Wikipedia:Help desk

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• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
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January 3

Personal database

How do you create your own personal list of articles you're interested in and want to retrieve quickly? It's like bookmarking a page, but the link isn't saved on a specific computer but on the internet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartvannuffel (talk • contribs) 00:01, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Help:Watching pages may be of interest. The watchlist also has a link to display all watched pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

You can create a list on your own userpage. You should have a link to it at the top of the page when you are logged on, but if not follow this one: Bartvannuffel.

To edit your page, click the "edit this page" tab. To create a link to an article, write the article name between two square brackets like this: [[Dinosaurs]] which will get you this: Dinosaurs. Voila

When you post to the help desk, or any talk page, you should always sign with four tildes like this ~~~~ by the way. This will create a signature like mine below;

Spinningspark (talk) 00:32, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

"Born in" such and such a place . . .

What is the policy or guideline on the inclusion of a "Born in" section in articles about cities? I refer you Inglewood,_California#Born_in_Inglewood. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 00:29, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

There are different opinions. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities/Guideline#Notable natives and residents, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cities/Archive 6#Proposal to delete "Notable natives", Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cities/Guideline#Questions about these lists of notable people that live in town X. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

info needed for the crazy wiki editor

can the crazy wiki editor insert downloadable virus-free audio clips into articles? —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Crazy Wiki Editor (talk • contribs) 00:36, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi there! Downloadable, no, but they can be played inside the article, like the one at Bloop. See Wikipedia:Media help for complete tips on media. Cheers, Master of Puppets ^{Call me MoP!} 00:57, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the politesse

Kudos to the people answering the questions here. Generally the responses are quite respectful to the questioner. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 00:53, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

As sometimes one of those people, I thank you. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 03:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Likewise, thank you. I try to assume that even a question that is in the wrong place, with atrocious spelling and grammar, and more full of logical holes than logical Swiss cheese, is written by someone who, if treated courteously, could become a great contributor here. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:40, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Using the IUCN Red List

Hello, I've been struggling for half an hour with the Red List home page[1] trying to decide whether or not Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra is endangered, since it concerns the article I have just created concerning that subject. Could anyone who is familiar with that website (since I understand Wikipedia relies mostly on it for endangered species classification) help me search or search and tell me what they consider it (Least Concern, Vulnerable, etc.)? --♦♦♦Vlmastra♦♦♦ (talk) 00:11, 3 January 2008 (UTC) Edit: Let me be more specific: My message was:

No results were found for the criteria you specified:

• Text search: Prosthechea cochleata var. triandra
• Modifier: Exact phrase
• Search in: Whole database
• Results type: Standard
• Taxa: Species

If these are correct, then the species you are searching for may not be in the database.

I changed the database, taxa, modifier, etc. extensively, to no avail. Taxa should be listed whether or not endangered (and in that case as Least Concern) so I don't think this means it isn't endangered, and since P. cochleata var. triandra has been considered endangered elsewhere I imagine it has been reviewed by the IUCN. I would like to use this source, so any help will be appreciated. I assume that I am not searching correctly because common genera such as Cattleya and Paphiopedilum were similarly unlisted, and I know for a fact that Paphiopedilum rothschildianum is endangered. --♦♦♦Vlmastra♦♦♦ (talk) 00:28, 3 January 2008 (UTC) NOTE: I cross-posted this at the reference desk, since I was unsure which would be better.--♦♦♦Vlmastra♦♦♦ (talk) 00:59, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for asking at the help desk; however, you'd probably have more success at the reference desk, which is for more specific knowledge-related questions. The Help Desk is only for questions on how to use Wikipedia; i.e. how to format articles or do technical things. You can find the reference desk here; Wikipedia:Reference desk. Good luck, and I hope that helps! Master of Puppets ^{Call me MoP!} 01:02, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah, you added your note about the reference desk while I was adding this, it seems. Yes, the reference desk would be a better choice per the reasons in my above response. Cheers, Master of Puppets ^{Call me MoP!} 01:04, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

IAST diacriticals and font display problem

On, for instance, the samsara (Buddhism) page, certain words marked as IAST (like this: Saṃsāra) display in a different font on Firefox. On IE, it seems to display correctly; Opera seems to substitute the ṃ; so does Safari. Why should this happen? What is the need for adding the IAST tag? The word Saṃsāra displays correctly without any such tag. Thanks. Devadaru (talk) 03:14, 3 January 2008 (UTC) correction: IE seems to substitute the ṃ, while Opera and Safari seem to display correctly. Devadaru (talk) 03:20, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

how many people are in the world

how many people in the world —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.5.166 (talk) 03:59, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

See World population. Note that this page is the Help desk for learning how to use Wikipedia, and factual questions such as yours should be asked at the appropriate Reference desk. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:25, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Question

What happened to when IP addresses could create pages? 58.168.147.119 (talk) 04:23, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

One of the resolutions from the Seigenthaler controversy in 2005 was to disable anonymous* page creation as an experiment, to see if this would aid in cutting back the number of pages that got created, and hence making it easier to patrol them. It was also hoped that this would cut back on the number of articles that would need to be deleted, since theoretically at least some proportion of people would be discouraged from creating a vandalism article due to the extra step of bureaucracy.

In October 2007, it was proposed that anonymous page creation be re-enabled, which provoked a large number of different reactions (most of the discussion took place in one of three places - the wikipedia-en mailing list, the Village pump, and this RFC). In response, the developers stated that it would be re-enabled only if there were a clear consensus to do so, something which there definitely wasn't, and most likely will not be.

If you want to create an article, there are now two main avenues: (1) Create an account, or (2) Submit your article to WP:Articles for creation. (1) is most certainly the preferred option (and gives you other benefits as well).

* Of course, while by anonymous I mean IP addresses, even though a username technically grants more privacy in many ways. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:37, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Please help me post an addition to missing persons for 2007

Hi I am having dificulty adding my fiance to the persons missing list. Every time I put it up it vannishes.

this is what I have been trying to add...

Jarrett Lee Burton a 58-year-old man was last seen about 7:30 p.m. 04/04/07 when he walked away from his driveway in the 1400 block of Seidersville Road in Salisbury Twp. Jarrett Lee Burton is a black man, who stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about 190 pounds. When last seen, he was wearing beige dress pants, light-colored dress shirt and glasses. He has silvery-gray hair, brown eyes and a freckle on his nose. Anyone who sees Jarrett Lee Burton is asked to call Salisbury police at 610-797-1447

I would like to add links to the national center for missing persons but do not know how but do have the link this is it...

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200705256S

HI JEAN, SO SORRY FOR YOUR HEARTWRENCHING ORDEAL IN SEARCHING FOR A LOVED ONE. I DID MAKE A BANNER FOR HIM ON MY MYSPACE SO THAT IT COULD BE VIEWED BY MANY AND REPOSTED THROUGH MY NETWORK OF OTHER LOST AND MISSING LOVED ONES. YOU CAN VIEW IT AT: www.myspace.com/lavandadolce Prayers for you and his family.

Thank you, Jean-Christine —Preceding unsigned comment added by EstroJean (talk • contribs) 04:32, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi Jean. The reason your addition keeps disappearing is because the Wikipedia article List of people who have disappeared is for notable disappearances, and, sadly, a case like Mr Burton's is far from notable when it comes to disappearances - hundreds of similar disappearances occur every year, all over the world. So when you add the text, someone else is reverting your addition. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:23, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, User:Vidor reverted and added the explanation "(not notable; lacks own Wikipedia article)." If you disagree, you should go to the Discussion Page for that article and explain why. Sincerely (and with great respect for your search), GeorgeLouis (talk) 08:14, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd add that Wikipedia is probably not the best place to alert people to Jarrett's disappearance as the article is not going to be read by the right people at all, certainly not by many people who live in Salisbury. Simply targeting the local area with flyers with a photo will be far more effective. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 12:48, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I thank you for your reply. I am not so sure he is not a notable figure. He is a reasearch scientist and has done much good work. I have been puting up flyers all over the area and even faxed them to local and not so local hospitals I just want to let as many folks know he is missing so that it makes finding him slightly more likely I will research the notability link you mentioned and again THANK YOU for your reply, Jean-Christine —Preceding unsigned comment added by EstroJean (talk • contribs) 19:11, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I messed up a little while contributing an edit - please help me fix it

I just contributed my first edit -- adding a fact (and citation) to the article on "Dudly Field Malone." Obviously I missed something in the "how to edit" department, since when I inserted my reference, it had the effect of moving the next sentence of previously-existing text into my reference/footnote, followed by the reference for that sentence. My bad. can you help me fix this and restore proper formatting? Thanks. --Peter Goldberger, Ardmore, PA <peter.goldberger>(not yet a registered user) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.110.174.130 (talk) 04:35, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

You forgot to close the reference tag ("</ref>"). I tried to find a case-cite template since the one you chose doesn't exist; I'll keep looking. For now, just use a plain-text cite. -- RattleMan 05:15, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

CHINA;Yunchen, China. Need City Map

Locating the North gate at Yunchen, China, from a map and/or a graphic to show grave sites. On april 14, 1945, Lt.Ernest W Gardner, jr.,A US Army Air Force Pilot was shot down 5 milses south of Taiku, China near the South Highway of Mats'un, six miles North of Yunchen , Lt. Gardner was buried outside the North Gate of Yuncheng City, Shansi, Province, and the grave marked with a wooden plaque. Needed, a city map to define where the North gate is located, and a photograph if possible of the graves in a possible Burial Ground. Thanks for any information from anyone. Barbzz —Preceding unsigned comment added by Barbzz (talk • contribs) 05:27, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the miscellaneous section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:29, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

FAC

If an article is already good enough for WP:FAC, can it skip WP:GAN? Feedback ^☎ 06:38, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes. –thedemonhog talk • edits 06:47, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Good articles and featured articles are quite separate processes and a listing at good article nominations is not normally a prerequisite before taking an article to WP:FAC. Most articles that go to good article nominations do so because for various reasons they can't or are unlikely to ever achieve featured articles status. What is a good idea is to take an article to peer review review before listing it at WP:FAC.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:26, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Well I am a member of WP:PW, and I believe an article I wrote (New Year's Revolution (2007)) is good enough for WP:FAC. It has already had a peer review, and Ithought I had to nominate it at WP:GAN. But thanks; now I will nominate it directly at FAC. Feedback ^☎ 18:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

ok to copy website text?

Hi, is it ok to copy web site text if it is in the public domain? just checkin :D Stupid2 (talk) 06:39, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

If it is truly in the public domain, yes. But it should be placed inside of quotation marks and credited as to source; otherwise, it is just plagiarism. Even a paraphrase should be credited. Still, one has to ask: "How do you know it is in the public domain? There's plenty on the Web that is just plain stealing." Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 08:01, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The best response I can give to that is no, even if it appears public domain text. 1) It keeps you the contributor and the Wikipedia project on the legal safe side, in case the text turns out not to be PD (and thus a copyright violation), and 2) it's always better if you rewrite the text in your own words. Mr Senseless (talk) 19:13, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

monobook.css

Can someone give me a link to my page of this? Ive been looking every wwere for it. P.S pleasae respond on my talk page as ill most likely forget. BonesBrigade 07:50, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

User:BonesBrigade/monobook.css.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

dams

dams are very important can some one tell me name of all pakistan dams —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.103.11.246 (talk) 08:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Try here - Carbon ^[Nyan?] 09:03, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Can't create new page

I did a search for "Orbisoft" and it came back with 0 pages that matched that title. However I can't see on the search results pages anywhere with the mentioned link "Create this page" which I am trying to do.

MarkBrownlee (talk) 08:44, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Its' the red link at the top where it says You searched for Orbisoft [Index]. KTC (talk) 10:20, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

You should also see just below the search box the text "No page with that title exists." followed by a bulleted list. The last bulleted item should say: "• Create the page including your references."--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:10, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

You only get that part by clicking "Go" below the search box. This may have been changed recently. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:30, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Why Deleted, I dont understand

Hi, I spent 2 hours researching links and info, to submit an article on a known uk model and it got deleted within like an hour of me savig it, saying "no relevance etc"

So what does this mean, that this person is not important enough to be submitted? If so, then why is it that various other UK and International models are featured on Wikipedia? I would like to know "what makes someone relevant" ???

Can someone let me know please, also how do I contact the editor that delted it (I have their ID). Can pages be retreived? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Creativeenterprises (talk • contribs) 11:52, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

some articles have photos of the subject to the right of the page, in a kind of table with stats etc, how do I get that on my articles?

The only option we seem to get is imputting text and formatting.

I would be grateful if someone could explain simply how I can create this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Creativeenterprises (talk • contribs) 11:56, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The article was Saffron Taylor. It was deleted with reference to Wikipedia:CSD#A7 but I see you have found and contacted the deleting administrator, so I will just give a couple of standard links for now: Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted?, Wikipedia:Notability (people). PrimeHunter (talk) 12:23, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

uploaded images

how do I delete images that i have uploaded? They have not been added to any pages. user name: Clara Hoskins —Preceding unsigned comment added by Clara Hoskins (talk • contribs) 13:59, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Only admins can delete pages, but adding the tag {{db-author}} to a page (including images) that only you have edited will cause an admin to delete it. Algebraist 14:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Homepage

Can I make Wikipedia as my desktop homepage? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.12.157.0 (talk) 14:15, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes. You will need to open your browser settings. In there somewhere should be a option to change your home page. If you tell me your browser (Internet Expler/Firefox ect) I can give you more specific instructions. Tiddly-Tom 15:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Start, Control panel, internet options, in the home page box type http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.  Sunderland06  15:40, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The above is for Internet Explorer only. For Firefox, go to Tools->Options...->Main. Enter the above address in the box and make sure you click OK. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 18:57, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

This week's Signpost

Where is this week's Wikipedia Signpost?! Two weeks ago you said that this week's Wikipedia Signpost would be posted on Wednesday because of the holiday. Today is Thursday, and it STILL isn't up yet!4.156.174.46 (talk) 14:40, 3 January 2008 (UTC) It just came out now. Never mind.4.156.174.46 (talk) 14:45, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Glad you found it. In the future, questions about the signpost would best be posted here. Enjoy the new issue! Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 18:59, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Music

Hello. If possible, how can I type music like how I can type math in LaTeX? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 16:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Not possible at the moment, unfortunately. There's code do to that written somewhere, but it isn't installed on Wikipedia, and it can take developers a long time to check code to verify that it's safe for use on a website this large before installing it. --ais523 18:35, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (music). For more advanced things, I think you need to create an image with an external program like LilyPond. But this should probably be done rarely. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:46, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The easiest way would be to create an image with either a music editor program Sibelius Cakewalk etc. You could also use photoshop if you were handy at it. Keep in mind though that when a song is copyrighted, so is any depiction of it in visual form (sheet music), so such an image would NOT be free and would need a fair-use justification.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 22:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Image problem

Image:Dunkerque dot.png seems to have a broken thumbnail, only a small part of the map shows. I tried to purge it but it did not work. Does anyone know how to fix this? Arthena^(talk) 17:00, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the image is damaged; someone will need to upload a new version to fix this. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 17:44, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

It seems someone fixed the problem - there was a non-broken version of the image on Commons. Unfortunately its not a general solution, but it will work for this image. Arthena^(talk) 20:20, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Article Query

Hi,

I was Hi. I go on Wikipedia frequently and I was wondering if it is allowed or considered as spam if I create an Article for Wikipedia about one of the fanfictions I am writing. I know people who would benefit greatly from it, as they find the fanfiction in question far too complicated. I knew instantly that creating an article on Wikipedia would be the easiest and most effective solution, however I was worried whether it was considered as spam.

Thank You. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.195.176.143 (talk) 17:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd strongly advise against creating an article on this topic. A fan-fiction, unless it's received significant attention or notice from reliable, independent sources, is almost certainly not notable, and would probably be deleted very quickly. Also, since you're the author of it, you have a clear conflict of interest with regards to the topic, which would result in the article almost certainly having neutrality issues. If the fan-fiction ever becomes notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia, someone unrelated to its creation will probably create the article; until then, you probably shouldn't write an article for it. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 17:43, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

(ec)Thank you for taking the time to find this out first rather than just going ahead and seeing if your article is deleted. The primary criterion for inclusion of topics in Wikipedia is the general notability guideline, which in essence requires that the topic be the subject of significant coverage in secondary sources, such as the print media. If your fanfiction does not fulfill this requirement, then there may be a Wikia wiki which would be an appropriate place for it. Algebraist 17:45, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

redirections

is it possible somehow that i (registered member) can redirect pages by myself? i mean, there are lots and lots of hard to pronounce (or should i say type) names out there. so many that i have forgotten how many of them. like say, kumquats or johan djourou (almost always typoed as johan djorou and many more. if you don't know how to type the thing, shouldn't we help "you" rather than challenging "you" to find the right spellings elsewhere, then search it here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Damaster-rapper (talk • contribs) 18:10, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

All registered users can create redirects. See Wikipedia:Redirect and Category:Redirects from misspellings. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:22, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Keep in mind that you don't have to redirect every mispelling of a name you can think of. Generally you should only redirect a name if you think people will attempt that name with some relative frequency. We kindof have a problem with wikipedia search (not as bad as it used to be though) showing 3 or 4 redirects to an article above the article itself, when it is searched for even with the correct spelling because there are so many floating out there.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 22:18, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

how to be in search results

I want to know how I can get my page to come up when entered in search? I'm trying to get an article about Susan Oliver (a different one from the one which currently comes up) Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saoms (talk • contribs) 18:31, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the search function can only provide articles that actually exist on the English Wikipedia. Unless you are referring to your own userpage, on which you have placed information about the singer Susan Oliver, then Wikipedia does not yet have an article on this person. You are of course free to request that such a page be created, or wait a few (4?) days and make it yourself. Algebraist 19:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Newly registered users can create articles right away. The 4 day waiting period is for moving pages and edit semi-protected pages. If she satisfies Wikipedia:Notability (music) (which is uncertain) then an article could be created at Susan Oliver (musician) per Wikipedia:Disambiguation. The user page at User:Saoms is not part of the encyclopedia and is not searched by default. When Wikipedia search indexes it (hasn't happened yet), it can be searched by first clicking "search", and then "User" at the bottom. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:53, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm having issues with an article

Hello there. I've been working on Iowa Democratic caucuses, 2008. There was a picture and a few sections below the "Poll" section that disappeared. Can someone please take a look at it and fix it?

Also, I would appreciate it if some people would come over and help edit the article. The caucus is this evening, and the article is far from ready for presenting the results. Any help would be greatly appreciated.--Dem393 (talk) 18:36, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I replaced back the image. You can easily find such material yourself by going to the article's page history and clicking on prior dates to find a prior version of the article that contained the image; when you find such a prior version, go into edit mode to find the image's placement markup. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 18:46, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for fixing that, but there are other sections that don't show up on the article page. Why does that happen? (External links, categories, etc.)--Dem393 (talk) 18:51, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

PS you'll see what I'm talking about if you scroll down to the bottom of the editing page.--Dem393 (talk) 19:03, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. It was what I'm coming to believe is the most common way to completely (and almost invisibly) screw up an article: a missing / in a ref tag. Algebraist 19:07, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the help!--Dem393 (talk) 19:26, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

How can I get articles from your site?

How can I get articles from your site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.94.57.34 (talk) 18:38, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Um, I'm not sure what you mean by "get".

• If you want to browse articles, start with the Main Page or Search.
• If you want them on paper for your own use, you'll have to print them yourself.
• If you want to know how to reproduce articles in another work please see Wikipedia:Copyrights - Reusers' rights and obligations and/or Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks.

Difficult to be more helpful without knowing what you mean. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 19:26, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Other things the question might refer to:

• WP:WAP - how to read Wikipedia on mobile computing devices with tiny displays
• Tome Raider - how to read the text portions of Wikipedia articles while offline

--Teratornis (talk) 23:34, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Adding a page

I searched for FatWire and it came up with two references but I wnated to add a page about FatWire. Since I didn't get a button that allowed me to start a new page, how do I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikiminder (talk • contribs) 19:57, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Put FatWire in the search box on the right and manually click "Go". It should ask you if you want to create the page. First though, please review WP:NAME WP:V and WP:N to make sure that is the proper naming convention to use and that the article will meet the notability critiera. Is also important. This may save you a lot of effort as if this topic does not meet those criteria it will likely be deleted or moved.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 21:03, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

collapsible boxes

Is there any parameter that can be added or template included to make boxes (similar to the one below) collapsible without having to use the {{navbox}} template?

{|align="left" style="text-align: right; font-size: 95%;background-color: lightblue;" |- |[[Image:Koebel.jpg|50px|right]]'''This page has a fever, and the only prescription, is [[more cowbell]].''' |- |You can help by [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}|action=edit}} adding more cowbell!]'' |- |}

Thanks! --Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 20:55, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Note: What that code shows as is on my user page.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 20:57, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

This page has a fever ...
... and the only prescription, is more cowbell.
You can help by adding more cowbell!

See Wikipedia:NavFrame, Wikipedia:Collapsible tables, {{Hidden}}, {{Hidden begin}} for some possibilities. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

contribution not suitable, next steps please

Hi

A while ago, I drafted a short piece about an information association i volunteer with. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_creation/2006-11-23#IAALD

The idea was to start from here to build out a series of entries around agricultural information and communications - linking to items from some of our existing members and collaborators already on wikipedia.....

Now I see that "all article submissions on this archive page have been mass moderated, and none of the remaining submissions are suitable for articles on Wikipedia. The page has been mass moderated and can safely be marked as completed."

so, where do i go from here on wikipedia? if at all..

thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iaaldeditor (talk • contribs) 21:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I can suggest one reason why the submission might not have been added (although there may be others) is that it contains no independent and reliable sources. I notice that you went back today, over a year later, and edited the submission, expanding the sources. However even that PDF document source by "Greider, A.P" is still not independent as the document says (and I quote): "Antoinette Greider is Secretary/Treasurer of IAALD". Firstly you would need to resubmit the page as the archived version will not get seen where it is even if you edit it. Additionally you will need to find independently published sources on IAALD, not blogs and documents written by it. Please see Wikipedia:Verifiability for a fuller explanation than I can give. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 22:10, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I think this page could easily be notable if you provide independent sources (as described above) that qould qualify its notability. Once you do that, I recommend just creating the article forthright instead of putting it through articles for creation. I think a lot of submissions that would otherwise be good articles get declined there because no one who patrols wants to go through the effort of cleaning them up or just creating them in the first place.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 22:15, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The suggested article was not accepted but that doesn't necessarily make the subject unsuitable for an article. I didn't review it and don't know what the reviewers thought since no reply was given, but two problems may have killed it: 1) Lack of independent sources as others point out. Wikipedia really likes independent reliable sources to show notability of a subject. 2) The name in the opening line was wrong (it misssed a final s). If a reviewer made a quick Google search without that s to get a rough idea of how often the organization is mentioned and the chance of finding good sources, then it would give 96 hits today (enough to make many think it's correctly spelled and not speculate about other spellings), instead of 12100 hits. I have no idea whether such a misleading search was actually made, but I can easily imagine it. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:32, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism Template

I noticed that when people vandalize here on Wikipedia, that you have a spefici template to subst for that user & they generally get 3 of those before getting banned. Anyways, where could I find those templates? I tried looking for them but had no such luck. § Eloc § 22:06, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace for these and many other. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:09, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

You may also notice that at the bottom of the when you are editing something, there is a box with clickable markup and languages. You may click on the (templates) link below to get at a page containing templates for a variety of uses and namespaces. Generally every template not on the user namespace will be somewhere on that list.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 22:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Looking for a specific citation template

Another editor added an external citation to an article which links to a webpage which excerpts another person's article. I guess that would be considered a tertiary(?) source. Anyhow, the author's name is given, but there is no information given regarding the original publication. Given that the excerpted author is a reporter for a particular hobbyist publication, I assume that is the source. But, is there a template which says something to the effect of "Please provide a source for the original publication?" I looked at {{refimprove}} and {{citequote}}, but they don't seem to address this specific situation. I've left a note about it on the talk page, but I thought it would be prudent to tag the questionable source in articlespace as well. All suggestions are welcome. Thank you, GentlemanGhost (talk) 22:47, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't see anything fitting in Category:Citation and verifiability maintenance templates. Depending on the circumstances, if the linked external site is unreliable then you might use {{Unreliablesources}} which refers to the talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

creating new article from a section of an existing article

129.6.203.95 (talk) 23:29, 3 January 2008 (UTC)HRosenberg Hello: I am interested to create a new article. The subject exists as a subsection in another article but I believe that it deserves an independent article. It would contain the contents of the existing article section plus some expansion. Should I just create this new article and leave the old subsection, or create a new article and delete this section from the old article. Is there a Wikipedia policy on this?

Actually, a guideline rather than a policy (policies being fewer in number on Wikipedia, and generally even harder to change than guidelines):

• Wikipedia:Article size (Manual of Style)
• Wikipedia:Summary style (guideline) - when articles get too long

--Teratornis (talk) 23:38, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that to create a new article, you have to create an account and log in first. Be sure to read Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted? before you create your first article. --Teratornis (talk) 23:40, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

It might be a good idea to first dicuss this on the original article's talk page. However, if you are sure that that the change is useful and if you do not get a response on the talk page after a few days, then go ahead a make the change anyway (after reading the guidelines listed above.) -Arch dude (talk) 03:25, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Initial Capitalization

Headline entry for Jerry Spagnoli currently reads: Jerry spagnoli. How can the "s" of the last name be changed from lower case to upper case? This is not part of the copy body, but rather above the copy body on the edit page, therefore it does not seem to be accessible for revision. Sarahmorthland (talk) 23:35, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Accounts older than 4 days can move pages using a "move" button which will appear at the top of the page (beside the "history" button). In this case, I have moved the page to correct the capitalisation. More information is available at WP:MOVE--Kateshortforbob 23:45, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

On another note, the article reads as though it might have been written for another purpose; perhaps an interview or an exhibition catalogue? I think the first two paragraphs need some reworking to remove the promotional, for lack of a better word, language (the "peacock terms" mentioned at the top of the article). I've added a couple of references, but more would great, particularly one for the direct quote. Unfortunately, I don't have time to look for more - it's nearly my bedtime! --Kateshortforbob 00:11, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

January 4

Image use question

I'm not longer actively contributing to Wikipedia, and apparently image-use rules and requirements have changed again. From what I understand I'm to provide justification for including this image; which is from the author's press kit.. From somebody who's versed in the current image use standards, what's the best way to show this justification according to the new rulings? -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 02:16, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the simple link to randomhouse.com is no longer sufficient. Please take a look at the guidelines and add the {{Non-free use rationale}} template to image page, filling in all the fields - and in particular stating where the image came from and why that image is used in the article instead of a freely licenced one. Be sure to include in your rationale another link to the main article (ie. something like this: "Used to illustrate Madeleine L'Engle article for the purposes of ..."). Astronaut (talk) 03:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Log-in confusion

Help folks—

Seeing an entry that was embarrassing both in its grammar and in its lack of objectivity, I tried to log-in and edit. Blaaaat! Rejected.

Figuring maybe I had already registered but forgotten, I tried to log-in with my standard username (which I have never, ever seen pre-empted on any site at any time), but I was dissed.

My standard username is "Scarabus," which is also the title of my blog My usual email addresses are these:

(addresses removed to avoid spam)

Is it just a log-in problem? Has a quantum coincidence occurred? Is my on-line identity being stolen?

Hep me, folks!

—wayne —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.121.44.126 (talk) 03:27, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia has millions of accounts. Are you interested in Turkish football? Special:Contributions/Scarabus shows 4 edits. If it's you but you cannot remember the passsword then just create a new account. The Scarabus account has chosen not to allow email from other users, but if it's you and you did give an email address for other purposes then click "E-mail new password" at the login screen. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:40, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

By the way, we have an article at Scarabus and there are 56100 hits on google:Scarabus (some of them probably you), so the name is not that special. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:44, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) :A User:Scarabus was created in July and made a small number of edits to Turkish football clubs. If that is not you, then sorry you will have to think of another username. If that was you and you added your email address to the preferences page, your can request a new password.

One other thing. It is a very bad idea to put your email address on this page for all to see - including spammers, identity thieves, etc. Astronaut (talk) 03:49, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

JavaScript and Interactive boxes

I was kinda hoping I could find some way to get one of those countdown clocks in a message box on my userpage...counting down to my graduation on May 17. It that possible? If so, how? (The work-in-progress message box is in my sandbox). -- §HurricaneERICarchive 08:03, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Some things can be build with Category:Date mathematics templates. For example: There are -5935 days to 1 July 2008, where the day count is made with {{#expr: -{{age in days|2008|7|1}}}}. {{age in days}} returns a negative number for future days so the result is negated. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:25, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, wow! So this will automatically update? It would be even better if I could get other timeframes in here, like months and days instead of just days. I'll take whatever I can get. If you don't know of a way to do that, that's fine, but if you do I'd love to hear it. -- §HurricaneERICarchive 19:49, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Question about TABLES

I have a specific question about TABLES in Wikipedia. Both of my following attempts can be seen on my user page. Feel free to copy, paste, and alter them in order to demonstrate the solution(s) to my question(s).

I am trying to create a table for the Sicilian alphabet. The first table I attempted consisted of 1 column (with 5 headers for each letter), and it ended up much too long and skinny. The format was similar to:

letter	pronunciation	example
Aa	/a/	apple
Bb	/b/	boy
Cc	/k/	kite
Dd	/d/	dog

The second table I attempted consisted of 2 columns (with 5 headers for each letter), with an empty cell in between to separate them. The format was similar to:

letter	pronunciation	example		letter	pronunciation	example
Aa	/a/	apple		Cc	/k/	kite
Bb	/b/	boy		Dd	/d/	dog

I am happier with the second attempt, however the problem is in separating the two columns from one another, so that it's clear that it's not merely a long, connected row. As it stands now, I have placed an empty, skinny row in between, but I'm not happy with this.

So my question is, how can I alter the style of just the right border of a cell, or column of cells? I would like to bold, or somehow alter, the right border of the 5th header of the 1st column, so there will be some separation between column 1 (headers 1-5) and column 2 (headers 6-10). How, or can, this be done? And is it possible to make this border thicker as well, for added separation? Is there a website, or tutorial, of which you can inform me?

Thank you much,

Michiluzzu Scalisi (talk) 08:09, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

P.S. I know that this can be done in other codes, or styles of code, like CSS using "border-left=". However, to use this I believe it would require me to rewrite the entire table using this code, or style of code. Is there a way to do what I'm asking in the style of code in which I've already written the table? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michiluzzu Scalisi (talk • contribs) 08:19, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Prime gap#Numerical results shows a different approach: Make separate tables in cells of a larger table. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:15, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

You can use two tables and put them in a two-column format. -Arch dude (talk) 13:48, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

how to create same article in different language & show language hyperlink on the page

For Example; For the page = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra languages are appearing on left side of the article, so if user wants he can read in other languages for exmample Marathi language.

But I want to have same language option on left side of below article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shri_Ramakrishna_Kshirsagar_Swamiji

How to do that????

Thank you in advance....

Regards, Rohit —Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.157.254.25 (talk) 11:17, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

You need to put something like [[xx:page name]] in the article, where xx is the language code (ISO 639-1) of the Wikipedia you want to make the link to. For more info see Help:Interlanguage links. Arthena^(talk) 11:26, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, you have to create each article, in each Wikipedia, but I can't be sure. The Helpful One ^{(Talk) (Contributions) (Review Me!)} 11:26, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the bar on the left indicates the location of the article in another language Wiki. I checked on the Spanish, French, Hindu and German Wiki, and neither of them has an article on Shri Ramakrishna Kshirsagar Swamiji. If you want to have the article in another language (which means, in another Wiki) you should ask for help at Wikipedia:Translation or try and translate the article yourself. --Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 11:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Browser problem

As of a few months ago, whenever I access Wikipedia my browser crashes. I use Netscape 7, running in Solaris. I used not to have this problem, and do not have it with any other sites. It seems that a change was made to the site at that time which causes Netscape to crash.

I would be grateful if you could look into this problem for me. 80.128.97.81 (talk) 12:04, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

You're running a rather old version of the web browser (version 9 is current), so there's not much that can be done on Wikipedia's side. I would suggest downloading a newer web browser. Since Netscape is being discontinued, I would suggest Firefox instead. -- Kesh (talk) 13:50, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Four tildes doesn't work! Assistance needed.

The last few days the 4 tildes signature no longer works for me. Instead of a proper signature, I get what you can see on the Talk:Transnistria page in my last edits. Hopefully, the same error will occur on this page, too (yes, it did, so you can see here what I'm talking about). I have never changed my signature in the preferences, so I don't understand why I have this problem and how to correct it. Dpotop 13:32, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Despite the fact that you haven't intentionally changed your preferences, go to them and make sure on the User Profile page the "raw signature" box is unchecked.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I just did that, and everything is now OK. Thanks. But I don't understand how it got checked in the firt place. Dpotop (talk) 13:40, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

You're dealing with electrons and chaos and cosmic rays...computer bugs of all sorts just happen:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:58, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Fear of Notability Factor

Hello:

I'm a collector of a cappella music, and I'm a considering using the multi-platform music manager software, Jajuk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jajuk) to organize my collection, once I've digitalized it. One of excellent features of Jajuk, is their information perspective, which takes you to the wiki page of the artist or of the album corresponding to the song currently playing.

But, thoughthere are several thousand a cappella groups in the world, most are fairly unknown to mainstream music. I'm afraid that if I go ahead and create wiki pages or stubs for each of the artists in my collection (some of whom are defunct or do not have web sites, thought most do have web sites), some or many of them will get deleted due to failing your notability test.

If Jajuk, ever allowed it (or I used J.River Media Center,which has a plug-in for wiki info), an alternative would be for me to create my own local wiki.

Please either reassure me that I can "safely" use the public wikipedia or discourage me from entering my groups there. Would they likely pass the notability test? I don't want to do a lot of work for nothing.

Thanks

Jim —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.141.169.108 (talk) 16:19, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Notability (music) should hopefully help you to decide whether the artists in question meet our notability guidelines. There's also the possibility that you might wish to write one or two articles, let us review them and give advice on whether you should continue or not. Hope this helps. Nick (talk) 16:29, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

(Edit Conflict)Honestly it will be a lot of work to make the pages for each group good enough not to be deleted. For each page you would have to provide references that show the group's notability per the guidelines in WP:MUSIC. If this weren't done I'm afraid most of the stubs would probabably find their way to deletion. As Wikipedia is not a collection of indiscriminate information, simply creating stubs without illustrating notability is generally not accepted practice.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 16:35, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I don't know anything about a cappella groups but many music group articles are deleted for failing Wikipedia:Notability (music). If you want to reduce the risk of deletion then read the guideline carefully, include references from reliable sources to satisfy it, and don't use a promotional tone. But there are not any guarantees against deletion. It's possible but far from certain that other editors will find references to a notable group to prevent deletion of a poorly referenced article. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:41, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to add that there is nothing in Wikipedia requiring that reliable sources must be available online, nor any requirement/expectation that all notable entities will have their own website. Don't let modernist delusions that "everything's on the 'Net" keep you from creating sound articles based on printed references, properly cited. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:35, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encylopedia, rather than a wiki catering to enthusiasts of any particular topic. What Wikipedia concept of "notability" tends to be much narrower than a topic enthusiast's concept. I would expect the authors of Jajuk to understand this - by linking (only?) to music articles on Wikipedia, they will not maximize coverage for music enthusiasts, many of whom are likely to have very specialized tastes. Jajek should provide options to link all the other public wikis about music, which generally aim for comprehensiveness within their declared scope. I suggest you find a wiki specializing in the type of music you want to write about. --Teratornis (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Detecting template-only talk/discussion pages?

Often, after reading an article, I'll look at the blue "discussion" tab and think, "I see there's an active talk page; I should read that too." Most of the time, that talk page is only a set of templates, listing the status of the article in various projects. This wastes over five seconds of my time - possibly six! (insert self-referential irony)

Is there a script/extension/other way that will pre-visit the page and see if it's nothing but templates? Is there talk somewhere of moving categorization and status to a different tab? Am I neurotic? Please answer only the first two. --JayLevitt (talk) 17:14, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

There is a script you can use that shows pop-up previews of pages when you put your mouse over the link. I've seen it, but I do not use it. I believe that will work for you - it is just a matter of tracking down what the script's name is... -- kainaw™ 17:21, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups -- kainaw™ 17:22, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Northwest Airlines

My Name ia Emily Graves. This is the seventh tie that I have tried to reach someone to help me with a loss I suffered when flying Northwest Airlines. The flight inbformation is as follows: My husband (Dennis Graves) and I flew from Detroit to Springfield, Missouri on December 23, 2007 on flight # Nw5825, At the last minute our gete number was changed only our luggage was routed to Minneapolis. When we finally recieved our luggage there were a number of items missing. All of my meications were misssing, but that isssue has been resolved through my insurance company. E —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.105.128.56 (talk) 17:33, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

You might want to take that up with Northwest Airlines, as this is Wikipedia, an encyclopaedia. Here is the Northwest Airlines web site.

Sorry to here you had a bad journey. All the best. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 17:38, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Create an article

How do I go about creating my own article? I want to add something to wikipedia.XEDx (talk) 19:36, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Also, the article you write will not be your own article, please take a look at WP:OWN, too. :) PeaceNT (talk) 19:40, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

"Contributing significantly" before GA review

I was looking through the GAN backlog today and decided that I would like to review an article (Roberto Clemente). I noticed, however, that it needed quite a bit of copyediting. I went through most of the article (adding punctuation, fixing wikilinks, etc.) and plan to finish copyediting it later today, but I just wanted clarification on whether or not that would disqualify me from reviewing it. I didn't change any information and I have no ties to the article, but I just wanted to make sure I would be avoiding a conflict of interest. Thanks, GaryColemanFan (talk) 20:47, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

To be on the safe side, I would let someone else review it. NF24^{(radio me!)} 01:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Creating Pages

I was wondering how to make your own pages. I just became a member of Wikipedia and I wan to make a page, but I don't know how. Can you help me?

Smiley529 (talk) 23:19, 4 January 2008 (UTC)Smiley529

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

question please help

hello - i accidentally created a Vivek shraya page instead of a Vivek Shraya page...i was hoping to delete the former as I have now moved the content into the Vivek Shraya page... please assist. thank you. SM —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sabrina Miller (talk • contribs) 23:23, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I have set the Vivek shraya page to redirect to Vivek Shraya. In the future, use the move tab to rename pages. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 23:35, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

January 5

Hi

I got into wikipedia thru morfix.co.il a Hebrew English website. How do I search for a word? when I write the word in the search area it takes me back to the English Wikipedia.

the only link that works for me is http://www.morfix.co.il/DETL/detlfs.aspx?q=http%3A//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pantry

I have to manually delete the last word in this above link and re-enter the other word I'm searching. Is there a better way? thanks

p.s. You can e-mail me back at <e-mail removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vicki123456 (talk • contribs) 00:29, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and discourages dictionary definitions. A sister project of Wikipedia is Wiktionary, which can be accessed at http://en.wiktionary.org. However, we do have a search box that you can use to find encyclopaedia articles. It's on the left hand side of every page. See Wikipedia:Search for more info. NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:47, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The website at http://www.morfix.co.il is not operated by Wikipedia or by the Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia. It is site which can apparently load a page outside the site (not necessarily from Wikipedia) and add something in Hebrew to it. The site does not appear to have a real search function but just makes an English Wikipedia search on terms in the search box of a page originating from the English Wikipedia. Wikipedia has no control over this and I don't know a way to get url's at that site from a search. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:13, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I tried to look at the morfix help page, and frankly, I have no idea what it does really. It seems to mix in some strange way searches in the Hebrew and English Wikipedias, translations, morphology and whatnot. One thing is certain, this has nothing to do with Wikipedia itself and you should contact morfix for any questions. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 14:24, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Missing Photo graphic

I've seen on some pages (though I can't recall any atm) a graphic in a profile box for a person, that says something along the lines of "we don't have a image of this person. Would you like to add one?". I would like to use this in an article I am editing, but cant' seem to find it. Thanks Chopper Dave (talk) 00:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

...moments later - Replace this image male.svg , thanks for looking anyway. Chopper Dave (talk) 00:56, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

How can I create a page on Wikipedia?

I'd like to know how to create a page on Wikipedia.

ArwenUndomiel [my username] —Preceding unsigned comment added by ArwenUndomiel (talk • contribs) 01:00, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. NF24^{(radio me!)} 01:09, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Copyright - attribute to who?

I'm making a picture that I'd like to be used here at the big WP but also on a website about bikes. I would like the picture to be released under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license (maybe dual with that other one people seem to like a lot also). I want to know; does the website owner have to attribute it to me or to Wikipedia? And where can they put the attribution? Must it be right by the picture or at the bottom of the page? ----Seans Potato Business 01:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

According to the page on Creative Commons licenses, you can choose whether attribution is required, and it would be attributed to you, not Wikipedia if you choose to require it. You can also choose whether derivative works are allowed; if you do allow derivative works, you can determine whether they have to be under the same license as well. The CC license has the possibility of requiring non-commercial use only as part of it, but you can't use it on Wikipedia unless you allow potential commercial use.

Of course, you could just avoid the whole copyright bureaucracy and release it to the public domain. Much simpler if you don't care about attribution and such. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 04:56, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and were you thinking of the GFDL? That's the other commonly used license on Wikipedia. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 04:58, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking about "GNU documentation" as in this image [:Image:Ligation.svg]. I prefer not to use the public domain on account of it allowing people to copyright and derivative works, and the share-alike license wont allow that. ----Seans Potato Business 10:33, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so yeah, I was thinking of GFDL... :) Thanks for the help btw. --Seans Potato Business 13:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

User0663 - Lunar Impact

Hi This is User0663 and i,m wondering if i could create a new article for you wikipedia Admin guys on how a large asteroid could impact on moon and screw up it's orbit resulting in the moon smashing into (IF NOT THROUGH) The Earth! Resulting in... THE END OF ALL THINGS! this theory of a lunar asteroid impact with screwed up orbit and a falling moon is known as a Lunar Impact.

so can i create a article on this?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by User0663 (talk • contribs) 02:31, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to the ranks Wikipedia editors! Do you have reliable sources to get your information from? Wikipedia is not the place for wild speculation... see WP:Notability for in-depth advice! Even if it turns out that this is not a suitable topic for an article, I'm sure you'll find tons of other ways to contribute. Good luck! ----Seans Potato Business 03:01, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Random note: admins make up only a small percentage of Wikipedia editors. Plenty of non-admins—such as me, for example—help out with answering questions here too. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 05:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Converting PNGs to SVGs for company logos

Is the conversion of a PNG to an SVG compatible with the fair use rationale which says something about low resolution (arguably doesn't exist in the world of SVG)? ----Seans Potato Business 03:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd say so. .png isn't all that different to .svg, but watch this space. Rudget. 16:20, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

But the resolution on an SVG is arbitrary and doesn't really mean anything. Of course, the law might mean (and to be fair probably envisaged, when it was written) that the display resolution has to be low, and that the ability of people to expand it not a concern. Why ought I watch this space? (are you going to find out for sure?) --Seans Potato Business 17:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

No I thought someone else who has a better knowledge of image policy than I would. From the top of my head I'd refer you to Remember the dot, who can practically recite the policy in his sleep. Rudget. 17:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll go pay him a visit. --Seans Potato Business 18:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

E-mail confirmation

I recently responded to a "Wikipedia e-mail address confirmation" request. I was concerned that the request came from "wiki@wikimedia.org" (rather than wikipedia.org) and the following appeared in the header:

tagged.as.spam.by.relays.prodigy.net.list.66.230.200.216

Thank you,

Asteriskit (talk) 04:04, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia and the confirmation mails come from wiki@wikimedia.org. Wikimedia sends a large number of similar machine generated mails. Some spam filters suspect they are spam which apparently happened here. Dont' worry about that and just be glad the mail wasn't blocked as it sometimes is. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:40, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Block log

Hello, I renamed myself from User:Lex94 to User:Alex Roggio. When I was Lex94, I was blocked once for suspected sockpuppetry (a lie, if I may add). However, when I search my block log, the block is no where to be found. But when I search the block log under my past username, it appears. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 05:12, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, as your contributions have been reassigned, and it's been about a month and a half since the rename now, I have to assume that the block log doesn't transfer for some reason - however odd that may be. Either that, or the job queue is seriously screwed up and backlogged, but then we'd be getting other problems as well. Should it need to be checked for some reason, your rename was logged, and it can be checked through that if necessary (which hopefully won't be the case). If you ever go for RfA or anything, just make sure you disclose that our front - it'll go much better for you if you let people know about it rather than letting them discover it on their own. Someone else please feel free to correct me on this if I am wrong about something, and/or providing a reason as to why they don't transfer, as I'm rather curious about it myself. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:48, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I believe that when an account is renamed the block log does not go with it, but in most cases the bureaucrat who completed the rename is supposed to block the new account for very short amounts of time (i.e. a couple of seconds) to put the reasons for the blocks on the previous account into the new account's block log. If the b'crat didn't do it, I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure you disclose if you ever run for RfA or ArbCom or something like that. Mr Senseless (talk) 19:08, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How to remove a page?

What is the procedure to remove a redirect page that should not have been created in the first place?

Thank you, --Jazzeur (talk) 05:20, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Post it at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion, or if it is just there for no reason whatsoever, put {{csd-g6}} on it. Soxred93 has a boring sig 05:25, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

G6 works for some situations but there are specific speedy deletion criteria for certain types of redirects. For those to non-existent pages, you can use {{db-redirnone}}; for redirect to a user page, user talk page, or talk page from the main/article space, you can use {{db-rediruser}}; and for recently created implausible typos, links or misnomers (the most common redirect deletion reason), you can use {{db-redirtypo}}.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you much to both. Very useful. --Jazzeur (talk) 05:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

User Page Help

I made my own sandbox on my user page since I wanted to start to expand the Northport High School article. Somehow I deleted half of my witting that I already had down but luckily I had my witting backed up. So I then went to edit my user page and recopy in the deleted material but then I ran into my problem. My user page does not update when I recopy in the material and save it, but when you go to "edit this page" all the witting comes up. Does anyone know why I can see all my writing under the "edit this page" but not under my user page? Thanks for any help! Noneforall (talk) 07:03, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You had an unclosed <ref> tag, I fixed it here. Mr.Z-man 07:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a ton, I almost had a heart attack when I lost my work! -Noneforall (talk) 07:17, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Guy Pewsey

I would like to be able to read all articles written by Mr Guy Pewsey if possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.178.183.243 (talk) 08:35, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You will need to know the persons username before you can do this. Wikipedia editors mostly do not use their real names as usernames. The editors real name is confidential and Wikipedia would not reveal it even if they new. Only Guy Pewsey himself cvould tell you this, if you know him.

You should also note that articles are not written by, or belong to, any one single person. It is one of the founding principles of Wikipedia that anyone can edit any article. SpinningSpark 11:42, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Changing the wikitable template....

Is there a way to change the template for wikitable? There is a layout problem in Internet Explorer when table width is set to 100% (a horizontal scrollbar is shown). Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steppres (talk • contribs) 08:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps it is due to the size of the border. You can simply avoid specifying a width of more than 99%.

Example:

abc	def	ghi
jkl	mno	pqr
stu	vwx	yz

Patrick (talk) 11:22, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Infobox Help

For some reason, I can't get Infoboxes to work. I tried just recently to put one on Tom Kenny, but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I don't know what the problem is. It's formatted correctly, but it won't display as anything besides text. CoolKid1993 (talk) 12:11, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

That had me stumped for a bit -- still does, really -- missing bracket apparently was the problem, but I'm not sure why that would cause such a serious break. Seems to work, now, though. :) – Luna Santin (talk) 12:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! CoolKid1993 (talk) 15:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Renameing your Login Name

Is there any way you can change the name of your username here on wikipedia if so, how? Thanks (talk) 17:45, January 5, 2008 —Preceding comment was added at 17:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Changing username. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

How to actually post an articel for the first time

How to actually post an article for the first time: PLease make this topic a lot clearer. You go on and on for pages and state what you should not do or how to use the sandbox. There is no obvious button to click to "post" or "submit" a topic. I have no idea (nor do you explain) the diffence between "save a page" vs. "show changes"

And on this page you don't have any discernible buttont to "send" this email to the help desk.

Try having your instructions that are currently computer geek level and re-translate for an average layperson. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hlernermd (talk • contribs) 17:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. The Helpful One ^{(Talk) (Contributions) (Review Me!)} 18:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Threatened with a block for re-posting an encyclopedic article

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well.

Last month, two articles that I had written were deleted. The reasons given were strongly worded, but from what I can see, they were not supported by the OR policy cited (WP:NOR). In particular, they didn't contain "unpublished facts, arguments, speculation, [or] ideas"; "unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position"; or "opinions, experiences, or arguments" not found in the sources. Instead, they presented ideas taken from different sources as in the example found at (WP: SYN):

Smith says that Jones committed plagiarism by copying references from another book. Jones denies this, and says it's acceptable scholarly practice to use other people's books to find new references.

The policy presents the passage above specifically as an example of "good editing" (WP: SYN).

One of the articles, Interlingua and the characteristica universalis compared, was then speedied because it had been previously deleted. I responded by thoroughly and reliably referencing the article inline, revising questionable statements, and returning the article to Wikipedia. The deleting administrator, User: Pablo, was agreeable to this, wished me happy editing, and everything was fine.

However, the revised article was speedied again, this time by user: Accounting4Taste. The reason given was G4, which applies only when the article "is substantially identical to the deleted version" and "any changes to the deleted page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted" (WP:CSD). This clearly is not the case for this revised and now thoroughly referenced article.

The other article, Begriffsschrift and Interlingua compared, was prodded. This is contrary to WP: PROD, which states,

Articles that have been discussed on AfD are not candidates for {{prod}}. (bold in original)

I noted this on the article's talk page, as the {{prod}} tag suggests, and removed the tag, something that WP: DP explicitly permits under "Proposed deletion". Then, user: Accounting4Taste speedied this article as well. I had revised the article in response to the original reasons for deletion, so again, I don't feel that it should have been speedied. It's true that I didn't reference it inline, because it was already referenced below the text. In any case, I've now re-revised and thoroughly referenced the article inline. I'm ready to return the article to Wikipedia, which seems to be consistent with Why Was My Page Deleted, since it is far from identical to the original article (See "What not to do about it" at WP:WWMPD).

However, user: Accounting4Taste has threatened to block me. His message is,

Please stop. If you continue to introduce inappropriate pages to Wikipedia you will be blocked from editing. Accounting4Taste:talk 20:52, 4 January 2008 (UTC) (from my talk page)

To my knowledge, neither of these articles was ever inappropriate, and they certainly aren't now. I think the threatened block should be prevented, so that I can post the thoroughly referenced articles and create additional, encyclopedic articles if I choose. I have carefully reviewed and followed Wikipedia's policies and guidelines from the beginning, and that isn't going to change. I'm not at all sure that user: Accounting4Taste should be acting as an administrator at this point, since he has threatened to block someone who is only following procedure the best he can. My priority, however, is just to be allowed to participate.

Another player in this drama is user: CastAStone, who requested the speedy deletions. Thank you for your help, and have a good day. Lumturo (talk) 17:58, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I have posted a note about this at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents and believe that further discussion should take place there. Accounting4Taste:talk 18:04, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The Help Page is probably the wrong venue for this issue. I think that Editor Assistance or Mediation would be a good place to start. Although, a quick and hasty look at the issue seems to indicate that you are ignoring what others are trying to tell you.—Noah 18:09, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll post at one of the sites that the two of you have mentioned. What I'm saying is that those others are mistaken in what they are telling me, and that it's OK to re-post the deleted articles after they've been revised and thoroughly referenced. User: Pedro was fine about how I responded to his deletion. But again, thank you for your help, and I'll address this elsewhere. Lumturo (talk) 19:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

outline maps

I need to find out how the notation for latitude is shown on Desk Outline Maps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.102.252.21 (talk) 21:27, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

capitalization in title & protected uploaded image

I've created a page for an album, entitled Slaughter Daughter. When i created the page, though, it was made as Slaughter daughter (with no capitalized letter D). I'm not sure if this was a mistake on my part or if it just defaulted to assuming it wasn't a proper noun. So my first question is, how can I correct this?

My second question, which may be related, is that the link from the Die Mannequin page referring to Slaughter Daughter isn't finding the page for the album. Maybe it's because of the capitalization? Also, i uploaded a picture for the album before i had actually made the album page, figuring i could then just pop it in. Apparently, i cant do that, because it needs the page to be created, so it protected the details of the image and wont let me edit them. Whenever i go to the image page and try to edit, i keep getting the same message saying it is protected, and the link for Slaughter Daughter there still isn't working, either, claiming the album page doesn't exist. Again, this may be related to the capitalization - I'm not really sure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pointingandlaughing (talk • contribs) 23:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

1. Y Done. In the future, you can click the "move" tab at the top of any page.
2. It's because of the capitalisation.
3. The image should work now. See WP:F to learn how to write a fair use rationale; it appears incomplete. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Fixed the rationale for you. It does not need the [[ ]] in the template. I have merged the two rationales that you gave. Make sure you read WP:F on how to meet all the criteria. Woody (talk) 23:51, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

January 6

nazrul

hi why we need negative number —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:21, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I fail to see what you are asking, could you elaborate, please? Qst 00:22, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

what do you mean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That's what Qst is asking. What is your question about? NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:33, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is meant for questions concerning Wikipedia, not for it's content. --Sigma 7 (talk) 00:35, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

No, all Wikipedia-related questions are welcome here, not just Wikipedia only, it's content can be questioned here, too. Qst 00:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the IP is asking about the little red number next to all the edits. If so, then it means that there are less bytes in the page (it's not WikiPoints! or anything like that).

PS. Someone did actually ask me before if they were points. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) My bad. By checking the contributions, I see he/she was asking about [[2]]. However, this is a question for the Reference Desk, just like Sigma 7 said. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:44, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Nazrul, see here. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

what is the negative number —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See above. NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I think he/she is pulling a rib on us and is vandalizing. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It's always a possibility, but what happened to WP:AGF? To answer the question, the numbers next to edits show how much text was added or removed. A negative number means text was removed, while a positive number means text was added. The numbers are colored for convenience. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Editing

How do i edit pages?Zuko11 (talk) 01:19, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Editing and come back if you have a more specific problem. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal)

Could someone create Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal) with the following content.. taken from an old revision of the Molecular and Cellular Biology page..?--69.118.143.107 (talk) 01:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Molecular and Cellular Biology is an academic journal published by the [[American Society for Microbiology]]. The title is commonly abbreviated MCB and the ISSN is 0270-7306 for the print version, and 1098-5549 for the electronic version.


Molecular and Cellular Biology is an authoritative source of fundamental knowledge and new developments in all aspects of the molecular biology of eukaryotic cells. Essential to all scientists in the field, MCB publishes work on microbial as well as higher organisms and on viral systems where emphasis is clearly on the cell.
== References ==
[http://mcb.asm.org/ Molecular and Cellular Biology]


[[Category:Biology journals]]
[[Category:Delayed open access journals]]

{{sci-journal-stub}}

Assuming that that isn't possible due to some sort of strange GDFL restriction, could the page Molecular and Cellular Biology be moved to Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal)? In which case I'll just revert to the reversion indicated above, and turn the redirect at Molecular and Cellular Biology back into a disambiguation page. For that matter could someone also create Molecular and cellular biology as a redirect to Molecular and Cellular Biology. Thank you.--69.118.143.107 (talk) 01:31, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Why don't you have an account to do such things yourself? I'll do them both now. --Seans Potato Business 01:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Out of control image on the loose at Backcrossing

I have two questions about my image at Backcrossing: 1) why does it look such appalling quality when it's an SVG made from scratch in Inkscape? 2) why is it out of control? ----Seans Potato Business 01:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It's so large because frame is used. It displays the original size. See Help:Magic words#size. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:06, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

When you use the frame attribute and the thumb attribute at the same time, frame will override thumb resulting in a full sized image.--69.118.143.107 (talk) 02:09, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Why was the quality of the image so poor? It should have been smooth. It needs to be in a frame in order to show the caption but thumb is far to small for the image to be of use. Should be at least 400px to be readable). --Seans Potato Business 02:24, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can specify a size with thumb. See Help:Images and other uploaded files#Linking. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:09, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How old?

How old does an account have to be to upload new versions of files, move articles and edit semi-protected pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rappingwonders2 (talk • contribs) 02:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Four days. In the mean time you can ask people here to do your bidding :) ----Seans Potato Business 02:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Enlarging words

how do you enlarge words? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wtfdontkill (talk • contribs) 02:28, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

To make all words in your browser larger, go to View -> Text size. To make words larger in Wikipedia on a specific page, use either <big> ... </big> tags or <span style="font-size: X%"> ... </span>, replacing X with the percentage, e.g. 200% to double the size. Does this answer your question? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

new user

Block quote

How do I start a new page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crredrider (talk • contribs)

Hi. Welcome to Wikipedia! See: Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article. WODUP 03:30, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Band Page

I am making a band page for Wikipedia and I wanted to know how to make the table that the band pages have. (The one with the picture if the band, the band symbol, and info).

Blast Off Bassist (talk) 03:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can use {{Infobox musical artist}}. Please make sure the band satisfies WP:MUSIC, and include references from reliable sources to demonstrate it. If you want to see what an existing article did then click "edit this page" at top to see the source. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Forgot Password

I have forgotten my password. I am SMP0328. You can E-mail me at (addresses removed for protection). Please help. --72.89.243.161 (talk) 03:41, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry but User:SMP0328 has not attached an email address to the account, so if you don't remember the password then you have to create a new account (see Help:Logging in#What if I forget the password?). Posting your email address here does not help. You can link the two accounts together on their user pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:00, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, I've created a new account. I've included my E-mail address for that account. How do I link the two accounts?--SMP0328. (talk) 04:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can put a note on your user page saying "I used to edit as User:SMP0328. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 09:29, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

First, thank you to whoever removed my E-mail addresses. Second, thank you to Confusing Manifestation for your assistance. --SMP0328. (talk) 03:46, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Userpage

I have created an userbox on anarcho-primitivism. But during the process of creating userbox, I have mistakenly created two pages namely User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox/Anarcho-primitivism and User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes/Anarcho-primitivism. Actually I see that every user who has created some userbox have their own subpage User:X/Userboxes. I want my subpage will remain in plural form, i.e. Userboxes, not Userbox. So I want to save the page User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes/Anarcho-primitivism and delete User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox/Anarcho-primitivism. Also I want to rename the page User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox into User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes. What should I do? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 05:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The problem is now solved. They are speedily deleted. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 06:47, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Advice please

From: <email address removed to prevent spam>

Dear Sir,

I live in Cairo, Egypt. and i tryed to buy from the Amazon website also foodnetwork website and they adviced that they can't deliver the order to my address in cairo also they mentioned that if i have a fright forwarder to do the job for me i mean they can send the oder to them rather for they will send me the oder to my address to cairo. egypt..? Can you do that?

Mrs. Omayma Elsarraj —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.158.160.244 (talk) 08:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 09:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Deleted translated page

I've started to translate the Beekeeping article into Afrikaans Byeboerdery and posted the first section. The first completed section have been posted and nearly immediately got flagged for deletion by some very inconsiderate people.

How do I make it part of the main project while not immediately placing a link from the main page? Before I place a link from the English page to the Afrikaans page I would like to get it as complete as possible.

Could the completed section be returned? If it can't be returned what needs doing so the page could stay in place?Byeboer (talk) 10:18, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You should write the Afrikaans version on the Afrikaans Wikipedia, not here on the English Wikipedia. I've restored the page you created and moved it into your user space at User:Byeboer wa/Byeboerdery. You may continue to work on the draft page there; when you're done, copy it over to the Afrikaans Wikipedia. It might even be possible to move it with the history intact, but I'm not very familiar with that part of the software. Once you're finished with the draft page, you may, if you wish, ask for it to be deleted by tagging it with {{db-userreq}}. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 10:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Ilmari. Didn't realize each language had it's own wiki. Thought it was all in one big pot.

I will finish the draft on my user page and then move it across. Will ask for some help then. As for the tagging, square brackets is enough for me. Byeboer (talk) 11:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thomas Pestrov

wtf guys why would you put something like that. to try to get it deleted because it has no proof on the internet or it wasnt shown in record books. As ive told you I have proof and its been in my family for generations. He deserves to be on here if you want proof type in Joel Roberts on google that is his son and there is proof enough. I hate how you guys say something has to be deleted as soon as it is posted and it makes me and millions of others dislike your so called free encyclopedia, i mean if it was so free then you would allow to have people put down facts they know is a fact and their family has known is a fact. And even so saying it dosnt have proof of existence is like saying you dont have proof of Gods existence and a lot of people believe in him and you allow it on your website like when i type in god its on there. But thats not what bugs me its your too lazy to get off your ass and look up crap, so if its something you dont recognize as a fact then you simply delete it, and i demand you send me a message reply to this for this is an injustice towards my free writes of speech, even though the same rules do not apply on the internet as they do online I have a peice of history that is great in its own self and instead of not letting the whole world learn it you delete it. And one more thing my great great great grandfather died for freedom and he believed if you did something just right no one would know that you did but know that someone did something for them without expecting fame or fortune having that is what has brought my family to this time and this age of time. My family has been doing great things for centuries living off his belief and knowing that if we did the right thing was good and it didnt matter if anyone knew it was us, to have pride is to have greed and greed kills more men then the bubonic plague did. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheStudy1 (talk • contribs) 10:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You should probably read over WP:BIO to find out how to tell if someone is notable enough to be included in Wikipedia. After that, please read WP:RS to learn about reliable sources, which do not include stories passed down by family members. And finally, please use better grammar. Your final paragraph had 20 lines of text and only 7 periods. The text was next to impossible to understand due to the poor grammar and punctuation. If you need help with English grammar, then I suggest you ask another editor to help you with your entry before posting it on a live page. A page such as User:TheStudy1/sandbox will do. Dismas|^(talk) 11:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

People don't "deserve" Wikipedia articles. You may have confused this site for some other type of site like a social networking site or a blog but Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, a tertiary source by definition, so the subjects making up our content must have already been published somewhere else in order to be included here. An encyclopedia should never announce new, unknown and unpublished things.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:33, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Who owns an X-ray or MRI image?

I recently had an MRI done and the doctor gave me a CD with the images from the MRI. I was thinking that they could be used here but I'm not sure about the legality of this. So, who owns those images? Me? My doctor? The hospital where the MRI scanner is? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 11:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. The Helpful One ^{(Talk) (Contributions) (Review Me!)} 11:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

There's the Wikipedia:Image copyright help desk which should be more useful than the Reference Desk for this question on using Wikipedia.--86.149.57.47 (talk) 12:07, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Helpful One, that wasn't helpful. If you read my question again, the reason for my question was whether I could use the photos on Wikipedia. 86.149, thanks, I didn't know that desk existed. I have posted to another copyright desk before and didn't get any response for the question I asked then, so I'd rather not go back there but I'll try this new desk... How many help desks do we have anyway? Dismas|^(talk) 14:36, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That link caught me by surprise too. Apparently it was created last week. So how many let's see, here, the new one, the reference desk with 7 separate desk sections, New contributors help desk, WP:VPA, WP:EA, {{helpme}} (sort of a virtual heldesk)... 13?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Image copyright help desk also surprised me when we already have Wikipedia:Media copyright questions, Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use..., Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations. Of course the number of help desks depends on what you call a help desk. Some other places you can ask questions: Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard, and Wikipedia:WikiProject User Page Help/Help Desk for one actually called help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:58, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Woody Allen's film: "Cassandra's Dreams"

Someone on Wikipedia wrote about Woody Allen's new film and tells exactly what happens to the characters in the film - giving away important plot details - such as who gets killed in the film. This should not be allowed - it ruins the film for anyone who might want to see it. Would the reviewer have liked it if someone had told him or her who gets killed in the film, before the reviewer went in to see it?

This review should be removed. I'm going to avoid reading about specific movies on Wikipedia in the future. If it's a thriller, I'd like to be surprised when I see the film. Don't tell me who gets killed at the end of the film.

"Stupid" would be a good description of your reviewer, I think.

Happy New Year, by the way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.164.108.24 (talk) 12:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Happy New Year to you. I'd advise you to read through Wikipedia's guideline on spoilers, which states that articles will contain in depth plot details without warning. Also, remember that Wikipedia is not just written by one contributor (or reviewer), but that many people collaborate over it. — alex.muller (talkpage • contribs) 13:20, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Also note that Wikipedia articles about movies are not suppossed to be in the form of a review. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and should give information about the article subject with a neutral point of view. If we write an encyclopedic article about a war then we don't stop in the middle without saying who won. The same basically goes for movies. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Obscenity

Why do I see a string of obscene words in Sandbox under "project page". There is also a derogatory comment under "discussion".

This rather puts me off pursuing my first attempt at editing - the article "Silver Line (Washington Metro)" which has an obvious major error, and is muddled on the history and controversy. Plus the there is nothing on the current status of this major delayed project.

ablackwood —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ablackwood (talk • contribs) 13:01, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The thing to remember is that Wikipedia can be edited by absolutely anyone, and some of those people may be less well intentioned than you. You can remove the obscenity yourself, but take care to remember that Wikipedia is not censored. If you leave a link to where you found the obscenity (perhaps on my talk page) I'd be happy to have a look. And please do continue to edit the article you mentioned, because Wikipedia thrives on the contributions of its members. — alex.muller (talkpage • contribs) 13:11, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The Sandbox is a place for test editing. You are liable to see all sorts of crap in there. If you are really offended, might I suggest creating a user subpage and tagging it with {{User Sandbox}} to make it your own private sandbox? NF24^{(radio me!)} 14:11, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Please go ahead and correct any errors you see. If possible, include where you found the information, for example <ref>Washington Post, 1 Jan 2007</ref> (the <ref> and </ref> put the text inside at the bottom of the page). --h2g2bob (talk) 15:31, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

judgement and foreclosure

can u refer the page on which correct defination of judgement and foreclosure is mentioned —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.210.56.31 (talk) 15:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(added title) Try judgement and foreclosure on Wikipedia. Dictionary definitions are at wikt:judgement and wikt:foreclosure on our sister project, Wiktionary. --h2g2bob (talk) 16:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I suspect that your question may relate to a judgment of foreclosure. If this is the case and your real property is involved, I urge you to consult an attorney in your locality who specializes in real property litigation.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:14, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Liancourt Rocks needs someone to fix it

Someone deleted this article and replaced it with the text:

This article has been temporarily deleted due to rampant edit warring and disruption. It will be protected from recreation for a short while until administrators have determined how to proceed further.

With full protection. An administrator needs to fix this ASAP. The article has been around for a long time, and this just isn't how we do things. -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 17:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Discussion over this article is taking place at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Liancourt Rocks.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. Sorry for the poor selection of places to post this. It seems to be getting resolved currently. -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Making a project banner case-insensitive

Is there a method for making a project banner using variables such as England=yes to also accept inputs of england=yes and eng=yes without having to copy the same code again? (as adding alternatives for each variable would triple the code of the template)

The current code is similar to this -

{{#if:{{{England|}}}|
{{!}}[[Image:Flag of England.svg|40x40px|center]] 
{{!}}This {{#ifeq:{{{class|}}}|NA|non-article page|article}} is supported by the '''England task force'''. 
}}

I guess what I really mean is - is there an OR function available for #if:? The main thinking behind the implementation of case-insensitive variables is to make it more user-friendly and catch all those articles that have been tagged using the wrong case.

(and yes I know it would have been more logical to have all variables as lower-case at the beginning, but the project is now in it's 3rd year and over 19,000 articles had been tagged, so retroactively changing all variables on all those talkpages to lowercase would be a big job) Nanonic (talk) 20:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Here's an idea to try: Would it work to just nest the variables, like so:

{{#if:{{{England|{{{england|{{{eng|}}}}}}}}}|

 ? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 21:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That works brilliantly, thanks! Nanonic (talk) 23:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Portuguese Wedding

What paperwork is required for an english couple getting married in portugal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.121.81 (talk) 22:14, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia does not give legal opinions. Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

starting a new entry on a living person

What steps do I need to use to start a new entry on a living person,(which is not me by the way)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mp9779 (talk • contribs) 22:37, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Search first, then see Wikipedia:Your first article for details on starting an article. The Biographies of living people policy is recommended reading - Wikipedia takes "BLP violations" (as they're called) very seriously. Also check out the notability guidelines for people as most people who do not meet this guideline will have their article deleted. Good luck! —Preceding unsigned comment added by NASCAR Fan24 (talk • contribs) 22:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Mirror Sites and User Pages

How do I remove my user page from mirror sites? 165.154.18.154 (talk) 22:37, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I posted this question. Leamarie411x2 (talk) 22:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Mirrors are simply copies of Wikipedia; I think they can't be edited. Perhaps the most notable mirror is Answers.com, which disallows editing. You would have to remove your userpage here, and even then some mirrors are years out of date. NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:42, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that anything you post on your userpage is released under the GFDL, which allows verbatim copying, so you have little or no legal recourse against mirrors. Algebraist 23:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See my User page at User:Corvus cornix. The yellow box is somewhat of a disclaimer, letting people who encounter your User page on a mirror site know that you are not associated with that site. Corvus cornix_talk 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

An area where we can vote on stub articles to be expanded

Hi. I just started an article on Wikipedia vandalism in my userspace (see User:Urban Rose/Wikipedia vandalism) and remember there being a place where I can go to propose that editors select it as a stub article to be expanded (I believe it was called "article improvement drive" or something like that). Could someone please show me where to find the page I'm talking about. I already left a notice about the new article on the community portal but I'm not sure if that's the best place for it.--Urban Rose 22:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks like you'll have to go it alone: the Article Collaboration & Improvement Drive gets articles to FA-status and I can't find another similar project. Good luck! NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia ISBN

Hi, I am currently doing an assessment and have used the Article on your website (1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake) I am needing to know the reference number or ISBN for Wikipedia in general or that particular article.

Could you please email me <e-mail removed> and let me know.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.150.115.117 (talk) 23:21, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid we don't answer questions by e-mail. Wikipedia does not have an ISBN, as it is not a book. For information on citing Wikipedia, go to the article in question and click the 'Cite this page' link at the bottom of the left sidebar. 172.202.11.50 (talk) 23:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How to cite from personal knowledge

Hi I edited a page about Martin Keown where I said he was of Irish Ancestory. I see a citation is needed. I can understand that but my evidence is that I actually know his mother and family personally from the village! How does one cite that?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.52.139 (talk) 23:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, you can't because it is in violation of the original research policy. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I recommend trying to figure out where you learned it from, if possible. Trevor "Tinkleheimer" Haworth 23:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) One doesn't cite or use personal knowledge. It is against Wikipedia:Verifiability. Only add information from published reliable sources. If you cannot find a published source for your own addition to a biography of a living person after it has been tagged for citation then I suggest to remove the information before somebody else does. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Isn't Keown an Irish name? It's obviously true, must it be cited explicitly? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 00:11, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, certainly when it has been tagged for citation in a WP:BLP. Besides, I guess it was this more specific edit which is currently tagged. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Help about an article

Hi friends,

I have created a wikipedia article for Usha a famous and renowned singer from south India. The article is present at the following link -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_usha. I have listed all her accomplishments, awards and felicitations including few external links as an evidence to her achievements.

I referred to the Wikipedia:Notability (music) and found that she meets most of the criteria mentioned for singers and musicians in terms of awards, recognition and media presence. I have the following questions:

1. what are the next steps in adding her name to "disambiguation" page and 2. what is the mode of saving the above article on a permanent basis to wikipedia ?

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks

Devarakonda (talk) 23:53, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi, the disambiguation page to add it to would be Usha. I was going to add your article to it just now, but then I noticed that it had been moved by somebody from Singer usha (where you created it) to Usha (singer). When I checked her website I noticed she calls herself "Singer Usha". So, I have a question, is "Singer Usha" actually her usual name? If so, the page should be moved back to "Singer Usha" first, and then the disambiguation page should point to that.

As for your second question, the article is already saved permanently and is already available to everyone if you search for it. The only thing you might want to do is categorize the article. For example, adding it to Category:Telugu playback singers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anakin101 (talk • contribs) 00:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I have added Usha (singer) to the disambiguation page Usha. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

wikipedia stuck in "print mode"

I don't know how but right now, all of wikipedia is stuck in a very basic styling, almost very similar to print mode. For example, the side bar with the navigation and search box is not there, it's in a list at the end of the page. Basically, the boxes that kept the entry in one part and the tools in another section are gone. How do I get this back?

I know it's an issue with only my browser because if I open this in internet explorer or another computer, the problem is no longer there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zhaos (talk • contribs) 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Is there something reading &printable=yes in the URL? If so, remove it and report back here. Also check your preferences' Skin tab to see which skin you have activated. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:58, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like you have changed skin for your account at Special:Preferences. Maybe you didn't log in to your account when it looked normal in another browser or computer. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:05, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

January 7

spoiler warnings

how do you add them to pages? Trig (talk) 00:36, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It has been debated a lot and Wikipedia has currently chosen to not use spoiler warnings. See Wikipedia:Spoiler. Template:Spoiler was used earlier but has been deleted. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Template:Birth date and age

I have been investigating Template:Birth date and age, as its instances on the articles for Liam Aiken and Camryn Grimes have not updated to indicate their turning 18, but if I use January 7 as the birthday in an instance of the template on my sandbox, it has updated to reflect the fact that it is past 00:00 January 7, 2008 UTC. Is there a reason for this? Hallpriest9 (Talk | Archive) 00:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The pages appear to have updated now. Could it be that they just needed to be purged in order to rebuild the page? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 00:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I just purged Liam Aiken. I haven't purged Camryn Grimes if somebody else want to see the age change. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It appears somebody has now purged Camryn Grimes which also says 18 now. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

How do I submit a n article about a person to Wikipedia when there is already some one by the same name listed?

I am trying to submit an article about a person but when I search wikipedia, there already is information about a differnt person with the same name. How do I list the person in wikipedia - the have no middle initial or nickname. Thanks so much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CleoFrancis (talk • contribs) 00:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Page naming conventions. Without knowing the person I cannot give more specific naming advice. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

HELP!!!

HI!!! I NEED INFORMATION??? 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

About what?   jj137 ^♠ 01:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hi. If this is information about how to use Wikipedia, you are in the right place. You just need to let us know what you want, and if any of the volunteers here are able to answer you, they will. If it is a general knowledge question, you may wish to ask it at the reference desk. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 01:10, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

WIKIPEDA

WHAT IS THIS PLACE?? 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:13, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi. You are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Here are some are some other pages that you might find helpful:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:19, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

IVE GOT PROBLEMS ITS WORKING WRONG!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Could you please explain what problems you're having, or what's working wrong? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

CANT CHANGE THE LETTER COLOR'S??? IVE GOT SCIENCE TOMORROW!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:51, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Um... I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, but feel free to continue browsing Wikipedia's over two million article's. Remember to SEARCH WIKIPEDIA to find what you want. Alternatively try Google. Good night. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 01:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are referring to colors in Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Colours#Overriding font colour. If it's another program then say which and ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'm not sure quite what you're asking, but here's a couple possibilities:

• If you have a science question, try asking your question at the Science Reference Desk.
• To change the color of text on a page on Wikipedia, enclose the text in <span style="color: colorname">text here</span>, replacing colorname with the name of the color and text here with the text you want to change the color of. For example, <span style="color: purple">example</span> produces example.

If this doesn't answer your question, try explaining in more detail and maybe I'll be able to help. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

2 MILLION WOW IVE GOT WINDOWS???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 02:04, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Windows is an operating system. It includes many programs with letter colors and the program you want to make a change in may not actually be a part of Windows. If you want to change color in a specific program then say which. Maybe the program name is displayed at top of the window or in a help menu. And Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing is the best place to ask since this help desk is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:18, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Contact

How do I contact you? I have a complaint —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jungwirthwillkillallrocks (talk • contribs) 01:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I'm sorry you have a complaint with us. Please see Wikipedia:Contact us for details on how to contact the Wikimedia Foundation. Regards, Keilana^talk_(recall) 01:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you want to say in public what the complaint is then we may be able to help you here. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:48, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Also, note that Wikipedia is edited almost entirely by volunteers, and is editable by anyone; if it's a problem with an article, you can change it yourself or point it out to someone else who can try to fix it. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:50, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

To contact the people who run Wikipedia, well, that's everybody. To contact people who handle specific things, see the directories at the top of the Community Portal, which is also on the menu to the left.

See also: Help:Contents/Communication.

Hope that helps.

The Transhumanist 02:23, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

How to name new article about person with same name and profession

I want to fix the link to Joan Hill in the Mark Boyle article -- the existing Hill article is about a Native American Artist; the correct Joan Hill for the Boyle article is from Edinburgh. Should I add a disambiguation page for Joan Hill and make a new page Joan Hill (Scottish artist) and rename the existing one Joan Hill (Muskogee artist)? Or should it be Joan Hill (UK artist) and Joan Hill (US artist)? Should I put something on the existing Joan Hill discussion page first, or just go ahead and edit -- advice on protocol welcome. Many thanks.

Jonathan Laventhol (talk) 02:32, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the answer is to your question, but have you checked WP:Style? The answer might be there. Zenwhat (talk) 02:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, the basic principle set out at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people) is that we want the most (1) recognizable and (2) the most unambiguous with existing pages. I would imagine Muskogee artist would be difficult for #1, since even people who know her as Native American may not know her tribe. I would be inclined to identify US/UK for that reason. As to whether its appropriate to move the existing article in the first place, how notable is the UK artist Joan Hill? If the US artist is more notable, it may be more appropriate to add a hatnote to the top of the existing article directing readers to the UK Joan Hill and not move the original article at all. Discussing on the Joan Hill page is a good step if you feel the move is likely to be controversial. Given that it isn't often edited, I suspect it would not be, and if I felt the Joan Hills merited equal coverage might be bold in this case. If you do move Joan Hill and create a disambiguation page, please remember to follow "What links here" so that you can repair wikilinks as necessary. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 03:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Heeeeeelp with WP:FRINGE and possible arbitration.

On Debt-based monetary system, which is a POV fork of fractional-reserve banking, me, EGeek, and Gregalton have tried to improve the article by at least removing stuff that violates WP:FRINGE. There is consensus that it needs to be improved. However, whenever any changes are made, Libertarians who seem to be supporters of these fringe theories revert any edits to the page which remove such material, and appeal to WP:CONSENSUS. This isn't direct vandalism -- just wikilawyering that takes advantage of the slowness and tediousness of Wikipedian bureaucracy in order to keep nonsense up. And they don't put forth any genuine arguments for why they're making such reverts other than a vague appeal to consensus. I've noted this repeatedly on the talk page.

I already posted this on Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard a few days ago, in hopes it would bring outsiders to edit the page. That has not helped reached consensus and the topic has been listed for RFC in the distant past. On monetary theory articles, in general, I seem to be going around in circles, because the article on fractional-reserve banking looked good enough to be featured a while back, but now, adherents of the New World Order (conspiracy theory) and Austrian economics have put all of their silly little fringe theories back in.

I would like to either engage the users making the reverts or seek arbitration. However, the users' seem disinterested in discussing their reverts (so mediation is out of the question.). But on the other hand, given the current state of ArbCom, ArbCom will likely reject my request because they seem to want people to assume good faith even where it's clearly absurd and mediation hasn't been tried. Per WP:IAR, I'd like to just say, "To hell with these trolls," and boldly remove all of the nonsense, but then I will probably be blocked for violating 3RR since WP:IAR doesn't seem to ever be a legitimate defense on Wikipedia.

I saw this recently which made me highly skeptical of ArbCom's current ability to address WP:FRINGE violations, since admins who proactively go after such trolls cause great controversy, risking their administrative privileges from being taken away.

So, please, somebody tell me: What can I do to fix that article without having my edits reverted with the summary "omg no consensus" with no corresponding comment on the talk page, and without getting blocked for edit-warring? Zenwhat (talk) 02:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

In the long run, you can't escape community consensus. If the greater community wants something a certain way, it will eventually be that way. But a localized consensus may not match the community's desires. So if an editor or group of editors are maintaining an article to non-Wikipedia standards, then what you need to do is seek wider input. Keep in mind that common practice (that is, the defacto standard) doesn't always match policy, which means policy in such an area hasn't caught up to common practice yet. At the core of this approach is WP:IAR - the community isn't straight-jacketed by its own rules. To seek wider input, post requests for editors to come and participate on the article. In addition to occasionally asking for help here at the help desk, also try WP:CBB, WP:RFF, WP:AN, WP:RFE, WP:VPA, and WP:RFC (for articles). If you really want the community to apply the magnifying glass to the article, prepare it for featured article status. Post it at WP:GAN or WP:PR, and once it gets through peer review, nominate it at WP:FAC.

Keep a log of the perp's violations, for use in an RfC on him if it ever comes to that. You can also use that as evidence to request that the article be protected, but that step usually follows an RfC. Keep suggesting mediation, because you are open to consensus-building discussion.

To solve the merge-issue, I stepped-in and boldly renamed the page so it is more closely associated with the article it expands upon.

I hope I've been of help. If you need further assistance, continue to post requests everywhere you can think of (check WP:DIR for all the relevant departments you can find), and on my talk page.

The Transhumanist 03:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Question

Are there any Wikipedia users who have died? If so, could you please list one? 138.217.145.45 (talk) 04:04, 7 January 2008 (UTC)