Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 30

Autoblocking?

I found this in the IP block list:

• 16:13, 20 September 2005, JIP blocked #38485 (expires 16:01, 21 September 2005) (unblock) (Autoblocked because your IP address has been recently used by "Adastra". The reason given for Adastra's block is: "repeated vandalism despite several warnings".)
• 16:01, 20 September 2005, JIP blocked Adastra (expires 16:01, 21 September 2005) (contribs) (unblock) (repeated vandalism despite several warnings)
• 15:08, 20 September 2005, JIP blocked #38483 (expires 15:08, 21 September 2005) (unblock) (Autoblocked because your IP address has been recently used by "Mindspillage II". The reason given for Mindspillage II's block is: "impersonation of User:Mindspillage".)
• 15:01, 20 September 2005, JIP blocked Mindspillage_II (infinite) (contribs) (unblock) (impersonation of User:Mindspillage)

What is this "autoblocked" thingy? How does it work? Is it enabled for all admins by default? Can I configure it? What do those numerical usernames mean? Trying to go to their user pages gives a "Bad title" error. — JIP | Talk 06:55, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

• Those numbers aren't usernames but to mask the IP that's being blocked. The autoblocker kicks in when someone tries to edit from a recently vandalising IP to avoid the vandals signing up for a new account and continuing with their edits. Autoblocks should last 24 hours if I remember correctly. - lazy non-logging in MacGyverMagic - 131.211.210.12 07:45, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
  • It both prevents attempts to get a new username, as Mgm points out, but also prevents a vandal from simply logging out. The autoblocker prevents an IP associated with a vandal's username to log it. Further, if a vandal changes IP and then tries to log in to a blocked username, the new IP will also be autoblocked. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 09:02, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

adding a url

I'm trying to add a url www.blustag-arcticbreeds.com to your Utonagan page. But it won't seem to let me. What do i do?

Are you trying to add the address for some advertising purpose? Your site is under construction so it's hard for anyone to tell what your intent is. If it is advertising that you're looking for, you're in the wrong place. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a repository of links or ads. If the site adds information and knowledge to the overall article, then you may add it by clicking the "edit this page" link at the top of the page for Utonagan. Dismas|^(talk) 08:43, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

According to the page's history, nothing has been added or changed on this page since August. So it's not something that anyone here is doing deliberately. There have been database problems lately, where clicking "Save page" comes back with some kind of error about "sorry, there's a problem..." What you can do is click your browser's BACK button to return to the edits and click Save page again. If you're having some other kind of problem, please describe exactly what "it won't let me" means so we can help. Elf | Talk 17:34, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

List of files

How would I get a list of all files in Wikipedia or Commons of a certain filetype, say .ogg or .pdf? Thanks, — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 08:47, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

By the way, a bit of thought provided me with a Google method. [1], [2]. Is there an in-wiki way? — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 09:12, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Search for "database dump" or some such wording. I think that might get you something close to what you're looking for. I've seen similar questions to this one in the past so you might want to check the help desk archives as well. I know this isn't much of a response but I hope it helps. Dismas|^(talk) 20:35, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

'Category:Nigergia_related_stubs'

"Category:Nigeria related stubs" is for some reason called "Category:Nigergia related stubs" (note the errant G). I figured out that it's from the {{Nigeria-stub}} template, so I just edited the template so Nigeria was spelt correctly. But now the category comes up red, and the 12 or so articles were in it are not in the category any more. Help me out? (and tell me what I did wrong on my talk page, oh awesome ones). Proto t c 08:56, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

• I see it's been solved already. If you point a stub category to another spot, you need to move the intro message to the correctly spelled category as well. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:38, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Automatical Redirect

I have the line #REDIRECT Wikipedia:en:User:Schenkeli at the start of my User Page at Wikimedia in order to redirect it to my Wikipedia User Page. The redirect works, but only of the user clicks on the "redirect arrow". Is there a way to make this redirect automatacilly? Or does this depend upon some settings in my browser? Thanks for helping me out again!

• Apparently someone has fixed it. -Mgm|^(talk) 10:17, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Why are my thumbnails so blurry?

The thumbnails for most of the photos I have added are very blurry. I see other thumbnails from other contributors that are fine, but mine looked sort of mushed together. You can see one in New Zealand. Scroll down to "Flora and fauna." Contrast with the satellite photo and photo of Mt. Cook.

I gather the thumbnails are generated automatically from the full-size originals. Is the blurriness of my thumbnails because my originals are so large (3008 x 2000 pixels.)? Since I have no control over the generation of the thumbnails, there is no way for me to do any sharpening or other image enhancement to make them look better. Some of the thumbnails look so bad that I think I'll just remove the images from the article (and the one in the New Zealand article already has another image waiting to display if the text gets longer anyway), but I don't want to have to remove images just because the thumbnails don't display well. JShook | Talk 16:52, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

It doesn't look blurry to me. If you are accessing wikipedia over AOL or via some kind of web accelerator, both achieve speed ups by producing lower quality images. Some work, I believe, by sending a low quality image and then (at some point later) sending a better quality version (and updating the page with javsscript or something). If that's the case for you, there's generally some kind of configuration option you can set to defeat this behaviour. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:51, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I am using Safari/MacOS X. I see the same thing in IE5, Camino, Mozilla, Netscape 7 and Opera. JShook | Talk 13:23, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

It looks as blurry to me as I'd expect a resized image to look. Usually you'd sharpen an image after resizing like that, but AFAIK Mediawiki only resizes it, so you get what you see there. You can see the problem when you blow up the resized image pixel-by-pixel, as here. I find the other images on the page just as blurry, though, except their colors tend to have worked out better, probably because they have less contrast to begin with, or so much that they blow out instead of being blurry). You can see that the map is blurry here. There's not much you can do to fix that; it's just an artifact of automated thumbnailing. (By hand you'd usually apply an unsharp mask to enhance contrast.) That said, I find the huge original to be a bit blurry as well around the high-contrast edges, as if the depth of field was too shallow. It might benefit from being sharpened a bit and re-uploaded, although there's no guarantee that that will make the thumbnails better and not worse! — mendel ☎ 15:07, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I think it is indeed a combination of original image sharpness (the picture was taken at f 4.5, so there wan't much depth of focus.) Combine that with the low contrast and I guess it's no surprise I end up with mush.

On the other hand, a bright, contrasty photo (like the lower photo at Cape Reinga) with a lot of DOF looks fine. So I may go back and experiment with the images that produce blurry thumbnails and see if a bit of unsharp masking on the original helps at all. JShook | Talk 16:39, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Have you tried making the image larger than the standard thumbnail using |XXX px|? Sometimes a small enlargement improves the appearance greatly. I also often have to increase the contrast and brightness of my pictures to get acceptable thumbnails. Rmhermen 18:27, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

That's what I've been doing. I changed one to have a width that is close to an even division of the full size, and that helps a bit. In a few days I'll go through them all and see if changing the specified thumbnail size to something other than what I have (i.e., to an even division of the full size) been using helps them looking more sharp. JShook | Talk 23:22, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Removing Cleanup Template

How does a user go about removing the Cleanup Template when it appears that the cleanup is complete?Phil ^talk 14:21, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Just take it out by editing the article. Look for {{cleanup}} where the cleanup message appears; remove that–don't forget the edit summary!–and you're done. (If someone else puts it back, then maybe the article still needs work; you should discuss it on the talk page.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:37, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you so much. I am a learner and kind and clear replies like yours make my day. I visited your page and I learned from it. Phil ^talk 15:32, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Ferrari 330 P4

Folks @ wikipedia.

As an online encyclopedia, you have a duty to keep to the facts. At the moment there is a raging discussion happening about the Ferrari 330 P4 topic. As there is no real proof that the car mentioned is the original 0846 (despite some wild claims) you should not have it mentioned on the page. It's current writeup looks like an advert for the claim.

Please remove this page and lock things until Ferrari has either agree'd that it is 0846 or stated that it is not.

Welcome to Wikipedia. Now you are here, you are one of those folks whose job it is to keep to the facts. Really, that's where all of these two million articles came from. There are no staff, only you. And people like you, of course. Please do, either edit the article yourself, or if you aren't confident in that start a conversation on the talk (discussion) page. If you have tried this, please see Wikipedia:Resolving_disputes. Help us improve Wikipedia - you've made it your duty now. Notinasnaid 21:03, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Compile for Laptop?

What's your question? 86.133.210.13 20:53, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Apologies, had trouble with the ui and didn't know how to delete this. Question is listed two down from here: "Offline browsing of Wikipedia on Laptop" Thanks and regards.

How many photos?

I have looked for and failed to find a document establishing guidelines for how many illustrations an article should have. (If there is such a document, please point me to it. Thanks.) It seems clear to me that any illustration should either support/illustrate something mentioned in the text or add appropriate new information, but how far to take this? If there is an article about birds of New Guinea and someone has a photo of each one, it seems that to add them all would be too much. But a few might be good, but how many?

Also, I have added photos to really short articles that are stubs just so there would be one (see East Cape.) But is there any point to the image in a case like this? Should I comment it out so it will be waiting in readiness for the time when the article is fleshed out? Or just delete it? I admit my bias is toward having lots of pictures, but I feel I may be going too far with this. Any suggestions? JShook | Talk 17:13, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I don't know of any specific guidelines on how many is too many. We've discussed this from time to time in the dog breeds project. For example, I feel that it's useful for a complete breed article to have photos of all major coat colors of the dogs (because they can look very different), photos with cropped & uncropped ears/tails for breeds where that's common in some countries; side photos, face-on photos, puppy photos (because they look quite different from adults), action shots of dogs doing their breed's typical thing (e.g., herding breed herding). You can see that, for a short article that hasn't been fleshed out yet but that has a lot of photos, that can be overwhelming. Some people feel that we don't need that many. I dunno, I try to arrange the photos and provide captions in such a way that they seem like integral parts of the article. On the other hand, we don't need 20 photos of people's pet yellow Labs lounging around on the couch.

For more generic articles, such as the bird one you mention, perhaps a single representative photo would be good (such as in terrier). Maybe one that's particularly colorful, or indiginous only to New Guinea, or a photo with more than one species. If the article is very long, maybe one per section to illustrate the concept there (such as in dog). For some things it's not clear that a photo is helpful at all, such as list of dog breeds, which is quite long but the important info is the list and a photo won't help the reader.

As for photos in stubs--I wouldn't comment them out; remember, a picture is worth a thousand words :-). It might even inspire someone to add more to the article. Elf | Talk 17:24, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Has anyone considered a kind of special page that would be a picture gallery? It would be linked to from articles like your dog breed article, but would not load with the article unless requested. You could have all of your various breed images in the gallery page if anyone wants to see them, but only if they click a link to it. I'm thinking it would be a simple page with ":Gallery" appended to the article title. Maybe a short introductory paragraph, a clear link (back) to the main article and as many pictures with captions as you need. JShook | Talk 20:01, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

• If I remember correctly image galleries are part of WP:NOT. If the images are free galleries can be made on the Commons. As for how many images is too much. I think that if it's impossible to format the page correctly, it's either because you have to little text or too many images. Usually those go hand in hand. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:46, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Offline browsing of Wikipedia on Laptop

I've been working on and off with the instructions for compiling a pocketpc readable TR3 copy of Wikipedia, and I love the results (Thanks Mr. Zachte). I'm looking for a way to put something similar into effect on my laptop. The Tomeraider scripts focus on compression and image resizing to save space, but I've got much more space on the laptop (10GB) than on the pocketpc (~2GB). Any suggestions?

This may interest you - Wikipedia to be put on DVD. — ceejayoz ^★ 10:34, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Made mistake in creating category help needed

Hi I made a new category http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Jews_in_Music and started adding people in this list List_of_Jewish_musicians but I mistakenly (as you can see) capitalized music is this something that really needs to be changed if so is there any easy way to do it without deleting and starting again? Thanks Arnie587 17:57, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, it really oughta be done. Unfortunately there's no easy way to do it except by going back to all those articles and correcting the category with the lowercase m. It's better to do it now rather than adding more with the incorrect capitalization and making you or someone else have to redo even more pages. I wish there were an easier way. Elf | Talk 18:50, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Elf I moved them all over but someone then put the category for renaming ARGHHH Arnie587 17:46, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Can you guarantee the data is factual?

Given that the information is user provided, how do you guarantee the data is factual?

There are no guarantees in life, but we think we have a good system. Many of our articles are contributed by experts or serious hobbyists in the field in question. Also, articles tend to be watched over by many interested parties to ensure no one adds erroneous information. Also, our article Talk pages sometimes show evidence that certain facts are in dispute, which is a feature you don't get with most other reference sources. Likewise, our policy to cite sources will help you get verification, and our histry tab will show you if a certain fact is newly inserted, or if it has survived the test of time and repeated edits. This gives you the power to draw your own conclusions about the reliability of the data. Please see also Wikipedia:FAQ. Thanks, Johntex\^talk 18:31, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Publishers.

Who published your web site?

-Andrew Ewing

• See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Bovlb 19:49, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
• And the reason you were directed to that page is...a lot of people, effectively. Wikipedia is the work of visionaries (Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger), Board members (User:Angela), developers (User:brion VIBBER, User:TimStarling), administrators (User:func, User:Kelly Martin) and contributors (me! woo!). Note that I include all these names as examples; these aren't the heads of anything (in most cases) and they are by no means the only people in their fields...Rob Church ^{Talk | Desk} 21:17, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

How do I print a short excerpt of a web site?

You can select part of the web page, and use your web browser's print functionality (usually also selecting another option, e.g. "print selection" or "selected items" to exclude the dross) to make a hard copy. Rob Church ^{Talk | Desk} 21:19, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

iwant to learn about angela davis

Try typing Angela Davis into the search box. Elf | Talk 18:50, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Bonhomme Richard

Would you ask Jinian to be so kind as to contact me. I am not a computor whiz kid or a full blown academic but did place a short historical note ate the end of a Bonhomme Richard article regarding the Irish Guard [of 1662 Charles II] Dublin] contingent on John Paul Jones's flotilla off the British coasts in the War of Independence. I am a member [I think!] of Wilkepedia, with posting rights. I am investigating the truth of this rumour which is acknowledged by the USMC in their book by publication of JPJ and Benjamin Franklin inspecting these British/Irish Red Coated Guards in an illustration, which I could send Jinian. I have placed a contact on my article. So the article is not annonymous. I would like the comment to remain as it is germaine to the espirit de corps of the USMC. The 92e Infantrie en France also has a claim acknowleded and allowed of descent from this source but place their seniority at 1661[ in this they are in error as the seniority is much older]. The Royal Irish Regt are also of this liniage but the English Establishment do not acknowledge it as it exposed their 1688 revolution and involved recognising the seniority inregimental matters of Stuart Crown Service as equal at least to Guelph to Windsor Crown Service. Michael Patrick Cusack. email removed

• I have left a note on User talk:Jinian. Bovlb 19:53, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Comments made on Talk:USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6). Jinian 18:10, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Disappeared image of Green Anole

The first image I ever uploaded, with unnecessary difficulty, was a shot I took of a Green Anole molting. I succeeded in placing it in a Green Anole article. And subsequently I viewed it several times. Now I can't find it. Can someone tell me where it is gone? Thank you. Phil ^talk 19:44, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Molting Green Anole

• It appears on Polychrotidae, but not on green anole, which has a different moulting picture. I am sorry that you found it so difficult to upload your photograph. Do you have any suggestions for how we can improve the instructions at Special:Upload or make the process easier? Cheers, Bovlb 20:05, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

• How wonderful this help page is!. My sincere thanks for your help. As a novice, I thought you could go to the page that you wanted the image to reside, and just click upload, and Bingo it would be there <smile> Also, I did not pay proper attention to finding and selection the proper PD release. I have it whipped now, and am looking for more problems <s>

I hope to continue learning. Phil ^talk 20:41, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

• You're welcome. I have proposed an improvement to the upload instructions to mention how to include the image once uploaded. I don't know if it will get in as the instructions already seem too long to expect anyone to read because of all the copyright concerns. Bovlb 19:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Advertising on Wikipedia.com

We're intersted in advertising on wikipedia.com Please advise as to rates and whether there are any new client specials available. We'd be interested in a 6 month or 12 month quote.

Sig Cabrera sig@ticketmomma.com

• Wikipedia does not accept advertising, but there are various mirrors that do. You might like to contact one of them. Bovlb 20:07, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Images, copyright, and the public domain

I may be told to RTFF on this, but I feel as though I've been through everything. There is quite a bit of material in Wikipedia tutorials on using only public domain images, but not much on identifying which images are actually public domain.

For example, I'd like to use picture of a mojave rattlesnake in an article (this is actual scenario, fyi). I can Google up countless pictures of such a beast, yet I can't for the life of me determine if the photographer makes them available to the public domain. Dozens are simply unsigned and unassociated with any particular person, and make no reference to their copyright status. Other than stomping off into the desert and rustling up a rattler on my own (which is starting to sound easier), I can't figure out how to make sure I'm using an appropriate image.

If this should be in clueless newbie, I'll repost there.

Thanks

--Bad carpet 22:06, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

This is often unclear to people. The rule is fairly simple. A picture is only in the public domain if:

1. The photographer has explicitly said "I place these pictures in the public domain" or words pretty much like that. If nothing is said, it is copyrighted.
2. The photograph was taken by an employee of the United States federal government as part of his or her job. (note, if the person was a contractor, this may well not apply.)
3. The photo is old, and the photographer has been dead for at least 50 years. (if the photo was taken over 100 years ago, and there is no info on the photographer available that might do).

If none of those apply it isn't public domain. In that case it can be used only if the copyright owner (normally the photographer) will release it under the GFDL or if a Fair use claim can be made. For the kind of pictures you are describing I don't think fair use would apply, so the only way to use these would be to write the photographer and ask for permission. There are form letters to use on Wikipedia:Requests for permission, or you can write your own. Obviously ther are no guarentees that anyone will say yes, but many people do. DES ^(talk) 22:16, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

-- Thanks for your response. --Bad carpet 22:22, 21 September 2005 (UTC) -- Your like to requests for permission doesn't lead to a form and I couldn't find them -- through search. Have a suggestion? Thanks again. --Bad carpet 22:32, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Oops. I misrememberd the page title. That should be Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission. Sorry. DES ^(talk) 22:35, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

-- Yet another issue. I finally discovered a good (great) photo that the photographer lists
-- free for use except commercial. When I go create an image description article, I find this
-- "Please check that the conditions given above are compliant with Wikipedia licensing
-- policy. Most importantly, derivative work, commercial use, and use in non-educational
-- contexts must not be prohibited. If they are not, please list this image for deletion."
-- So is this image unusuable? I may be grumpy if so, have a couple of hours into this.

--Bad carpet

Sorry to be the bearer of news that'll make you grumpy but the answer is no. We need to have our images suitable for commercial use so that commercial enterprises can use our content. For example if a software company wanted to distribute a copy of Wikipedia along with thier product on a disk. Or if a publisher wants to print a copy of wikipedia and sell it. Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 23:26, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

- Well, I guess I'm off to search the desert. When I'm bitten, if I live, I intend to return here and complain about the complexities of copyrights. If I don't live, and I'm certain I won't, my last request will be to have a photo of my unhappy corpse uploaded in place of a photo of a Mojave rattler. I will also write a long paragraph willing the photo to general public.

--Bad carpet

I would recommend trying a Creative Commons search, before you go running off to the Mojave :P --Wulf 02:41, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Take a look at the Creative Commons section of Flickr.com - these images are licenced in such a way they can be used on Wikipedia (but avoid the "no commercial" or "no derivs").
2. Search the Internet and find some suitable images, which may not have a copyright tag. Visit the website and contact the owner, asking for permission to use the image, or to licence it to GFDL, CC, or PD. I did this for several images for Discworld articles, for example Death (Discworld) -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 03:49, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Content of article in question

In the article titled "Choker" there is information pertaining to the usage of chokers and collars in the BDSM community. It lists that "in the BDSM context (e.g. the delicate arts of bondage and sadomasochism such as those practiced by Jeffrey Daumer)..." I and several associates take offense at this labeling (slanderous labeling) of a private alternative lifestyle. Whoever wrote this article obviously did not do his/her homework, as a case in point, your own article on the serial murderer DOES NOT list any cases of sadomasochism, just a penchant for being truly evil (in my words). Also, in a related article (to this topic), your listing on BDSM itself, does not have a link/listing to Mr Dahmer (which is spelled wrong in the initial article).

the following links are: Choker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choker Jeffrey Dahmer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_dahmer BDSM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM

The "Choker" article at the least needs to be corrected as the information is false. While it's possible that Mr. Dahmer indulged in a form of sadomasochism, to include this convicted serial killer in this lifestyle is insulting and derogatory.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

---anon

Thank you for your suggestion! I have removed the phrase in question. Note that this is a wiki, you could have simply made the change yourself. When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. DES ^(talk) 22:28, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Trouble staying logged in.

I have a Wikipedia user name (MattReid), but I have trouble staying logged in. When I log in and click "Remember Me", I usually stay logged in only for the next page or two, before the line in the upper right reverts to "Create account/log in." I have had this problem using both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The problem is particularly annoying when I am trying to edit pages and I cannot do so as a registered user (because I cannot stay logged in). Any tips and suggestions are welcome.

Have you got cookies enabled? Hermione1980 22:41, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes. Sorry, I realized too late that I should have mentioned that. In both Firefox and Internet Explorer I have cookies enabled. --MattReid

It has been reported that sometimes there are some session problems (with the symptoms that you get logged out often) which are solved by removing all the cookies from wikipedia on your browser and logging in again. --cesarb 21:27, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

I tried that, too. I removed all wikipedia cookies and closed the browser. I then reopened the browser, went to wikipedia, and logged in. After going to the next page, I was no longer logged in. Oh, well, I guess the world will never know how much I contribute to Wikipedia! --MattReid

Are you staying within the Wikipedia project, or following links to other projects such as Commons or Wiktionary? Each of these projects has its own separate login requirements, and if you migrate from a Wikipedia page you will no longer be logged in, but it's not always apparent that you have left WP. --Cactus.man^>Reply 19:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm staying within Wikipedia. I usually keep one Firefox tab open to Wikipedia all day while at work. I hit "Random article" whenever I have a chance. I do have other tabs open to other pages, and maybe that somehow screws things up, but the one tab stays on Wikipedia all day. --MattReid

Vulgartity issue

I was just checking this site out to kill time, looked up 'donkey' for fun, and found an offensively named link in the first paragraph. I checked the 'editor' function, and that is not what is in the script for that spot, so I left it alone. I though someone that knows the ropes would want to check it out and maybe kick rear on the person responsible, if possible. Thanks a ton, and it's been real. Keep up the good work!!! Warren.

Do you mean the link to ass? It's a common name of the animal, we can't help that I'm afraid. --fvw* 01:48, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Also please note WP:NOT which notes that wikipedia is not censored. Jtkiefer ^{T | @ | C} ----- 01:50, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Guys, cool off, he's referring to a real vandal edit. It was reverted just after he posted this. Titoxd 01:52, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Photo

I'm looking at obtaining a photo in the best quality avalible of the smallest thing known to man. Any leads on where I may possibly start?

How about an elementary particle? They don't, in general, reflect photons, so you can just have a black picture, at as high a quality as you want. --fvw* 02:34, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Dude, everybody knows that quarks come in red, green, and blue. :D As fvw says, you can't directly take a photograph of an elementary particle—perhaps a bubble chamber image would be appropriate, however? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:07, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

This Google image search (the first image) shows the IBM logo composed of Xenon atoms, that's rather small. --Commander Keane 05:16, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm assuming the comment abiout red, blue and green quarks is a joke. Oner of the smallest known particles is a quark, but it is not possible to photograph it.

Quarks and Atoms

Three quarks make up neutrons and protons, which with electrons, make up atoms. Atoms are too small to view with even the most sensitive camera, as their size is much smaller than the wavelength of visible light. They could in a sense be described as "smaller that light". It is however possible to view a computer simulation of them, or an AFM image of them. An AFM is a type of miscroscope that works by touch rather than optical viewing.

Molecules

Some larger molecules have been photographed, but these will be at the limit for a normal camera even using an optical microscope.

Smallest thing visible with a camera

Probalby the smallest thing visible with a camera, attached to an optical microscope would be a large molecule such as a DNA chromosone, or another biological molecule. Other molecules such as carbon nanotubes can also been seen optically.

I hope this helps. Basically, there are many very small particles which we are aware of, and can create images of, such as quarks and protons, and although we can create imasges of them, we cannot create photographs of them. This is due to fundamental laws of physics. Even the best camera made in the future will not be able to create optical images of subatomic particles. The smallest thing we can create optical images of would be a large molecule.

I hope this helps

Roberthanning 11:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

By definition having a "photo" means the object has to be bigger than a photon and able to reflect a photon. For one idea see "IBM" atoms article here for scanning tunneling microscope photo of individual atoms: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV1003.html -- Sitearm | Talk 04:57, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Relocating a reference desk question

I accidentally wrote a question in the "Humanities" section of the reference desk when it really should have gone either in "Science" or "Miscellaneous". Should this be moved to a new section? If so, how? And am I the one that should do it? Thanks. --Silvaran 02:56, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, you can do it. Just click the edit tag next to your question. Erase the question unless it already has a response in which case copy the whole thing. Then go to where the question should be and put it back in. Dismas|^(talk) 03:09, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

what is the name of the place called middle east paris

Questions like this belong in the Reference Desk. — Kjammer ⌂ 07:44, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

new article

Hello,

I have published a new article about actor Georges Corraface in English and French, and have a few bugs in it that are most certainly due to not having found the right tips to follow.

-)

1. I find the article when I type "corraface" and click on "go" but NOT when I click on the "Search" button. What is the difference? I did peruse the site's guidelines but didn't find this nuance explained (sorry).

2. I tried to correct the page title to read "Georges Corraface" in the French version (it's OK in the English version) but haven't figured out how to correct the title problem.

Many thanks in advance for you help to a newbie here.

-)

Best regards,

DLC

• You initially posted your entry to Corraface instead of Georges Corraface. Someone has moved the entry for you. Once you've been around for awhile the option will become available to you as a tab on top of the page. This is to prevent page move vandalism by people who sign up just to move pages to nonsensical locations.

I think you can't find "Georges Corraface" when typing search because the search engine database needs to be updated first, which is only done at an interval. Doing it with each new addition would strain the servers too much. Using "Go" will send you to the page with the name you typed without intervention of the search engine. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:37, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

• Another note: "corraface" and "Corraface" are the same because the first letter of an article is capitalized automatically. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:38, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Many thanks - will try to keep atop proper use and posting!

-))

Ok to translate the articles of others?

Is it okay to translate existing english articles into other languages or do you have to produce "original articles"?

--anon

If an article in the English Wikipedia is all OK according to the GFDL, then it's also all OK to directly translate it into another language on that language's Wikipedia. The GFDL specifically allows this. Translation of texts from other webpages than Wikipedia, though, is usually not allowed. — JIP | Talk 10:54, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Note that it's a good idea to add a note to the edit summary of your translation that you used another Wikipedia page as a source. A note on the new article's talk page is also a Good Thing. Finally, it's a good idea to create an interlanguage link between the English Wikipedia article and the translated article.

name of the most weat point in your providence

What is the name of the most furthest point west in Canada?

I am ten and doing a project for school

Adam Payne

• You can find the answer in our article on the Geography of Canada. Good luck with your project! Warofdreams talk 11:07, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Walter Grey Walter inaccurate

I have just seen that there is an entry for Walter Grey Walter in Wikipedia. His name was actually William Grey Walter (I am his grand-daughter and very keen to see this corrected), but when I clicked edit I couldn't get to edit the actual title. Could somebody do this for me? Thanks so much. from Natasha Walter

• I've gone ahead and did the move after checking this was indeed his first name. If anyone can go through Special:Whatlinkshere/William_Grey_Walter and fix the redirects for which I don't have time right now, I'd be very happy. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:13, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

There was only one and I've fixed it. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:25, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

How can I see the contributions of a user?

I want to see all contributions of a wikipedia user. How can I see it?

Go to their user page, and click on user contributions in the toolbox panel on the left side of the screen. Wikilinks to contributions can be formed by linking to a subpage of Special:Contributions; the page Special:Contributions/TenOfAllTrades lists my own contributions, for example.

A note of caution—using an editor's contribution log to stalk or harrass that editor is not tolerated and can result in sanctions. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 12:58, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Walter Grey Walter elsewhere on the web

I realise this isn't directly a question about Wikipedia, but you might be able to help me here.

The name Walter Grey Walter, given to William Grey Walter for the first time in this inaccurate article in Wikipedia, has now, I see, got a life of its own on the internet - Google turns up lots of webpages (around 100) now using this name, as opposed to about 80 using the right name (together with around 600 using the name he usually used, Grey Walter). How can I possibly go about trying to rectify this error spawned by Wikipedia? Should I just give up and accept that these things happen on a free internet?

Thanks for any advice.

Natasha Walter

Many of the google hits are probably Wikipedia mirrors (explicitly permitted by the GFDL) and will likely be updated whenever they next refresh their content. If you really want, you can send email to the webmaster (for example, webmaster@en.wikipedia.com) at each website where the incorrect name appears and request the correction be made. The email address "webmaster@..." generally exists at every web site. If this fails, you can find an address by looking up the domain name using Whois. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:38, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you very much for all your help. I appreciate it.

Natasha

Can I e- mail an article from wikipedia?

Instead of copying and pasting to an e- mail and sending it to myself, can I just send it to myself from wikipedia.org Thank you. Eric.

There's no way to do that from the article page like you would a news article at CNN.com or news.yahoo.com or something like that. Just copy and paste. Dismas|^(talk) 15:52, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

But if you do copy and paste an artilce, and email it, please retain the note that is included indicating that it came fdrom wikipedia, and please include a url for the article itself so whoever you send it to can see any later modifications, and can consult the histroy tab to see who wrote what, as the GFDL requires. Thank you. (an "email this article" function that did all that automatially might not be a bad idea as a feature request.) DES ^(talk) 17:56, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Links

How do I add a link to an official website. I found an author whose official site I visit often but it is not listed in his Wikipedia Entry.

Thanks

You can click on the link at the top of the page that says "edit this page" and put the link where it belongs. It should look something like this [http://www.author.com Official site] and should be placed in the External links section of the author's article page. Dismas|^(talk) 19:48, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

im in need of free bibles!

I am a youth who is trying to start helpin the youth of my community through teachings of the lord.I have witnessed some distibutors of the pocket-sized gideon bible at corners-stores and the bibles that are given out are not being put to use,i have seen people discarding the given bibles on the ground or trash,and i hav never recieved one myself.I am wondering if the distibutors of these bibles could supply me with a case of these bibles and i would distribute them to the youth of my community.Iam tryin to teach teach the youth who do not go to church the word of the lord.But many do not have bibles to read from.Iwould like to distibute a quantity so thatt those who I distributed those bibles to i know truthfully they will be put to use.Iam simply trying to do my part and help my youth friends and community learn the greatness of the lord as i hav over the past years.I am serious about helping out but I myself do not have enough bibles to supply the youth that want to learn.So I wondering if the distibutors could supply my with one case so that I can distribute to those who I know want learn the word of the lord.Thank You for your time.

 Sincerely,
 A concerned Youth and Believer of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank You

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. For factual questions such as yours, please post the question over at Wikipedia:Reference desk. Dismas|^(talk) 19:46, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

what are project management limitations

Time, budget, definition, fluidity, regulation, bosses, staff, ability, authority, relationships, fallibity, publicity. Why do you ask? Notinasnaid 13:33, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Clap, clap, clap. Well answered. ;-) JesseW, the juggling janitor 17:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

damn foolish i18n

Hello!

Yes, I know, Wiki is great and well internationalized at reader's side, but not on editor's one.

I just mentioned than there are separate user bases for each Wiki's language... IMCO it's inconvenient and really fool in our globalized age, but I can create accounts for these 3 languages in which I can edit articles without major strain. Of course, I should also set up 3 different preferences, watchlists etc.

Next, I created an article as a Russian analog of the Cable television article. When I choose the title, I (occasionally) capitalized the first letter (cyrillic T) of the second Russian word. But later I realized that de Wiki bon ton is to capitalize the title's first letter only, leaving second word generally lowercase. Due to titles' case-sensivity (yet a question, why this case-sensivity?!), I thought that I should rename the article. But on ru.wikipedia.org there is NO "move" tab in the Russian "Standard" skin, no such link AT ALL!!! Maybe, not only Russian, I'm tired trying to set up this webshit. And before I realized that it's time to switch out such castrate user interface, somebody renamed the article without me :)

And yet another i18n bug. When I use Russian skin in en.wikipedia.org, the link for Editing help points to nowhere because it seeks to Russian-translated Справка по редактированию but on "en" site. So what are these damn preferences for, making the life harder? IMHO Wiki's Web-programmers should at least warn users that some skin languages, types and, posssibly, their combinations are not stable, merely said, ARE BUGGY!

If there isn't a move link on the russian wiki, you probably aren't logged in properly. Only logged in users can move pages. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:34, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

There is a переименовать tab in Russian wikipedia, but newly registered users aren't allowed to move articles. You have to wait a few days before that features becomes available to you (this is an unfortunately necessary anti-vandalism measure). For the second question, why are you using a Russian skin on the English wikipedia? -- Curps 20:37, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, disabling "move" may be right policy for newbies. Concerning my use of Russian skins, I prefer an _uniform_ interface for all sections. Perhaps you use English skin of Fr Wiki and Ru too, but most your works are in En, isn't it? :)

IMHO: if a feature can't behave properly, users must be warned about it.

Nevertheless, thank you for quick reply, Curps!

Pictures

how can we look at the pictures of the contestants of ms universe 1993 japan

I don't know, but I would guess that you cannot. 1993 was years before the general public heard of the web, and the idea of making such pictures permanently available was not something anyone had thought of yet. — Nowhither 00:50, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

canceling membership and user name

Is this possible? If so, how do you do it?

Just put that you've left on your user page and walk away. If you have an email address set in your preferences, remove that so people can't contact you. --fvw* 21:21, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

6 speed gearbox Honorable mention?

I noticed that the 1988 Honda Civic four wheel drive wagon was given an honorable mention as first 6 speed gear box. I would like to note that the 1983 toyota tercel four wheel drive wagon also had a 6 speed gearbox. I owned a 1984 toyota tercel SR5 4WD station wagon. The transmission had a sixth gear labeled "EL" for Extra Low. The gear was intended to be used like low speed, on a two speed transfer case. It could only be engaged when the car was in four wheel drive.

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. Dismas|^(talk) 22:11, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Partial move/article split, retaining history?

A couple of days ago, Cncs wikipedia started adding fascinating China-related content to the article production team, which previously had been about production teams in theatre, television and film. After a little discussion on Talk:Production team, I decided that the Chinese content probably ought to be moved to a new article, probably Production team (China). Is there a way to do this that puts the China-related history on the Production team (China) page, but keeps the history of the theatrical content at production team? (Obviously, if I created production team (China) I'd put a disambiguation notice at the top of production team.) —23:28, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

It could theoretically be done provided none of the non-chinese-production-team content was edited in the period the chinese-production-team information was added, but it'd be one hell of a hassle and it really isn't necessary for the GFDL. If you think older revisions might be useful for editing Production team (China), you can always link to the history of production team on Talk:production team (China). --fvw* 23:31, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Right: as long as it doesn't cause a GDFL problem, I'll go ahead and cut-and-paste the China content out of production team into production team (China). Thanks! —Josiah Rowe 23:40, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

To be on the safe side, you should probably put "copied from the Production team page" in the edit summary. --fvw* 23:44, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

John Bengtson article

I just created the article about myself, and found that the title of the article read John bengtson. Obviously, my surname should be in caps, but I could not find how to change it. Can you change it for me please?

Changing an article title requires "moving" the article. Anonymous users are not allowed to do this, but can make such requests at Wikipedia:Requested moves. I've moved it for you. BTW - you might want to read Wikipedia:Autobiography. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:04, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

John: A few points:

• First, if you are going to do much Wikipedia editing, sign up for an account. It's quick and (unless you choose to give your real name) anonymous. Then you can move pages yourself.
• Second, unless you are notable in some way, don't write an article about yourself. It will be deleted.
• Third, you already mistyped the name. Probably others will, too. Assuming we wanted to keep the article, we probably want those who mistype the name to find the real article, right? What we do in such cases is to have a "redirect". So the actual article would be at "John Bengtson", and "John bengtson" would be a redirect that takes viewers to the properly capitalized version. Moving the article (see above) automatically creates such a redirect.

— Nowhither 01:13, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Actually, I deleted the redirect that resulted from the move since it is not needed to find the article via the "go" box. The chance someone creates a link to a miscapitalized version seems fairly slim to me. On the other hand, typing the name and then hitting "go" should find it (and does in this case, regardless of the capitalization of what you type). -- Rick Block (talk) 04:42, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

cleanup stuff

when you put cleanup on an article, does it automaticaly go to the cleanup page list? if it doesn't that is my suggestion Jeremybub 00:36, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

The tag {{cleanup}} automatically puts an article in the Wikipedia cleanup category. If you look at the template (Template:cleanup) and edit the page, you see the text "[[Category:Wikipedia cleanup|{{PAGENAME}}]]" near the end. That places the article in the category. — Nowhither 01:08, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

(slow fingers on my part)... It does. After a page is marked with the {{cleanup}} tag you'll see an additional category at the bottom of the page. Click on that category to see all the pages that are marked for cleanup. If you'd like to help out, feel free to cleanup an article that you find listed there. After it's been cleaned up, you can remove the tag. Dismas|^(talk) 01:10, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

words that start with f that have more than 5 syllables

yes i need a two words that have 6 sylables and 1 8 syllables 1 9 sylabbles and 1 10 sylablles words can you help me thanks holly

• Dictionaries work pretty well when you're looking for words. If you don't know what a syllable is, you can check our article on them, especially its external links. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:01, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Pipe-character syntax

When I add a category to an article about a person, I am always forgetting to sort the link by "Lastname, Firstname" (i.e. I'll put [[Category:Schlemiels]] but not [[Category:Schlemiels|Smith, John]]). I am trying to remember if there is some sort of shorthand (as opposed to typing the whole name) that will do this automagically. That got me wondering about the pipe character in general: not just for categories, but for wiki links, too. There was some page that described the syntax for the pipe character and now I can't find it. Maybe I'm just that dense (and it's late here) but it does not seem to be in an obvious place. if someone can point me to the source(s) I would appreciate it. Thanks, -- Gyrofrog (talk) 04:21, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm afraid not, after all you have to tell it where to split the name. When the name only consists of two words that's easy, but once it's three words it could be a double first name or a surname consisting of two words.

The page you're looking for is probably Wikipedia:Piped link. --fvw* 04:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! That's not the page I remember, but at least now I'll know that I have to remember and alphabetize the category manually. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 04:38, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

not noteworthy ?

Why does it say "not noteworthy" on the page called Centre Laval ? I'm upset 'cause it was a page that didn't exist and I made it by myself!!!

Doesn't look very important to me, but I don't think it qualifies for speedy. The reason given in the speedy template, not notable, is not a criterion for speedy deletion. --Andy Janata 05:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

• Currently, articles are removed from the Wikipedia if they are deemed "non-notable". However, the deletion policy is undergoing review. If you would like to comment on this policy, please see the proposal to remove the notable requirement. -- Reinyday, 13:01, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

INDIA has been recognised as a rich country with lot of 'NATURAL RESOURSES ' explain?

(no further details)

• It would help if you told us where you got that information from and what exactly you need explained. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:15, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Meaning of i in i-mode

What does i in i-mode stand for?

Priyanka Mehadia

• From iPod#Name: "When Apple first introduced the iMac, the '"i" stood for internet, meaning that the iMac shipped with everything you would need for a connection, but it stuck, as it seems to bring good luck to the sales of Apple products. Recently, some media have started referring to the generation primarily born in the late 1980s, and which in particular has made the iPod popular, as the iGeneration, suggesting that the "i" family of products may have a far-reaching cultural impact." - 131.211.210.12 11:08, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• iPods don't speak i-mode! The "i" in NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service stands for "internet, information, etc." [3] which makes me think it is a brand name rather than an abbreviation. — mendel ☎ 14:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

About this Edit option

Hello sir/madam,

I am vijay S. I went through you are site.I felt one thing about your edit option. you have given full freedom to edit the web page to the browser. any body can add anything and anybody can delete the Information.

then who will ''''TRUST'''' your websight.

better remove that option or make it secure(providing authentication.)

Thank you Vijay S.

• Without this option Wikipedia wouldn't have become what it is today. In fact, Wikipedia can be trusted more than other websites, because the entire edit history is stored so you can see how an article developed and which people contributed. You can't do that with other websites. How can you trust those if you don't even know for sure who wrote them? See Wikipedia:Replies to common objections for more points that address your concerns. -Mgm|^(talk) 11:44, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• Another important point is that Wikipedia only exists because it can be edited. I think maybe some people think that there was a good, accurate encyclopedia, and then suddenly people were given the freedom to edit it. But that is not the case. In the beginning, there was nothing at all, and people were free to add to it. Of course, Wikipedia sometimes contains things that are wrong, by accident or deliberately. This is a useful lesson to people about whether to trust: if you trust any web site or book uncritically, well, I have some nice bridges I'd like to sell you. Notinasnaid 13:29, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

User 202.138.120.65 try to delete the contents

Hi,

User 202.138.120.65 tried to delete the contents of the Hyderabad, India. How do I prevent this from happening? Is this not a serious offence?

Please check the history of the page Hyderabad, India for more details.

thanks, Naveenji

• That happens occasionally, along with all sorts of other kinds of vandalism. It's typically found and reverted right away. Old versions of a page are kept in the page history so nothing is ever lost when a page is blanked; it just looks funny until it's fixed. — mendel ☎ 14:24, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Edits gone after saving and logging out.

Hi,

I've been updating my school's article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_College. I've added a lot of content to the page and reviewed it many times before saving it. Everytime I save it, log out then log back in, it reverts back to the baseline, one-sentence entry that we had before. Please advise. This has happened twice so far. I added a whole bunch of content, saved it and sent the link to our school's president only to have her look at the old page.

Thanks, Moose123

Looking at the article history, it appears user:Kappa has reverted your changes. Please bring this up on the article's talk page, at talk:Landmark College or initiate a conversation at user talk:Kappa. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:00, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Specifically it seems thst several editors have stated that the materiel being inserted infringes copyright and so can not be added to wikipedia. see Wikipedia:copyright for the rules on this issue. DES ^(talk) 15:32, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

There are several problems with what you've added. (a) The content seems to be exactly the same as some of the material on http://www.landmarkcollege.org/about/. It may be that the college is willing to release its writing under a suitable license, but you would need to include information on this release; the web page just says "All rights reserved". (b) There is no place in Wikipedia for sentences like "Why does Landmark's approach succeed? Because we take a different path." The only "we" is Wikipedia itself, NOT the author or institution. The material but be written in the style expected for an objective, impartial encyclopedia, not as promotion for anyone or anything. This sort of rhetorical question approach is unlikely to survive for long. This won't have been mentioned because getting rid of copyright violations is the number 1 priority (to avoid any possibility of legal action). (But thank you for taking the time to contribute! I'm sure you have valuable information to add, it just can't be in this form).Notinasnaid 15:51, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

FB Crew

Hello All I am wondering if anyone knows an e-mail address or web site for the group FB CRew, formerly Fresh Blood. Any help greatly appreciated. respond to [redacted] Thanks in advance Joe

• I've removed your email address so it doesn't get picked up by spammers. This sort of question belongs over at the reference desk, though. — mendel ☎ 14:25, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Q-link

Question moved to Reference Desk. I also snipped out your email address, to save you from at least some of the spammers. Rob Church ^{Talk | Desk} 21:29, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

languages and Wikipedia

Hi:

I just noticed today that there are different numbers of encyclopedia entries for all of the languages that Wikipedia has; so this would mean that Wikipedia is completely different depending upon which language you are in, is this correct? I do not read other languages enough to know, but this would mean that Wikipedia is not the same language to language as a translation would be.

Example, there might be maps in one that are not in another, etc. Any comments on this topic?

thank you,

Beverly

there is some overlap (some articles are direct translations and some people work on more than one language) but no things are not the same.Geni 16:30, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Beverly: The different language versions of Wikipedia are actually completely separate works. Strange but true. There are some good reasons for this, however. Foremost among them is the difficulty of collaboration and resolving disputes when people have no common language. Another is the question of which language version would be the "official" one from which translations are made. But there is nothing wrong with creating a new Wikipedia article by translating an article in a different language version of Wikipedia. This actually happens quite a bit.— Nowhither 22:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I think I've broken BJAODN

I was trying to add something to the current BJAODN page, and when I saved changes, the page layout went rather mad. I've reverted my changes, and it's still broken. Help! -- AJR 16:41, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

A proper revert seems to have fixed it, but I'm still puzzled as to what made it go bad to start with. -- AJR 16:44, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

You broke BJAODN. There will be a small administrative charge. Please send a cheque for the value of our next wave of servers to Wikimedia, via my address. :-) Rob Church ^{Talk | Desk} 21:31, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

My Wiki Page will not Find in a search

Greetings,

I made a page: "Medieval Scenarios and Recreations" (My Medieval Recreation group.)
 OK, but I cannot find in in any WIKI search. I can only return to it from my watch page.
 What have I done wrong? (Yes, I am new to Wiki...)
 Thanks,
 Carl S. email removed

• I can see it at Medieval Scenarios and Recreations. Regarding the article, I'd suggest that you add two specific things to the introduction: some indication of the geographic focus of this organization (is it international, does it meet somewhere in America, etc.); and an assertion of the organization's notability (how many members, how long in existence, mentions in the press, importance in some specific country). Bovlb 18:17, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
• You can find it by putting the title in the search box and pressing "go". TO have it in the search index takes some time as the search index needs to be compiled. You could help the page being found by linking to it from other relevant articles. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:46, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

NEW non-FAQ question!!!

I would like to know if the slogan "The free encyclopedia" refers to the fact that it is free i.e. free of charge, or free i.e. free for you to edit and contribute to it, or both! I ask because for many wikipedias in other languages, like spanish and portuguese, the slogan means strictly the second instance only! How accurate is this? Maybe this is clear enough or not? (Sorry in advance if this seems like a stupid question, but if you know spanish like me, you'd be annoyed by the slogan in the spanish wikipedia too!) Kreachure 17:56, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

• It's "free" meaning "not restricted". See meta:How_to_start_a_new_Wikipedia#Translate_the_interface. Kappa 18:01, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
  • It's also free meaning free of charge since anyone can read it without paying anything. Dismas|^(talk) 18:44, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Just to pile on, "free" has two meanings in english - "gratis" (in the sense that it costs $0, 'free as in beer') and libre (unrestricted, 'free as in speech'). Wikipedia is free in both senses - wikipedia costs nothing to access or use, and Wikipedia is free (as in speech) because our copyright license allows people to reuse our content. →Raul654 18:51, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Kreature: I believe the second meaning is what is primarily intended. That is why the various translations use that meaning. So don't be annoyed; those translations are correct. It is true that the website Wikipedia.com provides Wikipedia content without charge. However, Wikipedia's license allows other sites to charge for the content (perhaps improved somehow), if they wish to do so. Therefore the first meaning is only semi-correct. — Nowhither 22:36, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

University of MIchigan's men's Glee Club page

I am a member of the universtiy of Michigans mens glee club and we have transfered some info from our site to this one. It has blocked our page because of copy right issues, but we own the copy right. How do we take care of this?

-Aquaman258 <e-mail removed>

I'd recommend you put a small page on your original website (it doesn't have to be linked from anywhere) saying you agree to licence the content under the GFDL. Then leave a message on the talk page of the Wikipedia article, explaining that the info was posted by the copyright owner (yourselves), that you agree to licence the info under the GFDL, and including a link to that page on your original site. But be warned: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a free web host. So it's very likely your article(s) will be edited, merged, deleted, or otherwise interfered with in ways that you will have no control over. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:29, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

To enlarge on Finlay McWalter's posting: The GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License), which is Wikipedia's license, explicitly allows others to modify, re-distribute, and sell the licensed content. If you do not want people to do this with your content, then (1) do not post it on Wikipedia, and (2) do not put the GFDL notice on your page. On the other hand, if you don't mind this, then go ahead and place the notice on your page and put the content on Wikipedia. But understand that your article will be edited by others in ways you may not like.

Also, this is a public website. Do not post your e-mail address here, unless you want every spammer in the galaxy to e-mail you.

— Nowhither 22:41, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Editing

There is a strange error/vandalism on the Hinduism page in the section under Murtis(icons). It seems like you can't edit it, but maybe someone can. --anon

It's already been fixed. Thank you for pointing it out though. The edit link is to the right of the heading of the Murtis(icons) section. Dismas|^(talk) 19:04, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Portal: Three Kingdoms and Portal: Second Age confusing Wikipedia?

There are two Magic: The Gathering sets called Portal: Three Kingdoms and Portal: Second Age. Nis81 has done some work on them in the past... but the articles have vanished into some sort of Wikioblivion. Can someone please:

1. Give us a good naming scheme for these two sets? The names, above, are correct, so it would be nice if they could remain. If not, they should be as close as possible.
2. Recover Nis81's work, if possible?

Thank you! --Ashenai 19:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Clarification: apparently, Portal: is a namespace. This is probably what caused the problem. Unfortunately, this knowledge brings me no closer to the solution. :) --Ashenai 21:34, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

• Hmmm, I'd suggest the prefic "MTG" so, "MTG Portal: Three Kingdoms", for example. Johntex\^talk 22:51, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Another option is Portal - Three Kingdoms. I haven't been able to figure out how to recover his work, but yes, creating the articles in the Portal namespace is likely what caused the problem—articles should not be created beginning with "Help:", "Category:", "Wikipedia:", "Talk:", "Portal:", "User:", and so on. — Knowledge Seeker দ 22:58, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
  • There is an article under Portal Second Age (Magic: the Gathering). The sole contributor is Bradleyjx. --Canderson7 23:22, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you all for your help! We went with Portal - Three Kingdoms, and Norvy's recreating the lost content. Cheers! :) --Ashenai 00:27, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Old content restored for Portal: Three Kingdoms. Brion could not find Portal: Second Age (if it's supposed to have been created by Nis81, it never existed). According to him, the problem was the space in the title. Next time, try Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). --cesarb 01:04, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

what is the genius for eggs?

add no eggs.

Original poster: The Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia. General/factual questions belong on Wikipedia's Reference desk. Also, your question makes no sense. Please restate it. — Nowhither 22:47, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

some more info to be added on the Megas XLR page

Howdy :P I just noticed something that isn't listed on the Megas XLR page, The fact that the planet(i don't remember whether it is the home planet of the S-Force, or the killer robots), resembles Unicron from the Transformers series :D

Change it then. -- Thorpe ^talk 21:48, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --cesarb 00:36, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I've added that to the page(I never know that could be done :O), So.. How would I remove this small topic from the help desk?

Search engines

I thought articles were shown up on search engines? I tried to find Friday Night with Jonathan Ross but no luck. I pasted the following address into the search box of Google:

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

This article was created in September 2004 so shouldn't it be indexed now? I know I have created some articles this year and they appear in search results. -- Thorpe ^talk 21:48, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Er. Maybe Google's servers hiccuped? It's there now.... TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:05, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Google doesn't like URL searching too much, googling "site:en.wikipedia.org Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" shows it as the first result. -GregAsche (talk) 02:45, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

wikipedian profiles

The other day I made a little profile for myself. I've never read anyone else's profile. Today I uploaded a little picture of myself to put on my profile. Is this a gross misuse of wikipedia's webspace, or just plain gross? (this is a multiple choice question.) Teknomage 22:21, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

By "profile" I assume you mean your user page? If so, then putting your picture there is a fine thing to do. Don't put it anywhere else, though. And be resigned to the fact that idiots throughout the known universe will do unspeakably horrible things with your picture. — Nowhither 22:44, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

your breach of copyright

To whom it may concern You are using a personal photpgraph of my gt.uncle on your Anthony M Ludovici page without my or my family's permission. Please have it taken off immediately and contact us as to who gave you the authority to copy it onto your site.We have had it taken off the Anthony M Ludovici site for the same reasons,and I presume that is where you copied it from. Thank you Caroline Ludovici Jones

I assume you are refering to Image:Amludovici.jpg - the user who uploaded that image, User:Dionysus83, stated when uploading it that the photo is licensed under the GNU General Public License. (I have removed Caroline's email address, as per the instructions at the top of this page; I have also emailed a copy of this response.) -- AJR 23:25, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Request for immediate removal of copyright violation. Bovlb 00:30, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

It seems highly unlikely such a photo would ever be GPL so I've deleted it. There was also no source given, making it a speedy deletion candidate. Angela. 04:24, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

scanner

Have a look at Wikipedia's scanner article, and click on the meaning that fits what you want to know. If that is not good enough, then post again, and this time ask a question. Also, you probably want to ask on the Reference desk; this page is for questions about Wikipedia. — Nowhither 07:52, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

There's some kind of interference—scanners are unable to penetrate the other ship's hull! Lt. Cmdr. Seeker 08:03, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

They might penetrate if you threw the scanners at the other ship really hard. — Nowhither 11:31, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

bozo the clown

can you give me any info on when he was in windsor ontario

No I cannot. Though these guys might. --Ballchef 06:17, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Appropriate information on George W Bush and other controversial articles

I just found out about Wikipedia. I checked it out for the first time, searching few topics of both personal and general public's interest. Most articles seem to be much better than regular encyclopedias. But I was pretty disappointed with the article on George W Bush. We all know that he is a controversial figure and the article is mostly anti-Bush. I stopped reading it after reading about his Management Style. It says that he visited his ranch in Texas 51 times a year. Information like that sounds more like a tabloid than a serious encyclopedia. I think Wikipedia has awesome potential, but I think the monitoring people can do a better job of distinguishing "appropriate information" on controversial articles.

This page is almost constantly being edited, so it is likely you would see POV arguments and vandalism. If you think that there is information that doesn't belong in the article, then change it. Be bold! — Kjammer ⌂ 03:59, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

your site

This is one of the most confusing and difficult web sites i have had the mispleasure to try and navigate. I was directed here to find a list of Region 2 DVD's that have Audio description. Immpossible.

You have a title..."List DVD's With Audio Description" Click on it and it offers you a menu which includes Region 2 DVD's that have AD.

Click on this and nothing.....

Surely, if you have something decribed as "List" you should provide a "List" or am i being to simple???

I got to your site by asking for DVD'S with AD and ADI who have previously supplied this list mow direct you to your site...what a waste of time?

Because of Wikipedia's nature (as a perpetual work-in-progress), not every linked article exists. Red links indicate that an article does not exist. →Raul654 09:23, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

• This article was deleted after a week's discussion/vote. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of DVDs with audio description for the gory details, but basically no-one was keeping the information up-to-date. Bovlb 09:25, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

we got error message say error connecting the first mix sorry try again later

quary?

If I wanna get a membership what i have to do?

• If you are referring to joining Wikipedia, please click the register/login link on the top right of your screen and follow the instructions. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:10, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

How do I sign in & make it work

I have tried many times unsuccessfully to log in.

Each time it fails. So I clicked the link to have a new passowrd sent.

I use the new password & it staill fails. I do this a second time with a second password & get the same result.

In case its one of those poorly coded sites that give us Netscape users grief, I try it all again with explorer & get the same result.

I have Cookies enabled, I have gotten in before. So I would like to know if this is something new I am missing out on.

I have even tried upper & lower case versoin of my user name.

REgards

    Dave Morris

User - dmrh / Dmrh / DMRH E-mail - dmrh69@hotmail.com

• Do you get an error message about your login info being wrong, or isn't your login session sticking and gets you logged out automatically? - Mgm|^(talk) 14:14, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Francis Crick

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

Can I bring this page to your urgent attention, it needs to be "reverted" asap? Some of its content has recently 'disapeared':

1.5 Molecular Biology (part) 1.6 Views on Religion 1.7 Directed Panspermia 1.8 Neuroscience 1.9 Other Interests 2 Reactions to Crick and his Work 2.1 Religious Beliefs 2.2 Drug Use 3 References 4 Books about Francis Crick 5 See also 6 External links

Please re-instate what is a truly excellant web page; thanks a lot,

Martin Packer martin@packer34.freeserve.co.uk

There was a lot of editing yesterday, but the content all seems to be there now. Perhaps you're seeing an older version cached in the system somewhere? Try reloading the page. Shimgray 13:36, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Use in documentaries

Hello,

I am looking to use a section of wikipedia as a visual aid in a documentary. I understand the GNU Free Documentation License allows for free use of wikipedia articles in a written context, but what about a visual context, as in a no-budget independent documentary?

For a specific example, I would like to use the section on Conditioning as an interviewee is discussing the impact of the mass media.

Sincerely,

Michael

Yes, the GFDL lets you use content in any format. You should include a mention of the source, and I weould think A URL, visible on-screen when the page shows or near that time, and probably include one in the credits, too. DES ^(talk) 16:49, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

search page results summary

the search results page only shows the topic and not any summary information. Why not? paul gatfield

• As far as I understand, it's to spare the servers until the new ones bought with the money from the recent fund drive are installed. - Mgm|^(talk) 16:26, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Offensive Material

Whilst I was looking for a crossword answer I searched on "Lyric Poetry". The result is offensive. The correct content can only be viewed in edit mode.

Your deletion process is far too complicated and there should be a much faster way of getting rid of such material.

Otherwise I think Wikipedia is great and will continue to use it.

Thanks, Anon

The Lyric Poetry page was vandalized shortly before you viewed it. The vandalism was reverted less than a minute later by another user, apparently before you clicked the "edit" button. Seems like you were on the right path to fixing the vandalism yourself, but somebody else simply beat you to it! The change history for all articles can be viewed by clicking the "history" tab. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:32, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

That was very unfortunate timing on your part. I assume you refer to this edit of the article at Lyric poetry. That contained vandalism, which was reverted to the "proper" version within one minute. I think that's quite a fast way! By the way, if you ever find a page that has been vandalised, you can revert back yourself if you wish. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 15:26, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

oops!

Just a quick note:

I am a first-time user. Taking this awesome website out for a test drive.

Boy, oh, boy, did I ever screw up!

I have messed up an article on Ben Johnson...sorry. Have no idea how to correct my mistake.

I am the proverbial father who tries to assemble a swingset without reading the instructions carefully...well, now that I have embarrassed myself, I will read the instruction manual carefully!

Such an unbelievable website site, what a cool idea!

Will share it with my students.

Keep up the good work!

Wayne Purcell

Welcome to Wikipedia! I have corrected your mistake. In future, you can click on the "history" tab on the top of the page, click on the revision before the test (or, in future, vandalism), click "edit this page", put in an edit summary saying "revert vandalism" or something like that, and click save. Have fun being a Wikipedian! Hermione1980 15:25, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

ROMANS

What did the romans do for us???

The best place for factual questions is Wikipedia's reference desk. Here at the Help Desk we mostly answer questions about how to use and edit Wikipedia.

That said, the Roman Empire–for a time–provided its citizens with sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health. See also Monty Python's Life of Brian, and the Wikiquote entry for Life of Brian. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:43, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Brought peace? —Josiah Rowe 18:14, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

OK, but apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, public health and peace, what did the Romans really do for us? — JIP | Talk 05:25, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia? Pirateopidea?

I recently came across 2 very disturbing things; Uncyclopedia and Pirateopidea. The first, looks like someone hacked wikipedia, and created their own verisoned just messed up. You can see it at "http://www.Uncyclopedia.org". The second seems like a virus thats destroying the wikis. Ive heard about it blocking usres, deleting text, chainging pictures, messing up records, etc. You can read about diffrent people's accounts at "http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Memory_Alpha:Ten_Forward#Pirateopedia". These are both huge threats to wikipedia. They should be investigated fully. Tobyk777 17:49, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia is a parody, but I don't see how it is a threat DES ^(talk) 18:04, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia is a harmless parody, just a joke. Anyone can use the MediaWiki software that Wikipedia uses (its free), so it's not like they are ripping Wikipedia off or anything. It's too late for me to investigate this "Pirateopidea" (is that the right spelling?), maybe it's a suitable time on the other side of the world. --Commander Keane 18:08, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Pirateopedia: The link you gave above seems to discuss an appearance of this on 19th September, which also happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Perhaps that is why?

link to other web sites

When I first looked at Wikipaedia, I thought I read that it is not allowed to publicise one's own site, although I was unable to find that rule again when I looked for it recently. However, I notice that there are many links to relevant sites.

Can you clarify this rule, please?

Specifically, I should like to link the article on Drownproofing to www.drownproofing.com which contains more details about the technique.

Mike.

If a link only serves as advertising for a company, the link will be removed. But if the link adds to the educational benefits of the article without the user having to sign up for anything or pay anything, the link is generally kept. See Wikipedia:External links Dismas|^(talk) 18:32, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

The website is not commercial, so I can't see any objection. I added the link. --Heron 22:14, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

How can I post new article

Dear Sir,

I have created an account on this website, although i had posted an article a few days back. But I am unable to post any more articles. I am not able to understand how to do so..

I will be thankful if you help me.

Regards,

Mehrosh

• See Help:Starting a new page, Wikipedia:Your first article. You may also be interested Wikipedia:Tutorial and Wikipedia:How to edit a page. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:44, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps Mehrosh knows how to post an article, but something is preventing him from doing so since he created an account. What exactly is going wrong, Mehrosh? --Heron 21:10, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Can I edit notice at top of watchlist?

An ungrammatical notice about image copyrights has appeared at the top of my watchlist. Is this something I can edit, and if so, how? --Heron (admin, but not yet omniscient) 21:08, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

It's corrected. In future, the page is at Mediawiki:Watchdetails. Special:Allmessages lists all such messages. Cheers, [[Sam Korn]] 21:14, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Wow, that was quick! Thanks, Sam. --Heron 21:17, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Images

How do I add a picture to an article

• See Wikipedia:Image tutorial. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:03, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
  • If you specify whether you want to upload a new image, or insert an existing image to an article, I can give you specific instructions. --Commander Keane 08:12, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Umbelliferone as sunscreen

Has there been any followup to Dr. Walker's 8/7/05 short article on the use of umbelliferone (7-hydroxycoumarin) as a sunscreen? As he noted, the literature has several brief references to use of this compound as a sunscreen, yet it does not appear to be in use currently for this purpose. If so, why not? Have there been problems reported with it? There have been problems reported with coumarin, which in most people is rapidly metabolized to umbelliferone and glycosylated, but there appears to be no toxicity associated with umbelliferone. The toxicity of coumarin in a minority of people is apparently related to its non-conventional metabolism to produce an hepatotoxin.

Thank you

Dr. John Pesando

• Where was this article published? Notinasnaid 20:58, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Link Exchange Request

• I'm sorry, but Wikipedia strongly disapproves of linking for advertising purposes, which this is considered to be. (See Wikipedia:External_links#What_should_not_be_linked_to) - Mgm|^(talk) 07:02, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

biography douglas biber

what is TEU?

Overlooked information in the list of famous puertorricans

I was looking at the list and noticed two facts that were a bit askew. Tony Croato, although more puertorrican than many of the people that have been born in this beutiful island, was born in italy, raised in Argentina and them invited to sing at "El show de las Doce" and fell in love with the island. In my book, and the books of many, he as puertorrican as the flag or el coqui so i don't think anyone would mind to have him be called puertorrican but i felt that as an encyclopedia you needed to know this. The other thing that i noticed is that Mr. Manuel "El Olimpico" Rivera Morales is not in that list. He was a sports journalist and narrator and was given the medal as the "Best and most energetic narrator in the world" at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. His dedication and professionalism knew no bounds. In those Olympic games, one of the games that were to be transmited, where the puertorrican team faced the possibility of elimination, was not in fact transmited. He knew that his countrymen would be dying to know what was happening, so he informed the local stations that since the game would not be televised, he would work something out and try to at least so a radio broad cast. The broadcast was also cancelled. When he got to his room, he called back to the local station who was to be the local link in the broadcast and recaunted the whole game, narrating it as if it was happening at that moment. It took him more that two hours to complete it. We had lost the game and had been eliminated yet he called in and did this "broadcast".

Albert

Taking credit for articles already posted

I am brand new to this technology. I authored the original article on the Wodaabe but at the time I did not have an account. About thirty minutes ago I edited the article which had been revised but I forgot to sign in so the article got credited to an aol generic number. I just did some minor edits but this time I did sign in. A small portion of the text was credited to me when in fact I authored the most recent and most lenghty version of the article. Is there way for me to go back and get the credit for this article? Thank you.

• If you've edited while using a generic AOL IP it cannot be changed in the history, but you can add a note to the history, by making a trivial edit (while logged in) and mention this fact in your edit summary. You could also consider posting a note on the talk page saying you've wrote the first version of the article, and/or mentioning it on your userpage like I did. - Mgm|^(talk) 06:52, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
  • I fail to see why you seem to vainly be seeking some sort of "credit" in a collabrative endeavour such as Wikipedia. Dismas|^(talk) 19:49, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Category:Former students of the University of Oxford

This category contains subcategories listed as "Former student of..." except "Category:Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford", which is the same format as "Category:Alumni of Cambridge University" (which is all "Alumni of..."). Is the different treatment of these any problem, it just seems odd to have such a difference betweeen the two universities. Alf ^melmac 11:57, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Template for signature

Is it OK to use a template for my signature? I have been using a template for it for quite a while now (on a user subpage). When I am on my preferences it says "without automatic link; please don't use templates for this" on raw signatures. -- Thorpe ^talk 12:01, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

It's strongly discouraged. We like to keep template transclusion relatively low, since it strains the servers; wide use of transclusion in signatures could have very detrimental effects on large discussion pages (such as this). Shimgray 12:13, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but is this a general rule? --Thorpe :: talk | contributions 14:38, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

There's no formal policy, but -

Avoid ultra-cute signatures. Signatures appear in so many places that lengthy sig markup may become a significant burden. Never use images or templates in your sig.

from Wikipedia:Transclusion costs and benefits seems to generally sum up the community's opinion of the matter. I've seen the same message repeated elsewhere. Again, whilst there's no rule - does it help build an encyclopedia? Does it offer any advantages over simply using raw wikisyntax? Does it offset the extra server load it causes? The answers to these are generally no, so... Shimgray 14:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

• You can set an extended code in your preferences. I don't see why one would need a template for a customized signature. If you want to use the one in your preferences four tildes are enough instead of {{subst:User:Thorpe/signature}}. Considerably shorter and easier to do. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:01, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Unicode

How can I get the hiragana, katakana, and kanji to display when reading articles about Japanese? Right now, everything is replaced by "?". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.246.15.32 (talk • contribs) 08:05, 25 September 2005

It depends on what OS and browser you use. Let's take Windows XP and (I think) any browser thereupon. (This is the method I use after I reinstall Windows.) The easiest way I can think of is to go to a page that has the characters properly defined, such as a page on AnimeLyrics.com that has the Kanji (such as [4]) in Internet Explorer. Yes, that piece of crud. It (assuming you left Install on Demand turned on, or turned it back on for this (it's on the Advanced tab near the top)) automatically will install Japanese language support. You'll need you Windows XP CD handy. Once it's installed, it might want to reboot, but I'm pretty sure it'll work without rebooting. You should now be able to use any browser to view any site with Japanese on it, assuming it's encoded properly (it is done properly on (most) Wikipedia page). I hope that helps! --Andy Janata 14:05, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

That worked perfectly. Thank you very much.

Source for top of Help Desk

I'm setting up a wiki at another site, and I want to have a section much like the Help Desk. Is it possible for me to get the source for the top part of this page? If so, how? --Spitfire

Easily. The top of this page comes from Template:HD header. Just go there, and click 'edit this page' to get the source. →Raul654 13:55, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I didn't know where else to ask this, but...

I would just like to suggest that [5] should be added on the external links of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_Fowl_II. Thank you for your time!

Why not add it yourself then? -- Thorpe ^talk 14:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

love

what is love?

See tennis#Scoring. Notinasnaid 15:00, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Also see love. Dismas|^(talk) 19:46, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Chinese language

It is a shame that you don't have Chinese version. Chinese is the language most read and spoken in the world. Chinese language is merging because of its fast growing economy. Lack of Chinese version reflects poor vision of your management. It is a shame, after all.

Wikipedia is available in 207 languages, including Chinese. See List_of_Wikipedias. Notinasnaid 14:58, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

You mean meta:List of Wikipedias, I think. --Andy Janata 15:12, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

• It's at http://zh.wikipedia.org - Mgm|^(talk) 15:05, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

jimmy valiant

FYI Jimmy Valiant's real name is Harlod James Fanning not james valen. his book should be coming out later this tear or early next year with that proof.

• Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --Andy Janata 16:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

External Links Help

Hello, How can I properly add an external link for the IMDB. I have viewed examples from articles but I do not know how to find the correct id number for each. Can anyone help? (forgot to sign)Dakota 15:59, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

• The id number is simply IMDB's own title number, which appears in the URL IMDB uses for the movie, but minus the "tt" part, i.e. only the numbers. Is this what you are asking? — JIP | Talk 16:23, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
  • See Template talk:Imdb title and Template talk:Imdb name for instructions on the use of the IMDb tags. Dismas|^(talk) 19:44, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

prostate gland enlargement

• Wikipedia does not give medical advice Notinasnaid 17:52, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
• Why would someone want to enlarge their prostate gland anyway? I'm pretty sure it's not healthy to do so. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

What is a Bounder

• A bounder is a bit of a cad, or a rake; the person archetypally portrayed by Terry-Thomas. It's a fairly archaic term, now. Shimgray | talk | 18:40, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Moving Website (new)

Hi,

Although I have read some articles I havent found the solution. I would like that the website on "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Esn_spain" would be renamed as "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Student_Network/Spain", or "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Student_Network/España"

Both pages are about Erasmus Student Network, but mine's is more specific of a country.

Thank you in advance and sorry for any incoveniences!

• Two problems: first, subpages are not used in the main namespace, and User:Esn_spain is in Spanish, and this is the English wikipedia. Even then, a machine translation looks as though the article is a personal essay on ESN Spain, and not an encyclopedia article, which should never be written in the first person ("we") and which needs to conform to a neutral point of view. — mendel ☎ 21:57, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you Mendel. So translation and the articles must be descriptive. Ok try to correct that. bye!

IP and User blocking question

I'm not an admin, and I don't need an answer urgently, but I was curious. If an Admin blocks and IP, does this mean it only blocks those who post with that IP, or does it also block usernames who are connected through the same IP? Like, if someone with my same IP get's blocked, will I be blocked as well, or not because I have an account? Thanks. -- NatsukiGirl\^talk 20:36, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

• I asked about this previously, and the answer is yes, you will be blocked from editing from a blocked IP, even if you sign in to an account that hasn't been blocked. — JIP | Talk 04:55, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
  • That kinda sucks. Thanks for the quick reply. :) -- NatsukiGirl\^talk 16:32, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

retrieving a page that was edited and saved

(no message)

At the top of the page next to the "edit" tag there is a tag marked "history". Clicking this will enable you to view the article in its current revision, or any of its previous revisions. Each time an edit is made and saved, another line is added to the history.

-=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 20:46, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I created a new article today and I can't find it in search

Hi,

I just completed two days of work on a new article for W which is titled Team Liddell et al.

I followed all the copyright requirements, editing requirments, everything that I could find and then after a final passthrough edit, hit the complete or post or whatever it is button to the left of the preview. It then appeared on the screen with something like "wiki" in front of the name and a forward slash.

OK, I use the search window and am told the subject needs to be created.

So, what happened?

Do you have a timelag before an article appears, is there a prelim review before it goes up, or what?

Luckily, i saved all my text from the edit window and can start over.

What did I do wrong or have not yet done?

thanks.

Jim Liddell

teamliddell at yahoo dot com

I found your article at Wik/Team_Liddell_et_al, I guess you edited the URL in your browser directly and accidently deleted the second "i" in Wikipedia's URL path. http://en.wikipedia.org/wik/Team_Liddell_et_al automatically redirects to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wik/Team_Liddell_et_al , and that's where it ended up. I've moved it to Team Liddell et al now, even though that might not be the best name for it. Also please note that the article might not meet several criteria for being in Wikipedia, and might get heavily edited or even deleted - I haven't read it fully, but it seems a possibility at a cursory glance. -- grm_wnr Esc 22:46, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

translation

If i want to translate an article into a different language, do I just create another page with the translated text on it?

If you want to translate an article from english to another language, go to that language's Wikipedia and start a new page there. If you want to translate into english and the article is alredy on the English Wikipedia in another language, translate it into english on that page and report it on Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English. — Kjammer ⌂ 00:47, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Once you create a translated article, be sure to add a link to the English article using [[en:English Title]] in that page, and add something similar to the English page using the ISO 639 Alpha-2 code of the other language. For example, the article Helicopter has [[es:Helicóptero]] as a link to the Spanish Wikipedia. And Helicóptero has [[en:Helicopter]] that links to the English Wikipedia virsion. — Kjammer ⌂ 03:56, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Llamas

What is the speed a llama das ever gone?

Factual questions belong on the Wikipedia:Reference desk. This page is for questions about Wikipedia. Dismas|^(talk) 00:21, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Self-referential links

I've been running across a number of self-referential links lately in the captions of photos in biography articles. For instance, in the article for Lacey Chabert there is a picture near the filmography that has her in it with a couple other actresses. An anon user came along and wikilinked her name in the caption. Is there some guideline that I missed somewhere that says that this should be done? Also, if you want something in bold, why not just put three single quotes around it? I've noticed this a few times in the last few weeks so it left the realm of isolated incident and entered the realm of confusion on my part. Dismas|^(talk) 00:14, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• Names in captions and anywhere else in the article except the lead don't need to be bold, so both type of tags should not be used. I can't remember where it was in the manual of style but I'm pretty sure it's official policy. -- Mgm|^(talk) 11:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
• Regarding the links in captions, I beleive that links to other articles in image captions are encouraged if they are (a)apropriate and (b) not linked to in the article (or in the adjacent section in the case of very long articles). Thryduulf 12:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Thanks, both of you! Dismas|^(talk) 20:16, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

regarding article and art for team liddell et al

I wrote a factual article and attached a bit of art -- team emblem.jpg -- that i plainly stated in the caption was created by our team's webmaster for our use. I provide an example of our use of it from back in early 2004. I have been told to attach a tag to it, which I thought I had in the GFDL statement at the bottom of the initial posting of the art. The copyright in 2004 is not a governmetnal file copyright but under the copyright laws of of the United State of America, an owner can simply attach a statement that a created thing of art is copyrighted as of a year with the owner's name. this statement appears on the home page of two of our public sites and has since their creation months ago, last year for the Study.

Here are the addresses.

http://www.geocities.com/teamliddelldna

http://www.geocities.com/justuscousins

the Study is the first listed. A description of these acts and the creator and the copyright ownership appears in the caption in the article very plainly. there no place to put this information in the space provided at the art upload. Yes, there is some kind of screen full of scripted geek talk that I have been directed to but I can make no sense of it and don't know what it is supposed to do or if it is a model of some kind.

I have been told that I need to attach a certificate. I have no earthly idea what a certificate is or how to attach one, even if I could find it which I have not.

I have been told that the article is self-promtional. FOR WHO?? No one is making a dime out of this. there is no benefit to being self-pormotional. We are simply describing ourselves and why we are trailblazers for others to use as a model in the areas of the new genealogy and genealogy-genetics. We are providing information about a new science and how to use it. If that isn't the purpose of an encyclopeida, then what is the purpose.

Scarcely have I found out these things than I am informed that I have not created a talk page, yet I have used it twice there to that purpose and received msgs back. What more can I do? I'm using your system and it worked!

I am told by someone who I dont' seemt to able to reply to anymore that someone has incorrectedly pinned a type of let's vote to kill this stickem note to the article and I am to talk about this with that person. I finally figured out how to click on that "name" and all i see for all my effect is a standard menu of options that don't led me to a email address.

So here is the deal. You people know this system. You very obviously don't understand the nature of the article or the world that Team Liddell et al deals with.

Let's do this and if this doesn't work, then kill the article in whole or in part as you see fit--which is something you will do anyhow so my input is immaterial.

The art by our webmaster is our property and copyrighted by us in 2004. We have already granted you a GFDL. I dont' know about pinning certicates to it, I have no earthy idea of any other kind of legal release you want or how to get to it or how to use it if I could accomplish any of the preceding. But if none of this is sufficient, then kill the artwork as well.

I'll come back in a week or so and see if anything survived from this weekend after the expenditure of two whole days of my life as well as setting aside the work of this organization in an effort to contribute to your operation.

I am an old and wise retired journalist, a newspaper editor, actually, and I learned long ago to never spend my time trying to win in somebody else' game. I have fought far too many City Halls to be fooled into thinking the world works any differently than what I have already experienced in 40 years of newspaper work. I've given this my best shot--the world applaudes what I and others have accomplished and that's all that counts to me.

```` or whatever.

Jim Liddell teamliddell at yahoo dot com

I fixed the image tag, I am also preparing an email to the author. JeremyA (talk) 01:33, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

about that article

You may want to check to see if the team liddell et al article is even in your computers anymore. I just went to the my contributions page and I see no listing for it. If it has already been deleted--in fewer than five hours?--then save yourself the trouble of doing anything else.

It appears on the face of it that discussions with the poster aren't part of the game there. I'm tired and going to bed. I'm done with this. let the chips fall where they may.

Jim Liddell 01:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Jim liddell

team liddell et al

The article itself isn't in your contributions because you weren't signed in when you created the article. But the article is in fact still there as of right now. See Team Liddell et al. I don't know where all this animosity is coming from since everything that I've read so far about this has been trying to help you with creating a better article. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 02:41, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't you have a Korean version?

I think you know that Korean is the one of the most users on the internet.

Why don't you add a Korean version?

In fact, we have the service as same as yours.

If you go to Naver(If you can read Korean), you can see what I am saying.

Besides, the articles are almost 30,000,000 ea totally.

If you run Korean page, I think it will be very helpful to your website.

Moreover, worldwide users can get more information what they want.

Wikipedia is available in several languages, including the Korean Language version.

-=# Amos E Wolfe <sup>talk</sup> #=- 02:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• Maybe the list of languages on the front page is misleading people; it looks as if it should be comprehensive. This is the second such post in a few days. If someone added more... at the end it might help. Notinasnaid 08:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Page Size

How do you see the size of a page in terms of kilobytes. I want to see how long certain pages are. Thanks DaGizza 02:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

If you're on a Unix-like system, you can just do "cat | wc -c" at a command line, copy and past the article contents, then hit Ctrl-D. The number it outputs is the number of bytes. If you're on a Windows system, your best bet (aside from installing Cygwin and pretending it's a Unix-like system ;-) is to save the article text to a new text document, then look at the "Size" (not "Size on disk"!) in the file properties dialog box. Hope that helps! —HorsePunchKid→龜 06:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Voting for Featured Article: Can partial contributors vote?

Can somebody who has just partially contributed to an article vote for it in the Featured Article Nominations? If yes, what is the limit? 10% contribution? 70% contribution? Thomas S. Major 02:31, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• Everyone who contributed to an article can vote on it, as long as they disclose their involvement, so when Raul654 closes the nomination he can see how much "outside" support there is. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 04:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
• And to make my previous statement clearer. People who didn't work on the article can support its featuring too. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 07:41, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, MacGyverMagic! Thanks for the clear explanation! Thomas S. Major 04:01, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

law degree vs. Juris Doctor or J.D.

I was recently blocked for a while for substituting Juris Doctor and/or J.D. for law degree in biographies. The blocker said that the reference to the specific name of the degree constituted the use of "jargon." Why does his opinion control rather than mine? He did not say the same thing about the D.D.S., M.B.A.,M.D., or Ph.D. degrees. As a holder of a J.D., I am tired of seeing the name of this degree witheld from publication on the ground that people are unfamiliar with it. The reason they are unfamiliar with it is that it is so realy named in publications. The J.D. has been awared by all United States law schools since 1971. And, J.D. is after all, the origial doctorate, having first been awarded during medievil times by the University of Bologa.

I don't know the details of your dispute, but in general, there's a policy of using common names on Wikipedia, for instance United Kingdom instead of the full formal "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Degrees such as MBA, MD and PhD are well-known; JD on the other hand is not particularly well-known to the public (perhaps the legal profession needs to start an awareness campaign). When there's a dispute over something like this, you might seek the opinions of other users, perhaps try to create a consensus before proceeding with your change. -- Curps 03:43, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

In addition, are you sure you were limiting your edits to US-awarded degrees after 1971? Many of those with "law degrees" may have had an LLB, a BCL, a LLM - or, in some cases, a BA. There's also such things as the GDL, which I toyed with the idea of a while back. But I'd never have been in a position to gain a JD... Shimgray | talk | 11:22, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

How to format link to open in new window

Hi - How do I format a link so that it will open in new window, if this is permitted? Thank you. Sharnish (talk) 04:56, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I don't think it's possible, and even if it were, I would hope that it would not be permitted. If I want a link to open in a new window, I can shift-click it instead of click or middle-click. I don't need web pages trying to tell me how to manage my desktop. ;) —HorsePunchKid→龜 05:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

That and browser windows popping to the front when they've loaded are the two of the three biggest pet peeves I have about web sites. The third is obnoxious ads that either pop-up or cover the text I'm trying to read until I hit some little "close" button. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 05:41, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

If you look just to the right of the Edit Summary window, you will see "Editing help (opens in new window)" Sharnish (talk) Steve Harnish 05:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC) I was thinking of using the feature (with an identical warning) for an external link, so the user wouldn't find himself accidently redirected away from the article page, i.e., away from Wiki. I'm new at this.. Steve Harnish 05:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

It's a good thought, Mr. Harnish, but I think many people, including me, prefer to have control over their browsers. I intensely dislike multiple windows popping up. If I wish to open an external link (or internal one, for that matter), I will control-click it to open it in a new tab (in Firefox, users of other browsers may use whatever their equivalent is), or if I'm stuck using Internet Explorer, I will shift-click it to open it in a new window if I so choose. I think it's preferable to let Internet readers keep control of where they view pages instead of forcing it upon them. — Knowledge Seeker দ 06:48, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Album infobox template munges the layout

I took a deep breath and had a go at my first submission, being a description of a music album Drive. I attempted to use the "Album infobox" template, following the model found on Coldplay's Parachutes page, but the layout of the page has not been a success.

What have I done wrong? --Roydsd 05:53, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I've just solved my own problem - I had left extra carriage-returns within the text of the template --Roydsd 05:58, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

What is meta.wikimedia.org?

Before I succeeded in uploading an image file to the Wikipedia, I had accidentally uploaded the same file to meta.wikimedia.org. I'm not quite sure how I ended up on that site.

What is the meta.wikimedia.org?

What should I do about the image that I uploaded there? --Roydsd 06:05, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

(1) Metawikipedia is a wiki for interlingual cooperation between the various wikis. It's not really heavily used anymore. (2) To delete the picture you uploaded there, you ask someone who is an admin on meta. Luckily, I happen to be one, and I have deleted the picture. →Raul654 06:09, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks --Roydsd 21:02, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Version deletion

How do I delete specific versions of an article from the page history? I know this is possible, but I can't find any documentation. Now that the ability exists, it would be nice to have some technical documentation and some policy on when it's used. Isomorphic 07:11, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

First delete the entire page, then undelete only the revisions you want to keep. It's not generally done unless there's a copyvio in the page history somewhere the copyright owner has complained about (if there hasn't been a complaint it's usually just reverted), and if there's stuff like personal information from stalkers in a page history. --fvw* 07:14, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. It's a personal info issue related to a recent porn star "outing" incident. Somebody missed a bit. Isomorphic 07:44, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Bret Farve

I was reading his bio earlier and at the bottom of the first paragraph someone wrote "...and all women want to fuck him". Now I hardly think that's true (does this person know all women?). I tried for almost an hour to delete that little bit, but to know avail. Little kids read this, do you want them to see some stupid offensive crap written by some stupid obsessed Packer fan. I think not. If any one reading this would be so kind and take care of this problem I would be most appreciative.

Anon198.169.188.225 08:09, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

What you saw was vandalism. It has since been removed from the article. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. In the future, you can revert the article back to its "clean" version by following the directions at Wikipedia:Revert. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 08:16, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

What I find interesting is his claim "I tried almost an hour to delete that little bit, but to know (sic) avail". The fact that he tried to delete it means he knows that anyone can edit Wikipedia, and probably knows the way editing works too. But how could it take almost an hour to delete one sentence of vandalism? First I thought he'd been caught in an edit war with a persistent vandal, but looking at the edit history shows only two edits by the vandal. They are consecutive, and are spaced only one minute apart. "Almost an hour" can't fit into that. The next edit was 3 hours 50 minutes afterwards and removed the vandalism. Is Wikipedia's user interface or technical behaviour so bad that newbie users can spend almost an hour trying to discover how to remove one sentence and still fail? — JIP | Talk 14:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Fancy Editing

I read Wikipedia:Tutorial and went through most of the Help:Contents page and know how to ddo various edits. Yet for my user page and User nickname I want to add colour, coloured boxes around words and flashing words but can not find any instructions on where to go. Can you please help? Thank you! DaGizza 08:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• Try looking at the code for the signatures of User:Denelson83 and User:Starblind which should give you an idea on how to do this. I'm pretty sure they can help you with further questions as well. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 09:14, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
• I for one hope you chose to avoid flashing text or images. i find them highly distractign andf annoying, and so i think do many other users. I find them particualrly so in a signature that may be on many many different pages. Images in signatures add significantly to server loads, and wikipedia is slow enough already. Please don't use them. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 14:23, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
• As the first person said, go 'edit page' a look at the signature HTML and other code. open notepad, design your signature, paste it in your signature area in preferences, and make sure you tick the "raw" box. -- NatsukiGirl\<sup>talk</sup> 16:19, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Suitable Operating System

Sir i am unable to serch the suitable operating system for two differant purposes.

1. Suitable Operating System for Scientific Computations
2. Suitable Operating System for Multimeadia Development

With reason

please mail me as soon as posible

• (I formatted the above question for the anon who posted it) - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 10:38, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• Original poster: No one is going to e-mail you. We answer questions on this page. Concerning multimedia, most modern desktop operating systems attempt to target this niche. So any of MS-WIndows, MacOS, or Linux would work. Scientific computation, on the other hand, is a highly specialized field with very specific needs that are often not met by desktop machines. For general needs, any of the above three would work, but if you are talking about large scientific models, then you want to look into supercomputing or computer clusters. You could start with those articles. — Nowhither 20:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Font

"Book Antiqua" makes reading easier because it displays the letter "I" as an "I" and not as as an "l" or "1".

• If you are referring to the font Wikipedia uses: you can customize that by registering an account and adding a line of javascript to User:YourName/monobook.js. - 131.211.210.12 12:33, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Need help finding information about U.S. State energy options

Good morning,

I am doing a research paper and was wondering if you had information on what energy sources are available to individual states of the United States. For example, Minnesota has a nuclear energy source but what else does it have?

Good morning! You should read the top of this page one more time after you've had your coffee. Factual questions should go on the Wikipedia:Reference desk. This Help Desk is for questions about using Wikipedia code and things like uploading photos and such. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 12:10, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Who started Wikipedia

See the article on Wikipedia. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 12:51, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Image policy

I was wondering what was the official policy about the replacement of images in articles. For example, if an article has an image which is related to it, but you have a better image of the same subject (for example, better colors, light etc.) what should you do?

• Replace the original file with the new picture (i.e. keeping the same filename) and update copyright info/image descr ? (But I guess that would be rude for the user who uploaded the first image)
• Upload the better image under a new name, and replace in the article the old image by the better one? (But that would leave the old picture in the image namespace without it being used in any page...)

And in anycase, should the user who uploaded the first image be warned that his/her image in article xyz was replaced by another one? When you edit the articles, you don't warn users if you modify their sentences, is it the same things with pictures? Thanks in advance for the info Glaurung 12:35, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

IMO it would generally be better to upload the image under a different name and replace the image usage in the article. This would still allow the old image to be used in other articles, and it would allow other editors to consider which they thought was the better image. it would even allow the use of both is the editors think that is a good idea. IMO one should only upload over an existign image if one has a better version (resolution, cropping, etc) of the exact same image, not a different image of the same subject. Mostly I would only upload over an image I had personally uploaded, but I wouldn't make that an absolute rule. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 14:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

The chief difference between replacing another editor's text and replacing another editor's uploaded images is that retrieving replaced images is much more difficult. While an article's text history is freely available to all editors–permitting one to recover deleted text, or weave it into a future edit–reverting to an old version of an image is only possible for Wikipedia administrators. Even then, retrieving older images doesn't always work. Plus, an article's layout, formatting, body text, and (particularly) captions may be very heavily dependent on the particular features of a specific image; unless you check very carefully every place where the old image was used, you run the risk of inadvertently damaging those articles. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:37, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Reverting images isn't limited to administrators. See Image:Canada flag large.png to see some reverts, for instance. The "(rev)" link to the left of the upload date will revert to that revision of an image. And the history is maintained -- click on any of the dates in that image's history to see that revision of the image. (That said, I agree that an image should only be uploaded over if it is an improvement on that image, for some value of "improvement". — mendel ☎ 14:49, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies. I thought the second solution was a better way to go. But If an image is not used anymore on a page in wikipedia, doesn't it become candidate for deletion as per orphan rule? So replacing a image with an other one (with a different file name) may get the old one to be deleted, which would also be hard to revert. Glaurung 15:05, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Depending on the lisence it could probably be thrown at commons rather than being deleted.Geni 16:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

we are a social entrepreneur charity organisation so how would we register our organisation?

• Register with whom? I suggest you contact the group you want to register with and ask them.

  On the other hand, if you mean "How do we register with Wikipedia?" then the answer is: you don't. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a registration/listing/advertising service for organizations such as yours.

  — Nowhither 20:14, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Machine-readable data

Hi, I noticed that there is a Wikipedia DTD ([6]), I would like to know if there's any idea to bring all the wikipedia data in XML format, or if there is already a repository of such data. I usually work on the Artificial Intelligence stuff and I'm interested in exploiting the data in the wikipedia in order to build intelligent question answering engines. thanks in advance, David

Sure, you can download wikipedia articles in an XML wrapper from Wikipedia:Database download. Be warned, though, that the articles themselves (as embedded inside that) are just big ol' chunks of wikitext (our fairly simple markup language). We've had enquiries from AI researchers before, hoping to mine the database. They seem to become rather disheartened that the actual content isn't in a particularly machine-digestable format. Good luck. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I have been threatened!

I have been adding lyrics and Music Video links to artists pages

http://www.lyricstemple.com/artist.php/Mariah_Carey_Lyrics

Extraordinary Machine has threatened to block me from editing pages, claiming that mine is a commercial site and that I am using it for advertising. I guess I thought that a commercial site was one that sold products. I do have some ads. I have worked very hard on my site and would love to have people use it as a resource.

My site also has music videos which adds to the relevency of my links.

http://www.lyricstemple.com/videoartist.php?id=2

Could you please advise me as to what I have done wrong.

It now seems that Extraordinary Machine's current quest is to track down all my links from every artist and remove them.

If it is possible, could you please stop him and maybe have him put them back?

I have somehow gotten into a discussion with this guy, and I just do not want to waste my day arguing with him.

Wow, He is currently deleting all my links!

Please help.

Thanks.

jk Jkjazz 15:04, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

In general, people adding a bunch of links to wikipdia to promote their website, whether it's commercial or not, are likely to be treated like spammers. With the exception of a very few sites of great value, like IMDb, there aren't many sites that deserve to be linked from many Wikipedia articles. Details on how to avoid appearing like you're only here to promote your website can be found at WP:SPAM#How_not_to_be_a_spammer. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:18, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

The music pages also tend to dislike linking to copyvio sites, from the discussions I've seen here before - and a site reprinting scads of copyrighted lyrics likely falls under that classification, videos or not. Shimgray | talk | 15:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Note (for reference) Jkjazz was formerly 65.26.38.74 (talk · contribs). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:26, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Hi Finlay,

I am not a spammer, but I see how it might appear so, and I appreciate your comments. Each of my links points directly to the artists page on my site. Again, what I think my site adds in some cases is lyrics [Barry Manilow] (removed by Extraordinary Machine) and Music Videos [Mariah Carey] (removed by Extraordinary Machine) Could you please ask Extraordinary Machine to put my links back?

Here is the transcript so far of my discussion with Extraordinary Machine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Extraordinary_Machine#Commercial_Website.3F

I would appreciate it if you could please take a moment a help me.

Thanks you,

65.26.38.74 15:38, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Note that if your lyrics pages infringe copyright (I havn't looked at them, and have no opnion, but many lyrics sites do infringe) wikipedia policy (at Wikipedia:Copyright#Linking to copyrighted works is agaisnt linking to it. This might be a reason why these links were deelted. if if it isn't, please considere this issue in placing new links. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 15:44, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Lyrics sites aren't appropriate external links anyway, Wikipedia is not a web directory. Proper external links should either be to official sites for things or to sites that add encyclopaedic content or sources to the article in question. --fvw* 15:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I think that is puttign things a trifle over-strictly, depending on what you consider to "add encyclopaedic content". Ehen there is no copyright issue nor any page promotio issue, I think that a link to a site that host the lyrics or otehr works of a person described in an artilce is a wrothwhile link. I think that any link that is likely to provide furhter informatiuon useful to the reader and relevant to thje subject is a possible candidate for inclusion, subject to the copyright and non-promotion principles. However, when there are many sites with basically similer content, the list should be trimmed to only a few of the best. When an artilce mentions views helpd by people on a controversial topic and sources them to particular people or groups, a link to a site that expresses such views is often a very good idea, IMO DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:08, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Copyright was not mentioned as an issue in my discussion with Extraordinary Machine. If what you say is true, then wouldn't ALL lyrics sites be banned and not just mine? I do feel that my links add content.

So what if I just link to my music videos pages? I have 32 Mariah Carey videos on my site. Wouldn't that be something that your visitors could use?

65.26.38.74 15:56, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I think the point is less "what people could use" and more "what is genuinely informative". If people want to find music videos, they can go look for them — music videos are not, however, biographical information or "encyclopedic material" of some other kind. The policy as I understand it (which could be "not at all" :)) is that only material which is either their official site, or adds significant informative content should be linked. I'm sure your site would be something that some people could use, but this is not the place to find it.

Hope this helps in some way. —Zootm 16:10, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Many links to lyrics sites are probably improper under this policy and should be removed. Soemtimes the lyrics are used in an analytical or critical context whichj makes them at least arguably fair-use, in mansy cases artists have give a site permission to post lyrics, adn in some cases older lyrics or verse is in the public domain (sites quoting Kipling, for example). But the majority of lyrics sites probably do infringe. Note that music videos are usually copyrighted, adn the same considerations would aply to links to those. If you have a page where the artist in wuestion is discussed, and whaich provides additional info that is reelvant, why not link to that? DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:08, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Please note that this users actions included inserting his site above already existing lyrics links, inserting his links into diambiguation pages and inserting his link into the Bob Dylan page directly under a comment stating that the official site contained lyrics and no other lyric sites should be linked. --GraemeL <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:20, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

That was my main problem with this user: he/she inserted links to his website on articles that already included external links to lyrics web pages. It just screamed "spam" to me. However, if that wasn't his/her intent, then I apologise. Extraordinary Machine 16:49, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Hi Graeme,

Guilty as charged. I did not see the comment on the Bob Dylan page, only that there were no lyrics sites listed. Yep, the "diambiguation pages" threw me off. And I did list my Lyrics site above some others. I would have been happy to correct those mistakes. No Excuses. I'm learning a lot. However I am trying to make a point that my links have also been removed from pages that had no lyrics links at all!!!

Extraordinary MAchine has now written me and stated that he will not block my IP if I post my lyrics site on pages with no lyrics links.

Could someone get me a list of pages that I was removed from so that I can try again? This all took a lot of time.

Jkjazz 16:47, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

• I think other people might now remove them though. You don't seem to have dealt with the several points raised about copyright violation. Notinasnaid 17:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC) Actually I see you did respond, but you didn't really deal with the suggestion that you are linking to copyright violations. There are indeed many links to similar lyrics sites. It might just be that the jihad has not yet begun. At the moment the copyright hawks are working on deleting swathes of images from Wikipedia, I think. Notinasnaid 17:57, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Ignoring the rights and wrongs of a lyrics site, I am a bit concerned about your videos. The ones I played on your site appear to be streamed direct from a Yahoo Music server. Do you have copyright permission from Yahoo Music to show their videos without crediting them? --PTSE 21:56, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

English Image dumps

Hello, The Image dump (English) at http://download.wikimedia.org/images/wikipedia/en/ shows a large(16.7GB) tar file. But when I attempt to download it with Firefox; it is just 735 MB. I was wondering if you have updated the file but did not change the size or the Firefox is not able to download a file with that size.

Would you please let me know when and how I can get access to the complete Image dump (17 GB). I appreciate your prompt response.

Best Regards,

Looked for this in the FAQ: Where did my page go?

I added a page about Ukrainian Composer Svitlana Azarova with an external link to her official site and one to the non-profit organisation she is part of.

Page has disappeared without a trace. Can anyone tell me where or why and how to stop that from happening again?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 145.64.134.244 (talk • contribs) 1:04 EST, 26 September 2005

From the deletion log: 14:12, 20 September 2005 User:Fvw deleted "Svitlana Azarova" (nn-bio). This means that this admin belived that the page was "an article about a real person that did not indicate that person's importance or significance." Please read the page WP:CSD, particualrly point 7 under "Articles". Then feel free to leave a message on User talk:Fvw or at WP:VFU -- I strongly urge trying the talk page of the admin involved first. Or you could simply recreate the article with a clearer indication of why this person is notable. Note that a new version of the article must not be "substantially similar" to the deelted version, in general. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:15, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

It appears that user:Fvw deleted the article, as it didn't say why she was a notable person. For a person to be included in Wikipedia, its generally felt necessary that that person be "notable", and that their Wikipedia article say why they're notable. "Notable" really means "why is this person interesting" or "what is out of the ordinary about this person". Notable, in the context of a composer, would be stuff like she'd written a famous piece (one recorded several times perhaps, or a well known anthem), that she'd held some significant office (some countries have an official poet, composer, etc), or work with/taught/influenced some other notable person. Looking at some other Ukranian composers, Mykola Leontovych wrote a notable work. Dmytro Bortniansky was Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir, wrote a notable piece, and was edited by Tchaikovsky. Maksym Berezovsky seems to have written several significant works, and has a mention in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. In contrast, your article for Svitlana Azarova didn't say that she was notable for anything. If you decide to recreate the article, please make sure to say why she's notable - the other composers in Category:Ukrainian composers give a good idea of what "notable" means in this context. If you can't find anything that compares then she probably isn't a candidate for inclusion in wikipedia. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:18, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree with retaining the "notable" requirement, and don't want to see Wikipedia become another outlet for self-promotion or commercial promotion, but how notable must one be to qualify? A Google search for "Svitlana Azarova" returns about 45 pages just in English. One is her own home page, but the rest appear to be third-party sites, including one that purports to be a directory of composers. Finell 03:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Correcting misinformation

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:20, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Reporting / Removing Vandalism

Since I am writing from work, where blogging is blocked and/or prohibited, I cannot do anything about an instance I found. I am hoping you can do something about this entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Costner. Thank you.

Thanks. I reverted it. --GraemeL <sup>(talk)</sup> 17:37, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

How do I figure out how big an article is?

This question is from Wikipedia:Editing FAQ but the answer given there: Search results give the size, for example "Knot theory (3220 bytes)" doesn't seem to work. What am I missing? --hydnjo talk 18:53, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Open up the article, copy the wikitext (control-a, control-c), open up an editor (in windows, start->run->notepad), paste the text into the editor (control-v), save it, and go to that file's properties. →Raul654 20:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I meant (as the FAQ suggests) from within WP. Sorry for not making that clear. --hydnjo talk 20:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Lost edit

This morning I edited an article under the title "Trinity". The completed revision was saved. Before uploading it the article vanished. Is it possible to retrieve and submit it? Thanks.

• By "saved" do you mean that you clicked the "Save page" button, but then the article did not change as you expected? If so, did you write the words "The said council was presided over by a PAGAN Roman Emperor (Constantine)"? Notinasnaid 19:12, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Why not having a reference Wikipedia ?

Hi,

Sometimes the concerns about security arise again and again as well as vandalism. Why not having a snapshot of Wikipedia that couldn't be anymore edited, say for the one millionth article ? That would help to have a view we could use as a reference, like "seen on Secure Wikipedia" and not "seen on wikipedia the 12th of september". There are problably many other good reasons why such a snapshot would be useful although I don't yet know.

Cheers.

Is this Wikipedia:Pushing to 1.0 what you mean? --hydnjo talk 19:38, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

If you're trying to cite Wikipedia as a source, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Andy Janata 19:57, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I think that the questioner was referring to the concept of Wikipedia 1.0. --hydnjo talk 20:42, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

"Tone of article inappropriate for encyclopedia?" Help, please

Anyone -

Trying to determine how to edit my entry so as not to see the "tone inappropriate" warning at the top. Firstly, how do I determine what's wrong w/ the tone and what would be acceptable? Next, how, exactly, do I go about editing the content? Thirdly, is it possible to contact anyone at Wikipedia by phone or is this, Village Pump, etc. the only ways?

I'd very much appreciate assistance w/ this.

Thank you.

- JCM

What's the name of the article? Have you read Wikipedia:Introduction? JesseW, the juggling janitor 20:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

There actually isn't anybody 'at' Wikipedia to call. The whole million and more articles are created by visitors like you and me. And similarly, the Wikipedia policies and standards are kept up by visitors like you and me. Getting the right tone is hard. It isn't like an essay. It certainly isn't an advert. You should probably read as many articles on related topics as you can digest. But first, please do tell us what article. Notinasnaid 20:41, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Title page

For a couple of days now I cannot access the titlepage www.wikipedia.com or www.wikipedia.org using Mozilla Firefox. I can only use the language specific pages like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Apperently it works under MSIE. I get an error: 'The file / cannot be found...' Why is that?

It seems it has been fixed...

//What are the various aspects of Wikipedia and what is available to the user?

Pronunciation of Wikipedia

See WP:RD/L#How_to_pronounce_.22Wikipedia.22. Superm401 | Talk 21:45, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Logging out

Hello, everybody. I've been having a problem in the last couple of days, where I've been logged in, but I am randomly logged out, even if my last edit was a minute ago. I just started having this problem, and I use Firefox. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Thanks a lot! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 21:29, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

It's possible you're not really logged out, but it looks like you are, because you've someone hit a bug whereby you're sent a cached page (cached by an anon). In that circumstance, try ctrl-f5 (or shift-reload, I think both work in Firefox) and (if this theory is correct) the page will be reloaded with a correct version that reflects your logged-in status. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

The edits were credited to the IP address, so I presume I was really logged out. Next time that happens, though, I'll try shift-reload to clear the cache. Thanks! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 21:57, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, happened again. I reloaded it, shift-reloaded, ctrl-f5, and it still was logged out; even after I visited a random page, I was still logged out. It appears that I am really logged out. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 22:02, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Not really. I use Firefox (1.5b1) without problems (well, without Wikipedia problems). In such circumstances I often advise newbies to watch out for privacy and security programs like Zonealarm, which zap or expire cookies. Unless you've installed something like that, or some weird corporate proxy has been installed lately at your end, then that's unlikely. Have you offended any witches lately? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:10, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Nope. And the problem's getting kind of annoying. Maybe it's God telling me not to edit right now. :-) Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 22:13, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

If it helps to feel you are not alone, I am getting the same problem on SafariAndyJones 16:52, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

What language did King Arthur speak ?

Format question for User:64.252.147.174 --hydnjo talk 23:04, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

King Arthur the fictional character? Also, factual questions belong on Wikipedia:Reference desk. This page is for questions about how to use the Wikipedia. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 02:20, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Template to mark essays in wikipedia namespace

I've seen a template a while back for sticking on essays that people have put in the Wikipedia: namespace. It went something like "this page is an essay by a user and does not necessarily represent the views of the community". I can't find it any more though, could someone help? --fvw* 00:19, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I can't find a template, but you can add the essay to Category:Wikipedia essays. Maybe there should be a Template:Essay or Template:Wikipedia essay...or not. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 03:32, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Best of all I think would be if people just put their essays in their user space, but I don't see that happening. Anyway, thanks for the link, it turns out I was thinking of the disclaimer from User:Xiong/The Wiki Way which wasn't a template at all, which I've just copied for the time being. Given the number of essays in the wikipedia space I think such a disclaimer template for the top of those pages would make sense though. Anybody agree/disagree?

Essays generally go on meta:. Otherwise, user-space seems a better idea to me. [[Sam Korn]] 19:10, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

how the person/document identified by lawyer

Look down two questions from here as some of the general suggestions in that response apply here as well if you replace "Notary Public" with "Lawyer" --hydnjo talk 03:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Possible revert war

A possible revert war may be about to start in Roswell incident. I want to prevent an edit war, so I'd like to get neutral opinions on it. I just did a reversion, and I explained why in the discussion. Basically, the article is very pro-ET POV. I tried to bring it somewhere closer to NPOV (but not nearly close enough), and someone changed much of my material. Could some third parties look at it? Thanks. Bubba73 (talk) 01:15, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

how person /document identified by notary public

If you mean to ask how does a Notary Public establish that a person is who they are claiming to to be for purposes of "notarizing" a document then I suggest that you ask a Notary Public in your area as the criteria varies considerably from place to place and also varies within a given place depending on the subject matter of the notarization. --hydnjo talk 02:57, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

dear sir or madam, inquiry

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is prabin shiwakoti, and I am wondering if you are looking for someone who can provide you with data entry or web research services.

The job will be done with professionalism, attention-to-detail, and in a timely manner. Please do not hesitate to contact me, if you have have further inquires.

Regards, Prabin Shiwakoti, 2331 SW A Avenue, Lawton OK, 73505 Phone Number : 580-340-0177

Please look into how to contact Wikipedia for a job and also look here for ways that you can help. --hydnjo talk 02:46, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• We're not a company, so we don't hire people. We all write this for free in our spare time. Elfguy 17:00, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

"by permission of the author"

I want to publish a very useful article which has already been published in a 1995 book, and am in contact with the author, by email. I have the article up on my own website to show the author, and if needed, I'll give my website URL. The article already has External links (at the bottom) with some text about the author, but does not have an attribution at the top.

The question is, does Wikipedia have a convention for how to attribute the article to the author (such as by placing the phrase "by permission of the author" in the upper right corner? Above the title? Just below the title? In the title line?

I have already searched for such attributed articles, and am tired of searching. I have already searched WP's FAQs, guidelines including Style Guide (sp?), etc, etc.

For7thGen 02:54, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

What exactly do you mean by "publish" the article? Do you want to copy it to Wikipedia? (You should only be doing this if it is an encyclopedia entry, or something close to) If so, the author needs to agree to license it under the GNU Free Documentation License, which all Wikipedia text is published under. →Raul654 03:30, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

User:Raul654 is absolutely correct above. To elaborate a little bit, wikipedia articels are not supposed to be signed by any one specific author, or "attibuted" other than via tha history tab. All articles are (at least potentially) the creation of many different editors. All test is supposed to be used by the permission of the text poster, under the terms of then GFDL, given by the poster at the time of posting. No other "attribution" should be done, except for quotes from identified sources. Quotes should identify the person being quoted and should cite a source from which the quote is taken. Quotes shounld normally be relatively short compared to the size of the article in which they are used. So, the only way that the "useful article" you mentioned could be included in wikipedia would be if the author agrees to release it under the GFDL (in which case i would place a note indicating the source and the evidence of GFDL release on the article's talk page). At the least such an article would be reformatted to wikipedia's standard style, and it woulds be subject to editing by anyoen at any time, just as all wikipedia articles are, so the visible version might well not be the original author's work before long. It would probably be better if you simply used this existing article as a source to write a new article on the subject, and properly cited it in your new wikipedia article. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:33, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

What are some expectations for a technical professional in the years to come to be successful?

1. Finish High School,
2. Don't get pregnant (or impregnate someone) until you are married,
3. Don't get married before 21 years of age,

for any professional in the years to come to be successful. And this is just for starters. But, if you can do these things you will have at least gotten yourself on the right path.

Oh, and learn to follow simple instructions. This question should have been asked at the Wikipedia:Reference desk, not at the Wikipedia:Help desk. --hydnjo talk 04:40, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia on the National Guard

The Wikipedia article on the National Guard has major, factual errors and some glaring omissions. It does not pass muster as a basic, informational paper on the institution...mainly because of the history of the that it leaves out.

I served in the National Guard and for the last eight years of my career as Adjutant General of California...(commander of its Army and Air Guard forces).

I would be glad to submit some key corrections. The statement that the unit you cite in the article is the oldest National Guard unit is incorrect. That title belongs to a unit in Masschusetts---and because Cromwell disbanded the Royal Army of Charles I and that Army remained suspended during the time of the Protectorate--the Mass. National Guard unit is indeed the oldest military unit in the English speaking world.

The term National Guard is not explained even though it begs the question...how can a state militia be a "national" unit. This can be explained by something that the Wikipedia article neglects...that the National Guard got its name from a return visit, after his service in the French Revolution by the Marquis de Lafayette..who commanded the Garde Nationale during that conflict.

Little or nothing is mentioned about our National Guard's roots in the militias of late medieval England and the history of the growth of thoe roots in colonial America.

One of the Federalist Papers...deals specifically with the militias of the colonies considering the adoption of the federal constitution...but there is no mention of the relevant paper in the Wikipedia article.

My question..in light of the above, can I be of help.

12.72.113.245 04:00, 27 September 2005 (UTC) Frank J Schober Jr Major General (ret) California National Guard

Of course you can help, and you don't need to ask permission. Just click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of the article and get to work! As much as possible, cite your sources when adding information to articles. For assistance in editing, you may want to visit Wikipedia:Introduction. Also, if you'd like, consider registering—it's free and no personal information (or e-mail address) is required. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me on my talk page. Thanks, and welcome! — Knowledge Seeker দ 04:22, 27 September 2005 (UTC) [message copied to anon's talk page]

cost

how much does it cost

How much does what cost? Wikipedia? If you mean Wikipedia, it's free of charge. Enjoy! Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 04:19, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

How to subscribe to the daily article?

Hi,

I was subscribed to Wikipedia's daily articile. Then my email address chagned and now I dont get it ofcourse. I have changed to my new address in my profile update but I still dont get any mailers from wiki. I searched all over the site but fail to find it. Can you please direct?

• On the main page below the featured article blurb is a link to the mailing list you need to subscribe to. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 04:57, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Why differentiate Wikipedia and Wiktionary?

A dictionary IS an encyclopedia, so why make the distinction? Especially concerning the Internet, it's more useful when all the info is in the same place (i.e. the same web address) than in another "volume". Consolidate knowledge, don't splinter it.

• I don't think dictionaries are encyclopedias. A dictionary gives information about a word. An encyclopedia gives information about the thing a word represents. That's a rough summarisation, maybe others can give their opinions? — JIP | Talk 05:11, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• • Well, I just know where to begin. My mom would be quite upset about buying our first encyclopedia (which we could ill afford) for us kids, after all we had a perfectly good dictionary. And stupid me, I read the darn thing every day, when I could have read the much shorter dictionary instead and have done with it a lot sooner. Still. I'll never forget those treasured moments when opening another volume and starting another adventure. Somehow, comparing that experience to reading a dictionary is like comparing it to reading a telephone book, lots of information in both the dictionary and the phone book, but if you can't tell the difference then go and read a dictionary or a phone book. --hydnjo talk 05:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• Well that debate was lost three years ago when wiktionary started. The best we can do now is create lots of cross-links between Wiktionary and Wikipedia to help people find information. Pcb21| Pete 11:24, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Regarding ALL your ROMATH entries

They are ALL ILLEGAL, and you were informed months ago BY ME that Wikipedia DOES NOT have my permission to use my real name, Merle Elaine Matthews, OR my online name, which is Tachara Ch'Lan Romath .... in ANY manner. You were instructed that you are not permitted to post any articles using these names, and that I expected what you had in Wikipedia pages TO BE REMOVED. All that happened was that your group removed them FOR A SHORT TIME, then went right ahead and put them back up again. The one in charge of Wikipedia answered only the first couple of emails, then simply ignored the rest. I will not beat around the bush with any of you. Try explaining your actions to a lawyer. I do not intend to tolerate this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.91.172.143 (talk • contribs) Jtkiefer <sup>T | @ | C</sup> ----- 02:18, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Are You a Klingon?(unsigned comment from User:Gillean666)

Not that I know of, no. — JIP | Talk 07:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm not but my good friend is. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:12, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Tachara Ch'Lan Romath sounds Klingonish to me :-) Gillean666

Not to me. It sounds more like a Vulcan or Romulan name. — JIP | Talk 07:51, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Please by all means go right ahead and remove any illegal or inappropriate references that offend you or your interests. You should understand that when you address a comment to Wikipedia you are addressing thousands of individual editors and not an editorial board as you seem to assume. You are as free as I am to make edits to your liking. You however, are much more concerned with the outcome of those particular edits so it seems reasonable that you go ahead and fix anything you deem inaccurate or inappropriate. --hydnjo talk 06:04, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Please also be advised that making legal threats against Wikipedia, regardless of the reason, is a quick way to get permantently banned. — JIP | Talk 06:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• Information of all kinds, factual or no (fact or opinion) are legal and public domain. Freedom of speech and all that. Only copyrighted pictures and such can be considered illegal, yet even so, there is a thing called Fair Use, which allows small quotes, pictures... etc owned by yourself to be used when accompanied by an article or review, or for educational purposes. So, you pretty much don't have any leg to stand on. We can say and write whatever we want. Lucky for you Wikipedia has a rule to maintain NPOV. YOU also have the liberty of editting those entries. Wiki cannot be accountable for temporary vandalism... yadda yadda. -- NatsukiGirl\<sup>talk</sup> 16:30, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Furthermore to this, it is not illegal to use someone's name for reference, even if they don't want you to use it. There may be an issue with copyright over the online name, but it's fairly clearly fair use in the US. If the articles constituted libel I believe that the contributors could be held responsible, but not Wikipedia. Libellous entries should be changed anyway. —Zootm 13:05, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

The original Romath article was deleted by vote due to non-notability of the subject, not due to any caterwauling on her own part about how it was "illegal". The more she whines, the more notable she makes herself as a "net.kook", making her more likely to deserve mention. *Dan T.* 02:04, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

NOTE:User:209.91.172.143 (the original poster of this thread} has been blocked for 1 week for legal threats. Jtkiefer <sup>T | @ | C</sup> ----- 02:18, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Does Wikipedia welcome original map collections - i.e. atlases

I am creating thousands of photorealistic computer simulations that portray the earth as if photographed from a high flying airplane or satellite. Is there a place for such reference images of the earth in Wikipedia?

Examples may be found at: http://130.166.124.2/world_atlas/index.html

Many more at: http://130.166.124.2/library.html

I am the creator of the images and hold all copyrights, so no other permissions need be obtained.

william.bowen@csun.edu

24.24.165.185 05:39, 27 September 2005 (UTC) William Bowen

I'd suggest that first of all you "Log in" so that other interested users will have a comfortable place (your User talk:username) to continue this dialogue. As a logged-in member of the community you'll find that you will have more standing (and influence) over matters that interest you. This is by no means a requirement - just a suggestion. --hydnjo talk 06:15, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• Yes, such images are quite welcome, and like Hydnjo I urge you to register a username. Also, note that by releasing the images to Wikipedia you need to put them under the GNU Free Document License which not only allows Wikipedia to use the images, but others as well. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 07:54, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

might be better off on commons though.Geni 09:15, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

These are spectacular! Please, please upload them to our commons collection! alteripse 14:55, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Is there a date or edition attached to Wikipedia other than present or cornerstone?

One of the objections I have to online source materials is that they often are rather ambiguous as to historical context. WHEN something was published has much to do with what is published and why it's published. For example, one of the usefulnesses of bound encyclopedias is that they are contained within an edition, which is connected to a date and has historical reference an sich. It seems to me that by not affiliating Wikipedia with a certain date (other than present - which is rather nebulous - or cornerstone date) by publishing in editions, this carries an odd intonation of ultimate temporizing to avoid being caught in the wrong. Hard copy volumes have always had this problem, and this, strangely, is where their authority is derived.

• If you check the history tab on any article, you can find the series of revisions through which the article has been. Each is presented with the name of the last author and date of the edit. Information is of its nature temporal, and Wikipedia uniquely affords the opportunity not only to keep apace with new developments, but also to preserve historical data. Warofdreams talk 09:11, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• Great! Now where can I find information on general content changes to Wikipedia from one month, or one year, to the next? For example, changes to very generalized themes affecting many different pages at once...like changes to what is to be included in "Geography" or "Law and Government" and such, or is this on a page by page basis?
  • This feature is essentially restricted to individual pages. However, the "related changes" link on the sidebar of each page and category will show you (up to) the 500 most recent changes to articles linked by that page, or present in that category. In addition, if you have an interest in certain articles and are keen to keep track of changes to them, you can use your Wikipedia:Watchlist. Warofdreams talk 10:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
    • It would require quite a bit of computing power (or time), but you could download the histories of all the pages in wikipedia(available from http://download.wikimedia.org ), and pull out from them the versions of the pages as of a certain date, and have what you are looking for. Also, there is a version of Wikipedia as of December 20, 2001 at http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org . And many of our mirrors(see Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks, copy older versions of the site, so you could look there for old versions). Hope this helps! JesseW, the juggling janitor 23:15, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

A note: You may want to get a user account, dear anonymous. It makes many things easier, most notably having a conversation like this. When you've got one, you can sign your posts on talk pages with your name and the time you posted by adding ~~~~ at the end of your post. — ナイトスタリオン <sub>ㇳ–ㇰ</sub> — 10:44, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

i want more information in these areas

sir, i am rajesh from India. I used to see all ur answers and after seeing your questions and answers i want more information in these areas.

Ceramic resonators,Optical Communication,Elements of antenna theory. Digital Electronic Circuits (Transistor as a switching element; Boolean algebra, simplification of Boolean functions, Karnaugh Map and applications; IC Logic gates and their characteristics; IC logic families: DTL, TTL, ECL, NMOS, PMOS and CMOS gates and their comparison; Combinational logic circuits; Half adder, full adder; Digital Compartor; Multiplexer Demultiplexer; ROM and their applications. Flip-flops, R-S, J-K, D and T flip-flops; Different types of counters and registers; waveform generators. A/D and D/A convertors. Semiconductor memories)

Electromagnetic Theory (Transmission lines: basic theory, standing waves, matching applications, microstrip lines; Basics of waveguides and resonators; Elements of antenna theory)

I would recommand engineering classes, but Wikipedia can be useful also : Ceramic resonators, Optical communication, Elements of antenna theory. Digital Electronic Circuits (Transistor as a switching element; Boolean algebra, simplification of Boolean functions, Karnaugh Map and applications; IC Logic gates and their characteristics; IC logic families: DTL, TTL, ECL, NMOS, PMOS and CMOS gates and their comparison (...)) and so on... Have fun! Glaurung 11:57, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

why are Louisiana's laws are different than any other laws

Because they are based on the Code Napoleon or Napoleonic code in force in the Louisiana Territority when we bought it from Napoleon so they could keep fighting in Europe and we could keep expanding to the west. The rest of US law is derived from English common law. This question should have gone to the reference desk however. alteripse 14:59, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Please make correction in Deroy Murdock article

National Review Online columns

{{US-bio-stub}}

Dear Wikipedia:

I happened to find my biography on Wikipedia and am flattered to be included here.

I wanted to make a couple of corrections and also send you a photo.

My corrections/edits are below in ALL CAPS. When they are incorporated, they should be in caps and lower case, as normal.

Many thanks.

Any questions, please call <number removed> or e-mail.

Best wishes,

Deroy Murdock

--

Deroy Murdock From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Deroy Murdock is a conservative syndicated columnist, a contributing editor with National Review Online (NATIONALREVIEW.COM), and a political commentator WHOSE OPINION PIECES APPEAR IN the Washington Times, NEW YORK POST, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER AND OTHER NEWSPAPERS ACROSS AMERICA. HE ALSO IS A FREQUENT GUEST ON THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL, CNN, PBS, AND OTHER TELEVISION NEWS CHANNELS.

Murdock's conservatism is of a libertarian bent. He differs with many of his fellow conservatives and National Review contributors by supporting gay marriage.

Murdock is also a Media Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in ARLINGTON, Virginia. HE IS A VETERAN OF THE 1980 AND 1984 REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNS AND WAS A MEDIA CONSULTANT TO FORBES 2000.

Murdock received his AB in Government from Georgetown University IN 1986 and an MBA in Marketing and International Business from New York University in 1989. A NATIVE OF LOS ANGELES, MURDOCK RESIDES IN NEW YORK CITY.

PHOTO:

My publicity photo can be found here:

http://assets.shns.com/Murdock,Deroy.jpg

http://www.shns.com/shns/art/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.detail&assetname=Murdock,Deroy.jpg

Please credit the photo to Andrew Krauss.

[edit] External Links

Dear Mr. Murdock. Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. Now about that p[hoto -- are you releaseing it under the GFDL? Images so relased can be used by anyone, provided that they conform to the GFDL requirements, which includes providign proper cresit to the original source. Wikipedia cannot generally use copyrighted images unless they are released under the GFDL, or are available under Fair use, and we much prefer the formal release. You can upload a copy of the picture yourelf, at Special:Upload. If you want help with the mechanics of any of this, please ask, but if you don't have the time or interest to make corrctions yourself, you can not safely assume that others (none of whom are paid) will chose to make the edits that you suggest. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 16:15, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Creating page to redirect

I am intending to write an article which could be called The Ramsay Principle or Ramsay v. IRC. I have decided to call it The Ramsay Principle. However, naturally, I would want anyone searching by the other name to find it, so my questions are:

1. As a matter of policy, is it "the done thing" to create an article (in my case Ramsay v. IRC) which exists only to be a redirect to another article?
2. If yes, is it better, or worse, if I also create all the obvious alternatives (Ramsay Principle (no "The"), W. T. Ramsay Ltd. v. Inland Revenue Commissioners) and suchlike?
3. How do I actually do this? If it's in the tutorial or somewhere, can you give me a link?

AndyJones 16:44, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• Sure you should. Just create the other articles and write this:

#REDIRECT [[The Ramsay Principle]]

That's all. Elfguy 16:54, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't you need to use underscores in place of the spaces in the title to which you are redirecting? Finell 04:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Apparently not. Elfguy's suggestion worked. I've since found the relevant "how to" page which says that wikipedia automatically capitalises the first letter, and inserts underscores for spaces. Therefore a link called the Ramsay Principle sets wikipedia looking for The_Ramsay_Principle AndyJones 16:49, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Oakland Raiders

Can someone take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Raiders and see if you can revert it to something useful. -non registered user trying to get info on the Raiders early records.

What you saw was vandalism. It was reverted after less than one half hour. Note that any user, even a non-registed user, can see the page history (use the tab labeled "History") and can revert vandalish (see Wikipedia:Revert). DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 17:40, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Fancruft?

In browsing, I discovered a series of seven articles written today by 81.131.112.28 and describing songs on a not yet released album by the band Rammstein. The articles are well written, citing quotations from two magazines devoted to music news. However, I question whether individual songs (or even albums) which have not yet been released can be noteworthy, and can't rule out the possibility that this is advertising. What is an appropriate response showing proper Wikiquette? --Unconventional 20:09, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• I've read a few and they're riddled with assumptions, reviews (which are non-encyclopedic) and random quotes. I think they should all redirect to a page on the album in question where the verifiable information can be gathered. - 131.211.210.12 07:32, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

is it ok if i edit an article (1984) tu put my birthdate?

i'd like to edit the article '1984' to put my birthdate and my name, next to all those big events and famous people, just for fun, but i don't know if it's ok to do that so i thought i'd ask. thanks

--Toto 021 20:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

We'd rather you didn't, as if everyone did that the article would become rather long and a lot less useful than it is now. Thanks for asking first though. Editing wikipedia with information about big events and famous people is sort of fun too though (or even just correcting typos). If you'd like to help us make the best encyclopaedia possible, have a look here on how to get started. Welcome! --fvw* 20:41, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

• However, if you join Wikipedia and also make an account on http://meta.wikimedia.org you can add your birthday to the list of Wikimedians here or on the userpage every user gets. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 07:36, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Editing Article Titles

I was about to take the plunge and make my first Wikipedia edit, but I seem to have decided to do something that's hard to do... The article entitled "The Wreck of the Old '97" should be entitled "The Wreck of the Old 97" (no apostrophe) as it refers to a train number, not a year. Is is possible to edit a page title without creating a whole new page with the corrected title and merging the old page into it?

--JohnPomeranz 21:28, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Once you have a few edits under you belt the "move" tab will start appearing at the tops of pages. That is how one moves a page. Simply copying and pasting the article doesn't move the article's history with it. See Wikipedia:Page moves. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 21:38, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

---

Once you have been around a while and made a few edits, another tab will appear marked "move". This moves all the page's history as well as the article. (The history is a copy of every edit made since the article was created. Very useful for getting rid of vandalism!).

A common courtesy after this is to create an article with the old title and put in #redirect [[new title]] so anybody typing the old title will be redirected with the new one. After this, click "what links here" and go to those articles and change the link to the new title. This is not strictly necessary as the redirect will send users to the new article, but it is good practice. Using the above method preserves the history, a simple copy and paste does not.

As you are a new user, you will not have the "move" option yet, but when you do you will know how to do it.

Now moving Wreck of the Old '97 to Wreck of the Old 97

Now completed (redirect page was created automatically)

-=# Amos E Wolfe <sup>talk</sup> #=- 21:45, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

I thought logged-in users always had a move option. Is this another new-fangled MediaWiki 1.5 feature? — JIP | Talk 07:47, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! FYI, I've added the event to the anniversary list too. (But feel free to take it back out if you don't think it belongs there... This is Wikipedia, baby!)

--JohnPomeranz 21:52, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Use of CAMPHOR in Fireworks, PLEASE let me know!

There seems to be 'nil info' on 'recipes for fireworks', and what is contained in most fireworks being imported to Australia - from China etc; we know from other sources (e.g. Google) that it has been known "since 1823" that CAMPHOR has been put-into the recipe for most firreworks, to make them brighter, and (possibly) make more explosive power; but there is NOTHING I can find about this important subject, nor the Safety of CAMPHOR on your 'Page/s; ALSO, it is entirely incorrect to state that Camphor laurel tree species Cinnamomum camphora mainly grows in Borneo; the international reference-Text that disproves that statement is by Donkin (1999) Dragon's Brain Perfume; An Historical Geography of Camphor in the World. <Univ.Oxford>Europe.

Writer/Author: Joe A Friend, Director

Camphor laurel Research Centre,@ Lismore, NSW. Australia. www.camphorlaurel.com Email: removed to stop spam

Welcome to Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit - this includes YOU. You don't even need to log in but there are many benefits of being a registered user. Why not visit the pages you mention above, click "edit this page" and start editing. Tell us what you know and tell the world!

-=# Amos E Wolfe <sup>talk</sup> #=- 22:00, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

miguel garcia vivancos

I found information on miguel garcia vivancos on the spanish wikipedia, but cannot find it on the English Wikipedia. How do I get a translation of the Spanish version?

Do you mean Miguel García the baseball player? or Miguel García the Spanish anarchist? Also, I tried searching the name "Miguel Garcia Vivancos" on es:, but I got a message saying No existe ningún artículo con el título que has escrito. which means something along the lines of "Article does not exist with the name (title) entered" Are you sure the name in question is spelled right? Are there supposed to be accent marks on the name?

If there is no english translation, make one. And link the two together by placing [[en:English Title]] in the Spanish article and [[es:Spanish Title]] in the English article. — Kjammer ⌂ 04:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Waltham Hunter

I have a Waltham Hunter pocket watch that has been handed down to me by my grandfather. It is engraved with the initials BP and has a medallion attached by chain which also has the initials BP engraved upon it.

My granfather told me it belonged to Baden Powell and was given to a family member as a token of appreciation by Baden Powell.

Are there any recores of this watch being purchased for Baden Powell.

A warning for Mac users!

Can a pop-up warning be arranged for Mac users (and possibly others) who are using non-Unicode compliant browsers (other than Explorer), or whose browsers are Unicode compliant but not set up correctly?

I have been editing and submitting articles to Wikipedia for several months, but I've only just discovered that I can apparently screw up all the diacritic marks (accents etc) on a page simply by opening it for editing, making a small addition or alteration, and saving the page. I use the Safari browser and Mac OSX.2.8. I had originally tried using Explorer, but when I opened the editing window I got a warning at the top of the editing panel (WARNING: Your browser is not unicode compliant. A workaround is in place to allow you to safely edit articles: non-ASCII characters will appear in the edit box as hexadecimal codes.) so, as I find hex incredibly hard to use except in small amounts, I swapped to Safari. No warning appeared, so I went ahead with some editing.

I found that I could often see a page correctly when I first visited it, but that some time after opening it for editing, any diacritics already on the page would (at some stage) be replaced with black diamonds (replacement characters: �), both in the editing pane and on the saved page. Which is annoying, so I tried replacing some accented characters using the Insert: pane, but clicking on a character did nothing. Cutting and pasting from the Insert: pane seemed to give a usable character, but this would also revert to � at some later time. So I then used the code as recommended in Editing help: for example "&" followed by "eacute;" to give é. But it was pointed out by Badagnani that this was making the pages more difficult for others to edit.

For a long time I thought the replacement characters were just affecting what I saw on my browser, but earlier today I added some information to the Bodhran page and was contacted by (mendel) who pointed out that parts of the page which I had not actually physically touched had been altered by my edit: all the "a-fadas" (a acute or á) had turned into �s. This is an extremely alarming aspect of browser incompatibility as it is not immediately obvious to the user what is happening.

I hope that I can rectify my problem by resetting my browser preferences to use Unicode<sup>TM</sup> (UTF-8) or by changing to Firefox. But I'm concerned that dozens of Mac users must be making edits to Wikipedia every day, using the standard settings on their browsers, without realising the danger. Can a prominent warning be automatically displayed to direct us to some instructions as to how to set up our browsers correctly, before we start unconsciously wreaking havoc? SiGarb 22:48, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Curious: I'm using a Mac (OS 10.3.9, Safari 1.3.1) and I've never had any problems with unusual characters on Wikipedia — at least, to my knowledge. How do I find out whether my system is Unicode-compliant? I'd be interested in finding out more about Macs and Unicode compliance. —Josiah Rowe 00:35, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

IE 5.X on MAC-OS (9.X, I think) usually fucks up pages. Please don't use this Browser, use something newer. -guety is talking english bad 02:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Speedy Deletion?

I created a page called WikiConstitution. I don't think it qualifies for any of the Speedy Deletion criteria, but it has disappeared! I can't quite work Wiki well enough yet to figure out where it has gone. Advice much appreciated.

Thanks,

llemma.

You actually created the page under the title Wikiconstitution. This page was speedy deleted by Adam Bishop, who cited WP:NOT, "wikipedia is not a social experiment". If you feel your article did not qualify for speedy deletion under WP:CSD, you should contact that user on User talk:Adam Bishop to see about having the page undeleted and put through WP:AFD. --Canderson7 00:48, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Dear Canderson,

Thank you for your quick response. I can't find "wikipedia is not a social experiment" under the list of things wikipedia is not, nor is violation of that list grounds for speedy deletion. (I can't imagine it would quite suit that title, anyhow.) I will contact the user.

Well I wasn't thinking of any specific criteria, I just wanted to type something into the reason box. The thing is, what you did, don't do that. It's not a game, it's not Mad Libs, it's not whatever you were trying to do. Adam Bishop 05:22, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Besides which, the initial version of the Wikiconstitution article was a direct copy of the United States Constitution. I feel this assumes all Wikipedia editors are from the United States. This is clearly false - we have editors from dozens of countries all around the world. To single out one country whose constitution to work on can be perceived as nationalism and may offend some users. — JIP | Talk 15:58, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Good point; perhaps that's something an individual user could edit, change, or comment on.

Dear Adam,

I realize that you disagree with what I was doing -- but those are not the premises under which an article is subject to Speedy Deletion. I would appreciate it if you would follow those rules, undelete the page, and allow it to undergo the full process of subjective discussion and deletion. I do not think a dismissive tone is necessary here; I'm interested in what the consensus will be and I am perfectly happy to abide by it.

You can put the article in the Wikipedia namespace under Wikipedia:Wikiconstitution or Wikipedia:Wikiproject Wikiconstitution or something. The Wikipedia namespace is for wiki pages that are about Wikipedia itself. The main namespace is strictly reserved for real encyclopedia articles and should not be used for social experiments. — JIP | Talk 20:46, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

If you want the origianl text from Wikiconstitution to be retrieved, I (or any other administrator) can do that for you. --Canderson7 21:14, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

I have undeleted the article as an invalid speedy deletion, and listed it on Articles For Deletion, as is customary when reversing a deletion, invalid or otherwise. I agree that this is inappropriate for Wikipedia, but it might be quite fun at wikicities, or somewhere else. JesseW, the juggling janitor 23:21, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Roman Republic defaced

See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century)

They Fucked all night long till there asses could not take all the sex|Res Publica]] Romanorum) was the republican government of the city of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, which sometimes placed at 44 BC the year of Caesardictator or, more commonly, 27 BC the year that the Roman Senate granted Octavian the title "Augustus".

I tried to edit out the offending text (They Fucked all night long till there asses could not take all the sex), but it does not appear when I use the edit tools.

See Wikipedia:Revert. I fixed Roman Republic, but could not find something at Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). -guety is talking english bad 02:06, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

keep up the good work wikipedia

i dont know what people have to complain about

this website is LEGENDARY compared to others

its simple to use and give 110 per cent accurate information

i would like to thank wikipedia because you guys always help me

and truse me my assesments are HARD

thank you soooooo much

cheers

theshaddo93

Thanks. Wikipedia is built by ppl like u and me, so you can help us by contrubuting!  --  W  P Talk 04:05, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Wrong classification?

I was looking at Image:Venus-venera13-right.jpg and noticed that there was Template:PD-USGov-NASA used. Shouldn't it have a different copyright? USSR created in 1982, and Template:PD-USSR only covers up to May 27, 1973. Even if it is from the NASA's webpage, I'm wondering about its copyright status... I would appreciate your opinion on this. Thanks,-- WB 02:09, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Almost everything by the US govt is Public Domain. See Work of the United States Government.  --  W  P Talk 04:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

But it was taken by Venera 13 spaceship... Which was USSR's, not US's. -- WB 05:19, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Agree that this isn't a work of the US government. Just because it comes from the .gov domain doesn't make it PD. Evil Monkey∴Hello 05:34, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

The version on Commons has been speedied and put the en.wiki version on PUI. Evil Monkey∴Hello 05:44, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you, -- WB 08:38, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Company name

I notice that many company names are listed on Wikipedia. The welcome page of Wikipedia indicates that company names and descriptions are fine as long as they are written in an objective and unbiased style. Is it ok to add companies that are not "garage companies", but are also not massive, publicly-traded ones?

It's always hard to tell where the line falls in the middle like that, but there's a proposed guideline at WP:CORP and discussion at its talk page. — mendel ☎ 13:47, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

DESIRE TO CONTRIBUTE TO WIKIPEDIA

As a freelance historian, I've recently discovered Wikipedia & find it admirable & extraordinarily useful. In particular, as editor of the diaries of the country house conservationist James Lees-Milne (1908-97), I constantly need to identify members of the English peerage, & am amazed to discover that the entire peerage for the past eight hundred years seems to be listed on Wikipedia.

I'd like to contribute a few short articles on the subjects I know about, but am uncertain how to proceed. I have no expertise in the creation of web pages, and don't know how to check what may already be there (the wikipedia search engine currently appears to be disabled). Can I draft some short pieces and submit them to some person who can check and upload them?

Michael Bloch (London UK) email: (removed)

Please, do contribute! We'd be more than happy to have someone who's as anxious to help as you seem to be! You mention that you don't have any experience with making web pages. It's really not that hard. You're not really creating pages so much as writing articles. The "page creation" is largely handled by the Wiki software. For starters you may want to check out the following links: Wikipedia:Searching, Wikipedia:Create an account, Wikipedia:Tutorial, and Help:Starting a new page. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 08:34, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Also, please don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! If you can't, or just don't feel like making things "link" properly, or formatting things nicely, don't worry about it! We would much, much rather have you contribute useful data in any form than to have you stay silent because you don't think you could format it correctly.

The beauty of Wikipedia is that it is collaborative. Just add the content, and you will find people happy to fix the formatting and generally blend it seamlessly into the rest of Wikipedia. Everyone has something to contribute; there are folks here who are very talented at making Wikipedia articles look pretty, and who enjoy doing that kind of work. Other folks are better at adding useful raw content. Some are great at both, but if you're not, that's absolutely no problem!

Cheers, and welcome to Wikipedia! :) --Ashenai 10:11, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• I'd be happy to help you perfect the articles. - Just click talk in my signature and leave a note. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 10:12, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

what is mean of capitalism

Please see our Capitalism article; it explains things very well. To put it simply, capitalism is when people can decide on their own who to sell their products to and for how much, and who to buy things from.

If something is still not clear, then feel free to ask. Cheers! :) --Ashenai 09:28, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

economy

what is the percentage defence budget of total GDP of india

Hello! The Help Desk is for questions relating directly to Wikipedia itself. For factual questions about politics and economics, please go to Reference Desk: Humanities, and ask there. Thank you! --Ashenai 11:23, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

please let me know~~T.T

hi it's kim

sorry but I want to know about the "fit by five". It's like a preschool for kids.

actually, aticle of 'fit by five' is written in 1988.

It's a program. But there is no infomation about that.

so I wanna know about "fit by five".

could u please send me a infomation...plz...

my e-mail address is removed

(preceding unsigned comment by 163.180.107.251 (talk · contribs) 08:39, 28 September 2005)

I can't find anything on Wikipedia, but Google returns quite a few results. Also, please use the reference desk next time for a factual question. --Andy Janata 15:00, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Username

Is there a way to identify any of my contributions to Wikipedia by a username that is not the same as my account username? If so, I would select "BGraves" for this. Thanks, Bruce Graves currently alias "bruthgraves".

• You can use Special:Contributions/BGraves. — JIP | Talk 15:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
  • My interpretation of the question is that currently your username is Bruthgraves, but when you sign a post with ~~~~ you would like it to write "BGraves". This is possible, by changing your signature in the preferences section. Wikipedia:Sign your posts has instructions. --Commander Keane 16:11, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
    • But note that your signature doesn't affect edit histories, which will always show your username. — mendel ☎ 00:27, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Adding a Link

Please add the following organization to the Links section of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_horse

Texas Foundation Arabian Horse Association http://home.earthlink.net/~honeycreekfarms/texasfoundationarabianhorseassociation/

Thank you.

Carrie Lewis Registrar, American Foundation Arabian Horse Assocation <email removed>

• Wikipedia is a wiki. This means anyone can edit Wikipedia. You are therefore welcome to add the link yourself if you want to. But please remember that any edits are susceptible to peer review, and if the link is thought to be inappropriate, it might be deleted. — JIP | Talk 15:51, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
• However, just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should. Wikipedia is not a web directory. See our guidelines for external links. --fvw* 15:56, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Missing info.

Why is Israel not listed under:"United Nations Trust Territories" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Trust_Territories)?

• Either because it shouldn't be there, or because someone forgot to include it. Feel free to click the edit tab at the top of the page and correct it. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 19:37, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
  • I don't believe Israel actually was ever a Trust Territory - it went straight from being a mandate to the declaration of independence. Quite why it didn't become a trust territory in '46 is beyond me, mind you, but I never studied the period. Shimgray | talk | 20:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Using an image in print, on the cover of a book

Am interested in using a picture of Georg Heym (German website) on a book cover, small in size - I understand use is allowed from website to website, does this apply to print also?

You can click on a picture to discover its copyright status. If it says public domain, there are no restrictions, if it says nothing or fair use it is unlikely you could use it. Notinasnaid 21:01, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

The image tag for the photo says something which, I believe, translates to "picture more than fifty years old, so public domain". I'm not sure if this strictly complies with German law - our article on it isn't very helpful, but I thought it was based on life of author - but given he died in 1912, there's a good chance it does. However, do note that the image is rather low-quality, so not very suitable for a book... Shimgray | talk | 21:32, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Permanent link

There is an option in the Toolbox called "Permanent link". I clicked on it and nothing seemed to happen. What does it do? Where can I find out more about it? Thanks--Keeves 21:06, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Wikipedia pages change continuously and sometimes you need to point to a specific version, for example when you are referencing a specific version of a page within Wikipedia. Clicking "permanent link" will change the URL in the address bar of your browser to include the version's id number so you can link to a static, non-changing version of the page. It's also quite useful when you want send people to a non-vandalized version of an article. This only works for the most recent version. The others can be found by clicking the date in the edit history. I hope that clears some tings up. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 21:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

IMDb links

I posted a message not too long ago about the IMDb blocking links to Wikipedia and now they have sent me a reply saying they now allow them. At last! -- Thorpe <sup>talk</sup> 21:23, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• Good news. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 21:45, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

How to draw maintenance attention?

I'm inexperienced with Wikipedia, but I've had a few instances where I've surfed a "random link" and found something needing attention. Today's example: Surinam Airways Flight PY764. This article is one sentence, perhaps in Dutch (in English Wikipedia). What is the best thing to do in this case? --Flexiblefine 22:03, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Whne you find an article not in english you may translate it if you know the language it is in well enough. if you don't, tag the article by inserting {{notenglish}} and follow the instructions that tag will insert about listing the articel on the proepr page. In general, if you find soemthing that needs attention, fix it yourself by editing if you can. If you can't insert a proper tag on the article, such as {{cleanup}}. It also helps to exaplin what you think the problem is on the article's talk page. Also you can look at the history tab and leave a note on the talk pages of any editors who have made recent and major edits, or who seem likely to know what is going on with the article in question. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 22:36, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

• If it's just a small article you should use the stub tag. Elfguy 23:42, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
  • but the bare {{stub}} is now disfavoed, adn one must at least roughly traslate (bablefish, or the like) to preoprly assign a specific stub tag. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 23:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
    • I find that the expert stub people are pretty sharp - it doesn't take long for something tagged as a {{stub}} to be classified. So I often still use this tag and rely on them, since I haven't got my head around the stubbage system yet. Lupin|talk|popups 03:11, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Where is Indiana?

Factual questions belong on the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Although to find the answer, why don't you try the article on Indiana? Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 22:30, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

I have a question

Hello, I would like to have a address of Bill Clinton. I could not find in your web site. Home or Office, it does not matter. I believe, You have to write which state has him address.

Sincerely Ashley Karrat

Well he used to live here, perhaps you could call them and check if he left a fowarding address?. Also, this (and all factual) question(s) should be on the wikipedia:reference desk page. Insincerely, Ballchef 06:50, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Clinton's home is in Chappaqua, NY. He has an office in the Harlem section of Manhattan. Finell 08:15, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Granville Liggins

Try typing Granville Liggins into the search box. Elf | Talk 00:28, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

printing

If you are asking for a "printer friendly" virsion of an article, then click on the "printable version" link while you are viewing the desired article. The link is located in the toolbox below the search bar on the left margin. — Kjammer ⌂ 00:56, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Or, indeed, don't click it - printing the article should have the same effect whether you follow that link or not. - IMSoP 04:42, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

How to edit a entry heading??

Example, take a look at the entry for General George S. Patton, Jr. It is shown without the "Jr." Should be a very simple correction to edit and add the "Jr." I've tried everything I could think of, but, can't find a way to make the addition.

waltruch

Walt Ruch St. Louis, MO removed email

Click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of the page and it will let you edit the whole page including the introduction. There is no way to edit the introduction alone. --GraemeL <sup>(talk)</sup> 23:58, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

If you're talking about changing the title of the article from George S. Patton to George S. Patton, Jr., that's not quite as easy to do. Normally you could use the Move button (if you're logged in under a wikipedia username) to move it, but there's currently an entry under the latter that redirects back to the original article, which means that someone(s) deliberately did it that way. You might want to bring up the rename on the article's talk/discussion page, because I see that it has already been renamed a couple of times and there might be reasons why the title is the way it is. Elf | Talk 00:24, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Response to JoanneB

Dear JoaaneB,

Thank you for explaining a bit about edits. Either I'm dumb or not spending enough time reading, but I still can't figure out even where to appropriately send this response. I couldn't find a place on your talk page or make head or tail out of it.

I do appreciate Wikipedia very much, use it a lot, once successfully edited the Colombian national anthem in it, but now I'm stuck. I do not get how you can tell my name if I type four tildes! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.161.179.64 (talk • contribs) 20:23 ET, 28 September 2005

Sincerely, Jane Giraldo

When you type four tildas (like this ~~~~) the software replaces that with your user ID (or IP address if you are not logged in) and the timestamp. You can save a "nickname" in your preferences to be used in place of your user ID. By default, this includes a link to your user page. Many people, incuding me, have changed this to also include a link to their talk page.

To leave a message on soemone's talk page, usually you can simply edit the page and add a new section at the bottom (by puttign the title between pairs of equals signs, ==Like This==) and type your comment after it. You can also edit the last section and add a comment after it, or use the + tab if it is availalbe to add a new section. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 01:30, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Article in Ladies Home Journal

Hello-

I'm trying to find and article in the 1998 issue of the Ladies Home Journal. I belive that the article is on page 121 or 127. How can I get to this article in this magazine?

Thank you-

Danny Holley

e-mail address: <removed>

Your local library would be a good place to start. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 10:59, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Help with class

I wanted to look at or edit Template:prettytable but all it says is class:"wikitable". Now I'm stuck. What does this mean? How do I edit a "class" and how do I find it? Thanks PAR 06:43, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

This is a reference to a CSS class - a set of rules common to similar elements defined elsewhere. The "elsewhere" in this case turns out to be MediaWiki:Common.css, which is automatically referenced by the software for every page. There also seem to be 2 versions of the styling in there, and ongoing discussion about them. But in terms of investigating them, that's where to look (you might also be interested in setting up a user stylesheet to test your own bits and pieces). - IMSoP 04:39, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

celeration chart

acceleration

what did I do wrong?

This only my second visit to the site as I came to add some information to the term "urtication" I noticed "I" had new messages and when I clicked on it was immediately warned that I had violated some TOS and one more infraction and I would not be allowed back. I'm afraid to try. Maybe I just need to learn about the site, but it did seem simple enough to add some text to that particular entry. Greatest thing I've seen in a long while, I'm disabled, don't get out much, this is great fun until now.

Kenneth Cheek152.163.100.12 04:09, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Please notice that you are using an AOL IP address. These addresses frequently change and are assigned to various different users. It is likely that another AOL user was vandalizing from that IP address and you were simply assigned that IP address next. If the message was not about you please disregard it. It is unfortunately a pretty common occurence. The best way to prevent that from happening is to register an account with us. I am really sorry that is happened. I hope this does not deter you from contributing to Wikipedia. We appreciate your edits. If you need any help, just let me know. Thanks, Psy guy <sup>(talk)</sup> 04:18, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

It's probably not you at all, but somebody else connecting to the site from the same IP address - since you're not logged in, that's the only way we have of identifying you. As the top of the relevant talk page states "This IP address, 152.163.100.12, is registered to America Online (AOL) and is shared by multiple users. Comments left on this page may be received by other users of this IP and appear to be irrelevant." In other words, somebody else, also connecting via AOL, has vandalised Wikipedia, but the number has been reassigned to you.

As the message goes on to say "If you are frustrated by irrelevant comments appearing here, you can avoid them by creating an account for yourself." - and it really is very easy to create an account. You don't need to give us any details, not even an e-mail address - just pick a username no-one else has used, and enter your desired password twice. And then you get several benefits, chief of which is you can claim credit for your work.

So, I hope we haven't scared you off completely, because we really are pleased to have you here! - IMSoP 04:25, 29 September 2005 (UTC) [written at the same time as the above, I'm just more long-winded ;)]

How to find how long a Wikipedia article is?

Wikipedia's editor has been moaning that Frogman is too long, so I have split parts of it off onto other articles. After that, the moaning has stopped, so how can I find how long in kilobytes a Wikipedia article is? Please answer on my talk page. Anthony Appleyard 06:23, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

If a page is considered too long, hit the edit link and it will tell you the length in kB directly above the editing frame. You could copy the text and put it into Notepad, then save it and check the size. Otherwise, it's probably not too long. also see wikipedia:article size for more details. --Ballchef 07:03, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

• I recommended Lupin's navigational popups on his talk page. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 09:37, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

selection sort c example

I think the example of selection sort in c, is not correct, the exchange of values is out of the loop

Huh? It's... Thelb4! 16:47, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Signature tab not 'highlighting' on my user page?

Help desk, I tried to change the format of how my user name shows when I leave posts from: 'Wavesmikey' to 'Libb Thims', via Wavesmikey 05:03, 21 September 2005 (UTC) to Libb Thims 05:03, 21 September 2005 (UTC), but after I did this the internal link function stopped working on my user page yet continuted to work on other talk pages? On my user page, presently, when I use the signature function it just shows up as: --Wavesmikey 10:55, 29 September 2005 (UTC)? , where the 'name' is not highlighted nor underlined, nor internally linked? Did I mess up the program somehow on my user page? Thanks: --Wavesmikey 11:04, 29 September 2005 (UTC) (note how stamp works here?)

You're saying on the User:Wavesmikey page it isn't doing it? I think it's doing that by design -- preventing a recursive link. Indeed, it does that by design. I just tried it on my User page (I've yet to muck with my signature), and it didn't link my name. See [7]. --Andy Janata 11:20, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

I also see that you're using your user page in the way your user talk page was intended. If you'd have your discussions on User talk:Wavesmikey, your sig link would work fine. --Andy Janata 11:30, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

• Links to the page you're on are bolded, so if your signature points to your userpage, posting it to your userpage will bold it. - 131.211.210.12 11:57, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

tourism

How does tourism development affects economy of a country?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.72.184.132 (talk • contribs) 11:20, 29 September 2005

Thank you for your question! This page is for questions about Wikipedia. Factual questions should go to the reference desk. However, have you checked the tourism article? Also, please only post your question once; do not go back and re-submit it 3 times. --Andy Janata 11:25, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Urgent fix - predsident to president

pls. fix the DYK entry on the Main page about Gerwani and Suharto. It should spell president and not predsident. Hv put a note on the talk page of main page as well, but thot more admins wd see this. Thanks, --Gurubrahma 13:05, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

It has already been done, thanks --Gurubrahma 13:30, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

lizard

Hi! I think you forgot to actually include your question. However, almost all lizard-related questions go to the Science reference desk.

Possible exceptions:

• Please explain the significance (if any) of lizards in Tennyson's work : A perfect candidate for the Humanities reference desk
• What words rhyme with "lizard"? : Goes to the Language reference desk.
• Lizard! Lizard lizard lizard MWAHAHA CHEEESE COWS MITTENS : Sounds like you want the Sandbox!

Hope you found this helpful. Cheers! :) --Ashenai 14:44, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Is the use of "you" in articles such as those related to activities appropiated?

Reading a number of articles, particularly those explaining certain games (especially video games), activities or software, I noticed that a sizable number of pages have used the term "you" like it is attempting to explain it directly to those who are indulging in these activities. Examples of this include the following:

...while (performing a part of an activity), you see an (item or event)...

or

...(the activity/program/game) allows you to (perform capabilities)...

Given that an encyclopedia is intended to be read by readers not interested in participating in the pointed activities, is the use of this word is appropriate for encyclopedia articles? Would a third person substitute (such as the reader, or the player) be more suitable? ╫ 25 <sup>ring-a-ding</sup> 15:29, 29 September 2005 (UTC) ╫

It depends on the context, but in a lot of cases substitution would be a good idea. If you gave particular examples this discussion would be easier, though. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 16:13, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Here are examples of the use of "you" I've previously seen in three video/computer game articles for clarification:

• Another performance issue with San Andreas is that the game engine is not efficient at producing smoke effects. As a result, the frame rate can drop dramatically when you are in a situation where fire is present. The most noticeable missions in which this is apparent are the mission where you have to rescue a girl from a burning building, and the final story mission of the game which takes place in a torched factory. This mission is made more frustrating as you are being attacked at the time. - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas#Criticisms, fifth paragraph

• The career mode, in which the player takes part in one of four television shows, with missions being presented as episodes. There are four different episodes to choose from, each with a set of "episodes" that increase in difficulty. Zippy's Courier Service has you take the role of a simpleton who must make a certain number of deliveries in a certain amount of time, Galahad's Watch tasks you with first weeding out corrupt cops, then discoving an even bigger plot you must stop, Granny's Wild Ride has you playing as Granny, who has discovered alien plans for invasion in her attic and must stop them at all costs, and Race for Your Life has you play a race-car driver trying to win enough money to afford treatment for a terminally-ill child. - Streets of SimCity#Objectives, final paragraph

• Some programming flaws however caused unrealistic behaviour in some special circumstances. For example, in a car chase, the police will chase you for disobeying the speed limit (even driving over pedestrians), ignoring the hostile car. The police also will ignore when you drive in the opposite row, or over sidewalks, or if your co-driver bears a weapon. In fights, the enemy AI is far from perfect: they try to attack you with fists even when you are armed or driving a car, they like to crouch, enter your range before reload their weapons, and then return to their hiding positions to shoot, and finally even if you are shooting, they ignore you since you are not in front of them. - Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven#Flaws and fixes, first paragraph

╫ 25 <sup>ring-a-ding</sup> 16:52, 29 September 2005 (UTC) ╫

• • • I think the more formal language would to replace "you" with "one", but that would be a little stilted for most people's tastes these days. A good alternative woul be "the player" but that would could become repititous. Johntex\<sup>talk</sup> 18:37, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Right now there is an (in)active discussion about adding something like this into the Manual of Style. I think use of words like "you, your, we, our, or us" in encyclopedias is bad writing practice. — Kjammer ⌂ 19:40, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree that "you" sounds more like a user manual or how-to than like an encyclopedia. I always rewrite such when I find them. Elf | Talk 20:21, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

How to locate Project Manager for a given Category or page?

To help resolve a dispute over inclusion in a Category, with someone who by his own admission says he doesn't know the proper definition of the Category, and thinks it should be abolished anyway, but who also believes he is entitled to delete the Category reference from the Page. Will provide details if you wish. Thank you. Steve Harnish 16:24, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Details would be very useful indeed. Bring it up either here, at WP:ANI or at my talk page, if you prefer. Cheers, [[Sam Korn]] 16:35, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

There generally is no "project manager" for any particular page or category. I would discuss this on the talk page of the article involved, at first, just as with any other edit dispute. If thinngs can't be rsolved there there sis WP:RFC and various other ways to get more people involved who could help. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 17:05, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

There might, however, be a project related to the category. If so, posting on that project's talk page might wake up people who have an interest in, and are familiar with articles in, that category. See Wikipedia:List of WikiProjects. Elf | Talk 20:31, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Permission to use Images

To whom it may concern,

I have been looking for pictures of Tulum in Mexico and the Sun Pyramid, in Mexico as well. I found some nice pictures of both at the following addresses (respectively): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tulum.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pyramid_of_the_Sun_%28Teotihuacan%2C_Mexico%29.jpg Now, I'd like to use these for a website on Mexico and I'm wondering who I can approach on the matter. Any ideas? Thanks, Vanessa

• You can click on any picture you are interested in, to see what is claimed for its copyright status. If it says "public domain" you are free to use it in any way (assuming the claim is correct; if it is not, you may find yourself liable). If it says "fair use" you probably aren't able to use it. If it's anything else, read carefully. In at least one of these cases, the picture has been put into Wikipedia without copyright information and will be deleted very soon. Notinasnaid 17:20, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
• Of the specific imags you linked to, one has no source or copyright tag, and so you should not use it. The other has a tag that permits use for "noncommercial use only" (which means it will probably be deleted from this site before too long) and the person who uploadfed it, and who has a user page on wikipedia, sseems to claim to be the photographer. You could leave a msg on that person's user talk page if you wanted to get explicit permission. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 19:10, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

what are three differences between a peer to peer and a client server network?

What is three differences between a peer-to-peer and a client/server network?

• Please read the top of the page. Factual questions like this belong on the reference desk. That said, you could read peer to peer and client-server to find out. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 19:01, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
• Thank you for your question! This page is for questions about Wikipedia. Factual questions should go to the reference desk. However, have you checked the network article? Johntex\<sup>talk</sup> 19:03, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

THREE RIVER GORGE DAM...

GOOD AFTEROON, MY NAME IS NODAS PAPADIMAS AND I AM AN INSTRUCTOR AT THE COLLEGE OF MOUNT STAINT JOSEPH. I RECENTLY SAW THE PICTURES YOU HAVE ON YOUR SITE ABOUT "THE THREE RIVERS GORGE DAM" IN CHINA. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAVE MORE PIC'S (BEFORE DURING AND AFTER) OF THAT PROJECT SINCE ALL MY ARCHITECTURE/INTERIOR DESIGN STUDENTS WILL BE THRILLED TO WATCH. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, NODAS...

Hello, one way to see if we have more images is to go to the article of interest and click the Discussion and History tabs - these would show if any other images have been part of the article in the past. Johntex\<sup>talk</sup> 18:17, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

I CAN'T QUITE HEAR YOU! CAN YOU SHOUT A BIT LOUDER? — JIP | Talk 07:51, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Is it possible to put my personal biography in wikipedia for observation?

I was wondering and it would be nice if wikipedia let me put my biography (or some 1 elses) in the database

propbably not. Vantity articles are not popular.Geni 18:43, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

See, in particular, Wikipedia:Autobiography. The issue is whether the accuracy of such content could be verified. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:49, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

As you'll see at the above link, not everyone is notable enough to be included in an encyclopedia. After reading Wikipedia:Autobiography, if you think the person (E.g. yourself) does fit the criteria for inclusion - you can feel free to create the article. Either, way, thanks for checking with us first. Johntex\<sup>talk</sup> 19:00, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

How do I add a picture to an article

How do I add a picture to an article

See Wikipedia:Picture tutorial for detailed instructions. Please sign your name on discussion pages with four tildas. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 19:13, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Dragon's that really live on island that are major killers

What is the name of the dragon that lives on an island that is to be like a lizard who is to be the most killer animal on earth? My daughter who is 10 never heard of them, but I can't recall the full name of the animal. They are suppost to be almost extict?

Theresa

The reference desk would be the better place for this question. The help desk is for questions about Wikipedia and its software. But you may find more info at the dragon and Komodo dragon articles. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 19:56, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Declaring an entry a stub

I recently edited an entry that should be declared a stub, but I don't know how to do this (if possible). I've read other entries that are stubs, but this is the first time I've looked at one and I'm new to editing. Is there something I can do on my end or is there something in place that labels stubs?

--SailorAlphaCentauri 19:43, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

You can put {{stub}} at the end of the article and it will label it as a stub. But to go the extra mile, it's preferred that you categorize the stub for instance if it's a stub about an actor it would be {{actor-stub}} or about a structure it would be {{struct-stub}}, etc. See Wikipedia:Stub for more info. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 19:52, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Vietnam

When were the first US military personnel sent to Vietnam?

• Our article on the Vietnam War states US troops fought from 1965 to 1972. Please send factual questions like this to the reference desk in the future. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 20:35, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

co2 in the atmosphere

bacteria and fungi

• Please leave factual questions at the reference desk. Our articles on carbon dioxide, bacteria and fungus may help though. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 20:37, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikifying links becomes bold text.

I've been editing a few pages, and when I try using double brackets to wikify links, the links instead become bold text. I don't see my error, and it doesn't make sense, because the code for bold text is three consecutive apostrophes, not two brackets. Look at my recent contributions to see what I'm talking about.

I haven't looked at your recent contributions, but I have a feeling you're linking to the article you're editing. In other words, if I typed in [[Wikipedia:Help desk]] , it becomes Wikipedia:Help desk. Thus, if you link to an article within an article, it becomes bold. I hope this helps! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 20:51, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Whoops! When you're viewing several articles at once, sometimes you forget which one you're actually editing. Thanks for the help! Stalyuchka 20:55, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

protecting content

How is wikipedia protected against somebody going in and deleting valuable information that is already there? Also how is it protected against from people taking baloney?

Well, I know that if someone tries to vandalize a page (delete all of the information and/or replace it with nonsense), another user can simply revert the article back to the un-vandalized version. Stalyuchka 20:51, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Check out Wikipedia:FAQ and Wikipedia:Replies_to_common_objections. Thanks! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W<sub>S</sub> 20:52, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanx! I was just curious coz I love the Wiki's idea and I was tottally impressed how up to date some of the atricles are.

research

My question is quite simple, and yet I still have trouble with he subject: how would you list a Wikipedia article as a source for a formal bibliography of a research paper?

Read the top of this page. The first line under "How to ask a question". Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 23:00, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Change my user name?

Who do I ask if I want to change my username?--Luspari 23:25, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Changing username. However, please note that this is currently not done. If you wish to have a different username, you must sign up a new one. Note that changing attribution for edits is also not done right now. If you only wish to change what ~~~~ puts on the page for you, you can change it in your preferences. --Andy Janata 23:35, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

source data for world map

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/Country_positions_Iraq_war.png

I'd like to get the source data for this (rather than look up locations for all the countries in the world). Is there a way to do this?

Thanks.

Kevin

Biographical Data on "Leslie Glass"

Found wiki bio on "Leslie Glass" is an exact duplicate of information provided on answers.com Since I cant tell which is the original I'm reluctant to edit out the wiki version. Whats the solution?

Answers.com is a mirror of Wikipedia. The article here is the original. — mendel ☎ 00:05, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

What are the "big ideas" in Wikipedia?

I was asked this question by my IT instructor and I am not clear if this is a particular type of reference in Wikipedia or if we are just talking about ideas in general. Can someone please advise? Thanks. --anon

There is not any special type of reference or article known as a "big idea" here. I don't know what your instructor means (you might try asking your instructor) but if he want the core or basic principles of wikipedia, try looking at Wikipedia:Five pillars. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 14:16, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Citing scientific knowledge

This may be an utterly naive question from a complete Wiki novice, but I thought I'd err on the side of caution.

I recently found the page on the star V838 Monocerotis on Wikipedia after doing a Google image search. I am an astronomer studying this object and noticed that some of the information is incomplete. I would like to contribute to the page and Wikipedia in general, but I am concerned that much of the astronomical research on this and other objects is published in copyrighted journals. What is your policy for information that someone acquires someplace else (e.g., a scientific journal or newspaper or any other form of media) and would like to place that information in Wikipedia? I am not concerned with verbatim excerpts from journal articles or even images, but the scientific knowledge itself that is presented in the journal article. If you are happy to allow it, how should I go about citing a reference within the journal to validate my edit/addition? I can place a URL link to the journal article, but only subscribers would be able to access the article. Kind of defeats the purpose of a citation.

Thank you,

The Astrogeek

email removed

(1) Neither knowledge nor facts are copyrightable, only specific phrasing. So it's OK if you crib it from publish journals (e.g., use them as references). (2) Although we're not big fans of citing subscriber-only sources, it's better than nothing, so go ahead and cite away. →Raul654 03:29, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

In manyb ways you treat this just as if you wewre writing a papaer or say a survery article for a professional journal and wanted to cite facts contained in someone's published work. Give the facts, and cite your source, but do not use other people's words except in an explicit quote (indicated by quottion marks, or the like) and quotes should be relatively brief. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 14:13, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

how do encyclopedia entrys work

Could you give us a better idea of what you mean? Do you want to know how the software that runs Wikipedia works? Do you want to know how to start an article? Just exactly what do you mean by "work"? Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 12:35, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

The Letter People --searching for

I am trying to find copies of The Letter People series that aired on Public Broadcasting in the 70's. I am not interested in the reproduced versions that are being sold on Ebay. Thanks for your help. SR

First off please read the top of the page where it says that this page is for questions dealing with how to get things to work here at Wikipedia. Secondly, we don't sell videos here, if that's what you thought, so you might have better luck at www.amazon.com or www.amazon.uk Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 12:38, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Excessive Internal Links

How many internal links (links in Wikipedia articles that link to other Wikipedia articles) is considered too much? I've seen some articles where it's just bad, messy, and gives a headache when reading it just because of all the internal links; it just ruins the flow of the reading. I've also seen internal links for some pretty ridiculous things. Is it really necessary to have links for every couple words, and then for trivial things like dates and such? Sorry if this has been asked before, is there a FAQ or policy page about this that talks about how to gauge how many is too much? FistOfFury 04:44, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

• See Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(links)#Internal_links. Short answer: link full dates, so preferences for a user can kick in, important years, and anything relevant to the article and jargon mentioned in passing that might need explanation. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 04:56, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the links. - FistOfFury 07:39, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

About image

How to use an image from my system in the article

Assuming all the copyright issues are not a problem, you upload it, and then modify the article (see wikipedia:Picture tutorial) →Raul654 05:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Foreign Language Redirects

Hi, I just stumbled accross this IP address 68.72.116.165 who has been responsible for creating a large number of foreign language redirect pages. [8] Are these types of pages acceptable for the English wikipedia? They seem like pointless clutter to me. Martyman 05:06, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

electronics/transistors

1. in transistor ce cb and cc configurations

• in active region: emmiter base junction is forward biased and base collector junction is reverse biased.
• in cut off region: emmiter base junction and base collector junction both are reverse biased.
• in saturation region: emmiter base junction and base collector junction both are forward biased.

On which context we conclude above biasings.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.226.57.217 (talk • contribs) 01:56, 30 September 2005

• Did you have a question? --Andy Janata 11:31, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Is there a central starting point for Computing (Application development)?

Hi I am a new member and I am wondering whether there exists a Computer portal entry. Something similar to listings in Category:Portals), for Computer Application Development (related to Software_development but more focussed on applications for business organizations). I had been active at WikiWikiWeb for over a year prior to coming here.

I have seen WikiProject related to Computing but it appear to be quiet (meaning little or no significant update activity looking at histories) at this moment.

Other visited pages / topics include:

• Software_genre (no Talk page)
• list of people with Computer interests (not much activity)
• Update history (Talk:Computer_stubs)
• Update history (Computer architecture)
• Software_engineering

Have I missed any other "(IT) community watering-hole"? at Wikipedia?

Thanks in advance for your help. Dlwl 05:58, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Have I missed any other "(IT) community watering-hole"? at Wikipedia? - Yes -- Wikipedia:IRC channels →Raul654 06:00, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Minimum criteria for band articles

I recently found a page outlining minimum criteria for inclusion of articles about bands (the musical kind). Now I can't find this page anywhere. Can anyone help?

I am a newbie here and so far am frustratingly finding this a common experience. The information areas are difficult to find, and I just seem to stumble over things only to never find them again. Is there a site map or some way of easily tracking down info? --DarbyAsh 09:19, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

You're probably looking for the excellent WP:MUSIC. --fvw* 09:21, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

• You could leave links to interesting pages on your userpage for easy reference. Once you've been here for a while, finding stuff becomes easier. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 09:43, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree with Mgm that it gets easier the longer you've been here. If I need to find info on something that I haven't encountered yet I usually just try typing in the search box "Wikipedia:" and then one or two words about what I'm looking for. If I wanted info on reverting an article to an older copy to erase some vandalism I would type "Wikipedia:Revert" or "Wikipedia:Vandalism". There are so many redirects set up that I've only had problems with my method a few times. I also agree with putting links to stuff that you want to reference often on your user page. See the bottom of my user page for an example. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 12:24, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Folks, thanks to all of you for your excellent comments. I not only found the page I was looking for (thanks Fvw) but now know how to search for more such helpful pages. Cheers. --DarbyAsh 23:52, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

What is Engineering

Waht is engineering?

• Try reading engineering and the top of the page which notes questions like these belong on the reference desk. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 11:40, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Link unsigned editing history and comments to my account name?

After contributing for a while I finally discovered how to create an account. Can I replace my IP address and history of comments and revisions with this account name?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by DutchSeduction (talk • contribs) 07:23, 30 September 2005

• Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit. Note however that this has been dead for months and may never come back to life. Andy Janata 11:34, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

wikipedia in megrellian language

As you know megrellian is a language spoken in west Georgia, in districts of Zugdidi, Khobi, Senaki, Martvili, Chkorotsku, Tsalenjikha, Abasha, Gali, Ochamchire, Poti. About 1 000 000 people speaks this language. It's non-literary language, but some people started to write novels and verses in this language. Also, first megerlian writer was born about 150 years ago. first megrellian newspaperwas KAZAKISHI GAZETI was issued 70 years ago. Nowadays we have no media sources, except web-site www.phazisi.com. We want the wikipedia to be in megrellian also. It willhelp our people to start reading, writing in it's mother tongue. But we don't know what to do for this. Do we have to go over some official proccesses? Is it free to make wikipedia in every languages, if even it's non-literary language? We wait for your answer, and we hope that you will answer positively.

Your Sincerely
Tada Lazareskiri

President of Colchis
International Society.

New York,

                                                                     www.warldcolchis.com

• Try visiting Request for new languages on meta

• How to start a new Wikipedia has full intructions, of which Request for new languages on meta is one step. --Commander Keane 16:02, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

External Links (legal citation)

I've created this page on legal citation in the last few days, and I included this paragraph:

The growth of the internet has not affected the mode of citation in any way, as it has done in less conservative fields. There is no free-access database of UK case law, and most online research is done on the subscription commercial sites Justis[9] and Lexis[10]. Even on these sites, cases are organised, and cited, by the volume and page numbers of the paper law reports from which they are derived.

I would like some guidance, though, on whether the external links should be there. These are definitely commercial organisations and you must subscribe to use their services. On the other hand, they are clearly crucial to the subject of the article.AndyJones 13:02, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

• We've nothing against links to external commercial organisations if they're directly relevant to the topic, and I certainly agree with you that Lexis et. al. are. Perhaps include them in an external links section at the bottom? Alternately, we have an article for LexisNexis, and you could link to that. Shimgray | talk | 13:08, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

• I'd agree with Shimgray here. My rule of thumb is to avoid using an inline external link when we have a working internal link. (So just link to the Wikipedia article on LexisNexis, for example.) I would include the two external links in the 'External links' section at the bottom of the article; I don't think it's necessary to include them inline but they're certainly germane to the topic. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:35, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

WikiPedia Plug-in Utility

I love WikiPedia and I want to access it all the time, but it takes a bit to get there and enter the search topic. Is there a utility like Dictionary.com's that I can load onto my Windows PC? I'd like to search WikiPedia by highlighting and hot-keying - that would be great!

Thanks Bret

There's a plug-in for Firefox I believe that lets you highlight words and then right click on them to look them up in Wikipedia. I don't use Firefox so I'm unfamiliar with how it works beyond that. Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup> 22:57, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

current and flow

Where do the terms “current” and “flow” come from?

Do you mean to ask about why current is referred to as flow? If so, then the anaogy comes from trying to compare an invisible thing (like current) to a more tangible concept such as water-flow. Like all analogies, there are imperfections and limitations but the central concept is sound; electrical current can be thought-of as water flow for visualisation and to enhance understanding.

Also, this question should have been asked at the reference desk as it is not a question about Wikipedia. Please go through this page if you are in doubt. --hydnjo talk 01:51, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Who changes an article's title

I just edited an article on Giorgio Biandrata to correct the spelling of this gentleman's name (from Blandrata -> Biandrata). However the title of the article is still misspelled. How does one rename an article?

Peter Newport

if you are a logged in user, and you have had your account for a little while, ther will be a "Move" tab to the right of the "edit this page" tab. This will allow you to move an article to a new location that is, change its title. Whe you do this, you need to chack if any links to the old title have been broken.

However if you don't have th move tabe available, go to the requested moves page and follw the instructions there to ask for help with a move. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 14:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

I moved it. Thanks for pointing this out! --Ashenai 14:11, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Downloading All Cities by Country

I'm trying to put together, plainly put, an excel file of every city in the world .. or all the big ones .. i've been copying and pasting the ones from Wikipedia Cities By Country list .. there's got to be a better way to do it .. anyone have any suggestions? Is there a way i can download a CMS or excel file of all those without having to copy and past 400 countries?

b

If you're only interested in the big cities, there are far shorter lists at List of cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants. Warofdreams talk 17:04, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

useless internal links

I think it should be an element of the Style sheet, under the Internal Links entry, to encourage editors not to create internal links to each word in a two- (or more-) word phrase that represents a single uint of thought. In the entry on "John Milton" we are told that the poet's father was disinherited because *his* father discovered him reading an English Bible. Each of the words in that phrase, "English" and "Bible," has an internal link. But the significant point is that he was reading an English-Bible (single unit of thought), which at the time would have been a sign that he was Protestant (and thus grounds for his Catholic father to disown him), and neither the entry "English" nor the entry "Bible" is going to convey that point. If the entry on "Bible" had a history of Bible translations, which included the consequences during the Reformation period of using a vernacular Bible, then the two-word phrase "English Bible" might be profitably linked to *that portion* of the "Bible" entry. In other words, in some cases, internal links can give the impression of further relevant information but actually lead readers afield. Of course, one of the joys of Wikipedia, and the internet in general is being able to meander just as fancy directs one. But when does wandering become error?

Gregory Machacek

I agree in principle, though for some readers, both of those links (English and Bible) might also be relevant and germane to their understanding of the topic. The original author should have been aware of the implications of English-Bible (all one unit) as opposed to English, Bible. It's up to them to decide whether they leave the words unlinked (in which case someone else may well come along and link them afterwards anyway) and/or to add a few words in parenthesis to explain the implication of the phrase. Or, of course, you could do that yourself... it's what Wikipedia is all about! SiGarb 18:29, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and changed the two links in the John Milton article from "an English Bible" to the single link "an English Bible". The latter, as you'll see if you click on it, is a piped link to History of the English Bible, which I think is the closest thing Wikipedia's got at the moment to the sort of article you were looking for. (The article in question needs a bit of work, but that's another matter.)

As for your greater point, I agree that there's probably a place somewhere in Wikipedia's many help and style pages that should explain that internal links should follow the logic of the sentence they're linking from. However, I'm not sure exactly where that place would be (I'm far from a Wikipedia expert myself); indeed, that advice may already appear somewhere (although a brief search of Wikipedia:Links didn't reveal it).

A final thought: you wonder, "when does wandering become error?" It's worth remembering that not all who wander are lost (though some doubtless are). :) —Josiah Rowe 19:51, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Question

When I am editing a Topic, I sometimes add information, but when I come to check it has either been deleted or changed, now I know the information is factual, un-biased and fair, yet is deleted? why??

• It could be for any number of reasons. It would help if you mentioned a specific article and signed your question, so I could check your edit history. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 18:46, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Are you talking about your edit to Kashmir 12 days ago (that's the only edit of yours I can find)? I suspect it was removed because you made an assertion "the USA has lauched a Plan to segregate Kashmir and use it for its own purpose", but you didn't back it up with proof or sources. Providing proof and citing sources is very important here. Who said it? When did they say it?

But please don't let this discourage you from editing Wikipedia. I'm sure you have very valuable stuff to contribute; it's just that we can't accept statements that sound like your own ideas or research, even if they're true. This is an encyclopedia; we can only include things that can be proven.

Again, please do continue to be bold and edit articles! We're not ignoring you, and we'd like to see what you can contribute. :) --Ashenai 18:49, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I know that is my IP but I have an open LAN so anyone can really come on and use my IP.

Well, could you point us to your edits, then? Without knowing what they are, there's no way to tell why they were reverted. --Ashenai 18:57, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

copyright

Do I need permission to copy quotes from wikipedia?

Wikipedia is released under the GFDL. This means that anyone may quote from it, or reuse its contnets, either as-is or in an edited form. However, this is true only if the new woirk is also relsesed under the GFDL and if prior authros are acknowled, and a link or other method of acces to teh original verison is provided. For a simple quote, this is excessive. The doctine of Fair use (in the United states) or Fair dealing (in many other countries) protects a person who uses a brief quote as part of a larger work, in most cases, This means that one need not usually get permission to quote a published source at a reasonable length. This applies to Wikipedia as much as to any other source. However, when quoting, be sure to cite your sources properly. See Wikipedia:Citing wikipedia. DES <sup>(talk)</sup> 19:17, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Sock puppets

I think I might have found a sock puppet:UKV (talk · contribs) might be a sock of Biterider (talk · contribs). My eveidence to support this is that the sock in question has edited only one page, the AfD entry of ObjAsm32, and seems to have been created for the purpose to vote "keep". Also this user uses the word stay rather than keep as does Biterider. This could also mean that this is just another Wikipedian who knows of ObjAsm32 that registered in order to vote their opinion, and uses "stay" because he thinks that's how things are done (might not have seen other AfD entries). Can Admins determine socks using methods unavailable to regular users? And in the future, how should I handle these situations? (do I have to report it somewhere?) — Kjammer ⌂ 19:13, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

• No, admins cannot check whether certain people are sockpuppets of others. However, votes by new user's and anonymous user's are often discounted if they don't provide reasoning or don't seem to understand the procedure. Just tag a note using small tags to their vote saying they're a new user with x edits specifically created for voting purposes, so the closing admin knows to doublecheck votes. - Mgm|<sup>(talk)</sup> 20:30, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

What effects can hurricane katrina have on living things.

Note that, as stated at the top of this page, this is for questions about Wikipedia, not about other topics such as hurricanes. More about hurricanes can be seen in the articles under Hurricane in general, or Hurricane Katrina in particular. When it hit, Katrina obviously had many effects on living things in its path, from drowning them in floods to blowing them away by high winds. The health effects of the stagnant, polluted water of New Orleans may be felt for a long time. But you don't say specifically what sorts of effects you are looking for. *Dan T.* 20:16, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Identical terms problem

I clicked on 'Krona' in the DC universe section, who is a villain. I however went to the article about 'Krona' the Swedish currency, having a small piece of text at the top saying how Krona is also a villain in the DC universe. The DC universe is a link to the DC universe, and as already observed, clicking on Krona in there gets the Swedish currency. It seems to be impossible to get to article about Krona the DC universe villain, and I'm guessing same things would be true for other identical terms. Obviously, one of two identical terms (more when there are three terms spelled the same) would have to get an identifier; like Krona(DC), or something, or one or more of the terms cannot ever be read from what I can tell.

I fixed Krona. The original link looked like this: [[Krona]]. All I had to do was find the article for the comic book Krona (which was Krona (comics)), then fix the link with a pipe, like this: [[Krona (comics)|Krona]]. That way, you would still see Krona as the link, but it would actually point to Krona (comics). Like this: Krona. How's that? :) --Ashenai 22:48, 30 September 2005 (UTC)