Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 10

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[edit] Archive of past questions

Contents

[edit] Problems with underlined texts(i.e. hyperlinks)

I am using Mozilla Firefox v 1.oPR. Whenever I access any Wikipedia page, the text and the underlines ovelap, making it difficult to read the letters such as capitalized L. And I found this problem exists when I use Mono Book skin. In other skins, it worked fine. And I tried with MS Internet Explorer, and the display was fine.

But I really like to use Mono Book. Is there any way to use Mono Book skin without having to decode the overlapped texts?

Hi; it seems you're not the only one to have this problem, but I can't seem to reproduce it myself. Clear your cache, and if the problem's still there, perhaps you could give some more details: What version of Windows/MacOS are you using? Does anything other than the skin make a difference (e.g. logging in/out)? - IMSoP 17:45, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] subst:vfd versus vfd

When nominating a page for deletion, some of the documentation says to put "vfd" (in double braces {{}}) at the top of the nominated page, and some says to put "subst:vfd" at the top of the page. So which is it, or does it not matter?

(Also it seems hard to find the documentation of "subst" -- where is the easiest place to look? I eventually found it by crawling around wikimedia.org.) -R. S. Shaw 22:05, 2004 Oct 16 (UTC)

If you put 'subst' in front, then the text from the template is copied into the article. Without the subst, the text is reconstituted from the template each time it is rendered. I prefer the latter, because if the template changes, then each view of the article will reflect the change. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 23:01, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • Right. But the question is, which for "vfd"? There is much mention of using "subst:" for vfd. I've just found this discussion on it: Template_talk:VfDFooter. That doesn't really clear it up. Is it just an ongoing debate?

[edit] Something is seriously screwy with WP's cache

I keep finding articles that I've added to (or someone else added to) and find that the last change isn't updated in the current revision. I have to manually purge the page to view the changes. The latest article this happened on was in Strathfield. Also has happened on my userpage and on WP:RFA. Anyone know what's wrong here? - Ta bu shi da yu 03:12, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It's been going on for some time. I've posted about it here over the weeks. Sometimes it lasts for a few minutes, other times for a few hours. I've noticed that the changes will eventually appear, though. --Viriditas 09:37, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I registered this username, and now it doesn't seem to register... I wonder if it has something to do with this. If my name is still red later, and someone knows why, could you explain? (regimeoftruth@hotmail.com)- regimeoftruth 08:00, 10 Nov 2004 (EST, USA)
It's registered. The reason why it's red is because you haven't added any content. Just click on: User:regimeoftruth and enter some text, then save. Paul August 15:05, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Another history merge

Requesting that radio frequency interference and its history be merged back into electromagnetic interference, which has twice as many hits on Google, and covers the fact that RFI is only one type of EMI. Thanks again.   –radiojon 03:54, 2004 Oct 17 (UTC)

Given that the RFI article just got written, you should discuss this with the author first. History merges are near-irreversible (requires a developer to undo), and this isn't a clear-cut case like copy/paste page moves. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:37, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

hayul ahmedhayul ahmedhayul ahmedhayul ahmedhayul ahmed

[edit] "DE" Link

Someone put a link at the bottom of an article I'd written, Julia Stiles, that was "de" followed by the title of the article. Is this a link to the German language edition of Wikipedia? If someone searched for this article in the German edition, would they be redirected to this page? Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 19:28, Oct 18, 2004 (UTC)

It is the German Wikipedia entry for Julia Stiles (love that girl). On the left side of the screen, pages often say "in other languages". Your Julia Stiles page now has Deutsch as one of those opinions, so if someone wants to read about Julia in German, they can click there. Skyler 19:42, Oct 18, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Project Liberty Ship copyvio

I am the author and owner of material, Project Liberty Ship, that was flagged for copyright violation. How do I get the page reinstated? Oldfarm 03:59, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've done it for you, but for future reference. You add a note to the talk page explaining thatbyou are the copyright owner, then you go to the page history, click on your previous version, click "edit this page" ( ignore the warning) then save. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 08:17, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for info Oldfarm 14:42, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] How do I filter out my changes from my watchlist?

Most of the changes on my watchlist are my own. How can I make my watchlist only list other people's changes? JesseW 06:57, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't think that's possible. There is no such option on the preferences page, neither on the watchlist page. — Kieff | Talk 07:19, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)
Ok. I'll hack up a bookmarklet and post that. Sigh. Hopefully it'll be easier than the last one I tried to make, which is 95% done and stuck. JesseW 08:21, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Amazingly enough, this one actually gelled. It is available on my User page: User:JesseW#Bookmarklet. Enjoy it, and feel free to make improved versions! JesseW 09:26, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
That's pretty nice. I'm now using it. Thanks. - MattTM 10:55, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)
I'm so glad you like it! It's great to know it's being used by people. JesseW 04:43, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
How do you invoke this script? Paul August 03:28, Oct 20, 2004 (UTC)
Make a bookmark whose location is the text of the script. See bookmarklet, including the external links. Tell me on my Talk page if you have any trouble. JesseW 04:43, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Need an image removed.

I uploaded an image today for my User page, one which proved to be darker displayed on a web page than in Photoshop. I lightened it, then uploaded the same image with another name. How do I get the attention of a Sysop to facilitate removal of the first one?--NathanHawking 08:08, 2004 Oct 19 (UTC)

I've done it for you, but for future reference don't change the name. The new image will then replace the old one (you may need to refresh the page by pressing F5 in order to actually see the change) You can then go to the image info page and delete the old image yourself.(You need to be an admin to delete all versions of an image but anyone can delete old versions). Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 08:22, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, TK. I think I refreshed the pages, but failing to do that may have been why the images didn't seem different. Thanks for cleaning out the deadwood!--NathanHawking 08:48, 2004 Oct 19 (UTC)

[edit] Slowdown

Hi.

1:44 am. Oct. 20, Pacific Coast Time. Your site has slowed down over the last several days to the point where it is virtually unusable. This saddens me, because I love Wikipedia. I don't know if there is an answer, but if there is, I am dick@dickhindman.com.

Thank you.

Dick HIndman

Yes, I've noticed the slowdowns at this time as well. --Viriditas 09:25, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It seems too much people love and use Wikipedia, every day. Our traffic is steadily increasing, even from week to week; we have lots of servers now, and will eventually acquire even more. Sometimes, our volunteer developers and tech guys can't help downtime or slowness -- often the slowness is a better alternative to closing down the site for a short time span. We are always working to keep wikipedia usable and speedy -- but on a volunteer basis. ✏ Sverdrup 17:54, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Mp3 files on Wikipedia

I have been editing the files for The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, specifically the Regimental Insignia, of which I have created jpg's. I would like to improve the entry where it lists our regimental march. Is it possible to upload an mp3 file to enable people to hear it whilst online, if so how. - Anon

See Wikipedia:Sound. Mp3's cannot be used, but other sound file formats can to some extent. Skyler 15:35, Oct 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting templates

Do templates use VfD or is there another place to list them? Template:War is unused and quite POV, and should be deleted as a matter of housecleaning. Isomorphic 16:18, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Templates should go to Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. - 16:24, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)

[edit] Bibliography

Hi, I'm doing a bibliography on this site. My search was on about 'Bali'.

I need:

-author's surname, initials
-(year)
-Publisher
-Place of publication

Thank you!

P.S: If you feel untrustworthy about me needing a bibliography, don't hestiate to contact me. I'm doing this for my Bali assignment.

Ye Ji Kang

yeji_93@hotmail.com or mashimaro93@gmail.com

[edit] Kindly change my username

Kindly change my username from "Rajasekaran Deepak" to "R. Deepak". --Rajasekaran Deepak 09:56, 2004 Oct 21 (UTC)

Please go to Wikipedia:Changing_username and follow the instructions. --Viriditas 10:10, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Marriage?

What do we do with marriages here? Say, for example, Patrick Stewart marries Emma Bunton, and she changes her name to Emma Stewart, do we move Emma Bunton to Emma Stewart, or leave it as it is? Also, when referring to a person post-marriage (that is, say they got married in 2003, and I'm talking about them in 2004) would I refer to Emma Bunton as EB or ES? Many thanks. - Vague Rant 10:06, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

Most notable people tend to stick with one name, regardless of who they marry or divorce. So, it's really not a problem. However, if the problem does arise, you just go with the name the person uses in public, which for publicity reasons is unlikely to change anyway. I think there is a precedent for using legal names in the article itself, and for redirecting article titles to the common, notable name. See Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (pseudonyms). But, I could be wrong. --Viriditas 10:27, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I suppose we'd add redirects. In your example, Emma Bunton would still be known under that name by a lot of people because of her career. If people saw, for example, the Spice girls movie and wanted info on her, we need the old name to point them to the current article. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 10:51, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)
Right, that's what I did with Heather Mills a while ago. It now redirects to Heather Mills McCartney. But then I started to wonder if I'd done the right thing. But I figure, her domain name has been updated to http://www.heathermillsmccartney.com/, so she's probably pretty sure about wanting to be called a McCartney, and most likely legally so, also. - Vague Rant 11:39, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Where do you find the author of an article?

[no text here]

Any article has many authors - you can see who has worked on an article by viewing the Page history. If you're wondering how to add a citation or reference to a Wikipedia article (e.g. in an essay), please see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. - IMSoP 22:41, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Edits not showing up in contributions list

I've just noticed that the edits I've made today aren't showing up on "my contributions" (yes, I was logged in when I made them). The changes do however show up in the history of the articles. Is this a regular event or a one off? Thanks --Roisterer 21:48, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This has been mentioned by other users on the mailing list, as well. I assume it is some sort of glitch with the server or with the Wikipedia software. I've had the same problem myself a couple of times, though, except I was not seeing the edits on my watchlist. I found that if I reload once or twice, the new page shows up. It seems like some sort of caching error. Skyler1534 22:10, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)
Interestingly, I just checked then & found my edits included. I guessed it may have been server lag or similar. --Roisterer 22:32, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wrong Author Link!

Hello. Under your BattleTech universe material, you list most of the authors and artists attached to the world building. Unfortunately, you have one wrong. Loren COleman, the cryptozoologist, does NOT write for BattleTech. Loren L. Coleman writes for BattleTech. Loren COleman writes mothman and yeti books. :) It is a very common mistake, given the names, but I would appreciate it if someone could delete that link.

thank you.

Loren L. Coleman lorenlcoleman@hotmail.com

At BattleTech, I've renamed the link so that it points to the correct (though as yet nonexistent) article. (Whether all of the red links on that page should actually become articles, I'll let someone better versed in the subject matter decide.) For future reference, you should feel free to click the "edit" or "edit this page" link at the top of any article to make changes like this yourself. You don't need a user account or anything. (However, please do provide an explanation for your change in the "Edit summary" field, especially when making content changes like this, or when making changes without being logged in to a user account.) —Triskaideka 17:47, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Errors Importing Wikipedia DB Dumps into local MySQL

I download the cur edition of the english wikipedia and tried importing into a local MySQL DB. Everything was running A-OK for a while until the import crashed out with the following error:

ERROR 1053 at line 792: Server shutdown in progress

Any idea what the cause and resolution might be? Thanks a bunch.

[edit] Displaying foreign language fonts

This was posted as an article, thought I'd pass it along:

Dear sirs,
I came across your website recently and find it very nice. I am from Tamilnadu, India. My mother tongue is tamil. So when i visited ta.wikipedia.org to view articles in tamil, my browser did not display the tamil fonts correctly. Please help me. (posted by User:219.65.125.213)

Postdlf 02:02, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This would, of course, depend on what browser the user is attempting to view Wikipedia with. Hopefully the user will find this page and can give us some further information so that we can help him/her view our wonderful site. Skyler1534 02:41, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)

I'd guess that his problem is, that most Tamil sites use either "Dynamic Fonts" in zillions of propietary encodings or charset x-undefined with TSCII or TAB/TAM. If he has no Tamil Unicode font or a setup which won't display Tamil Unicode at all, the http://ta.wikipedia.org main page give's no hint what to do. Perhaps a short english and/or romanized tamil text should be added to the page. --Pjacobi 18:43, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia uses Unicode. If you're on Windows 2000 or XP, you may have to turn on "native" Tamil unicode support, which is not get installed by default. More info is here http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/tamilonline/unicodehelp.html

If you're on older systems like 98, there seems to be some support in Internet Explorer alone, for which you need to install Arial Unicode font (AFAIK, this font is proprietary of Microsoft, available when you install MS Office; though it might be available individually somewhere)

--Rrjanbiah 07:05, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] How can I find out who a page's original author is?

I am writing a paper in which I may not use information from a website without a human author cited (ex. no "Encarta" in my works cited page). How can I find out who the original author of a page is for my Works Cited? I'm not allowed to use a page for which there is no author cited. JP

Click the history tab on the top of the article and use the navigation on the page to go back to the very first version to see who wrote it. Can anyone provide a link to how histories work? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 17:53, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
Usually one person didn't write the whole article. Citing only one author would not comply with the GFDL Lee's link below is the only way to go. Theresa Knott (Not the skater) 22:04, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Try Help:Page history. As for the original question, have a look at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for appropriate ways of citing articles. - 18:06, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
The purpose of this restriction may be specifically to prevent you from citing reference material such as an encyclopedia. You might want to check with your instructor (assuming the paper is a school assignment) before you turn in a paper that cites any Wikipedia article, no matter who is credited as the author. —Triskaideka 18:05, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Search does not find my page

I contributed a page on Digital Network Theory, which is only found by 'Search' if the full title is given, but not found if only part(s) of it are given, like digital network. However, the latter *does* yield some 27 entries with digital and/or network either in the title (7) or in the text (20). Must I register my page separately for 'Search'? Nico B. 17:19, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The article is quite new, and due to caching it takes some while before the search database updates. Until search updates, remember to Build the web the old way; add the article to a relevant category, add a link to the article from relevant lists and/or articles. I'm not saying that this will speed the process to get it into the search database, but that it's a oft-forgotten method to make other editors and readers note your article. ✏ Sverdrup 18:05, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
PS. For easy access to readers of the discussion, here is a link: Digital Network Theory. ✏ Sverdrup 18:06, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Sysop please delete a page of mine?

I tried to create a page called User:NathanHawking/Personal_style_sheet earlier today, but the resulting screen did not give me the new article option. My talk page did, however, so I put it there. Later today I could create one under my User section, which seems to be the custom here. Would someone please delete the one at Talk:NathanHawking/Personal style sheet? TIA --NathanHawking 07:21, 2004 Oct 25 (UTC)

I've deleted it. The best way to request that a userpage be deleted is simply to add {{delete}} to the top. Incidentally, your user talk space is User talk:NathanHawking rather than just Talk:NathanHawking. [[User:Rdsmith4|User:Rdsmith4/sig]] 12:06, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the deletion and the clarification.--NathanHawking 18:01, 2004 Oct 25 (UTC)

[edit] 180mb Wikipedia Tomeraider File?

Hi everyone, I wanted to know where I can download the 180mb Tomeraider File for my Pocket PC. The download location worked about 2 weeks ago but I had to unfortunately format my hard drive and thus lost the TR file before I sent it to my SD card. I appreciate any help as the encyclopedia is simply amazing. Thanks and take care. Robert M. P.S. here is the broken link: http://download.wikimedia.org/tomeraider/current/

[edit] About those changes in attribution

I requested a change in attribution from anonymous user 140.239.85.68 to Pasquale on 25 Jun 2004. I don't believe the change has been implemented. Today, I requested another change in attribution, this time from 69.25.77.51 to Pasquale (with two exceptions that are not mine). Will I have to wait four months or more to see this done? Do you ever actually make these changes in attributions? BTW, all of my recent anonymous attributions are due to being logged out without warning while editing a page, THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING ASPECT OF CONTRIBUTING TO THE WIKIPEDIA !!!!!

Pasquale 19:27, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Adding info to category pages

How does one add info to category pages?Mike HackneyMike Hackney

Copy from answer on Mike's talk page: Add the code [[Category:Example]] (where example is the name of the category) to the bottom of the article you want to add to the category. If you want to add Mr. Example to this category, you need to make sure he's indexed under E instead of M. This is done by writing: [[Category:Example|Example, Mr.]]. Always make sure the category you are using exists and whether I similar category doesn't already exist. More info can be found on Wikipedia:Categorization. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 09:43, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

Note that if what you were after was just to add some text to the description at the top of the Category page, you can just click "edit this page" in the normal way. - IMSoP 00:49, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Document Mode vs. Thread Mode

Hi! I've been reading The Wiki Way (by Leuf and Cunningham), and it references Document Mode and Thread Mode. I've seen examples of Document Mode in the posted articles, but I can't seem to find the Thread Mode areas. Can anyone direct me to these pages that reflect more personal views and opinions? They seem to be more discussion-oriented. Thank you.

You want talk pages. Click on the discussion link that's at the top of every article, if it's not red (red meaning there isn't one). We don't do thread mode in articles themselves.
If you haven't already, you'll also want to visit Ward Cunningham's original Wiki for a sense of what a "pure" wiki is like. Wikipedia's quite a bit removed from the normal wiki process. Some go so far as to say it isn't a wiki at all. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:01, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Xenu link sleuth blocked?

Hi,

I check my site with Xenu, and have links to here. When I run it, it comes up with forbidden - do you block the user agent of Xenu? I'd just like to know if there is something wrong with it/my site or if it's specifically blocked. If you do block it, how do you do it? I've tried to do it on parts of mine but with no success -whatever I put into my .htaccess it either does nothing or takes the entire site to a 500! What do you have in your .htacces to acheive this?

Thanks,

P

Xenu is disallowed in robots.txt and blocked in the squid configuration. It probably requests many pages from the site without a delay between requests. -- Tim Starling 14:57, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] frequency of visits of single pages

Where can we find out the frequency of visits of single pages? 16:08, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC) user:kils uwe kils kils@imcs.rutgers.edu

Well, there used to be a counter on every page, but it slowed down the servers too much, and has been disabled for longer than anyone can remember. However, there are various general statistics around - see meta:Statistics for a list. Some of those might mention the number of visits for some particularly popular pages, I think - Wikipedia:Popular pages, for instance. - IMSoP 23:18, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
If you want to know how many people visited a page in a certain month, you can have a look at the usage statistics, then go to the page of the month that you want to view, download the complete statistics ("View all URLs", in the URL box) and search for the page you are looking for. The file is pretty big though, since it contains all accessed URLs, so I suggest that you use something like wget and grep, instead of trying to find the relevant entry using a browser. If the page you are looking for is very popular, you might also want to have a look at the top-1000 list, which is a quick way of seeing what the most popular pages are. Good luck! Sietse 09:01, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Information species/Taxonomy

Where can I find a computer science Wikipedian to evaluate this page? Rmhermen 23:59, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

Information Habitat, aka Information Ecologist was a very strange user who posted all kinds of weird stuff all over Wikipedia. Most of it was deleted, or moved to his own personal Wikibook. Looks like this one escaped notice. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:00, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Godd catch. Well done. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 22:25, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] My contributions

How can i make it so I can edit my mycontributions page. or set it so it only stores the last 1 entries. can someine reset my my contributions page? please

What, you mean this page? - Vague Rant 06:29, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)
As far as I know, your contributions list cannot be changed I'm afraid. The user conntributions list is a very useful tool for dealing with vandals. Many vandals spread their edits over a number of different pages. When a regular wikipedian spots a vandal edit to one page, they can go to the contributions list and from there, go on to revert all the vandals edits.
The one problem with user contributions lists is that people can use them to wikistalk you. I've had a person follow me around wikipedia editing every page I've edited. It's creepy. Is something like this happening to you? Theresa Knott (Not the skater) 07:49, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

no, it just bugs me to see a bunch of pages related to porn on the. my contribuations list.

Well, I'd have thought the best solution to that would be to go round editing lots of other pages which you'd be more proud of having editing; that way, the porn will fall off the bottom of the page, and be lost amongst the excellent contribution you'll have made to the project! :D - IMSoP 15:02, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

ehh, i was hoping for an actual wipe MaximusNukeage 00:03, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

One of the oddities of Wikipedia: pretty much everything you ever do here stays permanently in the history. If I were bored and had some time, I could go see what pages I was editing a year ago. Vaguely weird, but you get used to it. Isomorphic 20:31, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikifying- how should I do this?

This is my first attempt at a contribution, and I have tried to follow the rules for formatting as far as possible. I wrote a contribution on samarium (II) iodide, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarium_%28II%29_iodide and it tells me that the article needs to be "wikified". What is wrong with the article at present, and how will I know when all of the problems are fixed? I am following the American Chemical Society format for references (this very familiar to any chemists), except that in the text itself I am writing "ref 4" instead of a superscript 4. I left out author names in the articles, this was done for speed (I have very limited time), but again this is routinely done in many books and reference volumes.

Martin A. Walker walkerma@potsdam.edu

All of the problems will never be fixed, so don't worry about that. We're a work in progress, and someone will always be able to find something in an article that needs work. The major problem right now is the complete lack of internal links. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:13, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
"Wikifying" is the process of making an article conform to Wikipedia formatting standards. You should make the initial mention of the article's subject bold (using three apostrophes on either side, i.e. '''bold text goes here'''), and putting [[ ]] on either side of important people and terms in order to link to the Wikipedia articles on these terms. See Wikipedia:How to edit a page, especially the wiki markup section. [[User:Rdsmith4|User:Rdsmith4/sig]] 03:07, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Another element to remember when creating new articles is the process of "building the web". Edit related articles and lists to add links to your new article; otherwise no one may ever see your work except by stumbling on it via search engine! Obviously it should be linked from Samarium (which I see it is), but is there any other topic where it should be mentioned? Thanks for joining Wikipedia -- we look forward to seeing more of your excellent work! Catherine | talk 17:12, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Odd listing in Category

In article Category:Comedy films, there is an entry of "Cats_and_dogs_%28movie%29 " which is probably a non-exist article. There is already an article of Cats & Dogs movie. Is there any way to delete that entry? Thanks. --*drew 06:51, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. That's odd; Cats and dogs (movie) does indeed seem to be non-existent, and categories are built by adding tags to the article, so technically they can't list a non-existent article. There must be something odd in the software: perhaps an article existed at a bad name (literally Cats_and_dogs_%28movie%29, perhaps), or some other anomaly has caused the database to become corrupted. Perhaps mention it to the developers on the #mediawiki IRC channel, or I will.
(by the way, you can link to a category, rather than placing an article in it, by using a leading ":" in the link, e.g. [[:Category:Comedy films]] → Category:Comedy films). - IMSoP 23:13, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Question about copyrights.

Say you take a copyrighted text, and completely change the way it is frased. Does the copyright then still apply, or could you use it here? S Sepp 19:27, Oct 28, 2004 (UTC)

Copyright laws are tricky. If you read something, get an idea of the concept being conveyed, and then re-write that idea in your own words, then you would not be in violation (in most cases). In order to violate copyright infringement safeguards, a work of literature would have to be "reproduced" in whole or in part for public distribution. A person cannot copyright a concept, so if all you are doing is explaining that concept in your own words, you should be fine. However, if you use phrases used in the original work and only change some of the words, you would be dangerously close to the line (too close for Wikipedia standards). Skyler1534 19:45, Oct 28, 2004 (UTC)
If that's the true, then someone should re-write RAD Game Tools. Compare the text on the article with the text on the official about page — Kieff | Talk 03:35, Oct 29, 2004 (UTC)
Yes, that article is a clear copyright violation, and even if it weren't, it'd be too much like advertising for Wikipedia's standards.
Regarding the original question, IANAL&WDNGLA, but I think that if you rewrite factual text in your own words, it's more likely to be okay than if you were to rewrite opinions or fiction. So anything you'd be rewriting for Wikipedia will probably be safe. Basically, don't base what you write on a copyrighted text. But if you base what you write on knowledge that you gained from any source, including copyrighted texts, then you should be fine. —Triskaideka 15:53, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
And it's good form to cite sources, as mentioned in the next question -- including a ==References== section that lists the books/articles/websites you used as sources. Firstly, this helps researchers who may be using your article as a starting point -- they not only have the basic info, they have titles they can research to find more info. Secondly, you improve the credibility of the article (and Wikipedia in general), by showing that the facts weren't made up out of thin air. Thirdly, if anyone has a question about copyright, they can compare your article the sources themselves to see that your work was original. Thanks for asking -- this is a tricky point that trips up new users often. Catherine | talk 16:56, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Citing sources?

If I have a book on a subject, and I wish to contribute to a wikipedia article on the same subject, may I use the book as a source of information, and if so, how should I cite it?

Add a section called "references" at the bottom of the article/ List the book there along with it's isbn Theresa Knott (Not the skater) 13:47, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

More information is to be found at Wikipedia:Cite sources. ✏ Sverdrup 14:24, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] i am trying to fine ilham abuljadayel

hi my name i william ritcher i need to fine a doctor call dr ilham abuljadayel and fax him some information about a 5 year old boy, who i believe he could help can you help this is very urgent, my e-mail address is ( willrage1@yahoo.co.uk )

yours sincerely

William Ritcher

A Google search turned up Dr. Ilham Saleh Abuljadayel, a Saudi stem cell researcher working with TriStem Corporation (http://www.tristemcorp.com/], which "is claiming it has developed a process to convert easily-isolated white blood cells into stem cells which it can further culture to replace any defective tissue in the body". Apparently the process has passed the "proof of principle" stage in human trials.
The only contact information given for her on that site is "info@tristemcorp.com" -- best of luck! Catherine | talk 08:15, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Two cautions: 1. This site is designed to entice investors in a promising process. It is not a solicitation for patients for treatment. NO ONE in the US or Europe would or legally could do an experimental treatment on a child if it has not been successful on adults with the same disease. When this procedure is successfully treating adults you will hear about it on the nightly news and the front page of the newspapers and this guy will talked about for the Nobel prize. 2. The website "hopes" to be treating people in 2003 but doesn't look as if it has been updated. Not a good sign. Sorry and good luck. Alteripse 13:10, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Footnotes

Are footnotes possible or recommended?

I'd like to include some lines from a poem in an article, and I think it would make sense to have a footnote which explains one of the words. I'm sure I've seen footnotes in Wikipedia articles before but I can't find any now, or figure out what the Wiki syntax should be.

Eoghan 23:21, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Footnotes for both current guidelines and a new proposal. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 13:10, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Single account for multiple languages

Is there any way to have a single account for WP's in several languages?

I would like to have a single watchlist, for example, rather than having to log out and in again, in another language I'm interested in.

Eoghan 23:47, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

No. Unified login is a frequently requested improvement, but nobody's written the code for it. However, you don't have to log out to read another language's Wikipedia. You can be logged in to multiple projects at one time. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:41, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
For current discussion towards creating such a feature (the biggest problem currently being the possibility of different people already using the same name on different wikis) see meta:Single login and/or meta:Single sign-on transition and/or wherever the contents of those pages has been moved to lately. - IMSoP 17:48, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] multi-user editing search

Is it possible to do some sort of search or query, to find all pages that have been edited by both yourself and another user? (or any two users?) If not, would this be feasible/useful? [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 07:26, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

As far as I know, regular users cannot do this directly. But you can ask a developer to make such a query at the 'Request for Queries' page at meta. They'll probably be able to do it for you. May I ask why you want to this, by the way? I'm curious. Good luck! -- Sietse 11:14, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Well, at various points I've made quite a few traditional Japan-related stubs, and the Japanese text for various terminology was added by two separate users on most of them. I'd wondered if I'd be able to compare between them, to see if they'd all been taken care of, although this method wouldn't be really effective either. I'd mostly just wondered if it was possible. [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 09:08, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with VFD Page

I have the same problem every time I try to use the damned Votes For Deletion page - I add something that I want to nominate and it doesn't show up in the frickin' list! Then I have to find an admin to go and correct it for me, and I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Right now "Cree_Summer_EP" should appear at the bottom of the list ready to be edited, and it's not there. I followed the directions to a Tee. So what the hell am I doing wrong? It's extremely frustrating. Pacian 15:44, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

  • You should have written the title of the article without underscores. You also forgot to add a heading to the section you created. Fixed it now. :) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 16:51, Oct 31, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] External Link

I'm a new user to this fantastic idea.

I try to edit a page by including an external link. Such links as http://www.bbc.co.uk appear OK as html links but http://homepages.enterprise.net/etc etc merely appear as text (though not here, it seems!)

How do I get the latter to work, please.

EI

Always use http:// to show the wiki it's a website and it'll turn it into a link. However, you might want to use links like: [http://www.bbc.co.uk BBC Online] to get rid of those ugly adresses altogether. Note that these use single brackets and no pipe like wiki links. It shows as: BBC Online. Good luck. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 09:52, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Another Copyright question

I'm wanting to add a picture to a Wikipedia article, but I'm not sure about the copyright. The image is a scan/digital copy of a painting which is out of copyright. But does the copyright of the original work apply to the digital image, or does the digital image have it's own copyright? Thanks. David Johnson 23:21, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I would need some more details to be sure, but the original copyright does not apply to a digital image copy. If the copyright were still in effect, than use of the digital copy would be infringing. As for the digital image, it is hard to say. Just about anything can gain copyright if you are willing to pay for it. If it is a picture of a picture with nothing else included, I would say it's very unlikely that a copyright would have been obtained. Plus, if there is nothing in the digital image but the picture, it would be very challenging to prove the right to a copyright as it contains no original work and others could take the same picture and their picture would not infringe. Bottom line, unless the image contains something other than the picture, I'd say you are safe, but I would need more information to say for sure. Skyler1534 15:43, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)
Well the page containing the image is here. It's actually a digital copy of a painted photograph dated 1890 - so there's definitely no copyright on the original work. Surely you can't have a copyright on a copy of someone else's work, even if the original work is out of copyright? David Johnson 17:25, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The original work would not be under copyright. However, the image you are referring to is being used for the purpose of advertisement on a commercial website. Often times, the company that created the website will hold rights on every image used. It could possibly be considered fair use as historically significant (which is how the company describes its use of some of the images in its disclaimer), but I would recommend contacting the webmaster prior to using it. Skyler1534 17:32, Nov 3, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Skin

Hello, I'd like to use the skin at w:de:Benutzer:JeLuF/myskin.css for my Wikipedia surfing. I have no knowledge of the coding or anything else involved. How should I go about it? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 11:52, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

Just copy the text into User:MacGyverMagic/myskin.css and then switch your skin to "MySkin" in your preferences. That should do it, although you might need to clear your cache if you don't see any changes. - 15:14, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
The skin didn't work as it should with the Mac I was using earlier, but your tips did help me. I'll have to see if Windows systems work better. Thanks! [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 21:57, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] how should I fix Gallery of Socialist Realism

The Gallery of Socialist Realism comes out with horrible layout on my browsers (Galeon / Konqueror / Mozilla). All of the section titles end up forced to the right side of the page. This is despite the fact that they are all preceded by a

<br style="clear:all">

break which should make the section start clean. Is there something wrong with the markup? What should be done to fix it? Is this a browser bug? Mozzerati 18:02, 2004 Nov 1 (UTC)

ahh.. Thanks IMSoP.. (see edit history of Gallery of Socialist Realism for explanation Mozzerati 18:39, 2004 Nov 1 (UTC)

[Hm, looks like the thanks has preceded the explanation; nonetheless...]
Well, I've made it work in Moz and Firefox by using <br clear="all" style="clear:all" /> instead of <br style="clear:all">; IE seems to show the previous version as intended. Perhaps you have the CSS attribute slightly wrong? Or maybe it is indeed a browser bug...
Of course, this isn't a perfect solution anyway, since viewing the page at a lower resolution / with a narrower window size won't necessarilly give linebreaks in the appropriate places (since 3 images might not fit on one row). But without the linebreaks, tall images cause the ones below to be indented slightly, and I can't think of a better approach myself. - IMSoP 18:45, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The CSS is slightly wrong. It should be style="clear:both", or clear="all", but not style="clear:all". —AlanBarrett 18:56, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The only way that I know to automatically get the appropriate number of images per line depending on the display resolution, assuming we are restricted to what works in common browsers, is to wrap something like <div style="float:left; height:300px;"> ... </div> around each image, so that all the divs have exactly the same height. You'll still need <br style="clear:both"> before each heading. In CSS2, you can use <div style="display:inline-block"> ... </div>, even if the divs all have different heights, but most browsers don't support that yet. —AlanBarrett 19:28, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Policy re people editting under various names and for secret fees

I'm curious if Wikipedia has a policy regarding people editting articles under more than one name and doing so for hire without declaring that fact. I'm interested in a number of articles on a hotly-contested issue. I believe that one of the principle editors, who contributes elsewhere on Wikipedia under one name, has been hired by the organization featured in the articles to create and fight for a very biased set of articles and that he is doing so under another name so no one will know who he is and thereby damage his general reputation. It seems to me that if my suspicion's accurate, by failing to disclose that he's being paid by the group, that editor is seriously misleading the other people who're trying to create fair, balanced articles. Does Wikipedia have a policy about this? If not, it should.

Jim 1/11/2004

I can't imagine anyone caring enough about one website to have someone paid to edit the pages that relate to them. Nevertheless, I've seen more weird things since I came here so I don't find it completely impossible. If this person is indeed trying to push one point of view he's in violation of Wikipedia's NPOV rule. Give them a friendly pointer on their talk page and see if things change. If not, you can report them on Wikipedia: Requests for mediation. Please, make sure you have the evidence to back up an accusation like this, before you make an official accusation. You don't want to get in trouble. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 22:04, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

This practice, should it exist, would be forbidden under Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not which prohibits use of Wikipedia for propaganda or advocacy of any kind. Fred Bauder 17:35, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Reducing frustration

I am posting this on both the help desk and the talk page for dispute resolution.

I don’t know whether this is the right place, or whether there is a right place. But from my limited experience, Wikipedia’s dispute resolution process is too frustrating. It allows conflict to build instead of nipping them in the bud, or at least reducing the tension at a relatively early stage. It might test people’s patience too much and drive away those who are least imposing, for lack of a better word.

Please, I would like some help and don’t know where to go. Maurreen 08:18, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I assume you have read Wikipedia:Dispute resolution as you post from its talk page. Consider Wikipedia:Dispute resolution#First resort: talk to the other parties involved. Note a link to Wikipedia:Negotiation. If you go there you will discover a stub that only I have edited. It could be substantially improved, especially with the respect to the concept of negotiation in good faith which you may note is an empty article. This concept is used in Federal Labor law; both employers and unions are required to "negotiate in good faith". The books recommended may be helpful both is resolving disputes and improving this article. Fred Bauder 18:09, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Help

Hi,

How do I notify other members that a particular article has been lifted from a particular website as was the case with the article about, Vallathol Narayana Menon. I am a new wikipedian.

Please reply at my talk page. User:Win

See Wikipedia:Copyright problems. Rmhermen 15:26, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] New articles in foreign languages

Couldn't find this in the topical help index: what's the procedure for moving pages to a different language Wikipedia, or announce that such a move is necessary? I just noticed 4 fod, which is in Danish (and unwikified, but that's another matter.) JRM 13:55, 2004 Nov 2 (UTC)

Normally you go to Wikipedia:Pages needing translation and try to get it translated, so we get some use out of the local knowledge that might be in the article. Also, see if there's a better copy on the Danish wikipedia. If there's not, copy it. Also, informing the user who created it in the first place, might be a good idea. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 18:43, Nov 2, 2004

(UTC)

All over it. Thanks. JRM 19:15, 2004 Nov 2 (UTC)

[edit] author/editor

i need to know the author or editor of the defenition of science in this encyclopedia for my harvard referencing of an essay.

See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for proper ways of citing articles. -- Ferkelparade π 16:01, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] How to advertise a policy issue?

I have proposed a Wikipedia Simple Guide to indicating pronunciation. The proposal has been:

Are there any other ways of advising language-oriented Wikipedians of this proposal and eliciting their advice and participation? --NathanHawking 21:37, 2004 Nov 3 (UTC)

I would suggest posting a notice at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). A post to the mailing list (a brief one, just noting what page to go look at) is often appreciated but not necessarily a must. I might also look at Wikiprojects and leave a note on language-related projects asking them to have a look. Good luck! Jwrosenzweig 22:23, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Author's listings

I am an author of three books and occasionally write a magazine article.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how to fill out the listing information. It looks as though you are featuring articles, although I found a listing for Carolyn Howard-Johnson's books.

Please HELP!

Gene K. Garrison ggarrison@sedona.net

I'm not sure what you're asking. This is an encyclopedia, so yes, it has articles on all kinds of subjects, including some authors. It is also a wiki, meaning contributions come from whoever wants to write them. Wikipedia is not, however, an index of authors. Isomorphic 16:36, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] database dump for ms access

Hi How do I go about obtaining an export of pages pertaining to U.S. Towns and cities? I've got a simple Access database setup for use for my own project. I have no experience with working with an sql database. Thanks, MJH

[edit] Search not working properly

Why is it that using the wikipedia search I can not find the page I have been working on? "Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory" Martyman 05:42, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You will have to be a bit more explicit – what term did you enter, that failed to find a match? It might also be the case that the page was so new that it hadn't yet been indexed. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 11:18, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I can't find any search term that will bring it up. I tried "Yarralumla", "Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory" and "Lake Burley Griffin" none bring up the page in results. The page has existed since October 7th, pages I created ont he 6th show up so I guess the site hasn't been re-indexed since then. Martyman 11:33, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That doesn't make any sense. I created Cameron Bright this morning, and the search option had no trouble finding it. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 11:54, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)
Campbell, Australian Capital Territory created October 12th and List of embassies in Canberra created November 3rd won't show up for me either. I must be doing something wierd wrong becuase I can't seem to find Cameron Bright either. Martyman 12:07, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Oops my mistake. I used the go button before. I think the database that is searched needs to be updated. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 12:54, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)
You are clicking the 'Search' button, and not just hitting return, I hope? If that isn't the problem, you'll have to start specifying the browser you're using and which skin you're using, because everything works fine for me on Mozilla/Classic. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 14:29, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That's right, if you enter the full name and then press enter or click go then the page will open but if you click search the page fails to appear in the listed articles. I am using Firefox PR 1.0 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001 Firefox/0.10.1) but I can't see how a different browser could effect a search result (UPDATE: I tried IE6 and got the same results). It definately seems to me that the search function isn't searching any pages created since the 6th of October. Examples of failed searches are attached. Martyman 14:49, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Search - Cameron Bright
Enlarge
Search - Cameron Bright
Search - Yarralumla
Enlarge
Search - Yarralumla


You see where it says "You searched for "Cameron Bright" [Index]"? Try clicking on the "Cameron Bright" ... [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 17:03, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC) ... although that doesn't explain why it doesn't show as an article title match. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 17:11, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, I know that works, but only if you search for the full article title. It doesn't work for most types of searches I would normally do. It's become obvious to me that the search is searching on an old version of the database dating from somewhere around October 6th. Strangly it isn't that simple City Centre, Australian Capital Territory is searchable for at least some of the words on the page, while Acton, Australian Capital Territory isn't searchable even though it was created first.
Does anyone know if this is a normal state of affairs and who we could ask about this? Martyman 21:45, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Editing issue

How do I edit a page such as

This article is about This article is about {{{1}}}. . For other uses, see Help desk/Archive 10 (disambiguation).? SD6-Agent 14:09, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Type "Template:Whatever" (without the quotes) in the search box. If the template exists, then click 'edit this page'. If it doesn't, then just create as for a new article. (Some basic templates are protected, and you can only do 'View source'.) [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 14:20, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] carbon dioxide

Question moved to Wikipedia:Reference desk -- Ferkelparade π 19:42, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] I forgot my password!

I have an account with Wikipedia, but have forgotten my password. Where can I find this out? I still know my username.

There's a "forgot your password" button when you logon. If you put in an email address when you signed up it'll email you a new password. dyknowsore 10:07, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

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