAM, when I tried to go back to my Sandbox page by clicking on return to sandbox at the bottom of the page, I was taken back to a clean page and could not find the text I had worked on originally? How can I find it? I spend 4 hours uploading it with links and citations ????? VERY FRUSTRATING!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael.sudarkasa (talk • contribs) 15:50, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- As far as I see, it is still in your sandbox at User:Michael.sudarkasa/sandbox. Ryan Vesey Review me! 16:59, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
Need help in moving and shrinking a useful weatherbox but one that really screws up the page.
Hello,
I am a very new user-just started a few days ago and am still learning basic editing. So please forgive me, things are a little overwhelming. I've tried to figure this out on myself but I can't find any useful strategies or tips to do it.
I need help on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhaoqing to take the weather box from its current location and put it directly under the climate heading and leave room for the city information box on the right side. Hopefully this could be done by shrinking it but other methods might also be okay. Currently the weather box is so big that it must be placed under the right border city box and thus causes a huge ugly blank space that isn't needed and whose space could be used for much more beneficial reasons. The increase in beauty and function to the page would be very large.
Can anyone help out a newbie that is really becoming addicted to the whole "wiki" experience :-)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Whoisgalt (talk • contribs) 16:11, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- The weather box size can't be changed. There is a solution though, which was just done in the article. Move the Climate section down (which allows the box to be full-size). That also makes this city article like other city articles in structure, with the History section first, then the Climate section. Truthanado (talk) 17:15, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
User-Talk ownership
I, prior to some rough experience, used to think that “pages in user space belong to the wider community. They are not a personal homepage, and do not belong to the user. They are part of Wikipedia, and exist to make collaboration among editors easier.” (source WP:OWN)
- I know that a User has sort of a semi-monopoly on his/her talk-page.
- See the problems are,
- I have a slow internet connection and
- I wanted to discuss some issues with a User,
- but that user's talk-page is over 250,000 bytes in size, utterly neglected, a total mess. Hence it's taking too long to load (and I also get charged by data used. So, every time I open that page, although nominal, I lose some extra bucks on things which could have been archived and are there since 23:06, 29 January 2010 (UTC), yes “2010”).
- The good thing is,
- The user has given permission to someone to archive that page, but that other guy first seemed interested but didn't in the end.
- So, I took that opportunity to archive his page (which I just learned how to do) and save me some time and money. But guess what, I'm a troll for trying to help him. It really pissed me off.
Below I provide the user page which I was referring to earlier.
User talk:Griswaldo (edit | user page | history | links | watch | logs)
Question: what would be right for me to do now?
Thanks in advance, Brendon ishere 18:19, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- Stay away from that page. You have been asked more than once to stay away, and why you refuse such requests is not clear. Also, see WP:OWNTALK, which deals specifically with user talk pages. Griswaldo is free to remove anything he wants, even if it's through deletion rather than archiving. CityOfSilver 18:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)