Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 April 19

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[edit] April 19

[edit] Source code of Wikipedia

Hi, I am not a software expert but want to build my home page with wiki features such as allowing editing the page/part of the page. Can I get to know the basic source code to generate the Wiki pages for editing purpose?

02:20, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

See MediaWiki. You may also want to see m:Wiki on a stick, so you can run your own MediaWiki wiki as a personal wiki and investigate how it works. MediaWiki is under the GNU General Public License, which means you can freely download and study its source code. However, if you don't know anything about computer programming, system administration, PHP, HTML, CSS, revision control, MySQL, and a few other handy concepts, you may have some difficulty making headway. But basically, all you need is some intellectual capacity, plenty of time, and the willingness to RTFM as much as it takes. MediaWiki is really a masterpiece, in my most non-neutral point of view, because it pulls together a number of disparate technologies into a remarkably useful tool for collaborative editing. Be sure to click on every link in this paragraph and study the articles for all those terms carefully. --Teratornis 04:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
And lest I forget, see: m:How to become a MediaWiki hacker. --Teratornis 06:37, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cut & paste

Do cut and paste make the text tiny? Jet123 (Talk) 03:13, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It shouldn't, unless you somehow accidentally paste into a set of <small> tags or put it in a template that uses them. Why, has this happened somewhere? Confusing Manifestation 03:34, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 1980's happening's news

1980 to 1989 list of events —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.177.31.136 (talk • contribs) 14:15, 19 April 2007

Um, not sure exactly what you're asking for, but if you want to know about significant events that happened in the 1980s, try looking at the articles on each individual year, from 1980 onwards. Confusing Manifestation 03:32, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vertical search

I see that you are one of the editors on the "search engine" article. I would like to contribute a new sub-chapter on "Vertical Search" to this article. How should I go about doing this? I proposed this contribution in the discussion of the article but have gotten no response. Thanks for your help. --Yoav Pridor 05:17, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

There is already a Vertical search article (and it is linked from the Search engine#See also section). (Before adding extensive text to Wikipedia, search first to see if one or more articles already present the same material, or to make sure you are adding to the most specific article.) Compare Vertical search to your proposed addition; if you have any content not already in Vertical search, you might add to that article. Also, what you call a "chapter" we call a "section"; see WP:LAYOUT. Thanks for your efforts to build Wikipedia. --Teratornis 07:18, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Previous account ? Log-in?

I think I created an account before as "KeithGordon". The password I thought I used before doesn't get me in. Wiki says they are sending me a new password to the e-mail they have for that name. Haven't received it. My email is keithgordon@earthlink.net. Is this the address you have for that username? Maybe there is another Keith Gordon that uses wiki?

Could you email me an answer? 75.6.3.47 05:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Special:Listusers shows a User:KeithGordon. That user has not started a user page yet. Special:Contributions/KeithGordon shows only one edit, to the Lumley Castle article. Was that you? And by "Wiki" do you mean Wikipedia? There are many wikis, so be sure you have the correct one. Since User:KeithGordon has only one edit, if you cannot remember or recover your password, you won't lose much by starting a new account with a similar name (for example: User:KeithGordonwillrememberhispasswordthistime although that's a bit long). --Teratornis 06:48, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question about adding a link

I'm new to Wikipedia, so please excuse my ignorance. I edited a page in good faith by adding a link to a local volunteer group. I believed it contributed to the information and would provide a valuable resource for the reader. The page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawyers_Valley%2C_Western_Australia already includes a link to local businesses, however I think that the link I'd added was discounted because it was promoting a business or some similar reason. I've added a discussion note arguing my reasons for wanting to have the link included and cited an example of a similar link being used on the page of a neighbouring town. It's been some time since that was done and I'm now not sure what happens next, or if I've done the right thing (my first attempt at a discussion item resulted in a comment that I'd forgotten to sign it). Could you please explain if I've followed the appropriate protocol and if a response will be forthcoming? If I should have used some other approch could you please help me to understand the process? I understand that Wikipedia is mostly volunteer run and that there is likely to be a delay in responding, however because I'm a new player I really don't know if I'm waiting in vane. Thank you. Whtiek 06:52, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

You've done very well so far. See Wikipedia:External links#What should be linked, and if you feel that the link should remain, leave a note on Nachoman-au's talk page and discuss it. WODUP 07:04, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Click the history tab above the Sawyers Valley, Western Australia page to see who clobbered your link. That was User:Nachoman-au. (Are you User:Whtiek? (Yes, evidently you are.) If so, you should make a habit of logging in before editing questions on the Help desk, so your contributions will show a record of it, and to keep your edit history all together.) The diff is here. He or she left a largely uninformative edit summary: rv extlink, which merely tells what he or she did, but not why. He or she left more detail on (presumably) your user talk page; had you logged in as User:Whtiek, you would have seen a notice that you had a message waiting. I see your comment on Talk:Sawyers Valley, Western Australia. It's quite possible User:Nachoman-au is not replying there because he or she has not seen the talk page for that article since you left your comment, and because he or she already gave more explanation on your user talk page. Normally, leaving comments on a user's talk page is a more reliable way to get someone's attention, but I'm guessing you had not logged in recently. --Teratornis 07:08, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Check out WODUP's link. Often the existence of a similar link means that one should be deleted too, but no one got around to doing it yet. - Mgm|(talk) 07:51, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photographs of things not be photographed.

I was wondering Wikipedia's policy on using photographs of things which have been asked not be photographed. An example would be a photo taken in a security checkpoint in an airport or a picture of a seaport. By law, you should not take a photograph and signs around the airport usually clearly say. Are we allowed to use these in articles? Had a look around and couldn’t find anything stating the rights and wrongs. Thanks in advanced. Coolmark18 07:18, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

If it's against the law to make the photograph, the photographer can't legally release it, so know we wouldn't be able to use it. A security check point in a working airport is in most cases a big no-no, but an overview of how it looks without causing any security risks may be acceptable. I'm not sure why you mentioned seaports. As far as I know photographing those is perfectly legal. - Mgm|(talk) 07:48, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Wouldn't that prohibit the Abu Ghraib photos? I doubt photography is allowed in military prisons. grendel|khan 15:01, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
If its a security checkpoint photo question, I'd find out who manufactures the equipment and ask them if they'd release some product photos for the purpose you intend, offering to attribute the photos.

[edit] en.Wiki account can't login to other lang wikis...normal?

I just tried to log in to wikipedias in other languages just to find out that my account created on en.wikipedia.org didn't work. Is that the way it is suppose to be? Am I required to create accounts again on different languages of wikipedia?

Thanks.

Springbreak04 07:27, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know, each wiki keeps its accounts independent of each other. Sasquatch t|c 07:32, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • That is perfectly normal. Each Wikipedia has it's own database, which includes its own database of accounts. Until unified login has been made available by developers, you'll have to register in all the projects you wish to participate in. - Mgm|(talk) 07:46, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Now I understand. Thanks for your quick input and explanations. Springbreak04 08:42, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
They are working on unified login, but it's a long way off right now, and has a number of technical problems as well, so don't expect it any time soon--VectorPotentialTalk 15:51, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] windows 2.

Being a novice at computing, I find that I need windows 2. to enable me to view CD training films on my computer. Please advise .

You probably don't, because Windows 2 came out around 1990. I recommend you post more details on the computing reference desk. Be sure to include the exact words for what it is you are asked to do. Notinasnaid 08:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MediaWiki

I have installed mediawiki 1.9.3 on my computer, and I want to make the following thing:

    ddd

dddd

But it's not working. Do I need to install some extension or anything else? Arath 08:40, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe it's something to do with defining <div>'s and <span>'s and whatnot, but I haven't a clue how to do it. Maybe try http://mediawiki.org/. WODUP 09:18, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
You need to copy the JavaScript code for "Dynamic Navigation Bars (experimental)" from MediaWiki:Common.js. Mike Dillon 15:12, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Copy it where? Arath 17:05, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
To MediaWiki:Common.js on your wiki. Mike Dillon 18:04, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help desk for my mediawiki

I created a mediawiki for an internal network and now I would like to create a talk page like the Help desk on there as well. How do I turn the "article" page into a "discussion" page like the Help desk (with the "+" sign as tab)?? Do I need a special template for that?

Vincent Vega II 09:21, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

You can make the + appear on any article (at least in Wikipedia) with __NEWSECTIONLINK__. Notinasnaid 09:27, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
See Help:Magic words#Magic words between double underscores. Also see the wikitext source of this page. --Teratornis 15:49, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sustainable environmentally non intrusive home energy storage

To All, Please look at my request with an open mind and forgive me for being simplistic. I believe we (the world) have the combined knowledge to solve problems and to deliver inovative solutions by gathering ideas from a wide range of experiences. I see as the crux of the problem todayv is that we are unable to store various energy sources werely on to provide us with the standard of living we are accustomed to. In the past this has usually been addressed by hue cost proposals that do provide systems that can store energy for use in peak times. E.g. hydro power from water stored during off peak periods. These are great but expensive, what I propose is to elevate the debate by adding some extra (and often neglected) critera which require us all to rever to first principles.

My project is to devise a 'Sustainable environmentally non intrusive home energy storage system' that is achievable by the suburban home owner. My home is in temperate zones andI realise this will differ from the wide ranging environments through the world.

Without exception we have abundant supplies of the following and more: heat cold sunshine darkness wind waves biomass natural chemical pressure radiation sound radioactive natural gas etc..

From close examination of the possibile energy sources it seems there are limited methods to store energy and convert it into a useable source without harming the environment without emissions.

I narrowed this list down to a small list of possible : positive and negative pressure by a vessel Electricity by super Capacitors heat by a thermal conducive mass biomass .....

and the list quickly runs out

There may be more but be consious of the environmental impact of the storage systems. E.g. a battery lasts a limited life and need to be produced and dispoed of. some recycling can improve the impact but there will be an impact.

So my dilema becomes clearer. energy storage without impacting on the environment. see a use of recycled pressure vessels such as large accumulators as they can last indefinately if correct measures are taken. And pressure is a pure form of energy that can be easily converten to a useable form. I realise the efficiencies of conversion are not very good but i also believe there is ample energy available for conversion to produce enough energy to provide a comfortable lifestyle.

Note well I am not promoting the limiting of energy to reduc impact on environment, I am suggesting that we can covert the available energy to a usable form for storage without emitting harmful emissionns.


If this endevour is of interest to you as an individual then please contribute to the challlange to find Sustainable environmentally non intrusive home energy storage systems that the average joe can build.

yours always inquisitive Geoff 124.187.76.189 03:55, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

--124.187.76.189 09:43, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

This is all very interesting, but do you have a question about Wikipedia for us? Notinasnaid 09:53, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Geoff, if you are inquisitive, you should try looking up the Wikipedia articles about all the concepts you mention above, for example: energy, energy storage, sustainability, pressure vessel, natural gas, biomass, capacitor, radiation, energy conservation, etc. Note that an alternative to energy storage is energy demand management, i.e., intelligently scheduling activities which use lots of energy to fit times of high energy availability. For example, pumping water for irrigation can occur on a flexible schedule, so the best time to do it would be when energy is most available (such as at night on a conventional power grid, or when the wind is blowing if wind power is used, etc.). The energy market can allocate scarcity through intelligent pricing (i.e., charging more for electricity when demand is matching or exceeding supply, and charging less when supply greatly exceeds demand). Historically, consumers have mostly lacked the ability to schedule their demand to match the schedule of supply, and electric meters have generally not logged usage by the hour, but Moore's Law will change that soon enough, by making computers cheap enough to make consumption more intelligent.
Before deciding to try to maintain "the standard of living we are accustomed to," consider that every dynamic economy constantly changes. Once upon a time, people were accustomed to whale oil lamps, later they listened to gramophone recordings, and later still they gathered around a radio to listen to a fireside chat. The standards of living those people were accustomed to would be difficult to reproduce today. Times change, and so do the things people do.
Two of the biggest trends of change today are:
Energy and materials are getting more expensive, while information is getting cheaper. Therefore, consumers will find it attractive to substitute information for energy and materials wherever possible. For example, there will be an increase in computer games for entertainment, and a decrease in entertainments that consume more materials and energy to deliver comparable merriment (we can expect that fewer hot rod enthusiasts will go to the trouble to maintain their wasteful, violent physical vehicles, and more of them will enjoy the vastly cheaper, safer, and more flexible virtual hot rodding afforded by computer games; video conferencing will replace more and more physical travel for business; etc.).
Looking farther into the future, perhaps someday genetic engineering will let humans adapt their bodies to their environments better, so they can actually live where they currently pretend to live, without the need to expend vast amounts of fossil fuel to artificially maintain the mild semi-tropical savanna environment in which hominids evolved. All the animals and plants native to temperate regions and even arctic regions get through the winter outdoors, with no artificial help; why shouldn't humans have the same ability? --Teratornis 17:52, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes I do have a question for the Wikipedia question manager.. Firstly thank you Teratornis for your prompt reply and great reference material.

I accept that there are many and varied ways of converting energy into one form or another but there are few useful forms of storage available to me (as a person). In the usable form of electricity we rely on an unlimited grid that will be available (if you have access to it) day and night to export or import energy, this is not storage of energy. For those without access to the power grid yhis is not the case and currently we cope with batteries.

The point to my discussion is thtat the current methods of manufacturing energy storage devices that I am familar with are not environmentally friendly in the long term. Manufacturing and disposal methods will produce emissions no matter how much is recycled. eg. batteries

My question is: Is there a known energy storage system that can fulfill these criteria "Sustainable environmentally non intrusive home energy storage"?


Perhaps a second question is: Is there a free website forum that Wikipedia can recommend where this level of discussion occurs?

I believe if the problem was achievable from a 'home' level then it would have a greater impact sooner on the environment than waiting for governments to even agree on a protocall before finally start doing instead of talking. As an additional benefit I could reduce my impact on the environment instead of depleting it day in day out.


Regards Geoff 124.187.76.189 03:55, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Main Page gone

Okay, I just went to the Main page and it's not there, or it's got nonsense on it now. What's up with that? Would that be vandalism by any chance or has the link been moved or something? Captain Drake Van Hellsing 10:10, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It was vandalized and has been restored. The main page is always protected so only administrators can edit it. The used administrator account has been revoked. Maybe it was hacked. It also made other vandalism. PrimeHunter 10:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Ah, I see, cause after it was restored, I had just realized that it can't even be edited, so I was wondering what was going on. But yeah, thanks for clearing that up for me. Captain Drake Van Hellsing 10:53, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Remove new diff style

How do you remove the new advanced diff features that appear under the usual ones when you compair pages? Think outside the box 10:51, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Which features do you refer to? Please give a diff which shows them. PrimeHunter 11:08, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
On any article page (these wikipedia pages don't seem to have them), when you click the history tab and use the compare selected pages feature, a centered green triangle symbol appears below the usual page comparision. It then expands to display what is above it but in a different way. This takes a lot of time to load and many times causes the browser to crash. When you hover the mouse over it, it say show improved diff view. Think outside the box 11:32, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
I still don't see it on any comparison a tried. I don't know whether special tools or settings can cause what you describe. Do you see it when you don't log in? If you do then please give a "diff" which shows them. By that I mean to copy the address from your browsers address bar. It's probably displayed at the top of your browser window when you view the comparison. This may not work in all browsers: Mark the address, right click it, choose copy, edit this help page, right click where you want the diff address to be displayed, choose paste. PrimeHunter 12:50, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
On every page I've tried now its there: [1] It did not appear when I not logged in though. Could something I've installed be causing it? I installed popups and wikiEd but I've only been getting this problem in the last three or four days. Also wikiEd only works on firefox and this is happening on internet explorer. Think outside the box 10:01, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
I've removed WikEd and its gone now. Thank you for all you help! Think outside the box 10:05, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] an offline GTK+ version of Wikipedia is not a dream

I want to contribute to Wikipedia I have made a very efficient random access compression, it's so fast it could be used to save articles on CDs or DVDs...etc like other Encyclopedias

it's called .tar.bz2 (Ha ha), no no it's called iTar it use the same very srtong and standard format but with diffrerent compressor

see www.thwab.net/index-en.html

it's GPLed

I need to know the back-end file format and test it on some articles so please pack some articles in let's say physics or mathematics that use almost all formatting features of wikipedia in what ever stable raw (back end) format you are using, then tell me where to download it

NOTE: I don't have internet connection as many people in 3rd world, having such software would be very nice

you may contact me on www.Arabeyes.org mailing list (I didn't put my email here on your request) but it's easy to find it on www.cltb.net/en/ or by google-ing on my name

212.35.75.124 11:33, 19 April 2007 (UTC)Muayyad Saleh Al-Sadi

The "back-end file format" is the wikitext. Hit 'edit this page', and the contents of the box will be the article, as it's stored in the database. There are, of course, other parts of the DB, like the links table, which allows fast lookups in order to know whether to render links as blue or red, for instance. If you want to know more about the database layout, the MediaWiki manual would be a good place to start. grendel|khan 14:43, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
If you want to read Wikipedia offline, see WP:DUMP and m:Wiki on a stick. When cellphone technology reaches your corner of the third world, see WP:WAP. --Teratornis 16:25, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
I complained of having no internet connection and you gave me a 2GB file to download, please I want to contribute to wikipedia by making an off-line version I need a small file to download to test it (let's say all physics articles) and when it's ok I go to the complete 2GB file. And about waiting mobiles! We do have the technology all of it aDSL and GPRS.... but it's very expensive (to get 128kbps aDSL, I have to pay monthly one third of my salary). To help be please someone prepare a small portion of the database for me PLEASE, and tellme please were can we discuss this issue. all commercial encyclopedia have GUI for them, so why wikipedia won't

Errormsg 17:32, 5 May 2007 (UTC)Muayyad Alsadi

[edit] Images from NYPL

I have a question about using images from the NYPL Digital Gallery. WP:PDIR says that there is a licensing fee that goes with there use. Does this mean that we cannot upload images we get from there, even if they were published before 1923? I saw Template:PD-NYPL, but I'm not sure if any images use the tag, are there some examples of images on WP that came from those servers? I ask because I'm wondering what information I need to include in the "summary" of the upload file form. An image such as this has various pieces of information, from medium to library division to digital image id. Should I include all of this, and is there a particular format I should use? Also, some images (the one I linked to included) do not have dates of publication, although they are probably from before 1923. I'm not sure about proof, other than saying that it is apparent based on the other images in the collection, the look of the image, etc. Does not having the artist or the date of publication mean we can't use them? Finally, am I right in saying that pictures of pre-1923 artworks/cultural artifacts can be used even if they were taken recently, as such pictures cannot be copyrighted (so long they are just images of the piece, and not artistic images which include the piece)? Sorry for so many questions. Thanks for your time, Smmurphy(Talk) 13:25, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

That template shouldn't read "PD"-anything; the NYPL doesn't attest to their copyright in a manner satisfactory to us. We still need another copyright tag to explain why a work is in the public domain. Also, there's (I think) some question about what constitutes publication--if a photograph was published in a book on a given date, that's publication, but just the fact that a photo existed before 1923 doesn't, so far as I know, make it public domain, if it was first published (as in, reproduced and distributed, not just exhibited) after 1923. Of course, this gets even more complicated for foreign works. See Hirtle's chart and despair. As for the NYPL charging a fee for use of the images, this would be a problem... if it were enforceable. I never signed a contract or clicked through a license to access these images, and I'll bet you didn't either. It's polite to pay them for said reproductions, but I doubt it's enforceable--as Wikipedia has plenty of images from the NYPL, that appears to be the consensus. grendel|khan 14:20, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Saying "Would be a problem" seems odd, and click through license might not be necessary. The pieces I'm looking at are cartes de visite, which were created often for families or galleries. I don't know the history of the pieces, they may have never been "displayed" in a public forum. From what you linked to, if this type of distribution isn't considered "publishing", most would seem to fall under "Unpublished anonymous and pseudonymous works, and works made for hire (corporate authorship)" of "Unpublished works when the death date of the author is not known", and thus be PD if created before 1887 (many cartes de visite are). Even given these rules, the digital images are often given with restrictions, such as requiring written permission for their redistribution (such as Image:WHS Image ID 45364.jpg. Sometimes it is claimed that copyright rests with the heirs of the creators of documents, such as here. Then again, this may be a copyright notice attached to all images in an archive, whether the copyright has expired or no, or it may just be incorrect. Consensus is a funny thing on WP, I'm wondering about the law. Best, Smmurphy(Talk) 18:51, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citing mailing lists?

I'm looking to change the footnotes in Debian to use citation templates instead of just showing URLs to the mailing list archive: it's briefer, it's more informative, and it's prettier. Do I cite these as a website ("debian-devel-announce mailing list archive")? The site is just an archive; is there something like {{cite newsgroup}} for publically archived emails? {{cite email}} doesn't look very promising. What's the right thing to do here? grendel|khan 13:48, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

You don't have to use the templates, of course (they create more typing anyway) so place the available data in a sensible order and use a style that best suits that data, by using the examples to the right of each template as a rough guide. I have often found that the templates do not exactly match a particular source anyway. Adrian M. H. 16:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
You don't need to fill out all the fields in such a template. It doesn't matter if they don't match what you need exactly. As long as enough identifying information is left, you can use them. -0 Mgm|(talk) 22:22, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
See WP:CITET for a list of citation templates. That page shows a {{cite mailing list}} template, for example. Sorry about the late response, but I just learned of the WP:CITET page from a later Help desk question. (Echoed to your User_talk:Grendelkhan.) --Teratornis 17:57, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picture Change

I took a picture of Celtic Park (a football stadium) last year to use on the Wikipedia page about it, as a fair use image, which to the best of my knowledge it was. I put it online as:

Image:Celtic Park.JPG

Looking at the page recently, I found that the image had been changed to a different one, one taken from the main stand and not the corner stand as I had done. Fair enough, it is a better picture. However, when I clicked on it I realised it wasn’t just a different picture being used, but my picture, Image:Celtic Park.JPG, had been changed from the one I took to the new one. Even stranger, when I clicked on the history of my uploaded file, the original page had changed from my photo to the new one. How is this possible? Can it be changed back? I should point out that the 'fair use' spiel may well not apply to the new picture.

Discosebastian 14:04, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Someone uploaded a new image over the one you had; I reverted it and asked the user who clobbered your original to upload any new images under a different file name, so as not to clobber existing ones. Does that take care of the problem? grendel|khan 14:59, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Public Domain Blockage

HEEEEELO! I have a computer that has been blocked from editing and I did not edit anything. There are a few errors that I can see and it is bugging me. Is their anything I can do to remove this block??????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Athena is hott (talk • contribs) 14:37, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Create an account. It's free. --Kainaw (talk) 14:40, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
You already have an account. Sign in, and you should be able to edit from anywhere. grendel|khan 14:45, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Derby Ward Layouts

Hi there. My question is not a technical one and more on established formatting (if there is such a thing). I am currently editing Allestree (a suburb and ward of Derby in England) with a vague hope of getting it somewhere near featured article status. My problem is that Derby is split up into 17 wards and there is considerable overlap in the articles already featuring as suburbs of derby. Allestree as a ward now contains all of another village called Markeaton yet Markeaton as a village and estate itself has a rich history. Essentially i'm wondering whether to have 17 articles for the wards of derby with the history of all previous villages etc contained in the ward page it is now contained in. I will put this question in the Derby talk page but i was wodering if there is somekind of wikipedia precedent or rule for situations such as these.

cheers

Dommccas 14:46, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi Dommccas. Here are some links that contain some useful information: WP:SIZE, Wikipedia:Article series. There is more related content under the "see also" section of those articles. Putting this question on the talk page of all relevant pre-existing articles was also a good idea, so you should be in good shape. HTH. dr.ef.tymac 15:16, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Cheers i'll have a look into that and post the question on more of the talk pages. It doesn't seem there's much interest in Derby but i'll give it a go Dommccas 15:24, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Very Biased Bausch & Lomb information

Dear Editor: Your Bausch & Lomb information is 1) very negatively biased and 2) very incomplete. To help illustrate my points, please compare the information you provide on Bausch & Lomb versus two of our key competitors: Vistakon (a Johnson & Johnson company) and Alcon. The information for these two companies provides an objective review of the companys' products, corporate information, etc. In contrast, your Bausch & Lomb page is dominated/headlined by information regarding Purevision lawsuits and the ReNu product recall - not our vast range of exceptional pharmaceutical, surgical, lens care and contact lens products.

Also, to further prove my point, did you know that Alcon had a major product recall as well last year on their Systane product? I did not see this mentioned anywhere on your Alcon page, which is another example of the lack of balance in your Bausch & Lomb coverage.

I would much appreciate your attention to this matter. I trust that you will make adjustments to ensure that your readers receive a more balanced view of Bausch & Lomb.

Thank you, Carlos Navarro

Dear Carlos: Thank you for your interest in Wikipedia, and for expressing your concerns about the editorial content of an article. Balance and accuracy are indeed crucial principles against which all Wikipedia content is rightly judged. Since this is a volunteer project, however, there is generally no single individual who maintains editorial control over the article.
Since you have not asserted that the article contains false or unsubstantiated information, probably your best recourse is to express your concerns on the discussion page of the relevant article (here is a link); and to address any deficiencies directly by editing it yourself (Bausch_&_Lomb). To help you get started, I have already copied your comment to the discussion page of the article in question.
If you have any further editorial questions about the article content, the links provided above are the most direct route. If you have questions about how to use Wikipedia, or how to edit articles, feel free to ask here on this page, the help desk.
Thanks again for your comment, if you need further assistance, please feel free to leave a message on my talk page, User:Dreftymac (click leave a message). Regards. dr.ef.tymac 15:10, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New hist thing

The lag is horrible I really don't like it.  Razorclaw ¦ 20070419203650

So far I'm unimpressed with the contribution list lag, though. Could be other factors, but I can't remember it taking 3 minutes for a contribution to show through before. Makes it harder to clean up after vandals that are waiting to be blocked. Oh well. --Pekaje 17:15, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. The significant lag makes it harder to follow fast-moving vandals. --Finngall talk 19:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • What history thing? Things show fine for me and pretty quickly too. - Mgm|(talk) 22:26, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Summary woes

This

popupRevertSummary='Revert to revision %s using [[conifer cone|PINECONES]]';
popupExtendedRevertSummary='Revert to revision dated %s by %s, oldid %s using [[conifer cone|PINECONES]]';
popupFixDabsSummary='Fix [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|Dabs]] using [[conifer cone|PINECONES]]';

Still does not work. And yes, I cleared my cache. Five times to be exact... What is wrong with this?  Razorclaw • 20070419160934

[edit] Most Viewed Pages

About 4 months ago I stumbled upon a most viewed pages monthly list. Are such lists still produced. I can't find them. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 16:59, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

See Talk:Wiki, specifically the to-do list near the top (below the pile of message boxes). The to-do list says:
  • According to WikiCharts statistics, this is the most-viewed article on Wikipedia, with nearly 100,000 views per day.
--Teratornis 20:43, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moving the little grey balls around to proper locations

Hello, In using google earth I noticed that someone labeled a certain hotel at Walt Disney World with the wrong name. When you hit the little grey ball it says Disney Beach Club Villas when in reality that resort is northwest of there. How do i move the grey ball to its proper location.17:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)~

The Help Desk is - as it says at the top of the page - for questions about using Wikipedia. You could post this at the Computing section of the Ref Desk instead. Adrian M. H. 17:45, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
I do not see your question on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing yet. From my dabbling with Google Earth, I know that it uses Keyhole Markup Language files to represent things such as the little grey ball you see. Specifically, Google Earth uses KMZ files which are zipped KML files. You can unzip your KMZ files to KML files and edit them in any text editor, like any other XML file. To move the grey ball, you have to find the block of KML code that displays it, and then edit the latitude and longitude coordinates. The KML file in question might contain some comments that identify its author, and you might report the error to him or her. See the section: Keyhole Markup Language#External links for several tutorials to teach you how to edit KML files. You might also ask some users in Category:Wikipedians who use Google Earth. --Teratornis 20:45, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Search Function

I created a page and want to make sure that it appears in specific searchs on particular words, but cannot figure out how to search for it except to type the full title of the article. Is there any way to appear in searches on just one or two words from the article title?

Thanks!

Please sign your posts so that we know who you are. It is not possible to influence the search system; it looks for the title if you press Go and searches the title and text if you opt to search. You will need to wait some time before searching for your article; if you really need to find it, you should check your contribs, in which it will be listed. Adrian M. H. 17:44, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Note that you can do something similar using redirects. If there is a word that is so connected to your article that anyone searching for it would want to see your article, you can create a redirect. For example, laborer redirects to manual labour. To create a redirect, make a new page that contains only #REDIRECT [[targetarticlename]]. However, if the concept is not so closely tied to your article, a redirect would not be appropriate. In that case, it would be best for a user to just go through the search results and pick the best result for him/herself. 140.247.240.125 17:49, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation Page has been asked for a category

Hi! I created the disambiguation page for Freedom Press to differentiate between Freedom Press (US) and Freedom Press (UK) Someone is asking for a category. But should a disambiguation page have a category? That doesn't seem right to me (but I'm pretty new around here). Thank you!71.130.9.105 17:59, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It looks like someone beat you to it. There is a category for these pages at Category:Disambiguation. Adrian M. H. 18:04, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
You add the category merely by adding the standard disambiguation page footer: {{disambig}} Nihiltres(t.c.s) 18:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I am confused

Hello. I have an interest in editing and adding articles about California ski areas, of which I am somewhat knowledgable. I am a member now, and tried to edit an existing page. I clicked on the "edit this page" button and was asked to save the file, which I did. The file was saved as "index.php". When I click on that file, I get the Windows File association page as follows"

http://shell.windows.com/fileassoc/0409/xml/redir.asp?Ext=php

Do you have any information on what this is or how I can avoid it?

Thanks.

Rick

You save an edit by clicking the "Save page" button below the edit box. The button is a part of the page and not a part of your browser. PrimeHunter 18:55, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
It sounds to me like the questioner has set up his Windows machine to open PHP files with some other program. So, IE is refusing to load (and display) any page ending in "php". I don't use IE (or Windows), but I have heard of this happening. --Kainaw (talk) 18:58, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Try checking your preferences, opening pages in an external editor should be turned off. - Mgm|(talk) 22:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Content from Deleted Article

Yesterday the article concerning Ipswich Town F.C. fanzine TWTD was deleted. In the discussion debating its deletion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Those_Were_The_Days_%28Fanzine%29), a suggestion was made that the content of the article should instead be included in the main article for Ipswich Town. Although I'm expecting to have to start from scratch, I'm interested to know if there is any way that I can find the content of the deleted article so that I can act upon the above suggestion.

Thanks,

Ncadc2004 18:47, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Item 3 in Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted?#What you can do about it says there are some administrators who may provide you with the content of the deleted page on your request. --Teratornis 20:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User contributions

Hi. I noticed that User:71.155.204.126 vandalized Carmelo Anthony. I reverted the vandalism, warned the user, and then went to check the user's contributions to see if he/she had vandalized any other articles. However, the edit to Carmelo Anthony did not appear on the user's contribution page. I refreshed and cleared my browser's cache, but the edit still didn't show up. What's going on here? Also, if I'm asking this in the wrong place, I apologize and please direct me to where I should be asking this question. Thanks! Darry2385 19:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

It's been asked already at Wikipedia:Village Pump (technical), the contribs are just lagging right now. --LuigiManiac 19:10, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Oh. Thanks for your quick reply. Darry2385 19:12, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editing Wikipedia

If anyone can edit in Wikipedia, how do I know that the information I am receiving is accurate?Larebear37 20:08, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

  • Because everything should be cited by reliable sources. Too many people seem to forget that when writing articles, though. When statements are cited, you can examine some evidence in favour of their voracity. Adrian M. H. 21:07, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Yes, there's that, although reliable sources are often not accurate either. Don't look at me, though. When I write articles, they're cited. Doesn't mean they're accurate, though. WilyD 21:12, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
  • It's possible in most cases to take steps to assess the voracity of sources that you want to use, but are not entirely confident about, simply by doing some secondary research. It won't count as OR, since the information itself has come from the published source that you intend to cite. I frequently cross-check sources that appear reliable at face value, and it has paid off on occasions. Adrian M. H. 21:46, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Questions

what is the copyright and the authors of the Empire State Building Article?

[edit] Editing sound files

Anyone willing to help edit four sound file interviews for Wikinews and Wikipedia's use? -- Zanimum 20:41, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

What do you want done? How much time will it take do you think? I might be able to help? Sancho 21:13, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how can I delete a page/entry I created & just start over?

how can I delete a page/entry I created & just start over? hcdcc

Place {{db-author}} at the top of the page. That is if no other users have made substantial edits to it. Dismas|(talk) 22:10, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
If you want to replace all the content in an article, while keeping the article name, just click the edit tab at the top, select all the text in the edit window, delete it, then start typing fresh text. You don't have to delete the article and re-create it, if you are happy with the article name. If you want to change the name as well, you can move the article. That will keep the history intact. --Teratornis 00:10, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
Just to clarify, you never actually created an article in the first place, what you did was write article text on the documentation page for Image:The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee.pdf--VectorPotentialTalk 00:15, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alt key woes 2

I am using my laptops numberpad and the alt codes 1-15 wont work nor will half the other codes. As to what I said, I can only get approx ½ of all the alt key codes advailble. I know one option is to buy a numeric key pad but I want to see if its something I can fix without buying it. Regards,  Razorclaw ⊚ 20070419221452

You might have the number lock on, which uses the right hand alphabet keys as a number pad. anthony[review] 23:05, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image Help, PLEASE!!!

HOW DO I SCALE DOWN AN IMAGE!?!—Preceding unsigned comment added by CurranH (talk • contribs)

Do so like this:
[[Image:IMAGE NAME|50px]]

to force it to 50, or put 40px for 40, or 500 for 500...etc...

anthony[review] 23:06, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

(Edit Conflict)*[[Image:EGRHS PAC.jpg|thumb|2000px]] and play with the pixel value until you get it to a size you like--VectorPotentialTalk 23:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] british who immigrate to canada

who were the british?when did they come to alberta?what do they brought to alberta?how they come to alberta?where they community started in alberta? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.103.8.44 (talk • contribs) 23:13, 19 April 2007

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. For factual and other kinds of questions use the search box or the Reference desk. WODUP 23:22, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
It's interesting to paste the entire question into Google search on Wikipedia. That finds, for example, Cowboy#Cowboys in Canada. --Teratornis 00:07, 20 April 2007 (UTC)