Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 December 10

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1 December 10

[edit] December 10

[edit] Remove Picture

How do I remove a page and Picture I created? the page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Copy_of_RM_Logo.jpg

WCJohnston 00:21, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Simply place {{db-author}} on the page you would like to be deleted. — Seadog 00:24, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I have deleted it for you. In answer to your original question, only administrators can delete pages (and images), but you can request a page be deleted by adding {{db-author}} to the page as described above. Happy editing! Prodego ^talk 01:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changing an Article Name

How do I change the Name of an Article from Envision high school to Envision High Schools? MacDude415 03:33, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

You can click on the move button at the top of the page. However, you will need to have been registered for at least 4 days in order to complete this function, and you have only been registered for a day in a half. Someone can complete this for you, if you'd like. You want the article at Envision High Schools? Patstuart^talk|edits 03:34, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Done. -Patstuart^talk|edits 03:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Parameter values through nested templates

Hi, i'm testing a template A which uses a parameter M to specify a value Z. Inside this template A, I also use a parameter N through which I call a template B. Inside this second template, i specify other parameters but also the same parameter M from the parent template. But i don't know how or if it's possible to "pass" the parameter M's value Z, in the parent template (A), to this child template (B). Have i made myself clear? I hope so... Could anyone help me? Parutakupiu ^{talk || contribs} 03:44, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I think you are refering to your template experiments in your sandbox. You could try subst: which copies the code across (though you may not want that). I'm going to point you to Category:User template coder which is full of people who can code templates well. Sorry that you're getting told to go all over the place. :S James086^{Talk | Contribs} 04:02, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Not at all! Thank you for redirecting me. I just want to solve this. Parutakupiu ^{talk || contribs} 04:13, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Hmm... you forgot to point me to where i could find help, after all, lol. Parutakupiu ^{talk || contribs} 05:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

For some reason, it didn't display when he tried to link to "Category:User template coder". Just search for that and see if it helps. -- Kesh 06:07, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

That's because he used [[Category:User template coder]], which added the Help desk to that category (now fixed by making the link [[:Category:User template coder]]). Confusing Manifestation 12:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Oops, I thought I had put the colon in there. Sorry for the inconvenience. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 12:07, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Funny enough, i noticed and found strange that category link on the bottom of the page and i thought it would be the easiest way: to ask a pro on the subject. Thanks again, people! I'll be visiting this page more often ;) Parutakupiu ^{talk || contribs} 19:32, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New article

I'm attempting to write a new article (linked from my userpage), and have found multiple sources concerning the company in question. One is a "local" newspaper article, while two others qualify as a national newspaper. There's also two other references in a pay-for database, which I have identified (but I don't yet have access to their article.)

These articles are unique. However, the primary focus is around a current event involving the company's bankruptcy and it's impending buy-out - there is notability asserted by stating that the company is large and significant (i.e. third largest).

I still think that something is missing from my sources, even though it can survive a speedy or prod - can you think of anything offhand? --Sigma 7 04:15, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Turning URLs into sources

Hi. I'm working on an article and I need to start sourcing it. I'm crap at links, and the tutorials (which I'm sure are great, it's my problem) make my head swim.

What I need to do specifically is take a URL and have it appear as "PBS article on subject", and so on with three URLS.

Also, I'm still a little confused about citation. Currently there isn't anything in there that I believe would be controversial, but doesn't it lend credibility to the article to through in some citations?

Thanks for your time, NinaEliza 04:22, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi, as for the links part, if I understood well, you want this – PBS article on subject – correct? Then, all you have to do is this:

[http://URL PBS article on subject]

Don't forget to leave a blank space between the URL and name). Parutakupiu ^{talk || contribs} 04:34, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

But if you are doing these for references, sometimes when you try for an FA or GA the reviewers will get picky and ask them to be made using Template:Cite web. Cbrown1023 04:36, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Great thanks to you both. This could be an featured article or a good article someday, so I'm going to try the Template:Cite web. Pray for me.

NinaEliza 05:27, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Success! I did five of them, and the look too cool for school. Thanks again!NinaEliza 06:57, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This sounds nuts but???

I just checked my contributions and an edit of the John T. Scopes article appears for 16:52, 7 December 2006. that I did not do. This is a problem as this article I'm sure is controversial and I do not wish to associated with this edit. --Droll 05:30, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Try WP:RFO. Cbrown1023 05:36, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah. HELP!!! --Droll 05:36, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, you managed to revert a year's worth of work too. D'oh! (I've reverted) Patstuart^talk|edits 05:38, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

The point is that I did not do it!!!!!!!!!!!! I think some on spoofed --Droll 05:45, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you want to change your password. It's a possibility, I guess. More likely, it was a server hiccup, or you accidentally did it. The fact that it has an accurate edit summary makes it look like you did it. Do you use any software like VandalProof? One of those might have goofed. Patstuart^talk|edits 05:47, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a I took it to WP:RFO--Droll 05:55, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I would have thought this would be for the Check Users so they could see if more than one IP was logging in as him. Of course the people with Oversight often have Check User Priviliges aswell so they would likely help anyway. If you want to try the Check Users go here: Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser. Hope it helps. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 06:07, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Does <br/> & <br/> Do?

Danke.100110100 05:32, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Well you can basically see. It breaks your sentences/edits. — Seadog 05:34, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

It is HTML code that forces a new line. In a wiki it is not usually used but it comes in handy for poetry where you do not want a list or a new paragraph. For example:

This is line one.
This is line two.

Notice that the preferred syntax is <br /> --Droll 05:42, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] div

What exactly does </div> do? I only seem to use it when adding references down the bottom of a page.

†he Bread 06:15, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

To put it bluntly; it ends certain codes. The fact that it contains the "/" means it is closing the tag so there will be a <div> (though it may be <div class> or <div style>) further up the page. You are probable using it to "close" references like this

<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

You can also create boxes and things with <div></div> tags such as the decoration of my user page (edit it and have a look). To create boxes and things you use code like this:

<div style=""></div>

I'm not great with these tags but I'm ok. They are used extensively in templates and for making the references section of an article. If you want to know more feel free to ask. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 06:28, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Technical answer: it's a block-level element for Cascading Style Sheet declarations.

Non-technical answer: it allows you to make paragraph-wide (or page-wide) changes to whatever is within the div tags. Tito xd^(?!?) 06:48, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, allways wondered what it did, thanks

†he Bread 21:21, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverting a Image that has been changed

I found an Image that has been changed to something irrelevant but Everytime I try to use the revision button it seems to work. Now the image page shows the right picture but the article shows a streched out version of the old one. The page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_OS and the image is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Newton_logo.gif

I tried to get on the IRC channel but it seems to be blocked from my college, the java app equally fails to connect on both mac and pc. ThanksMicrll 06:17, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Weird. -Patstuart^talk|edits 06:26, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Which Part? Micrll 06:33, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I really wish there was a faster way I could contact an admin or moderator if I have questions.Micrll 06:34, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

In Internet Explorer 7 it appears fine (with a lightbulb), however in Firefox 2 it has the other image stretched. It is indeed strange. I can only suggest force refreshing your browser (press Ctrl + F5) and it will refresh loading the page fully as opposed to a normal refresh. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 06:35, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

On my end, there's a totally different image displayed on Apple Newton OS. When I click the image, i get a light bulb, but what displayed on the page is [1]. Patstuart^talk|edits 06:38, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

The bad image lives here but I don't know how to purge it. --Droll 06:41, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Also Sorry about all the extra reverts...I was confused...I tried to totally refresh it, didn't work also tired it in IE 7 and safari for the mac, still no luck. The lightbulb is the proper image.Micrll 06:47, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

The First aid image may need to be deleted by an admin. You could try listing it at WP:IFD with a clear message of why you want to have the 2 old versions deleted (maybe a link here) and hope the admin gets it right (asking them to contact you for further explanation if it sounds confusing). Though it runs the risk of it being deleted outright. Still, if it's playing up it might be worth it. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 06:56, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Got it. I purged the image page and it created a now thumb.--Droll 07:00, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Cool I see it fixed, Thanks, Now if only I could get onto the IRC channelMicrll 07:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

In the saci article, someone delete the picture. Said it was bad and unnecesary. I liked it. Put it back or show me how. Please

Which image are you referring to? You might want to ask on the article's Talk page why it was deleted. Don't forget to sign your comment with four ~ symbols! -- Kesh 02:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] giving credits for information

is giving credits to the information provided allowed? example Mayuko_Aoki#Sources —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Smashwiki (talk • contribs) 06:44, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

It would be better if it were in citation format. -Patstuart^talk|edits 06:49, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What percentage of users (roughly speaking) register with their real names?

I'm curious about the general consensus on this issue. Although no doubt it's been discussed before, I was unable to find references to previous discussions. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.154.220.74 (talk) 06:49, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

I'm looking through the List of administrators, and it looks to be about 50% either way. users that only edit once or twice and then leave probably do it less, but admins are a good gauge for regular users. -Patstuart^talk|edits 07:59, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Hold on - you've made an assumption there. Charles Knight is my pen name, it's not my real name. With explictly asking people all you can say is that 50% of the administrators use real sounding names not that they use real name --Charlesknight 13:29, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies. I also found some additional discussion of this at [[2]]. 141.154.220.74 17:14, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Does <tt> & <tt/> Do?

Thanks.100110100 07:17, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

See below. -Patstuart^talk|edits 07:21, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

This is what tt does! — Seadog 17:16, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Does <br> & <br/> Do?

Danke.100110100 07:19, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you'd like to check out http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/ for HTML related questions. -Patstuart^talk|edits 07:20, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

We also already answered your question above. Please check previous answers before asking the same question twice. -Patstuart^talk|edits 07:20, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IPA Pronunciation instruction on article pg

How do i go about adding the above to my article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mattbray (talk • contribs) 07:32, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

You might like to try the {{IPA}} template, as in {{IPA|['keːɹəˌɭɐ]}} -Patstuart^talk|edits 07:56, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image Use

I read the rules about image use, but I'm not quite sure I understand them, so I'll simply ask this here. I have an image on a site that requires permission from an administator to use the image elsewhere, and I got it. Can I use it in Wikipedia, or no? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Narcotics faerie (talk • contribs) 07:39, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

See Wikipedia:Example requests for permission and Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission particularly the top of Example requests for permission. That will explain the process. You may need them to release the image under GFDL. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 07:48, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sending

Hi. I'm a first-time user. I tried asking a question but could not find a method of sending it. Pretty basic, but I only need to be told once. Thanks for help and for the great site.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Marg37 (talk • contribs)

Um, what's your question? I'm not understanding.-Patstuart^talk|edits 07:55, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Well you came to the right place. Just ask your question on this page. Edit this page and someone will reply underneath (like I have). If you want to ask a particular user a question, edit their talk page (it will be called discussion at the top). James086^{Talk | Contribs} 07:58, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] POV and AfD

I remember seeing somewhere recently that POV was not, in and of itself, considered to be a strong reason for AfD, because the article could instead be improved to be more NPOV. Now I can't find this statement again. Can anyone help me track this down? — coelacan talk — 08:19, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

*Cha-king* - Patstuart^talk|edits 08:22, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks so far. That's in the spirit of it, but it's referring to use of certain texts in an article. What I saw (and what I need to deal with) was about article deletion policy, AfD, and what were considered valid reasons and what weren't. — coelacan talk — 08:54, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Oh! I found it. It was really obvious too but I overlooked it. Right there on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion where it says "The argument "non-neutral point of view" (violates WP:NPOV) is often used, but often such articles can be salvaged, so this is not a very strong reason for deletion either." And at the top of the page it also says "For problems that do not require deletion, including ... POV problems, be bold and fix the problem or tag the article appropriately." Cool. — coelacan talk — 09:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Maybe this? Or even part of the rest of the page? It says that if the article is biased, it should be tagged with {{npov}} or {{POV check}} and listed on Wikipedia:Pages needing attention. Hope it helps. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 09:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, good, that too. Now I'm well armed. Thanks! — coelacan talk — 09:06, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links to blogs

I encountered a few times that articles were linked to blogs. Personally, I feel that blogs should not be linked to, but is there an official Wikipedia policy regarding this? Thanks. --Joshua C hi e w 10:57, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

There is External Links which is the policy on external links, it does say that links to blogs should be avoided, here so yes. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 11:13, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks again.--Joshua C hi e w 11:18, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading

In trying to upload an article I am told that "." is not a suitable file format. I cannot see the "." to which this error message occurs. Please adviseKeithredfern 13:47, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

You don't upload articles. Uploading is for images. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 15:56, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User Page as Sandbox?

Is it permissible to use your User Page as sort of a personal Sandbox? Say that you want to try something out, then show it to someone to see if it looks or reads correctly. If you do it in the regular Sandbox, it likely won't be there for long. But if you experiment on your User Page, it will be there to show, and when it is OK, you can move it to where you want it. (Or might it be better to create a subpage, like User Page/Personal Sandbox?) — Michael J 13:47, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Both are permissible, the latter idea smarter. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:48, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes I would hate to see your pretty userpage being turned into a sandbox...but it is your call. Try Creating User:Michael J/Sandbox That would be even better. — Seadog 13:50, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

My "pretty userpage"? You obviously haven't looked at it lately — it's a mess! ... Anyway, thank you both. I think I will create a personal Sandbox subpage. (But I will let anyone play in it!) — Michael J 14:09, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] logging in

I have tried to set up an account. This is the first time I have tried. It keeps coming up incorrect password. I would like to join . Please help. beverly [email removed] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 162.40.23.3 (talk) 15:49, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

If you don't already have a Wikipedia account, you need to create one first. —P^urple ^RA^IN 16:16, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Keyboard Thingy

Hi,

which key(s) on the keyboard is this: | (its used when you do a internal link but you want to display the link as a different name as the page its linking to, amoungst other things).

Thanks, --William dady 16:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

It's a vertical bar. On US keyboards it's usually shift-backslash. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:33, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

On UK keyboards too. It can also be inserted from the 'Wiki markup' section of the symbols below the edit box. --ais523 10:25, 11 December 2006 (U T C)

It's also sometimes call a 'pipe', which I believe stems from Unix/Linux use of it to "pipe" the output from one program into another (and is used in the phrase Piped links. Confusing Manifestation 10:04, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] creating a biography

I'd like to submit a name and create a biography for that name. Please tell me the steps?

Thank you

Scott Sobel

Scott Sobel, President and cofounder of Media & Communications Strategies LLC in Washington, DC (www.macstrategies.com) has an extensive background in national and international crisis, litigation, government, corporate and news media communications; and is an award-winning former journalist at the major market and network levels. Additionally, Scott Sobel was a team leader and the senior vice president at an international agency winning a recent Holmes Report - Crisis Agency of the Year award. In the past, he has represented major corporations or led award-winning public relations teams that had as clients such companies as: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc., Aviation Division, AT&T and AT&T Broadband, Tele-communications, Inc., many of the world’s premier law firms, a major order of the Catholic Church, HVB Bank, Farr Miller & Washington financial managers, a national wind farm issue client, entertainment and sports celebrities, various former US congressmen and the head of a major US political party … plus many more significant clients.

Sobel has received a long list of journalism and public relations awards including national cable industry Beacon awards, EMMYs, AP, Sigma Delta Chi and various state broadcasters association awards and community service awards and commendations ranging from local police departments, Special Olympics and mayors, to the US Army National Guard to US governors and congresspersons.

Born in New York City in 1951 and raised in Port Washington, LI, he is the father of five. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Scott sobel (talk • contribs) 16:13, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

Creating an article about yourself is strongly discouraged, please see Wikipedia:Autobiography. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:45, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ALSO

Also on a different topic, kinda, if you know the name of an image that is definately uploaded to wikipedia how do you find it? Iv tried typeing it in to the "search" box on the left hand side of the page, ive tried doing the same on wiki commons and iv eventried typing it in the adress bar but i cant find it. It definately exists!

thanks, --William dady 16:17, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

There are a few things you can try.

If you're using the "search" box, you need to include the "Image:" prefix. So if you know that your image was called WilliamsPhoto.jpg, you'd type Image:WilliamsPhoto.jpg into the search box.
If you know that you uploaded it, you can look at your contributions list. Depending on your settings, there is probably a link to this list labeled as "my contributions" at the top right of your screen when you are using Wikipedia. You can also look at just the images you have contributed. These contributions lists will provide links to the images you have uploaded.
If you know that someone else uploaded it, but you know who, you can look through his contributions list. Just type http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/XXX in the address bar of your browser, but replace XXX with his user name.
If none of these gets you the image you want, try Special:Prefixindex. Set the dropdown to look at the Image namespace, then type the first few letters of the name of the image you are looking for into the box that says "Display pages with prefix:". That way, if you made a small mistake in the image name, you could still find it.

Hope this helps! FreplySpang 19:46, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Add Jackpin to Wikipedia

I need to know if you can add David "Jackpin" Jackson to Wikipedia?

He is the man who started the Woman's Combatative Sports Association (WCSA) and hosted 3 international Women's Wrestling Conventons (WWC) 98-2000. These Conventions drew Combatants, Companies, and Fans from all over the world to see the only true Women's Wrestling Convention. Amatures to Professional attended and made "Herstory". Jackpin is known world wide for this event and for his work to open the doors for women who compete in combatative sports.Jackpin 16:51, 10 December 2006 (UTC)Jackpin

Anyone can create an article, so you can too! Just search for the name you want the article under, and click on the red link that comes up on the search page. However, make sure the person is notable. You need to find sources to cite which show this person is well-known enough to include in an encyclopedia.

Also, it's very bad form to create an article about oneself. Noting your username, if you are David Jackson, it'd be a bad idea to create your own article. Instead, just put all your personal information on your own userpage. Hope that's helpful. -- Kesh 17:14, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

It would be a WP:COI if you created it yourself. Cbrown1023 17:15, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ongoing problems with wikipedia?

I'm interested in reading about ongoing technical, administrative, and philosophical concerns within the Wikipedia community.

For example, the current discussion mechanism, i.e., users leaving messages on each others talk pages, is quite awkward and makes conversations difficult to follow, particularly if more than two people are involved. I think it needs to be replaced with something that streamlines communication and surely these types of issues (as well as many others) have been examined before.

Can someone point to the right place to look for such discussions? 141.154.220.74 18:19, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

You're looking for the Village Pump. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 18:26, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help Me My Template Doesn't Work

I made a template but it won't show up on my page. (More info - User_talk:Jake95#Help) Jake95 18:54, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I've looked at it, and the template you're referring to, template:user crgs, doesn't seem to exist. Do you have a naming problem, perhaps? Patstuart^talk|edits 19:02, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it was a typo that I corrected for the user. The template is actually located at cgrs, not crgs like the user was pointing to on the user page. Metros232 19:33, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weird redirect problem

I recently changed the following redirect article. Israel-Palestinian conflict (Recent history). previously, it pointed to Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I changed it to point to History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, for about 12 hours, it contiued redirecting to Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even though i rechecked the code several times, and the redirect tag was still pointing at History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This seems bizarre in the extreme. how can a computer do something which it is not programmed to do? I just tested it, and now it does point to the "History of the..." article. So maybe this is all moot. However, I am still puzzled by this whole thing, and would like to ask about this. has anyone else encountered this problem? What causes it? Does it have to do with something like the memory cache? I did make sure to refresh all the pages repeatedly, when i encountered this problem. i would be grateful for any help or answers which you could provide. Thanks. --Sm8900 19:28, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

This is often a caching problem - your web browser has saved the older version of the page, so when you go back to it the browser doesn't notice that the page has changed, and so shows the old version. See Wikipedia:Bypass your cache for a little more information. Confusing Manifestation 10:01, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] moving

i made a biorgraphy on someone on wikimedia(META), but how do i put that on on to WIKIpiedia?

[edit] math rendering in Firefox

I have realized that recent versions of Firefox 1.5 (currently 1.5.0.8) display wikipedia pages containing math written in latex code just as that code. Ie not as png or mathml, etc, even when I log in and set any of those options in my preferences page.

No problem like this one eg with IE 6.

Should I go to Firefox 2? Any pointer?

Regards, Alejandro

Alejandro, in which articles are you seeing this. Using ff1.5.0.8 I'm looking at Hermitian matrix, Discrete Fourier transform, and Elliptic curve, all of which have a fair amount of math markup, and all of which render fine (as PNGs) for me. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

For example:

Fresnel_diffraction

Here, the svg image at the upper right (Diffraction geometry,...) does not show either. Only a box with the caption is shown.

The same problem with math rendering occurs with the pages that you mention.

On the other hand no problem occurs with Mozilla 1.7.12

Whether it is a configuration issue in ff, I do not have any idea. I do not see any other problem regarding the display of images (I am replying with ff and the wikipedia logo in this editing page shows fine, etc).

As you know, Firefox is updating automatically in the late times. And I do not look at wikipedia so often. So I do not know for certain when and for what version of ff this problem arose. For sure, there was no problem some months ago.

Alejandro

That SVG works fine for me. I think your problem is probably one of:

You're unlucky enough to have some bad images in your image cache (or in one of the caches between you and the image server). Try clearing your cache using the method described at Wikipedia:Bypass your cache
Your Firefox installation (or, if your on Linux/MacOS, some library it depends on) is broken. A reinstall might fix that.

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:41, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I will look at the cache. However, I would exclude the second possibility as the previous report was for Firefox 1.5.0.8 under Windows XP and now I have booted to Debian Sarge, and here, with version Debian-1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.5-0bpo1 I observe exactly the same problem. While no problem occurs, with Mozilla 1.7.8-1sarge3, or Konqueror 3.3.2. It would be very hard to belieive that these two completely independent installations could be broken.

I have bypassed the cache, cleaned the cache and disabled the cache, both in Debian Sarge and Windows XP without any improvement. I think that I will try installing Firefox 2.0

Finlay,

png images did not show because the option "load images from the originating site only" was chequed. Do wikipedia images originate from elsewhere?

Alejandro

[edit] Tagalog

Do you have a wikipedia in Tagalog?

Sure, at http://tl.wikipedia.org/ -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:03, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FILM article

Hey I'm not a regular user, and I am not registered (and HELL, its taken me 20 minutes to find a single way of contacting someone directly - how AKWARD you guys are!!!) but on your article about film, a vandal has been messing around with the facts and I was hoping to use the article as a resource for my essay. I'm sure I'm messaging the wrong department, but if you made it easier I'd email the right people. is there any way you can restore the "proper factual" content for your article on Film?

Each article has different volunteer editors. To read them, just click the "Discussion" page at the top of the article, then the "+" button to add a comment. That's it! Notinasnaid 20:59, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

To answer the user's question, the article on film was vandalised, but the changes were reverted very quickly - you must have viewed the article at just the wrong time. In future, if you find vandalism you can revert it yourself, see reverting vandalism for instructions on how to do this. Hope that helps! — QuantumEleven 09:23, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Editing article on sister

My sister is a celebrity, with her own article on Wikipedia. From the content and the profiles of the writers of this article I assume it has been created by well-meaning fans. The text is fine, absolutely fine, but short and convoluted. I would like to tidy it up, expand it and add a couple of photographs. My question regards Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Verifiability. Part of the text I would like to add relates to my sister's professional beginnings. She has spoken about these in interviews over the years, so I have some references, but I will be citing facts for which I have no source to quote. May I proceed? Are there any caveats?

I would also like your opinion on the user name I should use if you allow me to go ahead. I was thinking of creating one with my real name solely for this purpose, in order to give credence to the edit, but I realize it will be unverifiable and could have the reverse effect. What do you suggest?

Grateful in advance. Dennywuh 21:06, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, everything has to have a verifiable source (which means that in 10 years time some future wikipedia editor can go back and check a source out, and confirm that it really says what the original person added to wikipedia). So we do need everything to come from a reliable, verifyable source. For the stuff that's in interviews (print, magazine, radio interviews are fine, as long as you can cite the publication with specific precision that a future fack-checker will be able to verify it without pulling all their hair out). For stuff you know, but can't cite, that's more of a problem. In that case I'd recommend you author some kind of press release, interview, or something like that - and release that in the usual way your sister releases info to the media. So if your sister has an official professional website (most celebs do) then you can add it to there. Then you (or ideally someone else) can use that as a reliable, verifiable source for the article. I must, however, caution you that editing the article of someone you know (as with articles about yourself, your company, etc.) is inevitably something of a conflict of interest, which is (with the very best will in the world) going to hamper your ability to write objectively on the subject. Personally I'd recommend you add your comments, citations, suggestions etc. to the article's talk page, but not edit the article yourself. You'll generally find that, with reasonable supporting citations, the editors of that article will be very keen to improve the article with your help. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:15, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Aside: I thought to myself "hmm, I wonder who Dennywuh's sister is? I'll check his contribs". From that I've concluded that your sister is Keith Richards (although I confess my methodology may be somewhat flawed). I for one look forward to seeing many photos of Keith Richards as a little girl :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:17, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Excellent! No, I've been careful never to edit her page. And now I'm not going to/don't have to. I will follow your suggestions, for which I'm grateful. Thanks a lot. Dennywuh 21:25, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Current discussion at Virtual classroom

At the Virtual classroom, we've moved on to assignment number three, which is a question and answer session on fighting vandalism on Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Tutorials
Introduction to Wikipedia
Introduction to editing
Scartol, on template use and design
Dweller, on Featured Article Candidates
Yuser, on fighting linkspam
Learning the ropes
Elaragirl, about deletion and deletionism
The Rambling Man, on vandalism
Grutness's guide to stubbing
External interfaces - let's compare
Internal interfaces - what do you use?
Getting an article to featured article status
Basic dispute resolution
Adding citations
Reporting and dealing with vandals
Fundamentals of editing

 The Transhumanist   22:24, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] See How the people who stalk me on line will not let me search your site?

Dear Wikipedia;

I believe I have been the victim of some idiots hired by the Government to slander and lie about me. They would call me the Anit-Christ, John the Apostle, John The Baptist and other things and rewrite the history to reflect me. John Anthony Yost the man who writes, "Your Life in Print." Only liars hide the content and will not let the victim in on the content they write. To the victors history can be written, well they lost and they cannot rewrite history. We all want the truth and the news reports how vandals on your site rewrite history at will and you have no expert oversight. You should not allow ameteurs to rewrite history it hurts people. You should have pages where your thoughts on the subject can be heard, not edited. Please tell me what Ceif means, they are stupid and drug addicts of the Governmet. I am a vitim of "directed energy weapons being used on me 24/7.

                                  Signed Editor and Chief,
                                    John Anthony Yost

A fascinating case study. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 23:38, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What is the approximate size of the entire wikipedia database?

Is it possible to locally mirror it and receive regular updates? 141.154.220.74 23:52, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

You can get them from http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/ The zipped text of just the current state of each article comes to over 3 Gb - I don't know how big it is once you unzip that and load it into MySQL, but the last time I tried it took about a day to import. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:56, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Note that the 3 GB does not include images, just the text. While it's possible to locally mirror Wikipedia, you'd need a webserver running MediaWiki, which is not a trivial requirement. If you're looking for an offline version of Wikipedia, there isn't a complete one, but there are various CD versions out there (see [3]). — QuantumEleven 09:18, 11 December 2006 (UTC)