Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 February 21

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1 February 21

[edit] February 21

[edit] Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!

Can the "Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! " be moved up onto the line under sign in/create account (-10px?) or over left to the middle (500px?), because it is covering up templates like the help contents back, the semiprotect templates and many others and its really irritating. Thank you, 00:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I suggest asking at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) - that's where the developers and technical folks hang out. (And please sign your questions by using four tildes, not five - if you sign with five, you leave only a date/time stamp, without a username.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 02:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I can confirm that this is a problem for logged-out users; there is no problemn for logged-in users. The problem is that people are using the same space for two different messages. For the time being, you could avoid the problem by creating an account, although I agree that a better solution will need to be found in the long term. --ais523 10:19, 21 February 2007 (U T C)

[edit] Talk page

How do i delete my old messages from MY TALK PAGE?

You don't. See Wikipedia:How to archive a talk page. - Mgm|^(talk) 00:25, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
- You're not required to archive old messages, but it's strongly encouraged. Archiving also gives you a chance to practice making subpages, something that is useful as you become more experienced. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 02:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Akward Thing With Esperanza Page

Every time I go to Wikipedia:Esperanza, no matter how I get to it, I end up logged out. It doesn't bother me because it only happens there, and I don't feel compelled to edit that page anyway, but I was just wondering if that is a coincidence, or if the servers have been set up to do that automatically because full protection isn't enough. 声援 -- The Hyb rid 00:53, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

It's the cabal. No, seriously, it's a cache issue, see Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Constantly being logged out. This link should purge the page. Gracenotes^T § 01:20, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Technical question about editing/sizing an infobox

I recently used Template:Infobox performer for Brett Somers. The width of the box seems to be off. For example, it looks like "Birth name(s)" should fit on one line; it's just off by a few pixels. How do you edit an infobox template to adjust its size? Also, I'm not sure why this template offers "Date(s) of birth," in the plural (or Birth name(s), for that matter). How does you edit out the plural? Can you make such changes only on a use-by-use basis or can the template be permanently edited?--Vbd | (talk) 00:53, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I would be inclined to keep "Date(s) of death" in the latent plural if Lazarus were a performer, but that's not the case :) You can remove the plural by merely changing the text of the template, as Xiner did (he beat me to it!) Check out Help:Table for more information about setting tables with CSS and such. If you want me or someone else to adjust the table width, ask away. Gracenotes^T § 01:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Haha, Gracenotes, you did get one I wasn't sure about! Vbd, you found the template, all you had to do was press "edit this page", ignore the gibberish, and hone in on the "(s)"'s. Xiner (talk, email) 01:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Intergrading Wikipedia into Internet Explorer

To:Help Desk

Intergrading Wikipedia into Internet Explorer

I find that I much prefer Wikipedia as my source in finding a word, subject, event or person while reading articles. While in Explorer If “View” on the toolbar is selected then “Explorer Toolbar” can be selected. At the bottom of that column is “Research Options”. Select that and you get a list of reference books and sites that are used when you select “Look Up” while reading an article. While the resources listed there are all fine they in no way compare to Wikipedia. Would you please advise me as to how to add Wikipedia there as a source of information that Explorer would look to. I have already spent several hours searching through Microsoft’s site to no avail. I have sent them Emails without getting any reply.

I would greatly appreciate this, Thank You for your time and effort in this matter.

Praeda —Preceding unsigned comment added by Praeda (talk • contribs)

Hello, Praeda. This page lists a few options available for Internet Explorer. Hope this helps! —Xhantar^Talk 01:22, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Treatening remark

How do I handle IP that make treatening remark.

58.106.133.89 http://ms.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malaysia&diff=next&oldid=217194 Yosri 01:54, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The comment in the edit summary, ".IF I EVER SEE A MALAYSIAN OR INDONESIAN IN THE STREET, I WILL BASHED THEM UP AND STRANGLED THEM.", is not a personal threat. Just ignore it. (If 58.106.xxx posts something to your user talk page -- and I'll give you very good odds that this will not happen -- please ask here, again, regarding what to do.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 02:01, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

That particular user decided to remove the final warning template I placed on his talk page earlier today - that should be enough grounds for a block. I'm reporting him to administration now. Hersfold ^(talk|work) 03:45, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how to make articles???

how can i make an article on wikipedia?? 69.168.138.250 01:59, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

welcomed user on his/her talk page Xiner (talk, email) 02:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My Sig

Why is

[[User:Redskunk|<font color="red">Red</font><font color="black">Skunk</font>]][[User talk:Redskunk|<sup><font color="black">talk</sup></font>]]

not valid HTML? It works when put in the sandbox. RedSkunk 02:43, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Did you check the "Raw Signature" box in your prefs? Xiner (talk, email) 02:46, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. RedSkunk 03:17, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Closing the font before closing the sup (around "talk") may help. If not, try putting the font outside the link. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I think the font thing is the problem. You may have to settle on one color per link as a result. Xiner (talk, email) 03:34, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[[User:Redskunk|<font color="red">Red</font>]][[User:Redskunk|<font color="black">Skunk</font>]][[User talk:Redskunk|<sup><font color="black">talk</sup></font>]] Try that. It should separate the link, but allow the link to work with the colors. Hersfold ^(talk|work) 03:42, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] eXremeDB

I thought I'd prepared sufficiently to create a new page -- fooled around with the text in the Sandbox for a couple days, looked at the formatting of similar pages.

So I went ahead and created the page -- and now I'm concerned I've gotten in over my head.

You see, the article is about a software product called eXtremeDB -- and like so many pieces of technology, its spelling is 'funny' -- with the first letter lowercase, the second letter and the final two letters uppercase, and the first letter -- "e" -- as well as the "treme" -- in italics.

I did not research how to accomplish this formatting in the article title. What I've managed to establish, in my attempts to give it the proper name, is an article titled Extremedb, which then redirects to the page EXtremeDB.

Does this redirect eventually "melt away", with the only "surviving" page name being EXtremeDB?

I see now that I have to learn to use a special template in order to permit an article title that begins with a lower case letter. Several templates are described at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Redirects_from_other_capitalisations

Am I correct in understanding that I'll have to use one of these templates in order to establish an article whose title begins with a lower-case letter (I know there must be a way -- I see that iPod has gotten it done).

Do I need to wait a period, until the existing redirect "goes away", before I try this template-based redirect?

Is there any way to italicise some (but not all) of the letters in a title word?

Ted_nwTed nw 04:28, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

You likely want the redirect (this lets people enter "extremedb" in the search box and get to the article by clicking the "go" button). To make the title look correct, add {{lowercase}} as the first line of the article. -- Rick Block (talk) 04:51, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

...and you can't include italics in the actual title (can't is probably too strong, but you really don't want to bother). -- Rick Block (talk) 04:56, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:TWINKLE

I am currently using the latest version of Twinkle - my question is, how can I stop Twinkle from automatically adding every page I revert to my watchlist? --Nevhood 06:40, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Oooh, didn't know that -- see WP:TWINKLE#Configuration. Try this:

TwinkleConfig = {
        revertMaxRevisions              :       50,
        userTalkPageMode                :       'window',
        showSharedIPNotice              :       true,
        openTalkPage                    :       [ 'agf', 'norm', 'vand' ],
        openTalkPageOnAutoRevert        :       false,
        openAOLAnonTalkPage             :       false,
        summaryAd                       :       " [[WP:TWINKLE|]]",
        deletionSummaryAd               :       " [[WP:TWINKLE|]]",
        watchSpeedyPages                :       [ 'g3', 'g5', 'g10', 'g11', 'g12' ],
        watchRevertedPages              :       [ 'agf', 'norm', 'vand', 'torev' ], //<--- this line is what you want to change
        markRevertedPagesAsMinor        :       [ 'agf', 'norm', 'vand', 'torev' ],
        deleteTalkPageOnDelete          :       false,
        markWarningsAsMinor             :       true,
        markAIVReportAsMinor            :       true
};

You could try giving it an empty array (or []) and see if that does the trick. I don't know quite enough JS to say for sure, unfortunately. If you have trouble, let me know, and I'll give it a test run on one of my socks. – Luna Santin (talk) 06:58, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

~~I tried it and it didn't work... What should I do?~~ --Nevhood 07:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Oops, never mind... it did the trick, thank you for your help! I just didn't bypass my browser's cache after I put the empty array in the configuration. --Nevhood 07:10, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

hello! my question: which types of disambiguation pages are supposed to be linked? for instance, Cheney is linked, but 300_(disambiguation) is not supposed to be, according to the edit.

Some anon users on Wikipedia have been determined to be a particular school. How does one determine this information exactly? I understand that you might find out which city in which country, but how do you narrow it down to a particular school?

[edit] IP Address Determination > Schools

Regional Internet Registry information. There's several available services that have that information, and which will locate an IP address back to its owner (or at least, its ISP). Titoxd^(?!?) 07:42, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

If you go to an IP's talk page with messages on (it doesn't work if the talk page is a redlink) and click on WHOIS at the bottom of the page, it will tell you information about the IP. Sometimes it can be traced down to an individual school, city, or organisation, sometimes you don't get any more information than which contintent the IP's located on. --ais523 10:21, 21 February 2007 (U T C)

[edit] British

What exactly is the problem that Wikipedia has with the word "British" ?.

There is no independent country called England, Scotland or Wales. There is one country called the United Kingdom and the citizens are called "British".

Self appointed Wikipedia geeks are going around replacing "British" with "English", "Scottish" or "Welsh".

Who gave Wikipedia the right to break up the United Kingdom ?

Does Wikipedia think it is more important and competant than 60 million British people ?

If Wikipedia feels it can break up the United Kingdom then the United States should also be broken up so that people are defined as Californians, Texans, etc - and not as Americans.

What is going on ?Tovojolo 11:16, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

For a start, in the sentance "Does Wikipedia think it is more important and competant than 60 million British people?"; you are assuming all UK nationals regard themselves are British. This is wrong (a recent poll showed only 21% of people from England labelled themselves British). The comparison with America is very misguided and ignorant, California and Texas do not have long histories as independant countries; England and Scotland were countries for hundreds if not thousands of years before parliamentary unification in 1707; and they remain today nations with their own culture, sports team, flags and so on. --Berks105 11:49, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

British refers to the people of Great Britain, which consists of England, Scotland, Wales and the islands like Isle of Wight. I don't have a problem with classifying people from Great Britain as British even though polls say that some do not classify themselves as British. This isn't important - if person A was born in Italy but raised in Germany, he/she may consider himself/herself German but that doesn't matter - that person is still Italian (assuming nationality is still held).

By saying that it isn't allowed, you are implicitly saying that the people are not British. If they aren't British (not "If they don't consider themselves British"), then be bold and change the infobox. If they are, then leave it there. x42bn6 Talk 13:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to add a follow-on question, because I regularly see articles being changed back and forth between English and British (or similar changes). It seems to be there is unlikely to be a consensus, and having edit wars over this cannot be productive. It's rather similar to spelling differences: we try to avoid edit wars over "color" versus "colour", and have guidelines specifically to help avoid that. Is there any guideline in existence that is relevant to this point? Without one, I tend to take the view that changing an article (in either direction) is simply making a point and I will sometimes reverse it on that principle, especially when I see editors doing it across a block of articles. Notinasnaid 13:30, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blocking

Is there anyway to block someone from leaving messages on my talk page ? --Tovojolo 11:25, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Again your attitude here is quite amazing. The idea of a talk page is too discuss problems. All you do is delete the messages and ignore the situation. Why not reply at my TalkPage with your point. By ignoring the problem we get no where. Wikipedia is not your personal encyclopedia and we have to discuss things we disagree on. --Berks105 11:49, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not your personal encycolpedia either. I happen to be British and proud of being British--Tovojolo 11:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, its not mine which one reason I tried to have a conversation with you. I am also going by general consensus on the British issue. --Berks105 11:59, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Please do not bring your personal conflict into this. While removing comments is frowned upon (unless they are personal attacks, for example), it is not breaking any guidelines or policies. Other than that, it is possible for sysops to ban users from talk pages, it's not a procedure; rather, it's an explicit warning not to edit it.

Regarding your fairly obvious problem with Berks105, that is a content dispute or something and isn't a reason to (I assume) block him from your talk page. Why not discuss it at WP:BLP if you are unsure or have a dispute with a user? Take these comments as a pinch of salt and if it becomes heated, then take it to WP:AN/I or something. x42bn6 Talk 13:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Let's do some clarification: often times it isn't possible to agree as to who is right or wrong regarding behavior; the best that can be hoped for is that both sides agree to follow Wikipedia rules such as WP:CIVIL and WP:NPA in their future postings. Wikipedia isn't a social group; editors who have had past differences should focus on improving the content of articles, not continuing to argue over past behavior.

In short, a back-and-forth on user talk pages about past behavior is generally pointless. Make your point (mention a policy, post a warning, whatever) and then get back to editing articles, please. Don't post again on someone else's user talk page unless they've done something new (and serious, not minor) that you object to, and not just an edit to an article that you disagree with (see next paragraph).

If you disagree about content, the place to discuss the disagreement is on the talk page of the article, not personal talk pages. That way, other editors (current and future) can see the discussion. Wikipedia:Resolving disputes lays out useful guidance and the process for resolving disputes; ideally, when both editors want to be constructive, matters can be resolved informally, particularly if other editors add their comments on the article's talk page.

And finally, no one "owns" their user talk page - no one can be "blocked" or "banned" from posting. On the other hand, repeatedly posting similar comments, excessive warnings, etc., on someone else's user talk page is harassment, and is also unacceptable. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 05:05, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Watchlist

In a Watchlist, for instance :

(diff) (hist) . . Marilyn Monroe‎; 11:08 . . (-2) . . Downtownstar (Talk | contribs) (→Quotes - corr.)
(diff) (hist) . . Scarlett O'Hara‎; 11:02 . . (+49) . . 219.104.30.124 (Talk)

what do the numbers (-2) and (+49) mean ? and what do they represent ?--Tovojolo 12:11, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

(+49) refers to the number of bytes by which an edit changed the article. Negative means the article got shorter. See also Help:Recent changes. Hope this helps. Pea ceNT 12:15, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Complaint

What is the process to follow if you want to complaign about a Wikipedia policy or complaign about another Wikipedia member for rudeness or bullying and intimidating language ?--Tovojolo 12:44, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) is the place to discuss policy. Disputes with other members should be handled through Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Two rather different things. If you feel a user is rude to you, the first thing to do is to ask them politely not to be, on their talk page. It is extremely important to be extra polite in such cases, because if it gets to a bad argument, both parties can end up blocked from editing: who started it does not matter. It is entirely in order to ask them to bear in mind Wikipedia:Civility and Wikipedia:No personal attacks. It is also often helpful to post a link to a "diff" showing where you consider they stepped over the line, because opinions differ and things may not be so obvious, especially when people are from different cultures to yourself. You can get the URL of a diff by using the page history, viewing the differences, and copy/pasting. Finally, I'd like to draw your attention to Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines, in particular that deleting things from your talk page is discouraged. I hope this helps, Notinasnaid 13:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Referencing

In the Aberdeen article there are both book and web references. Currently both types of reference are put in an overarching 'footnotes' field at the bottom using the {{reflist}} tag. Is there a {{reflist}} style tag that can allow seperation of the book and web references? I want to create a 'Futher Reading' section, but one that still references within the article and which is not just a list as in the Dundee article for example. Bobbacon 12:55, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

"reflist" is simply a way of displaying footnotes; there is no way for the software to know that one type of footnote (books) is different from another type (web references) - so, to answer your question, there is no style tag to do this.

As for "Further Reading" sections, they are always bulleted lists; sorry. There is limited flexibility in what Wikipedia articles look like. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 04:53, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How does Notability apply to bands?

Yesterday I created a page for the band 10 Minute Warning and I went back today to see if anyone had changed anything/requested a change to find it flagged for deletion/merging due to the fact that it "doesn't assert notability". I understand that the band is not well known and that the article is far from perfect so I have no problem with the article being merged or removed if nessesary, but I would like to understand why this action is being considered.

I read the page on notability but it was obviously written with concepts or historical events and figures in mind and I'm having difficulty understanding how it applies to a band. The issue seems to be one of sources, specifically there are not enough, or they are not varied enough. But the article in question has no fewer/worse sources than others on similar bands, Green River for example.

I'm still very new to any kind of serious editing of Wikipedia and obviously I've made some kind of mistake with this article. I'd very much like to understand what the problem is in order to avoid a repeat performance in the future. Thanks. Danikat 13:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

There is a specific page dealing with notability as it applies to bands: some of the tests are easy to apply e.g. "has had a charted hit on any national music chart." See Wikipedia:Notability (music) and remember that it isn't enough that the band be notable, the article must say so (by giving a sourced reference showing the notability guidelines are met). Notinasnaid 13:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, thats a lot of help. I'll get to work on re-writing the article. Danikat 21:56, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photos, User Page

Are you free to put any photos you like on your own User Page ?

Or do Wikipedia's rules - regarding fair use - on Photos still apply even when the photo is only on your own user page and is not linked to anywhere else on Wikipedia ?--Tovojolo 13:04, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The rules for user pages, talk pages and other non-article pages are stricter. Fair use is not allowed at all. Only free images may be used. Notinasnaid 13:08, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Where can I find Wikipedia's rules on User Pages, Talk Pages and Non-Article Pages ?--Tovojolo 13:11, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Userpage and WP:TALK. Other non-article pages have different rules depending on what they are discussing. Try Help:Table of contents and find the policy library. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:16, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Also see:

And specifically:

Images on user pages

Hope this helps. —Xhantar^Talk 13:19, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Also relevant, Wikipedia:Fair use, especially the section "policy", item 9. Notinasnaid

[edit] downloading article as text/audio file

Hi, i want to download articles to drop on my iPod's Notes folder, so I can read on the move. Is there a way of saving articles just as text files. In firefox I am trying to do this with Save As text file but viewing in Notepad the HTML formating is still present. I thought there may be a text formating link? Thanks

138.40.144.27 13:29, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

How about selecting the article text, copying, and pasting into your favourite text editor (Notepad will do)? Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 15:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Blog ? Wikipedia Chat Room ?

Is there a Wikipedia Blog that would allow contributors to blog ? or a Wikipedia Chat Room using a real time instant messaging program that would allow for "live" debates ?

If there is not then there should be.

How do you propose new features ?--Tovojolo 14:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

There isn't an official Wikipedia blog that I know of, but feel free to use your userspace to write about Wikipedia-related items. See WP:UP for more info about that. And yes, there is a Wikipedia "chat room", to which I frequently go. WP:IRC explains the different IRC channels for this (I personally use the ChatZilla client)... #wikipedia is the most active one. Gracenotes^T § 14:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

In general, you can propose new ideas at WP:VPR if it relates to how Wikipedia runs; you can propose them at WP:VPT if it relates to technical aspects of Wikipedia's functioning (bugs, sketching out feature requests). See WP:PG's section on how to propose a policy or guidelines, if that's what you're interested in. Gracenotes^T § 14:44, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Is this a free service and how do I become a member ? Thanks. Bill Wykoff

The problem with a "real time" debate is that the Wikipedia membership is all around the world. Real time debates could therefore be biased towards people in similar time zones. In my opinion, you've done the right thing by suggesting on your user page that there is a problem with Wikipedia's image policy. This is the start of the debate. However, when I responded on your user talk page, which seems to me the right thing to do, you deleted my message. It's not possible to have a debate in this situation (a debate in Wikipedia terms is one which serves as a lasting record of all participants views in the discussion), so I would ask that you reinstate all the messages that you have deleted from your talk page, to indicate a willingness to debate. Notinasnaid 15:37, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

By that argument, real time debates should not determine significant actionable consensus... an argument with which I agree. It's best to keep discussion where it makes sense to have it. Gracenotes^T § 20:01, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help

Is this a free service and how do I become a member ? Thanks. Bill Wykoff

You become a Wikipedian by editing a page! Hey, welcome to Wikipedia. If you have any questions about how it works, this page covers the basics. You can get an account to have other users identify you better. Gracenotes^T § 14:56, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, wikipedia is free, in terms of cost and information. Chris M. 16:27, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] email notification of responses?

Is there a way to get an email notification when there is a response to a question?

thanks,

Huck

No, as it'd place a big burden on the servers, but you can ask visitors to your talk page to email you (just post a note on the top of the page). Xiner (talk, email) 15:59, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image upload

Good morning. I've uploaded a file, thinking i can post it to the web page i created earlier, but instead it created an absolutely new page with the image. how do i delete that page with image and post it to the article web page?

thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kisulenka (talk • contribs)

If you are referring to this page, that's fine. When you upload an image, a page for it is also created in the Image: namespace, where its copyright status/tags and so on are displayed. I see the image has already been included in the Ezra usa article, by User:Cehe4ka. —Xhantar^Talk 16:56, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

How do I delete this page with image? thank you! Kisulenka 20:43, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

You can't, as the page Image:Ezra.JPG exists for that image, the way to delete that page would be to delete the image, but that clearly isn't your intention. Why do you want it deleted? Chris M. 21:09, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Edit button disappeared

HI The edit button has disapeared from the first section of this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromoney_Institutional_Investor_PLC

How do i get it back?

Catherine

Works for me (Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC). Xiner (talk, email) 15:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How can I request that anonymous editing be blocked ?

I would like to request that a my subnet be blocked from anonymous editing as we have had problems with students posting bogus information —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.66.202.116 (talk • contribs)

WP:RFPP. :) Xiner (talk, email) 16:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I don't want to have a single page blocked from editing I want to block anyone from my subnet that is not logged into the wiki to be blocked from editing anything in the wiki

Sorry, I was thinking it'd be kinda ironic. WP:AIV is the place to go. Xiner (talk, email) 17:20, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I'm not seeing it but I looked around and just found how to report vandals. As a network admin I want to request that no one from my IP block can anonymously edit anything. I'm just trying to keep from having students mess things up but I want them to be able to access the wiki as a read only resource —Preceding unsigned comment added by Penmanor (talk • contribs)

You could explain your situation there, because admins man those pages and only admins can issue blocks. You can also try WP:ANI. I'd suggest a soft block, so that only registered users can edit the site. However, if you're dealing with, say, elementary school students, then a hard block could be useful. Xiner (talk, email) 01:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

You should probably post it on WP:ANI. If you can, some sort of proof that you're the network admin would be nice. Say, WHOIS information backed up with something posted to the website of the organization that the range belongs to, or allowing an admin to send a confirmation email to the organization (and you responding). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:27, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to substitute an article

I know that {{subst:templatename}} substitutes a template, while {{templatename}} simply uses that template. I also know that {{:articlename}} uses an article, but I'm curious, how would one substitute an entire article into another article? Since {{subst:articlename}} doesn't work (as far as I could tell. Thanks! Chris M. 16:22, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

May I ask why you'd want to do that? You can always just do a copy and paste. Xiner (talk, email) 17:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Pending an answer to Xiner's question (I prefer not to step on toes), I will at least confirm it's possible to transclude and substitute articles. – Luna Santin (talk) 19:53, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Another wiki (strategywiki) has a situation with several small articles that would very easily be put into one simple article using a template that has this code:

<includeonly>== {{{1}}} ==
{{subst:Super Mario World/Enemies/{{{1}}}}}</includeonly>

But my {{subst: code doesn't do as I'd like.

I simply took the list of articles and used Word to change them into a series of substituting templates that would form one merged article out of about 20 or so. But my template doesn't subst as I'd like, so how would I do so? Chris M. 21:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Just as with transclusion, you would merely add a colon. {{subst::Article}} should do the trick, I believe. Gracenotes^T § 22:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Eh, really? Wow. That was simple... Thanks :) Chris M. 23:50, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Oops, sorry I forgot about this question. Gracenotes, you were too nice. Xiner (talk, email) 01:14, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Russian WP

Hello, I am registered user in the English part of Wikipedia, but I am also fluent in Russian and would like to contribute to Russian part of Wiki as well. When I tried to work in Russian part, Wikipedia did not recognize my login. Do I have to create a separate account for Russian Wiki, or do I need to adjust some setting?

Yes, each WP requires a separate account. Chris M. 16:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! Not to quibble, but wiki is distinct from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is but one of many wikis. Wikipedia is the largest and most-visited wiki in the world, and for many of us it was (or will be) our first exposure to wiki editing. This leads some new users to use the term "wiki" as an abbreviation for "Wikipedia," which is technically incorrect and sometimes confusing. When editing Wikipedia articles, we should take care to use the correct names for things, or at least the most definitive names. One way to do this is to link any technical terms we use to their defining articles. When previewing our edits, we can open those links in new browser tabs, and verify that the terms mean what we think they mean. The ease of adding wikilinks allows us to communicate here with a level of precision and accessibility beyond what is attainable in everyday conversation. --Teratornis 18:52, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I was referring to each wikipedia, not each wiki, as there are separate WPs for different languages. I believe that's what they meant as well, although I could be assuming, :) Chris M. 21:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Please look at Wikipedia:Babel, Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English, and Wikipedia:Translation, if you're interested in translating articles between different language Wikipedias. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:33, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Templates

Hello, I was wondering how do you make a template of a band. On the Girls Aloud article right at the bottom is has a template of all the songs they've done and everything. How do you make one?Oriana is cool 17:14, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Oriana is cool;

That's a table, actually, and not a template. See Help:Table for all the wondrous details on how to go about creating tables. You can also look at the source of the Girls Aloud article (for that section) to see what its wikicode looks like in action.

Hope this helps! —Xhantar^Talk 17:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Name change?

I remember seeing some page that explains how you can request a name change to one that is already taken, provided that there are no edits attributed to the username you want to take. Unfortunately I lost this page and can't find any more information about it, could anyone point me in the right direction? --Xertz 18:04, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Usurpation -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:06, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Exactly what I needed. --Xertz 18:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HOW DO I ALIGN SOMETHING TO THE RIGHT????????

Ive been at it for several hours trying to get {{User:Darkest Hour/TAB}} to be on the right side of my userpage and it will not go there. I am using thes diffs but to no avail:

<align="right"> </right>
<valign="right"> </right>
<align=right> </right>
<valign=right> </right>

--Darkest Hour|DarkeBot 18:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

<div align="right">{{User:Darkest Hour/TAB}}</div>

<div style="align:right;">{{User:Darkest Hour/TAB}}</div>

-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:16, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh, well, I've added align="right" to your table at User:Darkest Hour/TAB; don't know if that's what you had in mind, though. —Xhantar^Talk 18:27, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Utopian society

My article is more relevent as any as it portrays the feelings many have felt for years about creating a utopian society, we are currently trying to set up a website and are pursuing a recrutement program that we hope to expand our influence, and are considering creating a new country, please email me if you have any questions <removed e-mail address>

N.B. <removed e-mail address> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelanarcy (talk • contribs)

Please see WP:NOT - Wikipedia is not a place for recruiting similar-minded people to do anything - we're here to build an encyclopedia. Sorry. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia might contain articles like How to Start Your Own Country, provided their subjects are already sufficiently notable to have been written about elsewhere. For intentional advocacy, please try another wiki. Wikinfo, for example, offers considerably more latitude than Wikipedia for expressing non-neutral points of view. --Teratornis 00:54, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Currency/Money tags and automatic conversion/inflation adjustment?

I'm sure this has come up in the past but I can't seem to find any of those previous discussions.

I was thinking that a lot of articles contain references to sums of money and many of those are historic. It would be great if there was a currency tag where the editor can input the amount, type and date of the currency and the wiki would automatically convert that to present day US/EU amounts while still displaying the original amount. This could be done pretty easily with a lookup table with inflation and exchange rates for various popular currencies.

Hmm... agreed, a lookup table would be handy for that. Unfortunately, wikis aren't good at making lookup tables (at least not the sort the page parser can read) -- if we do it on-wiki, it'd have to be done with an army of meta-templates. I probably know enough about templates to set it up, if I can get the methods down, although (funny thing) I don't know enough about currency exchange to know the methods -- I'd need at least a crash course in getting that done. However, this sort of proposal should probably be run past the community, before being implemented; the village pump is as good a forum as any (if nothing else, they may be able to direct you to any prior discussions, if they do exist). – Luna Santin (talk) 20:01, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] using {schoolblock}

How do I go about using {schoolblock} for a range of 50 ip addresses ? How can I restrict it so only my username can remove the block > —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pennmanor (talk • contribs)

To able to block, you have to be a administrator. Even if you were, there is no way you can restrict the block so only you can remove it. Trebor 20:36, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

If I map my proxy server to a single address can I then go about blocking that address using the schoolblock ? What do I have to do to become an admin or can someone block the address for me ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pennmanor (talk • contribs)

The ability to block people would have such enormous potential for abuse that only administrators can do it directly. Becoming an administrator requires a long and fruitful editing career. Unless you have 5000 or so edits to your name you aren't likely to succeed in a nomination. Otherwise, you will need to contact administrators to request this. Try Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents, but bear in mind that blocking is considered a last resort, and so you need to make a good case: it isn't automatic. Notinasnaid 20:58, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Pennmanor: You cannot block the IP address or range of IP addresses yourself; this can only be done by an administrator. The {{schoolblock}} template is usually put on the talk page of the IP address in question by said administrator, once the block is in place. I'm guessing the best place to request for this block to be implemented, is at WP:ANI—a "noticeboard" monitored by administrators who will be able to assist.

As explained by the template:

"If accounts need to be created at school for class projects, please have your teacher or network administrator [you] contact us (with reference to this IP address) at unblock-en-l from an email address listed on your school's website."

I hope this helps. —Xhantar^Talk 21:15, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] First article

How can you start your own article? I want to know how to make your own article. Thanks in the future. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Moneytime123 (talk • contribs)

Have a look here. Trebor 20:34, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User Sub-Page

How do you create a User Sub-Page ?--Tovojolo 20:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

On your userpage, create a link like so: [[User:Tovojolo/SubPageName]] it'll be red and look like User:Tovojolo/SubPageName. You can follow that link to a new page that will be a user sub-page. Chris M. 21:05, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Subpages for details. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 23:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] creating a reference

How do I add a reference. I have updated sales data on the Nintendo DS article but cannot verify it users without a reference. I need to make one but I dont know how. Gartheknight 20:50, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Enclose your references with <ref>...</ref>. For more help, please see WP:CITE. Xiner (talk, email) 22:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Want to add history to Eglin AFB's Wikipedia dialogue.

On the Eglin Air Force Base page there is a subcategory for the 33RD Fighter Wing.It quotes the official motto.The unofficial motto is " The worlds largest distributor of MIG parts". This is posted on both ends of Nomad Way coming into & out of the Thity-Thirds area on Eglin AFB.It is a joke referring to them having the highest number of kills in the First Gulf War.The 33RD used to have 3 squadrons;the 58th,59th&60th.In 1999 the 60th was inactivated and the other 2 absorbed their planes and personnell. 12.77.148.43 21:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC) Pat Dwyer

Hello Pat, welcome to Wikipedia. If you have something to add to an article, go ahead and add it, but be aware of the requirement to cite published references. Merely knowing something to be true from personal experience is not enough here; you should also provide a citation. If you don't have a proper citation for the interesting bits you list above, you might mention them on the article's talk page and ask if anyone else knows of published references for them. --Teratornis 01:16, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Clip Art

Are Clip Art images, like those in Microsoft Word allowable for use in Wikipedia or are they copyrighted? Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 23:54, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

At most you can use them on MS articles under WP:FAIRUSE, and only if absolutely necessary to illustrate a point. Xiner (talk, email) 00:09, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Issues after move

I moved the article The Last One to The Last One (Friends episode). Then I found every reference to "The Last One" and updated it to point to the new article. But some of the articles still show up on the "Whatlinkshere" page as pointing to the old article. I think it has something to do with the template, which was also updated. I tried to do "action=purge" on most of the articles thinking that would fix it, but they still show up on the "Whatlinkshere" list. What am I doing wrong? :: ZJH ^{(T C E)} 00:22, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if someone else did something or if it just took a while to do the purge, but the problem is fixed now. :: ZJH ^{(T C E)} 00:52, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

IMO, according to WP:MOS, most users probably are looking for the Friends ep, and using a disambig page for two items is usually unnecessary. A simple link on top of the original Friends page to the Aqua Teens ep would've sufficed. Xiner (talk, email) 02:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] picture problems

why can't i seem to load the pictures on wikipedia. do i have to download anything?69.236.175.219 00:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Go on Special:Upload, locate the name of the file you want to upload, add summary information and license details, then click on upload file.--Seraphim Whipp 01:07, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

If you're just looking to load the pictures already on Wikipedia, there shouldn't be a problem. Try pressing F5 on your computer to reload the page, or Shift+F5 to completely reload the page. Ziggurat 01:11, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Please note that you must log in or create an account to upload pictures. --WikiSlasher 11:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Colours used on infoboxes

Someone said that the colour of a infobox for a deceased person should be silver. Is this true? Are there any other colour guidelines? --Seraphim Whipp 01:04, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Haven't heard of that one specifically, but see Wikipedia:Infobox colours for a (now-historical) treatment of colours. Ziggurat 01:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

You may wish to file a request for third opinion about Anna Nicole Smith, or flip a coin, or something like that. It's quite possible that silver for deceased people was once convention, but it's clearly not followed anymore. Just make sure that in discussing the color of the bikeshed, you don't paint the town red. Gracenotes^T § 02:39, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Colors still have a specific meaning in album and other music-related articles, so it's quite possible it is a convention. Ask them where they get it from. If it was once convention it doesn't hurt to follow it, unless that convention was replaced with another. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:24, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] new page

how do you start a new page? zach powell 02:36, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Starting a new page —Mitaphane _?|! 02:38, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

As you get farther along in editing on Wikipedia, you will probably have more questions. This page is becoming my favorite method to find answers to an enormous number of them:

User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia

That's handy to bookmark on your user page. Be sure to come back here in a few months when you have learned all the answers (a small attempt at humor there, as I doubt many mortal humans could learn all of this stuff, and by the time they did, there would be a whole bunch more new material), and help out the next wave of new users. --Teratornis 06:09, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] net100

I was told to sign on and search tool Net100 and I would find the page that was created through edisoncollege but there is nothing here? What am I doing wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pam Clark (talk • contribs)

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you looking for a page that was created by a specific member or IP address? Hersfold ^(talk|work) 03:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

There is an Edison College article (actually a redirect to Edison Community College), but I am unable to understand the question sufficiently to guess whether that's relevant. Pam, if you could, please give us more details: who told you to sign on? Sign on to what? What page are you trying to find? --Teratornis 05:34, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blue Box

Hey guys,

When I'm editing articles, I'm always selecting stuff. I select stuff to copy it. I select stuff to keep my place as I scroll down. Recently, however, somebody tweaked the Wiki software so that selecting stuff generates a live, mini-preview in JavaScript in a little blue box on the edit page.

How do I turn this off? Does anybody know?

Thanks in advance, – Lantoka (talk) 05:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

This is part of the popups feature. To turn it off, put popupOnEditSelection=false; into your monobook.js. -- Chairman S. Talk ^Contribs 05:50, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading powerpoint presentations?

Yet another class where the professor pawns off the teaching on her students...As a result, I'm making some great, well-researched (not to mention good looking) powerpoint presentations on 20th and 21st century designers (So far I have Adolf Loos, the Bauhaus school, and Isamu Noguchi); any way to upload them? The only problem I could forsee would be citations;l they have bibliographies, but no in-text citations. Also, come to think of it, some "borrowed" images. 69.149.24.6 05:53, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Good question. Wikipedia:Presentations links to some PowerPoint presentations, but they don't seem to be part of Wikipedia. I've read lots of Wikipedia articles, but I have yet to see any that use PowerPoint files as intrinsic content (even the PowerPoint article does not use PowerPoint). I don't see anything on Help:Image about PowerPoint. However, I'm not the ranking authority on this, just the first person to respond to your question. My guess is your best bet would probably be to add your material to existing or new Wikipedia articles in the usual way (by re-working it as wikitext). There might be some other wiki that would welcome your .ppt files directly. --Teratornis 06:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Media should be in as free a format as possible. I doubt it,s possible to uplaod a .ppt file anyway. Try asking around for making a .ogg movie.Circeus 18:09, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trans-language image use

I'd like to insert an image into an article, but since it's located in the German Wikipedia, it doesn't show it with a straight "[[Image:Fasching-maske-7.jpg]]." How would I go about displaying the picture in an English article? V-Man737 06:54, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Upload it to Commons (Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons) & tag it with {{subst:ncd}}. afaik, you can't use images from other wikipedias, the ideal solution is commons uploading.-Wo o ty Woot? contribs 07:30, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Incredible Ceylon Hovering Man!!!

Howdy folks. I've been working on an extensive offline revision and expansion of the Sesotho article. One of the many truly insane choices I've made is to have every example word or sentence (all 57 thousand of them) in bold and, if it's not directly followed by Template:IPA (when specifically talking about phonetics), to have the (raw) IPA guide appear in a popup box when you hover the mouse above it. My question is: is there an alternative to Template:H:title that has the desired effect without underlining the text or causing any other style changes? There's another one in the user namespace I saw but it turns the text green! Using the full <span title = "bar"> foo < /span > is too cumbersome. Thanks for any help. Zyxoas (talk to me - I'll listen) 10:21, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Having examples in bold violates the manual of style which says this should be used sparingly. Instead of having IPA boxes popup for every word, have you considered getting someone to do a a spoken version of the article? Wikipedia:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category tag question

The category Category:Conversion templates seems to be self referencing itself or am I wrong? I thought I'd remove it from its own category but I wasn't sure if this was some odd way of cataloging things. Dismas|^(talk) 10:22, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

For some reason, the category was moved out of the noinclude tags that appear above in the instructions section. I've fixed it so it should look normal now. Harryboyles 10:49, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Okie, thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 15:12, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] problem with uploading image

I have uploaded an image file, Dreaming Lhasa movie.jpg, but it does not show up. I get this error message:

The image “http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/Dreaming_Lhasa_movie.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

I have tried my best to follow all the guidelines but still no luck.

Can you help?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 10zing (talk • contribs)

Looks like it has been uploaded successfully. Here's how to link to it: [[Image:Dreaming_Lhasa_movie.jpg]] SubSeven 20:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] i appoligize

last year i uploaded alot of stupid stuff, at the time i created a joke entry for a non existant band, i was just figuring out how to use wikipedia, at the present time there are a bunch of images on your server that i uploaded and i would like to delete them, they are of no use to me, and are a bigger waste to wikipedia, i would appreciate it if ether you guys could delete all of my content so i may start fresh on wikipedia, or if somebody could assist me in deleting it id appreciate it, Mike Rosenberg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikercool1 (talk • contribs)

Having your stuff deleted is easy, just go to the Image page and click the "edit this page"tab. Put {{db-author}} at the top of it, (make sure it's not marked as a minor edit,) and save it. It should be gone in three days tops. -- RoninBK _{T C} 12:44, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redlinked articles on Watchlist, that I never put there.

I was just poking back onto Wikipedia after a bit of a wikibreak, and looked through my Special:Watchlist/edit list. Strangely I had the following articles listed:

‎Jimmy Wales did porn (Talk)
‎Jimmy was involved in porn, yet he continually denies it (Talk)
Why on earth wouldn't anyone protect this? (Talk)

I assume that these pages were recently deleted, but I have no idea how they got to my watchlist. I don't see any reference on Special:Contributions/Roninbk that show any editing by me on those pages.

Is there any way an admin can look into this situation and confirm how this happened? I don't want to jump to the conclusion that my login info might be compromised, but if it is, I need to take precautions. -- RoninBK _{T C} 12:25, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Hang on a sec, can you please move User:WikiSlasher/Test to User:WikiSlasher/Test ON WHEELS!!! for me? (Explain in your edit summary I asked you too ;).) --WikiSlasher 13:29, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

See, my theory is that you had Jimmy Wales on your watchlist and when a pagemove vandal moved the page those pages were added to your watchlist as well. If someone can move my subpage for me I can see if it magically appears in my watchlist to test my idea. --WikiSlasher 14:14, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Moved. Happy Editing by Snowolf^(talk)_CON^COI on 14:57, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

WP:BEANS WP:POINT etc... _→AzaToth 14:58, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

This isn't being disruptive to illustrate a point. --WikiSlasher 07:20, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

OK, I am far less confused now. This is what I get for putting vandal-targets on my watchlist. Chalk this up to "I didn't know Wiki could bend like that..." -- RoninBK _{T C} 05:36, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Yep it worked, User:WikiSlasher/Test ON WHEELS!!! is in my watchlist. So it was the moving of the page that added those pages to your watchlist. --WikiSlasher 06:05, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] University Of Massachusetts

I am a student at the University of Massachusetts in charge of a group engaged in a project in which we are supposed to make contributions to Wikipedia. One of our goals is to create archives that have some longevity to them, and are unique and distinct as they represent Umass. My thought on this is to create an article called "Umass Rights" and simply present our findings under this title. We are a political science class studying the bill of rights, and our discussions would be limited to this area. I have charged my coworkers with finding credible discussions of rights, and basing our arguments on areas of the constitution, and on supreme court findings. Some of our discussions will inevitably overlap articles that have already been written, but we are trying to create a one stop shop for a variety of materials concerning rights under the U.S. constitution. I have been reading the guidelines for what is acceptable to post, and I feel that our project is borderline. I wanted to check with someone with Wikipedia before we began posting, but I assure you that our intention is to present only academic findings, with citations, based on research, not to infuse the article with personal views, or biases. Please let me know if what I've described violates the terms and conditions of posting on Wikipedia.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Mbrecher (talk • contribs)

One thing it sounds like you are in jeopardy of violating is Wikipedia's policy on no original research. Whatever you contribute, make sure it is well cited with verifiable sources. To me, it doesn't sound like the article you are thinking of creating will last. Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought nor is it a webspace provider. To me, it sounds like your contributions would be best directed toward an existing article on Wikipedia such as United States Bill of Rights (although it is already a Featured article), or you may want to look into the US Supreme Court cases WikiProject. Hope this helps.↔NMajdan•talk•EditorReview 14:38, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I looked on the editor's index and found this: WP:SUP. Read that to see what other student groups are doing here. Wikipedia is not necessarily the best wiki for this type of assignment, because Wikipedia has stringent requirements for its articles. Your group might do better on another wiki such as Wikinfo, which accepts original work and does not demand a neutral point of view. I hope that whoever assigned the project does not share the common misconception that Wikipedia is the only wiki; there are many wikis. Wikipedia is the world's largest and most popular wiki, and often it is the only wiki some people have heard of yet. This causes Wikipedia to be the first choice of many people who have goals which differ from Wikipedia's goal (which is to write an encyclopedia). I suggest you go back to whoever assigned the project, and ask why you don't start on a wiki with more lenient requirements. A student group project may be too brief to allow the group members time to read and master much of the material for editors. If the student group contains no members who are already experienced Wikipedia editors, it would probably need supervision from someone who is, such as a faculty member. Otherwise the (unguided) members might end up making stereotypical new-user mistakes. Among these mistakes is to start right off by making new articles, a strategy with low probability of success, rather than making improvements to existing articles which have already passed the initial gauntlet of reasons for speedy deletion. There are lots of existing articles which need improvement, and there are ways to improve articles that would be easy for a group of students with no prior Wikipedia editing experience to master quickly, without running afoul of the extensive rules that govern the allowable Wikipedia content. For example, many articles contain jargon they do not define, but for which defining articles exist elsewhere on Wikipedia. It is very helpful for the reader if editors fill in those missing wikilinks, and this work is usually non-controversial, provided the links are relevant. Perhaps the person who assigned the project might do well to pose the following question to the Help desk: "How should I structure a student group Wikipedia editing project?" Also see: WP:ACST. --Teratornis 18:42, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] remove a curse?

we have had the worse luck someone suggeted a curse, is there any way to find out and can i remove it?----helpme—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Angela smylie (talk • contribs).

What exactly do you mean by that? Could you be a little more specific? Veinor ^{(talk to me)} 14:37, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Curses don't actually exist, so you shouldn't have any problems. .V. _[_Talk|Email] 23:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Where can the Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! be found?

Because if I could find it and have access to it I could move it as was requested above. I know my stuff. I just need to find it. --Darkest Hour|DarkeBot 16:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

The actual message is available and editable at MediaWiki:Anonnotice, but as this is a MediaWiki interface message, only administrators can edit it. I'd suggest either suggesting changes to the talk page, or to the Village Pump (technical) as was suggested above. Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 16:15, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drugs

Do you give information about drugs and their reactions?

You can find more information by asking at the Reference Desk - the Help Desk here is more for how to use Wikipedia, not information from it. But I would try looking at Drugs. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 16:23, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion?

Hi,

I was wandering through "Random Article"s and noticed the use of the terms "new", "currently", and "next" in several articles. Wouldn't it be better, in terms of building a resource with continuing future relevance, if these relative terms were avoided or at least used with a temporal context.

eg: "In 1977 this was the new gizmo on the block."

"Coming in 2008 the next big advance in CPUs will be giggle circuits."

Just my $0.02.

There are guidelines against what you're advising against: see Wikipedia:Avoid statements that will date quickly. The 'as of' mechanism is most commonly used to date statements as you suggest: the preferred form would be "[[As of 1977]] this was the new gizmo on the block." It might be that people aren't following the guidelines; in this case your main options are ignoring the problem, fixing it yourself, or notifying the people responsible about what the problem is. Hope that helps! --ais523 17:17, 22 February 2007 (U T C)

You're right, statements that date quickly should be reworded. If you can spare the time, please help us out. _ Mgm|^(talk) 22:17, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editing a "campaignbox"

Good day,

I've edited an incredibly incorrect page today and it contains something I see on a lot of historical information pages, something called a "campaignbox" which lists battles (with links). I need to be able to edit one, but I can't find any way to do that.

Any help?

Many thanks in advance, Sarah—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pvtchauncey (talk • contribs).

The page in question is Battle on Snowshoes, and the "campaignbox" is {{Campaignbox French and Indian War}}. You can edit it by going into Template:Campaignbox French and Indian War; even though it does have some parser functions, it's fairly self-explanatory. Veinor ^{(talk to me)} 17:33, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

WOW! I'm impressed you found the page and answered so quickly. Many thanks!!—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pvtchauncey (talk • contribs).

No problem; it was actually very simple (the MediaWiki software maintains a list of all the edits a user has made). Also, can you sign your talk page comments? It makes it a lot easier to identify who says what. To do so, just type four tildes, like ~~~~. Thanks! Veinor ^{(talk to me)} 17:48, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] answers

I asked a question on 1/2/07. How do I find out if anyone has answered it?Ameliapitt 17:56, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

The question, and any answers it might have, will be in the Help Desk archives by now: Wikipedia:Help_desk/Archives/2007_February_1. You can find the archives from the 'Archives' link near the top of the Help Desk. Recent questions stay on the Help Desk until they're archived. --ais523 18:00, 22 February 2007 (U T C)

Actually, it seems you asked a Reference Desk question; the answers you got are archived at [[1]]. --ais523 18:57, 22 February 2007 (U T C)

1/2 could also refer to the January 2. In an international setting like this, it's best to write out a date. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:15, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Navigation boxes in Finnish railway station articles

How should we do the "previous - next" navigation boxes in articles about Finnish railway stations? For the VR commuter rail network, it is easy: simply treat Helsinki Central railway station as the heart, and have one box for each route, or group of routes, having the same previous and next station and this one.

But long distance trains pose a huge problem. The long distance railway network in Finland (see List of railway lines in Finland) is much more interconnected and decentralised than the VR commuter rail network. How should we mark each box? With the ultimate endpoints (Helsinki and Kolari in the best case)? This would create a problem when deciding which stations are more important than which. Or should we do it like the Finnish Wikipedia appears to do, by only marking one individual, nonambiguous piece of track at a time? For example, the track from Helsinki to Riihimäki is a straight line with no forks. From Riihimäki it then forks to Tampere and other directions. And how to decide which way the routes go? Automatically treating central stations in large cities as starting points and minor stations in surrounding municipalities as ending points can lead to collisions between two major cities, such as between Helsinki and Turku. Should we decide "it begins in the south" or "it begins in Helsinki"?

If this is inappropriate for the Help Desk, can you suggest another place for discussion? JIP | Talk 18:29, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

This would be best suited to discussion with editors more knowledgeable in the matter, rather than a general help desk. You could try raising the issue on the template talk page (you may wish to add notes to related article talk pages directing people to the template discussion). Hope that helps. Trebor 19:00, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

There is also a wikiproject for rail transport, you could probably get some help from them as well. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 20:11, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Follow-up to technical question about infobox

Thank you, Xiner and Gracenotes, for your help. Somehow, it didn't occur to me that I was allowed to edit a template. Is there a way to make temporary changes to a template for use in a specific article? For example, if you want to make an entry (like "spouse") plural, can you? I've tried to simply add the "s" to the template after cutting and pasting it into the article, but that doesn't work. Do I edit the template, then revert it? That doesn't seem right. --Vbd | (talk) 19:58, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

In the case of Template:infobox performer, which is widely used by other pages, you can't customize it for one page. Conceivably you can re-code the template so that it accepts an optional argument that'd display the extra "s", but that seems like a lot of work. In the case of "Spouse", I'm not sure what the answer is - "(s)" is the best I can think of! Xiner (talk, email) 20:22, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rude/Agressive Editor

I am new on this page. There is another editor that keeps reverting any changes I make, including ones where I simply request a citation, and makes very insulting comments about me on the talk pages such as "you need to go back to your trailer". He is harrassing me. I wanted to join the community because I thought that it would be a fun place to go where people would have reasoned conversations and discussions, but I am afraid to do anything anymore! Is there something to do about this harrassment? I don't want to communicate with this person because he is SO agressive and insulting. (and I looked at his profile and there have been problems with him in the past too). What should I do about this kind of problem? (I'm almost afraid to add my signature) --Kattie90 20:39, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

You can try putting {{subst:uw-npa1}}, {{subst:uw-npa2}}, {{subst:uw-npa3}} or {{subst:uw-npa4}} on the talk page of the user who is behaving like that. >Kamope< Talk · Sign Here 20:58, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Include the page where he made such comments in the section header on his talk page. You can also try WP:AMARQ, but I don't know how long the wait time there is. Xiner (talk, email) 21:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Can't the user just remove the tag on his talk page? I think that he checks his wikipedia account about 5 times a day--Kattie90 23:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

It stays in the history, so that doesn't matter. If you think it's particularly serious, report it to WP:ANI right away to get some admin attention. Even if he's not blocked immediately following that, he will be if it continues. Otherwise, move progressively towards npa4; if he makes a clear personal attack after that, report him to WP:AIV; if he makes an unclear personal attack after that, report him at WP:ANI. If he drops the personal attacks and just starts pointlessly reverting your edits, WP:ANI. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:12, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] help needed

> Hello: My name is Kevin (username: essetarabus) and I posted an article on > Psychogenetic and found this information on the site. I have been unable to > discover how to place a comment on the editors talk page to refute his claim. > I have listed over 10 references which use psychogenetic as a name for the > science which is currently still viable amongst psychologists. he mentions > errors in some of his comments, yet all of the work is clearly referenced. > > I am very appreciative for the existence of wikipedia and use it often. I > also have produced what I and others feel as a viable article. I would be > happy to help wikified the article, except that I am not an expert computer > programmer and have difficulty following your programming instructions. I > would be happy to discuss reasonable compensation to wikify the article, but > do not know whom to contact. > > additionally, I ocassionally get lost trying to follow the flow and > instructions to post articles, edit them, and resolve issues such as these. > Is there a "how to use wikipedia manual" for beginners like me. Several of my > colleagues who would like to contribute, have also expressed similar concerns. > > An editor has expressed concern that this article or section may be > unencyclopedic and should be deleted. > This is primarily a statement about the article's subject, not necessarily its > quality or veracity. Please review what Wikipedia is not and try to resolve > the objections on the talk page. > > This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality > standards. > Please help improve this article, especially its introduction, section layout, > and relevant internal links. (help) > This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Have you tried here? [[2]]

By the way, you don't need to start each line with a >. .V. _[_Talk|Email] 23:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] uploading images

I am unable to figure out how to upload an image to the Ashley Bickerton page. Can you help?Lmgallery 21:33, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Go here: Special:Upload. Just make sure you read through Wikipedia's policies on images before uploading an image. I'd hate to see you go through the trouble of uploading, only to have it deleted.↔NMajdan•talk 21:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to: Have a thumbnail link to another page within my site.

What is the syntax to have a thumbnail on the main page link to a subpage on my site. I was unable to find anything related to this in the help section.

-js

Are you talking about your own website or Wikipedia? If it's the first, you should ask at the reference desk, if it's the second, you probably need to know "your site" is not the correct way to talk about a Wikipedia page (see WP:OWN). If it's neither, please be more specific. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My Edits Keep Cancelling

Hello, My name is Clive Cowan son of British Comic Scriptwriter Ted Cowan.

Someone began a page concerning my father which was not entirely correct in its information. I have spent considerable time in correcting it, adding new content, and adding and testing links. However, having saved my changes after a couple of hours the page is reverting back to the original cancelling out all my edits. The History shows the work I have done.

If I do not clear the Internet Cache on my computer then my edits remain - but not if viewed from another PC.

I have created a Registered User Account, entered details openly in my User Profile Page and Made an entry in the Ted Cowan Talk Page - all open and above board. I have received no contact nor explanation, nor can I see any obvious changes by other authors or malicious attacks.

What is going on please as I fail to understand.

I would be most grateful for your help - it seems pretty pointless if correct updated information is being overwritten by innaccuracies.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With Thanks,

--Clive Cowan 00:00, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

When I look at that article, all your edits seem to be there, and the page being displayed is consistent with your last edit. Perhaps your cache is not as cleared as you think? *Mishatx*-In\Out 00:07, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

See WP:PURGE and make sure you are viewing the latest revision of the page. --Teratornis 02:58, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] templates

how do i make (picture templates) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rsivad (talk • contribs)

I'm sorry, could you explain what you mean by that? Xiner (talk, email) 00:21, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

templates like those little pictures in the user boxesi dont no how to find them and then but it in my user box sory about that i forgot to sign --Rsivad 02:16, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah, userboxes with images...sorry I can't help you with that. Hopefully someone with more technical knowledge can answer your question. All I can say is copy one such template and play with it. Xiner (talk, email) 02:33, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

You may also want to try WP:VPT or WP:IRC. Xiner (talk, email) 02:34, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] You have new messages?!

OK, why does every Wikipedia page I open today have an orange box with "You have new messages (last change)," which, when I click on it, says "User talk:[IP address]" and admonishes me not to add nonsense content, "as [I] did to Goostrey" and to stop vandalizing pages, otherwise I'll be blocked. Needless to say, I don't even know what "Goostrey" is and have never even been to that page. What on Earth is this about?!—Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.108.175.186 (talk • contribs)

IP addresses are often shared. This edit indicates that back in December a vandalizer used your IP address to vandalize Wikipedia. Even though you did not make the edit, it still shows under the IP's contribution history. That is why it is often encouraged to edit under an account name so as not to be unnecessarily blocked for edits you did not even make.¤~Persian Poet Gal ^(talk) 00:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

And that particular person never clicked the box to check the messages. Hence it was still showing for you. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:55, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] a house-cleaning question

On the page for Category:People infobox templates, there are several items that seem to be userpages (or their sandboxes), and one that appears to be a problematic article (Karen (Remember to Forget)). Should these be cleaned out of this category page? I know WP encourages boldness, but I didn't want to delete something that should be left alone.--Vbd | (talk) 01:02, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

The Karen one is probably an error, and can be safely deleted. I might suggest to the authors of the user space templates to comment out the category inclusions. Xiner (talk, email) 01:12, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, no one can fault you for being bold and commenting out the code yourself. Just make sure if you do, you're very nice about it. Xiner (talk, email) 01:15, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I've gone ahead and been bold (and hopefully polite). Question: Can anyone create a template for others to use? If so, how does one properly name or save a template so that it is not a user subpage? At least a couple of the ones I looked at seemed to be finished products, not just tests. I've skimmed WP:TEMP, but found it kind of dense (or maybe that's just me). Is one option simply to move the page? For example, if you go to User:Peter G Werner/Template:Infobox Scientist and move it to "Template:Infobox Scientist," would that work? (I don't want to experiment without contacting the User first; he may not intend for it to be available.)--Vbd | (talk) 04:43, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Be careful about creating duplicates for already existant templates, but that is the way to creating a Template name space template. Xiner (talk, email) 13:57, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

I cant seem to put a picture on an artical when i try to create one or when just editing.Gostanford22 01:45, 23 February 2007 (UTC)When i trie to put a picture on it just shows the link. Not the picture, what do i put for the pictures as in what code is put in and where do you store the images, i have mine on photobucket, but when i click the "embeded image" button and put in the code from photobucket, it just shows the link not the picture.Gostanford22 15:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Can you be more specific? Have you tried adding an image to the sandbox? What error do you get when you try to upload an image? Xiner (talk, email) 04:05, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like you're trying to link to an external image (one not hosted on Wikipedia's servers). You can't do this - you should first upload your image to Wikipedia, then link to it as you link to any article. Ale_Jrb^talk 17:56, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

How do u do that (upload the picture to wikipedia)Gostanford22 19:06, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

You can upload the picture by clicking the link "upload file" on the menu bar to the left in the toolbox. Please note that your image needs to have a tag saying where it came from and why it is going to be used otherwise it could be deleted. User: Hdt83 | Talk/Chat 08:53, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cookies...

I finally found the problem. It was in my security service, not the browser. I know the mantra "rtfm", but I didn't have an fm to r. Sorry to take up your time. Thanks again.

[edit] other web sites

are we aloud to put other web sites on our member page for instance Sone web site i like to go to are bla bla bla or are we not aloud to do that shoot i forgot to sign agin here u go --Rsivad 02:29, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I don't know of any policy etc that forbids listing your favourite web sites, as long as you only do it in your userspace (for example, here), rather than the article space and make sure the links are tasteful. Post back if you need anything else — D e on555^talk_desk^{sign here!} 02:37, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

thx that helps alot but what do u mean by tasetfull?--Rsivad 02:44, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

For example, don't post shock sites or your favorite pornography sites. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 03:55, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

As I understand it, the guidelines allow you to express your interests, so long as you're not advertising for someone else or using your user page as your browser bookmark file. Xiner (talk, email) 04:00, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Remember, though, that your user page is only there to support your work as an editor of the encyclopedia; it isn't personal web space of any kind. In particular, if an editor doesn't edit articles, some would argue that they have no entitlement to a user page either. Notinasnaid 08:59, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

There are many other wikis. You might find one with few or no restrictions on user page content. --Teratornis 03:01, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Style question about sub subsections...

I'm currently editing a rather large article. For clarity and ease, I think several sections need to be conflated into one large section. It just so happens that several of the sections to be conflated also contain subsections, which would then become sub subsections. I first attempted to edit all the sections by just adding all the additional "=" where needed. The problem is that, while the hierarchy of the sections looks correct on the TOC, the sub subsections looked indistinguishable from subsections in the actual body of the article. It appears that MediaWiki doesn't lend any additional formatting properties to sub subsections to make them look any different than subsections other than how they appear in the TOC.

Dissatisfied, I experimented with several formatting tricks and finally settled on using <h5>...</h5> tags on the sub subsection headers (to make those headers look different than subsection headers) and indented all the text that appear under sub subsection headings. Here is what it looks like on a subpage I'm working on: World of Warcraft. As you can see, all the section headers under Realms are done the way I described. This trick seems to solve the problem of making sub subsection headers and text more distinguishable from subsection headers and text. What's more, the TOC still recognizes them as sub subsections and displays the correct hierarchy even without using all the "=" one would normally use.

My question is: is this an acceptable style? I know it's unconventional. Is there a better way to do this without resorting to this trickery? Thanks in advance. Luis1972 05:58, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I personally believe that using =====These sections===== is overall best for the article. However, you may wish to note that

;Title
text

more text!

Results in:

Title

text

more text!

The semicolon may be to your purposes, then, but my advice is to keep the regular sections. In addition, it's not convention to indent paragraphs with the colon. I don't know whether this is intended to be permanent or not. Good job with the article, and keep on writing! Gracenotes^T § 06:58, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I have gone ahead and implemented the ===== markup for sub subsection headings. I actually think it's the same exact result you get when using the <h5>...</h5> tags, but I also deleted the indents as I agree that it would be an inconvenience for future editors. Thank you again. Luis1972 14:19, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how to email a page to someone?

im unable to email a page which is needed for my future reference.

You don't know how to e-mail text from a web page? Perhaps we can help you, what kind of computer system do you have (example: Windows Me, Mac OS X.3), what browser (that is, the program which shows you web pages), and what e-mail program? Notinasnaid 09:40, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what Notinasnaid is driving at... You can either send them a link to the page by copying the address of the article (this would be the line that starts "http://") or you can copy the text of the article and paste it into a new email message to them. The first way is better since they can then go to the most recent version of the article instead of reading a possibly old version which may have been updated several times by the time they read it. If you need help with copying and pasting, please don't be afraid to ask for more instruction. Dismas|^(talk) 09:48, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm just driving at getting enough detail to give step by step instructions (since, for example, "select all" varies by platform and browser). Notinasnaid 10:05, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Using the contents of wikipedia articles

Please let me know if the contents given in the articles of Wikipedia can be reproduced or used in some other articles, journals or books, without seeking copyrights permission.

SNS

Wikipedia is licenced under the GFDL; for full legal details, see the Text of the GNU Free Documentation Licence. Wikipedia:Copyrights contains more information you may find useful. --ais523 12:16, 23 February 2007 (U T C)

[edit] new version of image not showing up

I uploaded a new version of Image:Plainsboro-twp-nj.png (highlighted red with simple outline map) to the Commons. However, the Plainsboro Township, New Jersey article, in which I included the map, still displays the old version (highlighted pink with bodies of water). Even after refreshing, bypassing the cache, and purging the page, it still shows the old version of the map. When I click on the image, however, the image page does display the new version. How can I fix this problem? --Schzmo 12:24, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I've purged it on Commons, and it looks OK to me now. Bypass your cache again, and if there are still problems report back here so we can try to think of what else might be wrong. --ais523 12:26, 23 February 2007 (U T C)

[edit] E-comments by subject citable

Cynthia Leigh is a notable cosplayer, made famous primarily on the 'net. I'm trying to skim her biography down into a more manageable form and size. One of the things someone mentioned in the article is that she has asthma, based in this post. Is this valid to be cited? -- Zanimum 14:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reliable sources#Bulletin boards,wikis and posts to Usenet - a e-comment is not a reliable source. As it says on there, there is no way of telling who wrote them, and if they are just writing a load of rubbish! Hope this helps, Asics talk ^{Editor review!} 19:38, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Good, thanks. That's what I thought, but just wanted to check. -- Zanimum 21:47, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sandbox

What is sandbox —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.77.82.165 (talk • contribs)

It's a place you can test your edits without affecting real pages. Xiner (talk, email) 15:48, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Randomly choosing users

I know we have Special:Random to pick random articles but I need a random sample of users. Is there any way to do this other than to copy all 3 million into a spreadsheet and pick random numbers? _└^Jared_┘^┌_talk^┐ 17:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Maybe pick a random article (with Special:Random) and then look at user that did the most recent non-bot edit to it? That way you get a random user, and you're sure to get one that's still active (and the more active the user, the more likely you'll get them). Of course, that could seriously skew your results if the purpose for the survey is to pick completely random people and then see how often they contribute, or how recently they've contributed. Maybe you can tell us why you're doing it, and see if that helps come up with any ideas? --Maelwys 17:47, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Special:Random/User will return a random userpage or subpage; this may not be what you want, though, as it won't pick up redlinked users, and is weighted towards users with lots of subpages. --ais523 18:04, 23 February 2007 (U T C)

[edit] How to update a page relating to your own organisation

I work for an organistion called English Partnerships which currently has a stub article on Wikipedia. We'd like to add some more information to this stub but is it OK for me as a member of this organisation to do so? If not what would be the best way of submitting information which could be considered for inclusion on this page? Helenaball 17:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Certain info like history should not be too much of a problem but anything that says how great English Partnerships is without citing an external source might be a problem under WP:NPOV or WP:COI. However, if you can find reliable sources (news, etc.) to back up what you want to say, it shouldn't be a problem.Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 17:40, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

It is probably better if you do avoid editing this article, in fact. It is better to propose changes on the article talk page. Please take a look at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. Thanks, Notinasnaid 19:12, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes it is best to add information on the talk page, and other users will find decide whether or not it is relevant, and from a neutral point of view. That would be what I would suggest, as it would avoid any Conflicts of interest. Hope this helps! Asics talk ^{Editor review!} 19:29, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Free Language Resources for Computational Linguistics

Hi. I would like to upload a list of Spanish words for use by Computational Linguistics, Information Retrieval, and other natural language processing domains.

The list consists of hundreds of thousands of words, and each line is composed of three items: surface-form, lemma, part of speech. For example

...
perros perro N
...
tengo tenir V
...

The list is generated by decompiling ISPELL files for doing spell checking in emacs. These files are under the GPL license.

The resulting data set is large. It took up 30 megabytes when I formatted it in the wiki format of a three column list.

Since it is an automatically generated lexicon, I think it should be modifiable and thus appear in a wiki. I also want to produce the same data for thirty other languages.

It is useful for automated treatment in natural language processing to have all the information on one page rather than spread out over hundred of thousands of pages.

Which wiki is most appropriate for this data

Wiktionary? ... seems to have adopted a one word per page approach
Wikibooks ? ... but this is not a published work
Wikisource ? ... but this is not a published work
Wikiversity ? ... this resource is more for automatic treatment of language than language learning
Commons?

Please advise.

148.204.211.250 19:14, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Not actually sure if the data is useful for any of Wikipedia's projects. As far as I know, there isn't anything that compiles lists of words without their meanings. Perhaps look at Wikia, if you wish to make it a wiki? x42bn6 Talk 20:12, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

How about if I add in a user modifiable column that has the English translation(s) of each word

- ...
- perros perro N dog
- ...
- tengo tenir V hold, keep
- ...

I still don't think so. It might qualify for Wiktionary but I doubt it because it requires meaning rather than translation - just look at es:Wiktionary:tilde, for example. x42bn6 Talk 17:08, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Entering Videos into an article

I am interested in the article Street Light Interference. I have tried several times (in good faith) to make edits to this article, however an administrator ("Rspeer") takes out any edits I do; especially when it has to do with video. I have referenced all my changes to the main source reference book on this called The SLI Effect, published in London 1993 by Hilary Evans. I am NOT entering in any original research. I am ONLY saying the same thing he is saying throughout the book (which just happens to be a free download into a PDF file). The "basics" are that certain type people (unknown reason why) seem to effect street lights to go off (and sometimes back on again). I am showing this phenomenon in these videos. I tried to negotiate with this administrator with the idea of getting a "third opinion" on my videos. I agreed to these terms. However since there was no objections to my videos by other administrators or editors, I then entered back my videos. Immediately he reverted back saying this was original research; not allowing the videos to be used in spite of the fact that "third opinions" did not object. Here is what I am proposing (since I know he will object to anything I edit on this article):

Look at my User Page under Articles I Am Working On for the one named Street Light Interference. These are the edit changes I would like to submit. They are nothing drastically different than the way the article is now, except perhaps for the TWO short videos showing a SLIder effecting the light to go off and to effect the light to go on.
Allow all the proposed changes to stay for a period of time (i.e. 30 days) for other editors to look over for changes and improvements. See what others have to say on the idea of videos to illustrate a previously published phenomenon! Asking to just copy and paste this complete article written here as in my "proposal" in this sandbox to replace the existing.
If there are at least 3 independant editors (not associated with those that have edited the article in the last month) that object or change or remove these changes I propose (especially the videos), then these submissions proposed here not to be used. I agree then these proposed edits I am submitting are objectional and will not resubmit; however I feel I should not be "censored" on this material (especially since it is within guidelines and it is nothing real gross like that of say moral issues or religion or other such things).

If this sounds like an agreeable proposal, please drop in these changes and notify "Rspeer" what is being done. Thanks. --Doug ^talk 20:15, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

By third opionion, did Rspeer actually say 'third opinions of Wikipedia editors'? Because I would assume what they would direct you to would be WP:V, which explains that you need to report opinions of other people about things, and cannot post original research. That means, no matter how true something is, you can't just add it to an article, and you can't add your own videos in as evidence, with your own interpretation. If you can find a reliable source which describes these videos as showing SLI, then you could include them and say "(name of source) says '(blah blah blah)'". Skittle 22:28, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Oop, sorry I misread. It was you talking about 3rd opinions, so you probably did mean that. Video you made of something happening is, by its nature, original research. However, if you can find some published source that describes these videos as showing SLI, or maybe if you described the videos as showing what SLI would probably look like, I would say they would be fine. Skittle 22:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

That wording sounds good to me. I have added this wording into the sandbox in the "edits" of Street Light Interference under my section Article I am Working On. Otherwise the other changes I made are basically minor and I would like to submit these now for a 30 day "test period" so that others can view the videos. If they object, I will pull them. Deal or no Deal?? Street Light Interference sandbox edit proposals for a "test period." Can I make these edit changes and the two small videos? --Doug ^talk 00:51, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vanishing Account

I had a registered account on Wikipedia, under the name "Alexannah". I had quite a few items on my watch list and I had my login info saved on my computer. Just now when I tried to access my watch page I found I wasn't logged in; when I tried to log in it said there wasn't a user with my name. I haven't got it wrong because I never register on sites as anything else. Has my account been terminated for some reason or is there just a bug?

Alexannah

I don't know why you are unable to log-in earlier. Your account shows up[3] I tried to log in as "Alexannah" and it said incorrect password not no such user.Perhaps you misspelled the name in the login or had caps lock on? Why don't you try again.--BirgitteSB 21:00, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bircham International University

Dear Wikipedia,

We have recently found your definition about Bircham International University. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bircham_International_University The definition currently posted is inaccurate, incomplete and misleading. I suggest that this definition is updated with a most accurate and precise content. First I will propose the definition and then I will provide the references and proofs in order to support the inaccurate leads detected. I thank you in advance for your time and I hope that you reconsider that this incorrect definition is quite damaging for our institution and it does not honor the commitment to accuracy and truth from an Encyclopedia

CORRECT DEFINITION ABOUT BIU:

Bircham International University is an independent institution of higher education that offers degree programs through distance learning for the adult professional student. BIU is a non accredited institution according to the USA accreditation standards (CHEA) and a provider of non formal higher education according to the Spanish Law. Its unaccredited degrees may not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and the use of its degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions, such as the States of Oregon, Maine or Texas.

INACCURATE DATA ARGUMENTS AND PROOFS

I also ask that any reference to Diploma Mill or Fraudulent school are taken away from the definition for the reasons, arguments and proofs provided below.

AACRAO AND SOME STATES CLASSIFICATION OF BIU

The Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization listed BIU as a degree mill in the past. BIU provided documentation and a review conducted by Alan Contreras from the Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization any negative definition of BIU was deleted. It is though listed correctly as not accredited school with no further comments, except an “F” which means Foreign institution. http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.html

AACRAO http://www.aacrao.org/international/consulting.cfm conducted a simple review of BIU legal status that lead to the incorrect statement posted by the State of Maine and Texas. The Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization who required this evaluation from AACRAO did not post the statement “Bircham is not accredited and it not authorized by the Spanish government” because it was explained to them by BIU. After detecting the the Wikipedia definition, BIU has taken the actions to get the Maine and Texas sites corrected the same way the Oregon Office did. We do not know how long this will take. First we have presented the same documents and proofs provided in this email to AACRAO who is the institution used by different States organism to verify foreign institutions. I understand that posing an inaccurate question or addressing the incorrect department in Spain may have lead AACRAO to this conclusion. Allow me to clarify that there are two types of higher education in Spain:

1. Formal Education leading to officially recognized degrees is monitored by the corresponding departments of education that ensure that the programs curriculum meet the standards set forth by the Ministry of Education. Completion of such homologated programs leads to an official degree.

2. Non-Formal Education (Educación no reglada) leading to non officially recognized degrees is monitored by the corresponding departments of consumer affairs that ensure consumer protection and quality of instruction delivery. Non formal education programs do not follow the Ministry of Education programs curriculum standards. Non formal education provides much more freedom in the program curriculum. Degrees granted after completion of non formal programs leads to a non official degree.

Bircham International University is a provider of non formal education and as such no further authorization form the Ministry of Education is required. The Ministry and Departments of Consumer Affairs monitors that BIU programs clearly state the non formal nature of the programs offered and the quality of instruction delivered. In 2004 a law was specifically approved on this regard. Before this law there was a disperse collection of norms and directives that could have lead the person conducting the AACRAO evaluation to the inaccurate and false conclusions stated above.

The applicable law is Decreto 84/2004 de 13 de Mayo. Enseñanza General. Quoting the law. It applies to private institutions that offer non formal education leading to non official degrees (...“los centros privados que imparten enseñanzas no dirigidas a las obtención de un título con validez oficial”...) You may read this law directly from http://gestiona.madrid.org/wleg/servlet/Servidor?opcion=VerHtml&idnorma=3480&word=S&wordperfect=N&pdf=S You may also verify other related laws at: http://gestiona.madrid.org/wleg/index.htm

Then you should download the PDF Documents called BIU Legal Docs and BIU Recognition on the top part of this link http://www.bircham.edu/pdfdownload/ This should provide documentary proof that neither AACRAO nor the States of Maine or Texas ever looked at while the Oregon State did look at. http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.html

The PDF called BIU Legal Docs provides copies of the following documents and much more:

- Copy of the Official Registrar of Companies authorizing the name Bircham International University College and the purpose of the company (objeto social): Higher education. - Copy of the Economic Activity License under paragraph 932.2 (Professional Education and Improvement) - Copy of the Office license for the activity Higher Professional Education - Copy of a certificate from the Spain National Distance Learning Association (ANCED) stating the european residents may legally work in Europe with a non official degree granted by BIU. - Copy of the Consumer Affairs Quality Seal granted by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs that guarantees that BIU meets the regulations set forth by the law Decreto 84/2004 de 13 de Mayo. Enseñanza General. mentioned above.

BEING NOT ACCREDITED IS NOT EQAL TO BEING A DIPLOMA MILL

BIU may be listed as a non accredited school but this is not equivalent to be defined as a fraudulent institution or diploma mill. Quoting Wikipedia definition of unaccredited institutions “According to the United States Department of Education, it is possible for postsecondary educational institutions and programs to elect not to seek accreditation but nevertheless provide a quality postsecondary education” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_accreditation

You are also welcome to visit BIU website at http://www.bircham.edu/ to gather for more information and find out if BIU meets the criteria to be classified as a diploma Mill. BIU is NOT a Diploma Mill. A diploma mill is an institution of higher education that grants degrees without ensuring that students are properly qualified. The following aspects will allow you to properly differentiate BIU from a Diploma Mill or any questionable school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_mill

1. Legality: A diploma mill does not provide clear references about its legal status or authority to grant degrees. BIU does. Sometimes the school is based in countries that lack of any regulations in matter of education such as several Caribbean countries, some nations from Africa, or some States from the USA (Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Montana). A diploma mill often operates from another country through PO BOX addresses. Visit the About BIU section of BIU web for further explanations of BIU legal references. You may also download copies of BIU Legal Docs from the PDF Download area. http://www.bircham.edu/english/aboutbiu/

2. Contact offices: A diploma mill does not usually provide a physical or verifiable contact address or telephone. Any international structure is not real or just a group of commercial agents. There are no offices to visit or to call during office hours. BIU provides real addresses with real offices that may be visiet on working hours. Visit the BIU Offices to know worldwide contact details. http://www.bircham.edu/english/contactabiu.html

3. Admission & Fees. A diploma mill does not have a real admission process. Anybody is usually admitted into any degree program offered. Fees are negotiable and there is usually no criteria or regulations regarding any transfer of credits from previous education and professional experience. A diploma mill never offers a refund policy nor enforces any students rights or consumer protection. Visit the Admission section of BIU web to learn about our admission requirements, student rights and refund policy. http://www.bircham.edu/english/adm.html

4. Academic support. A diploma mill does not have a list of academics and staff. If there is a list, there will be no description of their educational qualifications. No detailed information about the content of the academic program is provided accurately or in detail. No learning methodology and teacher tutoring or counseling is available. There is never any academic feedback about any work submitted to the institution. Visit the Who We Are section of BIU web to know BIU Staff and academics. http://www.bircham.edu/english/graduados/ You may also download the Study Guide from the PDF Download area. http://www.bircham.edu/pdfdownload/

5. Recognition. A diploma mill does not provide clear information about recognition and accreditation. Any reference to third party accreditors is misleading, not sound and not verifiable. There is never a consumer protection guarantee such as the one that BIU provides. Visit the About BIU section of this web for further explanations of BIU recognition. http://www.bircham.edu/english/aboutbiu/ You may also download copies of BIU Recognition from the PDF Download area. http://www.bircham.edu/pdfdownload/

BIU is NOT a Diploma Mill. BIU web provides clear arguments against these issues. If you wish to verify further about any issue do not hesitate to ask or request additional documents.

CITYLINK ARTICLE “Bircham International University was referred to by a former DipScam federal agent as a degree mill.[2]” http://www.citylinkmagazine.com/archives/101503coverstory.html

This article deals with several diploma mills and the whole business around it. It mentions BIU once through the opinion of one former BIU student (Hullender). Michelle Moultrie Hullender was granted admission into BIU on 4/11/2003. She was assigned to do several reports on several textbooks that she never submitted. On 10/27/2003 she request to withdraw from the program. BIU sent the corresponding Refund Form according to the student rights and refund policy. Michelle Moultrie Hullender never submitted any academic work so she ca not provide an accurate opinion about BIU programs of study. The Citylink article then provides a comment about Deric Bircham without even bothering to verify if Deric Bircham credentials are good or not. Deric Bircham full and detailed Biodata is available upon request. A short summary of the academic part of his background (The honors are not included here) may be read at http://www.bircham.edu/english/graduados/ Academic Board

BIU lawyers have contacted Citylink magazine in the past in order to demand a correction of this references. The answer from Citylink magazine and Jim Di Paola the wirter is that the article only express an opinion. If Wikipedia considers that an article of opinion is a fact, then we also request that the following references about BIU are added to the definition of BIU provided by Wikipedia. This definitions are factual references and not mere opinions:

AADP - American Association of Drugless Practitioners http://www.aadp.net/ APICS - Accademia per la Promozione Internazionale della Cultura e della Scienza http://www.apics.com/news.htm ABED - Associação Brasileira de Educação a Distância http://www.abed.org.br/ AHEA - Adult Higher Education Alliance http://www.ahea.org/about/institutions.htm ANCED - Asociación Nacional de Centros de Enseñanza a Distancia http://www.anced.es/centros.asp BLA - The British Learning Association http://www.british-learning.com/home.htm EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.edu IACET - International Association for Continuing Education & Training http://www.iacet.org/about/providers.asp IARC - International Accreditation & Recognition Council http://www.iarcedu.com/directory.aspx INC - Instituto Nacional del Consumidor http://www.consumo-inc.es/guiacons/interior/infpract/infpract.htm

ECBE - European Council for Business Education http://www.ecbe.eu/what-is-ecbe.php?page_id=7 ICA - International Communication Association http://www.icahdq.org/

AADP - American Association of Drugless Practitioners http://www.aadp.net/ AAMA - American Alternative Medical Association http://www.joinaama.com/ AHHA - American Holistic Health Association http://ahha.org/ahhameb.asp BCMA - The British Complementary Medicine Association http://www.bcma.co.uk/bcma_Spain.htm

AHP - Association for Humanistic Psychology http://www.ahpweb.org/aboutahp/hum_edu.html ATP - Association for Transpersonal Psychology http://www.atpweb.org SIOP - Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology http://www.siop.org

IACEE - International Association for Continuing Engineering Education http://www.iacee.org/academic.htm

QUACKWATCH Lists BIU as questionable non-accredited school Wikipedia provides a very accurate definition of Quackwatch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackwatch BIU presented a report with all the course contents of our Natural Health Sciences programs for their review and evaluation. It is true that there is a lot of quackery in the Health Sciences Business but it is also true that there are good professionals and schools. I just refer the related links provided above. Quoting the answer received from Stephen Barrett, M.D. should be enough to prove the partial and obsesive personal war of this person has against all Natural Health Sciences. The question then is why Wikipedia considers such references as valid references for the definition of an academic institution.

Stephen Barrett, M.D. Email received on 02/12/03:

“I have been to your Web site, which, by the way, is one of the most poorly functional sites I have ever seen. The fact that you have a PhD program that offers to convey expert knowledge of iridology, homeopathy, and several other pseudosciences is enough for me to conclude that you teach nonsense. Sorry, but that's how I feel.”

Stephen Barrett, M.D. Board Chairman, Quackwatch, Inc. NCAHF Vice President and Director of Internet Operations P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105 Telephone: (610) 437-1795

Finally I want to thank you again for taking your time to get to the end of our request and kindly ask you to modify the definition of BIU as suggested. Do not hesitate to contact me at willy@bircham.edu if any additional information or dicuments are required. I have provided quick internet references to support BIU arguments but of course additional documents are available. I did not want though to overload this email with an excess of documents.

Regards

William Martin BIU Vicepresident & CEO Plaza Chueca 8, Madrid 28004, Spain Tel: +34915217009 Fax: +34915219827 willy@bircham.edu

Wikipedia is not subject to Spanish law.
Several sources say you're a diploma mill, you offer a doctorate in homeopathy, you're not accredited in any way, and you've fallen under the suspicion of the US department of education. Utterly unconvicing sir --⁪froth^T 01:43, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding a wikipedia search box to a web page

Is it possible to add a Wikipedia search box, like the one on the Main Page of Wikipedia, to another webpage like a blog? Then when I talk about esoteric concepts in my blog, my friends can just type in what they want to know about and get a wikipedia page. 64.168.239.205 20:50, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

<inputbox> type=search bgcolor=#CCCCFF default= </inputbox>

Like this? --Darkest Hour ǁ 21:34, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

There should be. http://mozdev.mozilla.org has a searchplugin for Firefox that does the exact match, and I know an older version did the full search thing. The code is fairly simple and someone who knows HTML should be able to adapt it easily. Xiner (talk, email) 21:40, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

<h5><label for="searchInput">Search</label></h5>
<div id="searchBody" class="pBody">
 <form action="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search" id="searchform"><div>
 <input id="searchInput" name="search" title="Search Wikipedia [alt-f]" accesskey="f" value="" type="text">
 <input name="go" class="searchButton" id="searchGoButton" value="Go" type="submit">
 <input name="fulltext" class="searchButton" id="mw-searchButton" value="Search" type="submit">
 </div></form>
</div>

--Darkest Hour ǁ 21:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Vegan Vandal and supertroll

Is thare or was thare ever a vandal called The Vegan Vandal and or supertroll or mr treason?--Fang 23 21:35, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

short answer: no. Dåvid Fuchs ^{(talk / frog blast the vent core!)} 21:38, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually "Supertroll" existed a long long long time ago. One of my first edits was an attempt to remove vandalism of his. I didn't do it right (I blanked the page instead of reverting), but I do remember it. Prodego ^talk 22:25, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Here is the edit if you are interested. 15:09, 18 October 2005, my second edit ever. Prodego ^talk 22:27, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Correct answer: yes. --WikiSlasher 02:39, 24 February 2007 (UTC)