Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 19

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1 December 19

[edit] December 19

[edit] Which email address(es) do OTRS volunteers monitor?

According to the Wikimedia Foundataion's website, their email address is info AT wikimedia DOT org. Is this the mailbox that OTRS people monitor, or are there other addresses as well?--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 00:45, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that is one of the addresses, which is why I've reformatted it to prevent spam. OTRS also monitors a whole slew of other addresses, all of which are listed at the page on Meta here: m:OTRS. The ones relevant to the English Wikipedia are:

info-en AT wikimedia DOT org (for general inquiries)

permissions-en AT wikimedia DOT org (for image and text copyright permissions)

Wm-donations AT wikimedia DOT org (for donation inquiries)

Press AT wikimedia DOT org (press inquiries)

I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:07, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

If you are asking about the address to forward copyright permissions, it is “permissions-en AT wikimedia DOT org” --teb728 t c 02:01, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

If you want contact about something and don't know how then try Wikipedia:Contact us. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:12, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

OTRS people answer pretty much any wikimedia.org email address other than personal ones. Mr.Z-man 02:28, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't want to contact Wikimedia. I'm none too fond of some of the OTRS volunteers; besides, I wouldn't even know what to ask them. Hersfold answered my question. Thank you!--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 02:29, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Online news

WHERE DO WE GET DAILY LOCAL ONLINE NEWS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.53.199.71 (talk) 01:08, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a news source. We do have a sister project, Wikinews, which does provide news. You could also type in the name of a local newspaper, radio, or television station in Google or another search engine to find local news. NF24^{(radio me!)} 01:14, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question about oversight

Is it only done in the mainspace? -- Menti fisto 01:35, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Oversight is actually used not only in the mainspace to remove libelous or personal information but also in the various talk spaces, Wikipedia project spaces, and anywhere else it might be needed. For example, in a recent dust-up, the contents of an e-mail posted by a user to the administrators' notice board were first deleted and then oversighted.

You can find more information at WP:OVERSIGHT. --jonny-m t 01:42, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Mentifisto gave that link in the heading. It may be a little confusing that the lead says "from an article's history". PrimeHunter (talk) 01:45, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah and I don't think it mentions anywhere else on that page where the oversight is performed.

Thanks. -- Menti fisto 01:54, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I have another related question... I read that admins can delete revisions too... that's logical since they can delete pages - so what's the difference between a deletion and an oversight? -- Menti fisto 02:23, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

A deletion can be undone by any admin with Special:Undelete and the deletion is logged in the log for the page. Un-oversighting requires the server admins to manually restore the edit in the database and the log is not publicly available. See mw:Extension:Oversight for more technical info. Mr.Z-man 02:32, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! -- Menti fisto 02:36, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Also, all admins can review deleted revisions of a page, whereas only those with oversight permission can view oversighted data. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Uncomplete information

I wish to inform the editors of wikipedia that you have left out a piece of important information concerning Rosalind Elise Franklin. You left out the part of when she was in King's College that there had been a mix up with Maurice Wilkins. He was on vacation at the time of her arrival at King's and he believed that Rosalind was to be his assistant and that he stole her image of Photo 51 and showed it to James Watson. Also that when he came back that very day after riding the subway to his college that he had drawn a similar image as Photo 51 and that Rosalind was given very little credit to her contribution to the scientific world. Also that Rosalind was made fun of and called Rosie behind her back. To add to that James Watson had writen a book after her death about the double helix, and described as a cruel, harsh, and hideious woman, even though she was described by some of her former colleuges and friends as a truely heart felt woman with true compassion for her friends and her work. She also worked until death because she was so dedicated to her research. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.215.125.230 (talk) 01:58, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You can actually be bold and edit the article yourself. :-) Just click on the 'edit this page' above the article and add the information - remember to cite your sources. -- Menti fisto 02:03, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Am I able to create a new page?

Can i create a new page altogether, rather than just editing another page? I dont mean creating a page on someone that already exists on Wikipedia; I mean a completely new topic/person/place etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.103.231 (talk) 02:24, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes but you would need to create an account for that and things like uploading images. -- Menti fisto 02:31, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Here is a standard reply if you are considering to create an article:

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:39, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] forgot password/old e-mail address

Dear Sir(s)-It has been awhile since I posted a question and in the mean time have changed my e-mail address. Now when I go to sign in my new password is sent to the old address (<email removed>). What steps do I take to keep my user name ? thank you <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.197.62.103 (talk) 03:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we have no way to get your account's password. If you no longer have access to your old email and cannot remember the password to your account yourself, you will need to make a new account. If you do remember your password, it will still work. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You can link the user pages for the old and new accounts. If you want a new username that is close to the old then the software may reject it. In that case you can try Wikipedia:Request an account. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:23, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Templates

How do you make your own templates?--WTRiker (talk) 03:55, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Template. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:59, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

What kind of a template do you want to make? --Teratornis (talk) 06:49, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

A movie ratings template for the US, Canada, UK... so if someone is looking up a movie that they think their friend/family member will enjoy or a friend/family member with little kids they can go "Oh. This movie is PG. Maybe I'll recommend it to them." or "Oh. This movie is PG-13. Maybe I won't recommend it to my friend with an eight year old to go see." (a la Revenge of the Sith vs. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones) and also include a "why" section (Brief Strong Language, Nudity...) so they can see why it is that rating. --WTRiker (talk) 01:27, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Have you seen {{Infobox movie certificates}} and the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Films/Style guidelines#MPAA Rating? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:36, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia search box

Hi,

Is there a way to have a search box on my task bar that directly searches wikipedia --like Encarta —Preceding unsigned comment added by Geepeeone (talk • contribs) 04:35, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Having trouble editting a link.

At "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varying_speed_of_light" there is a section that looks like this:

Main article: Propagator#Faster than light?

and the edit code shows this:

Main article: Propagator#Faster than light?

I was trying to get it to just show Faster than light without the Propagator or the #, but everything I thought of didn't seem to work. There is probably something simple involved, but I can't find it.

Tiailds (talk)

If you don't get a solution, you can always simply manually type it out: [1] as in my sandbox. x42bn6 Talk Mess 04:45, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

See Template:Main for information. I've modified Varying_speed_of_light. —Random832 17:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 2 questions (I think)

I remember reading something in the news about Angela Beesley objecting to vandalism in a wikipedia article. Was that recent, and is there a description of that in one of the news pages on this site? Also, for anyone who is familiar with scripting programs like twinkle, are there any that allow you to log edits while not logged in, or even on multiple wikis? Do you recommend one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.112.75.38 (talk) 04:39, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

As to the first question, Angela Beesley objecting to vandalism in a wikipedia article finds some possible links. How about What percentage of Wikipedia vandalism is done by registered users? As to the second question, I don't understand what you mean by "log edits." --Teratornis (talk) 06:44, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How did I receive this email?

I got an unsolicited email from another user and I'm wondering how they got hold of my address? They're asking me to respond to their email survey for writing about a wiki article and they are a wiki user, but if it's not on my page/s annywhere, how did they do this? Julia Rossi (talk) 05:09, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

There's an "Email this user" link on the toolbox on your userpage, for example, on mine, it goes to Special:Emailuser/x42bn6. If you don't reply, they won't know your email address. x42bn6 Talk Mess 05:11, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You specified your e-mail address and checked the box "Enable e-mail from other users" in your preferences. However, if this is the case, you can be sure it was a Wikipedia user, as only they have access to this feature. You may turn it off in your preferences if you wish. --FastLizard4 (Talk•Index•Sign) 05:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks all.Julia Rossi (talk) 06:23, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Making a link to an edit page

Is there a way to make a link directly to the edit page of an article? I want to place a link on my user page which links directly to the edit page of my talk page so someone can add a comment/edit my talk page. Is there a way to do that?Calvin 1998 (talk) 05:41, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Try this on your user page:

* [{{fullurl:User talk:{{PAGENAME}}|action=edit}}&section=new Leave a new comment on my talk page]

--Teratornis (talk) 05:57, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

That should create a URL link to add a new comment to your talk page. If you just want to link to your entire talk page, you can make a normal link like this:

[[User talk:Calvin 1998]]

For more information, see Help:Link and Help:Magic words. --Teratornis (talk) 06:00, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trying to create a new page, but page name does not exist yet does not allow me to save one?

To whom it may concern,

I am trying to add a page for my band Bereavement, using the page name "Bereavement (band)" as another band in Perth have - "The Furor (band)", no exact page exists with this title - yet when I write these characters under 'search' i am given a list of a few pages that have varying relevances (to such an extent that the word "band" appears once in these articles) but not "This page does not exist, to create a new one click here etc". Why is this?

Regards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.29.84.146 (talk) 06:30, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Do not use The Furor as an example of a good article. It does not do a good job of establishing notability and is totally unsourced. In order to survive in the long run, it will have to do better in those two areas. --teb728 t c 07:45, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing items from things-that-need-doing lists?

I've recently improved the quality of a picture on Wikipedia that was on a sort-of to-do list of pictures to improve and uploaded it to the site, but how do I remove the item from the actual list? It doesn't seem to have an edit function. —Preceding unsigned comment added by It Is Me Here (talk • contribs) 09:50, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I assume you mean Image:Osona Flag New.svg, but which to-do list is it? WODUP 10:00, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that's the one. The to-do list is here (under the "O" section), and also, how can I delete the original?

You cannot delete the old one, only users with administrator rightscan do this. Qst 11:05, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The old image was placed in Category:Images for cleanup by putting {{cleanup-image}} on Image:Osona Flag.png. You can remove it by editing the image page (the image will also disappear from the category if the image is deleted). PrimeHunter (talk) 14:10, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Find essays

I want a list of essay writings —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.79.98 (talk) 10:59, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

If you mean essays on Wikipedia, please see Category:Wikipedia essays, but if you want an article to display information, you will have to search for it. Qst 11:04, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help with small clean-up

I am new to this and my article was proposed for deletion. I added the referrences and some come directly from the source. I really would appreciate if somebody, anybody could please HELP with this article. Please message me directly or just Edit the page. The page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Johnson_(MC)/(Entrepreneur) and the page should be under the name MC Funky J. Thanks USMCFORD (talk) 06:30, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I have removed the prod tag based on your objection here. Note that this does not mean the article cannot be deleted through some other process, such as at articles for deletion.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:22, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] publications of academic scientific articles

ho do i access wikipedia to publish an accardemic article in your website? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.212.21.169 (talk) 11:41, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not publish original research. We only allow information which has already been published by reliable sources. If you mean mentioning an academic article which has already been published elsewhere then see Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:External links. If you want to create a Wikipedia article then:

[edit] Modification

Hello, my name is Ed Farrar i was recently looking up different languages for a school project and whilst on the Romani langauge page, i realised that it said 0.5% of British people speak Romani. This is ludicrous, you are saying that 1 in 200 people in Britain speak Romani? This is impossible!

I then noticed that Wikipedia stated that there is aproximately 1000 people speaking Romani in Britian. 1000 is 0.5% of 200000. There are definitely not 200000 people living in Britian.

I therefore attempted to change this figure to the correct percentage and found a few days later that my changes had been deleted and been reverted to the incorrect data!

I find this disgusting. What is the point in allowing users to edit content correctly, when it it will be deleted? Please write back to my email address at <email removed>

I am looking forward to your prompt reply. Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Ed Farrar —Preceding unsigned comment added by Evilguyed1 (talk • contribs) 11:53, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Your edit [2] was to a table where it says above: "The last column shows the percentage of Romani speakers in the Roma population in each country". According to the numbers before your edit, there are 1,000 people who speak Romani in the United Kingdom, and that is 0.5% of all Romani people in the country, meaning there should be 200,000 Romani people in total. Angloromani language has more about the language of Romani people in UK. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:29, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Note: Clicking the "history" tab at top of an article will show the former edits and edit summaries. In this case it showed the reason for undoing your edit: "it's the percent of the Roma in UK, not of the overall UK population". PrimeHunter (talk) 14:04, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] collection of solid waste for recycling

Now a days for recycling of solid waste is done by collecting various type of waste in different bins or boxes of different painted on the outer serface of the bin.help me to know which colour is used for what? I mean to say that what type of waste is put in in which coloured bin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.245.103.188 (talk) 15:03, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

This page is the help desk, meant for asking questions about using Wikipedia. You may wish to ask your question at the appropriate reference desk; also, this probably varies from country to country and area to area, so Wikipedia might not be the best place to ask this. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 15:51, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

This question recently appeared on the Help desk: Search Help desk for: recycling bin

The IP address of the questioner was different, but the phrase "Now a days" appeared then as well. --Teratornis (talk) 16:27, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centreing

Sorry, I've totally fogotten how to centre text. Please reply! Poiuytre (talk) 16:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You can use <center>Your text here</center>. --Kudret abi^Talk 16:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I was using [] instead of <>! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Poiuytre (talk • contribs) 16:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Randolph Macon College

Hello,

The current President of Randolph Macon College is Robert R. Lindgren. You may visit http://www.rmc.edu/offices/president.aspx for verification or vistit http://www.rmc.edu and click the "Offices and Departments" tab. Then click President's Office under "College Offices."

Thanks

Thank you. I have undone [3] a vandalism edit from 8 December. Another time you are welcome to correct information by yourself when you have a reliable source. Just click "edit this page" at the top of an article. Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia anybody can edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:11, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding a reference/citation to an article

I have just edited the article Rosencranz and Guildenstern.

I added a bit about the possible allusion of the names to Catholic imagergy. For this, I wanted to add a citation.

I clicked on the ref button. I added the reference text where indicated. The text shows up in the edit pane. But on the live page, clicking the reference number does not reveal the reference text. DocAngelicus (talk) 16:51, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. Refs don't display automatically: you need to add <references /> where you want them to appear. Algebraist 17:16, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Outline Numbering -- using styles other than pure numbers

I can create a standard multi-level numbered list, where first level entries start with #, second level with ##, etc. This produces a result with numbers used for each level (but numbering does restart with 1 for lower levels). For example,

# Europe
## Spain
## Germany
# North America
## United States
### Texas
### Delaware
## Mexico

will produce:

Europe
1. Spain
2. Germany
North America
1. United States
  1. Texas
  2. Delaware
2. Mexico

That is fine, but not particularly standard. Many multi-level lists use 1,2,3 for level 1, A,B,C for level 2, i, ii, iii for level 3, etc. One sees many combinations of upper and lower case letters, upper and lower case Roman numerals, and numbers, with various punctuation. For example:

1. Europe

A. Spain

B. Germany

2. North America

A. United States

i. Texas

ii. Delaware

B. Mexico

Another popular option is multi-level numbering, where Delaware would be 2.1.2. The standard Table of Contents for Wikipedia articles uses this numbering scheme.

So the question is, how can I create multi-level numbered lists using letters or Roman numerals or multiple numbers for some of the levels? Is this only possible by modifying the CSS or by using HTML in an article? -- Llarq (talk) 16:53, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know, wikitext lists cannot provide this control over item numbering. You will have to use HTML lists. See these previous answers: Search Help desk for: list item numbering. --Teratornis (talk) 18:23, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You may already know this, but see Ordered list for examples of how to control the list item numbering style. And see Help:HTML in wikitext. --Teratornis (talk) 18:25, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I'm familiar with the techniques for using HTML for ordered lists, but wikitext lists are so easy to use and maintain that I was hoping that there was some option I was missing that would allow me to use different numbering styles. I just thought that it was a bit odd for wikitext to have a default format of using numbers for every level of a multi-level list. But I can live with HTML, if that's my only option. -- Llarq (talk) 18:48, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reporting abuse

Please review "W. Edwards Deming." Looks like someone out in prank info —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.196.42.84 (talk) 17:30, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It was vandalized an hour ago. I have reverted to the earlier version. You are welcome to revert vadalism on your own. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:38, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Correcting Capitalization in Article Title

I need to correct the capitalization in the article, Bald Knob, Franklin County, VA. How do I go about this?Franklincountyeducator (talk) 18:24, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

You can move the page if your account is more than four days old. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 18:36, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict): I've moved the article for you - I hope I have the correct capitalisation. If not, you can, as Hersfold mentioned, move article in 4 days (or ask here). --Kateshort forbob 18:41, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request Tags

What are the tags for requesting expansion of an article, wikifying and the other things like that, is there a page that lists these?

Thanks, DTGardner (talk) 18:15, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

WP:TEMPLATE has more than any sane man needs. Algebraist 18:55, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

If you're insane, however, you may try Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup for more specific templates. :o) tiZom_(2¢) 18:57, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

EXACTLY what I was looking for, Thank you. DTGardner (talk) 18:58, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The next time you are looking for something like this, I recommend looking on the Editor's index. For example, WP:EIW#Template has some interesting template-related links. --Teratornis (talk) 22:34, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] San Diego Chess Academy

removed article-spam, inappropriate for the Help desk -- 68.156.149.62 (talk) 21:24, 19 December 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dfacerdm (talk • contribs) 19:05, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Umm...and what is your question? Midorihana _(talk)_(contribs) 19:06, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

If you are trying to submit an article, this is not the place to do so. Since you have an account, you are able to create pages yourself by searching for them and clicking the red link that appears at the top of the search page. However, as your article is currently written it would be quickly deleted, as it is blatant advertising and meets our criteria for speedy deletion. Please re-write it from a neutral point of view with multiple reliable sources for verification of the information you provided and to establish the group's notability, before posting it as an article. Thank you. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:54, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Questions regarding editing

Our company is listed in Wikipedia here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pearl. It states that the neutrality of the article is disputed, that it does not cite any resources or sources and that it is written like an advertisement. I'm wondering if we can edit the article and also block it from editing by other users. Is this possible?

Thank you very much,

Vicki 64.172.93.234 (talk) 20:08, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The article to which you linked is not about a company, but a person. If you work for Eric Pearl or any business associated with him, you should not edit this article, because there would be a clear conflict of interest. If you feel there are any inaccuracies in the article, bring them to other editors' attention by means of the article's talk page. There is no way you can prevent other persons from editing this article; indeed, other persons must do the editing, for the reason I just explained. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:17, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I can explain protection of pages a bit. There are three levels: one where anyone can edit it (most pages), the second "autoconfirmed" level which means only accounts at least four days only can edit it, and a third level which only allows administrators to edit the page. Is that clear? jj137 ^♠ 20:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

And I disagree with the conflict of interest statement above. The conflict of interest policy does not prevent users with a conflict of interest from editing those pages, it merely states that they have to exercise caution. That said, it is not possible to lock the page from being edited by other users. Nobody owns the article, either way, because this is an encyclopedia anyone can edit. x42bn6 Talk Mess 20:22, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I did not say the policy prevented Vicki from editing the article. I said she should not edit it because of conflicts of interest, and referenced the policy to explain my advice. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:38, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The wording "should" is exclusive - if you have a conflict of interest, it doesn't stop you from editing that article - it does say, however: "Wikipedia is "the encyclopedia that anyone can edit," but if you have a conflict of interest avoid, or exercise great caution when (...)". I apologise if I thought you were using the policy to justify your comment, but my reasoning stands. x42bn6 Talk Mess 01:26, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ISO 8601 format

How do I use {{Birth date}} to produce the ISO 8601 format at User:TonyTheTiger/sandbox.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:18, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

According to the documentation, the Birth date template already supplies the date in ISO 8601 format, BUT it is hidden like this <span style="display:none">(<span class="bday">yy-mm-dd</span>)</span> when the page is rendered by your browser (note: separator is always "-", month and day are provided with leading zeroes if <10, year is whatever is provided to the template). You could create your own template or modify Birth date to do what you want (eg. make the df param accept "ISO8601" to display in that standard). Astronaut (talk) 00:42, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

I apologize, but I am not sure what you are telling me to do to get the format to render as desired.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 06:49, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Seeing when/why a page was deleted

On Template:911tm is the book The War on Freedom by Nafeez Ahmed. It redirects to the author, presumably as the page no longer exists. However, I have found Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The War on Freedom, so it once existed. The result of the debate was no consensus, and the article was kept. But I can't find any later deletion discussion or a deletion review. Please can someone post a link to either the article or Afd where it was deleted? Thanks. P.S. is there an easy a way of searching to see if articles have ever existed and when they were created/deleted? Corleonebrother (talk) 21:25, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I dug around a little; it seems the article was merged with its author's page after brief discussion on the talk page, which mentioned that it didn't satisfy notability for books. If you want to see when a page has previously been deleted and the admin's reason, see Special:Log/delete. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 21:32, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Of course, if the article isn't deleted, there won't be anything in the logs. In a case like this, you can go to the redirect page (go first to The War on Freedom, then when that takes you to Ahmed's page click on the little link where it says "Redirected from The War on Freedom"), and you can look in the history to see when the page was turned into a redirect. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:28, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to you both. The "brief discussion" on the talk page [4] was three users asking questions about its notability, to which there was no response. Then one of them just decided to merge it. That doesn't seem right. Surely there are rules against this kind of thing? The right thing to do would have been to relist it at AfD, no? Corleonebrother (talk) 23:06, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

No, because a merge isn't a deletion. When discussing merges or renaming of a page, a discussion is made on the Talk page(s) for the article(s). If no one objects after a time (usually 5-7 days), anyone can go ahead with the merge or rename. At this point, if you disagree, it's best to bring it up on Talk:Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed. -- Kesh (talk) 00:08, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Morton devonshire agreed it wasn't notable on December 22 2006, a merger was suggested on the talk page 14 January 2007, and there were no objections when Morton devonshire finally made the redirect September 1 2007.[5] That's a long time with no objections. However, no content was merged and for an article surviving AfD (although with no consensus) it would have been better if somebody had put a merge template on the article itself as described in Help:Merging and moving pages. Under these circumstances I think it would be acceptable to recreate the article if you can add content from reliable sources to demonstrate compliance with Wikipedia:Notability (books). But beware that it could easily be nominated for deletion again, or proposed for merger in a more official way. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:26, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

The article survived the AfD, so it was decided then that it does pass notability requirements. It seems like Morton slyly deleted the article, bypassing the proper procedure. Oh well, I won't bother recreating the article (I'm personally not sure that the subject is notable enough for its own article, but its the principle). I guess if anyone felt strongly about it, they would have replied on talk (I would have, had I seen the page back then). Thanks for your help. Corleonebrother (talk) 17:28, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 3RR

Is there a special place where violations to the 3RR should be reported or just WP:ANI? -Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 21:40, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The Administrator's Noticeboard for Three-Revert-Rule Violations is what you want. WP:AN3 or WP:AN/3RR for short. NF24^{(radio me!)} 21:45, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Daaaaaam, Wikipedia works fast. The user i was going to report has already been blocked. It's like magic. -Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 21:47, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notability vote

Is there a possible way of setting up a vote so that 11th level football league, could be considered notable. Thanks. Sunder land 06 22:11, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Notability is not something that is "voted" on. Either a subject has been covered by reliable, third party sources, or it hasn't. Verifiability is a core policy of Wikipedia, and if a subject cannot demonstrate reliable sources (See here for examples of sources), then it likely is not a notable subject that is appropriate for an encyclopedia. See also Wikipedia's manual of style, layout guide, a first article, and article development, for additional information. While consensus is used to determine some articles here, for obviously non-notable subjects, the speedy deletion criteria applies, and they are quickly removed. I hope this helps explain things a bit, but basically if your subject has been covered by multiple reliable sources (like the news, trade/professional journals, reputable magazines that do fact-checking, etc.,) then it would probably be notable enough. If it has not had media coverage, then the chances are that it is not encyclopedic. Cheers, Ariel♥Gold 22:28, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

No, because we work on consensus, not voting. However, consensus has determined some general guidelines for notability, found here. Roughly speaking, if you can find 2 or more non-trivial references to something in reliable third-party publications (i.e. magazines, newspapers and so forth that aren't directly associated with the topic), then it's notable, and all you have to do is cite those sources in the article. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to write a page or make one

Husiein (talk) 22:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC) Do people that work for wikipedia write things or do reguler people do it like members

Hello Husiein, welcome! And first, let me clarify that none of the editors here "work" for Wikipedia. This is a 100% volunteer project, and editors from all around the world participate. I realize Wikipedia might seem confusing at first, (please click on the blue words to read the policy/guide they refer to), so let me give you a brief overview. Wikipedia is not like other sites you may have come across. First, it is an encyclopedia, not like MySpace, or FaceBook, or a place to host personal webspace, or a place where editors can make articles about anything they wish. Wikipedia has Core policies, such as neutrality, notability, verifiability, etc. What does all of this mean? Well, it means that any article on Wikipedia must demonstrate notability (meaning it must be note worthy, covered by the media, etc.), and have reliable, third-party sources (such as news media articles, magazine/trade journal articles) written about the subject, and the information given in the article must cite those sources to verify it is true. From those sources, information is summarized, paraphrased, condensed, and worded neutrally to make an encyclopedic entry (information cannot be copied from other sites). See Wikipedia's manual of style, layout guide, your first article, article development, and how to edit for assistance. I hope that helps you understand the project a bit more! Ariel♥Gold 22:22, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

(e/c) Some people that work for Wikipedia also do some editing, but the vast majority of content is added by people like you and me; volunteers with no formal connection to Wikipedia other than being the "anyone" in Wikipedia's tagline, "the encyclopedia that anyone can edit". We are, thus, all "members"—even those who edit without ever signing up for an account. Please see Wikipedia:About and Wikipedia:Introduction for more information. You might also find our tutorial useful. Cheers.--~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fuhghettaboutit (talk • contribs) 22:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editing politically sensitive content

Dear Editors,

My son recently completed an assignment on a project about persecution and chose Tibet. I suggested he look at Wikipedia for information. I've jsut read his assignment and its says basically Tibet is a very nice place to live and the Tibetans have been making a real fuss about nothing! Baffled by this I look at the entry in Wiki and its word for word the official chinese version. I've put in a polite edit which they can of course delete. I'm sure you don't want Wiki used a propaganda tool for the CCP but clearly it is being used a such. Frankly I'm nervous of taking them on, this may sound paranoid but having been to Tibet and their home in exile I know how nasty these guys can be. Please Help!

Best wishes,

Truthseeker —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.161.25 (talk) 22:32, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Articles should satisfy Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Have you seen Tibet#Evaluation by the Tibetan exile community and Tibet#View of the Tibetan exile community? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:44, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a good place to start, but it certainly should not be the only place he looks for his information. Our articles strive to be as factual and neutral as possible, but we don't guarantee it as vandalism can occur. It's possible he saw a vandalized version of the article but, more likely, he saw the main sections devoted to the nation's culture, economics and history, without reading the linked sections about the treatment of Tibetans by the Chinese. A complex subject like this can't be easily boiled down into a Wikipedia article. I'd suggest working with him to show him the best ways to research this information, using not only the Internet, but your local library. -- Kesh (talk) 00:32, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

I had a look at the Tibet article and I see a well referenced article that exhibits a neutral point of view. I also see no evidence of an edit (polite or otherwise) from your IP address. So I'm now curious... to which article did you add your polite edit? where specifically is it the "word for word" official chinese version? Astronaut (talk) 01:14, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ABOUT A SONG PLAYED ON TUES.18 IN THE MORNING

WHILE DRIVING AND LISTING TO YOUR STATION YOU PLAYED A SONG ABOUT A LITTLE GIRL NAMED CHRISTMAS CAROL WHO WAS A ORPHAN. COULD YOU TELL ME THE TITLE OF THE SONG AND THE SINGER PLEASE. THANKYOU DIANA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.158.210.129 (talk) 22:55, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia isn't a radio station. You could though try the reference desk for the song title. AndrewJDTALK -- 23:00, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:08, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

It appears you're in the U.S.; why not try yes.com? NF24^{(happy holidays!)} 23:11, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I think the easiest way to find songs is two put one or two lines in quotes and google it. For instance "how do you do" "and you" "and then we can" --Eplack (talk) 00:50, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

In the spirit of the season: sounds like My Name is Christmas Carol, by Skip Ewing. The lyrics are available here. --Kateshort forbob 14:02, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how do I change the title of my article?

how do I change the title of my article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jsuzuki9 (talk • contribs) 23:37, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Pages are renamed by moving them to new target names. This procedure preserves the page's edit history. Please do not rename a page by copying/pasting its content to a new page name. If you have an account and it is at least four days old, you can move a page yourself, but please first review Wikipedia:Naming conventions. If you still wish to rename the page, go to it and click the move tab at the top (near the history and watch tabs). You can then specify a new name for the article. The old page name will automatically become a redirect to the new page. However, if the desired target page name already exists, you will need an administrator to move the page for you, which can be requested at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Hope this helps. NF24^{(happy holidays!)} 23:44, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

~~Strike-How do you use Wikipeia?~~