Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 November 6
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November 6
[edit]Are welcomes?
[edit]Scrolling user's talk pages it makes me wonder: Are welcomes automatic or not?, because I don't have one.--National Security Agency Special Agent (talk) 00:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- No, they are not automatic, but you now have a welcome. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 01:00, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Can you tell me why you were concerned with my name?--National Security Agency Special Agent (talk) 01:03, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Because the cat walked on my mouse and clicked on a WP:Twinkle warning. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 14:14, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Can you tell me why you were concerned with my name?--National Security Agency Special Agent (talk) 01:03, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Collapsing nav box
[edit]How? Wehrum, Pennsylvania. Thanks, Grsz11 →Review! 01:24, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Well, let's see. If you want the navbox to always be collapsed, I believe that adding the parser function |state = collapsed to the template header ought to do it. If you just want it to be collapsed when you view the page, then I am not sure. My template editing skills aren't so hot, so let me know if this helps. Cheers!TN‑X-Man 02:52, 6 November 2008 (UTC)- On second thought . . . don't do that. I'm looking into it further. TN‑X-Man 02:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Upon further review, some things are readily apparent. The first thing is that navboxes and templates are really complicated. The second thing is a useful page that may have the answer can be found at Help:Collapsing. The final thing that I've realized is that I should have learned my lesson when I got a D in computer science. :-( Anyways, best of luck. TN‑X-Man 03:04, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- As Tnxman said, it's a parser; |collapsed_state = collapsed will do the job. I added it in for ya. Cheers, Master of Puppets Call me MoP! :) 04:53, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Missed it by that much. Thanks MoP! TN‑X-Man 12:53, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Upon further review, some things are readily apparent. The first thing is that navboxes and templates are really complicated. The second thing is a useful page that may have the answer can be found at Help:Collapsing. The final thing that I've realized is that I should have learned my lesson when I got a D in computer science. :-( Anyways, best of luck. TN‑X-Man 03:04, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- On second thought . . . don't do that. I'm looking into it further. TN‑X-Man 02:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Our new support Wikipedia banners
[edit]I don't know if this is just me, but on my browser, the new banners float underneath the protection icon, featured star, and all those other icons. I find myself pushing EXPAND instead of the lock icons. Can this be fixed? ←Signed:→Mr. E. Sánchez Get to know me! / Talk to me!←at≈:→ 02:26, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, you could disable the donate banner. Go to your preferences, gadgets, and check the "suppress etc." box. Then clear your cache. That should help. Cheers, Master of Puppets Call me MoP! :) 04:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Four Five questions about unified login
[edit]I've started merging my username(s) across several projects, and although the process is mostly straightforward and the fundamentals (at least) are well-documented, I find myself with several questions:
incomplete
[edit]The merge process is telling me it's incomplete, because there are matching logins on several projects I haven't merged in yet. I know: they're not (yet) mine. Do I have to go through the Bureaucrat-mediated usurpation process on each of those before unification will be "finished" and useful to me? —Steve Summit (talk) 04:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- As far as I know, incomplete means it will still work, it just isn't done. But then again, I might be wrong... Calvin 1998 (t·c) 04:44, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Confirmed! It is working. I've logged in once, and now I'm seeing my name in the tab list of wikis I've never used. Cool! —Steve Summit (talk) 04:55, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
where to start?
[edit]Is there a master login page? Or do you just log in to any project, and have your login (from wherever) follow you around to all the other projects? —Steve Summit (talk) 04:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Currently there is no master login page, logging in to any wiki with your SUL-enabled username should log you in to all the other wikis you've merged with (there should be a bar at the bottom with the logos of all those wikis). That login should follow you around, and auto-create new accounts for you if necessary (if you go to a wiki that doesn't have your username registered, it should create an account for you automatically). Calvin 1998 (t·c) 04:43, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Confirmed! It is working. I've logged in once, and now I'm seeing my name in the tab list of wikis I've never used. Cool! —Steve Summit (talk) 04:55, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
usurp-with-rename?
[edit]On projects where my unified login name is not under my control, where I might need to usurp that login name, what's the right thing to do with the other name I might be using on that project? Is it asking too much to have the edit history from that other name transferred to the usurped, unified username? Is it a good or bad idea to have the edit history from that other name transferred to the usurped, unified username? —Steve Summit (talk) 04:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Bureaucrat etiquette
[edit]If I need to usurp all the extant matching names before unification can be complete, I'm going to need to ask Bureaucrats on projects in languages I don't speak, such as French and Chinese. How rude is it to go to a Bureaucrat on one of those projects and ask, in English, for a rename? —Steve Summit (talk) 04:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think you can try meta if you need stuff done on wikis you don't speak the language of. I've never done it though... (you could also try searching the wiki for a page specifically for English-speakers, like an English-speakers help desk, most big ones have them, I think). Calvin 1998 (t·c) 04:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
"Primary" project?
[edit]I did the merge starting at en.wiktionary, and it said it was making that the "primary" project, or something. It said I'd be able to change it later. But I haven't seen a tool for doing that. —Steve Summit (talk) 04:58, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think having it as your "primary" project simply means that the email address and password of your extra accounts by updated to match that of your primary account as you merge them. Maybe the bit about being able to change it later just meant to you're able to change your email address/password? I'm not sure. --saxsux (talk) 16:27, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
geography
[edit]where is Karomb, Russia or Karomb, Ukriane, possible Black Sea area —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.132.157.6 (talk) 06:12, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- You can try asking on the Reference desk. This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. When you ask, give some more information about what you think this "area" is: a city? A park? Etc. And where did you hear about it? If you have the name wrong, telling some more clues about what you are looking for might increase your chances of getting an answer. --Teratornis (talk) 07:19, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Education.
[edit]What are PG,UG,Diploma,IB Courses in Goverment & Private university of Singapore? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.169.93.42 (talk) 08:49, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hello. This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Knowledge questions such as yours should be asked at a section of the reference desk. However, we do have an article on the National University of Singapore and the following link will take you to that university's official site. I'm not 100% sure if this is the university you are referring to, but I get no results searching Google for "Government & Private university of Singapore".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:52, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
another case of the "preferences" bug
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
this has been reported by some other editors here and here and now i'm among the afflicted: i followed the instructions for "supressing the donate-now banner" by going into "my preferences/gadgets", but after ticking the "supress" box and "save", i get a box telling me my password is too short. clearing my cache didn't help; has anyone figured out what does work to fix this? Sssoul (talk) 09:29, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- okay , i found the answer here: WP:Village_pump_(technical)#Different_password_for_saving_preferences.3F: using firefox, you gots to clear the "old password" field on the "user profile" page before saving your changes. Sssoul (talk) 10:43, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Mike Bloomberg entry: please add his $375 million contribution to tobacco control
[edit]Dear Sir or Madam, I am trying to add to New York City Mike Bloomberg's page that he has donated $375 million to a six year program of tobacco control for the world's poorest countries: He had donated $125 million in 2006 and that was increased an additional $250 million on or around Sept 11, 2008 http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectID=53303E81-1D09-317F-BB11D44FCD1043D5 along with a $125 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donation.
Your system is much too complicated regarding how to be able to edit this information. Otherwise, keep up the good work.
Thank you, —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dfumento (talk • contribs) 13:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- The article is semi-protected due to vandalism. Since you have an account now, edit pages that aren't protected for a few days and then you'll be considered a normal user and you can edit semi-protected pages. -- kainaw™ 15:29, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Done. Btw, does his website count as a primary source? Even if it does, I still think this is okay. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 15:40, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Primary sources are perfectly fine and reliable for adding information to articles whose subject is already notable. The biggest two restrictions on primary sources are:
- Primary sources should only be used to reference the facts that those sources report, and not to interpret or analyze those facts.
- Primary sources can usually not be used to establish notability (i.e. a scientific experiment could not prove itself notable by merely citing the journal where its results were first published); however once notability is clear, then one can and should use those sources for appropriate purposes...
- Cheers! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 20:47, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Primary sources are perfectly fine and reliable for adding information to articles whose subject is already notable. The biggest two restrictions on primary sources are:
Images and OTRS
[edit]Hi, Image:Davidcullen.jpg has been released to the GDFL by David Cullen, who contacted User:Bigpad to notify him of the desired licensing. Bigpad forwarded the message to me, and I know something has to be done with the OTRS to document David Cullen's email authorizing the image under the GDFL, but I'm not sure how to do this. Can anyone point me or Bigpad in the right direction? Thanks. Parsecboy (talk) 13:51, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
User-defined colour names
[edit]Hi, if I have a table with colour-coded cells, is there any way to assign user-defined names to the colours once at the top, associating the names with their RBG values, and then use these names throughout the table? I'm thinking of something like this:
DEFINE blue #728FCE
DEFINE yellow #9E7BFF
...
|-
| style="background:blue" | blah blah
| style="background:yellow" | blah blah
...
- Sorry, Mediawiki doesn't support that. You'll need to specify the hex code at each position, because "blue" and "yellow" will just return the basic definitions (#0000FF and #FFFF00, respectively). Also, don't forget to sign your username on discussion pages such as this, by adding "~~~~" after your post. Hersfold (t/a/c) 20:36, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks Hersfold. Just to be completely sure we're on the same page ... I'm not bothered specifically about redefining "blue" and "yellow" if they have pre-assigned meanings. Perhaps they were bad examples. Any old names will do, like "MyFavouriteBlue" or whatever. But you're saying there's still no way to do it, right? 21:21, 6 November 2008 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.47.106 (talk)
- You could create a template called Myblue which contains style="background:#728FCE" and just wikitext the table row as | {{Myblue}} | blah blah, or perhaps Myblue which contains #728FCE and use | style="background:{{Myblue}}" | blah blah, but it is probably not worth the effort and the over head, nor a good use of templates . . . . If the table is going to be in a template itself, then you can get a bit more elegant, but unless you are going to use the table in several places, it would not be worth it either. Peet Ern (talk) 04:55, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- OK, thank you both. 86.138.105.106 (talk) 14:47, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- You could create a template called Myblue which contains style="background:#728FCE" and just wikitext the table row as | {{Myblue}} | blah blah, or perhaps Myblue which contains #728FCE and use | style="background:{{Myblue}}" | blah blah, but it is probably not worth the effort and the over head, nor a good use of templates . . . . If the table is going to be in a template itself, then you can get a bit more elegant, but unless you are going to use the table in several places, it would not be worth it either. Peet Ern (talk) 04:55, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks Hersfold. Just to be completely sure we're on the same page ... I'm not bothered specifically about redefining "blue" and "yellow" if they have pre-assigned meanings. Perhaps they were bad examples. Any old names will do, like "MyFavouriteBlue" or whatever. But you're saying there's still no way to do it, right? 21:21, 6 November 2008 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.47.106 (talk)
- You don't need to define most colors, because they are already part of the standard. See Web colors for a list of defined colors by name. If you need anything not on the list, then you will need to define it by number. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 14:56, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
Deletion & Google Search
[edit]I have two questions that I can't find the answers to. The first is that I created a page under my user name and then ended up restarting (and finishing) it as a separate page. I'd like to delete the original user page, but can't figure out how.
Secondly, why does the page I created not show up when I search the title in Google? —Preceding unsigned comment added by We6er (talk • contribs) 16:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Firstly, add {{db-user}} to the user page in question. Secondly, google hasn't caught up yet. You'll have to wait. Algebraist 16:19, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) If you would like to have a page deleted (and you are the only contributor) simply place {{db-g7}} at the top of the page. An admin will be by to delete the page shortly. As for your second question, Google's webcrawlers may take a while to index your article. It could be a matter of minutes, hours, or days. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:21, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- And let's not forget that we are here to create an encyclopedia. It is not a Google popularity contest, so whether or not the article appears in a Google search should be irrelevant. – ukexpat (talk) 18:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) If you would like to have a page deleted (and you are the only contributor) simply place {{db-g7}} at the top of the page. An admin will be by to delete the page shortly. As for your second question, Google's webcrawlers may take a while to index your article. It could be a matter of minutes, hours, or days. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:21, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Why are my college students experiencing complete DELETES for a project they're doing?
[edit]To overcome previous English teachers negative approach to Wikipedia, I have my college students develop a sign on, do research on a famous educator and evaluate the process.
'''Why are my students experiencing complete DELETES of all their hard work???''' It is becoming very frustrating to them and I may have to pull the graded assignment if this keeps happening.
Help, Liberal Arts College Professor —Preceding unsigned comment added by Edprofessor5302 (talk • contribs) 16:47, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Because wikipedia is an encyclopedia and is subject to rules. I suspect that your students were creating articles that didn't conform to WP:BIO. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 16:51, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I suspect it's because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a scratchpad for course work. If someone saves a page that's not an encyclopedia article, yes, it's likely to be deleted. But, I could give you a better answer if you could supply the name of some of the pages that have been deleted, so I could look at them. Right now, I'm only guessing. If you want a general-purpose educational tool, check out wikiversity. Friday (talk) 16:52, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) Have you got a list of articles affected? Articles can be deleted for a number of reasons, usually because they meet one of the speedy deletion criteria, commonly regarding notability. If we had a specific article, we could help you a bit further. Have you read the welcome pages on your talkpage? Regards. Woody (talk) 16:53, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- You should also read Wikipedia:School and university projects. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 17:04, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- It's hard to answer without a list of your students, but the most likely possibility is that your students were creating articles that didn't clearly explain why the person was notable or cite reliable sources. In general, before doing a project on Wikipedia with students, it's a good idea to invest some time editing here yourself, so you're familiar with the rules and can guide your students in following them. The link above has ideas for good school Wikipedia projects, and people who are interested in helping make those projects good experiences for teachers and students. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 17:07, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- -Greetings, Liberal Arts College Professor, you are probably better off if you do not use Wikipedia for this purpose, that is, unless part of the assignment consists of documenting the process (and potential frustration) associated with having content modified significantly (including, but not limited to complete deletion) with little or no prior notice. That is simply a foundational aspect of how the site operates. All of the Wikimedia Foundation projects are inherently subject to this kind of contingency.
- The most appropriate alternative is probably for your school, college or department to host a private copy of the MediaWiki software itself, and have your students work from that instead.
- Prior responses in this thread discuss some of the rules, but investigating them will be pointless unless you first recognize there is no guarantee that your students' work will be preserved in a manner consistent with your expectations and grading requirements. dr.ef.tymac (talk) 17:11, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Also see my page of notes about just this situation: User:Teratornis/Tips for teachers. As a professor, you are used to learning from books, so get this one: Wikipedia - The Missing Manual. Without knowing the content of that book, an instructor who tries to use Wikipedia for coursework is likely to come to grief, because Wikipedia isn't at all designed to fit the sorts of assumptions a naive instructor would likely bring to it. Incidentally, I was just reviewing some notes I wrote in 2006 when I first began editing on Wikipedia, and I had a good laugh at what I had written - when I first arrived on Wikipedia, several of my initial assumptions about Wikipedia's purpose and function were spectacularly wrong. Fortunately for me, I'm a cautious type, so before I plunged ahead I spent many hours reading the friendly manuals. I still made my share of early mistakes, and even some late mistakes, as every Wikipedian does, but I gave the manuals a chance to correct some of my severe misunderstandings before I boldly acted on them. --Teratornis (talk) 19:01, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
troubles
[edit]Hello. Im a German User (woman). My Userpage is blocked from an administrator,it`s the second time now and I think it was really unfair. Please tell me: Where could I file a complaint? I can write in English, but I´d prefer to write in German. Do you have the right address? Thank you for helping me. Greetings! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.219.254.112 (talk) 16:29, 6 November 2008 (UTC) Yes. I´m sorry. I forgot this. Today it's not my day. 79.219.254.112 (talk) 16:40, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'm not sure what you mean by your userpage being blocked. I have checked your block log and there's no blocks listed there. Your talk and user pages haven't ever been deleted. Are you perhaps talking about how, when you click your IP address, it takes you to your contributions instead of your userpage? Are you talking about another account/IP? --Skunkboy74 (talk) 16:51, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- i'm just guessing, but could she mean her registered account has been blocked, which is why she posted this as an IP? if that's right, i reckon it would help if let us know whether she's talking about an account on the English wikipedia or the German one - then maybe someone could tell her the procedure for requesting to be unblocked and/or for protesting an admin's decision? Sssoul (talk) 17:20, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
(undent) Could you please provide your username? Also, if you are blocked on the German Wikipedia it would be better for you to discuss this there. Scottydude talk 19:19, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Adult contemporary music
[edit]A few days ago, I asked someone to move the adult contemporary music article back where it was in the first place. The article had been renamed "adult contemporary formats" and I said that was wrong. The person did what I asked, but now, there is no article. You can't even find it in the history. All it does is redirect to itself.
There must be something an adminstrator can do. When an article is redirected, I realize it has no history prior to the redirect, but the new article, whatever that may be, must have that history stored somewhere.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:07, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Um. I can't find the article anywhere. I'm just seeing a bunch of redirects. TN‑X-Man 17:11, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- As an addendum, I can't find the article in any of the redirects that link to the one you originally mentioned. Maybe an admin can see a deleted contribution somewhere, but from what I can see, it's ceased to exist. TN‑X-Man 17:14, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Somewhere in all the moving and unmoving, the history got deleted. I restored the whole history and put things back in order. Everything looks OK now... You may want to check for double redirects and stuff like that, but it looks fine now. If there's anything else you need done, let me know... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 17:16, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- As an addendum, I can't find the article in any of the redirects that link to the one you originally mentioned. Maybe an admin can see a deleted contribution somewhere, but from what I can see, it's ceased to exist. TN‑X-Man 17:14, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Not going through
[edit]Why is my User:Yellow Evan/Sandbox/1990 not going through? Leave Message ,Yellow Evan home ,Sandbox[ 17:24, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'm not sure what you mean. Going through where? TN‑X-Man 17:26, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
When i save it the page is not complete of what i typed. Leave Message ,Yellow Evan home ,Sandbox[ 17:29, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Have you cleared the cache and refreshed the page? --Orange Mike | Talk 17:30, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Gotcha. You had a </ref> tag that was missing the <. This causes the rest of the article from that point on to be hidden. I have corrected it for you. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 17:31, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Link page not working
[edit]I was sent a link page for the page I am editing. When I finished and clicked on the Link Suggestions page, it does not upload. Help. Thanks (JoeManelli (talk) 17:59, 6 November 2008 (UTC)).
- i gather you mean the Lawrence Leritz article (it would've been good to specify that right away - oh well, next time!) and the link in question is "www.LawrenceLeritz.com"? you need to create an "external links" section for it (by placing
==External links== above it), and then the link should be formatted like this:
- [http://www.lawrenceleritz.com/ Official Lawrence Leritz website]
- [http://www.lawrenceleritz.com/ Official Lawrence Leritz website]
- that's purely technical advice, mind you, leaving aside any assessment of the value of the link ... in future you can find out stuff like that by looking at other wikipedia pages - find one that has a feature you want (eg an "External links" section), click on edit and study how it's formatted, then imitate it on the page you're working on. and/or you can consult pages like WP:Markup. have fun Sssoul (talk) 18:32, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I guess you refer to the 3rd box at Lawrence Leritz which has a link to http://can-we-link-it.nickj.org/suggest-links/suggester.php?page=Lawrence_Leritz. I have not used that tool before but just tried it. When I select some random links and click "Preview with Added Links" it seems to work fine: I'm taken to an editing screen with a preview where the chosen links are added. You then have to click "Save page" to save the page with the chosen links. Please describe more accurately how far you get and what happens. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:42, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- yep, PrimeHunter's no doubt sussed out what you were inquiring about - my advice above is about something else, but you still might want to take it into account!
- meanwhile, i've never seen that "link suggestions" gizmo before either - i'm also curious how it works out. (wonder why it's missing George Balanchine, though?) Sssoul (talk) 18:53, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Its not: start from http://can-we-link-it.nickj.org/. There is a problem in that particular article that keeps it from working though. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 20:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- As I said, it works fine for me. I have Internet Explorer 7.0. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:43, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- it worked fine using firefox 3 as well - it's a bit weird in a few ways, but it worked. Sssoul (talk) 10:27, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- As I said, it works fine for me. I have Internet Explorer 7.0. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:43, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Its not: start from http://can-we-link-it.nickj.org/. There is a problem in that particular article that keeps it from working though. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 20:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
Multilingual Sourcing
[edit]I was just looking at the German version of a Wikipedia article, and found what appears to be a reliable secondary source. However, it is in German. My question is, is there any convention for using international sources when writing an article in a different language than the source? I'm not sure if this is generally accepted or whether it's out of the question. ←Spidern→ 18:59, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- I looked in the Editor's index because I remembered reading about this in the past, but I did not find a clean link to the page I thought I remembered. So I used {{Google custom}} to search the Wikipedia: namespace:
- Several of the search results pertain to the question. --Teratornis (talk) 19:13, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Such as:
- Wikipedia:Reliable sources and undue weight#... but it's not perfect (an essay, which ranks lower than a guideline)
- Wikipedia:Try to verify#When you add content (marked as "inactive")
- Wikipedia:V#Non-English sources - WP:NONENG (this appears to be the definitive policy you seek)
- --Teratornis (talk) 19:18, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Such as:
- The basic rule here is to use an English source if you can, but German sources are totally acceptable. Just make sure you mention it in the reference note. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 19:35, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
IE/FF inconsistencies
[edit]On this page IE processes the 'Wikipedia' section (the area with the four show/hide boxes) differently from FF and breaks it. Can somehow a fix be made without making it look awkward in FF? (i.e. some breaks will fix it but there'll be some space in FF). -- Mentisock 19:35, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- It appears to be working properly in IE Tab. What exactly is the problem? Hersfold (t/a/c) 20:33, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- It might be related to your screen resolution. What is the size/resolution of your monitor? - Mgm|(talk) 21:22, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- About 1024x768 but you can still notice the difference (since the two browsers parse the page differently on all monitors) or you can use http://thumbalizr.com which shows IE's broken version. -- Mentisock 09:42, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
Administrator Abuse
[edit]- The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/Yes_check.svg/20px-Yes_check.svg.png)
How do we deal with admins who abuse thier powers/authority and want to be a Big Brother of English Wikipedia eg. User:Luna Santin & User:Theresa Knott ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by VolcanicBasalt (talk • contribs) 21:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- The best way to deal with administrator abuse is to get the help of other administrators at WP:AN or WP:ANI (the administrator's noticeboard). They have the power to undo incorrect actions. But a lot of claims of administrator abuse are not well-documented. When you report it, you should provide as much evidence as possible. Linking to history diffs. Finally, administrators are people too and they are prone to making mistakes. Before reporting them, you should make an effort to discuss the issue with them. Good luck. - Mgm|(talk) 21:44, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Are you by any chance related to/aware of User:Nitinrai, who was blocked for the adding the same material as you? TN‑X-Man 21:52, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- If you really want to pursue this as admin abuse, you can take it to Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard, but you would be better off following the steps at Wikipedia:Mediation.
- But: If you are referring to Lund (disambiguation), I don't see any admin abuse per se. Admins are simply users who are trusted with a few extra tools, and those have not been used in that case. Have you tried reading Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)? You would find that dab pages are not articles, thus they have special rules. For instance, you don't pipe links except under certain circumstances— this is explicitly noticed in the edit notice at the top of the page when you edit it. I have to agree with the others on the talk page: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a translation guide. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 21:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- The user was blocked as a sock. Read my talkpage for my conversations with the user. I tried to AGF and guide the user, point them to relevant policies, etc, all I got was "you are abusing your admin powers" and something about my paymaster Twinkle. Not an admin, and I wish twinkle paid me. Oh well. --Terrillja talk 21:58, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- But: If you are referring to Lund (disambiguation), I don't see any admin abuse per se. Admins are simply users who are trusted with a few extra tools, and those have not been used in that case. Have you tried reading Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)? You would find that dab pages are not articles, thus they have special rules. For instance, you don't pipe links except under certain circumstances— this is explicitly noticed in the edit notice at the top of the page when you edit it. I have to agree with the others on the talk page: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a translation guide. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 21:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- At this point, this need to go someplace else such as the article talk page. The Help Desk is not the place to air this out. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 22:06, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
206.213.170.10 (talk) 22:51, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
i need help making a album page for a band
[edit]hello i'm trying to make an album page for a rock band called Panda its about one of their old albums and so i wanted to create it and upload a picture. so i created a page but every time i look for it on wiki i can never find except when i look in my contributions. if someone can help fix this problem and also help on how to make pages and for bands, albums, and anything else.
thnks any help would be greatly appreciated —Preceding unsigned comment added by Henry3000 (talk • contribs) 23:00, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- There's nothing wrong. The page is there. It just isn't indexed by the wikipedia search engine yet. If you can make a link like this: Arroz con leche (album) and it is blue, the edit worked. If you want to make it easier to find for other editors, you should link to it from the band page for example. - Mgm|(talk) 00:09, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- I have converted Arroz Con Leche and Arroz con leche to disambiguation pages. – ukexpat (talk) 16:14, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
How do I get an entry posted to Wikipedia
[edit]I have an account. I thought saving the information would get it posted to Wikipedia, but it is not there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.199.175.34 (talk) 23:20, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- It may have been deleted, or saved in the wrong place. What is your user name? Here is some general advice about making articles:
- 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. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:34, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
- Did you by any chance try to look up the new article using the search function? Or did you write the article in the sandbox? 0 Mgm|(talk) 00:12, 7 November 2008 (UTC)