Help desk
< April 17	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 19 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

April 18

Cayuga Speedway

The information provided on Cayuga International Speedway Park is incorrect. I have attempted to edit and correct it, however, the old information still appears. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.15.162.228 (talk • contribs).

User:Caster23 reverted the information addition ([1]). I think it was because your revision replaced the entire article with something that looked like an advertisement, which is not allowed on Wikipedia. x42bn6 Talk 02:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading an image

I believe I have uploaded an image but it does not appear in the page that I have written. How do I check that the image has been successfully uploaded and whether or not it has been deleted? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by HeadRangdo (talk • contribs).

There are two images you have uploaded: Image:Wiki.vislogo.gif and Image:Vislogo.gif, both available at the moment. To include an image in an article, follow the instructions at WP:IMAGE. x42bn6 Talk 02:53, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rollback script

I have been trying to install this rollback script but I have been unsuccessful what page? monobook? thanks. Ashkani 03:12, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

// User:Olliminatore/sign.js

document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="'
            + '/w/index.php?title=User:Olliminatore/sign.js'
            + '&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>');

Try adding this:

// [[User:Olliminatore/godmode-light.js]]
importScript('User:Olliminatore/godmode-light.js');

To your monobook.js. Mike Dillon 03:30, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You rock man! :-D Ashkani 03:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

article writing

how can i publish my article in wikepedia website —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MUHAMMAD USMAN (talk • contribs) 04:25, 18 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

That information is located at Wikipedia:Your first article and Help:Starting a new page. WODUP 05:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Product user opinions

I have noticed that Wikipeida now includes many product descriptions (cars, cell phones, etc.) Is there some place that users can add opinions that might assist others who are considering buying those products? YossiD 05:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and is neither a publisher of original thought nor a soapbox. I do believe that there are a number of other places online that can be used as consumer research forums, though. Cheers! WODUP 06:06, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:RS. If you can cite reliable published sources that happen to agree (or disagree, for that matter) with your opinions about products (for example, published results of consumer surveys, competent product reviews, product recalls, reliable reports of exploding batteries, etc.), then you can add those citations to articles about products. On Wikipedia, it's not a question of what we believe, or even of what we know, but rather of what has been published that we can cite. Perhaps the biggest adjustment for the aspiring Wikipedia editor is learning how not to write the way most writers write — whatever is on their minds — but rather, learning how to look things up first and then limit our writing to rephrasing and summarizing what others have already written elsewhere. --Teratornis 06:27, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A search of WikiIndex for "consumer" finds several wikis which evidently seek original consumer reports, for example WikiLens, Hooze, and Consumerium. --Teratornis 15:30, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Interlanguage links

Querist 07:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Hi, guys, can anybody help me? How should I link the Wiki articles on the same topic but in different language versions of Wikipedia? It seems it's not done automatically.[reply]

It's not done because of the difficulty in teaching a computer how to translate all those languages. It may be possible with biographical articles because of the similarity of the name and the bot would be able to compare birth date and death dates but various other articles would be difficult. See Wikipedia:Interlanguage link for more. Dismas|^(talk) 08:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

satellite Images

how to view a satellite image of my house 59.88.6.212 09:51, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Google Earth or any other similar service. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:55, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Email confirmation fails

Hi

I keep getting the following when I attempt email confirmation:

Confirm e-mail address From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Invalid confirmation code. The code may have expired.

Not sure what the problem is ??

Neil

Neil Parker 10:06, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How old is the email with the link? Does your email client show the entire link underlined? If not, select it and copy it to the URL bar of your browser and see if that works. I'm not sure because I never had to do it, but if that doesn't work, logging in should allow you to request a new confirmation email through your preferences. -- Mgm|^(talk) 10:57, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Informational external links

I am webmaster of an excellent informational/educational website on the Bichon Frise dog breed. I recently added the link to the Bichon Frise Wikipedia page under 'information'. I touched no other entries whatsoever! My link has disappeared twice and I read a comment about 'blatant spam' which I would never indulge in. The web site is entitled Bichons Across Canada and is at http://canbichon.com If it's not suitable, please let me know why. I see a link to a Doggie-woggie which is not breed specific and another link to a video of bichon puppies being born, which is actually a breeder advertising puppies available. I can be reached by email at info@bichons.net Can you help me? Thanks, Enigma 11:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The best thing you can do is discuss the addition of your site on the article's discussion page so people can share their thoughts. At first glance it seemed like a good site to link to to me, but I'm not a dog expert so I could be horribly wrong. I'll look into the other link you mentioned. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Someone could consider a video of puppies being born useful even though it's on a breeder's site. I did however remove a link to a site that mirrored Wikipedia material. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:33, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It is worth emphasising that Wikipedia expects people never to add links to their own site. So I recommend following the advice to propose your link for discussion. Notinasnaid 12:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It seems quite legitimate to me, too (apart from the link being your own). Which makes a nice change, with all the spam links with which Wikipedia gets inundated. However, it's not just what you do but how you do it; by which I mean that the editor who removed your link might have looked at: the new account with no user page content, a user name that closely matches the subject of the link, plus the lack of other edits and, as the saying goes, put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5. Not entirely AGF admittedly, but it does have many of the traits of spam. Don't be put off, though; do as MGM suggests and it should be accepted. Adrian M. H. 16:29, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki v CMS

I would like to start a wiki at work to gather knowledge.

We already have a content managment system using OpenText Livelink that contains many years of completed (and sometimes out of data) documents. As a result I have been asked to define why a wiki is different from a CMS! "We don't want another tool."

Can anyone suggest some simple comparisons or means of differenciation between Wiki & CMS? The fact that Sharepoint has added a wiki must indicate some difference in function!

Is there some sort of classification spectrum: Blog (1:n users, chronological), Forum (n:n users, chronological), Wiki (n:n users, instantaneously up-to-date) and CMS (n:n users, any date - but you don't know if valid)? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.6.25.118 (talk) 11:27, 18 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I installed two corporate wikis powered by MediaWiki last year, for two different companies (one with about 50 employees, and the other with about 10). So far, both wikis seem to be generally well-received, but there is more activity by the larger company. At the larger company, with more employees there is more need to have all employees make their own user pages; we worked up a boilerplate they can copy, with instructions for wiki beginners so they can quickly customize their user page with their personal contact and work schedule information, etc. The smaller company is less active on its wiki so far, probably because with fewer employees it is harder to find several people to form the critical mass of active editors, who build content and draw others to participate. However, I think it's just a matter of time for them to get more active as well. Perhaps the biggest barrier to getting a corporate wiki started is that very few people have wiki editing experience yet, so the majority of employees at a typical corporation will be confronting a technology almost completely new to them. It would be wonderful if everyone who works at a company already had done at least a thousand edits on Wikipedia, then not only would they immediately know what to do with their corporate wiki, but they would expect the company to provide one. (Because it would be obvious to them that if you are going to function coherently as an organization, you need your own wiki.)

I recommend that before you install anything, you spend some time learning as much as you can. Even though wikis provide one of the simplest ways for users to create Web pages, wiki technology from the administrator's standpoint is extremely complex, and for a wiki to be any good it needs at least one very active user who understands the wiki software in depth. You should spend a few months editing on several wikis that run the wiki software you decide to install. For example, if you decide to install MediaWiki, you should first spend time editing on the most highly-developed example of a MediaWiki wiki — Wikipedia, as well as on some less-developed MediaWiki wikis, so you can see the vast array of features an active user community builds up over time, and learn about the policies and conventions that have evolved here to make things work. It's very easy for a neglected wiki to just plain suck, so before you install anything, be sure that you yourself can build enough starting content of decent quality to make your wiki credible (or you have at least one fellow employee with the skills and commitment to do so).

You can start by reading the Wikipedia articles about each technology or product you mention: blog, wiki, bliki, corporate wiki, content management system, Microsoft SharePoint, and Open Text Corporation (only a one-sentence mention of Livelink, unfortunately, with no link to a Wikipedia article about the product yet). Right now you are using Wikipedia which runs on MediaWiki, so read their articles carefully as well. Since your interest is starting a corporate wiki, also see TWiki, structured wiki, and wiki application. See List of wiki software and Comparison of wiki software for more wiki software options. And read the articles and external references those articles link to. This is a lot of material to absorb, but trust me, your corporate wiki is unlikely to be viable unless someone at the company (such as you) has a good grasp of this material.

You can install most wiki software packages on your own personal computer, and run them as personal wikis, for example see m:Wiki on a stick. I strongly recommend that you do this before you install a "real" wiki on your company's server(s). You can, for example, install MediaWiki under XAMPP on your laptop computer and use it to demonstrate your wiki to company decision-makers. You can also compare various wiki software packages by actually using them. Later, you can use the "wiki on a stick" model to maintain backup copies of your wiki, or to give mobile users a snapshot of your wiki when they do not have Internet access.

Also get to know Meta, because lots of corporate wiki administrators hang out there.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask on my talk page. --Teratornis 16:28, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading an image

Successfully done. Thank you for your help. Head Rangdo 12:43, 18 April 2007 (UTC)HeadRangdo[reply]

(For those confused: See #Uploading an image.) No problem. Happy editing. x42bn6 Talk 13:35, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

cmms edit

I have added in my client's name to the list of vendors offering cmms and even though my computer shows that they have been added, other computers do not. I added in the vendor's name and then saved the page. Am I being blocked for some reason? Dillawn 13:28, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It has been added, you might have to purge the page on computers that don't show it. However, please read WP:COI on why it is not a good idea to edit articles you have an affiliation in. x42bn6 Talk 13:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much for assisting me. I have never edited an entry; when looking at the history, my entry still looks different. There are no arrow in grey CMMS list compared to other entries. Do you see my entry? Again thank you so much!

The entry is on the page. The grey arrow doesn't appear because you used 'edit' on the top of the page rather than 'edit' by a section; this has nothing to do with the quality of the edit, just provides other editors with a visual cue as to which section was edited in cases where an individual section was edited. So no, you haven't done anything wrong, apart from the possible conflict of interest. --ais523 17:51, 18 April 2007 (U T C)

Great. Thanks again so much!

See Help:Edit summary. Adrian M. H. 20:57, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Links

I've seen a page that tells you what links to any page you want, but what is the URL if I want to find what links to my user page? --98E 13:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try Special:Whatlinkshere/User:98E--VectorPotential^Talk 13:57, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The entire URL for that would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Whatlinkshere/User:98E. --ais523 14:08, 18 April 2007 (U T C)

Okay, thanks! --98E (talk · contribs · page moves · block user · block log) 14:26, 18 April 2007

To see what links to the page you are currently viewing, just click 'What links here' in the toolbox to the left. PrimeHunter 22:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

confirmation mail was delivered to me after expiration

Someone from the IP address 222.109.122.92 has registered the 
account "Politicus81" with this  e-mail address on the English Wikipedia.

To confirm that this user account really does belong to you
and to activate e-mail features on Wikipedia, please open this URL in your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Confirmemail/2cfa72a40c8cceebfe698086b34c917b

If you did not recently register for Wikipedia (or if you registered with 
a different e-mail address), please do *not* click on the link.

This confirmation e-mail will automatically expire at 12:16, 14 April 2007 (UTC).

This mail was arrived to my mailbox at 4:53, 17 April 2007(+9 GMT). It was after expiration day. Could you send it again?

Politicus81 14:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)Politicus81[reply]

Seeing as you seem to be able to edit, it would be a fair guess that you don't need the confirmation link, since your account is already active--VectorPotential^Talk 14:22, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you want e-mail features to be active in your account, you will need to reconfirm. --Teratornis 17:00, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler entry: I would like to have this box removed: "To meet Wikipedia's quality standards and conform with our NPOV policy, this article or section may require cleanup. The current version of this article or section is written in an informal style and with a personally invested tone. It reads more like a story than an encyclopedia entry. Please see specific examples noted on the talk page. Editing help is available." I have been editing the entry and believe that it is sufficiently cleaned-up. How can this box be removed? Thanks --Cshelley 14:33, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

According to the page history, the tag was added by 128.101.34.90 (talk • contribs) on 15:38, 15 November 2006, so it's probably safe to remove the tag by now, as there doesn't seem to be any recent discussion relating to it--VectorPotential^Talk 15:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For the "how", look for the template entry at the top of the article (in curly brackets) and remove it. Adrian M. H. 16:32, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tin Plating

We do electroless tin plating of metal products which we manufacture. We would like to do tin plating for others but need advice on how to reach others who would need our services to provide electroless tin plating. Could you give advise please? Thank You!!! Daddydun 14:48, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're probably looking for the Wikipedia:Reference Desk, as the help desk is for questions relating to wikipedia, whereas the reference desk is for general knowledge questions--VectorPotential^Talk 15:00, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Reversion Trouble

I am having trouble reverting pages properly. Even if I am comparing the current version to a version several versions back, it always reverts to the last version. For instance, if the page has 5 versions, and I am comparing version 5 to version 2, it reverts to version 4 when I try to revert it. It even reverts to version 4 when I am comparing version 3 to version 2. This did not used to happen. Is ther any way to fix this? Is it a problem with the website? --Savant13 16:52, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What method are you using to do the reverts? See Help:Revert for some methods you could use; both 'undo' and reversion via the history should work, as should clicking on 'edit' on a version in a diff. --ais523 16:55, 18 April 2007 (U T C)

If you compare the current version to an old version, then 'undo' only reverts the latest edit before the current version. If you want to revert to the old version you are comparing to, then click 'edit' at the old date and save. PrimeHunter 22:16, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

is there?

Is there a contest to find the best signature on wikipedia? i haven't seen one, but i would like to participate if there was one. User: Gandalf's hat

Such things are generally discouraged, per WP:NOT#MYSPACE. Note that your signature in your original version of this comment (before you edited it) violated the signature guidelines in more than one way. --ais523 17:19, 18 April 2007 (U T C)

It was also over 583 Bytes which is huge for a signature, and generally discouraged as well, as it puts unnecessary strain on the servers --VectorPotential^Talk 17:21, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gandalf's-hat^talk- check it out, when you press edit it is less than one line, and i can sign this way if i want--- about the size limit, there is no rule about me not having it as a sub-page...

so, do you understand that i can sign it like this? --{{User:Gandalf's hat/Signature}}~~~~~

in order to get this Gandalf's-hat^talk18:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC)?[reply]

That's even worse, now every time someone loads this page, your transclusion puts a 585 Byte call on the servers, not to mention it bleeds over other text on the screen, you're going to have to reduce the font size, and at the very least, you're going to have to subst that template, by using {{subst:User:Gandalf's hat/Signature}} to avoid server strain. Not to mention you have an unclosed <small> tag, so everything after your signature looks really small--VectorPotential^Talk 20:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The reason templates (any transcluded page, not just template namespace) are not recommended in signatures is for 2 reasons. First, as mentioned before, there is a call on the servers for non-subst'd signatures every time the page is loaded. Second, there is a small concern with vandals. If a vandal were to edit your signature page, it could cause quite a bit of disruption, especially with directly transcluded sigs. If someone were to pipe your signature to something other than your user/talk page and marked the edit as minor, you may not notice for a while (if you ignore minor edits on your watchlist). Also, large font sigs, like yours, are discouraged as they can cause formating problems on some browsers. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 21:21, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Humans and their interests are highly diverse, but let's be reasonable here. Less than 1% of articles on Wikipedia have attained featured or good status. More than one million articles here need work. Let's solve all the real problems first, and then we can play around with silliness like decorating our signatures. (Granted, the fact that Wikipedia does not pay its editors makes these goofy little features important, as they may act as incentives for some people. I think Napoleon said something similar about giving away crateloads of medals and decorations to motivate men to die for him.) --Teratornis 06:36, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

newbie

I just put an item onto wikipedia; where did it go and can I add keywords or maybe change where it is? you could probably find it in your contributions

Try Special:Watchlist--VectorPotential^Talk 20:20, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And please make your signature smaller, it disrupts the page. Scottydude _talk 00:48, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

need a screen font for wikipedia

Hello, I use Win 98 and Office 2000 with IE 6.0. Very often on Wikipedia pages characters cannot be displayed, and there are often so many blank boxes replacing those characters that I cannot even guess what is missing.

Is there a font that I can download that will make these characters visible on my browser?

Thank you, David151.196.187.49 17:54, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You already have a compatible font, but you might want to check your browser's default encoding; it should be capable of picking up Wikipedia's use of UTF-8 automatically, but trying selecting it manually. Adrian M. H. 18:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ummm, how do i fix red links

how do i fix a red link.

That depends what you mean.

If you see a red link and you think there should be an article there, then click on it, start writing the article, and press "Save page".
If you think the link should redirect to an existing article, then click on the link, type #REDIRECT [[Article the link should go to]], and press "Save page".
If you want the link to go somewhere else, then edit the page the link is on, and change the link to [[Page you want the link to go to|Red link]].
Obviously, if you don't think the link should be there at all, edit the page and remove the square brackets around the link.

I hope that answers your question. Walton ^{Vivat Regina!} 19:22, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Attack (talk) page?

How do I get a Talkpage deleted? I assumed it would have been taken out with the associated article (which was removed as a DB-Attack). --Fredrick day 19:43, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can tag it with {{db-talk}} and an admin will delete it for you. Walton ^{Vivat Regina!} 19:49, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Number of Pages in a Category

How do I count the number of pages in a particular category? (Without clicking on the (Next 200) button and adding them all up..). Thanks --Sparklism 20:26, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Someone might have a JS tool that can do this, but I have looked around for an official method and couldn't find one. It would be useful, actually. Adrian M. H. 20:47, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure about that, but IIRC CatScan can count the number of items in a category which you can turn into the amount of pages depending on how much items you want on a page. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:59, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

how to archive user talk page

I'd like to archive content of my talk page and still have it be accessible. Can someone point me to a source that will tell me how that is done? Numskll 20:58, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How to archive a talk page. Adrian M. H. 21:02, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Neutrality of MyRichUncle Article

The article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyRichUncle seems to lack neutrality in various areas.

The line "MRU has used millions of dollars of its shareholders' money on advertisements that attack the integrity of financial aid directors and lenders (while providing student financing)." is eerily similar to the line straight from Sallie Mae's press release (http://www.salliemae.com/about/news_info/newsreleases/032007_CBS+response.htm) which states: "MRU has spent millions of dollars of its shareholders' money on expensive ads attacking the integrity of financial aid directors and lenders."

This is a quote coming straight from Sallie Mae, a direct competitor, and thus is not neutral.

Also, the company background cited in this article of "MRU Holdings has a varied background. It started as a protein bar company named Dr. Protein.com. Then it became a reseller of optical storage devices such as CD-R and DVD-R products. Now it is an education funding lender." is also very similar to that on the same Sallie Mae press release of "MRU began its life six years ago as a protein bar company named Dr. Protein. It later changed its business to a CD manufacturing company, before morphing into a student lender."

According to MRU's press release (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070322/nyth050c.html?.v=2)the following is actually true: "Sallie Mae claimed that we began as a protein bar company. Better research would have allowed you to glean an accurate understanding of our origins. My co-founder and I started this company in 2000 with the sole purpose of innovating to help students' financial futures and we have done so in a variety of ways, none of which involved synthesizing amino acids. We did a reverse public merger in 2004 with a company that had several innovative businesses, including CD manufacturing and protein bars, however the resulting entity, MRU Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNCL - News), has focused on education finance and has never itself been in the protein bar or CD businesses."

This article seems to contain a bias from supporters of Sallie Mae. The neutrality of many points in this article needs to be looked into.

Icon in Taskbar

I have the icon for the dictionary WordWeb in my Taskbar and I find it very useful. Can I do the same for Wikipedia - or for any encyclopedia ? Trudymag

I assume that you are referring to bookmark icons. Support for these is browser dependent; Mozilla/Opera/etc. are fine, but IE is traditionally very patchy. It displays some of them, sometimes, and that has long been the case. For what it's worth, Wikipedia does provide a bookmark icon, so you will see it if your browser feels like it. Adrian M. H. 21:19, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

who changed the redlink format?

I just noticed that the redlink format has been changed from being a red underlined and linked word to a black unlinked word with a red underlined and linked question mark following. I checked my preferences, too, to make sure that they hadn't been mysteriously changed. I really don't like that format, and would have argued against it if I knew where to - anyone have an idea? Nihiltres^(t.c.s) 21:50, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Experimented with changing my preferences - it seems that the settings have reversed any change for me, but there's definitely a problem somewhere - I would not change that setting myself, and the pref caption text looks wrong... Nihiltres^(t.c.s) 21:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Everything looks normal now, it seems my settings were changed somehow and freaked me out. I don't know why they would be different from normal. Has anyone else seen a similar problem? Nihiltres^(t.c.s) 21:58, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I cannot get alt codes

They will not show up. I type Alt 252 and my computer bings, (bing! bing! error message.) Why I have no clue... — R | T | C • 20070418221638

Are you using the numpad as opposed to the row of numbers? Those codes only work with the numpad. x42bn6 Talk 00:03, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A wiki page vanished

I created a wiki page on "Sankalp" a few days back, and updated it today morning. I have also created a talk for it. But i just now checked and that wiki page is no more there! Please let me know if that page has been deleted or removed for what reason.

Vikasy 22:18, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As my mom always says, "Did you save your work?" In reality, Click here Razorclaw 20070418222804

See Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted?. Side comment: it's really unfortunate that Wikipedia does not notify everyone who has edited a page when the page gets deleted, either by sending an e-mail message, or by adding a notification to their user talk pages. Because these deletions just happen with no automatic notification of everyone whose work gets clobbered, the Help desk seems to get at least one question per day from someone who wants to know where their article went. I suspect there are more puzzled folks who don't know where the Help desk is. --Teratornis 00:32, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder why this is, because on an empty page it has a clear message that says: "If a page was recently created here, it may not yet be visible because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes and try the purge function. If a page previously existed at this exact title, check the deletion log and see Why was my page deleted?." Complete with links and all. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:56, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The question you wonder about is the type of problem technical writers struggle with routinely: how do we write instructions that end-users can understand? Experience shows that slight changes in wording can change the percentage of end-users who understand particular passages (the expression "brilliant prose" is a qualitative recognition that some ways of expressing a concept are more understandable than others).

Someone who has learned a skill is able to exercise it with comparatively little effort, by relying on highly efficient long term memory. A novice, in contrast, struggles to make sense of new concepts, relying primarily on short term memory which is severely limited. Some psychologists claim the average person can only store from three to seven "chunks" of information in short term memory, and various experiments have shown this (such as asking a person to remember several numbers or words, and then try to recall them after reading a confusing sentence; such experiments have shown that the more confusing the sentence is, the more items people tend to forget, and some psychologists interpret this to mean short term memory works something like a LIFO queue of limited size, subject to overflow).

Consider the impact on short term memory of the indirect message you quote above. It contains two conditional branches (If a page was recently created here... and If a page previously existed at this exact title), and both of them allude to actors (the person who created a page) but do not mention them explicitly. Even worse, the first branch is sloppily worded (what does "recently created" mean?) and does not mention the possibility that the page may have been "recently" created and a little more recently deleted. For a novice to make sense of this message, he or she needs to have a firm grasp of several underlying concepts:

That editors on Wikipedia delete lots of pages;
That he or she did previously create a page at this exact title (which alludes to the possibility of titles being inexact, e.g., differing in letter case, spacing, punctuation, spelling, etc.);

and the novice must correctly navigate the conditional branches, each of which demands some chunks of short term memory.

The current message is an example of poor ergonomic design, as evidenced by the number of novice users it confuses. A better system would resolve the conditional branches automatically, by recognizing the current user as the person who created the deleted page, and eliminate the short term memory devouring red herrings of irrelevant branches:

"The page you created at this title: title was deleted by user. For more information, check the deletion log and see Why was my page deleted?."

If the system cannot identify the current user as the user who created the deleted page, it should still clearly indicate that the page had been deleted, if a deletion record exists. --Teratornis 17:15, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

wikipedia gadget

One of my google sidebar gadgets was Wikipedia. I don't know how it dissapeared but I would like to have it back again. I loved it and tried to look for it on the list of available google gadgets, but I was not able to find it. I used it a lot in order to receive information without need to open the full Internet Explorer. How do I download it and from where? Please help. Maria

This appears to be it. x42bn6 Talk 00:01, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Information boxes

I was wondering how you make those little information boxes about yourself on your user profile page. It goes, "This user likes, had etc." Thanks!CorinneQ 22:31, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See wp:userbox, Razorclaw 20070418223327

thanks for your help!CorinneQ 22:34, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

summary

In my monobook:

popupRevertSummary='Revert to revision %s using [[conifer cone|PINECONES]]';
popupExtendedRevertSummary='Revert to revision dated %s by %s, oldid %s using [[conifer cone|PINECONES]]';

I go and revert: [2]

Does the summary look any different to you? Razorclaw 20070418230941

Have you tried clearing your browser cache? --VectorPotential^Talk 23:26, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

HI

HOW WOULD A PERSON SEND AN E-MAIL TO THE UNIVRESITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA IN PRINCE GEORGE TO ASK THEM SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR UNIVERSITY.23:52, 18 April 2007 (UTC)161.184.233.27

You might want to ask the Reference Desk - this is about Wikipedia-related help, not general knowledge-type questions. x42bn6 Talk 23:59, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We can answer your question by pasting a chunk of it into Google search on Wikipedia. The first Google search result links to University of Northern British Columbia which has an External links section that leads obviously to:

http://www.unbc.ca/contact/

So there you are. --Teratornis 00:27, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There are no email addresses there, though. But, the following page does: [3]. Now who to contact, I wonder. x42bn6 Talk 00:34, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OK, so I stopped a click too soon. There's also this page, with globs more e-mail addresses to give our inquisitor more choices to agonize over. --Teratornis 04:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template:PD-release

It probably is, but I want to maek sure, so is it a free copyright tag? --98E 23:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you're asking if it's an acceptable license for use on Wikipedia, then yes, it is. It's free as in speech; anyone can use the image for any purpose, including commercial use and the creation of derivative works. grendel|khan 14:50, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]