Help desk
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July 15

J Smith

hello my name is jesse smith i created the page j smith along with a few others such as a prelude to poetry and j smith music group which seem o have all been deleted over night. i tried following the instructtions for deleted files but cant seem to find them in the log i would really appreciate some insight as to why the pages were deleted this way i can avoid this in the future as i did put in alot of time any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Jesse Smith —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wordsmith3030 (talk • contribs) 00:25, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In order to create an article that will not be deleted, you need to show that the subject is Notable and that it is well sourced. You also would have a conflict of interest. I would suggest you place your information on the Articles Requested page. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 00:41, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

May I also suggest that you read the message from Sasquatch on your Talk Page, as he gives more information about how to stop articles being deleted. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 00:44, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

3,000,000 English Articles

What is the projected date for Wikipedia reaching 3 million English articles? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.176.50.146 (talk) 02:37, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Write down this number: 6,927,607. In precisely one hour, refresh this page and write down the number again. You can then easily project when the English Wikipedia will reach 3 million articles by that measure, if the rate of increase stays the same. However, the instant when Wikipedia reaches 3 million articles may not be well-defined, as deletionists continually delete articles. It is possible for the article count to go over 3 million and then fall below 3 million briefly if we get a burst of article deletions. The count could seesaw around 3 million for a while, but the trend is generally increasing so there will be some time after which the count stays above 3 million. --Teratornis (talk) 02:48, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There will be an officially declared three-millionth article, to resolve the Three-millionth topic pool. I'm not sure how it will be determined. Algebraist 02:51, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I did a short term and a long term analysis of Wikipedia growth a few months ago, see here. Basically, Wikipedia has been running at a pretty steady rate of one new article every 54 seconds, since about article #2,000,000. If you take the number above, we're about 50,000 articles away from 3 million. At one article every 54 seconds, that's roughly 2,700,000 seconds, or 45,000 minutes or 750 hours or 31 days from now; so we should hit article 3 million sometime in the middle of August. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 06:24, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting stuff, Jayron32. How do you gauge the rate? On New Page Patrol it often seems as though we see many more than one every 54 seconds - many of which get speedily deleted. Are you only counting the ones that "stick"? Or does variation through the day mean what I'm seeing on NPP are busy periods, and that there are slacker spells at other times in a 24 hour cycle? Gonzonoir (talk) 07:23, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you read my analysis, I did my short-term rate analysis by going back two days at the New Pages report; thus all of the speedy-delete stuff is already speedy deleted. For the long term analysis it was a simple matter of long division; number of articles divided by time... --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 01:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Gotcher. Sounds sensible. Thanks. Gonzonoir (talk) 08:53, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing vandalism - John Gay

Resolved

– – ukexpat (talk) 04:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The article on John Gay (poet and dramatist - Beggar's Opera etc) has been vandalised by "Louisblackwell1000", including changing the article name from John Gay to "S.john". The other edits are reversed but would appreciate assistance with fixing the article name.

thanks 03:54, 15 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maturescence (talk • contribs)

Done - I moved it back, over the redirect. – ukexpat (talk) 04:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Making Malicious Bots for wiki

I am interested in bots. I have read a bit on them and the ways to make them. This got me curious. What is stopping people from creating malicious bots to just randomly run and destroy parts of wikipedia? Has this ever been attempted before? I know that there is a process to get bots approved but in theory couldnt a user just create a bot for malicious activity and let it run until it gets caught then rince and repeat? Obvious bot would be obvious. But, what about a bot that would change how links directed on articles containing words x,y,z for example? Thanks Ivtv (talk) 05:07, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It isn't all that hard to block a bot, so it isn't that big a problem. Prodego ^talk 05:17, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think most bots (at least the ones that are "allowed") have to get approval at WP:BAG. The folks over there may be able to give you more detailed information in the specifics on their talk page. — Ched : ? 05:20, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lots of malicious bots get made, but the accounts on which the run get blocked super fast. The most common are probably linkspam bots; which are designed to rapidly add spam links to articles. However, they have become difficult to run as the abuse filter tends to pick them off, and trained eyes at WP:RCP also know what to look for. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 06:19, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(ec)vandalbots do exist; and they've been used to vandalize/linkspam in the past. Edit throttle and captcha slow them down before they are blocked. --59.95.122.27 (talk) 06:24, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

interwiki links

I'm not sure what interwiki links are, or what they're used for. Recently, I had removed the because I felt they were not needed, and it got me in trouble. If someone could help me out with this, it would be very appreciated. --Radiokid1010 (talk) 06:22, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Interwiki links are links to other Wikipedia's in other languages. If you look on the toolbars on the left of most articles, you will see a section titled "languages" These links are important navigation tools, and should NOT be removed from articles except in rare cases, such as where the link is invalid (it does not actually point to the same article at a different Wikipedia, for example). --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 06:32, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Radiokid has been told this repeatedly, yet he continues to remove them. BorgQueen blocked him for repeatedly removing them, then she tried unblocking him and he continued to delete them as soon as he was unblocked, so now he's blocked again, and is on the verge of being blocked indefinitely. Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 06:59, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bill: "What happens if I hit you in the head with a hammer"

Ted: "It hurts. Stop that!"

Bill "Like this? This really hurts?"

Ted: "YES! Now quit it!"

Bill: "I don't believe you. Let me hit you again!"

Ted: "OUCH! POLICE!!!"

Bill (after spending the night in jail): "Hey, does anyone know what happens when I hit Ted in the head with a hammer

Everyone else: "Yeah, Bill, it hurts him. I'd stop that if I were you! You're going to get in more trouble."

Ted: "OUCH. Dammit Bill! Stop hitting me with a hammer"

This dramatic reenactment of the above events brought to you by Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 07:09, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How about this as a rule of thumb: "If you're unsure if something's right, don't do it"? And we can add "If you are unsure, go to the help desk". You did come to the help desk, but it would have been better if you came before and not after doing it. Maybe you should try to do it that way after you return from your block. ≈ Chamal ^talk 13:20, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:BOLD only works when either of these two conditions holds:

The bold person already knows what to do.
The bold person is capable of learning from mistakes.

See Help:Interwiki linking and Help:Interlanguage links. --Teratornis (talk) 19:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also note that "interwiki links" include more than links to other language Wikipedias. The general class of interwiki links includes links to wikis not run by the Wikimedia Foundation, such as Wikiindex: and Appropedia:, as well as links to some sites that are not even wikis, such as Google:. --Teratornis (talk) 19:14, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

pages

I have another question. I've been noticing that a lot of users have pages that include information about them, and their interests. If anyone can give me some advice, such as how I can start my own, that would be much appreciated. --Radiokid1010 (talk) 06:39, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:USERPAGE. Click on your redlinked name and go nuts, within reason. — Trust not the Penguin (T | C) 06:41, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(after edit conflict) If you click the redlink by your username, this will create your userpage. Guidelines for creating a userpage, and what can and cannot be included there, are at WP:USERPAGE. If you REALLY want to get crazy, you can always check out Wikipedia:User page design center. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 06:42, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But keep the craziness within reason; see WP:JOU. --Teratornis (talk) 19:16, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can templates do arithmetic?

Resolved

– – ukexpat (talk) 19:22, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If they can, I'd like to implement this feature into these infoboxes. They are currently used primarily for ballot initiatives in the US state of Oregon. The Oregon government's published data on election results only give raw vote totals, no percentages. So whenever I add one of these infoboxes to an article, I have to take out a calculator and figure out the percentages. Is it possible to have this basic math done automatically by the template? — Athelwulf ^[T]/_[C] 08:10, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Pct ? Gandalf61 (talk) 09:30, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, this looks like what I need. Thanks! — Athelwulf ^[T]/_[C] 18:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Colours and Links

How can I make a word blue/red and a link at the same time? I've been attempting this with my signature but it isn't working except, strangely enough, on my own userpage. Kayau |Jane Eyre| PRIDE AND PREJUDICE| les miserables 10:59, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To be honest, I really don't know. I compared your sig to other sigs that also use span tags and I can't figure out what's different. If it helps, I use font tags and they seem to work out OK. TN X Man 11:52, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Put the span inside the piping: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Algebraist 11:56, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you looking to make a signature that is both red and blue? I wonder if anyone has done that already and you can just look at his or her sig and see how it was done... -- kainaw ™ 14:10, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Pride and Prejudice is red. Kayau is blue.

Phone Assistance

I would like to edit some existing articles and create a few new ones, but I'm not terrifically computer literate, and I find the Wikipedia instructions to be somewhat confusing. Is there anyone who can walk me through the general "edit" and "creation" procedures by phone? If so, please provide his or her name and phone number.

Michael Griske <email removed to prevent spam> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Griske (talk • contribs) 11:46, July 15, 2009 (UTC)

Hello, and welcome! Whilst I can't help you by phone, I recommend you look at Introduction to Wikipedia, Wikipedia Tutorial and Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. They should explain most basic steps, and if you have any more specific questions, feel free to post a question either here or at the New contributors' help page. We also have a Sandbox where you can experiment with editing before editing a "real" article. — QuantumEleven 13:09, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

media

what are the effects of media coverage of court proocedinds in kenya —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.202.210.247 (talk) 12:47, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Algebraist 12:53, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please do your own homework. Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 15:13, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

History section of Traffic Lights and Dummy Lights

In the History section of Traffic Lights, there is the following statement: Ashville, Ohio claims to be the location of the oldest working traffic light in the United States, used at an intersection of public roads until 1982 when it was moved to a local museum.[6]

Then below in the Dummy Lights section the following is written: A dummy light is a traffic light which stands on a pedestal in the middle of an intersection. There are at least three which still operate in the United States today, all located in New York State: Beacon, Canajoharie and Croton-on-Hudson. There have been number of requests in recent years for these traffic lights to be removed due to safety concerns, but the historic value have kept these landmarks at their original locations.

Wouldn't the fact that the Ashville Ohio one now resides in a museum make it not the oldest, or is it simply because it's got power still going to it? Maybe that section needs to change to add that the oldest still operating Dummy Light resides in X and find out which one of the 3 in NYS is the oldest?

Thanks. —Preceding tigkargman@yahoo.com comment added by 63.240.121.176 (talk) 14:06, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is no claim that any of the dummy lights are the originals. Regardless, this should placed on the article's talk page. Those who work on the article are far more likely to see the question if it is placed there. -- kainaw ™ 14:08, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Non-free reduce

Can someone tag File:Waldo McBurney.jpg, a non-free image, for reduction? I can't remember the tag to request reduction, and I've looked everywhere that I can think of. Nyttend (talk) 14:56, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is {{non-free reduce}} the one you mean? I have added it in hopes that it is. (I came across it while wandering WP:Backlog, but there seems to be a full list here: Wikipedia:Template_messages/Image_namespace - the reduce tag is the verrrry last one.) --Kateshort forbob 16:36, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it's that one. You can also request at the Graphic Lab for faster requests. Zoo Fari 16:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation

There is a company with the same name as a person, how would a person figure out which would be the primary topic? Curls82 (talk) 17:07, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I depends on which would generally be better known. If you said who it is, then perhaps we could advise better? PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:12, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Irving Crane, one is a pool player and the other is a Crane Rental Company based in the United States (The US division of Irving Equipment) Curls82 (talk) 17:16, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is the division notable in its own right per WP:CORP? Why not just add something brief about it to the Irving Equipment article? – ukexpat (talk) 17:22, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As it appears to have only received its business license on June 25th IRVING CRANE - Business Licenses - Everyblock Boston I'm not sure how it can be notable in its own right? I would suggest you add it to the Irving Equipment article as suggested by Ukexpat. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:27, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, by the way, if it had been a *reissue* of the license, Everyblock Boston would show the *first* licensing - unless they had lost their license and then after a gap got a new one, in which case *both* licenses would be shown. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:32, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Irving Crane was the common name of the company, the name was changed for the US operations because the cranes all have Irving written on them and customers identified them by Irving Crane, so the US operations, since they were newer (circe 98) changed to Irving Crane while the Canadian operations kept the Irving Equipment name. I was intending to add Irving Crane to the Irving Equipment wikipedia page (and not create a whole new page with near identical information), but when people search Irving Crane, they will be directed to Irving Crane (the person)Curls82 (talk) 17:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You could put a comment under the headline at the person Irving Crane s.th. like: This is an article on the person Irving Crane for information on the company see Irving Equipment. Then put a note on the talk page for the person explaining why you added the comment. (OR=Original research: Check back at the article after a while, wikipedia pages tend to change a lot, and someone might revert your edit for some reason or other.) 71.236.26.74 (talk) 18:13, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I like that plan, this is going to sound stupid though, but when you say put a note on the talk page for the person, did you mean the discussion tab on the irving crane page? or the person who created the page, as I cannot seem to find that information... Curls82 (talk) 18:23, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Or, preferably, user the {{Otheruses4}} template for the hatnote on the article page. And yes, the explanatory stuff on the discussion page. – ukexpat (talk) 18:26, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reference desk edit sorting

Our current ISP has "improved" their service according to their advertisements by increasing its speed. Unfortunately I find that this is done by cashing pages. For me the consequence is that the Ref desk page I get when I reload is often not the current version. The software then sorts my edit correctly in the time-line. If someone else responded meanwhile that means my edit ends up in the middle between comments I have not yet read or considered in my answer. Apart from marking all my edits {EC) just in case, is there any other solution anyone can suggest? 71.236.26.74 (talk) 17:28, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried registering an account? That might fix this. Algebraist 21:34, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You should get the current content in the edit window (but it may no longer be current when you save if others have saved meanwhile). You can start by clicking "Show preview" to make it easier to read. Depending on how your ISP cache works, it's possible you will see the current version of a Wikipedia page by manually adding ? or ?action=view at the end of the url. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:18, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thks PrimeHunter I'll try that addition to the URL (Keeping my fingers crossed it's going to work. @Algebraist I do have an account, but I can't use that while working on a project because my time-sheet program would also logg my wikepedia times and it's a hassle to filter that out and produce a clean file for my boss and the clients. If I'd be limited to using my account I could only visit wikipedia between projects. (Which I usually hope isn't a long interval :-) 71.236.26.74 (talk) 06:12, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Userbox codes

How do I create codes for the Userboxes I created? Please respond on my Talkpage. Secret Saturdays (talk) 17:31, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What kind of codes are you thinking of? Also, generally we respond on this page - then others can have the benefit of the advice too. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You should carefully consider moving the userboxes to your user page -- they are very distracting on your talk page. In fact your user page is a little myspacey anyway... – ukexpat (talk) 18:23, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

human right in pre independence nigeria

help me trace the evolution of of human right in pre independence Nigeria and post independence —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.220.15.133 (talk) 18:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Spitfire^Tally-ho! 18:36, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please do your own homework. Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:39, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How do I respond?

I am a newbie and do not know how to respond to the following: "Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. Please don't forget to provide an edit summary, as you forgot on your recent edit to Psycholinguistics. Thank you. rʨanaɢ talk/contribs 19:45, 14 July 2009 (UTC)" I am unsure what rʨanaɢ means by "edit summaru." I would also like to thamk him for his review and effort. I can be reached at <email removed to prevent spam>. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Msasscts (talk • contribs) 18:35, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Edit summary for info on edit summaries. You can contact other users on their talk page, which you should be able to access by clicking one of the links in their signature. Algebraist 18:37, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Hello Msasscts, when you edit a page just below the edit box you will see a small editable strip just above the save page button. Click it and briefly provide a short description of what changes you have made, for more see: Help:Edit summary

Secondly, to contact another editor just go to their talk page and edit it like you did to this page, this will leave them a new message. Most users have a link to their talk page in their signature, but if you can't find the link simply search User talk:"User name here" into the search bar.

Please just ask if this doesn't make sense, all the best Spitfire^Tally-ho! 18:41, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The "edit summary" box looks like this:

Just make a short note in the box saying what you did (e.g added new foo to list of foos) so other people can see why you made changes! If you look at your Watchlist, it shows what is in the summary - it makes it easier to see which ones you might want to look at. Hope this helps. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:45, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note that messages often contain links to relevant pages. The message on the talk page said "Please don't forget to provide an edit summary". The words "edit summary" contained a clickable link to Help:Edit summary. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:02, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How to incorporate a calender into wiki page

Have a display as a monthly /weekly calender

What do you want to do that for? Algebraist 18:55, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{Template:CURRENTCALENDAR}} gives a calendar, and if you go to Template:CURRENTCALENDAR, it has some "see also"s which might help you. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Simple corrections.

There is an article I read that has a misleading statement in it that I wish to point out to the author(s). Do I edit the article or is there a way to post comments in the discussion section? Furthermore, in the discussion section of said article there are a number of factually incorrect claims that I wish to refute, but I don't know how to do this. None of it seems very intuitive to me. Please help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 1publiceye (talk • contribs) 19:13, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You should initially make a comment on the article's talk page. To find it, add Talk: in front of the article name, and edit it like you did this page. For example, on the article Strapping Young Lad, its talk page is Talk:Strapping Young Lad. Explain what the misleading statement is, and perhaps give an alternative phrasing. If you can find references backing your point, that's even better and they should be quoted. Alternatively, let us know what article and what statement is incorrect, and someone here can look at it. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 19:17, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Adding Image

How do I add File:Animal Planet US logo.svg to my article? Iowateen (talk) 19:46, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can add the image to the "Infobox Television" template adjusting the size to 200px or so:
|image = [[File:Animal Planet US logo.svg|200px]]
Nuβiατεch ^Talk/_contrib 20:25, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Iowateen (talk) 20:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No, don't do that. Fair Use images cannot go into templates. Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 06:45, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Create Account" link is not working...

Instead, I get a white screen, where, at the top left, it says:

out of captcha images; this shouldn't happen

Please fix. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.202.5.72 (talk) 20:17, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Verified this myself, this seems to be the case. This could have something to do with 'the Uploads and Thumbnails generation that are temporarily halted while they upgrade the image store' on the top of the page, any thoughts from others?Ottawa4ever (talk) 20:20, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Should work now. Algebraist 20:41, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

problem regestering

Hi,

I am trying to regester but i keep getting this.

out of captcha images; this shouldn't happen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.54.196.183 (talk) 20:31, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See the thread immediately above. Algebraist 20:32, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

conflict of interest - clarification

I work for a very well-known arts organization that currently just has a stub article. I would love to make it into a real article. I used to be a regular and diligent contributor to wikipedia and I am well-versed in the "rules" and guidelines. I would only write a neutral article (so far as possible) with plenty of sources.

I guess my question is a philosophical one. If I write a really good article - well-sourced, neutral in tone - nobody would know that I have a "vested interest" in the organization. Why is it that people with such vested interests are discouraged from contributing? Isn't the official historian of the New York Philharmonic in the best position to contribute to an article about the New York Philharmonic? Of course we must always be on the lookout for people who just want to put ad copy into wikipedia, or people who want to contribute trivia and marginalia that isn't source-able; but I feel like I have to "apologize" for editing the article I want to edit, and I don't think this is productive. I know this is a conversation that has been hashed out endlessly. I think I just want someone to tell me it's okay to write this article.

Thanks for any feedback you might have. 128.223.163.109 (talk) 20:36, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Write the damned thing, declare your conflict of interest in your edit summaries or on the talk page, and if any of your material becomes controversial step away and let non-conflicted editors deal with it. Steve Smith (talk) (formerly Sarcasticidealist) 20:41, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The reason editors are discouraged from editing while conflicted is because they generally do it badly. If you aren't going to do it badly, go ahead. Algebraist 20:44, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! 128.223.163.109 (talk) 20:45, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you you think that there is any possibility the some dingbat will object, then write it in user space (and still declare the possible COI on its talk page) and then come back here and ask for quickie review. One of us will do a quick check and move it to mainspace and add an endorsement on the talk page. But please write it in any event. -Arch dude (talk) 22:18, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Arch dude - write it! Follow the advice given here, and hopefully we'll end up with a well-written article rather than a stub, which follows the expectations for an article PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 22:22, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disappearing edit buttons

Resolved

– – ukexpat (talk) 01:38, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I added User:Dr Santa/5pillars to my user page and all my edit buttons disappered.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 21:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That page has the __NOEDITSECTION__ magic word that disables section edit buttons on that page or a page that transcludes it. – ukexpat (talk) 21:23, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I will direct further inquiry to Dr Santa.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 22:59, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How does this article need cleanup?

I was told that Monsters Inside Me needs cleanup and the user posted a link to the television manual of style. I looked in the regular manual of style and the television manual of style and I don't see what I did wrong. It seems like it might be based on the user's opinion. Iowateen (talk) 21:36, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I do not think a {{cleanup}} tag is warranted, but there are some areas that could use improvement. Your references and external links should ideally be properly formatted (consider citation templates). Apart from that, the reception section should be paraphrazed more or the quotations marked as such. Whole sentences should not be used verbatim unless they're quoted. This is rather important. Regards, decltype (talk) 21:51, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the info. Do you know how I can add an episode list without it appearing at the bottom? Iowateen (talk) 21:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

With hindsight, the cleanup tag may have been a bit too much, but I did some rewriting of the Summary and Reception paragraphs, which I felt sounded unencyclopedic. Iowateen kept the episode list I put in, but removed the rewritten paragraphs. Could someone look at the article (and history) and decide what should be kept/removed? I feel that the Summary and Reception sections are not succinct enough, but obviosuly others think differently... I don't want an edit war, so would like a neutral editor to look at it and decide what is needed. Thanks PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 22:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I did that because like 99% of my edits were removed. I did reword the reception area. Iowateen (talk) 22:14, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I combined our work. Iowateen (talk) 22:21, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I do think your summary and reception was better, but I would prefer to keep the reception as prose rather than a bulleted list. I also see now that the work I did formatting those references was in vain. Oh well. decltype (talk) 22:34, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I wish to create a wiki for Reddit.com [it is not for advertising!]

I started to create a wiki for the website Reddit.com that would be an official directory listing for the several thousand subreddits that exist on that website, but it was taken down for being advertising.

My intention was never to use this for advertising, but to make it easier for CURRENT reddit users to navigate the huge number of subreddits on that site.

I don't understand why it is interpreted as advertising, I mean wikipedia has episode guides for almost any television show, I don't see how this is any different [it is just a guide].

--Elshizzo (talk) 22:26, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure how it could be an "official" directory listing, unless you are involved with the management of reddit.com, in which case you would have a conflict of interest. Wikipedia does not exist to be a directory of subreddits. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 22:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Putting aside any promotional intent, please understand that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and therefore it is not a directory. Please also note our notability guidelines for web content, our policy requiring that articles be written using neutral language and balanced content, our policy requiring facts in article to be verified through citation to reliable sources, and one of our instruction page for adding sources. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:00, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

By the way. You didn't want to create a wiki for reddit.com, but rather you wanted to create an article on Wikipedia, which as a site entire, is a wiki because it uses wiki software. If you want to actually create a wiki for this, you just may be able to. See Wikipedia:Alternative outlets.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:07, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the information link, Fuhgett. I will use one of those alternatives provided, instead. --Elshizzo (talk) 00:34, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We already have an article -- see reddit. – ukexpat (talk) 01:08, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I need to change the title of my article

Resolved

– Page has been moved

I´ve made a mistake while starting my article, and it ended up with a last name with no capital letter. I´ve read that in order to change it, I need to be an autoconfirmed user. Is there any autoconfirmed user that would give me a hand editing the title of my article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by NindëFaelivrin (talk • contribs) 22:39, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Page has been moved. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 22:42, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Incidently, NindëFaelivrin, the article needs citations to prove his notability. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 22:44, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And the tone is a little over the top. – ukexpat (talk) 00:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia article for artist

If an artist currently has a song on the billboard charts would you consider them eligible for a wikipedia page. If not, what other criteria must they meet. Thank you.

Jaystylez561 (talk) 23:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:BAND. -- kainaw ™ 23:46, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]