Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 September 5

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September 5

Stride Piano Artists / Re: Adding Jerry White To Listing Of Artists

Yesterday I made an edit request asking to include my late brother's name.Jerry White died in 1971 at the age of 35. He was a natural Ragtime Stride Piano Artist who recorded three albums. His music is featured by Amazon, Cdbaby, and Jazz By Mail. com. Google browser features Jerry White as top Stride Piano Jazz artist. Youtube.com also ranks him as top rated providing a six minute video clip of his artistry.

Please advise me as to the status of my request.

Thank you.

Howard White —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerryragtime (talk • contribs) 00:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

 Done Taken care of. GlassCobra 07:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Re- Done - Jerry White is actually a disambiguation page, so I edited the link on Stride (music) to Jerry White (musician). I did not add a redlink to Jerry White. – ukexpat (talk) 13:44, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

auction history

I am new to this and was told I could use this site to view auctions containing items I have recently inherited to find out their value, but I cannot figure out how to get there. HELP!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Loafer999 (talk • contribs) 01:06, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 01:09, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

You may be looking for http://ebay.com/ Andy Mabbett (aka Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy Mabbett; Andy Mabbett's contributions 08:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Government IPs

Why do administrators have to notify the foundation when government IPs such as 143.231.249.141 are blocked? GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 01:43, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

For what it’s worth, see Wikipedia:Blocking IP addresses#Sensitive IP addresses. —Travis^talk 01:51, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

There is a place to let them know as well. They are listening. Very best, NonvocalScream (talk) 02:07, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

So, that "communications committee" only deals with contacting the press and such? They don't contact IT / Web Security admins? GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 02:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Occasionally an editor will contact the abuse@, but this needs to be done cautiously. As it may affect the job of living people. Such as a military person editing on a break (which US DoD policy permits). If they were to have abuse reported for say, one act of vandalism, that report could have far reaching consequences for that person's livelihood. As an example.

The ComCom would need to know if any reports were made on a SIP (Sensitive IP address) such as this report. I do encourage sensitivity and patience when dealing with SIPs. Very respectfully, NonvocalScream (talk) 02:38, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

When you say that DoD policy permits editing, I assume you're talking about constructive edits, not vandalism. Actually, people can get caught on military networks by NOC without anyone sending a report; those networks are closely monitored, and I'm sure some of them have gotten in big trouble for vandalism. It's funny that you mention the military networks; I hope to work at Navy NOC later in life. GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 02:51, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, it does permit acceptable use. I would however, be hard pressed to send a report of abuse, in actual abuse. For me, the issue would have to be long term, or gross enough to risk the off wiki implications. The NOC does monitoring of Government IS, but does so under strict conditions and with restrictions. NonvocalScream (talk) 03:02, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Links

Just out of curiosity, is there any possible way to change the color of an internal link? ~ Bella Swan^? 01:53, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes. <span> tags work. WODUP 02:35, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

If you want to change the color of all links as they appear to you, then yes, this can be done through CSS. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 04:20, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

<font> is deprecated HTML. Please don't use it. Andy Mabbett (aka Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy Mabbett; Andy Mabbett's contributions 08:36, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. I didn't know. My signature has been updated to reflect this. Thanks. :) WODUP 20:03, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

There are also other solutions which do not require <font> tags 207.58.235.243 (talk) 16:29, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Reporting and warning vandals

When reporting and warning vandals, is it necessary to go the whole way from warning 1-4, before reporting a vandal? Some vandals, like the one who just vandalized my user page; don't seem much like they will listen to warnings. I just saw a policy: Wikipedia:Ignore all rules; can I use this with reporting vandals? I'm just not clear on how this works in practice. Thanks. Magog the Ogre (talk) 02:02, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I often begin with a "Do that again and you may be blocked" warning and immediately report it to WP:AIAV. If an admin agrees that this is someone who simply wants to be a vandal, the user may be blocked. If not, wait for them to do it again and report them to WP:AIAV again. -- kainaw™ 02:06, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Its a good idea to give them a couple of chances. But like the above, sometimes one can skip the steps. NonvocalScream (talk) 02:08, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It generally depends on the vandalism. If some eleven year old girl goes to her elementary school's media center and writes "Hi everybody! Don't mind me, I'm just playing around." or something similar at the bottom of an article, then it would probably be better to give the person more second chances (especially considering that the person is editing from a shared workstation in that scenario), but if someone writes "Give me a million dollars or I'll seek you out and murder you" on Dollar, replaces Wikipedia with "I'm gonna f*** wikipedia up the a**!," or inserts an image of a time bomb on Internal Revennue Service with the caption "One of the IRS mother f****** will see one of these explode soon!," then it's probably a good idea to either use {{uw-vandalism4im}}, or just immediately report to WP:AIV. Hope that helps! GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 02:45, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) If it's something small like adding stuff to articles (swear words, nonsense, etc.), somebody's probably just trying it out and playing around with this brand-new idea that YOU can edit webpages! And of course, the first thing that comes to mind is to be nonsensical with it. So I usually start with a level 2 warning, which I think is stern enough without being overly rude, for a small thing like that, and if they keep it up, they get a nice level 5 or final slapped on their page. (With maybe a few steps in between there, depends on my mood and their actions.) After a couple of warnings, though, if they don't stop I send 'em straight to WP:AIV. If it's outright, blatant vandalism (like deliberately vandalizing a userpage), I'd either give them a final warning or go straight to reporting them. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 02:46, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Just what I was thinking. Thanks a million everyone for your response. Magog the Ogre (talk) 02:47, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I didnt confirm on time

The confirmation for my wikipedia expired. How do I re-register? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eswari 2 (talk • contribs) 03:40, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean by "The confirmation for my wikipedia expired"? Your account is working since you could post here, and Special:EmailUser/Eswari 2 indicates you have email confirmation (maybe you got that between posting here and my reply?) PrimeHunter (talk) 03:59, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

translating articles

Is there a problem if I want to translate articles from one language into another? I haven't psoted anything yet. I am mostly interested in translating english - romanian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Georgeono (talk • contribs) 07:19, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Not at all, you just have to give credit to the original page in some manner. For an article translated into english, you can add the template: {{Translated page}} to the talk page of the article (follow the link to see the instructions for using that template). If the language you're translating to doesn't have such a template, you can leave a note to the same effect on the talk page, and/or as your first edit summary state what page on what language the translation was performed from. Someguy1221 (talk) 07:25, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

You might want to translate articles from English, into Romanian, for the Romanian Wikipedia. Andy Mabbett (aka Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy Mabbett; Andy Mabbett's contributions 08:42, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

And see WP:EIW#Translate. --Teratornis (talk) 03:20, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

translate

how do i translate an article from one language to the other —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.163.237.37 (talk) 07:24, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Translate is one way to make an imperfect start on a translation. —teb728 t c 08:09, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Also see the {{Google translation}} template. We have demonstrated it several times on the Help desk; you can look up these previous answers with the following {{Google help desk}} search:

• Search the Help desk with Google for: google translation

That search finds several previous examples of translating Wikipedia articles. Most if not all of those examples were written by me. --Teratornis (talk) 03:19, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

What website to use in screenshots?

I was just wondering what website should be used in screenshots of web browsers, I see many with the wikipedia page, but that has lots of problems for many reasons, self reference should be avoided, etc... so, what website whould be used? a blank page? A ramdom website that is in the public domain or under a free license? I really don't what should be used... SF007 (talk) 07:32, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I recommend avoiding the websites of for-profit corporations, to avoid giving undue attention to them. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 09:23, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Why o Why are bands (music) not allowed in an encyclopedia? like wikipedia. To me that is ridiculous, sorry..

For years i have had a page on one of my bands on wikipedia and i just found out it got deleted last month because as of now you say bands are of no use and should not be in wikipedia? Who are you to say if a page is relevant or not? I thought wikipedia was all about everyone in the world contributing and sharing information / knowledge on everything possible?

So if i would like to know something about a band, even if you people hate that kind of music, i would like to consult wikipedia. Obviously you people don't.

Thank you Ben —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benhume (talk • contribs) 07:41, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It's got nothing to do with liking or not liking a particular genre of music. Please take a look at Wikipedia:Notability (music), our inclusion guidelines for bands and music-related articles. GlassCobra 07:43, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

This essay always makes me laugh...  – ukexpat (talk) 13:53, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

That was truly hilarious. Thanks for that Ukexpat. Garycompugeek (talk) 14:10, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

There are thousands of articles about bands. Of course, like any other subject, it's not possible to write an encyclopedia article without reliable sources, so we only have articles about the thousands of bands which have been written about in such sources. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 13:56, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It may be uncivil to laugh at other people's distress. Particularly when the distress results from (what I consider) an ergonomic weakness of Wikipedia, namely that Wikipedia seems to encourage new users to edit at length without first ensuring that they have the minimal understanding of Wikipedia to give their work a reasonable chance of not getting deleted. That's why I wish the Main Page displayed a count of deleted articles alongside the count of (for now) surviving articles. Just that one tidbit of information might raise the awareness of new users that hey, Wikipedia deletes an awful lot of articles, and possibly motivate a few of them to think about what they might need to do to give the articles they start a snowball's chance. --Teratornis (talk) 23:18, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It also may be uncivil to suggest vague policy violations about other editors. Ukexpat and I found an article funny. I'm not laughing at anyone's distress. Garycompugeek (talk) 22:38, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

IP conflict

I am accused of placing inaccurate information in an already existing article but I have never updated any articles in Wikipedia, Nor to my knowledge has anyone at this ISP address. The article in question is on DTs a subject which I knew very little about before I read the article, should I be worried about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zechymahler (talk • contribs) 09:19, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry about it. Other people in your network may have had the same IP address, so the warning is probably directed at whomever used that IP address earlier. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 09:28, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

You can see contributions by an IP address at Special:Contributions, but if the page was later deleted then the contributions are not listed and can only be seen by administrators. I don't know your IP address, and note that many Internet connections have dynamic (changing) IP addresses. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:40, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

404

This can't be found. What's done in that case? -- 194.75.236.69 (talk) 13:12, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The edit that apparently caused the problem will need to be reverted by an administrator. The image is currently protected. Scottydude _review 13:20, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

There are currently a few problems with images on the database, unprotecting / reverting won't do anything. Just need to wait I think, I have tried purging but it doesn't do anything. Woody (talk) 13:23, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Design

Afternoon Helpdesk. I'm interested in helping to tidy up and unify the design of Wikipedia's pages; is there a WikiProject or somesuch already doing this? If not would it be a good idea for me to set one up? Or just go it alone on a page-by-page basis? Pretzels^chatters 13:12, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Well theres Wikipedia:Manual of Style or any of these? As far as one specific to design, I'm not sure. Happy editing! Scottydude _review 13:25, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Fixed that MOS link for ya...  – ukexpat (talk) 13:55, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. While what you posted was useful, I should have perhaps been more specific. I'm talking about improving the design of "internal" Wikipedia pages, not articles - eg Help Desk, Help, Community Portal, these kind of pages. Also, to a lesser extent, portal pages. Any ideas? Pretzels^chatters 14:05, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... I don't know right away, but perhaps you would like to look at the directory of wikiprojects? Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 14:09, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

You mentioned portals. Wikipedia talk:Featured portal candidates has a list of users who are active in determining the featured portals. Maybe one of them knows something about an organized approach to improving the portal pages. As to the non-portal pages, if you want to "tidy up" and "unify the design" of some of Wikipedia's internal pages, you might start by creating samples as user subpages, so people can understand what you are suggesting. Then try to sell your ideas on the talk pages of the pages you want to change. However, read Wikipedia talk:Help desk and its archives first, to get an idea of what you may be wading into. On Wikipedia, there are usually reasons why things are the way they are, and to persuade the people who like the way things are to accept a change, you must understand their reasons and convince them your reasons are better. --Teratornis (talk) 23:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

There is a Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals. It looks like most or all of the WikiProjects focusing on internal Wikipedia work are on: Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/Wikipedia. You might find it easier to unify the design of portal pages, since we already have style guidelines for them, whereas the internal Wikipedia pages (pages in the Wikipedia: namespace) may suffer from a bit of the shoemaker's children syndrome. For example, the kinds of pages that can rise to the status of Featured content do not appear to include our internal pages. Wikipedians generally seem to view the internal pages as primarily functional means to the end of making our "real" content (for readers) nice to look at. For example, the primary function of this Help desk is to provide accurate answers quickly. How the page looks from an aesthetic standpoint would be much less important. --Teratornis (talk) 23:55, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

what kind of english?

what kind of English is used in wikipedia? British (as in colour, metre, jam,jelly etc.) or American (as in color, meter, jelly,Jell-O etc.)? or can anyone contribute in whichever they wish? (eg. The Aussies found the perfect greeting-G'Day Mate!) --SuperJew ^{(contact me)} 14:14, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome! For a complete answer, I encourage you to read WP:ENGVAR. The short answer is that some articles use one, and some use the other. In most cases, when editing an existing article, you should use whatever form of English is already in use in that article. Individual articles should be kept consistent within the article, but articles should not be changed from one format to another without a very good reason. If starting a new article, in most cases just use whichever form you like, but articles about a localized subject should use that local form of English. --Clubjuggle ^T/C 14:22, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It varies, but an article should be consistent, and if the subject is tied to a particular country then the local spelling is often preferred. See more at Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (spelling). PrimeHunter (talk) 14:23, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Teacake problamatique

Why is your teacakes article called Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats? They are called teacakes. The British came up with them first, not the Americans, so we should use the British name --Teacake Martyr (talk) 14:18, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Teacake already has its own article. I don't know who came first up with exactly what, and it's not important to Wikipedia:Naming conventions which is more based on common use. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

If you look on the whole article, and just look around anywhere in the world, NOBODY uses the term Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats. It is some hyped up American term even though they have no connection on Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats' in their culernary history. It should be called 'Chocolate Teacake', as Teacake and 'Chocolate Teacake' are different things. Do you honestly think anyone searchs the term 'Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats' on Wikipedia? No, they use Chocolate Teacake. Its shorter, simplier and more specific. --Teacake Martyr (talk) 14:31, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Chocolate teacake redirects to Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats so anyone searching for the former will end up at the latter. – ukexpat (talk) 14:38, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree that the current title is daft. Besides which, it breaches naming conventions by being in the plural for no good reason. Pince Nez (talk) 14:40, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Chocolate teacake already exists as a redirect to Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats. If you want to propose moving the page to "Chocolate teacake" (which is essentially the same as renaming the page) then put a note at Talk:Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats proposing such a move, and wait a few days to see if their are any objections. WP:MOVE explains the proper procedure for moving a page. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:42, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Similar treats are known by different names in different countries. The article is apparently an attempt to cover the different varieties in one place without using a name that only applies to some of them. There is a short discussion at Talk:Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats#Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats? See Wikipedia:Requested moves for how to suggest a new title. Moving it to the name of a specific variety without prior discussion would probably be controversial and I don't recommend it. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:51, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

But why the plural? Pince Nez (talk) 14:54, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I have started a discussion at Talk:Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, on my crusade to rename this poorly named article. --Teacake Martyr (talk) 14:55, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

(undent) Is this another Ouija-whatever ploy? The username looks suspicious and is recent. --Teratornis (talk) 00:08, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I object to this proposed rename and propose instead renaming it to Mallomar. (well, no I don't - the point is, it's a concept that goes beyond any single local variation). --Random832 (contribs) 16:22, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Image credits

I feel quite sure that image credits (i.e. the name of the photographer) should only be placed on the image page, and not as part of a caption where the image is used in a mainspace article. Is this correct? If so, please could you tell me where to find the relevant policy/guideline? Thanks in advance! Pince Nez (talk) 14:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

One would expect it to be in WP:MOSIMAGES, but it isn't. Usually the "source" section of the {{Information}} template on the image description page is sufficient to satisfy the attribution clause in the GFDL and CC-BY, but some non-free images, such as the famous Iwo Jima image, must be attributed on every instance of the image. Unless the image is like such, there isn't a reason to include it. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:07, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Group Change

I can't change to autoconfimed status even though i did every thing. I have been on long enough and have done enough edits. Thank you. Going to try and get mildly active again. Don't expect much on this page, though.

I also did some stupid things back in 2008 and 2009 and hopefully I can move past those, especially as I only want to now make Wikipedia articles I read often cleaner and neater.

Are you sure you are not autoconfirmed now? It should have happened around 11 hours ago (between this and your preceding edit), unless you are editing through a Tor network. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:19, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

This calculation is based on your account creation [1] around 4 days and 11 hours ago. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:23, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

External Myspace Links

I do all the online editing for a musician/band who are on here. I have been editing the articles up here as they are inaccurate. I am trying to put in external links to Myspace and Facebook which are official pages but I keep getting them removed. They are reliable and official sources as I maintain them on behalf of the band/musician. Why can't I have these links? Sorry to ask if it's really basic as I am new on here. Thanx. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blackqueen66 (talk • contribs) 15:51, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're directly associated with the band, you have a conflict of interest, and should try to avoid writing about them on Wikipedia. Reliable sources of information on the band are not the band's official pages, but the newspaper articles, magazine articles, and books that have been written about them. Remember that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a forum for even well-intentioned advertising. Again, if you are already running the band's web site, you should avoid writing about the band on Wikipedia- if you want to help write the encyclopedia, you can still do that by writing about other bands that you are interested in. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 15:54, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I notice that the article you've created has some pretty serious violations of the neutral point of view policy. You might find it helpful to see if anyone at WikiProject Music is interested in helping rewrite it in a more encyclopedic tone. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 15:58, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

It also had a severe copyvio from http://www.thestorys.co.uk/news.htm, which I have reverted. Corvus cornix_talk 18:29, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

How to delate

How exactly can I nominate This horrible and pointless article for deletion. The rules are so complex! Tutthoth-Ankhre (talk) 15:53, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

See WP:DPR for the steps. Gtstricky^{Talk or C} 16:06, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Remove an article's title

How do I prevent the title of the article from being displayed in the top left corner? For example, Main Page doesn't say Main Page at the top. The only magic words I can see are _NOTOC_ and _NOEDITSECTION_, and neither of those seem to do the trick. Anyone? -137.22.3.32 (talk) 16:32, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Why do you want to? Woody (talk) 16:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The main page uses special CSS for formatting that does not apply to other article. If you tell us what you really want, we can probably help better. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:37, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe {{DISPLAYTITLE: }} will work, but I don't know. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 17:37, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm asking for another wiki I'm editing. Like Wikipedia, I'd like the main page to not have "Main Page" on it. If it's a custom CSS thing, then that's fine, and I'll just do without. -137.22.3.32 (talk) 18:22, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

In that case, it is MediaWiki:Pagetitle-view-mainpage, it's r38730 of MediaWiki. Regards. Woody (talk) 18:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Depending on what specifically you're asking about, there's also some related CSS at MediaWiki:Monobook.css (do a search on that page for "Main" to find it). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:38, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Downloadable/Static Help Section?

This is copied from my other question. The last part of it is my actual question after such. -- I've already been answered about the sandbox, and have it set up (see EXE Sandbox above), but I also want all of the help pages so that I can actually read to learn about the stuff, and have a reference...

My main problem however is that I have WOS installed (looking back WAMP seems a little easier, but heh...), and I'm not sure how to go about getting the help pages in there (I don't want the rest, just help... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pyrofyr (talk • contribs) 19:25, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

See the links under WP:EIW#Download, WP:EIW#Export, WP:EIW#Mobile, WP:EIW#Research, WP:EIW#Mirror, and WP:EIW#Query. The odds may be low that anyone who is answering questions on the Help desk just now has actually done what you are trying to, and would have the necessary experience to tell you an efficient way to copy all the Help pages from Wikipedia. What you mean by "all the help pages" is not clear. Wikipedia has (at least) two large sets of help pages:

• The MediaWiki Handbook, which focuses on what is common to all or most wikis that run on the MediaWiki software.
• The Wikipedia: (Project:) namespace, which contains many pages that document things specific to Wikipedia.

What you want depends on what you are trying to do. If you are trying to set up your own wiki, you would focus first on the MediaWiki Handbook. If you are trying to learn how to edit specifically on Wikipedia, then you need all the Project: stuff too. The MediaWiki Handbook itself says you can import the Handbook into your own wiki, but it only links to generic instructions in mw:Help:Import. mw:Data dumps describes the dump files you can download. You might find it easier just to buy a book, such as Wikipedia - The Missing Manual. --Teratornis (talk) 21:11, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

And note: this Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. The appropriate place to ask questions about running the MediaWiki software on your own computer or server is mw:Project:Support desk. See the links under WP:EIW#SingleSignon to get your account to work over there. --Teratornis (talk) 21:32, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Hoping this is still seen despite being a bit up here now. In any case, I am looking for generic wiki information/help. It's mostly for syntax and the more advanced stuff, so that I can learn at my own pace. 65.11.205.172 (talk) 21:55, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like you should start by reading the MediaWiki Handbook. --Teratornis (talk) 22:41, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't get this image to generate a thumbnail...

thumb|Radar image of the circulation of Hurricane Gustav reaching southern Wisconsin Pretty self explanatory, really. This image won't generate a thumbnail in articles. I know that wikimedia generated one because you can see it in the file history, but somehow it isn't showing up when I place the image in articles. Any ideas? Plasticup ^T/C 18:48, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The server has had this kind of problems for the last couple of hours; see for example new files on commons, where almost all thumbs are missing - Erik Baas (talk) 18:56, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

This happens from time to time. It generally sorts itself out (or someone sorts it out, I don't know) after a while, as it has done here. Algebraist 19:03, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Ah, okay then. Thanks. Plasticup ^T/C 19:08, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Please note Wikipedia talk:Accessibility#Moving_images. Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy Mabbett; Andy Mabbett's contributions 21:27, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Monobook background

Does anyone know the CSS to change my background from that weird book thingy? I haven't found a suitable image yet, but I'd like to know the code for when I find one. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 20:18, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

/* replace the book in the background with something else */
body { background: Purple; }

This is per Help:User style#Samples. I have little understanding myself of these monobook matters.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:34, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

That set a solid color. This will set the background to a single Image:WikiG.png, right aligned at 50px:

#p-personal {background: url(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/WikiG.png) right no-repeat; height:50px

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:41, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The first one does absolutely nothing, and the second only changes the background of the userlinks at the top. (I like it, and will keep it, but it's not exactly what I wanted). Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 21:02, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

How to archive

I remember seeing a few days ago a Wikipedia or Help page with instructions how to archive an AfD, merge discussion or similar things, but I can't find it anymore, and my browser history contains a few thousand pages too much to look there. Could someone point me there? Admiral Norton ^(talk) 20:58, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Is it Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Administrator_instructions? _Gb^T/c 21:06, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Actually it seems I was thinking about Wikipedia:Deletion process, but the page you showed me is transcluded there. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 21:08, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

The next time you are trying to relocate one of these internal Wikipedia pages, try searching with Ctrl-F on the Editor's index. --Teratornis (talk) 00:14, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

How to add catagories to uploaded images

I uploaded an image and a few days later it had a notice on it saying I could improve the file by adding "catagories" to it. It said that catagories will make it easier for others to find the image. I followed a link on the notice but it was all very long and complicated and didn't really explain how to add catagories to an image. Can someone please explain in a simple manner? N40798 —Preceding undated comment was added at 22:47, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

If you are referring to Commons:Image:Graffiti in Montclair.JPG, someone has added a category to it. —teb728 t c 23:22, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Adding categories is very easy. Just add

[[Category:Name of category]]

to the bottom of the page, just the same as for an article. By convention, categories are added after the references and any templates but before the interwiki links but it still works even if you get the order "wrong". The difficult bit is deciding what categories to put something in. If you are inexperienced with this, the best plan is to find a similar item and copy the categories from that. SpinningSpark 07:51, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

You can also use the script HotCat to add categories easily. It can be enabled in you preferences, under 'gadgets' section. This adds a link to the bottom of the page that can be used to easily add or remove a category from a page. Chamal ^Talk 07:58, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

J K Jaiswal (Jeet)

(Personal resume removed. —Noah 23:34, 5 September 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. PerfectProposal 00:15, 6 September 2008 (UTC)