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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May 28

Creating a page

How do you create a page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sillysox (talk • contribs)

See :Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article. PrimeHunter 00:05, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Why is Wikipedia blurring thumbnail images?

I noticed that images become very blurry when you resize them to certain sizes. It only happens at the "thumbnail" sizes (i.e. 120px, 150px, 180px, 200px, 250px and 300px).

Here's an example:

At 250x111 it's very blurry

At 249x111 it's sharp

Why is Wikipedia doing this? Bug or feature?

Boudewijn 00:24, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

• Most likely because one size is closer to the actual proportions of the image. If you just resize the width without resizing the height proportionally, you actually distort the image somewhat, even if it's only a pixel. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 00:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

252x112

251x112

• • Only the width was specified. The height was set automatically. The original is 783x348 which corresponds to 249.75x111. It's also sharp at 252x112 and 251x112 (112 chosen automatically). The jpg file size is 9025 bytes at 249x11 and only 7360 byte at 250x111. 251x112 and 252x112 are around 9100 bytes. I don't know but based on these images it looks possible that the software chooses poorer jpg quality at certain sizes. PrimeHunter 01:33, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
    • Yes, it's sharp at any size except the thumbnail widths you can set in the 'Files' tab of My preferences. You say it chooses a lower quality, but I don't see jpeg artifacts here, it looks more like a deliberate Gaussian blur. Also, I checked the JPEG quantization tables: both are the same (same jpeg compression level). Boudewijn 02:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
      • It probably is a Gaussian blur, considering that MediaWiki runs ImageMagick in the image back end. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 01:56, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
        • I have limited knowledge of images and you two sound like you know what you are talking about, so I guess you are right. My layman opinion is that the sharp image is "best" in this case, so it may be a good idea to avoid 250x for this image. PrimeHunter 02:11, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
          • It's not just this image, most JPEG images on Wikipedia are affected. There's even a very bad one on the Main page right now: today's "featured picture" looks like this while it could have looked like this. Anyway, I realize I'm in the wrong place, I'll go and ask the MediaWiki developers about this. Boudewijn 02:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

The effect is no longer visible for this image - I've purged commons:Image:Ducati muffler.jpg. The problem is that settings for thumbnail creation changed a few weeks ago to include a bit of additional sharpening, but thumbnails already in existence then have not been recreated. So if you find an image with this problem, purge the image page and it should be OK after reloading the image or the page with the image. --Dapeteばか 16:10, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

• It's hard to find an image that does not show the problem. If the old thumbnails aren't going to be recreated automatically, does this mean we have to manually purge every single image on Wikipedia? Boudewijn 19:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Limburger

It looks as though the Limburger page was vandalized (linked from today's picture of the day)

Someone's already reverted it. If you would like to learn how, see WP:REVERT and WP:VAND. *Cremepuff222* "As cool as grapes..." 01:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Signature

I'm having trouble making my signature. I want it to say "Cheers, JetLover Talk to me!" but it's all one link. How can I fix this? Cheers, JetLover 02:17, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Put [[User:JetLover|JetLover]] [[User talk:JetLover|Talk to me]] into the signature box and click "raw siganture". -- John Reaves (talk) 02:22, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Cheers, JetLover Talk to me! 02:43, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Editting uneditable pages

How do you edit a page if the "edit" link is not there?—Preceding unsigned comment added by TigressofIndia (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:Protection policy. PrimeHunter 02:50, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You can make a request for unprotection at WP:RFPP or use {{editprotected}}. -- John Reaves (talk) 02:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

A final option is if the page is only semi-protected and not fully protected, to ask an editor who has had an account for longer than five days to make the edit for you. For clarification of "semi-proctection" and "full-protection" see WP:PROT --Random ^{Say it here!} 03:17, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

To know about using wikipedia

59.95.110.133 03:26, 28 May 2007 (UTC)hi wikipedia, i am doing research about shopping mall.And about consumer behaviour towarts shopping mall. i am from India how can i get all information using wikipedia

To find out what you want to know, try going to the following article Shopping mall. If that does not help you, trying a google search might. Hope that helps. --Random ^{Say it here!} 03:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

For example: Google:"shopping mall" consumer behavior; and the same search restricted to Wikipedia. --Teratornis 14:23, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Procedure for reverting vandalism

The following help page: Help:Reverting does not seem to address my question so I will raise it here. I have been using the following procedure to help fight vandalism but need to know if it should be altered. I use the Recent changes link and look for unregistered users edits. I then click on the diff link and view the edit making sure that it is the current version I am looking at. If it is vandalism, I click on undo link and scroll down to the edit summary box where I append the following: "rv vandalism" to the end of the default line which looks like the following Undid revision 134009056 by Devil deadman (talk) I have been leaving the minor edit box unchecked. Is the procedure considered appropriate and should the minor edit box be check or not?

Personally, I do not check the minor edit box. You're procedure is actually nearly flawless. Nothing done wrong, I would just say that you may want to provide who's version you are reverting from, and who's you are reverting to. Also, after making the revert, place the appropriate warning on the user's talk page. There are some very useful tools that do most of this for you: Twinkle and Lupin's anti-vandal tool. You should check them both out. Redian (Talk) 04:56, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Since I generally deal with unregistered users (IP address listed), they generally do not have a talk page and to take the time to create one seems to me to be a waste of time as the likelyhood of them actually reading it would seem to me to be very low. Dbiel 05:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You should consider warning after reverting vandalism (unless the vandal is already blocked). It is a preventative action and doesn't take much time ;) PeaceNT 05:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

But what good does it do to warn an unregistered user that does not have a talk page created and would probably never look at the warning if it were left? Unless there is some sort of procedure in place that would make use of multiple warnings found on the talk page.Dbiel 06:28, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi Dbiel. Actually, it is quite likely that the user will see the warning: the bright orange box saying "You have new messages" appears for IPs as well. Often, a single warning is enough to get the user to stop vandalizing, presumably because they are now aware their edits are being watched. In case vandalism persists, it becomes necessary for an administrator to block the IP address, and most admins will not do so until after warnings have been issued. You can read more about this at WP:VAND. Thanks for asking! -SpuriousQ (talk) 11:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Of course, I should mention this is completely voluntary; you don't need to warn if you feel it takes too much time. You might want to look into third-party tools that facilitate the vandal fighting procees, such as those listed at Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol. -SpuriousQ (talk) 11:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the excellent replies. Dbiel 12:50, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, what Redian said, and note that you are not required to mark reversion of vandalism as minor edits, so no worries. You are doing perfectly fine. PeaceNT 04:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. The question is not so much as is it required, but is a vandalism revert condsidered to be a minor edit or not? Dbiel 05:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

ah, I mean that because there is no law, you can do either way you want. It doesn't matter. PeaceNT 05:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I mark vandalism edits as minor if they're something completely obvious as vandalism (e.g. "John Smith Likes boys!!!!11oneone!!!11"), but not if it's something there's even a slight chance of me being wrong about (e.g. someone changing a birthday, even if it goes against the cited source). Also, instead of "rv vandalism", you can shorten it to just "rvv" which means the same thing. If a user has gone past the fourth warning template (the one that says "final warning," you should also report them to to Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism, where an administrator can ban them. If you're only going to be looking for unregistered user edits, you can save time scanning and just use this link. Also, if you enjoy reverting vandalism, may I plug Special:Recentchangeslinked/Category:Living_people? Those pages are generally some of the most critical to keep clear since a)it can lead to charges of libel if inaccurate information stays on too long, and b)most incidents where Wikipedia suffers a hit to credibility (e.g. Sinbad, and Seigenthaler) are to Biographies of living persons. In any event, thanks for helping keep Wikipedia vandalism free :). --Ybbor^Talk 14:42, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the useful advise. Could I ask you or anyone else if they might be willing to comment on and provide any suggestion on how to better leave a warning on a talkpage. see the following example:

User_talk:70.153.25.146

Dbiel ^(Talk) 06:29, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Writing about a Fire Department

I registered and would like to write an article. I read the FAQs and getting started info, and it suggest not writing about your company. I am a firefighter for Sacramento Metro Fire Dept. in Sacramento CA and would like to write an article about the department. We are the largest FD in Sacramento County and the sixth largest in CA. The department has numerous specialties that it provides, and has a notable history, including being a part of USAR CA TF 7 which was part of the search and rescue effort of September 11th and Oklahoma City Bombing. I would like to write the article because I think that it is different then a normal company and would not really be advertising. But I also don't want it to get deleted. Can you help me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Firebug10 (talk • contribs)

First, make absolutely sure the article doesn't exist under a different name. The Wikipedia search function is quite lacking, I would recommend a Google search of Wikipedia. Just add site:en.wikipedia.org before your search terms. While you can write an article about your employer, it is generally not recommended. I would suggest giving a rough draft of the article at the Drawing board first. You may also want to review the neutral Point of view policy. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 05:47, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Sacramento Fire Department exists already as a stub. Feel free to start filling it up with content, but be sure to provide reliable sources for everything you write (see WP:CITE, WP:CITET, and WP:FOOT for instructions on you cite your sources). One of the biggest problems on Wikipedia is that lots of people know lots of things (for example, you are probably an expert about your fire department), but not many people know how to find reliable sources for what they know. If you have some interesting facts to add to Sacramento Fire Department but you don't have sources for them, you can write your claims on Talk:Sacramento Fire Department and ask other editors to help you source them (read the talk page guidelines first so you know how to sign your posts). You might also ask at your local library for help, as often local libraries collect published content about topics of local interest. --Teratornis 14:36, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Indic Fonts' Small Text Size Display Problem

I am working on the Assamese Wikipedia and using UNICODE fonts in it. However the problem is that the default text size of the Assamese unicode is so small that in the articles in Assamese we have to add a BB or HTML tag like <span style='font-size:##.# pt'> to display the texts in a readable size.

However, the problem is with the system messages. If we add a BB or HTML code in the system messages, the code also gets displayed on the output pages. Anybody has any solutions to this problem?

Thanks for listening!! Priyankoo 05:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Just an idea: It sounds like it would be a solution to increase the default text size of Assamese unicode? I think technical requests like that can be made using the Wikipedia:Bugzilla system... ssepp^(talk) 12:05, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks ssepp!! Will try to go to the forum!!

Priyankoo 15:10, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

WHERE IS THIS PLACE. IS THIS A TOWN,COUNTRY,DIST.

1.ABIDIAN 2. ROMANIA 3.MONROVIA 4.LOME 5.LIBRIVILLE 6.UKRAINE 7.KANDALA 8.GARLAND 9.LAS 10.POINTE NOIRE 11.VITORIA 12.ITASAI 13.SINES 14.CLYNIA 15.DAMMAM 16.DJIBOUTI 17.DOUALA

You can use Wikipedia to find the answers out. Simply type them into the search box on the left and use the information on the infoboxes. E ^talk 07:49, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Milage betwee the cities of China

How can i know the milage between the different cities of china

Kashghar-> Umumqi->Shanghai->Beijing

Again, use the search box on the left and type each one in. Record the details and then compare at the end. E ^talk 07:50, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

admission

hello sir i want to get admission in ur college what is the procedure to get admission this year

Wikipedia is not a college. It's an encyclopedia. E ^talk 08:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If you mean wikiversity, everyone is free to join :). But I don't think they hand out any degrees. ssepp^(talk) 09:20, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Contributions

G'day, is there any easy way to count how many contributions I've made with my wikipedia account? Cheers, Rothery 11:28, 28 May 2007 (UTC).

Hi, try Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters. -SpuriousQ (talk) 11:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Why Wikipedia is editable

i have a big confussion that Why Wikipedia is editable ????? any one can change the precious information into garbage, so how can I trust the information I am reading right now is valid or not ???

If Wikipedia weren't editable in any way, it wouldn't exist because nobody would be able to add to it. The minimal barriers to editing mean that anyone can edit almost anything. As the vast majority of editors are benign, and as it's as easy to undo a bad edit as to make a bad edit, the overall balance of edits means that Wikipedia tends to be trustworthy. I don't know of any specific statistics, but I would guess that easily fewer than 1 in 1,000 statements in Wikipedia are false.--A bit iffy 12:31, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

In my experience it is a lot more than 1 in 1,000 when I know the topic well, and there are probably still many errors I don't discover. PrimeHunter 13:09, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, there's quite a good, er, Wikipedia article at Criticism of Wikipedia which goes into some of the trustworthiness aspects of Wikipedia.--A bit iffy 12:39, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

That is why we cite our sources. It is hard to provide citations for garbage. Adrian M. H. 13:41, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Unless of course you have your own website and....cite yourself? By the point of course you join the professional scam artist league. PeteShanosky 02:44, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Improve articles links yellow tip.

Hi sir, good day!

Thanks alot for this greate site and helpful encyclopedia. I dont know if I am in the right place, but I tried hard to find a place for suggestions or improving Wikipedia. If its not the right place, then I would be thankful to removed it to the right area.

My suggestion is about the article links that are embedded in other articles context. Its usually include the yellow tool tip text, as the desired article title only! I think, for importance of time, its better if the tip contains the first small breif intoduction or main defination about the article subject; so that the reader may save time, if he/she needs only the main defination, rather than openning a new webpage!

Sorry for long talking, and thanks for listenning.

Yours always,.. A.H. <e-mail removed>

Please have a look at Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups. They should do the same thing, and can be enabled by registered users. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 12:46, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Author

who is the author of this site?

Anyone can be! Please see About Wikipedia. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 12:46, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

See: WP:VFAQ#Who wrote article X on Wikipedia?. --Teratornis 16:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Most of the time, this question has to do with people attempting to cite wikipedia. If you are doing so, try Wikipedia:citing Wikipedia. --Ybbor^Talk 23:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Hit Counts

I'm doing research on English language learners posting on Wikipedia, and I want to report on hit counts of pages they edited or started. Is there any way to find out hit counts for pages? Is there any correlation between the number of page edits and page views? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.45.60.48 (talk • contribs)

No, there is no connection between the two, other than that the number of views of each article is at least equal to the number of edits. As far as I know there is no way to find out the number of views, perhaps other than through the m:toolserver. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 13:27, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

There is probably some correlation between amount of page views and amount of edits, since these things are both strongly influenced by how well-known and 'popular' a certain subject is. But it is hard to research this, because hit counts are disabled for performance reasons. ssepp^(talk) 13:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Technical FAQ#Can I add a page hit counter to a Wikipedia page? for a more detailed explanation. PrimeHunter 13:40, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Since you are doing research, see: Wikipedia in academic studies and Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-14/Academic journal coverage. Also research this: sign your posts on talk pages. Be aware that Wikipedia is but one of many wikis, and not necessarily the best wiki for arbitrary goals that differ from Wikipedia's stated goal of building a free encyclopedia of the highest quality. If your language learners can write encyclopedically, that's great, but if they just want to practice their English, they may do better on some other wiki. For example, you asked about page hit counters. The MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia has page hit counters enabled by default, but on Wikipedia this feature is disabled. Smaller wikis generally don't have performance problems, so they tend to leave that feature enabled. Wikipedia has, by far, the highest public profile of any wiki; for example, millions of visitors come here as a result of Google searches; perhaps many are not yet aware that other wikis exist. However, not being aware of other wikis is not by itself valid reason to be editing on Wikipedia. Search WikiIndex for wikis with subject focus of interest to your language learners; some may have less stringent policies and guidelines than Wikipedia. --Teratornis 16:53, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Limited language proficiency users

I have been having language learners post and edit Wikipedia. Is there an official policy on how proficient a user needs to be to post? Would Wikipedia prefer these users write in their own language or the simple wiki site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.45.60.48 (talk • contribs)

Everyone is welcome, but please be aware that articles may be deleted. Starting in the natural language wiki could be a good idea in order to become familiar with how to use a Wiki, and also with common policies. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 13:27, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

There is no policy on minimal proficiency. As long as it is understandable and has good content it should be fine, other users can improve the English. ssepp^(talk) 13:40, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

If a user is not yet capable of writing as well as an existing article has already been written, it would be best for that user to suggest his or her contribution on the article's talk page. This will attract the attention of other users who can judge whether the contribution is worthwhile, and edit it as necessary before integrating it into the article. If the language-learner must edit the article directly, he or she should at least explain his or her language proficiency level on the article's talk page, and request other users to review his or her edits. Note that to establish credibility with other editors, you and your language learners should create accounts and log in before editing, and learn to sign your posts on talk pages. The majority of vandalism comes from users who have not logged in; if your language learners write in broken English without logging in, they could easily make themselves seem like vandals to experienced editors, who naturally learn to stereotype rather mercilessly because vandalism is so common and relentless on Wikipedia. --Teratornis 14:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Saving an image as SVG

I understand that SVG is the msot preferrable format for uploading diagrams, etc. but how do I save an image as SVG, or convert it to SVG? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Redl@nds597198 (talk • contribs)

See: Scalable Vector Graphics#Tutorials, Wikipedia:WikiProject Illustration, Wikipedia:Graphics tutorials. In general, if you start with a raster image, you or someone else will have to redraw it as a vector image. There is no generally capable automatic method for doing this conversion; it requires something currently labeled as "intelligence" to recognize shapes in an arbitrary raster image and convert them into outlines. ("Intelligence" basically means "nobody quite knows yet how some brains can do that.") --Teratornis 13:53, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

How to report abuse?

How do I report an abuse of Wikipedia (example, foul language).

Do you mean WP:Vandalism? You can remove it yourself (WP:Revert) or you can mention it here and someone else can remove it. ssepp^(talk) 14:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

posting new topic

i was just wondering what the guidelines were about posting a new article about a person or place

The most important content policies are neutrality and verifiability. Addhoc 14:19, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You should probably read Wikipedia:Your first article. If the article you write does not assert WP:notability it will probably be deleted. ssepp^(talk) 14:21, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Cancel auto debit donation

Please cancel our auto debit of $ 10.00 per month, effective immediately. (personal data removed).

Forwarded to donation mail adress of the wikimedia foundation. ssepp^(talk) 15:48, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Article about companies

I recently posted an article about the company I work for, bsi insurance, and it was deleted. I'm thinking it was deleted since maybe they thought it was advertising. After that, I decided to look around and there are such pages for State Farm Insurance (and other insurance companies). Now I'm confused, why did this only happen to my page? If there was one little thing wrong I don't think it should have gotten deleted.... (I only talked about the history and the locations of the company) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.244.210.160 (talk • contribs)

Please take a look at WP:ORG to check if your company meets the notability guideline. Also, as you mentioned this is the company you work for, please be aware of WP:COI. PeaceNT 15:37, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

• • I looked at what you said and I think this company deserves to be noted. Although it is not even close to the size of state farm, it is one of the largest brokers in manitoba. I took all my information from their website which I think is a notable source. Can you bring that page back or do I have to get a secondary source to remake it? (they will probably add the same sort of information) - USER —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.244.210.160 (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted? to find out what the deletionists disliked about your article and to inquire about getting a copy of your article back for your use. A company's own web site is not by itself a reliable source for an article about that company (although I don't know if that's the reason why your article got deleted). --Teratornis 17:00, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

To answer your question about the existence of similar articles, that is covered by WP:WAX. It is quite common for editors ask "why delete this article when all these similar articles exist?" but you have to take into account why the other articles exist. Some of these articles may actually meet the requisite guidelines and policies to a sufficient degree to avoid nomination, but many others are victims of the backlog, indifference or lack of experience/knowledge on the part of anyone who notices them, or simply not being noticed at all. Adrian M. H. 17:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Reference List

Is it possible to hide a long ref list the way you can hide the contents list? Quakerman 15:38, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Trying to find something about this, I found this post: Wikipedia_talk:Citing_sources#Show.2Fhide_references. ssepp^(talk) 16:02, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Quakerman 16:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

putting name in alphbetical order

Hello,

How can the name "Thomas Piercy" be put in the alphabetical list on the Clarinetist page? Thank you

The article Thomas Piercy has been included into Category:Clarinetists incorrectly. If you edit that article, you'll see a list of categories at the bottom; the Clarinetists category entry should be formatted like the others to alphabetise it properly. (You can make this edit yourself.) Hope that helps! --ais523 15:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Category. Another editor just fixed it by adding a sort key. You may have to refresh Category:Clarinetists in your browser to see Mr. Piercy in his proper place. --Teratornis 17:03, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Note that you can also specify the sorting order once for all categories with Template:DEFAULTSORT as I have done in [1] PrimeHunter 20:09, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Message other users

How do you send a message to other Wiki users? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Miles Blues (talk • contribs).

The easiest way is on their "talk" page. Just click on the user's page (by clicking on their name), click "discussion" and "edit this page" and leave your message there. (Remember to sign it with four tildes.) Quakerman 16:20, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank you!Miles Blues 16:38, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Talk page. --Teratornis 16:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

There is also: Wikipedia:Emailing users. --Teratornis 20:07, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Biography Page

Hello All, I am a new Wikipedia user and started off yesterday by editing spelling mistakes in various biography pages (sad I know, but have to start somewhere).

I had a look today and suddenly cannot open any of the index pages for biographies beginning with 'A, B C D' etc from the Biography page. These were all working fine yesterday, but today are in red and open 'There is no page with this exact name' pages.

Can someone please have a look and tell me if there is a problem, or if I am just doing something wrong. Many thanks MaryLou71 18:10, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi, do you mean this page? Category:Biography All the links are working okay for me. If you were talking about another page than please provide a link so we can take a look at it. Thanks. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 18:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Hello, thanks for the swift response. This isn't the link I meant. If you go to the Main Page and click on category 'Biography' on the right hand list you will see Categories 'People' and lower down - 'By Name' and an alphabetical list. When you click on A it should give you a list of all biographies for people where their name begins with Aa. This is not working for me. Am not sure how to add a like, so will attempt to paste one, but sorry if it doesn't work! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Biography

'people by name' was deleted per this deletion discussion: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/List of people by name. The argument seems to have been that the list would be too large and too hard to maintain. I have removed the links from the biography portal. ssepp^(talk) 19:06, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for that. I was a bit worried I had managed to break something! I read through the discussion and admittedly am a bit confused by the rationale, but at least I know why it doesn't work :-) MaryLou71 19:25, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

renaming Bob Berry

Can anyone please help me renaming Bob Berry to something like Bob Berry (ice hockey) or so. So that next we can create a disambiguation page for Bob Berry, and next create (at least one) more Bob Berry page(s)? It's no trouble renaming the page of course, but what about (all the large number of) the pages that link to it? Thanx in advance Dick Bos 18:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

On the top of the page, you'll see a button that says "move", click on it and follow the dircetions on that screen. See WP:MOVE for more info. *Cremepuff222* "As cool as grapes..." 18:24, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I went ahead and started making changes. There actually aren't that many pages that link to it - but there are a few templates that appear on a bunch of pages. When we update the templates, then those pages are automatically removed from the list.

I did Bob Berry (hockey player), to conform with some of the other hockey disambiguation pages that I saw. Then I realized that he's a coach too. So if you want me to change it to Bob Berry (ice hockey), just let me know. I've got AWB, so it's not too difficult.

PS - make sure I didn't miss any. tiZom_(2¢) 19:06, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

the show / hide thingy

Hi, can someone tell me how to make a show / hide bar (that drops down to reveal the contents) so that I can fit all the stuff on my user page into one screen? Thanks in advance. - TwoOars ^{(T | C)} 18:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Ser has the entry:

• Wikipedia:NavFrame - dynamic navigation (series) boxes (collapsible - hide/show)

Studying that might tell you what to do (I don't know as I have not messed with this). --Teratornis 20:05, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Exactly what I wanted. Looks easy enough. Thanks a lot! :) - TwoOars ^{(T | C)} 20:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Main talk page?

Hi, i am a new user to wikipedia but i currently have an account on wookiepedia. I am just curious to wether or not on wikipedia there is a main talk page, like that on wookiepedia (it's called the senate hall).--Red*Leo 19:50, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I think you mean the WP:Village pump. ssepp^(talk) 19:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Also Wikipedia:Community Portal. For the list of everything you need to know about editing here, see: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia. --Teratornis 20:02, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

It seems as though the word "porn" is placed intermittantly throughout the article on Rupert Murdoch where it does not belong.

There is no such thing as a Vice President of porn or a Cheif Executive Officer of porn.

See comments on his personal life.

Thanks for the notification. I have reverted the article to a version without this vandalism. ssepp^(talk) 20:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Archived RFCs (Requests for Comment)

On a discussion page a user refers repeatedly to prior rfc's as dispositive of a disputed issue. I cannot locate the rfc's in question, nor even any on a related topic, though I did check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment, including the "Issues by Topic Area" box, and did text searches for likely rfc's, as well. Are there other rfc's, archived elsewhere? Is there a global search function for all rfc's, archived or otherwise? Do older rfc's resolve an issue forever and ever, rendering further discussion outlawed? Xenophon777 21:06, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

The wikipedia search function is pretty low quality. You might be able to find it using a google search of wikipedia, using syntax like this: [2]. ssepp^(talk) 21:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Google search for URLs containing: Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment may be more precise. However, I'm wondering why you omitted the most critical items of information from your question:

• The identity of "a discussion page."
• The identity of "a user."
• The identity of "a disputed issue."

By omitting these details, you prevent others from performing other kinds of searches, or considering the dispute from other angles, not to mention we are left to scratch our heads over the Elephant in the room issue of why you aren't simply asking "a user" to identify the "prior rfc's" he/she refers to, so you can read them. Is "a user" actually referring to these rfc's, or merely alluding to them? I'm not familiar with how rfc's archive. I have seen some discussion areas on Wikipedia that do not archive, in which case the normal search methods don't find old discussions that exist only in page histories (WP:VPT being an example of a page with this problem the last time I checked it; in what to me seems stupefyingly opposed to reason, Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive only stores old questions and answers for seven days after they "archive"). If you're looking for something like that, you'll have to determine the approximate date when it would have been on a particular page, and look at revisions of the page from around that time. --Teratornis 22:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

It appears that rfc's may not "archive" in a way that makes them visible to search engines or Wikipedia's own search function, if I can generalize accurately from this example: Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names/Archive. That page merely has URL links to previous revisions from the page history, which means the rfc discussions have sunk into the Deep Web, unlikely to be Googled again. Until Google figures out how to index the Deep Web along with the visible Web. In the meantime, you'll either have to get lucky or get some clues to find the rfc discussions you seek. Or you could download the Wikipedia database and write your own Deep Wikipedia search functions with MySQL. --Teratornis 23:26, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia has also requested that some things are not indexed by search engines. See robots.txt and our own http://en.wikipedia.org/robots.txt. PrimeHunter 23:39, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/robots.txt contains the lines:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /w/

I think that means we ask all search engines to not index any history pages, diffs, former versions of articles, and certain other things. That seems reasonable to me. PrimeHunter 00:44, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I would guess that the elephant in the room is to be found at Talk:Armenia. AndyJones 12:57, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

(N)POV

How does one report a bias article --Stonelance 21:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Just add {{POV}} to the top of the article. ~ ΜΛGиυs ΛΠιмυМ ≈ √∞ 21:55, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

You may also see this list of more specific templates you might apply; it is often helpful to offer with each a suggestion on an article's talk page as to how problems might be ameliorated. Best, though, if you are interested, is to fix problems (consistent, of course, with WP:NPOV) yourself! Joe 03:26, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

(removed email adress)

Is there an email address on Frank Tate?

The Help Desk is for asking questions about using wikipedia. In any case, we don't give out people's email adresses on wikipedia. ssepp^(talk) 22:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I recommend trying a google search for that sort of information. --Random ^{Say it here!} 01:17, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

FN49 page

I edited the page and it's all wrong,I don't know how to fix,thanksSafn1949 22:21, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I have reverted your edit to FN49. I don't know the proper numbers but just didn't want to leave it in that state. PrimeHunter 22:50, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

What seems to have went wrong is that you removed two closing brackets of a link: . This left a link which opened, but never closed. ssepp^(talk) 22:54, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

May 29

famous quotes

who said "I TREMBLE FOR MY COUNTRY"

Thomas Jefferson. Next time, ask questions like these at the reference desk. Sean William 00:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Another option is using a sister project of wikipedia, Wikiquote. --Random ^{Say it here!} 01:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Vandalisim

The Toshitsugu Takamatsu article has been vandalized.

It looks like someone has fixed it. You can help too - see WP:REVERT and WP:VAND for details how. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 02:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Userprojects

can someone explain the concept to me?

Maddiekate 01:44, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If you are reffering to Wikiprojects, yes I can. The concept behind wikiproject is simple, to help contribute to wikipedia in one way or another, by bringing together wikipedians interested in the same areas. For instance, Wikipedia:WikiProject Finance is devoted to providing accurate information on finance topics, and also further building the topics that already exist. Another type of project is a "wikipedia" related project such as Wikipedia:WikiProject Council. WikiProject Council helps arrange wikiprojects, and build new wikiprojects. Hope that helps. --Random ^{Say it here!} 02:12, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

What he said basically covers it. However, if you're interested in joining a Wikiproject, there's typically a link provided to there project page. Once there's typically a designated spot where you can sign your username and show your participation in the project. Is there any one in particular you were looking at or were you just curious on the subject? PeteShanosky 02:43, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I was just wondering, it looks like a portal.❤ ɱӑԀסԀÏƏ₭Ⓐ†Ǝ ✭

Publisher of Wikipedia

who was the publisher of wikipedia .com?

As it's not a print source, I don't think you can name a "publisher" as such. If you read the FAQ, there are a large number of "editors", or looking at it another way if you want to consider the publisher to be the one making the information available then I guess you'd say the Wikimedia Foundation, who owns the servers Wikipedia runs on. Confusing Manifestation 05:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and incidentally, wikipedia.com is just a redirect to wikipedia.org, the main site :) Confusing Manifestation 05:05, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Citing an article with Special:Cite says the publisher is "Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia". –Sebi ~ 05:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

new article

I am not being able to load artucle which I have written with reliable source . Could you please guide me Aloke Kumar 06:03, 29 May 2007 (UTC)Aloke Kumar

• What is the name of the article? - Mgm|^(talk) 08:17, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
• If you mean the article you put on your user page, it seems to be partially copied from here, in which case you would not be allowed that text here, since the website does not seem to have a GFDL-compatible license. I also wonder if there is sufficient WP:Notability. And I don't see the source you meantion. You could make it an article by typing the name in the search box, clicking 'edit/create new page here' or something, and then copying the text, but I think it might be deleted. ssepp^(talk) 08:26, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
• Was this literally copied from a book by Swapan Das Mahapatra? ssepp^(talk) 08:31, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Afd page not agreeing with me.

I recently added an article to the AfD page, and I followed all the directions, but it still won't look like all the other nominations. It is the article for D. Welser Carroll. Can someone help me figure out what's wrong? Banpei 06:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The afd was fixed by User:CaliforniaAliBaba. Article got speedy deleted per CSD A7. PeaceNT 06:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

title of menstruation article

I need a title for my article which is on menstraution and pain.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you looking for the articles on menstruation and pain? ssepp^(talk) 08:17, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I think the user is asking about the pain some women go through whilst menstruating ("period pains"). Also of use might be Menstruation#Physical_experience or Premenstrual Syndrome. Neil (►) 10:42, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

COPYRIGHT

Hello, On a web forum we play a game of 'link the photo'. This consists of, as the title implies, linking one photo to another by title,content or general relation. i.e. From Sylvester Stallone to Sylvester the cat to Tweetie Pie and so on. The question, therefore, is as we copy pics from Wikipedia a lot, are we breaking copyright?

Most, but not all, images on Wikipedia are licenced under licences that allows you to copy them freely; in most cases, you have to preserve the author information and the licence. If you left-click on an image, it will load a page describing what its copyright conditions are. If the image is 'public domain', you can do anything you want with it; otherwise, the description page will tell you what the copying conditions are. If the image is described as 'fair use', you probably can't copy it without breaking copyright (which is one reason why the use of fair use images is contentious). Hope that helps! --ais523 07:40, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If you are looking for photos, check out Wikimedia Commons. All of the media there is under a free license. There are usually terms to the license that you must comply with, like crediting the creator, but you are free to use all of it.—WAvegetarian (talk) 08:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

can i download

can i download the encyclopedia?

You can download individual pages by using your browser's save functionality. E ^talk 08:43, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

There is a link on this page to download the 2006 selection of Wikipedia for SOS children, I think it's free.--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 08:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

There are also database dumps somewhere, I'll have a go at finding them.--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 08:56, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

here--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 08:57, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

There is also the download page for the Version 0.5 selection here.—WAvegetarian (talk) 08:59, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

sport

what are the advantages & disadvantages of organizing a sporting event ?

This sounds like a homework question. You could ask at the Wikipedia:Reference Desk, where they might point you in the right direction to do your own research.—WAvegetarian (talk) 09:11, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Reading Sport and following links therefrom looks like a good start. --Teratornis 15:03, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

how to search any topic

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Naveenkhokho (talk • contribs)

See: [3] ~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 09:35, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

See also: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Sea. If you refer to Web search rather than just Wikipedia search, then read Web search, plus Search engine, Deep Web, Vertical search, Google Search, and all the articles they link to. If you can't find something on the World Wide Web, ask on the Reference desk. If all else fails, consult a reference librarian or consider hiring a consultant with expertise in the subject area. --Teratornis 15:00, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

how to find essay written by a particular writer

---

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.161.15.28 (talk)

[EDIT CONFLICT]

I do not know how this would be possible. I do not know what your question mean but here is what I interpret it as:

Who wrote article X on Wikipedia?'

Answer: Any article on Wikipedia is written by multiple editors, not just one. If you click on the "history" tab on the top of the article, there is a list of all contributors to the particular article. If you want to cite a Wikipedia article, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia.~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 09:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If by "essay" the questioner means an "essay on Wikipedia", the questioner would need to know the "particular writer"'s username on Wikipedia. Then it is just a matter of browsing to Special:Contributions/username and looking for that user's essays. If the user has a high edit count that could be a problem. A better method might then be to ask on the user's talk page for a link to the essay.

On the other hand, if by "essay" the questioner means an essay anywhere, then the questioner could use a search engine to search the World Wide Web. If the "particular writer" has been published in a dead tree edition, the questioner might go to a library and ask a reference librarian. --Teratornis 14:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

You can also find essays by searching the index by prefix - select the User: namespace, type in the user name, and it will bring up all subpages of that user's userspace. Confusing Manifestation 22:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I want to know the full forms of English shortforms GPS and GPRS where can I get it.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.100.80.37 (talk)

Just go to the GPS and GPRS articles. GPS is Global Positioning System and GPRS is General Packet Radio Service. Searching is your friend. Please type the name into the search box on the SEARCH navigation bar to the top left of the page, or use Special:Search. ~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 09:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Watchlist question - section updates

Hi I've got a watchlist to notify me of updates to pages that I'm interested in. The watchlist works fine, but it only shows me changes to the whole page. If there's a change to just one section of the page, it doesn't show up. I don't want to put a watch on every section of every page that I'm interested in. But I do want a change to any section to be listed on my list of changes watchlist. How do I do that? Thanks Peter peterl 09:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it should show all changes to the page. Section changes are still changes to the page. You should go to Special:Preferences and click the Watchlist tab. And see if the following boxes are checked:

• Hide my edits from the watchlist

• Hide bot edits from the watchlist

• Hide minor edits from the watchlist

If one of them is checked you will know why it doesn't come up on your watchlist. ~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 09:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The Watchlist explained!

Logged in users have a Watchlist, found at the "my watchlist" link at the very top of every page.

The Watchlist list allows you to monitor recent changes on selected pages. You can add a page to your Watchlist by visiting the page and clicking the "watch" tab. A page and its talk page automatically go on the list together, you can't watch just an article, or just a talk page.

The Watchlist displays the most recent edit to each page on the list you have created, within the time period you specify. Information for the Wathclist comes from the recent changes table, so only goes back approximately 3 months.

Options for the Watchlist are available at Special:Preferences, in the "Watchlist" section.

A typical Watchlist entry looks like:

(diff) (hist) . . m Wikipedia:Help desk‎; 03:54 . . (+509) . . Joe 321 (Talk | contribs) (New question: How do I delete an article?)

The (diff) is a link showing the change that the edit made to the change. The (hist) brings up the history of edits to the page. The m indicates a minor edit (b indicates a bot edit, N a new page). Wikipedia:Help desk in the page being watched. 03:54 is the time the edit took place. (+509) is the number of bytes that the edit added to the page. Joe 321 is the editor that made the edit. "New question: How do I delete an article?" is the edit summary.

See Help:Watching pages for more information.

~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 09:58, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

And you can't watch individual sections, for the simple reason that it would be impossible to track them - if someone edits the entire page, moving the first section to the bottom, merging the second and fifth sections, and splitting the third section in two, and you were watching all of them before, which sections would you be watching after the edit and how would you expect them to be described? (Note that in certain special cases you could watch sections of a page, if those sections are actually separate pages that have been transcluded like templates - the Reference Desks work on this premise.) Confusing Manifestation 22:43, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Pangako Sa Yo - Episodes

Could you please mail me the whole series of the shortened story of the the soap - opera Pangako Sa Yo. The Soap is so interesting and I would like to have a copy of it's episode synopsis. I tried to get it through the Pangako Sa Yo web page, but all in vain: my e-mail adress is (removed)

Your efforts will be appreciated.

Thank you E.L. Amweenje —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gaugoros (talk • contribs)

We have an article on Pangako sa ’Yo with a section about the entire plot, but we appear to have no episode synopsis. PrimeHunter 13:09, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Maps

Hey there, I'm trying to create a map like the one on the NATO page. I was wondering what type of program is used to create this, and how I could get a hold of it. Thank you in advance!

You might want to contact the original creator of the image on the Commons, where the image is actually uploaded. From what I can see from the file history, you would want to talk to Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 13:42, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

And see: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Map for a list of links about mapping on Wikipedia; for example, you might join WikiProject Maps. You might also want to search the Help desk archive for: map to read some previous questions and answers on this topic. --Teratornis 14:31, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

A User

Hi, what should I do about a user who is following all my past edits, and image uploads and challenging them? ≈ Maurauth ^(nemesis) 13:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Looking through your talk page it does seem like a user is following you - however, I will justify that by saying he is doing the right thing with regards to copyright issues and images you have uploaded. Fair use of people is a difficult subject, especially when those people are famous and 'free' pictures could be found. I would suggest reading up on our copyright policies a little more before uploading any more images.

This isn't a case of 'wikistalking' as I see it, just a case of an editor, who has had dealings with you in the past, noticing that you are not properly following copyright rules. Sorry, Localzuk^(talk) 13:27, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Well I've explained why they fall under the fair use rationale but he still keeps leaving messages that they aren't. ≈ Maurauth ^(nemesis) 14:10, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Because I feel your logic is incorrect. Let an admin step in and decide. Not a dog 15:49, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

A redirect muddle

Resolved

 – page moved over redirect by admin -- nae'blis 18:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

An article has been repeatedly moved (generally for good reasons) over the past few days. "Civil unions in Oregon" became "Domestic Partnerships in Oregon" which then became "Domestic Partnership in Oregon". Unfortunately, it should really be "Domestic partnerships in Oregon" (small "p" in "partnership"); however, the page with the small "p" title already exists ... as a redirect to the current capital "P" page. What's the best way to move the existing page to the small "p" page without causing further chaos? --Jfruh (talk) 14:30, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean "partnerships" (plural) or "partnership" (singular)? Just now I see a redirect at Domestic partnership in Oregon but not Domestic partnerships in Oregon. (For future reference, you can avoid such problems when you ask a Help desk question by always linking your article titles, as I just did to your question text.) Assuming you meant the former, you could do a content transplant:

• Open Domestic partnership in Oregon and Domestic Partnership in Oregon in separate browser tabs.
• Click the "edit this page" tab on both articles.
• Cut, copy and paste the content from each article into the other.
• Edit the redirect text now in Domestic Partnership in Oregon to be:

#REDIRECT [[Domestic partnership in Oregon]]

• Save both articles.

Then Domestic Partnership in Oregon should redirect to Domestic partnership in Oregon, which should have the actual content. You would also want to click toolbox | What links here on all the articles that have been moved, so you can go around to all the other articles that link to articles that are now redirects, and edit them to link to the definitive article: Domestic partnership in Oregon. I think you can also request a bot edit to clean up any double or triple redirects if there are too many to fix by hand. See User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Bot if you need a bot to help with fixing any such links. --Teratornis 14:45, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Cut and paste jobs are very bad since the edit history is longer there. You should request the speedy deletion of the page that you want to move the article to. Then move it, so that the edit history is intact. ~~ AVTN ^{T C}_{V A} 14:51, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Please do not move pages using cut-and-paste; it makes the muddle even worse. If you want to move a page but there's a redirect in the way making it impossible, place {{db-move|name of page to move from}} on the redirect, and an admin will sort it out for you. Hope that helps! --ais523 14:55, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

My bad. I struck my incorrect advice. Thanks for proving once again that "We are smarter than me." --Teratornis 15:06, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I feel I must apologize, as much of this confusion was started by me. I originally changed the article title from "Civil Unions in Oregon" to "Domestic Partnerships in Oregon." I'd never attempted a change like that and I fear that I made some mistakes along the way. I'm sorry for any confusion/frustration this may have caused. With the understanding that I'm outing myself as an in-the-dark Wikipedian, is there a standards or best practices site on Wikipedia that I can consult, so that I don't make these errors again? Again, sorry for all the mess. Ronnotronald 16:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Egg on my face re: standards page; I was already there...Ronnotronald 16:31, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If you want to read all the information available, the list of policies, list of guidelines, and manual of style contain most of the rules that have been developed; however, the rules evolve all the time and probably contain flaws. Messing up is normally easy to sort out, even in apparently complex cases like this, so just being bold, using common sense, and paying attention to any complaints is a perfectly good way to proceed (probably better than memorizing the policies). The FAQ is one helpful source of information for getting more general knowledge to help you avoid making mistakes with Wikipedia; reading through the other questions on this Help Desk is another good way. Hope that helps! --ais523 16:54, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Even more information is available in the Editor's Index, but as you can see from my erroneous advice above, references are only useful if I look at them before inserting foot in mouth. I would say as a general rule, whenever you are contemplating doing something on Wikipedia that you have never done before, it never hurts to ask for a sanity check on the Help desk, before you act. Getting some more eyeballs on the problem helps to make sure you didn't overlook something. But don't feel badly about making mistakes; that's how we learn. The worst good-faith mistake you can make would probably cause negligible harm compared to what the vandals do deliberately every day here. --Teratornis 18:41, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Page moved over redirect; please fix any remaining links to the double-capitalization at your leisure. -- nae'blis 18:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Password Recovery

I lost the password to my account, but I did enter an email to that acount. Could I retrieve it that way? 69.157.0.239 16:16, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, if you entered an e-mail address and confirmed it, you can recover access to your account. Simply go to the log in, type in your username, and click "Email my password". Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 16:18, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Yes. Enter your username in the log-in screen, then click 'Email new password' and check your email account for a message from wiki at either wikipedia.org or wikimedia.org. It'll give you a new temporary password; log in with that password, and you'll get a screen allowing you to change your password to something new that you'll remember. Hope that helps! --ais523 16:19, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I lost my old account a month ago because of a similar issue, and unfortunately hadn't entered an email for it. At least I learned this time. Thanks again. 69.157.0.239 16:22, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, it worked. The Clawed One 16:23, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Question about wikipedia article copyright expiry

I have a question about copyrights / Wikipedia, but the "other way around".

I'm not sure where to look, please point me somewhere.

When and how do the copyrights of wikipedia articles expire and transfer to the public domain, as copyrighted works should at some point.

Here is a scenario:

Knowledgable person A logs in to wikipedia and offers useful information in an article B.

No-one else changes article B. Article B is just fine the way it is, and lots of people read it.

Years later, person A dies.

Now one would expect the copyright of person A which they hold on article B to expire at some point. How can that point be established. It might be very hard to track down the identity of person A.

See User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Cop for all about copyrights on Wikipedia. As you may have noticed from the text that appears below the edit window when you typed your question, "you agree to license your contributions under the GFDL." That means the text in Wikipedia articles is not under the type of copyright restriction you seem to be thinking of (which would apply to most printed works). --Teratornis 18:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure how to understand this answer. The question was about when copyright expiry can be established, and what that means for the wikipedia model. The basis of the GFDL is copyright law. The GFDL cannot offer more than what copyright laws allow. And copyright laws provide only for a limited period of copyright "protection". But it looks to me after a few decades, the copyright status of articles is going to become a real mess. In particular it doesn't look to fit into the model and assumptions behind current copyright laws: on wikipedia, articles are changed frequently and by numerous people.

I may not have understood your question. GNU Free Documentation License#Invariant sections refers to a work entering the public domain after copyright expires, but it doesn't say when that occurs. I agree that a Wikipedia page which has been edited by many people might pose some problems for someone trying to determine when the page has entered the public domain (for example, might separate parts of the page enter the public domain at different times?). However, I'm not sure what difference it makes, other than possibly that public domain material can be copied with no restrictions whatsoever (the GFDL requirements no longer apply). You might try asking on the Reference desk, or (if you want to spend money) ask an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law. Since we don't have a stampede of other Help desk volunteers chiming in on this question, you may need to research it more on your own, for example by reading all the pages linked from User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Cop. --Teratornis 21:42, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I can't remember my Password

Resolved

I can't remember my password for the life of me. You see, I changed my password I don't know how long ago, but I've stayed signed in and thus never used it. Now I can't remember it. This is ironic, because I was just about to change my password to something more secure, and activate e-mail notification for forgotten passwords. The good news is that I am still logged in. Is there anything I can do (as apparently changing the password and activating e-mail notification require my current password)? Am I doomed? --LuigiManiac 18:08, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you using a Web browser that remembers usernames and passwords? --Teratornis 18:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I am using Firefox, but I said not to remember it in case someone were to get at my computer. In hindsight, probably isn't needed when my computer is in my room. I guess I'll have to find some way of ensuring this cookie doesn't get deleted. --LuigiManiac 18:54, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, so when my cookie inevitably gets deleted, then what? Should I make a new account now, or wait to see if I remember (which I probably won't. as my password isn't what I thought I changed it to)? --LuigiManiac 23:39, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

And you don't have email enabled now? I fear you may be SOL... but you MIGHT be able to talk to someone at the CheckUser/developer level, and if they can verify that you're still who you say you are, they may be able to somehow get the software to send you your password. No promises though; you really ought to have set a way to recover it. :( -- nae'blis 03:08, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I must have forgot say this was resolved here. I tried to confirm the e-mail again not long after I said that last comment here, and it worked. Weird. I must have been doing something wrong, but I'm not quite sure what. Anyways, I now have a shiny, new, and more secure password, written down in several places so I don't forget. Sorry about worrying you. --LuigiManiac 14:48, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

pages I've created

Hello! Is there an easy way to get a list of pages I've created (excluding redirects, but including categories + templates)? Thanks! Lugnuts 18:31, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Go to Special:Newpages, type your username (Lugnuts) into the Username box, then choose the namespace you want. You'll only be able to display one namespace at a time with that, but it'll be much faster than weeding through your contributions. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Note, this doesn't cover all your page creations as it doesn't list any for me even though I have created quite a few, but quite a while ago.-Localzuk^(talk) 20:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yep, I've tried that and it only goes back a couple of weeks. Oh well, thanks anyway! Lugnuts 07:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• I think User:Interiot can help you out. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
• Thanks for this Lugnuts 11:37, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Tiffany Teen article

What happened to the Tiffany Teen article? Why would it have been removed? Request by Tiffany?

Silly sad machine 18:42, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

See here for the deletion review, which turned a no consensus AfD into a delete. --LuigiManiac 18:46, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tiffany Teen for more info on why this was deleted in the first place. tiZom_(2¢) 18:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually what you want is the second AFD: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tiffany Teen (Second nomination). -- nae'blis 18:52, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Incorrect Title-misspelling: Gyroscope (automobile)

I am requesting help. I incorrectly spelled a title: Gyroscope (automoblie). Trying to fix my problem, I copied the content to the correctly spelled, Gyroscope (automobile). I need help deleting the first. I think I should have done a MOVE on the original mistake, correct.--Drussel3 19:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, moving was the correct thing to do. I have deleted your copy, and moved the page there. Prodego ^talk 19:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

How is "relevancy" calculated on Wikipedia?

Can anyone explain to me how relevance % is calculated on Wikipedia? e.g., when i search for Social Laws i get different articles that have different relevancy ratings. Can someone advise. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amaranand (talk • contribs) 19:30, May 29, 2007

You can try looking at WP:SEARCH, but it doesn't look like it has what you're looking for. Most likely, relevance has something to do with how often your search terms appear, but in my experience that's a load of hogwash. The absolute bottom line is, Wikipedia's search engine sucks. You're much better off using Google or another external engine to search our site. The page I linked gives you directions how. Sorry if that doesn't really help, but I'm afraid that's pretty much the best answer you're going to get. :-( Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:42, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Requesting a picture

I believe I have seen a template along the lines of "A photo would improve this article". Could you direct me to it, please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hogyn Lleol (talk • contribs) 19:42, May 29, 2007

Ta-da! {{Reqphoto}} A complete list of cleanup templates can be found at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:36, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks! Hogyn Lleol 07:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

helpme

I am trying to create an article and I submit the images and text and it just dissappears into never-never land. I have gone through all of the help and how to pages, I followed the protocol, what am I doing wrong?

I'm trying to create an article desribing the works of an contemporary artist named Kevin Christman can you help?

It looks like you edited Wikipedia:Introduction by accident instead of Kevin Christman. You can click on the red link in that last sentence to start editing. However, based on your username (User:Kevinchristman), it looks like you may be trying to write an article about yourself, which is generally discouraged (see WP:AUTO). Also, when writing about any person, it's important that they meet certain notability requirements (and I don't know anything about you, so I don't mean to imply that you don't) which are explained at WP:NOTABILITY. Also, please use ~~~~ (four ~'s) when writing on talk pages to sign and date your comments. Ingrid 22:00, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Accidentally overwritten image

Seems like this is an issue that would come up frequently, but I can't find anything about it in any of the FAQs or related help pages: What's the proper protocol when you find an image that has been accidentally overwritten by somebody else? The specific example I have in mind is Image:100_1541.jpg, which used to be a picture of the Fillmore Gold Line station in Pasadena, CA, but has been overwritten, I presume accidentally due to the digital-camera filename, with an image of downtown Miami. (The image is only linked to by articles about the Gold Line.)

Thanks Virtualphtn 21:27, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Click the (rev) button to restore the original image. Then reupload the second image under a new name if there is a use for it. Prodego ^talk 21:54, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

• Which is exactly why images should be uploaded with a descriptive file name. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:49, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

help me

I AM TRYIN TO LOOK UP WHAT OYSTERS EAT AND WHEN I TYOE IN OYSTER AND STUFF IT JUST TELLS ME STUFF I ALREADY KNOW.HOW DO I GO AND FIND WHAT I NEED?? THANK YOU FOR YOU TIME.

You can try the WP:Reference desk. And please don't write in all caps. ssepp^(talk) 22:09, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

The lead section of the Oyster article says oysters eat plankton. The oyster article did not have the obvious link to Filter feeder in a couple of places, so I added it. --Teratornis 04:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Email notification on document changes in my watchlist

Hi there,

Is it possible to be notified by email anytime an article on my watchlist is changed?

Thanks,

Judee

There is, but it has been disabled. There are hundreds of edits that occur on Wikipedia per minute, and if each page were watched by, let's say, ten users, the load on the email servers would be crippling. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 23:59, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

May 30

Added content is not visible

I added some contents in an article, and saved the addition, but it does not appear when I re-visit the page, why? How can make the changes visible in the page? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Atsltc (talk • contribs) 11:38, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I've looked at your contributions, but the only one is the one to make this post. This suggests that either (a) the edit didn't actually save (I'm not sure why), or (b) you made the edit while logged out, and it didn't appear. If it was the second, there are (at least) two possibilities. The first is that you made the change, and it was reverted, and the second is that the page needed to be purged, by going to the page and adding &action=puge to the URL. Could you give an example of an article you had this problem with so we can try and narrow down the cause? Confusing Manifestation 01:05, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Internet Chat

Hi,

I'm trying to find out what a certain internet chat might mean. Would you please tell me what "y web" means.

Thank you

Marian —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.72.12.198 (talk • contribs) 00:51, May 30, 2007

You could try looking at the List_of_Internet_slang_phrases, but you should ask at the Reference Desk. The Help Desk is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 01:54, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Amazon Links?

What are the rules regarding linking to Amazon? If there's a book I cite as a source in a Wikipedia article, should I or should I not provide a link to that book on Amazon? Is there a better way to give the user information on how to find the book I'm referencing?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Illuminatedwax (talk • contribs) 01:06, May 30, 2007

It's good to give the ISBN number. See Wikipedia:ISBN. PrimeHunter 01:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• No, unless the Amazon page itself is a source for a piece of information, you don't have to link it with every book. Instead, share as much info asked for in the {{cite book}} template. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:47, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

PDF

I have a pdf form accidentally attached to my page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jennifer_on_Wiki.pdf. It is the Jennifer_on_Wiki.pdf form. I can't get it deleted. Not sure why. It doesn't show up in the preview. Please help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Timrieger (talk • contribs) 01:06, May 30, 2007

This is an image page and not "your" page. Your real page is your user page at User:Timrieger (currently not created). Image:Jennifer_on_Wiki.pdf basically is the pdf file (it is not actually an image but it should have been). The rest is intended for adding comments about the file (one of the "comments" here is a jpg image). I suggest you copy the source to User:Timrieger and then request deletion of everything at Image:Jennifer_on_Wiki.pdf with {{db-author}} and maybe a comment to explain the situation. PrimeHunter 01:42, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• I moved the material on the page to Tim's userpage and I deleted the PDF. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I want to add some more articles.

Dear Sir, I want to add some more article on tourism and places of tourist interests with photographs.How to proceed,kindly direct. Yours faihfully, HD Chattopadhyay —Preceding unsigned comment added by Haridas Chattopadhyay (talk • contribs) 01:12, May 30, 2007

I would suggest you start here. -- Kesh 01:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

orange

Is the orange the state fruit?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.192.33.195 (talk • contribs) 01:14, May 30, 2007

It would help if you told us which state you were referring to. But it'd be easier to just look up that state using the Search feature on the left. -- Kesh 01:39, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Eva want some anwsers

why is israel in war?& how did thay git in it.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.226.85.119 (talk • contribs) 01:34, May 30, 2007

Try starting with the article on Israel. -- Kesh 01:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I have a question for you.

Hi. I have a simple question. Can i translate English articles into Serbian? Is it legal? Marian Lewis—Preceding unsigned comment added by MarianLewis (talk • contribs) 01:37, May 30, 2007

Yes, it is legal. All text on Wikipedia is free to copy and reuse. I'm uncertain if there's a Serbian Wikipedia though. Someone else might have a link for that. -- Kesh 01:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Serbian Wikipedia says it's at http://sr.wikipedia.org/ PrimeHunter 01:51, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Adding images

Hello,

I'm recently editing a section on your website about Arthroscopy. I wanted to add some pictures and didn't know how to go about that. If you could contact me whenever you have the chance that would be greatly appreciated. My wikipedia id: kammmio, and my email address is <removed email for security>

Thanks in advance! kamron

You should try looking at Help:Images, which gives a full range of image syntax. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 01:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Just click on 'Upload file' on the left of your screen in the 'toolbox'. Follow the instructions there, keep in mind, all the images you upload must have the correct image tagging etc. Scottydude _talk 02:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Locking article

How do you lock an article or part of it? I am trying to post a fact provided by a citation about a singer and someone comes in to repeatedly delete it and replaces it with statements that are not proven. How do I make the person stop?

Also, how do I contact that user of wikipedia who is deleting facts I posted and replacing it with unproven comments? What do I do if that person is not responding to me? Thank you.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Liz81 (talk • contribs) 14:10, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Looking at your contributions, I'm guessing you're talking about this edit to the Cher article? It looks like the editor who has removed the comment a couple of times has actually tried to engage some comment on the article's Talk page (also accessible by scrolling up to the top of an article, and clicking on the tab labelled "discussion"). If the discussion there does not prove fruitful, you may then want to take one of the options listed at Wikipedia:Resolving disputes, although I'd recommend aiming for one of the less drastic ones for something like this.

As to locking an article, protection generally occurs in the event of high-frequency edit warring or vandalism involving several parties, and while this is an edit war, it's not quite on the same scale as, for example, Intelligent design. Confusing Manifestation 04:02, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Troublesome edit

Should the following edit in article Bryan Fletcher be deleted due to possilbe legal issues?

• Bryan Fletcher In Rape Case Cover Up by Police

This link should be deleted or at least broken after this issue is resolved. Thank you Dbiel ^(Talk) 03:39, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Image trouble

I am working on a biography page for NASA flight director Paul Hill (Flight Director). I found an image of him that is Public Domain from a NASA page. I uploaded it to Wikimedia Commons here: [4]. When I put Image:Paul_Hill.jpg onto my biopage, however, I get a picture of Paul Hill a convicted murderer: Image:Paul Hill.jpg How do I fix this? —Gaff ^ταλκ 03:41, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Like this. :) — Nearly Headless Nick ^{C} 03:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• I think you misunderstood or I didn't explain clearly. I would like to have the image of Paul Hill from wikimedia commons for the biography. But when I put the code in, I get the image of Paul Hill that is uploaded onto wikipedia. I'm not sure, but it would probably be better to have the picture of the flight director rather than the murderer. lol. —Gaff ^ταλκ 04:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh right. Sorry about that. Don't worry about the resources, just mark the image you uploaded on Commons for deletion, and upload it once again, under a different title. — Nearly Headless Nick ^{C} 04:34, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• Okay. Thanks! —Gaff ^ταλκ 04:36, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

References not working

On Capital punishment in the United States, references 11, 12, and 13 are not showing up. Can someone fix it? Rmhermen 05:16, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I'll do my best.—WAvegetarian (talk) 05:20, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

question re linking to Wikipedia Pic of the Day on another web site

If someone wants to use Wikipedia's Picture of the Day on a different web site (with appropriate credit), what is the correct code/syntax to use on the other web site to link to that template/Picture of the Day? What would a person use to link to it on a blog site, like Blogger? BTW, I did search for an answer to this question but could not find one. Thanks in advance for your help. SummerFR

Wikipedia does not allow remote loading of content, so there is no way to just grab the POTD and serve it to viewers of an external page, as far as I know. As for linking to it, you will want a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/YYYY-MM-DD with some html script to make the YYYY-MM-DD come up as the current date. I don't code much beyond HyperCard and what I learned from Wikipedia so I can't be of more assistance.—WAvegetarian (talk) 05:53, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Forget the above. Wikipedia doesn't have a good way to do this, but the Wikimedia Commons does. The Commons POTD can be embedded easily. See this for the different ways to access it.—WAvegetarian (talk) 06:05, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Hello again, Thanks so much for taking the time to reply here. Your second reply was very helpful, and I did find a link to use on Blogger. I waited a day to write back to you, because I wanted to see if the link would indeed automatically change the Picture of the Day to the next day's picture -- and, it did. I am really happy with the results. I am hoping I correctly attributed credit to Wikipedia, so I am sharing with you how I used this Picture of the Day on my new, free, online, classroom magazine for ESL students and teachers:

http://www.inspirationlane-entry.blogspot.com

I hope what I did there is OK. If not, kindly let me know how to improve it/change it. I really love those photos and it makes such a terrific "entry page" for what I am trying to do for English language learners and their teachers. Thanks again very much for your help. SummerFR

Unlinked pic

This pic Image:Def_Leppard_-_Pyromania.jpg was used in the Parents_Music_Resource_Center article. I have since relinked it to the main photo at Image:Pyromania.jpg (brighter & clearer) used by the Def Leppard and all the other pages which refer to that album. How do I go about deleting the old picture since no article is using it anymore? Is it like a regular AfD? Banpei 06:01, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

You want WP:IFD.—WAvegetarian (talk) 06:06, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Unable to sign in

Hello! I've been trying to sign in but either Wikipedia doesn’t recognize it or I forgot my password, which I doubt for I remember I chose the same password for both Portuguese and English Wikipedia. Can you help me please? Thank you
Ana Santos Silva
email: [removed for privacy protection]
User name: Analogica
IP address: ***.**.**.134 [see above]

If you can't login, have Wikipedia email you a new temporary password. —WAvegetarian (talk) 06:33, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I just confirmed that within the last 24 hours a password reminder has been sent to the registered email address for User:Analogica. Please check your email and follow the directions there.—WAvegetarian (talk) 06:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi Analogica. Go to Special:Userlogin, enter just your email address, and click "Email new password". If the email address you entered matched the one in the account details, then you should soon be receiving an email; which enclosed is your new password. Good luck! –Sebi ~ 06:36, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of account

how do you delete your account?

Accounts with contributions cannot be deleted from Wikipedia since this would allow another user to create the account, and claim authorship of those edits. However, you may request your user and talk page to be deleted, as explained here. E ^talk 09:25, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

See also m:Right to vanish PeaceNT 12:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Change IP address to username in edit histroy

How do I change IP address to username in the edit history?

You can't change that, as that is edits from your unique IP address. If you wish to prevent yourself from showing a IP address for edits, simply create an account. E ^talk 09:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

If it's a recent edit and you want people to know you made it then you can make another edit and say in the edit summary that the IP is you. PrimeHunter 11:37, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Goram and Vincent

Hi,

I created an article with this title. When I enter it into the search box on the main page and "go", it returns the "search" page with the article at the top with 100% relevance. But it won't "go" there directly. Why not?

Y

• It worked when I tried. Are you using proper capitalization in your search query? In other words are you using the exact article title (without any quotes surrounding the text)? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:51, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• You may need to bypass your browser's cache. Mozilla/Safari browsers: hold down Shift while clicking Reload (or press Ctrl-Shift-R), Internet Explorer browsers: press Ctrl-F5, Opera/Konqueror browsers: press F5 I hope this helps. Stwalkerster talk review 16:06, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Use of "U"

When I am writing an article, should I write the British spelling of words, such as "colour" or "honour", or the American spelling, "color" or "honor"?

It doesn't really matter, as long as is consistent you can use the one that you prefer--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 10:11, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• If the article topic is clearly linked to a certain location you should use the local variety of English. Also, remember there's more differences like: publicize version publicise. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:47, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
• Please see also WP:ENGVAR. PeaceNT 12:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Editing Ref Desk

Hi, couple of times now Ive looked at the Misc Reference Desk and seen questions from say 27 May to 29 May. Ive clicked on the edit tab but only the 29 May portion of the page is available to edit. Is this a glitch or...? thanks Mhicaoidh 10:08, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

No it's not a glitch, the may 27th pages are kept in an archive and are Transcluded on to the page, to edit them, click on the right edit link and you'll edit those transcluded pages.--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 10:13, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

who works at a bus station

(no question text in section body)

You could start by reading Bus station and following the links in Bus station#See also. --Teratornis 14:32, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

WikiBreak Enforcer

How does one bypass and log into wikipedia once they have inacted WikiBreak Enforcer? Hyper flyin' 10:27, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

• It says you could still edit as an anon, so not logging in would help. Still don't recommend it though as that would defeat the purpose of using it in the first place. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Yes, but if you had used it, how could you turn it off before the actual end date? It prevents you from loging in but when your not loged in you are unable to edit your monobook file, so you cannot turn it off yourself. Hyper flyin' 13:21, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
    • One way is to persuade an admin to disable it for you. Just in case any Help Desk readers are planning to use it, I won't spoil it for them by revealing the other ways (yes, there are several ways). --ais523 13:22, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
      • Ok thanks for that :) Hyper flyin' 13:24, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Mammary intercourse

I want to complain about the image used in the above article.

This is Wikipedia not Pornopedia.

The article is sufficient and there is no need for a image.

Is there no policy about pornographic images ?--87.243.196.167 10:53, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not censored, and other users have disagreed that an image is not necessary. -- nae'blis 12:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Use of leaflets

Hi! I've uploaded an image of a leaflet which is in the public domain, and is relevant to its article. Which copyright notice do I use for it please??

Sean Cooper 11:10, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Please see the copyright tags listed at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/Public domain. PeaceNT 12:20, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Adding/Creating a new Section

How do I create a new article or page to Wikipedia? I attempted to follow the instructions to do so, but after what I thought was completion, when I searched for it, it did not appear.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Saouse 13:01, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you referring to this edit you made to the introduction page? Dismas|^(talk) 13:03, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article. PrimeHunter 13:13, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

edit this page

The edit this page button does not seem to work for me. I can click the individual edit links on the page and edit the sections such as "external links" etc, but the tab on the top of the page trys to open a php file! why are they so different

Which browser do you have? Stwalkerster talk review 15:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I use mozilla 2.0

Dee kaee 21:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The FAQ section at the top of WP:VPT has this entry:

• If you are asked to download a file (index.php) when trying to edit, or your browser launches an image editor when trying to edit, disable "Use external editor" on your MediaWiki user preferences. On the most recent version of MediaWiki (as of 21-May-2007), this is found under the "Editing" tab.

Does that help? --Teratornis 04:09, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Category Lists

Hi! I'm looking for a way to grab a list of article names appearing in a category. Now, you're thinking that's simple, just open the category page, but I want to see ALL pages at once in a SINGLE column, like so:

Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
...etc.

If possible, I'd like to be able to do this to any category in a single step. I have looked into using api.php, but this does not seem to do the trick. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks, Stwalkerster talk review 15:13, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The slow response to your question suggests the Help desk volunteers know of no easy way to do what you want. Depending on what you mean by "grab," one option would be to use a bot program. For example, m:Category.py might do what you want, or you might be able to hack it to do what you want. Do you have computer programming skills? --Teratornis 15:59, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

By grab, I mean get a list of articles into some form of list like I said, in some form that would be readable. Actually, you gave me an idea. By using api.php, to get an XML format file, I may be able to read it...yes, of course. Sorry, I wrote a vb.net script to login using api.php and an xml output. Thanks Teratornis, you gave me an idea, just write a script to read the xml feed. Thanks! Next Question...special pages. I think looking at the HTML source I can figure that one out. Thanks for the help, and sorry for asking such a difficult question. I guess my brain wasn't in gear. Stwalkerster talk review 17:20, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Catergorizing a page

Hello,

I need to add a category to an article. Can you tell me step by step how to do that?

Thanks,

C

Hi there! All you need to do is add [[Category:Example]] to the bottom of the page. As you wanted a step-by-step:

1. Go to the article
2. Click the edit this page link at the top of the page.
3. Scroll right down to the bottom of the edit box
4. Type at the bottom of the edit box the following (replacing Example with the category's name: [[Category:Example]]
5. Add an edit summary, like "Added category"
6. Click the Show Preview Button, to check you edit
7. Click the save Page button

I hope this helps! Stwalkerster talk review 15:39, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Veiled Political Activism

Some anonymous editor keeps seeking to make a political statement using the List of Protologisms page. The word in question is "Christi-insanity." The supposed meaning is more of a criticism than a bona fide word proposition. — Joe Webster 16:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

This is in the Wiktionary pages. — Joe Webster 16:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Wiktionary is a different project than Wikipedia. As the header at the top of this page explains, the help desk is for questions about editing Wikipedia. To solve your problem you will need to contact an administrator on Wiktionary.—WAvegetarian (talk) 19:52, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

See: Wiktionary: Protologisms

Definition, guidelines, and criteria for inclusion.

• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Protologisms

List of Protologisms

• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:List_of_protologisms

Blocking sock puppets of blocked user

User:Brya is indefinately blocked from editing Wikipedia.[5] She has created 15 sock puppets to get around this ban. 13 of her sock puppets were found with a check user request.[6] However, while reverting and checking the edits of the 12 socks at issue (one does not edit botany or taxonomy articles, Brya's problem areas, and my area of editing) another 3 sock puppets cropped up, two of whom are active editors. However, I cannot figure out how to submit a check user request for these additional sock puppets, because a check user case for her user name already exists, and re-editing that just leaves it in the completed requests page, instead of putting it where it belongs to get the additional sock puppets checked. I tried asking one of the clerks listed to help at check user, but he keeps saying weird things (like he suggested I use a letter G instead of F,[7] when it's a letter F, and when I said that I couldn't use G since it was an F he accused me of making a false declaration on a check user request![8], he also seems to think that blocked users are still editors, which they're not, that's the point of a block: to stop them from editing, and dispute resolution is about working with other Wikipedia editors).

This really can't be the only time that later socks showed up after initial socks were blocked. How do I go about these newly found users checked and blocked also, and why is check user so impossible to use?

Thanks.

KP Botany 18:30, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
Note to help desk: I never accused KPBotany of knowingly submitting a false declaration. I merely informed her of the requirements of a code "F" for checkuser requests. Code F is for editors who are community banned (by ArbCom, Community Sanctions board, or Jimbo Wales). People may make code G requests.

Should the help desk recommend WP:AN? Or mediation? Or checkuser, using code "G" with the explanation of block evasion?VK35 18:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Mediate what? Don't you understand that there are TWO parties to a mediation, TWO parties, at least to dispute resolution? This editor is blocked indefinately from editing Wikipedia--that means she is NOT a party. What exactly would I mediate with nobody? You keep going off on extraneous issues, and I simply can't understand what you are talking about, and you did accuse me of filing a false report. I posted here to try to understand what is going on, so I can do it correclty--would you leave it to someone else to explain it to me, since I have asked this of you, and told you that I don't understand what you are saying? KP Botany 19:12, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not the best person to give you a detailed answer, but I believe what you do is initiate a new case as a continuation of the earlier case - you are quite right that this is not the first time later socks showed up after initial socks were blocked. See the Dereks1x series of cases for an example of how multiple cases are handled. (By the way, the first Brya checkuser used Code F successfully, so I don't know why G was suggested to you - I've read that some feel it shouldn't exist as an option, in fact. ) Hope this helps - if you don't get a more thorough response here, you might post a note for one of the checkuser admins on their talk pages. Tvoz |talk 20:39, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, the example helped, they just put (2nd) in paranthesis after the user name for Dereks1x later socks. I did try to ask one of the checkuser admins, but he's the one who kept saying strange things and telling me to do things incorrectly, then telling me I'd get in trouble for doing them incorrectly!!! I generally get much better answers and simpler ones from the help desk. Thanks. KP Botany 20:54, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Help from adminstrators vis a vis totalitarian tactics

I am facing totalitarian bullies who are intent on blocking me from contributing credible sourced content that is bold but 'problematic' to their ideological and political agendas. I need help to assist me wherever they are using slander, misrepresentation and character assasination to shut me down. I also need help to make sure I am correctly abiding by wiki policies so that they have no genuine cause to censor or block me. I need someone to suggest good administrators who have a sophisticated knowledge of totalitarian tactics (as used on wiki) so that I can confront these bullies and insist that they discuss genuine concerns they have with me in good faith rather than resorting to shameless misrepresentations and pejorative warnings. Please suggest some good administrators who are able to spend the time on these subtle and difficult issues.Anacapa 19:06, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The help desk doesn't really deal with those sorts of issues - you want to try WP:ANI. --Fredrick day 19:16, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia abuse

Hi

How is abuse from anonymous users reported?

This page is under continual attack by anonymous users who simply disagree with the views of the online magazine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiked_%28magazine%29

A case for examining the neutrality has been made but the vandalism continues.

A

You want Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism.—WAvegetarian (talk) 19:30, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

But you don't want to report the user or ip has made only one vandal edit. You want to warn the vandal appropriatly first, and then if they continue beyond three or four times, report them. To see a complete list of warning go to WP:WARN. --Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 20:25, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Aqueous humor

Under "Aqueous humor" the spelling is incorrect. It uses "humour" rather than "humor." I don't know how to access any of the various angles of Wikipedia, sorry.

Thought someone should know...

British spelling is just as accepted on wikipedia as American spelling. ~ ΜΛGиυs ΛΠιмυМ ≈ √∞ 20:12, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

For future use see Manual of Style (spelling). --Тλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 20:17, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Changing a Disambig Page

Currently when users search for "System 7" they're led to a disambig page, which among other things, lists a toy, a part of a computer game, and a band. But overwhelmingly, I'm confident that people searching for "System 7" are most likely looking for the Macintosh Operating System (which is also the largest and most detailed article out of the disambig list).

How does one switch it so that a search for "System 7" brings up the Macintosh operating system page, rather than the disambig list, and then link to the disambig page from that article?

I can do this for you if there is a consensus... E ^talk 20:13, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

How do I get a consensus? There is a little bit of discussion going on at Talk:System 7 (Macintosh)

To find out what you want to know read WP:CONS. --Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 20:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm reading WP:CONS correctly, I believe there is a consensus since after someone (possibly me unsigned, I don't recall) posted the suggestion on a talk page a year ago, nobody disagreed. In fact someone else seconded the idea. I think it should be carried out, and we can see if anyone wants to discuss it further?Dpaanlka 20:33, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

In the future, requesting that a page be moved can be done through Wikipedia:Requested moves. Dismas|^(talk) 20:27, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I have followed the requested move steps and will wait a few days for consensus. Thank you!

Where do I go

Where can I go to find the word. I have the definitions for them but not the words themselves. Such as, " _______ is the process of accommodating different needs and viewpoints."

Try Wiktionary, the free dictionary. E ^talk 20:51, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Google is your friend here. I put the phrase above into google and came up with this power point presentation. http://www.sbac.edu/~estesor/documents/HonGovCh1ReviewCards.ppt A quick scroll through the slides reveals that the answer you are looking for is "compromise". Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 20:53, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I recommend trying the following website. --Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 21:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

New page

How do I establish a page instead of an article? I wanted something more like 'Black Enterprise', Beyonce Knowles and Jive Records. How can I invent this page w/wikipedia.

Please start a new section when you're asking a new question - it's hard to see that you're here if your question is tagged on under someone else's.

You should take a look at WP:1ST, Help:Starting a new page, WP:NOT, and WP:MOS before trying to create a new page. Those pages will give you directions on how to make a new page and also some tips on how to prevent the article from being deleted.

Note, however, that we already have pages for Black Enterprise, Beyonce Knowles, and Jive Records. You might want to look at them first. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 21:21, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

A page instead of an article? What do you mean exactly? ssepp^(talk) 22:21, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

WP:WIAA explains the difference between "page" and "article," but I would be surprised and impressed if a new Wikipedia user was aware of the subtle distinction as Wikipedia uses the two words. I only discovered the difference when I used the words interchangeably where I shouldn't, and another editor corrected me, citing WP:WIAA for my enlightenment. --Teratornis 23:00, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Rednex

Hello. I am one of the producers behind music group Rednex and I have never heard of the claimed producer named Brian Reddyb. Neither have the others. I have deleted him two times, but he's still there. I don't know who is doing this. What should we do? Regards Örjan Öban Öberg.

You could discuss the issue on the article's talk page. My guess is someone thinks you're committing vandalism - with a site like this, it does happens constantly, and it is sometimes hard to tell if someone is helping or hurting the project. You might also want to see our policy on conflict of interest. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 21:16, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree that someone probably thinks you are committing vandalism. If it is a WP:HOAX, you should say so on the talk page, and provide proof that that is the case. --Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 21:36, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

We have proof of a hoax in our records. It was added by User:86.42.223.82 in this edit and the same IP claims that "Briyan Al-Reddyb" led a 1968 coup where Saddam Hussein participated.[9] PrimeHunter 22:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

dontations and suggestions for article

Hello,

afraid I am not computer literate enough to be a contributor, but I wanted to ask/suggest that under the driving under the influence article, it would be helpful to have a chart with how many drinks it takes (roughly) to "achieve" a certain BAC. Second, I would like to send a check as a donation - can you give me snailmail address (I am indeed ancient) and to whom to make it out to?

Thanks, Mike Nesemann email removed

This is included at the article Blood alcohol. Possibly it should be linked more directly. The article needs a little work. To the left of this, under the Wikipedia globe you will see a series of links, including this one [[10]] which lists information, including snail mail addresses for donations. Thanks. KP Botany 22:33, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Donate via regular mail. Please make the cheque payable to 'Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.' To prevent theft, please do not send cash through the mail.

Our mailing address:

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 200 2nd Ave. South #358 St. Petersburg, FL 33701-4313 United States

At the risk of digressing horribly, I have to wonder how many of the users who ask Why was my article deleted? still feel urges to contribute money to the Wikimedia Foundation. That is, I wonder if users who only read Wikipedia are more inclined to contribute than users who plunge into the sometimes cruel world of editing. --Teratornis 23:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Make a Page

How do I make a page that will show up as a red link?-as in, an article about it doesn't exist but a link is holding a spot for it.

Just wrap the text that you want to red link with the brackets like this [[article doesn't exists yet]] will produce article doesn't exists yet. Once you make the article, it will turn blue. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 00:40, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Hello

I need some help on how to create a page. i have a subject and everything, just were is the create page. Can you give me the link?

Hi, welcome to Wikipedia. See Help:Starting_a_new_page. Alternatively, you can just type the name of your article in to the search box and click on the red link to create the page. Make sure that the article meets notability and is well-sourced. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 00:47, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Don't be surprised if you find yourself back here asking Why was my article deleted? If you want to avoid that fate, you might try telling us about the article you want to write, and we can give you specific advice on how to write it so it "sticks." --Teratornis 05:03, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

May 31

edit username

Is there a way to edit my username? I just want to capitalize the 2nd name.Siona 01:46, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you will need a Bureaucrat to make the change for you, which you can request at Wikipedia:Changing username. Follow the instructions on that page, and someone will come along and do it. Happy editing! Prodego ^talk 01:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

In addition, it seems that you only have one edit on Wikipedia so it may be easier to just creat a new account with your name spelled the way you want to. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 01:51, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Well... Since the username is only one letter off the filter will catch it; an admin could create the account and email a password to you though. I recommend just getting renamed. Prodego ^talk 02:04, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Finally, If the username you want has already been taken, and the user who has taken it has Zero edits, then you can try to usurp the username here. To find out if the username has been taken check out Special:Listusers. --Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 02:21, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

am or brit

In articles that do not relate directly to an Anglophonic country or region, which English dialect should I use. On some articles, such as Hornblende, words are written in American English (practice, color) and British English (practise, colour). Is there a Wikipedia-wide standard for English dialect? Thanks. RockRNC 02:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

You should probably discuss it on the talk page. WP:MOS states that an article should use only one dialect. See here for more details on how to proceed. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 02:49, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Transposing a special page?

Is there a way to make any special page, such as Whatlinkshere, appear on a page, the way you can with, for instance, Prefixindex? Example below: {{Special:Prefixindex/Wight}}

• Wight
• Wight, Andrew
• Wight, Bill
• Wight, Christopher
• Wight, David
• Wight, Dennis
• Wight, Eric
• Wight, Gary
• Wight, John
• Wight, Martin
• Wight, Michael
• Wight, Peter
• Wight, Robert
• Wight, Stephen
• Wight, Texas
• Wight-Boycott
• Wight-Bray Monocline
• WightBus
• WightCable
• WightCableNorth
• WightFibre
• Wight & Wight
• Wight (Dungeons & Dragons)
• Wight (disambiguation)
• Wight (surname)
• Wight 840
• Wight Art Gallery
• Wight Baby
• Wight Bakke
• Wight Bank
• Wight Converted Seaplane
• Wight Improved Navyplane Type A.I
• Wight Improved Navyplane Type A.II
• Wight Inlet
• Wight Is Wight
• Wight Light
• Wight National Party
• Wight Navyplane
• Wight Pusher Seaplane
• Wight Quadruplane
• Wight Ryder 1
• Wight Ryder I
• Wight Seaplane
• Wight Shipyard
• Wight Tractor seaplane
• Wight Twin
• Wight Twin Landplane
• Wight Twin Seaplane
• Wight Type 840
• Wight and Hampshire East
• Wight and Hampshire East (European Parliament constituency)
• Wight and Hampshire South (European Parliament constituency)
• Wight and Wight
• Wight cable
• Wight rifles
• Wightbus
• Wightbus route 13
• Wightbus route 20
• Wightbus route 22
• Wightbus route 23
• Wightbus route 24
• Wightbus route 29
• Wightbus route 30
• Wightbus route 31
• Wightbus route 32
• Wightbus route 35
• Wightbus route 36
• Wightbus route 39
• Wightcable
• Wightcable North
• Wighteone
• Wightes
• Wightia
• Wightia (flowering plant)
• Wightia (plant)
• Wightia (pterosaur)
• Wightia alpinii
• Wightia declivirostris
• Wightia declivirostris (pterosaur)
• Wightia elliptica
• Wightia gigantea
• Wightia lacei
• Wightia speciosissima
• Wightite
• Wightites
• Wightkin, Bill
• Wightlink
• Wightlink Raiders
• Wightlink Tigers
• Wightman
• Wightman's Camp, California
• Wightman, Andrew
• Wightman, Arthur
• Wightman, Brian
• Wightman, Chris
• Wightman, Daniel
• Wightman, David
• Wightman, Iowa
• Wightman, John
• Wightman, Joseph
• Wightman, Mark
• Wightman, Robert
• Wightman, Virginia
• Wightman, William
• Wightman (disambiguation)
• Wightman Award
• Wightman Cup
• Wightman Jacobs
• Wightman Memorial Baptist Church
• Wightman School
• Wightman axioms
• Wightman distribution
• Wightman function
• Wightman functional
• Wightman functions
• Wightman t/a JW Construction v Headfour
• Wightman v Brexit Secretary
• Wightman v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
• Wightmans Grove
• Wightmans Grove, Ohio
• Wighton
• Wighton, Norfolk
• Wighton Halt railway station
• Wighton railway station
• Wights
• Wights Mountain
• Wights Mountain, Queensland
• Wightwick
• Wightwick, George
• Wightwick, Samuel
• Wightwick (surname)
• Wightwick Manor

Doing this with other special pages, however, only generates a link (for example:

• Beowulf (links | edit)
• Banshee (links | edit)
• Elf (links | edit)
• Frigg (links | edit)
• Gnome (links | edit)
• Hengist and Horsa (links | edit)
• Midgard (links | edit)
• Nymph (links | edit)
• Aos Sí (links | edit)
• Týr (links | edit)
• Tuatha Dé Danann (links | edit)
• Undead (links | edit)
• Yule (links | edit)
• Faery Wicca (links | edit)
• Æsir (links | edit)
• Fairy tale (links | edit)
• Dwarf (folklore) (links | edit)
• Puck (folklore) (links | edit)
• Fairy (links | edit)
• Boggart (links | edit)
• Richard Dadd (links | edit)
• Valkyrie (links | edit)
• Nisse (folklore) (links | edit)
• Mermaid (links | edit)
• Naiad (links | edit)
• Aibell (links | edit)
• Gwyn ap Nudd (links | edit)
• Biróg (links | edit)
• Clíodhna (links | edit)
• Sigmund (links | edit)
• Jötunn (links | edit)
• Sceafa (links | edit)
• Simbi (links | edit)
• Apsara (links | edit)
• Gandharva (links | edit)
• Leprechaun (links | edit)
• Jiangshi (links | edit)
• Frith (links | edit)
• Oberon (links | edit)
• Tooth fairy (links | edit)
• Will-o'-the-wisp (links | edit)
• Wyrd (links | edit)
• Symbel (links | edit)
• Maypole (links | edit)
• Trow (folklore) (links | edit)
• Lady of the Lake (links | edit)
• Thing (assembly) (links | edit)
• Kelpie (links | edit)
• Jack-o'-lantern (links | edit)
• Kobold (links | edit)

). Any way around this? $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 02:32, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Ask on #mediawiki on Freenode IRC, and if it cannot be done file a feature request on Bugzilla (Mediazilla). —Centrx→talk • 04:24, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

my signature

can someone help me fix my signature? and btw i am using raw signature, but i will change it if its easier. ❤ ɱӑԀסԀÏƏ₭Ⓐ†Ǝ ✭ | User_talk:Maddiekate 04:03, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

What do you need fixed? --Kainaw ^(talk) 04:05, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

You guys should...

Create a Wikipedia messenger, and become the next huge company like Google or Yahoo...

I know that you guys can do it!

You're already THE place to learn on the internet...

You should be THe place to do everything! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.115.109.77 (talk • contribs)

Well, it would be more of a Wikimedia messenger (I suppose you could go propose it on the meta site), but (a) I don't see how you could Wiki it, (b) it would represent a huge load on the WM servers, (c) WM doesn't plan on becoming "the next huge company" - it's a non-profit organisation and all indicators are that it's hoping to stay that way. Confusing Manifestation 04:13, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation plans to stay non-profit, but check out what the Great Leader is doing with Wikia. Wikia certainly has some potential to become the next huge company like Google or Yahoo. --Teratornis 04:58, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Merging Category:CrossGen comics and Category:CrossGen titles

I see no reason for these to be separate categories. You would think that "CrossGen comics" would be a list of all comics / works by CrossGen but instead they are listed under CrossGen titles - this confused me at first. I recommend that they are merged into one category and use that one on each of the pages rather than one or the other. I'm pretty new to Wikipedia so I wanted to get some feedback on this before doing it myself.--Campbecf 05:07, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
It seems to have ate what I set for the title, this is what it was supposed to be: Merging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CrossGen_comics and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CrossGen_titles --Campbecf 05:10, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. [[Category:Whatever]] adds a page to the category. [[:Category:Whatever]] creates the link thus: Category:Whatever. Confusing Manifestation 05:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I think that the information in Crossgen titles should in includes in the CrossGen comics category as a table. --Campbecf 09:16, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

reducing figure sizes

Hi, how can i reduce the size of the output figure without sacrificing the URLs (syntax?) associated with it. Example: http://www.bioline.org.br/imgs/bioline_international.gif. I want to reduce the Bioline logo but I won't alter the syntax. (why does the logo and the hyperlink show here?)

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. Are you trying to do this? http://www.bioline.org.br/, where you reduce the url length? In that case the problem is that you're doing it backwards by putting the real URL second. The URL goes first, then the space, and then the link name. --tjstrf talk 07:20, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

My apologies. I was quite unclear. I was trying to ask if there could be any program or syntax to reduce the size of the output figure. In this example image, i want to reduce the size of the figure using this URL. Another alternative is to reduce it using Photoshop then upload it. But i dont want to do this way. [11]

Ah, I think I understand. You want the image result at right?

In code, that would be [[Image:Crystal_Clear_app_looknfeel.png|50px|thumb]]

The size can be adjusted to whatever you want, of course. --tjstrf talk 09:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Customising my tag

I'd like to customise my tag but everywhere I look all I find is some super hyper code that does not work the same everytime. So could I just have the code In to this box All i want is a simple Red to Blue fade So Red=> Peace kee (a little of purple) per II<Blue

In here please:[[User:Peace keeper II|<font color="red">Peace k</font><font color="purple">ee</font><font color="blue">per II</font>]]

Peace keeper II 08:11, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Turns out like this:

Peace keeper II

Regard

Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 11:50, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

creating mailing list

Hi Just found your site and wanted to know if there is a way to create a mailing list of the site Iwanted.

It's all of the High Schools in Michigan.Is there a way to open up all of the addresses.

Thank you

Hello, I'm not sure what you're asking and I'm not sure what site you think you are on, but this is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. ssepp^(talk) 11:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, not really sure what you are looking for but a simple search (after all this is an encylopedia) revealed this list: List of high schools in Michigan. Hope that helps. Scottydude _talk 14:38, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

WikiMedia Extensions

So I was looking at yet another long tedious list and I REALLY wanted to be able to sort it this time. Would a MediaWiki extension be the sort of thing that enables this behavior? I'm having a hard time finding information on what exactly an extension is and the sorts of things they allow you to modify. I imagine that it is some javascript that loads up for a person who enables it at certain times when interacting with the wiki software, correct?

Anyways, I imagine that if extensions are the correct way to realize this functionality, there is probably an existing one? Also, could you point me in the direction of the general policies of Wikipedia on upgrading/downgrading the version of the software? That is to say, if I wanted to add a javascript table sorting ability to MediaWiki, assuming it could not be accomplished through extensions (which seem FAR preferable), would there be any chance of it actually showing up on wikipedia sometime in the next century? ;)

Sorry for so much questioning, thanks! Audiodude 10:54, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Heading 1	Heading 2
a	c
d	b

There is certainly a javascript table sorting in MediaWiki, and it's installed on Wikipedia (see above; check the 'edit' view for this section to see how it works). I'm not sure whether it's an extension or part of the core code. --ais523 11:45, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki#Release history says sortable wikitables are a feature of version 1.9. --Teratornis 13:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Uploading a scanned in family photograph

I came across information of my great grandfather (Sydney Percy-Lancaster) on Wikipedia. I have original photographs of him (and his family) and have scanned in one of the photographs which I thought might be appropriate to use on Wikipedia. If I own the photograph what is the copyright status and how do I upload the image? This environment is all very new to me.

I think the person who took the photograph owns the copyright. Do you know who it was? ssepp^(talk) 15:12, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The person who took the photograph has the copyright on it, and can decide the conditions under which it's released. Use this upload form if you yourself own the copyright, and choose the terms under which you're willing to release it to Wikipedia and the outside world there. If the person who took the photo died more than 100 years ago (slightly unlikely but possible in this case), the copyright will have expired (at least if you live in the UK or US), and you can use the main upload form and specify 'author died over 100 years ago' as the licence. It's more complicated if neither of these applies; see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions to ask people who are more likely to know the answer. --ais523 15:14, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Other languages link

Hello! I was not sure how to contribute with this, but there it is: the page about Peptide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide) should have "in other languages" link to Polish page http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptydy.

You can add this link yourself by editing the page and placing [[pl:Peptydy]] ('pl' for 'pl.wikipedia.org') at the bottom of the page; keep the links in alphabetical order by language name if there's more than one. --ais523 15:32, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Archiving Talk Page

How would I go about automatically archiving my talk page, I've tried to use a bot advised but it hasn't archived the page. ≈ Maurauth ^{(nemesis~☆)} 15:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Shadowbot3 (which is currently taking over Werdnabot's job) edits at 05:00 and 21:00 UTC (taking some time to get round to all the pages on the list), so the auto-archiving won't happen yet. If your page hasn't been archived by tomorrow, post back here to try to find out what went wrong. --ais523 15:39, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Mayors

Hi There

I recently added a lot of information to the page "Mayors of New Brunswick, New Jersey" and decided to also add a new page, "Mayors of Highland Park, New Jersey." Here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Highland_Park%2C_New_Jersey

Then I tried to do an internal link to the Highland Park, NJ article using the phrase "The mayor of Highland Park is Meryl Frank"

It didn't work, and when I looked in the index, my new page isn't there.

Do I just wait for it to be recognized or do I have to actively do something, other than just making the page?

wofh dkla n jkdbn upnd sjfda akk ai the gid dja j?

Thank you

Frank Deis -- Affenbart.

PS my email is email removed, it's easier for me to get the reply that way but I will come back here as well.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Affenbart (talk • contribs) 15:43, May 31, 2007 (UTC)

It's now fixed. You need to type the the exact title of the article in order to link to it. Otherwise you would only have a red link :) I hope this helps. PeaceNT 15:52, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

[Question removed; not appropriate for the help desk. YechielMan 20:03, 31 May 2007 (UTC)]

Languages

Are you only allowed to use English language when contributing to the English wikipedia? Francisco Tevez 16:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

• Depends on what you mean. Articles needs to be in English. Talk pages and discussions should be in English (since everything should be open to all to see). Sources need not be in English, though this is preferred. WilyD 16:15, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
  • If this presents a difficulty for you, ask for help at Wikipedia:Translation, and consider contributing to the Wikipedia of your native language if you're not already doing that. YechielMan 20:02, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

lime juice

Talk archive vadalized

Hello. I currently have four archive pages for my talk page. When I went to archive my current talk page, I saw that what was previously an uncreated archive page seems to have been vandalized by an anonymous IP. Could someone delete this page, please? - User_talk:Ibaranoff24/Archive05

Thank you - Ibaranoff24 16:11, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Can you expand a little? It seems that User_talk:Ibaranoff24/Archive05 has a lot of potentially useful information. What is the IP address of the vandal? tiZom_(2¢) 17:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Stripper Column Designing

I'm an undergraduate and currently involving in a project on stripper coulumn design. I'm looking for a web site (free service) which provides comprehensive desing details and methods of desinging. Stripper Column is to seperate CO2 from rich MEA stream using steam as the stripping medium. Thank you. Malinda

This page is for questions about using and editing Wikipedia. For questions that are more of a reference material sort, please see the reference desk. Also, thanks for explaining what "stripper column" means. I had an entirely different mental image. Dismas|^(talk) 17:24, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

You could start by reading these articles: Amine gas treating and Ethanolamine. (You might as well read Chemical engineering to see what Wikipedia says about your (likely) major. Perhaps you can help improve that article.) The Amine gas treating article uses "regenerator" as a synonym for "stripper column." I don't see a Wikipedia article that tells exactly how to design one, although I did not make much of an attempt to find such an article (that's your job). You might have to consult some chemical engineering textbooks (which you almost certainly have in your university library). Or look it up in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (which, amazingly, does not seem to have an article on Wikipedia yet, considering it is a standard reference for the chemical process industry). If you have some more details about the upstream process which is (presumably) generating flue gas which is undergoing Amine gas treating, and thus creating the need for the regenerator/stripper, you would have more keywords to use for Google Search and possibly find some details on how to design the various unit operations in that process. --Teratornis 22:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Demographics

I want to write a section for demographics on an area of London. The census is collected by electoral wards. The wards don't coincide with the area. The area is all of one ward + 25% of a second. How do I handle this? Can I make calculations as long as I make it clear how the figs are derived?

Yes, I do believe that is allowed. It does not appear to be a violation of WP:OR. If I'm wrong someone please correct me.
--Tλε Rαnδоm Eδιτоr 19:35, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Why is my page being deleted  ? ? ?

Can you please tell me why my page is being deleted ? I just contributed it and now you say you are deleting it. Why ?

AL (E-Mail removed for security purposes)

You'd get a better answer from User:NawlinWiki, since he's the one that deleted it and I can't see what was there... but judging by the title of the page that he deleted, it was probably a nonsense page that added no value to the encyclopedia. This isn't a website that you can just create any page you want about any topic you want, it's a collaborative experience to build an encyclopedia that's of use to anybody. --Maelwys 18:34, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Correction, just read the delete log to find out, and it turns out that it wasn't a nonsense page, just a poorly named one. But the topic was still apparently unsuitable for wiki. I suggest your read Wikipedia is not a Soapbox, as recommended by the deleting administrator, since that's the basis on which he deleted it. --Maelwys 18:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted?. --Teratornis 22:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Image problem

I can't get any images to display from upload.wikimedia.org;I have tried regular techniques. Firefox 2.0.0.3 & Win XP. GDonato (talk) 18:50, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

!voting

What does the term "!vote" mean? Geuiwogbil 19:18, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

A !vote is not a vote. It's generally used to clarify that even though people are putting forward their opinions in the form of a vote, it's not actually a vote because polling is not a replacement for discussion. So even if the !vote count seems to indicate that one side is "winning", if the other side has the better arguments, it could still "win" at the end. --Maelwys 19:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

What a counterintuitive and pointless way of going about things. Thanks for the quick response! Geuiwogbil 19:25, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

See !#Computers for the reason for this notation. PrimeHunter 19:59, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Counterintuitive? Absolutely. (Welcome to the upside down world of wikis, where much of the knowledge you relied on to reach this point now needs updating.) Pointless? I would hesitate to say that. An argument could be made that there is a point - you're looking at it. That is, Wikipedia itself is the result of all these staggeringly complex policies, guidelines, and procedures. A bunch of volunteers from all over the world, working for free, have somehow put together one of the world's most popular Web sites, and somehow it doesn't all degenerate into a mass of nonsense as one might reasonably expect. This is not to say that every social custom which has evolved on Wikipedia is the optimally productive behavior, but Wikipedia must be getting it right more often than wrong. --Teratornis 00:11, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

How do I get a user's name to include links to their block logs, talk page, contributions?

How do I get a username to print out with links to their talk page, contributions, etc., as I seen done in many places? For example, listing a user's sock puppets? KP Botany 19:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Try the {{user}} template. For example, {{user|KP Botany}} produces KP Botany (talk · contribs). See here for many other styles.--Werdan7^{T @} 19:41, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

{{usercheck}} might be the one you are looking for. Carom 19:43, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, both are very useful pages to know about, and completely unfindable. KP Botany 20:58, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Carom left links to them as well as links for more info. Simply click on the blue to find them. To use them just type them in the edit window as you see them: {{user}}. If you would like to do this in your signature you cannot use these templates. Templates are not allowed in signatures becuase they create server strain. You can however include direct links in your signature as long as you check raw signature. Scottydude _talk 22:43, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I think KP's point was that he could not find the pages before asking here, not that he couldn't follow the links provided by Werdan7 and myself... Carom 22:45, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

If you know where there is an example of something and wonder how it was done, then just click edit to see the source (may be problematic in case of Wikipedia:Template substitution). PrimeHunter 22:47, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the point was they were unfindable before, not that the links posted for me were not found. I found and added both to my watch list so I can use them in the future.

PrimeHunter, the user who did it on the page before me did something that was substituted. I kept looking for pages that looked like it, but they were all substituted with reams of code. KP Botany 00:11, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Many (but not all) templates will contain a commented out message near the end stating the name of the template that looks something like this: LoTs AnD LoTs Of TeXt AnD cOdE<!--Template:Name-->Fuhghettaboutit 00:20, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Nothing of the sort. But I'll look for that in the future. KP Botany 01:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Article title style

I'm writing an article about the GVB which expands to Golfvaardigheidsbewijs and is often translated as Golf license. It's basically a license one must have in order to play certain courses, join golfing associations, etc. What should I use for the title of the article? The Dutch name or the English traslation? Dismas|^(talk) 19:42, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

• It's your choice, and if you change your mind later the title can be changed by clicking the "move" button at the top of the page. My advice is to use the English title, with the Dutch title as an incoming redirect. Generally, titles of foreign items are used in their English forms unless there is good reason to do otherwise. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions for more discussion. YechielMan 20:00, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Thank you. Dismas|^(talk) 20:07, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

creating an invisible article

Is it possible to temporarily hide an article from public use if it is not completely finished? I'd like to start writing an article but would only like it available for viewing once it is complete.

Im sorry that is not possible, but what you can do is write a draft copy in a subpage of the articles talk page like this: Talk:Example/Draft replacing "example" with the name of the article. And when you have done copy & paste the text onto the article page or move it! regards Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 20:41, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

You can hide sections of an article using <!-- and -->, that will hide the section unless you press the edit button, if you are an admin then you might be able to delete selected revisions then when you edit and then restore them later but you might as well use your user sub-page and then move it over.--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 20:54, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

If you don't want it to be possible for anybody to view it in any way then you can store it in a text file elsewhere and only use preview while you work on it. But storing it in a user subpage is more practical. PrimeHunter 21:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

• Your best bet is probably the user subpage, as PrimeHunter describes. That it easy to set up. As an example, if I wanted a user subpage it would be User:Gaff/articledraft. Repleace my username with yours and articledraft with whatever you want...good luck. —Gaff ^ταλκ 21:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

• See also Wikipedia:Subpages. PrimeHunter 22:20, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

About the other Wiki Sites

Greetings, I have just created an ccount, and I have a question that's been bugging me for a long time. Say I want to add things in another wiki area, like Megaten Wiki (http://www.popanime.net/megami/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page), Castlevania Wiki (http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page), or any other thing like that, can I access them using my own account, or do I need to create a separate account for them? Thank you in advance.

Neo Guyver

• You need to create separate accounts for them. Cheers! —Gaff ^ταλκ 20:47, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

wonder

Is the english wikipedia only meant to be for English people? Francisco Tevez 21:31, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

No we have other wikipedias as-well like the french version, Italian etc. just visit http://www.wikipedia.org/ to see the languages we have. Best regards Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 21:40, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Or here for that matter Dep. Garcia ( Talk + | Help Desk | Complaints ) 21:42, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

'English' only refers to the language it's written in. It's for anybody interested in the world. I'm Danish but rarely edit or read the Danish Wikipedia. There is far more in the English about most things I'm interested in. PrimeHunter 22:12, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

How to add link

How to add new link to wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kvnramakrishna (talk • contribs)

Ensure that it doesn't violate WP:EL and add it to the page like this:

*[http://www.example.com link caption]

--ST47Talk 22:15, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Or if you mean an internal link that points to another article already on Wikipedia, the words go between two brackets, such as [[Wikipedia]], which would produce Wikipedia. Dismas|^(talk) 22:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Infobox alignment

How do I move an infobox to the right-side of the page, and have a border go around it? (so that text may go next to the box)

Here's the infobox I wish to move. http://ummbalumni.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_University_of_Massachusetts_Minuteman_Marching_Band

<email removed for security>

Your link doesn't seem to be working. Please sign your posts by typing four tildes after your message and do not leave your email for security reasons. Thanks, Scottydude _talk 22:38, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

(The link worked when I tried it, but the response was a bit slow.) This Help desk is for questions about editing on Wikipedia, but we often try to answer questions about editing on other MediaWiki wikis because we are incredibly nice. Since the Bando Wiki you linked to requires users to log in to edit, we cannot easily see the wikitext of your infobox unless we register our own accounts on that wiki (something most of us would probably be too lazy to do just to answer your question). However, having ported a few infoboxes from Wikipedia and adapted them to other wikis, I can outline the process for you. Bando Wiki has few articles yet, and the Template: namespace is empty. That suggests you or whoever else worked on the article did not copy all the pieces you need from Wikipedia to get infoboxes to work correctly. For starters, I would suggest implementing your infoboxes the same way Wikipedia does, as templates. If your infobox uses a CSS style class, then you need to copy the class definition from MediaWiki:Common.css to the page with the same name on Bando Wiki (and only a sysop user can edit pages in the MediaWiki: namespace, so that's the permission you will need on Bando Wiki to add styles to the Common.css page there). It's kind of hard to explain this without actually doing it, so if you can't understand my vague description, your best bet would be to find someone who does understand it who can work with the administrators of Bando Wiki. If you can't get sysop user privileges on Bando Wiki, you can hard-code all the border and spacing style information directly into the table in your infobox, but that's a bit untidy. --Teratornis 22:52, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

officer lies

What if an officer out right lies regarding the issues in hand and admits that he lied while under oath is this reason to dismiss — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.18.153.170 (talk • contribs)

It can be a reason, but a dismissal of charges is not necessary. For example, officer lies about wearing his shorts instead of his slacks while apprehending a murderer. So, should there be a dismissal? It is up to the judge. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:19, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi. You're more likely to get an answer if you post your questions in the Reference Desk area, specifically Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. Also, you'd probably need to specify the legal jurisdiction, such as which US state, or which country is concerned.--A bit iffy 23:19, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

June 1

Pictures Will Not Show Up

On this computer, none of the images for any of the articles will show up. How do I fix this? Thanks.

Please provide more information like which article has this problem, your computer specifications, etc. Without this info, we can't help you. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 00:09, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

PHYSICS / SCIENCE

DISTINGUSH AN ELECTRIC ARCH LAMP AND ELECTRIC WELDING.219.65.123.163 23:45, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Please ask questions not related to the editing of Wikipedia at the Reference Desk. You can also find out the difference by searching for theses two objects on Wikipedia. Thanks. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 00:08, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Radio Station Logo Use Permission Granted For Full-Size

What if the owner of a radio station grants the Wikipedia article-writter complete permission for the use of a full-sized .jpg for the station's logo on Wikipedia? For example, a top official of Vermont Broadcast Associates granted me full permission to use a full-size .jpg of the WMTK FM logo, due to the fact that my image is a scan and not the original, electronically-generated image. As you may know, there is no way that permission can be proved. I could just be saying that permission was granted but there is no way to totally prove that I have permission to use that logo. In this case, what should I do? Also, is use of radio station logos okay under "fair-use"? I notice that I see several logos posted on Wikipedia articles. Some Wikipedians claim that one should avoid the use of all images unless definite permission has been granted to use them. Other Wikipedians, however, claim that radio station logos are a very common form of "fair use". On that front, which direction should I sway toward? Thank you for your time in reading about this issue of mine.

They can email permissions-en AT wikimedia DOT org or you can forward email correspondence. Then OTRS will take care of the stuff. See WP:COPYREQ for more information. x42bn6 Talk Mess 00:57, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission for details on how to proceed from here. You will need to forward the email from the station to a Wikimedia email address listed on that page. Using a logo for identification purposes only is allowable under fair use guidelines. See WP:LOGO for more information there. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:58, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Categorizing photos

I'm a little puzzled over categorizing photos. I made the article Frank Swannell and there are many Canadian Public Domain photos (5000 or so, readily available at BC Archives) taken by him, some of which have already been uploaded to wikipedia like this one. Image:Chilco at Giscome Portage.gif It would be nice to put them in a category as we upload them for articles and to sort out the ones already uploaded. So do I make a category for Frank Swannell photos on wikipedia or wikimedia? Or both?CindyBo 00:06, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

For such media as are free, it is preferred that one upload directly to Wikimedia Commons in order that those media might be used across all Wikimedia Foundation projects; instructions for uploading may be found here (you must have an account at Commons to upload media there). For those collections that will comprise many related media, categories are very useful navigational aids, and once you have uploaded media to Commons, you may create a category of Swannell images, some of which may be additionally categorized relative to their subjects. Cheers, Joe 00:21, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I should add that one need not upload to Wikipedia an image that he/she has uploaded to Commons; any media at Commons are accessible to all projects. Similarly, an image uploaded here that has been copied to Commons is (usually) subsequently deleted here. This occasionally presents problems for users who, unaware of the existence of Commons or unfamiliar with categorization there, don't find media that they might find were they present on a local project, and so your puzzlement is altogether understandable. Joe 00:28, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

help me

Ok,I just got signed on and I don't known how to do the my talk,my preferences,my watchlist,etc..... please help me

Could you please clarify your question? From what I could conclude, you don't understand that at the top of the page are links for each of the sections of your account. Your User Page, which you can create to describe yourself, your talk, where people may ask you questions or reply to yours, your watchlist you can add to when you view a page to now when someone changes it, and your contributions lists what you have edited on wikipedia. If you be a little more specific I'd love to help more. (Also, you may wish to sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~) to have your signature automatically attached so we know who you are.) Redian (Talk) 02:21, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

User Page

How do I make a user page? Franco 01:44, 1 June 2007 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Franky210 (talk • contribs)

Click on your user name above, type in the box and click Save page. See also Wikipedia:User page. PrimeHunter 01:49, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Connecting to wikipedia DB

is there a way i can connect to wikipedia's Data Base, to easily get articles (i'm building a program that creates crossword-puzzles, and would like to get the definitions from wikipedia).

thanks.

please answer to <email removed for security>

sorry if this is not the purpose of the Helpd Desk then sorry to bother you :)

If you're looking for definitions, you should try Wikitionary. We do not offer RSS or other feeds on general articles, if that is what you need. I believe you will have to retrieve the information manually, although you may be able to construct a bot to assist you. I have removed your email address to protect you from spam - with the high amount of traffic Wikipedia receives, it's best to avoid leaving personal contact information. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 03:21, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

WP:DUMP has some instructions on how to download the Wikipedia database. -- Diletante 03:35, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Making an Index

How do I make an index? I used

|'''[[Special:Allpages/0|0]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/1|1]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/2|2]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/3|3]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/4|4]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/5|5]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/6|6]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/7|7]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/8|8]]'''
|
|'''[[Special:Allpages/9|9]]'''

But this is really hard to understand for a quick index for the users I think, is there a way to do this alphbetically ? Allow me to clarify-I have a Wiki and I am trying to set up the Quick Index, I am a Sysop, not the Sysop, but one of them, the boss is out sick, can someone please help me? Melusine_Talis,01:30,26 October, 2024

I indented the first line of your wikitext example so it would format the way you probably intended. It looks like you are trying to making links to Special:Allpages on your wiki so the special page lists page titles beginning with successively higher numbers. However, the resulting links won't be very interesting unless your wiki actually has lots of pages with titles that begin with numbers (it might, but that's a bit uncommon). You can, of course, make an alphabetic "index" (of sorts) the same way:

| '''[[Special:Allpages/A|A]]'''
|
| '''[[Special:Allpages/B|B]]'''
|
| '''[[Special:Allpages/C|C]]'''
|
...
| '''[[Special:Allpages/Y|Y]]'''
|
| '''[[Special:Allpages/Z|Z]]'''

If your users don't understand what that means, just type some explanatory text before or after your line of number links or letter links. Of course if you want to make a real index, you will have to do some serious editing. Check out this beautiful handcrafted example:

• User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia

--Teratornis 04:00, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, thats a wonderful link and very helpfull, we have a lot of pages and a lot of dates, but no, the numbers are not very helpfull..

Cheers!

Mel

Warnings about editing, "vandalism", what did i do?

i keep getting warnings about being banned from editing because it says i posted vandalism. also my edit wont show up. i am trying to edit a page regarding WWE and a pay-per-view. its called WWE One Night Stand. im trying to add a match to the card. it was a lumberjack match featuring kane and mark henry. it wouldnt show up, and got warnings about being banned. here are some links: the first is the pay-per-view site. the second is my edit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_One_Night_Stand#2007

• Lumberjack match: Mark Henry vs. Kane

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Patriotfan09 (talk • contribs).

Please start a new section when asking a new question. Thanks.

If you're editing from an IP address (without a registered account) it is possible that you may be receiving warnings directed at others. You may want to consider creating an account. You might also want to check Help:Editing and WP:VAND for details on how to edit and why your edits may be getting removed. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 03:26, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi Patriotfan09. It looks like TJ Spyke (talk · contribs) is taking issue with you "including announcements that have not yet aired on US TV or on the companies official website. This applies to match announcements, match results, and anything else not yet revealed by the company." Try responding on your talk page, or on TJ Spyke's. -SpuriousQ (talk) 03:32, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Radio Station Logo Use Permission Granted For Full-Size

24.218.183.113 04:18, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I forwarded the official e-mail message granting permission for useage of the full-sized bumper sticker scan for WMTK FM in a Wikipedia article. I forwarded the two messages to permissions-en@wikimedia.org so you should get them soon. I have been pretty successful through this method: the method of using scanned reproductions of the graphics (as opposed to the original, electronically-generated graphics). This is usually allowed, due to the reduction in quality that results from every accumulative scanning process. Moir shows up and that must be what constitutes the "Fair-Use", as so well illustrated in the ToeJam & Earl article. Please let me know how this goes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.183.113 (talk • contribs) 03:52, June 1, 2007 (UTC)

All images must be under a general license, not just one for Wikipedia use. -Wooty Woot? contribs 08:55, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Using WP:TWINKLE

I put that into my monobook page, however, as it does work in a sense, it now has errors on the page, well, the bottom left of my browser. As I click on the "restore this version" or whatever it is they have up, but nothing actually happens. What do I actually have to do to get it to work properly? Cause I did copy and past the first item into my monobook, for all the features. Captain Drake Van Hellsing 04:41, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

What internet browser are you using? It only works on Firefox or Opera. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 04:42, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Oh, it's Microsoft Internet Explorer. Captain Drake Van Hellsing 04:44, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Thats the reason. TWINKLE is only supported on Firefox or Opera. You can download them for free if you want to. I prefer Firefox over IE. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 04:56, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Ah, no wonder...though, is there any script sort of thing for IE at all? Or not? Just so I know. Captain Drake Van Hellsing 05:14, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Changing the name of an article

How do I change the name of an article (really: a stub) if the name includes a factual inaccuracy?

Please see WP:MOVE, you also need a four-day-old account. PeaceNT 05:13, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!

Clarify request in Phenomenology article

I tried to add clarification and was confused whether I should save directely onto the page, or use the Sandbox. I used the Sandbox for safety's sake,but the Sandbox just came up with a blank page on which I submitted my addition. I am also ussure of copyright as I myself have recently found the answer to this question from the URL mentioned.

Husserl charged Heidegger with raising the question of ontology but failing to answer it, instead switching the topic to the Dasein, the only being for whom Being is an issue. That is neither ontology nor phenomenology, according to Husserl, but merely abstract anthropology. To clarify, perhaps, by abstract anthropology, as a non-existentialist searching for essences, Husserl rejected the existentialism implicit in Heidegger's distinction between being (sein) as things in reality from Being (Da-sein) as the encounter with being, as when being becomes present to us, i.e. is unconcealed.

Summary I have attempted to respond to the request for clarification of Heidegger's distinction betweenbeing and Being. My info source was http://www.uni.edu/boedeker/NNhHeidegger2.doc

Please email me at [removed] with answers. Thanks, Carol

Everyone can save directly to the page. The license is either GFDL or none at all as you should never copy and paste another's work here unless it is public domain, better to write your own text conveying the same meaning and add a citation. Replied via email.—WAvegetarian (talk) 07:38, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Update of Table of Contents (TOC)

I have searched the main wiki help and editing wiki help and newbie help but cannot find the answer to my question.
I have made some typo changes to section headers (buisness to business)that I found using a google search. I made the changes and saved them but when I repeat the search it still finds the typo in the automatically generated TOC. Do TOC's get updated in a batch process of some kind or do I need to force the update? If I need to force the update could someone give me some help please. An example I edited this AM is Jon_Lord_(politician).Thanks Neggiem01 07:17, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
Having left it a couple of hours and checking again the wiki page has updated, its now the Google search so I'll go and do some more help searching. Neggiem01 08:11, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Peer reveiwed medical references

1. Does a pubmed reference number indicate the article is from a peer reveiwed journal?
2. If not where do I find a list of such journals acceptable for references in Wp medical pages?
3. Is there any restriction in using pubmed reference numbers in the text of a medical page?
4. Is there any restriction in using e-Medicine site addresses in the text of a medical page?
5. Is there any restriction in refering to another website in the text of a medical page?
6. How does one make a reference in the text to a specific website added to the 'other links' section, which may contain any number of links?

I wish to save a lot of time making references that are later reverted at the whim of 'experts' lets be transparent from the beginning?

you may place the answers on mytalk page, with thanks Jagra 07:28, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

All PubMed articles are from peer reviewed journals. When citing things, you should cite the actual article rather than the way you accessed it. PubMed is merely a collection of journal articles so its internal reference numbers shouldn't be used. With eMedicine, there are usually lists of primary sources used as references at the bottom. It is ideal to use primary sources. Since eMedicine doesn't use inline citations, it can be harder to find the relevant one, but that is what should ideally be used. Our guidelines for using links/references to non-Wikipedia websites is located here. For your last question, you seem to be asking how to do a <ref> tag-like thing with the other links section. This can't really be done. If it isn't a reference and it meets the guidelines linked to above, you could simply mention it in the sentence using code like [http://site.example/Page%20name.php this]. The page linked to on your talk page, WP:CITE, explains referencing on Wikipedia in more detail.—WAvegetarian (talk) 08:39, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

file upload

how to upload a photograph for an artist

You didn't ask a question, but I assume that you want help uploading a file. If you look on the left hand side of your screen in the toolbox section you will see an upload file link. Click on it.—WAvegetarian (talk) 08:39, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Main Page on Userpage

How can you put a Main Pge on a Userpage?c'mon, we've fished a good one.Kfc1864Cuba Libre! 07:59, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

You can put {{subst:Main Page}} on your user page but that'll only do it for today's main page, you'll need to change currentmonths and things to get it all to work out, I'll Try it here--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 08:14, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

You can also use this: {{:Main Page}} (in this rather special case, the colon indicates that you're transcluding a page from the article namespace, rather than the template namespace.) – Luna Santin (talk) 08:19, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I think I'm done, the link is here, just copy and paste the source--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 08:26, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

rename pages?

How do I rename pages?

You use the move tab at the top of your screen. It will become visible to you after you've had a registered account for a period of time. I believe it is about 4 days.—WAvegetarian (talk) 08:15, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Search Engine

Hello

I would be interested in finding out when Wikipedia's seach facility will be launched; it will be great to see some competition with Google.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a search engine. As far as I know, there is no plan for Wikipedia to try to compete with Google to find information on other sites for people. We are trying to collect information here in a properly referenced form such that for many topics a web search would become unnecessary. Also, Wikipedia appears on the first page of results for most Google searches as it is. There's no reason to try to compete.—WAvegetarian (talk) 09:23, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

There was something on Wikia, here is a link.--User:Rock2e ^{Talk - Contribs} 09:33, 1 June 2007 (UTC)