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

[edit] Archive of past questions

Contents 1 Archive of past questions 2 January 2 2.1 deleting parts of talk page not considered vandalism? 2.2 messages 2.3 Uploads don't show! 2.4 Source of Templates 2.5 oando import and export company plc 2.6 Difficulty creating a new page 2.7 Screenshots 2.8 user page 2.9 achive 2.10 more 2.11 Hi again 2.12 ? 2.13 ?projects 2.14 idea 2.15 what is a npov 2.16 stub with only incorrect information 2.17 questions 2.18 need you 2.19 Moving wiki files... 2.20 signature 2.21 more 2.22 more 2.23 link not going to right one 3 January 3 3.1 Linking sections 3.2 Indian Honorific Names 3.3 Uploading pictures 3.4 How to find image for a story 3.5 operational skills required to realize a design(interior designer's point of view) 3.6 pic 3.7 rawsigniture 3.8 Lewis complex 3.9 ISBN Link 3.10 What Links Here (Phantom Link?) 3.11 Wikimedia tags 3.12 How to make a title over an outside site link 3.13 United states supreme court justices 4 January 4 4.1 How to switch OFF Hyperlink? 4.2 Are people more properly referred to as English or British? 4.3 Suggestion 4.4 WP performance problems 4.5 Miner's personal work information 4.6 PNG prints with black background 4.7 What links here question 4.8 Uploading a movie 4.9 What is the best approach to improving articles in the Mathematics section? 4.10 Help with minor disambiguations 4.11 Is it possible to set up more than one watchlist? 5 January 5 5.1 User Talk Page Is Missing Post At Bottom 5.2 Signing former anonymous edits 5.3 Safari Park 5.4 Boxes at the bottom of pages 5.5 Watch list(s) 5.6 Coloured writing 5.7 Including part of an NFPA Standard in an article 5.8 Who is Indira Gandhi ? 5.9 Can I link photos? 5.10 I can't log in 5.11 Contributions and recent changes specialties 5.12 Wikify tag 5.13 red / blue names 5.14 Do I need to create an account to edit properly? 6 January 6 6.1 How far will I travel? 6.2 air crashes 6.3 Image will not display? 6.4 do you have anything 6.5 Is censoring considered vandalism? 6.6 Removal of deletion notice 6.7 Comprehensive, systematic concentration of Wikipedia information 6.8 Vanity article? 6.9 RfA 6.10 Search index 7 January 7 7.1 Transparent image background 7.2 Notes in an article that won't show up 7.3 Copyright status of Jewish Encyclopedia images 7.4 How to create new categories in an existing topic 7.5 Image History 7.6 including an image from wiki commons 7.7 Mathematics articles 7.8 the oldest wikimedia project 7.9 Could someone please change {{C19YearInTopic}}? 7.10 Ayaguz 8 January 8 8.1 Would this article be deleted? 8.2 Problems trying to edit an article - I always get a message asking me to install index.php...Any way to help me ? 8.3 Add for delete how to correct. 8.4 Merging previous edits? 8.5 how to do userboxes? 8.6 List all links to an article 8.7 Linking to other languages 8.8 Format for a videography 8.9 how to start a user page about myself 8.10 Category intersection 9 January 9 9.1 WP:RD/M Formatting 9.2 Parking request 9.3 content box 9.4 New form of spam? 9.5 Category display sorting 9.6 anchor link to TOP 9.7 New World 9.8 PLEASE HELP;;;;;; 9.9 Inconsistency in Listing Chronological Events 9.10 Changing Usernames 9.11 Eilean Donan 9.12 How Do you talk to other users? 10 January 10 10.1 3 RV rule 10.1.1 3 RV a day ... or 3 RV period ? 10.2 Mess up 10.3 Renaming a category? 10.4 Picture wont show up on en 10.5 Slow computer, insert character box. 10.6 do I need special permissions to link a particular wikipedia page to my own website? 10.7 thank you Knowledge Seeker 10.8 Making a new Wiki 10.9 Wikipedia reliable? 10.10 How to Request Rewrite 10.11 PD help for an image, please 10.12 Problem with 1st paragraph 10.13 Duplicate Article 10.14 How do you create a disambiguation page 10.15 Suggestion of merge? 10.16 Signature does not display properly 10.17 American Bias 10.18 Image add-ons 11 January 11 11.1 Can someone help me rename an article? 11.2 Help with mirror article 11.3 Using templates from other Wikipedias? 11.4 Searching Watchlist 11.5 Speedy Delete question 11.6 Moving an Image file 11.7 I don't remember the template name 11.8 Deleted image path 11.9 Templates 11.10 how many mile =1 acre 11.11 Reporting Vandalism 11.12 AfD Problem 11.13 i want to subscribe hollands language articles at my email 11.14 Converting uploaded photos for use by all Wikipedia language versions 11.15 Next Canonization 11.16 Want to insert page on Bonsor family 12 January 12 12.1 Barnstars and bureaucrats 12.2 this has probably been asked before 12.3 Audio recording template 12.4 Templates on Help:Template Page Do Not Render 13 January 13 13.1 Gutters on Tables 13.2 Monobook.js 13.3 Adding a link to policy on create new account page 13.4 i would like know about the kalari kurup panicker community.. 13.5 When is the next canonization? 13.6 Signature problems, again. 13.7 signature 13.8 cc-by-sa 13.9 What to do about incorrect information that keeps on being added? 13.10 Captilizing common names in the animal kingdom 13.11 Organizing and compressing long non-descriptive lists 13.12 Image Use Policy Regarding Not Copyrighted but Not Licensed Images

[edit] January 2

[edit] deleting parts of talk page not considered vandalism?

Is deleting parts of talk page considered vandalism? If yes, where can I find that written down (as I don't seem to find it)? If not, why? --Dijxtra 00:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I found your answer in guideline form: archive don't delete and deleting others' comments is not acceptable. Deleting or editing the comments of others is seen as misrepresenting them. You may delete your own comments if you wish, but doing so with the intention of taking someone else's comments out of context is bad (see MeatBall:ContextSwizzling). WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 01:19, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

See also:Can I do whatever I want to my own user talk page?. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 01:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

It is my understanding that it is Ok, and even appropriate, to move older sections of talk pages to archives, as the size grows. User:AlMac|^(talk) 10:35, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

But I imagine that at some point the archives ought to be deleted. I just have no idea after how long this would be considered reasonable. User:AlMac|^(talk) 03:10, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] messages

how do you send mesages to someone?

and get those things on your meberpage that tells you if your a partrll person ect?

madcowpoo

Question 1: You edit the person's talk page. This can be found by goingto the person's User (member) page and clicking on the discussion tab. Then click on the + tab. Question 2: I think you are referring to userboxes. You simply add the code for the box you want to your user page.

WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 01:04, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

1. Get to a user page, or talk page where you see something you really like & want on your page.
2. Edit section it is in, but not change anything.
3. Copy/Paste the code that created the whatever to wherever on your page where you want it.

User:AlMac|^(talk) 10:37, 2 January 2006 (UTC) Also a person can set their preferences to permit people to send e-mail to them. When someone acts on this, the recipient now sees the e-mail address of who sent it, and can opt not to reply that way, in which case their e-mail address is still private. User:AlMac|^(talk) 03:11, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uploads don't show!

I have my own wiki and for a couple of week, I uploaded my pictures with no problem. But recently I've been having some problem. I upload the fil, but after I uploaded it, the pictures do not appear in either the image page or the page I embedded the image in. What should I do? --(Aytakin) | Talk 01:54, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Could you give an example please? I find a number of pictures you've uploaded. — Knowledge Seeker দ 02:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

This isn't really a Wikipedia question. It's about your own installation of MediaWiki. You could possibly try the mediawiki channel on FreeNode IRC, or the mailinglist mediawiki-l. See mw:Communication. jnothman ^talk 02:42, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but the irc channel you provided isn't working. Is there any way you can tell me here? And also to give you an example of what I mean. This is one of the pictures.--(Aytakin) | Talk 03:45, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I had a mistake in the link (fixed now). I don't know the answer to your problem, so no I can't really tell you. As for that picture, the original file seems to have been deleted from the server: http://www.iranclub.ca/wiki/images/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg . When you ask for help elsewhere, you might want to point out that the only other images that have done this are Art.jpg and Iran_ethnoreligious_distribution_2004.jpg (at least as far as I can see). jnothman ^talk 05:54, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

For what it's worth it appears the directory the image was stored in doesn't exist. There is a directory called cf, but no ca. Pehaps it got put somewhere else by mistake. You could go to the images directory and then drill down for it, but the problem may be in the configuration of your wiki and that's something I don't know anything about.--◀Puck^talk▶ 07:31, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Source of Templates

Hi How do I find out what the origin and purpose of a specific template is?

Specifically the following template is the one in question

v • d • e Topics in education (Portal) By country Australia · Brazil · Canada · China · France · Germany · India · Israel · Japan · Russia · South Korea · United Kingdom · United States · More… By subject Agricultural · Art · Bilingual · Chemistry · Language · Legal · Mathematics · Medical · Military · Music · Peace · Performing arts · Physics · Reading · Religious · Science · Sex · Technology · Vocational · More… Stages Preschool · Kindergarten · Primary · Secondary · Post-secondary (Vocational, Higher education (Tertiary, Quaternary)) · More… Alternatives Autodidacticism · Education reform · Gifted education · Homeschooling · Polymath · Religious education · Special education · More… General List · Glossary · Philosophy · Psychology · Technology · Stubs Wikimedia News · Quotes · Images · Texts · Books

I cannot seem to find mention of it in the myriad of info about and lists of templates. TIA Frelke 10:04, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

{{education}} looks like it is just intended to use as a navigational guide for education-related topics. Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Education rather confirms this. It looks confusing because someone has added a {{limitedgeographicscope}} to the template itself, so it's kinda doubling up. I don't think it's really appropriate, so I'm going to remove it and start a discussion on the Talk page about how to improve it.

the {{limitedgeographicscope}} template is used as a clean-up tag, to mark articles that unwittingly have a biased view (eg westerners writing as if the western mindset is universal). See Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias for more info about that. pfctdayelise 10:21, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Or for articles that are too specific to one country when in fact they should be talking about other views too. You can't assume the reader is in the same country as you, so you need to make clear what country an article refers to and if possible you need to include its occurance in other places. For example an article on Approval voting shouldn't only use examples from American politics. Approval voting is also used in Australia and Europe for example. - 131.211.210.11 10:27, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Approval voting is used in Australia? That's news to me. I was rather under the impression we were using preferential voting. :P pfctdayelise 11:41, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

At least it's used by Australian Wikipedians. :) The anon's point is clear though. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:57, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] oando import and export company plc

deart sirs,

could you please try to find out this company back ground because one person called Mr. Charles Benson, Firector International Transacton offering jobs for collection of their invoice amounts from clients. Their address : Nigerian address info removed

Dear Jawaid Iqbal, please read the information at the top of this page regarding its purpose. Also, some of us are female. cheers, pfctdayelise 10:16, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

See 419 scam, perhaps? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:21, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Difficulty creating a new page

I'm a complete newcomer to wikipedia and I am trying to set up a page on my local area, which is called Carra (near Bonniconlon, Ireland). I went to "Help:Starting a New Page", typed "Carra" and clicked "Create a new page". However, the page already exists. It is a Redirect to an article on Raffaella Carrà (an Italian actress). Can I just delete the redirect and write my own article, or should I create a link to the Carrà article, or change the name of my article to "Carra, Bonniconlon" or something. Thanks. Baoilleach 11:16, 2 January 2006 (UTC)Baoilleach

Simply edit Carra and change it from a redirect to your new article. at the top include a note (in italics) that reads "This is an articel about the Irish locality. For the Italian actress, see Raffaella Carrà." I hope that helps. DES ^(talk) 11:26, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

(After an edit conflict, here's an alternative:) OK. Jumping from Republic_of_Ireland#Counties to County_Mayo#Towns_and_Villages_in_County_Mayo, they have a list of places that have articles. Most are just at the town name. If disambiguation is required, they're at town name, County Mayo. eg. Cross, County Mayo. (Assuming Carra is actually in County Mayo) So I suggest you go ahead and create Carra, County Mayo. Once it's set up, we can make the Carra page into a disambiguation page, with links to both your article and the actress. Happy editing! pfctdayelise 11:39, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions and the link to the disambiguation help page. I will do as you suggest and create Carra, County Mayo. Baoilleach 16:19, 2 January 2006 (UTC)baoilleach

[edit] Screenshots

I screenshotteed some pictures of a DVD with my laptop and wish to upload them onto Wikipedia. First, is that fair use, and secondly, their bitmap images, and they won't get loaded onto Wikipedia. How can this be fixed? --D-Day 14:05, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Correct. The laptop images can be utilized under fair use (and some copyright). Concerning your query regarding the images simply re-save the image you wish to upload under a JPEG classification, allowing you to upload it. -MegamanZero|Talk 14:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

(alternative response after edit conflict) Not all images captured from a DVD can be used under fair use, and certainly not in all contexts. See Wikipedia:Fair use#Images. You also need to save them as JPEGs: this can be dome in recent versions of the Paint program that comes with Windows XP, etc. Open the image in that and go to Save As. There you can choose to save the file as a JPEG. I hope that helps. jnothman ^talk 14:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the comment about resaving the images as JPEG files, I just said that in my comment. No need for the redundency, jnothman. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 14:24, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

MMZ, I had already written my answer and (1) was not going to remove a little redundant info just because of edit conflict (2) feel my specifying how to convert to JPEG was not redundant. jnothman ^talk 14:56, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• What edit conflict..? The dates clearly depict that I wrote my comment 2 minutes before yours. But I'm not trying to start anything, just wanted to clarify. It's all good. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 15:05, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

About the fair use, I forgot to mention, these pictures are from a concert. Does that still qualify, sorry about the confusion. --D-Day 14:29, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Still fair-use. -MegamanZero|Talk 14:32, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks fellas, it worked! --D-Day 14:37, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] user page

Thanks for ansering my other question

how do you make more than one page on your user page like sango123?

--Madcowpoo 14:38, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

This was answered recently and can be found at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 37#user sub-pages. jnothman ^talk 15:00, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Btw, if you have further questions on this, ask them here and do not edit the archive. jnothman ^talk 15:01, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] achive

how do you archive your talk page? --Madcowpoo 14:42, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:How to archive a talk page should give you some idea. jnothman ^talk 15:01, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] more

how to you give someoe a award and how do you get a contents page on your talk or user page?

--Madcowpoo 14:47, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

For awards, go here, and contents atomatically show up in your talkpage (or any page) when sections or comments begin to accumulate. -MegamanZero|Talk 15:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

(Again, excuse redundancy due to edit conflict:)

Awards can be given freely (ie without officiation or criteria). See Wikipedia:Barnstars.

A table of contents appears when there are more than 3 section headings. Nonetheless, one can be forced, or forced in a particular position. See Help:TOC#Table of contents (TOC). jnothman ^talk 15:07, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

What edit conflict..? This time, I wrote my comment over 5 minutes ahead of you. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 15:11, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

No, you posted your comment five minutes before. I could claim something like I went and did research, or that it is late at night and I am slow. Either way, I should learn to click the [edit] button after I do my research =) (Often though, I open up to reply to multiple responses in different tabs at the same time.) jnothman ^talk 15:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I see. I perfectly understand; I have the same habbit of opening up multiple tabs and multi-tasking. I, However, still am victorious by a paltry 5 miutes, my friend. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 15:18, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

To clarify, an edit conflic occurs if user A hits edit, user B saves and user A saves, in that order, but independent of time. And, friend, I think your "victory" is paltry if the question can be answered more thoroughly. jnothman ^talk 15:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Indeed. I, however, did not encounter an edit conflict on my PC, and the date located on our headers were somewhat too far apart to warrent an "edit conflict". Regarding the elaboration on answers, I believe you did excellent in the area, and I did not call foul on you because of it. Finally, if you wish to respond, continue this conversation on my talkpage. Thanks, -MegamanZero|Talk 15:27, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hi again

How do you advatise your user page without vandaliseing or ending things to a users talk page? --Madcowpoo 15:52, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

•  ??? This ones all yours, jnothman. -_- -MegamanZero|Talk 15:54, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• (I assume you meant "sending", not "ending".) Why would you want to advertise your user page? We are here to build an encyclopedia, without personal motive for fame. If you are here for a different reason, please consider if it is compatible with our goals. See Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia. pfctdayelise 21:46, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit]  ?

how do you ansew our questions do you click edit? --Madcowpoo 16:04, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes; by clicking the [edit] link next to a section heading on a Wikipedia page or article, you can edit that specific section. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit]  ?projects

how to you join wiki projects ?

--Madcowpoo 17:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Just add your name to the list. Its easy as that, and you don't have to fullfill any preregcosites to join. -MegamanZero|Talk 20:20, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] idea

heres an idea for wikipedia help:

1.a user lets say me asks a question

2.you follow my signiture

3.give me the answer on my talk page or what ever page i want you to give the answer on

4. you then go back to the question and write thats its been answered by you and add a link to the page with the answer

I think its a good idea becuse you don't need to check for a reply becuase it will say at the top that you've got a reply

do you like it?

--Madcowpoo 17:43, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Why not just user your watchlist? It might be worth adding a template like {{helpnotify|user}}, though. Please suggest this at the village pump.--Urthogie 18:44, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

You are suggesting that people answer questions on the asker's talk page instead of here where they asked them... is that right?

I think it's not a bad idea, but if they are here where everyone can see them, sometimes you can learn something by reading other answers. In fact I have learned lots of things by "eavesdropping" in this way. But for efficiency, yeah, I don't think this is the best format. (Another thing to consider is that this is the easiest way for answerers, so there may be resistance to moving to a more time-consuming format.) pfctdayelise 21:40, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

It would be more time consuming and frustrating. First the user would actually have to sign their question (which some don't) then you'd have to go to that talk page, write your comments, come back here, and explain that you answered the question. You'd have to make two edits (with possible edit conflicts) and visit two different pages which for people on dial up connections that could really take some time. And the person asking the question may end up with two or even three different sections on their talk page related to the same question. I'd be happy to stay with the current system. You only have to edit one page and the answer would be here, not on some talk page that may or may not have been archived. Dismas|^(talk) 22:19, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

As I said, resistance. Even if a user doesn't sign their post, the information is available from the page history. The current system is set up for the ease of the answerers. I have doubts as to its efficiency for the askers, that's all. pfctdayelise 09:23, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I think the reason many of us enjoy answering help desk questions is that we learn from them. We learn about what people want and expect in user-interface; we learn by researching answers; we learn by reading other peoples' answers. Everyone has their own tips and tricks, so there is no single set of answers, and this is the great advantage of a discussion page like this over a single-response method. Definitely, writing on a talk page is a hassle. On the other hand, leaving a note on the talk page to say that an answer has been given is possible, if nice, but reduces efficiency of those responding: Indeed, I have done this a number of times when I have been suspicious that an individual might not check for an answer. jnothman ^talk 23:34, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Yep, it is great for us, but how great is it for the frustrated newbies? This page moves very quickly - coming back to find a question you asked even a day earlier is not always an easy task, especially if you are not familiar with in-page text searching, and possibly didn't sign your comment, and may not remember your exact wording. In fact, a question I myself asked is languishing half-way up this page, because it just got swamped by easier questions that got answered. It is true that a question can have multiple answers, but there is nothing stopping multiple editors leaving their answer on a Talk page. Answering on a Talk page at least gives a user a big hint (the "you have new messages" bar) that someone has responded.

But I also dislike guidelines that create unnecessary manual work for editors. So clearly this calls for a User script. It could be installed just by people interested in helping answer questions here. Rightclicking on a username/IP giving an "Answer this question" option, whereupon one is automatically taken to the user's talk page. At the same time a tag is left on the HD, "A message was left on X's Talk page". This would require vigilant use of {{unsigned}}, but that's not so hard. pfctdayelise 09:23, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• However, after i answer a question her I sometimes copy the thread to the user's talk page -- particularly if the user seems to be a newcommer. DES ^(talk) 00:02, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I do something similar, as noted above. I think, Brianna, that there might be some merit in creating a script to notify the user of a reply... I could posssibly do that, only you'd have to reenter the username... At least the section link would be right for a few days. jnothman ^talk 11:04, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it might be useful to have some variation on the "click" up top the editng box to dos something that has been mouse wipe highlighted.

1. Answer the question like always.
2. highlight the user-id that posted the question (if they did the 4 tildes, or someone else added from the history, who they were.
3. click on the new thing at the top of the edit box.
4. this has 2 effects
   1. a bot goes to the talk page of the user-id in question and posts notification that there has been a reply to their question at .... and it gives link to the section where the question is, and the title that the user had assigned to the question
   2. a small chunk of text goes here, to say that the person who posted the question here has been notified by this method.

User:AlMac|^(talk) 09:19, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] what is a npov

what is a npov fellow wikipedians. p.s. what does it stand for.

???....This one is yours megamn --Madcowpoo 17:49, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

NPOV stands for neutral point of view. You can read the policy on neutrality by clicking the link. --GraemeL ^(talk) 17:54, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• My apologies, Madcowpoo, GraemeL beat me to it! :) -MegamanZero|Talk 20:23, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] stub with only incorrect information

Greetings. This stub ↓ contains nothing but a piece of incorrect information. I don't know what to do with it. Please help. – b_jonas 18:28, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Consider that article for deletion at WP:AFD, or trying improving and/or expanding the article so it depicts correct information and conforms to a higher standard of quality. -MegamanZero|Talk 20:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] questions

1.is "subst:" a namespace? if so, whats it do? 2.where could i find a template i could put in revert summaries that would be like {{revert|user1|user2}} and as edit summary, would print: rv of edits by user1 to user2, or something like that. if that exists id like to know about it. --Urthogie 18:42, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

In response to your first question, "subst:" is not a namespace. It is used to causes replace a template link with the full template content. This reduces the load on the servers because it doesn't require two pages to be accessed to load the one using the template. For more information, see Wikipedia:Template substitution.

• Um my answer to 2 is that templates don't work in edit summaries, they show up just the way you typed them. There is a tool that will let you rollback edits and automatically fill in the edit summary, it's called "god mode light" or something. Kappa 20:20, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

  Most edits with a summary of that form are reverts done by administrators. God mode is a skin created by User:Sam Hocevar that includes a similar rollback function. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:25, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

thats ok --Madcowpoo 22:50, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] need you

Come join the doctor who project invoing dalecks and more

join here

--Madcowpoo 20:27, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

This message is not a question about using Wikipedia. Advertising for WikiProject members is not going to go down too well, anywhere except on the Talk pages of related articles. So I suggest you take your advertising there. Leave a message on the Talk pages of people who edit related articles. You will have much better success than spamming us question anwerers. Why don't you check out Wikipedia:Clueless newbies (don't take the name too seriously - we were all clueless once!) and see if you can get someone who will help make your Wikijourney to knowledge more smooth. cheers, pfctdayelise 21:54, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• WikiProjects are best advertised on the Village Pump (WP:VP) or on talk pages of users interested in the subject. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:04, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moving wiki files...

Hello, I have two Wikis for my self and I want to move some files from one to another. Can you tell me how I can do that? Thanks --(Aytakin) | Talk 22:15, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Again, if this is possible, you're best to ask MediaWiki support: most users here do not run wikis of their own. jnothman ^talk 23:40, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] signature

gah. I can't figure how to fix my signature . <quote>Peregrine_^AY </quote> [quote] Peregrine_^AY [/quote] Can anyone see what i'm trying to do? Thanks. PeregrineAY 22:23, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
...oh look it shows up here o_o....but if i put that into the box in "my pref", it doesn't work....PeregrineAY 22:32, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

You need to click the "use raw signature" box. Then type in the code for your signature. The nickname box should have the following in it:

<font color="#2e8b57">[[User:PeregrineAY|Peregrine]]</font><font color=#006400>_{^{[[User_talk:PeregrineAY|AY]]}}</font> —Preceding unsigned comment added by WAvegetarian (talk • contribs) 23:35, 2 January 2006

=S it's still "Invalid raw signature; check HTML tags." ohhh maybe i need quotations around =#006400.....PeregrineAY 23:59, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

yup that was it. thanks for copying my HTML out and displaying it to me so I could find my error ! lol, and thanks for the reminder that it's the <quote> <nowiki;rt </quote> tag. Peregrine_^AY 00:02, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] more

im setting up a project but can't work out ow to make those user boxes that tell you that you belong to my project have short cuts or appear on the template for prjects page how do you do it? --Madcowpoo 22:47, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Infobox for more info regarding the subject. However you must construct your wikiproject first. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 22:50, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

MegamanZero's response is about the sort of template you would use in articles. I gather that you want something for user pages? See Wikipedia:Userbox. Simply make something like Template:User MYProject. jnothman ^talk 23:45, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] more

as adminastrators do you all get jobs to do when you get prmoted becuase im not one and i ansewed a question that you adimnastrators usally do?

--Madcowpoo 22:52, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

• Administrators are volunteers that assign jobs to themselves =D Anybody can answer questions, including you and me! PeregrineAY 23:30, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

So to say that most users answering questions here are not admins. Administratorship only gives users the power to do things like (un)delete pages, protect pages and edit protected pages. On the other hand, "administratorship should be no big deal" and is the sort of thing conferred upon someone if they are sufficiently trusted by the community and know its policies. jnothman ^talk 23:48, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] link not going to right one

At the top right of Georgia (U.S. state) there is a link to the flag Flag of Georgia which seems that it would take you directly to Flag of Georgia (U.S. state) but instead it goes to the dab page Flag of Georgia. Why doesn't it go to Flag of Georgia (U.S. state)? Bubba73 (talk), 23:35, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

the Template:US state is fixed so that it automatically does Flag of (statename). If you want to change it, it would be necessary to change all the other states using the template. PeregrineAY 23:43, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

i made a change to the Template:US state....but i have a feeling all the other states have been affected. PeregrineAY 23:52, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

never mind, all other states have flaglink already. PeregrineAY 23:57, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

We have just seen a few alternatives acted out: WAvegetarian substed the template and changed the links internal to the Georgia article, noting that the same happened for seal as for flag. PeregrineAY, I'm not sure exactly what you did. In the end I have used optional template arguments, so that if no seallink or flaglink arguments are given, the infobox shows normally, while if they are, it will use the given text and link. This fixes the seal, and allows us to remove the flaglink parameter where it is unnecessary. jnothman ^talk 00:00, 3 January 2006 (UTC)</nowiki>

• oh ok. optional template arguments makes more sense. I added the changed parameter for the link for the flag from "[[Flag of {{{name}}}]]" to "{{{flaglink}}}" Peregrine_^AY 00:05, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
• I see. I made the assumption that when someone typed in the parameter for flaglink, they would make it [[Flag of Georgia (US state)|Flag of Georgia]]. Your method will ensure, no matter what the writer puts in flaglink, what shows up is still "Flag of {{{name}}}" Good work. Peregrine_^AY 00:08, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't, actually; that would be ideal, but also requires editing all states to conform. jnothman ^talk 00:40, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 3

[edit] Linking sections

I'm trying to cite a book in an article and the book is listed as one of the sources. Is there a way to put a link at the end of a sentance in an article, and have the link point to a section of that same article? thanks. Banana04131 00:13, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

In an article called 'Article' you could link to a section called 'References' using [[Article#References]]. However, if I understand what you are trying to do correctly, you will find a couple of better ways to do what you want at Wikipedia:Footnotes and http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php JeremyA 00:18, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Indian Honorific Names

The article Chandrasekharendra Saraswati contains a redirect to the article Kanchi Mahaswamigal. Chandrasekharendra Saraswati is the personal name of the 68th Shankaracharya of Kanchi, as well as 7 other pontiffs. Kanchi Mahaswamigal is an honorific title bestowed upon him. The question I have is whether the pontiff should be listed by his personal name or his honorific. I note that Roman Catholic pontiffs assume a new name upon becoming pontiff, e.g. Pope John Paul II. and they are listed under their new name. However, I'm not sure that this rule applies. Kanchi Mahaswamigal is not so much a name as a description. Kanchi a location, similar to the Vatican. Maha means great and Swamigal is a title of respect for a holy teacher. An argument in the opposite direction is that the use of the pontiff's personal name is disrespectful of his high position. However, books written by the Pontiff appear in English using his personal name together with honorifics. Please express your opinion regarding the appropriate main article. Thank-you --BostonMA 02:21, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't currently have an opinion on this. But an appropriate place to look is Wikipedia:Naming conventions#People. Indeed, your question is probably best asked on one of the talk pages of Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people), Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Western clergy) or Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Western nobility). jnothman ^talk 03:02, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank-you --BostonMA 12:29, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading pictures

How do I upload pictures onto Wikipedia? Wikider 02:11, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Click the "upload file" link to the left (in the toolbox). See Wikipedia:Images and Wikipedia:Uploading images. jnothman ^talk 02:57, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to find image for a story

How do I find an image that can be used for a story. Specifically the story I wrote about Evo Moreles cutting his pay in half?

I am learning this. Where are some example pages that can be viewed to see how stories are written?

Someone left a message in my talk area. How do I respond?

Thanks for the help.

I don't know much about image use and can't tell you really where people find them, except by looking through categories at Wikipedia commons and the images used in related articles. I also don't know which story you are mentioning about Evo Moreles. Your contributions only list your question here.

As for your second question, try:

• Help:Starting a new page
• Wikipedia:Manual of style
• Wikipedia:Your first article
• Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia

These should tell you something about beginning to write articles and the standard styles for Wikipedia.

Finally, there are a couple of conventions for talk pages. Again I don't see aything on the talk page (unless you had been logged into an account and got logged out somehow). The most common is to reply on the talk page of the person who sent you the message. That is, go to their page, and if there is no section for it already, add a new section by clicking the "+" at the top of the page and write your reply. jnothman ^talk 04:52, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

The user might have one of those "rotating"-style IPs assigned to them. AOL at work? I don't know how you can track down the previous IPs, unfortunately. I've seen them at work on pages where you have multiple vandalous edits all in row, say a dozen in 5 minutes, and they're obviously the work of the same person, but the IP address is different. Not one each, but maybe six for one and six for a different one. pfctdayelise 09:31, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

To oversimplify: Finding an illustration is a problem. Almost every image you can find, anywhere, is copyright. That means, in general, it can't be used in Wikipedia unless you get permission to use it from the owner. The owner needs to give a special permission, allowing their image to be used by anyone, anywhere, including making money for other people. So they may not do this. So, unless you have a photo that you took with your camera, which you are prepared to give to the world, you may not get an illustration. This does mean that most articles will never have suitable illustrations. Unfortunately, many people just search the internet for something, copy it and use it. This puts other wikipedians to a lot of trouble, to make sure these get tracked down and deleted before Wikipedia is sued. Notinasnaid 16:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

However, if someone at Wikipedia were to develop a modicum of common sense and permit the use of a license which allowed free use on Wikipedia but no commercial use anywhere, there would be far more images available. This is, apparently, too obvious a solution. Sbz5809 17:18, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

We take being a 'free' encyclopedia seriously. Wikipedia is free to use, free to edit, free to distribute; by virtue of its licensing terms it remains free in derivative works. Using non-free images would interfere with that goal. It's obviously a philosophical point and a philosophical disagreement you might have with the project—but for Wikipedia, noncommercial use only images would be a problem and not a solution. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:32, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Why, given that Wikipedia is allegedly a non-commercial undertaking? If it's free, and that freedom is intended to cascade to copies, it should permit only non-commercial use. A license that permits free use, for non-commercial purposes only, is surely closer to the stated aims than one which allows commercial use. Saying that "by virtue of its licensing terms it remains free in derivative works" misses the point that although derivative works may use Wikipedia content free of charge, such works are simultaneously able to benefit from it. Sbz5809 18:45, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Free is free is free is free. What if we want to one day put WP on CDs to sell cheaply as fundraisers? de: has already done this. What if other org's want to do that and distribute them cheaply to schools that don't have internet access? Do we want to discourage that? Yes, derivative works can benefit from it. That's an inherent part of the GFDL. pfctdayelise 23:48, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Would you please nail those goalposts down so they don't move again. "Free is free is free is free. What if we want to one day put WP on CDs to sell cheaply as fundraisers?" Did you not notice the contradiction there (free vs cheap)? So now, as well as derivative works using freely-provided Wikipedia content for commercial purposes, Wikipedia itself can do so. Sbz5809 09:41, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, Sbz; I was unnecessarily curt. I understand your frustration, but the fact is that de: has already sold a CD, as I mentioned. Jimbo himself personally disallowed the use of nc or Wikipedia-only images, so I consider the issue closed. pfctdayelise 10:28, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

To get back to the original question, you might look through Wikipedia:Public domain image resources to see if anything looks useful. User:Zoe|^(talk) 20:01, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] operational skills required to realize a design(interior designer's point of view)

The Help Desk is for asking questions about using or editing Wikipedia. You are probably after the Reference desk. Also, your question is not very clear. pfctdayelise 09:34, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] pic

how do you delete things that you don't want no more like uploaded pictures and pages you've made? --Madcowpoo 11:07, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I see you've asked an admin to delete your images, which is actually an ideal way to have your images deleted. Which pages did you want deleted? pfctdayelise 12:06, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiproject_Consoles

and all its other pages

• ps2.jpg
• ps1c.jpg
• ps3.jpg
• ngc.jpg
• snes2.jpg
• nds.jpg
• ngb.jpg
• xbox.jpg
• 360.jpg
• ndc.jpg
• 64n.jpg

--Madcowpoo 13:04, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• Also, in the future, when you see images that you need to delete (weather yours or another users) please go to Wikipedia:Images for deletion and put them there. This also allows others to input their concensus regarding their reasons why or why not they may want them to deleted, as well is a good opurtunity to meet more wikipedians. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 13:17, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] rawsigniture

what are they?

can you show me one?

how do i make one?

--Madcow 13:12, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• In order:

1. rawsignitures are your "custom" signures that appear when you type four ~ on the pages. You can customize it to show a link to your talkpage and/or other links with your sigs as well. It is located in your preferences section.

1. Heres a raw signiture: MegamanZero|Talk 13:17, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

1. Just type 4 "~" to show your user name, date and time. its happens automaticallly. Hope that helps. -MegamanZero|Talk 13:17, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• But you have to set it in your preferences first. See Help:Preferences. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:23, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lewis complex

(section heading added by Akamad 19:24, 3 January 2006 (UTC))

my son is in the lewis complex i have no idea when i can see him i sent all my paper work and no answer yet is there a phnone nmbr i cn hv —the preceding unsigned comment is by 70.190.82.155 (talk • contribs) 18:21, January 3, 2006 (UTC)

Probably best to ask this on the Wikipedia:Reference desk. - Akamad 19:28, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Probably also a good idea to mention what is the Lewis complex and where it is in the world, like nation, city. User:AlMac|^(talk) 11:19, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ISBN Link

I've noticed that in certain contexts ISBN numbers are linked, and users can set up preferences about what to do with these links. I wanted to link one in an article I'm working on, but I can't quite figure it out. From the publisher's site the "number" is ISBN13: 9780195111712 . The problem is that it seems that ISBNs only link when:

• There is no weird prefix like 13
• There are dashes in the number

But I think that if you change either of those things it changes what the ISBN refers to. I've looked at the wiki help on ISBN, but it seems to be referring to some template that doesn't work or exist on Wikipedia, and says nothing about the prefix issue or how to add dashes without going to graduate school for that purpose. Thanks for any guidance. Makemi 20:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Dashes shouldn't matter. That 13 isn't part of the ISBN - it means it's a 13 digit ISBN. ISBN 9780195111712 should work, but as it doesn't, someone has mistyped I suggest you search for the book (by title, author etc) some other place, and use the ISBN that gives you. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I've got it: Can't have a colon between ISBN and the number, and if it's a 13 digit number it works (at least in US) if you remove the first three digits. Makemi 20:56, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• Those first three digits where added to allow for more ISBN numbers a while back. Removing them could cause problems for some books. Make sure the 10 number ISBN is allowed for that particular book. - 82.172.14.108 21:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I've checked all the ones I've done so far, and they seem to work fine. Maybe just Amazon doesn't care about the 13-digit ones, and with other book vendors the 13-digit one would work? I don't know, but I'll continue to check in the future, thanks to your word of caution. Makemi 23:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Links Here (Phantom Link?)

I've been redirecting all of the internal links going to the Jim O'Rourke disambiguation page and though it worked fine for the majority of the articles, the one on Steve Shelley continues to show up on the what links here page. I've tried editing it and, though I may be being completely blind the link on the Steve Shelley article seems to link to the right place. Am I missing something obvious? I know it's a very silly problem but having cleared the what links here of masses of other pages it'd be nice to have it empty. Thanks in advance. Jellypuzzle | ^Talk 21:48, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you fixed the link in {{Sonic Youth}}, but not directly in the article itself. For whatever annoying technical reasons, this does not update the What Links Here and the categories for the articles containing the template. And yet it is easy to fix that: just edit the article (Steve, I mean), make no changes, and click save. I've done it and now your whatlinkshere page is nice and clean. jnothman ^talk 23:43, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. I thought that might perhaps be the case but also thought that if it wasn't and I edited the article with no changes people could think I was getting Editcountitis or something. Thanks again. P.S - I hope people don't mind me removing my link to the O'Rourke DAB in my question above (that makes it even more clear. Wonderfulness. I think it's time for that sleep stuff now). Jellypuzzle | ^Talk 23:58, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Just to let you know, a null edit like that above does not show up, neither in your contribs, nor the article history. jnothman ^talk 00:01, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikimedia tags

Where do I go to find a list of all MetaWiki, Wikipedia, and other Wiki tags, e.g., POV, speedy deletion, cite, etc.? normxxx 22:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Various places... the list you describe is quite expansive. Try WP:SD, WP:C, WP:WP, see the Metawiki, Wikipedia articles, and take a gander at the five pillars of wikipedia. Also WP:NOT might prove useful as well. -MegamanZero|Talk 22:35, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

If you are talking about templates, they are all listed at WP:TM (or they should be). pfctdayelise 23:42, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I think Pfctdayelise has the right answer here... The equivalent listing on meta is at Meta:List of templates. It links to one at Wikibooks. Elsewhere, I don't know. jnothman ^talk 23:49, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

The mediawiki messages, most of which are used to build the interface you're looking at now, and which can be edited only by admins, can be seen at special:allmessages. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:15, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Thanks all. You have added immeasurably to my store of knowledge of Wikipedia, and helped to build my "Starter Page for Newbys," which latter page I will make available shortly (it will, of course, never be completed...) normxxx 17:52, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to make a title over an outside site link

I know how to make a different name over an internal link, for example, a country. What I'd like to find out is how to, for example, make a link to www.google.com but have that link actually say "a site" to the person who reads it. Flea110 23:06, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Writing [http://www.google.com a site] will make a site . Hope that helps. Jellypuzzle | ^Talk 23:09, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Excellent, that's exactly what I needed. Thank you. Flea110 07:17, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] United states supreme court justices

This is not the place to ask, but US Supreme Court#Current membership. jnothman ^talk 00:02, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 4

[edit] How to switch OFF Hyperlink?

I write formula: [url={{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}]

I want to see only text: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:URL]

But Without Hyperlink: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:URL]

What I need to do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.195.230.10 (talk • contribs) 2006-01-04 00:11UTC From Help talk:URL

I think you want to use the <nowiki> tag. It will stop it from automatically converting to a wikilink. So put <nowiki> and </nowiki> around whatever text you want to stay exactly the same. pfctdayelise 00:25, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I actually don't think there's a way to use &ltnowiki> to do this. You can do it, though, if you don't use fullurl: [url=<nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/</nowiki>{{FULLPAGENAME}}] gives [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 38] jnothman ^talk 00:44, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Are people more properly referred to as English or British?

There's an article at Jenny Powell. She's an actress who was born in England. There's also another actress named Jenny Powell who was born in the U.S. What I want to do is to move Jenny Powell to either "Jenny Powell (English actress)" or "... (British actress)" but I don't know which is preferred. So what should it be, English or British? Dismas|^(talk) 01:15, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Generally I'd say British. There are a few cases where English would be called for - where there was also a Welsh Jenny Powell, or where Jenny Powell had played football for England (or done somethere else where the difference between the UK's member nations is still apparent). Birth is a poor indicator of Englishness, Scottishness, etc., and there is no legal distinction whatever (it's a cultural, and not a legal, artifact). The sports unions which differentiate use fairly wishy-washy criteria for distinguishing one "nationality" from another. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:21, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I should note that IMDb lists all two other actress Jenny Powells, both having only one movie each; if that's the case, I'd contend that the British Jenny Powell is very likely the person sought by someone entering her name in search, and so should probably be plain Jenny Powell, with the other two (who, unfortunately, are both likely to be Americans) disambiguated some other way. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:28, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Point taken. I guess I'll leave the Jenny Powell that's there and disambig the others some other way. Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 05:25, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Jenny Powell (disambiguation) - Done. Dismas|^(talk) 05:36, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'd go with British as well. English is just a part of Britain, and whether someone identifies themselves as being English, Welsh or Scottish really depends on a lot of factors. You have no such problems when you say they're British. - 131.211.210.11 08:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion

Can we create a template to use in edit summaries instead of having to type "Bad link repair ([[Wikipedia:Bad links|You can help!]])". TheLimbicOne(talk/cntrb) 02:37, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, templates don't work in edit summaries. But most web browsers can be configured so that it's easy to insert a standard comment into any input box. jnothman ^talk 03:27, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

A User script might be able to help. Have you seen it appear in other people's edits? It might be worth asking them if they type it out each time, or if it's automated somehow. pfctdayelise 09:58, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, a bookmarklet would do the job: if you save a bookmark/favourite with the following URL:javascript:void(document.getElementById('wpSummary').value+='Bad link repair (You can help!)');

and then put a copy of the bookmarklet on your browser toolbar, you could just click it to add the message to the edit summary! Thanks for the idea Brianna! jnothman ^talk 10:13, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

d00d... that is sweet as. I'd never even used a bookmarklet until just then. How can I find out the names of other Elements (like wpSummary), would I be able to add something in a similar fashion to the edit box?

To TheLimbicOne: If you use Firefox, adding the bookmarklet will be pretty straightforward. Then open up whatever page you're editing and make your changes. Then clicking the bookmarklet will simply fill in your edit summary, no page reload or nothin'. It's quite brilliant. pfctdayelise 12:41, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

As long as things have ids, they're easy to deal with. If not, it can get slightly harder. To find ids, I'm sure there are tools but otherwise open up the edit page source and search for id=" and you'll find more. Maybe too many more. The edit form has id "editform". This should probably be explained in detail at Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts/Techniques, but of course it's bedtime now.

I have written a sort of editing tool-script at User:Jnothman/automod.js. It becomes the basis of other tools I write and allows me to do some mass automated editing. But generally it allows you to modify a page by optionally clearing content, adding afterward or before, performing a search-replace (regex) and providing an edit summary. It's not bug free yet and is certainly not documented, but it is usable for many things.

You can get bookmarklets to take advantage of user scripts, but in the end the difference is that the former needs to be activated each time and the latter is automatic, but therefore might create unecessary overhead.

jnothman ^talk 13:30, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

If you are using Firefox, go Tools > DOM Inspector (assuming you have installed the developer tools), and you can view a tree version of the page with corresponding ids instead of having to trawl through the source code. enochlau (talk) 03:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WP performance problems

Wikipedia was down for about a half hour a couple of hours ago, and it has seemed sluggish to me for a few days. Anybody have an idea (or know) what gives? Halcatalyst 05:11, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

See that bar up the top with the money being counted? Not enough. (Well, okay, so hopefully this fundraiser will help. Specifically, I don't know the answer.) jnothman ^talk 07:43, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I was wondering if it were a ploy.--◀Puck^talk▶ 07:58, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it has to do with WP:AUM where there was an effort to fix the server problem with software robots, then some administrators started deleting the same userboxes that the software robots were trying to fix, and this led to an arguement you do not want to know about or get involved in. User:AlMac|^(talk) 11:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

No it is mostly shear volume of traffic. Wikipedia servers tend to operate towards the limit of their capacity. It doesn't take much to push them over it.Geni 19:38, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

• I imagine the Louis Braille thing isn't helping us. Wikibofh_(talk) 20:27, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Miner's personal work information

Where can I get information on my father's working history. He was a miner at Brandon Colliery in County Durham. I need information on his work details from 1953 onwards. He died in 1986.

Can you please help me with where I can get information on this or a telephone number which I can ring to get help.

Thank you.

If you look at the top of this page, it clearly states this page is for help about using Wikipedia. You might be able to get an answer at the Reference Desk. But they too will probably not be able to answer such a personal and individual question. jnothman ^talk 12:07, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PNG prints with black background

For example, Media:Violin_open_strings.png shows a white background on this screen, but prints with black background. Any ideas for a remedy? cheers, Just plain Bill 18:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

which browser are you using?Geni 19:35, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Mostly Firefox, actually 1.0.6 Just plain Bill 22:28, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. It doesn't do that in IE. cheers, Just plain Bill 01:31, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What links here question

Why is the "What links here" list for Livia Choice showing Template:BDSM-stub? There is no wikilink to that article in the template. On the contrary, it's the article that links to the template. — JIP | Talk 21:02, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

A blank save in Template:BDSM-stub cleared it from the "Whatlinkshere" of Livia Choice. Why it was there is in the first place remains a mystery.--Commander Keane 21:46, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

It's happening again. The "What links here" list for Isabelle Rees shows a link from Template:UK-bio-stub, although there is obviously no link to the article there. Is this a global problem with articles with stub templates but no incoming links? — JIP | Talk 18:17, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading a movie

I would like to upload a movie of historical significance, the first educational film regarding gastrointestinal endoscopy. What would be a good format for the movie and how would I put the code in wikipedia to allow it? Kd4ttc 22:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Files#Video indicates that vidoes can be uploaded like images in the Ogg Theora format. But, as with all content on Wikipedia, you have to be careful to ensure that there is no copyright on the movie, at least not one incompatible with the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Copyright problems. jnothman ^talk 23:21, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What is the best approach to improving articles in the Mathematics section?

I love Wikipedia, especially the mathematics section is a superb source information, it doesn't stop surprising me. Certain topics though, can be improved, I am sure. Editing a math article shouldn't be taken too lightly imo, that's why I have a question about the editing process. I want, and am able to add to and enhance Wikipedia content in the math section (abstract algebra mostly). Now, is it practice to just change an article if one thinks his or her version is better? Or is it preferred to propose a change somewhere else in Wikipedia? Is someone responsible for an article? What if someone thinks the change doesn't improve the article? Oops, a lot of questions I hope it is clear what I mean, anyway?? --Jim Caprioli 22:14, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Just go ahead and make changes. If you are a compleate idiot you shall surely be informed :-) It is usually the case that the edits go along quite smoothly. Check out some article you like and look at the history. Compare a few versions and see how they progress. Sometimes big changes, sometimes small. When it works it works very well. Since there are not too many political issues regarding math articles you wont see too many goofy contributions. Kd4ttc

If you think that an edit will be particularly contriversial, you have a few options:

1. Bring it up on the article's talk page (click discussion up the top) first and wait for agreement, although this may take a while.
2. Just make the change and bring it up on the talk page with justification.
3. Just make the change and leave a brief rationale in the edit summary.

Still if you do something horribly wrong, you will probably be informed. jnothman ^talk 23:24, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Be bold, Jim! Also, maybe check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics - there might be some particular reason they do things the way they do. pfctdayelise 00:29, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help with minor disambiguations

Hi there. I have recently updated and revised Steve Allen (radio presenter) after initially adding to it in December. To separate him from Steve Allen, but still let people find him, how do I create one of those little links at the top of each page which I've seen elsewhere along the lines of 'This article is about x but if you want the person y who did z, click here'?

Much appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.132.243.215 (talk • contribs) 2006-01-04 17:29:31

I believe what you're looking for is Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Disambiguation_links. -- nae'blis _(talk) 23:13, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I have often just typed it, but I guess it is good to use the template. In particular {{Otheruses4}} is more appropriate: write something like {{Otheruses4|the American comedian and writer|the British radio presenter|Steve Allen (radio presenter)}}. jnothman ^talk 23:29, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is it possible to set up more than one watchlist?

I'd like to set up one (long-term) watchlist, for articles I want to monitor on an ongoing basis, and have one for short term and of-marginal-interest pages, such as AfDs. Is this possible? --Squiddy | (squirt ink?) 23:59, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm curious, why bother worrying about the AfDs because once the vote is closed, you shouldn't ever see that page edited again. Therefore it won't continually come up on your watchlist. Dismas|^(talk) 00:02, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

It's no biggie, but I keep more or less everything I edit on the watchlist, and pruning it would be easier if the stuff I really want to watch was on a separate page to the temporaries. I watch AfDs I vote in in case there's a debate. I suspect only one list is possible, and as I say, its not a problem, but being a bit geeky, I wondered. --Squiddy | (squirt ink?) 00:08, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

you can only have one watchlist per account. It is posible to use the related chaneges function to create something simular to a watchlist by listing the pages you want to watch on a user subpage.Geni 00:20, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, that will do the trick. I hadn't noticed 'related changes' before. Cheers, --Squiddy | (squirt ink?) 00:31, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

One thing I find useful is the Unwatch user script, which, when placed in your monobook.js will add an "unwatch" link next to each item in your watchlist. So when you get bored of watching an item it's easy to remove it. jnothman ^talk 00:34, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 5

[edit] User Talk Page Is Missing Post At Bottom

My user talk page seems to have run out of room, as the latest post is not present on my page, but I can view it in history. How do I fix it so all posts are visible? Thanks. MSTCrow 01:27, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't see what you mean. When I look at your talk page, all messages are there. Talk pages don't run out of room, and I've certainly seen them much longer than yours. jnothman ^talk 01:49, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

That's probably due to caching either by your browser or by the Wikipedia servers. Try appending "?action=purge" to the URL to get the server to clear the cache for that page. You may also like to try clearing your browser cache. enochlau (talk) 03:42, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Signing former anonymous edits

Hello, I have made a few contributions to Wikipedia as an anonymous user, but now I have a user name and I want to "sign" my previous contributions. All of them are deep into the articles history. Is there any way to achieve that ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jotam (talk • contribs)

we can't change the atribution for edits made without an account.Geni 00:37, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

First you should sign your unsigned posts! Please sign your comments on talk pages, help desks etc, with ~~~~. As to your question, I assume you mean have your contribs show up with your username rather than IP? I don't think this can be done easily, and even if it can be done, I'm quite sure it isn't. Among other things, there is no way to verify that all edits from an IP come from you. Anyway, if you know the IP(s) you edited from, you can place a remark on the user page (while logged into that IP, preferably) suggesting that Jotam made many of those edits. You can put a similar comment on your user page so people can see your prior contributions. jnothman ^talk 00:39, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

There is Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit. However, there's a notice there now saying that the service isn't operational. In the past, when it was working, you could attribute IP edits to a username if you can prove that the person editing at that IP was yours, e.g. by signing with IP and username right after each other. enochlau (talk) 03:41, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

But that could, of course, assign you or me an IP in the School of IT at the University of Sydney... and that's a problem. Anyway, the point is it's not done. jnothman ^talk 04:18, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

That's very true. I made that statement after a cursory glance at the previously quoted page, which consists primarily of people wanting to assign IP edits to a username. enochlau (talk) 05:50, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Safari Park

Any particular reason why safari park redirects to Longleat Safari Park. I know it's one of the most prominent, but shouldnt there be an article saying what a safari park is??

also why Longleat over, say Knowsley Safari Park??

Nessuno834 00:59, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Well spotted. Yes there should! It RDRs there at the moment becayse the Longleat article was originally (mistakenly) created at Safari park. Safari park can safely be turned into a proper article in its own right now. So happy editing! pfctdayelise 01:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Boxes at the bottom of pages

I don't know what they're called, so I'm having trouble finding a tutorial for them. I want to add them to a different wiki that I contibute to, and I would really appreciate a hand finding some instructions. For an example of what I mean, there are three at the bottom of this page.

This depends what level you want to discuss the issue:

• In a broad sense, I guess this is a series of articles that share a common box of information
• In the next sense, that box of information is a template that is designed once and can then be used on multiple pages
• On the code level, these sorts of boxes are designed as elaborate tables.

Let me know what you want to understand more. jnothman ^talk 01:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I think I got it down. Many thanks. If you want to give it a look, it's at http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Template:DHPD .

[edit] Watch list(s)

I think perhaps the two Wiki stub articles watch list and watch lists should be combined? I am a template novice, and have been into the no human's land of differint opinions of editors entirely too often, so I now like to suggest stuff, before actually taking action on it. User:AlMac|^(talk) 09:07, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

• Well spotted! I've merged watch lists into watch list and made it a little less US-centric and used more than one reason as to why someone could be on such a list. - 131.211.210.10 09:39, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Coloured writing

I want to make my userpage's background colour black. If i do this, how do i make all of the font white? Thanks --Ali K 09:51, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, one option would be to stick in a div as follows:

<div style="background-color: black; color: white">I can put whatever<br>I<br>like in here</div>

which appears as:

I can put whatever
I
like in here

If you want more control, look up a tutorial on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). jnothman ^talk 10:19, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks --Ali K 10:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Including part of an NFPA Standard in an article

I'm writing an article about quints, a special type of fire engine. For a piece of apparatus to be a quint, it must perform certain functions and have specific equipment on it. These standards are defined by the National Fire Protection Agency, and it would be good to include them in the article. My question is whether it would be better to put in the entire text of the quint standards and cite the NFPA, or link to a copy of the standards. Were I to link to it, the quint standards are only 1 page in a 141 page PDF, and linking to it would not really provide the information looking to be included. Is there anything wrong with putting the entire text of the quint standards into the article, as long as it is properly cited? And if so, is there any special citation I need to do, or just make sure to credit where it came from?

Thanks for your help! -- Natalya 12:37, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

There are already articles on NFPA standards - NFPA 70E and NFPA 704. Given this, you may as well give the standards their own article altogether. If you don't want to do that, I would try to summarise the standards within the article. pfctdayelise 12:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

• No doubt such standards are filled with jargon. I would summarize them in the article you are writing, using plain English as much as possible. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:23, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who is Indira Gandhi ?

1. This is actually a question for the reference desk.
2. You mean "was". See Indira Gandhi.

Lupo 15:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Can I link photos?

I'm editing translation version of one topic, can I link the photo in the orginial version into the translation one? And because my page have several english words, eg "cat", how can I link to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cat instead of linking to a page that's not existing in zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/cat? thz! ka hang 16:17, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

About the photo: It depends on whether the photo is from Wikimedia Commons or is stored at English Wikipedia. If it is from Commons, you can include it in an article on zh: as if it were stored on zh:, but if it is from en:, you have to upload it to either Commons or zh:. Commons is better but has stricter licensing rules. If there is an image on zh: with the same name as the image on Commons, you need to upload the image to zh: under another name. You can see where an image comes from by clicking it. An example of an image from en: is Image:Glc.gif, an example of an image from Commons is Image:Coventry cathedral.jpg.

If you want to link to an article in another Wikipedia, in this case en:, use [[:en:Cat]] which will show up as en:Cat. You can of course also use a | to make a piped link, like this: [[:en:Cat|]] Remember the colon in the beginning, without it, your link will be an interwikilink in the left sidebar. Happy editing! 217.208.26.177 17:39, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I can't log in

I was successful logging in at en.wikipedia.org, but I can't login at zh.wikipedia.org, and it said I'd already create 10 account? Why's that?ka hang 16:19, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

You need to create an account at every language version of Wikipedia where you want to contribute. It's not good, but it will probably need too much work to get rid of this system. 217.208.26.177 17:41, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

• Someone else who shares your IP already created multiple accounts. The software places a cap on the amount of accounts that can be created from a single IP in a given time period. If you have access to another computer, I suggest trying to create an account from there. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:09, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contributions and recent changes specialties

I can't figure out how to do specific things with contributions pages or RC. I'm specifically looking for information on how to look for someone's contribution for only project spaces or talk pages, etc, and for RC, specifically looking for info on how to see only IP address changes, or only users without user pages..things like that. And can the responder please leave a message on my talk page to indicate a response has been made? Thanks, JHMM13 (T | C) 18:43, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

For the namespaces, either in Contribs or RC, simply add "?namespace=NSNUM" to the page address where NSNUM is a number representing a namespace:

1. Talk
2. User
3. User talk
4. Wikipedia
5. Wikipedia talk
6. MediaWiki
7. MediaWiki talk
8. Template
9. Template talk
10. Help
11. Help talk
12. Category
13. Category talk
14. Portal
15. Portal talk

I remember finding something to only show IP edits... I have the link at home, but not where I am, sorry.

Yes, there should be a better interface for this stuff.

jnothman ^talk 22:31, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Non-logged in edits are available from the special:recentchanges/hideliu page (it's the "hide logged in users" option). -- Rick Block (talk) 03:08, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikify tag

How do you remove a wikify tag? BareRawYouth

After a page has been wikified, you may remove the tag by deleting the code. It should be at the very top of the edit box. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 20:50, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

It looks like {{wfy}} or {{wikify}}. enochlau (talk) 23:44, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] red / blue names

hi, have been looking for the answer to this and gone round in circles in your various FAQ pages. In the History pages some entries are signed with a RED name, and others with a BLUE name. What does this mean? thanks ce

• Red links denote when a link is broken, or, in this case, when a user doesn't have a user page. If they have created a user page, their link will be blue. --worthawholebean _talk^contribs 22:30, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
• (after edit copnflict) By default, a user's signature links to that user's user page, as mine links to User:DESiegel. If a user has not created his or her user page, or if it is deleted for some reason, the link is red like all other links to currently non-existant pages. (I would not call such links "broken" but some do.) In many cases this indicates a relatively new user, but some long-established users prefer not to have a user page, so this is not a safe conculsion to draw. DES ^(talk) 22:32, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
• In this case, red means that the user doesn't exist and blue means that the user exists. The only exception to "blue" is when the user has a colored siganture. i hope this helps. --Misoka
  • That's not exactly correct. I think the previous descriptions are more accurate. You can make a redlink for a user that doesn't yet exist: User:I love answering questions on the help desk -- but for entries in a page history, they must be users that already exist! pfctdayelise 00:29, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Do I need to create an account to edit properly?

I tried to edit the births of 1978 to add A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys but my edit ended up appearing in a gray box.

In order to prevent the box, do I need to create an account?

Please, before I go insane! --Misoka

You don't need to create an account to edit existing articles (just to add new articles). If you include any whitespace at the beginning of a line it affects the formatting (and you end up with a box). Might this be what happened? Since you didn't save your change, I can't really tell what happened. If you save it, even if it's messed up, I or someone else could look at it. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:59, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

okay. thanks! let me know what's going on! See ya!--Misoka

Go ahead, create an account, then if you don't like it ignore it. ;-) hydnjo talk 21:33, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

There are some funtions avaiable only with an account, such as moving pages and creating new articles. Also with an account, there is a palce for other users to leave msgs for you. It is free, and you don't even have to provide an email address. why not create an account?

im not trying to create an account. I just want to know what happened when i edited a page. that's all.

Click here to see what is going on on this page: 1978 --Misoka

[edit] January 6

[edit] How far will I travel?

(no question posted)

How long is a piece of string? pfctdayelise 01:16, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] air crashes

I am trying to find out about an air crash in the Alps in the 1950's near La Salette, France or perhaps Corps or Gap. Do you have anything on this?? Collette

Direct questions like these to the refence desk please. -Greg Asche (talk) 07:19, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image will not display?

Hurricane Maria

Category 3 hurricane (SSHS)
Maria on September 6, several hours after peak intensity
Formed	September 1, 2005
Dissipated	September 10, 2005 (date Maria went extratropical)
Highest winds	115 mph (185 km/h) (1-minute sustained)
Lowest pressure	960 mbar (hPa)
Damage	Not available
Fatalities	1 direct
Areas affected	Iceland, Scotland, Norway
Part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

Why does the image to the right not display correctly? This problem, as seen on Hurricane Maria (2005) has persisted for several days (until a few moments ago the image wasn't added to the page because of the problem, but I figured it might be a caching problem that would fix itself once the image was added). Jdorje 08:32, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

• I've changed the code above. My guess is that it was related to the 230px in your code. Mgm|^(talk) 09:34, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
• Ugh, I guess I was asking for that by not explaining fully. What we really want is to put the image into the {{infobox hurricane}}, as I have now done. When we do that, the original code is generated (with the 240px bit, which I agree is the problem) and it does not display. This only happens with a couple of images (the maria one and a philippe picture), whereas the infobox is used in hundreds of articles. Is this something that can be fixed, or do we just have to choose a different image? If the latter, would it help to re-upload the same image under a different name (not that I'm suggesting doing that, just pointing out the bizareness of the problem). Jdorje 18:43, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

The image is too large. Wikipedia won't resize an image over a certain original size, as it is too memory-expensive to do so. You will have to downsize the original image, or at least link to a downsized copy and use that where you need to resize. I still haven't found out an exact size, but 1000x1000px is definitely doable. jnothman ^talk 13:16, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, thanks, I guess. It seems odd that the software will resize the image to 180px but not to 240px. However I guess that's something to take up with the developers... Jdorje 02:44, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Here is a sample of those that work and those that don't at different sizes:

This indeed is not a series of results I would expect and now I am just confused. Still, the size of the image is larger than recommended. jnothman ^talk 03:19, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] do you have anything

i would like to know if you could help me find anything on english language?

Try English language. --Alf ^melmac 10:36, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is censoring considered vandalism?

I saw somewhere in Wikipedia that Wikipedia is not censored. If I censor an article, either I may get a warning message for either medium or high level vandalism and may be blocked from editing. Why is this the case?

• Removing information without good reason is considered vandalism. WP:NOT states that Wikipedia is not censored, so trying to censor Wikipedia goes against policy. If someone keeps vandalizing articles, they may be blocked according to the Wikipedia:Blocking policy under the vandalism provision. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of deletion notice

Someone who knows / cares may wish to check Wikology. I added a speedy deletion suggestion as the article appears to be nonsense. It was removed by an anonymous (therefore uncontactable) user. The word "wikology" returns no major hits on Google and three links to the same site. The German equivalent returns one hit, apparently to a bulletin board. Sbz5809 14:01, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think the text qualifies under Wikipedia:Patent nonsense. You should nominate it at AfD, I think. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:05, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, is it worth keeping or not, according to Wikipedia's criteria? Personally, I don't care one way or the other. Sbz5809 14:19, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd suggest AfD-ing it. enochlau (talk) 14:20, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comprehensive, systematic concentration of Wikipedia information

I am relatively new to WP, but I have pretty much learnt most of what I need for everyday usage. However, to advance to the next level, I think I need to learn virtually everything about WP. Therefore, I would a like a place that systematically lists articles about every aspect of WP, so I can be assured that once I've gone through them all, I have learnt everything about WP. I have not found such a thing. While articles like the welcome page are useful, they don't supply the systematic listing I desire. Is there any place where I can find what I'm looking for? --Meni Rosenfeld 17:17, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid there really isn't such a thing at the moment. DES ^(talk) 21:27, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Project namespace has links to some long lists of links. But I have to say, it's really not necessary to know everything about WP before you start editing. No one here is familiar with 100% of all the policies, guidelines and everything else that goes on, I would venture. The easiest way to learn stuff is to just start editing, and then you will find that issues come up naturally, that you need to learn about. Like you might want to add an image, so you'll learn about all that. Or you'll have a conflict with another user, so there are lots of pages about how to deal with that. Or you want to make a template to re-use on several pages. Or... or... you get the idea. No one is going to bite your head off if you do something "wrong" because you didn't know about the policy yet. (Well, they shouldn't!) pfctdayelise 03:30, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm working on such a page; it should be ready for the light of day in another week or so. Will keep you posted. normxxx^talk 19:29, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

A project was recently started to look at what needs to be done to upgrade Wikipedia:Tutorial and related pages, but judging from Category:Helping Hand Group Member/wikipedia/en and activity on Wikipedia:Helping Hand Group other than me and its founder, I have my doubts the project will see meaningful results any time soon. User:AlMac|^(talk) 05:54, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps I am misconstruing your intentions. Do you have any idea how much content WP has? The English Wikipedia hit 900,000 articles January 4, according to latest Wiki e-news, so unless you are a speed reader on steroids, extremely compounded perhaps you might like to browse the links from Weird Wiki Tales. User:AlMac|^(talk) 06:48, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps additional effort should be made to reveal to the community the existence and importance of this project. I don't understand the relevance of the number of articles in WP - I am talking about articles about WP, which I know are also hopelessly numerous. I think that the WP community will benefit much from the organizing of knowledge about WP. --Meni Rosenfeld 14:43, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vanity article?

The "Random Article" link took me to a page entitled "Evan Blanchard", which appears to be a short, jokey article about a high-schooler, created by someone with the same last name. Harmless enough, I guess, but I was wondering if there's a policy on vanity articles, or articles that have no real usefulness to the readership at large.

Dan Torosian

You can edit the page, adding {{db-bio}} at the top. This puts a notice on the page to indicate that it is, or may be, a vanity article. I've done so in this case. Sbz5809 17:29, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] RfA

If a Wikipedian is nominated for adminship, can he/she leave messages on the talk pages of his/her Wikipedia friends asking them to vote? WP:RFA says, The community grants administrator status to trusted users who are familiar with Wikipedia policies. Since trust among other users is important, wouldn't it make sense to let candidates ask users who trust them to state why they trust the candidate, in order for others to make an educated decision? — MATHWIZ2020 ^{TALK | CONTRIBS} 20:55, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

There is no rule on this, but if it is percieved that a candiate is in effect tryijng to recuit his friends to vote for him, there is likely to be a reaction. If a candidate feels that this is essentioal, then IMO it eould be best to word pointers neutrally, such as "I have been nominated for adminship. Perhaps you would like to express your opnion of my fitness for adminship on WP:RFA/Example" It would be even better to also leave such message on the talk pages of users with which the candidate has had neagative encounters. Whe I was nominated, i put this on my user pages, invaiting anyoen who interacted with me to comment -- and i got lots of positive comments. In general if not enough people will find there way to a person's RfA without a campaign, that says soemthing about that person's community-wide trust. DES ^(talk) 21:03, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

• I received some comments during my own RFA. It appears that specific messages to talk pages are considered advertising the vote. I would recommend evening it out by posting in your signature, or on your userpage or talk page so any person interacting with you can see the note. That way you can't be accused of recruiting just friends. - 82.172.14.108 23:45, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
  • In case you're wondering how an IP could get an admin nomination. It was me. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:46, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Search index

I have created a couple of articles that come up when you type in the exact name, but when you misspell it slightly or hit the "Search" button the names of the articles never appear in the search results. Am I missing something? DLand 21:08, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

The search feature works off cached data, so new articles are not found by it right away. DES ^(talk) 21:26, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

On top of, I believe (I'm sure I'll be corrected if in error) that Wikipedia runs on a Unix (or variant) OS, which is inherently case-sensitive. Sbz5809 23:50, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is that the "search" function, unlike the "Go" function, is case-insensative, but is not updated on each save -- I think it runs off data updated something like once a week. Persoanlly i prefer to use a google search of wikipedia this link is an example. DES ^(talk) 23:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Google searches look through google's cached version of pages. Their cached versions of pages are usually two to three weeks old (older than the wiki cache). --TheLimbicOne(talk) 03:58, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

It is my understanding that high volume sites, such as wikipedia, are re-scanned by google rather more frequently than that, but I don't have hard figutes. In any case, my preference is based largely on the much superior search tools and search engine that google provides. That's what google does best, and IMO we should leave it to them. DES ^(talk) 18:01, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Replying to Sbz5809: yes, Wikipedia servers are all to my knowledge running on Linux, but this is independent of the article names in the Wiki, which are handled by a PHP script and a database lookup, and could be made case sensitive or insensitive as the authors of MediaWiki may choose. jnothman ^talk 13:00, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 7

[edit] Transparent image background

I want to try some stuff involving superposing one image over another. The top image has to have a transparent background in order not to obscure parts of the other image. I can draw the images, using microsoft paint, and get them positioned in an article OK, but paint won't give me a transparent background, so I have an obscuration problem. Does anybody know how to tinker with a GIF or PNG file, using a regular text editor, to make the background transparent. I tried uploading some fancier graphics software to do the job, which I think it would, but I can't get it uploaded. -- U Go Boy 07 January

1. You won't be able to tinker with these with a regular text editor; most such editors are made for editing text. You will need a Hex editor which can edit the binary values.
2. No, I don't know how.
3. Yes, if you download some graphics-editing software (such as the GIMP) that has better support for transparency, that should help. Saving as GIF or PNG should let you upload the image to Wikipedia.
4. Why are you trying to overlap two images in Wikipedia? This would be vary rarely appropriate to Wikipedia's style...

jnothman ^talk 12:58, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notes in an article that won't show up

How do I note something on an edit page that won't show up in an article. I know it has something to do with

Thank you!--TheLimbicOne(talk) 04:01, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

You already did it. :)

<!--
This is a comment because it's between these two tags, when you edit the page 
you'll be able to see it, but not when you just load the article.
-->

--pfctdayelise 04:28, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that too. At first I thought someone had replied by just adding the ending tag. Then I checked the edit history. For some reason it wasn't working on the page I was editing at the time. --TheLimbicOne(talk) 04:30, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright status of Jewish Encyclopedia images

There is a group of images in Category:Jewish Encyclopedia images that are from the Jewish Encyclopedia, but they came from JewishEncyclopedia.com. I know the Jewish Encyclopedia is in the public domain but is the material at that web site PD as well?

Their TOS is pretty clear: 3.2 You may search, retrieve, display, download, and print content from the Service solely for your personal, internal use, and shall make no other use of the content without the express written permission of JE.com and the copyright owner (or its authorized agent) of such content. You will not modify, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit, any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Service. Further, you will not engage in any systematic downloading or other activity directed towards any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Service that would create any electronic data base or archive containing such content [1]. Seems to me if that statement has any legal weight then Wikipedia shouldn't be using those images.

This also brings up a general question. Can scans or photographs of PD works be copyrighted?--◀Puck^talk▶ 04:46, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Seems to be no, according to Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.. - Akamad 05:37, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I would assume than applies to scans as well. In which case it would seem JE.com can't legitimately put a copyright emblem on their scans of pictures from the Jewish Encyclopedia. I bring all this up because one of the images on the category page is mislabeled--it's actually a duplicate of another--and I wanted to replace it with the correct one. I just wanted to make sure all my jots and tittles are in place.--◀Puck^talk▶ 06:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to create new categories in an existing topic

The topic 'Logo' contains many images and is very large. I wish to create more categories and move the images from the parent topic (Logo) to existing categories (computer software) or to a new category (educational institutions).

Can you tell me how to do it?

Thanks Vanita vanita77@lycos.com

India

• Add a category tag to the category you're making (just like you do when putting an article in a category). For example: If you want to create Category Bar in the existing Category Foo, you'd add [[Category:Foo]] to Category:Bar. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:01, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image History

When I access the page :Image:MaiNessun.jpg, there is no file history. How do I know which user uploaded the file?

It is a Wikimedia commons image. You have to go there to get the history.--◀Puck^talk▶ 09:22, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] including an image from wiki commons

I've read the help documents on interwiki linking, buthtere appears to be no documentation on how to include a common image in a wikipedia article. Is there a better way than including html? My specific exmaple is this:

I uploaded commons:Image:Hornets-nest-on-house-cropped.jpg and want it to appear in Bald-faced_hornet. I've only been able to link to the picture, not make the image appear in the article itself.

What is the preferred way to do this? --edgester 14:51, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

caption

Just use the image name, ignoring the commons bit. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:53, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mathematics articles

How do I know how many mathematics articles there are in Wikipedia? how do I get linked to a random mathematics article? --Meni Rosenfeld 17:40, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Category:Mathematics Check it out. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 18:41, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I was not able to find an answer to any of my questions. Prehaps you could be more specific? --Meni Rosenfeld 13:11, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think there is any way to know how many mathematics articles there are. There might be others that aren't categorised. And AFAIK there is no way to do a random link to only a mathematics article. So, I'm afraid the things you're asking aren't really possible. :) pfctdayelise 00:21, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps, then, it would be a good idea to add to MediaWiki the option of random article within a category. Also, it isn't clear from your answer whether it is possible to find the number of articles in a specific category. It isn't terrible is some math-related articles where left out of the mathematics category - It is enough if I know how many articles are in the category. --Meni Rosenfeld 07:59, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I've found List of mathematics articles, which is an attempt to help out people with questions such as yours. Your question, if it can be answered, is most likely going to be answerable by someone from WikiProject Mathematics. Good luck! WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 08:46, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

The thing is, I can easily (or easily enough) tell you how many articles are in the Category:Mathematics. But what about the articles in its subcategories? I assume you would also consider them "mathematics", and they should be counted as well. There is no easy way to count the articles in a cat as well as all its subcats, mainly because the category system is not a true tree structure. That means Cat A might have a subcat B, which has a subcat A. Just leads you around in circles. There is rarely a good reason for categories to actually be set up like this, but we can't guarantee that they're not. pfctdayelise 22:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] the oldest wikimedia project

out of all the wikipedia projects which one is the oldest,is it wikipedia,if not what is it.

Yes, it is the English Wikipedia, which was founded on January 15, 2001. We are approaching our fifth birthday. [[Sam Korn]] 22:02, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Could someone please change {{C19YearInTopic}}?

Articles such as 1828 have a sidebar with links to other countries. This seems to be inserted by "{{C19YearInTopic}}". Unfortunately, currently there are two problems:

• The US series is miswritten as e.g. "1828 in United States". This should be "1828 in the United States" to agree with existing articles for recent history.
• UK is not mentioned. The standard here seems to be 2005 in the United Kingdom. (Canada and South Africa are, however, although they have much fewer events than the UK proper. Maybe it would make sense to combine them into something like 1828 in the Britich Empire.)

Could someone who is good at these things please do the two corrections? Thanks! Common Man 20:41, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Responded on user's talk page. pfctdayelise 02:57, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your response and for making me aware of Wikipedia:WikiProject Years. I'll continue this discussion on Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject Years#Timeline Infobox Issues. Common Man 05:10, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ayaguz

I recently started writing an article on Ayaguz, but I can't view it for some reason. When I go to the link, nothing is there, but when I go to edit the page, I see my work in the editing screen. How can I fix this? Waynem 23:05, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Force your browser to reload it. With IE this is ctrl-reload. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:42, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I looked at the screen again and there was an option called "purge". I clicked it, and now everything's working fine. Thanks anyway. Waynem 00:57, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 8

[edit] Would this article be deleted?

I want to create an article, what to do if someone you know is suicidal (with a different title, of course), considering the suicide articles lean towards pro-choice (including suicide methods) and there's simply not enough information on this sort of stuff. Perhaps it should just go on the suicide prevention article. Would it be deleted since WP is not a medical center or anything like that?

How-to guides are not for wikipedia. If you want to include information on common prevention methods used by say, the suicide hotline, that would be acceptable, but an outright how-to is not. -Greg Asche (talk) 02:20, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not allow original research. If you can find prior academic research on the material and cite it in an appropriate article on suicide prevention, it will probably be allowed. jnothman ^talk 02:31, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Some example sources I will use are these. [2] [3] [4]. Basically, offering emotional support, contacting family, a doctor, etc. Deleted or no?

I can't really know, but I suggest you look at suicide prevention and work on that (maybe create more relevant links to it) rather than starting anything new. jnothman ^talk 03:21, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Alright, I'll add the stuff there and expand it a bit. Thanks.

[edit] Problems trying to edit an article - I always get a message asking me to install index.php...Any way to help me ?

Are you talking about a private MediaWiki installation? If so, refer to http://www.mediawiki.org and seek help there. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 14:32, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Add for delete how to correct.

I have corrected my page to make sure it is not from first person view point. Wondering what else I have to do to make sure it is not deleted.

Future Skully Record Label

Thanks in advance, --Motavis 01:57, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article. The main problem with the article is notability, which unfortunately, no matter how good the article is, it appears as though it isn't notable. -Greg Asche (talk) 02:18, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

Well, now that it's on Articles for Deletion, the article is going through a process of consensus decision as to whether it should be included in this encyclopedia. The complaints I currently see against it are:

1. "nn" - the label seems non-notable. Indeed, the article does not currently assert the significance of the label and why it should have an encyclopedia article about it (whereas other labels would assert their high performance in the market; their connection to significant bands, etc). Not every organisation, band, person or idea requires an article, and Wikipedia is first an foremost an encyclopedia. Not all articles on organisations do successfully argue their significance, but until it is disputed, that is okay. For example, Fat Wreck Chords, I could argue their significance and notability, but it not given explicitly, only hinted by the numerous albums to their name and their connection with internationally-known NOFX.
2. "first person" - fixed
3. "advertising" - the tone of the article isn't encyclopedic. It seems like an advertisement in its vague but promotional statement "that's building long term relationships by working on their artists' development", and the nature and tone of its written history. See WP:NOT#Wikipedia is not a soapbox.
4. "if it were band not a label it would be speedied by now" - this is a comment that bands have criteria of inclusion as specified here. If a band does not assert its significance to approach any of these, it may be speedily deleted according to recent changes to criterion A7.

I am not sure if these can be fixed for your article. That depends, primarily, on its encyclopedic notability as an organisation and the possibility of asserting its significance. You have a few days before the poll must be closed.

jnothman ^talk 02:28, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

• See WP:MUSIC, if e.g. you can prove any of your bands had chart success or major press coverage you might be OK. Kappa 03:19, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

The main problem with the article is NOT notability. The main problem is Wikipedia:Verifiability, which is an official policy of WP. If information is unverifiable, it's original research, which contradicts Wikipedia:No original research, another policy. Unless you can cite a source for the information you've given, eg. some news article about the history of the label, it's got to go. pfctdayelise 03:49, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

That's true, but what was argued against it until you placed your vote was not a question of verifiability (yes, I think you're right, it should have been), but a question of notability, tone and intention of author. jnothman ^talk 03:53, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging previous edits?

I made over 50 anonymous edits from 68.54.161.91 and created this account a while ago in the hope that those edits could be moved here. Since I had more edits anonymously, I continued editing from there, but recently it has obviously proved far more useful to have an account. I see that wikipedians can change usernames, so I assume it wouldn't be hard to merge old edits with this account, or merge them both into a new account? At the minimum, is it possible to rename 68.54.161.91 into a new account, and I could simply ditch this account, if you know what I'm trying to say? Any help appreciated. --Mercury1 06:20, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

This was recently asked above. The answer is no. See the response there. jnothman ^talk 07:04, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] how to do userboxes?

I've seen several user pages where people have custom userboxes. I know there are language userboxes, but some people's userbox are kinda unique, and I was wondering how one could make that.

If you're familiar with using templates, use {{userbox}} jnothman ^talk 07:03, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

You should read Wikipedia:Userboxes#How to make a Userbox. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 09:14, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] List all links to an article

How do I get a list of all articles that link to a particular article?

Cheers -- Tompsci 14:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Look at the left had side column at the top of the page. The top link in the "toolbox" is "What links here". Click on that. --GraemeL ^(talk) 14:21, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for a speedy reply, I didn't spot that. Cheer, Tompsci

[edit] Linking to other languages

I started a couple articles in Spanish, but on the sidebar it doesn't show a link to the English version, and vice-versa. How can I fix this? Thanks. --Gaodifan 17:30, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

You just add [[en:ARTICLE NAME]] at the end of the article to link to the English page, or [[es:ARTICLE NAME]] to link to the Spanish - that's me assuming that Spanish is under "es"; if not I'm sure you can quite easily find out. Seegoon 17:31, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Format for a videography

I just want to add a music video to a band page, specifically here, and was wondering what the normal format is. Is it Title (Year), Director, Album... little help. Thanks Seegoon 17:28, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

The format used is normally Ogg Theora (a free format). We can of course only use freely licensed video and in some exceptions excerpts as fair use, so think about that. I'll try to find our policy page on this.Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 17:43, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm.. can't find anything detailed, but Wikipedia:Image use policy says it has to be the above mentioned format. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 17:44, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I think you've misinterpreted me, sorry. What I meant was what would the correct format be for writing the entry, not displaying the video... how would I present who directed it, what album it was from and when. If there's no norm, then I guess I can just improvise. Seegoon 17:47, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Have a look at Madonna videography. -- Jeandré, 2006-01-08t18:17z

Oops. I'm sorry. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 19:09, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, there are suggested guidelines for music-related topics at WP:MUSIC. Not too sure if they cover videos, though. pfctdayelise 00:18, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] how to start a user page about myself

ive npotice other users have pages about themselves as a user and what kind of contributions they mkae. i would like to know how to start one about myalsef Atacama 21:35, 8 January 2006 (UTC) 21:35, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Click here and start typing. Have fun, Hermione1980 21:48, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Category intersection

Is there a way to get the intersection of two categories? That would be a very useful feature. —Keenan Pepper 23:57, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

This is long standing enhancement request, see bugzilla:2285. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:31, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 9

[edit] WP:RD/M Formatting

The WP:RD/M formatting has gone totally haywire from about January 7 onwards, with extra spaces in front of section headers and indentations, causing a whole lot of stuff to end up being in one section. Can someone fix this without losing the contributions people have made? User:AlMac|^(talk) 01:50, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

It looks like someone has copied the contents from the diffs. (Those + and - signs give it away.) But as for fixing... :? pfctdayelise 02:13, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

It looks like it was done in a mistaken method of reverting vandalism: [5] You could either revert to the previous version before that, then (correctly) insert the new comments, or you could just fix the wrong ones, or you could just leave them. :) Providing the question-askers saw their answers before it got stuffed up. pfctdayelise 02:20, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I also left a note at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#Wikipedia:Reference_desk.2FMiscellaneous_formatting, perhaps admin tools can work their magic on this one. pfctdayelise 03:08, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Parking request

How do I make a proper request for a handicap parking space at my apartment complex ?

Speak to your superintendent or building manager. Please note that future requests for factual information should be directed to the Wikipedia reference desk; the Help Desk is meant to answer questions about Wikipedia policy and procedures. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:18, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] content box

How do I make a content box for a page?

Do you mean a table of contents? If so, a TOC will automatically be added to an article if there is more than 3 headings. If you want to manually add the table of contents anywhere on the page without having more than 3 headings, add "__TOC__" where you want it to appear. - Akamad 11:15, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks ... I used your info to figure out how to move the TOC on my user page, so that some text avove it, also included in that TOC. (I did not ask the original question, but I also learning from the Q+A tips on the Help Desk, User:AlMac|^(talk) 06:05, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New form of spam?

I found this userpage: User:Alexandra Hospital, I removed what copyright violations that I could find (I assume that I am allowed to do this, even if it is on another editor's userpage). I was wondering if there is anything that can be done about this page, since it is for all practical purposes, spam, but on the other hand, it is a userpage. Thank you. - Akamad 11:12, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes there is something that can be done. I can delete it.Geni 11:18, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

looks like they're back already.--◀Puck^talk▶ 11:25, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

deleted blocked

[edit] Category display sorting

This is a question about category display on top of pages. In many articles, such as Abraxas, "Cleanup from August 2005" or "1911 Britannica" appears first and foremost like this:

• Categories: Cleanup from August 2005 | 1911 Britannica | Based on Catholic Encyclopedia | Gnostic deities | Singular God

This is silly because for most normal readers, the article has nothing to do with either Cleanup, 2005, 1911, Britain or Catholicism. Apparently, this comes from the texts that are inserted before, such as the cleanup box or the Britannica reference. Is there a way to prevent this silly display other than changing thousands of articles manually? Ideally, it should be possible to suppress such category displays. The few readers who might say: "Oh, this was a cleanup/EB article. Let's look at another (otherwise unrelated) cleanup/EB article" should be able to go through the link in the text. Common Man 12:03, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

If you move the Category tags to the top of the article, before the cleanup tag, that should fix it. I could be mistaken, but I don't think there is any rule about where the category tags should be placed in an article.--◀Puck^talk▶ 12:21, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I might be wrong about that. This seem to imply they should go at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't say they have to. Can we get a definite answer on this?--◀Puck^talk▶ 12:26, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

From my understanding, yes they should go at the bottom of the page, but since they're invisible, I don't see any harm having them at the top (apart from scaring newbies who don't know what these things are). If you're concerned about the order in which the categories are listed on a particular article, then I guess if you move the cats up the top and put in a comment explaining why no one's going to bite you for it. enochlau (talk) 12:39, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

And, direct answer to the question, category displays cannot be suppressed. In these particular cases, I think there might be a pretty strong argument that these should not be categories. Using special:Whatlinkshere from the relevant templates seems to me to be essentially equivalent. template:cleanup-date takes an argument that is the date, so to be exactly equivalent there'd need to be different version of this template for each month. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:50, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I was under the impression that what-links-here had an absloute limit on the number of itmes it would display, while a category has no upper bouind on the number of members in contains. Was I incorrect on this? DES ^(talk) 15:23, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I couldn't find any limitation. I tried Whatlinkshere/1911 Encyclopædia Britannica for more than 10 000 articles, and there seems to be no problem. So can I be bold and just change it or is there some bureaucracy neccessary for such wide-ranging changes? What I'd do is simply remove the category from the template and replace the link to a specific REDIRECT page that only serves as a target for whatlinkshere. Common Man 07:07, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] anchor link to TOP

How can you create an anchor link to the top of a page ? There is sometimes on top a little javascript menu with Contents with anchor links to specific subjects lower on the page. A good example is this helpdesk article, with anchor links to all questions, now I need a link from each question, to top, how should I do that ?

I hope it's possible at all, because otherwise people can easily navigate down the article, but not up...

Although almost all browsers have a way to do this from the keyboard (it's "home" in Safari) so it's never exactly necessary, a link to a non-existent anchor goes to the top. Traditionally, "TOP" is used for this. So, to link to the top of a page #TOP works. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:40, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch! "home" works too in IE and FF afaik. But it's a bit quicker and nicer with such a link, I think =) //Lassie (nope, don't have an account (yet) ;-))

[edit] New World

I added a deconstruction of 1602: New World and it has been inexplicably deleted. What was wrong with it and why was it deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oddbergian (talk • contribs) 2006-01-09 10:19:55

An article on 1602: New World still exists, it was just moved from 1602: New World (comic), if that's what you mean. Since there's nothing else under the name "1602: New World", the disambiguation of "(comic)" was superfluous. I can't find where under this username you contributed to the article though, so I may have misunderstood your question. You can also ask on the article's talk page. -- nae'blis _(talk) 15:47, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PLEASE HELP;;;;;;

Dear sir/madam

I am writting asking if you can help me for i have been looking for South African movies such as Sarafina,Cry the beloved country,Forgiveness,In my country or any other movie or documentary with Nelson Mandela"s history for i leave in United Kingdom and i have been looking everywhere without success.I would appreciate if you can help me.

Thank you

It is hard to help you find something "in your country" if we don't know what country that is. If you have access to a credit card, you can buy movies on line at a number of sites. Also, this question should be asked at the Reference desk, not the Help desk, which is for questions about Wikipedia. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 17:46, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I interpreted "i leave in United Kingdom" to mean the questioner lives in Britain and is either afflicted with the need for someone to develop Wikipedia:Algorithm for the avoidance of spelling or typing errors, or English is not the first language here. I am not trying to be uncivil here, just a little humor, for I too need that algorithm. User:AlMac|^(talk) 06:09, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistency in Listing Chronological Events

I noticed that the listing of chronological "events" (such as, actor's filmography or musician's performances) are not consistent. Some are from latest to oldest, while others are oldest to latest. What is wikipedia's policy on listing such "events"?

Issues like this should be covered by the Wikipedia:Manual of Style, but I don't see one covering this. There is Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lists of works), but it is inactive which means people aren't using it or it never gained formal acceptance. There are some examples at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (lists of works)/examples, and they all go from oldest to newest. But because there's no formal "decree", either is fine. I just suggest that you shouldn't mix the two in a single article, because that would be weird. In line with respecting the differences between AmE/BrE, I would say whoever gets in first gets to pick! So if you're putting a list in an article for the first time, you can go with whatever suits you; if you're adding a list to an article that already has one, you should follow the example of the person before you. HTH, pfctdayelise 22:48, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Filmographies for a discussion on this. Dismas|^(talk) 06:35, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changing Usernames

I don't really like my username. Can I completely change it, or is adding a "nickname" to my preferences and moving the userpage and talk page all that I can do? Jared 19:52, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Changing attribution for edits has been discontinued by the developers, sorry. You may create a new account to edit from. Then you should note on the new userpage that you used to edit under your old name. Create redirects at the old userpage and talk page and your good to go. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 20:03, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

• See Wikipedia:Changing username which is very much not discontinued. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:06, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Eilean Donan

The panorama picture in this article only shows as a red rectangle but other editors say they can see the pic. Is it my PC. Please help.--Gillean666 20:04, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

• I can see it fine too. What system are you using? Do you have the problem with any other images? - Mgm|^(talk) 20:24, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

It's something on your end, as it displays fine for me. Maybe it is because the file name is so long (43 characters). I'm not sure what the problem is. You might try asking at WP:VPT. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 21:11, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

The URL of the image itself is http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Panorama_Eilean_Donan_Castle_2005-05-14.jpg/800px-Panorama_Eilean_Donan_Castle_2005-05-14.jpg. You likely have some overzealous advertisement-blocking software which is preventing the image from being displayed since it's in the ad/ subdirectory. — Knowledge Seeker দ 22:13, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Hey, Got it now, it was my ad-blocker who was the villain. Many thanks to you all :-) -Gillean666 22:56, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How Do you talk to other users?

Please answer meMarkmt300 22:42, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Click on a link to a user's userpage, which typically looks like this: User:Markmt3000 or just Markmt3000. Then click the "discussion" tab at the top, next to the tab that says "user page". Click "edit this page" (or "+" to add a new section) and start typing! It doesn't matter if the user page and/or the Talk page are red links; once you've typed your message and hit refresh, they will turn blue. pfctdayelise 22:59, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

You can also utilize the Instant messaging program IRC, which wikipedians frequently chat on. -MegamanZero|Talk 23:02, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

The channel you would want is #wikipedia. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 23:28, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

IRC is not an IM program; it's a network protocol. The English specific channel is at irc://irc.freenode.net/wikipedia-en; there is also the Wikipedia-wide channel at irc://irc.freenode.net/wikipedia (you'll need an IRC client to access them). --Kwekubo 23:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 10

[edit] 3 RV rule

Whoermaster keeps on insisting on retaining Uncyclopedia-esque and POV content in the Jewfro article. I have reverted it twice, so I guess I cannot revert it a third time. It appears that Whoermaster has violated the 3 revert rule, although this is impossible to prove since the last revert was done using an anonymous IP (sneaky...). My question is, what am I supposed to do now since I cannot revert the content? Where 00:04, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

i have reverted, and warned User:Whoermaster. I have also placed a note about this on WP:ANI. In future that is a good palce to report such events. DES ^(talk) 00:36, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Where 03:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 3 RV a day ... or 3 RV period ?

I thought the rules were

• Regardless of the reason (e.g. vandalism) be should not revert the SAME article more than 3 times in a 24 hour period ... if it is the same bad stuff going in, irrespective of IP or user-id, then either it is sockpockets, or conspiracy, and administrators should be called in to do something about the account(s) doing the bad stuff.
• In cases of honest disagreements between editor volunteers, we should discuss the matter calmly on the talk page and get consensus what should be there, not be reversing each other.

However, from the above exchange, it sounds to me like the rule is being interpreted as no more than 3 reverts period in the entire history of our involvement with a particular article. Please correct my understanding.

I have not been keeping track, but I figure I have done no more than 2 reverts on any one article. I figured that if I did some reverts, then several days passed, I did not need to remember any such counts. User:AlMac|^(talk) 03:13, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

• It's three reverts per 24 hours, not counting reversions of clear, indisputable vandalism. However, that doesn't mean you have a right to revert three times; ideally, you should not revert war at all. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 05:11, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mess up

Hello there, I am a newbe, but not totally clueless.

I tried to contribute to an article, in particular: Niki Karimi, however I was unaware of the sandbox feature (Silly me!), and I have made way too many edits, which makes me blush everytime I look at the history page. Is there anyway to get rid of them? The article was pretty much useless without my new edits, but I dont think thats a good excuse to get it deleted, so I can post it again. Thank you for any suggestions! --Kash

There is nothing wrong with making many edits, including some to correct one's own mistakes, on an article in a short period of time. The final result of your edits seems perfectly reasoanble, and I see nothing in the article as a whole that suggests it should be deleted. While it is possible to delete particular revisions, there does not seem a good reason to do so in this case. I not infrequently correct my own edits to remove typos, for example -- and even then I often don't get them all. DES ^(talk) 00:24, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I see, thank you for the info! --Kash 00:32, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Don't worry about lots of edits. I also edit in flurrys or edit section by section to provide better edit summaries. Just make sure you put something in the edit summary to answer the question "why did you make this edit (and that one, and this one, and...)?" --TheLimbicOne(talk) 00:40, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming a category?

How do I rename a category? Category:Agoraphobic celebrities this should be renamed to 'Category:People with agoraphobia'. Also, this needs to be deleted, it already exists[6] here [7] (note the dash). Gflores ^Talk 00:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

• Follow the instructions for renaming or deleting a category at Wikipedia:Categories for deletion. --Kwekubo 01:05, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture wont show up on en

Hi,

I'm editing Province of Crotone and trying to add a picture from the italian wiki that is available on the image: domain. For some reason, it doesn't want to load!!! Do you know why?

Thanks

Cmdrbond 03:59, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Could you be more specific? What is the image? Were you able to upload it to en: successfully? Did it upload all right but is not displaying in the article? — Knowledge Seeker দ 04:09, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's actually in the italian article. The picture is (the seal on the right hand side). So it seems uploaded to commons correctly, but it seems to be lost when i link to it on the province page on en.Cmdrbond 04:28, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't see any image at Commons under that name. Could you provide the URL to the image on Commons? — Knowledge Seeker দ 05:11, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

It clearly says at that it's a fair use image. Commons only takes free images. If you want to use it, it has be uploaded to en: locally. pfctdayelise 05:18, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Slow computer, insert character box.

While editing, at the bottom of the page there is a "Insert" box with a lot of links to insert characters. It is really slowing down my computer. How can I set it not to load when I edit? I hardly use these characters anyway, and I'd like to not have the screen a sentence behind me while those symbols load. Plus, I can't save the page until it is all done loading. Adam850 04:20, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

The Insert box is done with JavaScript, so you can just disable JavaScript in your browser. I'm not sure if you can also stop JavaScript by using a different skin.--Commander Keane 04:44, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

There is a user preference to turn this off. Go to "my preferences" (at the top of the page) and the editing tab. I believe it is the "edit toolbar" option. --Martyman-(talk) 23:31, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

That's the Edit tool bar you see above the edit box, the one with bold, italic, sections, etc. I'm pretty sure the question is about insert character box below the save button. And I have no idea how to turn that off or if you even can.--◀Puck^talk▶ 23:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

You can hide it by adding some custom CSS; this will disable display of this box completely, but will still load with every edit page load, so a part of the slowdown might still be there. I've done some clean-up of the edit page in my custom css. Here is a working snippet to be put in your own css:

#editpage-specialchars {display:none;}

❝Sverdrup❞ 12:00, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] do I need special permissions to link a particular wikipedia page to my own website?

Personally, I've found Wikipedia to be a useful and informative source of info for any matter of interest.

I just recently redesigned a website that I'm building, and I would like to create a link to Wikipedia... do I need any special permissions, or can I just form links with the appropriate addresses?

Logick King Sound Communications

No, you don't need any permission—please link to Wikipedia, with our thanks! — Knowledge Seeker দ 08:35, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] thank you Knowledge Seeker

thanks. I just linked to the Wikipedia page that explains weblogs by linking it to the word weblog on my commentary page.

I'm still working on the site as we speak :-)

I would appreciate if you dropped by and tell me what you think, and if there are any other suggestions that you might have, while I'm building the site. I haven't set up a favorite links page yet, but Wikipedia will definitely be on there.

http://kingsound.org

Thanks again Logick: King Sound Communications

[edit] Making a new Wiki

I was thinking of making a wiki for the site www.chaptercheats.com. I am a moderator there and would like to know how to do this. Do I have to donate money via credit card or can I just ask the admin for permission?

The mediawiki software is free for anyone to use. Just click on the "Powered by MediaWiki" box at the lower right of your screen. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 09:23, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

• See b:Wiki Science:How to start a Wiki. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:48, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia reliable?

Wait. This is unbelievable. Isn't it possible for people to make errors in editing pages or just place eronious information of pages and caue alot of what is on here to be unrelaiable?

Please see Wikipedia:Replies to common objections. Dismas|^(talk) 10:24, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

• Multiple news sources recently reported on a experiment by the scientific journal Nature, which compared scientific articles in Wikipedia with those in Britannica. Their conclusion was that Wikipedia was nearly as good as Britannica (in some topics even better). Experts found 162 errors in a selection of Wikipedia articles. The same articles in Britannica contained no less than 123 errors. So we're doing pretty well almost reaching the standard of Britannica. See the article in the Wikipedia Signpost for more details. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:53, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to Request Rewrite

I nominated a page for deletion and the consensus was basically to rewrite it and was wondering if there was a request rewrite function or do I have to just request it in the talk page.

So something like a AfD command?

Request for the John Titor article

Mike

Mike, you seem to have jumped into this feet first, in the AfD you stated "Rubbish Article Please Delete", and on the articles talk page "This article should be deleted, It is rediculous". You should explain your concerns at Talk:John Titor and then work with other editors to try and improve the articles. Remember Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit - that includes you. There are various tags that can be added, but to be honest none really fit here since the article is, from a style point of view, clean as-is. Anyway, tags do not magic people to do the work - you'll need to discuss and lend a hand :)

When you leave a comment on a talk page can you please sign it with 4 tildes - ~~~~, wikipedia will then automatically expand that into your username and date. A number of interesting links you can read through have been left on your talk page: User talk:Michaelbeckham#Welcome. Thanks/wangi 11:24, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I do sign with 4 tildes Im not a newbie I was just wondering what the command is, I know about protocol I had a simple question is there a command I have searched for a while and could not find anything. So please do not be condesending towards me and treat me like I have just arrived because of my fairly simple question. Now I am finished unless you know of any command like I requested thats all then. And now my tildes which I always sign with. Mike 12:08, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Mike, I can only base my reply on what I read - you didn't sign the request above, and done some "newbie"esque things like put in the URL rather than the page in square brackets, less than helpful/civil comments on the talk/AfD page etc... My appologies, but try to assume good faith. However the main point of my reply is valid — you need to expand and discuss your particular concerns about this article. I don't know if these are the sorts of tags you were looking for: Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup, however the best way forward is still to discuss things. Thanks/wangi 12:39, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I did sign it, It says Mike with a link it just does not have the date. I refrain from flame wars however you seem to want to start one I also put the link in there as yes I didnt know how to do it properly read my userpage and see my HTML level ;)

I think thats it for this you still havent given me any info I did ask is there a command similar to AfD for a request to rewrite and no answer so thats that for now I guess. And by the way I dont know all the commands as I am not a troll spending far too much time on here. Seeya Mike 13:02, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Ther are various tags that you can applyu to an article, they are listed at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup. I am not sure if any of them exactly fit the situation at hand, but these are the closest we have to what you asked for. The advice you got to discuss your specific issues and views on Talk:John Titor is really the best possible advice -- that is likley to get action more effectivly than any tag you can apply. DES ^(talk)

[edit] PD help for an image, please

I'm feeling altruistic and doing some Wikipedia:Untagged images. I came across Image:10x.jpg. The uploader wrote this: Public Domain Note: This image is freely available on the internet from various sources in the public domain. The same image was taken in the former (socialist) Yugoslavia and as such does not enjoy any copyright protection. On Wikipedia:Image copyright tags there is no mention of the nation formerly known as Yugoslavia falling under any such PD category. Should I go ahead and tag it {{no source notified}} and drop the message on the uploader's page?--◀Puck^talk▶ 16:14, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes. When in doubt, notify the uploader regarding a image's copyright's information. -MegamanZero|Talk 16:22, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I looked at the uploaders talk page. Some one else has already contacted him about the image in question and he is disputing it. I'm going to leave this one alone. I have enough problems in real life without incuring anyone's wrath here. If someone else wants to they can have at it. There are almost 40,000 other untagged images to choose from. I don't need the grief.--◀Puck^talk▶ 17:08, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Good decision. :) -MegamanZero|Talk 17:50, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought so.--◀Puck^talk▶ 17:52, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with 1st paragraph

I made a page and fullfilled it, but the problem is the first paragraph, where i introduce people with the subject, has no title (the others have). So i am stupid, so i can't edit this paragraph, but this editing is needed.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.198.157.122 (talk • contribs) 2006-01-10 17:21:32(UTC)

I think you mean there is no section header for top of the article. Most articles don't have them. The start of an article is basically just an introduction to the rest. But I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about. What is the name of the article? I don't see anything in your [contribution list] except this help desk question.--◀Puck^talk▶ 17:47, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

You have to edit the lead section by editing the entire page, normally. However at Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts is a script to add an edit link for the section above the first header. DES ^(talk) 21:58, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duplicate Article

Hello in Table of mathematical symbols, User:Voyajer added a section on Physics symbols, which is very similar to Physical constant. I'm not really sure what to do, so can I leave this to some experts. Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this - the help system is, er, comprehensive... Many thanks, --H2g2bob 18:04, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps the best thing in such a case is to suggest on the talk page that the section be replaced by a link to Physical constant, after merging any new content from the section to that article. If no one objects, you can simply do this if you like. DES ^(talk) 21:53, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

(after edit conflict) Your addition to See also seems fine and there's nothing wrong with redundandancy or comprehensiveness now is there. ;-) hydnjo talk 21:59, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that the physics information added does not belong on that spot.. Physical quantities are not mathematical notation, so it should be move/merged to a better place. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 22:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

The specific page about merging sections is Wikipedia:Merging and moving pages. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 22:04, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How do you create a disambiguation page

I am wanting to creat a disambiguation page for Necessary Roughness and then write articles for the things that would fall under this title. There is the 1991 film starring Scoot Bakula and Sinbad, there is the 1997 album released by the Lady of Rage, and there is the 1997 book by Marie G. Lee. I know enough information about all three to write articles so can somebody tell me how to do it?

• I think you may be going about it the wrong way. Create the articles first, worry about the disambiguation later. I would create individual pages at Necessary Roughness (film), Necessary Roughness (album), and Necessary Roughness (novel). Only when you've got two or more of those, do you really need a disambiguation page at Necessary Roughness. More information about disambiguations can be found at Wikipedia:Disambiguation. There's also an entry about disambiguation pages in the manual of style. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:22, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion of merge?

I was wondering if there was a way I could suggest articles to be merged together? I noticed an author stub Meg Cabot which had a link to another stub Mediator, which should really be part of the first article. Tartan 21:02, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, by using the Merge template. Edit the article by adding {{Merge | add name of the other article here}} at the top of the article and then do the same at the other article referring back of course to the first article. hydnjo talk 21:41, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

You can also use {{mergeto}} and {{mergefrom}} to suggest the specific direction of merge. They are used in much the same way as {{merge}}. DES ^(talk) 21:51, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

The specific page about merging sections is Wikipedia:Merging and moving pages. (Borrowing an idea from programming: reuse is good [look 2 sections above]) Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 22:07, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Signature does not display properly

I have been a Wikipedian for a couple of years now, but I have only fairly recently (possibly since the last time I modified my preferences) found a frustrating problem that won't go away. Every time I sign a comment, the signature is incorrectly displayed. Everything looks correct, but somehow it is not interpreted the way it should be. I'm sure it is something I'm doing wrong. I must have something typed incorrectly in my "nickname" preferences. The really odd thing is that when I copy the text directly from the preview down into the edit box (adding the brackets back to the first part, since the first part does work), the thing displays perfectly. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong (preferably on my talk page)? You'll see what I mean when I sign: --Cromwellt|[[User talk:Cromwellt|Talk]] 21:26, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

A change was made to the signature code when sigs with malformed HTML started to cause problems. See Wikipedia:How to fix your signature for more detail. DES ^(talk) 21:39, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

A million thanks. That was exactly my problem. --Cromwellt|Talk 21:46, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] American Bias

Does anyone want to join me in a campaign to eliminate american bias from articles.

Nessuno834 22:45, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias for an already organized effort. DES ^(talk) 22:52, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone want to join me in a campaign to eliminate anti-Americanism on Wikipedia? User:Zoe|^(talk) 23:11, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

That's WP:NPOV and it's what we all do. Sverrrrrrrrrrrrdrup 00:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

As an American, I can sympathize with your POV; but recognize that, in most instances, such bias is inadvertant. Europeans are brought up with a "Eurocentic" POV, which while more worldly, is not much more worldly than the American POV— it just tends to embrace most of the countries of Europe. If you are from another country, the dominance of American films and TV is almost complete in the U.S., and Americans hardly get to see any other POVs— especially as, if any other country's film or TV is used, it tends to get heavily "Americanized." Also, Americans tend to be a bit chauvinistic— but, do recognize that that is a French word! —>normxxx_talk—> email 02:08, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image add-ons

Hi! How DO you add an image to an article? Chef Clover

This should help: Wikipedia:Images.--◀Puck^talk▶ 23:18, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

This is more detailed: Wikipedia:Extended_image_syntax--◀Puck^talk▶ 23:20, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

First you must upload the file to the Wikipedia server using the "Upload file" link in the toolbox on the left hand side of every page. It's up near the search box. Then you add the image to the article with something like [[Image:Thisisyourimage.jpg|right|thumb|caption]] You may also want to see Wikipedia:Uploading images. Dismas|^(talk) 23:21, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 11

[edit] Can someone help me rename an article?

Hi, I want to rename List of Lieutenant Governors of California to simply Lieutenant Governor of California since there's no point in having a page with just a list if there's no page explaining the position itself. I plan to just have the list as a subcategory of the lieutenant governor of california page. The issue is that that page currently redirects to the list. Can you please correct this? THanks Cmdrbond 01:41, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Personally I think it should stay where it is, because it most definitely is a list. enochlau (talk) 01:45, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Keep the list and write an article on the position. User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:13, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I have seen this before, although I don't like it. Television in Australia RDRs to List of Australian television channels. Lists can have extra information, though - they don't need to be strictly listy all the time. pfctdayelise 04:36, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help with mirror article

I've placed a template and custom notice on Transtopianism, as well as an explanation and suggestions in Talk:Transtopianism, and a heads-up at Talk:Transhumanism, since transtopianism was much discussed at Talk:Transhumanism/Archive_3. My actions have started an editing reaction, which is great, but i still have questions about how this sort of thing could/should be handled. I'm still semi-newbie and the situation doesn't quite fit any categories i've found. Hence my questions:

1] The text is taken straight from the group's site (right down to the copyright notice), so it's a mirror in that sense, and also contains strongly persuasive language. (Btw, the worst of that has already been cut, which was the third paragraph of the intro before i placed my notices: "Few have the courage to face reality in all its hideous glory, and even fewer have the strength to bend it to their will. Are you, or would you like to become, one of the few? Are you ready to transcend this wretched mortal coil and realize your full potential as a postbiological entity? Are you hardcore -- are you a Transtopian? Read on and find out."). So i felt a notice to readers and editors was necessary. My style is to let article authors do as much of the editing as possible -- which maybe means i'm still not bold enough. But this article is so far out of std that i was wondering if it's ~policy to at least cut the text and replace it with a tiny stub, rather than leave something very unencyclopedic and put notices up top?

2] It didn't seem a candidate for deletion, because the topic might well warrant an article. Do i have that right?

3] I wonder what policy-category this fits: it's not just a text-mirror (if that's the right term): it's supposed to be about a group, yet it's only their own words, and according to the history page, lots of it was done by the admitted webmaster of the group's site. So this is kind of the group version of a vanity page...? But is that only for individuals? Or non-notable?

4] Likewise, it's not a commercial site, so it's not exactly an advert, right? Tho that's the template i used, because it seemed the nearest thing.

5] The last trick is about the controversial nature of it, which i cited above. This has largely to do with the racism that -- note this -- was not in the text of the "article", but was elsewhere in the group's site, beginning with "some cultures --and, by extension, races-- are objectively, demonstrably better than others" and going on from there (http://www.transtopia.org/pcfreezone.html). Would y'all agree with what i wrote in talk that something about this should be in the article? I'm very uncomfortable with groups with such views writing articles about themselves that are advert-ish but don't mention such problematic aspects. Perhaps i could add something specific about highly controversial views in the notice up top, with references, until someone more knowledgable addresses it in the article?

Ok, that's a lot to resp to. Please do so wherever is most appropriate: here, in Talk:Transtopianism, or my talk. Thx so much, hope this helps, "alyosha" (talk) 02:06, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

"The text is taken straight from the group's site (right down to the copyright notice)" - it seems like it is a copyright violation then, and should be immediately deleted. enochlau (talk) 02:29, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thx for the resp. More detail: the (c) says "Copyright notice: this document can be copied and distributed freely via any medium, for any purpose.", plus was apparantly posted by the original site's webmaster, so maybe that's not a violation? I just incl that to show how straight a cut-and-paste and un-wikipedia it is. "alyosha" (talk) 03:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Still being wet behind my ears I can't say for sure, but I think it would be better to work on a not-ready-for-prime-time article on a sub page in your user space. I've got one going here. When it's done, I'll move it out to the main space. That way no one just perusing Wikipedia will see it and think it represents the quality of what we do here. If you want to get others to help there is probably some list around somewhere that you could put it on rather than just hoping people will see it and help.--◀Puck^talk▶ 02:40, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thx! This gets at my concern about how wikipedia looks to newcomers, etc. But since i'm not the person to write the article, maybe you could post that to my discussion-opener on Talk:Transtopianism? Or are you suggesting to make it a subpage of Transtopianism, leaving a bare stub behind? And the advert template created a listing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_needing_style_editingAny other ideas? -- i've looked... "alyosha" (talk) 03:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Using templates from other Wikipedias?

Hello! My question regards some silly vanity editing I'm doing to my user page, but I imagine my question may prove to be useful for some "real" contributions as well. I am active on both the English and Italian Wikipedias, and I maintain a user page on both sites. I've found that for aesthetic reasons I prefer the Italian Babelfish template over the English one, which has slightly different dimensions and doesn't seem as customizable (at least from the point of view of a code-newbie like me). What I hope to do is to get my Babelfish table as it appears on my Italian user page onto my English user page (of course, I'd translate it into English first). When I just copied and pasted the code into en.wikipedia, the template didn't work (you can see what it looks like here). I've looked all over for any instructions on fixing something of this nature, but no such luck. I realize the code for the template is probably looking for a style sheet that exists in it.wikipedia.org but does not exist in en.wikipedia.org. I'd like to accomplish one of the following:

1: to make the copied-and-pasted code point back to its referring style sheet in it.wiki even though it's in en.wiki;

2: if that's not possible, to find out if that referring style sheet can be somehow copied into en.wiki or into the commons;

3: or, if that's not possible, then I'd like to find out where I can learn how to raw code in my English user page that will produce my intended results.

I hope this makes sense to someone. I imagine it might be useful if a template from another language's Wikipedia could be put to use in the English one, or vice-versa. Hopefully there's already a way to do that :)  :: Salvo (talk) 07:57, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Please don't use it: Babelboxes on en:. I think that's a really, really bad idea. You're right, the it: ones are prettier, but at least everyone on en: is equally ugly...

For userboxes (ie, ones that are not language codes): I suggest you see Wikipedia:Userboxes. It has a lot of information about this.

From what I could figure out from your it: userpage, it: sets up userboxes very differently to en:. I don't think it's a great idea to introduce the it: system here if you're not very familiar with how it works.

As for your comments. I think you're right, it's in a css file somewhere. You might be able to put the same code in your en: css file, but you realise it would only look pretty to you, right? It would look the same (or worse, even broken) to everyone else.

As for normal templates (not css files), they can easily be copied between sister projects as articles can: simply click "edit this page" on the old one, copy the contents, and paste it into the new page/template/article you want. Of course, if that template relies itself on other templates, you have to check that they also exist (and work in the same way) as the source ones. pfctdayelise 08:14, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the speedy reply! I understand your concern about the templates. Does it matter that the boxes used in the Italian Babelfish project, unlike English Userboxes, don't involve the creation of categories? They're really just repositories of any sort of information, and don't have to conform to anyone else's boxes. I suppose I should just learn how to construct the boxes myself without the use of templates or css files. Would you agree with that? :: Salvo (talk) 08:26, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

English Userboxes don't always have categories attached to them. The term userbox refers to the style, not the content. Check out my user page for some examples of self created boxes. Also look at Template:userbox and its talk page for more info. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 08:47, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

On second thought, I've subst:ed most of my userboxes, so the source code probably wouldn't make much sense to you. Just read the template's talk page and you hsould be good to go for creating your own. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 08:51, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Searching Watchlist

Is it possible to search only the pages in our watchlist for a certain word or phrase?--Urthogie 09:19, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't believe so, at least I've never heard of it. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 10:08, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming this question is dead. If someone does have an answer, please alert me that a reply has been given at my talk page. Thanks a million!--Urthogie 19:01, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy Delete question

Am I correct that putting a speedy delete tag, such as {{subst:db-nonsense}}, on a page automatically flags the page for notice by admins, or is there more that needs to be done?--◀Puck^talk▶ 09:58, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

that's correct WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 10:06, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm getting this horrible feeling I'm turning into a vigilante.--◀Puck^talk▶ 10:21, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

It's always the admin's call. Unless someone tells you that you're being to liberal with the dbs and afds, I'd say keep going. That's how I racked up 700+ deleted edits. It's like repsonses here, at first it feels mean, but then you start to wonder what the article's creator was actually thinking, or not as the case may be. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 10:55, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

If you don't subst it but simply transclude the template, it can make it easier on us admins because the reason for deletion field will be filled in nicely when we come to delete it. enochlau (talk) 11:38, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

That's almost funny becuase on so many template pages they suggest using the subst for perfomance reason. However, I just read Template_talk:Db-meta#Transclusion and I see the reasoning. In retrospect I should probably have used a different template to start with because, though in a non-technical sense the page in question is patent nonsense, it does does not really meet the criteria of WP:CSD#G1. I should probably have used vandalism, but even that is not clear. If anyone who saw it before it was gone could tell me exactly what that kind of page would be called I'd appreciate it.--◀Puck^talk▶ 12:24, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

That's true, templates increase server load. But really, the page won't exist for that long - hence the "speedy" - and I doubt they would be pages with high enough traffic to make a difference :) enochlau (talk) 12:38, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

That's pretty much the argument DESiegel made in the Transclusion section of Db-meta. It makes sense to me and the benefit of not substing is worth the drawbacks I'd say. The whole idea it to make it happen fast and the quicker the admins can figure out what's up the quicker they can deal with it.--◀Puck^talk▶ 13:10, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moving an Image file

Hello, I'm trying to change the name of Image:William-Ewart-Gladstone-arms.PNG as it is incorrect (the coat of arms is that of his son Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone). I don't have the usual move tab on image pages so could someone tell me how I can rename this image Gladstone coat of arms? Is it necessary to save it, re upload it onto wikipedia & put in a deletion request for the original? Thanks AllanHainey 12:27, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you will have to download it and reupload it. After doing that, mark the original image with {{db|redundant with [[:Image:Blah.jpg]]}} or a similar deletion reason. enochlau (talk) 12:34, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, however since I asked the creator of the coat of arms has taken care of it. AllanHainey 15:38, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I don't remember the template name

I'd like to put the template to advise newbies who are coming to a wikipedia article from a site who invites them to edit the article ... such in this case: [8] Yay Hooray

sorry for the awful grammar of the question --Melaen 13:36, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Do you want to put something on the article or the talk page?

If you mean the talk page, WP:TM contains a list of allmany templates that are used. Having a look through that, it seems like {{High-traffic}} and/or {{Comment Guidelines}} might be appropriate.

If you mean for the page itself, perhaps you are actually after Semi protection? (Only registered users can edit) That's pretty drastic - unless it's already being hit hard by vandalism, admins are unlikely to protect it. If Yayhooray has recently made a high-profile link to their WP article, you might want to post a note on WP:AN so admins are aware it might need looking after. But if you're just talking about in general, the page tends to get vandalised by anons, I guess the first two (for the talk page) are the more appropriate.

Is this what you were after? Or are you thinking of something else? pfctdayelise 14:29, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deleted image path

When image is deleted its path remains inside the article. May be we should do something? :) Brandmeister 15:37, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it's important that deleting the image leave it there. It means that the article is obviously wrong rather than, perhaps, having a bad reference to an image somewhere in the thirtieth paragraph. It invites editors to review the item, and ideally to find a suitable image. Notinasnaid 18:42, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

• I think it's a good idea to remove it with a note, the image itself was deleted. Not every image needs a replacement. Of course, if it does, it would be a good thing to note on the talk page it needs replacing. - Mgm|^(talk) 18:44, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

(after edit conflict) When an admin deletes an image s/he should normally visit the pages that use it and remove the links. Sometimes it is better to leave them so that they can be used as placeholders/templates for inserting a different/better image. I don't see an automated solution as desireable. DES ^(talk) 18:45, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Templates

Hello, does anyone know if there is a list of templates that you can use in wikipedia? I would like to look at them. Thank you, 5aret 21:43, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Templates Dismas|^(talk) 21:45, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

On the chance that the request might mean templates in the sense of examples for layouts of articles. I don't know it there are any, but I happened to stumble across a template, in the Wikipedia sense that will create a generic biography article layout. If you put {{subst:Biography}} on a blank page and then save it it will give you a page already set up in biographic format. All you have to do is add the content. Look here to see what it looks like. The actual instruction and explanation are here: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Biography. I would like to see more stuff like this on Wikipedia. The people who came up with this project are doing it right.--◀Puck^talk▶ 22:11, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Try the Wikipedia:Manual of style. WAvegetarian ^(talk) (email) ^(contribs) 02:57, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

That's a pretty good reference. Thanks. I've had a tendency to use articles similar to whatever I'm working on, but editors aren't always consistent on capitalization and use of italics so I still get stuck sometimes. This will help.--◀Puck^talk▶ 15:05, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• Featured articles usually have a good structure as well. - 131.211.210.17 09:20, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] how many mile =1 acre

First of all, this page is for questions about Wikipedia policies and technical issues. Your question belongs on the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Secondly, a mile is a measure of distance and an acre that of area. One cannot be equal to the other. Dismas|^(talk) 01:13, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

(after edit conflict)

Which has nothing at all to do with using Wikipedia as instructed at the top of this page. Besides all that, a mile is a linear (one dimensional) quantity whereas an acre is a two dimensional quantity. There is no way to convert between the two. Please go to the reference desk with questions of this type. Thanks, hydnjo talk 01:23, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

*hi-five* Dismas and hydnjo

[edit] Reporting Vandalism

Someone has vandalised something I've written. The most perturbing part is that, looking at the history of the page, it looks as if I did the vandalism myself. What's going on? How did they do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by GnatsFriend (talk • contribs) 13:55, 12 January 2006

If you point out the page, it might be easier for us to help you. pfctdayelise 04:40, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

That sounds like someone got hold of your user id, or it could be hackers. However, there are matters, such as a parenthesis having been removed from the following page:

• Signs (film)

I remember for a fact that last year, I was looking at that page, and the information was all there, even the spoiler warning! Maybe the link was broken. Can you help? Chef Clover 22:59, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry! I fixed it! It was some sneak ridding the link of a parenthesis. Thanks anyways! Chef Clover 23:05, 17 January 2006 (UTC) P.S. I have edited my previous message multiple times after posting this one.

[edit] AfD Problem

Hello, I have created a problem at AfD that I don't know how to fix. In closing out one entry as a Speedy, I somehow created a box going all the way down to the end of the page. I would appreciate some help in fixing the problem. Thanks! Johntex\^talk 04:16, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• You probably forgot to place (subst:) a closing template {{ab}} at the end of the page.

[edit] i want to subscribe hollands language articles at my email

hi, i'm interested in learning dutch language.can wikipedia send me articles to my email.my id :kez_jasmine@wikipedia.please reply me at wikipedia or yahoomail :[email removed].thank you for your attention —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kez jasmine (talk • contribs) 15:54, 12 January 2006

I removed your email to protect you from spambots. If you want to read the English Wikipedia article on the Dutch language, go to Dutch language. If you want lessons, I regret to inform you that Wikipedia is WP:NOT a university. You might be interested in wikibooks:Dutch though. (I found that link on our article.) pfctdayelise 06:48, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Converting uploaded photos for use by all Wikipedia language versions

How do I do this? I have uploaded quite a number of photos for the English. See my user contributions. Can this be done automatically? Thanks. Walter Ching 07:41, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• You don't need to convert them, you just need to upload them to Wikimedia Commons if they have a suitable free license (PD, GFDL or a fitting Creative Commons). If you need to upload a large number of images there, you may find Wikimedia Commonplace a useful tool. - 131.211.210.17 09:27, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
• Make sure you are logged in on the Commons while using it. - 131.211.210.17 09:28, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

• • AFAIK, Commonplace is not working at the moment (and hasn't been for some time). See commons:Commons:Tools. Also see Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons for more info about how to do this. pfctdayelise 09:53, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for all the help! Walter Ching 02:44, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Next Canonization

When is the next canonization and who will be canonized? Thank you. H. Mahoney

The Help Desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. Try the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Or try reading Canonization. pfctdayelise 14:27, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Want to insert page on Bonsor family

Dear sir, I am from India. The Bonsor name is very rare over here. I think my family is the only one using it. I want to insert a page about my family name in the wikipedia.org. How do I go about it? Thanks.

Lt Col Surinder Singh Bonsor, G 15 Salunke Vihar, Pune, India--59.95.1.27 13:43, 12 January 2006 (UTC)[email address removed] time7.11 pm jan11,2006

If you think it is worthy of an article, add any information you have to Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Someone will start the page for you, then you will be able to edit it (to add more). pfctdayelise 15:32, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Or you could create an account here and do it yourself. Creating an account is free of charge and easy to do. You don't have to release any information about who you are, where you live, or any financial details. See Wikipedia:Why create an account for more. Dismas|^(talk) 16:00, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

But please read our guidelines for inclusion of biographies first, or someone may nominate your article to be deleted. --Malthusian (talk) 17:52, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 12

[edit] Barnstars and bureaucrats

First question: Why are Barnstars called Barnstars?

Second question: I understand that bureaucrats appoint administrators. Quis bureaucret bureaucrates (sorry, years since I did Latin)? Who appoints them? Who can block/de-bureaucrat them if they go insane? --Malthusian (talk) 17:51, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Barnstars are called that because their realworld counterparts (Barnstars) are painted on ... barns!

Bureaucrats don't appoint admins; the community appoints admins (at WP:RFA) - bureaucrats merely perform the lowly technical function of actually setting the "admin" flag on someone's account. Bureaucrats are appointed in the same way admins are. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:26, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] this has probably been asked before

how do i out a picture in an article?

Does the image already exist on Wikipedia or Wikipedia:Commons? If so, check out Wikipedia:Image markup for instructions on how to insert an image into an article. If it doesn't already exist, you can Special:Upload a suitable image in accordance with Wikipedia's image use policy (e.g. make sure it is licensed under the GFDL or is in the public domain, etc.) and insert it into an article using the aforementioned image markup. See Wikipedia:Images for a bit more information and links to other relevant policies and how-tos. Best, David Iberri (talk) 21:52, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Further to this, please upload all free images to the commons:, save the fair use ones for here. pfctdayelise 00:28, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Audio recording template

Hi - I was wondering why my username isn't showing up correctly on this template: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pearl_Harbor%28part1of2%29.ogg (as well as part2of2). Thanks Athf1234 20:28, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Basically the template was expecting you to specify your username using the "user_name_link" parameter rather than "user_name". I've fixed this and also added a link to your user page [9]. --David Iberri (talk) 21:58, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Templates on Help:Template Page Do Not Render

I am learning about templates from the Help:Template page. Oddly enough, virtually all of the sample templates used on that page do not render for me. Only the template that is a picture of the chess board renders. The rest show up as links to pages that don't exist.

Can someone tell me why this might be? Do I need to configure something?

It's because en: is transcluding the page from meta:. The page is referring to templates that exist on meta:, but not on en:. The solution is to view the page at its original place, at m:Help:Template. (...A particularly unuseful transclusion, one would have to think.) pfctdayelise 00:25, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] January 13

[edit] Gutters on Tables

Is there an HTML or Wikicode way to get gutters(the typographical kind) around tables? I've been unable to find any parameters so far. I'll be at my talk page if you know the answer. Thanks. Karmafist 00:20, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monobook.js

My User:King of Hearts/Monobook.js page often gets deleted for no apparent reason. The last time it happened (a few minutes ago), no one contacted me on my talk page. -- King of Hearts | (talk) 00:58, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

According to Special:Log, it was deleted by User:Francs2000 with the reason given as (user request). I'd say you should talk to him about it. pfctdayelise 01:58, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

... and the deletion log says it was deleted only once, on January 2. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:46, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I found out the problem, the correct page is User:King of Hearts/monobook.js with a lowercase letter. Thanks for your help! -- King of Hearts | (talk) 05:43, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adding a link to policy on create new account page

Hi, I want to add the Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines link to the create new account page, to make it clear what our site policies are. Which template should I edit? - Ta bu shi da yu 03:00, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it's here: MediaWiki:Signupend. pfctdayelise 06:54, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] i would like know about the kalari kurup panicker community..

From the medieval age of kerla, there was many kalaries and kalari gurus were in the middle kerala they were known as kalari kurup kalari panickers? But there no where about the community in the historical books of kerala expect very few? Why so?

Try to state your question more clearly, and take it to the Wikipedia:Reference desk. The Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. pfctdayelise 06:52, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] When is the next canonization?

?

You already asked once. See the response at Wikipedia:Help_desk#Next_Canonization. pfctdayelise 07:11, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Signature problems, again.

My signature recently stopped working. It's now displaying the standard default signature (only my username) instead of the fancy colourful signature it should be. The preferences menu says "Invalid raw signature. Check HTML tags." but I cannot find anything wrong with them. Here is the signature sourcecode:

— [[User:JIP|<font color="#CC0000">J</font><font color="#00CC00">I</font><font color="#0000CC">P</font>]] | [[User talk:JIP|Talk]]

It was working fine yesterday. Why has it suddenly stopped working? JIP 10:27, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

It could very well be a bug in MediaWiki; you might want to raise it on Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). enochlau (talk) 12:36, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I removed the — and saved my preferences. It at least seems to have worked. JIP | Talk 14:50, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] signature

could anybody help me? i copied the signature from my preference-page in de:wp and it doesn't work here. that [[User:DLiebisch|Dirk]] [[User talk:DLiebisch|'''<°°>''']] should look like this: Dirk <°°> but it doesn't. [[User:DLiebisch|Dirk [[User talk:DLiebisch|''&lt;°°&gt;'']]]] 13:22, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know anything aobut signatures, but does Wikipedia:How to fix your signature help?--Commander Keane 14:13, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

You probably didn't place the tick on the "Raw signature (no auto link; don't use templates or external links in this)" option. Gruß, da Pete _(ノート) 14:18, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

that was the mistake, thanks --Dirk | <°°> 14:28, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] cc-by-sa

Are we allowed to import cc-by-sa material (text and images) into Wikipedia? In particular, I'm looking at this other wiki: http://wiki.theppn.org/Ping_Pung. Thanks. enochlau (talk) 14:58, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Images are fine, but text is not. Our model is to specify licenses individually for each image, and allow them to be used together with differently licensed text and images. But we don't allow any text that is not GFDL because we want the text be part of one work without internal license-marked sections, allowing us to work with it and continually improve the text. ❝Sverdrup❞ 13:24, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What to do about incorrect information that keeps on being added?

User:68.249.148.211 and User:69.215.3.6 (probably the same person) keeps on adding exactly the same section in Invision Power Services under the heading products named Invision Download Manager. This is a product that hasn't been announced yet, but a developer has mentioned it in his blog. I have reverted it a few times and told him in the user and article talk pages. What do I do about this? --Phatmonkey 19:32, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

• If they keep on repeating without discussion, it's time for a block (or some stern words from an admin. Try WP:VIP or WP:AIV or if it's really serious: WP:ANI. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:56, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Captilizing common names in the animal kingdom

I was puzzled by the differences I saw in articles and after digging around the help sections read up on the "controversy" and settled debate over whether common names for animalia, botany, etc should be capitalized. I understand that both are acceptable but shouldnt their be consistancy within an article? Especially in cases where it's the same common name?

Example: The Skunk likes to eat snapping turtles. But not all skunks eat Box Turtles. --Surreal 22:15, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

It should be consistent. We are currently discussing changes to this policy at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (fauna). Please feel free to add your input! — Knowledge Seeker দ 22:28, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Will do. --Surreal 22:43, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Organizing and compressing long non-descriptive lists

Is there a way to create columns (more specifically a list which has columns) without using tables? Wiki says tables aren't recommended but would there be a problem with creating a borderless table to list, say species under a family or genus? I've encountered lists which are rather lengthy and hurt the visual appearance of the page.

Ie

• Big Cat........... (bullet) Small Cat
• Ugly Cat......... (bullet) Fat Cat

as opposed to

• Big Cat
• Small Cat
• Ugly Cat
• Fat Cat --Surreal 22:15, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know where the instructions are for this but if you look at the "See also" section of the Star Wars article it will show you the markup that you need to use. You can just cut out the Star Wars info and put in your "Cat" info. Dismas|^(talk) 22:23, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks. --Surreal 22:41, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image Use Policy Regarding Not Copyrighted but Not Licensed Images

What is the policy on using images that are not known to be copyrighted but are not licensed for free use, are not public domain, or are not fair use? I've read through the image use policy and other assorted guidelines pages, but have been unble to find a clear answer for this. I am getting the idea that they cannot be used without having a license, but wanted to check, since the image use policy seems to concentrate on copyrighted images. For example, if there is a photograph that is not copyrighted, is it allowed to be used as long as permission is granted and the creator is attributed? If not, is there any other way to use such images?

Thanks for your help. -- Natalya 23:44, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

"Not known to be copyrighted" is pretty much irrelevant. Unless an image is known not to be copyrighted that is, to be Public Domain, we treat it as if it were copyrighted, because copyright no longer depends on any explicit notice, and is automatic for most images. Unless you have evidence that an image is PD, treat it as under copyright to the creator, adn use it only if it quslifies under Fair use or if you can get a free license. DES ^(talk) 23:53, 13 January 2006 (UTC)