Wikipedia:Help desk: Difference between revisions

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April 28

MASH

Have a question regarding the TV series "MASH". In the opening credits there are several women running up the hill towards a landing helicopter. Never saw these nurses in the actualy series, who are they.

• Pearce, Clinger and BJ in drag. They were having a tea party and were rudely interrupted by the Korean war. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.165.44.79 (talk) 04:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

False information crossed out. Please try the Reference Desk for such questions. Corvus cornix 01:35, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

US 7th Armored Division - Cannot Update

I have made multiple attempts to update the US 7th Armored Division wikipedia information -- which is woefully erroneous and inadequate. All of my changes are rolled back. I have wandered the mind-numbing maze of wikipedia "help" screens without finding out anything close to what I need to know to fix the information. All of my URL pointers to the 7AD web site are rolled back because the web pares are on America Online and Comcast and are treated as spurious web pages, even though they contain an immense amount of data right out of WWII original documents.

I do not want to spend hours and hours just learning how to make this obtuse wikipedia environment reflect reality instead of the pseudo-reality that the wikipedia page now reflects. Is there some human being who I can pass the information on to who is in some position of authority to post the correct and complete information about the US 7th Armored Division?

In the meantime, I am posting a warning about the Wikipedia page on the main 7th Armored Division Association web page, so that people are aware of the failings of Wikipedia in regard to the Division. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 7tharmddiv (talk • contribs) 00:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

I've left a note on the reversion bot's talk page (I was reverted as well, by a different bot) so the links should be put back in soon. As for new information, you should be able to add new information/corrections safely; just don't include any external links to AOL-type pages, these are automatically reverted as they are the most common types of linkspam. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 03:59, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

i see you made two edits to that page (at least from this ID). The first is this where you added two external links, one a members.aol.com site, and the other a home.comcast.net site. Both of these domains indiacte that these are personal pages. Such apges are rarely reliable sources and are very often spam so this edit was automatically reverted by a script (or "bot"). Anothe editor has re-added these, and we'll get them in if they seem approptiate. Your second edit deleted the nickname "Rattlesnake Division" and that edit has not been undone. DES ^(talk) 04:02, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Using Psuedonyms

When adding a name to a list article, where the name is a psuedonnym, such as a forum screen name or username, and the true name of the individual is not known, is it nessecary to state in brackets that it is in fact, a psuedonym? 58.165.44.79 03:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I can't envisage any scenario in which this would arise. If you don't know the person's real name, are they notable enough to be included in a list? Adrian M. H. 11:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

@ User:Adrian_M._H. Although I do not know what article the questioner is referring to, nor have I bothered to look into it yet, an anonymous entity can indeed be associated with notable content. It's happened before (See e.g., Deep Throat) is likely to become even more common (See e.g., Second Life). Having said that, I'd agree that pseudonym-only entities should be given closer scrutiny to ensure notability, accuracy, et al. Time to check if WP has a specific policy regarding this. dr.ef.tymac 14:05, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Uzbekistan at the 1998 Winter Olympics

I was adding some new information and a reference section. Now parts of the article are missing. The code is still there it just isn't showing up when i click edit or preview. I'm not sure what I did wrong but I have to get some sleep and can't figure out to fix it. Help! --Banana 04:48, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. You had <ref/> instead of </ref> so it was adding everything, including the references section, to the ref. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 05:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

rating

How do you Assign arating? Manu kian maheri 06:57, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

If you are referring to WikiProject ratings, you should join the relevant project and follow its assessment guidelines, or discuss it with other participants before jumping straight in. Adrian M. H. 11:21, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How to save/download the full content of a page?

I want to download certain articles from wiki into my local to make it possible viewed offline and also searchable, but I don't want to download the full database of wiki. Please note that I am not going to "save a page" but to "download a page" as the origin (database). In a short hand, I want to download the database of an article. Can I do such a thing like this? How to do that? Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Precious hKyo (talk • contribs) 07:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

You can download the entire database and install your own Wiki software to run it. It is many, many gigabytes though. Notinasnaid 07:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

thanks, but please note my post "I don't want to download the full database of wiki" (the entire database), which means that I only want to download certain database of articles, how to do that? can I? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Precious hKyo (talk • contribs) 08:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

The database organisation is complex; you would need a tool that extracted the many tables containing the information on a single article: its history, the usernames of the contributors, probably many other things. There would need to be analysis to see what else was needed: included images and templates, and the templates they call, and their history... I don't know if such a tool exists; you might find you'd have to download the whole database to run the tool anyway, unless the tool is available on the same server as the database download. Notinasnaid 09:23, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Be sure to get the terminology right. A "wiki" is a Web site editable by users from their Web browsers; there are many wikis. The proper noun "Wiki" (with a capital "W") refers to the original wiki. "Wikipedia" is the wiki you are using now, actually the English Wikipedia; there are dozens of Wikipedias in other languages. Referring to "Wikipedia" as "wiki" is like referring to "George W. Bush" as "politician." If you said "I voted for politician," that would not make sense.

See WP:DUMP for information about downloading Wikipedia's database dumps. See m:Help:MediaWiki architecture and m:Manual:Database layout for details on what you would deal with if you were to try to write your own code to run MySQL queries on Wikipedia's database. This is a substantially involved database programming job.

But there is an easier way to get only certain articles; see Help:Export. --Teratornis 08:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Retort - incomplete definition

here is my comment:

the definition for Retort is not complete.

i found only the second definition, and use wiki quite alot latley, so it was disappointing.

thanks for all! - this thing is way too much to begin with!

>>> A quick incisive reply, especially one that turns the first speaker's words to his or her own disadvantage. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.243.140.79 (talk) 08:27, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

• A retort, perhaps: I think the problem may be that you are looking for a dictionary definition, not an encyclopedia article. Wikipedia has a sister project, Wiktionary. So, see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Retort. Notinasnaid 09:20, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Adding a word and definition

Hello Wiksters!

Some associates and i have created a word and definition for the word and i would like to know if anyone can give a simple step by step instrucion about how to add it to wikipedia.org

Kind thanks,

Thane —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thane77 (talk • contribs) 10:10, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

See WP:NEO. --Teratornis 10:58, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

problem with neutrality

On the Ann Coulter page, it seems to be very easy on her. She has stated some of the most cruel, inhumane comments about many groups of people and individuals. It is as if a member of her book club wrote this. I want to dispute the neutrality and the article is blocked from changes and do not know how to do this. Thanks for your help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Defofrepublicanisbusinesscriminalaholes (talk • contribs) 10:30, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

The best idea is to comment on the article's talk page (Talk:Ann Coulter). By the way, interesting username, for someone with issues about neutrality! -- Chuq (talk) 10:43, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• The article has a legal disputes and controversy section. I don't see how that is easy on her. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Intermittent power source

There's been some agreement on the Talk page of this article, about the need to change the name to "Renewable energy and intermittency", but I'm not sure how to do this without complications. Can anyone help, or let me know what to do, apart from hitting the Move tag. Thanks. -- Johnfos 10:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

See WP:MOVE. --Teratornis 10:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I've read through that document now, and I can see there is going to be a complication with double redirects, which will have to be referred manually. I've never done this, and don't want to get stuck part way through. Further guidance would be appreciated. -- Johnfos 11:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixing double redirects is easier than it sounds. You can see them easily in the "What links here" special page. I'll fix them for you if you're not sure. Adrian M. H. 12:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Problem adding an image

Hi, I am trying to add an image to this page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Hearts_%28band%29 but it keeps being deleted because I haven't got the copyright tags right. The photo is a promotional one released by the band (similar to these two on another band's page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Levellers4.jpg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_levellers.jpg. What should I tag it to make it appear like those above? Thanks.

Allmyusernamesaregone 12:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The tag you want there is {{Non-free promotional}}. When in doubt about something like this, check the source code of the other images/pages (by clicking 'edit this page' and looking at what's there) to find what the tag is. - Zeibura S. Kathau ^{(Info | Talk)} 14:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thankyou very much for your help, I'll give it another try :)

Allmyusernamesaregone 16:51, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Removing watermarks from pictures

I have succesfully tried to remove watermarks from pictures. Unfortunately, that is the only thing I do. I don't know anything about the author or the site it use to be on. When I've removed the watermark should I just replace the watermarked picture with the new one in the images that need cleaning up section without worrying if it will show up on all pages that have that picture in them? And last of all should I only remove the watermark if the owner allows it or should I assume that if that file is uploaded it's ok to edit? And if so how can I see it's ok to edit it? Akiramenai 14:53, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Quite often people who upload images have no clue about copyright, so unless both source and license are given on the page, don't assume anything. As for watermark removing. They're usually added to stop copyright violation from happening. So I doubt we'd be allowed to use such particular images. Any examples?- Mgm|^(talk) 21:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Yes I see. Some pictures do include a tag saying the copyright owner allows it to be on wikipedia. I hope that this is true.

Should I delete the entry after I remove the watermark? I mean the entry in the watermarked pictures that need cleaning up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_with_watermarks Akiramenai 07:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If it's a user-created image released under a license that allows modification, then you can certainly do that (and remove the template, as well). It may be prudent to keep the images on your watchlist in the future, as well. –Unint 23:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

My desires

Where can I tell the Wikipedians my desire or my request? Louie Franco 15:03, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure I know what you are seeking but we have a page called Wikipedia:Requested articles where you can request an article on a particular subject. You might also look at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. If you have some specific suggestion for a particular article, you can always comment on its talk page, accessible by clicking "discussion" at the top of the screen of any article.--Fuhghettaboutit 16:00, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Aha, thanks. L. Fr@nco 19:11, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Beer, Robert

I instituted an article on Robert Beer and it has been deleted. Why?

B9 hummingbird hovering ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:12, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Follow that link and you'll find the deletion log; it states the reason. Adrian M. H. 16:27, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The reason isn't exactly clear on the deletion log, so to clarify, it was deleted due to a copyright violation, which implies that you copied the content of the article over from another website or other source. - Zeibura S. Kathau ^{(Info | Talk)} 18:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Alfred Adler jpg

Hi,

I have tried to upload a Wikimedia Commons file drawing of Alfred Adler (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Alfred_Adler.jpg) to the English Wikipedia entry of Alfred Adler (the same drawing that appears in the German and Italian entries of Wikipedia for Alfred Adler). I cannot seem to do it! I am so frustrated. Any help at all will be appreciated,

Chris —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cshelley (talk • contribs) 16:31, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Hi Chris! You don't need to upload contents from Commons into any specifical language Wikipedia, as they are readily available to be linked directly into any project from its Commons location. I've added the image to the article in question. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask me at my Talk page. Cheers! Phaedriel - 17:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Submit Pages

How would I submit a page for Wikipedia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Shzam (talk • contribs) 17:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Follow the useful links on your talk page. Adrian M. H. 17:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

WP project talk page template class parameter

I have already tried to ask this at the Village pump. In addition to FA, A, GA, B, Start, & Stub class some templates accommodate Template, Cat, and Disamb class values. Some even allow for a Needed-class. What is policy on having an Image-class for all images within a project falling in image space? Could I request such a wrinkle to the {{ChicagoWikiProject}} template. Also, what is policy on Category:Disamb-Class articles? Should the category exist? Should I populate it? What is policy Needed-class articles? TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 18:52, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Federal Legislative Branch of Goverment

What are three issues currently being debates by the Legislative branch?65.34.47.244

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. ··coelacan 19:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How to use templates?

Are there any very simple guides for newbies to use templates? Help:Template is way too complicated and Wikipedia:Template doesn't have what I want. I'm looking for something I can direct a newbie to look at, that will just explain how to use a pre-existing template without borking it. ··coelacan 19:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

See all the links under User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Tem. For example, perhaps Help:A quick guide to templates does what you need. The quickest guide to using a template while avoiding "borkage" is:

1. Find a non-borked page that uses the template.
2. Copy the wikitext from that page which calls the template.
3. Paste that wikitext onto another page.
4. Carefully edit some of the wikitext until the template looks the way you want.

It would be hard to write a simple guide for newbies because there are so many different templates, esoteric to various degrees, each presenting different borkage possibilities to new users. If your new user needs to use a limited number of templates, perhaps the template pages themselves should contain documentation explaining how to use them. A number of templates do this, for example Template:Infobox Software. --Teratornis 08:00, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Teratornis. ··coelacan 11:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

notwithstanding the above section header, here is an actual question on how to use templates:

And regarding templates, I don't think the current pages are all that user-friendly, but then I can kind of try things until it works by looking at other code so I got pretty far. I recently created Template:Fictionlist, which has a sectionwhich tries to suggest an article name where fiction would be more appropriate. I just threw an S on the article name and added "in faction" or "in popular culture" but as I am adding the tag elsewhere I see that gets me things like "Jeffrey Dahmers in fiction" which isn;t right. How would I go about adding some sort of conditional switch where people adding the tag and type something into the template code to have a specific page title suggested? DreamGuy 21:21, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

View the source of templates that contain conditionals, like Template:Talkheader (source). Conditional templates use something called ParserFunctions. Good luck with figuring out the incredibly ugly syntax. --Teratornis 08:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

• This template is pretty large and it doesn't really add much to {{Cleanup-trivia}}. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:55, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Login problems

Last night I tried to login, and it said "Incorrect password entered" but I know for a fact I entered the right one, what could cause this problem? User:Blakebs 2:25, 28 April 2007 (CST)

I don't know, but WP:VPT is more likely to be able to answer your question. ··coelacan 19:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Perhaps your password is the same as your username. Accounts that have the same password as name are automatically blocked. You can contact a developer or someone else through the "contact us" link to the left to get the password reset. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:52, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

references

Should the citation in a story be like:
a) Jimbo is the founder of Wikipedia.
b) Jimbo is the founder of Wkipedia.

Thanks! Wǐkǐɧérṃǐť^{Talk to me} or _{learn something new!} 21:50, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The second version makes no sense. The term is "founder". Adrian M. H. 22:09, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I think Wikihermit is asking whether or not the citation should appear before or after the period. →EdGl 22:14, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

LOL. My mistake. Yes, I am asking whether or not the citation comes before or after. Wǐkǐɧérṃǐť^{Talk to me} or _{learn something new!} 22:38, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Found the answer for you: WP:CITE#Footnotes_come_after_punctuation (you don't even have to click the link to discover the answer!). Are you sure you read WP:CITE carefully? =) →EdGl 22:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Overlinking

I have come across a group of problem articles: List of Irish surnames starting with A, B, C, etc., where very single surname is linked. Most are redlinks, and the rest lead to unhelpful disambiguation pages. These pages will be difficult to fix. Is there a bot that can automatically remove all the interwiki links ("[[" and "]]") from these articles? Hopefully this can be easily fixed. →EdGl 22:13, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I really don't think there's much of a problem here. We've got a lot of red links on here. Most articles that are red link farms like this are usually good indications that it falls into WP:NOT, but I don't really think this is the case since a lot of these names could be encyclopedic topics (or good search topics). My first thought was that these lists should be converted into categories, but I'll leave that to some else to make that decision. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, well we have List of people by name and Lists of people by nationality, and this list doesn't seem to "fit" anywhere (both aforementioned lists only list famous/notable people, not every single surname for every nationality), so maybe these articles should be deleted (i mean, we don't have List of French surnames starting with A or any other nationality).

And I disagree that this isn't a problem. Links to disambiguation pages are problematic (all links should lead to the intended article. in fact, i came across these articles b/c i was disambiguating links to "rock"), and that many red links are unnecessary and ugly. →EdGl 23:53, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the best route to take is to redirect all to List_of_most_common_surnames#Ireland? →EdGl 23:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Web posting

Hi my name is Israel, I live in N.Y.C. I wanted to know if I can use photos and or information from Wikipedia.org to post on my website that is currently under construction. Thanks 69.119.41.187 22:15, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not own copyright on the content posted here. All content may be distributed in accordance with the GFDL. Please also see Mirrors and Forks. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:32, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Some images have other licenses attached. Just click the image and find out what rules are attached to it. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:49, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

RSS Feed for another User's Contribs?

Is there a way to set up an RSS Feed for your favorite users' contributions? I want to see when and what they are editing so I can join them. We write/contrib the articles in the same genre and it would be nice to know when they are active, ESPECIALLY with the watchlist BUGGED. How can I do this? Tkjazzer 22:28, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

At the moment, no. Wikipedia only has RSS feeds available for individual page histories, recent changes, new pages, and Spoken Wikipedia. See WP:RSS for more details. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:38, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How much longer until the watchlist is fixed

"are we there yet?" Sorry, I had to. lol. Tkjazzer 22:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Was it broken?--VectorPotential^Talk 22:30, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

It's working for me. Try clearing out your cache, maybe that will help? Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, MyWatchlist - I have articles I'm watching and I don't see a list of recent changes. I tried clearing my cache. Tkjazzer 22:37, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'd recommend posting a bug report on Bugzilla, then, if one hasn't been already. Sorry. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Sometimes the servers need some time to make your watchlist catch up. It will get fixed when the new equipment the foundation ordered gets installed. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:47, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Bruce Johnston, Sr.

There seems to be a lot of trouble with this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_johnston_sr As you can see,the name isn't capitalized in the title and the user has placed infobox:criminal, which I can't find. Any help? Thanks.

--Ispy1981 23:01, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

It looks like someone has moved the page for you. If ever you see an issue with an article's title, you can change the title by clicking the "move" link at the top of the page and following the directions there. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Making sure that you follow the advice at WP:MOVE in the process. Adrian M. H. 14:08, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

How??

How do you get the following to update?

Skitzouk 23:32, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

That is a template, which can be edited by going to Template:Leicester City F.C. Squad. →EdGl 23:39, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

If you mean how to update the display on a page that uses the template, then see WP:PURGE. PrimeHunter 17:46, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

creating a new page

where is the create page button. i cant create a new page or find the link that allows me to do so. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ned2710 (talk • contribs) 01:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Type in whatever the title is going to be and click "Go" (as opposed to Search). Then click the "create this page" link (in red). Make sure the article is within notability guidelines and that it adheres to WP:ATT. →EdGl 02:01, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Putting an article up for deletion that has already been nominated before

If an article has been nominated for deletion once before, how does one put it up for deletion again? Specifically, I'm asking about Cathy O'Brien. The previous result was "no consensus" and I believe it should be nominated again as the subject of the article is not notable, per the AfD for Arizona Wilder. I've looked around and can't find any instructions on how to do this. Thanks. SonOfGod 02:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If the article has been nominated for deletion before, use {{subst:afdx}} instead of {{subst:afd1}}. See Template:afdx for more details. Also, you may want to say more than per the AfD for Arizona Wilder, whether or not that is a valsid reason, people don't like to see an attempt to judge one article based on another (unless they are extremely similar articles). See WP:WAX. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 02:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

• Since when isn't this information in the information at WP:AFD anymore? There's info for a multiple nomination, but I suspect this is more common. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Libelous username =

User:I Will Shit On Jesus For 20 Bucks! has a very libelous name, I think it would be best for him to change it to a more correct name.Thank you.Trampton 04:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

In the future, you can report offensive user names at: Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. I went ahead and did it for you this time. Dismas|^(talk) 04:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

And less blatant violations can be discussed at WP:RFCN. ··coelacan 11:42, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Psuedonym policy

I want a clarification on the pseudonym policy. Can a pseudonym be used as an article name, particularly when there is no RS given. Thanks.Messiaindarain (talk) 05:55, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

April 29

Notability of students within school articles

I am searching for notability guidelines on school students. Basically - when school competitions (sports, debating etc) are mentioned within an article on a particular school, should individual students within those teams be mentioned? I would have thought this goes against WP:BIO, but I can't find any specific guideline on this issue. Cnwb 07:18, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If the school itself is notable, not everyone or everthing mentioned within the article need be separately notable. (See WP:N.) However, consider, will the mention still make sens in, say, five years time? If not, then it probably doesn't belong, IMO. 07:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

In the particular case I'm looking at, a user (who has a suspiciously similar username to one of the school debaters) keeps adding the names of the 2004 debating team. I have argued that this detracts from the conciseness and readability of the article, yet am unable to locate any firm guidelines to back up my argument. Cnwb 07:32, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

A somewhat similar guideline is WP:MEMORIAL; also see what WP:COI says about "vanity." If the debating team is notable enough to warrant its own article, which means if there are reliable sources which have published information about it, then the article could be similar to articles about professional sports franchises, some of which have rosters. --Teratornis 07:47, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Wait, wait, wait, wait. We don't do articles on individual school clubs or teams. You could write an article on every single high school football team for every year of existence, and source it to newspaper articles which would go into loving detail about every play in every game, but that doesn't make each school's football team notable. Unless the 2004 Nowhereseville High School Debating Team won an international competition, it surely fails notability, even if sourced. Besides, if you go down that path, why not 2004 Nowhereseville High School Debating Team Meet Against Somewheresville High School? Corvus cornix 20:27, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I find your assertion puzzling. Why wouldn't we want an article on every high school football team for every year of existence, if we could reliably source those articles? The value of Wikipedia is its comprehensiveness; WP:PAPER says:

• Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia. This means that there is no practical limit to the number of topics we can cover, or the total amount of content, other than verifiability and the other points presented on this page.

WP:NOTE says:

• Generally, a topic is notable if it has been the subject of coverage that is independent of the subject, reliable, and attributable. The depth of coverage and the quality of sources must be considered in determining the number of sources required and whether the coverage establishes notability.

If every high school football team had sufficient coverage in reliable sources to meet the above requirements, then we could write encyclopedically about all of them. The three content policies of Wikipedia are: no original research, verifiability, and neutral point of view. As far as I have been able to tell from reading the policy and guideline pages, notability is not a value in itself, but merely a means to the end of verifiability. That is, we require topics to be notable because that makes them more likely to be verifiable. "Notability" on Wikipedia looks to me like little more than a tautological shorthand for "reliably covered in sufficient depth." Wikipedia has lots of well-sourced articles on extremely obscure subjects that wouldn't seem "notable" (in the everyday sense) to more than a handful of people. That's what makes Wikipedia great.

Wikipedia is the world's most-viewed encyclopedia in large part because it is now the world's largest encyclopedia. The sheer number of articles causes Wikipedia to appear in a large fraction of Google searches. That draws more people to Wikipedia, increasing the number of people who can write about increasingly oddball yet well-sourced topics. Wikipedia is accreting content like a gas giant sucking asteroids down its gravity well. Where will it end? Ultimately, I envision Wikipedia becoming a comprensive guide to everything that can be reliably sourced. Of course my opinion carries no weight; this is merely my potentially fallible understanding of what is going on here. --Teratornis 02:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I'm working on the Westfield High School (Fairfax County, Virginia) article, which is currently undergoing revisions to earn Good status. Your question is quite an issue for me and some of my colleagues, becuase high schools rarely have anything that can be verified. The Westfield article uses metropolitan papers, local papers, websites, news annoucenments, and we're looking into using yearbooks, and school papers as sources. We have yet to get a definitive answer on these as appropriote sources however. The article has a great deal of rather specific information, and we were told that as long as its not W:OR and cited, its good. We have a question involving individual State Champions, as opposed to teams. There is simply no precedent for any of our questions, so we ended up being W:Bold. I recommend going to the School Wikiproject for further info, but they are somewhat unsure too. Zidel333 03:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

One possible strategy is to try to persuade some qualified journalists or authors to create reliable sources about the article subject. --Teratornis 00:39, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

New Article (Draft)

How do I start a new article without making it immediately accessible to everybody, i. e. how do I make a draft? --Hans555 07:24, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Start it as a user sub-page. For example, you could make a page like: User:Hans555/''Some title''. Either make a red link like that and click it to start editing, or go to Help:Starting a new page and type your user sub-page name in the form. You might want to make a section on your user page with links to all your user sub-pages, so you can keep track of them. A very large example of a user sub-page is here: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia. --Teratornis 07:42, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Make yourself a sandbox here User:Hans555/sandbox. Anything put there can still be seen by everyone else but no one will take any notice of it all the time it is on that page. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 07:43, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You might like to work on it offline as well as or instead of a sub-page. I use both methods with quite a few articles on the go at the moment. If you use Notepad, save using the UTF char-set to maintain Wiki-code. Adrian M. H. 14:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

PLEASE HELP ME!

My name is Babalooo not Babaloobabaloo. Mr, Golbez made a block on me for he feel I made a legal threat for I used 'file charges' not 'make complain'. It is on the Babalooo page. He took away the blocked, but I was not allowed to post. I got this big warning label." This account or IP address has been blocked from editing.You were blocked by Golbez for the following reason (see our blocking policy):Autoblocked because your IP address was recently used by "Babalooo". The reason given for Babalooo's block is: "Legal threat [1] I log out for a new cookie. I forgot to know my log in password and had no email on the order. I had to make a new name, but I want my name as Babalooo and my post count.. Please set it back the password to abcdef and I will make it new. I thank you to do this. Babalooobabalooo 07:34, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Project mentor...

I am interested in starting a project to create articles about Superfund sites; there are about 1200 sites. Where on Wikipedia would I go to enlist volunteers, find information on running a project, or find a mentor to help me run the project? Thank you. --Remi 07:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Is every Superfund site really notable? I just imagine 1200+ stub articles that could easily be grouped together in a list with a table noting dates that they were declared Superfund sites and such. Dismas|^(talk) 07:59, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Remi. I would suggest bringing it up at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Environment. A separate article for each might not be ideal (although I'm sure many sites already have articles, being already notable for other things besides pollution). But whether articles for every site, or some tables, or whatever, are best, WikiProject Environment might be able to help. ··coelacan 11:38, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Email encoding

Is there any way to encode email like <email>domain@domain.com</email> so that it can be converted into image. Saud Iqbal 08:50, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I saw this in aboutus.org —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Saudiqbal (talk • contribs) 08:49, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

There is nothing in the MediaWiki software that does this automatically. If you are trying to put your email address on your userpage as an image, you'll have to make the image in GIMP or some other program, and manually upload it. ··coelacan 11:40, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

This wouldn't completely obfuscate your email from text even if MediaWiki converted it to an image, since it would still be viewable as text in the edit window. If you want to try, though, check out the math formula setup - you could probably use that if you do it right. Nihiltres^(t.c.s) 19:41, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Proper photograph size

There is a photograph on the Fremont, Nebraska page which is overlapping with the city infobox as I view the page. What is the best solution to that problem, just shrink the picture or move the picture to a different portion of the article? DandyDan2007 09:29, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I'd move it. Shots like that are nice to have large enough to be able to tell what they are without having to go to the image page. Dismas|^(talk) 09:59, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I can not create a new account on sign in

I am having problems signing into a new account216.215.132.52 12:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC) I was told that I am entering an incorrect password 216.215.132.52 12:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC) HOW can this be corrected 216.215.132.52

Did you supply an email address when you registered the account? Maybe you made a spelling mistake when you put the password in on the registration page and now you're trying to use a different spelling. If you supplied an email address, then you can have the system send your password to you at that address. Also, it's only necessary to sign using the four tildes at the end of your message, not after every sentence. Dismas|^(talk) 12:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Template not working

Why is the {{Chicago Skyscrapers}} template swallowing up all other templates and stubs by incorporating them inside itself? TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 14:56, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It does seem to have more <div> tags than </nodiv> tags. Notinasnaid 14:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone know the <div> </div> syntax? TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 15:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I've fixed it, I believe. There were two missing </div> tags at the end of the template. Mike Dillon 15:27, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

To Tony the Tiger's second question: basically, they close in reverse order so that the divs are nested, and you can have any number of separate divs in succession, either within a parent div or not. A good tip for dealing with a lot of divs: add a comment next to each closing tag with the name of the div to which it applies, which helps to keep track of them. Adrian M. H. 15:36, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all the help. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 16:05, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Template transcluding where it shouldn't

The {{Sfd-t}} seems to be transcluding to every page the stub proposed for deletion is placed. It makes all such pages terribly confusing to the reader. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 15:09, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

From what I've seen with TfD, this in intentional. I think that the idea is to get a broader segment of users involved in the debates, especially non-technical people with an interest in the subject matter of the stub tag. Otherwise, these debates just continue to be dominated by XfD regulars who tend to want to delete everything. Mike Dillon 15:24, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

That's interesting. Thanks for the explanation. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 16:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Copyright term of engravings

How long is the copyright term for engravings in United States? Wooyi^{Talk, Editor review} 15:37, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Nobody is going to answer me? Wooyi^{Talk, Editor review} 18:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

It's the same as anything else subject to copyright. 1923 is generally the magic cut-off date; see Wikipedia:Public domain for details. Calliopejen1 20:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

userboxes

how do i make a userbox for my user page —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Captain-poison (talk • contribs) 16:48, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

See WP:BOX Adrian M. H. 17:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Account Creation

i cant create an account. When i try to create an account it asks for a name and password. Then it goes to another page and says the password is incorrect. I click on the button to email me a new password and i get a notice saying i dont have an email listed, which is true as there was no place to list an email address. can you help me to set up my account? thanks

I think you are using the wrong form. Try using this one to create your account. I hope that helps! -- lucasbfr ^talk 17:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Uncited statements

I am confused on why Wikipedia allows uncited sources to appear within entries, even if there is a "Citation Needed" note beside such a thing. It reminds me of those bad Hollywood courtroom scenes where a lawyer blurts out something for the jury to hear that is unfounded or prejudicial but gets away with it with a reprimand from the judge. (Too late, though, because the jury's already been tainted.) Just like that Hollywood jury, we humans reading entries with unsupported but disclaimed statements can't "unconsider" something that's been introduced that may very well be false.

Thank you. Brianmacian 18:00, 29 April 2007 (UTC) Brian

I think in general the thinking is that if someone adds an unsourced statement it's more likely right than wrong, and that hopefully it will eventually be cleaned up. (See meta:Eventualism for more on that.) It's easier to improve the article by retaining an unsourced statement so that someone can google it to see if it's true, than to just delete it entirely, because then the reader wouldn't even know to check. (Obviously, this depends on whether the reader knows what wikipedia is and how to use it. This is where your "unconsidering" analogy comes in--it only matters if someone is giving unsourced statements more weight than they deserve in the first place!) Note that if a statement looks particularly dubious, or has been marked as unsourced for some time, an editor will normally remove it. Calliopejen1 18:20, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I would rather tag an unsourced claim than delete it outright, assuming it is not patent nonsense, but the Great Leader says otherwise; see: WP:V#Further reading. --Teratornis 00:30, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

What do I do about an IP adress admiting to illegal activities?

On the LSD talk page, the IP address 209.247.22.130 kinda admitted to using and buying LSD twice a year, a Schedule 1 drug. He said he lives on the East coast, and I checked his IP info, It said this guy lives somewere in -, Connecticut. He could be lying but still... --ASDFGHJKL=Greatest Person Ever+Coolest Person Ever 18:09, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Don't do anything. It's not a confession of murder. ··coelacan 20:02, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think the police would probably care enough to investigate, considering that bragging anonymously on a discussion board isn't likely guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that tracking down the user would take some effort. If you really care, you could contact the relevant local law enforcement. Calliopejen1 20:07, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Right, if one feels like trying to get some unknown person imprisoned for many years over a victimless crime, if one could be proud with one's self for that. ··coelacan 20:38, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

How to start a new language of Wikipedia??

How to start a new language of Wikipedia??--Michael 02:49, 29 April 2007(HKT)

m:Requests for new languages. Instructions available there. x42bn6 Talk 19:44, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Delete to re-direct

Apologies for this newbie question, I'm sure the answer is in some policy or other but I havn't been able to find it. What is the correct procedure for the following: I would like to propose to replace an existing article with a re-direct to a second one, on the grounds that the first article contains major misunderstandings and its accurate content is covered by the second page. I'd put this up as an AfD or a proposed deletion except that the page doesn't need to be deleted. ((Specifically, the article to go is Anthropic bias, to be changed to a re-direct to Anthropic principle). I flagged the article {{totally-disputed}} a week ago but this has generated no defense). PaddyLeahy 19:22, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You can be bold and replace the page at Anthropic bias with

#REDIRECT [[Anthropic principle]]

Just click the edit button and paste it over the current content. (Normally for such a drastic change it might be advisable to ask other editors, but seeing as you have already done that, I think you should just go for it and make the redirect.) Best of luck! Calliopejen1 19:50, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

• From a technical point of view, it's very simple. Type the following at the top of the Anthropic bias:

#REDIRECT [[anthropic principle]]

and save the change. That's it.

I would caution you to check if there's some material worth merging into the target article. For example, I see three references in the "bias" article; they should probably appear in the "principle article" also. Good luck. YechielMan 19:59, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Tagging the article with {{totally-disputed}} might not get the attention of people who edited it. They would have to happen to browse to the article within the week you allowed. (I don't browse once a week to every article I have edited.) If you want to give potentially-interested parties more chance to be aware of your plan before you do it, you could check the article history, and leave messages on the user talk pages of major contributors. That way if they merely log in to Wikipedia, they will see the "you have new messages" box. --Teratornis 02:00, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

PLEASE HELP ME SOON

My name is Babalooo not Babaloobabaloo. Mr, Golbez made a block on me for he feel I made a legal threat for I used 'file charges' not 'make complain'. It is on the Babalooo page. He took away the blocked, but I was not allowed to post. I got this big warning label." This account or IP address has been blocked from editing.You were blocked by Golbez for the following reason (see our blocking policy):Autoblocked because your IP address was recently used by "Babalooo". The reason given for Babalooo's block is: "Legal threat [2] I log out for a new cookie. I forgot to know my log in password and had no email on the order. I had to make a new name, but I want my name as Babalooo and my post count and links. Please set it back the Babalooo password to abcdef and I will make it new password. I thank you to do this. Babalooobabalooo 19:41, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If you did not give wikipedia your email, I don't think you can have your password reset. I used to be user:calliopejen before, but I lost my password, so now I am user:calliopejen1. Sorry! :( Calliopejen1 19:57, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I have working my Babalooo name again! I am happy again. I thank you to take away the Babalooobabalooo name. Babalooo 21:56, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Arrangements

I have some queations. What should be the order of editing at the bottom of the page?

1. External links
2. Templates
3. Stub templates
4. Category
5. Other Language of this page

- OR - The Stub Template comes before Link Templates? Is there a page about the order? What about links to sister projects of Wikipedia (Wikiquote, Wikibook...)? Thanks. JOU46^{(Talk.Contrib)} 20:49, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

See the Manual of Style. Adrian M. H. 20:56, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, but I still dont understand, all I found was some grammar and Italics, can you tell me which section(s)? JOU46^{(Talk.Contrib)} 21:12, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Look carefully, and in Other Guidance in the link box, you will see Sections. Or follow the lead set by any Good Article. Adrian M. H. 21:46, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

See WP:LAYOUT. --Teratornis 00:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

is it just me, or...

.. is Portal:Rock and roll full of red links?

-Lauren^whisper 20:51, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

No, you're not imagining it. I checked the deletion log for a few of those links, but nothing came up. Vandalism is not at fault, because all the diffs are affected. So I can only assume that the intended content has not yet been created for some reason. Adrian M. H. 20:55, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that the recent move broke all the links to the content. The content is at Rock and Roll/blahblah, note the capital 'R', the links are all in the form Rock and roll/blahblah....S Sepp 20:57, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You'd think that whoever made the move would have checked for that or noticed it. Adrian M. H. 21:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I fixed it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't nuts. Lauren^whisper 21:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Uh oh, cut and paste move? That destroys the edit history, you're not really supposed to do that, see WP:Move. You're supposed to use the button next to 'history' to move. S Sepp 21:19, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

forgotten user name

to admin or whom it may concern; i have lost my old username and password due to a severe cause,my email adress is <email removed> or <email removed>,the last thing i can remember is that my username was somewhat includes the word "shankha".please email my username & password to me.

                                                                          thanks;

Shankha Suvra De —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.2.2.243 (talk) 21:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Did you enter an email when you signed up with the account? If so, you can have a new password emailed to you (see this). If not, you're out of luck. You can always sign up for a new account. —Mitaphane _?|! 22:31, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Editing mistake

Hi, I may have inadvertently vandalized the AfD page ([3] while removing an entry that contained hateful and libelous statements. See my edit: 19:48, 29 April 2007 (hist) (diff) Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2007 April 29 (I am deleting the John C. A. Bambenek Deletion log because of its hateful and libelous content.) As a consequence the entries Internet Storm Center and Blogcritics have disappeared from the AfD page leaving dead links between 92. Never forget 93 August H. Auer Jr. I thought an admin would quickly notce the problem and fix it, but some time has passed and so I am asking for help to fix the problem that I have caused. Stammer 21:44, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I restored the deleted AFDs listed by Mattgladney, but appears as if the AFDs weren't fully completed (user didn't list create nomination page). If he wishs to bring up the AFD again he can. But looking at the user history, I'm a bit skeptical of his intentions (his only edits are related to AFDs) —Mitaphane _?|! 22:47, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

April 30

Wikicode annoyance: specifying whitespace in code without rendering in the page or (without using nowiki)

Is there a way to include whitespace inside the wikicode itself without it

   showing up in the final rendering of the output?

Such as above? The rationale: sometimes it makes it easier to read the raw wikicode if you can space it out a little bit. dr.ef.tymac 01:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, just add <nowiki></nowiki> tags before and after the code. Of course, this would be a problem if you had other wiki-format in between the tags (such as an internal link using "[[" and "]]"). →EdGl 01:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I knew I should have said in my original question "oh, by the way, nowiki is not adequate" (for the reasons you indicate) ... but I didn't ... oh well, now I am. ... anyone know a solution *besides* nowiki? dr.ef.tymac 01:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I've noticed while mixing some HTML tags in with wikitext that sometimes the normal "every leading space matters" rule seems to relax. For example, this code:

<ul>
  <li>This is some text.
      Notice that I have some freedom
      to space it as I please.</li>
</ul>

renders as:

• This is some text. Notice that I have some freedom to space it as I please.

You can also get the MediaWiki parser to ignore leading spaces if you put text in a <blockquote> tag, and you can remove the indents with CSS style parameters, I think. If you monkey around with other HTML tags and style them, you might get the effect you want. But I don't know that it would be easier for other people to edit (since the extra tags might create more ways to break things). --Teratornis 01:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the old "simplicity versus flexibility" trade-off. What I am trying to do is standardize the items in a list article, so your suggestion might be the perfect solution. Thanks. dr.ef.tymac 01:59, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Of course, that doesn't fix the annoyance when attempting spacing out "ref" tags ... :( dr.ef.tymac 02:02, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Can anyone tell me what happened to "list of advertising cliches" article?

n/t. dr.ef.tymac 04:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Due to a large amount of unsourced information it was trimmed down to it's lead section and merged into Advertising. It's history can be seen here. --LaraLove^Talk/_Contribs 05:51, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Deleted Page Recreated

John Taylor Bowles has been recreated even after it was voted to be deleted in late Feburary (I myself voted in it's Deletion Review). What is the procedure for when this happens? Has the article in question been allowed to be recreated? Cheers. Zidel333 04:13, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You can put a speedy delete tag on it. See WP:SPEEDY, General criteria #4. Dismas|^(talk) 04:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, I've already done what was suggested. Zidel333 04:30, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Trouble logging in

I cannot log in. My user name is DataGeek1.

My email is DO NOT WRITE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HERE! or you will be invaded by spam 15:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks,

Dave

69.209.198.203 04:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If you gave an email address when you set up your account, you can get a new password sent to that address. Skittle 15:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Sidebar printing

How do i print just the bar on the side of the screen. I want to print just the bar on the side of the screen for the War on Terrorism page. Below is the source for this. Please delete it if it takes up too much room. Thank you very much for any help.

You could put the source code on your userpage, click printable version on the toolbar on the LHS of the screen then print from there. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 05:02, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

How to ask help about verrifying an hoax

Sometimes during an anti vandalism patrol using VP I encounter some... strange edit to say the least, from anonymous user, that report really odd fact, but that could possibly have been true. In those case how can I do to get some help about verrifying the hoax (if the allmighty google don't give me anything about it). Remove then watch if it is reposted later ? Revert then ask on talk page a rationale or source ? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Esurnir (talk • contribs) 05:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Mostly it's a matter of taste. If it's something that looks fairly innocuous, it might be enough to put {{fact}} next to it, but if it looks likely to cause some BLP problems or similar, then yes reverting and asking for a source is probably a good plan. Confusing Manifestation 06:32, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Impartiality

How do I question the imparciality of an article, or any other shortcomming thereof, without editing it?

If the point of view is hideously non-neutral (see WP:NPOV), add {{POV}} to the top of the article and explain your concerns on the Talk page. If the article just doesn't quite seem to pass Raul's Razor (Rule #13 on the list), then it's probably enough to voice your concerns on the Talk page. It helps if you have some evidence backing up your assertion that the article isn't neutral. For other possible shortcomings, such as uncited statements etc, again the Talk page is often the way to go, and there are also some other boilerplates you can put up at Wikipedia:Template messages. Confusing Manifestation 06:32, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yearbook a valid reference?

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but just in case... for an article of a high school, is it acceptable to use the school yearbooks as references for information? --LaraLove^Talk/_Contribs 06:00, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

They are published for the general academic community for the schools by a publisher that specializes in yearbooks. The yearbooks in question are considered to be some of the top of the their field (per competition). Zidel333 15:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Are yearbooks "published" in a real sense? That is, could anyone in the world readily buy that yearbook, and will they be able to (perhaps finding it used) in years to come? Notinasnaid 06:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes. It's the published ones. It's for a GA/n I've put on hold. The question was brought to me, but I'm not sure. I would assume it would be, but I don't know how easily one can order an archived yearbook. I'll have them check with the publisher. Thanks. --LaraLove^Talk/_Contribs 15:27, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

wikipedia copyrights

hello, i am working in a company developing educational materials. i would like to use some wikipedia entries for one of our lesson plans, mostly short biographies of historical characters. i would like to upload my lesson plan and the wikipedia bios to my company website, adding wikipedia references when needed, as people usually do when they quote from a reference material. am i allowed to quote wikipedia in my company website, or is there a copyright that forbids me to do so? i couldn't find wikipedia policy in this regard. thank you for your help, 192.117.182.168 07:39, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is licenced under the GFDL. If you're planning to reuse it, you probably want to read (or ask your lawyers to read) the full legal details of Wikipedia's copyright. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that if what you want to do is reupload Wikipedia's material verbatim, you need to also upload a copy of the licence under which the material is licenced (which I've linked above), and provide a method to access the page history (see the 'history' tab), as well as mention on the page what licence it's licenced under and give links for the history. See Wikipedia:Copyrights#Reusers' rights and obligations for the Wikipedia policy involved, and Wikipedia:Verbatim copying for an essay about reusing Wikipedia's content. --ais523 07:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

User can't log-in

Have been a registered user on Wikipedia for over a year, but the sign in page is telling me that my password is incorrect even thought I haven't changed it. What do I do to change it? User:Escaper7 132.185.240.122 10:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If you have your email enabled, you can click on a link asking Wikipedia to email you a new password. ElinorD (talk) 10:58, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Your password's probably the same as your username; all such usernames were blocked by developers recently to prevent them being compromised. As you haven't set (or possibly haven't confirmed) an email address (which would be needed to recover your password), your options are to create a new account or to persuade a developer to give you back access to the old one. (The developers are quite busy; in addition, they won't reset an account without uncontrovertable proof that you own it, and if your password is your username everyone knows it now, so it can't be used as proof. You're probably better off creating a new account.) --ais523 11:01, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Don't really want to create a new account, so how do I go about asking to to access my existing account? Short of that, I think I'll probably give Wikipedia up as ll my editing history, comments and discussions will be lost. If it's supposed to be so easy for anyone to edit, why is it the case that someone who goes to such efforts to register is effectively treated the same as someone with a permanent block ie for vandalism. If a password needs to be changed, why no warning or prompt? User:Escaper 7132.185.240.120 11:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC) BTW, doesn't having a second account then make me a sockpuppet or something? 132.185.240.122 11:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Alternate accounts are allowed as long as they're not used for purposes like double-voting; see WP:SOCK. The last person who had the same problem as you emailed a developer (brion at wikimedia.org, in particular); they could prove their identity by using their account on the Italian Wikipedia (which had an email set), but you haven't linked to any other-language accounts on your userpage so I'm not sure if this method is open to you. The reason for the block, I think, was that a vandal was guessing the passwords of established accounts and using them for vandalism; this was done at the technical level, and has nothing to do with most Wikipedia users (this is way above what administrators can manage). --ais523 11:17, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If you can prove who you are somehow, perhaps a checkuser? You could go to requests for change name, and have them rename your account, which would effectively mean that your username and password wouldn't be same anymore. The problem with that is now everyone here knows what your password is, so the chances of your account becoming compromised might be too high, therefore a bureaucrat might reject the request. But you can try anyway if you think it might work. Alternatively you could use a checkuser to prove who you are, and they might be willing to change your password for you, if you do this through email --VectorPotential^Talk 13:34, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

problems with image sizes

Hi, the images I have had added to my various pages have gone a bit weird and resized themselves to original sizes. For example on my user page I have used the code

[[Image:Sydney_harbour_bridge_dawn.jpg|right|thumb|150px| frame|Photos I have contributed - The bridge just after sunrise (with no boats on the harbour)]]

which has for a long time shrunk a large photo to an acceptable size, for some reason (in the past month perhaps) stopped shrinking the photo..

Does anyone know why? Thanks in advance for your help!!

Cheers Actuarial disco boy 11:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you're supposed to use both 'thumb' and 'frame'. Try using just one or the other; at least one of them will probably work. (The meaning of one of those words changed recently, but I can't remember which.) --ais523 13:30, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Excellent - it worked, thanks for that !!!!!! Actuarial disco boy 19:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Old messages -- supposedly to me (critical)

Hello, I just signed up for Wikipedia. I have made one comment on one subject - "Junk DNA" (made last week, when I signed up for an account). I made some comments on the talk page, not an actual edit.

When I look up an article I am notified I have messages waiting. When I view them there are several criticisms from 2006 that say I was guilty of invalid comments, and other bad behavior, when I tried to edit articles which I don't think I ever even viewed, let alone edited.

I want to participate in Wikipedia according to the rules and I try to use a sensible, constructive approach. I certainly don't mind it if others write comments about my actual comments, etc.

Is there some way to clean this out so I can start with a clean slate and I can get accurate feedback in the future, if and when needed?

Also, if there is a case of mistaken identity, can you correct it?

Thanks, Martin Denker 13:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I suspect the messages that you saw were seen by you while you weren't logged in. When a user isn't logged in, Wikipedia has only their IP address to use to determine who they are and send warnings and messages. So the warnings probably went not to you, but to someone with a similar Internet connection (for instance, someone who uses the same ISP as you if you're at home, or someone at the same workplace or school). There are no warnings on your username talk page; while logged in, you should be able to avoid irrelevant messages. Hope that helps! --ais523 13:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

List of Extensions used by Wikipedia

Where can I find a page that lists the extensions used by Wikipedia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.190.205.92 (talk) 14:26, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

If you're referring to MediaWiki extensions, see Special:Version. --ais523 14:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes .. this information is very helpful. Thanks!

Finding name of pro who taught tennis at Armory on Chicago's north side in 1960s

That's the info I seek. His first name was George. He was Irish. He said he had been a world champion in amateur competitions - in the 1920s or 1930s, I guess. Anyone know? How would I find out? Rhsnew 14:36, 30 April 2007 (UTC)§

Try asking at the Wikipedia:Reference desk; this page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. -SpuriousQ (talk) 14:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Vandalistic redirect - cannot figure out how to fix it

User:Moironen has decided to redirect Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted? to DOMINATION BLACK. The history at the redirect shows only his edit, so how can it be reverted? He had already vandalised the page by replacing all its content, then made this redirect while I was reverting his vandalism. Can anyone help to sort this out? Adrian M. H. 14:42, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it was a move rather than creating a redirect, and the history moved with the page. I've deleted the redirect (an admin power) and moved it back and then deleted the redirect that move created. RJFJR 14:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

And I've move-protected the page (another admin power) to prevent this happening again. --ais523 14:51, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your assistance. Adrian M. H. 14:53, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I need wikipedia

is it ok for me to copy an article and put it on my own site if i state that it is from wikipedia and put a web link to that page from my site? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.193.19.136 (talk) 15:41, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

See WP:GFDL. The link is also in the footer of each page. Adrian M. H. 16:26, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

User:Namcorules - I appear to have forgotten my password, or somebody has changed it

I am User:Namcorules, editing Wikipedia with an IP account because somebody appears to have changed my password, or I have just forgotten it. I don't have an email address, so if I have just forgotten it and somebody who has direct access to the database is reading this, could they please retrieve it for me? Namcorules 16:45, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, retrieving passwords is not possible. If you don't know your password and didn't set an e-mail address, you can register a new account. Notinasnaid 15:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• If you choose your password to be the same as your username, it has been blocked automatically. In that case, contact a Developer for assistence. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:11, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

HowToOpenThings is a valid entry

HowToOpenThings is marked as a questionable entry. It is a new business that belongs in Wikipedia as much as any other Web base business. Perhaps you marked this entry becuase I created the Wiki entry before the site launched. We launched last week, so can we have the HowToOpenThings entry removed from the 'questionable' content category?

Check the page, I've added press releases about the site, blog entries from others, etc.

Thanks

Rien Heald co-found, HowToOpenThings (Removed e-mail address as noted above). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Howtoopenthings (talk • contribs)

New businesses do not belong in Wikipedia, nor do established businesses, unless they are notable. Wikipedia is not a business directory. For the criteria we use, see Wikipedia:Notability. Have their been multiple non-trivial newspaper articles about your business for example? If so, the article needs to give them. The article, in other words, has to prove that the business is notable. Blogs do not count at all, and press releases, while they are useful as references, don't prove notability. In addition you should never create an article on your own business or one you are connected with. If a business is notable, in time other people will do this, perhaps after some years. I hope this helps you understand why your article may be deleted. Notinasnaid 16:27, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Does it pass notability standards for companies? As you'll see from those links, it requires that a subject be covered in multiple, independent, reliable sources. There is also the obvious conflict of interest involved when you create an article about your own company. Adrian M. H. 16:31, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Data-driven list article (e.g., List of advertising slogans from a central table)

After having done a considerable bit of tedious tinkering and re-organization of List of advertising slogans (which probably no one really cares about anyway) it occurs to me that maintaining this content would probably be *much* easier if the entire list could be stored in a single, central "table" somewhere, and the separate articles generated from the table, instead of editing them and separating them all by hand.

So for example, the central table could have the following fields:

   slogan_category ;; slogan_text ;; slogan_company ;; slogan_years ;; ad_agency ;; notes

and then a page could be generated by transcluding subsections from the table based on category:

   
    {{SloganTable|FoodCategory,FashionCategory}}
    

I'm sure it is not feasible to allow WP contributors to edit a database table but is there a way to do this using just transclusion and a central 'flat file database' (xml or whatever)? This would make managing the content much easier. Thoughts? Comments? dr.ef.tymac 16:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

What you want is a structured wiki which MediaWiki is not (see TWiki for what you're missing). There are many situations where structured wiki features would come in handy, so the topic comes up often. --Teratornis 23:51, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

hgdkhkdgjgfjgfjhgj

How do you know the autor of a wikipedia page? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BEWARE of kristin (talk • contribs) 17:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia. Or view the very first entry in the history if you want to find out who created an article. Adrian M. H. 17:31, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• If you want to know the author because you need to cite a page, please use the "cite this page" link on the left instead. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:08, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Adjusting the value produced by a template variable

I was thinking about adding the local time (which is currently 1 hour ahead of UTC) to my user page. Is it possible to add 1 hour to the value produced by the {{CURRENTHOUR}} template variable by adding something to the transclusion, ie: {{CURRENTHOUR|+1}} or something like that? Or is that a feature that has to be already present in the template itself? I'd be quite happy to make my own if that's the case. Adrian M. H. 17:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• You might be interested in m:ParserFunctions, towards the bottom of the page, not quite what you're looking for, but it will do what you want it to, if you play around with it enough--VectorPotential^Talk 20:20, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for that. Looks promising. I'll study it in depth when I have more time. Adrian M. H. 20:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Interwiki transclusion

Is it possible to transclude pages from another Wikipedia or Wikimedia project? Specifically, I would like to transclude pages in my Wikimedia Commons user space into parts of pages in my user space here, using links like {{:commons:User:Seattle Skier/Images}} or {{commons:User:Seattle Skier/Images}}. I have tested those links already, they do not work (nothing is transcluded).

I have read Wikipedia:Transclusion, Wikipedia:Sister projects, and Wikipedia:Interwikimedia link, and can not find the answer. Thanks for your help. --Seattle Skier (See talk tierS) 18:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• I don't think it's possible. Suppose you want to transclude a page from an obscure project. If it gets vandalized, we here at en-wikipedia can't do anything short of deleting the page to fix things. Particularly with small projects it can take quite some time to get a local admin to jump in. I think the inability to transclude between projects is a security measure. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:07, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki has the feature; see: mw:Manual:$wgEnableScaryTranscluding. However, I am pretty sure this feature is disabled on Wikipedia, for the reasons Mgm states. --Teratornis 23:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

wikitionary template?

hello, i am trying to find a template i think i came across once. it states that a section is better moved to wikitionary, or something of that sort. does it sound familiar to anybody? thanks, trespassers william 18:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I haven't checked through them all, but you might find it here: Wikipedia:Sister projects. Adrian M. H. 19:04, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I think you mean Template:Copy_to_Wiktionary. I found it quickly by searching for wiktionary at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup. S Sepp 19:27, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

That one is listed in the second section of my earlier link. It looks like the one that you need. Adrian M. H. 19:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yep, i suppose it is. and the cleanup list is useful too. thank you both. trespassers william 19:53, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Email question

The E Mail address you gave me was [removed] however it stses that this does not exist.Have copied and pasted from your E Mail so cannot uderstand -John Forsyth, secondary E Mail address is [removed] 82.39.129.48 19:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Using wiki for coursework

I'm currently working on some biology coursework. I've managed to get some information from Wiki which I can use in my coursework. However - my problem is this - at the end of my c/w I need to give references for information which I have gained (much like Wiki articles) - when using Wiki articles for information, do I need to reference to Wiki...or do I need to specifically reference to the sources from which information in the Wiki article is gained? In other words, do I reference wiki, or do I reference the sources which are found at the bottom of the Wiki article?

88.105.187.51 19:45, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• You should ask your teacher. They may say (a) cite Wikipedia, that's fine: if so use the "Cite this article" link at the left of the article or (b) you may not cite Wikipedia: if so, you must use the original references. That means reading them, not just copying the citations. So teachers will remove some or all marks for Wikipedia use, so don't guess! Notinasnaid 19:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• • Ok, thanks...that's helped!

88.105.187.51 19:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Batch changes

I know this can be a controversial operation, but is it possible to perform batch edits across the Wikipedia corpus?

I specifically would like to replace all instances of the annoying "is comprised of" with "comprises", and there should be no exceptions. Is there an easy way to do this?

Thanks Steven 20:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

• Actually, in some cases "consists of" might be a better substitute. You can ask the creator of User:Humanbot to jump in, but I suspectthere's already another bot in operation suitable for such a task. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:04, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

In fact, to say that "X is coprised of Y" is to give a list of ingedients or subdivisions Y which togehter make up X, while to say "X comprises Y" is to say that all Y are included in X, but does not inmply that the list is complete. In any case, making pruely stylistic changes en masse across the whole project ought to at least have the support of a reccomendation in the Manual of Style and even then might well be considered controversial. Bots should not be sued for controversial tasks, IMO. (Personally i find the form "X comprises Y" far more akward ans annoying than "X is comprised of Y"). If revert wars are bad, bot wars would be unthinkable, so please don't do this without obtaining consensus at the MOS page first. DES ^(talk) 21:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Vertical Line

How do I get a vertical line in my article? Please respond fondly, Meldshal42 20:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

• You mean this one? "|". There's a box below the edit screen, the second item in wiki markup is this symbol, it's called the pipe and it's also on your keyboard. On some keyboards it's shown as having a break in the middle, but it's the same one. _ Mgm|^(talk) 21:01, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thnak you so, so much!Meldshal42 21:43, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Airco DH.6

I uploaded a picture to complement this article - on closer inspection I realised that the picure of the aircraft concerned is a mirror image (note the number on the tail). When I tried to resubmit a corrected version of the file (identical except for being "flipped" round the right way) it seemed to accept the new version but still displays it reversed!

Please either fix this or advise me how to do it - I cannot delete the existing file of course.

Soundofmusicals 22:02, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Now it's gone and corrected itself, I think - all I needed was patience!!!

Soundofmusicals 22:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Adminship

Hi. I had a question about adminship? How do you apply for it? Thanks Meldshal42

See Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. PrimeHunter 22:08, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.  Meldshal42.

No such section

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This is a talk page. Please respect the talk page guidelines, and remember to sign your posts using four tildes (~~~~).

You tried to edit a section that doesn't exist. Since there is no section 21, there's no place to save your edit.

Return to Main Page.

I got this funky error on a page with 21 edit sections and I tried to edit the 20th & the 21st. The talk page in question is, (Talk:List of Warriors characters). Regards, «razorclaw» 22:32, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I've seen that before when I clicked a section edit link on an instance of a page that had been sitting in my browser for a while, and sometime after I had downloaded that page from the server, someone else had deleted some sections from the page. Thus the number of the section I was trying to edit had actually been reduced to a smaller value by the deletion, but the section edit link I clicked referred to the original larger number. The solution is to refresh the page in your browser; if that does not help, try purging. --Teratornis 23:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. In this case, the problem was that someone had put in a section header with text on the same line, and this seemed to screw up the section formatting, there were a few other formamttign errors, which i also fixed -- no content changes made. DES ^(talk) 23:41, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

James Bond Girls

What has happened to the categories of "Actresses who played Bond Girls" ? and "James Bond Cast Members" ?

These were extremely useful categories but they seem to have disappeared.

Is there anything to replace them ?

--Tovojolo 22:50, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

There is List of actresses who portrayed Bond girls but it looks like its up for deletion. You could also check out Bond Girl for list of actresses who have been bond girls. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:10, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

front page html

How come all the side bars are at the end of the page now??? This is a real problem, I don't like scrolling down - or using a hyper link to get to the search function. PLease revert to the original front page! JP MacDonald —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 142.68.171.60 (talk) 22:59, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Which version of Wikipedia are you using? Lemonflash(Talk)

Editing

Where do I go to make a new contribution? Amartin26 23:37, 30 April 2007 (UTC) Amartin26

That question is, "Where do I not go?" You've made one contribution here already - that edit of yours. I tend to go to Random article to look for stuff. Or you can clean up a requested article - loads of things to do. Wikipedia:Community Portal might give you ideas. x42bn6 Talk 23:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

How do I report a user?

How to I report this user to get him banned or something? What he does is he's replacing articles with things like "my butt" and so on... Is there any warning-template I can use or something? - Aki 23:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Post the user's name on WP:AIAV. Make sure you warned him/her first. BuickCenturydriver (Honk, contribs) 23:58, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

(EDIT CONFLICT)

Can you tell us who is doing this to you? Here are some warning templates for vandals [4]. If you need to report someone for blatant and persistent vandalism, use WP:AIV otherwise post a message to WP:ANI. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 23:59, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

May 1

Free Death Certificate Information

Can Wikipedia direct me to a site whereby I can obtain a Death Certificate of my deceased father who resided in Santa cruz NM?

mozart29@verizon.net