Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 September 9

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September 9

trigonometry

the maximum value of 1/(1+8sin^2 X cos^2X )=? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Graghunaath (talk • contribs) 00:56, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here not to do people's homework for them, but merely to aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 00:58, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

tracing of lost blackberry

How to trace my lost blackberry phone using another blackberry? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.186.30.113 (talk) 01:07, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

This page is a help desk on how to use Wikipedia. I don't know if they can help you but you might try asking this question at the reference desk. The reference desk specializes in answering questions that are not related to how to use Wikipedia. GB fan please review my editing 01:27, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

problem

I am trying to get an unsourced (and grossly inaccurate/misleading, but never mind that for now) paragraph deleted from an article, see discussion here: Talk:Insect_morphology#Third_paragraph_in_lede

My deletion of the paragraph was reverted without any reasons given

I am not going to risk an edit war by deleting it again

nobody else who is currently involved will delete it

what can I do?

the paragraph, being unsourced, is against policy, so should be easily deleted, but everybody currently involved refuses to follow that policy

the article with that paragraph reflects very badly indeed on the quality of information of Wikipedia ... Stho002 (talk) 01:50, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

See this edit.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:15, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

How do you get a wikipedia page

I was wondering what the process is for getting a wikipedia page for yourself/company? DJBeanz (talk) 03:15, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

In general, companies or people should not write about themselves. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Autobiographies for more details. If people/companies are notable enough they often will have articles written on them already by non-affiliated editors.Jasper Deng (talk) 03:18, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. --Jayron32 04:03, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

And, to add another proviso, you may not want a 'page for yourself/company' - you won't have any control on who edits it - and negative content is judged by the same standard as positive content. AndyTheGrump (talk) 04:12, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Oooops - I messed up

Hi - I was trying to edit the wiki site about Deltora Quest 2. I was simply tidying the spelling and grammar, but I indented somewhere and now parts of the site have disappeared!

The words are there if you look in edit, but my indenting seems to have done something to the public page. I did not want to ruin someone else's hard work. Help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Raym2402 (talk • contribs) 03:18, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I see you have fixed it yourself. As you discovered, leading spaces cause special formatting. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:55, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Creating a text macro in an article or providing some way to replicate text from a prior place in the article.

A persistent problem at Extrasolar planet is that the number (and "as-of" date) of extrasolar planets is in two places, and very frequently only one gets updated (the count is probably updated a dozen times per month). There is already a comment pointing out the second usage.

I'd like to fix this by coding some sort of text macro, and referencing that in both places. I don't want to do a template (although I'm not ruling that out - my template foo is weak), since that would require putting the count and date on a separate page, which would make it significantly more difficult to edit. Something like meta:Extension:Labeled_Section_Transclusion / mw:Extension:Labeled_Section_Transclusion would appear to be perfect for the job, but is not available on the English Wikipedia.

Is there someway to do an "inline" template in the article, in which I could embed the count and date, or some form of macro or substitution that I've missed? Or any other suggestion on dealing with this? And yes, the thought of rewording things to eliminate the second use has occurred to me, but I don't think it can be done without major surgury, nor would it help clarity. Thanks, Rwessel (talk) 04:58, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any way to do this other than a template, short of wrapping the entire article in noinclude tags and transcluding itself, but that seems really messy and is not the right path to go down. ^Avic_ennasis @ 10:56, 10 Elul 5771 / 10:56, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

The count is also in other articles such as Discoveries of extrasolar planets and Planet. A template seems reasonable to me. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:42, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

That does make a template rather more appealing. Do you know of any examples of that sort of thing being done? I can see several ways to do that, but if there's an established pattern, I'd prefer to follow that. Not to mention having something to point to when people tell me I'm nuts for doing this.  ;-) Rwessel (talk) 19:47, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

The only example for inline use I can think of at the moment is {{NUMBEROF}} which uses bot generated data at {{NUMBEROF/data}}, but it's quite different from your case and doesn't seem a useful model for coding there. {{Current Women's Singles WTA Rankings}} is an example of an updated table currently used in two articles. It was split from one of the articles in [1]. Note how it uses <noinclude>...{{Reflist}}...</noinclude> to display the reference on the template page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:41, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Blocks

Under what conditions can you be blocked by an admin by? Undoing? How can you avoid a block? I'm sure one sad day, everyone will! help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.107.74.132 (talk) 09:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

The warning on your talk page included a link to Wikipedia:Blocking policy. Have you read that? - David Biddulph (talk) 09:04, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Henry Raeburn Dobson

Account of research into a subject

In his biography of the subject,Dr.Cabris refers to Raeburns marriage to Isabella Rae Smith Dawson. He states that the marriage did not last long as his RAF record of 1942 shows him as being seperated although no record of a divorce can be found. Although seperated they were still not divorced by 1945 as she married again that year and later in the same year was convicted and sent to prison for bigamy. Below is a brief history of her life post Raeburn. Should it, could it be included in Wikipedia. If so how should I proceed. In his biography of Henry Raeburn Dobson, Dr.Cabris refers to a curious episode concerning his marriage to one Isabel Rae Smith Dawson. This marriage took place in 1939 and according to Dr Cabris did not last long as in 1942 his RAF record shows that he was separated from his wife although no record of a divorce seems to be available. It is also stated that while his mother and sister did not like his wife being somewhat suspicious of her stated history, his nephews and nieces and other members of his family very much enjoyed her company. Dr.Cabris’ research shows Isabella’s father was in fact a moulder from Falkirk not, as she claimed, a research chemist. He concludes that part of the biography by saying that nothing further is known of Isabella. I am in the position to shed some light on the later life of Isabella, as I am married to her daughter whose birth certificate shows Henry Raeburn Dobson as being her father. Isabella Rae Smith Dawson was indeed the daughter of a moulder, Hugh Smith Leishman Dawson of Falkirk. She and her sisters Elizabeth and Ann together with brothers Hugh and John were born in Falkirk. The family then moved to Birmingham where her father took employment in a Birmingham foundry. It was there that her sister Jean and brother William were born. Isabella moved to London early in the war years where we believe she worked as a telephonist. How she managed to move in such circles that she met Raeburn we have never known and she never ever spoke about it. My wife was born in January 1944 and as previously stated, her birth certificate shows Henry were Raeburn Dobson as being her father. Why he was put down as being her father we will never know. Suffice to say, that until my wife was 40 and her mother was dying she always thought that he was her father. It was only in the last few weeks of her life and she told my wife the name of her true father, one William J Stangel of the USAF. Following the death of Isabella in 1983 my wife learnt a little more from her stepfather, but strangely, none of her aunts and uncles who knew much more were forthcoming with any more information, indeed, they all denied having any. Through good luck, the Internet and a little investigative work we have discovered the following. In 1945 Isabella married Capt. William J Stangel of the USAF who flew a Mustang in the American Squadron nicknamed the blue nosed bastards. He achieved the fighter pilot status of “Ace” with five, possibly six, kills to his name. As Dr Cabris has said there appears to be no record of a divorce between her and Raeburn and indeed later in 1945 she was tried and found guilty of bigamy and sent to prison. During that time my wife was sent to live with her grandmother in Birmingham. Obviously the marriage to Capt. Stangel would have been nullified due to the bigamous element, but whether that also served to complete the divorce from Raeburn is not known and as previously stated no record of any such divorce appears to be available. In later years Isabella married and RAF sergeant who accepted and treated my wife no differently to the son he and Isabella had in 1949. As stated previously Isabella died in 1983 having been ill for some time. Our research shows that Captain, later Major, Stangel died in 1974.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Hykeham (talk • contribs) 10:02, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

If you have additional information about Henry Raeburn Dobson, you are encouraged to be bold and edit the article yourself. However you need publicly available reliable sources for the information: personal knowledge and original research are not acceptable, because they are not verifiable. You may however discuss the information you have on the article's talk page, where perhaps somebody else can find published sources for it. The talk page is in any case a better place to discuss it than here, because few of the people reading this page are likely to have any particular interest in the subject. --ColinFine (talk) 17:54, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Baseball card Society Membership

Hello, I have in my possesion a Certificate of membership to the Baseball Card collectors Membership signed by Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra & Bob Gibson...It is numbered #2589 and I cant find anything anywhere on it... I believe it was issued in the 60's sometime and is excellent shape.. Can you tell me anything about it and if the 3 above noted Atheletes actuall signed this???? Very intricate part of my collection.. If you'd like to see a pic of it, it is currently listed on my ebay selling list..My user name is: cardboardcash....If its more valuable than I hasve listed , in your opinion, please Let me know...I know you're not appraisers but just asking for an opinion>>> Please get back to me as soon as possible...Heres my email: (Redacted)...I purchased it at an estate sale..Here is also my cell phone number should you want to talk to me....(Redacted)...I am very anxiously awaiting your rewply.. I am not very computer literate therefore my reason for asking...Fingers crossed and hoping you get back to me today.....Joe McGinley Sr... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.245.4.251 (talk) 11:43, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. GB fan please review my editing 11:47, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

2 questions

1. Why sign when there's sinebot?
2. Should I put a space before the ~~~~?
3. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.107.74.132 (talk • contribs) 

A few reasons: There's lots of discussion pages on Wikipedia where sinebot doesn't operate; sinebot doesn't just sign in the way you would, it is noting an error in the manner it does it, showing you are not with the program; it doesn't do it immediately always and can also be down at times, meaning people may see you post without knowing its author. Use this form with no preceding space: --~~~~.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:34, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

You don't need -- in front of ~~~~. I don't know know why the signature button above the edit box adds --. Most users make a space before ~~~~. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:32, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

No you don't need the -- but about a quarter of users use it or an en- or em-dash and with it there's no need for a space. It also acts as a noticeable separator, especially when the text immediately preceding the signature is linked, and is a long-standing convention (outside wikipedia) for a typed name as opposed to a true signature.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:25, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Wikify

What does it mean? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.107.74.132 (talk) 12:41, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Here is a definition of Wikify, WP:Wikify. There is also a project dedicated to Wikifying articles, WP:WIKIFY. GB fan please review my editing 12:46, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Problem with the Unified login

I want to usurp the account "Reder" for SUL purposes. This account don't have any edit, and this is one of the project in which I would not have unified login. Thanks. -- Reder 13:13, 9 September 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.48.89.153 (talk)

The process is described at WP:USURP. - David Biddulph (talk) 13:21, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Data over time on Article Feedback Tool

Does anyone know how to access the data over time on the Article Feedback Tool? I asked at Wikipedia talk:Article Feedback Tool#Data over time and found a few people who thought it was a good idea and thought it was accessible somewhere... but no one remembers where! Yaris678 (talk) 13:46, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

How do I change an existing out-of-date logo to our new one

Hi there

On our company page - http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Liverpool_Victoria - we have an old logo.

I'd like to update it with our new logo. I can't find how this is easily done.

I can link through to the official website to show that this is a legitimate change.

Any help m,uch appreciated. Thanks

Nick — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nick joy (talk • contribs) 13:54, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

If you go to this page, you will find a link to "Upload a new version of this file". Unfortunately, you have made only one edit and you need to be auto-confirmed before you can upload images; so you can make 9 more edits and wait a few days to upload it yourself, or provide a link to the new logo on the official site and someone else can upload the logo for you. Astronaut (talk) 14:12, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I have uploaded the teal version from http://www.lv.com/media_centre/media-pack - if that's not the correct one, please let us know which one is. Thanks. – ukexpat (talk) 14:33, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

non-diuretic hot/cold beverages

> I just had my prostate removed in Jan. 2011and the incontinence, I feel is not improving. I did have a cancerous tumor, but I am now cancer free. I was advised by my urologist to drink plenty of fluids and wear mens diapers until it improves completely. I have been following his advice. > > I need to find a non-diuretic hot/cold beverage. I have searched the internet many times to no avail. If I drink coffee or tea it is only one cup a day and always de-caffinated. But this does not seem to work. I still wake up almost every day with a very wet diaper. I also take several medications, generic lovenox 200MG per day, generic prevacid, casodex (generic bicalutamide), librax for IBS, diltiazem (blood pressure pill), crestor, generic paxil, lubron injections every 16 weeks, and occasionally tylenol for any pain. I am even doing kegel exercises, but have an ileostomy which is temporary because I developed an upper and lower colon infection and was hospitalized for over a month. > > I know this may be complicated because of all the medications. But can you recommend to me any non-diuretic hot/cold beverages that will help alleviate some incontinence? I use Wikipedia often and find it helpful, but there is nothing listed on this subject. Any advice at all will help me....thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.126.105.47 (talk) 14:06, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.

Sorry, but the reference desk won't help you either. They are unable to answer requests for medical advice other than to say "go see your doctor". Astronaut (talk) 14:13, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Brazilian National Math Olympiad for Public Schools

Hello,

I would know why the articles Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática Aplicada e Computacional and Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática das Escolas Públicas were marked as Unambiguous advertising or promotion and were eliminated after. If these items are Unambiguous advertising or promotion, so all articles about mathematics in Brazil are also Unambiguous advertising or promotion too.

Andrevruas (talk) 14:58, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

You'll need to ask User:Fastily, who was the one that deleted them. You might also find it helpful to read Wikipedia:CSD#G11. --ColinFine (talk) 18:06, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

User:Roberton213

Any article regarding the Houston Intercontinental Airport should state that as of 8/15/10 United Airlines has moved to Terminal C. Due to the United/Continental merger all flight numbers should be verified and passengers can check-in/drop-off/pick-up at the airline mentioned in the "Operated By" section found on their itinerary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.215.18.51 (talk) 15:02, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a "How to" guide, and text telling readers what they should or should not do is almost always inappropriate. But if you have encyclopaedic information about a subject which is referenced in reliable sources, you are welcome to edit the article and add the information. --ColinFine (talk) 18:11, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

edits

I work at a company and have full access to all historic and factual information, yet whenever I edit, I am getting a notice that my post "sounds too much like an advertisement". Can you please advise me on how to write the information so that it is acceptable to wikipedia's guidelines? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Debraredrhino (talk • contribs) 15:06, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Short answer: you have a WP:COI so please use the article's talk page to discuss your suggested changes. You must also provide reliable sources to support your changes. – ukexpat (talk) 15:43, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

That is, reliable independent sources. Other than for basic factual information about the company, its own publications are not acceptable as sources. --ColinFine (talk) 18:15, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Wool

what is botanical name of wool? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shivanshu181 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

You might try looking in the article on Wool or asking the question at reference desk. GB fan please review my editing 15:24, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Also, as wool is an animal product, there is no botanical name for it, anyhow. —Jeremy v^_^v ^{Components:V S M} 16:10, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

natrona news research

I am looking for information about a news bulletin (natrona news) received by an officer in WWII. It is the New Years Eve addition in 1946 and I can't find anything about this publisher, in generally, by searching the internet. Could someone help me find out more about this scripted news bulletin publisher? I would like to talk to someone and find out if this piece is valuable or important to anyone that might be interested in such an old article. Thanks, Penny Kaye York <tel # redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.107.101.66 (talk) 15:50, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 17:33, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia displaying weird font, look like Impact

Hey, starting a few days ago Wikipedia started displaying an odd font (kind of looks like a skinny Impact font, maybe Steelfish?).

This only occurs in IE8 and I haven't customized my font settings in IE at all, it's all factory default, UTF-8, etc.

Any ideas? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.150.27.132 (talk) 16:08, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

You may have inadvertently zoomed in or out on the text. This is a very common problem. In most browsers, you can adjust text sizes by scrolling in or out with the mousewheel while also pressing the Ctrl button. You can also adjust zoom settings by clicking on the 'Page' dropdown menu on the tab bar and selecting 'Text size'.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:11, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

ABOUT TOLA ( gold )

DEAR HELP DESK TEAM

I READ ABOUT TOLA GOLD BUT STILL I DID NOT GET INFORMATION ABOUT,

HOW MANY TOLA FOR ONE GOLD BISCUIT,

HOW MANY GRAM FOR ONE TOLA ( GOLD ),

HOW MANY US OZ PER ONE GOLD-BISCUIT

IF POSSIABLE TO HELP ME, PLEASE HELP ME TO GET THIS INFORMATION.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

E-MAIL (Redacted) N P — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.148.29.191 (talk) 16:53, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Humanities reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 18:04, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Brian O'Shaughnessy

Hello, I am trying to submit an article on Brian O'Shaughnessy, the Australian philosopher. I don't understand why it has been taken down. Can someone help me please? I would be very grateful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RosalindO (talk • contribs) 17:08, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Did you read the message on your talk page? The problem was copyright violation, so you ought to read that page. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:13, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Talk Page

What do you do when someone writes something like this on your talk page?

"What is your story? Are you attempting to cover up all the misdeeds of those who you worship because they were born into more wealth than you? What is it with your edits that are a blatant and vain attempt to hinder the free flow of information? Why do you feel it neccesary to repeatedly delete material that is within wiki's rules and offers referenced material regarding a dengerous bigot masquerading as a nonfiction writer? Why are you assisting in suppressing legitimate information and repressing free speech? Why do you have love for bigots who unintentionally reveal themselves when writing without oversight or editorial control of the publication they are writing for? Is it not funny that if you let a bigot have room to spread their wings, they get comfortable and forget to rein in their dark desires? You would make a very good Nazi. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mattmcds (talk • contribs) 21:24, 8 September 2011 (UTC)"Lovesbooks25 (talk) 19:25, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I've given them a templated warning about no personal attacks. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:16, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Image file problem

While reading Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, I came across this image file. It looked weird because the caption represented the image to be a map of Vietnam, but the image itself was of a man sitting at a table. Clicking on the image, I found that the map existed in the history of the image, but it looks like another editor recently (in July) uploaded this image of a man to the same filename without first checking to see if it was in use in other articles. I could just revert the file back to the original image, but this new image is now being used in a separate article and that would cause the reverse of the problem that I originally noted (i.e. an image of a map in an article where it doesn't belong with the caption representing it to be a person). Is there a way to restore the original image to this filename while also allowing the new image to stay in its current article, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Obviously, all of the licensing info is wrong on the file currently because it is the licensing information for the map and not the photograph of the man. I have no idea how to do this because I usually only revert vandalism. Thanks. Chillllls (talk) 20:26, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Seeing as it was seemingly uploaded without any licensing information - I have reverted it and removed it from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs article. If that image is usable it should be uploaded under a new name, we shouldn't use the image at all without knowing where it came from or who owns the copyright, if any. Яehevkor ✉ 20:57, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Ok, thanks! Chillllls (talk) 21:09, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Lost archives

Our Talk:Argentines of European descent page seems to be getting archived, but there doesn't appear to be a link to the archives on the talk page. I suspect that this may have resulted from a badly-implemented move from White Argentines as it was originally named. Is there an easy way to restore the archive links? AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:18, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I have moved the archives from Talk:Argentine people of European descent/Archive 1 and Talk:Argentine people of European descent/Archive 2. They are now linked from Talk:Argentines of European descent. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:26, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, PrimeHunter. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:41, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Fixing a repair to an article that wasn't done quite right

Resolved

 – Section restored.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:57, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism to WP:REFSTART occurred here and the personal attack was deleted [2] but the entire "Information to include" section that had been overwritten by the attack never got put back in.

The directions don't quite make sense without the missing section. (Later text refers to it.)

Can I just copy & paste it back in with an edit summary explanation? Or is the fix more complicated? I can't just revert because valid edits have been done in the meantime. Cloveapple (talk) 22:34, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't know if there was an easier way, but I fixed it.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:11, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

edited articles

I recently saw a message that an article I created needed further sourcing. However, I cannot now find that message. Where did it go? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.199.26 (talk) 23:15, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean the article at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Steve Schlanger? Cloveapple (talk) 23:22, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

New editor: help wanted?

I've just joined as an editor, although I have been reading the Wikipedia for some time now. To start contributing, which tasks would be the most appropriate? Cognitio ipsum (talk) 23:36, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

I'll suggest a couple things you might start on but don't feel limited to them.

• Find a WikiProject that interests you and see if it has tasks to work on. (WikiProjects are groups of editors that share a common interest.) I see from your user page that you like books so I'll suggest Wikipedia:WikiProject Books, Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels, Wikipedia:WikiProject Children's literature, Wikipedia:WikiProject Literature, Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography, or Wikipedia:WikiProject Science Fiction. If none of those looks interesting there are a million other WikiProjects. For example if there's a geographical area that interests you it probably has a WikiProject.

• Do light editing on articles. For example you could do searches for common typos and fix them. (Though be careful since some stuff that looks like typos might be a style of English you aren't familiar with.) Or you could look at articles that need more links to other articles and add internal links to some of these articles. WP:CHEAT shows how to add links and do other markup. Once you've added links to an article, you can remove the note saying the article needs to be "wikified."

Cloveapple (talk) 05:07, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Also, check out {{Tasks}}. You might benefit from going through the Wikipedia:Tutorial before getting started.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:02, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you both for the tips. That's certainly enough material to get started. Cognitio ipsum (talk) 21:43, 12 September 2011 (UTC)