Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 29

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[edit] Why so slow

Wikipedia might be a wonderful thing, but I think it is going to cumble under its own weight. I have a broad band connection an Wikipedia is so slow in editing and finding pages that I feel like giving up. Lots of times it times out all-together. The program itself is probably so cumbersome that it can't move and the server underpowered. when can we expect better? I donated a little. Phil 23:33, September 10, 2005 (UTC)

Well, the changes will take time to come in affect. With more and more users growing onto Wikipedia it will be slow at some times but usually the pages do load even after a few minutes. You can use Google if you want to view a cache of the page if you like. -- Thorpe talk 23:39, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
Thorpe, you shauld have written "come in effect." I suggest that you use the techie word "impact." It is the current substitute for both "affect" and "effect."

64.12.116.12 12:05, 15 September 2005 (UTC)Bruce Partington

Just out of interest, which operating system and web browser are your running? You might find Dillo on either Linux, BSD or Mac OS X serves you better for speed. I haven't tried editing the wiki with it, so i don't know if the frame support would be a problem, but from experience it is the fastest I've found to date. Alf melmac 23:47, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia runs on a fairly large collection of servers, using sophisticated (and extremely high speed) caching mechanisms. It is among the top 50 highest traffic websites in the world (see m:Wikipedia.org_is_more_popular_than...), run by the non-profit Wikimedia_foundation and programmed nearly entirely by volunteers. If you're interested in the technical details, you might read Wikipedia:Technical FAQ. Thank you for donating. The money will go to more server hardware, which WILL help the response times. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:24, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Finding and removing "hidden" "bad" articles

I just came across the Gbwillia article, which AFIK is complete nonsense. (So, I marked it up with the {nonsense} tag.) It's apparently been in Wikipedia for months. It occurs to me that perhaps there's other "bad" articles that nobody ever sees and so they don't get deleted. Is there a way to search for articles that are un-linked to? Or, better yet to avoid the more creative rube who creates several bogus articles and circularly links them, to find sets of articles that are not linked to the remainder of Wikipedia? This won't solve the problem but it's the best solution I can come up with. --kop 23:37, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

It's a red link which means it isn't an article. -- Thorpe talk 23:43, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
Thorpe, that's because someone speedy deleted it.
kop, go to the main page, scroll all the way down and you'll see a link for "New pages" as well as "Orphan pages". New pages are created every few minutes by vandals with no useful content like the one you found. There are many Wikipedians who check this list as often as possible to try to weed them out. Also, you can help by finding useful articles in the orphans and making links to them from related articles. Or if you want to help in other ways, go to Wikipedia:Community Portal and look at the section entitled "Open tasks" for even more ways to help. Dismas 23:46, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
Dismas, thanks, but that does not solve the problem. I found that article looking at recent edits, but it had not been edited for months and apparently made it through the initial 'weed out' of bad initial pages (probably by looking like techno gobbledy gook.) What I'm looking for is a way to find those bogus pages that are just sitting there, untouched and unreferenced. --kop 00:01, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
Sounds like you're talking about orphaned articles, which is one of the things Dismas was pointing you to, see Special:Lonelypages (and it's talk page, with pointers to lists of orphaned articles). The orphaned article lists haven't been updated in a long time. If you're interested and have the expertise, it would be very helpful if you could do this. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:39, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] In search of bot that suggests wikilinks (not interwikilinks!)

Not the one that suggests links between different languages of Wikipedia. But I seem to remember there was a bot that would go through an article's texts and say "these words have articles you could link to." Anyone know what I'm talking about, and how I might get it to run on an article? My Google-fu fails me. — WCityMike (T | C) 02:05, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

  • See User:Nickj/Link Suggester. Bovlb 02:09:28, 2005-09-11 (UTC)
    • Looks cool, but is there any way to "run" it on a particular article you'd like links to be suggested for? — WCityMike (T | C) 02:14, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
      • I suggest you ask Nickj. Bovlb 06:00:26, 2005-09-11 (UTC)
        • Will do. Thanks. — WCityMike (T | C) 06:30, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Australian Embassy in Damascus

Which Australian Embassy is looking after Autraians residing there?

o107h7@yahoo.com.au


63.243.163.194 03:02, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

  • Australia doesn't have an embassy in Syria, but the Canadian Embassy in Damascus provides consular assistance to Australians there. [1] Also, Australians traveling in Syria may obtain consular assistance from, and should register with, the Australian embassy in Egypt. [2] --Metropolitan90 06:58, September 11, 2005 (UTC); 06:58, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with images

Sometimes when I'm viewing images on Wikipedia, they don't work correctly and render as the "alt" text that an image is uploaded with:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1681/strange2ku.jpg

Here is a picture of when this happens (Firefox; in Internet Explorer it shows as a red X). Anyone got any ideas on why it does this? The page in that image is from Sailor_Moon_(English_version). -- RattleMan 04:50, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Sometimes the server that delivers thumbnail images gets overloaded, and can't keep up with the work that millions of wikipedia visitors place on it. The result is that we show the image caption instead of the image. Generally waiting a bit and retrying (with ctrl-f5 or shift-reload) will yield the image. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:51, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] September 11 entry

I was wondering about the first sentence in the September 11th attack entries. It says it was a series of "hilarious" attacks on the US. I believe this is very wrong to use it as hilarious. I am one who thinks there are many questions that are still unanswred about the subject but it is not "hilarious" and needs some revising

The page had suffered a variety of repeated childish and/or offensive vandalism, it is now fixed. Alf melmac 10:36, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Copy Right and using Wikipedia as a source

Dear Sir or Ma'am,

I am putting together a CD on the Presidents of the United States and selling the CDs. Am I allowed to make use of the Definitions and dialogues if I make reference to Wikipedia?

Thank you.

Larry A. Scheel scheell7@AOL.com

Please see Citing Wikipedia and Wikipedia:FAQ. Alf melmac 10:40, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
In particular, see Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ. Bovlb 02:48:09, 2005-09-12 (UTC)

[edit] Changing incorrect link

Wiki page on the great Sam Doble links him to Footy (Soccer) rather than Rugby (Union). Can't see any instructions on changing this. Poor guy must be spinning in his sadly premature grave.

  • You could've done it yourself, but it's fixed now. All you had to do was replace football (soccer) with rugby. - Mgm|(talk) 10:51, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
    • Replace wrong-bio stubs with {{RugbyUnion-stub}} if you spot any more. He's a rugby union player, correct me if I'm wrong, I've changed it to reflect that. Sam can stop spinning now . Alf melmac 11:03, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Google Earth Files

How do you do it??

I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean how do you add satellite (or other) images you found with Google Earth, please don't. Most of the imagery available on Google Earth is copyrighted by various satellite image companies, who charge a great deal of money for permissions. So these images aren't compatible with Wikipedia's GFDL licence. You can, however, use NASA World Wind (which is very like google earth), and all the images it generates are public domain, and so can be uploaded to wikipedia. If you mean how to add Google Earth's geolocation data files, please don't. Instead, please use one of the coor templates described at Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:25, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
Maybe they are asking about putting a link in the External links section. I think I have seen a special format for this somewhere, but I can't remeber where exactly. --Commander Keane 13:24, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
WorldWind supports a special URL scheme (which is enabled on Egil's site, and on the Worldwind wiki) but currently the WikiMedia servers don't enable it. Presumably the geo extension will be enabled on the WikiMedia servers at some point, which will enable that URL scheme. I don't know if Google Earth has something similar, but I imagine so. Either way, it's much better to use the geo templates in articles, as they allow access to a wide variety of sources, rather than limit a link to a single, specific resource. FYI, someone added a GoogleEarth XML geolocator to Image:Wfm monument valley annotated.jpg, so you can see what one looks like. I've never found docs for the worldwind: URL scheme, so I can't compare the two. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:41, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A graph of article growth through the history of Wikipedia?

I think this would be a neat feature. Even a text description of the growth on a yearly basis (i.e. so many articles by year 1, so many by year 2, etc.) Do either of these already exsist? --Wylie440 10:06, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Take a look at Wikipedia:Statistics, or Special:Statistics. For example take a look at this. --Commander Keane 12:35, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mirrorsites that contain commercial links

How can mirrorsites that also contain commercial content use contributions to Wikipedia strictly intended for non-commercial purposes? (Example: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Axel-Jensen Profero 10:19, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia's content is licenced under the GFDL, which explicitly allows commercial exploitation. So they're not doing anything wrong at all. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:21, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
Thank you. So the next question (academic or paranoid?) is; how do we know we're not submitted to a giant pyramid game where this exploitation gives economic feedback to individuals in the hierarchy of Wikipedia?
Where does one find out more about this hierarchy (administrators, etc.) and how it works? Profero 10:39, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
I'm not aware of any evidence of any such pyramid, which sounds eerily like a conspiracy theory. If anything there seems to be an anti-corporate undercurrent at wikipedia, and it's sometimes difficult to write a perfectly good encyclopedic article about a noteworthy company without someone accusing it of being an advertisment. I'd be very surprised if any of the mirrors (excepting maybe answer.com, who aggregate lots of stuff, and who do a rather good job) make more than a marginal income from mirroring wikipedia. This is one of the obvious corrolaries of the free information licence - sure they can republish the information, but so can anyone else, and so the information is commoditised. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:43, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
We don't know that. Maybe it is happening. If not, it might happen in the future. This is one of the disadvantages of licensing things in a "free" manner: others might use it in a way that you don't like. When deciding how to license things (and whether to join an existing project with such a license), we need to consider this. Do the advantages of such a license outweigh this and other disadvantages? In the case of Wikipedia, I think they do. — Nowhither 21:13, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
I feel better already in this dark jungle. Please don't stop writing. And to all others; more views on this, please. Profero 01:05, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Okay, here is more writing. About the possible "giant pyramid game": Let's consider this in general. Say someone is paying Wikipedia people for something. What are they paying for?
  • Option 1. They are paying for the right to redistribute Wikipedia with commercial content included, or some other similar variation. Response: They already have this right. They are paying money for something they already have for free. They're idiots.
  • Option 2. They are paying for the right to redistribute Wikipedia in ways that are not in accordance with the GFDL. Response: I own the rights to my contributions to Wikipedia. Not the Wikimedia Foundation or anyone else. When I edit, I must license what I write under the GFDL. But only I have the right to license my contributions under other terms. If someone says he is selling the rights to my contributions, he is simply wrong: either deluded or lying. So these people are paying money for something they are not getting. They're idiots.
  • Option 3. They are paying for advertising to be inserted into Wikipedia. Response: Certainly advertising gets inserted. And when I see it, I delete it. So do many others. Looking around at random pages, I often see ranting, POV, bad writing, etc., but I rarely see advertising, since it is so obvious, and lots of people work at eliminating it. So these people are paying for something that doesn't last very long and is not read much. They may not quite be idiots, but they are certainly not terribly smart.
  • Option 4. They are paying for lots of edits that subtly slant articles in their favor. Response: This is quite possible. Meanwhile, find me a publication that isn't slanted, subtly or otherwise. You might reply that in most cases, motivations and the resulting slant are clear in traditional publications, while Wikipedia allows for greater sublety. And I would answer that you are correct. When dealing with Wikipedia articles, we must take into account that we often know nothing of the motivations and ideology of the writers.
Lastly, to answer the question about administrators, start by reading Wikipedia:Administrators.
— Nowhither 03:47, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Thank you Nowhither for the education. But, although it's a legal thing at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/, is there still not a slight feeling that it is not very 'nice', using our work for free?. I guess that's another matter. Profero 18:46, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Profero: No, if we didn't want people reusing Wikipedia content, we didn't have to license it that way. This is intentional. You can form whatever opinion you want about that decision, but that was the decision that was made. See also my response to Musca, below. — Nowhither 00:40, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
What happens if Wikipedia closes down. All work will be contained within the domains of commercial sites?Musca 19:05, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Musca: The Wikipedia license is a "share-alike" license. This means that, if you redistribute Wikipedia content, then you must license it in the same way. That means you have to allow others to copy it, modify it, and redistribute it. If Wikipedia dies, and you don't want its content to be available only from some commercial site, then all you have to do is grab a copy of the database from that site, start your own site, and make it available for free. They are legally required to facilitate this (until the copyright on Wikipedia runs out, but that will be quite some time in the future). — Nowhither 00:40, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Table help

I'm working on a personal template (located at User:Commander Keane/Temp) and want to know how to get space between text in an article and the actual template (eg, at User:Commander Keane). Also, is there a better way to center each line of text? --Commander Keane 13:33, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

I experimentally set the CSS margin style on that floatybox to margin: 0 0 20px 20px; (it's ordered top, right, bottom, left). It works fine in my little example in the sandbox. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:57, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How to Re-Edit during Preview

I have just made some changes to the Wikipedia article on 'Hmong' and previewed my corrections before saving them, as suggested. However during the 'Preview' I spotted another change I should have made (it says Miao languages/dialects are mutually intelligible but it should of course say mostly mutually UNintelligible!)but there seemed to be no way of editing the corrections I had already made at that point. May I suggest Wikipedia add a facility which would allow one to make further changes to edits, without cancelling all the ones one has just made (or did I miss something?).

Professor Nicholas Tapp The Australian National University

When you preview, the edit window should still be available on the screen, so you can make any changes you need to. If the article is long, it may take up a big part of the screen, so you may need to scroll all the way up or down the get to the edit window. Joyous (talk) 13:47, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Phising Information Retrieval

If personal information was keyed into a phsising link, but not submitted/sent, can that information still have been retrieved?

  • Unlikely, but yes, with the correct css code. Elfguy 18:01, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How do we start a brand new page

After making sure that it doesn't already exist, you just put the article name after the /wiki/ in the URL and visit it. Eg to make the article Foo boo you would go to "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_boo" (notice the underscore for a space). Once you are there, a message will say something like "an article on Foo boo doesn't exist, create it?. Click that and you are on your way. Ask again if you need clarificaton, and good luck!. --Commander Keane 17:32, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with redirect

There are already a few Wikipedia articles that link to Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford so I tried to make a redirect from that name to Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale.

I followed the explanation as found at Wikipedia:Redirect but it does not appear to have worked out correctly. If I go directly to the address http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algernon_Bertram_Freeman-Mitford I am not redirected to the correct article. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Andrew Sly 19:07, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Looks like you got it right to me. The software changes the URL to stop you following the redirect directly after an edit by adding something like "&redirect=no". Try clicking one of your links above and you should see it working as you intended. --GraemeL (talk) 19:53, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
Changing the comma in the redirect target to be a literal "," rather than %2C seems to have fixed it. Apparentlly the %xx URL notation for special characters is not supported in redirect links. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:54, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Interproject interwikis?

I'd like to place an interwiki on my userpage that, in addition to the simple english, spanish, and russian interwikis in the sidebar also lists my wikibooks, meta, and commons accounts there. But when I do [[m:User:Ilyanep]] or [[commons:User:Ilyanep]], etc it just puts an in-text link. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 19:29, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

I believe that's how it's designed to work. I don't think there is a way to do that. --Andy Janata 19:42, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
I think some of the interwiki stuff got broken during todays database outage. You might want to try it again later today or tomorrow. If I'm wrong, somebody will no doubt be along to correct me. --GraemeL (talk) 19:48, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
No, Andy's right - the feature being requested doesn't exist. Links to other projects are just considered short-hand for external links, not an alternate resource on the same topic, like language links are, so they appear in-place in the text, not floated off into the sidebar. See MediaZilla:708 for a discussion of how to implement exactly such a system. - IMSoP 18:13, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Variable For Creation Date?

Is there a wikitext variable that contains the date that the article was first created? Basically the same concept as {{CURRENTDAY}} but something like {{DATECREATED}}.
Thanks! --Fotinakis 20:42, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Is their a wiki code to enter something like :Phil talk"

I see a lot of signatures that show the name followed by "talk". How is this done? Thanks Phil 22:26, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

See the bar at the top right of your page? Click on the "preferences", and then edit the "Signature" link. If you need more help, see Wikipedia:Signature. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 22:31, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
  • Enter something like Mgm]]|[[User talk:MacGyverMagic|<sup>(talk)</sup> in the nickname field. The first "[[User:MacGyverMagic|" and the last "]]" unless you click the raw signature box immediately below it. Replace the name as you like. - Mgm|(talk) 22:36, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Where do I post research of a university?

1.)I am new here and don't know where to post or edit a page about research done at our university.. 2.)What is the rules (in a nut-shell) about raw research in Government prisons, ect? Thanks for the help. Dr.LMDB

In a nutshell - you don't. Wikipedia has an explicit policy against posting original research. →Raul654 22:58, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Can I use Wikipedia articles in my eBay auction listings.

I would like to know if it possible to incorporate a number of Wikpedia articles into my eBay auction listings. I sell Irish stamps. An example would be a stamp of 'Daniel O'Connell'. I would like to include the Wikipedia article on Daniel O'Connell as part of my listing to make the auction more informative and interesting.

Would very much appreciate feedback on this.

Kind Regards Martin Fahy

  • Anyone can link to Wikipedia articles from their sites, that's not a problem. Elfguy 23:52, 11 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Wikipedia's content is licensed under the GFDL, which explicitly allows commercial exploitation. --Wulf 23:58, September 11, 2005 (UTC)
  • See Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ. Bovlb 02:57:15, 2005-09-12 (UTC)
  • Note that to actually include one of articles (as opposed to link to), you would need to comply with the GFDL. You don't have to comply with the GFDL for just a link. Johntex\talk 00:40, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image copyright tags for Japanese municipal symbols

One of many municipal symbols which currently hold the logo copyright.
One of many municipal symbols which currently hold the logo copyright.

Although I asked this in my previous question, it went unanswered, so here it is again:

"I think the images of the Japanese city symbols might fall under the {{coatofarms}} copyright. What do you think? It seems like it would fit better than the {{logo}} copyright tag.


Above: The {{coatofarms}} tag."

I am not sure it makes much difference. Both {{logo}} and {{coatofarms}} assert that we think our usage falls under Fair Use (or, in the case of {{coatofarms}}, maybe it's public domain), so legally there is no real difference. The only distinction here is one of terminology: do we want to call such a symbol a logo or an emblem. And since it doesn't seem to matter legally, I say call it whichever one you want. — Nowhither 03:52, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Found a Spelling Error in an Article--Now What?

I am new to Wikipedia (it is a fascinating idea!) but I have found a spelling error in the "Astronomical Clock" article and I have no idea what to do about it. There doesn't seem to be a way to report it or to do anything about it--only the links are editable. The article reads "the clock was renovated till 1948"--I imagine the author meant to say "until" and didn't mean "plowing the soil" ;-) Can anyone help? Thanks! Foragoodtim 02:19, 12 September 2005 (UTC)tim

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs changing, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to...) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use out the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --cesarb 02:23, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Note that in addition to the "edit" button to edit a section, there's a "edit this page" tab (at the top of the article) which edits the entire article. I think this may be what you're looking for. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:29, September 12, 2005 (UTC)
Please remember that Wikipedia is an international endeavour. This is the English version, and encompasses a wide range of regional language variations. This means that a word might be used and spelt correctly, even if it is unfamiliar to you. In this case, please see wiktionary:till and here which should convince you that "till" is an acceptable form of "until". Bovlb 04:11:55, 2005-09-12 (UTC)

Bovlb is not wrong about this, of course, but Foragoodtim if you think it should be changed, go ahead and change it! AndyJones 14:55, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Using Wikipedia image in a book

I would like to use the Wikipedia image of the Arch of Titus as an illustration in my forthcoming book MUSIC IN JEWISH HISTORY AND CULTURE. Thid is a scholarly book, to be published by Harmonie Park/Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography, and will have a small press run--I am told it will be an initial 450 copies. YYour image appears to be marked Public Domain. Does that mean I can use it without charge (and with appropriate credit, of course)? I would appreciate hearing from you on this, or on what other arrangements might be made for the use of this image, as the book is now finished and we are waiting for a complete set of illustrations to put it into production. Many thanks.

Emanuel Rubin Professor of Music History & Judaic Studies University of Massachusetts erubin@music.umass.edu

First, see Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ. Second, you need to be specific about which image you mean. Our Arch of Titus article has three illustrations, and commons:Arch of Titus has more. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that any image labelled public domain is actually PD, as some of our contributors seem to get a little confused about copyright law in their enthusiam to enhance Wikipedia. Having said that, Image:Arch of Titus Detail.jpg looks pretty solid to me. IANAL, TINLA. Bovlb 04:23:09, 2005-09-12 (UTC)
Regarding the other two illustrations: I have asked the uploader of Image:Arc de titus frontal.jpg to clarify its PD status for you. I would be very hesitant about relying on the PD status of Image:Sack of jerusalem.JPG because its contributor appears to have had a series of problems in tagging the copyright status of images correctly, and has now been banned from Wikipedia. Bovlb 04:40:14, 2005-09-12 (UTC)
The first thing you should do is verify that the image is, in fact, in the public domain--there's a source for the image listed on the image description page, but it's in French, which I don't read. If it is definitely in the public domain, you're free to use it and don't even legally have to provide credit (though your university or publisher might have different rules, and it would certainly be appreciated). Good luck with the book. Meelar (talk) 04:15, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How do you request for help with an article?

I was just working on Lake Tahoe for a long time. I re-wrote a lot of it, and reorganized the whole thing. However, I need help filling in the section headings. I don't know all the history, or every fact about Tahoe, so how do I request assitance with a specific article? Tobyk777 03:32, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

As you seem to have figured out, the first place to go is the talk page for the article. If that works, great; if not, things get tricky. You can ask here, but this is awfully general. I would look for an appropriate WikiProject (or, in the case of regional stuff, a notice board) and ask on its talk page. You can start at Wikipedia:List_of_WikiProjects. — Nowhither 04:13, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Plz help me out

can some1 tell me each meaning of the 14 points. Plz help me out, i dont quite get it. Plz pm me, me email is cybersai16@yahoo.com plz help me out

  • I have no idea what this could possibliy mean. Tobyk777 03:55, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
cybersai16: The term "14 points" can refer to a number of things: Woodrow Wilson's 14 points, Edwards Deming's 14 points, etc. You will have to be more specific if you want help. Also, by the way, this page is for questions about Wikipedia. Factual questions (like yours, I guess) should go to Wikipedia's Reference Desk. And lastly, responses happen on the page where you ask, not via e-mail. — Nowhither 03:57, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Unix version

How to get version 0f unix installed on your PC?

  • How does this relate to wikipedia? Tobyk777 03:56, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
To the original poster: This page is for questions about Wikipedia. More general questions should go to the Reference Desk. In any case, if you are referring to Linux, one way is to buy a computer with Linux already installed. Another way is to get one of the "distributions" (download it or buy a CD-ROM through the mail) and install it yourself. Pretty much all of these come with installers; you get them and run them. Distributions have names like "Redhat", "Debian", "Slackware", "Mandrake", etc. A quick web search should give you more information about these than you could ever want. If you want to get other users' opinions on one or more of these, I would post a message on Google Groups. — Nowhither 04:06, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
You also might want to start with our own article on Linux. Dismas 04:15, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Wow ... looking at Wikipedia articles to get factual information ... what a great idea. — Nowhither 12:20, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] incorrect info

What do u do wen u find info on wikipedia that is incorrect?

  • Click the "edit this page" button at the top and correct it. Cheers! -- Reinyday, 05:26, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Make sure you document your sources. Elfguy 01:08, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] this is the end 4 me :-(

i want to kill myself...how may i go about this?

well u could hang urself??? meonu! goodluck!

(also left on user page)

I suggest you contact a Befrienders-type organization. For Perth, Australia the contact details are:

The Samaritans Perth
60 Bagot Road
Subiaco
PERTH
WA 6008 
Australia
Tel: 08 93 81 5555
Youthline: 08 93 88 2500
Freecall Countryline: 1800 198 313
TTY: 08 93 82 8822 
website: http://www.thesamaritans.org.au
Services: Telephone, Letter, Face to face, 24hours

Otherwise you can look up similar organizations here. Bovlb 06:07:49, 2005-09-12 (UTC)

[edit] looking for an inmate

do you have a inmate by the name of calrton vonner

We are neither a prison nor a hospital, and so we don't have any inmates. We are a project to write an encyclopedia. We have editors, administrators, etc. However, all of these access Wikipedia through anonymous accounts, and so we generally don't know their names. — Nowhither 06:25, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually, many editors do use their real names, or at least claim to. I do, for example. But many others do not. DES (talk) 07:02, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Trouble following deletion process, why won't article link properly?

Yes, I'm an admin, but I need help anyway. I recently closed the deletion debate on Booger and, as told to on Wikipedia:Deletion process tried to put a link to the discussion on Talk:Booger by using template:oldafdfull. But the link isn't working! Does it have something to do with the (2nd nomination) thing? Anyway, if anyone can figure out how to make the link work, please do so. Thanks. moink 06:50, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

It seems I can only solve problems *after* I ask for help. It was that the debate was for some reason listed as a subpage of the obsolete "Wikipedia:Votes for deletion" rather than Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. All better now. moink 06:58, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how to play skifree

  • The Help Desk is for questions about Wikipedia; factual questions should go to the Reference Desk. However, I'm sure the help file for skifree (if it has one) would tell you how to play the game. --Andy Janata 11:25, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Warcraft Category

G'day, I have been ordering Category: Warcraft but have ran into a problem. If you would to look at the category itself their is 48 entries that dont belong their, none of them were their until today. Clearly you would assume that someone has put categories on all those pages, but looking at these example pages Draenor, Durotan, Illidan Stormrage, Rexxar none of them belong to the Warcraft category, despite showing up in it anyway!! Im really confused to whats going on! - UnlimitedAccess 12:18, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Template:WarcraftBCharacter and Template:WarcraftBLocation used to be in the category, and all of the articles you name transclude one or the other. Presumeably they haven't been edited since the templates changed. If you null-edit the articles (that is, edit them, and save without making any changes), their categories should update correctly. See m:Help:Template#A category tag in a template; caching problem for more details. —Cryptic (talk) 13:00, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Wouldn't purging the cache do the same thing? (BTW: To purge the cache just enter "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Example_article&action=purge" in the address bar...) --Wulf 03:00, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image not showing up

In the architecture section of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle Space Needle

I put an image, but it doesn't always show up when I view the page. Is there anything wrong with it? This is the image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Space_needle_diag.jpg

Image:Space needle diag.jpg
190px

Thanks --Archier 15:00, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

  • The picture shows up fine for me. You may need to purge your cache. Warofdreams 16:46, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A mysterious redirect at Talk:Motive

Talk:Motive seems now to want to redirect itself to the main page of the German Wikipedia. I have tried purging the browser cache; it still does it. Because of this redirect I have been unable to get into the talk page to figure out what might be causing it; when it lands at the German Wikipedia, there is no linkback to edit the redirect page. What gives? -- Smerdis of Tlön 15:11, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

I haven't been able to replicate the problem. However, it is possible (although undesirable) to create interwiki redirects. If this arises, you can edit the page by replacing "Pagename" in the following address with the appropriate page title: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pagename&redirect=no Warofdreams 16:40, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't think that's the case. This is the second report someone has made of an ordinary page that magically turns into a redirect to a different wiki (last time it was the fr wikipedia). When others look at the page, they have no problems, and the history indicates there never having been such a redirect. I suspect it's a cacheing error, perhaps a hash collision. As it's an interwiki issue, I don't think it's in mediawiki's cache. That leaves the squid caches. Either way, if Ihcoyc changes one of the preferences in preferences->misc then that should workaround the problem. I've no idea how to raise this as a bug, as the descriptions everyone has of it aren't accompanied by anything weird that they did to get it to happen. Alternatively (as the state appears to persist on that article for some time) Ihcoyc could message the developers on IRC (telling them it's not the first time it's happened) and maybe they can check cache settings or something in real time. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:24, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how do I link to the correct article?

hey, kind of new to the code system here, and I'm sure I have alot to learn so I'm just trying to keep it simple (not overly computer savvy) but anyway, I just recently added an entry for the novel Gladiator which I was surprised did not have an entry (it can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_%28novel%29). The book is mentioned in the profile for Superman (he was based off the character from the book) so I wanted to link to the article. gladiator links to the entry for roman type, how do I make the link go directly to the entry for the book? I tried Gladiator(novel) and Gladiator(book) but those don't work. Can anyone help? thanks Elijya 16:00, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

  • You use a "pipe", like this [[Gladiator (novel)|Gladiator]], which appears as Gladiator. Kappa 16:26, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
    • Correct but the error made on that page was to ommit the space before the parens. That space matters. Also It reall should be ''[[Gladiator (novel)|Gladiator]]'', which appears as Gladiator, because it is the title of a novel. I have so fixed it. DES (talk) 16:32, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Also it would be a good idea to cite some sources in Gladiator (novel), particularly for the Superman conection. DES (talk) 16:32, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Misspelled titles and automatic redirects. How to resolve?

I recently edited the entry for "beleive" [sic] by removing the redirect to "believe" and pointing out that beleive is a common misspelling. The redirect was later restored, and I'm wondering how this conflict should be resolved. I understand that Wikipedia is not a dictionary, but I think this kind of redirect can lead people to believe that the word is being spelled correctly. I think the entry should either be deleted or changed to alert the user to his mistake. What do you think?

-- Adrian --204.6.201.108 17:10, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia frequently has redirects from common miss-spellings of words to the article about the correctly spelled word, as well as from alternate terms or capitolizations. This is intended to make it easier for users to find the real article in which they are presumably primarily interested. Wikipedia does not normally have articles at misspellings that simply explain that they are misspellings. I think the redirect should remain in place. DES (talk) 17:22, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] silicone in bloodstream

Is there a blood test for silicone residue? Gail istern2922@aol.com

This question belongs at the Reference Desk, but the simple answer is No. alteripse 20:31, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] i cannot read chinese articles. how do download the chinese encoding?

A window with chinese encodings used to pop up in my Mozilla Firefox browser. And now when I need it, it doesn't do it anymore. Where do I find an enconding at wikipedia.com?? Please, help.

[edit] i cannot read chinese articles. how do download the chinese encoding?

A window with chinese encodings used to pop up in my Mozilla Firefox browser. And now when I need it, it doesn't do it anymore. Where do I find an enconding at wikipedia.com?? Please, help.

[edit] Signature tag

I would like to point to my talk page in my signature like you regular guys. I go to my preferences but can't find any place to enter stuff like: Phil | User talk:Talk Will some good expert be a bit explicit? Thanks Phil 19:30, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

Here's a basic one, similar to what you ask:

Go to preferences at the top of the screen, in "Nickname" cut and paste the following line

[[User:name|nickname]] [[User talk:name]]

Change your user name and nickame as appropriate

next, check the box "Raw signatures" so it has a green tick in, see bottom left of screen "Save" button, click it and you're done. I've left a more personalised for you one on your talk page. If you see another user's signature that you particularly like, edit the page and copy the format, changing the details for your username, nickname and talk page display as you like. Basically the first part in between the double square brackets must be the correct 'go to' address for your user page and talk page respectively, after the bar ( | ) you put in what you want displayed. Alf melmac 19:56, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Question about a deleted topic

I followed the link to undeletion but couldn't see how to ask there. Maybe I just wasn't looking carefully.

Well, the link to the page in question is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Undelete/Yu_Yu_Hakusho_Attack_List

The first deleted entry states the reason as being due to content "Spirit Gun" and if that was the only reason then I have to think that it was makred either by accident or by a purist who hates dubs.

The term Spirit Gun is not wrong in any way. The Japanese attack is the Rei Gun (The Japanese actor actually says the word "Gun" rather than another Japanese word like Hou). In the American release it is called Spirit Gun. The word in question then would be Spirit rather than Rei. This isn't a name change, it is a translation- Rei means "Spirit." Another character has an attack called the Rei Ken, which translates as Spirit Sword. Also the main group is referred to as the Reikai Tantei which is roughly "Spirit World Detectives."

I'll submit my own attack list for entry most likely, but if that one was at all comprehensive it seems silly and very biased to delete it solely because it uses a correct and widely accepted translation.

~Ryan

  • This article has been deleted twice. The first time was because the content was simply copied from another website in violation of copyright law (see Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ). The second time was apparently because the content was simply two words long and therefore seemingly nonsense. If you can create a comprehensive and encyclopedic article on this topic, then go ahead, but be sure to establish the context (e.g. some fictional world), and please check whether it would fit better in a longer article (perhaps already existing) about a broader topic (e.g. the fictional world). Cheers, Bovlb 20:32:47, 2005-09-12 (UTC)
I don't think the article was deleted because it contained that term - if someone thought it was wrong, they could just have editted it. It was presumably deleted because it consisted only of those two words - and thus was a completely useless page (see Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion). [A previous version appears to have been a copyright violation, and deleted for that reason] - IMSoP 20:25, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Can my user name be changed throughout the site?

Way back when I joined Wikipedia, I did not realize that user names are case-sensitive, so I created myself as "Matt gies". However, I feel silly for having my surname uncapitalized all over this website. Is there any way that my user name can be changed in all instances to "Matt Gies"?

Wikipedia:Changing username. --cesarb 20:21, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
Great, thank you. Don't know why I couldn't find the page myself... Matt gies 20:47, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Dump of current and all old revisions of an article

I'm trying to do some analysis of the evolution of one particular aritcle with over 500 edits. I would like to get a dump of all revisions of one specific article for offline analysis. The article includes very recent content, so old database dumps would not be too useful. Any recommendations?

[edit] Signature link

I've been messing about with preferences like an idiot and now I can't get my signature to hyperlink. Please help me :-( Gillean666 22:26, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Make sure there is a space between the [[first link]] and the [[second link]] in the "Nickname" box, AND make sure the "Raw signature" box has a green tick in it before you click "Save". See a few postings above. Alf melmac 00:27, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
On my browser, the tick mark is black, not green. Am I doing something wrong? — JIP | Talk 17:14, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I'm usually on a firefox too, I'm using default preferences, so Green tick = tick if you've changed preferences, presumably Alf melmac 06:39, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
The tick is black for me. But anyway, what do you want your signautre to look like? Just uncheck the "Raw signatures" box and remove any nickname you've entered, and you'll be back to the default signature. If there's something specific you're after drop a note here or on my talk page and I'll be happy to help. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:07, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Gillian dropped me a note on my user page, with a working signature and is happy, so these two users (Phil and Gillean666) needs have been met. Alf melmac 07:25, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
I investigated this using different machines, it seems it is OS related, as I also get a black tick on a machine running Win98 ME, but on the two machines running XP, it's green, I'll remember that quirk in future and not be so specific. Alf melmac 05:42, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] root causes of conflicts in Middle East

First of all, this page is for questions about Wikipedia and how to do things on the wiki. You should really ask this at the Reference desk in the correct section. Secondly, this question doesn't really have one solid answer such as something like "Who was the first man on the moon?" or "Who was the last king of England?". The answer will vary according to who you ask. Dismas|(talk) 04:36, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Or we could sum it up as "human nature, limited space, historical contingency." alteripse 11:20, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] CSS classes in other language wikipedias

CSS classes do not work in other languages. See for example es:Plantilla:Wikificar (or equivalents in any other languages), which uses the same <div class="messagebox cleanup"> as our Template:Wikify, but does not look the same as the English equivalent - no coloured border or background.
Why does it happen and how can it be corrected? --Fibonacci 23:23, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

It had a colored background and border when I looked at it. — Knowledge Seeker দ 04:12, September 13, 2005 (UTC)
It didn't when I asked my question, but I see the problem has been fixed. Thank you. --Fibonacci 21:44, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Update: I checked it from my home (where I'm automatically logged in on both Wikipedias, and use the classic skin on both), and it doesn't have the coloured bg and border. What am I doing wrong? --Fibonacci 03:46, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
I have no explanation. It worked for me both logged into the Spanish Wikipedia and logged out. I use Firefox with the default skin on es:. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:33, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
I've seen it both on Firefox and Mozilla with the classic skin, and the problem is still there. --Fibonacci 22:53, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Editing

I tried editing a page recently, everything seemed like it was fine, I could immediatly see the change I made, but when I tried viewing the same page using a different web browser the change was not there. I tried refreshing the page with out any luck. The change I made also didn't come up on another computer. What's going on? Was someone deleting what I had changed with-in minutes of me changing it? If so, who is in control of deleting changes, because I considered it to be a good change?

After you made the change did you hit the "Save page" or the "Show preview" button? The first one will actually save the page with your changes. Also, yes just as it's possible for you to change an article, it's also possible for someone else to do the same. You can check to see if your changes ever went through by clicking on the "history" tab at the top of the article's page. Out of curiousity, what page was it? Dismas|(talk) 04:31, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

I tried editing the apple macintosh page...It was a list of things apple had done first. I tried adding "First affordable 64-bit processor." I looked under the history and somebody did delete what I had said. I couldn't find any way of knowing if that had been mine that I had put in there, or someone else because I couldn't remember the date. (but it said pretty much the same thing) But as for their reasoning they didn't seem to see the word affordable, but I guess that is also a matter of opinion. Thanks for your help.

Why not become a member of Wikipedia, you clearly have some excellent contributions to make. It will be easier to track your edits and other editors will be more inclined to discuss edits with you. Good luck! --Commander Keane 11:21, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] What can be done?

On pretty much a daily basis the article for Billie Joe Armstrong keeps getting vandalized. It's mostly a removal of the comment about him being bisexual. I guess his fans just can't accept it. Anyway, is there anything that can be done about it? What's the best course to take? At first I was okay with padding my edit count some but now it's just grown tedious. :) Dismas|(talk) 05:12, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

I've added it to my watchlist, and that should help(two of us can revert, on alternate days ;-) ), and the page could be added to WP:VIP in the often-vandalised pages section, which might attract more people to put it on their watchlist... JesseW, the juggling janitor 05:39, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Is there a reference to Billie Joe or his management confirming this? - Mgm|(talk) 08:03, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Nevermind. It's sourced. Unless the removers can prove the source isn't reliable, I see no reason to remove it, although I don't see the need to include celebrities sexuality in articles. - Mgm|(talk) 08:05, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Corrections for article about John George BOURINOT

13 Sept. 2005

As a newcomer to Wikipedia, I would like to help correct your article about Sir John George Bourinot.

The article mixes-up information about two different people, i.e., Senator/Lt.Colonel John Bourinot and his son, Sir John George Bourinot.

Your picture is of my great-grandfather, the Canadian Confederation Senator John Bourinot, born 15 March 1814 in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK who died in Ottawa, Canada on 21 January 1884. He was educated in Jersey and Normandy, France. He was appointed French Vice-Consul in Canada in 1834. He was a Lloyd's of London Insurance Representative for Cape Beton, Lt. Colonel of the Militia, an elected member for Richmond County, Cape Breton in the Legislative Assembly (1857-1867). He was appointed to the first Canadian Senate in 1867 by Sir John A Macdonald. In 1835, he married Margaret Jane Marshall, daughter of Chief Justice John George Marshall. Justice Marshall was a grandson of the United Empire Loyalist, Capt. (later Col.) Joseph Marshall

One of his sons, Sir John George Bourinot (b.24 Oct.1836-d. 13 Oct.1902), was the co-founder and editor of the Halifax Evening News, 1860-1867. He later was employed by the House of Commons,1868-1902, in various positions, such as shorthand writer, assistant clerk, and finally Chief Clerk. Bourinot was the author of many books about Canadian and Nova Scotia history and government. He is famous for his book, "Bourinot's Rules of Order", still in use today and "Canada - Parliamentary Procedure and Practice". Dr. Margaret A Banks published a 400-page book on the life of Sir John within the past 5-years.

Hopefully, you can straighten out the mix-up. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely

69.196.186.101 07:29, 13 September 2005 (UTC)Joan Bourinot Wallace Ottawa, Canada jwallace@pobox.com

Thanks for pointing this out! Indeed someone goofed, but it's an understandable error; even the Library and Archives of Canada have it wrong (but the other way!). The latter Bourinot was appointed chief clerk of the House of Commons on December 18, 1880. But when was he born? Banks says 1836 (see [3]), but the Quebec History Encyclopedia writes 1837. I'll work to disentangle these two... Lupo 09:30, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Done. Feel free to edit the articles on John Bourinot and John George Bourinot (or any others!) and help improve this encyclopedia. Lupo 11:13, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How to name an article with a colon?

I just started a new article, for the music album Help: A Day In The Life. It then hit me that this was probably not the correct way to name it, since it ends up in the namespace of Wikipedia's help pages... :-(

How should it best be renamed?

Mortene 11:16, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

I did BTW read my way through FAQs and help pages to Wikipedia: Naming conventions and Wikimedia info on the Help namespace, which does indeed indicate that I did something stupid. I could however not find any particular advice on how I should rename it, so I'd appreciate some guidance. Thanks. Mortene 11:22, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
To add to this dialemma, what about OS/2, isn't this a subpage? --Commander Keane 11:47, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I thought there would be a problem with dev/null too but there isn't. Just look at the URL.  :) But to answer your question, I don't know.  :P Dismas|(talk) 11:58, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Hmm - I suspect that renaming will be necessary. Perhaps Help - A Day In The Life or Help A Day In The Life; either way with a {{wrongtitle}} tag. Can anyone think of another article with a colon in the title? Warofdreams 12:21, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Subpages are not enabled for the main namespace, so articles with / in the title are no problem. There are several articles with : in the title that don't cause problems (e.g all the WP: shortcuts are in the article space). Problems only occur when what is infront of the : conflicts with something else - the Help: namespace on this occasion. The {{wrongtitle}} method is the way to go. That is what happened a while back with Are We Not Men We Are Devo! (the proper title is Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo) - Q: is the interwiki link for Wikiquote, and so an article starting Q: cannot be linked to. Thryduulf 12:36, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the input. I moved it to Help - A Day In The Life. Is it ok to keep the redirect at Help: A Day In The Life, or should that be taken out? Mortene 13:23, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] George Miller

George Miller (1945 – ) is an Australian TV director. As discussed at the bottom of George Miller, there is another George Miller, born in 1945, who is Australian. I think the second Miller needs his own article, what would be an appropriate name, eg: George Miller (???). IMDV entries are here and here. --Commander Keane 11:45, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Personally, I would move the current George Miller to George Miliotis as that is his birth name, create the new article George T. Miller for our scottish friend, and use the current George Miller as a disambiguation page. Unless a more experienced user would like to point to better solution... Alf melmac 12:26, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I wouldn't suggest moving the current George Miller to George Miliotis, as he is not known by that name (does he have a middle name? If so, we could use that). George T. Miller would be an excellent title for the other article - clearly, the disambiguation needs to be by something which distinguishes them. Name is ideal; if this were not possible, I'd suggest birthdate, given that their nationalities and areas of work are identical. Warofdreams 12:34, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I wholeheartedly agree with naming as 'best known as', I did notice in my quick rumage around that in addtion to these two directors, there are two Dr George Millers, one Professor George A. Miller and a congressman George Miller. I didn't turn up a second name for our Australian friend, if a disambiguation page is not made, definitely add the usual This article is about...for...please see... on both of the articles. Alf melmac 13:05, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
  • What is the profession of the other Australian George Miller? - Mgm|(talk) 19:09, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Both of them are film directors. The more famous one directed Mad Max, the less famous one directed The Man from Snowy River. Both are known just as "George Miller" professionally. --Metropolitan90 06:47, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Linking to commercial websites?

Is it permitted to link to websites for whom a commercial gain might result? I looked in the guidelines bit but I could not find information about it. 82.71.5.74K.T.

  • It is not absolutely forbidden, but it is frowned upon. If you are writing an article that is about a commercial company or its product, and it meets the notability guidelines, a link to the company's website is allowed. But links to commercial websites should not be added only to advertise the company. — JIP | Talk 14:12, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Nor should they be added to point to a page selling something mentioned in an article.

Only link to commercial pages if they have information Wikipedia could benefit from or if they are of the company the article is about. - Mgm|(talk) 19:13, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Slow Running

Why is Wikipedia running so slow today. Gillean666 15:03, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia is continuing to grow in popularity at a rapid rate and the servers are sometimes overloaded. Some additional servers have been ordered after the recent fund raising drive. Hopefully, things should speed up when they are installed. --GraemeL (talk) 15:15, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I've also noted the treacly feeling... so much, in fact, that it discourages me from making my "usual round" checking for vandalism on the pages on my watchlist. IMHO, WP has been slow for about a week or so. --Janke | Talk 08:09, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

I saw your article about using the content of this website, but it didn't say anything about pictures. Can I use the pictures on this website for a class report?

The short answer is, 'it depends'. You can click on any image on Wikipedia, and it will bring up the image description page for the image. Whoever provided the image to Wikipedia should have added one or more image copyright tags to the image to identify its source and copyright status.
Providing the image is in the public domain or released under a free license (like the GFDL, the license for Wikipedia's text content), you may reproduce the image as long as you appropriately cite its source. If the image has not been released for use, you may still be able to reprint it under the doctrine of fair use. Again, you will need to appropriately cite the source (to not do so would be plagiarism in any case).
Frankly, if the images are going to be used in an academic report or presentation for a single class and not further distributed or sold, you should be just fine as long as you cite your sources properly. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:14, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
See also Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ. Bovlb 18:47, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

- Someone vandalized a page. I revert it back to normal but I do not know how to send a warning to them. They are not logged in and have only a IP address. How do I give a warning to someone who doesn't have an account---jedi6

  • Anonymous IPs have talk pages and receive the nice orange "You have new messages." box just like everyone else. The only problem is that the same IP might be used by a different person. — JIP | Talk 15:57, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] who is the president of ireland

the name of president of ireland name some TDs in leixlip area who have been elected to the Dail who is Taoiseach who is our Tanaiste

  • You can check the Ireland article. For your other questions you have to explain the terms "TD", "Dail", "Taoiseach" and "Tanaiste". Not every one of us speaks Gaelic. — JIP | Talk 16:13, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki links to Wikisource?

Any inter-wiki links to Wikisource of the form [[wikisource:title]] are now broken, since the English-language content has been moved from wikisource.org to en.wikisource.org. What's the correct form for interwiki link to en.wikisource.org now? --Theodore Kloba 16:14, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Never mind. I found out it is [[:s:title]]. I'll fix the appropriate help pages if I can. --Theodore Kloba 17:07, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Camera RAW article

It appears to me that the article "Camera raw" is inappropriately named. I would sugeest "RAW file format" or "RAW image file". If you agree, I will try to change ore move, or whatever is needed, with a little guidance from you. I can cleanup any redirects, if any, and associate it with appropriate articles. Your help please. Phil talk 16:35, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Follow on: I now know how to move "Camera raw", but it has 15 pages linked to it. Must each of these be redirected after the move? Phil talk 17:27, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Not really, because when a page is moved, its old location becomes a redirect to the new page. (On the other hand, changing some or all of those to point to the new page would not be a bad idea.) — Nowhither 17:30, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] making soap

I would like to know how to make a bar of natural soap.

I am not sure what you mean by "natural". But if you want to learn to make soap, go to the article on soap, and see the "External links". By the way, the Help desk is supposed to be used for questions about Wikipedia. General/factual questions belong on the Reference desk. — Nowhither 17:26, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Redirecting redirects

I have seen articles with numerous redirects. When the article is moved, how do you go about redirecting it? Phil talk 17:30, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

When an article is moved it automatically leaves a redirect at the old location. Dismas|(talk) 18:13, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
I meant to ask what happens to all the redirects that pointed to the old article name? Phil talk 18:53, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Check the "what links here" of the resulting redirect page (the original location before the move). Any redirect that points to another redirect won't work and needs to be changed to link to the proper page. - Mgm|(talk) 19:20, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Can you over Wikify?

I had one of my articles edited by a Wiki guru and he went through the article and linked a number of words that had nothing to do with the subject being discussed. Is there guidance to just how much Wikifying is enough? Phil talk 17:37, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

  • I'd start at Wikipedia:Wikification. The guideline is don't link the same location more than once in one screen of text. Link full dates so preferences can kick in and link important concepts and hard words. You can certainly overwikify but without knowing which article you are talking about it's hard to say if it's actually the case. - Mgm|(talk) 19:23, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Certainly you can over-Wikify, although in my experience the reverse is far more common. Further, over-Wikification doesn't really hurt much; if you don't like all the underlined words you can get rid of the underlining in your preferences. In short, I wouldn't worry a whole lot about over-Wikification.

As for what should be linked, two things: dates/years and articles that might help a person reading the article. When deciding on the latter, remember that the article might be read by Astoundingly Ignorant People. So, for example, "He was born in New York", I would definitely make "New York" a link (but not any of the other words in the sentence), even though it typically might not be extremely relevant to the topic of the article.

— Nowhither 01:21, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Slow, slow in connection.

I have a pretty good, fast computer. However I find it almost impossible to get involved with your excellent web site because of the delays incurred in connecting from page to page. Sometimes connection just is not possible. Surely it cannot be just me. Your comments would be appreciated.

I have posed this question myself. Wikipedia's popularity has about swanped it. I am frustrated beyond belief and allmost consider it a waste of time to do minor edits. And, research on Wikipedia is indeed a chore. They need more and faster servers, and more money too. I have donated. If all users donated a little, perhaps we could get improvement. You can save time by writing articles in WORD and then pasting them in a sandbox for final editing. I don't believe you have signed up. Come join us and help fight the good fight. Phil talk 19:03, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Wikipedia has been having major performance problems for a long time now. It's directly due to its popularity. The recent fund raise was made to allow more servers to be bought. In the mean time, you should use Google to search Wikipedia content, like this:
site:en.wikipedia.org something

To find information about "something". Elfguy 19:15, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

  • Patience is a virtue. Some people have such fast computers, they think waiting a few seconds makes a connection slow. There's people on dial up still editing Wikipedia. Think about the time they have to wait in relation to you. It may be slower than you're used to, but it could've been worse. - Mgm|(talk) 19:26, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
    • Too true. As was said above, buying more servers will directly and noticeably improve response times. We have plenty of servers already (see m:Wikimedia servers) but our popularity increases exponentially and we need more. Jimbo gave a very informative talk about Wikimedia, including how our servers work, at Oxford University - you can see it at http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20050711_76. As someone who knows diddly-squat about servers, I found it really enlightening.--Kwekubo 01:48, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Just pointing out that Wikipedia can be edited from within the Disneyland Healthy University attraction

I found that it is possible to post to wikipedia from a terminal normally used to view a newspaper in a Disneyland attraction in Tommorrowland. Quite odd.

So the terminal itself has internet access? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 00:32, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, it's very odd. The terminal was intended to be used to display the most current edition of an online newspaper from some hospital, but it had unfettered internet access, including (apparently ;-) ) the ability to edit Wikipedia. It was in the Inovations attraction in Tomorrowland in Disneyland. JesseW, the juggling janitor 17:55, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Evidence: the diff, ARIN whois. What's really odd is that IP address also made a spelling correction in Jan 2003... JesseW, the juggling janitor 18:03, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how can we get a link on wikipedia?

We would very much like to be listed with you...can you tell me know to do that? We are located at

Many thanks in advance,

Katie Carlisle Medical Management Services Group KTmmsg@aol.com

Wikipedia isn't an advertising service or a search engine. If your site added to the content of an article it could be added to the external links section of that article but as it's just yet another commercial venture, don't count on it. I removed the link for the previously stated reason. Dismas|(talk) 20:52, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia is for articles about encyclopediac topics. If your site is relevant to such an article, it could be added as a link. But if it is a commercial site that does not provide specific info relevat to an article, there is no reason to link to your site. See the pages WP:SPAM and WP:NOT for more on what is and isn't welcome here. DES (talk) 20:56, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] maximum break with 2 reds still on table

The reference desk is the proper place for factual questions but...

Two reds (2), with two blacks (14), plus all the colours (27) = 43. --GraemeL (talk) 21:42, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

64, assuming you play by the rules? Ojw 21:44, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with page/Not easy to find where to report problems

Hi, I went to the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffe and it came back full of gibberish (looks like bad ASCII codes or an unrecognised language set). I checked the source, and it seemed the same. I would have tried to revert it or something, but I couldn't see anything.

Two questions: does anyone else have this problem? Where does one report something like this when you can't even get to the page?

By looking at the page, it doesn't seem to have any non-Roman character set encoding, and I'm not seeming to have the problem. Might be a browser problem, what browser/version are you using? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 00:30, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] edit/changes

If anyone can make a change, how do we know that the material is correct? I'm writing a paper and how do I know that someone didn't just make a dumb change and I'm taking that for a fact?

Thanks.

If you are writing a paper of something you found on Wikipedia, please read WP:CW and WP:RES. — Kjammer ⌂ 00:41, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
  • You know you're not just taking a dumb change for a fact, because you should always check your info with more than just one source. Also, you could look in the article's history and see whether anything has been changed. See also Wikipedia:Replies to common objections. - Mgm|(talk) 04:56, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Listing Possible Uncyclopedic Content

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum however I'm not sure of the encyclopedic notability of the article Jeff Ellison from which all I can ascertain (and only after a major clean up) is the explanation of why the person's name is Jeff Ellison. I'm unsure where to place this particular article and, although I assume it should be placed on RC Patrol, I'm can't seem to find the list. Is there an alternate place I can list this article to be reviewed ? MadMax 00:06, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

It appears to be a vanity article, of the type which is speediable under the "no assertion of notability" clause (see No. 7), so I went ahead and did so. Thanks for your brave good-faith attempt to wikify it though! Antandrus (talk) 00:13, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Requests for comment/talk pages

I do hope I've put this in the right place. In looking through the requests for comment I found one that described a conflict going on about a topic I'm interested in (misandry), but when I went to the talk page, there didn't appear to be any discussion on it. Now I'm mystified about where to look, being pretty new to Wiki and still learning to navigate. If anyone can make a suggestion I would appreciate it. Thanks! KathL 04:07, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

The talk page for misandry can be found at Talk:Misandry. Dismas|(talk) 14:19, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How do you access a corrupted page?

I did a search for "Lebanon" and I got a bunch of gobblygook. The page has been corrupted and there are no links to history to revert it to its original. Can you please fix this page. thank you. susan

The Article about Lebanon seems fine to me. If you typed in "Lebanon" and hit 'search' instead of 'go' you would have found yourself at this page. Was this your "gobblygook"? — Kjammer ⌂ 05:03, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] View and access imac G4 files from a Dell laptop using windowa XP

How do I view and access files on my imac g4 running OSX 1.15 from my new Dell laptop running Windows xp software. The two machines are currently connected to home base LAN via a netgear F5D5231-4 router for access to the internet.

I am specifically interested in accessing the music files and photos I have on the imac being made available to the laptop, but I would also like to be able to access the music and photographic files in both directions. Do I need third party software or are the tools to preform this task available on the basic operating systems of each machine.

Thank you Bob Jones66.32.109.93 04:43, 14 September 2005 (UTC)--66.32.109.93 04:43, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Well, the better place for this question would be at the Wikipedia:Reference desk since this is the page for questions about how to do things with Wikipedia itself. Dismas|(talk) 14:07, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
On the Mac: System preferences, Sharing, then tick "FTP". Then install an FTP program on the Dell to connect to it. Make sure you have strong passwords and a good filewall before attempting any of this. However, I'd recommend using a USB key to move files across, as running a fileserver will expose both machines to hackers and viruses unless you know a lot about network security. Ojw 13:42, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Do You Want A Fractalish Picture Thing?

I saw a page on Wikipedia containing many fractal images; I believe the entry was tiled "Math Images." I have made a colored picture in Paint of a tic-tac-toe board made of smaller tic-tac-toe boards, which are all made of still smaller tic-tac-toe boards, and two more levels of tic-tac-toe boards; it is a fairly large file, about 18 MB. I did not see a way to put an image into the website automatically, so I was wondering if you would want it, and if so, how I could give it to you.


To add an image, click on "Upload file" located in the toolbox on the margin just below the searh bar. The following rules are coppied from the upload page.
  • Provide detailed information on the source of the file in the text box; this will automatically be copied to the file's description page. If you obtained the image from somewhere on the Web, please include the URL where it can be obtained.
  • Specify the licence of the file either by selecting it from the list or by adding the appropriate tag(s) to the summary, e.g. {{GFDL}}, {{PD}}, etc. See Image copyright tags for more tags. Please do not upload files under a "non-commercial use only" or "copyrighted, used by permission" licence. Such files will be deleted.
  • Insert the file or image in relevant articles using the syntax [[Image:File.jpg|thumb|Caption]], and other media with [[Media:File.ogg]]. See Extended image syntax for further instructions.
  • Use a descriptive filename (e.g. "Eiffel Tower, Paris, at night.jpg") to prevent conflicts with existing files.

See Wikipedia:Uploading images and Wikipedia:Sound for more information, and Special:Imagelist for a list of already uploaded files.

If you upload a file here to which you hold the copyright, you must license it under the GNU Free Documentation License or release it into the public domain.

Alternately, you can upload your file to the Wikimedia Commons under a different free license.
Also, make sure your image isn't useless or redundant. It is recomended that the picture is save as either a .PNG or .JPG file. For your fractal picure use PNG. If it is 18MB it is likely it is a bitmap (.BMP), Bitmaps are large files, you can convert it into .PNG with Paint. — Kjammer ⌂ 05:29, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How can we hook up our website to our name under famous studios?

We have taken over Radio Recorders and now have the original name back and a new website...we would like to link our site to our name under your list of famous studios.

THANX for your assistance, lisahutch@earthlink.net

our website is radio-recorders.com

[edit] Change of Cold War edits

What is the reason for changing some of my contributions at the article Cold War", because they were empirical judgemts, based on facts (a confrontation between two military pacts - NATO ant the Warsaw Pact; a confrontation between two economic systems - capitalism and socialism; a confrontation between two types of political regimes - Western liberal democracies vs. totalitarian communist regimes)? Danpavel 06:12, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

This should really go on the Cold War talk page since that is where people who are concerned with that article will most likely be looking for discussion about the article. Also, if your edits contained original research by you, you should read Wikipedia's policy on Wikipedia:Original research. Dismas|(talk) 13:57, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Fiber optics

I am doing an assignment for my collision class and I have a question reguarding fiber optics and their use in automobiles. I need to know a vehicle that uses fiber optics and where in the vehicle they are used. I would greatly appriciate this if you could help me out. Thank you. Ryan

Check out our article on Optical fiber. It may help you get started. However, I should point out that there are better pages to ask this question. Please notice the top of this page. A better place to ask this question would be Wikipedia:Reference desk. Also, you can ask questions on the discussion page for Optical fiber; however, that may take a while for the right person to notice. Hollar back if you need anything else. Psy guy (talk) 13:10, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikicommons

Hi, I have uploaded [[4]] and [[5]] into wikocommons ([[6]], [[7]]). Wher can I find the "Wikicommons now”-button and suggest to erase the picture? Further more, it seems I have done some mistakes (uploading it). Thanks, --Ulf-S. 08:10, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

  • If you upload an image to the commons, be sure to use the same title so links don't go broken and be sure to upload the high-resolution version and not the thumbnail you sometimes see on the image description page. Right now, you shouldn't delete the images here. If you made a mistake you can request deletion on Commons:Requests for deletion, IIRC.- Mgm|(talk) 08:27, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Articles in Serbian

I noticed that articles in Serbian are shorter than articles in english. I would like to translate articles in full. How to do so?

Go to the Serbian article, click the Edit tab (or whatever that is in Serbian) at the top of the page, and enter the text you want. If you are doing a direct translation of an English Wikipedia article, then you should note the source in the Serbian translation. — Nowhither 19:22, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Edits are not holding

I have edited this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy many times and when I click on the button to save, the changes appear to take. But when I come back to the page later the changes are gone.

Click on the Page history button and you will see that other editors have removed, edited, or altered your contributions. This is a particularly contentious article. My suggestion would be that you:

  1. Establish an account by clicking on the button and picking a user name (quick, free and more anonymous than your IP number). Named users tend to be treated with more respect.
  2. Learn to look at the Page history button and the Talk page (labeled Discussion) for the article. The Page history will allow you to see what is happening and who has changed what. The Talk:homeopathy page is where people discuss, propose, or justify changes. It will give you an idea of who is arguing about what.
  3. PS You might start by describing and referencing the wonderfully clear and precise review of homeopathy in an issue of Lancet last month [8]. Welcome. alteripse 12:08, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit]  ?reporting vandalism?

Looked all over your site for the proper way to

report vandalism.

Couldn't find a simply way to do so.

the Music article has been completely removed and replaced with gibberish

as follows:

Music From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. And like this like....ummmmmmmmm!!! god you stupid pig!!! go to france you frenchy french frencher!!!

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music"

This page was last modified 14:54, 12 September 2005. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details). About Wikipedia Disclaimers .

I have not yet try to restore the old one.

Thanks for your prompt attention.

Vincent Trauth Music Faculty Parkland College, Champaign, IL vtrauth at parkland.edu

  • If you want to learn how to restore an old when you come across vandalism, try Wikipedia:Revert. Repeat vandalism is reported to WP:VIP or in some cases to WP:AN/I. - Mgm|(talk) 12:58, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Joan Armatrading

Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading's name appears in Wikipedia's list of, Confirmed Homosexuals and Bisexuals.

I know there are many people who are convinced she is a lesbian or at least lesbian/bi but Joan herself has never confirmed or denied this.

She has always been very protective of her private life.

I'm not saying you should remove her name from the list. Really it's up to her if she wants to ask you to do this.

However I have to ask where is Wikipedia's confirmation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeriH (talk • contribs) 08:14 EDT, 14 September 2005

I have removed her name from List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people and placed a commet questioning the source for her inclusion at Talk:List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people#Joan Armatrading. This is the gereral precidure when one disputes a listing on that page, or finds what seems to be an unsupported listing. This procedure is excpaliend at the top of the List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people page. DES (talk) 15:23, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how do I know that your information is any good?

You say "The best way to verify the accuracy of a particular statement is to find independent sources to affirm that statement". As someone coming to Wiki for the first time,this is a very big downer. Why should I use an encyclopedia if I don't know if it's accurate?

Your Unix-everything-is-free attitude is terrific for getting things done, and for technology, but does it work for something that real historians have typically done: that is, create a resource of information that is as accurate as our centuries-old Western university tradition is able to make it?

Thanks, just asking. Philip Hirschi

"...Centuries-old Western university tradition..." That makes me chuckle. Ever hear the expression, "The victors write the history books"? You might want to check out Wikipedia:Replies to common objections for more on this topic. But the one thing I would say to respond to your concern is that pages are watched by Wikipedians who work hard to keep articles accurate. Changes by vandals often get noticed in minutes of the vandalism taking place. Dismas|(talk) 14:24, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, plenty of paid people make plenty of mistakes. Also, everyone has a point of view and a bias, regardless of how well they may be able to hide it. When you read something from a single author, you are at the whim of their biases and mistakes. When my friends question the ability to trust Wikipedia, I point them to the existence of the "Article History" feature and the "Article Discussion" page. Both of these will give you a sense of how much faith you can put in an article. For example, the Discussion page may alert you to ongoing controversies or uncertainties among the editors. The History feature can show you if the article has been around for years with contributions by many authors, of it is a brand new creation by a single author. You may choose to be more suspicious of the alter. Also, using the History feature, you can see if someone has recently made a suspicious insertion or deletion that may not yet have been questioned, but which is, in fact, an error or act of vandalism. As to your question of "Is anyone doing anything about it?" the answer is a resounding YES! Tends (or hundreds) of thousands of people are editing and wathcing over pages to ensure the quality of this project. Join us and you can be one of them! As to the legal foundation - I don't know what you mena, but perhaps you should see Wikipedia:Copyrights, which specifies the license terms for contributing and using content on Wikipedia. Johntex\talk 00:34, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Would you consider to have a Chinese version?

China is a very rich civilization with huge amount of things to present in an encyclopedia. Many surrounding civilizations, particularly those of nomadic people, where no written language existed until a few hundred years ago, relied much on Chinese literature to record their history. I would be thrilled if we have a Chinese version. wwwang@rocketmail.com

There may already be a Chinese version. See http://www.wikipedia.org/ to check. I would check for you but the words are in other languages and I'm a lazy American who only knows English.  :-) Dismas|(talk) 14:40, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
This is the English language Wikipedia, but it is not intended to concentrate solely on documenting English-speaking countries. We would welcome contributions about Chinese literature and history, but I recommend that you are careful to cite your sources as it will be particularly difficult for other Wikipedians to verify your work. You could also check out Portal:People's Republic of China, Wikipedia:China-related topics notice board, Wikipedia:WikiProject Chinese provinces, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Chinese cities. Regarding Chinese language Wikipedias, they exist, I believe in several variations. Try zh:. Bovlb 15:04, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Yes, there is a "Chinese" language Wikipedia, as pointed out by Bovlb. I cannot find more than one version however. By the way, I find the use of the name "Chinese" odd, since there is no such language. Probably they mean Mandarin. — Nowhither 18:50, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
    • See Chinese Wikipedia. There are currently four 'frontends' to the Chinese Wikipedia, depending on what dialect you prefer to use: zh-cn (mainland China), zh-hk (Hong Kong and Macao), zh-sg (Singapore) and zh-tw (Taiwan). Other variants have existed in the past. --Kwekubo 20:43, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
    • See also List of Wikipedias, which lists all languages. -- Reinyday, 04:18, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Associations

I have looked around a bit, but couldn't really find anything about Wikipedia Associations. I found a short list off of the CP, but didn't find any rules governing Associations. Is there such a page? Am I just too lazy to find it? Can anyone start an association in the Wikipedia namespace? I'm thinking about starting one, but didn't know if there was something I should follow or not. Thanks. --Lord Voldemort (Dark Mark) 16:34, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

I thought I'd try to answer your question, but I can't find any info either. Furthermore, I've never heard of a "Wikipedia association". So: What is a "Wikipedia association", and/or where did you hear about them? — Nowhither 19:15, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure, but I think they're on Meta. - Mgm|(talk) 19:58, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Well I know of the Associations on meta, but I was thinking of something slightly different. It doesn't have to do with Wiki philosophy. It would just be a group of Wikipedians that want the same thing, but not quite WikiProject material. Who knows, I'll think about for a little while and then Be Bold and just do it. Thanks. --Lord Voldemort (Dark Mark) 20:19, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish translation

You don't seem to have asked a question. I'll make a few guesses:

Is there a Spanish translation of Wikipedia?
There is a Spanish-language Wikipedia. It is a separate work, not a translation of the English version, although some of its articles were begun by translating articles from the English Wikipedia (and vice-versa). You can find it at http://es.wikipedia.org/ .
Can I help translate Wikipedia articles into Spanish?
Absolutely! The English Wikipedia has 729,831 articles, while the Spanish Wikipedia has 65,537. That means there are over 600,000 articles that could use some translation. Get to work!
Where can I get help translating something into Spanish?
I am not sure. You could start by posting here again and asking an actual question.

— Nowhither 19:11, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How do I add an external link to a page?

Helllo,

I am trying to add my website to the Joan Crawford page. How do I do that? My website is http://joancrawfordma.tripod.com/

Thank you.

Your site is there now. You (or someone else) seem to have placed it there already. In any case, the way you do it is to edit the article, and place the link in the "External links" section. Click the "edit this page" tab on the Joan Crawford article to see what it looks like internally. — Nowhither 19:31, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:External link for more on both how and when to add external links. Please consider whether a particular link adds useful information or source materiel to the article. If it doesn't, it shouldn't be added. Adding a link to ones own site should be done particualrly cautiously. see also Wikipedia:Spam#How not to be a spammer for more on this. DES (talk) 19:37, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
Yes, I should have said something about that. In fact, this particular site is a fine one, and IMHO appropriate as an external link. But most requests of this sort basically amount to using Wikipedia for advertising. Such links will be removed. — Nowhither 01:09, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Translations

I'm interested in translating English pages into Latvian, but don't know how to link a translated Latvian page to the other available translations of an article. Is there something like "translate this page" (similar to "edit this page") that will allow me to easily translate content and have it automatically linked back to every other version of the same entry?

Thanks, --ubalodis

[edit] Deliberately wrong

I was wondering if the people running the Wikipedia project could actually promise me that everything i read in here is the best of quality. And if they cant (i am pretty sure they cant), how then can i ever trust Wikipedia again, knowing that there are some naughty boys/girls out there, who might deliberately insert erroneous, incorrect data in the articles. Is anyone doing anything about it? Is there a legal foundation for this project?

Wikipedia:Replies to common objections should have some answers for you. Dismas|(talk) 23:07, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
When my friends raise this objection, I point them to the existence of the "Article History" feature and the "Article Discussion" page. Both of these will give you a sense of how much faith you can put in an article. For example, the Discussion page may alert you to ongoing controversies or uncertainties among the editors. The History feature can show you if the article has been around for years with contributions by many authors, of it is a brand new creation by a single author. You may choose to be more suspicious of the alter. Also, using the History feature, you can see if someone has recently made a suspicious insertion or deletion that may not yet have been questioned, but which is, in fact, an error or act of vandalism. As to your question of "Is anyone doing anything about it?" the answer is a resounding YES! Tends (or hundreds) of thousands of people are editing and wathcing over pages to ensure the quality of this project. Join us and you can be one of them! As to the legal foundation - I don't know what you mena, but perhaps you should see Wikipedia:Copyrights, which specifies the license terms for contributing and using content on Wikipedia. Johntex\talk 00:29, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Guess what, there are naughty adults out there who publish things in books and newspapers that are wrong. You are not, I hope, one of those people who thinks "if it's in a book it must be true." alteripse 01:02, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Linking to an article version as of a particular date

I note that Wikipedia assigns a unique ID to each revision of an article. The URL to a particular revision is http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php followed by a query string with the article's title and revision ID. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aristotle&oldid=22376284. This gives me the article Aristotle as at 05:00, 2 September 2005.

Is there any similar way of linking to an article as it appeared at a certain date and time, given only the article title and the date/time? For example, is there some query string like http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aristotle&revdate=2005-09-02-0530, which will resolve to the same link as above? (Since Aristotle was not modified between 05:00 and 05:30 on 2 September 2005, the link should resolve to revision 22376284.) —Psychonaut 00:20, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Not that I know of. The obvious problem, at least to me, is that the link isn't guaranteed to be unique; it's possible to edit multiple times within a minute - see for example this diff - making it difficult to tell which version you're resolving to. Good for most articles, bad for hotly-debated or heavily-vandalised ones. Shimgray 12:33, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

I recently posted a MediaWiki bug/wishlist report for this feature. Someone responded and apparently, it's already semi-possible to do this with the following URL syntax: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aristotle&offset=20050902053000&action=history. The first link returned is the right one; a simple page scraper can extract this link. Note that the offset query variable includes hours, minutes, and seconds, so your issue about pages being edited during the same minute is moot. —Psychonaut 18:55, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Devil's Rejects

The first chart at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_ordered_by_uses_of_the_word_%22fuck%22> lists this movie twice -- once as a chart-topper with 560 usages of the word and secondly at position No.25 with 203 usages of the word.

Unless there are two versions of this film (which does not appear to be the case), "The Devil's Rejects" should not be listed twice on this chart.

--anon

Thank you, that seems to be a mistake or possibly vandalism. I notice that the page is protected because of recent vandalism. Therefore, I will leave a message on the article's discussion page. An administrator should notice the comment and make a change. Johntex\talk 01:05, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how

why did u switch to children's books

Are you refering to the Wikibooks Junior Project? If so, then please see [9] Johntex\talk 01:03, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting a Username

How do I go about deleting my username? It seems that I overestimated the amount of time I'd be spending on Wikipedia, and I now realize that a username is unnecessary.

--mwazzap 02:00, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
Deleting it is unnecessary. Just let it lie. There are numerous inactive Wikipedia accounts. Bovlb 04:21, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
So the only way to get my account deleted is to do a bunch of bad things? :( mwazzap 05:04, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
Doing "a bunch of bad things" will not get your account deleted, merely (if neccessary) blocked. I can't think of any circumstances where we would delete an account. Warofdreams talk 10:16, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
There are actually legal reasons why articles cannot be deleted. The GFDL requires all contributors to be recorded. So we can't delete users as we then lose the record of contributors. Evil Monkey∴Hello 23:09, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why was my article deleted?

A few days ago, I posted an article on "Lonesome Bob" which was very quickly deleted. I have no idea why it was deleted, as it violated no stated provision. Lonesome Bob is an important artist and deserves some recognition at Wikipedia, I believe.

Thanks.

An admin speedy-deleted it. It may or may not have met the official criteria for speedy deletion, so I have restored it and nominated it for "Articles for deletion", so that it can be considered by the Wikipedia community. -- Curps 04:25, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] when there be a downloadable english version of wikipedia

I am a wikipedian too and wrote some articles. My computer in office is connected with Internet, so I hope there would be a downloadable version of Wikipeida,particulary the English version. Maybe someone would say the file is too big, but I would suggest that the image file is ommited, so the text only Wikipedia isn't so big as we imaginble.

Furthermore, I hope the downloadable Wikipedia would be a green software, that didn't need to install in the Windows system. So I could store it on a Flash Storage Tool, and bring it with me. Where ever I get(sure not connected with Internet), I can search the Wikipedia.

Is my hope just a dream ?

Libaoyuan,China

  • See Wikipedia:Database dumps. Best wishes, Meelar (talk) 04:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
    • As Meelar pointed out, you can get a database dump. However, this database dump is somewhere around 20-25GB in size, so I doubt you could carry it around with you on a flash drive. Also, you must run your own web server with MediaWiki on it in order to use it. --Andy Janata 15:22, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
      • Yes, I should have made that more clear. Short answer: yes, it's a dream. Sorry. Meelar (talk) 04:21, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] George Bush page

I'm not sure this is the right place to for this, anyhow.. Under George Bush's religious background, it begins something to the extent that he is "satanic and a devil worshipper."

It's my inclination to believe this is untrue.

  • You probably came across a spot of vandalism, but Bush's page is so carefully watched, I expect this was corrected before you could finish your report here. Thanks for reporting it anyway. - 131.211.210.12 07:21, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
You're right, it is untrue. Satan/Devil is not proven to exist, neither a "god" and therefore any references to satan or god outside of a mythological or artistic sense, or without the addition of the words "proposed" or "theoretically" in the sentence, would be unencyclopedic, as it is neccessary to provide valid facts and references in order to state such a thing. -- NatsukiGirl\talk 07:26, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Encouraging Arbitrary Reverts & Edits

By listing the users who do the most editing, you are encouraging arbitrary reverts and edits. Some people will edit merely to increase their total. I added a useful edit to the Schopenhauer page and "Hall Monitor" reverted the page to the previous version, thereby deleting my contribution. It seemed to me that this was done for no good purpose and, possibly, to simply increase Hall Monitor's edit total.

64.12.116.12 11:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC)Bruce Partington

  • Hall Monitor is a known admin with no reason to increase his edit total. I see all you added was a 1 paragraph quote, with no source of where that quote came from. Maybe if you add some context reference and some source it will be more easily accepted. Also registering an account makes admins less likely to think your edits are vandalism. Elfguy 12:18, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
"No source of where that quote came from"? I showed the source as "WWR II, Ch. XLVI." That means, The World as Will and Representation, Volume II, Chapter XLVI.

152.163.100.12 15:10, 15 September 2005 (UTC)Bruce Partington

  • You could try asking User:Hall Monitor why he reverted your edits on his talk page. If you ask him in a friendly manner, I'm sure he'd be happy to explain. - 131.211.70.102 12:41, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
I asked Hall Monitor, the Schopenhauer expert, and ...he reverted me again. Add another edit to his edit count.

152.163.100.12 11:43, 20 September 2005 (UTC)Bruce Partington

  • Remember to assume good faith. I don't think people pay as much attention to their edit count as you might think, either. — mendel ☎ 19:29, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
Mendel, I certainly admire your wide-eyed optimism.

205.188.116.14 23:27, 15 September 2005 (UTC)Bruce Partington

[edit] Copyright

From: Michael Unomah michael Sent: September 15 2005 Subject: Copyright

Hello, I'm a student doing an on-line high school class on Calculus in The Virtual High School ( http://www.goVHS.org). I would like to use a graphic on your site for a class assignment. My teacher is a copyright drag and wants me to obtain permission before I use the graphic. I think that following the law is usually a good idea so would like your permission to use a graphic from your web site the image is a KPIX Traffic Camera Three. I will cite where the image is from. Where can I ask for permission to use this image?

Thank you, MichaeL UnOMAh


if you go to the image's page you will be able to find it's lisenceing information and the author.Geni 15:22, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] photos

I see articles, but no photos such as when I looked up Chiggers there was a good description but no picture of it. How or where do you click to see pictures ?

If there are pictures associated with an article, then they will be visible on the article page. Some articles have pictures, and some do not. The article on Chigger (arthropod) is one of those that do not. Wikipedia articles (including pictures) are put together by Wikipedia's users. That means people like you. So if you have a picture of a Chigger that you can legally use, then go ahead and add it to the article. — Nowhither 17:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Why Edit Pages?

Why do we need to edit pages on the website. If I edit a page will other people visiting the website see the content edited by me, or only I see it when I'm logged in? idenigma --Idenigma 19:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

  • Editing is what made Wikipedia grow to the site it is today. Everyone can see the edits you make, whether you are logged on or not. Although, a lot of people track newly created articles and recent edits. So if your edit is unacceptable and contains profanity or something it may get undone before anyone sees it. - Mgm|(talk) 20:50, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] ENQUIRY

I'd like to know if you can help me answer the following questions. 1.Computer programs can be written using either a low-level or high-level programming language. a.Can u give me 2 examples of each type of language? b.What is the major difference between the 3 types of languages? 2.Explain the difference between a compiled programming language and an interpreted one. b.can u list a few benefits for me? a.What is an IDE? b.What are the benefits of IDE? c.cAN I KNOW ANOTHER ide OTHER THAT mICROSOFT? 4.What is the fundamental difference between traditional and object-oriented languages?

5.Can you list me 2 American Nation Standards Institute(ANSI)standerdized languages? 6.Can you list me 3 areas of programming language that is defined by the ANSI standard? 7.What is the purpose of RAD? 8.Can you give me 3 different areas that the term RAD is used?

I'll be very grateful if you can help me out.Its an internet assignment which was given to us on Monday and I've tried everything but i cant get the right info and we are to present it tomorrow(Friday).Pls help me out. MESSIAH MARFO. <email address removed>

This is a question for the reference desk, this page is to ask for help about Wikipedia. Also don't leave you email address here, if you want a response check back at this page. See the notice at the top of this page for details. — Kjammer ⌂ 20:45, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
Each one of your questions can take many hours or several days to adequately explain, so if your teacher really gave you the assignment on Monday to reply by Friday, then either a superficial answer is adequate, or the class materials previously covered this, and you are being tested to see if you did your homework. I suggest you might like to skim over Wikibooks that go into great detail on all of this. AlMac|(talk) 20:46, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Albert Einstein Article

This is a link to the Albert Einstein article that you guys have. I saw some nasty words in there and didn't know who to report it to and after searching for almost 20 minutes for the correct place this was the only place I would find. Just wanted to let you know. When you read the article you will see, almost immediately what I am referring to. Good luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

  • You came across a spot of vandalism, but it's already been undone. If you want to learn how to fix vandalism yourself, please read Wikipedia:Revert. Once you know how to do it, it's a lot quicker than reporting it to someone else. - Mgm|(talk) 20:46, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] What does subst:PAGENAME (in curly brackets) do?

It seems to be a part of listing things for VfD and for nominating featured articles. But I always like to know what a thing is actually doing when I'm asked to use it. --bodnotbod 22:25, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

{{subst:Your message}} makes a copy of the message text and places it where you put the tag after you save an article (substitution). Without "subst", the message will be loaded and put on the page every time you view it, a process known as transclusion. The used of subst for AfD and other widely used templates is that transclusion is a large server load and also stops large scale vandalism of these widely used templates. Evil Monkey∴Hello 23:07, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for the reply. I think I understand what you're saying, but let me put it in my own words to test if I really do:

  • When a normal template is included on a page my browser requests the article/project-page text from the server and then pulls the template from elsewhere on the server, slotting it into place. It does this any time someone visits the page.
  • When the subst command is used it only fetches the template once and then converts the template to part of the normal wiki syntax of the page itself and stores the template content along with the page, in effect untying it from the source template and making it a stand-alone piece of mark-up.

Is that about right? --bodnotbod 05:24, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

  • That's about right, but the server slots the other text into place, not the browser. --Andy Janata 11:11, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
    • Thanks. I understand. --bodnotbod 08:46, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] VfUD Archives...

Where would I go in order to view the Votes For Undeletion page archives? I don't plan on voting for anything to be undeleted/deleted (because obviously, anything stretching back to mid-August is pretty much decided.) Refugee621 01:00, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

Uh...this has been here for almost 4 days and I've seen responses pile up for questions asked by people who posted after me. Thanks a lot. I'm aware that 'Wikipedia is not a democracy' but I wasn't aware that it a sluggish, numb, less-coherent version of Jabba the Hutt (with Down Syndrome).

Unlike many other process pages, VfU's archives are, as i understand it, entirely in the page history. DES (talk) 19:57, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How to integrate Wikipedia database to my Java interface?

I am working on a project that requires definition lookup in Wikipedia. Right now I'm retrieving information directly from the Wikipedia website. This way is rather slow and unstable. My goal now is to download the Wikipedia database to my local hard drive, and connect it to my existing GUI written in Java. I've checked the link "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download#Weekly_database_dumps", which confused me even more, because I'm really a database dummy. Would someone please help me out? I just need to know the correct steps I need to perform, in order to achieve my goal. Thanks!

  • Do not integrate content directly from Wikipedia on your web server. It causes lots of loads on the server and is a good way to get banned. Check http://download.wikipedia.org/ to know how to download the content to your server. Elfguy 12:18, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] watching categories

How can I watch what articles get added and deleted from a category? Thanks ccwaters 02:41, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

  • Articles are added and removed from categories by inserting and removing text from the article page, so there's no feasible way to track it. Unless you make constant captures of what's in the category and compare it for differences. - Mgm|(talk) 08:06, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
    • Actually it's easier than that. You can go to the categories page and click the Related changes link in the sidebar. I doubt that it'll show articles that have been removed from the category, since they're no longer related to it, but it would show any that are added (because the catg must have changed in that article) or otherwise changed. Elf | Talk 21:39, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikicities in Relation to Wikipedia

I was just looking on Wikicities, and many of the wikicities over lap with wikipedia. What I mean to say is: There is tons of info on various wikicities, which is the same as on wikipedia. One piticular example I found is a wikiproject called: "Star Trek Wikiproject", or something like that, and Memory Alpha, an extensive wikicity, practicaly identical in every respect to the project. Why have duplicates? Also,If wikipedia is a encyclopedia, then why not just incoperate all the info on the wikicities onto wikipedia? It would make finding what you want easier. (Rather than searching all the cities. Plus Wikiprojects, and wikiportals, are very smilar to wikicities. The first 2 are searched by our search function. The ladder is not. I don't understand why we want to have so much duplicate data, and so much data outside of the central database. The same thing applies to wikispecies, and wikipedia. Tobyk777 03:59, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "Wikicities", guess I'll have to look that up. But as far as Memory Alpha (the Star Trek wiki) and the Star Wars wiki, they are devoted to information about those science fiction series. Information that is of importance to those series may not be judged notable enough for inclusion in an encyclopedia with a much greater scope such as Wikipedia. So while we have articles on the series themselves, they would also include articles on lesser known aspects such as species of creatures that make only a 30 second appearance in one episode. See also: Wikipedia:Fancruft. Dismas|(talk) 12:42, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
Tobyk777: Here are a bunch of answers to your points:
  • Wikicities is not a sister project of Wikipedia. So it is not as if the people here got together and decided it was needed. It uses the same software, and it looks similar, but it is not part of the same family of websites. Why is there duplication? Well, why do different authors write books on the same topic? Why do different companies sell much the same products? That's the way the world works.
  • It is true that one of the founders of Wikipedia is also a founder of Wikicities: Jimmy Wales. Why did he do it? You'd have to ask him. But if I might make a guess: Wikipedia is specifically a general-content encyclopedia. It explicitly limits itself to neutral statements on notable topics. Wikicities allows for projects with whatever content guidelines they want to have (within limits). The Wikicities article says that Wikicities does not allow projects that compete with Wikipedia and its sister projects; you seem to be saying they have failed at enforcing this. Perhaps that is true.
  • As for a WikiProject being like a Wikicity: I disagree. A WikiProject does not have content; it is a way of organizing people to edit certain aspects of Wikipedia. Wikiprojects have guidelines and discussions, but no articles of their own. Similarly, the portals here are gateways to certain aspects of Wikipedia content, and have little content of their own. Both of these are organizational structures inside a general-purpose work with given policies. Wikicities have their own content and policies, and so are different things.
  • Lastly, you mention Wikispecies. This is a sister project of Wikipedia. It exists because some people thought we needed a general biological database, organized in the way the biologists classify species. It is thus much more focussed that Wikipedia, and it is also organized differently. It is certainly debatable whether Wikispecies was a good idea, especially since it does not seem to be doing as well as it could. But I do not think we can say it duplicates Wikipedia.
— Nowhither 00:16, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] is there a way of getting an RSS feed on my watchlist (or other pages)

I would like to be notified when changes occur on sertian pages. How can I arrange this? --Peter 06:08, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

See MediaZilla:471 and the various discussions referenced there. In short, there's no way of doing it yet, but there are plenty of people who want it, and one of them may get around to implementing it sooner or later. - IMSoP 11:00, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Where can a user see the total number of contributions?

I would like to know where users can find the number of edits they've made. Preferably without clicking on the "my contributions" link and counting the contribs by hand. I know Wikipedia has a method of counting contributions, but I don't know where to find this number. — Kjammer ⌂ 06:21, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

User:Kate has developed a tool for this purpose. It at Kate's tool. --Commander Keane 06:39, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. — Kjammer ⌂ 06:46, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

  • Be careful you don't catch editcountitis. - Mgm|(talk) 08:05, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Only english allowed in en.wikipedia.org? ->Ethernet

Please take a look at Ethernet - I see a version "This page was last modified 07:00, 15 September 2005." I'm not sure if the first two paragraphs should be here - I don't know what to do about them. Simply delete? Thanks

  • User:130.238.5.5 already took care of it and reverted the addition. - Mgm|(talk) 07:59, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] problems uploading files in separate wiki

Hi guys, we have installed the wiki software in our website to create an encyclopedia about the Frankfurt region in Germany.

Whenever we try to upload images (jpgs), we get this very detailed reply: Internal error From Newcomers-Network/wiki Could not copy file "/tmp/phpSneYmc" to "/homepages/42/d136081210/htdocs/wiki/images/temp/c/c0/20050916092446!Japantag_3.jpg". Retrieved from "http://newcomers-network.de/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Upload"


Now what? And we thought uploading pix wasn't rocket science...


thanks

vero val

  • Please read the top of the page, Veroval. We don't respond by email, especially when you don't sign your comment, as it's very hard to find out who wrote this message after a few more edits are made to the page. - Mgm|(talk) 10:03, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

well sorry about that MGM didn't know I had to sign, but I would still have appreciated a more thorough reply... VEROVAL

  • Help on MediaWiki is available from meta. Elfguy 12:16, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
    • Particularly, see meta:Uploading files. I suspect you have a permissions problem of some kind - you haven't set the marker in the filesystem to say that the webserver can write things into that folder. It might also be worth searching the mailing list archives for similar questions. - IMSoP 14:22, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] add this to your wikipedia

i don't have the time nor inclination but there is no information on anne fadiman so here http://who2.com/jeeves/annefadiman.html

  • Well since we aren't paid to do this or anything, how about you add it yourself when you feel the inclination. Elfguy 12:12, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Windows

Why on earth does the Windows article exist? It has been edited many times and still says nothing that a 3rd grader doesn't know. Shouldn't it be a stub? It could difine the many kinds of architectural windows and point to the pages. Or it could talk about Microsoft Windows (I haven't checked that yet.Phil talk 12:43, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

If you looked at the history of the article you would see that it used to be a redirect to the article for Microsoft Windows until today when a vandal changed it. Dismas|(talk) 13:01, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] pdf download required

respected sir, i want to know how to download from your portal,the mobile communication stds?

Hello, and welcome.
  • If there is a specific document you are referring to, then usually you click on it to view it, and then do a "Save As ...". The details may vary by browser.
  • On the other hand, if you cannot find mobile communications standards on Wikipedia, then I would imagine it is because we do not have them. This is a general encyclopedia, not a collection of technical reference documents.
  • Lastly, there is no "respected sir". Wikipedia is written and edited by other users like you. Questions here are also answered by other users like you.
— Nowhither 17:27, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] HMS Quality (G62)

The official biography of HMS Quality differs from your copy. The Quality was HMS until she was handed over to the Australians at 0900 on October 25th 1945. No Australian Officers or Ratings are listed as having served on the Quality before this date. As an RN Stoker PO who served from 1941 to 1945 on the Quality, and was present on the ship when she was the first ever British warship to berth in Tokyo, when she took Royal Marines from HMS Newfoundland for the reopening of the British Embassy. . The crew of the Quality brought home to the UK HMAS Napier George Craven Ex Stoker CPO.

[edit] college has been very trying

Hi my name is tami

i just wanted to thank whoever had created this website- i'm currently a student for Western International University and with having difficulties affording the books needed i have found this site to be very resourceful. I have reccomended this site to many other classmates and hope their experiences with using this site are as helpful. Thank you!!

I'm glad you find the site useful. Please do remember to verify the accuracy of any info from wikipedia. Using a single source from any info is dubious, and on wikipedia, there is the everpresent problem of vandalism and of poorly informed editos. Most articels are reasoanbly accurate in my expereince, but far from all are, and many are incomplete. DES (talk) 15:32, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
On wikipedia if a line starts with a blank, it creates a non-wrapped fixed width display. This is probably not what you wanted, so i have reformatted your question. To indent a paragraph, start with a colon as I have done here. Also please sign your comments on discussion pages with four tildas (like this: ~~~~). Thank you. DES (talk) 15:32, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Formatting images and boxes

Hello everyone, I have a question about how to get things to go where I want them on my user page...you might notice that on my page - User:PaulHanson - the missing articles project box is next to the picture...however, I wanted to place it below the picture...how would I go about doing this? Is there a guide to putting pictures where you want them to go? I don't have much of a grasp of that yet. Thank you very much... Paul 14:03, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to find a guide to that too. I'm afraid it's the blind leading the blind with this response, but I tried it using a table and it turned out ok. Just put this wikicode at the top of your userpage, and see how it looks. I'm not too sure what half the table code does though, it just seems to work. --Commander Keane 15:04, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
  • I'm sure there's some logic to all this, but there doesn't seem to be info about that anywhere...but your table works, thank you very much. Paul 16:02, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bonnie and Clyde picture

I have a very good question for you. I am a disabled vet, and I have a friend that is a disabled vet as well...he has cancer is has about 2-3 years to live...he has recieved a picture from his grandparents (lokng time ago...about the late 40's) of a couple that stayed at their farm for a few days...the picture has Bonnie, Clyde and their chauffer all together ina family type portrait. Jim was told that a Bonnir and Clyde picture, with their chauffer is very rare. Jim wants to buy some property and build a house before he parts the earth, and would like to sell the very, very rare picture...so, 2 things...#1 how can I find out the price on what this rareity would cost to buy, and where would I advertide or how would I sell it for him?...Thank you very much.207.224.32.49 17:29, 16 September 2005 (UTC)


Donald Bole, SSgt, USAF (RET) retiree@4thefam.net

  • Please read the instructions on the top of this page. This page is for people who need help with using Wikipedia. Factual questions like yours belong on the reference desk. - Mgm|(talk) 20:03, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Not a complaint but a thanks

I found your locaton by accident and just wanted to say thanks for all the information that is available. I needed the actual sizes of dinensional lumber and your site was outstanding and it let me view other information that I will need in the future. Thanks again.

Clarence A. Barrows, Jr. [personal info removed] Gerald, MO 63037 [personal info removed]

Clarence: Thanks! You should know however, that this is a public website. Anyone in the entire world who has a net connection can view information posted here. You really don't want to post your e-mail address, etc., here. — Nowhither 00:59, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] perverse material on this page

Someone made this page extremely vulgar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius

do you let all editing go through without re-editing? This is not professional or good for my kids.

The page has been alredy been fixed, the vulgar edits only lasted for three minutes. You just happened to visit the page at the wrong time. — Kjammer ⌂ 22:46, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
There aren't any paid editors. Everyone who edits Wikipedia are volunteers much like yourself who just want to see Wikipedia grow and be the best encyclopedia. Unfortunately we cannot keep all the vandals of the world out. Please see Wikipedia:Replies to common objections for more on this subject. Dismas|(talk) 19:28, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Regarding content copy in other website

I read the GNU Free Documentation License but it doesn't clearly state if it requires or not the publisher to put some sort of copyright notice on the content taken from Wikipedia. For example, I am modifying the contents but I'm not sure how to describe the copyright state of this new page I would be creating. Any suggestions are really appreciated.

what is the meaning of itto?

  • You can only take content and modify it if you release the resulting product under the GFDL as well, which means that others can take and modify your text instead of the original from Wikipedia. You could add a notice like: This text incorporates text from Page Wikipedia and is released under the GNU Free Document License.

The link should point to the original article. If you want an idea how others have done it, check Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks. - Mgm|(talk) 07:29, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] creating a link to MY WATCHLIST

I would like to put a link to my watchlist on my user page ... that way people can see the sorts of things that I working on?

How do I do this?

You can't. Your watchlist is only viewable by you as far as I understand the software. Dismas|(talk) 03:56, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
However, many people have a list of items they are intersted in on their user pages. You could create such a list by manually copying from your watchlist, and pasting onto your user page. Of course, such a list won't be automatically updated when you add items to your watch list, or remove them. DES (talk) 18:58, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

You can put a link to your Contributions on your user page. This is a list of ALL the things you've edited. Format is: [[Special:Contributions/usernamehere]]

You can create a watchlist link. Anyone who clicks on it, including you, will see their own watchlist. Here 'tis: Special:Watchlist — Nowhither 23:52, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] counter showing the number of times an entry has been viewed

Is there a variable or a way of showing the number of times an article has been viewed?

--Peter 02:47, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of: That would be a tremendous burden on the already-overloaded server hardware. It would be a nice feature, but don't hold your breath for it. Matt Gies 02:52, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
This "feature" does exists on wikicites which uses MediaWiki as well. Though, I agree with Matt about the burden that it would cause if activated here. --Robert Harrisontalk contrib 10:35, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually, the main reason hit counters are disabled on Wikimedia projects is not the load it causes (although I think that was considered an issue once) but that they'd be pretty meaningless because of the complex server setup now in place - most views of an article are actually served by "dumb" webservers, without the software knowing anything about it, so a variable built into the software would miss all those hits. You can get various kinds of statistics, but I'm not sure per-page totals like this are available at the moment. - IMSoP 10:56, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Section titles

I was wondering if there is a standard title for article sections about... appearances in the media, cultural references, you know... of the subject of an article appearing in TV, movies, literature, music, etc... or does it matter what one titles such a section? I'm sure I've seen them in some articles before, but I can't remember what they might have been called, or what articles they might have been in. Teknomage 03:23, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

By "subject" do you mean a person or a thing? Perhaps an example would help. Dismas|(talk) 03:56, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Hmmm... well I suppose the best example I could give at the moment is the one that made me think of this question. I was thinking of mentioning in an article about Thespis that the person was mentioned in an episode of Sports Night. But it doesn't have to be about a person, it could be a thing, an event, whatever. I was also thinking of mentioning that Guy Fawkes Day was referenced in an episode of Daria. My question basically could refer to anyone or anything in history being referenced anywhere in popular culture... Teknomage 04:11, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
"Pop culture references" would fit and be pretty much the standard. I can't think of an example off hand either but that is the section title that I see these things listed under most often. Hope that helps. Dismas|(talk) 13:31, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
"XYZ in popular culture" or "XYZ in fiction" is common. Note though that some editors are quite touchy about this; the form invites people to add vast amounts of trivia, and it can grow to overshadow the rest of the article, which people often dislike. So be judicious :-) Space Shuttles in fiction used to all be a "in fiction" part of the main article... Shimgray 16:15, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Although if the pop culture component of the article starts overpowering the rest of it, you could spawn off an XYZ in popular culture article and link to it from the main page. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:19, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. Teknomage 19:51, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree with trying to find similar kinds of articles to see how they deal with them. For example, in the Dog Breeds Project, we decided on one way to do it, which might not be how cats do it or furniture does it or writers do it or... So in dog breed pages, there are subheads lumped under one major heading "Miscellaneous"; subheads might be, for example, "Famous Chihuahuas", "Films about Chihuahuas", "Chihuahuas in literature"... Elf | Talk 21:46, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Can I use my account both in the Chinese verson Wiki and the English ones?

I want to ask this question because it is so troublesome for me to use two account

  • There's no way to sign up for two Wikipedias at once, but if your name is still free on both Wikipedias, no one's stopping you from registering them. I've registered the same name on several projects myself. It takes some time, but my name is the same on all of them. If your username is unusual the chance someone else has it registered is nearly zilch. - Mgm|(talk) 07:54, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Of course, we also prefer that you use latin script here, so that others can read it. So keep that in mind. Dmcdevit·t 08:01, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How can I help improve efficiency?

Lately, Wikipedia is running slow. What can I do to help speed things up around here? For now I'm running through the list of WP:AFD to replace {{afd}} and {{vfd}} with {{subst:afd}}. I would not touch anything in the namespaces of "Wikipedia", "User", or "Template". How much stress would be reduced all those templates were subst-ed? And when is it not a good idea to place "subst:" on a template? — Kjammer ⌂ 11:20, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Templates provideing article content should not be subst. Pretty much anything else can be though. I don't know about how to speed things up you would have to ask the developers (although I suspect that {{test}} may case a bit of a drain.

[edit] Why was my article deleted?

I recently posted the beginning of what will be an in-depth article about the Roosevelt Institution (see www.rooseveltinstitution.org). But it was deleted by admin Luck69. The admin who deleted it gave no explanation as to why it was deleted and no way of contacting him. How do I get notified in the future if my article is deleted? How do I contact the admin to find out what the hell he was thinking? Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Institution where I have created the article again. Thanks.

  • If you want to know why Lucky deleted it, you can contact him on his discussion page:

User talk:Lucky 6.9. I think it's because the article was too promotional in tone. Wikipedia is not a promotional forum for organization. To be sure you'd have to contact Lucky, though. Another tip, if you think your entry was unjustly deleted, please make a request for undeletion rather than creating it again. - Mgm|(talk) 12:47, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

  • User talk:Lucky 6.9. However, it looks almost like advertising to me. (I had typed this before Mgm but it refused to save... WP's been too slow for me lately.) --Andy Janata 12:49, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki-ires =(

Any explanation about why Wikipedia has been extremely slow and unstable lately? Is the money recently raised going to perform magic anytime soon? --Plastictv 16:27, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

  • It's been asked before. If you crawl through some other posts on this page you may find some answers. - Mgm|(talk) 16:36, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
  • We all hope so. Elfguy 17:20, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] i need information about third division club in scotland

i am HAJI a nigeria born player i need a club in scotland if there is any please you can send it to the following address or through my E-MAIL BOX. The first addres here is my home addres, AW 37 Minna Road Tudun Nupewa Kaduna State of Nigeria, and my E-MAIL is <email removed>. The wing i am playing defence

[edit] Anon performed a cut-and-paste page move and I'm not sure how to fix it

An anon replaced the article The Ring (which was about the 2002 film) with a disambiguation page, and pasted the previous text into a new article, The Ring (2002 film). The problem is that several articles now link to the disambiguation page, the edit history hasn't been carried over from the disambiguation page to the new article, and people who had the film article on their watchlists (such as myself) now won't see the edits appearing on the new article unless they are aware of what has just happened. I'm not sure what to do...can the page move be reversed? Extraordinary Machine 17:23, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

  • I'm on it. - Mgm|(talk) 17:41, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Done. Don't forget to inform the anon about moves.

(I had to do two moves because I first moved to the wrong location, but now it's all okay):

  1. I've deleted the copy paste and replaced it with a redirect.
  2. I've put the disambiguation at The Ring (disambiguation). - Mgm|(talk) 18:07, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks, Mgm! Extraordinary Machine 18:32, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] EARLY PAINTINGS OF BROOKLYN NEW YORK

I HAVE FOR MANY YEARS BEEN SEARCHING FOR PAINTINGS, ARTIST RENDTIONS OF BROOKLYN, CIRCA EARLY 1700'S. I ONCE IN MY YOUTH SAW A PAINTING, OR DRAWING IN A FRAME OF FLATBUSH AVE, SHOWING THE DUTCH NAMES OF EACH FARM, THE OLD DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH, AND FLATBUSH AVE AS A DIRT RD. TO DATE, NOT EVEN THROUGH THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, OR ANY ORGANIZATION IN BROOKLYN IT SELF, HAVE I BEEN ABLE TO FIND SUCH A PAINTING OR DRAWING.

CAN ANYONE ASSIT ME. MKATZ@DELIVERYFINANCIAL.COM

[edit] Eskimo Economy

  1. what are the natural resoures?
  2. what are their main soures of income?
  3. Are there any new income opportunties in their furture?
  4. Do the economic opportunies conflict with their traditional way?

[edit] eskimo religion

  1. describe their religious beliefs.
  2. how are their religious leaders chosen?
  3. describe any special ceremories they might perform.

[edit] eskimo housing

  1. describe what a typical village is like.

(formatted for easy readability. - Mgm|(talk) 18:48, 17 September 2005 (UTC))

  • If you read the article on Eskimo's you'll see they're actually called Inuit which contains the majority of what you want to know. By the way, the way you presented the questions makes it look as if you're asking homework questions. Please read the intro at the top of this page. - Mgm|(talk) 18:58, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] beheading daniel pearl

(no question)

[edit] publisher or host

Who is your publisher or host?

If you want to cite Wikipedia as a source please see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia Dismas|(talk) 20:48, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Find articles which fall into 2 or more categories

Is there a way within Wikipedia to find articles that fall into two or more categories? For example, is there a way to find all chemistry stubs and Category:Polymers to locate all potential polymer stubs? --HappyCamper 20:45, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

  • There is a MediaWiki extension meta:DynamicPageList that supports this, but I believe it is not yet enabled in Wikipedia. Bovlb 21:51, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Financial Times

What was the ciculation figures for the Financial Times Newspaper for May 2003? Many Thanks Susan

Please see the instructions at the top of this page. Thanks, and welcome to Wikipedia. Notinasnaid 12:10, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] PHP Class: Class.Jabber.PHP

Where is information on implementing this class??

[edit] Signature as a template?

Some Wikipedia help page I read once but now can't find anywhere, said that you shouldn't use a template as your signature because it increases the load on Wikipedia servers and creates a target for vandalism. Well, the first part is true, but I have a question about the second part. For non-admins, it's certainly true, but isn't all admins have to do to use a template as their signature and protect the template? It can only be vandalised by admins, and I don't think very many admins vandalise other users' personal pages. — JIP | Talk 21:18, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

as a general rule we prefer to avoid protecting things. I suspect it was writen with that and non admins in mind.Geni 00:06, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
besides the server load issue is more than reason enough. The request not to use a tempalte in your sig is made on the preferences page, i think. DES (talk) 00:32, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
As much as possible, we try to avoid cluttering up the page protection log. You have essentially complete freedom using the regular signature function anyway; just paste whatever wiki-markup you want into the 'nickname' field, and check the 'raw signatures' box. Finally, by the time you get to be an admin you should have noticed that elaborate signatures are unnecessary (we only need or use links to your Talk and–maybe–User pages) and unrefined (attention-seeking, boastful, or just annoying.) So there. :D TenOfAllTrades(talk) 00:40, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree with your comments, but I still like to use my fancy signature even now when I'm an admin. Some other admins do so too. Heck, User:Nichalp has a fancy signature, and he's a bureaucrat and all. — JIP | Talk 10:01, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't know if this may be a good idea or not, but technically you could use a template as a signature if you substed it. I don't use one, my signature uses the raw signature method with the green text being a direct link to my talk page, which I think is sufficient for me. --Titoxd 17:14, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pekin Duck

I just nominated this article and went through the steps, the article has now been moved to Pekin duck, the version I saw looked like a good hoax with the link from the fictional ducks section of the Duck article. After chekcing it's a kind of Mallard , so the article would just need a re-write :"ferret-white", "canary tinge", Chinese Cuisine use these Pekin duck only. They won't use other duck type since it doesn't "taste the same" led me astray on the intention of the article and would happy retract the nomination to delete. Alf melmac 21:58, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

This is now resolved, thanks Friday. Alf melmac 00:54, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

A cleanup template was posted in the subject article. No reference was made to the poster's name, or what had to be edited or cleaned up. Granted there are probably areas for improvement, but some specifics would help. For the life of me I cannot see how it differs significantly from the norm of articles I see posted. Please give me specifics. Thanks Phil talk 22:10, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

To find out who added the cleanup template, check the article history. (Click the 'history' tab at the top of the page.) The cleanup tag in this case was added by Mike Rosoft with the edit summary "Marked as needing cleanup - more a user manual than an article". You can always leave a note on Mike's talk page if you'd like him to clarify why he believes the article needs work. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 00:29, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] IMDb blocks links to Wikipedia

I have just come to realise that the IMDb doesn't like Wikipedia that much now. I used to be able to add Wikipedia article links to the 'Miscellaneous' links to actors and films. Now whenever I click 'Update' on the IMDb and try to add a link to a Wikipedia article I get this message:

This item has been rejected. You need to correct this item before it will be accepted. URL not suitable as confirmation The URL is for a site with dynamic user-created content without sufficient editorial control, and cannot be used to prove anything

How rude is that? Wikipedia is a great source for updated information and if an article is edited wrong people usually revert in less than a minute. Why on earth have they blocked links? Is there anyway that we can advise them about how good is Wikipedia is and try to make them accept any Wikipedia links in the future? -- Thorpe talk 00:11, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Hmm. I did a quick search on IMDb, and they do have a feedback/help email address, (presumbly) using a form. However, only registered users (which I am not) can use it. How un-wiki like. Maybe we should just delete or protect their article? (just kidding!) Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 00:23, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I have just contacted them and they do usually give a reply so I'll post the news here when the reply comes. -- Thorpe talk 00:32, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't think it's rude at all. First of all, it's their website, and they can have whatever standards they want for links on it. Second, one quite reasonable standard is that any site linked to must have a clear authority who is responsible for its content. Wikipedia obviously does not meet this standard. — Nowhither 01:16, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
So in other words this project will never be good? -- Thorpe talk 10:22, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Um, no, I said that Wikipedia has no clear authority who is responsible for its content. I don't see that this has much to do with "being good". — Nowhither 23:43, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia can be good, but never be authoritative. And that isn't it's job. Since it isn't a primary source, it shouldn't be cited as one, just as Wikipedia articles can't cite other encyclopedias. Notinasnaid 12:08, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
They can't? I hadn't heard that one. Is it in the official policies somewhere? — Nowhither 23:44, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How do I write a biography paper?

(was without content)

They should teach you such things at School. I don't think we at the help desk can answer this question in a concise manner. What you can do is perhaps read random biography articles on Wikipedia and learn by example. Nahum | Talk 07:56, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Photography copyright

I am a photographer and some of my images are being used on Wikipedia.

I am more than happy to provide my images for use on Wikipedia usage , at the moment I give permission on my web site [10]

Is this enough to allow my images to be included without dispute?

Your pictures are under a license that prohibits commerical re-use. This is not acceptable. You might want to read Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ

→Raul654 02:52, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

PS - you might want to consider licensing them under either the GFDL and/or the CC-By-SA license. →Raul654 02:54, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Accidental erasure during article preparation

I was writing an article entitled "Two-graph". I wrote quite a lot, but now it seems not to exist. I assume I must have accidentally erased the article, possibly by closing the tab in my browser, but I think I prepared a preview before that. Is there any way to retrieve a partially prepared article that was put into preview status but not saved?

  • Unfortunately not. A preview is not saved (as it says so at the top when you are previewing) it's used to check one's coding before saving the edit to avoid the need for multiple small edits to correct your mistakes. - Mgm|(talk) 06:57, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
    • In some cases like this the content may still be on your local PC somewhere. If your browser is still open from when you did the preview you might be able to find your preview with the "back" button. If you closed your browser, you might be able to find a copy in your browser's cache directory. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:48, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
      • Thanks, but I closed the browser before noticing. Alas!!! What I wondered is whether there is any hidden memory in Wikipedia, since if an article has been previewed, it must have been processed by Wikipedia. At some point it gets erased, but is that instantaneous, or is it done later in a house-cleaning operation?
        • It's instantaneous (as soon as the page is sent to your browser). You should really try looking at your browser's cache directory, where it's more likely a copy can be found. --cesarb 17:44, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Original poster: Your edit is almost certainly gone. That's life. This sort of thing used to happen to me quite a bit. Now, if I'm doing a long edit, I do it using my own text editor, then I paste the result into Wikipedia. If Wikipedia loses the edit, I just do it again. — Nowhither 19:14, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
It would be a nice feature if Mediawiki would save previews somewhere temporarily, perhaps for a day or so, or until the user clicks "Save page". It is possible to dig in the browser's cache or, on Unix systems, to trawl /proc/kcore or the like, but this burden on the user could easily be transferred to the server (where it becomes trivial, as the server has to store the preview somewhere anyway). ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ 19:36, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading Files

When I try to upload a jpg. for some of my articles, I get an error warning that "." is not a recommended image file format. What does that mean and what can I do to fix this? --GeminiMind 07:27, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

It looks like you have a dot after the filename.extention, either in the original filename or in the one that you type in the ulpod box, which causes the extention to become a dot rather than "jpg". Try fixing that and tell us if it helps. -- Nahum | Talk 08:48, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
I got this message yesterday. The filename was correct (no . after the extension.) I just waited a few minutes and tried the upload again. It worked. JShook | Talk 13:19, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with viewing Unicode

I have a problem viewing certain Unicode characters, such as an h with a dot beneath it (as here, in the word "Hamishi"). Also I can't see cantillation characters in Hebrew. I use the latest & most up-todate OS, Browser & updates (Win XP SP2, IE 6.x etc.). My browser's encoding defaults to "Unicode - Utf-8" on Wiki pages, and I don't see any other options with "Unicode". Can anyone offer any suggestions, please? -- Nahum | Talk 07:50, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Internet Explorer does not automatically select the right fonts when a character is not available in the current font. Some articles use a kludge ({{unicode}}) to change the current font just for MSIE. You should either use a browser with better font support (for instance, Mozilla Firefox) or change the page to use the Wikisource equivalent of {{unicode}}. See Template talk:Unicode for more information. Note that you still need to have a font with that character for that to work (for MSIE, only the fonts used on the template will work). --cesarb 17:54, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks a lot. I added the template on wikisource and am now installing a unicode font from the list. If that fails, I will give up and use FireFox. -- Nahum | Talk 22:09, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Page saving gets turned into Preview

Today I found that very nearly every time I edit Wikipedia, pressing the Save page button first goes to Preview instead of actually saving the changes. When I press Save page again, sometimes (very rarely) this happens again. The third time does the trick. Is this some kind of sneaky feature to force people to preview their changes, or is it a bug in Wikipedia or my browser? — JIP | Talk 10:06, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Seems to be saving OK for me. I suggest clearing your cache. -- Thorpe talk 10:24, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Just noticed it now for me. Not just you. -- Thorpe talk 10:55, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
Not relevant, but whilst I remember, can you please not use template transclusion in your signature? It's used six times on this page alone, and another, hmm, eighty or so pages - and the servers are staggering enough without having to serve up signature templates... Shimgray 11:39, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
It's a known bug, though people tend to ignore it when they first encounter it, on the grounds that it's otherwise insdistinguishable from having accidentally pressed "preview". No fix yet, but it seems to be correlated with periods of heavy server load. Shimgray 11:15, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Screenshots

I was uploading and looked at the screenshot tags in the licensing part and it said one per article? Is this a new rule to only have one screenshot for an article? -- Thorpe talk 10:54, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of. Its probably a good rule of thumb to stay within the bounds of the fair use doctrine to only have one screenshot per product per article. There will be occasions when screenshots more than one screenshot is significantly beneficial, e.g. Microsoft Word and Mozilla Firefox, although it took me quite a while to find those two examples. Thryduulf 16:47, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia in English English.

As an English person from England, when I type a word in English I expect it to be listed, not corrected, redirected or anything else.

I searched for Aubergine today - I get redirected to "Eggplant" - what's an Eggplant? It's an Aubergine, so why isn't the article called "Aubergine"?

I typed in "Colour" I get redirected to "Color" - but that's spelt incorrectly! It's "Colour", why is it spelt wrong?

It's bad enough that the British invention of HTML won't let you type colour correctly in tags, without having the world's largest free online dictionary purporting to display information in English, but in fact displaying it in a dialect of English - we've got Wikipedia in Scots, Wikipedia in Middle English, but when you click on Wikipedia English, you get spelling errors, sloppy grammar and garbled syntax; in short the American dialect of English, trying to hijack the term English.

I want Wikipedia "English" to be partitioned in to "English" and "American". We can copy and paste and run spellcheck to iron out the mangled American illiteracy, no worries.

Apart from the issue of cultural imperialism, there is also the issue of finding articles. Words in English do not always mean exactly the same thing as in American - the term "British English" is a case in point - no such thing exists.

English English, or Commonwealth English is still the most-spoken/written form of English on the planet - used on the Indian subcontinent, substantial parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, Oceania.

It is a scandal to actively promote the butchering of English by failing to filter out the American articles from the correct English ones.

How can we create a correct, English, Commonwealth, English Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.178.184.77 (talk • contribs) 19:00, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

In summary you will increase your odds of a correct, English, Commonwealth, English Wikipedia by increasing the number of Commonwealth English editors. The articles get written by people who know their own version of English. Someone who has written the article gets to choose their English. Thus an amongst gets left alone as it was likely the original author who wrote it. But a reference to the ancient English / Imperial foot and inch gets an adjacent reference to meter and cm. Since there are probably 2x as many US English editors the odds are 2:1 that you will likely get US spellings and usages in that ratio.
By the way, I am curious about the use of the subjunctive mood in UK English; it appears to be on the way out, in contrast to US English, where the subjunctive is still alive. Ancheta Wis 18:57, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
US English is slightly more common than would be expected; partly because large amounts of material is generated from public-domain US Gov't works, and partly because anon. editors who drop in, change a "mistaken" spelling and vanish are predominantly, but not always, US-speakers. On the other hand, the most glaring things for UK-english speakers are often phrases rather than spellings, and careful drafting can generally produce something that doesn't look "wrong" to either reader. Shimgray 23:04, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
The problem with that proposal is that is akin to opening Pandora's Box. This very issue has been debated continuously (and heatedly) at the Manual of Style and its corresponding talk page. The compromise was to use Americanized spellings for some words and use Commonwealth English for others, simply because we do NOT want to have to take the drastic step of splitting the English Wikipedia. I do not believe that many Wikipedians would endorse this idea (especially not with the derisive tone you use to refer to American English), but at any point, the correct place to ask it is at the Village Pump. Titoxd 19:00, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
  • We're trying to make Wikipedia accessible to people using all sorts of different English what's right for you may be wrong to someone else. Wikipedia is an international project and there's not only British English and American English, but also Australian and Canadian English. To assume only one of them is 'correct' would be hypocritical. Redirects are made exactly so people still end up in the correct place when the article is at a location people using a certain spelling wouldn't expect. - Mgm|(talk) 19:54, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
  • To the original poster: It is one thing to ask questions and propose a separate version of Wikipedia. It is quite another to take matters into your own hands, in violation of Wikipedia policies. Your IP (144.178.184.77) currently has 6 edits. One is to this page, three are to Eggplant, and two are to Ignoratio elenchi. All involve switching U.S. usage to U.K. usage. Wikipedia policy states that we generally stick with existing usage. — Nowhither 23:32, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
most people who can read english can cope with both british and US english. Beside we win 2:1 on elements (ok mostly because IUPAC decided that way).Geni 23:57, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
A good policy to follow is this: if an article deals with a British/Commonwealth subject, use the Commonwealth spelling. If it deals with an American subject, use the American spelling. If the subject is neither Commonwealth nor American, then leave the title alone, and mention the other spelling(s) in the first sentence or paragraph (in bold like the title spelling). In one of these latter articles, the spelling should generally be consistent throughout the article apart from quotations etc. --Kwekubo 21:03, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] How to Insert Pictures

How do I insert pictures when editing a page?

See wikipedia:Picture tutorial →Raul654 20:16, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Stubs

How do you add stubs to pages that need expanding?

A "stub" is a page that needs expanding. Perhaps you mean, "How do we mark a stub as such?" The most general way is to place the marker {{stub}} at the bottom of the page. This is less useful than it could be, since all it does is add the page to a huge list of pages that need work. It is preferable to categorize a stub, so that people with interest/expertise in a particular field can easily find stubs to work on. There are many categories of stubs. You can see them all at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/Stub_types. So, for example, to mark an article as a stub concerning broadcasting in Singapore, you would place {{Singapore-bcast-stub}} at the bottom of it. — Nowhither 22:52, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] south africa black equity

(no question or comment)

If you have a question to ask, I suggest that you try again, and actually post the question. Also, you should know that the Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia. If you have a factual question, please see the Reference desk. — Nowhither 23:09, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] edger allen poe

(Try "Edgar")

poe developed the first modern ? story?

Many people say that Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was the first modern detective story. Essentially, he invented the genre. The Wikipedia article The Murders in the Rue Morgue does not discuss this, but one of the External links on that page ("The Origins of Detective Fiction") does, albeit very briefly.

Also, the Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia. General/factual questions, like yours, should go to the Reference desk.

— Nowhither 23:38, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The history of Rotating Bolt

Hello my dear friends...how are you? My name is Arthur Mekerdoumian.I am preparing an article on rifles and I would like to know about the history of rotating bolt(both manual and gas operated)and rifling the barrel. My E-mail is:Arthur16thjune@yahoo.com I will be pleased if you answer me as soon as possible. Good luck to you and good by.

Thank you for visiting Wikipedia. Please read the instructions at the top of this page carefully. Thank you, and good luck with your article. Notinasnaid 09:31, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] search miss

Hello Wikipedians,

when I search for "Bitronics", there are no results but the word really exists on Centronics page (you can copy and paste it in the search field). I would create a redirect page myself but for the purpose I won't - somebody please fix the search engine.

Sincerelly, 5994995

5994995: To reduce the burden on the server, the search button currently only looks for article titles. There is no "Bitronics" article, and so nothing is found. If you want to search in the text of Wikipedia articles, you can use Google. Go to google.com and type in something like
bitronics site:en.wikipedia.org
By the way, if you use the Firefox browser, it's easy to make yourself a "Quick Search" that will use Google to search in Wikipedia. In the "Location:" field of the Quick Search, type "http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org" (without the quotes).

— Nowhither 18:28, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

I said, "the search button currently only looks for article titles", but, having read a bit, now I'm not so sure. It seems to be doing that, when I use it. Can anyone confirm or deny this? — Nowhither 18:42, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Transcript for City and Guilds of London Institute in Printing

I was awarded City and Guilds of London Certificate in Printing in June 1989 at Kenya Polytechnic, Nairobi Kenya after taking a three and half years course. The certificate number is 825000/5231/00462/2/00/00/00 and reference number is 9J162864 Signed by Director-General John A. Barnes. The certificate's components are common modules, origination and modular course work. I am requesting the Institute to send me the transcripts for printing course during that period since I wish to further my education in printing technology.

Thank you Ruphine Ayoo Opondo My email address is <e-mail removed> or <e-mail removed>

  • I have a question for you. What led you to think this site would be able to help? We would like to make sure the site is not misleading. Notinasnaid 12:43, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
  • To clarify: This is the web site of an online encyclopedia. We are not Kenya Polytechnic Institute, and so we cannot fulfill your request. And I, too would like to know what it was about this site that made you think we could. — Nowhither 18:32, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Data Conversion

1. What is Data Entry, Data Capture, e-publishing, Data Archival, claims processing and Document handling? 2. What is Transcription?

First of all, this page is for questions concerning Wikipedia. For factual questions, please see the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Secondly, please read all the notices at the top of that page. Specifically the notice about doing your own homework. Dismas|(talk) 09:29, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Criteria of notability?

I remember having seen a list of commonly accepted criteria of notability somewhere, but for the life of me I cannot find it. Could someone please point me to it? I'm trying to decide whether the company I work for is notable or not. Thank you! --Ashenai 10:21, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

Were you thinking of this: Wikipedia:Notability? I've found that if I type Wikipedia: and then follow it with the word describing what I'm looking for, there's generally a help page for it or redirect to it. For instance if I wanted info on reverting a page I'd goto Wikipedia:Revert and chances are it would take me to where I want to go or at least close to it. Dismas|(talk) 10:41, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Unfortunately, notability is a much debated issue on Wikipedia, insofar as its use in justifing the presence or absence of an article on a particular subject or type of suvject goes. There is no one place wher you can get a set of criteria to which all or even most editors here agree. Read WP:VFU and its sub-pages, and search for "notability" and "non-notable" and "nn" and you will get some sense of recent debates on the issue. DES (talk) 10:52, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Thank you both! I definitely do remember having seen a page with some quite precise criteria. A few I remember; for instance, that academic persons are notable if they are better-known than an average college professor, and that universities are all considered notable, while grammar (or primary) schools are not. That kind of thing. If that's not considered policy, though, then I guess it doesn't matter. Thanks again for your time. --Ashenai 10:58, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
I wonder if that may have been Wikipedia:What's in, what's out a page now labeled "of historical interst". DES (talk) 11:13, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
That is indeed the one! Historical interest, huh? Fair enough. So how do people decide whether an article is notable or not? I'd like to think that there are some rules or guidelines (written or unwritten) that people base their decisions on. Am I being too optimistic here? -- Ashenai 11:26, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
I might add that recently on WP:AFD a sizable number of people argue that all schools are notable. Such people seem to be a minority, but one large and active enough to prevent ther from being a consensus to deelte articels about secondary and (usually) primary schools. Recently some articles on pre-schools have been deleted, but even those cases were not at all undebated. Mind you, i don't agree with this view, but there are significant numbers of peopel here who hold it. DES (talk) 11:17, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Personally, I'm more an inclusionist than not; I don't see any possible advantage to not having an article on an obscure but easily verifiable topic (articles on individual Magic: the Gathering cards come to mind, for instance). But I'm not here to rant, and I'd be more than happy to adhere to generally accepted Wikipedia standards. If only I knew what they were... -- Ashenai 11:26, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
I am not quite as inclusionist as that -- my feeling would be that such cards would be better treated as part of a siongle larger article. Indeed I tend to be a bit of a "mergist" -- retain content but not separste articles. The recent trend has been to have pages that attempt to define notability criteria within a particualr subject area. WP:MUSIC has been fairly successful. WP:FICT a bit less so. Attempts to form a number of these are at WP:CENT. Most of htese hold guideline status at best, not binding policy status. However WP:CSD does have policy status, but recent debates on the "non-notable bio" criterion have not yet been conclusive. DES (talk) 11:43, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Options with wikiserver_1_5_11c

I edited many pages of wiki server but am unable to provide a link for attachments.My requirement is to provide a link that opens browse window for attachments and allow a user to comment on a particular topic.And at last I need to table all the attachments that the users submit .Please help me .

Kiran Kumar <email address removed>

  • I'm not sure I understand your question. Could you provide more details, please? It sounds as if you're either looking for Special:Upload or for article talk pages. Note that talk pages here are for discussing improvements to the article, not for discussing the topic of the article. Or are you looking for help in running your own Wiki? If so, then meta:Help:Contents might be a better place to start. Bovlb 18:51, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Table formatting

If you look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_having_different_meanings_in_British_and_American_English/rewrite

you will see two problems with the table formatting.

1. Table borders are not shown correctly for empty cells. I discovered that this is fixable by adding an HTML "break" to each empty cell, but there has to be a better way.

2. The vertical alignment is wrong (IMO). It's central but needs to be top-aligned.

Does anyone know how to fix these problems? Thanks!

These are both standard HTML issues that have little to do with wikipedia. The presentation of cells with no content likely varies by browser (for example the current version looks fine on Safari). There may well be a stylesheet way to fix this, but I think adding a break or a non-breaking space (&nbsp;) works. Vertical alignment defaults to centered. If you want top alignment you have to explicitly ask for it. Again, there's probably a stylesheet way to do this globally but the plain old HTML way is to add "valign=top" (or style="vertical-align:top;") to each cell or row you want top aligned. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:26, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] booting

Can u answer these questions urgently please?

1.How do i troubleshoot a computer whose system files are corrupt? 2.How do i troubleshoot a computer which does not boot properly? 3.What is a flush memory? -Troubled student-

  • Thank you for visiting Wikipedia. Unfortunately, I don't think you read all the instructions at the top of this page, as this not a place for factual questions. Please check again and post in an appropriate place so you can get help or advice. Good luck! Notinasnaid 13:45, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Article content repeated in another article

I was preparing to fill in an article on the International Association of Chiefs of Police (under that name). I found that the acronym (IACP) was also used by another group (International Assocation of Culinary Professionals), so I was going to make a disambiguation page for the acronym. Then I searched Wikipedia for IACP and found it was already used (IACP) by the International Alliance of Choi Professionals. That page links to the Choi Professionals page. Those two pages, IACP and Choi Professionals, have the exact same content except "IACP" in the Choi Professionals page links to the IACP page and "Choi Professionals" in the IACP page links to the Choi Professionals page.

Is there a process, like the voting process with deletions, that I need to go through to make the IACP page a disambiguation page that points to all 3 IACP groups (Choi Professionals, Chiefs of Police and Culinary Professionals). Or would it be better to make a page named IACP (disambiguation) and put a link to that page at the top of IACP?

Thanks - Tracyt1800 14:42, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

No there isn't. You can just be bold and do it. I would advise making IACP the dab page. When you find a duplicte articel you cand consult Wikipedia:Duplicate articles, or you can just convert one to a redir, if ther is no other use for the title. in this case there is another use, adn a very good one. 205.210.232.62 14:50, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for those links. I'll be bold and go for it. Tracyt1800 15:07, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Random profanity

The entry for "Eurydice" has random profanity in two seperate places. I tried to edit it out but the parts with the profanity did not appear in the edit box.

- Shannon

Thatf maight mean that the vandalism has already been fixed -- doing an edit refreshes from the dtabase. Or perhaps you edited the wrong section. I see vandalism ther now and I am about to revert. DES (talk) 14:55, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
I already reverted the article, but after Shannon pointed it out here - most probably there was some caching issue (the article was vandalized a couple hours ago, so I'm not quite sure how that could have happened, but it's fixed now :) ) -- Ferkelparade π 15:01, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Why can anyone edit?

The ideal of 'anyone can edit!!111' sounds nice and all, but wouldn't it be better to at least make it so only people with accounts can edit? Most vandalism comes from users without accounts it seems. Of course dedicated vandals can keep registering accounts, but so be it. --anon

a lot of good stuf comes from users with no accounts as well.Geni 15:28, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] To Kill A Mocking Bird - Suicide?

Concerning the book [To Kill a Mocking Bird], I am interested in how your users would answer the following and their reasons: Tom Robinson when trying to escape from jail committed suicide. True of False? Is this something appropriate for Wikipedia and if so, please advise me on how I can enter this for your user feedback.

Thanks, Interested Party

Arr, see Wikipedia:Original research for more on what I think you're looking for, matey!. Dismas|(talk) 19:21, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] POVERTY LEVEL BUFFALO NY

[edit] what is the french word for dog?

The French word for dog is "chien". (Please post in the Language reference desk when applicable.) Grumpy Troll (talk) 16:46, 19 September 2005 (UTC).

[edit] How Do I add A New Article When...

There is already a disambiguous page with the same title?

--G.R.

You need to choose a different name for your article. Once you have created the article, then add a link to it from the disambiguation page.
Without knowing what article you want to write it is hard to make suggestions for alternate titles, but common practice is to put a unique identifier in brackets after the title - e.g. John Smith (Ohio Senator), John Smith (UK politician), John Smith (Welsh politician); and all the diferent places named Springfield. Thryduulf 20:36, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Depending on the subject use something between brackets to disambiguate it from teh other stuff listed on the disambiguation page. For example if the page is John Foo (disambiguation) and you want to make another page on John Smith, you could consider creating John Foo (DJ), or John Foo (author). Don't forget to list it on the disambiguation page itself. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation. -

[edit] How do you make soap?

The Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Reference desk is for factual questions. Dismas|(talk) 20:34, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] author...

who is this author of this web page, please?

There is no one single author. If you're looking for information about citing Wikipedia as a source, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Dismas|(talk) 20:56, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Graphic Design

what type of art form is graphic design

This page is for questions about Wikipedia, for factual questions please see Wikipedia:Reference desk. Dismas|(talk) 21:34, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Keep it simple

Wikipedia: Ever--4.252.39.165 21:27, 19 September 2005 (UTC) heard the phrase KISS? It is "Keep it simple s........." Your information I know is good but you need to follow the KISS rule. You are overly burdomsome with anything and everything-- I can't tell up from down. All I want to do is ask a question. I can't even find how to do that without reading almost page after page after page. I can't even find the send button. I suggest on "contact" you allow us tocontact you....not read a book to contact you. And to send just hit send. Where is the button anyway to send? Just constructive criticism. I don't won't to write an article, do not care if you edit what I sent. ALL I WANT TO DO IS ASK A SIMPLE QUESTION ABOUT MULCH ARTIFICIAL RUBBER - IF IT IS SAFE AROUND CHILDREN, toxins? I don't care about your graphs etc. I am not upset but KEEP IT SIMPLE --let that be the word of the day. By the way how do I ask a question anyway of you? Thanks and take care. Just constructive criticism-- you have a good product. And what is the sandbox??

There is no "send" button because you'd be sending things to a few thousand editors. There's no central building or person to send anything to. That's the nature of a wiki. As far as your question is concerned, the top of this page states that this page is for questions about Wikipedia. Factual questions should go to the reference desk. Also, the sandbox is for testing out things with the wiki code to get used to it. Dismas|(talk) 21:42, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Also, Wikipedia is not primarily a place for asking questions; it is an encyclopedia. Ideally, all the answers would be there already, and so there would be no factual questions asked. Thus, I for one, don't particularly mind that it is not so obvious how to ask a question. However, if you think something is difficult to find in the encyclopedia, we can talk about that. — Nowhither 22:40, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Defacement of articles and returning to older version?

Hi,

I've encountered a defacement from today of the "Grammatical conjunction" article, by a poor soul from IP 166.109.0.78.

I was wondering how can a page be reverted back to one of its previous revisions, effectively deleting subsequent changes?

Thanks, Sagie.

See Wikipedia:Revert Dismas|(talk) 22:20, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Am I that Offensive?

Why did the stuff I edited for catastrophic get denied, and why did the message I recieved say not to add nonsense, I already knew that, and I revised what I really wanted to put on there. I believe that when I look up catastrophic, I should find the real definition of it, not just the video game's definition. Not everyone plays video games, so why is that the only definition?

I believe that what I read before I tried to edit catastrophic was nonsense, so why should my real sense be denied? If wikipedia has anymore of these game favoring details, or even worse, pop-culture favoring details, than you may as well block me from ever posting because I will be here and I will say what I feel needs to be said. If you contact me rudely, call me names, or belittle me, than I will only have to resort to a larger scale of my efforts to inform people about your lack of respect and common courtesy. I will type for hours, and you will read me, because I am the voice of the people! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.221.157.193 (talk • contribs) 23:16, 19 September 2005 UTC

  • Firstly, I don't see your logic that an article on the Catastrophic song routine is not suitable material for the Wikipedia. Secondly, and more importantly, don't threaten people here with forcing material into the Wikipedia without support; it won't work. If your contributions are judged to be nonsense then they will be removed despite threats. Understand that we are all volunteers like yourself here - none of us owe anything to you, and none of us are paid. Your edit was removed because Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a dictionary, and your edit was a dictionary definition that would be more at home at Wiktionary, our dictionary project. Also, the definition appeared to be of the word catastrophe, rather than catastrophic. I believe that Drini, who reverted the edit, assumed that your contribution was intended as vandalism because of the worked example you gave of the word catastrophe, i.e. 'Ex. "the Dance Dance Revolution video game series was a catastrophe."' However, you would have to ask him at his talk page to make sure of that. --Kwekubo 23:08, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] GEORGE WASHINGTON

Your article on George Washington has some vulgar comments that compare him to Michael Jackson. This is an issue that should be addressed before some child who decides to look up the first president and is encounters these allegations. Thanks.

It's too bad that some people think it's funny to vandalize pages like this. The edits you refer to were unfortunately in place for 7 minutes before someone found them and fixed them. That's a risk with any publicly editable site. Elf | Talk 23:30, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
Those entries were made by someone of ill will and have now been removed. If in future searches you should come across similar vandalism feel free to delete the offensive material yourself. Or, if you're uncomfortable doing that then just report it and it will be dealt with (probably in less time than it takes to report it). --hydnjo talk 23:35, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Instead of deleting offensive material and potentially losing the good info that was there before the page was vandalized, please try reverting. - Mgm|(talk) 05:00, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Whether or not something is suitable for creation, a question

Excuse me, but I've been a reader of Wikipedia for a while and have just recently joined. I would like to know if fictional (As in "Created by the user alone") characters are allowed to have their own wikis or not. In my case, a fictional character created to exist in the realm of the Star Fox series of video games. Thank you for your time and consideration, and for helping me with this. ---Crystalman1000---

not really alowed on wikipedia (assuming you mean what I think you mean.Geni 00:23, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
The basic criteria is explained at Wikipedia:Verifiability. The issue is there would be no sources containing information about such a character, so not appropriate. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
If what you are describing is fanfic characters, they are usually not included, even if they're famous in popular fanfic forums. Characters usually have to be recognised by the official copyright holder to merit inclusion. — JIP | Talk 05:23, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Weird category behaviour

Looking at Category:Sulfates, a number of sulfur-free fluoride compounds from Category:Fluorides) have appeared, including magnesium fluoride and bromine pentafluoride among others.

I can't see anything in the history of the articles or categories that would cause this to happen. User:Paiconos brought this to my attention, and I'm at a loss to explain. Has anyone else run across something similar? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 00:37, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

The stub template, Template:Inorganic-compound-stub, was erroneously adding the category and was fixed by this edit. Articles that were edited while the template was messed up need to be "null edited" to fix them. To do a null edit, edit the article and then click "save" without making any changes or adding an edit summary. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:56, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
(grr... edit conflict) You need to go through and do a null edit (click on "save changes" without having made any changes) on all of them and it will register the correct category. I just tested some and it worked. If there's a larger category, I think User:Pearle will do it for you (ask Beland). It's just a common bug, probably to do with a template. Dmcdevit·t 00:57, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
Gah—I should have caught that. I checked the history of the other templates that had been on the article, but I missed that one. Thanks for the quick response, folks. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:22, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] tell me about mosquitoes

The help desk is for questions about Wikipedia. For factual questions please see the Wikipedia:Reference desk or our article on mosquito. Dismas|(talk) 02:22, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect information in an entry...

Not sure to whom this should be reported, or how, but in the entry for the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case Whitney v. People of State of California, the final vote is given as 7-2, when in fact it was 9-0. The difference in opinion among the Justices is referenced, but the two Justices with differing views did officially concur with the majority decision, not dissent. This is an important fact of the case and should be correctly referenced.

  • I assume you're referring to Whitney v. California. This a wiki and I invite you to be bold and edit the page for yourself. You should see an "edit this page" link at the top of it. Bovlb 06:23, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
    • But please cite your sources! --Andy Janata 11:30, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] politics

who abolished privy purse in india?

feudalism was started first in 6 A.D. at _____________

the guiding spirit of the congress of vienna was ____________.

who was the leader of russia when cold war started?

the official communist party newspaper in russia upto 1990 was __________.

the first national state in europe was________________

the term congress was derived from _______________________.

the official language of the delhi sultanate was __________________

the madras high court was established in the year________________

which is the oldest university of europe?

versailles palace was constructed by______________

the secret police organisation gestapo was formed by ______________

who initiated the under water archaeology in india?

in which year the amboyana tragedy took place?

who was the first indian to be elected to the british parliament?

Are you asking us to do your homework for you? — JIP | Talk 06:22, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] what is the relationship of the head of state to the legislature

Try again at the Reference desk. This page is for questions about Wikipedia. — Nowhither 22:43, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Holocaust Denial

I am not sure whether this is the right place to ask this, but the Japanese version of Wikipedia in the entrance "Holocaust" ホロコーストcontains lengthy explanations of "Doubts concerning the Holocaust". Facts that might lead to the conclusion that the Holocaust actually never happened are here presented as facts, not in a critical way as a part of the - additionally existint - section "Holocaust Revisionism" (which also is, imho, overly detailed). In several countries, this kind of contents would be illegal. I am aware that in Japan, it is not. But I do not think that the contents the majority of the Wikipedia community wants to have an entrance "Holocaust" to be filled with talk about holocaust denial that someone who is not very well versed in history might take for granted and might understand in the way that there are actually still doubts about whether the Holocaust happened or not (and I guess this is an almost (yes, I know, only almost) world-wide consensus). Is there anything one could do against this (I tried to delete the passage and explained in the discussion section, why, but it is constantly re-inserted). If anyone has an idea where I also can send this complaint, that also would be helpful. Thanks! HistorianJapan--HistorianJapan 07:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

  • I'd post it at the Japanese equivalent of the Help Desk or Village Pump. - Mgm|(talk) 08:04, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Definintion of Acronym ARD

Look up ARD - missing is the term Acoustic Resonance Densitometry, a measurement method used in Botechnology to determine the Biomass in Bioreactors and other cell culture methods. Principle based on a resonant (vibrating) glass cell which changes its frequency of vibration as a function of the density of the liquid sample passing through. The lower the vibratory frequency, the higher the density of the sample. Accurate to better than 1 part in 10 exp 6.

Barrie Blake-Coleman


  • don't forget that ARD also is the abbreviation of German state television - i wonder what is more frequently used?

[edit] WIRE TRANSFER INFORMATION

I WANT SOME INFORMATION FROM WIRE TRANSFER SYSTEM

1.TRANSFER MONEY STOP IN BETWEEN DUE TO NON-PAYMENT TAX.

2.TRANSFERED MONEY SHOULD BE CALL BACK IT POSIBLE.

3.THE WIRE TRANSFERED MONEY CAN DEDUCTION IN BETWEEN THE TRANSACTION.

4.CUSTOMER ASK TO THE BANK CALL BACK THE AMOUNT AND DEDUCTION OF TAX AND SEND IT BACK. AND YOU PAY THE TAX AND CALL BACK THE AMOUNT.

5.BANK WILL PROVIDE THE TAXABLE AMOUNT AND CHARGE INTEREST SEND THE INFORMATION TO CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER AGREE TO PAY THE TAX. BUT AFTER PAYMENT RECEIVED.

6.HOW WILL RESPONSIBLE WITH OUT PAYING TAX IN MY ACCOUNT. CUSTOMER IS NOT AWARE ON THE TAXABLE MATTER EVEN BANK NOT INFORMED BEFORE THE TRANSFERING THE AMOUNT.

  • Quote from the top of this very page: "Please avoid using all capital letters; not only do they make a question harder to read, but they are often interpreted as impolite or shouting." That said, try reading Wire transfer and come back with a more detailed question if that doesn't answer your questions. - Mgm|(talk) 11:11, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] habari

my name is raphael sangeti ,iam an artist painting potraits and wild life.iam very pleasure to seck your suport to support me for futher students,i arepricite a favorable answer with thanks.my adress is,

                  po box 3024
                      arusha, 
                       tanzania.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. We don't have any money to give you for support. Dismas|(talk) 12:20, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
More to the point, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is given away. No one pays us any money, and so we don't have any money to give to anyone else. Sorry. — Nowhither 22:50, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Blocked users being able to edit?

User:Heck on Wheels edited his own talk page while he was still blocked indefinitely by User:Carbonite. He has since been unblocked, but I still want to ask about this. I thought blocked users couldn't edit anything. Is this true, or is there a select set of pages they can edit (such as their own user and user talk page)? — JIP | Talk 12:16, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

This is a new feature of the recent MediaWiki software upgrade. By allowing blocked editors to edit their User talk pages, it is hoped that they will use that avenue to communicate and/or vent, rather than resorting to sockpuppets, open proxies, or vandalism. The User Talk page is the only page they can edit. (I'm not sure if they can also edit their User pages.) If this limited privilege is abused particularly egregiously, the User Talk page can be protected. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 12:36, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks! I noticed a little while ago that User:Mindspillage II edited User:Splash's user page, claiming to "revert edit by Willy on Wheels". My suspicions arose when I realised Willy on Wheels had not edited that page. It turned out that Mindspillage II had been replacing pages with his own user page, which is a direct copy of User:Mindspillage's user page, except for an admission of being her sock puppet. I blocked the user indefinitely. He/she edited his/her user talk page, saying he/she was Mindspillage, but I need confirmation from Mindspillage's own account. Heck, I could say I was Mindspillage if I wanted to. — JIP | Talk 12:46, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
User:Mindspillage has contacted me, verifying that the user is not her sock puppet but simply a common impersonator vandal. I have replaced the user's user and talk pages with a blocked notice and protected them. — JIP | Talk 15:36, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't beleive blocked users are able to edit the user page. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 20:16, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting bad photos for better ones?

I know we're enjoined to be bold, but I would like an opinion about deleting photographs/graphics. I have been adding photographs to some articles, and viewing others. I have sometimes felt that I have a better photo of the same subject, but have not deleted the existing one and replaced it with one of my own. That seemed to me like crossing a line of some sort. One example is Cambridge, Massachusetts. The photo "City Hall - Cambridge MA" shows only the top several stories of the building, and anyone who didn't already know what the building looked like would be hard pressed to pick it out from the sea of surrounding rooftops. This building is about five minutes away from where I live, and I feel I could get a better shot that would do more justice to the subject. But having two photos of the same thing seems silly. What does one do in this case? As I said, I'm reluctant to delete someone else's photograph, but it's frustrating when I know that I could do better. I have not been able to find anything in the various help topics on this; most of the recommendations about editing seem to be related to text. JShook | Talk 13:33, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Go ahead and be bold, IMO. Upload at a new filename, and see if it sticks in the article; if there's consensus to revert, oh well, nominate your image for deletion as obsoleted by the original. If there's consensus to keep yours, then after a while you or someone else can nominate the original image for deletion if it's not in use anywhere else. — mendel ☎ 16:36, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
How/where is this consensus registered? How are nominations for deletion made? — JShook | Talk 18:29, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
Consensus on which images to include in or exclude from an articel is generally formed on the artilce's talk page, or by editors simply making bold edits and inserting or removing images from the article. Consensus on deletiong imiges entirely from wikipedia is most often formed at WP:IFD, although if coopyright issues are involved that other processes (such as WP:PUI or WP:CP) may be used. DES (talk) 23:30, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the link to WP:IFD. A lot of answers there JShook | Talk 17:18, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Please do this! However, the quality of the photos is not the only concern. It is very important to reduce the number of unlicensed photos and those used via weak fair use and permission from owner. If you own the copyright to some images and are willing to put them under the GFDL license, this is a huge service to the community. --Darkfred Talk to me 16:54, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
I'm using the license
Creative Commons: Some Rights Reserved
BYSA		 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Is this a more-desirable license compared with the "weak fair use and permission from owner" you mention? In the case of the Cambridge MA City Hall, the photo there now is in the PD. — JShook | Talk 18:29, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
I am not a lawyer but at first glance that license seems to be similar and compatible with the wikilicense (which requires attribution as well). The problem with unlicensed images is obvious, someone could send a letter to wiki asking for royalties some day. The problem with "weak fair use" is different, technically many images fall under fair use as they are uploaded. But one of the requirements of fair use is that we use the image to comment on the context of the original work. (like a movie screen shot in the movie's article or in a review) However on wiki these images tend to propagate to pages with no valid fair use claim. --Darkfred Talk to me 18:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
I was under the impression that there were technicall incompatibilities between the cc-by-sa licences and the GFDL, although the effects are very similar. if you are the creator you could certianly choose to dual licence your images under the GFDL as well, and then tage images with {{GFDL-self}}. DES (talk) 23:30, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Watchlist article deletion?

I have added articles to my watchlist just to keep a record of those I have edited. However, I would like to remove some of these articles from within my watchlist page, and the instructions are (at least to me) ambiguous.

"Check the boxes of pages you want to remove from your watchlist and click the 'remove checked' button at the bottom of the screen (deleting a content page also deletes the accompanying talk page and vice versa)"

This seems to say that if I use this method for removing pages from my watchlist, the aricles themselves will be deleted. Is this true? Or must I go to eatch article and click on the "Unwatch" tab? JShook | Talk 13:42, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

After checking the articles, "remove checked" removes them from your watchlist (not from wikipedia). Articles cannot be removed, except by administrators (sysops). -- Rick Block (talk) 14:14, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
So the instructions might better read:
Check the boxes of pages you want to remove from your watchlist and click the 'remove checked' button at the bottom of the screen (deleting a content page from your watchlist also deletes its accompanying talk page from the watchlist, and vice versa)
JShook | Talk 14:40, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
I've ammended MediaWiki:Watchededitlist to read "Here's an alphabetical list of your watched content pages. Check the boxes of pages you want to remove from your watchlist and click the 'remove checked' button at the bottom of the screen (removing a content page from this list also removes the accompanying talk page and vice versa).". Thank you for the suggestion. Thryduulf 20:08, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks. I think that wording makes it clear that you are not deleting the content page itself, which was ambiguous (to me at least) in the earlier version of the text.
JShook | Talk 20:23, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Does Italy have any trade agreements with the U.S.?

Thank you for your question. Please see the instructions at the top of this page. Notinasnaid 14:52, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Who were Snow White's seven dwarfs?

Thank you for your question. Please see the instructions at the top of this page. Notinasnaid 14:52, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

  • See Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Doc. - Mgm|(talk) 20:39, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
    • And, by the way, those names are from the Disney film. Traditionally, their names are unspecified. — Nowhither 00:49, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Does Wikipedia have an RSS feed?

If so what is it?

email it to info.1.logolept@spamgourmet.com

thanks!

Had a look at Wikipedia:Syndication? --Commander Keane 16:30, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Using wikipedia from a Treo / PDA / cell phone

Are there any plans to create a mobile-enabled version of the wikipedia main page? I've tried using wikipedia on my Treo 650 and it doesn't come out in a very functional way (I may be doing something wrong though).

Thanks in advance!

I'm not too sure about any plans, but User:Erik Zachte has done some work on Wikipedia for PDA's. His user page has some useful links. --Commander Keane 06:45, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image Copyright Permission

Apologies if I have missed the answer to my question in your copyright FAQs.

I deal with copyright matters at the City of Sunderland College and have been approached by one of our lecturers to see if we could obtain your permission to put your logo - the Wikipedia world image - onto our virtual learning environment (Blackboard). Blackboard is a secure intranet for staff and students.

What we would like to do is add a link to the home page of your site (usually permissible in the European Union) but use the image as the link button in the intranet.

Our college mainly caters for 16 to 19 year old students. Only those people who we feel it is appropriate will be given access to the page containing the image and the link. (It will not be live on the Internet.)

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Best wishes,

Scott Marsden

Copyright Adviser City of Sunderland College

scott.marsden@citysun.ac.uk

  • If the logo is only used to promote use of Wikipedia there's no problem in using it on your site. In case you didn't know. There's other designs at Wikipedia:Banners and buttons you may want to consider. - Mgm|(talk) 15:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
  • There is a general permission statement for using the wikipedia logos. It used to be prominently displayed but has been moved to the articles talk page because of a clause that is now out of date, "that derivative works should be licensed under GFDL", Currently all derivative works should transfer copyright back to the wikimedia foundation. [11] Even if out of date, it is a legally defendable 'provisional' permission statement. Does anyone else know if there is an official, Jimbo or other autocrat approved, permission? --Darkfred Talk to me 16:03, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] External links

How can I be listed on your external links pages section under "Charles Rennie Mackintosh"? Yours Brian [Email address removed] [Website removed]

In general you can't. The extrenal links section of any article is for links to sites with more information about the content of that article. It is generally not for promotion of other sites, particularly commercial sites. See aslso WP:SPAM#How not to be a spammer on why adding your own site is often a poor idea even if it is a bit relevant. DES (talk) 16:32, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Any documentation on the Wikipedia local database?

Hi, I just downloaded the current xml dump of the English Wikipedia database, but I cannot seem to find a documentation for it. Anyone knows the link to the documentation? Thanks.

[edit] Webstats

Hi, I just started a personal website on wiki and I would like to know if it is possible to keep track of the visitors, i.e. who, where from, how long they visited, etc. (webstats). Does anyone know how to add this feature to the site?

Thanks!

-Anon

Hmm, "on wiki" isn't a very clear term. Do you mean wikipedia (this website) specificially? (if so, the answer is no). If you mean another wiki somewhere else then you'll need to ask the admininistrator of that website. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:37, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] so who do you suppose has this misinformation on missi romero????

First of all, where did you obtain this information regarding Missi Romero. She has never said a negative thing about Brian Warner thus far as per media is concerned...Attention to whomever wrote this detrimental article, fact checking is a plus...Why and how you obtained this ficticious information is amazing; the information is false if not libelous. Whoever wrote that page regarding Ms. Romero displayed bias.

Please remove the incorrect portrayal of Ms. Romero, or respond to this email as soon as possible.

Thank You,

Offices of Arnold, Curry and Lindauer

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 20:22, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Same Username for different wiki sites and projects

Do I have to register myself for each language I want to contribute in (e.g. en.wikipedia.org and de.wikipedia.org) and also for other wiki projekts like wikimedia (commens etc ...). Do I also have to build my userpage each time again or can I define a redirect to one "central" userpage? Thanks Schenkeli 20:18, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

You have to register separately for each one; a universal "log-in"

has been proposed but has not been implemented yet. You can redirect all your pages to your English Wikipedia one by saying # REDIRECT [[en:User:Schenkeli]] . Hope this helps! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 20:21, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] preliminary drawing

This is not a search engine, it is a place where humans read questions asked by other humans and answer them as best they can. Unfortunately, when someone doesn't actually ask a question, it is very rare that we can help them. If you have a specific question about Wikipedia, then please ask it here. If you have a specific question that is not about Wikipedia then please ask it at the relevant section of the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Thryduulf 00:08, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Requesting verification for info in article, e.g. Poland's GDP

Is there any way to request that someone verifies the accuracy of Poland's GDP?

I tried to find out how to do such a thing, but kept getting lost. (I also wouldn't know how to 'tag' anything because I'm not very computer literate.)

--paucolpitts2

You could simply edit the article and type {{unreferenced}} at the start of the article. this expands to a box saying that the article needs to cite references. Or you could simply make a comment on the article's talk page (you get there by clicking the "discussion" tab). if only some facts in the artilc need sources, this is a better way to go. DES (talk) 23:34, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
If you did the first, you would have tagged the article. for lots more information on tags and how and when to use them, see Wikipedia:Template messages. Happy editing. DES (talk) 23:37, 20 September 2005 (UTC)