Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 January 19

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[edit] January 19

[edit] Article deletion history (AfD, prod, CSD)

I have 3 questions about viewing the deletion history (AfD, prod, or CSD was suggested and denied/accepted) of an article:

Black Falcon 00:19, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Articles that have survived an AfD should have a template at the top of their Talk page to indicate. See Talk:Series of tubes for an example. However, deleted articles tend to not keep their old AfDs and such around for more than a couple months, from what I can tell. -- Kesh 00:34, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
There should always be a note on the talk page, but all AfD debates are preserved so Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/article should show any previous debate.
Not really, except for skimming the edit history for summaries
You can find AfD listings for similar sounding articles by either searching the Wikipedia: namespace for possible terms or by using Special:Prefixindex (eg articles nominated for deletion which start 'Shogun'.) --Cherry blossom tree 00:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Many thanks to you both for your helpful responses. Black Falcon 00:56, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] adding a new entry

I noticed one of my competitors has a top-level entry on wikipedia.

How do I add a top level entry to describe a similar website.

Thanks David

You'll want to read Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page, Wikipedia:Article_development, and WP:COI. Xiner (talk, email) 02:36, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Also be sure to read WP:WEB (if it's a website), WP:V and WP:N. Don't create an article about a project/company you're involved in. Bad karma. -- Kesh 02:40, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User is... going nuts? What template should I use to warn him?

I got into a debate with an IP User 75.129.150.225 and he's going nuts now. The discussion can be found here. He mentioned that he wanted to cut himself, and I don't know how serious these things should be taken on Wikipedia (I know that on some sites, admins take action to contact people's parents...). Either way, which specific rules is he breaking and what templates should I put on his talk page to warn him? The conversation is: Talk:List of experiments from Lilo & Stitch#Hisees image Thank you. --〈 Miriam The Bat 〉(Talk) (Contribs) (Sign Me!) 02:30, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Mostly WP:CIVIL and WP:ATTACK. Not to mention all the nonsense added to the Talk page. I've placed an appropriate warning template on the user's page.
I wouldn't worry about the cutting comments, as this seems to be an attention grab. If more serious comments were made, I still can't think of an appropriate avenue for taking action. There's no central body on Wikipedia that could respond to such. -- Kesh 02:54, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. I know that on Gaia Online they have a serious policy on self-mutilation and suicide threats where they track the users IP address and contact the local police, which is why I thought there may be similar policy here. --〈 Miriam The Bat 〉(Talk) (Contribs) (Sign Me!) 02:58, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
I would personally take such action; notably a few admins here have done such. Report this incident on the Administrator's Noticeboard. Yuser31415 03:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Who's the creator?

Who created this site? Not the people who write the information on subjects, but the name of the person who created Wikipedia. I need to know for a works cited page.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.150.6.164 (talk • contribs) 03:03, January 19, 2007 (UTC)

You need to look at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. --Tkynerd 03:06, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Doesn't the questioner really want to know about Jimmy Wales? Now, if you want to know who created him, that's a different matter ... NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 21:19, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Misuse of Wikipedia

Someone is using Johnny L. Banks, Jr. as a user page. Is this allowed? I thought user pages were supposed to be on user pages (i.e. User:Name)???? Chupper 03:32, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Page moved. Redirect needs to be deleted by an admin (i.e. not me). Xiner (talk, email) 03:49, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Watchlist changes

I haven't been on for quite some time, and I noticed something on the watchlist that didn't exist since the last time I was active. They are little green and red numbers (denoting sign) in parantheses next to the page names. What do they mean? —Akrabbimtalk 03:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

They tell the number of bytes added or subtracted to the page's code. They are useful for finding vandalism (like replacing a page with an expletive, or such). --Sopoforic 03:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Ok, that makes sense. Thank you very much. —Akrabbimtalk 03:46, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Homepage as a reference source

I have been helping out with [[Category:Articles lacking sources]] and came across an article about James Kirchner the only biographic material I could find on him that fitted the stub was on his homepage I went ahead and put in the reference and removed the tag, however I have doubts as to a homepage being a legit source for wikipedia if someone could let me know so I could leave, research more or re-instate tag it would be appreciated. I hit save page instead of preview before and then everything just went haywire Kesh. thanks --Matt 05:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mokgen (talk • contribs) 04:49, January 19, 2007 (UTC)

Looks like you didn't get your whole question typed out. Try again? -- Kesh 04:55, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
See a section further below for repeat of question. -- John Broughton | (♫♫) 16:04, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Using pictures from different versions of Wikipedia

If an article from one language version of Wikipedia has a picture, is it safe to assume that it's okay to upload the same picture into the article from another language version of Wikipedia? Haverpopper 05:20, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I posted some info on a painter, Andre Daude, but I'm having trouble showing any of the downloaded photos. Let me know how to do this. Also, this painting was purchased by myself, Neil Lipson about 50 years ago, and I don't see a copyright notice on it. Will this be allowable to post? I also found a notice about a spam email address, but I used my own email address, lipson@att.net. I don't have any bio info on this painting which is the reason I'm posting what info I do have. Let me know how to fix this.

Thanks,

Neil Lipson

Note: Email removed because of privacy reasons. Yuser31415 07:06, 19 January 2007 (UTC) You'll want to read up on our fair use policy. You see, different versions of Wikipedia tend to have their own copyright rules; so it is better to be versed in ours before uploading anything. Yuser31415 07:06, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
It depends. If the image used in the other Wikipedia is stored in the Wikimedia Commons, it is safe to use here. If it is not, verify the copyright status of the image; if it is released under a free license, upload it to Commons instead, so everyone can use it. Titoxd(?!?) 07:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
A better explanation is this: if the image is at Wikimedia Commons, it can be accessed and used by all wikis without the need to reupload. If it was uploaded on a different Wikipedia, however, you might be able to upload it here. If it is Fair Use, you'll have to do some checking on the copyrights (feel free to ask the Help Desk). If the image in question is licensed as GFDL or Public Domain, then you'd do more good by uploading it at Commons so everyone else can use it as well. — Kieff 07:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Homepages attempt 3

While checking [[Category:Articles lacking sources]] I was reviewing the James Kirchner article for sources a quick google search showed the best source of the relevant info on his homepage. I added a link to the page as a reference and removed the tag. However I am unsure about the use of someones homepage as an accurate source so do I leave my edit alone, or research some more for better sources and provide them or retag the article as the case maybe thanks --Matt 05:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • Other people may disagree with me, but I believe someone's homepage is a valid source as long as you establish notability through some independant source other than the homepage first. - Mgm|(talk) 05:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
    • It's okay - in fact, very useful - to include a home page in the External links section of an article. Using a person's personal website as a reference/footnote is a bit more dicey. If you're going to do that, it probably should be for sentences that read like this: "According to Kirchner's personal website, he was born and raised ... ", rather than "Kirchner was born and raised ... ". I've gone ahead and changed the reference/footnote to an external link.
      • I would have suggested either retagging the article (the purpose is to encourage others to visit the page and improve it) or doing some further research yourself to find other sources of information, but another reference has been added to the page, and I added an embedded link as well, so it's okay to leave the unsourced tag off the article as it now stands. -- John Broughton | (♫♫) 16:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Passport From Marshall Islands

I have lost my passport from the Marshall Islands. How do I contact them and have a New one sent to me in Alaska??? Eonlina Lojan

Hi, this page is for posting questions about how to edit Wikipedia. Maybe you can try asking at the reference desk. delldot | talk 06:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Section editting

Is there a way to selectively remove the special edit links for some of the subsection ? This will be useful say while viewing multiple column text (e.g. Fluid dynamics: See also section). The edit links for the subsections are too close to the next column. Not that they are not useful, but one edit link to edit the whole section would suffice in such cases. The __NOEDITSECTION__ tag works fine, but it removes all the edit links from the sections and subsection in the article. Thank you. myth 07:49, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

This isn't possible at the moment, but there's been a request to the developers to add this feature. You might want to look at MediaWiki enhancement request 8515. 147.188.147.230

Thank you that saves some trouble for me :) myth 09:31, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to reply and etiquettes

I know how to edit pages and talk to other people. But, are there some fixed rules which I should keep in mind while replying to people. As of now, I have only conversed with users on article talk pages. Any help would be appreciated. Tragicomedian 08:12, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

This maybe of some help to you Wikipedia:Etiquette. myth 08:27, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photography

Hello. I've just started making some contributions and wondered what the policy was on an issue relating to photography. I have uploaded one of my pictures to an article on the Clywdian Range of hills in Wales. I am happy for this photo to be used anywhere, by anyone, but don't know whether it is the 'done thing' to say that users can email me for a high res version of the image. I'm not looking for any kind of profit on this, just want to know the protocol. ElgyB 09:58, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Please upload the highest resolution version you have. You should also tag the image with {{GFDL-self}} in the license section.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 09:59, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

OK. Many thanks. ElgyB 10:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • Yes, you can save yourself a lot of work by simply uploading the largest version you are comfortable about sharing with other users. That way you don't have to answer email queries. You can also multi-license your images -- allow them to be used under other restrictions. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. Perhaps you want to add a Creative Commons license too. That saves people from having to copy the GFDL license along with the image if they use it. - Mgm|(talk) 10:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problem inserting a reference

I have tried multiple times to properly format a reference in the Monte Ne article. No matter how I try, either using a cite template or entering it manually, it refuses to format. Can you look at it to fix, and if you are successful, please tell me where my error lies? This has happened to me more than once, and it is extremely frustrating. Thanks in advance, Jeffpw 11:51, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • I fixed it. You can check the article history to see what I did. I think it failed to work because you used a hard return (forcing a new line) within the template. I also recommend using naming refs like this: <ref name="EXAMPLE">blah</ref> so you can refer back to them using that name without typing out the entire template multiple times. If you want to reuse a previous reference you can write: <ref name="EXAMPLE" />. Note the lack of a closing tag in this one. - Mgm|(talk) 12:17, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your help, and the clear explanation of where my error was. Jeffpw 12:24, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sub Pages

Hi, If I create sub-pages of my user talk Page so like my adoptees can contact me on that Page instead of on my talk Page, would it still say I had new messages when I logged on, or would I have to check it myself? Thanks

Tellyaddict 12:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

The new-messages bar is only triggered from the main User talk page, not from subpages. --ais523 12:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] admin rights and responsibilities

Hi,

where can I find the rights and responsibilities of an admin? I have no problems in the english version but I started translating into Slovak (from english wiki, which I assume is OK, haven't found otherwise) and one of the admins keeps reversing the articles ( not only mines, there is a whole bunch of us on his discussion page asking the same thing) for "gramatical mistakes" reasons. I'd like to know what his rights are because clearly he thinks it is OK to delete a whole article. Slovak wiki has very little artlicles and if he discurages people with this (which he does) noone will want to write there and that for me defies the purpose of wiki.

thanks for your help,

Sandra

you could have a look at WP:ADMIN - that page also suggests the Wikipedia:Administrators' how-to guide and Wikipedia:Administrators' reading list although I'm not sure such policies and advice have any credance on the slovak wiki - they probably have their own. Sounds to me though that the person in question isn't really acting as an admin in reverting your edits but is acting as a standard editor. As such, he is subject to all the rules the rest of us are. Have you tried talking to him about it? If he's a grammar expert, perhaps he should just fix your grammar rather than just revert it. --Mcginnly | Natter 14:07, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, each Wikipedia (English, French, Slovak, etc.) has their own admins and their own processes. The Wikimedia Foundation provides the hardware and software, but lets each language (project) do its own thing, mostly. So you should search the Slovak wikipedia for information on their processes. If you don't find anything there, or believe that they aren't observing the spirit of what Wikipedia (as a whole) should be about, you might want to contact a steward - they do monitor things across all wikipedias - see m:Stewards. Or take a look at the meta pages in general - these apply to all projects (you could start at m:Main Page. And yes, there are absolutely no restrictions on translating content from one wiki to another - that's encouraged, in fact.) -- John Broughton | (♫♫) 15:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
You still have to preserve the edit history, but apart from that transferring articles is fine. Images are more complicated due to varying copyright restrictions (if it's free-use, copy it to Commons, but fair use often can't be copied at all). --ais523 16:45, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] generating lists

At WP:ARCHA we've got some way through the assessment process. And there's a great little bot that generates statistics for us in a matrix at the top of the page. What would be really usefull though is to be able to generate a list of say, all start-class articles that are also top importance. Does anyone know how to do this? I'm recently approved for AWB and I think I can generate a list of all mid, low and none importance articles and filter the list of start-class articles to exclude them - but this seems a bit longwinded - is there an easier, more obvious way that I'm missing? --Mcginnly | Natter 14:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

The Wikipedia search engine can do this, i.e. your particular query would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?ns1=1&search=%7B%7BArchitecture%7Cclass%3Dstart%7Cimportance%3Dhigh%7D%7D&fulltext=Search . What this does is look for the string "{{Architecture|class=start|importance=high}}" in the wikisource of all talk pages. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:40, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Many thanks. --Mcginnly | Natter 15:38, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template

I'm looking for a template similar to the listing for the Wall Street Journal, set up for a company article. Where can I find such a template?

Robcarter 14:13, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean something like Template:Infobox Company? To see a list of articles using this template, just click "what links here" in the toolbox on the template page. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:43, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question

When should I use Wikipedia and why? Theresa Bowlding

Please see Wikipedia:About. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:46, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moving

how do i move a page or article —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.51.90.0 (talk • contribs).

Please see WP:MOVE. You will need to have an account older than four days. Else you can request at Wikipedia:Requested moves — Lost(talk) 15:13, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright..

Having looked around Im confused about the use of copyright. If i take a picture of..say a company logo..or avideo game cover..if this fair use? or is it my picture because I took it? would this be the same in every occasion? such as pictures of people and places? or only certain conditions? Fethroesforia 15:34, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

A photo of a company logo or a video game cover would have to be fair use, because most of the creative work that would produce the final image would be the company's (your input would be limited to lighting, angle, etc.). A picture of a person would normally be free use if you took it yourself and licenced it appropriately, because you have all the creative input in the picture (although in some cases there might be other reasons why you couldn't use the picture of someone without their consent; I'm not sure about this, but I think it has something to do with the country you/they live in); with a picture of a place, it would depend on what was in the picture (a picture of a hill would usually be licensable by the person who took it as free use, whereas the picture of the front of a shop, containing logos and pictures created by that business, would likely be usable as free use only). I'm not a lawyer, however, so I may be wrong about some of this; you might want to discuss a particular situation on Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use.... --ais523 15:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Ok..thanks..just because I saw a video game cover (photo) that some guy released into the public domain..so not sure whats going on with that. But thanks:) Fethroesforia 15:54, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
The uploader most likely made a mistake. —Dark•Shikari[T] 16:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
I just thought of something funny, if you take a photo of someone who's had a lot of plastic/cosmetic surgery do you need to credit the surgeon? After all they had the creativity to sculpt that face :) --WikiSlasher 12:34, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Talk:Mediation Vanished!

This page [1] has completely vanished. Only the background remains. Any ideas what's been done to it?

Many thanks MattB2 16:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks fine to me. Try bypassing your cache. --ais523 17:26, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
That's sorted it! Many thanks MattB2 20:08, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is there a bot that helps clean up redirects that arise from page moves?

Some pages have lots of incoming links pointing to them and it'd be tedious to manually fix the links. Xiner (talk, email) 17:19, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Out of the currently active bots that are listed on Wikipedia:Registered bots, User:MessedRobot seems to be the only one specifically approved for double redirects; however, I think AWB can handle this sort of work (without necessarily requiring bot approval), and there are probably bots approved for general manually-assisted work that would be capable of and allow this. --ais523 17:25, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Does User:MessedRobot run specific jobs, or search for stuff to fix? Thanks. Xiner (talk, email) 19:48, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citing Wikipedia using the Cite Tool

How does the cite this article tool work?

I have noticed that clicking the cite this article link on the left side of the page, generates a citation page for said article and there is a button labled "Cite"...

What does this button do? Is there any way to export the citation to EndNote?

In APA format?

Grossmanhm 17:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

The cite this article tool (I presume) just takes the information and formats it according to a template. The 'cite' button is there so that you can change the name of the page in the box to the left of it, and then click 'cite' to get the citation for the new page. If you want to use the citation in endnote, see this link. That will let you import BibTeX citations into endnote. The 'cite this article' tool has a BibTeX entry, so you should be able to make use of it. (note that I don't use endnote, so I can't guarantee that it will work) --Sopoforic 20:55, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Minor addendum - The "Cite" button doesn't do anything except re-create the page unless you change the name of the article, in which case it generates a new page with the cite for that new article - try it. -- John Broughton | (♫♫) 00:16, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page Forwarding

The page for Michael O. Johanns, the current Secretary of Agriculture is listed under Mike Johanns. How can I make is so if you type his full name it will forward to the correct article?

Also, under the "wiki rules" should it actually be reversed where the article is his full/real name and the shorthand version is the one that gets forwarded?

--Jwikipro 18:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

The full name should probably be used unless the short name is particularly famous or something. To move the page, just click the move button at the top; it will automatically create the redirect from the original to the new location. See Help:Redirect on creating redirects. Basically, just make it so the only thing on the article is:
#REDIRECT [[Target article]]
-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:24, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
The rules for naming say to use the name by which a person is most commonly known: see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) (I'm not sure whether this advice conflicts with Consumed Crustacean's in this case). As for creating the redirect, you can do it by typing
#REDIRECT [[Mike Johanns]]
as the only text in the page Michael O. Johanns. Hope that helps! --ais523 18:26, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page Moves

I recently wrote an article that had its name changed by another user. This article is about a topic that can have its name translated into English, or kept in its original Chinese. I named the article in its translated form (Way of the Celestial Masters), the other user changed the name to a Chinese-English hybrid (Tianshi School). Instead of using the possibly controversial move procedure, the user moved it himself. When I tried to move it back, he would contiually move it to his name. Eventually someone else noticed this edit war, and intervened to have it moved back to its orignal name. The user then protested and it was moved to the controversial move section. Keep in mind that the move was now from its new name (Tianshi School), back to its old name (Way of the Celestial Masters). Therefore the burden of the move was put on me to have it named back to its original form, and not on the other user to keep it as Tianshi School. The vote failed to have it changed back (with only three votes cast), and the article remained at Tianshi School. On January 10th, I went through the controversial move procedure and a vote was held in which 4 people were in favor of moving it back to 'Way of the Celestial Master', and another 2(the same 2 that voted against the move in the first place), voted to keep it. Thinking that a supermajority had been reached (the wkipedia page says that this qualifies as 60-80% of the votes), I took the liberty of moving the page back. This move was subsequently reverted by one of the users that was against the move. Now the article is in limbo.

From this experience, I now feel that there is a serious flaw in Wkipedia's page move policies. Why is it that the burden of having the article moved has been placed on getting it back to its original name? Because the original user did not go through the possibly controversial move procedure to generate discussion, shouldn't the burden be placed on him to keep the article where it is? I feel that the article should be renamed 'Way of the Celestial Masters,' and then if the user still wants to rename it 'Tianshi School,' he can go through the controversial move procedure. I also feel that if such a situation happens again in which a user changes an article name that could be controversial, and someone disagrees, that the article name should be automatically reverted so that a proper discussion can take place on whether to move the article in the first place.

Any input on what people think about this situation would be appreciated. Zeus1234 20:04, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • See WP:AN or WP:COI/N --Regards, Darkest Hour Talk•contribs 20:11, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
    • I don't see why WP:COI/N is being mentioned here - that's a noticeboard for conflicts of interest, which has not been mentioned as far as I can see. More constructively: If you think the current move policy is wrong and should be changed, you should propose a change at Wikipedia talk:Requested moves. If you believe that an administrator has incorrectly interpreted existing policy, that would be a matter for WP:AN. -- John Broughton | (♫♫) 00:26, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


Let's see if I get this. Party A submits something. Party B hijacks it. How many votes does it take for a hijacking to be legal. Does the pilot get a vote? If B wants to use a different name, why not simply write some type of disambiguation page, so that B is happy but does not gain control over the work submitted by A.

A REDIRECT  ?

[edit] How do you report inappropriate content?

I read Wikipedia daily. Today, for the first time, I noticed a sentence in a biography that was vulgar and misplaced. It looked as though someone thought it would be funny. It had nothing to do with the topic. How do things like that get repaired?

Thank you

  • Click on the edit this page link between the History and the discussion links at the top of the article. To see who made the comment click on the history link. --Regards, Darkest Hour Talk•contribs 20:45, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
You can actually fix it yourself. See WP:REVERT. -- Kesh 21:29, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Who's the author?

I'm doing a project and I need to know who is the author of the page about Italy.

Um every one is the author here at wikipedia. To see who was the very first person to write the article go to the history and back track all the way to the first edit. --Regards, Darkest Hour Talk•contribs 20:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
What Darkest Hour said is true, but now what you want to know. See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for information on how to cite wikipedia. --Sopoforic 20:48, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] School Article Name

Currently, there are 2 articles about the same school with the exact same article text. I need to know which one to keep and which one to convert to a redirect. The articles are Southland Academy and Southland Academy (Americus, Georgia) Grhs126student 20:54, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

As long as we don't know of another Southland Academy, I would recommend deleting Southland Academy (Americus, Georgia). If it later turns out a disambiguation page is needed, we can always move the article to the more specific name and change Southland Academy to be the disambiguation page. --Tkynerd 20:56, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do I enable the "You have a new message notification" feature?

In changing my preferences, I must have inadvertendly switched off the "You have a new message" feature. I have had a couple of new messages on my talk page lately, but I didn't get that big orange "you have a new message" bar.

I would like to re-enable the notification feature, but I just can't find it among the preferences. Am I overlooking something? I have set my browser to automatically log in with my wikipedia username and password.

I'm assuming now that the new message notification can be disabled/enabled, but is that so? Can there be another reason for me not getting notifications? --Cleonis | Talk 21:36, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • As far as I know you can't shut it off. (This way vandals can't say they haven't received any warnings.) Do you by any chance visit your talk page first? If you do, it might explain why you aren't getting a banner afterwards. - Mgm|(talk) 21:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Generally, the first page I visit is Special:Watchlist. That link is in my browser's bookmarks.
If I happen to see that there is a comment on my talk page, I go there. --Cleonis | Talk 22:01, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
It is possible to turn it off, but that requires editing User:Cleonis/monobook.css and you haven't. --ais523 16:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
  • If someone leaves a message on your talk page, it creates an entry in the User newtalk table that points to your username. If you visit your talk page, any entries pointing towards your username are deleted from the table by the software before your talk page is rendered and sent to your browser. So, if you visit your talk page before anything, you will never your "new messages" banner. The only way to know if there's a new message if you've done that is to manually look at the page history. Titoxd(?!?) 04:25, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
Normally I don't visit my talk page, and if I do then it's the second page I visit. My first port of call is Special:Watchlist. So I ought to get that big orange "you have a new message" bar (when there has been a change of my talk page).
Unfortunately, this is something that I can't test. (I suppose I could create another account just for the purpose of testing this, but I don't particularly like creating an account just for prodding the system.) --Cleonis | Talk 19:36, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dismiss?

For the last month or so, I have noticed a link labelled "[dismiss]" at the top of my wikipedia pages. When I click on the link it disappears. What is the purpose of this link? TonyTheTiger 22:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

It has something to do with the recent fundraiser. Arjun 22:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Right, it's meant to make the fundraiser banner go away. -- Kesh 22:49, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Repeat

Hi there,

I recently joined Wikipedia to write an article about a band I know of. I have written it and saved changes, but for some reason it has repeated the article twice. I have no idea why, the written part shows no reason for it to be repeated. Can you please help me on this?! Also, Im not sure if i have to be an elite member or something, but will this article be able to be previewed by the public, as I can not yet see it on the internet.

Thanks for your time and help.

Sincerly,

- Matt Matt Whitney 23:01, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

You managed to create a Template, which happens to be an exact copy of your Userpage. See Template:Definite Article. I would suggest putting {{db-author}} at the top of the page, so an admin will delete it for you, since it's unnecessary. Then, delete {{Definite Article}} from your Userpage, as it won't go anywhere.
Secondly, you don't want to create an article about your band. See WP:OR, WP:COI and WP:V. Until your band is big enough for reputable news sources to mention them, the article won't survive on Wikipedia, and it's bad form to create a page about your band yourself. Wikipedia is not a directory, nor is it advertising space.
I do wish you and your band the best of luck, and hope to see you contribute to other articles here on Wikipedia. -- Kesh 23:35, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] my editiing

my editing is completlely deleted i dont see why i just fixed the right thing, the fact that is not well known

all of thing

if u search my editings on the web, u will see what is true

its hard to find but it is there it didnt violates any copyright

please tell me why —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jinmemini (talk • contribs) 23:16, January 19, 2007 (UTC)

Please remember to sign your comments with four tildes. It would also help if you explained what you were asking about.
Judging by your Talk page and contributions, you added text to Tōgō Heihachirō with no references. You must show that your additions can be verified, so that other people can read it for themselves. See WP:CITE for instructions on how to do this.
Finally, we have no way to "search (your) editings on the web," as there's no way to know who you are or which edits are yours. Plus, you cannot cite yourself as a source. See WP:OR. You must provide verifiable information from a secondary source. We can't simply take your word for it.
If you can provide us with sources, please re-add the text with appropriate references. New information is always welcome, as long as we can verify it to be accurate. -- Kesh 23:26, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
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