Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 October 27

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1 October 27

[edit] October 27

[edit] Enviromental laws of Connecticut

What are the enviromental laws of Connecticut? Just the basic eviromental laws.

Perhaps you should clarify your question and ask at the Humanities Reference desk. They will ask for more detail about your issue, warn you that they aren't lawyers, remind you to read the local lawbooks, then provide you with a (usually) satisfactory answer. Hyenaste ^(tell) 00:27, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Footnoting

I've been trying to use the <ref>citation<ref> to insert a footnote number in the text of an article and <references/> to indicate where the corresponding footnotes should go. I've deleted any spaces between <ref>citation<ref> and the end of the sentences (sometimes corresponding to the end of a paragraph) where the number should go. Yet -- somehow the article I'm working on (Elizabeth Cady Stanton) always shows up as being cut off after the first footnote number when I preview the article before saving. What am I doing wrong?71.192.45.207 01:17, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

First of all, put <nowiki></nowiki> tags around any code that you are talking about. That way the code is just plain text and is not rendered. Secondly, the correct usage of the ref tags is <ref>REFERENCE</ref>. Note the slash before the second ref that tells the computer where your ref ends. HTH Broken Segue 00:53, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the help -- that took care of it. And thanks for the "nowiki" tag info.71.192.45.207 01:17, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removing a redirect from the wp search box

An editor wants to write an article about a person whose name is the same as Ralph Emerson's second wife. Entering that name in the search box redirects to Ralph's page--there is no article dedicated to her alone. I think the name should be 'released' for use in the more appropriate article, and that maybe some note (with link) could appear in the new one that there's another Lydia Jackson described in the article about her husband, Ralph. Can someone tell me how to do this? Thanks Professor marginalia 01:09, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

At the top, it'll say "Redirected from *redirect article name*. You can click that link to go to the redirect page and edit it into a disambiguation page or another article. --Wooty Woot? | contribs 01:20, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Creating account

When I tried to create an account, I was told there was no account in my name, which I thought would have been good. However, the form blocked me from creating an account.

Best, Jay Parsons

Any more information? What kind of error you got? --Wooty Woot? | contribs 01:29, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Check if you had a "@" in your name. We don't allow the "@" symbol in usernames anymore to prevent people from registrating e-mail addresses. --`/aksha 01:59, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Where do I submit my copywrite freeing idea?

I was watching the TV show the hour and the host mentioned that Wik is looking for ideas to spend money (i dont remember how much) on purchasing something copyrighted to uncopywrite it. I would like to know where exactly to submit my idea. Please help me out.

thanks!

It's at Meta. It's here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Copyright_wishlist Help us build a copyright wishlist =) --`/aksha 01:55, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiLyrics

I think a new source called WikiLyrics would be fantastic!

Lyrics are accepted at Wikisource as long as they are free of copyright (a good rule of thumb is published prior to 1923). Any modern lyrics however are probably copyrighted and it would not be legal to but them on the internet.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 03:42, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User Account and sister Projects

Ok: I'm a new user and would like to somehow crossreference my watchlist to pages in sister projects - i.e WikiUniversity and OpenLibrary. Do I have to create a new account for each project and keep separate watchlists or have I missed something?

Thanks Keep The Peace 03:25, 27 October 2006 (UTC)IdeaNorth --Keep The Peace 03:25, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes you currently have to create a seperate account for each wiki. However soon a Single user Login will be implemented to eliminate this need for separate accounts on Wikimedia wikis at least.. It is best if you use the same password and email addres for each account to make the transistion smoother. Even after Single User Login is implemented, I believe you will still have seperate watchlists for each wiki, but integrating this is on the wishlist for someday.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 03:37, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

For more information about the future single user login, see m:SUL. -Royalguard11(Talk·Desk) 03:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adding

Are non-administrative users able to Add Articles (not edit) on people, places, things, etc.? It might have been covered already in the questions above but I really didn't feel like looking through them all.

Yes, but you must have a login. See Wikipedia:Your first article. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:40, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

For future reference, this is the fourth question on the very frequently asked questions. — QuantumEleven 07:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Finding Vital Information & Indexes

First Question: Where is the How-To page to explain everything I need to know about User Draft Pages

Second Question: Where do I find the Index (or the Index to Indexes) for Help Pages, Policy Pages, Guideline Pages, et al

Thank you --A green Kiwi in learning mode 04:03, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

For userpages, see Wikipedia:Userpage. For policies and guidelines, see Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines and for help index, see Help:Contents -- Lost^(talk) 05:08, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Thank you very much Lost. I greatly appreciate your willingness to help direct a newbie. I have been frantic for indexes, for I have found using the search function to most usually lead me to long lists of user pages. Thanks again! --A green Kiwi in learning mode 05:20, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] TOC

How do I manupliate the "Table of Contents"(TOC)Chris5897 07:18, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

See Help:Section#Table of contents (TOC). If you have a specific query, please clarify your question -- Lost^(talk) 07:26, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] noble prize winners

I want note with pictures of Scients of India who own the noble prize in physics, chemestry, biology.

You can begin at Nobel laureates of India -- Lost^(talk) 08:55, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar review

Where can I ask for other editors to check my grammar on an article? Or, if it would be simpler, could someone here check my grammar on Reverence? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 09:50, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I dont see any issues with the grammar. Put some reliable sources in the article and nominate it for WP:DYK -- Lost^(talk) 10:24, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 10:33, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Request for feedback is a good place to get a new or newly expanded article proofread. Anchoress 10:38, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article Titles or Article title

Hi: I see various titles of articles with capitalization of the first letter for each of the nouns. Other titles I see capitalization of the first letter of the first word only.

Which is proper: all nouns or just the very first word? or are both proper?

Curious: If I see a article title not spelled correctly, how does one make a correction?

Thank you, LarryBH

Generally speaking, we capitalize article titles and section headings as though they were sentences. So Benjamin Franklin is capitalized, being a proper noun, but Volga trade route is not, since it's a sentence. If that makes sense. However, redirects can come in handy to solve this question without too much problem. When a page's title should be changed, you should not copy-paste its content (which would break GFDL compliance), but should instead make use of Wikipedia's move function. Hope that helps -- happy editing! Luna Santin 10:02, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Hi: Yes, this helped me. One learns each day. Thank you, LarryBH

[edit] problem with the user

I have a problem with the user Angryxpeh, who is deleting link for the NGO Barinfo from the page dedicated to my town Bar in Montengro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar%2C_Montenegro .

He does it everytime when I put the link, his reason is that this link is spamlink?! The site is www.barinfo.cg.yu has daily updated news from my town. It is not commercial, because is managed by a non-profit organization, we live from donnations! The link is on the same page in Serbian, Italian, Croatian and Bosnian language, and nobody is deleting it there!

How can I put the link of Barinfo NGO, without be deleted every time?

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

What you need to do is discuss this on the talk page of the article. Explain why you think it is not spam as per Wikipedia guidelines. Go through the guidelines here -- Lost^(talk) 10:52, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Your message suggests you should absolutely not be posting this link, if I understand rightly. You say "we live from donations". This means that (1) you want to use Wikipedia to bring in more donations and (2) this is a link for an organition you are connected with. Both of these are absolutely wrong under the guidelines in Wikipedia:External links and I would support the removal. Notinasnaid 12:27, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] searching wikipedia with other search bars

I recently purchased inquisitor, a search tool that modifies google's search bar in Safari (Apple's browser) an d allows searching of multiple sites. I have been looking for the url that is associated with your search engine but can't find it. How would I obtain it?

Marcus

Wikipedia has a search engine, but you should use Google's instead, as it is much superior. Wikipedia's search engine is months out of date, and case sensitive. Just add "site:en.wikipedia.org" to the Google search. Notinasnaid 14:28, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Penis Enlargement

I want to know about ways of naturally enlarging the penis without using any drug. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.252.181.15 (talk • contribs).

This is the help desk for questions about how to use Wikipedia. I would suggest looking at our article on Penis enlargement, and if you can not find anything there, ask a question at the Reference Desk, where questions not about Wikipedia are answered. Th ε Halo ^Θ 13:59, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Text turn to colours

I kinda want to use this for my User page could someon tell me what to type to change text into colours I've tried to find the article--Eddy king 14:14, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

You can use html tags to change color of text. Thats what I do in my signature -- Lost^(talk) 17:14, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

OK I've done it no, thanks --[[User:Eddy king|'''''Eddy King'''''[[User talk:Eddy king|(Talk)]]]] 21:41, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Huh?--[[User:Eddy king|'''''Eddy King'''''[[User talk:Eddy king|(Talk)]]]] 21:43, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] monali dash

i want to delete this article created by me14:34, 27 October 2006 (UTC)14:34, 27 October 2006 (UTC)~a_suyash14:34, 27 October 2006 (UTC)14:34, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Is there any perticular reason, as the way to delete articles is different depending on the reasons for deletion. Th ε Halo ^Θ 14:36, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formatting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain#Music

The two tables in this section are stacked up on top of one another. Could someone show me how or arrange them in a more compact way? Maybe have the text underneath the tables on the right hand side, and the tables on the left.

Table 1 | Table 2 | Remaining Section Text

instead of:

Table 1

Table 2

Remaining Section Text.

Cheers. Magic Window 14:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh for god's sake people is it too much to ask really come on, I'm dying here. The diagrams are all in the wrong place for christs sake jesus please oh god someone help the eternal knawing at my soul

[edit] Citing copyrighted work

Hi, perhaps this has been asked, but I've tried to search in FAQ and other WP copyright pages, but still not sure about it. Obviously, it is not allowed to copy contents for copyrighted work, but how much is the copy paste information? If there is a figure/number in the copyrighted work that we copy pasted here, is it also copyvio?

This is one example I am facing now. At the bottom of this page [1], it says:

Copyright © 2000 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Inc. All rights reserved. 
Republication or redistribution of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame content is 
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, 
or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Hence, it is prohibited to redistribute the content, but I want to include, for example, how many times he won the game (which is 11). If I copy this content and put a proper citation to the webpage, is it copyvio?

Thanks in advance. — Indon (reply) — 15:19, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

No, citing a source is not the same as copyvio. Only if you were copying text verbatim, it would be copyvio. Plus AFAIK, information cannot be copyrighted. What you are doing is taking information and citing the source. That is ok -- Lost^(talk) 17:12, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to do a redirection

Hi!

One more question, please!

How do I create a redirection, for example if I want to create an term "A" that will send the reader to article "B" automatically?

Thank you! :-)

Bruce Limber

Oh--and can an article title (heading) contain multiple aliases right there in the article head, or must every alias be a separate redirection?

Help:Redirect. I'm not sure what you mean by the second question. An example of a redirect is:

#REDIRECT [[Second Page]]

That must be the only thing on the page for it to work. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 15:41, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

If you want to redirect a term (lets call it A) to article B, just create article A and the only thing on the page should be #REDIRECT [[Article B]] and they will go straight to B. I'm pretty sure you have to make a different page for each different term, so if you wanted to redirect "smokey fog" and "smokey haze" to "smog" you would make 2 seperate articles both with #REDIRECT [[Smog]] Hope that helps :)

[edit] Notability Policy

Greetings. I am doing a bit of research and putting in some thought on the creation of a notability policy for a WikiProject of interest to me. Is there a general template or discussion on the subject of notability policies? Are they determined specifically by participants within a given WikiProject? Can anyone suggest a few good examples?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions. Internazionale 17:14, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Notability for guidelines. The page also contains links to specific topics such as companies, personalities etc. The talk page of each of these guideline pages can be used for discussion. Is that what you are looking for? -- Lost^(talk) 17:19, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Some of the specific topics and their related guidelines provide the reference point I'm seeking. Thank you. Internazionale 18:41, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sections on all pages

I want to make all pages have the "+" sign that appears only on the discussion pages. This will make all articles section-based. This is for a wiki in another language. --Bharath 17:32, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

The motivation is to avoid the need to edit the whole article ever. Only section editing should be sufficient. -- Bharath 18:32, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, there never is a need to edit the whole article - you can edit the last section and add a header (changing the edit summary to something appropriate, of course). But this looks like a skin issue - the "+" tab is just a link to a certain URL. You can probably change your monobook.js to add it, but I don't know exactly how. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 18:46, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edit Section

I would like to have one part of a page __NOEDITSECTION__ and another section editable. Is this possible???Chris5897 17:35, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Not really. Only adminstrators can make a page protected anyways. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:42, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Languages that read/write right-to-left

When I first started using wikipedia, I would view Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, etc. writing on English pages (i.e., pages like List of Nations) correctly. But if I copied a word, and then pasted it onto a Word document, it would paste left-to-right (so the word was arranged in a backwards fashion). Now, when I view the words on Wikipedia, they are viewed in a left-to-right fashion, so they appear incorrect to begin with. This does not happen when I click on a page on a translated (in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, etc.) Wikipedia page.

Is this due to my viewing, or to the author of the page? Is there a way to fix this? I'm using Safari in OS 10.4.8, if this helps. Paploo 18:16, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Anybody have any thoughts? Paploo 03:48, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monobook.js

What is this and how do i get to it.Chris5897 19:16, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

It's a file for your personal javascript. See Wikipedia:Monobook, and WP:JS. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 19:25, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit conflict]I don't know the details, but it specifies additional commands to the browser when the user is viewing wikipedia with monobook (the default) skin. Yours can be found at User:Chris5897/monobook.js (you can just go to your user page and add "/monobook.js" to the URL). -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 19:27, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

ThanksChris5897 09:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Daylight Donuts

I submitted an article on the business Daylight Donuts. I found other donut shops listed, but didn't find that one so I sumitted a new topic. Once I submitted it, it appeared online, but now that I go back to find it, it isn't there. Can someone help me? Erik ekarre@bsamail.org

It was speedily deleted [2] - someone thought it looked too much like a blatant advert. See WP:CSD for speedy deletion criteria. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 19:44, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Definition of love

I wish to contribute a new definition of love. It is one I have formulated myself and is, as far as I am aware, completely new. How do I get it printed in Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is not the place for original research. Dismas|^(talk) 19:50, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately it will never get into Wikipedia since Wikipedia is not a dictionary. However, if you do get your definition published in a reputable source, you can submit it proudly to Wiktionary. Hyenaste ^(tell) 19:52, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect page in category

Category:Washington elections, 2006 lists an entry "Washington state elections, 2006", which is nothing but a redirect page to the category itself. This doesn't make sense, so I wanted to remove it, but I found that the page does not contain a category entry. (Another interesting fact is that the entry is not underlined.) What's wrong here? — Sebastian (talk) 20:23, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Found the solution: "colonizing the cat". (Thanks D.E. for this term and the lively image it put in my head.) — Sebastian (talk) 22:22, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help with a category

Hello. I'm starting to get active in editing Warriors, a fictional books series. I really need to create a category for it, however there is already a Category:Warriors for warriors as in fighters and such. Can someone suggest a name for the category? Dooms Day349 20:25, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

How about "Warriors (book series)"? — Sebastian (talk) 20:33, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I was considering that, but that almost implies that everything in the categoru is a book. Do you think "Warriors (fiction)" might work? Dooms Day349 20:47, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

It is a common misconception that inclusion in a category means an is a relation. That said, we do want names that fit their topic. I think there's a strong point for the cat name being the same as the article name. Apparently, Warriors (book series) doesn't correctly describe what your working at, either - so the question is not just about the category. You know better than I do what name to choose best. I don't particularly like "Warriors (fiction)": Warriors have played a role in fiction for thousands of years, so I (as one who doesn't know the book series) would expect this article to cover the role warriors played in fiction. — Sebastian (talk) 21:38, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

I think I'll go with Warriors (book series) for the time being, sort of a prototype. It seems like the best recourse for now. I'd like to pitch one more idea for feedback, however, and that is "Warriors (cats)". Thanks for the help. Dooms Day349 21:52, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia and Firefox

Images and Math expressions are not displayed in Firefox browser

Can you help??

Thanks

Noam

212.235.1.208 20:30, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Make sure you didn't disable images coming from upload.wikimedia.org, and check if that helps. Tito xd^(?!?) 20:31, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unable to log in after creating an account

I have tried unsuccessively to create an account and then log in. All my attempts to log in have said invalid password. I have tried different usernames and still no luck.65.94.242.15 21:07, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

make sure you did not have caps lock on, passwords are case-sensitiveChris5897 09:49, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

If you still have a problem i could make an account for you and e-mail you the username and passwordChris5897 09:49, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] archiving

I would like to know how to archive material on a talk page please. Cricket02 21:20, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

There are several methods. Read up on the many ways at Wikipedia:How to archive a talk page! Hyenaste ^(tell) 21:23, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Generating lists on pages from a database

Hi, I'd like to know if there's any Wiki way of generating a 'database' of data so I can produce two or more tables on a page for the same data but ordered in a different way.

My interest is in List of songs featured in The Simpsons which lists songs, artists and episodes of the Simpsons on which they occur, but it would be 'really neat' to have multiple tables representing the same data but ordered by episode or perhaps artist.

That would be a nightmare to maintain manually so I'm wondering if the Wiki engine offers any automatic way to manage lists of data to address this sort of desire --Mortice 21:22, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Does It Cost Anything to be a user on Wikipedia

I became a user and want to know if it costs a dime and if it does tell me how to delete my user.

No. Completely free. Kuru ^talk 01:09, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Didn't you notice the From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on top of almost every page? :P Hyenaste ^(tell) 01:11, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

- The "free" actually means libre, not gratis. Wikipedia could theoretically sell a CD copy of the online encyclopedia and still be "free". — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 01:13, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Whatever the intended meaning of "free" in this case, the fact is still that Wikipedia itself does not charge for any aspect of using and participating in it, and has no plans of ever doing this, though others reusing its content under the GFDL might do so. *Dan T.* 01:29, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

It does not cost a dime or even a penny, however you must donate contributions under the terms of the GFDL.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 01:34, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

All it costs is a bit of your time and a bit of courage =) --`/aksha 04:36, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Remember, though: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Account. Tito xd^(?!?) 04:42, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

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