Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)/Archive

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Village Pump - Assistance archive

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Contents

[edit] What's the tag for inactive projects?

I recently came across Wikipedia:WikiProject Baywatch. There is one member, and that's certainly not very active. Wikipedia isn't a place for 1 member projects. The project has been around for a little over a month, so I see no reason why it should exist. Aren't projects supposed to be put in your user space, until it gets enough support? This project seems like it was created with no support, except for the one user. RobJ1981 22:58, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

You're looking for {{Inactive}}. - BanyanTree 16:40, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
I have one more question about projects. Is just making a project with the Wikipedia name space in it, allowed? I recently came along: Wikipedia:WikiProject Trivia. I see no proof that it has any support except the person that created it. I looked at the history, and the user has no other edits. RobJ1981 16:54, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The State of the Dab

I just finished some cleanup after moving The State, an article about a South Carolina newspaper, to The State (newspaper). The State is a political concept -- an abstraction. No offense is intended to the great state of South Carolina or its journalists but the political concept is universal.

The article on the political concept is at State, as it should be. All other uses of the word are derivative of the concept. I've redirected The State to this after disambiguating all references to the newspaper -- as well as quite a few to The State (TV series) and even The State (album).

What remains is an enormous number of links to State -- over 500, anyway. Most of these should be links to State (country subdivision); many of these are in templates. I don't have a deskbot or the time available to fix all of these bad links, nor is this a situation I created. So for the time being, readers who want to know what a state is are going to hit the political concept, get bounced to State (disambiguation), and finally, perhaps, get to their destination.

I'm not here to beg anyone to disambiguate these hundreds of links (be nice of somebody did). I'm here to plead with people to get a global view when linking in the first place. This project covers the entire range of human knowledge. Articles need to be disambiguated or we run the reader through a thicket. Before linking any word, ask: How general is this term? If there's any doubt, follow the link -- you can follow directly from preview, just special-click the link to open a new window or tab. See where you are pointing people before you point them there.

When creating a new article, consider the generality of your subject's name. You can't do anything directly about stupid or self-aggrandizing entrepreneurs but you can resist the urge to create, say, an article titled Crab House whose subject is one restaurant in downtown Chicago. Don't even call it Crab House (Chicago); there are many crab houses in Chicago and most of them have been around longer than "the" new, awful, touristy one with no name. All kinds of fools want to be not merely a special case but the -- the only -- crab house, chicken shack, state, news, times, album, show, game, toy, car, suit, party, or city department store. Don't play into this, please. Okay? John Reid ° 18:18, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

I would be happy to disambiguate State for you, but unfortunately it's not a dab page and I don't think the tool I have will work unless the subject page is itself a dab page. I'll try it, though, and if it works, I'll plow through all the links when I have time (probably this weekend or next week). Meanwhile, I recommend that you add a link to The State (newspaper) at State (disambiguation). :-) If you're American (or what the hell, even if you're not), Happy Thanksgiving! --Tkynerd 19:50, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
I went ahead and added that link for you. --Tkynerd 21:39, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry to report that a test shows that the tool I use will not disambiguate State. It would be perfectly happy to disambiguate State (disambiguation), but there were only 5 inbound links to that page, and only one of them actually needed disambiguation (Baltic countries, which I just took care of). --Tkynerd 23:47, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, State is a particular case and not my primary concern; I worry more about the general case. We don't pre-disambiguate for no obvious reason but we do need to dab rationally as we go along. When we create a new article, we need to check to see what other plausible topics are going to home in on the same article title; when we link, we need to check to see where we're linking.

You don't really need any sort of deskbot to dab; it just make the work go faster. It helps to have some general knowledge of all of the subject areas involved. Perhaps I should put State on watch and whittle away at it. John Reid ° 20:29, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

I quite agree with the general principle here. When linking, always follow the link you have created, and check you have linked correctly. This should be in the guidelines somewhere (and probably is), but even so, it seems that people need to be reminded of this quite frequently. Adjectives (especially of countries) are another case of poor linking. People link to English, Malagasy, Ptolemaic, European, without thinking which case they should be linking to (the language, the people, the country, etc). Carcharoth 01:05, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nick Dastardly

I think the article is POV and generally not up to Wikipedia standards. Therefore I marked the article {{pov}} and {{cleanup}}. Please take a look and let us know on the discussion page what you think. TIA! --217.235.248.15

I attempted a very brief clean up, but this article probably deserves an AfD. :( Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 05:50, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks anyway. --217.235.253.66
And 24 hours later, several "improvements" have restored its status as an eyesore. --Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 09:08, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for interlanguage link English Main Page --> Simple English Main Page (and others)

Hi! This is a request. I guess I can't edit the Main Page (Welcome Page) -- there's no edit tab at the top. But surely somebody can. I would like to ask that somebody to please post an interlanguage link (at the left) from the English Main Page to the Simple English Main Page. The reason is that I think if that is done, then more people will notice that there is a Simple English Wikipedia, and write articles for it, which I think will help with exchange of ideas among languages. If you click on Francais at the left on the Main Page, you see that the French Wikipedia has links to about 50 languages, while the English Wikipedia has links to only about 33. I'm particularly requesting a link to the Simple English one, but I think the others should be added too. Also, one more thing -- the page you get when you type www.wikipedia.org gives the impression that there are only 8 languages. It would be nice to add "... and more!" to it or something -- maybe show a row of languages going off into the distance so it looks like an infinite number of them. By the way the Village Pump page has a huge number of language links. Maybe some of those languages also have Main Pages that can be added as links from the English Main Page. Thanks for listening! --Coppertwig 02:42, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Only Wikipedias with 20000+ articles are added, however there's some more debate whether it will be lowered to 10000+ at Talk:Main Page. MER-C 12:20, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
For www.wikipedia.org, in addition to the 10 languages around the logo, just look down and you can see dozens more below the bookshelves. At the bottom is a list of links, in several languages) to all Wikipedia languages.
Also, this is the English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org). www. isn't a part of it. For any changes to that page, you would need to go to meta.wikimedia.org. -- kenb215 talk 06:41, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ref. labor rights , abuse and woeking condition and emplyee relationship

I live in Orlando , Florida, work for large retail fortune 500 company, who does business in all 50 states, I have some concern, grivences about working condition and feel that some labor rights are violated and abused, we dont have a labor union so , I like to talk to any private or public labor rights group or federal or state goverment official or any other reosurce. (E-mail address removed) thanks

Kumar

Sorry, but this isn't the right place for that sort of request. Posting your e-mail address here will get you lots of junk mail. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs) 21:55, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
I would recommend trying the Reference Desk for this sort of thing. Good luck. --Tkynerd 12:53, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright question

I ran across the article William S. Powell. At the bottom of this version it had a little thing that said, "(text used with permission from The University of North Carolina Press)". I asked about it on the creator's talk page and got this response:

I'm the webmaster and IT Manager for the University of North Carolina Press. All text for the Powell article was either written originally by me or was taken from UNC Press media/press release information, all of which is available for use by any media outlet. Should the bottom line simply be removed to avoid confusion? And/or is any further release information required?

They have since removed the bottom line. Can anyone help me determine if there are any copyright problems with this now or not? ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs) 19:47, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm working on it. -- kenb215 talk 07:07, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Harrasment Issue

I am asking that anyone who wants to and has the time to visit this link with regards to a user who, I feel, is harrasing me with edit stalking. I wish to make it clear to this user that he has gone too far and his actions of posting my personal information on Wikipedia and creating a project page devoted to covertly calling me a copyright law breaker, will not be tolerated. -Husnock 19:51, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I have not stalked you, as I have repeatedly stated to you and proven to you with quotes from Wikipedia:Harassment. Furthermore, a member of ArbCom told you it was not stalking and what I was doing was natural and proper. I firmly believe and understand that you think I have gone to far. This is why I have agreed to mediation in the dispute to bring a third party to the table to rectify the issue rather than having me continue the needed work. I'll also make it clear for the 4th or 5th time, that I did not post personal information about you anywhere period. You did. I tried to help you not reveal this information, and as a result you accuse me of posting the information. If you are truly concerned about your privacy, then remove the image, and possibly replace it with the one I provided to you that does not have the personal information...which I did as a favor to you to assist you. An olive branch was handed to you and you put a lighter to it. Lastly, there is nothing covert about my edits. I informed you of what I was doing and fully expected you to see the page. This is why I put the "Nature of this page" section on it from the beginning. If I wanted to do something covertly, I would not post it here on Wikipedia for all to see. Enough of the rhetoric, please. --Durin 20:33, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I invite any who see this to visit: Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Durin/Husnock images as I am trying to have this insulting page removed from Wikipedia. -Husnock 11:16, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Muhammad Qadiri

Perhaps someone can take a look this article. I tagged it as POV and original research, but I am not sure it needs to be nominated for deletion or to be improved until it meets the Wikipedia standards. I do not know too much about the islam in Pakistan, but also do not want to leave things as they are right now. Thanks and regards, gidonb 06:11, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

In the meantime I undertook some more action. gidonb 15:27, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] University of Bedfordshire Arguments

This page is increasingly becoming a review and a place for an ex-staff member to air personal grievances. I am relavivtly new and would appreciate some help in tidying up the article from experianced editors. Also what is the policy in terms of this type of issue?

Many thanksGazMan7 09:04, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needy monobook

My monobook needs more cowbell. Can anybody point me in the right direction?--Shella * 19:30, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Maybe that was just too flippant a question. I need help finding some scripts for work in afd if anyone would point me to them I would appreciate it.
Google search found them thanx.—Shella * 22:30, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Expert request sorting

Hey there folks. WikiProject Expert Request Sorting is in need of assistance. We have several thousand articles that are requesting expert assistance and a way to get them to the eyes of those who might be able to provide it. If you have a couple spare minutes here and there, could you take a look at WP:WERS#Open tasks? It would be much appreciated. Thanks! --Brad Beattie (talk) 12:00, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unknown Bands Lover

That's what I call him.

Topic of this little discussion is a number of articles about bands that do not seem to be very well known (Nick Dastardly, Straw Dogs (Band), Gee Davey, Brandon Patton, Brainpool (band)). I think these articles are of low quality and most of them ar POV, so I tagged them. At least some of the articles are candidates for AfD according to the criteria set up in WP:MUSIC.

However, these tags are repeatedly removed without notable improvements on quality or NPOV. The Users removing them are each editing the articles in question, but little else (User:Blaklotus, User:Nofuel, User:Smoke23, User:PickledHambone, User:SlideSolo, User:63.166.148.155).

Now I see three problems:

  • Is the untagging vandalism?
  • Are these sockpuppets?
  • Is trying to AfD the lot against a bunch of sockpuppets worth it?

Please, can any senior editor offer any advice?

tia --217.235.246.103

I'm passingly familiar with the Nick Dastardly article, having made a small attempt to clean it up. I was seriously tempted to nom it for AfD because it is such a borderline case of notability. If you want to try an AfD, I have two suggestions:
  1. Register and get an account first; IP editors get little respect in AfD's.
  2. Nom the articles singly. Mass AfD noms rarely work out well; one article being judged notable is enough to result in all of them being kept.

I hope this helps. --Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 19:42, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'd rather stay IP. I'll give it a shot anyway.
Thanks for the hints! --217.235.246.103
I made a page for this long ago: User:John Reid/Obscure bands. This is open to public editing. John Reid ° 20:31, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't quite understand what your page is supposed to do. Care to elaborate? --217.235.246.103
Nope, IPs can't do the AfD. So, does anybody feel inclined to lend a hand? --217.235.246.103

IP217 - I have nom'd Nick Dastardly for AfD. Your are welcome to participate in the discussion, but as I mentioned, IP editors often get short shrift in these debates. Is it possible for you to register and establish an account? If so, I would strongly encourage you to do so. If nothing else, I'd like to call you something a little more personal than "IP217" : ) Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 21:24, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Could I have a neutral opinon on this spate of reversions?

I just added a bunch of citations to the Landmark Education page which were reverted Wholesale again by user:Smeelgova.

(see the History, 23 Nov 10:31 to 13:11)

There has been extensive discussion of the issues on the article's talk page.

The whole thing is an edit war soup. I am at the point that I don't know what to think.

Could someone not involved with this take a look and advise me on how we can move to a reasonably stable article which is in conformance with wikipedia's NPOV, verifiability and reliable sources policies? Thanks. DaveApter 14:24, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, one of the main problems with this article is its reliance on citations from the for-profit company's own main Corporate Website. As per Wikipedia Policy, especially with regard to articles with controversial subjects, we should not allow the usage of citations from a Corporate Website, especially to the degree in which they are in use in the article at present. Yours, Smeelgova 11:54, 25 November 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Newbie help

I'm not familiar with all the templates, nor terribly well at being diplomatic, so I was wondering if someone could welcome User:Jjrizo to Wikipedia. At the same time, some words about WP:COI could help; he's not just spamming his links around like some people, but he is the seller of the book and the articles he's linking to.--Prosfilaes 18:02, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Done and done -- Lost(talk) 16:17, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need help moving page

Hi, I am a very wet behind the ears Nubi. Yesterday, I posted an article "Mary Beth Mckenzie" which needs to be moved to "Mary Beth McKenzie" due to spelling error ("K" needs to be capitalized). My account is only 1 or 2 days old, so I don't have a "move" button yet.

I would appreciate it if someone with proper authority could do this move for me.

TIA, Dave 16:08, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Done -- Lost(talk) 16:14, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help me with Portal:Internet

I don't find myself with much time for the Wikipedia at the moment, so I would appreciate it if another member could start maintaining Portal:Internet. Thanks. Computerjoe's talk 20:52, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fixing a malformed AfD nomination

I messed up in submitting Rumourdely to AfD (I misspelled the name on the afd2 and afd3 pages) and in trying to fix the problem, just made a bigger mess. It's happened a few times before, and it's time I learned how to correct an error when I make one. Can someone direct me to the WP: page(s) which provide info on fixing a submission problem (and maybe fix the messy submission too)? Denni talk 22:17, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism by 204.244.150.7

204.244.150.7 seems to have fun by subtly modifying tens of pages, chaging words into similar words etc... see contributions on: [1]

Nicolas1981 22:56, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the notification. I have warned the IP. See WP:VAN for more information about reverting and reporting vandalism. In the future, you may want to consider consider leaving the user a message yourself, or adding a template. Dar-Ape 04:51, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia with two languages : French and English

Hi and congratulation about your site


I'd like to use, in IE 7.0 the Search tools with two sites of Wibipedia : this one in English and this one in French

But ... if I select "Wikipedia" (tick front of) the result is ... always in English Note that there is an yellow asterix front of "Wikipedia (Englich)"

And if I select "Wikipedia (English)" (that I added from your tool "Find more Providers" the result is in English.

Thank you for any inform let me to select, in the search tool, Wikipedia in French or Wikipedia in English.


Sorry for my poor English Thank you in advance for anyanswer/link

Regards

José RELLAND jose.relland@free.fr

I've made one for you that should do this. Go to http://www.1site1moment.com/toby/searchenglishfrenchwikipedia.asp then click 'Add' then click 'Add Provider' and it will appear in your list of search providers under 'Wikipedia'. Tra (Talk) 14:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image request

In the name of $100CAD for Wikimedia, does anybody have some ideas for appropriate pictures for the Cro-Magnon article? Xaxafrad 23:58, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

how about this one?
BJAODNed Dylan Lake (t·c·ε) 23:20, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Keren Woodward

Someone has to look at this page Keren Woodward. I dont know how I report it, but there is obviouse false information on the site.

I have removed it. Thankyou for letting us know. Did you know that you can edit the article yourself to remove the incorrect information? Just click on the edit link at the top of the page. ViridaeTalk 22:04, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting User Subpages

I know on HRWiki there is a template that you can place on user subpages to let admins know you want them deleted. Is there an equivalent template for wikipedia? -AtionSong 15:38, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes! Have a look at WP:SP "How to delete a user subpage". --saxsux 11:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] VH1s Top 100 songs of the 80's

Would it be copyright infringement if I made a "VH1s Top 100 songs of the 80's" page?

yes.Geni 18:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
To clarify: it would if you intended to include the list. Other lists, like Rolling Stone's greatest guitarists list, have been removed. Also note that TV channels and magazines are churning out new "best XXX of the XXX" lists daily, they no longer appear to be notable or have value. Notinasnaid 19:28, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, what about on their pages making a comment like, for example, on the "Livin' on a Prayer" page saying something like 'This song was voted as VH1s Top song of the 1980s'? (true, you know)--WTRiker 20:35, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

In an article about X, there is no copyright concern in saying that X occupied position Y on list Z. However, one should consider whether that information is notable and interesing enough to the reader to be appropriate in an encyclopedia article. A high position on a well known list often would be, but a low position on a poorly known list generally would not be. In other words use some common sense on whether it is worth mentioning. Dragons flight 20:48, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
Also, be sure that if you use the word "voted" that you do know that a voting process took place. Many lists are just made up in the office, or are based on other criteria (e.g. number of requests, or sales). I think a source would be necessary. Notinasnaid 10:18, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anwers.com, reliable as a source?

Specifically regarding the insertion of controversial or negative material in a BLP, is Answers.com a "reliable" source for the purpose that its being used for here? I wouldn't question its use in articles on other topics, especially pop-culture, but BLPs are held to a much higher standard of proof. Is this source alone enough to justify the material being inserted? Doc Tropics 21:57, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Answers.com takes Wikipedia content and republishes it (it also has other content too). That link is identical to Gracenote, so no... Thanks/wangi 22:00, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
As the popularity of Wikipedia increases, reuse of its content also increases, sometimes without proper attribution. I've run into this problem before myself (I couldn't cite the specific instance at this point, though) and its equally pride-making for Wikipedia and annoying. One thing that we need to watch for is multiple circular information reutilization without attribution; i.e. an editor pulls some facts from about.com (for instance) into Wikipedia, rewording them but not citing the source and that information gets recycled into about.com (for instance) and is again recycled into Wikipedia by another editor.... --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 05:48, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
Haha, that is just.. hilarious. Memmke 08:33, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AfD:LinuxDC++

I just want to give the AfD some attention as it has been heavily influenced by fanboys of the software. Didn't know where to post this, so here I am: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/LinuxDC++ - go share your view/recommendation! Memmke 10:53, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I've placed the standard disclaimer on it. Wikipedia's deletion policy considers arguments, not weight of numbers, so don't be too worried about a mass flood of identical arguments (the closing admin should only count them once). --ais523 12:32, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. I wasn't aware of that disclaimer, although it would be useful to have a category along with it. Memmke 08:17, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kh liew doing a lot of work on TVants

Can someone take a look at TVants and the editing of it by Kh liew (talk • contribs)? I'm leaving for work, and it looks like this article is getting further and further from encyclopedic. It would be best if someone could get involved sooner rather than later, I think. BigNate37(T) 17:35, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I reverted all their edits to the article and talk page and made a few more changes. I also left a message on Kh liew's talk page explaining things. Hopefully that will resolve the situation.--Kchase T 19:15, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. I went ahead and left him/her a note about the images s/he used as well, on the article's talk page. BigNate37(T) 01:46, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chess openings

I've recently reviewed the Category:Chess openings and it seems a little large, and full of articles that may not have much in the way of encyclopedic content. All many of them amount to is listing of the openings, with only a brief mention of anything else. Often, it's just a description of how to use that opening. I've brought this up on the Chess WikiProject talk page, but I'm not sure they're getting my concerns understood. I'm wondering if anybody has any suggestions on how to broaden the discussion. I don't want to just put up articles for deletion, because I'm afraid that might upset folks too much, but I would like some wider establishment of consensus. Mister.Manticore 19:03, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I hadn't seen these links (or any Chess articles) on Wikipedia prior to seeing your comment here. Nevertheless I found the Category:Chess openings to be an excellent resource for an encyclopedia ! This is not to say that individual articles should not be expanded, better referenced, generally improved and better interlinked, but I do feel that merging them simply to get fewer entries in the list will be counter-productive. Considering that ECO lists 500 openings, I think the category needs plenty of work in order to make it truly encyclopedic.
I am not expressing this view with the aim of being contrarian, but rather with the hope that an independent opinion from someone uninvolved with the Chess WikiProject will be useful addition to the discussion. Abecedare 04:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] HELP!

Special:Listusers has a HUGE backlog of inappropriate usernames. Please, for the sake of my sanity help fix this. Samuel 23:47, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

The trouble is that even once they are blocked, the offensive usernames still remain in the list. Having the accounts renamed by a beauracrat to something inconspicuous is one way to remove them, but current policy only permits this with the permission of the user concerned. Tra (Talk) 00:21, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
we knocked them off the front page. Not much else we can do.Geni 17:12, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My Name

This is an odd situation that I knew would arise sooner or later. I'm not a newbie at all but I chose to log out because I don't want to seem like a pompas jerk. I am a television writer and producer. I have many awards including Emmys and other national and international awards, and my work is included in the National Archives. Again, I don't want to seem like a pompas jerk but I'm just establishing that I have NOT put myself on Wikipedia but perhaps somebody could have.

There is a different person that shares the exact same name as me and he too is a television writer and producer. The problem is that although I don't know of him having any major awards, he has many many fans because the program he is involved with has a huge cult following. I have received emails from him fans accidentally (until he finally got a website of his own). So it was inevitable that a fan (I presume) would start a Wikipedia article on him. I don't question whether or not the NPOV article is appropriate. I do however have my own concerns with my name being further confused with his. Should there be a disambig page created? If that sounds like a good solution, would that solution be less valid if I didn't necessarily want my own Wikipedia page? My goal isn't to be listed, only to not be confused with another person with the same name, in the same industry, with the same titles. Could there be a disambig page where one or more items aren't links to articles on that subject? And then there's the tricky wording of how you would disambiguate the two subjects since adding "(television writer/producer)" obviously wouldn't be enough. Of course doing nothing is another option and it certainly wouldn't hurt Wikipedia but it could

I'm just curious about my options and possibilities. Feedback would be appreciated. If some experienced Wikipedian(s) would like more details please post as such below and I'll contact you 'less publicly'. Thanks.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.6.147.12 (talk • contribs).

I see no problem with a disambiguation page. For example, have a [[John Smith (disambiguation)]] page, and in that, list:
  • [[John Smith (Lost writer)]]
  • [[John Smith (Sex in the City writer)]]

Just as examples.

User:Zoe|(talk) 20:06, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, mystery TV writer. If you'd like to contact me through my talk page or email, I'd be happy to set up the disambiguation page for your name and the name of the other writer. If there is no article about you, I'll also create a reasonable bio-stub for your name so that each fork of the disambiguation will have a real article. And don't worry, I don't watch much TV, and I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of any particular show, so the article will be NPOV. I can understand the confusion you and your fans probably experience, and am happy to help. Phidauex 22:10, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
IMDB does it simply with Roman numbers -- John Smith(I), John Smith(II). Our way is probably a little bit better. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 19:03, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My watchlist is not showing pages under watch.

My watch-list is not showing pages kept under watch. I have kept Swadhyay Parivar and Hinduism on my watch-list and they never reflected any edits made in these two articles on 28/11/06. I have also kept "paria" in watch but that too does not reflect. I am not sure about my other pages but today, I removed Indian admin board and village pump from my list as they were loading a lot and I thought they may be the cause of problem.

Could I get some help. Reply on my talk page will be appreciated.

swadhyayee 03:40, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure that it's not a time zone issue ? - all the dates are UTC, which be offset from the time zone you are in. Swadhyay Parivar appears not to have had any edits on 28 Nov and the logs don't show any admin type actions [2]. Check the pages are showing "unwatch" rather than "watch" at the top. Megapixie 05:30, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I have checked that watch-unwatch. It's not the date, the content I go by. Hinduism had edits yesterday and I never found it on my watch page. Even in Swadhyay Parivar, some anonymous IP, posted comments in my name and I had not come to know from my watch list. Even at this moment, if I try to see my watchlist for last 3 or 7 days, I am not getting beyond today. Who could restore this? swadhyayee 11:59, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

It seems like you have some kind of technical issue - try forcing a full refresh on your browser (ctrl+click on refresh) and see if that pulls back more. It seems unlikely a watchlist issue would just be affecting you. Alternatively you could try the following.
The watchlist only shows the most recent edits to the article not the complete history i.e. if an article was edited on Monday and Tuesday, the watchlist would only show Tuesday edit. If you are interested in a more comprehensive list of edits to a set of articles - it might be worth building a user page i.e. User:Swadhyayee/mywatchlist with just links to the articles you are interested in watching on. Then when you want to see the edits go to the page and click on "related changed" in the toolbox on the left hand panel. Megapixie 12:52, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] table

Can someone have a look at the Template:Netherlands general election, 2006 table? Colours for the political parties show up in Firefox, but not in IE. Is it also possible to remove the line breaks in the text when watching the table with a lower resolution screen (maybe change the font size automatically then?). Intangible 16:08, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The blocks of colour at the start of each line show up on the version of IE6 I'm using. I don't think changing the font size automatically is possible, unless there's something in CSS which shrinks text to fit. --ais523 16:09, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Blocks Don't Really Work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:209.215.171.12 is a school's IP. A truely endless barrage of vandalism kept coming from that address so after a dozen warnings they were finally blocked "indefinitely". Well checking their history page its clear that the block doesn't really block anything and they are tearing up and vandalizing article after article again.
1) Why does "blocked indefinitely" apparently mean "does nothing at all"?
2) Can some higer-up important Wikipedian please do something about this?

You aren't an admin, so placing an indef-blocked notice on the talk page will have no effect. To request the blocking of a user, go to WP:AIV. Although much vandalism does come from school IPs, there are often legitimate contributors using the same IP too, so they are never blocked permanently (they can sometimes be blocked anon-only for long periods of time, though). --ais523 16:28, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
It's a school. Has anyone tried contacting the school administration? Those folks are usually friendly and cooperative. The perfect "punishment" for the vandals, when caught, is to have them assigned under teacher supervision to improve an article for Wikipedia. DurovaCharge! 05:22, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] UBX help

I'd like to ask an admin to go the undelete page for User:Llama man/Userboxes/HTML-2, and copy its content to Template:User html-2. I moved the HTML userboxes back to template form from my userspace, but I forgot to do so for html-2. I then put a speedy deletion tag on the page in my userspace, forgetting that I forgot to copy and paste the content to the template. —The Great Llamamoo? 22:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

As this needs an admin, try taking it to WP:AN. --ais523 09:42, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Steward translation into hebrew

This is a specific question, I hope I'm asking in the right Forum. I'm an editor in w:he, and have come across what seems to me a misleading translation. The specific meaning of the word used to translate the meta:Steward concept is the same one used for and only for the Servicepeople in an airplane, and sometimes more broadly for general service people. Is the wikimedia meta:Steward a steward like in an airplane or a steward like the w:en:Stewards of Gondor or somthing different altogether? Many thanks for answering or if anyone could point me in the right direction. w:he:משתמש:קומולוס.

Steward of Gondor is the correct concept, though the real-world counterpart is the historical position of a wikt:steward to a noble in general. In context, a steward is a caretaker on behalf of a higher authority. To steward a resource is to use it wisely and protect it. If you could find a word that expressed that concept it would be ideal. --tjstrf talk 05:36, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Elk Cove

OK, this is a strange one. Someone has edited the article about the fictional Elk Cove, Oregon, which is featured in the Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell film Overboard, to include a redundant plot summary, an assertion that Elk Cove is in fact real and a bit about the actors' real-life love story. I reverted once, and left a note on the anon's talk page to which s/he responded with this. Having no desire to "control" this item, can someone else please consider reverting and talking to this anon? Here is a search on the USGS database for "Elk Cove" in Oregon. Please note that there is an Elk Cove Vineyards in Oregon, a name that has no bearing on the local geography. Thanks! Katr67 14:11, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

P.S. Hawn and Russell got together on the set of Swing Shift, not Overboard. Katr67 14:22, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I don't mean to butt in here, but don't you think your note was . . . a little rude?--Dmz5 03:09, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Not particularly. Blunt perhaps. It's just a variation on the {{test2}} vandal warning about adding nonsense to articles. All my other statements are truthful: 1) the plot summary belongs in the article about the film 2) Elk Cove is indeed fictional 3) Perhaps s/he was mistaken about the location 4) Articles need sources 5) Unsourced nonsense gets deleted. What would you suggest instead? Katr67 04:56, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
I think "nonsense" is a confrontational word, particularly for an anon who might well be new. Your points are totally correct, but rather than saying "please stop adding nonsense" it might have been more civil to say "thanks for your interest in the article, but please note the following issues." Maybe that's too wishy-washy and nice, but are you surprised the user responded in the manner s/he did?--Dmz5 05:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
We need to fix that vandal template then--the word "nonsense" gets used around here a lot. I'm not surprised the anon responded that way because I suspect s/he is a vandal trying to make those edits legitimate. I suppose I am not assuming good faith, but I revert enough vandalism to have become jaded. But I pretty much stick to the one revert rule in cases like this and ask for assistance. Usually someone else will come help me out, but not so this time. I don't suppose you'd like to talk to the anon yourself? Katr67 17:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Poor Bislama

Somebody's been spamming the Bislama Wikipedia talk pages with nonsense. Actually, this seems to have been going on for quite some time. It's weird that the messages are so uniform though, what would be the point? Could we get these deleted? Tankyu yufala evriwan. Mithridates 23:49, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Residential buildings in NYC

I was editing an article about a residential building in New York (there are many, many such articles) and I deleted a short section that consisted entirely of the phrase "This building is zoned to New York City public schools. It is zoned to PS 101." I thought this was irrelevant information concerning a building that is a tourist attraction and primarily offices anyway. I then saw that most of the other buildings in NYC that have any residential population whatsoever have this same section, always featuring the exact same text with just the specific school name changed. I am of the opinion that this is not relevant information (despite the fact that it is factual, and verifiable.) It is particularly odd in the case of articles that are relatively short. Why not have a section on what police precinct they're in, or what community board region, what council district, and every other possible category that could be used? I want to get a sense of where I might go to find more opinions on this question, if this is not the right venue. Each article's talk page does not seem to be the place to do it. See Time Warner Center for an example. --Dmz5 03:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:Current events/2006 December 1

What does a spill of the leadership of the Federal Australian Labor Party mean? Is this some sort of vandalism, or is this an Australian term a poor benighted American doesn't understand? User:Zoe|(talk) 04:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Since nobody has answered me here, I've changed the wording. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:12, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AMA request not answered after 8 days

I initiated an AMA Request for Assistance more than eight days ago, but still no one has taken my case on. Advocates have accepted other cases begun about the same time. Do I have an option here, such as clarifying my case in some way to make it more likely to be taken on? How long a wait would be considered unusually long? 0-0-0-Destruct-0 17:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

If you haven't noticed, WP:AMARQ is currently backlogged at 8 new cases, so yours isn't the only one. We short on available advocates currently (and most of the time), so you just need to wait patiently. -Royalguard11(Talk·Desk·Review Me!) 20:59, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about backlogs. Your best bet is to use WP:30 to get an informal third opinion. We've had a case waiting for nearly a month now, so your 8 days is still a short wait - I'd have to adivse you to be patient if you're still waiting for the services of the AMA. Martinp23 21:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the info. I just needed a realistic estimate of how long to wait. The form I filled out said 5-7 days, but I assumed that was overly optimistic. I believe my situation needs an AMA so I'd rather wait and refrain from editing the page in question in the meantime. 0-0-0-Destruct-0 00:50, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
OK - I've updated the wait time to be slightly more realistic, and we've cleared off some cases which are solved anyway, or which have died down. It shouldn't be long now :) Martinp23 11:39, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Scientology template

Hello all... is there something I'm missing here regarding the "Template:ScientologySeries"? Antaeus Feldspar is running around undoing my every move, most importantly including my removal of Lisa McPherson from the template's "People" section. McPherson was a woman who died while at Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel almost twelve years ago. I don't see why this should be represented as an important part of Scientology on the template. I'm not even sure an article about her is necessary, since she fails WP:BIO aside from posthumous controversy about whether she was mistreated by Scientologists in Florida or not. I can't see anything similar going on with any other religion's template. Am I wrong here? Antaeus Feldspar said I'm pushing a POV here, but all I want is for the template to be fair and for him to use the talk page instead of blindly reverting me. I use the talk page and explain why I do everything I do. Highfructosecornsyrup 01:47, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] List of all subpages

Is there any way to get a list of all the subpages-- for example, all the subpages in my userspace? I can search for them if I remember what they are, but is there any quick and easy way to get an exhaustive list? --Alecmconroy 02:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

There may be a better way, but one thing you can do is go to Special:Allpages, type your username into the search field, set the search criterion (either user or user talk, depending on where your subpages where created from) which should generate a list showing all pages starting with your username in the chosen space.--Fuhghettaboutit 02:27, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
A list of subpages for a particular page is located at Special:Prefixindex/pagename/ which in your case would be Special:Prefixindex/User:Alecmconroy/. Tra (Talk) 02:37, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Glad I put in the quailifier:-)--Fuhghettaboutit 03:11, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fujifilm versus FUJIFILM, etc.

Fujifilm has recently been moved to FUJIFILM, and the user who did this has gone on to replace most incidences of "Fujifilm" within the article with "FUJIFILM". This strikes me as entirely unfortunate, as I pointed out in a rather testy exchange on his/her talk page (q.v.). I'm entirely unconvinced by his/her argument; he/she seems utterly uninterested in mine (based primarily on MoS (trademarks). Sure that I'm right, I'd have no qualms about reversing the move, but I'd rather a third party did this, or at least voiced support. (I want to avoid an edit war, for the usual reasons.) And conceivably, I'm wrong. Well, what do you think? -- Hoary 08:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

You are correct here. WP:MOSTM states clearly: "Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization rules even if the trademark owner encourages special treatment". I've reverted most of his changes, but can't move the main one because I'm a non-admin. Would an admin please move the FUJIFILM page back? --tjstrf talk 08:42, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Would that have anything to do with sneakily moving the page to Fujifilm and back such that (pending admin intervention) only that user can perform the move? Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't seem to get the "undo" feature to work as its name suggests. I find the diff where they capitalised all uses in the text, hit "undo", and I'm presented with the edit box populated by capitalised names (evidently not having actually undone the edit). Chris cheese whine 09:02, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use

Anyone else think this is just a little too big to qualify as "fair use"? Particularly as it looks like someone has tried to trace out the logo. Chris cheese whine 11:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

It's User:Ansett again, trying to assert his own personal interpretation of the MoS. I have reverted. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Download static Wikipedia

Hi :-)
I'm trying to download the static dump of Wikipedia, so I can use it offline. But, looking in the download section on static.wikipedia.org (http://static.wikipedia.org/downloads/November_2006/en/) there are just some .lst files. I'm guessing that I need to put those through some sort of program - or something - to download the all the files listed (unless I sit down and download the several thousand files manually, which I'm obviously not prepared to do). I'm running Ubuntu linux, Dapper Drake. What do I need to do? --saxsux 11:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Juan Romero

Hi there. So I was thinking about starting an article on Juan Romero, the busboy who was famously pictured cradling the head of Bobby Kennedy right after he was shot, but I was unsure about two things: 1) Notability. The only thing Juan is notable for is the famous picture...does this meet WP's notability guidelines? I read WP:BIO, and I think he is notable (see here), but I'm not 100% sure. 2) What would I call the article? He's no longer a busboy so Juan Romero (busboy) isn't exactly the most accurate. Many thanks. Gzkn 11:35, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Community Wiki

I would like to use Wikipedia as a way of carrying on a conversation within a single community, regarding important issues in their lives-- education, health, employment, the environment, etc. The idea is to draft a narrative that people can hack into the way they hack into Wikipedia. I could start such a draft on Wikipedia itself, but would not be able to restrict access to members of a single community or organization.

Is it possible to do this through Wikipedia, or perhaps some companion software? Thanks: usman23, 5:38PM 3 December 2006

You might try the Campaigns Wikia. What you're talking about isn't really intended for wikipedia.--Kchase T 22:37, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Good advice, I'll follow up. Thanks!Usman23 22:50, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

If you're interested in restricting access to a certain organisation, you might want to install your own copy of MediaWiki. Tra (Talk) 22:48, 3 December 2006 (UTC)


I looked at the Wikipedia article on MediaWiki and a link to a news article on Campaigns Wikia. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6091151.html as well as its website http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Campaigns_Wikia

Campaigns Wikia looks like an open issues forum, which is part of what I want to do. In real-time, these are called "open meetings" and involve people in a meeting all going from kiosk to kiosk in a large hall, and posting their ideas on a flip chart, to be synthesized by a facilitator and fed back to the group as a whole for 2nd and third rounds which involve voting with stickers or some such.

Media Wiki provides the added feature of a smaller meeting, restricted to a single community. I’ll have to figure out how to do this. Thanks!Usman23 23:05, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I think this image is nicked. What do I do?

Maggiegyllenhaal.jpg appears to be [3], with the "scanned by celebrity-exchange.com" cropped off the bottom. It's marked as PD by the uploader, but this seems pretty unlikely. What do I do? grendel|khan 05:46, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

It looks like copyvio from what I can see, and should probably be dremoved accordingly. Doc Tropics 05:50, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I've tagged it {{no copyright holder}} (which poses three simple questions). If there's a speedy way to kill it in less than 7 days, go ahead. Chris cheese whine 06:02, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Organisation armée secrète

At Organisation armée secrète: I've been having something of a slow edit war with an anonymous editior who, among other things, wants to describe this group, which tried to use violent means to perpetuate the French colonial role in Algeria, as a "liberation group". I'd appreciate if a few more people get involved in discussion there: it's been a bit fruitless with so few people involved. - Jmabel | Talk 07:48, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Oooh, a slow-burning edit war. Not quite my thing. I'm more a quick-fire watchlist-refreshing AK47-revert type myself :o) On a more serious note, to describe them as "freedom fighters" or "terrorists" would be a clear violation of NPOV, so perhaps work it into the article so it says that some perceive them to be "freedom fighters", and others as "terrorists". That usually appeases most POV-pushers apart from the most persistent of trolls. Chris cheese whine 07:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Sounds weasel-wordy--it's technically NPOV, and so it's an improvement, but it would be even better to say that, for instance, they were denounced by x as terrorists and appeared on such-and-such a list for such-and-such an action, while so-and-so declared them freedom fighters, and they enjoy support from y. grendel|khan 15:42, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image query

Can someone take a look at Image:PayPal.png (again) please? Uploader has repeatedly dodged the question about where this has come from - it clearly hasn't come from the front page of paypal.com, which is the source they have provided. Chris cheese whine 10:56, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

It's a logo; can't it just be recreated? (The fact that it's pretty poorly traced is secondary to this.) Consider Canon logo.png, or M&S logo.png, or anything in Company logos. grendel|khan 16:05, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
It looks like a giant resize of the actual logo that they use. --tjstrf talk 16:07, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fix on Template:UruguayProject

It miss cat all pages to Category:Uruguayan people and other cat. Matthew_hk tc 11:40, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Currently featured article is being Vandalized

I'm not sure if this is the place to report this. If not, I ask apologize.
Currently featured article "Weird Al" Yankovic is being vandalized by anonymous edits. Shouldn't it be protected? Jcpetruzza 15:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

We normally try to leave the front page article unprotected as much as possible, despite high levels of vandalism. For many editors, the front page is their introduction to wiki, and we do invite everyone to edit ...Doc Tropics 15:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with a post

I made a contribution to Wikipedia about 4 weeks ago - I provided the explanation of a cultural term - a term used to describe a well-to-do group of individuals in todays society. Since I have edited and posted the contribution, I have yet to see it come up on any searches that I perform.

Can you help me understand what I am doing wrong or why my wiki post isn't coming up on searches? Was my contribution blocked? Edited? How would I know? Can I dispute if it was???

Please help!!!!!

Regards,

-JCRogers21-

It would help if you gave the article's title. That sort of page might have been deleted or transwikied to Wikitionary. DurovaCharge! 21:41, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
It appears that you made the entry on your userpage, not in an actual article. Userpages are not an "active" part of WP like article pages are. Doc Tropics 21:46, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Forgiveness

I don't know where to report something like this to, but a user called User:A Pregenant Girl is repeatedly inserting personal nonsense into the Forgiveness article. Thanks. Highfructosecornsyrup 22:13, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

The normal method for dealing with something like this is to give a series of warning messages to the user, escalating with each warning. For example {{test}} then {{test2}} and so on. If the user vandalizes after a final warning is given, meaning after a {{test4}} or similar level warning such as {{verror4}} (see the grid of warning templates here), and the offending edit was within the past hour or so, you can then report the user at WP:AIAV.--Fuhghettaboutit 00:59, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Using Wikipedia as a reference

Im writing an essay, how can I use wikipedia as a reference? Can someone give me an example please?

The example would depend on the citation style used in the rest of your paper. Examples of the common styles can be found at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. --TeaDrinker 02:07, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
And, if you might try the cite this article link (in the toolbox, on the left). -- Rick Block (talk) 02:51, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
It's probably a bad idea to use Wikipedia as a reference for an essay, unless the essay is about Wikipedia itself. You should instead use Wikipedia to find primary sources and things to search for, and then cite those primary sources or newspaper articles. Jonemerson 10:05, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
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