Wikipedia:Help desk: Difference between revisions

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I know how to prod the article (get the delete box on the page). I know how to notify the creator of the deletion thingee. But I am missing a step somewhere in the middle. Do I put something on the discussion page of the article? How does my nom get to the actual list of articles to be deleted? Yes, I'm green. I appreciate the help. I'm going through stubs in two projects, and there are some doozies that need nominations, but I can't get past just getting the box to show up.--[[User:Levalley|Levalley]] ([[User talk:Levalley|talk]]) 05:24, 2 April 2009 (UTC)Levalley
I know how to prod the article (get the delete box on the page). I know how to notify the creator of the deletion thingee. But I am missing a step somewhere in the middle. Do I put something on the discussion page of the article? How does my nom get to the actual list of articles to be deleted? Yes, I'm green. I appreciate the help. I'm going through stubs in two projects, and there are some doozies that need nominations, but I can't get past just getting the box to show up.--[[User:Levalley|Levalley]] ([[User talk:Levalley|talk]]) 05:24, 2 April 2009 (UTC)Levalley
:You don't need to put anything on the talk page. Us admins know about your nom because putting the template on an article automatically transcludes it into [[Category:Proposed deletion]]. '''''[[User:Bibliomaniac15|<font color="black">bibliomaniac</font>]][[User talk:Bibliomaniac15|<font color="red">1</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Bibliomaniac15|<font color="blue">5</font>]]''''' 05:27, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Revision as of 05:27, 2 April 2009

Template:Active editnotice

    Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

    March 30

    Wikipedia Stats

    I'm looking for non-article statistics about Wikipedia: number and edit activity of Talk pages, and number and edit activity of pages in the Wikipedia namespace. Thanks! Jeangoodwin (talk) 01:36, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You may be able to find what you want with one of our article tools hereChed ~ (yes?)/© 05:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    This may be the tool you're looking for. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:26, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    do I need a cite for things like this......?

    Resolved

    (Off2riorob (talk) 16:20, 30 March 2009 (UTC))[reply]


    if something is obvious or common knowledge or ,, say for example that .. I have never been to jail .. or ... micky mouse is a cartoon ... would these kind of things need a cite? they are true so no one has ever commented about them? the page in question is 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot... In the lede it refers to Osho being the leader of this group of disciples.. and mentions Osho more than once.. and I feel that it infers that he was involved.. and I want to insert a comment that he was not charged with any involvment in the conspiracy. lower down in the charges and punishment table are the people that were charged and involved so it is a reality as he was never charged with any involvment...I have tried to insert a clause stating this but have been asked to provide a cite! How is it that this statement would need a cite when it is clear from the table of conspiritors...It is the inferance that he was involved.. in the lede that I am trying to balance! (Off2riorob (talk) 00:13, 30 March 2009 (UTC))[reply]

    You could read up on WP:CITE and WP:V to understand the full explanation of what can and can not be included in articles. The short version is, if you want to add information, and the info is debatable, then you should (and could be required to), include a reference to verify that claim. If you are debating material that is already there - while you could technically remove it, and add a note in the edit summary as to why it was removed - you'd probably be better served by discussing the issue on the article talk page. Additionally, you can add {{fact}} tag to a statement in the article if you wish someone to provide a reference to a statement that you dispute. I see no references in the lead of the article, so I would probably add the tag, and explain your reasoning on the talk page. Best of luck. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:21, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    thank you Ched for having a look and commenting.
    that is helpfull and informative. best regards. (Off2riorob (talk) 15:47, 30 March 2009 (UTC))[reply]

    i need help;

    first of all, i need find "the constitution of 1890 in mississippi". i must be, because i have presentation of that kind of stuff....... research on thoes things... i don't know exactly on research things........ so would you let me know about how to construct research paper, and investigation on "the constitution of 1890 on mississippi"? accordingm give me key point of "the constitution of 1890 on mississippi" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alstlr91 (talkcontribs) 00:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The Mississippi page briefly talks about the 1890 constitution, but I think you'd be better off looking outside Wikepedia. Try here: [1] page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.141.65.194 (talk) 03:31, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Most recent articles

    Resolved
     – Tempo di Valse ♪ 14:18, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Is there a way to view a list of the most recent articles created on wikipedia? 79.75.233.8 (talk) 00:28, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Yes. See Special:NewPages. Cheers, Tempo di Valse ♪ 00:50, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    question

    I can edit Ken Bruen and I made changes to Wililam Monahan and they were erased. I have a thing on my page that says an edit has expressed a concern about me but no one is talkign. ( 82.195.149.119 (talk) 00:37, 30 March 2009 (UTC) )[reply]

    Maybe that was like gibberish. I came tonight and saw that everything was different and I couldn't enter the William Monahan article anymore. Its a rubbishy thing now. ( 82.195.149.119 (talk) 00:49, 30 March 2009 (UTC) )[reply]

    William Monahan was semiprotected to prevent editing by sockpuppets of banned User:Manhattan Samurai. —teb728 t c 04:54, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    If 82.195.149.119 is indeed a sock, then that is the secondary explanation. The semiprotect that Teb728 mentions will prevent all anon. (IP addresses) from editing. Also, there is now an Abuse Filter in effect, which will display warning messages to users who may be posting questionable material. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:12, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Watching user contributions

    Resolved
     – ukexpat (talk) 20:06, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Is there a way to watch a users contributions the way I can watch articles. I came across a spammer and have reverted their add edits but I would like to kept tabs on contributions by that user in the future. --droll [chat] 03:56, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    There is no way to shadow a user like that. Dismas|(talk) 04:14, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You'll just have to bookmark the users contribs page, and refresh every so often. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:08, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks. --droll [chat] 07:41, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Logged me out

    Resolved
     – tempodivalse [☎] 19:26, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia suddenly logged me out! Is there any explanation for this? P.S., I logged in again, but I just wanna know. Ciaran UK rush jump 04:34, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This is purely speculation, but perhaps your browser has a cache level it's reached in the "keep me logged in" cookie. Just a thought — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:07, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    This often happens to some users. See Help:Logging in for some tips on how to stay logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:37, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    If you log in and then are inactive for a certain period of time, then the website might "time out" on you and log out automatically, without warning. This happened to me once. Tempo di Valse ♪ 19:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Can I remove the speedy deletion tag form this aritlce

    Can I remove the speedy deletion tag form this aritlce [[2]] It a current event.yousaf465'

    The article Speedy Delete tag has been contested, which means it will most likely go to WP:AFD. If you intend to work on this article, and intend to add improvements, you may want to read This first. This is not a judgment on the article, just a suggestion on Wikipedia policy to help assist you in your desire to keep the article. Best of luck — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:01, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It has been expanded and del tag has been removed by somebody.116.71.179.190 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC).[reply]

    Article Help

    There's an article that has achieved GA status. I'm interesting in improving it further for hopefully, FA status. However, I'm not sure how. Does anyone know how I could in contact with someone who could help me review the article and provide insight on how to improve it? The Clawed One (talk) 04:58, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If it were me, I would probably start on the article talk page - leave a note as to what you want to do. If it's already GA, then there should be comments already on that talk page. You could contact some of the editors who have posted comments there, as well as looking at the page history, and contacting editors who have edited the article recently. Which article are you considering by the way? — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 05:05, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is the article in question. The problem is, when it comes to users who have made contributions to the article....I'm pretty much it. I worked on the article off and on for several months, bringing it from basically a stub to what it is now, and really, no one else has really edited it that much. There's the many peer review and the GA nomination that helped improve it to the current quality, but the peer reviews were largely unhelpful to me. The only other user who made any significant and frequent edits to the article was the user who was doing the GA review for me. The Clawed One (talk) 05:16, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Hmmm .. Well, first let me congratulate you and thank you for such great work! Fantastic job! Have you looked over the Wikipedia:Featured article criteria article yet? I see that the talk page for FA (here) is pretty active, so I would guess that one of the editors there would be more than willing to help point you in the right direction. If you know any of the editors whom you consider to be top quality copyeditors, I would drop them a line and ask them to look it over. I have a couple folks that I consider to be very good at that type of thing, and often ask them to review my work. Peer review seems to be a funny thing - sometimes you get very little input, and other times you get a ton of great help. Sometimes too much .. lol. I've seen editors going back and forth trying to please first this editor then that one ... but I'm drifting off course here. There's a project somewhere that specializes in this type of thing too .. let me see if I can find it, and I'll get back to you. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 06:11, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you, and thanks for the advice. The problem is that as far as I can tell, the article does conform to the FA guidelines. When I nominated it for GA status, I was genuinely surprised when errors and shortcomings were found I had never thought of. Hence my desire for outside assistance. I'll ask on the FA talk page and can hopefully find someone to help. If you can find that protect that would be nice too. The Clawed One (talk) 06:16, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    There is an Editorial Team here that deals with the reproduction of Wikipedia, and while it is a bit of a fork from what you're specifically looking for, I might be tempted to look and see if any of the editors were interested in the same type of topics. If so, I wouldn't be shy, I'd just go to their talk page and ask them what they thought! Most folks here feel flattered when someone asks them personally to look at what they're working on (I hope - otherwise there's a ton of folks that think I'm a real pain in the but ... lol). Anyway .. I hope that give you a couple doors to knock on anyway. Drop me a note when you get it to FA by the way (which I quite imagine you'll do). I noticed you had reviews and such, but I didn't see any sales figures on the game, is that something you could include to expand on the topic in more detail? also, I'm not sure about references 6 - 16, I might look into that format a bit. Well, best of luck — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 06:24, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks again, and actually, sales figures are mentioned, I found them on my own. As for formatting for references 6-16, I wasn't too sure myself at one point. One thing I did was look at other video game FAs and GAs, and many seemed to use the same format for direct quotations from the game, so I assumed it was alright. The Clawed One (talk) 06:40, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • If you want to get it from GA to FA, your first port of call should be the person who did the GA review. I'm sure they'd have some ideas on how to go about it. - Mgm|(talk) 11:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Where's the talk page?

    Resolved
     – ukexpat (talk) 20:05, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The article titled "homeopathy" does not appear to have a talk page. There is a discussion page instead, which I could edit, but that doesn't make sense. How do I make a comment about the content of the article?Criticalobservation (talk) 06:15, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Discussion page and talk page are the same thing. You can make your comment there. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:37, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks, I figured it out. I was expecting to see an older format and I didn't recognize it! Criticalobservation (talk) 08:33, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Talk page to Article(Main) page Conversion

    Dear Sir/Madam

    I had a problem adding new article to wikipedia..

    STage 1 ) when i tried to edit existing page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrinalini_Sharma I was being transfered to Discussion: Talk page..

    Stage 2) When i added up new material, & i also added References, along with my signature. I saved the page.

    Problem: The material which i added is appearing on Talk page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mrinalini_Sharma

    How can i add the material, which i discussed on talk page, to main page i.e. article page.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrinalini_Sharma

    Please Assist.

    Regards,

    Abutorsam007 (talk) 06:26, 30 March 2009 (UTC) Abu Torsam[reply]

    I'm not sure what you mean by "I was being transfered to Discussion: Talk page". If you click "edit this page" at top of a page then you can edit that page. If you click it on the talk page then you edit the talk page. If you click it on the article then you edit the article. The article is not protected and you can edit it if you don't have a conflict of interest. See [3] for how to make the references display. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Population in cities

    percentage of the world's population staying in cities. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.98.65 (talk) 06:32, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    See Urbanization. Have you tried the Humanities 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. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:20, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    But you should do your own homework. – ukexpat (talk) 15:06, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Delhi College of Engineering

    Dear Sir,

    This is about below link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi_College_of_Engineering

    Section: Admissions

    Problem: Wikipedia is an information source and an encyclopedia. It is not correct to bu Judgmental about preferences of one college over another.

    Suggest this: The admission towards a full-time Bachelor of Engineering degree in Delhi College of Engineering and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology is through Combined Entrance Examination (CEE) conducted by the University of Delhi, and All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Out of the total 570 seats, 85% are reserved for students who pass from high schools in the National Capital Territory of Delhi or Delhi region. The remaining 15% seats are for candidates from outside Delhi region and are admitted on the basis of All India merit Rank in AIEEE[5]

    Admission towards a Postgraduate degree at the Delhi College of Engineering is based on performance in the GATE qualifying exam, followed by an interview.

    Over this: The admission towards a full-time Bachelor of Engineering degree in Delhi College of Engineering and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology is through Combined Entrance Examination (CEE) conducted by the University of Delhi, and All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education. Out of the total 570 seats, 85% are reserved for students who pass from high schools in the National Capital Territory of Delhi or Delhi region. The remaining 15% seats are for candidates from outside Delhi region and are admitted on the basis of All India merit Rank in AIEEE[5] Traditionally students tend to prefer NSIT over DCE, however the latter is more famous because of its long history. 39 out of top 50 students who sought admission in CEE 2008 chose NSIT over Delhi College of Engineering.[1]

    Admission towards a Postgraduate degree at the Delhi College of Engineering is based on performance in the GATE qualifying exam, followed by an interview.

    Best Regards, Ritwik Bisaria —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ritwik.bisaria (talkcontribs) 10:36, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I think the best thing to do is to propose your changes on the Delhi College of Engineering talk page. Or, you can be bold and make the change yourself. If someone reverts your change, then you can start a discussion with them and build consensus. TNXMan 11:54, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Problems with category use in User pages

    Resolved

    I've been doing some tidying up of the various colour categories, because I have been finding non-colour pages showing up in the category. The one I am trying to correct at the moment is on User:Chimchar monferno's page. I should add that as this is someone's user page, I am explaining what I am doing on their talk page; however I have not had any response, so either they are not aware or not fussed about what I am doing.

    Anyway, initially, the userpage showed {{Shades of green}} and the user page appeared on the category as a shade of green. I changed it to {{Category:Shades of green}}, which appeared to do the trick... until I discovered their page was now showing up in {{Category:Colors}}. I have now stuck No Wiki tags around the text, and promised the user I would try and find out what needed to be done. However, I am not getting anywhere fast. Is it possible to add the category box to a page without the page showing up as a category?

    I'd like to find out before I start looking at making the same correction on {{Shades of violet}}. Stephen! Coming... 11:41, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    {{shades of green}} adds Category:Shades of green. Looking at the code, the undocumented option |nocategory=yes will suppress the category. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 11:49, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Templates that auto-categorize should probably, at a minimum, always have a namespace check—e.g., {{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|{{ns:0}}|[[Category:Foo]]}}—to prevent non-articles from being placed in article categories. It's rather common to demonstrate navboxes and such on talk or user pages, after all. — TKD::{talk} 11:55, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Cheers for that. I must confess that I don't follow the use of If/else type of code that you describe, TKD, but I get the general gist of what you are saying LOL! If you know how to apply that code, then please by all means add it to the various colour templates. However, I do now understand what needs to be done to templates if they end up being categorised accidentally. Stephen! Coming... 15:53, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    monochrome TV transmitter and reciever

    please help me with the block diagram of a monochrome TV transmitter and reciever —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.206.32.67 (talk) 12:29, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 15:05, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually the OP tried at the RD at the same time (in two different desks) although didn't receive much help since this sounds a lot like a homework question Nil Einne (talk) 04:58, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Trey Hooten

    Trey Hooten is a singer song writer from Texas. Trey started writing songs in the 1970's with his first song Did you Know. Since then Trey has written songs such as Which road leads that way, I just can't let go, That ole tune, Dance my heart away, Picture Perfect, Gift of Love, Trials of Life, This working's not for us, Just put your head on my shoulder, Which road leads that way, and many more. Trey still continues to write and compose music. He still plays with Country Music Artist The Travelers. One of the best relationships I ever made was when I started playing with The Travelers "says Trey". These guys are great and are still great freinds. The Travelers formed with an idea for Robert Holder and Trey Hooten in the late 1970's. Trey's music can be heard on youtube.com or monthly on the Cove Country Opry in Copperas Cove, Texas.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Treybhoot (talkcontribs) 19:22, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It sounds like you are trying to write an article. I would encourage you to read this guide, as well as this guide. Also the info on writing your first article may be of assistance. TNXMan 19:36, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Is "The Travelers" mentioned here the same as The Travellers (band) - a Canadian group? If not, may I suggest that you go to pages on Country Western Music and try to establish, first, that the Travelers are a notable country group. If they are part of some sub-genre of country, edit that article first, so that the Travelers are mentioned as a notable example. If the Travelers are not a notable act, I don't think an individual member of the Travelers is notable enough to have a bio on Wikipedia (although you can sure try to add one anyway). But the ways that I know how to do a new article involve having a link to another article first. HTH. --Levalley (talk) 00:51, 31 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley[reply]

    Trouble reverting vandalism

    Resolved
     – ukexpat (talk) 20:07, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I wasn't sure if I should bring this here or WP:AN first. I made several attempts to revert two consecutive vandalism edits on D-Generation X. First I used my new toy Twinkle, and each time I got a message that my rollback was successful, but when I went back to the revision history my edit wasn't there. Then I attempted the non-Twinkle Rollback and again got a message that rollback was successful, but the history didn't show my edit. Finally I resorted to using "undo" twice and the revert was successful. Is there something up with that page? I should note that I did go to new admin school and was able to successfully use non-Twinkle rollback, but still wasn't able to rollback the DX article. KuyaBriBriTalk 19:51, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Ah, I've seen this before. When you use an automatic script (Twinkle, etc.) to an undo an edit, there must be something there for it to undo. In your case, the IP editor added something, then removed it. So when you undid the edit, Twinkle saw that there was no net change (since the vandalism had been removed by the person who put it there originally) and did nothing. It still gave you a "successful" message, but didn't actually do anything. TNXMan 19:55, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Another d'oh! You can WP:TROUT me now. Thanks. KuyaBriBriTalk 20:00, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Nah, no trout for you. It's a legitimate question and tripped me up several times when I started using Twinkle. Best, TNXMan 20:19, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    how to format user page?

    on my user page User:Off2riorob everything is on the left ..how do I add things on the right and middle? (Off2riorob (talk) 20:17, 30 March 2009 (UTC))[reply]

    I know that you can use the <center> </center> tags to... well, center items. You can also use info box templates that default to the right side. I'm not sure about the <left> tags, if someone has not responded further - I'll look it up when I get back. I'd offer more input here, but rather than post faulty info - I'll wait til I have more time to be accurate. I would imagine another editor will have provided some more formatting tips by then as well. Best — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 21:10, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • quick note: most items do default to the left side because an encyclopedia is designed that way for flow of text. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 21:12, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You can align things using HTML, DIV, or WIKITABLE. First, you can align only text using the following:
    <p align="center"> THE TEXT</p>
    

    However, this may not align templates or userboxes. The other way is using DIV, which is more preffered. You use the following:

    <div style="text-align:center"> THE TEXT </div>
    

    The other way is using the Wikitable. This may make a complication, but useful when aligning userboxes or templates. It is also useful when aligning items and placing a border at the same time. You use the following:

     {| align=center ;"
    |-
    THE TEXT OR TEMPLATES
    |} 
    

    This is only beginning stuff, so you can master these first before moving to more complicating things. ZooFari 22:28, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]


    Copyright

    This is the statement I received when trying to set up our page:

    [edit] San Juan High School This is an automated message from CorenSearchBot. I have performed a web search with the contents of San Juan High School, and it appears to include a substantial copy of http://www.softcom.net/users/whiskeystill/SJhistory.htm. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions will be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. See our copyright policy for further details.


    I am the originator of the document, that is also posted to The San Juan Class of 1960 Page, owned by Jerry Still - - http://www.softcom.net/users/whiskeystill/SJhistory.htm

    I am the organizer of the San Juan Alumni Association who tracks all the history of the San Juan Alumni Association. If you need verification that I am not using a copyrighted page, you can contact Jerry Still at <redacted>.

    How can I continue to post and set up our page?

    Thank you, Barbara Morarity-Van Dyke San Juan Alumni Association (e-mail address redacted to avoid spam) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sanjuanalumniassoc (talkcontribs) 22:31, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    There are two basic solutions:
    1. Rewrite the Wikipedia article so it is not a substantial copy of the text posted elsewhere.
    2. If you control the content on that other site, consider releasing it under a free license such as the GFDL. Most people who put up Web sites are not familiar with this sort of thing yet. By default, Wikipedia assumes everything on the Web is under copyright unless it explicitly says otherwise, so we can only copy text from other Web sites that clearly indicate they release their content under a GFDL-compatible license. To do that, you would have to persuade the site owner to accept the license terms and display the indication of license.
    Let us know if you have any questions. --Teratornis (talk) 00:04, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Most likely rewriting the article would be easier, but it's up to you to make the choice.
    And BTW, sign your posts with ~~~~. MathCool10 Sign here! 02:36, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Rewriting the article is almost certainly easier than trying to explain what free licensing means to the site owner, and convincing him or her to join the free content movement, if the site owner has never heard of this before. But if the site owner was already thinking about it, and just hadn't got around to it yet, he or she would only need a few minutes to release the site content under a free license. Therefore I mention the free license option on the (admittedly slim) chance that this option could be practical. --Teratornis (talk) 20:18, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    website hosting

    How can you find what company host certain websites? Reason behind the question is: I am starting a web business that involves loading up lots of videos and I need to know about who host the sites with numerous video uploads. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.226.230.36 (talk) 02:14, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:24, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Rename 2009 Lahore police academy attacks ?

    We still have a naming issuse with it, acutally it's called Manawan Police Training School,not police academy,on the signboard outside it's maingate.What should we do now.yousaf465'

    That may be actual title, but would anyone searching for the article know that? The more colloquial title is probably a better name for the article, assuming the correct name is used within the article itself. – ukexpat (talk) 03:22, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Editor passed away

    Resolved
     – User page protected by Bibliomaniac15. – ukexpat (talk) 04:08, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I didn't know where else to put this, but I've never had to deal with this before. User:Nitelinger, who was mainly a researcher of the history of television in Milwaukee and has put out a book about the subject, made quite a few contributions here. He passed away on Sunday, March 29 of a heart attack while shoveling snow, which was confirmed by both a Milwaukee TV forum and the media writer for the Journal Sentinel. I would thus like to see his userpage protected and him be properly memorialized by someone familiar with a situation like this. Nate (chatter) 03:50, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I have protected it. bibliomaniac15 03:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you. Nate (chatter) 04:02, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I've written an obituary of sorts at WP:RIP as well. Unfortunately, this is my first time at something like this, and I was not fully acquainted with him, so you'd have to help me out. bibliomaniac15 04:12, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You did great on it, thank you. I filled in more of the details, but I didn't have to add much. Thanks so much for your help on this. Nate (chatter) 04:41, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Please would you replace passed away with died? Kittybrewster 08:16, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The use of that euphemism always bugs me too. – ukexpat (talk) 14:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Actually, (and I know that for encyclopaedic entries to articles we use "died") I'm partial to passed away - Since the user page and memorial page kind of fall outside the normal "article policy and guideline" area - I'd be inclined to go with any wishes the family had expressed. Nothing I'd ever argue over of course, just a consideration to those closest to the situation. If I did have to mention a preference - I suppose I'd cite the spelling thing: in US articles: program ~ in UK articles: programme. All just IMHO. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 16:30, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    And of course: my condolences to the family, friends, and WP acquaintances of Nitelinger. — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 16:32, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    My inclination would be to comply with the guideline in Wikipedia:Words to avoid#Death and dying even though this is not an article, because many Wikipedia users learn what to do by seeing examples rather than by reading our voluminous manuals. Everything we do potentially teaches someone else to edit similarly. If anyone should feel inclined to write my obituary on Wikipedia after I die (which could come at any time for anyone), please don't use any euphemisms. --Teratornis (talk) 19:54, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I would add that people sometimes have personal feelings about our articles, too, but they don't override the guidelines. --Teratornis (talk) 20:13, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Inaccuracy in Scott Vitale entry

    "Having watched the movie Murderball just after his injury, Scott began to play wheelchair rugby in 2002." Since the movie was released in 2005, this wouldn't be possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.127.37.208 (talk) 04:22, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Please feel free to fix it. ;) .. Anyone is welcome to edit the articles, you don't need to have an account to edit an article. (although having an account is nice for many reasons see: WP:Signup.) I'll post a list of links here from a template we use, and you can read through some of the stuff if you're not sure what to do or how to do it.

    Thanks for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to change it. You can edit almost any article on Wikipedia by just following the Edit link at the top of the page. We encourage you to be bold in updating pages, because wikis like ours develop faster when everybody edits. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. You can always preview your edits before you publish them or test them out in the sandbox. If you need additional help, check out our getting started page or ask the friendly folks at the Teahouse.

    Since you're familiar with the movie and I'm not - I'll let you go ahead and correct the information. Have a great day/night. ;) — Ched ~ (yes?)/© 07:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Quick question on regexes

    I, as my contribs will show, was trying to make all/most links to WP:AF point to WP:FOWL, as the redirect has been re-targeted to WP:Abuse filter, rather than the former WP:WikiProject Artemis Fowl. I was using the regex find-and-replace function in AWB. I never finished, and forgot the regex I used. Does anyone happen to know the regex I should use? It must account for piped links. Thanks! Calvin 1998 (t·c) 04:25, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm not familiar with the regular expression syntax in AWB, but I've used regular expressions in Perl and the Unix shell (the syntaxes vary among the different programs and languages, but they're usually fairly close). For future reference, I suggest keeping notes on a user subpage to list all the regular expressions you use, because these things tend to be impossible to remember after a while. If no one immediately recognizes the regular expression you describe above, you could make a user subpage that lists a representative sample of find and replace patterns in a table that you converted earlier with the regular expression. From that it would be straightforward for someone who knows a regular expression dialect to tell you a regular expression find and replace command that would match all the strings in your "find" column and convert them to the corresponding strings in your "replace" column. Note that one of the drawbacks of using a GUI program is that (unlike using a scripting language) the GUI program is not self-documenting. If you did this kind of find and replace operation with a script, you would be able to look at your script file later to recall what you did. With a GUI, you essentially throw away the thinking you did to come up with a command after it finishes. By taking notes about what you do, you can preserve each insight you have as you solve problems, and over the course of years this will build up to a massive collection of know-how. Which you might then use as the basis to write manuals and books, or just have it for your own use. --Teratornis (talk) 19:41, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    According to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Regular expression, you use "\|" to match the pipe character. --Teratornis (talk) 19:57, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    AWB syntax is essentially the same as other regex syntaxes. I was trying to use the find-replace rule (\[\[WP:AF)((\||\]\])) -> $1$2 but it doesn't seem to work, and I couldn't figure out why. Calvin 1998 (t·c) 02:50, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The left side looks good but isn't $1$2 simply the whole expression, meaning you are successfully replacing WP:AF with itself? Did you mean (\[\[WP:AF)((\||\]\])) -> [[WP:FOWL$2 or more simply \[\[WP:AF(\||\]\]) -> [[WP:FOWL$1? Certes (talk) 21:35, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia alphabetization policy

    Where is it...?Smarkflea (talk) 04:49, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Alphabetization of what? You may be looking for Wikipedia:LIST#Organization. Someguy1221 (talk) 05:14, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Sort of, I mean what are the general guidelines for alphabetizing on Wikipedia? For instance, should the title "1959" come before "Apple" or in the 'N's? Should all titles starting with "Some" come before any title starting with "Somebody"? Thanks...Smarkflea (talk) 06:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    yes and yes. Kittybrewster 08:12, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    See the Collation article for information about how the world outside Wikipedia does this. The MediaWiki software has its own built-in collation rules which you will see in action in Special:Allpages, category pages, and other computer-generated lists. Maybe MediaWiki uses the so-called ASCIIbetical order which is common in computer programs. My quick search did not show that Wikipedia has its own explicit collating sequence in the manual of style for editors to follow. For one thing, the English Wikipedia contains some words in foreign languages, so we would have to account for their collating sequences as well. --Teratornis (talk) 20:08, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Archive_107#Alphabetization_and_collation lists several debates on this topic with many useful comments but few definitive answers. Certes (talk) 21:26, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for the replies, I've got some ideas now...Smarkflea (talk) 01:42, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Royal Descent

    1. Statement:recenting I found out that my oldest ancestor are from Western Russia back in 609 AC (70 generations) 2.Question:What is the oldest library in Russia and where is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gallo999 (talkcontribs) 05:03, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Someguy1221 (talk) 05:11, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    External links

    I am writing an article on a person, I added relative external references and the person's publications, and I get the following message:

    The external links in this article may not comply with Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. Tagged since March 2009.

    How do I find the inappropriate external links?

    Thanks

    Robertoaiello (talk) 06:19, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    WP:BLACKLIST may be of help to you. Dismas|(talk) 08:04, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The editor who added the issue at Roberto Aiello said it was a linkfarm. This refers to excessive external links – presumably referring to the lists of publications. —teb728 t c 09:12, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Luciano Zotti

    Collapsed article text

    Dear Sir or Madame,

    I would like to include an article about my father who was a song writer and composer of some importance. There is evidence of his achievement and I include here the article to see if this is good enough to be published on Wikipedia:

    ABOUT LUCIANO ZOTTI by Paola and Alfredo Zotti

    A MUSICIAN"S STORY

    Born in Italy in the city of Bari on 7-1-1934 and as a very young child he demonstrated a great passion for music. He was encouraged very much by his mother Francesca who bought him his very first and own accordion. Very early he started performing at school concerts and in competitions. He was so talented that soon he begun piano lessons, spending hours studying and exercising. Luciano finally graduated at the "Niccolo Piccinni Conservatorium" of Bari under the famous Maestro Nino Rota (author of the music theme: The Godfather). It was the 60's and time to form his own jazz band, and as a band leader, the group called the "5 from the south" toured the best venues in Europe. He introduced jazz in Italian restaurants and night clubs and was very successful. The band recorded many singles and LP's with RCA Italy and performed live in various radio programs. In 1961 he won the 2nd place at the Trieste Jazz Festival with his composition "Smog" In 1964 came the opportunity to work as Music Director for Carlo Alberto Rossi who at the time had one of the best and most equipped Recording Companies and recording studio of Europe "The Fonorama" in Milan. In 1968 Luciano conducted the symphonic orchestra at the International Festival of Zurich which was broadcasted in Eurovision. As a song writer and excellent arranger, Luciano received many awards. His song "Come Back Here With My Heart" gained second position in the Top Ten charts in England's "Hit Parade". Luciano decided to migrate to Australia with his family in 1973. He joined the Musician's Union and became member of the Music Arranger Guild Association. He opened a Music School and later started his own Publishing Company: P.D.L. Music Australia. In 1979 which was dedicated to: International Year of the Child, Luciano was one of the organisers and conductor of the Multicultural Minifestival for children, a fund raising event for the Sorella Radio Child Care Centre of Fairfield. In 1976, Luciano was the link person for the release in Australia of Pope John Paul II Lyrics album sang by Sarah Vaughan in a special recording: "One World One Peace". As an Australian citizen. Luciano has been a good Ambassador for Australia. In fact due to his interest in 1987, for the first time, Australia was represented at the International song festival for children "Lo Zecchino d'Oro" held in Bologna, Italy, with his song: Bush Babies which gained second position. Australia participated again in 1990 with Luciano's song: Rossella Parrot and P.D.L. Music sponsored Rebecca La Manna, an 8 years old child, who attended this special event to sing the song, and again in 1993, Luciano, in cooperation with Ministry of Maori Development was able to send another child to the same competition. Mihiarangi Piripi represented New Zeland with Luciano's song: Aotearoa. In 1992 Luciano won the 1st prize for the best composition at the Italian Song Festival in Sydney. Over the years Luciano has always promoted, supported and encouraged young artists. Finally Luciano was presented by S.I.A.E. (similar to APRA in Australia) with a gold medal in Terni-Italy in 1996 for 40 years of Membership with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers. There is so much more to say but this recognition was very well deserved by Luciano Zotti: and excellent musician, pianist, composer and arranger. The family is very proud of his achievements and is grateful for the best gift he left: his Music. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.218.25.196 (talk) 08:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This is not the place to post article suggestions. If you have reliable sources to support notability please go to articles for creation and post there. Alternatively, create and account and create a draft article in a user subpage for review. – ukexpat (talk) 13:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    3G Card

    Hi Wiki World,

    I have searched for 3G Card in your database but couldn't find one, even i tried using the line "third generation" no result.

    If this new technology is avalible in you database it could be benefitial.

    Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinothas 22 (talkcontribs) 09:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Try 3G. Xenon54 (talk) 10:04, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Australian Number

    my friend tel no in australia <blanked> but i dont know which state . pls help his name sanjay dhodi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.182.176.244 (talk) 13:31, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm not sure to what you're referring, but you may find the answers you want in the article on Australia. TNXMan 13:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Thankfully, we have a page on Telephone numbers in Australia that lists Australian area codes. Livewireo (talk) 13:39, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Editing the title of the page

    I created a page and in front of the title the word "User:" appears. How do I correct this?

    Ruben Lindo (talk) 13:46, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You'll need to move the page from User:Ruben Lindo to Ruben Lindo. However, I strongly encourage you not to do this, as the article is written like an advertisement and does not cite an reliable sources. TNXMan 13:52, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Please read WP:Spam and WP:BIO in addition to the links in Tnxman's reply. – ukexpat (talk) 13:56, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    abanded propery law

    If property is left on land for 3 yrs. and not taken what is the law in ny state.my boy friend is going though palamony suit. please respond <e-mail redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.115.59.132 (talk) 15:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Please see our Legal Disclaimer - we cannot give legal advice, please consult an attorney. – ukexpat (talk) 16:03, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Subject line on the page I entered is not showing up as ALL CAPS like it should.

    The page National Career Fairs should be showing the subject line in all CAPS, however, just the first word is showing in CAPS. I cannot figure out how to edit it to make it correct without having to delete the entire page. It should read, "National Career Fairs. Instead, it is now reading, "National career fairs." Please help. Nofxfan1Jstevenfaulk (talk) 16:15, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What you want is not ALL CAPS but "Title Case". Somebody already redirected National career fairs to National Career Fairs. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:34, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    For future reference, you can fix this type of problem by following the instructions in WP:MOVE. --Teratornis (talk) 19:23, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Fixing Infobox template

    I'm working on updating Audi Quattro. Using Firefox v3.0.8 the infobox shows "Audi" to right of the image instead of below it. It looks correct in IE7. I know its the Automobile infobox, but I don't know how to find that template to try and fix it. Could someone please tell me 1) how to find a template once I know the name, 2) how I might go about correcting this issue. I'm new to Wikipedia, but have some experience using HTML. Madmonky (talk) 17:25, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Looks OK to me with FF 3.0.8. Try a purge or bypass. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 19:14, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    new web pages

    how can I be constantly informed about new webpages on wikipedia about a specific topic?79.20.76.24 (talk) 17:42, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You can't. Although you can periodically monitor an interesting category and look for new pages manually. Someguy1221 (talk) 17:47, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    If there is a WikiProject covering the subject and if they have registered with User:AlexNewArtBot, then the bot will generate a list of new article matching defined rules for that project. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 19:13, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Deleting your user account

    How do I delete my user account? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Red Dwarf Geek (talkcontribs) 18:55, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    You can't. See Wikipedia:Username policy#Deleting your account. If you do not want to edit any more, simply stop. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 19:10, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You can also exercise the right to vanish. – ukexpat (talk) 19:23, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    chemistry

    when a drop of bromine is added to asolution of an alkene, it loses its orange colour. why? matwist 21:03, 31 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Modipam (talkcontribs)

    Perhaps our article on Bromine will have your answer. If not, please take your question to the Science reference desk as this page is for asking questions about how to use Wikipedia. Xenon54 (talk) 21:18, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Sciences

    Resolved
     – ukexpat (talk) 00:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Do we have any active wikiprojects connected to science? I wanted an assessment on Samar Chatterjee because I don't have the expertise to check if he's notable or not - where can I find some experts on this subject if the main wikiproject science is complete dead (as it seems to be). --Cameron Scott (talk) 22:52, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    It looks as though Wikipedia:WikiProject Environment, or perhaps WikiProject Ecology, may be the one you're after. A list of science-related projects can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/Science. Deor (talk) 23:09, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Cheers! --Cameron Scott (talk) 23:12, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What do we call articles like this one:

    Nietzsche and Philosophy? It appears to be an orphan, it says it shouldn't be confused with an article on the Philosophy of Nietzsche, but what is it? It says it's a stub - but for what? I'm trying to participate in a couple of WikiProjects and one of the articles needing work was this one, for WikiProject Philosophy, but shouldn't it just be deleted? So far, in looking at the tasks for the philosophy project, it's mostly about looking dozens of articles that are orphaned, stubs or of dubious notability. I enjoy trying to de-orphan articles, but most have been impossible to link up anywhere and this one really has me stumped. Any clue on what its intended content might have been? Should I nominate for deletion?--Levalley (talk) 23:59, 31 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley[reply]

    If you cannot find an reliable sources to support notability, then it looks bound for Afd. – ukexpat (talk) 00:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    It says clearly what it's about in its one sentence: it's about a book by Gilles Deleuze. There's almost no content, and no indication of notability, so I've prodded it. Algebraist 12:04, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    And it's been deprodded by the creator with an (IMHO) inappropriate edit summary... – ukexpat (talk) 15:32, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    So what happens now? I'm just very curious, as I am helping out in two projects where there are hundreds of orphaned articles and oddball things like this? If I put the prod back on, what happens next?Levalley (talk) 23:50, 1 April 2009 (UTC)LeValley[reply]
    Do not put the prod back on. Either take the article to AfD or (better) talk to the article's creator. Algebraist 23:52, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    April 1

    Adding search keywords for a wikipedia article

    How do we add keywords for the wikipedia search engine to find my article as it contains sections that have no articles on wikipedia yet, so people searching those terms could get some info from my article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Martin.gerren (talkcontribs) 00:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The search engine is automated, but the index is not constantly generated due to the high load that would require. Wait about 24 hours and if your article doesn't start coming up in search results for key words or phrases found in the article, ping us here or on WP:VPT to see if there's a problem. —bbatsell ¿? 04:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Or create appropriate redirects. Algebraist 11:55, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Claims I've never heard before

    I'm trying to verify some claims that User:Terrillja has put forth when removing improvement tags from several articles. Can someone point me to the appropriate policy that might enlighten me?

    • In his revert of CLAWS, he states that "Notability is not for a stub". Presumably Wikipedia:Notability or one of its variants states this?
    • His logic is "As for adding notability tags to stubs, it was written somewhere that notability tags should not be applied to stubs, since they are really just a brief blurb about the subject. I think it was on WP:STUB..."
    • His logic is "As for the notability of specific colleges, there have certainly been plenty of articles written about them or their programs, however for ease of recognition, the articles generally refer to RIT rather than the specific college, since it is more likely to be recognized. Thus, the notability of the colleges is through RIT."

    Thanks in advance!

    129.21.179.32 (talk) 00:30, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The first claim about stubs not being subject to WP:N is completely false, and I doubt if it ever was different. We delete loads of pages (mostly stubs) everyday as CSD A7, which fail to assert notability. This does not even check if it is notable or not, but looks for any indication of notability, which is obviously at a lower level and shows how important notability is here. A lot articles deleted for non-notability at WP:AFD are stubs. However, page patrollers are generally encouraged to allow some time for a new article to be improved instead of tagging it straight away as soon as it was created. It seems to me that this editor has confused this with notability.
    I'm not sure about the second claim since I'm not familiar in that subject area, but "inheriting" notability is something very unlikely. I suggest you ask about this at Wikipedia:WikiProject Universities, who'd be knowing about this. Cheers. Chamal talk 01:34, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Don't forget that the test for A7 is indication of importance or significance - a lesser standard than notability. – ukexpat (talk) 01:55, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    (EC)1. As Chamal_N pointed out, this is completely wrong. Perhaps, he's confusing that {{expand}} tags don't go on stubs.
    2. This is a bit trickier. Arguments can be made that these can be merged into the main articles. There is no policy on inherited notability, but there is an essay. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 02:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    This may seem kind of stupid...

    since I'm telling you all what I'm gonna do, but I had this plan for April 1st since late last year, that I would point all "Citations" I could to the articles "Cessna Citation" "Court Citation" "Traffic Citation" etc...but I didn't want to just do it for fear of getting banned or something, so I'm asking if that would be okay or not. What can I say, I'm a person who likes to have fun VERY wary guy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Draconiator (talkcontribs) 03:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I think you're wise to be wary. You will find that April Fool's pranks are (to some limited extent) tolerated in Wikipedia space and User space, but are very much frowned on in Article space. Yes, if you did that, you'd be reverted and warned by someone. My advice is, don't do it. --Floquenbeam (talk) 03:34, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Yeah, keep it out of article space and very restricted in WP/User Space per Floquenbeam. The alert level for Vandalism is at its highest level on April Fools Day and you don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Valley2city 03:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    And see WP:HUMOR. To get your comic relief, consider editing on Uncyclopedia. --Teratornis (talk) 05:26, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • A joke like that would result in trouble for new users who wouldn't understand how to properly use citations if they were to run into a page you edited. April Fool's Day jokes are fine, but they shouldn't disrupt normal editing activity. - Mgm|(talk) 07:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Unassessed articles

    When an article is unassessed but listed with a particular project, how does it get assessed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talkcontribs) 05:24, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The detailed answer is in the links under WP:EIW#Assessment but I think the simple answer is every level below featured and good comes from whichever user decides to assess an article. --Teratornis (talk) 05:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Do you have any particular articles in mind? --Teratornis (talk) 05:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    As well as featured and good, A-class status also cannot be granted unilaterally, but requires independent review. Algebraist 11:53, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I stand corrected. Thanks. --Teratornis (talk) 20:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I have several in mind - I've been helping doing clean-up for both Anthropology and Philosophy (and some other pages). Many anthropology articles have no importance rating, and I think I can make a stab at ranking some of them. Two pages in particular (recently nominated for deletion but apparently rescued) are Semantics and Reference. Thanks for the help!--Levalley (talk) 16:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)LeValley[reply]
    You might discuss this on the talk pages of the respective WikiProjects. I haven't noticed a huge amount of controversy over article assessments in the topic areas where I have edited, but it can be risky to generalize about Wikipedia. It seems to me the importance rating is inherently arbitrary, but now we have a (possibly somewhat accurate) view counter on the history page of every article. An article that gets 100,000 views per month according to that tool might be more important than an article that gets only 100 views per month, but then again "popularity" might not automatically equate to "importance", depending on who one asks. --Teratornis (talk) 20:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Custom messages heading edit pages

    If you try and edit the Earth article, there's a message that comes in at the top of the page, customized to the article (it says, among other things, don't add "mostly harmless" jokes to the article). Anyone know how that was done? --TeaDrinker (talk) 08:51, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    WP:EDN has the details. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:58, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Outstanding; thanks. That was just what I was looking for. --TeaDrinker (talk) 16:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    network components and its types

    answer this with basic meanings —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.39.193 (talk) 09:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    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.Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:04, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How do you add a picture to a page you have created.

    How do you add a picture to a page you have created.

    RBLALA001 (talk) 11:35, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Check out WP:UL and let us know if you need any help. Best, Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    But note on Wikipedia your account must be autoconfirmed before you have upload rights. – ukexpat (talk) 15:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Question about user and usertalk pages

    I often see user and usertalk pages being blanked with the editor claiming promotional material and conflict of interest far before it actually happens, and when the only contribution that the accused user has made has been to their user pages.

    Isn't that some sort of bias? Isn't the user that the pages belong to allowed to do whatever he or she wants to them? Elm-39 - T/C/N 12:15, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The relevant guideline is Wikipedia:User page. As for this specific matter, I'm not stupid enough to comment on specific pages without knowing what they are. Algebraist 12:19, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    No - the community owns all of the pages and as a group we can decide to remove whatever we like from userpages (which are for community co-ordination not for self-promotion). In practice, established users will be given a bit more leeway but if we have someone who just edits their user-page and it's promotional, that's likely to be deleted pretty quickly.. --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:21, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    The most frequent occasion for this is when the "userpage" is actually an advertisement for a business or service, in some cases complete with, "For further information on Jenkins Metal Demangement, click here: http://www.jenkinsmetaldemangement.com" We are under no obligation to tolerate such misuse of Wikipedia. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:32, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Why is my accont not valid?

    Hi. Somebody have deleted my account, see below. Is it possible to make it work again? I haven´t done anything wrong so it´s a little peculiar.

    This email confirm my account.
    Someone from the IP address 83.227.233.10 has registered the account "Haraldwallin" with this e-mail address on the English Wikipedia. To confirm that this user account really does belong to you and to activate e-mail features on Wikipedia, please open this URL in your browser:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ConfirmEmail/3bcbe49deb85940be5c3386206215a6c

    If you did not recently register for Wikipedia (or if you registered with a different e-mail address), click the following link to cancel the confirmation:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Invalidateemail/3bcbe49deb85940be5c3386206215a6c

    This confirmation e-mail will automatically expire at 15:11, 10 November 2008 (UTC).

    --83.227.233.10 (talk) 13:03, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    No-one has deleted your account. It's not even possible for anyone to delete your account. I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about, or the relevance of the email you've posted. Can you clarify? Algebraist 13:07, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    OK, I think I see what's going on. The username Haraldwallin does exist, and the account has been editing very recently (see its contributions). Is this you? The email you're quoting was sent to you in November because you tried to register an email address associated with the Haraldwallin username. (Registering an email address to a username can be a good idea, because, for example, if you forget your password you can get it emailed to you.) However, it looks like you didn't complete the email registration process - you needed to respond to the email from Wikipedia you quote above, and click on the link to confirm your email - so the registration expired. This means you don't currently have an email address registered to the Haraldwallin account. If you want to try again to register your email address, you need to login as Haraldwallin then go to Special:ConfirmEmail and follow the instructions there. Provided you still remember your Haraldwallin password this should work fine. Hope this helps. Karenjc 21:35, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    What do the numbers on the watchlist page mean?

    For example: (diff) (hist) . . m W. (film)‎; 08:04 . . (-19) . . Yhe

    What does (-19) mean?

    Jabberwockgee (talk) 14:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The number of bytes that were added to the page. Generally, one character is one byte. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Ah, that makes sense. I kept getting huge negative numbers whenever I edited a page. It made me feel bad.... But I generally shorten articles (like the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre plot from 2100 words to 900). Jabberwockgee (talk) 14:48, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Reassessment

    At Talk:Keep Yourself Alive, it says that the article's start-class, but if I knew it wasn't ready for GA yet and just wanted it to go to, say, B-Class, where would I nominate it? Thanks, Queenie 14:49, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    B-class is actually a class that you can assess on your own. Only A, FA, and GA have third-party reviews. Just make sure the article meets the criteria and change the assessment. TNXMan 15:53, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, right. Thanks. Queenie 16:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Linking to selfpage (linked page has redirect back to same page as what linked to)

    Does this allowed to wikipedia, if not, what to resolve?? common sitition is suppose a page name A001 linked to B001, but it has redirect back to original page A001, for a example, like this WP:HD will be redirected bake to this same page.

    Can a function be designed to make this looplink to be highlighted to a special color? or other method instead!!!

    JustbeBPMF (talk) 15:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    See Wikipedia:Redirect#Undesirable redirects. Does that help? – ukexpat (talk) 15:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Dates for when articles change level in Quality Scale

    Is there any way to check when an article has changed level in a WikiProject's quality scale? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madmonky (talkcontribs) 15:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Well, quality determinations are mostly self-reviews (except for A, FA, and GA class, which are third-party). Since the article's talk page template should be updated once the review is done, simply check the talk page's history to see when the classification was changed. TNXMan 15:50, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Will do, thanks --Madmonky (talk) 17:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    PC Pitstop page

    PC Pitstop page

    I tried to pattern my page after others that I consider similar. For example Lavasoft, but there are many others on Wiki. PC Pitstop is a help site and although it does have paid products, it's main software "OverDrive" is completely free as are it's forums and many articles, some of which I write.

    Is there something in particular that seperated what I wrote from the many others on Wiki. We're very well known, respected, and considered one of the good guys, Like Lavasoft,Spybot,Avast, Norton, McAfee, and infact are more focused on free user help than any of these.

    Thanks for any help you can give. I've been reading the how-tos and help pages for over a week so any specific instructions would be a help.

    Thanks. Steve Hogan.Wouldshed (talk) 15:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    The page was speedily deleted as blatant advertising. It may not have been your intention to advertise but sometimes there is a very fine line between the acceptable and the unacceptable, particularly when you have a massive conflict of interest as you appear to have. You are strongly discouraged from writing articles about subjects to which you are closely connected for this very reason. If you want to work on the article in your user space to put it into a more acceptable form, please as the deleting admin (User:NawlinWiki) to userfy it in a subpage for you. One other word of caution, the argument that other stuff exists will usually not get you very far in deletion discussions.  – ukexpat (talk) 15:49, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    I've templated Steve about conflict of interest, since it's rather clearly a problem here. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:05, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How do I place a text that has a differente language than the rest.

    I other words, how do I create an alternative language section?

    Thanks, SWWhite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SWwhite (talkcontribs) 15:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia articles should be placed in the appropriate Wikipedia for the language they are written in. This is the English-language Wikipedia. List of Wikipedias lists Wikipedias in other languages. Algebraist 15:47, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    My Very First Question??

    Hi there!

    Pardon me as I really do not know where to post my very first question as a new comer in wikipedia. Hope someone outthere can send me an correct answer.

    For a while ago, I noticed my girlfriend consuming a drug namely "Xenical Orlistat 120mg", a blue and white capsule and when I asked her about the medicine, she told me is for her allergy on her hand. But I am quite curiuos to find out isn't that drug for weight loss???

    Appreciat anyone could send me an correct answer by sending it to me at: <blanked>


    Many thanks...

    Fr:Tang —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgtang (talkcontribs) 16:21, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm sorry, but Wikipedia does not give medical advice. Please consult a medical professional. TNXMan 16:31, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    While we can't give you any specific medical advice as noted above, this is precisely the type of question that a search engine is well suited for. I think you will find your answer very quickly by simply typing the name into Google.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:54, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Yes, Orlistat is primarily sold as a weight loss drug. I'm not quite sure what part of the question looked like a request for medical advice... --OnoremDil 17:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Ex abundante cautela, it's probably good practice not to attempt to answer any question that even remotely deals with medical (or legal) issues. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Certainly on the helpdesk, which isn't the place to answer anything that isn't about Wikipedia anyway. I wouldn't want to see WT:HD as full of 'is this really a medical question?' arguments as WT:RD is. Algebraist 18:23, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Login problem

    I have an account that when i try to login to does not allow me, but then when i try to email myself the password it says

    Login error Error sending mail: There is no e-mail address recorded for user "[username]".

    I know this username is mine as it is unique and rarely used, but I can't seem to get logged in nor does it have an email for this account. Is there any way to retrieve this account? Have it deleted as the contact information is null so I can re-create it?

    Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.172.169.15 (talk) 17:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If you have forgotten the password and did not add an e-mail address when you created the account then I am afraid your only option is to create a new account. Accounts cannot be deleted and re-created. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Did your previous account make any edits? If not, you might be able to create a new account, edit constructively, wait a little bit, then ask that your previous account be usurped. Unfortunately, if the previous account had made any edits or other significant actions, then it is impossible to change the account because Wikipedia has to comply with the attribution requirements of the GFDL. —bbatsell ¿? 20:40, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Problems adding new picture to existing entry

    I am trying to update the article "GE U30C Locomotive" with a new picture and am having problems.

    I used this syntax:

    image=CS 890.jpg| caption=Colorado and Southern U30C

    Obviously there's no path to my hard drive but I did upload it to Wiki Commons as CS 890.jpg

    I also tried copy/paste from my c drive and drag and drop.

    The picture is mine and I own the rights to it.

    Please help as far as instructions to get it from my C: to the article or from Wiki commons to the article. I would like it displayed, not just a link.

    Thank you.


    Ksamson1 (talk) 18:05, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    For information on how to add images to articles, see Help:Images and other uploaded files and WP:Picture tutorial. As to this specific image, there is no article titled GE U30C Locomotive on the English Wikipedia, and no image titled CS 890.jpg either here or on the Commons. What article and what image are you actually talking about? Algebraist 18:11, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    It looks like you might be using the wrong file name. Is File:Colorado and Southern 890.jpg the image you're looking for? --OnoremDil 18:17, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    You need to head back to the image page on Commons and add the appropriate copyright status. Without it the image is in danger of being deleted. – ukexpat (talk) 18:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    In attempting to change the capitalisation of "is," I erroneously redirected the above article to The Sky Is Falling, which is a disambiguation page. How do I now redirect it to The Sky Is Falling (novel). In puzzlement, GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:15, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If you mean the Sidney Sheldon novel then I think that page has moved to The Sky Is Falling (2001 novel), so you need to redirect to there. Certes (talk) 20:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    There are several novels entitled "The Sky Is Falling" so IMHO The Sky is Falling (novel) and The Sky Is Falling (novel) should both redirect to the disambiguation page The Sky is Falling, as they will do when I fix the double redirects. – ukexpat (talk) 20:19, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    How does the deletion process work?

    Who can nominate an article for deletion? What template is used? What happens next?

    How does this differ from speedy deletion? Where can I go for more information on the deletion process? Thanks.Diotemaheartsphilosophy (talk) 19:45, 1 April 2009 (UTC)Diotema[reply]

    See WP:CSD, WP:PROD and WP:AFD. – ukexpat (talk) 19:46, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    And especially Wikipedia:Deletion policy, which summarizes all the deletion procedures. Algebraist 19:48, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Deprecation

    How do I broach the subject of banning the use of the word deprecate to mean discontinue the use of? See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Date_formatting_and_linking_poll&curid=22079576&diff=281149930&oldid=281146962#Deprecation Yours, GeorgeLouis (talk) 20:57, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I think this sort of discussion is what WP:VPM is for, or perhaps WP:VPR. Algebraist 21:01, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    "Deprecate" in software engineering definitely has the meaning of the way it is used here (and that's the second definition of the word in my copy of OED). That's the source of our conception of the word. I've never heard "deprecate" used in terms of the first definition outside of "self-deprecation" or "deprecating". —bbatsell ¿? 22:40, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Usurp

    Hello! When I made this usurp request I forgot to notify the the user who has the name I wish to usurp to. I notified him/her since then. Will the bot fix that notice or does a human have to? Flamewire2 (talk) 23:37, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    I'd recommend just adding a note below where the bot has, and just say something like "I have since notified the user" and include a diff to show the edit where you notified them. Should suffice :) — Deon555talkI'm BACK! 01:35, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    soliciting feedback

    Hi there - I posted a sub page with an article I'd like to post to wikipedia. I'd like to get some edits and input before I make it public, but no one has weighed in. Is there a way to solicit input? This page was deleted once in an earlier, less evolved form, so I want to be careful before I publish it.

    Thank you

    Jbmmoore (talk) 23:45, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    To me it reads like a press release, and therefore would probably be speedily deleted as promotional if it were moved to the mainspace. Please take a look at articles on other similar subjects for an idea of the tone that is acceptable.  – ukexpat (talk) 00:21, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Much of it is a press release. The entire 'features' section is a copyright violation taken from here. Algebraist 00:25, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    Youll need to work on some sourcing issues with the article. Have a read of Wikipedia:Citing sources. That should help with getting on the right track with sourcing. Becareful it doesnt sound like a promotional brochure either. Generally in your own words and using primary, secondary and tertiary sources and you should be fine, good luck Ottawa4ever (talk) 01:02, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    April 2

    Public Domain

    I was wondering, if you put something in the public domain, is it impossible to take it out of the public domain? If you accidentally mistagged an image you uploaded to commons, for example, and didn't notice it for an hour, could you change the tag or is the damage already done, legally speaking? How about if it was a day, a month, a year? TastyCakes (talk) 02:51, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    If you place an image in the public domain, it's permanently public domain. I really don't think anyone will care though, if you make a mistake and promptly fix it. The longer the gap between tagging as PD and admitting a mistake... the more complicated it gets. Calvin 1998 (t·c) 03:20, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    $

    do i have to pay to have a wikiaccount? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lego Cheerio (talkcontribs) 03:41, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    No. Algebraist 03:44, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

    Still having trouble with the delete process

    I know how to prod the article (get the delete box on the page). I know how to notify the creator of the deletion thingee. But I am missing a step somewhere in the middle. Do I put something on the discussion page of the article? How does my nom get to the actual list of articles to be deleted? Yes, I'm green. I appreciate the help. I'm going through stubs in two projects, and there are some doozies that need nominations, but I can't get past just getting the box to show up.--Levalley (talk) 05:24, 2 April 2009 (UTC)Levalley[reply]

    You don't need to put anything on the talk page. Us admins know about your nom because putting the template on an article automatically transcludes it into . bibliomaniac15 05:27, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]