Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 55

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

June 27

Article Reorganization

I'd like to reorganize the various "devil" articles, and I'd like to know how I make sure it's OK with the community and how I do it if it is OK.

Currently, material in the various "devil" articles (especially satan and devil) is not categorized coherently. For example, there's a long etymology of "devil" on the "satan" page, and that should appear (only) on the "devil" page.

I've proposed a restructure on the talk:satan page, but I get the feeling that moving big chunks of text around is something that I should do only with some sort of go-ahead.

And if I get the go-ahead, then are there pointers I should read about how to handle moving big chunks of text around?

Jonathan Tweet 01:27, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Well for a start be bold. If someone doesnt like it they will move it back. When they do, ask them why and you can try and make an agreement. Secondly, if you really want to gauge concencus you could possibly open a request for comment. Viridae 02:42, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Article that was deleted

A couple of weeks ago someone (not me) wrote an article on Valleyschwag.com, a new site that, for $14.95/month, sends out Silicon Valley swag (t-shirts, stickers, etc). Someone on the discussion page asked for relevance and I replied. I was on vacation, and now that I'm back, it seems the page has disappeared - the search box brings up no results. Can I see an archive of the request for deletion or the discussion page to find out what happened? Kat, Queen of Typos 01:37, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Valleyschwag. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 01:50, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Inquiry

Gentlemen,

Greetings of peace! I am on the process of constructing my website about jewelry. I need data to fill-in my website and I was informed that I can make use of your unlimited articles. I wish to know if I would be allowed without any charge to copy articles such as diamonds, rings, etc. and post them on my website for the purpose of providing information to my prospect clients and customers who are searching relevant information about my product. Thank you and please keep me posted on this regard. More power!

Respectfully,

FPSalvacionJr. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jongps (talk • contribs)

Absolutely. Although there's a catch - please see Wikipedia:Copyrights (the catch is you have to let anyone else make unlimited use of "your" articles as well and acknowledge the authors of the original Wikipedia articles). Rather than copyright, this idea is generally described as copyleft. -- Rick Block (talk) 04:14, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

• On a side note, there's multiple women around here, so addressing the help desk volunteers as "gentlemen" isn't entirely appropriate. Just something to keep in mind next time you ask a question here. - 131.211.210.16 07:43, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
  • There are also numerous ruffians, oafs and general ne'er-do-wells on Wikipedia who could not be in the least accurately addressed as 'gentlemen'. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 12:18, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

permethrin

can i use this for ringworm?

• I have no idea, but I'm guessing the people at the reference desk might have an idea. Please read the instructions on top of this page and note that it's for questions related to editing wikipedia. Factual questions like yours should be at the reference desk. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:41, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

SVG logos

Can someone tell me, with certainty, whether or not logos in SVG is against fairuse? User:9cds has said it is against fairuse, and speedy deleted several images I uploaded (which were fairuse, unless SVG IS against it) but, nonetheless, many very obvious examples of SVG fairuse logos exist e.g.: Microsoft. I am also very sceptical of this opinion, as I find it odd that no one has made a bot to find SVG images under fairuse. Is it or isn't it against fairuse? (as long as they aren't rendered as high-resolution) - ^Рэд_хот 14:09, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

You're probably better off keeping fair-use logos as PNG images as these only have a limited resolution. The purpose of SVG is to produce vector graphics, which can be scaled up (or down) without any loss of quality, unlike raster image formats like PNG or JPEG. It is therefore much easier to produce high quality copies of logos produced in SVG, regardless of the resolution at which you originally uploaded it. Andrew (My talk · World Cup) 23:22, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Full text not displaying after editing article section

I just did some copyediting on Boris Yeltsin, editing section by section. After editing the second section, I previewed and all looked OK, but when I saved the page, all the text after the section I had just edited was not displayed. I went back and pasted the missing article text back in (after editing this missing text), and it's all definitely there in the edit box, but it's still not appearing on the page. I'm still new around here so maybe made a wrong step somewhere ... please let me know how I can fix it. Thanks! Maiya 14:59, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, how odd. It sounds like you were doing everything OK, so try a little later and if it still doesn't work, come back and tell us/post on my talk page.

(It could have been an edit conflict, though, so do try again.)

EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME 15:19, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I have fixed the problem. The ref tags weren't used correctly. Wikipedia:Footnotes explains how to use them. Basically you use <ref name="yada"> </ref> rather than <!--ref name="yada"> </ref-->--Commander Keane 15:27, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Commander. The refs were already there, I didn't touch them, so I'm not sure what happened, but thanks anyway, I'll keep an eye on refs in future. —Maiya 15:52, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

"Do not post..."

I have a question. I just saw in an editor talk’s page the warning to another editor: “Do not post anything else on my talk page”. The editor ignored the warning, posted a message again and was blocked.

Can anyone ask another editor not to post more messages in one’s own user page and is the editor supposed to comply? Is this an official Wikipedia policy or am I missing something? 201.129.208.208 15:15, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

If the edits were blatant vandalism the user was well within his rights, I suppose, but could have been a little more friendly. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME 15:16, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Can you provide me with the links to the said exmaple? If an editor violated WP:SPAM then the talk page owner have every right to ask him to stop. --WinHunter ^(talk) 15:18, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

This is the example’s link [1]. I’m asking you this to see if I can stop unwelcome messages from a stalker (a totally unrelated case from the cited example BTW). —201.129.208.208 15:37, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

How does an article show up in the Search results

Hello, I added an article last week, but it does not show up in the search results.

Is more time required to re-build the index, or must I include specific wiki tags?

Thanks!

16:30, 27 June 2006 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sean.woodward (talk • contribs)

You are correct, the search results are cached, and will take a while to rebuild. I have no idea when that would happen, but... Prodego ^talk 16:35, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Re taxes on bank interest for foreign citizens

I wonder if you could clarify me on the following question: is a foreign citizen not living in America and not a resident alien, subject to pay income tax on his bank savings?

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

David Davidovici —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.0.74.133 (talk • contribs) .

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). For your convenience, here's the link: Reference Desk (when you get there, just select the relevant section, and ask away). I hope this helps. Garion96 ^(talk) 19:26, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Warning about adding speculative content?

What is the best way to warn editors about not adding speculative content? Over on the List of experiments from Lilo & Stitch: The Series, I've been trying to get editors to not fill in content based upon the name. I've tried Talk notes, edit summary notes, and HTML comments. Is there a template that could be added to the top of the article asking editors to not add made up information? -- Gogo Dodo 20:43, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

What you did seems like to best way. The talk page and html comments. I don't think a template exists for that. It also wouln't be a good thing if it exists. The readers are the the reason for the encyclopedia, and such a template would be only be handy for editors. Good luck, I know it can be hard to stop speculative unsourced content. Garion96 ^(talk) 23:12, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

|

How do I make one of these: | without having to copy & paste it from another page? I think it's called a pipe. Russian F 21:05, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, are you sure that you don't have such character on your keyboard? It can be marked also as a 'broken bar' (¦). Jacek Kendysz 21:46, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Just above the 'enter' key on a US keyboard (same key as \).--Commander Keane 22:46, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Many Thanks. Russian F 02:46, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Stabbed in the Talkback

A very rude message was just posted to my talkback section. I deleted it because the coward refused to sign their name; however, I copied and pasted it here for consideration.

This guy is insane, REALLY insane. Read some old posts of his from stephen-king.net he posts as J.M. Sweet. There is also his other name, Dr. Belch, which he uses at TheDarkTower.net.

If you want to get along with him, just remember. the Liberals did it, and catholic school sluts ruined his life.

I am furious. If you have any infomation about who wrote this garbage which you can share, I would appreciate it. We don't need people like this stinking up our fair site. --The_Iconoclast 22:16, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

You mean your talk page? Check the history availble next to the "Edit this page" button. Wizrdwarts (T|C|E) 22:18, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

In this case it was added here by 71.197.139.128. Prodego ^talk 22:19, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Elizabeth Brownrigg

I just spent ninety minutes working on an article on Elizabeth Brownrigg, an eighteenth century murderer, but for some reason, although I pressed save page, there was no article received. I was logged in, but there seems to be no record in my history file either. Help!

User: Calibanu12:26, 27 June 2006

The new pages log doesn't show it. Is it perhaps still in your browser history? For future reference, it's generally a good idea to work on new articles in a text editor of some kind (saving occasionally) and, when you're ready, cut and paste it into the submit window. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:56, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

An alternative that I use often is to copy all the text to your clipboard before clicking save; put your cursor in the article, click control+A to select all text and then Control+C to copy. If the save doesn't work, it's ready to be pasted into the article upon recreation.--Fuhghettaboutit 03:30, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your feedback. I decided to rewrite the entry in question, which is now available for perusal at the aforementioned entry site : Elizabeth Brownrigg.User: Calibanu 15:38, 28 June 2006

June 28

education system

whats the difference among High School,Junior School,certificate,diploma and Bachelors Degree system61.5.134.146 01:15, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

If you're asking about the United States, I suggest you read Education in the United States. There are articles about education in other countries as well, see List of education articles by country. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:39, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Blocks

When blocking someone for an incorrect period of time, is it necessary to unblock them first and then re-block them? Or can you simply "overwrite" the block in question? 60.227.18.35 03:17, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

If a has more than one block in effect, the block with the shortest length will be the one that applies. So if you want to make the block shorter, you can simply add a shorter block. If you want to make it longer, you will have to unblock and then reblock. You could also do that to make it shorter, if you really felt like it. -- Natalya 03:32, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I think it is "shortest block wins". You only need to unblock first if you're adding a longer block. Kuru ^talk 03:32, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm. You'd think I would have received an edit conflict there. Ignore my late response. Kuru ^talk 03:34, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

How does one comply with the GFDL licence when the source article has been deleted?

Wikipedia allows content-reusers to fulfill the attribution requirements of the GFDL by linking back to the original article. What happens if the original article has been, or gets, deleted? Where does that leave the legality of the reuse, since the letter of the GFDL can no longer be complied with?

I am thinking about two situations in particular:

1. A user discovers useful content via a mirror, but on checking back here finds the article has been deleted, thus the page history cannot be copied.
2. A user mirrors an article and relies on a link back to Wikipedia to fulfill their GFDL obligations. Then at some point in the future the article is deleted. Now, suddenly and without their knowledge, they are no longer in compliance.

81.174.210.98 03:19, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't think the GFDL says anything about "you can fulfill attribution req's by linking back to the original source" - it's your responsibility to fulfill the license, WP does not do that for you. (Disclaimer: I'm not a legal person and really have no idea, but this makes sense to me)--Commander Keane 11:58, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, to fulfill the GFDL, one would have to link to the full source and history. He's not asking Wikipedia to do it, he wants to know how to comply if the article was deleted. I would say first make sure it's not a copyright violation. If it is, Wikipedia shouldn't have had it in the first place, so you shouldn't either. For other articles, I've no idea. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:23, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the question is asking whether a site that mirrors Wikipedia is still obeying the terms of the GFDL if the article on Wikipedia is deleted. I think that's a technical issue of mirrors staying in sync with Wikipedia content, but I did a quick check of the GFDL license and it doesn't look like there's any provision saying that derivative works (e.g. Wikipedia mirrors) must stay in sync with the parent work. I think that would fall under the "Verbatim copying" paragraph of the GFDL. Here's a link to the full text of the GFDL, which may help. --Elkman 19:01, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I am pretty certain that the GFDL contains nothing saying that you have to stay in sync - FSF claim this condition makes the dmoz licence unfree. As long as the article remains on Wikipedia, one can get a transparent copy and author attributions for any version from the history, via a link. My particular concern is paragraph 4.B., which I now see only applies to modified copies, requiring that at least 5 of the original authors be credited. Since normal users can't see the page history for a deleted article, they can't comply. Could one get away with crediting "Wikipedia contributors" as per the citation style? If not, shouldn't one be able to access a list of contributors to a deleted article for this purpose? 81.174.208.63 00:08, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

This comes back to my original thoughts - relying on Wikipedia to fulfil your obligations. I think ideally (legally?) you should record the authors and original text at the time that you copy it. Then make the record you kept available to your users, thereby fulfilling the GFDL. --Commander Keane 19:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

The problem is this: my interest in copying an article may well start when I discover it has been deleted from Wikipedia. Only once it is no longer available here do I become motivated to host it myself. Neither my own saved copy of the page nor the copies at the major mirror sites will contain the information I need to fully comply with the letter of the GFDL. Wikipedia hides it and I don't know who else has it. Is there any way around this, for example a single complete (and moderately out of date) mirror site that maintains page histories locally, as you suggest they should? -81.174.214.236 00:22, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

content box at the top of the article

Hi, this is regarding the content box at the top of the article which gets created automatically when I add headings and subheadings to the article. If I hide it by mistake, how do I make it appear again? -- Lost 06:26, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Look in user Preferences up by the login link. Click the Misc tab in "my preferences". Four check boxes down is "Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings)" make sure that is checked. Eagle talk 06:33, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you mean the table of contents is specific to the user and not to the article? -- Lost 06:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

A TOC will autogenerate whenever an article has four or more sections. Unless someone puts _NOTOC_ in the article. Although a user can also set their preferences so that they never see any TOCs. That clear it up a bit? Dismas|^(talk) 09:21, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot!! -- Lost 09:53, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Davao City

who are the local officials of davao city?

See Davao City. And in the future, this page is for questions dealing with how to use the Wikipedia software. Questions about the outside world and such should be posted to the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Dismas|^(talk) 09:42, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Equations

Hi,

I tried a while ago to work on some equations to enter into the osmotic pressure article, but it kind of defeated me. What is the best method for entering equations into articles?

Thanks. Materials Girl aka Heather Kauth

See Help:Formula -- Lost 11:30, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

HTML

how to start html in which editor and how to test ?

• Though I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "start html in which editor", Wikipedia:Sandbox is a perfect place to test your edits--TBCTaLk?!? 14:40, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). For your convenience, here's the link: Reference Desk (when you get there, just select the relevant section, and ask away). I hope this helps.SCHZMO ✍ 14:56, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• If you want to learn HTML, your local library should have useful beginners guides, but editing Wikipedia doesn't require knowledge of HTML, we use wiki markup which you can learn in the Wikipedia:Tutorial. - Mgm|^(talk) 18:04, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

More signature help

How do I change my signature? I cannot find anything on the guideline pages. I don't want to change what it says, but I would like to change its colour, and have it link to my talk and contribution pages. 0plusminus0 12:58, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

To change your signature, first click the raw signature box in "my preferences". Then, add <font color="''(color of your choice)''">''(Words you want colored)''</font>. For example: <font color="red">TBC</font> makes TBC. If you want to link to your talk page and contribution pages, simply use regular wiki formating. For example [[User talk:TBC|Talk]] makes Talk--TBCTaLk?!? 14:36, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

A better way, although slightly more verbose, is to use <span> instead of <font>, since <font> is not standard HTML and thus there are no guarantees it will always work. So: <span style="color:red">TBC</span> gives TBC. · rodii · 15:08, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• Last time I checked it was standard HTML, <sarcasm>but someone thought it would make sense to deprecate a tag that explains it edits the behavior of fonts. "Span" makes so much more sense.</sarcasm> - Mgm|^(talk) 18:08, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• Yep, you're right, it's deprecated. It has never actually been not-deprecated, as far as I know. The arguments for semantic markup + CSS being superior to presentational markup are pretty widely agreed on, and <font> has been controversial ever since Microsoft introduced it as a non-standard tag during the browser wars days. *shrug* Enjoy your sarcasm. · rodii · 22:06, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Plant-stub template

Hi, I am trying to edit the plant stub's template to direct users to the WikiProject Plants but the template is protected. How do I go about editing/adding to the template? I don't really want to create a new stub and then have to go into each stub article to add it. Thanks Lynnathon 13:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

You will need to ask an administrator to either unprotect the template or make the change for you. As it is a stub template, you had best contact an administrator involved in Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting. Two such admins who may be able to help are User:Alai and User:Grutness. Hope this helps. Road Wizard 13:20, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

But I don't think your suggestion is a very good idea - It seems to break both WP:ASR and the format of any other stub template. Of course, creating a new stub and putting it in all the relevant pages would be terrible - If the template is protected, it's for a reason, which is so that large-scale changes will not be made without giving them some thought. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 15:27, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• Other stub templates already do this, and WP:ASR mentions that stub templates are one of the few exceptions to this guideline. Certainly, the basic text of even {{stub}} is blatantly self-referential. — Estarriol ^talk 17:05, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, objection withdrawn. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 17:26, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks - I asked User:Alai for guidance. Lynnathon 17:34, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

User Page

My User Page is not very cool. Is there a page on Wikipedia with tips on improving one's User Page? Ordinary Person 14:36, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Practice makes perfect. :-) There is a program to get design help, at Wikipedia:WikiProject User Page Help. Prodego ^talk 14:44, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

How to Print in Wikipedia without having links show up in the final document

I am having a problem printing a certain Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Virginia when I print this document, each link within the document is expanded to show its full path after it is printed out. So, essentially the source of each link is printed, instead of just the display name itself. this is very annoying. please help!

Hello. Before printing, click the "Printable Version" link. This will eliminate your problem. -- MisterHand 15:10, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

No, the printable version is exactly what he's talking about [2]. The URLs of all the external links show up. SCHZMO ✍ 15:12, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm...looks fine to me. I just printed it out myself. -- MisterHand 15:17, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Aha, nevermind. It's a skin issue. Looks great in Cologne Blue (which I use), but the links show up in MonoBook (default). -- MisterHand 15:22, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

The printable version looks fine to me in Mozilla Firefox. The skin only matters on the screen version, not the print version as the print version shows just the article. Harryboyles 15:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm also using Firefox, and the printable version is most certainly changing depending on my skin. -- MisterHand 15:48, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

So, it looks like whatever skin I might have, it's causing these links to appear when printed? Seems very odd to me. There's got to be a way to get out of this 'mode', such that the entire link paths do not show up.

Hi, thanks for the responses. First of all, where is this Printable Version link located? Secondly, even when obtaining this printable version (I got there using Schzmo's link), the external links still show up in the Print Preview. Maybe it is a computer setting, I'm not sure. But, the print version definitely looks nothing like it does on the explorer view.

The "printable version" link appears on the left when you are reading an article. -- MisterHand 15:23, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Under "Toolbox" Harryboyles 15:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Stacking templates

According to Help: A_quick_guide_to_templates multiple templates can be used on a page. Is there a way of stacking templates so they appear one under the other in all screen sizes? The article I'm working on is Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, which has Infobox_Australian_Town and Austlocalgovtarea templates. - Gimboid13 16:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Try moving the code for the lower template out and placing it beneath the top template's code. this seems to work sometimes. If you need anymore help, feel free to use my talk page. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 16:54, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Fray or Friar??

To whom it may concern: while doing some editing of the Aztec related articles within Wikipedia, I was puzzled by the term "Fray", which appeared as something of a title or descriptive term in front of several names. I have since learned that "Fray" is a Spanish term meaning "Friar". I am wondering therefore if we should not be using "Friar" instead of "Fray" in, for example, this article on Fray Juan de Torquemada. I would suggest "yes" since (a) this is the English Wikipedia and (b) the term "Friar" is understood by more average readers than is "Fray".

Thoughts anyone?? Madman 17:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). For your convenience, here's the link: Reference Desk (when you get there, just select the relevant section, and ask away). I hope this helps. Jacek Kendysz 17:46, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I recently finished the translation of an article about a Spanish bishop and dealt with this same issue. Although I am not a native speaker, my best understanding is that friar is fraile in Spanish, whereas Fray means brother, but is an honorific and is immediately understood as not meaning "biological brother," for which hermano would be used. .--Fuhghettaboutit 20:01, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

This question was asked simultaneously at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language, so it might be best to leave any answers there. Road Wizard 20:08, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

To answer the meta-question of the appropriate location for this issue, I'd say we're at least close to the right place. The question is one of style rather than of fact, so I don't think the Ref Desks are where we want to go. The Manual of Style also attempts to address the correct use of titles and styles; I'm not sure if there should be a title in the article name at all. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Need to remove first image which I replaced with same but different file name.

Hi, Sorry to bother you, but I'm in panic station. I uploaded an image a short while ago - a screenshot of Urban Registry Search results. I then changed the file name but I now see that the same file with two different names is online (I'm very embarrassed). Please guide me on how I can remove the first one. The second, more recent one can stay. The image simply illustrates what users can expect to see when they use such a service. Appreciate your help in this matter. Also, is it not possible to have the screenshot on the same page as the Urban Registry wiki? Please advise. Thanks in advance. --Pictowrit 17:39, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• I've deleted one of the images and left Image:ManhattanRentals UR June2806 Screenshot.gif as I thought it had the more descriptive file name. In the future, you can tag accidental duplicates by adding {{db|accidental duplicate of <image name>}} to the top of the image information page and an administrator will come to delete it, or alternatively, you can contact one directly (like me) and ask for them to delete the image on their User talk page. - Mgm|^(talk) 18:14, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Changing Skins / Print Problems

I hate to be repetitive, but this issue is really bugging me. This message is related to the message I left above about printing. How does one change their Wikipedia skin such that printing a page like >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virginia_counties >> results in a printed page that does NOT show all the external links (the entire path printed out). If you look at the printable version of that page, each external link is shown in its full path form (at least, that's the way it looks AND prints for ME). Some users don't seem to have this problem, and others do. what gives? thanks..

I gave it a try and I'm getting the same problem- any ideas, anyone? EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 21:11, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

This question was first posted just two or three messages above at Wikipedia:Help desk#How to Print in Wikipedia without having links show up in the final document; please try not to post multiple messages regarding the same problem. As was suggested above, the links on that page look fine in the Cologne Blue skin. To change your skins, go to Special:Preferences, click on the Skin tab, select Cologne Blue, and click Save. Then try opening the printable version again. --Kwekubo 21:18, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Can't Log In...

Please help me. I've tried everything to try and log in. I've seen the troubleshoot page, reconfigured IE and Firefox to accept all cookies, monitor my date and time, turn off all firewall software and I still can't log on. What's weird is that this seems to be an on and off occurence, since some days I do all of the above and I log in, yet other days it just won't let me. Please, I need some help. 66.82.9.53 21:06, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

That's odd. Have you tried restarting your computer? That usually sorts most problems. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 21:08, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Redirect link to a user page

I was just wondering if we are allowed to put a redirect link on our user pages. For example, my user page is User:Tuspm and I was wondering if I could create a redirect link for Tuspm so that when people input "Tuspm" in the search box, it'll redirect them to my user page. Are we allowed to do this? Thanks! --Tuspm ^{Talk | E-Mail Me} 21:24, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

No, cross space (e.g. article space to user space) redirects are frowned upon. Sorry. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 21:33, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• I've tried putting my name in the search box. Of course, there's no article with the exact title "MacGyverMagic", so instead of trying to direct me to that page, I get pointed to the search engine, which searches all namespaces, including the userspace. My userspace is the first hit I get. Once the search index is reindexed it will include your name too, but this usually takes a lot of time. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:47, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Crime in Canada

The Crime in Canada article is pretty good and it has a lot of 'facts', but it does not give ANY references. Is there a way to tag a page as one that is in need of sources for its info? Is there a taskforce dedicated to cleaning up articles with this problem? Phauge 22:28, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles may be useful for you. Jacek Kendysz 22:45, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. The { {Unreferenced} } tag worked perfectly for this. Exactly what I was looking for. Phauge 23:04, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

how do I watch a movie?

how do I watch a movie?-joe0229

All Wikipedia movie clips are in the Ogg Theora format. Once you click on the file and save it to you computer, you need to open it in a program that supports Ogg. I use VLC media player which works fine for me. There is more support and ideas at Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg).--Commander Keane 00:02, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Editcountitis

"...editcountitis can be fatal..." Newbiness notwithstanding, what the heck does this mean??? Thx. --130.126.81.149 23:53, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

This refers to the practice of constantly counting how many edits you have made to Wikipedia. Your contributions can be found at Special:Contributions/130.126.81.149. Some people get caught up in getting a large number of total edits. See Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters and Wikipedia:Edit count for more information.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 23:59, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

thanks!. --130.126.81.149 00:44, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

June 29

Space

Simple question- how do I make a space longer than 1 space in an article? (Like on Microsoft word, one only needs to press the space bar as many times as desired). Also- How do I change the point (Font Size) of a word? Russian F 01:20, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

• Generally you can't add more than one space between words because it collapses extra spaces like HTML does. What do you need it for? Font size can be changed using an HTML font or span tag, but again, these should be rarely used in articles. If you want to use alt font size in headers, simply use the wiki header format. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:38, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Trivia sections in articles

Could someone please direct me to the policy concerning the inclusion of trivia sections in articles? Alr 03:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

The policy is Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. There's an essay at Wikipedia:Trivia (neither guideline nor policy). -- Rick Block (talk) 04:15, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

How can I add my own page

Hi

I was just wandering how can I make my own page for Wikipedia

From Alex Gilbert

http://www.alexgilbertstudios.blogspot.com -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alex436 (talk • contribs)

See this: MediaWiki_User's_Guide:_Starting_a_new_page. However, let me clarify, you can create your own userpage if you want to write about yourself. An article page needs certain criteria. I have put a welcome message on your talk page with some links. You would do well to go through them. -- Lost 06:17, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Expansion templates

In mediawiki were would the expansion templates be, that is, when use the {{expand}} code, where can i go to and change that on my mediawiki site?

Lyrics

Verbatim lyrics are a copyvio, right? (Looking at the page FILTH here.) Should the lyrics section be removed or a copyvio tag be placed? --ColourBurst 06:39, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Posting all the lyrics is a copyright vio. Quoting sections of the lyrics for the purposes of giving a reference for encyclopedic material is okay though. I've removed the section. Dismas|^(talk) 06:44, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Great then, I did the same thing for the rest of Dir en grey's albums. --ColourBurst 07:02, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

PLEASE HELP...ive asked but to no avail!

Please somebody help...how do i customize the template for when i use the {{expand}} code in mediawiki...thank you...

Templates can be edited like any other article by prepending the template name with "template:". In this case, type Template:expand in the search box, then you'll be able to edit it. Please note, however, that templates like that one should not be changed without a very good reason - it is definitely best to seek consensus on the template's talk page before making any changes. -- Ferkelparade π 08:54, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

What you could also do is substitute the template (see:Wikipedia:Template substitution) and then make changes to just that page in the next edit. That should give you the desired changes without affecting the template in question -- Lost 09:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Userpage formatting help project

I know there's a userpage formatting project, I read about it a few days ago, but I can't find the link in the help desk, newcomer's help desk, nor in any link on Wikipedia:Userpage or the list of WikiProjects. Do I need to have my eyes checked or is it somewhere else? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:21, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Here's the complete list of wikiprojects. I couldn't find any like the one u mention. All the best searching through it: Wikipedia:List of WikiProjects -- Lost 10:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

• I already tried there, but luckily enough Google is my friend: Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_Page_Help. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:27, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

verifiable sources

Does content on talk pages have to be based on verifiable sources? Does it have to be under the GFDL? The edit page says it does but that doesn't make sense. MUSICAL 10:56, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

• All Wikipedia pages are licensed under the GFDL, no exceptions. However, since talk pages can also include opinions, it'd be nonsense to require sources for all edits there. If however, they are about changes to articles, having reliable sources handy on talk pages is a good thing to do. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:41, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm guessing it does have to be under the GFDL, since people are free to copy content from those pages for their own use (including the code from your signature). Try the Wikipedia:Esperanza/Coffee Lounge if you want to talk about stuff that's not verifiable, there's usually someone around to listen, but articles should be based on verifiable sources. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 11:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Someone should submit a bug report to fix the message on the edit page. MUSICAL 11:51, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Bug report is not necessary. Is the current wording satisfactory? -- Rick Block (talk) 13:54, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

It currently says that content must be verifiable, even when you edit a talk page. MUSICAL 11:43, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

editing problem?

I'd like to add an item to the page Fictional trees, but when I hit Edit, I don't seem to get the page itself, but a list of categories. Sorry if this is a naive question, but what's going on here? Thanks Adambrowne666 11:11, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

That is because the above page is not a page but a category. If you want to add this category to a page, go to that page and add Category:Fictional trees to the bottom of the page. See Wikipedia:Category schemes for more info -- Lost 11:14, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

great, thanks -- Adambrowne666 21:56, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Requesting a page be expanded

Hey, how do I request that a page be expanded? I hate to ask as I know if I had a lot of time I could find the answer - but a quick search returned no promising results and so yeah.. Any answer much appreciated 203.109.168.238 12:21, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Just put the {{expand}} template at the top of the talk page of the article. Also try to ask for help in the projects where that article belongs -- Lost 12:31, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

deleting an article

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to delete a recent article named "Konstantinos Timvios" because apparently that person has found it offensive. Please let me know ASAP how i can do that or at least how i can edit it.

Please tell me as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance, Lambrini

The article in question is already tagged for deletion. If you differ with the criteria for deletion or think that you can make the article better, please put the {{hangon}} template on the article and discuss on the talk page why you think the article should not be deleted -- Lost 13:20, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

TV Screencaptures from message board web sites - are they OK?

I have found a screencapture here [3] that would go well in the WPVI-TV Personalities article. Is it OK to use this and place it in the article with the "TV Screenshot" copyright tag? Wrath of Roth 14:58, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

If it is a screencapture it's a screencapture, i.e. it doesn't matter who captured it...so yes, you may upload it as a screencapture using that license tag.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 15:01, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

delete image file

Could you please delete this image?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/KatherinMcCarron.jpg

I thought I had sufficient permission to upload it but do not. (I did not take it.)

Thank you.

Autismvox 15:58, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

The said image is on Wikipedia commons, you should go to Commons:Deletion requests and provide rational for deleting. --WinHunter ^(talk) 16:27, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

waiting on references

If you ask for references on a claim or piece of information in an article, what is a reasonable amount of time to wait before removing the information if no citation is forthcoming? a day? 3 days? a week? indefinitely?

I'm also wondering if there is an unreferenced template like the cleanupdate template that lets you put in a date (its obviously not unreferenceddate). --Crossmr 18:33, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I can't see one here, so doubt it exists! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 19:20, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I usually wait about a week, at least. There's no standard that I know of. I figure that usually there's no hurry, but a week ought to give anyone watching the page time to respond (at least with a message, if not the citations). Sometimes of course they'll be away, but there's always the page history for them also. Also, when I remove unsourced material, I often copy it to the talk page with perhaps a description of the reason. This gives a person ready access to it if they come up with sources. Herostratus 02:44, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

that sounds fair , thanks!--Crossmr 02:47, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

copy of userpage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Charlesknight This seems to be a duplicate of my usertalk? how do we get rid of it?

--Charlesknight 19:31, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Just add {{prod}} to the top of the page... It should be done soon enough unless somebody contests the deletion. For exact usage, see here Template:Prod-- Lost 19:39, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I've added {{db-talk}} to the top of the page as it fits in Wikipedia's category for speedy deletion (G8). It will be deleted shortly. --Zoz (t) 19:47, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Japanese Characters

Hi, This is more a technical software question than a wikipedia issue, but here it goes. What specific package do I need to install on my computer so that I can see the Japanese characters? I'm not sure if it's kanji or katana that I want to be able to see, but right now all I'm getting when I visit, for example, Naruto is a bunch of tiny squares! Thanks! --Adrienne 128.174.193.90 19:42, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

• Assuming WinXP, go to Start > Settings > Control panel > Regional and language options (slightly different name on older OSes) > Languages tab > choose "Install files for East Asian languages". You may need your Windows installation disc to complete it. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 19:51, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
• Oh, and also (or if that is already done), the encoding for the web page needs to be set to Japanese. Generally the browser will figure this out on its own, but if not, right click on the window, go to encoding > auto-select should work, or choose Japanese (Shift-JIS) if not. In Firefox, it's in View menu instead. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 19:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Enabling East Asian characters should help. I think it's an operating system related thing, and you didn't say which OS you use. I use Windows XP and I just had to go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages (tab) > Install files for East Asian Languages (tick).--Commander Keane 19:54, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you. Got it running now. Still can't understand the characters, but at least now I can see them -- yay! -- Adrienne 130.126.24.151 01:06, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh, katakana are parts of words and katanas are swords. If you need to look up the characters you'll be really confused if you try to look up katana. --ColourBurst 06:35, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

What does (top) mean in contributions?

For example, look at my contribs. (It's the little star triangle in my sig). Most of the edits there show (top) after the summaries. I always assumed that meant I was editing from the top section (edit this page) rather than editing a single section. But now that I happened to pay any attention to it, I see that isn't the case, as almost all those entries were section edits, as is shown by the gray text naming the section, before my summary. So what does the (top) actually mean? -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 19:49, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

It means your edit was the last edit done to that page. --Crossmr 19:56, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I was under the impression it was displayed if you just edited the top of the page- the introduction. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 20:15, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

• Crossmr is right. It's the top version of the pile so to speak. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:44, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Legend of Zelda Cont.

Some of your Zelda fan sites are not very clear.

GameFAQs.com and ZeldaGuide.com are much better fan sites.

Also there needs to be a larger variety of links. ~~Żęıďą ɱαşťəɽ~~

Wikipedia isn't a collection of links, it's an encyclopædia, so some articles may not be of a standard of other topic-specific sites such as GameFAQs.com! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:08, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

oversized image

i accidently put an oversized image into the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Final_Fantasy_X_characters#Standard_aeons its titled- Lord_braska.jpg (50KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) i was wondering how to remove it. when i go to the edit page the file isn't there.

It appears to be located in the section called Biran and Yenke. If you edit that section you will find the full size image and a 100 pixel version at the bottom of the section. Road Wizard 21:25, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Ignoring Zelda

Is there a problem with your response? I could use a "yes we will see to that" or a "Oh I see what you mean". This is directed towards you who awnser this "stuff". ~~ZELDA MASTER~~

See above. Also, please note at the top of the page it does say please be patient!. If you want to contribute to the articles yourself, take a look at the introduction. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:09, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Doing a quick search on this page for the word "patient", I can only find it once (in your comment above). However, it does appear at the top of the Reference desks. As we don't appear to have one, should we add a "please be patient" message here? Road Wizard 22:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Good point- I assumed the intro text was the same for both pages! I think that would be a good idea, though. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:21, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

GOOD OBSERVATION. -END OF LINE-

,.,.,.,.,.,

Edited to reflect this. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:31, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Awnser Recieved For Zelda

Sorry just letting you KNOW! I get your point now. I did not know you could just not change those out every now and then. Like rotata your stuff around dude. NOT add links galore. -END OF LINE-

This is done to a certain extent already: editors try to include just the most relevant links, but feel free to join in! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:20, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Templates on my user page

I need to get the two templates on my user page on separate lines, with the VandalProof one below the other. If someone could show me how to do this or do it I would be grateful. --robertvan1 22:22, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I changed it. Is that what you wanted? --GeorgeMoney ^{(talk) (Help Me Improve!)} 22:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Last Zelda

Im truly sorry for the outburst. Good job on keeping this sit going. I really like the way you handle this place ;)

          Truly,
      ~~Zelda master~~

Editing Edit Summaries

Just a wonder... but is it possible for admins to edit edit summaries? --Domthedude001 22:43, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Nope. It is possible for admins to delete specific revisions from an article's edit history, if there's something particularly inappropriate about an edit summary. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:48, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. --Domthedude001 02:15, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

June 30

Copied Works

Hey there. I have a question on how to handle a certain page. The entry is directly copied from an external website. Is there a template I can put there to announce it needs to be rewritten or there another way it is done? Thanks Benje309 03:18, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

What to do is explained at Wikipedia:Copyright problems. Thanks very much for noticing (and taking care of it). -- Rick Block (talk) 04:09, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

KFC

Whats the urrent market situation for the kentucky Fried Chicken? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Juj (talk • contribs) 05:02, 30 June 2006 (UTC).

• No idea, but I'm pretty sure this belongs on the reference desk where people answer outside world questions. This page is for help about Wikipedia. While you're at it, you may also want to get a little more specific. What country? What do you mean by "market situation"? Do you want to know sales, something else? -- Mgm|^(talk) 07:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Editing page titles

Hi - To my surprise, I discovered that someone created a page about a relative of mine...and that they spelled his name wrong. I was able to change the spelling in the text of the page, but not in the title. How can I fix that? Thanks.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Albatrossgordon (talk • contribs) 06:29, 30 June 2006 (UTC).

You can use the move page button on top to move the page to the proper name. --WinHunter ^(talk) 06:33, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

See also Help:Moving a page. I moved the page for you. Deltabeignet 06:39, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

False Claim of Vandalism

I've been seeing a lot of incorrect information on the article on Sol Badguy. I've found a very accurate outside resourceand changed the information. I recieved a note saying it was incorrect and they labeled it as my "vandalising" the article. May I ask why they call my helping vandalism and where they got their information?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.57.188.175 (talk • contribs) 07:40, 30 June 2006 (UTC).

Hi. The reason it was apparently assumed to be vandalism is because though you're telling us here that you have a good source, and providing that source, you made that edit without providing any substantiation or an edit summary describing anything about why you were reversing "won" to "lost". You have to understand that we are unfortunately plagued by vandalism. There are many hundreds if not thousands of edits by users everyday intentionally introducing nonsense into articles, sometimes maliciously, sometimes just to confirm whether they can really make real time changes just like that. I think what happened here was your edit, without an edit summary, had some of the hallmarks of vandalism, and without actually knowing, it was assumed to be. I think if you provided an edit summary, such as, "he didn't win but in fact lost; see [website url]," your edit would not have been reverted. Please don't let this discourage you. By the way, this is also less likely to happen if you sign up for a username. I am leaving some useful links on your talk page.--Fuhghettaboutit 07:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Source information

Can this Template:PD-Soviet be used without mentioning the actual source like a URL or book? Because anyone could use that template with any image and no more questions would be asked. There is no source location mentioned for this Image:Bataille-sm.jpg, and it seemed to me that this was not enough, but after placing Template:No source I wasn't sure. Best regards, Ilse@ 08:52, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

No. This image is mistagged. Georges Bataille was a French writer, and I don't see at all why this photo should be a Soviet work or have been published first in the USSR. (Besides, that tag is disputed anyway.) There's absolutely no proof. Tagging as {{subst:nsd}} was the right thing to do. Lupo 09:00, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, source should be provided to all images (whenever possible) so that the copyright status can be verified. --WinHunter ^(talk) 09:04, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

• All images should have information on their copyright status and their source, so the source can be used to verify the correctness of the copyright tag. Not providing source information easily gets an image deleted. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:45, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers. Best regards, Ilse@ 21:48, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

how to sort list elements in wikipedia?

Hi,

I would like to add some data into wiktionary. I added in random. Now I want to sort them. Is there a way to do that?

You'd have to do it manually as far as I know. You may also want to try the Wiktionary help desk (if they have one). See the tutorial (Wikipedia) for more information on how to order lists! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 10:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Wiktionary's version of the help desk can be found here. Road Wizard 20:24, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

translation: People at the back coud not hear the speaker. The speaker could not....... (make) the people at the back

Tag for incorrect statements

In the article Doug Walters, in the section Test cricket career, there is a statement that is cited and came from a reputed source, but which is almost certainly incorrect. I have currently hung a 'citation required' over it, but it is not the correct one for this purpose. Is there any tag which can suit this particular requirement till I can find enough evidence to remove it altogether. Tintin (talk) 13:24, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I suggest using {{Disputed-section}}, and using the talk page to specify what fact in particular you dispute, and why. Seahen 14:16, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Update: Or, it might be better to use the new {{DisputedAssertion}}. Seahen 14:28, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Tintin (talk) 13:45, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Accepted term?

Which term should generally be used on Wikipedia: soccer or association football? Seahen 13:34, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I would say that this is a bit like national varieties of English. So if writing about football in the UK, the local term "football" would be used (as in Manchester United). Otherwise, the locally popular term. Notinasnaid 14:21, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm referring in this case to Game, which is not a local topic. Someone changed it to just football; this I don't agree with, because so many English speakers would think it meant American football. Seahen 14:58, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

You could sidestep the issue by calling it footy and linking to the proper article (Football (soccer)).—WAvegetarian•(talk) 15:42, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

The maximum size of fair use images

Several fair use image tags (i.e. {{film-screenshot}})have stated that images should be within a "web resolution". How large is that? Secondly, if web resolution increases with larger screens, does it also apply to fair use images? ╫ ２５ ^{◀RingADing▶} 14:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC) ╫

Well, what can we do but use some judgement? On wikipedia we don't put images scaled to more than 300px wide in articles.. So that would be my measure of "Web resolution", with respect for those on 1024 or 800 px screens. How much above that that is too much is also a question. ❝Sverdrup❞ 22:39, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Recent Rain in Alexandria, Virginia

We are told that this past storm brought the most rain in the past 150 years. As I write this, the Bellview Neighborhood has not flooded.

The last big storm, which was presumably "small" in comparison to this one, virtually destroyed hundreds of homes. What "saved" Belleview this time?

In the even that this matter is not relevant to your office, would you please refer it to the correct one?

Wendel Allen <redacted home address>

Phone: (removed to protect from telemarketers) email: (removed to protect from spam)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). For your convenience, here's the link: Reference Desk (when you get there, just select the relevant section, and ask away). I hope this helps. Harryboyles 14:37, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Truncation; text editor recommendation?

Sometimes when I preview an edit, the edit in the box below the contents does not match what I submitted: it gets truncated partway through! What's going on?

On a related note, I sometimes have to copy long articles into a text editor to edit them. I currently use EditPad. The problem is that EditPad doesn't seem to handle Unicode properly, so non-Latin-1 characters turn into question marks. (This is particularly a problem with interlanguage links.) Can anyone recommend to me a text editor that will handle the Unicode characters the same way Mozilla Firefox does? Ideally, one whose full-featured version is free of charge (unlike EditPad)? Seahen 15:06, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

This is most likely an "old browser" issue. What OS and web browser are you using?—WAvegetarian•(talk) 15:11, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

This is quite possibly a "new browser" issue--it's been coming up in recent versions of Firefox, and Google toolbar I believe. I know it's been reported to Google and probably the MoFo, and there's even a note when you edit long pages. One workaround is to do section edits wherever possible and avoid editing whole pages if you can help it. · rodii · 15:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

• See the bugzilla thread here: [4]. Disabling Google toolbar seems to fix it. Does that match your conditions, Seahen? · rodii ·

• I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.4 on Windows XP, with Google Toolbar (2.0.20060606W), and I'm not prepared to change this setup other than to install updates. Any recommendations around a text editor? Seahen 17:37, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

How to track changes to my contribution?

Is there a way to track other people's changes to my contributions at a glance? Currently I look at the "my contributions" report and look at the items that does not have the "(top)" marker. The "eyeballing" process is very tedious. It would be nice to be able to filter the report and only present the last entries per topic and hide those with the (top) marker. The resulting list is a list of my latest contribution that have been modified since my edit. It would be a very good tool to allow contributors to watch for the latest changes on topics that they concern about.

It is also a good feature to filter out older entries in the "my watchlist" report. To most people, showing the latest entries is good enough to list the topics that have changes. Only when I am interested in what those changes are, then I click on the history button. I found that the current listing of all the changes are much harder to read and often too overwhelming when the watchlist has grown big.

I am curious if these filtering capabilities are already in place. If not, where should I request them.

Thanks.

Kowloonese 17:44, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

See my preferences right at the top of the page. Click on it. Click on editing. Check "Add pages I created/edit to my watchlist". Then go to watchlist and check "Hide my edits from the watchlist" Then keep checking your watchlist periodically. Filtering is easy. You can select how many days' edits you want to see in the watchlist. (again in the preferences) -- Lost 17:47, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Grilled Cheese Aspiration

May I please have some opinions about what parts of Grilled Cheese Aspiration are encyclopedic and which aren't? My instinct is that some of it belongs here and some of it doesn't, but I'm not sure which is which. Any content removed per this discussion will not be lost, since the whole thing has been copied to a Wikibooks module. Seahen 18:46, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

playing mortalcombat

how i can play mortal combat game plz help me out

• Did you buy a CD-ROM or floppy that isn't working or do you want to play some online version? What games system do you use? Is it a PS2, XBox, something completely different or a PC? Please be more specific and post your question to the reference desk which handles questions like this. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:27, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Sarching for publised books on Slat, Soda nad Vinegar uses

--207.200.116.71 19:02, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Is this vandalism?

Hi - I came across a page where the use claimed to be an approved Vandalproof user - he is not. I left him a note asking him to remove the logo (along with one claiming 2500 edits) and offered to help him sort out his userpage. I had no reply and I therefore removed it from his page. Before I proceeded I checked the guidance and it said that although generally people don't edit each others user pages it is not "against the rules".

In return he left a vandalism note on my page - I do not consider what I did vandalism as all I did was remove clearly false information and misrepesentation about his involvement with Wikipedia. Surely when information is clearly false - it cannot be vandalism to remove it. Is what I did Vandalism?

--Charlesknight 21:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

No it isn't. False information like that can clearly be removed. Can you provide a link to the user you're talking about and the edit in which they added the vandalism warning? - Mgm|^(talk) 21:00, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

No I don't think it's vandalism and in fact his userpage is very deceptive indeed. That user has a total of 185 edits according to Interiot's java tool2 and his first edit was on May 28, 2006. His userpage gives all indications of having been copied and pasted from someone elses, as you noted on his talk page, and it is absolutely inappropriate to have things on your userpage such as a barnstar awarded by a specific user to another that is claimed, by virtue of inclusion, as your own; false claims of numbers of edits; and of privileges you do not have; as well as claiming to be a recent changes patroller with not one single reversion or other edit indicating that activity.--Fuhghettaboutit 21:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I enjoyed the fact that he has awarded himself a barnstar. :) I wonder what User:Wickethewok thinks about the userpage content? · rodii · 22:45, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

OK tied to this - how do I get the warning removed from my record or at the least dispute it? It irks me that people using Vandalproof will see that I have a (what I consider unwarrented) warning.

--Charlesknight 09:17, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

• Yes, I consider falsely claiming barnstars, edit counts or privileges you don't have inappropriate and I heartily support a block if needs me. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:53, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

ASCAP a reliable source?

On the article Mylène Farmer it seems to be difficult to find and source Farmer's real name. Slowly it changes back and forth to different names. I did some searching but couldn't find anything definitive except the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers page. See [5]. Is this a 100 percent reliable source? I would think so, but to be sure... Garion96 ^(talk) 22:37, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

It sounds a good source. You should make the change and provide a reference to the source. Use an inline reference via <ref> so the connection cannot be missed. Sources are important anyway, but in this case, it make checking and stability easier; (a) anyone who changes the name without the source is clearly wrong, because they are now contradicting the source that is there; (b) anyone that changes the name and removes the source is creating a less verifiable article that should be reverted; (c) anyone that changes name and provides a new source is providing a framework for discussion on the talk page. Remember that where there are multiple widely held beliefs it is not the job of editors to put themselves in charge of the facts and pick the right one. Rather, it is the job of editors to present each (properly sourced) claim. Notinasnaid 07:27, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what I thought. I will add the reference to the article. Thanks for the advice. Garion96 ^(talk) 12:44, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Highest interwikis

Which article has the highest amount of interwiki links? Skinnyweed 23:02, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that all Wikipedias have articles on... Wikipedia :) Jacek Kendysz 23:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

See here. meta:Common Interwiki links. It looks like India has the most of interwiki links. Garion96 ^(talk) 11:57, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Template for "This user has a Wikipedia article"

I thought once I saw a template that made a tag that said something like "This user has a Wikipedia article", or maybe it was the other way around: "The subject of this Wikipedia article has a user account." I suppose the intent of this template is to act as a check against possible POV. But now I can't find this template. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? —Bkell (talk) 23:26, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I think you mean this template. To be used on the talk page of the article in question. Template:Notable Wikipedian Garion96 ^(talk) 00:31, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

This might be useful to you as well: Wikipedia:Wikipedians_with_articles. Icey 00:05, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

July 1

Creating templates?

How do you create templates?--Summonmaster13 00:28, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

See here. Help:Template Garion96 ^(talk) 00:31, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

WP image

I would like to know if it’s ok with policy to copy the image at the top of Diderot’s article and paste it in my user page? —Cesar Tort 03:42, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, because all those images in that page are in Public domain. --WinHunter ^(talk) 03:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Italics

I haven't been able to get titles of works to appear in italics. I consulted the Help site, which shows double quotation marks being used for emphasis, triple marks for further emphasis, etc. When the extant copy appears in the Edit format italicized entries are shown with double quotation marks, but when the edited copy with double quotation marks is saved, the entries so marked are not italicized, but simply have the double quotation marks and larger type.

24.20.159.212 04:19, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I think you need to use five appostrophies to both sides of the title Like this. '''''Like this''''' Hope this helps. --Starionwolf 04:52, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

(after edit conflict)

Not double quotation marks but two apostrophes. Compare:

• 'single quotes' (apostrophes)
• "double quotes"
• italics (two apostrophes)
• bold (three apostrophes)

Take a look at the source for this (by clicking edit and looking in the textbox) for clarification. · rodii · 04:56, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Personal commentary on article

Someone is repeatedly adding personal commentary to an article. Obviously, the comments are not encyclopedic nor are they neutral. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think repeatedly adding personal commentary is against the policies Neutral point of view, No original research and verifyability? Is this action considered to be vandalism? If it is, then I will ask the editor to stop adding the comments. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Cheers --Starionwolf 04:51, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

You are right about the above policies. However, the policies of WP:BITE and WP:AGF also suggest that such a user may be new to wikipedia and may not know where to add personal commentaries. Its best to discuss with him either on his or the article's talk page. -- Lost 04:58, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the link to assume good faith. I forgot about intentions. I'll try to talk to the editor. --Starionwolf 05:30, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

If you look at the policy page for WP:Vandalism, violations of NPOV is not considered an action of vandalism (Of course, there are certain cases where one side believes their additions are not NPOV and the other side believes it is). It falls under Edit War instead. --ColourBurst 06:31, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

IPA

What kind of character encoding do I need to be able to see all International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols? (I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.4, if it matters.) Ayn Rand, specifically, is giving me trouble; I get question marks for the second and fourth symbols in the IPA parenthetical with Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. --zenohockey 05:41, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I think there is a problem with that article; can you give me your OS? Thanks. --Quentin Smith 07:39, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I tried to fix this. Is it working for you now? My guess is it went through someone's text editor and the Unicode got mangled. UTF-8 should be the right encoding. · rodii · 14:02, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

It's working now. Thanks. --zenohockey 03:55, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

User contribution licensing

Hello, I have been browsing Wikipedia for some time now and on some user pages I've noticed a box that says something along the lines of "I agree to license my contributions under a Creative Commons license ..." or something along those lines. Now, I was under the impression that whatever anyone contributes to Wikipedia becomes part of this "free" GNU license, meaning that whatever edits I make, I no longer have a right to claim as my own. But seeing these messages on some user pages, it appears that whatever contributions a user makes, he or she still has a right to claim. So, my question is, if I make edits, especially major edits to an article, do I retain any rights to those edits? For instance, hypothetically spekaing, I create an article and fill it with information (with sources, of course) but sometime later I decide that I don't want Wikipedia to enjoy the fruits of my labor. At that point, would I be able to have all my edits removed from the article since I have not put this license message on my user page? Thank you. DragonRouge 06:20, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

No, any contribution to wikipedia automatically falls under the public domain. To the best of my knowledge, users displaying such a message on their user page are only being clearer about their intentions. Their contributions would fall in the public domain even without this message. -- Lost 06:27, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't think "any contribution to wikipedia automatically falls under the public domain" can be true. Quite the opposite: it says under this box that "You agree to license all contributions under the GFDL." Not the same thing at all. If it were public domain, anyone could copy Wikipedia without any reference to the GFDL terms. Notinasnaid 07:20, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying.. -- Lost 08:09, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for this information. DragonRouge 13:12, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Back to the original question - it's simultaneously true that you retain authorship rights to anything you write (including anything you contribute to Wikipedia) and anything you contribute to Wikipedia is licensed under the GFDL. What this means is you (but not anyone else) can republish what you write here anywhere else under whatever terms you'd like (and folks using these licensing boxes are basically doing this), however anything you contribute here is also available from Wikipedia under the terms of the GFDL. BTW, IANAL. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:05, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

• There's a difference between the copyright and licensing. Basically, you own the copyright to what you write and by contributing to Wikipedia you license anyone to use it under the terms of the GFDL (i.e. leaving a copy of the entire edit history crediting all contributors, providing a link to the current article and provide a copy of the GFDL requirements). But you still own the copyright on the edits you make. However, suppose you write an entire article and later decide to revoke it you can't. If you release something under the GFDL, you can't take it back and suddenly tell people they can't use it. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Updating Deaths in 2006

There is a death of a prominent person Ryutaro Hashimoto, a former Prime Minister who died today. I want to add him to create a Deaths in 2006 to archive June and change the current month to July. Does anyone know what the correct procedure is to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Capitalistroadster (talk • contribs)

You can edit the page and add the person in if they are notable and you have a reliable source. Although it looks like he's been added, but don't worry, people die all the time! Icey 00:00, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

JPG->SVG

Where is the tag asking people to change a JPG image to an SVG image, and can it be used on fair use images? --Quentin Smith 07:38, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

{{badjpeg}} or {{shouldbesvg}} WP 10:29, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Can I use it on fair use images? --Quentin Smith 13:01, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

• No, we are already treading a small line by using them. We do not have the right to alter fair use images, converting to a different file format is included in that. - Mgm|^(talk) 16:49, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

That isn't really true — for example, rescaling fair use images to a smaller size is obviously appropriate. The rule is that we should not host fair use images that are larger or of higher quality than what is reasonably required for the use that we are arguing is fair. Thus, modifications that make the image less suitable for unfair uses, or that make it more suitable for fair use on Wikipedia without making it significantly more suitable for unfair uses, are generally acceptable.

The catch is that modifications that change the nature of the image, even subtly, can affect the fairness of its use. For example, if a magazine cover is cropped so that only part of the cover is visible, the standard fair use rationale for magazine covers no longer applies. Similarly, redrawing a logo in a vector format, unless done very faithfully, creates a derivative work subtly different from the official logo, and therefore makes its use to illustrate the official logo rather dubious at best.

Also, a common argument against converting fair use logos to SVG is that an SVG image is scalable, and therefore can be printed at any resolution. Of course, just because the image is scalable doesn't mean it has to include all the fine detail that would be visible at high resolutions — but this counterargument only applies to images that have fine detail, which most logos don't. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 18:00, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Almost every image in the category is fair use. Also, there's discussion at TfD. WP 19:55, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Having my own glossary

Is it OK for me to have my own glossary of terms that I use frequently, like this --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cultural_Freedom/Glossary

-- to which I could then refer people, instead of having to explain the same thing over and over again? --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-01 14:04 (UTC)

If you provide the link, I don't see any reason why it can't be used. Happens all the time...For example, in RfAs, people just say "Fails my criteria" and link to their admin criteria. There shouldn't be a problem with it. — Ambuj Saxena (talk) 14:34, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Great! Thanks for the quick reply. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-01 14:39 (UTC)

How to point to a URL

Hi :

I am a new editor trying to add/improve info about TPNS .. I am having a lot of fun.. but not able make the HTL in the web page ( using HREF) point to an external web site..

If you search the web site —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrmel (talk • contribs) 19:02, 1 July 2006

Just put a URL between '[' and ']'. Jacek Kendysz 19:13, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Read more: Wikipedia:External links#How to link

How to point to a URL

Hi :

I am a new editor trying to add/improve info about TPNS .. I am having a lot of fun.. but not able make the HTL in the web page ( using HREF) point to an external web site..

If you search for theWikipedia page containg TPNS u will see. What I would like to setup a link to web site below if the reader clicks on the string TPNS protottyping..

But I am doing something wrong as the hot string is the name of the web site..

Something wrong with the way I am using the href command below Any help much appreciated.. Mrmel ..

<a href="http://www-306.ibm.com/software/network/tpns/library/mel_whitepaper.html">TPNS Prototyping</a>

You should use this code: [http://www-306.ibm.com/software/network/tpns/library/mel_whitepaper.html TPNS Prototyping] -> TPNS Prototyping --WinHunter ^(talk) 19:24, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

• Try the Wikipedia:Tutorial. It tells you the basic of the syntax of wiki code. HTML is easy once you know it, but it's laborious to learn for most. Our code is quick and easy to type. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:38, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

July 2

vandalizing my talk page

User:Arthur_Ellis is putting personal attacks on my talk page, and when I remove them he keeps putting them back. what should i do? Counter-Vandalism Unit, Arbitration Commitee, what? Geedubber 00:35, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Remember, personal attacks do not include civil language used to describe an editor's actions. In your specific case, the comments in question are right on the borderline. I doubt you were behaving "malicously" but obviously if someone else is on the other side of the dispute they may view the situation differently. Instead of making a big deal of things and continually removing the statement from your talk page, try explaining your reasoning in simple and civil terms below. --Hetar 01:35, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I did explain my reasoning on his talk page and on the talk page of the page he was upset about, yet he still insists I was acting dishonestly and malicously. He was not decribing my actions, but calling into question my intent, and that is a personal attack. Geedubber 02:12, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

• I'd actually just leave what he wrote on your talk page, and possibly just add a short rebuttal justifying the edit he's criticising. Eventually, the world being the world, you will encounter someone with a negative opinion of you, regardless of how well-intentioned your actions are. Part of Wikipedia, I'm afraid, is to learn to accept that this will happen and try not to take it too personally. The user in question seems to be on the verge of a RFC process anyway, and what he wrote isn't "Vandalism" as such, it's just unconstructive criticism. Sorry I can't be more helpful just now, but you're welcome to leave a note on my talk page if it escalates. Please, for your own sake, do not escalate this yourself! All the best. — Estarriol ^talk 11:40, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

About WP:WEB notability

Does an article on slashdot about a website make it fulfill any of the WP:WEB requirements? Noob cannon lol 01:07, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

In and of itself, no. However, it could probably go towards the first requirement (multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself) if included with other reliable sources. --Hetar 01:25, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

pathetic....

the information posted on Indian classical violonist is simply pathetic.They dont deserve these kind of references.shame on you.simply pathetic—Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.65.12 (talk • contribs) 01:59, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

It's difficult to assist people or correct articles when we don't know which article you're referring to. Can you specify the article in question please? ~Kylu (u|t) 02:04, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an open-content, collaboratively written encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. If you feel that any article needs improvement, then be bold and edit it yourself, rather than insulting others efforts. You could, at the very least, have told us in your message which article you feel needs improvement. --Kwekubo 02:13, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I suspect the complaint is about one (or more) of the articles in Category:Carnatic instrumentalists, several of which are stubs. As Kwekubo says, if you feel an article needs improvement please improve it! -- Rick Block (talk) 02:35, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

for education

I want use my id in wikipedia for education purpose permenantly is it possible or not - —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.195.78.103 (talk • contribs)

Here's the official policy on usernames: Wikipedia:Username. In case you are looking for more specific info, please elucidate -- Lost 03:47, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

.bz2 dump file

I downloaded the articles dump, which was a .bz2 file. Then, as suggested by Wikipedia:Database download#Dealing with compressed files, I downloaded the command-line bzip2 decompressor linked to above. But when I try to run it, the window opens and closes almost instantaneously. What's going on? (I'm running Windows XP.) --zenohockey 04:34, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Did you try running the decompressor in the command prompt? WP 09:01, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I tried that, using the instructions here, and it's claiming not to find my dump file. How should I enter its location? --zenohockey 21:33, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

What exactly did you type at the command prompt? WP 07:26, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Or, even better, in the very likely event I'm doing something wrong (I'm an amateur at this sort of thing), could someone give me step-by-step instructions? Then they can be posted at Wikipedia:Database download and/or WP:AWB. --zenohockey 23:40, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Maybe using 7-Zip[6] to decompress it would be easier? WP 07:29, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Adjusting Preferences

I am a newly logged in user -- although I've played on the system a little. When I began to experiment with my preferences, I seem to have inadvertantly locked into a "Skin". I can't seem to change the appearance of the page now, and I can't enter information such as my date preference. Also editing seems more awkward than before. Is there a fix someone can recommend to let me experiment a little? Thank you. GwenW 06:53, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Try this link. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:17, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

copyright issues: promotional photos

I'm trying to correctly upload a promotional photo that, to the best of my knowledge, and according to Wiki's copyright tags page, qualifies as "fair use."

The problem is, I don't see "Publicity photos" (the tag is technically "Promophoto") as an option on the upload page's drop-down. Am I misunderstanding some part of the uploading process, or have promo photos ceased to be a legal option on Wiki? Thanks!

Mushfromnewsies 07:48, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

You have to go to the image, click on "edit this page" and add {{promotional}} to it manually. WP 08:59, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

what are the tools and sources of geography?

what are the tools and sources of geography?

This page is for questions about Wikipedia. Try the reference desk. - ulayiti (talk) 15:27, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Notability

Hi, I have flagged the Melanie Slade article as I don't feel that she is notible enough yet to warrant her own article. There has been a little discussion on the talk page about merging her article with Theo Walcott's and also with the Wags article about wives and girlfriends of footballers. Please can you have a look and let me know what I ought to do next? thanks Lynnathon 11:28, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

If in your opinion Melanie Slade article should be deleted, you can try Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. It's in my opinion the best thing you can do with that article. Jacek Kendysz 11:41, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Link color

Maybe someone here can help me out. In working on the wikification drive, I often need to see which article's I have been to and which I haven't yet. This gets difficult to do quickly and easily when the difference between active and visited links is so few in the color spectrum. So I've been overriding it with my Mozilla web options. However, that screws up a lot of other things, so I have to keep toggling it on and off as I go to visit other sites or work on something else Wiki-related. Does anyone know of a way to change the colors within Wikipedia so that it can easily be seen what's been visited and what hasn't? Metros232 11:54, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi Metros232. You can change the colour of visited links by going to Special:Mypage/monobook.css and then adding some formatting to visited links. For example, you could add this:

a:visited { color:#f80 !important; }

To make all visited links orange. If there's any specific formatting you would like, let me know and I'll tell you what you can use to achieve it. Icey 22:30, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, thank you very much. That helps a lot. I'll play around for a bit to figure out which HEX value works best in keeping each one distinct without hurting my eyes :) Metros232 22:38, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Link to site that may contravene copyright

One of several points under discussion at Talk:Jack Vance right now is the question of whether to use as a reference a link to a site that may be hosting the reference material in contravention of copyright. The source being referenced is an issue of a PDF journal named Cosmopolis, a newsletter published by an organization called the VIE. Paul Rhoads, a representative of the VIE has indicated that the site is breaking copyright by hosting this pdf file. Paul indicates that he will shortly be making an official version available, but it's not clear when that will be, though the conversation is ongoing. Hence I'd like to clarify what we should do if the official link is not forthcoming. Clearly we can replace the old link with a new official link when the new one is available. However, I'm not clear if the use of the link to the unauthorized site is against WP policy. Paul does not deny that the pdf file is accurate, and the point being referenced is quite uncontroversial; it's only the hosting of the file that's at issue, not its authenticity. Can someone tell me what WP's policy is for linking to sites that are clearly accurate resources but may break copyright? I should also mention that I have no evidence other than Paul's word that there is a copyright problem here, but it does seem plausible, since Paul is the editor-in-chief of the VIE and it's clear that Cosmopolis is the VIE newsletter. Thanks for any help. Mike Christie 14:53, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

If its accurate then let it be I say. We are not responsible for other sites copyright problems. Mike _{(T C)} 14:59, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I tend to agree. Is there any relevant policy statement in WP policy articles, or any precedent for legal concerns arising from such links? Mike Christie 15:19, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, current policy says that we should remove any links that we know breach copyright, as explained here. Road Wizard 15:22, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Mike Christie 15:55, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

about use of wikipedia

how we open our account in to wikipedia and use for it

You can go to Special:Userlogin to create an account (or click 'Sign in / create account' in the top right of the page). For usage instructions, you can have a look at Wikipedia:Introduction. Welcome to Wikipedia! - ulayiti (talk) 15:25, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

image insertion help

Could someone help me correctly insert the Argo Tea photo above each other on the left. Tony The Tiger 18:37, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I fixed it. How does it look?. I recommend not putting them in the box, telling putting "left," and placing the pictures underneath the infobox. Yanksox 19:22, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Regarding Acura 1998

I would like to know which is the best oil for Acura TL 2.5 1998?? can i use some other oil than what the earlier owner of this car was using ???

Please help me with thw same

Thank you SV.

You might want to try asking this question at the science or Miscellaneous Reference Desks. --zenohockey 20:19, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Links

In the article Hebrew Language, which of the external links are appropriate, and which should be removed? I ask this because it looks like people have just been listing links which provide interesting services (like converting English transliteration into Hebrew [which is pretty pointless since you can just easily add Hebrew support to your computer]), even if they have not contributed to the article.

Sorry that that last paragraph was such a mess, by the way. Mo-Al 19:10, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

• Hebrew support for a computer only allows hebrew transliteration characters to be shown, so such services aren't all that pointless. Perhaps WP:EL gives you a few ideas on what is appropriate. I'll take a look to see if I can give more detailed ideas. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:10, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually I meant the ability to type in Hebrew (I forget what the term is for it). Mo-Al`

• I couldn't find anything that, IMO, required immediate removal, but I do think that perhaps the links in the external link section "History of the Hebrew Language" may actually be references (material used to write the article) instead of external links, which would require them to be included in the note section (and noted in the text) or put in its own references section. Instead of deleting external links, I would try to trace sources for the included material that hasn't got notes and sort stuff in the section it belongs. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:15, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, however things like the transliteration service seem pretty clearly unneccessary. Mo-Al 20:50, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Stubs

I am a little confuased about stubs. Can anyone add stubs ro does the addition of one need to be discussed first? What code do you copy and paste in to turn an article into a stub?

--Hydro the Water Wizard 19:16, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

• An article doesn't need to be tagged to be one. A stub is basically a short article that isn't quite large/complete enough to be an article, but useful enough to be a jumping board for someone to make a full article. WP:STUB may be of interest to you. It describes the ideal stub article. You tag a stub by adding a template to the bottom of the article. Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/Stub_types lists all the templates you can use to tag a stub. They're automatically categorized. -- Mgm|^(talk) 20:21, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! Hydro the Water Wizard 21:15, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

adding a word to the computer lexicon

Hello!

I am an author of a video game book called "The Art of Gamefare" and i wanted to know what the procedure is for adding a word to wikipedia. The word is "gamefare."

Gamefare is a play on the word warfare. Gamefare is the conflict involving two or more competing entities trying to win by succesfully completing the games' specific objectives.

If you could let me know what is neccesary to add this word, please let me know. THanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gusdawn (talk • contribs) .<name and website address removed>

Please see the Wikipedia:Tutorial for information on how to edit Wikipedia. However, note that we have an established policy against use of Wikipedia for advertizing, see WP:SPAM and WP:NOT as well as against recently coined terms, see WP:NEO. The edits you want to make sound like they would violate these policies and guidelines--Fuhghettaboutit 21:25, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

If it's a definition rather than an encyclopædic entry, you may want to try Wiktionary instead, but you may find similar limits on what you can add due to notability and frequency of use, as Fuhghettaboutit mentioned. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:10, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Main Page

I am stuck with getting 'Canada' every day as the topic on your main page. Can you help please. End of message.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.113.0.228 (talk • contribs) .

Try refreshing your cache. On some computers you can do so by hitting control + F5.--Fuhghettaboutit 21:19, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Its simply because Canada is the best country in the world

Jeremy D. 20:56, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Link to intranet files

We are running a wiki site inside our network. I'd like to link to a file on a file server. Sorry to ask a dumb question but I'm struggling with the syntax. Here's my current attempt:

Help is appreciated! Thanks! Anders22 21:39, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

If the link starts http: this is telling the client to connect to an HTTP server. If you want to use file sharing, you need to use a file: URL. The syntax is a little fiddly, so open the file in a browser to see what it fills in. That gives the URL. In Wikipedia, a link to an http: URL can be in single [] brackets or completely free. Not sure about file: URLs, or whether the wiki software you use is the same. Notinasnaid 21:53, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Got it! Thanks! Anders22 22:42, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Email

Hey, I don't know if this is the best place to ask about this, but my Wikipedia email doesn't work. I have email "enabled", I've had password notifications, but I never seem to get user emails, I sent myself one a few days ago and nothing came. Can I get some help? Highway ^Batman! 22:03, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

That's odd. Have you tried logging in and out again or even logging in from a different computer? Are you sure your email is working- I know these sound obvious but you'd be surprised. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:07, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I sometimes log in on diff computers, I'll try it to see if it emails me. Highway ^Batman! 22:10, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

It got sent instantly. Could you perhaps send me a test email to see if it works? Highway ^Batman! 22:11, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Sure, I was about to suggest I do that! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:12, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Now it works! Thanks, Highway ^Batman! 22:15, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

No problem. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 22:24, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Gamefare

Hello!

I am an author of a video game book called "The Art of Gamefare" and i wanted to know what the procedure is for adding a word to wikipedia. The word is "gamefare."

Gamefare is a play on the word warfare. Gamefare is the conflict involving two or more competing entities trying to win by succesfully completing the games' specific objectives.

If you could let me know what is neccesary to add this word, please let me know. THanks!

Gus Maximus www.GamefareProductions.com (email removed to prevent spam)

Well, "gamefare" appears to be a neologism, and Wikipedia isn't very keen on those. However, to answer your question -- technically, if you want to create an article about it, all you need to do is start it -- all you need to do is create an article named gamefare and you can type whatever you want in it. I wouldn't recommend doing so without due consideration for Wikipedia's content policies, and if you're going forward with a word like that, you had better prepare yourself for other editors nominating the article for deletion. It's also worth noting that Wikipedia is not a dictionary, and mere dictionary definitions (ie. expalantions of what words mean) aren't encyclopedic material. For that, I suggest you visit Wiktionary. -- Captain Disdain 23:15, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

This question was already asked and answered two sections up--maybe my normative reply wasn't to your liking, but we really do have policies against advertizing and neologisms.--Fuhghettaboutit 00:39, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Custom CSS and printing

I have a custom monobook.css that specifies a yellow background as follows:

body {
background: #FFF700 none;
}

How can I specify that this colour applies only to pages on screen and not pages I print? _SeahenNeonMerlin 23:16, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I think you probably need to use a alternate skin while you print pages. --WinHunter ^(talk) 03:31, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, to specify print-only, wrap it in a @media print { }. So what you would want is

@media print {
    body {
        background: THE COLOR YOU DON'T WANT TO PRINT OUT;
    }
}

GeorgeMoney ^{(talk) (Help Me Improve!)} 03:44, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

July 3

Why don't my signature flags work?

Why don't the flags in my signature work? --[[User:Username132|Username132 ([[User talk:Username132|talk]]) {{GBR}}{{NED}}]] 00:19, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

You're using raw signatures, right? Copy exactly what you have in your signature field here. — Knowledge Seeker দ 00:42, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Templates can't be used in signatures. Prodego ^talk 00:43, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Whyever not? It's made it very complicated. How do I operate the flag template = <no wiki>[[Image:{{country flag alias {{{1}}}}}|22x20px|{{country alias {{{1}}}}}]] = Netherlands</no wiki> --Username132 (talk) United Kindom Netherlands 01:07, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Templates can't be used in signatures. Prodego ^talk 00:43, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Whyever not? It's made it very complicated. How do I operate the flag template = <no wiki>[[Image:{{country flag alias {{{1}}}}}|22x20px|{{country alias {{{1}}}}}]] = Netherlands</nowiki>

It would drastically increase server load if it were allowed. Note that many users frown on the use of images in signatures for the same reason. See WP:SIG. The proper format is [[Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg|22x20px]] (for ) and [[Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg|22x20px]] (For ) Prodego ^talk 01:10, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Please don't use images in your signature. You can place them on your user page. — Knowledge Seeker দ 02:55, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Templates aren't permitted in signatures for a couple of technical reasons. First, it generates appreciable server load (the template has to be 'looked up' whenever a page with a template is edited) and second, it becomes a target for vandalism (by modifying the template, a vandal can deface your signature everywhere it appears on Wikipedia). Please refrain from using images in signatures anyway—they also represent an unecessary server load, and it's discourteous to our editors with slower connections. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:21, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

How do I thank winhunter-- the editor who helped me

Hi

How do I thank the editor who helped me with editing my page on TPNS. I could not get the link to work properly..

User mrmel..is very grateful to use winhunter

You can always award him a barnstar. There are many for different purposes. -- Lost 02:09, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• Just leave your note (or barnstar) on his talk page at User talk:Winhunter. The coding is the same as any page here on Wikipedia. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Display window of 'difference between versions'

On some occasions when I click on 'dif', the resulting two boxes can sometimes be very wide, up to 2000px wide which means I have to use the scroll bar to see it all. Is there a way I can force it to be a certain width? Skinnyweed 02:45, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

It's often caused by URLs or vandals adding verylongwordswithoutspaces. As these are one massive word without spaces, and MediaWiki doesn't do hyphenation, word wrap won't work properly on these. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 19:44, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Requested audio clips?

We have Category:Wikipedia requested images for pages that need images. I'm wondering if there is any similar mechanism for pages that should have audio files/samples? On some pages (Lyrebird comes to mind) an audio clip would be very helpful in, 'illustrating' the subject. Dgies 04:10, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

At this time there does not appear to be any similar mechanism for requesting audio samples. I checked in Category:Wikipedia cleanup categories (which is where the requested images page can be found) and came up empty handed. I would recommend requesting the sample on the article's talk page, or requesting it from a user who specializes in sound. Also, you will want to make sure that any requested samples comply with fair use guidelines. --Hetar 04:21, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• Using user-created sound files would be even better than relying on fair use claims. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:53, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

That may be the case in some situations, but if your writing an article on a particular song (such as Stairway to Heaven), a user created file won't be that helpful. --Hetar 04:56, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• True. I just wanted to mention one should use free options whenever possible. Too many people go for fair use straight away when it's not necessary. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:50, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Ideal proceedure for questionable user page

I've come upon a user page that is full of blog-like personal discussions and seems to be in flagrant violation of Wp:not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_free_host.2C_blog.2C_webspace_provider_or_social_networking_site. User has made zero contributions in the 10 months since joining besides user page and blog chat in their subpages. Is the correct proceedure to warn the user ifrst, or just list them in WP:MfD? Dgies 05:08, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

The place to start, I'd say, is a message on the user's Talk page citing the appropriate section of WP:NOT. --MCB 06:31, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Done. If no response I will list in WP:MfD. User has enough accumulated stuff I'd like to give a fair chance to move it to a blog site. Dgies 06:38, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Marrage

can a man marry his stepmother?

This is for help questions about Wikipedia. Try asking at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities. Dgies 05:17, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Ari Setya Ardhi - category: Indonesian poet

We are going to write books about my late son, the Indonesian poet, Ari Setya Ardhi. A book contains his works,which we hope not only beautiful but also full of related information such as the background, analysis of his works. Since Wikipedia has categorised him as one of Indonesian poets, I am grateful if you would assist and furnish us with your observation, research, analysis, judgement, that made Wikipedia enter to the conclusion that his works are appreciated and made Ari Setya Ardhi as one of Indonesian Poet category? Thank you. Annie Sarino —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.130.234.197 (talk • contribs) 06:17, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I believe you will get the best answer if you ask this in Humanities Reference Desk. --WinHunter ^(talk) 06:43, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

thank you Winhunter for your suggestion. Annie Sarino--203.130.234.197 03:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Map of the US Forestry trails in the Camp Verde, Arizona Coconino National Park

How do I find a map of the off-road trails in the US forest areas of the Camp Verde region of the Coconino National Forest in Arizona? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.19.34.238 (talk • contribs) 07:08, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• Try the reference desk. This page is for questions about Wikipedia and while I don't know the answer to your questions, I do know Wikipedia has nothing to do with forest trails. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:52, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Lack of password reset e-mail

I have requested a new password - having forgotten the last one - but no mail has arrived. I had tried several time to confirm the e-mail address at registration but no e-mails then either. any advise would be gratefully recieved.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.188.156.235 (talk • contribs) 08:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• What email service do you use? Did you check your spam filter or trash? - Mgm|^(talk) 11:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Hello

I'm a new user at Wikipedia, I thought I'd better introduce myself. My name is Mrs and I live in London, in the Canary Wharf region. I met your website in a Google Search and I think it is very good.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Scarbor (talk • contribs) 11:50, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• According to the noticed on your talk page, you've been commiting some acts of vandalism. Please take a look at the welcome message I left you to get familiar with what is and is not considered appropriate. Removing information generally isn't unless you can cite a good reason for it in your edit summary. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:55, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
  • I am not commiting acts of vandalism, I am correcting errors in an otherwise rather useful encyclopedia. your information on Torchwood-related articles is rather rubbishy and could do with a good cleanup. I say, don't you know? Der loewe schlaft nie! --Scarbor 11:57, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
• You're removing mention of Torchwood in Doctor Who related articles and you are submitting for deletion without providing any reason that follow Deletion policy -- that is vandalism. That's not going to improve out coverage on the topic. As far as I can tell, the information we have is accurate and straight from reliable sources (for example the creator of the series). If you think something is incorrect, please discuss it on the relevant article's discussion page and be prepared to provide sources that back up your statements. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:10, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

REICHSBANKNOTE

Hi I have from my great uncle a 1,000,000 Mark from Feb 1923, and was wondering if anyone can tell me anyhing about it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.80.37.182 (talk • contribs) . e-mail removed to stop spam

See the article on German papiermark. If you have other similar questions, please use Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions. Hope this helps. Garion96 ^(talk) 14:54, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Song Lyrics: Allowed or No?

I'm new- very new -to editing at Wikipedia, and I couldn't seem to find this information anywhere else; When editing a page on Music Singles, is it permissible for me to put the lyrics in as one of the information features? If no, please let me know. :) Thank you for your time!

ChloeKent 15:12, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

As a general rule, no. Song lyrics are copyrighted, and posting them on a website is illegal (yes, all those lyrics websites out there are illegal, and the only reason they have not been hunted with the same ferocity as, say, music-sharing websites, is that they don't reduce the profits of the music companies as much, so they are considered small fry in the War Against Copyright Infringement). If a particular line from a song is noteworthy, then, you could argue that under fair use you could post it - but certainly never a complete song! A few lines at most, if you must. — QuantumEleven 15:18, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Special guidance on history sourcing

Not long ago I found somewhere some notes for appropriate sources specific to history articles. Similar to WP: RS but with a few extras. I remember reading, for example, that historians would usually have a PhD in history. I can't remember where I saw these notes, and would like to find them again. Can you help? Itsmejudith 16:07, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Maybe Wikipedia:WikiProject History?--Commander Keane 19:36, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

That's right, thanks. Itsmejudith 10:14, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Bitmap images needing cleanup?

Hi, I recently learned about Inkscape's bitmap tracing feature. I used it to clean up an image from Cat's cradle (string game).

You can see how it went: old version and new version.

I'm very pleased with the results. Is there some way I can find other images to trace? Thank you. --Kjoonlee 17:19, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

There are Category:Images to convert to SVG and Category:Images which should be in SVG format. (These two categories should eventually be merged into one.) —Bkell (talk) 17:48, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. :) I'll have a go with some easy images later. --Kjoonlee 17:52, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Why don't the site provide the option to set wiki as home page?

Why don't the site provide the option to set wiki as home page? Thank You ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.88.88.25 (talk • contribs) 17:53, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

You don't need a special link to be present on a website to set it as your home page, you need only change the setting in your internet browser. For most browsers, you can just click on the Tools tab, go to Options (or Internet Options), and then click on the General tab. You can then set your home page to be whatever you like. By the way, 'wiki' is not a nickname for Wikipedia, but the name of the type of website that Wikipedia runs on. --Kwekubo 18:13, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Paula Meronek

--69.105.196.208 18:44, 3 July 2006 (UTC)Paula Meronek went to see a psychologist to get help. Who was the psychologist she went to see??

Peter Hamilton disambiguation

I just created an article on Peter J. Hamilton (not yet coming up on searches, but it's there -- he was an Alabama lawyer/historian and later a Puerto Rico Judge). There is an existing article on an unrelated person, Peter F. Hamilton. Does this situation call for creating a disambiguation page under the title "Peter Hamilton"? Newyorkbrad 19:02, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Jacek Kendysz 19:06, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Will do once "Peter J. Hamilton" starts showing up in searches. At present searching for "Peter Hamilton" directs to Peter F. Hamilton. Or perhaps the latter, which is the more commonly searched one I am sure, should be the default with my "Peter J. Hamilton" disambiguated in some other fashion? Newyorkbrad 21:14, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Currently Peter Hamilton redirects to Peter F. Hamilton. Your disamb should be made in Peter Hamilton, with links to Peter F. Hamilton and Peter J. Hamilton. Jacek Kendysz 11:12, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Suspected vandalism

I think that I have found some vandalism on the project, but it looks like it occurred some time ago. I would clean it up, but I'm not sure how extensive it is, and I'm not sure what is correct and what should actually be on the articles in question. Where should I report this, and what should be done next? --Brian G 19:31, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• Most vandalism report pages are aimed at current vandalism. You could try informing the counter vandalism unit and give them as much information as possible. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:02, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Redirect disambiguated subjects from Wikipedia search engine

I created several subjects:

• Sylvia O'Brien (actress)
• Sylvia O'Brien (soprano)
• James McDermott (business executive)

which required disambiguation for evident reasons but now they cannot be accessed from the Search Engine without including the parentheses. Is there a way to redirect for easier access?

Thanks. Rosemary's Baby 19:40, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I have done this by creating Sylvia O'Brien and James McDermott (info at Wikipedia:Disambiguation). Wikipedia's search index is rather out-of-date, but these pages should help.--Commander Keane 20:23, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Japanese text problem

For some reason, all the Japanese text at [7] has been replaced by question marks. I have all Japanese scripts installed, and the effect even appears in IE, which normally replaces bad letters with squares, not question marks. Has something gone wrong, and if not, can someone who knows Japanese fix this? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 19:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Ah; the text seems to have been screwed up by [8]. Is there anyway to stop this happening? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 19:45, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

It looks like the editor was using some sort of automatic script and it got a little out of hand. It would probably be best to advise the editor of the problem so they modify the script if they use it again in future. A way to prevent it happening again though may be to place the Japanese text in the {{Nihongo}} template - the presence of template markers may convince the script to ignore such characters in future. Road Wizard 19:53, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• I have no problems editing such Japanese script normally, but when I tried using AutoWikiBrowser it faltered and messed up non-Latin scripts. Something to do with the programming not playing nice with Windows 98. Perhaps you suffer from a similar compatibility problem. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:04, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Apparently, the user was copying text into Notepad, editing it there, and then pasting it back. As Notepad doesn't like Unicode, the symbols got damaged upon pasting back. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 17:49, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Skinny oddness

Has someone just "improved" the monobook skin? My TOCs and redlinks have all disappeared, and I can't work out how to get them back. I can't find anything promising in the my preferences screen, and I can't browse this page to see if someone has asked already because I can't see the TOC. Help! Henry^Flower 20:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Did you alter your preferences? Go to the Misc tab in your preferences and check the boxes marked "Format broken links like this (alternative: like this?)" and "Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings)". --Kwekubo 20:56, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Ah, that's interesting. Both of those were already checked, but I saved anyway just in case, and all is now back to normal. Thanks! Henry^Flower 21:25, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Displaying Part of an Image

Does anyone know if it is possible to display only part of an image? For example, in a section of an article describing characters in a novel, I would like to be able to display part of the bookcover (which displays that character) next to the appropriate section. Can this be done, or do you have to upload a completely seperate image? Thanks - Runch 21:16, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure you'd have to upload a separate image. Sorry. SCHZMO ✍ 21:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

It is technically possible, using the CSS clip property, but if you can pull it off you're better man than I (not unlikely). · rodii · 21:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

If the book cover is covered by copyright, then what you are proposing could violate that copyright anyway. See Wikipedia:Fair use.--Commander Keane 21:44, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I'll just use the book cover and a clever use of captions to eschew both problems. Thanks, though. - Runch 23:24, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

July 4

Copying text

Is it ok to copy modify text from one Wikipedia article and put it into another unrelated Wikipedia article? 70.97.110.38 00:11, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

That seems fine. Just be sure to cite the article just like you would any other source. -- Psy guy ^Talk 00:35, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

You can never cite Wikipedia as a source of information in Wikipedia. Ideally every piece of information in Wikipedia should come from reliable sources (this excludes Wikipedia itself). From a copyright standpoint is fine to copy and modify text from a Wikipedia article, as long as it is backed up with sources. In reality things do get copied across without citation, that's ok. Wikipedia:Citing sources, Wikipedia:Reliable sources, Wikipedia:Verifiability.--Commander Keane 00:51, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

How about if I cite the source in the Edit Summary? -- 70.97.110.38 01:32, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Agreeing with Commander Keane, yes, it is ideal to go to the original source. Their should be no orginial research at Wikipedia. Secondly, citing source source in the Edit Summary is not a good idea because it is difficult for another user to find the it. The user would have to anticipate that you placed the source in the summary and go edit by edit to find the source. It should be in some kind of reference section at the bottom of the article. Not knowing what article you are discussion, I can't specific. However, I would suggest putting the related article in a == See also == section. -- Psy guy ^Talk 02:06, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Given that we credit authors, and our main tool is the history, how will cutting and pasting text do that? The edit history is lost. That's our primary reason for not doing cut and paste page moves, and I don't see why it doesn't apply here as well. Plus, I don't understand why copying from one article to another is likely to be a good thing to do anyway. If there is really some text in one article that is equally good and relevant to another article, and new text can't be written for the new article--and I'm skeptical about both of those premises--that seems like an ideal use of hyperlinks, as Psy guy suggests. · rodii · 03:41, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Category deletion

Is there anyway to suggest the deletion of a category and all of the articles in it? (specifically Category:Onomastics) Mo-Al 04:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Categories for discussion has all the information you'll need. --Hetar 05:49, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Straight Vertical Line

In Wikipedia, in order hyperlink a word or phrase to an article whose title is not that word or phrase, you need to type a character, that is a straight verticle line, between that word or phrase and the article's title.But the problem is that in my computer's keyboard, there's no key that has the character of a straight verticle line.60.241.147.187 06:35, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Are you talking about this -> | <-? On a US keyboard it is SHIFT + \ (forward slash) WP 06:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I guess you mean a vertical bar (also called a pipe) - this character: | ? I may appear on your keyboard as a broken bar (this character: ¦ ). If not, it appears in the edit toolbox - just edit a page, and while editing, scroll to the bottom of the screen, where you'll find a whole host of symbols you can use, including the pipe (under "symbols", second from left). Click on it to insert it into the edit window. Hope that helps! — QuantumEleven 06:48, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Just for clarity's sake, the "\" character WP cites above is actually a backslash. "Forward" slash (really just garden-variety slash) is "/". · rodii · 14:22, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

This is an extremely common question from new users (including, a few months ago, myself), inasmuch as the "|" (vertical line) character lacks other common uses and was not found on standard keyboards until recently. Suggest consideration of adding this explanation of how to generate this character to the tutorial and FAQ pages. Newyorkbrad 15:44, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

how to use wikipedia on a pda

hi, wikipedia makes an excellent mobile reference solution, for internet-enabled pdas. however, i can't read it very well on my pocket pc. if i display it as normal in pocket ie, i am forever having to scroll horizontally and if i choose 'fit to screen', it displays the content almost a word per line - not Nice!

is there a way (stylesheet?) to optimise wikipedia for pocket pc displays?

thanks in advance.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.71.7.219 (talk • contribs) 06:44, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

What help there is about this is at Wikipedia:Browser notes#PDA & cell phone browsers. If you can add anything that might be useful for others, please do so. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:01, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

The Pocket PC version of Opera works very well with Wikipedia in my experience, but it costs US$24. —David Wahler (talk) 01:02, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Userpage help - forgot about a link

I was browsing the userpage project last week (Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_Page_Help) and in the process, either directly or indirectly I came across a userpace that had two external links coded in the top right corner above the title bar. One pointed to the now defunct edit counter by Interiot and the other had a useful tool of which I can remember very little, but I would still like to find it again. Does this ring a bell with anyone? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:15, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

User:My Cat inn, perhaps? fetofs ^Hello! 22:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I can't log in!

I'm RobbieG, but I've been busy over the past few days and haven't actually logged in in a while. Today I tried to log in, but was unable to because the site claimed my cookies are disabled. I didn't disable my cookies and I don't know how to. I don't know how to enable them either, and I've tried using all sorts of reference books and websites which were no help at all. Please help, as this is actually pretty distressing. 88.105.147.99 13:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

What browser do you use? -- Psy guy ^Talk 14:13, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I've no idea. Can you tell me how I can find out, please? By the way, I just noticed that my user number (I mean the number that shows up when I'm not logged in; don't know what it's called) has been changing over time. I've been 80.42.110.162, 80.42.98.247, 80.42.102.188, 80.42.105.151, 80.42.101.218, 80.43.236.24 and 80.42.97.189, and many more besides. Do you think that's anything to do with this? 88.105.147.99 14:27, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

What's the name of the application that you use to explore Wikipedia (it's probably written on the top of your screen; probably it's Internet Explorer, Opera or Firefox)? These numbers are called IP addresses. Jacek Kendysz 14:34, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, et cetera? -- Psy guy ^Talk 14:35, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict city) No, that just means you have a dynamic IP address, one that's assigned by your internet provider when you connect each time. It looks like you're connecting from the Netherlands, right? Look at the top of your browser window--does it say Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL? If you still can't tell, try this: are you connecting via AOL? Do you use a Macintosh? If not, and you are (most likely) using Windows, you probably are using Internet Explorer. · rodii · 14:39, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh, Internet Explorer. Sorry. Sorry about the edit conflict, too! 88.105.147.99 14:41, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

If you are using Internet Explorer, check Tools->Internet Options->Privacy tab and then the settings area, check if the level is set to at least medium or below. --WinHunter ^(talk) 14:49, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

It's already set to low, but it still says I have my cookies disabled. 88.105.147.99 14:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Look in the bottom right of the internet explorer window, on the grey bar. There is a box; mine says "Internet" and has a little world symbol. What do you see? Notinasnaid 15:02, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Exactly the same. 88.105.147.99 15:07, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, in Privacy settings.... Click the Sites button. I see an empty list, nothing in it. You? Now click the Advanced button. Is "Override automatic cookie handling" off, and everything else grey? Notinasnaid 15:18, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes 88.105.147.99 15:25, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, here's one more thing to try. Sometimes when Internet Explorer fills up its part of the disk, it stops working properly. Open Internet Options on the "General" tab. Click the "Delete files" button then click OK. This will free up some space and might mend things. Notinasnaid 15:34, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try that. Can I just say, I'm really surprised and grateful to all the people who responded so quickly. Thanks a lot! 88.105.147.99 15:58, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you all! RobbieG 16:01, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

You can log in! You wouldn't be able to talk to other people if you aren't logged in! So you can log in!

User: Himanyo

Converting Redirect page to Disambiguation page

As discussed above, yesterday I created Peter J. Hamilton, thus requiring disambiguation of Peter Hamilton, which currently redirects to Peter F. Hamilton. My thanks to user: Jacek Kendysz who confirmed yesterday (via this help desk) my instinct that this is necessary. However, although I have located that tutorial on how to create a Disambiguation page, I am not certain how to convert an existing Redirect page into a Disambiguation. Is there a tutorial on how this is done, or can someone explain (or does doing this require Admin privileges?). Thank you. Newyorkbrad 15:54, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

When you go to Peter Hamilton and get redirected to Peter F. Hamilton the top of the article (right below the title) will have a note saying "(redirected from Peter Hamilton)". Click that link and you can edit the Peter Hamilton page directly. - Mgm|^(talk) 16:11, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Done, at least as a first version. Should article title of Peter Hamilton be changed to "Peter Hamilton (Disambiguation)"? Newyorkbrad 16:30, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

No. Jacek Kendysz 16:37, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Noted, and thank you for adding template. Newyorkbrad 17:07, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

• You only need a separate disambiguation page if one subject is obviously more common. In this case none of the Peters appear to be more famous than any of the others. By the way, the modifiers (the stuff between the brackets) usually should not start with a capital letter. It's "disambiguation" not "Disambiguation". - Mgm|^(talk) 18:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually I would say Peter F. is very much more well-known than Peter J., as the author of a number of recent best-selling novels. No disrespect to Peter J., but I think people searching for "Peter Hamilton" are overwhelmingly likely to want Peter F., for what it's worth. · rodii · 19:51, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Despite being the initiator of Peter J. Hamilton I have no reason to disagree with the above. I proceeded in accordance with advice from experienced users on this help page but have no objection to any modification deemed sensible. Newyorkbrad 00:31, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

UserPage or UserTalk Difference

I am confused as to the difference between UserPage and UserTalk. Brainiacoutcast 21:37, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Your user page is a page you own, which you can use pretty much as you'd like (information about yourself you don't mind other people being able to see, pages you're interested in, ...). Your talk page is where other people can communicate with you. This is the same difference between a regular article and its talk page (the talk page is for discussion about the article). Please see Wikipedia:User page for more details. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Rick Block Brainiacoutcast 21:36, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

SVG Support

I recently uploaded an image in SVG format: Image:Discworld-unseen-university-amoswolfe.svg which is the same as Image:Discworld-unseen-university-amoswolfe.png only in SVG format instean of PNG. The source is a vector drawing done by me.

The program I used to draw the image does not directly support SVG so I used "SVG Factory" (found in SVG tools). Viewing the image in the sandbox at a high resolution (2000px), I noticed that the enlarged image is pixellated, much as a bitmap/raster image would be if so enlarged.

I should add that the image has some drop shadows which are automatically created by the program. Could this mean that the SVG contains some kind of embedded bitmap within the file (as is possible in WMF)?

Any thoughts on the matter appreciated. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 18:59, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

You may want to ask this in Village Pump: Technical --WinHunter ^(talk) 19:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, your SVG file is just an SVG wrapper around a PNG bitmap image. If you look at the source you can see it clearly. Converting from raster to vector format is not something that can be done automatically, at least not well, despite the claims of various programs with "tracing" facilities. · rodii · 19:48, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I will try re-saving the file without the drop shadows and re-uploading. The original image is a vector, but I think it is the shadows that are causing the problem. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 20:03, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Removal of Links

Hi I am the admin of [9] a forum for the support/education/advice of skin allergy sufferoes similar to another site - skincell.org. Some of my Moderating team put some links to our site in various entries to help people find information and support for the conditions described. We then recived the following message

skincity.org.uk Please do not add commercial links or links to your own private websites to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or a mere collection of external links. You are, however, encouraged to add content instead of links to the encyclopedia. If you feel the link should be added to the article please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thanks. --Clawed 08:40, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I take exception to being called a profit website then our link removed while a similar site is left up (see [10] the link for our forum was taken down but skincell is still up. Skincell is a forum similar to our in content but different in style and age I recommend that your admins investigate the links before you take them down.

regards Webmaster (email removed to prevent spam) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.189.132.126 (talk • contribs) 19:43, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Note: Clawed's edit was to User talk:86.128.234.78. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

• Dear webmaster. Forums are generally not considered suitable links in Wikipedia. Your particular forum appears to have just 47 members at the time of my checking, so while you may not be a for-profit website, you did engage in promotion of your forum which is expressly disallowed in WP:NOT. Exceptions are sometimes made for especially well-known forums or ones with lots of members, but yours doesn't seem to fit either category. Wikipedia:Spam and Wikipedia:External links should give you an idea of what is and isn't acceptable. In the mean time, if you can point out the specific similar URL you complained about remaining up, I can take a look at it. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
• Skincell appears to be a forum with a lot of activity (20 times as many posts as your forum, 200 times as many members). Even though you've been running for similar amounts of time, their forum simply has more information (which is the main quality external links are judged by). - Mgm|^(talk) 21:02, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

quick note we as a website have only been running for 4 months and that is why we have less members but we are growing. Admin Skincity etc

Citations

I'm having an issue with another editor, who seems to like removing cited statements, whenever he feels like it. Is there a policy or guideline that requires discussion first? Or is he allowed to remove cited material from any article he sees fit? Just so there is no confusion, any statements he has removed, were pertaining to that article, and only discussed it after it was reverted. He feels this is good way to handle it, and says its good faith! Zos 20:45, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

It can be a good way to provoke discussion. In some articles, I've found it the only way. If the consensus is to keep the item, then it would not be polite to remove it. And where the talk page is doing a good job, it seems unnecessary to start with a removal, but remember that "BE BOLD" is one of Wikipedia's tenets. Notinasnaid 20:58, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

• Sure. "Be bold" is a good rule of thumb, but I don't think sourced statements can be removed that easily. Only unsourced material can be removed without any sort of discussion. They should at least give people a chance to fix things if you think something's wrong with it. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:04, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Although hes saying that he'd like me to quote policy, and I simply cannot seem to find where it says he cant. I see his point of view, I may sound like I own the article in saying that I just dont want a cited statement removed, especially if its germane to the article. I'm at a loss as to why there is no policy for the removal of sourced, cited, and basic historic facts. Zos 21:06, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

One more question that pertains to this...How would I go about asking for a policy to be made? I assume I would have to put it up for a survey, and let consensus decide right? But where? Should I post it to Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines? Or a different page? Zos 21:18, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I think there are valid reasons for removing sourced information, though of course discussing it on the talk page is always good. But concerns about relevance, POV, spam, lack of balance, undue weight or triviality might cause someone to decide an article would be better off with some information removed, even if it's fully sourced. Just because something is sourced doesn't mean it's sacrosanct. And in some articles, at least, discussing every removal is just a waste of time--spammers and drive-by POV pushers add passages with "citations" all the time. Zos, it seems like you're looking for a general rule you can use as ammunition here, but I feel like there's a need to consider the context. What's the other editor's position on these links? · rodii · 01:51, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree there are valid reasons for removing sources statements, but these would be exceptions as many policies and guidelines have exceptions. I'm just in awe that there is no rule or policy for removal of relevant cited statements. And I'm not trying to look for amunition for a debate, just needing some general consensus for this issue. If this would be the case, then whats stopping me from removing cited statements from any article I see fit, saying "theres no policy that says I cannot do it". I feel this is wrong, and something might need to be added to a guideline/policy page, describing the nature of such. The other editors position on the matter was that it was irrelevant, and that it was my opinion to put it in, and his opinion to take it out. So we reached a point where no policy or guideline has touched yet, I suppose. So how would I ask for a survey, and on which page would you think? Zos 05:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

It sounds to me like you might want to read Wikipedia:Resolving disputes, which is the policy by which "I think this" vs. "you think that" disputes should be resolved. In general, if somone deletes something from an article (sourced or not), and you add it back, and they delete it again and you feel it should be added back you're in dispute territory. There is no absolute or even general policy about deleting sourced statements and there likely never will be. If you'd like to pursue creating one (and I strongly caution that this will almost assuredly be a complete waste of your time and anyone else you get to participate in the process), please see Wikipedia:How to create policy. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:57, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

You may also like to read Wikipedia:Reliable sources -- Lost 14:03, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

article on Guraura

Hello, I wrote a short note to David Newton about my article on Guraura, a village near Lucknow, India. I don't know much about Wikipedia and I don't know how to do the basic tasks it seems. How does my article (unfinished) get to be a regular article ? I started looking through all the directions but my head gets dizzy there are so many options, so many things to click which lead you to other things. If you could write a short note that would be much appreciated. I am well aware--having been an academic for many decades--that one does not copy, cut and paste, etc. other people's work. Everything that I wrote or will write, will be strictly my own. I am unlikely to be editing other people's work, though adding something would not be out of the question. I think the idea of Wikipedia is great, so spoiling it would not be very consistent with my support.

Bob Newman--Bobnewman 22:21, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Hiya Bob! I refactored your message for clarity, I hope you don't mind. Anyway, I found your article, Guraura, and would point out that since it's listed as an article currently... well, it is, by definition, an article.

What I'd probably suggest you do, first of all, is find sources for your content. While it's great that you've got hands-on experience with Guraura, it'd help quite a bit if we could find verifiable sources. I've tacked a "welcome template" onto your page, filled to the brim with useful links to various policy pages on Wikipedia that you should find useful. Click on "my talk" at the top to access this.

I'd also suggest browsing similar Wikipedia articles and view them (click "edit source" and just don't change anything) to determine how the editors of that article put it together and made it look nice. If you still have questions, just respond here. :) ~Kylu (u|t) 23:28, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

(conflict)First, don't use paragraphs – they're handled by the software in a strange way. Instead, put a blank line between both blocks of text. I'm afraid only a single note is not enough to explain everything there is to writing an article. A good short description is to make a lead section not putting any headers, with a brief overview (bold the first occurance of the title and make it the subject of the first sentence). Then, use headers to go into deeper information on particular subjects. Link extensively to other articles (relevant to the subject of the article) inside your text by using Wiki syntax. This particular internal linking syntax is [[Link destination]]. Set up a External links section to cite sources and provide useful links (Guidelines at Wikipedia:External links) that add to what's already in your text (alternatively, to cite, you could use footnotes). Any questions you may have, you can ask them at my talk page. fetofs ^Hello! 23:45, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

• You made a slight mistake there Fetofs. Sources should not be in the external links section, but instead in a references or sources section of their own. External links are useful and related material, but material that hasn't been used in the creation of the article. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:56, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Yes, but sometimes there is a mix between sources and additional material in the links. But anyway, we should explicitly cite sources when possible. fetofs ^Hello! 11:55, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
    • If the references section is done in footnote style - as it should be - then there's rarely any overlap. For example, if the references section points to a website, it will generally be pointing to individual pages. The external links section, however, can contain a link to the website as a whole. There's also no confusion over which sources have been used to write the article and which haven't. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 14:26, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Copyright, photos and photoshop

Hi - what's the situation where someone takes a copyright photo, photoshops it with a filter and then puts it up - does that still breach the copyright?

--Charlesknight 22:45, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes. ~Kylu (u|t) 22:52, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Right - what's the procedure for removal?

--Charlesknight 22:57, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Check with WP:CSD. Zos 23:03, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Bloody hell that's complex! (thanks for the tip anyway) --Charlesknight 23:09, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Try template: {{PUInonfree}} ? ~Kylu (u|t) 23:33, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Edit by unknown party

Hello - I refer to article Trooping the Colour on which I have contributed quite a bit. I do not know who 62.56.98.120 is, but on 2 July they went through the article substituting the expressing Saluting Dais for Saluting Base.

"Base" is correct, as per the program for the event, which I atttended.

I have rectified the error and put a note about it on the article's discussion page.

However, is there anything else I can do to contact 62.56.98.120 ? (whoever they may be?)

Or can we protect the word Base and base throughout the article in any way?

Thanks for advice. I have also contacted the very helpful user called Phaedriel on this.

-- FClef 22:44, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

It appears you've done everything that you could do, I do recommend leaving the IP a little note. Just because they are an anon, does not mean they are any less of a user. But, good work. Yanksox 22:46, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

How do you "give the IP a little note"? (i.e., what does that mean and how do you do it?) Sorry for further question , but am a Wikivirgin. (or as close as dammit... :o) -- FClef 22:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

This refers to leaving a message on the Talk page - in this case User talk:62.56.98.120 When somebody makes an edit without creating an account or logging in to an existing one, all edits are attributed to their IP address. ---=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 23:03, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I have done so. Can you please give me the format for, e.g. Trooping the Colour Talk Page? I mean if I want to say "please reply to teh Trooping the Colour Talk page - how do I put it in Wikilingo? Gramercy. -- FClef 23:08, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I recommend just saying something along the lines of, "Thank you for your edits to Trooping the Colour, however, I have reverted your edits. For a further explanation please see the talk page." Add you username. Feel free to copy the code if you want to paraphrase that. Yanksox 23:12, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks - v. helpful, especially cool neutral tone. -- FClef 23:18, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

You can also use {{talkheader}}. FellowWikipedian 01:59, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

What is a talkheader? And thanks to everyone for help - the user actually wrote back to me and we sorted out the errors. -- FClef 23:07, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

July 5

PDF/EPS to SVG?

Is there a free software/freeware program for Windows that can convert EPS or PDF to SVG? Thanks WP 02:52, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

The help desk is for questions on how to use Wikipedia. For general knowledge questions, such as yours, please use the reference desk. -- Reinyday, 03:26, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

IP address

Is there a link on wikipedia that can tell me my ip address without having to make a contribution somewhere? -- 216.143.142.68 06:52, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

It's not on Wikipedia, but see http://whatismyipaddress.com/. Notinasnaid 07:39, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

• Er, you just made a contribution... Anyway, remember that you can have a dynamic IP address (meaning it changes) especially when you connect through AOL. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:38, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

yeah, the reason was I wanted to check my ip :)... thanks for the help...216.143.142.68 09:28, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Email confirmation

I created two accounts on two wikipedias - English and Vietnamese. I could confirm my email for the English account but could not for the Vietnamese account. There was an email sent to ask for confirmation but when I clicked the link, it says "there is not yet an article with this name, you can start one" ???--lhagiang 06:53, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

There may not be a page at your username space since they start as an empty page. This blank page does not necessarily mean your account wasn't created: are links to your user pages (Userpage, "my talk", "my preferences" etc) displayed in the top right of your screen, or is there just a "Log in/register" link?. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 11:47, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. My account has been created. The problem is I could not confirm the email address under which I registered my account. Perhaps it would not matter much anyways, but I would not be able to receive news from Wiki/emails from other users?--lhagiang 15:49, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

• What link are you pointed to when you try to confirm? - Mgm|^(talk) 18:03, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in a response: you should, if you are able to enter your Vietnamese account, be able to change the email address in my preferences (top-right corner). Hope this helps. EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 18:51, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Problem solved! :) I copied and pasted the link in a separate window instead of directly clicking on it and it worked! Thank you for your help :)--lhagiang 09:06, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Information technology Wiki 159.52.64.118 07:15, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a specific Wiki, either a feature of this one or other wikis, that cover the subject of Information Technology/Computers etc

I would be very greatful to know of whats out there.

Many thanks David

You could start by looking at Category: Information technology and Information technology. --Hetar 07:17, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Lack of congruence symbol (mathematics)

When editing my first contribution, I couldn't find the congruence symbol (three dashes vertically aligned) and was forced to use the equivalence (equal) symbol. Although I have no doubt that readers will understand my contribution, would it not be a good idea to make the congruence symbol available to editors? --Duke Dudley 13:57, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Where you searching for this? "$\equiv$" --J B 13:35, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Indeed! But it isn't in the "Insert" list of characters and symbols. --Duke Dudley 13:57, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Many mathematical are not. If you are unsure try the LaTeX command. Often it works nice :-) --J B 14:02, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Right, this worked for me, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain_prime. A thousand thanks for your prompt and helpful advice! --Duke Dudley 14:14, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

A few problems and suggestions:

• Don't sign your name inside articles.
• Use edit summaries when you edit articles.
• To make links to Wikipedia pages, use double brackets: [[Sophie Germain prime]] becomes Sophie Germain prime.
• It's not a very good idea to use a math tag just for a single symbol. Instead, use ≡ (to obtain it, write an ampersand (&), followed by the name of the symbol (equiv), followed by a semicolon (;).)
• KSmrq has a useful list of characters you can insert this way in User:KSmrq/Chars.
• For cases where the math tag is necessary, Help:Formula is a useful reference.
• For all-around help on wikimarkup, see Wikipedia:How to edit a page. This also includes the names of some common characters.

-- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 15:24, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay, duly noted although this is a lot to keep an eye on IMHO. Nevertheless I'll do my best to maintain Wikipedia's excellent quality. --Duke Dudley 18:48, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

2 Edit or Not 2

I looked up Critical Success Factors.

I found a stub.

One or two sentences in it are good/useful/scholastic.

One paragraph of it is nonsensical (has no logical grammatic / semantic structure, so no meaning can be ascribed to it).

Another paragraph provides a link to an external site advertising Executive Coaching!!! The following paragraph to that seems to be made up of key words rather than providing any illumination or erudition on the subject.

What should I do about this if anything? Who out there reads this, if anyone? Hello? Should I for instance simply dfelete the offending material? That seems a little unilateral even to me!!!

If this sort of thing proliferates surely the truly wonderful resource that Wikipedia is, a source of reference, will slowly rot away, a sort of entropic process of exponential aggregation?

Apart from noble hope, what stands in the path of this decay process?

Can I help?

Will this message in a bottle ever be read and if so will I receive a reply? How could such a thing ever happen?

Err . . . bye then. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.249.211.240 (talk • contribs) .

You could try expanding it yourself: take a peek at the introduction and tutorial! EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 16:05, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Is this the article you're talking about- Critical Success Factors doesn't exist as an article? EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 16:08, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Be bold! If you see anything in the article Critical success factor which you don't like, feel free to edit it (in order for the article to improve, someone has to edit it, right?). You should also consider creating a user account (click here to learn about the benefits). And don't worry about the future of Wikipedia - Although there will always be several articles of lower quality, there are very good reasons to believe that the overall quality of Wikipedia will only improve with time. And you can help! -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 16:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

2004 World Series Picture

How can I take an image I have on my PC an embed it onto the article, 2004 World Series?

The most important thing to deal with first is copyright. Is it a photograph that you, personally, took and are willing to release? If not, what is the copyright status? Notinasnaid 18:34, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

how do you add a page in wikipedia

How do I add a page —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Kljklj (talk • contribs) 19:31, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

You should read Help:Starting a new page. Jacek Kendysz 19:41, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Archving Warnings

If you left an NPA warning on someone's talk page, and they archived it shortly there after, would you revert even though technically its still there but in an archive? --Crossmr 19:32, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

• I wouldn't if their archive is readily available, but that could easily change if they have a history of archiving such warnings without heeding them. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:53, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Questionable articles

Can somebody look at Francis Lee (comic book creator) and Boneville. The first one looks like a bad advertisement and the second's content is messy.

Both of these have been nominated for deletion. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 20:50, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Image provider incentive?

Hello. Concerning the need for more images in the surfing article, I was wondering what could be offered to the owner of an image in the way of exposure. Is there a policy restricting the information that can be included in the caption accompanying such an image, e.g. could it include the name of the surfer, the photographer or perhaps a statement like "image courtesy of" or "screen shot from (the movie title)", etc? Any suggestions? Thanks. --Maradja 20:57, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

The name of the surfer is generally accepted to describe the picture (as long as there aren't any copyright issues). As from the last two options, you would get the image page, (like Image:Example.jpg) edit it and put it there, that is the place for general information about licensing. fetofs ^Hello! 21:24, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Generally, you shouldn't need to give copyright attributions for images in articles, as licensing information on the image page should be sufficient. However, there are exceptions (see, for example, the photo in The Falling Man article). Andrew (My talk · World Cup) 21:33, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Three Laws of Robotics

Hi,

Just out of interest I was wondering wether what people lok a has any bearing on the daily featured article. I ask you this because I looked up the Three Laws of robotics Yesterday and today it's the featured article. Is it something to do with me or a huge coincidence?

Harry Case (email removed)

Well, yes. The featured article director, User:Raul654, chooses one of the 1000 odd featured articles to appear for one day on the main page. More or less, everything gets a shot. Highway ^Batman! 23:17, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I think what Harry is asking is whether we operate some sort of statistics on the numbers of page views (or hits) that articles get and decide the featured articles based on that. To that, the answer is no: Wikipedia has no way of keeping track on how many hits each individual article gets. The FAs are decided through a special process (WP:FA). - ulayiti (talk) 23:46, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Actually, it is possible for Wikimedia to add hit counters to articles. However, the idea was never implemented due to the extra server load it'd cause. See Wikipedia:Technical FAQ GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 07:18, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

How to add an article to those boxes of links at the bottom of articles

How do you add another article to those link boxes at the bottom of some pages? For example, NYU has a box at the bottom with links to other schools in the University Athletic Association. If another school were to join that, how would I add it to that box? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dell1212 (talk • contribs)

Those boxes are in what is called the template namespace. The particular one you are interested in is found at Template:University Athletic Association. Just edit that page in the same way you would a normal article. Evil Monkey - Hello 02:19, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

(After edit conflict:) You've just asked about templates. If you click on "edit" in the "External links" section (or if you edit the whole page) you will see a list of templates that are used in the article, below the edit box, at the bottom of the page.

That list is made of clickable links. You can follow the links and edit the templates as you would edit an article. --Kjoonlee 02:24, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

New user... confused.

I've been using wikipedia for information for a while, but today I finally registered and created a couple of articles... there's a little bit of trouble I'm having understanding policy.

Main issue: I've long been irritated at the vast number of independent bands in the south who do extremely well regionally and are influential in underground circles, that go relatively undocumented. I created an article on a southern cult band Late Night Killers... this thing played out as follows... it got flagged for speedy deletion based on copyrighted material... i contested, plead my case that this was not copyrighted material just because it appeared on myspace... it was from the band's official bio, was not copyright protected, and they gave me the go ahead to use it... i was going to append my own material as soon as i could draft it up, but i thought their bio was a good starting point... so they changed it from a copyright flag to not notable band flag... i contested this and told them i was working on appending it to show how they were notable... within 5 minutes i go back to check the discussion to make sure nothing else has transpired... someone has just asked (in rather snide wording) whether the band had a record deal... i was editing the discussion to answer that question that, no they were currently unsigned but were negotiating a deal and were being produced by a member of a "notable" band that exists here on wikipedia... i make my edit only to find the whole damn thing has already vanished and been "protected" so that nobody will ever post that band again.... maybe i did a sloppy job ... i'm sort of new at this... but i think the impatience and bad attitude towards me were rather uncalled for and someone could have attempted to be helpful instead of rush-deleting my entire article and making it to where i could not rework it. am i wrong? what did i miss?

minor issue: another article i created has been flagged for clean up (Eric "Red Mouth" Gebhardt)... what does this mean, and how do i "clean it up"?

You might find WP:MUSIC and Wikipedia:Cleanup helpful. Dismas|^(talk) 03:42, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• It's probably best to not post an article to the main article space until you've added the notability in. In the mean time, you can work on the article in a Wikipedia:Subpage of your userspace. Also, the band's official bio is copyrighted unless otherwise noted. Not because it's on MySpace but because anything is automatically copyrighted to whoever wrote it. If they gave you permission to use it, have them send an email stating this to permissions AT wikimedia DOT org from an email address that's recognizably theirs so we can confirm this is the case. Finally, make sure it follows WP:MUSIC guidelines. - 131.211.210.16 07:37, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

July 6

Design For an Atomic Bomb

Dear Helper, I know i might sound like a terrorist but really i'm not,i had to join Wikipedia to source for material for my project. I'm a final year student of the Physics Department in the University of Calabar,Cross river state in Nigeria and i'im writing on the project topic "Physics in the millitary". Quite a wide topic isn't it?, Well my supervisor has advised me to downsize the topic to "Uncontrolled fission". Hence, I have to talk about radioactivity, uranium, it's history, the isotope used in building the bomb etc, and a design for the bomb (which is my main problem); to get a design and how it would work! All these would be in theory, i'm not actually building it(God knows i would'nt even want to come near anything radioactive) talkless of me being a mile near it. I need help to get a design, please help me, thanks yours sincerely, Emmanuel Ntia (email removed)—Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimmynuel (talk • contribs)

A good place to start would probably be Nuclear weapon design. This question however really belongs on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science as this page is designed for questions about Wikipedia. Evil Monkey - Hello 02:53, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Let's help the Nigerian avoid Nigerian scams by removing his email.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 03:18, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Citation needed?

Hi. I am a newcomer here. A few weeks ago, I edited the Jacques Brel entry in several spots, notably with:

>Sadly, with the exception of the Eric Blau-Mort Shuman translations used in "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris," the English translations of Brel's songs often strip them of their brilliance. For example, "Ne Me Quitte Pas" evocatively mentions pearls of rain that come from countries where rain never falls. However, Rod McKuen’s insipid English translation replaces that imagery with a day like no other, past and future, stealing Brel’s magical lyricism from English-speaking music lovers.<

I just returned to the entry and found [citation needed] at the end of the above paragraph. Truth is, I wanted to cite a bit of Brel's lyric and a bit of McKuen's translation to illustrate my point, i.e., Brel's "Moi, je t'offrirai / Des perles de pluie / Venues de pays / Où il ne pleut pas" versus McKuen's "But if you stay/I'll make you a day / Like no day has been / or will be again."

Question is: Can I cite these snippets on your site? And is this what you meant by "citation needed"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Primerib (talk • contribs) 03:29, July 6, 2006

Thanks.

You should certainly provide some examples of translations that have been "stripped of brilliance." Including the original text would be a start and you can use small "snippets" on Wikipedia for this purpose. The citation needed tag was probably referring to your use of "often." I also question your use of "insipid" as it violates our policy of maintaining a neutral point of view. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 03:40, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I think what is really needed is a citation to someone who expresses the sentiments that you have. You are presenting facts that can easily be checked (though citing a printed or other legal reference is good), but words like "sadly" and "insipid" cannot be used unless they are an accurate reflection of an accepted citation. Notinasnaid 08:01, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Mapmaking, or Cartography...

I want to make a map for this article, similar to those used in the various London Underground line articles. (example) How and where do I start? Pacific Coast Highway ^{(blah • lol, internet)} 04:40, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

That map was "Generated as part of the London Underground geographic maps project by software written by ed g2s • talk and James D. Forrester utilising GPS data." according to the image description. I would suggest asking one of them how to do it. You can link to their user pages from the image derscription page.—WAvegetarian•(talk) 05:09, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Pacific Coast Highway ^{(blah • lol, internet)} 05:14, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Multiple Language Log-Ons

Hi, I've been using and contributing to the English language wiki for a while now and, when I have time, thoroughly enjoy trying to improve it for everybody.

However, I also have knowledge of some other languages, such as French, German, Spanish and Simple English. However, if I try to edit pages in those languages, I am asked to create a whole new account as it doesn't recognise my log on.

When I notice something that I can contribute in another language, I don't want to have to log out, and log in under another i.d. each time.

Is there anyway my user id can gain me access to multiple language wikis? Any help gratefully accepted. Duncshine 09:47, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I am afraid that's not possible, you have to register another account in another language's wiki. However, since both site's cookie can concurrently exist so you only need to login once and ask the site to save your login. That way, you won't have to login each time you switch to another wiki. --WinHunter ^(talk) 09:52, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Tarn (disambiguation) and Tarn

Hello. Tarn has different meanings, see Tarn (disambiguation), but if you type Tarn you are straight directed to the French department Tarn instead of the Tarn (disambiguation) page. Should it not be the other way round? Tarn should direct you to the disambiguation page. But this means Tarn (meaning French department) should be renamed. I know some things you can do by your self, but these changes seem rather complicated to me! Guss2 09:59, 6 July 2006 (UTC) (copied from Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous)

• I don't think this move is needed. If you look at the whatlinkshere for Tarn, you see that most articles that link to Tarn are aimed at the French department. That's why the disambiguation note is at the top of the article. It could potentially be moved, but that would require fixing all the articles that will point to the disambiguation if you do that. That is a lot of work for a minimal return. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:29, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I guess the point here is that if you type a word into the search box and click Go, it is sensible that you are taken straight to the most common use of that word. I just typed Genesis into the search box, looking for info on the band, and was taken to the page about the opening book of the Bible instead, which actually seems logical to me. It's no biggie; I got to the band page with just two more clicks, via the disambig page. --Richardrj 10:36, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

My point exactly. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:47, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi Seems logical. Thanks for the answer and also for the speed in answering. Guss2 11:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

how

how to go to cookies—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.65.159.61 (talk • contribs) 11:36, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• Please be more specific about what you want. Do you want to locate your cookies on your hard drive? Do you want to remove them? What browser are you using? Do you use a Windows or Mac system? Without any of that information it's very hard to answer you. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:00, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
• I would suggest asking an expert cookie consumer where to find them. The Cookie Monster probably has a big stash somewhere. If you're nice he might share. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 18:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Skeeter J

<snipped submission>

• This is not the page to submit new article. Please try WP:AFC instead and make sure you read the instructions at the top. Especially those regarding WP:BIO, WP:MUSIC, Wikipedia:Vanity and Wikipedia:Reliable sources. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:57, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

female-african american pornstars

please can you show me pictures of female african american porn stars —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ibox (talk • contribs) .

Maybe a Google search would present suitable results... EVOCATIVEINTRIGUE TALKTOME | EMAILME | IMPROVEME 18:08, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Or you could browse Category:African American porn stars. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 07:19, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

User:Dickbauch

Would an admin please do his job, tanks. Dickbauch 17:17, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• It's easier if you tell what exactly needs to be done... - Mgm|^(talk) 19:18, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Lune Fiction

Lune Fiction

Lune Fiction is one of Britain’s premier literary magazines and the world’s only journal dedicated to first class flash fiction (plus the occasional short story, minute novella and poetry). The magazine is named after the city of its origin: Lancaster, a city on the banks of the Lune in the North West of England; a town from which Lancashire derives its name and from which England derives its Red Rose. The Monarch of Great Britain is ultimately the Duke Of Lancaster. Lune Fiction is written by Lancaster writers such as Jomar de Vrind, Hendryk Korzeniowski, Mollie Baxter, Jane Scargill and Herschel Waters plus anyone of discernible talent from the Palatine Of Lancaster, Britain, the Commonwealth and the rest of the world. LF, as we call it in the Biz, is produced on a futuristic type-writer/ television hybrid machine, based on the findings of Alan Turing and his involvement with calculating devices during WW II. Lune Fiction is produced every four weeks in Lancaster. Give or take the odd day. It all depends on fortune and other circumstances. And the mood of the editorial collective that is Humble Sam, JM de Vrind and the ghost of Herschel Waters. The magazine is produced to further the cause of flash fiction, a newish form of literature which has come to destroy the manacles of excess that exist within conventional literature (Death to streams of consciousness and all that. Minimalists of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but your chains of plenty!). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 194.150.177.9 (talk • contribs) .

Ok. What is your question? Notinasnaid 17:42, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Linking to Redirects

I have a question about making wikilinks to redirects. So, for example puppy, puppies, and dogs all redirect to dog. Here are a few related questions:

• If I wanted to have the following sentence in an article, "George Washington owned a puppy", with "puppy" hyperlinked. Should I have it as just [[puppy]] or [[dog|puppy]]?

• Alternatively, if the sentence is "George Washington owned many puppies", should I have just [[puppies]] or [[puppy|puppies]] or [[dog|puppies]]?

• And finally, if the sentence is "George Washington owned many dogs", should I have just [[dogs]] or [[dog|dogs]] or [[dog]]s?

• If you have any other variations on the theme, feel free to add them

Thanks JianLi 18:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

You can leave it as [[puppy]]. That's what redirects are for. Ditto for the second case, i.e. [[puppies]]. In the last case, you would want [[dog]]s. There are some people who think that redirects shouldn't be linked to if possible and will go around piping everything, but AFAIK this is a minority POV. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 18:43, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

In fact, "fixing" redirects is explicitly discouraged - see Wikipedia:Redirect#Don't fix links to redirects that aren't broken. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:35, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I get it now. Thanks! JianLi 01:31, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

I would say that if you are constructing the sentence, and you know the link will redirect, then you should pipe the link to avoid a redirect. However, as the above user mentioned, making an edit just to fix a redirect isn't considered helpful. -- Reinyday, 02:59, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

adding articles

how do i add an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by James soad rule (talk • contribs) 18:26, 6 July 2006

You should read Help:Starting a new page. Jacek Kendysz 18:39, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

MP3 to OGG

Does anyone know of any sort of software that can convert MP3 format files to OGG files? It would help in uploading classical music to Wikipedia. --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 20:02, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Check this out. You will surely find some good software. Jacek Kendysz 20:23, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I believe Audacity will do it. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Recording_guidelines#Recommended_tools. Wikibofh_(talk) 21:56, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Yep, that's the editor recommended at Wikipedia:Media. Just a few quick notes though:

1. While the sheet music for classical pieces is usually in the public domain, individual recordings may not be. Unless you have a statement releasing rights, don't assume that the piece is free to upload.
2. Remember to check Wikipedia:Sound/list to see if we already have a free copy of the music before uploading.
3. If the recording is public domain (or at least released under a free licence), consider uploading to our media database Wikimedia Commons instead. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 07:03, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Using content for a book

I would like to publish a book (not ebook) using content taken from 100 Wikipedia articles. I have several questions:

1/. I can't possibly cite every author so if I put a URL of the original online article at the bottom of each article in the book is that enough to keep everyone happy? :o)

2/. I have put the copyright notice after the title page and the GNU Free Documentation License as an appendix. Does that meet requirements?

3/. I would like to make some small alterations such as leaving out certain blocks of text and photographs. Is there anything I need to be aware of here?

Thanks for your assistance

--84.66.2.148 20:48, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• See: citing wikipedia. Wikibofh_(talk) 21:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Actually, Wikipedia:Requests for publication is more relevant. —WAvegetarian•(talk) 22:34, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• • • Neither of those web pages really answer the initial question. The most relevant pages I could find are Wikipedia:Verbatim copying#Printed Copies and Wikipedia:Copyrights. --Mathew5000 18:48, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Searching for my article...

Hi, I recently started an article, Versatile Toroidal Facility, about a laboratory at MIT. Because i was sort of bored, i tried searching for my article (via the "search" rather than "go" button) using different keywords, but i can't make it come up on a search! I tried "toroidal" and "versatile" and "versatile toroidal", even "versatile toroidal facility", and the only page that comes up is about a department that contains the VTF lab. Did I do something wrong? Should I add keywords or something? Thanks, --Bmk 21:50, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

You don't need to do anything, the search index isn't updated very often (for weeks, months etc). So you just have to be patient. Also, there isn't fuzzy matching (for mispellings etc). Google et al will probably index the page first (and they have fuzzy matching).--Commander Keane 21:56, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I'll try to restrain myself and be patient :) --Bmk 22:08, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

help with vandal

i don't keep watch pages, but can you see how the latest change here Structure of the Sun serves to blind people? I think this is very dangerous (and therefore made the second-to-last edit. We don't want people staring at solar eclipses. Thank you very much. 82.131.188.84 22:05, 6 July 2006 (UTC).

I agree, so i changed it. The article structure of the Sun doesn't need to contain medical information relating to looking at the sun, especially misleading info. FYI, it is true that during total eclipse, the sun is probably safe to look at, but not everyone knows how to distinguish between total eclipse and 99% eclipse, and according to NASA (see the solar eclipse links - too lazy to copy), viewing a 99% eclipse can still damage your eyes. Although i don't think it's fair to call it vandalism; just not the best addition. Also, feel free to change it yourself...this is wikipedia after all --Bmk 22:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Question re: legitimate use of biographies

I would like to know if citing a biography is acceptable at Wikipedia. When I attempted to address an issue at the Barry Manilow page about not having any information on personal life, I had cited that three biographies on this celebrities had been written, and that the 3d biography was considered the most controversial of the three. I had also mentioned the fact that he had been married once, and had a long term cohabitational relationship. However, a person took out the paragraph in its entirety, and accused me of having a "personal" agenda for putting it in. Another Wikipedia re-instated the paragraph, only to have the individual who originally removed it to do it again, and accuse the person of slander! When one reviews other celebrity profiles here at Wikipedia,for example Jim Morrison there is extensive discussion on the celebrities interpersonal relationships. Some of the information is not necessarily flattering or verifiable but apparently there are some who have a mission of keeping the Manilow page completely free of any kind of personal information. I suspect overprotective fans are behind this. I am not happy about being accused of the stuff this person is accusing me of because it simply isn't so. So, is the use of biographies a legitimate citation or not and is there any recourse that can be taken if a person falsely accuses another Wikipedian of slander? Ladycascadia 22:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reliable sources for your first sentence. The rest of your comments appear to be a content dispute, see Wikipedia:Resolving disputes.--Commander Keane 23:17, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Copyrights and Featured Picture eligiblilty

Are images with copyright status "Some Rights Reserved" under the Creative Commons license eligible for featured picture status? Specifically, is the image Image:Maps-sodor-railways-amoswolfe.png eligible for Featured Picture? I would have nominated it already if not for the copyright concerns. C. M. Harris 23:08, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes I think so. The requirements say "Have a free license", and that image's licence is listed as free on Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. To help its run to be featured, I think ideally the image would be .svg format and without the CreativeCommons watermark.--Commander Keane 23:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I tried downloading the image into Photoshop. I managed to get the watermark out, but I can't save it in .svg– it's not a format option. C. M. Harris 22:57, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

lost my foxfire

when I click on my foxfire icon..it tells me that it is working offline. I have been using foxfire for two years and this the first time I have had a problem with it..can you help me Please? I do not know what to do to correct this. (personal details removed to protect from spam) Hope to hear for you soon.--68.171.29.54 23:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)Beverly Caron

What you need to do is open Firefox, press the 'file' button at the top, and click the 'work offline' button, and it should cancel the working off line. GeorgeMoney ^(talk) 23:21, 6 July 2006 (UTC)