Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 4

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This is an archive of the help desk. Please do not edit this page. To ask a new question, go to this page.

[edit] Archive of past questions

Contents


[edit] legal characters in URL string being escaped

I first noticed this problem during the time when the major hardware upgrade and site redesign were going on. That's not to say that it wasn't present before; I could have just not picked up on it.

It seems that any entry with parentheses in the title is having those characters escaped -- despite the fact that they are legal according to RFC 1738.

Now, when I first noticed this, it was working properly, but simultaneously to that, I was talking to a friend and when I referred him to the same page, he was seeing escaped characters.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, try going here kingdom and then hover the (biology) link. The tooltip shows properly. The link appears in the bottom of the browser as it should, but when you go to the page, the URL string in the address bar appears as "Kingdom_%28biology%29".

I'm really interested in knowing what's causing this. At first, I thought it might be a wonky browser/font config, but I did some research that seemed to indicate that it's got to do with the way the webserver is returning and rendering page requests.

[edit] Just Some Ideas

I work as a picturedesk employee for ZUMA Press. My job entails editing, color correcting, and captioning images. Most of my work is of archival in nature, or more easily put 'old news'. I recieve the images in 35mm slide format from one of our 600 or so photograhers, and I get to work on the process by beginning to scan the images. The most difficult part of my job is captioning, because the amount of information that a photographer can fit on a slide, even on the rare occassions of when they are not lazy, is very limited. Although a large portion of the information for celebrities that I need for captioning can be found on IMDb, I have found your site to be more thorough, and much more helpful for non celebrity material. I would like to thank you for your service, as well as to offer you some ideas towards your cause.

First, I would think that it would benefit you greatly in building your database if you were able to add a feature to the 'Search Results' page of your site that would allow users to add 'Terms' (Search Field) that were not found when searched. For example: I typed 'Cybill Shepard' into your search field and the results yielded no information. If instead of a dead end, you could allow a user like myself to contribute a request, or to share the info that I must find regardless of my results with your page, perhaps it would be of greater benefit , than painus glutimus maximus.

Second, I was wonderring if you have a faq on how to begin the editting process, and information about the required computing competancy necesary to contribute. I do not doubt that there is such a document, however I thought that if you made a simple downloadable .pdf that was easier to find, that you might avoid alienating a large percentage of our population who suffer from attention defecit dissorder, or at least short attention spans.

Cheers,

           Damon

P.S. I have several great topics that do not yield results on your site, is there any method in which order you add new terms?

There is an FAQ--check Wikipedia:FAQ, as well as Wikipedia:Tutorial for how to edit. As for making new articles, there's no official "order"--users just contribute them in any order they please. To start a new article, you can create a link to it by surrounding the words with double brackets: for instance, this ([[Cybil Shepard]] turns into this (Cybil Shepard). The best way to get recommendations, help, etc. without asking is to create an account--most people who do so get welcomed by the Welcoming committee. I hope all this helps. Best wishes, and happy editing. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 23:42, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
There is a way to start a new article from the Search results page, but I realize that it's not obvious since it's not the first thing one looks at on the Search Results page. Right under the "Search results" heading, next to the "For query blahblah" thing, there's a link to edit the page that has the same title as the query you've typed, and if there's no page with that title, that link takes you to a blank "edit" form, where you can begin typing the article.
However, in the case you mention, there already is an article on her, but her name's spelled Cybill Shepherd. Lucky Wizard 05:02, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, I will look into your advice. I am a newb with java, c++, html, and most prgramming, etc. but I would like to help out. As for Cybill Shepherd, there is her official site that I found on yahoo that spells it 'Cybil Shepard'. However, many celebs are often creditted under multiple names. If for example Cybil was creditted as Cybill sometimes, would there be a way so that either entry in the search field yielded the same page? Again, I am just beginning so bare with me. So that you don't take me for a complete newb, I have been using computers since around 85, but I only used DOS to install games, and to reformat when things got bad. I have built my last three computers, but have never learned the language. Does anyone have some advice on where I should start, perhaps a book recomondation that would help me understand the programming language that you use, how it works, or should I be able to pick up what I need from reading the faqs?

              ]   ) / - \  /  V  \  (   )  |  \  |
Hmmm. In theory, Redirects should cover the problem with multiple names. However, not all of the needed redirects exist. I need to start creating redirects more often.
As for learning the Wikipedia language, check out Wikipedia:How to edit a page. As far as I know, this markup language is peculiar to Wikipedia and a few other wikis, so there isn't really a book about it. Lucky Wizard 04:29, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Template:Nirvana

What is the proper way to include a template many times on a page? It seems the number that can be used is limited. See Nirvana. --Eequor 00:02, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  1. Template:Nirvana
  2. Template:Nirvana
  3. Template:Nirvana
  4. Template:Nirvana
  5. Template:Nirvana
  6. Template:Nirvana
  7. Template:Nirvana
  8. Template:Nirvana
What was the purpose of those templates? Some kind of special chararcter? Rmhermen 04:12, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

In this particular case I think you should use "nirvana" (the English word) in the body of the article. Write "nirvāṇa" once, in the introductory paragraph. Remember that the English Wikipedia is an English language encyclopedia. People who are familiar with the National Library at Calcutta romanization system for Indic languages will find "nirvāṇa" a useful guide to pronunciation. But most English speakers will be happy for the rest of the article to use the English word "nirvana".

(A similar issue arises for all English words or names which are inaccurate transliterations of terms in other languages. The Wikipedia approach is to use the English word in the article, but give an accurate transliteration near the start of the article. See for example, Rome, shogi.) Gdr 18:28, 2004 Jul 3 (UTC)

This is a Wikipedia convention: see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). Gdr 11:22, 2004 Jul 5 (UTC)

[edit] Subtraction symbols don't appear in articles, just a rectangle

I checked more than one mathematical article (such as Subtraction) to be sure that the problem was not just in one article. The subtraction symbol, apparently coded with −, does not appear as it should in the articles. All I see is a rectangle. Why? What's the fix? I have the huge Unicode font file, so certainly the symbol is available.

It's a problem with your computer, not with Wikipedia. Either (a) you don't have a font with a minus sign, or (b) your browser can't find the right font, or (c) your browser doesn't know that − refers to the minus sign. Does − (≄) work for you? If it does, then your problem is (c). Gdr 18:34, 2004 Jul 3 (UTC)

OK, it looks like the answer was (b). I fixed it (in IE 6) with Tools/Internet Options/General/Accessability/Ignore font styles present in Web pages. I don't know why ignoring font styles would make the characters display correctly, but that's the setting that does it.

[edit] categories

I'm trying to figure out how to add a link in categories. I thought it was

Category:Whatever (with 2 enclosing "[") at the bottom of a page, but that starts a new category instead of adding to a category in existence.

So long as the category "Whatever" already exists, it should add the page to that. Could you give a link to a page where you've tried this and it's failed, maybe? --Camembert

Nevermind forgot to NOT capitalize bases.... Williamb 13:39, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] How do you use categories?

I keep seeing things about categories, but I haven't figure out how to use them or the conventions yet. Is there a tutorial somewhere that I just haven't found yet? dyknowsore

Try Wikipedia:Categorization. Secretlondon 22:59, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Try clicking in the upper right corner of the main page {[browse by topic}}.

[edit] Kissinger

May I quote from your information on Kissinger for a book Im writing?

Penelope Maclachlan

Sure. You can copy the entire article if you want, but then the text would have to be licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Short excerpts are no problem without the GNU Free Documentation License, I think. It would be great if you could refer to wikipedia. Happy authoring. -- Chris 73 | Talk 23:50, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Also, take a look at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. – Jrdioko (Talk) 21:19, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Another new color scheme :-(

OK, guys - I know you've got to experiment before you get things right for everybody - and, no doubt, I'm posting this in the wrong place. But, it has to be said - that the new colour scheme for links is a step in the wrong direction. I know it's been said somewhere that people couldn't see a clear distinction between passive, active and visited links - but to go to bright colours such as you have done is unnecessary, imho.

If this is not the place to discuss this, please let me know where the discussion is happening - I do find navigating and finding my way around the various 'Help' and 'Special' sections incredibly difficult (if I find something new like the 'Villlage Pump', I may forget to bookmark it and not re-discover it for a couple of months!) How about having a go at improving the navigation for users? I'd appreciate that more than the new pretty colours!

Agendum 16:31, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

That sounds like an interesting idea to me, personally. But I'm not sure what to do about it. As a new user, could you tell me your problems/suggestions at User talk:Meelar? Thanks, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 21:22, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Add my own tables - integration

I have a small maritime encyclopedia. The data is stored in a MySQL database. Is there a possibility of integrating those tables in Wikipedia? The tables contain all the data of the vessels (name, build, shipyard, engines, length, ...). Could I integrate it, or should I create an wikipedia aricle from every record?

Thanks Frederic

I believe it's technically possible- see rambot. However, I have no idea as to the details or policy regarding such an action. Strike that- check Wikipedia:Bots. Good luck. Rossumcapek 12:20, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Freelink/Redirect to wikisource?

I've figured out how to freelink/redirect to meta,books,etc. But wikisource has me confused. Any ideas how to freelink/redirect to wikisource? Also, is there any page about standardized formatting/style for freelinking between wikiprojects? Much thanks —siroχo 12:27, Jul 5, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, it is odd, Wikisource:Main Page works from Meta, but not from here.--Patrick 15:28, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I just discovered that, oddly, m:Wikisource:Main Page works!--Patrick 15:35, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Other test: Wikisource:Constitution of the United States of America, m:Wikisource:Constitution of the United States of America.--Patrick 15:38, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  • Thanks for your help finding this out! Think this is a bug of sorts? Should we report it? —siroχo 02:06, Jul 6, 2004 (UTC)
Please do, see m:MediaWiki feature request and bug report discussion--Patrick 15:42, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy delete category

I asked this on Template talk:Delete, but I assume many don't frequent that page, so I thought I'd also ask here. I'm just wondering why a category was added to Template:Delete. Is there something categories can do that the "What links here" method can't? IMO it's just adding extra clutter to those pages, although I suppose if they're going to be deleted it doesn't really matter. – Jrdioko (Talk) 21:24, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Category:Places

Why was this deleted? Why wasn't I informed it was going to be deleted? Mr. Jones 18:04, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC) (Put this here to keep category related queries togethere)

[edit] Articles which are Candidates for Deletion: Riverside Drive

Hi! When writing an article about a New York landmark I linked "Riverside Drive", which is a New York street of some note. However, the new link pointed to "Riverside Drive" a road in Canada. So, not a problem, I write a stub called "Riverside Drive (New York)" and pipe my old link to it. Trouble is, I now want to place a link to my new stubby "Riverside Drive (New York) in the old "Riverside Drive", in case anyone's looking for it. Now I notice that "Riverside Drive" is a candidate for deletion. I follow the links to 'discuss it', but don't see the article on the list I get taken to. How do I know what's up--do I bother to make the new link, is the article going to be deleted, what about my new stub, is that going to be deleted too, etc. etc. Quill 22:31, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Try asking Niteowlneils about why it doesn't appear on VfD, as he was the one who put the VfD tag on the article in the first place [1]. I'd leave Riverside Drive alone until you get a response from him.
As a rule, we don't much like articles on streets. They tend to be just "This street runs from the north end of town and stops at the freeway". However, Riverside Drive (New York) seems to be of enough interest to keep. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:08, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] IRC

Hi there.. I'm going to ask what I feel may be a foolish question. I know you have an IRC chat. I've read about it offhand, and at one point found where you mentioned it. But not anymore. I've spent a few weeks trying to figure out where it was; and have finally given up.....where might one find it? Rhymeless 03:12, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Maybe you're looking for Wikipedia:IRC Channels. – Jrdioko (Talk) 03:29, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)


[edit] about plagiarism: is it cricket?

Firstly, as an enthusiastic newcomer, please excuse me if this is posted to the wrong place

however- the bones

wandering thru' the wiki I found out about the Lab color space, by reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space

wanting to find out more, I googled it- and found that the page http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Lab%20color%20space

is an exact copy of the wikipedia page. I don't know who was first- but is plagiarism considered cricket?

Richard ginestreNOSPAMPLEASEomnilog.com

Richard, nope, plagiarism's not cricket. :-) But we release all materials here under the GFDL. In simple terms, that means anyone can use the materials for essentially any purpose, as long as they credit us, and as long as their work is released under the GFDL. There are more details about it in the footer, I think, also. The site you've noted copies all our articles, and attaches advertising -- in small print at the bottom of the page, they credit us under the terms of the GFDL. You can find out about more such sites at Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks. Jwrosenzweig 16:13, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] "Encyclopedic-enough" rulebook

How can people decide what belongs in an encyclopedia and what doesn't? For instance, take three artists: Picasso (of worldly fame), Jacob_Lawrence (randomly selected artist of limited fame), and my neighbor the artist (of neighborly fame). Obviously Picasso has an entry in all encyclopedias. Jacob Lawrence (who I know nothing about) perhaps belongs in an encyclopedia, and my neighbor definitely does not belong. So there exists a fuzziness when deciding what to add or delete. I would think there would need to be somekind of unambiguous ruleset that stated things like "High Schools - ALLOWED" "High School Mascots - NOT ALLOWED" ... and so on. Does this exist? and if so, where? Paitum 01:19, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It's not exactly an unambiguous ruleset, but take a look at Wikipedia:What's in, what's out. – Jrdioko (Talk) 01:30, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Also might want to take a look at Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 13:15, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Link structure for new sections with supplied section name?

I am trying to get the talk link in my signature to create a new section on my talk page - and I want the new section title to indicate the referring page so for instance:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=User_talk:Michael_Alaly&action=edit&section=new&sectionname={{PAGENAME}}]

Does the link structure allow for creating a new section with a given name? The section post/get variable is expecting a numeric and when I supply a section name it isn't handled well. I have been unable to find a list of get/post variables or link structure breakdown. Any help is appreciated, thanks. — Michael Alaly | Talk[[]] 09:02, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Admin abuse

I just registered and created an initial basic user page ( User:Flurdy ) to test how it looks. However 1 minute after I created it, someone deleted it. The deletor claims to be an admin and the reason for deletion was because he can.

I recreated it, but looking at the differences in the revision history two people seem to have edited my page, User:200.56.224.5 and User:Dysprosia . (The first user, I presume is an IP and it is not mine).

I am not certain how WikiPedia works, but is it right that people can randomly delete pages as they seem fit? Or can they remove and edit the entire page as they seem fit? Does that not imply admin abuse?

The content of the page was not the best, just basic info on who I am, as it was only an initial revision to build upon later with more relavant information.

I do use WikiPedia quite a lot, and it seemed a natural progression to register. And I do understand WikiPedia's method of open authoring. However I am unwilling to populate the User page if it can be deleted instantly without any notification procedure or valid reasoning.

Cheers, Ivar

Is it possible for an admin or someone else to check the above IP to see if it matches one of our problem users? I am sure it wasn't an admin. If we can identify who is likely discouraging a new user, I'd vote for immediate permanent expulsion. Alteripse 12:28, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I have just checked and there was no deletion of User:Flurdy. Is it possible that you accidentally created the page in article space? Perhaps it was misspelled or lacking the "User" portion? - Tεxτurε 12:45, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)
In addition, it appears that Dysprosia reverted vandalism by User:200.56.224.5. Admins and other users are watching to help protect your user page. - Tεxτurε 12:45, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the advices. It appears to me that an unknown (User:200.56.224.5) edited the page and as Texture mentions that Dysprosia reverted it nearly immidietly. I am appreciative of the effort people did put in to help and assist with this and Wiki in general. I hope the user can be tracked down. I am though amazed at the speed of it. There couldnt have been many minutes between registering, first page edit, vandalism and then revertion.
Admins often watch Recent changes to see what edits are happening at any given moment.Dysprosia was probably doing this. When she saw an edit to your user page by someone who was not you (We don't normally edit other peoples user pages) she probably smelled a rat and decided to check the edit out. In general, vandalism is usually reverted very quickly. theresa knott 21:42, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Template: please add to this list

I know that there's a template for a message that says 'please add to this list' or something of the sort, but I couldn't find it, (nor could I remember any article I'd seen with that message in it).

Where the devil is it? I tried searching for 'templates', 'messages' etc. etc. Why is this so hard to find??? Quill 00:47, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

How about {{expand_list}} (
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
)? I found it at Wikipedia:Template messages. HTH – Jrdioko (Talk) 02:56, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)
That's it--thank you! Quill 05:15, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Translation

Can I help you in translating the page to Assamese, the Indian language?

If I understand you correctly, see m:How to start a new wikipedia. – Jrdioko (Talk) 03:58, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Admin unable to edit specific Template

The following message

Database error
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A database query syntax error has occurred. This could be because of an illegal search query (see Searching Wikipedia), or it may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:
UPDATE cur SET cur_touched='20040708192020' WHERE cur_id IN (326121,537001,639329,669483,684147,689305)
from within function "Title::touchArray". MySQL returned error "1205: Lock wait timeout exceeded; Try restarting transaction".

(or, if it differs between attempts, something that is indistinguishable at a glance) is the repeated result of my trying to edit VfDFooter. (This includes moving the blank at end of one line to end of another line, so i won't burden you with content of the edit.) I've only tried in last few hours; no one has edited it for several weeks. --Jerzy(t) 19:41, 2004 Jul 8 (UTC)

In the last hour, i succeeded with two edits matching those that were unsuccessful before. --Jerzy(t) 07:34, 2004 Jul 13 (UTC)

[edit] English grammar help - Languages in/of India

I was thinking about adding a new category to identify languages present in India, in that category list. I'm much confused to name it 'coz of grammar. Which is correct?--Language of India or Languages in India or anything else? Should I add "the" inside for example Languages in the India? TIA. --Rrjanbiah 12:12, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] I messed something up

Hello, I am new to using Wikipedia and do not really understand the nature of an open encyclopedia. In my ignorance I edited a page referring to Norman Lockyer which resulted in the loss of the content that was contained. I did not realize at the time that I was doing this. Is there anyway that the original authors content can be restored. If not let me know and I will do my own research and try to replace the content although I doubt that it will be as good as what was originally there. Please let me know, thanks.

Don't worry I've reverted your changes. We keep a history of every edit. Anything you do can be undone. If you look at the top of each page you will see a series of tabs. One of them says "history" click on this to see a complete history of the page. Click on an earlier version, then edit that version (you don't have to actually make any changes). Save that version and the old content is restored. theresa knott 17:41, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Can't Move Pages, Cleanup Articles - How to get permissions?

I'm a fairly new user and have been adding to the Canadian military articles. I've got two articles on the same subject with different names and content: The Queens Own Rifles and Queen's Own Rifles both titles are slightly incorrect and it should be "The Queen's Own Rifles" (as the proper name).

I want to move one of the articles tot he proper name, and merge the other one into it (I'll use a redirect so that the articles can still be found)... however I appear not to have permissions to move the pages and am told to login (even though I already have logged in).

I did see a note about this, so how do I go about requesting permission to do things like Move?

You don't need permission to move (once you have an account and are logged in), you should be able to just click on the move button. Rmhermen 19:50, Jul 9, 2004 (UTC)
I think page move for non admins was disabled a while ago when Wik's vandalbot was in action.It's possible it hasn't been restored yet. I'm happy to move the page for you (please sign your name with four tildes ~~~~ so I know who you are), but Queen's Own Rifles already redirects to The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada so are you absolutely sure about the new name? theresa knott 08:19, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] new page opens incorrectly going to edit mode.

weird link problem:

I can not understand why the page sittingbourne which is linked to several other pages only opens up in edit mode, when one clicks on it. The link is the wrong colour, like it is incorrect. help!!!!

Faedra 11:45, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I run into the same trouble from time to time; right now I'm getting it with kennel club when going from internal links in other articles; there's no problem if I use 'search' and then the Go button, and no problem going from this page. However, the link to kennel club from the dog breeder article e.g. didn't work. I've just 'fixed' it by changing the 'k' to 'K', but since other internal links work just fine with lower case first letters, I've no idea why that fixed it. If anyone knows what's going on, please share.Quill 02:35, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Fact checking: How to exclude Wikipedia from Googling

When I want to check a suspicious fact or term on a Wikipedia page, I start searching using Google. But it's sometimes hard to check whether the only mentioning is from Wikipedia, due to the large number mirrors/copies.

Is there some nice trick or idea, how to exclude the Wikipedia article (and its copies!) from the Google search?

Pjacobi 16:57, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  • I suppose you could use something like -wikipedia -encyclopedia -dictionary (that shoucd cover most of wikipedias mirrors), basically use a dash (as a minus sign) to exclude results with the term following it. —siroχo 00:42, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)
Actually, just adding -wikipedia will exclude most of the mirrors, since most of the mirrors credit Wikipedia. Hence, the mirrors that credit Wikipedia will be excluded. Lucky Wizard 04:29, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, -wikipedia -encyclopedia -dictionary did a good job when googling for "chandrasekhar limit". Using -wikipedia alone is defeated by tricks played by some of the copies (like adding the credits using Javascript, so that Google doesn't see them). Pjacobi 09:57, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)
  • Here's something you can do. (I just thought of this now actually, but I'm sure others have too) If you use a browser that allows keywords/shortcuts to URLs you can make a quick one to check wikipedia. I use Mozilla Firefox, and this is what I did. I bookmarked 'http://www.google.com/search?q=-wikipedia%20-dictionary%20-encyclopedia%20%s' and set its keyword to 'check', so now when i type 'check "some stuff I think is a copyvio"', it searches google for '-wikipedia -dictionary -encyclopedia "some stuff I think is a copyvio."' The %s in the URL is browser dependant I think. —siroχo 11:05, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)
(One sets the keyword by right clicking on the bookmark and selecting properties, then editing the appropriate field.) Mr. Jones 03:59, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Automatic Requested Articles?

On Special:Recentchanges, near the top, there are two grey (for me) lines of text for Wikipedia:Requested_articles. One reads "Requests" and the other reads "Request types." (I'm getting into the habit of creating stubs from these.) Are these somehow automatically generated on this special page? If not, how do they appear on the special page? Currently, there's a request for amae, a non-existent article that only appears referenced from Special:Recentchanges. So- how did it get onto the Recent Changes page without appearing on Requested Articles?

Any shed light is appreciated. Rossumcapek 12:14, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

  • Only an admin can add an article to the recent changes page - they are supposed to take them from requested articles - clearly this person didn't. Secretlondon 17:51, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
  • Actually, anyone can edit the recent changes headers. amae was added by User:Karada if you'd like to ask that user more about the addition. Secretlondon is correct that additions to the requested articles should come from the requested articles listings. I normally take the top ones from most requested. - Tεxτurε 18:08, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Picture Usage

Hi, I am the head of an organization called the World Tiger Mission (www.suddenstorm.net/WTM) and I am putting together a calendar with beautiful pictures of tigers. I would like to use your picture, "tiger.jpg," and "bengaltiger.jpg." I looked into your copyright agreement, but didn't see anything about images and I didn't know quite where to look. May I have your permission to use those? I will not be making any profit from this, all profits go to tiger refuge and rehabilitation centers. Please email response to webmaster@suddenstorm.net

Thank you for your time, Carly Tuma President & founder SuddenStorm Graphics, and the World Tiger Mission

Answered via email. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 13:15, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] link to Japanese wikipedia

How do you make a link to an article on the Japanese wikipedia? I want a link to ja:安倍吉俊 on my Yoshitoshi ABe article, but if i try [[ja:安倍吉俊]] it comes up as no link at all (see the current Yoshitoshi ABe page). I think this might be related to the fact that the unicode kanji is converted to html entities, and it interprets it instead as a link to & #23433;& #20493;& #21513;& #20426; (without the spaces). I dunno, though. Thanks in advance. Pyrop 23:08, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)

We currently have content filtering in place as part of our internet security, but I dont think i'm going have time searching for all the content that the local educational authority would say to block.

I'm going to try the forking, thanks for the good comments. After some thought I dont think anybody could be totally for freedom of speech when it comes down to protecting kids and that.

[edit] Confused over copyright

Being a newcomer I have a question regarding creating a new article. Say I wanted to write an article on widgets, I've read a couple of books on widgets and could piece together an article. I'm not going to copy sentences word for word, but inevitably I'm going to use the information in the books, perhaps facts, phrases, etc. At what point is this ok and when would it become a copyright issue? Say I used a fact that was only in one of the books and indeed in no other books on widgets... does the author of that book have ownership of the fact, even if it is worded differently? I guess what I'm getting at is that all information is taken from somewhere, even experts in a field have assimilated some of their knowledge from others as well as their own experiences. If someone's exact words aren't copied, does copyright apply? Hope that makes sense! Tomfly 22:12, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Copyright covers the writing- How it's written, the style of layout, the exact words chosen. It does not cover the facts. It is absolutely fine to rewrite in your own words. You do not violate copyright if you do this. theresa knott 22:22, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)
We already have an article on widgets so you could just expand it. It isn't much more than a stub. Or didn't you mean that literally? ;) Rmhermen 17:03, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)
Indeed ;) But now I'm tempted... Tomfly 22:31, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)
However, paraphrasing is plagiarism. You cannot, for example, take an article and write the whole thing over in your own words, that's plagiarism, because you're parroting someone else's ideas, rather than coming up with ideas of your own. So, if you haven't done any 'work' to create the article, it's probably plagiarism. Quill 05:23, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Quill, I'd have to respectfully disagree with you. My Hodges' Harbrace Handbook (granted, it's not canonical, but it illustrates the point) says that paraphrasing is not plagarism, as long as the material is a true restatement of gleaned material. However, retaining the same sentence structure while substituting synonyms for the author's words would be plagarism. In any case, if you write a research paper for say, college, there's not much expectation that you'd developed original ideas, but rather have incorporated the ideas of many writers in your own unique and suave way. Regardless, it would be proper to include sources in the wikipedia article. Just my thoughts. Ocon | Talk 05:32, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Photogrphs

How do I upload new images? I'm sure there must be a page describing how to do this, but where is it? Andy Mabbett 14:53, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The instructions are at the upload page itself. In my "Standard" skin, it's on the left, but somewhere, there should be a link saying "upload file"--just click it, and the instructions are there. You can also try Wikipedia:Image tutorial, though I didn't find it all that helpful. I keep meaning to go back and rework it. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 14:56, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Image difficulty

While I've been using and editing Wikipedia for a while now, this is my first time experimenting with an image. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but it just keeps coming up 'missing image'. Could someone take a look at Ed Wood, Jr. and see what's up with it? Thanks! - Angry_Candy

I fixed it for you. 1) Image names are case sensitive. So you have to link Edwood1.jpg not edwood1.jpg. 2) You had Image:Image:edwood1.jpg. That was probably just you experimenting to get it right. moink 16:43, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Image:edwood1.jpg also works.--Patrick 21:31, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Oops, guess I was wrong about the case sensitivity. Must have been the Image:Image: thing. moink 21:35, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
They are case sensitive, Image:edWood1.jpg does not work. I think the software capatalises the first letter anyway though. theresa knott 21:42, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Dazed and Confused: is Wikipedia the son or brother of ProjectGutenberg?

Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this, but I can't find a page or a link to a page where I might sign up to be a volunteer editor.

But wait, how does Wikipedia relate to Project Gutenberg?

The way you use the terms proofreading and editing are also making my head spin

I have done proofreading, and I have done editing: generally these are two almost exclusively seperate roles, or at a minimum occur at a different point in the time line of the production of a hardcover, online, or softcover, multimedia, slide show document--editing produces final 'approved" text while proofreading verifies the accuracy of the spelling, grammar, before the final work is published.

Editing allows the "editor" to inject herhis knowledge, opinions, attitudes and style; proofreading is based on a comparison of "new" draft text for publication with the "old" approved final manuscript text and many times proofreaders will read the document backward so that the literal words and punctuation can be checked w/o being distracted by the flow of the content.

That is what I was looking for, volunteer proofreading, but somehow I missed the place where I signup to volunteer, or the place where I compare the sample document to the original.

Since I hope I can help I hope you can help me?

You don't sign up, you just click the "edit this page link" at the top of every page and away you go. I know it seems really "stupid" that we just let anyone edit pages like this. Hell it is really stupid, and yet this stupid approach is what makes Wikipedia soooooo good.Proofreading is really useful as some of us are really bad at typing and make loads of silly spelling errors (I'm talking about myself here, but there must be a few others who are nearly as bad as me [who are you trying to kid Theresa you know you're the worst so far]). You can choose to work anon or you can log in and get a user account forst if you want (click "log in" at the top right of every page) HTH theresa knott 19:53, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, with appreciation, RK

Also if you want to compare a version with the previous one click on the "Histroy tab" although as Wikipedia is always a work in progress you can never assume the old version will be error free. theresa knott 19:55, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Something else to note, we aren't transcribing here, so the reason you're not finding a source document to compare to is because there isn't one. -- Cyrius|✎ 22:28, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)
This site isn't related to Project Gutenburg although some of work on both. Perhaps you were thinking of Distributed Proofreaders. Rmhermen 17:03, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy and Veracity

I have just stumbled across Wikipedia, sorry, but that's the truth. Question: How is the accuracy and veracity of Wikipedia articles determined?

See Wikipedia:Replies to common objections, as well as Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is so great. Basically, the fact that anyone can edit any page means that errors are fixed very quickly, and the scrutiny that takes place on the recent pages page weeds out vandalism. Best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 01:02, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
There are two answers, neither of which is completely correct. The first is that the accuracy and veracity of Wikipedia articles are not determined. There's no guarantee that a given article has been fact-checked by anyone, and at any given time there are certainly inaccurate articles. The other answer is that the accuracy and veracity are determined by lots and lots of people like you. If someone sees an inaccuracy, they correct it, so the more times a page has been viewed, the more people have looked for and possiblly corrected errors in it. Isomorphic 03:54, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I'm a new user as well (signed up yesterday in fact). In my humble opinion, Wikipedia appears to be in some cases more accurate than other published materials. People often will trust published material, however you will usually find that if you know a topic really well usually at least one thing in the article is either unclear, misleading, or plain wrong. This is the greatness of Wikipedia. many people can continuosly write and edit articles, further refining articles, correcting eachothers mistakes, etc. --DivisionByZero 07:39, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Should I create a new article or add a section?

I'm a new user (signed up yesterday) and I'm writing either a new article or a fairly large addition to an already existing article. I am currently attempting to code my own interpreter utilizing Reverse Polish notation as the final structure of the compiled code. My tokenizer converts Infix expressions to Reverse Polish expressions for its math evaluation, and eventually for everything else. I'd like to add my knowledge of this process to the Wikipedia, however don't know the best way to do so. Either I could make it a section in Infix notation/Reverse Polish notation or I could create a new article and provide links between them. What do you think? Also, since its rather a complex topic (took me a couple days to figure out all the details and how exactly it will work), for comprehension it seems better to present in a tutorial form rather than a reference data type of form. Are things like tutorials okay (like how to.. guides etc)?

BTW, what about a tutorial wiki? hmmm :D


I won't pretend to understand your first paragraph, but you might want to look at Wikipedia:Tutorial. Best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 13:05, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:How-to. Also there is Wikibooks.--Patrick 15:57, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Do not worry too much about whether it should be separate or not, merging or splitting can always be done later.--Patrick 16:07, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I'm just going to add it to the rpn article. Thanks for the links. 66.248.102.68 20:13, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia on CD for offline use

Will there be a Wikipedia on CD for offline use that will still allow you to get updates via the wikipedia site ?

There has been some discussion of that, but nothing definitive has been set yet - see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia#CD.2FDVD_distribution . For now, the best we can offer is that you can download the database at http://download.wikimedia.org/ . →Raul654 09:15, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)
By the way, the text (compressed) is 168 megabytes. With all the images, Wikipedia's database is just about the size of a DVD (maybe slightly more or less). →Raul654 09:24, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Removing Inappropriate Links

I have recently removed an inappropriate link (and stated why); is that enough, or should I report the issue for further investigation (it looks like an affiliate link of some kind, and there may be more). Heenan73 10:19, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I'm assuming you're referring to the link on Talk:Vampire that goes to one of those terrible spammish web directories. That link has been there since July 13, 2001, which is so long ago that the only reason I can't track it farther back is that article histories start around that point. It's likely that the site the link points to has changed hands in the intervening three years. No foul play, just a stale link.
If you see a person actively adding new spam links, report them on Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress. While links to commercial sites are allowed in the proper context (Amazon.com links to Amazon.com), spam is not tolerated. -- Cyrius|✎ 13:31, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks - very helpful. Heenan73 14:18, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Adding pictures to user page

I have an image which I would like to put on my user page (humourous in nature, a photo which is not of me, authorship unknown-although this could be changed at short notice to a picture of myself if need be). Is it OK to upload this to WP in the normal fashion? JoeBaldwin 15:35, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

As long as the picture is usable under our copyright. See Wikipedia:Copyrights for more info. Assuming it is, then there's really no prohibition as to what you can put on your user page. best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 15:37, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Links don't seem to be working for me

I have written my first page: titled Exchequer of Pleas, which exists if you search for it. A link I have put under "Exchequer" does not link there, but goes to an edit page.

I don't understand.

It's because the link on Exchequer went to "Exchequer of Pleas", with a capital P, while the article had a lower-case p. I've created a redirect page from upper-case to lower-case. Best wishes, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 16:33, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

P.S. Please sign your posts on talk pages like this one!

[edit] Can't move pages

In reference to #24, could it be possible to move Hangman's noose to Hangman's knot. When will we be able to move pages ourselves? --Jcmaco 22:18, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)

Done. I'm not sure what the time scale is for getting the page move functionality. It was removed for new users due to abuse by a vandalbot. moink 22:21, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Thanks! --Jcmaco 22:32, Jul 14, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Translating pages

I want to translate a page from German to English, ie Lebenswelt, a philosopical concept that exists in English but for which there is no English page. Can I just create it and translate? Should I write somewhere that that's what I did? Salasks 23:39, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You may want to follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Translation into English. There's not much there aside from documenting what you've done. -- Cyrius|✎ 13:17, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Downloading the database for integration into external software

I need to find the best/fastest way to download the text part of Wikipedia (excluding pictures)in order to integrate it into external software. What are my options?
[an impressed newcomer] 11:00 15, Jul 2004

The entire database is available at http://download.wikimedia.org/ For more information, see Wikipedia:Technical FAQ#Is it possible to download the contents of Wikipedia? and Wikipedia:Database download. -- Cyrius|✎ 13:13, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Offensive thread in 'Sandbox'

Just thought that I would let you know that you have an offensive thread in your 'Sandbox' link from the homepage. Even freedom of speech rights exclude shouting fire in a crowded theater, incitation of bringing harm upon federal institutions or officials, and of course acts of terrorism.


Well, the theory is that someone will quickly overwrite it. You're welcome to do so yourself, in fact we encourage it. Thanks for the update, though. best, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 19:23, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect page not up-to-date

I'm having a problem with the Copa América 2004 page, or rather the redirect page at Copa America 2004. The latter is not displaying the most recent edition of the original article. Why is this? I've tried clearing my cache, but that does nothing to remedy the problem. I've noticed that although the Copa America 2004 page contains the code #REDIRECT [[Copa América 2004]], the page does not have the "Redirected from..." subtitle, which I'm guessing has something to do with the issue.

This looks like it's working now. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 14:33, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Please move...

Subject: Fire bomber Should be: Fire Bomber

Sorry for the mistake, but moving is disabled right now and I'm off to sleep. Thanks to whoever does the move for me.

Done. You're welcome. :) -- Hadal 09:11, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Song Lyrics

I apologize if this question has been asked before, but I was wondering why Wikipedia doesn't have song lyrics? (or, I guess its possible that I'm just being totally blind and it does have song lyrics) While I could see the argument that they're legally protected or something, but there're a whole bunch of sites online that provide them, and it'd be nice to consolodate them onto Wikipedia (I think)

Because song lyrics are copyrighted and hosting them in quantity would get us shut down faster than you can say "lyrics.ch". We are a big target with obvious people to go after (namely Jimbo and the US board members). -- Cyrius|✎ 18:35, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Not sure what it's called or how to do it...

How could I add something like the little box with Croatian counties at the bottom of the Zagreb page? I'd like to make one for cities in Bosnia.

It's called a template. I haven't used them much myself, but that page explains them, and I'm sure others can help you if you have problems. Good luck, Isomorphic 01:08, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
See the quick guide to templates or the more detailed m:Help:Template page. Angela. 03:06, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Newbie growing pains: Votes for deletion page

I made a contribution on the votes for deletion page (july 17, "law of increasing returns" and it looks like I completely fubbed it up, and I don't know how to fix it. I copied another article title for deletion, changed the article name to mine, and saved it with my comments. Everything worked fine except the "Add to this discussion" part, which was red. I tried several things to fix it, and made it much worse than it originally was (I also accidentally created a new wikipage which will need to be deleted.) Please let me know how it can be fixed. Thanks! Ionesco 03:38, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] about data control language

could anyone explain me what is data control language

[edit] No caching of templates?

In a discussion about templates, I was told, "Requiring a database query everytime a few characters of html would suffice is wasteful." Does Mediawiki really look up the expansion for a template every time it comes across one? It should be very simple to cache the expansions. --Eequor 05:53, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Template limit

Why is each template used on a page limited to five occurrences? --Eequor 05:53, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Basically, to prevent a DOS attack. According to Tim Starling's comments in Parser.php, "Without countermeasures, it would be possible to attack the parser by saving a page filled with a large number of inclusions of large pages. The size of the generated page would be proportional to the square of the input size. Hence, we limit the number of inclusions of any given page, thus bringing any attack back to O(N)."
Angela. 10:16, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Limiting the number of a particular template is no solution. It would be much more effective to limit the size of the generated page to 32k or twice the size of the unexpanded page, whichever is larger. What is to stop an anonymous user from creating megabyte-sized templates for each letter of the alphabet? --Eequor 21:24, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
It isn't even necessary to upload 26M of templates, given that templates follow redirects. --Eequor 21:28, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)
You ought to be far more worried that somebody will do this:

{{Z}}

|
v

Template:Z

--Eequor 21:50, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Aircraft - historical - existing

I've just been looking at some info on historical aircraft. Info (as far as it went) is fine - but I would like to know where (if anywhere) I could see any aircraft that still exist - links to museum sites etc. Could this be done ? (And, yes, I am willing to help as much as I can.....)

Keith F

For historically significant American aircraft, nothing beats the Smithsonian Air and Space Musuem. They have the Enola Gay, Lingberg's flyer, and I think the Wright brother's plane too.
For different kinds of aircraft, I believe the US airforce runs a musuem in Kentuncky or Tennessee. →Raul654 16:00, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. It's home of the surviving XB-70 Valkyrie. A link to the site is in the article. -- Cyrius|✎ 16:15, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I meant on the appropriate page... I looked up Martinet - I know there's one in the Museum of Berkshire Aviation. I think it would be useful if all the entries for different aircraft had where one could see surviving examples (if any). I'm aware of the USAF museum etc (and, for that matter the RAF Museum, Hendon). I'm also aware of several hundred other museums that have aircraft... but that doesn't help me pinpoint where I can see XXX - where XXX is an aircraft I've looked up....

Keith F

[edit] Help with a WikiPipe table please

All the Cambridge colleges have a table with a few 'vital stats' about the college e.g Queens'. I'm trying to add a nested table to one of the cells that has the college colours.

I've done a mock up here. On the left is the table in html as I want it, and on the right is the wikipipe version which I can't get quite right.

In both cases I've tried to nest a table in the third row which will contain all the college colours, but I can't get the cell border between the image and the nested table in the wikipipe version. I've tried adding |- between the two but that just screws it up.

Any help would be appreciated.--Prisonblues 18:48, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I think I've fixed it, if you want to check. A good way to cheat with tables, if you already have the html, is to use this html to wiki converter. - 19:21, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)

Thanks Lee --Prisonblues 22:57, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Image uploading

main problem is that whenever I upload an Image, it always ends up as little white square with a red cross in it. I can still access the file and put it in articals, but the image i want is never there, just the red cross. Any idea why? Cheers.

--Crestville 09:55, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Can you give an example? Have you tried pressing Ctrl and F5 to refresh the page? This often solves image problems. Angela. 22:05, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Where do I find a list of double-curly-brace messages?

I found the 'all system messages' special page, but they are not there?

Thanks—quota

See Wikipedia:Template messages, Wikipedia:Navigational templates and Wikipedia:Template messages:Quick reference. Angela. 22:05, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wrapping in floating table

There's a small problem with the floating table on the Oxford and Cambridge University pages, where the text on the right doesn't wrap properly and just goes off the right edge of the page. Can't figure out what the problem is, anyone? --Prisonblues 22:51, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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