Wikipedia:Help desk

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Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

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Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

• Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
• Answer questions,
• Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
• Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

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See also

• Wikipedia:Editor assistance (WP:ASSIST)
• Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer
• Wikipedia:Patrols (WP:PATROL)
• User:Useight/Highly Active

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners.

Ask a question

December 23

Trying to get some help

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:30, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I have been trying get some answers in the form of comments, suggestions, and even a peer assessment on the article Ofer Ben-Amots. However, nobody has answered in 5 days. The article has been throughly changed and edited to match the Wiki rules. It is now wikified and there are numerous references. in spite of the changes the warning box above the article remains the same. Am I still doing something wrong? Totally possible... However, I would like to know if it is better than the previous version. Any help is greatly appreciated-- Thanks (in advance!) Obenamots (talk) 00:07, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to remove the tags if the problems are fixed. I have removed the wikify and ref tags, but the problem with the lead is still there. And yes, the article is better now, but not perfect. A few more references would be good. Chamal ^talk 01:17, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the helpful tip! More references are up and coming... Obenamots (talk) 16:42, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

"this file has no extension"

I'm trying to upload an image (I shot it and own the rights) to "Chase Johnson". However, I've visited the "upload" page and filled out all the data. I "browse" and select the file. however, the next page says "this file has no extension".

I've resaved it in PhotoShop with PNG and GIF but no luck. I've saved it to folders and in my desktop, but still no luck. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jockinmystyles (talk • contribs) 00:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If it is a jpg file upload it to File:Chase Johnson.jpg. If it is a png, use File:Chase Johnson.png. Etc —teb728 t c 00:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

When you look at the file on your computer, does the name of the file end in ".gif" or ".png"? If not, it should. Dismas|^(talk) 01:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

• Some computers, I think Macs are particularly prone, don't actually add the extension which confuses the uploader. If you make it explicit, there should be no problem. Also make sure there's only one dot in the name. While operating systems may know how to deal with more than one of them, the uploader doesn't. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:04, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
  • You are correct. The default on a Mac is to not show the file extension. Although you can change this globally or for a single file. To do it for just one file, Control-Click on the file (right click), select "Get Info", and uncheck the box that says "hide file extension". Dismas|^(talk) 06:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    • However, since it's the Mac OS which is Unix-based (where file extensions are not necessary), the file extension might actually not be there - not just be hidden. In that case, the user will actually have to modify the file name to add ".jpg" or ".png" etc before uploading. But the easiest way to handle this, I think, is just to start uploading as is, but on the WP upload page, after the "source filename" is selected, change the "destination filename" field to include the file extension. That way, regardless of the presence of an extension on the computer, the file will upload properly to WP. -Seidenstud (talk) 07:04, 24 December 2008 (UTC)!

misplaced "edit" button

Resolved

i've been renovating the Pop music article in accordance with a discussion on its talk page, and in the fray the "edit" button for the "History" section wound up in the "References" section. could some kind Help Desk Denizen please assist me in getting it back where it belongs? and if explaining how to do that isn't too much trouble, i'd love to know how. thank you Sssoul (talk) 07:30, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

• My (semi-joking) solution is to not use that feature and disable "Enable section editing via [edit] links" in Special:Preferences and just make the Edit links go away entirely. The reason I do that is because those Edit links usually clutter up the page. Additionally, where there is a large right-hand side bar -- as there is on that page -- it can push the Edit links into places you don't want them. —Noah 08:15, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec) I think that's a bug in the system, caused by the long infobox. I don't think it's fixable. If you go to preferences and click the editing tab, and check the box that says "Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles (JavaScript)" then you will be able to right click the History section and edit it. Garden. 08:18, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

thanks, people. i've reduced the size of the info box and rearranged a little more and it looks better now. Sssoul (talk) 08:36, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

For future reference, see WP:BUNCH. Algebraist 09:58, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I fixed it using {{FixBunching}}. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 15:16, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Indian Election - 2009

Sir,

Indian election - 2009 is just around the corner can wikipedia open a special site to help voters by putting up details of the candidates who are in the fray ? Wikipedia could give details of these candidates based on the area of contesting. Eg :Location is Chennai and 5 candidates named A,B,C,D,E,F are contesting election, if the following facts of these candidates are made available to the general public then the best from these could be selected, by public having access to wikipedia. The word of mouth would be fanatastic.

You should give these details :

Name Age Constituency Party Affiliation to other party Number of parties changed Whether national party If any criminal record If any educational background Does he / she have any clandestine activity Regards xxxxx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.68.103.187 (talk) 09:44, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Please see WP:NOT. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Election candidates are more than welcome to have a page about them, but there are some prerequisites. First of all, the person must have received significant coverage in independent reliable sources. Secondly, the article must be written from a neutral point of view and cannot promote or disparage a candidate. Finally, the person must be notable, which has a slightly different meaning on Wikipedia. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

It sounds to me like you need to set up an Indian Election 2009 wiki of your own, not to try to misuse Wikipedia for a purpose for which it was not designed. Most candidates in an election like this will not be notable enough to have their own articles; and since incumbents are considered automatically notable, relying on Wikipedia articles would create a grossly unfair advantage to the incumbents. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:31, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

We already have an article on Indian general election, 2009. Why do you assume that most candidates will not be notable enough for their own article? Most of them already have an article about them on Wikipedia. --Joshua Issac (talk) 20:17, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

Why was "Image" changed to "File"? 60.230.124.64 (talk) 10:48, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Because not all Image:'s are actually images. Some are sounds, videos or even PDFs. Garden. 11:13, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I go about deleting sections from an article

The Sierra Leone article has a section called "In literature and film". How should I go about deleting this section. Should I just delete it, or talk about it on the talk page first. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.186.168 (talk) 14:34, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

When in doubt, discuss first. Hermione1980 14:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Why would you like to delete this section? It seems to be an well-written (if undersourced) addition to the article. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:05, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

New photo

I have uploaded an updated and better photo of Tammy Leitner to go with her wikipedia page, but do not have access to upload it directly. I uploaded it to commons, but don't believe I did it correctly. It is a photo I took myself, so I own the right. Can anyone help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mgossie (talk • contribs) 16:03, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Commons is a different project altogether than Wikipedia is. What you need to do is ask directly at the Commons help desk, which is located here: [1]. Toodles! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 17:02, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You uploaded it to File:Track3.JPG, which is not a very good name. Someone has proposed that a bot rename it to a more appropriate name like File:Tammy Leitner.jpg. You can access it at the original name for now, but the name may change. —teb728 t c 22:28, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Reliable sources

Hello. Is the magazine Teen Ink considered a reliable source for book reviews? I just finished reading WP:RS and I'm still don't know. Kaguya-chan (talk) 16:06, 23 December 2008 (UTC) Just realized that this isn't the place to discuss reliable sources. Sorry. Kaguya-chan (talk) 16:14, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I would think that yes, yes they are a reliable source for book reviews. They have been publishing reviews for going on 20 years now. Remember, however, that since reviews are essentially opinion pieces they can only be cited as a source for the reviewing editor's opinion on the work in question. Cheers. L0b0t (talk) 16:16, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Question Regarding Creating Infoboxes

I have a question.

How do I create an Infobox when I am creating an article on Wikipedia? Any answers would be greatly appreciated. I would like to create another article on here but don't know how to create an Infobox. Again, any answers would be greatly appreciated. Please Just visit my talk page and leave it. I will read it when I get the chance. Thanks in advance.Frschoonover (talk) 16:58, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Infobox and Category:Infobox templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

military air force

Is there any AWAKS plane in INDIA? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.20.11.34 (talk) 17:43, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Please read the notice at the top of this page--you want the Reference Desk. Thanks Jake Wartenberg^Talk 18:00, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'm not sure. Please be aware that this desk is for answering questions about using Wikipedia. You may want to ask your question at the reference desk or look at the Indian Air Force article. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 18:02, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Possibly, see Awacs#Operators and Airborne Surveillance Platform for more information. Nanonic (talk) 18:03, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Userbox Icon

There is a userbox Icon on my user page but it links to the page about the image itself, not my User:DocDeel516/Userboxes. How can this be corrected?--DocDeel516 ^discuss 21:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's the code that I've used for this sort of thing in the past:

{{click|link=User:DocDeel516/Userboxes|image=Crystal kthememgr.svg|width=50px|height=50px|title=My userboxes}}

Let me know if that doesn't work for you. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 21:50, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi

How does Jimbo Wales make an income? Where does he get his money from? --Front Disco (talk) 23:15, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I haven't examined it but maybe Jimbo Wales and Wikia can be of help. If you actually want to know how the cost of operating Wikipedia is covered then it's not financed by Jimbo Wales. It's run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization receiving donations. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:01, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Remember that the Help Desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. This question is better suited to the reference desk. Thanks, Jake Wartenberg^Talk 03:01, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales#Chicago Options Associates and Bomis claims that Wales became financially independent as an options trader before he started Bomis, Nupedia, and then Wikipedia. I've read that Wales does not disclose his net worth but describes it as "enough." I think a more interesting question is to ask about Wales' carbon footprint, which you probably could estimate with reasonably good accuracy. --Teratornis (talk) 04:26, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Linking my name

To Whom It May Concern: I am mentioned in two articles: one on Highgate Wood Secondary Modern School and one on Kiss 100 FM. How do I link my name to both entries? Many thanks for your help. Yours, Lindsay Wesker —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lindsay Wesker (talk • contribs) 23:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Somebody would have to create an article about you at Lindsay Wesker. But see Wikipedia:Notability (people) and Wikipedia:Autobiography. Having a red link on your name in Highgate Wood Secondary School is not an error. It just means there is no Wikipedia article and may or may not be one in the future. A former article was deleted and is discussed at Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2007 February 4. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:16, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Also using your real name as your Wikipedia user name is probably not a good idea. Wikipedia users are known to be stalked from time to time. BE CAREFULL.--intraining ^{Jack In} 03:23, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that it is necessarily/probably a bad idea. But it is important for the user to understand the risks involved. Jake Wartenberg^Talk 05:49, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Besides, on Citizendium, you have to use real names. Your name was removed from the article about your school simply because it created a red link, but I have restored it with references. --Joshua Issac (talk) 21:09, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Non-editable Footnotes section of an article

I have tried, in vain, to figure out how to edit the Footnotes section of the Design article; I see a spelling error that I wish to correct. I am able to get into the edit mode of other sections of the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Clarepawling (talk • contribs) 23:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. You have to edit the section where the number linking to the footnote is located. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:04, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, just click the little arrow before the reference (after the number), and edit the section you are in. You should find the text there. If the reference is used more than once, it will say a, b, c, etc. The information you would want to edit is usually (although not necessarily,) stored at the first instance of the reference (i.e. a). --Joshua Issac (talk) 20:23, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

December 24

Biographies of living persons policy

I know there is an established Wikipedia policy regarding biographies of living persons (WP:BLP). Is there a similar policy for biographies of deceased persons? Or is "living persons" in this context meant to differentiate from fictional persons? KuyaBriBri^Talk 04:44, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Nope, we only have WP:BLP. Fictional or deceased persons cant sue, so we don't care about them is more or less how it has gone down. Icewedge (talk) 04:48, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I would challenge that. Biographies of deceased people still must comply with the fairly stringent policy of verifiability. They just do not have the extra-careful attention paid to them, and editors removing contentious content from them do not have the 3 revert rule exemption granted when doing so to a BLP. -Seidenstud (talk) 07:09, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Most viewed pages

Hello, Is there a list of the most viewed wikipedia pages? Thanks --Interesting Drug (talk) 08:21, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Here is one such tool that may suit your needs: http://wikistics.falsikon.de/latest/wikipedia/en/ -Seidenstud (talk) 08:41, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

See also http://stats.grok.se/en/ --Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 08:45, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Why thank you, you little charmer. --Interesting Drug (talk) 08:49, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Donation

Hello,

I was trying to donate to wiki, however, the form requires a STATE in the US. Since I live in Turkey, I could not fill that part and also there is no COUNTRY entry. Please modify the form to include all countries and provide a maens to skip STATE.

Regards,

<personal information removed>—Preceding unsigned comment added by Kerciyes (talk • contribs) 09:53, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no such entry in the form I get to by clicking the 'donate to Wikipedia' link on the left sidebar. What, precisely, are you doing to reach such a form? Algebraist 10:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address. Chamal ^talk 11:34, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Browsing in my mother tongue-Tamil

I want to browse Vikipedia in Tamil Version. How to get it? Help me. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.60.254 (talk) 10:25, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Here. Algebraist 10:31, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that the Tamil Wikipedia is much smaller than the English Wikipedia. You may not find all the articles you want in the Tamil language. However, you could help translate articles from the English Wikipedia to the Tamil Wikipedia. In general, when you translate articles, you need less skill with the "from" language than with the "to" language. It's relatively easy to translate articles from almost any language to your mother tongue if these conditions are true:

• You are familiar with the subject matter.
• You are familiar with writing and formatting articles on Wikipedia.
• You have at least a machine translation of the article in the source language to start with.

Some articles are harder to translate than necessary because they use images which are on the language-specific Wikipedia rather than on Commons. For more information about translating articles, see WP:EIW#Translate. --Teratornis (talk) 21:28, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I get a template?

I would like to make a template for my profile, but I don't know how to do it! Can you please help me? --S.C.Ruffeyfan 11:38, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

If it's just for you, there's no point making a template (since the point of templates is to be easily reusable in lots of places). What exactly do you want to do? Algebraist 11:43, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I would like it to link it to various pages I've created. --S.C.Ruffeyfan 11:44, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

You presumably know how to make a link. What's the problem? Algebraist 11:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I haven't made a template before. --S.C.Ruffeyfan 11:49, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no need to make a template for that. You can take a look at my page (or anyone else's page) to see how it's done. If you have any problems understanding the codes etc, please ask. Chamal ^talk 11:58, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

You may find some useful tips on user page design in the links under WP:EIW#UserPage. Personally I prefer to have a very simple userpage design, but some people like to make theirs elaborate. --Teratornis (talk) 21:34, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Editing Talk Pages

I am fairly new to Wikipedia, and I do not know how to add my own comments to the discussion pages. Can you give me a step by step method of editing talk pages?

--Skydude176 (talk) 15:38, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

For very detailed information, see WP:TALK and WP:TP. The most important things to remember are to put the new stuff under the old, and to sign your posts. Good Luck! --Jake Wartenberg^Talk 16:12, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Cite news

Is it possible to change the date formatting in {{cite news}} (2 December 2007) to match {{cite web}} (2007-12-07) at Elmer Gedeon?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 16:54, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

• You could bring it up at Template talk:Cite news. My guess is that they are trying to match two separate standards.--Max Talk (+) 18:24, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Trivia

Hi, dunno if this is an appropriate place for this question but I was wondering if anyone could tell me where trivia sections of articles can be found? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidbhoy2805 (talk • contribs) 21:02, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

See the links under WP:EIW#Trivia. --Teratornis (talk) 21:10, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Featured Picture

Dear Sir/Madam

I would like to send some photos to the section: TODAY'S FEATURED PICTURE.

Could you please inform me how to send them, in what format and size etc.

Thanks . 
Maniannan (talk) 23:55, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Featured pictures. The community decides if a picture is good enough to be featured. Chamal ^talk 01:14, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

December 25

Notes, References, See Also, Further Reading...

Is there a clear, concise definition of what "Notes", "References", "See Also", "Further Reading" and similar sections are supposed to contain? ThomasOwens (talk) 00:27, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

I think you want WP:layout. Algebraist 00:33, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. That is what I was looking for. ThomasOwens (talk) 15:40, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Dispute on secondary source

Consider the following sentence:

"In 2007, Nature with a Impact factor of 28.751 was ranked first among multidisciplinary scientific journals.[2][3][4]"

Are the sources given considered secondary? There is a discussion going on in one of the foreign wikis about this. And I just wanted to verify the answer.

Thanks.--زرشک (talk) 01:22, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

By not revealing many of the details of the discussion you mention, you may be phrasing your question as a trick question. It is often possible to lift isolated sentences from a larger context, which uninformed observers might interpret differently than they would if they also had the context. The fact that a discussion is going on at all on this unidentified foreign Wikipedia strongly suggests there is more to this issue than meets the eye. The sources you give look to me at first glance to constitute secondary sources, although I'd certainly prefer sources from reputable news organizations rather than trade groups for any content that is controversial. However, I have no idea what people are arguing about on this foreign Wikipedia, so nothing I write here constitutes choosing a side over there. (I like to know what a fight is about before I endorse the position of one side or the other; who knows, maybe both sides are at least partly wrong in some ways.) And strictly speaking, the other language Wikipedias may have slightly different rules; see Wikipedia#License and language editions, so the opinions of English Wikipedia users would count for less than opinions of well-regarded users over there, just as their opinions would carry less weight on the English Wikipedia. Depending on the issue, of course - but you haven't told us anything about the issue. Re-read WP:IAR carefully enough to realize that on Wikipedia, we don't blindly follow rules as if they apply invaryingly to every situation. Instead we must know the details of each situation, to see if the rules make sense for it. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. --Teratornis (talk) 04:49, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

• It would also help to have people involved in the discussing of this who actually know the importance of impact factors in scientific publication. They would most likely know which publication publishes them (and which are the copycats) -- Mgm|^(talk) 10:53, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

This is not the best place for dispute resolution. Thanks, Jake Wartenberg^Talk 19:27, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Deadlink clearing house

Wikipedia:DEADLINK says: "This page is intended to be a clearing house for all such external links. If you make corrections to the source article to fix a broken link, please indicate so below to prevent a duplication of effort" I don't understand where they are refering to. Is it just fixes from the past database dumps? --Sultec (talk) 11:23, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

For general background read everything under WP:EIW#LinkRot. If you don't find the answer there, ask on Wikipedia talk:Dead external links where there seems to be fairly active discussion about the Wikipedia:DEADLINK page. Be sure to read that talk page and its archive before asking, just to make sure your question is not a repeat. On the Help desk, there may or may not be anyone present just now who is familiar with the details of that page. --Teratornis (talk) 22:34, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

search soundex

Example: lao chu not / Did you mean ... / Laozi?

Such help with search is common in searces. Can soundex search be implemented in wiki(pedia) search or, borrowed as a popup window? 67.86.58.205 (talk) 13:34, 25 December 2008 (UTC)wikici

We already have something like this. --Jake Wartenberg^Talk 20:04, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopaedias

Is it allowed to use (online) encyclopaedias as sources, as one the IRC help told me not to. But I have seen articles that use encyclopaedias as sources. --Nicoliani (talk) 18:38, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

An online encyclopedia is almost certainly a reliable source. You cannot, however, copy and paste from copyrighted text. Further Reading. Thanks, Jake Wartenberg^Talk 19:24, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that's what I thought. But how do I make an article about for instance this Abarta on wiki. The source is just 9 words. It's pretty much impossible to make it with own words, even though it's possible. --Nicoliani (talk) 19:37, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Be careful, though. Some encyclopedias are not reliable; some are mirror sites of Wikipedia (i.e., they are exactly the same as Wikipedia, just under a different name); and some are hosted on wikis, which (ironically) are not reliable sources because anyone can edit them. Do some checks on the encyclopedia itself, and ensure it's credible. But yes, encyclopedias online are often acceptable. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 19:41, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

You will need more than one source with nine words to write an article on Wikipedia. If you have enough material in several sources to justify a separate article on Wikipedia, you should have no difficulty choosing a wording that avoids duplicating entire sentences verbatim from the sources. If you only have that one source, then you probably don't have enough for a separate article, and you would instead mention the subject in the section of some suitable parent article. Because you would then be fitting the content into the context of the parent article, you should again have no difficulty in avoiding a verbatim quote of the source. See WP:LAYOUT, Help:Section#Section size policies, WP:SIZE, WP:MERGE, and WP:SUMMARY. If you can't figure out what to do, then explain on the article's Talk page what you want to do, and maybe someone else will eventually do it. --Teratornis (talk) 00:27, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

December 26

Reverting old vandalism edits

If the most recent edit of a page is vandalism, reverting that edit is straightforward. What do I do if the vandalism is sandwiched between good edits? Say the edit history is like this

1. Good edits
2. Vandalism
3. Good edits
4. Vandalism
5. Good edits

One option is to manually go through the latest version of the page and remove the vandalism. Is there any way of automatically removing the vandalism, without touching the good edits or their edit histories? In other words, some way of reverting to 5, then applying 3 and 1 as diffs to 5, while ignoring edits 2 and 4?

Thanks TotientDragooned (talk) 00:37, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

You can use the undo button for the two instances of vandalism. This will only work if the vandalism was not touched by intervening edits or you'll get a message that it could not be undone. If that is the case your stuck with manual I think.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:56, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

It would be nice if everyone (including me) would remember to check the history of a page before editing it further, to check the last few edits for possible vandalism. Cleaning up vandalism gets harder when later constructive edits start to bury it. Maybe someday Wikipedia will have a method whereby users earn a "trusted" status, such that they can validate edits to an article. Then we could get an automated warning if we are about to edit a page that contains any unvalidated edits. The level of validation I'm describing here would be to rule out egregious vandalism, not to say the validated edits are the highest form of brilliant prose or wouldn't possibly have other problems. But it's annoying to edit a section of an article only to then discover another section contained some juvenile vandalism one did not notice before editing on top of it. If it's necessary for every single editor to check an entire article for uncorrected vandalism before editing any part of it, that sort of argues against having the ability to edit an individual section with no preconditions. (I'm not arguing against having the ability to edit sections, just saying it would be nice to have some way of knowing whether a competent editor had checked all the recent previous edits, and a Preferences option to get a warning if not.) That probably won't happen any time soon, so we just have to remember to check page histories before editing away. --Teratornis (talk) 03:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Flagged revisions are up and running at Wikinews, sitewide. It works quite well there, though they have a much smaller volume of contributions, which is a difference that I can see causing problems here that isn't an issue there (articles sitting around for long periods of time with the draft version much improved, but the changes not implemented).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Hatrick Wickets Takers

hi, I would like to know that if any bowler play ODI & he is taken 2 wickets & two ball & than match was finished & than he played second ODI & in that he take one more wikcets. It means that he was taken Three wickets in Three ball , so on the basis of Rules & regulation it is call as a Hatrick or not & if it is yes that how & why & if it is no that tell me how & why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.162.4.226 (talk) 09:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

This desk is for questions about using Wikipedia - you might like to try asking at the Reference Desk where they specialise in answering all manner of questions. I suspect that the answer is that it wouldn't constitute a hat-trick, because the three consecutive deliveries would have to be in the same game of cricket, and two separate one day internationals do not constitute the same game of cricket. Two separate innings in a two-innings game would count, but two separate ODIs would not. _Gb^T/c 09:27, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I think you're right, that would not count as a hat-trick. – ukexpat (talk) 16:15, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

This sounds vaguely analogous to the so-called Tiger Slam in golf, wherein Tiger Woods won four consecutive Men's major golf championshipss but not in the same calendar year. --Teratornis (talk) 21:45, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

creating a new page

hi

can i send you the contents of an artical, and you create it for me ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fofo927 (talk • contribs) 09:49, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

• You have already created an account. So all you need to do to create an article is to find the right title and create it. (see Wikipedia:Your first article) If you only want to suggest sources so someone else can create an article, you'd need to find someone who's interested in the topic to create it for you. What is the article about? - Mgm|^(talk) 11:25, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. – ukexpat (talk) 16:16, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Temperary transfur of land and house to remove someone from property

Can I show or have a fake (but legal) agreement made up! Showing sale of propery, that the buyer wants any physical abled person on this property moved within 30 days. that any physically disablied be allowed 90 days. the buyer of this said propery not be named. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.88.93.95 (talk) 13:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

You'll get in jail for forgery :D This page is for help on using Wikipedia. I'm afraid we can't help you with this. Chamal ^talk 13:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Professional reviews

I've been trying to add reviews from Allmusic for singles, but they don't show up in the infobox like they do for albums. Is possible to add them or not? 68.37.78.9 (talk) 15:10, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I wondered about this myself. It doesn't seem to be included in the template for singles. If no one answers my question on the noticeboard for the music wikiproject, I'll try copying the code from the album template. In the mean time, you can cite short passages/sentences from the reviews you've found and add the actual links to the references list, or you can put the review in the external links list - Mgm|^(talk) 17:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Posting the same message on multiple users' talk pages

I would like to post the same message on multiple users' talk pages. All of the intended recipients are participants in WP:WPMT. The purpose is to draw attention to a request I have posted here. This seems similar to a WP:RfC, but I'd like it to only go out to the Project Participants. Is there a way to do this all at once, rather than going to each user's talk page and adding a section separately? Thomprod (talk) 16:46, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

• Wikipedia:Bots is the place to go. There are several bots (automated programs) running. When you find a bot with delivery capability, just ask the owner to set the bot the task to deliver your message (or ask someone who uses WP:AWB) - Mgm|^(talk) 17:09, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I see you have already added a note to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Musical Theatre. Surely any active project participants will see this and will respond if they are interested ? Some editors dislike "bulk mailings" appearing on their user talk pages. Gandalf61 (talk) 17:23, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, MacGyverMagic. Gandalf61, the project has been quiet lately, and I'm not sure that all participants would see my original request. However, I do not want to offend anyone with a bulk mailing either. Would this not be appropriate? Thomprod (talk) 17:32, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Why not wait for a while and see how it goes? The interested people will turn up, and that's what matters. It's something useful for the people directly involved in the project, not something that would really interest part-time contributors or non-participants. Chamal ^talk 17:42, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

And rather than send out a completely untargeted bulk delivery, you could examine the contributions of each of your intended recipients, and start by individually contacting a few of the most recently active users first. Someone who hasn't edited any of the articles relevant to your request in, say, a year is less likely to take an interest that someone who has made dozens of edits to such articles in the past month. Also see WP:CANVASS. --Teratornis (talk) 21:11, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

You might want to check out User:ClockworkSoul/Igor. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 03:16, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Fishery

Could someone please tell me why this template is not displaying correctly? --Geronimo20 (talk) 20:47, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Because the template was miswritten. Fixed. Algebraist 21:16, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you :P --Geronimo20 (talk) 21:23, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't understand what you are doing in Template:Infobox Fishery/doc. What is the purpose of the strange code after the div tag? --Teratornis (talk) 21:35, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Jetsam I hadn't noticed. --Geronimo20 (talk) 22:21, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

what are the steps (make it coherent please) to upload my new article? Please upload this article for me (see inside)

subject "what are the steps (make it coherent please) to upload my new article? Please upload this article for me (see inside)" Secure Edition 2008 Dec. 26 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgmf (talk • contribs) 23:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

The article you provided seems to be an instructional guide? we don't put those up as articles. --Cameron Scott (talk) 23:21, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

In general the answer to your question is that you should read Wikipedia:Your first article. —teb728 t c 00:26, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. – ukexpat (talk) 01:28, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

December 27

redirects tagging

I've noticed that when you tag a redirect with a deletion/discussion tag (like for WP:RFR), the redirect doesn't work anymore. Is there a way to get around this? flaminglawyer^c 01:20, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Isn't that the way it should work? So that the reviewing admin is taken to the redirect originating page rather than the redirect target page? – ukexpat (talk) 01:30, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I guess you meant WP:RFD and not WP:RFR. I also think it should work this way but for another reason: To attract attention to the discussion from users who may be interested in the topic. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I hadn't thought about it like that. I guess that's the way it should be. flaminglawyer^c 20:31, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Writing an article

How do you write a new article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.253.177.149 (talk) 03:42, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Please see Your first article.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones.Chamal ^talk 03:47, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

If you are sure you should create your article after reading all of the above, then go ahead. If you are unsure, then, after creating an account, you can then create a sub-page in user space. For example, if your user name is Foobar987, your user page will be User:Foobar987. If your new article is to be named "Blatification" then you can initially create it at User:Foobar987/Blatification. After you create the article and get it up to a standard you are happy with, come back here and ask for someone to review your article. We will then help you to make sure your article is OK according to our strange and wonderous rules. We may even help fix the article or help you to find someone to assist you. Once the article is good enough, you can move the article to "mainspace:" that is, use the "move" feature to change the name of the article from User:Foobar987/Blatification to just Blatification. This approach works because by convention a subpage of your user page is not required to follow all of the rules of a mainspace article. (Note, however, it must still adhere to some fundamentals such as no copyright violatins and no personal atacks.) -Arch dude (talk) 04:16, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Binomial authority for article

Where can I find out what the binomial authority for American spider beetle is? Schuym1 (talk) 06:05, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Head on over here. Happy editing! Cheers, Jake Wartenberg^Talk 06:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

rating articles

is there any way to rate an article for poor or strong article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.77.26.175 (talk) 06:07, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

The Version 1.0 Editorial Team has some suggestions/guidelines for assessing articles. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 06:13, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that the rating scale may vary slightly in some Wikiprojects though. For example, some Wikiprojects don't have the C-class category. Chamal ^talk 06:29, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Siddha Yoga

I made a template for the above article, but when I try to edit it, I get the page saying they don't have a template with exactly that title. What have I done wrong? Also, when I type

, it doesn't work. What's wrong?

I created the template by taking the Blue Mountains template and modifying it. Was that the problem?

Sardaka (talk) 10:40, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

The only template your account has edited [5] on the English Wikipedia is Template:Blue Mountains topics. You don't have edits to any deleted templates and there is no sign Template:Siddha Yoga has existed. Maybe you didn't save? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:50, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

You created the template on the article's talk page at: Talk:Siddha Yoga#Template. It might be a good idea to re-create it as a user subpage. – ukexpat (talk) 16:18, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Category name correction

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

While correcting typos I ran across "Category:Colombian Control Insitutions" which should be "Institutions" of course. I'm not sure how to change it as there is no "Move" tab. It appears that there are two articles pointing to the category as misspelled. LilHelpa (talk) 14:39, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Follow the instructions at Speedy renaming. --Schzmo (talk) 14:59, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I've speedily renamed it, since there seems no need for discussion or bot support. Algebraist 15:00, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

forced un-alphabetical list within categories

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:56, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I am tidying up Category:Festivals by country and want the new Category:Arts festivals by country to appear at the beginning, along with Category:Music festivals by country. How can I force it out of the alphabetical list? I was told to ask here. Thanks for any help. BrainyBabe (talk) 17:38, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categorization#Category sorting. Algebraist 17:41, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! I've achieved partial success, but it appears a strange asterisk has crept in, and I can't see where. Could you have a look? BrainyBabe (talk) 17:51, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

It was always there, just at the top. It occurred because the other two categories were forced to the top with the sortkey '*', while you used ' '. If it's undesirable, you could kill it by changing them all to ' '. Algebraist 17:57, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Done, thanks.BrainyBabe (talk) 18:30, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Who is watching

Does WP have a "Who is watching <this> page" capability? -hydnjo talk 19:47, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Nope. See Wikipedia:Perennial_proposals#Create_a_counter_of_people_watching_a_page. Cheers, Jake Wartenberg^Talk 20:03, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Admins do have access to Special:UnwatchedPages which shows which pages aren't being watched, but for the obvious reason this isn't widely available. _Gb^T/c 20:04, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

(e/c) It may be that stewards and/or developers can see that, certainly the software can do this, but it is not an ability that is granted to any regular users or admins. We can only guess from the contributors to an article, who is likely to have it on their watchlists.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:05, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Obviously my paranoia as to who's watching me is acting up. Thanks all  ;) hydnjo talk 20:13, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

publishing my CV in wikepedia

Hello,

I have posted my Cv for wikipedia under the title EDITA TAHIRI, taking into account the criteria of notable persons. my applicateion has been declined as copyright. I HAVE FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTION AND WROTE IT IN PROSE. But the content might be similar to the one published in Kosova assembly website, of which I am the author, as I am member of parliament. In fact, content is suppossed to look like the other as it is a CV for my work and contribution for the changes in the Balkans since the end of Cold War.

I would appreciate your advice.

Happy holidays,

Edita —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sh1956vlpo (talk • contribs) 20:17, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Please read the policy about autobiographies to be certain that you're not in violation. Also, it's generally better if someone other than yourself starts an an article about yourself. -hydnjo talk 20:36, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

(e/c)Wikipedia is not the place for "posting a CV", it is an encyclopedia for articles about notable subjects. Couple of other points. First, you are strongly discouraged from writing articles about yourself because of your inherent conflict of interest. If you really are notable, someone will write an article about you sooner or later and I see that you have already put in a request at articles for creation. Second, if an article is written in an overly promotional tone, as one would expect from a CV, it will be speedily deleted. There are other options, Wikipopuli and Wikibios for example. Hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 20:36, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

You appear to be asking for clarification of the response in Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Submissions/EDITA TAHIRI. Please read our WP:COPYRIGHT policy as the canned response says. Wikipedia cannot duplicate content from another Web site unless that site explicitly permits free copying. For example, some U.S. government Web sites declare their content to be in the public domain, such as this one. --Teratornis (talk) 20:47, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

It should be noted, though, that if the subject is in fact a member of the Assembly of Kosovo they are automatically deemed notable. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:08, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Indeed so, but even then such an article has to comply with all the other relevant policies and guidelines. – ukexpat (talk) 19:03, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Regarding the copyright issue, all content on Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This is a free license under which all of our users can modify the content, and redistribute it for use elsewhere. Accordingly, we cannot use copyrighted text by permission. Instead, the copyrighted material has to be released into the public domain, the GDL or a free license compatible with the GFDL. In order to do this, you have to change the external website to remove the copyright, or send an official email from the website domain name releasing it to permissions-en@wikimedia.org. See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for more on this. So, even if you are the owner, we can't use the material in its present form. You must release it and you must do so in a manner that shows you have the right to do so, which the methods mentioned allow (meaning that just saying you are releasing it here, is not enough).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:50, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, biographical articles do not need to be written in ALLCAPS. ~AH1^(TCU) 22:17, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

No article should be written in all caps, for that matter :) Chamal ^talk 14:27, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe we have a language problem. The term "CV" caused me to think it would be a quite differently formatted thing. In fact it's formatted more-or-less like a proper Wikipedia biographical page (modulo Wikification). If copyright is the only problem, then the author only needs to release the material under a suitable license or into the public domain and the problem is solved. Michael Hardy (talk) 19:15, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Editing an Author's Name in the Reference List

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 21:48, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a fairly simple question, but I cannot, for the life of me figure out how to do this.

On the page for "Strange Overtones" by David Byrne and Brian Eno, the Los Angeles Times writer TJ Kosinski is incorrectly referenced as "T. J. Kosinski" at the bottom of the page in the reference list.

This is a simple, small change that I would like to administer, but I can't seem to figure out how to fix it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TJ Kosinski (talk • contribs) 20:29, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

First go to the article page at Strange Overtones, then click the edit tab. When in edit mode you will have to read through the article text to find the relevant in-line references -- they will be sandwiched between <ref></ref> tags. Edit the reference in each instance that it occurs, if more than one, add a suitable edit summary in the box, click Preview to make sure it looks ok, then click Save.  – ukexpat (talk) 20:41, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I feel like a dunce for not being able to figure that out on my own, but I really appreciate the direct and prompt help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TJ Kosinski (talk • contribs) 20:47, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

No problem, marking as resolved. – ukexpat (talk) 21:48, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Meta References

Are references and sources to other Wikipedia's sister sites (like Wiktionary) allowed? Like this article for example, which lists its corresponding article on Wiktionary as a source. This could be problematic, as Wikipedia discredits itself as being a reliable source. Though the example in this case is trivial, I'm sure the same problem could be encountered elsewhere. Any thoughts on this issue? — Kortaggio ^{Proclamations} _Declarations 22:07, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Sourcing other wikis is generally a bad idea; you should source their sources instead (and actually read those first, and reference them not the wiki). If they don't have sources, they probably aren't reliable; if they do, you may as well save readers a level of indirection. (Of course, you can link to sister sites as a see-also sort of thing; just not as a reference.) This applies whether the other wiki is a Wikimedia wiki, or third-party. See WP:SPS for more details. --ais523 22:24, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

• There's some grammar issues here, also in the question, so I'll be a bit more specific. It's okay and even desired to link to other MediaWiki wikis bu they're not reliable sources so they can't be used as a reference. What is okay now could be edited at any time. Instead, use the references the article cites. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:19, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting information changed

Hi, I'm a little confused after reading the help page. How do I get information changed? There is an article about my great grandfather William Reid the football player and his date of birth is wrong, among other thing. Thanks, Christine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.241.144.75 (talk) 23:22, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:How to edit a page. Note that we have some guidelines which frown upon certain types of editing patterns by those with a conflict of interest. However, much of the article on your grandfather is unverified, failing to cite to any reliable published secondary source for the information. It should not be a problem for you to make information correction changes. What you should avoid as an insider is promotional sounding edits. Avoid glowing praise; removing critical material that is sourced; that sort of thing.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:58, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Template appearance

Can anyone tell me how to let a template show [Hide] and [v.d.e] so that the contents of the template can be hide and be viewed, discussed or edited through the [v.d.e] links? Thanks. Elknz (talk) 04:45, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

See WP:EIW#Collapsing. --Teratornis (talk) 08:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

December 28

New Words

Is there a section of newly listed words??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.116.22.244 (talk) 04:18, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

By newly listed words do you mean new articles? A list of new articles can be found here. New pages on Wiktionary can be found here. If you're looking for new words look at the Neologism article. Regards, Matt (Talk) 05:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Signing posts?

I seem to have trouble signing my posts. I do write the four tildes at the end of my posts in discussion articles, and yet it still seems to see it as if I were not signing them. Then I get the little message saying "This unsigned post was left by..." after my signature, which DOES appear, though not in the way I see it appear otherwise. For example, see my edit on http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Talk:Gala_(apple)#Characteristics

Which is exactly the problem. What am I doing wrong? Stever Augustus 07:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stever Augustus (talk • contribs)

See in your preferences if the "raw signature" box is ticked. If so, there's probably something wrong with the signature you're using, so try unchecking it. If you're trying to use a custom signature, you'll need to fix it. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 07:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

The 'unsigned' messages are automatically left on talk pages by SineBot. SineBot will assume that your comment was unsigned if it does not contain a link back to your User: or User talk: page. (It appears that your current signature includes only a plain-text copy of your name.) If you modify your custom signature to include a link to your user or talk page – or if you go back to the default signature – then you shouldn't have any more problems. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:44, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Alright, it looks like unchecking the raw signature checkbox did the trick. Thanks! Stever Augustus (talk) 07:51, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Fundraising banner message has a spelling mistake

One of the rotating messages of the fundraising banner has a spelling error. " Merci et bravo pour votre impartialité ! — Benoit from Luxembuorg, donated 30 EUR" Luxembourg is spelled wrongly. Please pass this on to the right department. Thanks. Dr.K. (logos) 07:53, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

My quick look around did not reveal how one would go about fixing this. If nobody else here knows what to do, the next step might be to leave a comment on the user talk page of the author of: Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-11-10/2008 fundraiser, who might have some inside knowledge of the process that yields the fundraising banner. --Teratornis (talk) 08:31, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Teratornis. Take care. Dr.K. (logos) 09:03, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Adding a second user box via Educat

In reference to the Wikipedians by alma mater: University of Wisconsin-Madison category (can't link it, otherwise it will add this page to that category), there are currently two different user boxes avalible(here and here) and no apparent way of putting them both into Template:Educat. Is there a way to do this that I am just not seeing or, is the only course of action to edit the category by hand? Thanks in advance! Daniel J Simanek (talk) 09:33, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

• To reference a category without adding the current page to that category, begin the link with a colon; example: [[:Category:Wikipedians by alma mater]]
• Looking at {{educat}}, it will only allow one userbox. You could use it twice, but that would be ugly. Better ways would be to:
  • Discuss the issue on the {{educat}} talk page and request that it be updated to allow multiple userboxes; or
  • Add one userbox by substing the template: {{subst:educat|University of Wisconsin-Madison|User UW Badger}}, then edit the page and add the second userbox.

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you very much! I am not going to worry about follow up with Template:Educat as of right now, as it seems what I was trying to do was rather out of the ordinary but, your latter suggestion worked perfectly. 17:45, 28 December 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tunads (talk • contribs)

New Articles

i would like to add a new article/topic/subject... what are the steps please? thank you! david —Preceding unsigned comment added by Exponentialone (talk • contribs) 10:13, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Please read your first article, which will guide you through the process. It's important to make sure that the subject is notable enough to be included in Wikipedia, the article should be verifiable through references. Remember to make sure that an article on the subject doesn't already exist. Search for it using the searchbox on the left, and if there's no article, there'll be a red link at the top "Create this page". Click that and start editing. You might want read the manual of style and layout guide too. Chamal ^talk 10:28, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleting an article

Hi, I have just merged Fellowship of King's College London into King's College London, but am not sure as to how I go about deleting the former article. Please advise. Many Thanks Flaming Ferrari (talk) 10:31, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

• You shouldn't. Instead, you should leave a redirect so that people searching for the fellowship will be forwarded and so that the edit history of the former page is retained (we need to keep all the information on who wrote the information you merged -- see GFDL) - Mgm|^(talk) 12:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Why is my IP address still logged if I have a username?

I just made an account so that my IP address would no longer be visible to the public from editing articles, but when I went back to check the articles I had previously edited, the IP address was still shown. Is there any way to remove the IP address in articles I edited prior to making a username?

I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong section, but I really don't know where I'm supposed to ask this question. X spinfaster (talk) 10:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC) X spinfaster

Hi there. When you edit, every action is logged in a diff, so the software doesn't edit out the previous instances of your IP address when you create an account. From now on, however, as long as you are logged in, the IP address will be hidden. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 11:08, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Transwiki links and collation

Is there any means to collate links direct to each WP:page when those pages come from a different wiki like WikiSource? Example, find all Wikisource pages that point to w:Richard William Howard Vyse?

I am looking to have better links within WikiSource to data that points off each to sister wikis, and cannot find any pages that talk about this sort of collation. Thx. -- billinghurst (talk) 11:31, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Steps to Update Corporate Logo

I am a newly registered user. The company I work for has an article page that includes an Infobox with company info. I have been charged with updating the logo for the company. I have done the tutorials etc & am ready to update but I cannot find how to upload the actual image. The upload facility is not available to me ( not being an established user (Autoconfirmed, etc) - How do I obtain this status or privilege - or have the upload done for me? WikiDial (talk) 15:50, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

You can gain autoconfirmed status by making a further 9 edits to Wikipedia. Then head over to WP:Upload. Algebraist 15:51, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I do not have other Edits to do - any shortcuts to get privileges?. Or are each of these entries an update? There has to be a less annoying way of accumulating the necessary edits.WikiDial (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 16:03, 28 December 2008 (UTC).

5 more now. Algebraist 16:08, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

The immediate clarity that occurs following the realization of a simple & obvious concept is called a BFO - Blinding Flash of the Obvious - Thanks WikiDial (talk) 16:30, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

While updating the logo should be non-controversial, please read WP:COI before making other edits on behalf of your employers. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 16:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Help please

Hello, I just found the exact information i need but i need them to be in arabic...How can i have the same information but in the arabic version? I want" Message in a bottle " (the book) information but in arabic..can wikipedia offer me same information but in a different language? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.42.200.13 (talk) 16:35, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

The Arabic Wikipedia doesn't seem to have an article on that topic, but I don't read Arabic, so I may be wrong. Algebraist 16:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Do you refer to Message in a Bottle (novel)? If you can accept the probably modest quality of a machine translation, Google Translation appears to support Arabic, which means we can take a shot with the {{Google translation}} template:

Type this	To get this	What it produces
{{Google translation|ar|en|http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(novel)|Translate Message in a Bottle (novel) from English to Arabic}}	Translate Message in a Bottle (novel) from English to Arabic	Translate Message in a Bottle (novel) from English to Arabic

Since I don't speak Arabic I have no idea whether the translation quality is any good. But I know it costs you nothing. --Teratornis (talk) 00:49, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Suffix index

Is there a Special:Suffixindex of similar, which finds pages ending with a particular string? If not, I believe this should be implemented - either as a separate special page or as an option in Special:Prefixindex. It would allow the finding of pages ending with certain qualifiers, or all discographies and things like that, as well as all User:Example/Secret page-like set-ups etc. Even better, a way to find a string anywhere in a page title. If such a feature doesn't exist, I am tempted to suggest it at WP:VPT and/or file a bug request. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 17:34, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

No, there is not. If I recall correctly from the last time Mediawiki regex-search was discussed, it's because article titles are already ordered alphabetically, so searching by prefix is much cheaper in terms of servertime than searching by anything else. Algebraist 18:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

New search options were introduced two months ago, including intitle: for searches in titles only. See Wikipedia:Searching and http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2008-October/040022.html. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:30, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Bennie Oosterbaan infobox

Why isn't the College football Hall of fame parameter working in the Bennie Oosterbaan infobox?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 22:32, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

You need to fill the FootballHOF parameter with the year Oosterbaan was inducted. I've fixed it for you. Xenon54 22:44, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

December 29

Translating a template

Hello. I need help translating the spanish template: es:Plantilla:Ficha de país into Lojban. The template's code is rather complicated and I can't understand it. I have already created the template's page in the Lojban wiki: in here. I supose the template works by providing the information of the respective fields given in the country's article to the page of the template in order to produce the desired look. I already wrote the translations of the fields required by the template so I don't need any help with that :). The problem is that once I've copied the code of the spanish template to the page of the lojban one, it doesn't seem to work the same way: The template appears to the left instead of the right of the page, and it's borders don't display correctly. The template won't allow text to be shown to it's side. --Homo logos (talk) 02:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

If your question had something to do with the English Wikipedia, you might get more help here. I'll take a shot. Your description of the problem makes it sound like the template is trying to use a CSS style class which is present on the Spanish Wikipedia but not on the Lojban Wikipedia (possibly: class="infobox geography"). On the English Wikipedia, the style classes are in the MediaWiki:Common.css file, which has several entries beginning with:

/* Styles for geography infoboxes, e.g. countries, country subdivisions, cities, etc. */
.infobox.geography {
    text-align: left;
    border-collapse: collapse;
    line-height: 1.2em; 
    font-size: 90%;
}

I'm guessing you will need to add the same style classes to whatever the MediaWiki:Common.css file is on the Lojban Wikipedia. I see only a deleted page entry for jbo:MediaWiki:Common.css. If the filename is supposed to be the same in Lojban, that would be a problem right there. Generally pages in the MediaWiki: namespace are editable only by administrators on a given wiki, so you will need to be a Lojban administrator or find one to help you. --Teratornis (talk) 05:13, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Need clarification on process to obtain necessary copyright for image use

With the help of Google Alerts I happened across an image in a blog (it's the first one here) that I'd like to use here. In the comments, she gave permission to use the image, but I'd imagine for hard-nosed free image advocates she will also need to state some kind of copyright regarding the image to have it used here. What would be the most painless way to do this?

Also, I'm guessing, since I would be uploading it and she won't be there may be some other kind of additional documentation required? -- Scarpy (talk) 04:07, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

The safest method is for the copyright owner to follow the process set out at WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 04:23, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

If you want painless, first get heavily sedated, and then try searching Flickr for images licensed under CC-BY or CC-BY-SA, which you can then upload to Commons using the Flinfo tool. For example:

• Search Flickr for images with the keywords: Neuróticos Anónimos under these licenses: cc-by; cc-by-sa

One of the searches finds (only) this photo which is suitable for uploading to Commons if it isn't already there:

• http://flickr.com/photos/santi_llobet/2410837814/

The photos I have uploaded to Commons from Flickr are here:

• commons:User:Teratornis/Gallery#Images from Flickr

and my tortured notes about learning how to do this:

• User:Teratornis/Notes#Flickr

--Teratornis (talk) 04:38, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

But, since the image is already found, and since it is Scarpy who will be uploading it, and not the blog owner/photographer, commons:OTRS really needs to be followed. The problem is that she needs to explicitly release it under a WP-compatible free license, not just authorize reuse on WP. -Seidenstud (talk) 04:40, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Teratornis - Thank you for the ideas. I probably won't use them this time around, but I suddenly want to search for free images for all of the articles I've written.

Seidenstud - Will it be sufficient for her (the owner/photographer) to do it in a comment on the blog, or will it be necessary for an email with full headers and all the other jazz? I'm worried that the steeper the learning curve gets the less likely it is we'll be able to complete the process. I'm thinking: (1) ask the owner/photographer to post a completed version of this in the entry's comments, (2) upload the image with the OTRS pending template, (3) email OTRS with a link to the comments granting permissions ... and go from there? -- Scarpy (talk) 06:03, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

I really don't know if posting it to the blog would be sufficient. I am not sure, but I would assume that an email has to be received, as that does seem to be the standard verification mechanism of the OTRS (system). While I am wary of steepening the learning curve too much, it does seem that if she would be willing to fill out the consent form and post it, she would probably be willing to fill it out and email it back to you. You can then forward it yourself to OTRS. A little diplomacy might be helpful too. You may want to point out that, if the process is completed, when someone clicks on the image on WP, they'd see a link to her blog under "source." Blog owners often like publicity.... -Seidenstud (talk) 07:02, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Another option is to persuade the blogger to post her photos to Flickr and license them as CC-BY or CC-BY-SA. I don't know how hard this is, but it can't be very hard because Flickr has millions of photos uploaded by, apparently, lots of ordinary humans. If you persuade your blogger to upload all her photos to a photostream on Flickr, then you potentially have another source of many useful photos (and for her trouble, she will have the ability to organize and tag her photos online). However, the current problem can be difficult, since it requires persuading someone to learn how to do something she hadn't already seen a reason to do. It's a lot simpler just to browse around on Commons to see what photos are already there, ready to use, and to browse around on Flickr to see what photos are already available to upload to Commons without having to ask anyone to jump through more hoops. Given that there are probably millions of free photos floating around, it's often easier to start with some photos and find Wikipedia articles to put them in, rather than pick an arbitrary article and try to find a photo for it. Check out the {{Commonscat}} template if you haven't already. If you write articles about geographic locations (cities, counties, etc.), often a corresponding category already exists on Commons. If the category doesn't contain anything usable now, it may in the future as people upload more stuff to Commons. Look on the other language Wikipedias for photos that should be on Commons but nobody has moved them to Commons yet. As you try various searches on Commons, you will probably keep coming across more and more photos that relate to articles you are interested in, and you can add them to more categories that you are familiar with. There are lots of interesting photo resources available, but it can be awkward to find freely-licensed photos by other people, since computers are not as good at searching images as they are at searching text. --Teratornis (talk) 10:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

I've also been looking at Panoramio but I haven't found a way to search for just the free photos yet. The only obvious search is by location, and then the vast majority of photos that come up seem to be copyrighted. Evidently users on Panoramio have the option to upload under a Creative Commons license suitable for reuse on Commons, but I don't know how to search for the users who do that. It's pretty clear that most of these online photo sites aren't set up to facilitate what we are doing on Wikipedia. A notable exception is Geograph British Isles which consists entirely of geotagged photos, freely licensed for reuse, and each photo even has a page with the code you need to upload it to Commons. That is, the builders of that site were Wikimedia-aware. Astounding. Too bad it only covers the U.K. --Teratornis (talk) 10:57, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Sortable tables

There is a table, with a header, in this section of an article, which is meant to be sortable. What am I doing wrong? --Geronimo20 (talk) 09:22, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Examples on Help:Sorting don't work either. - Erik Baas (talk) 10:23, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Is that right? And, if so, where does one go from here. Is there a place where persons who can code this stuff can be engaged? --Geronimo20 (talk) 10:48, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

You did a colspan on the first row to set the title— this messes up the sort. Instead, use the little known wikimarkup |+ to set the title. I should have done the other table to match, but you should have the idea. Also: see {{FixBunching}} to get fix your misplaced edit links. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:31, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

It still does not work in Firefox 3.0.5, but it's okay in Opera 9.63 ! Is it a bug ? - Erik Baas (talk) 19:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

It was AdBlock, preventing the buttons (GIF files !) to be shown. Sorry... - Erik Baas (talk) 10:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Something funny on my page

There has happened something strange on 2008/9 MTN Domestic Championship. I have undated it and now where the result are suppose to be, the following text come up: {{ #if: Eagles win by 6 wickets | Eagles win by 6 wickets - Could somebody please have a look and let me know, thanks -- jonathanburger (talk) 14:05, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Someone broke {{Limited Overs Matches}}. Fixed. Algebraist 12:33, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks jonathanburger 14:35, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Vandals at my userpage and Wikipedia reflection script

Hi!

A couple of days ago while I checked what kind of connexions Google gives to people who seek for me, I noticed a red article with the name "sex encyclopedia." The link there is: User:Tellervo (Sexuality Encyclopedia).Besides my userpage, it included copied pages from from Wikipedia: Pornography, and also a long list of articles related to Human sexuality. Behind this page is some Tomas Vacillando.

I have been naive in putting my real name on my userpage. I have already removed it. What I wish is, that this site will be deleted somehow. Any advices? Wikipedia as well certainly feels this "reflect script" is criminal encroachment on Wikipedia's rights. I have to give you my name, so you can proceed. Put Marianne Uhrendorf in Google. Tellervo (talk) 12:21, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

There are many sites that are mirror sites of Wikipedia content. This too, is probably one of them. If the site is non-compliant with the GFDL requirements (which are mentioned in the linked page), then you can follow the steps given and notify them. If you want your name removed, I think contacting this site and telling them about it will probably work. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 13:27, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

For the future, you can set your user pages to not be indexed by using {{NOINDEX}}. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:47, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, you are overly optimistic. I notified them, and kindly asked them to remove the spam they have written. No response. They are real criminals and enjoy the havoc they create. They gloat and brag about how many warnings Wikipedia has sent them. What is the next step to do? Tellervo (talk) 11:05, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

If it's a regular mirror site, there's nothing to do here. If you believe they are remote loading, it should be reported at meta:Live mirrors. --Onorem♠Dil 13:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

It seems the problem has been solved. I just googled for your name, and (at least on the first page) there are no more bad links. (Searching for your name and "sex" gives a couple of links that are either just coincidental or in Finnish, but seem harmless, too.) — Sebastian 01:35, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry Sebastian, the problem site is on page 4, when you google my name. So the problem is not solved yet. But thank you for trying to solve it! The problem page is a remote loading page, so I have to report it at meta. But that does not solve the annoying problem of having that stuff coming up, when people google my name. I am a psychotherapist, and many persons find their way to my practice through the internet. So it is very important that the stuff there is representative. Tellervo (talk) 08:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, in my experience, when a google search reflects content that is no longer there, or has been altered (as should be the case with your user page, if the site in question is a live mirror) it will fix itself. It can just take a few days or maybe a week (depending on how important the site in question is) for the Google crawlers to revisit the page, and update Google's cache. -Seidenstud (talk) 09:10, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Archiving 'Help talk' pages

Resolved

I just created Help talk:Template/Archive 01 as an archive of Help talk:Template, but it doesn't appear in the latter's {{Archives}} template, nor include a link back to the parent page. What's up? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 14:36, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the documentation for {{Archives}} under Additional notes, you will see the following: The auto-generated archive list requires subpages to use the common naming convention. That is, "./Archive 1", "./Archive 2", and so on. The letter "A" must be capitalized, there must be a single space between the word "Archive" and the number, and there must be no leading zeros. If archive subpages do not conform to this convention, they can be renamed to conform, or a manual list can be maintained. (emphasis mine).

So, I think you need to move the archive page to Help talk:Template/Archive 1, for {{Archives}} to work properly. – ukexpat (talk) 16:38, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Doh! Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:15, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Photoshopped images?

Folks, I have been unable to find an answer to this question elswhere, so here it is: what is WP policy, if any, with respect to images that have been composited or otherwise significantly manipulated in Photoshop or a similar application? In the course of new page patrol I came across this one: File:Samuel thirumeni.JPG which looks to me (though I am no expert) to be the result of a cut and paste job in Photoshop (the hands and face look as though they have been heavily digitally manipulated. Thoughts please? Thank you. – ukexpat (talk) 18:49, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Gut feeling (v. quick answer) is that the end result would constitute a derivative work, and in consequence unless it could be shown that the person creating the image had the consent of the original copyright proprietor, they would not be able to release the image to Wikipedia under the ol' GFDL. _Gb^T/c 19:06, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Need help - minor fix needed

I tried updating a header of the Alexei Cherepanov article, but the subsequent headers of the article disappear when I update Death. I tried undoing the page and trying again this time through the main edit panel, to no availability. Rachmaninov Khan (talk) 19:38, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

It appears you were missing the closing </ref> tag. I've added it in for you and the article should display properly. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:42, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

WP:GAR not updating/purging

Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Jennifer Brunner/1 should have appeared at WP:GAR about 48 hours ago. I still do not see it.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 21:34, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

I have purged the page's cache. It is appearing now. Note that the most common method of purging (changing the url end to ?action=purge) may not always work for changes to categories. For that, make a null edit to the page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:49, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

poor excuse for an article

i just found this article. Glan Letheren. Seems like someone dont hasnt a clue about wikipedia, trying to redirect to their website. LOL! 79.75.249.246 (talk) 21:55, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

The article had been partially blanked. I have reverted.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:13, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Could someone direct me to...

Resolved

 – arimareiji (talk) 04:06, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but I didn't know where to go. Where would I solicit advice on how to determine whether a "position" ("Lead coordinator") within a project entitles the person to assert consensus for editing policy within the project? The person branded a proposed guideline about which there had been debate as "Failed," but they themselves were a primary partisan in the debate about it. It disturbed me, because my reading was that the "other side" had made a heavy preponderance of unrefuted arguments for it. arimareiji (talk) 22:07, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

They have no more rights than any other individual editor - see WP:OWN. Raise the issue, with links to the debate and any discussion held else, where, on WP:ANI. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:19, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, while many people do turn to ANI for all sorts of issues, that is usually not the right place for most issues - see the big note "Are you in the right place?" on top of that place. In particular, it appears that your situation is regarding an ethnic conflict, for which we have Ethnic conflict resolution projects— Sebastian 22:57, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it's a question about whether XYZ site can ever be used as a citable source; the specific project is non-controversial. Sorry to be so oblique, I just wanted to get advice without drawing anyone from that area here to start arguing. (Keep brush fires small, say I.) I wound up WP:BRDing and reverted the REJECTED subst (which had no real explanation for it that I could find). arimareiji (talk) 23:25, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Precisely! Finding agreement on and collection reliable sources is a core part of the work of these conflict resolution projects. See e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration/Links to reliable sources discussions and WP:SLR#QS. — Sebastian 01:39, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Asking a question on the Help desk seems unlikely to influence the behavior of editors who aren't reading the Help desk. Did you explain your actions to the editor who did not explain his or her previous actions? Wikipedia functions only as well as our ability to explain what we are doing to other users who might not otherwise understand or agree with our actions. If you don't understand what someone else did, ask that person to clarify. If your question is really about what constitutes a reliable source then it's hard for us to answer if you limit us to shooting blindly. The point of ignore all rules is that Wikipedia doesn't (yet) have a sufficiently complete set of rules to reduce every decision to a deterministic algorithm. There are exceptions to every rule, and if you don't give us the details of your situation, we can't tell whether you are dealing with an exception. --Teratornis (talk) 23:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, but my asking the question wasn't intended to influence anyone's behavior except my own. I wanted to get a gutcheck from someone else, because I felt fairly sure that was the right thing to do but wanted to be more sure. Nor was I trying to get people into the debate about what is a reliable source; in fact the exact opposite. I was trying to prevent opening the debate in multiple forums, because in my experience multiple forums = oxygen for flame wars. arimareiji (talk) 00:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I've answered around 3000 questions on the Help desk. I'm giving you a gutcheck on how to ask questions here. I don't know everything there is to know about Wikipedia, but I've learned a few things. The proper frame of mind to bring to the Help desk, and to Wikipedia in general, is to listen to all the advice you get, even if (or perhaps especially when) it's not exactly the advice you were trying to get. Read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, which explains in blunter terms than I typically use how the open-source world of free help operates, and what constitutes a well-posed question.

The primary fuel for flame wars is the unpersuasive argument and the inability (by both sides) to evaluate arguments logically rather than emotionally. See Critical thinking, List of fallacies, and List of cognitive biases for some insight into how to argue productively, and how to better evaluate the arguments of others. If a disagreement exists on Wikipedia, that is if two groups of editors have sharply different views about some issue that relates to editing on Wikipedia, then the disagreement will either manifest itself in a discussion, or in a revert war. The disagreement exists before any discussion about it; the discussion does not, as you seem to think, create the disagreement. Poorly-phrased arguments may stir up unproductive emotions around the disagreement, but they did not create the disagreement. Wikipedia relies heavily on discussion to build consensus, because experience has shown discussion to be far more productive than having groups of editors working against each other without articulating their disagreements. Doing things surreptitiously and hoping nobody will notice can sometimes be an effective strategy in the real world, because much of the real world labors under extreme information poverty. An information-poor environment creates more opportunities to profit from dishonesty (or less than complete honesty), because it's hard for others to check on everything we do. Thus everyone has learned through real-life experience to prevaricate routinely - there are lots of issues we try very hard to avoid having to confront ("don't go there"). In contrast, Wikipedia's design deliberately maximizes transparency and openness (because...Wikipedia is an open source project), with multiple tools to let people track changes to specific pages and by specific editors. Wikipedia purposely makes it impossible to avoid confrontation. This is the key to Wikipedia's ability to not suck. In much the same way, modern science also avoids sucking by maintaining open discussion within its community. This prevents the scientific community from fragmenting along regional, ethnic, or religious lines as is the common pattern in nonscientific contexts.

If you want to weaken your position on Wikipedia, whatever it may be, let the opponent discover after the fact that you purposely kept the opponent in the dark. As another example, consider the disdain that so many smart people have for Microsoft, whereas few if any open source projects inspire the same derision. The difference has a lot to do with Microsoft's closed, proprietary nature, by which Microsoft implicitly says don't worry your pretty little head over it. Microsoft irritates people by doing all sorts of things to the customer without including the customer in any discussion beforehand, or clearly documenting the decisions afterward. Open source projects in general, and Wikipedia in particular, are different. In an open source project, anyone can, with sufficient effort and persuasive skill, engage in the decision process and have a lot of influence. --Teratornis (talk) 01:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Again, thank you for all of the input - but all I was trying to find out was whether there's a hierarchy for closing out proposals. My intent was not to recruit assistance for my POV or start a discussion - only to ask for non-prejudiced advice.

My gutcheck is that you're right; asking advice unless I'm also trying to get people involved is indeed a poor idea in the future. Apparently ulterior motives are so common that people (with the best of intentions) expect them and try to figure them out. I waited to get advice before editing, and in the gap between one person tried to guess from my edit history and offered advice on an unrelated subject. Since, you've offered advice on a couple of new unrelated subjects. I don't mind spending my own time, but if I did this in the future I'd evidently be spending other people's time. arimareiji (talk) 03:56, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Permanent Press doesn't work

Do a search for "permanent press" -- the link doesn't work

I know that, strictly speaking, this is NOT a question about USING Wikipedia, but I couldn't find a link for reporting problems —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.144.81.198 (talk) 21:58, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

When I type in permanent press and click go (Help:Go button), I get taken to the article fine, which is verified by the fact that making that phrase into a link earlier in this sentence, works (it's blue). When I click on search, I also find the article. It it possible that you have limited the search function to areas other than the article namespace? To see what your searches are limited to, go to a search results page and look at what is checked under "Search in namespaces:" at the bottom of the page. BTW this is a fine question for the Help desk; it is about "using Wikipedia". When we say that we are trying to avoid general knowledge questions about things not directly related to the site itself.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:06, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Gotta go, someone help please

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:53, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Mary Ellen Cook (ballerina). Someone added that article. Check the other Mary Ellen article... It links to a porn star's article that has been moved to the wrong article name. I have to go, NOW! but I wanted to alert someone... Dismas|^(talk) 22:10, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Page move vandalism (and a bit of other crap) fixed, redirects deleted, user indef blocked. Thanks for letting us know. _Gb^T/c 22:15, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Done by a vandal-only account, now blocked. Some other recent moves still need to be reverted. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 22:26, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Have I missed some? _Gb^T/c 22:26, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all! I appreciate it! Dismas|^(talk) 03:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Need help recovering info

I have a question about a technical glitch I encountered which caused me to lose some work. I was working on the entry on John L. Stevens, and had added some new background material, footnotes and links, but when I posted it I lost all the footnotes, external links, etc. So I had to revert back several posts (and lose my work) to preserve the footnotes, etc. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I'd like to recover the work I did, without having to go back and write the text again, insert the footnotes, etc. Do you have any good ideas on how I might accomplish that? Thank you from an active user.MarmadukePercy (talk) 23:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Everything ever done to a page is stored in the page history (history of John L. Stevens). To view what changes each edit made and to recover the material each edit added you can click the link that says "diff" which will take you too a two columed window with what the page was like before and after, the changes will be highlighted.

Here is what your revert did ([6]) so look at the changes and then copy-paste what was removed. For for more detail see Help:History.

Thanks for your work on that article! Icewedge (talk) 00:03, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the time to help me with it. MarmadukePercy (talk) 00:22, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Icewedge has fixed the problem.[7] If the end of the page is not displayed then the cause is usually a <ref> which is not closed correctly with </ref>. Then the software thinks the following text belongs to the ref. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:38, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Editing Question

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I have been editing Cherry Creek High School and have noticed that the state championships table is incomplete. I want to know how I could get a box to appear to show people that the list is incomplete. Thanks. (talk) 23:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC))

Use the template: {{listdev}} above the table. That should do exactly what you are looking for. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 03:32, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much! That was exactly what I wanted.(talk) 23:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC))

December 30

Userpage

Can someone make it so that the area between my userboxes is the same color as the area surrounding it? --Melab±1 ☎ 03:11, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

• I think I got it. --Max Talk (+) 04:17, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Request to be removed from blacklist

I have noticed my website www.homephotog.com has been blacklisted. Based on the talk logs it seems someone has associated the site with NICOclub.com which is not the case. The website is listed as a sponsor via a link exchange but is not associated with their network. I am requesting to have the site removed from the blacklist as it has never been referenced within Wikipedia at any time nor has it been involved in any of the issues that Wikipedia has had with the owner of NICOclub.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.28.58.16 (talk) 05:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe the place to go for that is meta:Talk:Spam_blacklist#Proposed_removals. However, be warned that at the very top of the page it says:

"Typically, we do not remove domains from the spam blacklist in response to site-owners' requests. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their value in support of our projects. Please consider whether requesting whitelisting on a specific wiki for a specific use is more appropriate." -Seidenstud (talk) 07:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Wait, you have blacklisted a site that simply had links from another site that was giving you trouble in the past and the solution is for me to provide Wikipedia with content? What would be the purpose of having my site at all if I simply posted all my content on Wikipedia? This site has no prior association to Wiki and has never been involved with any form of "breach of policy" that deserved Wiki black listing. I honestly would not care other than others utilize your blacklist which can impact the amount of traffic I may receive. Why should I have to go the extra effort of trying to establish "whitelisting status" when my site is on your blacklist erroneously? Is the policy to simply assign "guilt by association" based on a link exchange? It honestly makes no sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.28.58.16 (talk) 11:13, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and thanks for the blacklist link. I was having problems finding where to request removal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.28.58.16 (talk) 11:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Automatic clean up script

Hi all,

Just wondering if anone can tell me what the name of the automatic clean up script for pages is? i seen someone use it a while ago and it rmeoved overuse of links and so for. Even the user who has it will be great :). It make my job for clean up guides a lot quicker and easier--Andrewcrawford (talk) 14:36, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I think you may be referring to AutoWikiBrowser, but there's a large number of automated or semi-automated editing tools. See Wikipedia:Tools/Editing tools for more information. — Manticore 14:55, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

number of articles created

I could find the number of edits (under my preferences, the help says misleadingly under my profile) but I could not find, or there is not, a way to show which articles I created. Cinnamon colbert (talk) 15:25, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

The link is down at the moment, but I believe this is what you need. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Alphabets used

Is there any way to use Hebrew letters in Wikipedia (specifically, the Hebrew letter aleph, for the purpose of discussing Cantor's infinite cardinal numbers, such as Aleph₀)? 72.197.202.36 (talk) 17:03, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes. You could just use א, but the consensus seems to be to use <math>\aleph</math> in mathematical articles: $\aleph$. Algebraist 17:06, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Embedded lists

Just for a little clarification on their use... In sorting through fashion model articles and coming across the use of embedded lists such as those in Alek Wek and Eva Riccobono, my policy was to remove the list and reduce their notable examples to prose within the article, based on WP:EMBED. Lists of such size/detail and repetitiveness seem unencyclopedic and also appear to conflict with WP:UNDUE. Not to mention, they seem unnecessary when the articles' external links always link to the Fashion Model Directory, which provides the lists themselves and where they are usually just copy-and-pasted from. Mentioning in prose the notable designers the model has walked for appears to me to be all an article really requires, especially since this is the norm in the majority of related articles like Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen. Am I on the right track here? Any thoughts? Mbinebri (talk) 17:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

That sounds right to me. BTW I cleaned up the Alek Wek article a little, but left the list for you to deal with! – ukexpat (talk) 20:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd suggest scanning the article histories to see who went to the trouble to add those lists, and pose your question to them on their user talk pages. Their opinions need not limit your quest to follow the guidelines, but it's just good business to run ideas by people before you clobber their work. Yes, I know on Wikipedia we tend to take the quasi-autistic approach of forgetting there are humans with emotions behind all the material we delete, and anyone who didn't bother to read the friendly manuals pretty much has it coming, but still if we are serious about civility then we should try to engage people through discussion before getting medieval on their presumably good-faith efforts. --Teratornis (talk) 21:03, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Hey, let's AGF on the part of all the medieval people, too! We didn't ask to be born in what you guys choose to misname the Dark Ages. Deor (talk) 03:35, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Reference Tags in Section Headers

Is there a way to add a reference tag to a section header without ruining the format of the section header, and without having the reference # take on the format of the section header? Thanks . . .--Fizbin (talk) 17:30, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't think so, and section headings should not contain references. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Section headings. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

> section headings should not contain references

Normally I would agree. In this case the article is about an athlete that holds about 10 US records. The section name is 'US Records' and includes a table of these records. The reference for all of these records is the same source document. Because of this it would make some since to have the reference tag on the section header instead of one for each of the records, or some explanatory text with the reference tag before or after the table.--Fizbin (talk) 19:32, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

• I've been tempted myself. Try giving the table a footer section. A row spanning all columns with a short text that names the source and the reference link itself. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:09, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Or add a short intro sentence after the heading but before the table and stick the ref at the end of that - much less hassle. – ukexpat (talk) 20:39, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all. In this case I added it into the column headings. In the long run that is probably a better solution in this case, as the record-keeping organizations will change over time. The ref numbers still take on the bold font of the column headers, but it is not as obnoxious as taking on the font of the section headers. The entry is here if anyone cares: http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Jordan_Hasay --Fizbin (talk) 22:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Text colors

Is there any way to invert the colors of mathematical text? I.e., is it possible to change $\aleph$ from being black on white to being white on black? 72.197.202.36 (talk) 19:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

You can change the color of elements as described here: <math>\color{Blue}foo</math> produces $\color {Blue}foo$, but I don't believe the background color is changeable. Icewedge (talk) 20:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Do you want to change the color for everyone to see, or just for yourself? There are lots more options for the latter, see m:Help:User style. --Teratornis (talk) 20:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Erdős $\aleph$₀This user has an Erdős number of $\aleph$₀.

For everyone else, so that this userbox doesn't have varying text styles. 72.197.202.36 (talk) 21:10, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

If you can live with an HTML character entity reference, what you want might just be possible, for example here's a lovely red on blue (you might have to monkey with the font size and weight):

• ℵ

See Wikipedia:Colours. I'm not sure how much of that you can cram into the userbox template. You might have to write your own template. In the worst case, you could create your userbox text as an image, and upload it. Incidentally, we don't get many questions about userboxes on the Help desk from non-logged-in editors. Presumably you'll be creating an account or logging in to an existing account somewhere along the way to using that userbox. --Teratornis (talk) 22:32, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Template changes not reflected in templates in articles

I made some changes to Template:Rover yesterday but, although these changes are still intact in Template:Rover itself, they do not appear in Template:Rover as shown at the bottom of the article Princess (car). What am I doing wrong please? GTHO (talk) 22:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

The changes are showing when I view the article. You may need to purge/bypass your local cache. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 22:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Template changes can take more than a day to propagate to pages using the template. Wikipedia:Purge can cause an update right away but there is rarely an urgent reason for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:04, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

merging infoboxes

Politician infoboxes now have the ability to include military service information (see Jack Kemp, Jon Corzine or Arthur Schultz). Is there a way to do the same for athlete infoboxes such as Bob Chappuis, which uses {{Infobox NFL player}}, or for {{Infobox Person}} usages such as Jon Burge. If not, how can I request such a feature?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 23:07, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Infoboxes should be for significant things generally considered relevant for the field. Many media and people care about the military record of politicians in some countries and it can affect their political career. That is not the case for athletes or almost all other non-military fields and I don't think military service generally belongs in infoboxes of people notable for unrelated things. It might be mentioned instead in a section about their personal history. That being said, you could suggest it at a relevant wikiproject or possibly the talk page of an infobox. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:35, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Military service affects anyones career. Many people say Ted Williams would hold the all-time home run record if it were not for his military service. Many athletes have forgone a large part of their athletic careers for military service. It is not clear to me that military service is more important/relevant to politicians than any other career outside of the military.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 00:41, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Of course people can spend time in the military and the time "lost" can mean they have less time for other things, but afterwards it's rarely important for their notable achievements whether they were in the military or doing something else. Many voters care and many politicians use their own and their opponents military record in campaigns. But do you think many people decide whether to watch an athlete based on their military record? Do you think they become better (or worse) athletes than if they had been doing other non-athlete things in that time? PrimeHunter (talk) 01:03, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I guess my point is that for many people their military service is a significant enough part of their life story that it should be mentioned in their infoboxes. However, for many of these people adding a separate military infobox is overkill. I will leave it at that. I think a chang in {{Infobox Person}} could be an especially useful improvement.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 04:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

obituary

i added lark previn, 35, mia farrow and andre previn's adopted daughter, to the obituary list of december 25, 2008. it was deleted. i was wondering why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Albatross48 (talk • contribs) 23:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

According to the edit summary of the revert: "Rv, unsourced & not apparently notable in herself." Please read WP:RS and WP:N. Hope this helps, Hermione1980 23:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

• The list of obituaries is only for people who have an article here. Unless Lark Previn did something noteworthy herself, she wouldn't get an article for just being related to famous people. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:21, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

December 31

PRINTING PROBLEMS WITH WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES

My HP printer performs fine with all documents except Wikipedia. If I highlight 10 pages for print preview as slected on the screen, I get pages 1,2,3, etc. skip 4,5,6,7, get 8, 9, 10 etc. Has been this way for about two weeks. What's the problem? Thanks. [Contributor to Wikipedia.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.140.234.3 (talk) 05:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Are you trying to print the printable version - selected from the link on the left hand side of the article page? – ukexpat (talk) 05:28, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

LMEX

Please define LMEX Index Value —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.96.226.86 (talk) 05:47, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

ვიკიპედიის ქართული ვერსიის მესვეურებთან მაქვს წინადადება და ვერ ვპოულობ მათ კოორდინატებს. შეგვეხმიანეთ ელფოსტაზე mpi@gol.ge —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.177.168.179 (talk) 05:49, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Turn crisis to Christmas

What's point to be seem as vandlism when I turn crisis to Christmas to celebrate merry christmas. I rather to make financial Christmas even in 2008??

Turn crisis to Christmas what wrong?

Happy New Year. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.128.151.240 (talk) 06:40, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I cannot see any edits by your current IP address which you used to add your post here which changed crisis to christmas and was warned for vandalism for doing so, which is the best I can make out from your post as to what you're asking about. That having been said, randomly changing a proper and contextual use of crisis to christmas almost anywhere in the encyclopedia would indeed be improper. If that is what you did, and i'm not at all sure it is since your post is a bit confusing, doing so would replace proper information with a completely off-topic aside, thus hurting the integrity of the article.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:07, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

This may be from User:R8o6d4e0d0 who did nonsense like [8]. Please don't evade your block by posting here without logging in. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:41, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Linking to a section header with a template included

I just posted to a user's talk page and then tried to link in another post to the section header I created which included in the header a template name in the form <nowiki>{{template}}</nowiki>. Just curious if there is any way to link to such a section header (without changing it, or adding an anchor). The normal linking method [[name of talk page#name of section header]] does not work of course. The actual header at issue is at the bottom of this talk page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe try User talk:Mr.Z-man#Can refToolbar be modified to track the changes in .7B.7Bcite_book.7D.7D?. —teb728 t c 07:59, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Well now, that works! But I am not satisfied with parrotting. Can you help me understand why that works? Where does the .7B.7B.7D.7D come from? Where would I look to educate myself?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 09:06, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Apparently ".7B" stands for "{" and ".7D" stands for "}". I don't what kind of code that is, but symbols are usually replaced by something like this in the URL. For example, brackets are replaced by ".28" and ".29". Chamal ^talk 12:02, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I guess teb728 copied from the browser address bar after clicking the heading in the table of contents. See Help:URL. This version also works and it displays correctly: [[User talk:Mr.Z-man#Can refToolbar be modified to track the changes in %7b%7bcite book%7d%7d?]] renders as User talk:Mr.Z-man#Can refToolbar be modified to track the changes in {{cite book}}? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:33, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Those cryptic numbers are hexadecimal ASCII codes. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:31, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

The help desk strikes again. Thanks everyone.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:02, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

About Content

If I submit my own article, is it possible that I copyright it so that no one else can edit it?

Please advice.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mohra sharif (talk • contribs) 12:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

The simple answer would be no. You do not own anything you submit here and anyone can edit your work. Please see the copyrights page for more info. Chamal ^talk 12:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Password

My usual account User:Wikisaver62 seems to have been hacked as the password I made for it does not work. I cannot have an e-mail sent password because I did not have an e-mail address then. However, if you look at the creation logs for this account's user + talk page you should see that Wikisaver62 made some edits while I was still in control This is wrong, sorry, i made the userpage and talk as Wikisaver (IMP) (I last logged in sometime in mid december, I am not exactly sure when.) Maybe you can then send this account the new password to my e-mail, please respond with all haste, thanks. Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:16, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, we cannot do this, not least because there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that you are who you say you are..._Gb^T/c 13:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I understand, I know there is no evidence and I was prepared for this answer. I have the same named account on several other wikimedia sites but they all have the same password; looks like the days of Wikisaver62 are over and cometh the hour for my original safeguard to come into action. (Thank God I made this account) I don't suppose there is anything I can do to show that i am who i say i am? Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:31, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Last try here for me before I let go of my old account, please don't delete it, I would like to copy what I have done to put on my user page. Right; if you look at Wikisaver62's userpage history, you will see that the sentence explaining that I have a doppenganger named Wikisaver62 (IMP) was acually created by me while logged in as Wikisaver62, surely this shows that I am Wikisaver62? Maybe consult my adopter for confirmation (User:Res2216firestar)? Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:36, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

As it happens, the user creation log shows that Wikisaver62 (IMP) was not created while logged in as another user. In any case, this is irrelevant; we are not capable of giving out new passwords by any means other than registered email. Algebraist 13:40, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

In other words, it's no use even if you can prove your identity. Best thing is to start off with another account. And the userpages will not be deleted unless there is a reason to do so, such as a violation of policy. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 13:44, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, I give up, maybe I can begin again as Wikisaver (IMP) , or maybe I won't bother since I made so much effort and made so many good friends as Wikisaver62. I think i'll start by talking to Res. Thanks for your time anyway. Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:43, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a minute, did you look at that wikisaver62 history, surely that goes with me? Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

OK then, I have let go now, (although I will try on different computers and browsers to log in to Wikisaver62) Wikisaver62 (IMP) (talk) 13:47, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Can I set a future expiration date for an article I create?

Can I mark my article for future expiration? I couldn't find any guidelines for steps that come after a proposed deletion and saw no further communication after my responses as directed by that proposed deletion (I waited until almost the last minute).

In other words, after I delete the proposed deletion... then what?

I added the article BackUp MyPC to share research I had done on a product I used in the not-too-distant past and which changed both product and company names and was difficult to locate using other means.

I did spend some time trying to find information about article expiration and such, but didn't find a single reference.

I'm clear about the notability of an isolated item, but the notability of an item that is part of the history of other "notable" items within WikiPedia and other current products is fuzzy for me.

I suppose I could have added an article about "PC Backup", the current product, and included BackUp MyPC as part of its history, but in point of fact I'm trying to help others like myself whose starting point is their CD of Backup MyPC.

---

Background:

WikiPedia holds extensive history of Backup Exec (the server software versions) and its owners over the years, but little or no mention of the same company's desktop product Backup Exec Desktop, which became BackUp MyPC (my article).

As a customer with no connection to any of these products or companies I have no idea how many copies of any of these products were sold and may still be in use and thus trigger actual searches.

CornanTheIowan (talk) 13:28, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi CornanTheIowan. There are two entirely separate deletion processes at work here. Proposed deletion, which the article had been nominated for, is a process that proposes to delete an article without discussion on the merits, if the template remains in place for a fixed period of five days. Anyone can remove the deletion template including the article creator, as you had done, and that ends that process, as it did here. However, anyone can nominate an article for deletion on the merits at articles for deletion which is where the article is now. That entirely separate deletion process results in a debate that lasts for five days after which an administrator will determine the consensus of opinions expressed and decide to delete, keep, merge, or otherwise based on what is said and revealed.

The deletion debate is at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Backup MyPC. You cannot effect that debate by removal of the template from the article (which is considered vandalism). As for what you should do to affect the outcome of the debate, you need to add content to the article showing the product's notability, best done by citing to reliable, independent secondary sources which discuss the product substantively. This also verifies the information content and shows it is not original reseach. You are also welcome to comment in the debate. Before you do so, it might be a good idea to read How to discuss an AfD and Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:22, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

'Uploader' status requested to add photo from new account

I have a photo to add to the unillustrated page Anthelion. I created an account a while ago so I could add a variety of photo illustrations that I've taken myself, however the image upload page won't let me as I'm not an autoconfirmed user. Please can someone assign 'Uploader' status on me? Otherwise I'll have to find ten random pointless edits to make before I'm allowed to upload photos, which seems counter-intuitive! Thanks --ThingOneSix (talk) 15:09, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Only stewards (who probably don't read this page) can assign uploader but it doesn't appear to be used in practice. Special:ListUsers/uploader only shows one case. If you register at Wikimedia Commons then you can upload images there right away (assuming the license conditions are acceptable to you) and use them in Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:16, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

formatting with logo problem

At the Al Arabiya article there's an enormous gap of white space between the intro and the table of contents. It has something to do with the infobox, but search me if i can figure out what. If anyone can either fix it or tell me how to fix it would be much appreciated. (this might be an easy fix; i'm less than usually savvy on these kinds of things).Bali ultimate (talk) 15:49, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

No such gap here. What browser are you using? Algebraist 16:04, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

--Assembletheways (talk) 18:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)==Runaways to GA== I want to make Runaways a GA article. I have fixed other articles to GA status, mainly because I look at other articles as examples. However, since there is no main comic book article that is a GA, I find it would be more difficult. There are comic book character articles that are G, but then I don't know if those would be great examples. My main question is, should I do a peer review this early for someone to give me help? I'd like to know if there is anything else I could do. Thanks in advance! -- A ^talk/_contribs 17:49, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

2 ignorant admins

I am here to report User:Mangwanani and User:Thingg. First of all, they delete my great edits in an act of savage rebbelion, then they insult me by either deleting or not responding to my queries on their talk pages. Please do something regarding this duo of thugs. Thank you. --Assembletheways (talk) 18:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)