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January 22

Dumb question from an experienced user

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 14:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Various Wikipedia pages make reference to the amount of "readable prose" in an article. Is there an easier way to measure readable prose than pasting the article into a word processor and manually removing everything that doesn't qualify before running a word/character count? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 22:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Try importScript('User:Dr pda/prosesizebytes.js');. It adds a "Page size" button to the toolbox in your sidebar, and gives a reading of readable prose, as well as other readability stats. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 22:44, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Let me follow up with that, you've given us code, but where do we add said code?---Balloonman ^PoppaBalloonCSD Survey Results 22:52, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I meant to type that bit. Oops. PeterSymonds (talk) 23:30, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Add it to your monobook.js page at: Special:MyPage/monobook.js. Then bypass your browser cache. – ukexpat (talk) 22:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is not too different from the bother that is pasting the content into a word processor, but having all possibilities listed in one helpdesk post is a good thing in my book. There's also this online wordcounter.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:16, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But this script automatically detects what is cosidered readable prose. I find it quite useful. - Mgm|^(talk) 00:12, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all. I guess it's time to finally create my monobook.js page. Sigh... Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:22, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How do i create a page?

i have tried to create one and the first time i ever went on i found it but then the computer got stuffed up and now i can't remember where it was? please help me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bubbly49 (talk • contribs) 01:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. —Noah 01:43, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

physics-GRAVITATION

The orbital velocity of a satellite is given by v=root over GM/(R+h),where m=mass of the earth ,R=radius of the earth and 'h' is the height of the satellite from the surface of the earth. Explain the reasons why geostationary satellite is not possible to set in orbit around the earth at two different heights from the surface of the earth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.67.93 (talk) 03:22, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Science 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). You will have to show some effort in solving this problem, though. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. –Capricorn42 (talk) 03:25, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Geosynchronous orbit and Geostationary orbit. A satellite can orbit the Earth at a variety of heights, but only one height for a circular orbit gives an orbital period equaling one Earth day, since the orbital period is a function of height. It would actually be possible to get geosynchronous behavior at different heights with a Space elevator, but the required strength of the anchor cable exceeds that of anything humans can currently make. Perhaps in 100 years, this homework question will need adjustment. --Teratornis (talk) 08:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Er...school homework question? Sorry we don't do those for you. – ukexpat (talk) 14:09, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New heading

I can see that there are ways to edit the existing sections, but I want to add a new section - how do I do that? Can I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Takdhina (talk • contribs) 03:27, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are referring to use of equal signs. two equal signs denotes a top level heading, and 3 being a sub, etc. for example:

==Original Heading==

===New (sub) heading===

==New main heading==

does that help? Ched (talk) 05:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC) )format Ched (talk) 05:30, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:CHEATSHEET, Help:Section, and WP:LAYOUT. --Teratornis (talk) 08:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Essay

I'm interested in submitting an article to the essay section, but would like opinions on it first. Would it be proper to post to peer review or RfC? to get some extra eyes on this before I post? Ched (talk) 05:40, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am uncertain what you mean? Do you mean that you have an essay you would like to post as an article? In that case, it sounds like original work and Wikipedia is not the correct place to publish it. Or do you mean that you have an essay about Wikipedia that you have written that you would like to publish? If that is the case, you should create it as a subpage of your user namespace. Generally, only essays with fairly widespread usage get moved to the Wikipedia: namespace. If you want to publish it in your user namespace, that seems perfectly acceptable. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 06:05, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:EIW#Essay for what we have about Wikipedia's definition of "essay", which may not correspond to what the rest of the world means by the word. --Teratornis (talk) 08:29, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright

Hi, I'm looking to upload a picture of the wrestler kamala, my father does his website and he is going to ask him for his permission to use his picture on here, my question is how should we go about doing this? does he have to send us something saying "i the copyright holder blah blah blah" or something, I'm also going to ask my father to ask Samula Anoa'i and Afa Anoa'i permission to use one of their pictures as well, thankyou. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DrakeLuvenstein (talk • contribs) 05:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Requesting_copyright_permission#For_images. –Capricorn42 (talk) 05:55, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Stub search engine

I have a suggestion: why not to create a tiny specialized *stub search engine* embedded into the alphanumerical {{# stub #}} list? As going thru 1000's of stubs under SINGLE letter is annoying, esp. as we live not in the printed book age {with appendix & list of topics, important words}, but in the internet and information age when search is usually just a click away? I hope my humble suggestion will be taken at some point seriously by some good programmer/web designer! Thanks in advance for the possible future implementation (& end of my frustration in the stub page) of such a search engine!

NB: sorry for writing {{# stub # }} instead of '{'+'{'+'stub'+'}}' because I don't know how to comment on the mediawiki code (or whichever code is used to generate nice wikipedia pages) Kazkaskazkasako (talk) 11:35, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rather than creating an entirely new search engine, try contacting the external WP search engines that already exist and see if they're interested in adding functionality. (Another option is perhaps Wikipedia:User scripts). To do the same for the internal search engines, please start a discussion at the talk page of WP:SEARCH. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:39, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fact keeps being changed to fiction. Now unable to edit page. What's up?

On the Carole Di Falco page, her birth year was listed as 1970. She is listed in 1968 births. She reports turning 4 in late summer of 1967, which makes both 1968 and 1970 false and 1963 true. Simple math. Nevertheless, her year of birth is continually changed back from 1963 to 1968 or 1970. Now the ability to edit that page has been removed. What is going on? Thanks Acimmouse (talk) 11:45, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(The page in question is titled Carole Radziwill) Your changes are being reverted by an anonymous user, so I suggest you start a dialogue with them on the article's talk page Talk:Carole Radziwill. Politely explain your reasons for wanting to change the birth year, and give your sources (say where exactly she "reports turning 4 in late summer of 1967"). The page doesn't seem to have been protected, so I don't follow you when you say "ability to edit that page has been removed". Gandalf61 (talk) 12:01, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the advice. When one clicks on 'edit' on that page, the text containing the birth year is no longer available to edit. Not being a computer geek or anything close to it, I find myself a stranger in a strange land without the knowledge necessary to figure this out. I don't understand why the text is now 'gone'. Other text is present, but not the paragraph containing the information about her birth year. Did you try clicking edit? It looks like ONE should be able to edit, but those lines are now absent. For my source, Di Falco writes in her book on page 35 'What Remains', "It starts with a road trip, Labor Day 1967. ..... I had just turned four." Thanks for your assistance Gandal, Acimmouse (talk) 12:13, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Make sure you click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of the page, so that you can see the text for the whole page in the edit panel. If you click on the "edit" link to the right of the "Career" heading (next to the photo with my browser settings) you are only editing the "Career" section text, so you won't see the text of the very first paragraph of the article.

You can add your source as a reference in the article - put your reference between <ref> and </ref> tags immediately after the section you edit, and it will appear as a footnote in the "References" section at the bottom of the page. Look at the other references already in the article to see how this works. Gandalf61 (talk) 12:25, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Thanks very much. Interesting. I WAS clicking on the wrong edit button. Ok. I did something wrong - can you look at the page and tell me what I'm doing wrong? It didn't come out as #5. Do I need to write that? I guess so. Sheesh. Thanks again, Acimmouse (talk) 12:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have turned the information into an inline citation (diff).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

questions form a new user!

how do i add my own infomation page on wikipedia? how do i add and edit contend? what happends if i make a mistake when uploading infomation? will it be taken off? can others complain about my content? Gforsey (talk) 12:57, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To answer in order:

You have a user page located at User:Gforsey. Just put your information there.
Just click the "edit this page" tab at the top of any article.
If you or someone else notices a mistake, it can be changed or fixed by either you or someone else. Its pretty much how Wikipedia works.
Well, others can make comments about the work you do, but you should not take such comments as complaints. There is a lot of discussion which goes on at Wikipedia, and most of it (should be) about improving the quality of articles.

You may want to see Wikipedia:Tips for some helpful tips on getting started at Wikipedia. If no one else has done so, let me be the first to say Welcome!!! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 13:27, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Changing a page title

I have just started to article on your page for John Braithwaite (sport shooter)which previously had no information about him. I would like to be able to change the page title from John Braithwaite to Bob Braithwaite as he is only known by that name and anyone trying to find his information will be unable to do so. Can you advise how to do this or if it can only be done by you would you do it please Vic HarkerVic Harker (talk) 13:32, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

You may use the "move" tab at the top of the page to have the page "renamed". However, I'll create two new redirect pages for your article (1,2) since the original article preferably must have its formal name. E Wing (talk) 13:44, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Usually articles aren't named after the most popularly used? -- Menti sock 13:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The relevant guideline is Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people), which I will not attempt to summarize here. Algebraist 13:52, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, which basically affirms what I said. Formal names aren't really used if the people are known by another name or there'll be a lot of confusion, of course. -- Menti sock 13:57, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dawn and sunset times in Cuba

Can you tell me the dawn (sun up) and sunset times in Havana, Cuba on 15th Oct 2009 and 15th Nov 2009. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.176.201.28 (talk) 13:48, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google gave me this. I can't vouch for its accuracy. Algebraist 13:54, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

nigeria news

How can I access current news in nigeria from your web —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.242.199.210 (talk) 13:55, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, Wikipedia is not a news service. However, you may want to look at Wikinews, a free news provider that may have the info you need. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:03, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the news user box

Resolved

I just got my first "In the News" credit. Are there any userboxes for In the News credits like there are for other main page credits such as {{User Did You Know2}} and {{User FP}}? If not can someone create one?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 14:06, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I believe you are looking for {{User In the News Contributor}}. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:19, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 23:49, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Plants and flowers question

i have photos of plants and flowers. HOW and where do i send them to get their scientific/common names? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.83.42.252 (talk) 14:50, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 15:00, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Watch Talk Pages

If you watch a main article, do you automatically also subscribe to watch the talk page associated with it? Also, is it possible to see a list of talk pages I'm subscribed to anywhere? My normal watchlist 'excludes' talk. Thanks Middlesex Fire (talk) 15:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Second question first, at the top of the page, you'll see: Your name, my talk, my preferences, my watchlist, etc. Clicking on the My Watchlist will show you recent changes made to those articles. I believe that when you watch one, the other is watched as well, at least that is the way it works for me. If not, check your preferences and see if it's listed there - I tweaked my preferences a while back, but don't remember that specific item. Ched (talk) 15:46, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Ched, thanks for your reply - the only thing I seem to have been missing is where to find a list of talk pages I'm subscribed to - I can quite happily find my list of watched pages, but at the top it says: "excluding talk pages" (or similar) - if it works as you say it does, and you automatically subscribe to the talk page when subscribing to the main article, then I can understand why those talk pages are left off the list - I just wanted to make sure I was being subscribed to the talk pages as my watchlist seems to miss the odd thing here or there. Ah well! Thanks for taking the time, anyhow. Middlesex Fire (talk) 15:52, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK. I don't know if it's any help, but when you're looking at your watchlist, at the very top in small print is a link to "View and edit watchlist. When you scroll down, you can see the users who's pages you may have marked as "watch" this talk page. So far, (for me anyway), when I watch a page, and then go to my watchlist - it does distinguish both the article itself, and the article's talk page. Does that help? Ched (talk) 16:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OH, and I don't know if you've looked yet, but there is a link for My Preferences too. There are two tabs there (Recent Changes) and (Watchlist) ... both have some tweaks you might find useful.Ched (talk) 16:33, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the watchlist tab in my preferences make sure Add pages I edit to my watchlist is checked. That will make sure that any page you edit, whether a talk page or not, will be added to your watchlist. Then click my watchlist and in the Watchlist options box at the top, if it says "Show my edits", click on Show to toggle it to Hide. That will make sure your own edits also appear in the watchlist. --Thomprod (talk) 17:07, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To all of you have suggested options - THANKS! Working exactly as I wanted now, brilliant stuff. Middlesex Fire (talk) 22:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Renamed accounts' contribs

When accounts get renamed just as their userpages get redirected do the contribs get transferred or are they split? -- Menti sock 15:31, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

All contributions, history entries and log entries will refer to the new name. Algebraist 15:35, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) When accounts are renamed, the contributions are reattributed as well. Per WP:REAT, however, edits from IP addresses can no longer be reattributed. I believe the old name also becomes available after a rename, so users are encouraged to re-register the old account to prevent impersonation. See WP:CHU for more. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The old name will not be available for re-registration if it has been attached to an SUL account. — Manti core 21:46, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Messages

I have missed my messages in inbox —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.160.219.68 (talk) 15:38, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like you are having an issue with your mail client. This page is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. Is there something with which we can help you? TN‑X-Man 15:42, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Group

Regarding this article, I don't know who posted it, but it's part of the Serial Killer Task Force. The entry is simply a mish-mash of info from our Web site and it is not a well-done article. I work for the Academy Group and I would like to replace this entry with a well-done, researched article with citations, history of AGI, etc. I have read the info about conflict of interest, etc., and believe I can write an article that is objective and presents a neutral point of view (I'm a journalist by training). Is there a problem with me essentially gutting what's there and replacing it with all new content?

I am new to Wikipedia and would be very careful about following all the rules.

Thank you for your time and consideration. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afmrbhmr (talk • contribs) 15:54, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I left a welcome on your page with a lot of useful links. Thank you for reading the conflict of interest guidelines and disclosing your connection. If you put the aims of Wikipedia above the interests of your organization, then you are welcome to edit. I recommend that you start a discussion on the article talk page about your proposed changes. You should consider joining the Serial Killer task force and working with them to see if there are other editors interested in the article. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Or alternatively, write a new version of the article as a user subpage, say at User:Afmrbhmr/Academy Group, then ask other editors to review it before making the changes in the mainspace article. – ukexpat (talk) 16:09, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is this site reliable?

Is this site reliable?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.214.157.35 (talk) 16:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the whole, yes, because of strict citation guidelines - although, if you spot something you're not happy with, by all means edit it, disclosing your reasons for doing so, and your relevant sources. Middlesex Fire (talk) 16:07, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Replies to common objections#Wikipedia can never be high quality. Since you did not quantify what you mean by "reliable" (100% reliable? 98% reliable? 50% reliable?), your question is vague. If you are asking whether Wikipedia contains at least one mistake, it's built by humans so of course it has mistakes. Humans rarely build anything without errors. Cars crash, airplanes fall out of the sky, physicians make mistakes when they prescribe drugs, patients make even more mistakes when they take the drugs, etc. Even more perniciously, a few sociopathic people enjoy deliberately introducing error into the work of others - we call them vandals. Wikipedia is especially prone to vandalism because we let anybody edit, but this is a two-edged sword since the high rate of vandalism motivates the honest users to combat it. In a similar way, there are fewer hijackings on U.S. airliners (none) since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks than there were before, because that event was enough to get the U.S. to finally take air travel security seriously. Since almost nothing that humans create is reliable, the real question is how reliable things are, that is, what are their error rates or failure rates. For example, commercial air travel can be deadly, but on a statistical basis it is so much safer than BASE jumping that the two activities are in completely different categories of risk (mundane vs. insane). Also, Wikipedia is extremely large, and you probably only care about the reliability of a tiny subset of it, so a better question to ask is "How reliable are these articles: (list the ones you care about)?" If you plan to edit Wikipedia, then a related question is "How reliable are my initial assumptions about what I should do on Wikipedia?" Since Wikipedia is very different than anything most people have experienced before, almost everyone begins editing here with some incorrect initial assumptions about it. For some reason, the impressions that Wikipedia gives people when they first see it tend to be wildly unreliable. --Teratornis (talk) 19:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Searching deletion debates?

I'm trying to find a particular deletion debate, but even after going through my own contributions 3 times, I can't find the right one. It was about a film were the production was stopped for 10 years to allow for the actor playing the main character to age or it was filmed pretty much in real time with his aging. It's unique. Usually multiple people of different ages are cast to speed up production. Perhaps someone remembers the article's name. It was a failed future film (2010-2013) if I remember correctly. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind, it wasn't titled the way I remembered. After digging through some other film AFDs I found it. That's already two films I found made this way. It seems to become more common. Maybe I'll write an RD question to see if there are any more... - Mgm|^(talk) 17:26, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Job queue

Instead of null editing each page that has a template which had just been added to a category to populate the category is there any way to request an immediate execution of the jobs? -- Menti sock 17:21, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ask someone who has WP:AWB or who runs some other bot approved for such housekeeping edits. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:44, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to Edit Taylor Swift

Hi, I just want to know how I would be able to edit Taylor Swift's page. I want to add in her Filmography that she will be appearing on CSI, which has already been filmed.. How can I do this?

Many thanks,

David —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dave-burns10 (talk • contribs) 19:02, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The article is semi-protected to prevent vandalism, and cannot be edited by IPs or new users. You can either wait until you can edit it, or leave a note at Talk:Taylor Swift. Grsz ¹¹ 19:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Watching Contributions

Is there a way to watch the contributions of a certain IP Address? Omnipotence407 (talk • contribs) 19:31, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot add a contributions page to your watchlist. Your best bet is to keep the page up for a while and keep refreshing. Many IP vandals get bored quickly and move on. Also, dynamic IP addresses are never assigned for long, so an editor editing from one IP address may not be there long. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:40, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm looking to watch my High School's contributions page. The IP address is static and the posts happen too in frequent to watch just that page. --omnipotence407 (talk) 19:55, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Browse to that article and click the "watch" tab at the top. That will add the article to your watchlist. You still have to remember to click my watchlist in the upper right corner of any Wikipedia page, to look at your watchlist now and then. --Teratornis (talk) 20:06, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think the question may be about contributions from the high school's IP address, rather than contributions to the high school's article... apologies if that's not the case. The (convoluted) solutions below assumes the former:

If you are within the high school, log out and make a post to your talk page - tip: leave a very unique edit summary. You can undo the post immediately, if you wish. Then, when you want to check contributions from your school's IP address login, go to your talk page, click on the "history" tab, and locate the contribution you made whilst logged out (it'll help if you used a highly visible edit summary!), click on the "contribs" link and... there you go!

Once again, apologies if (a) I've misunderstood, and (b) for the complexity of this solution.

Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 20:14, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Created pages

Does anybody know if there is a way that someone can get a log or list of all the pages created by a spefic user? Hda3ku (talk) 19:40, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Click on the tab at the top of the page that says "My contributions". Scroll to the bottom. There should be a link that says "Articles created". For any other user, go their contributions page and the link to the articles they've created will be in the same place. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:46, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Los Angeles County California Schools

Why is Beverly Hills School District omitted from the list of High Schools in Los Angeles County on your website?

Michael Wagner Los Angeles

Beverly Hills School District is not a high school. If specific schools are omitted, mention this on the talk page of the article. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:03, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia font is very difficult to read

Wikipedia font is very difficult to read. Am using IE &. What should I do to correct this ?71.211.22.58 (talk) 19:53, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia isn't in any particular font. It just tells your browser to use its standard sans-serif font. If you don't like IE's default sans-serif font, you need to change you IE settings. Algebraist 20:02, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Important question

Hello, My name is Cosmin Zamfir. I’m a student from Romania.

The ideea is that I want to make a website that will have various usages and I would like to use the maps from Wikipedia (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Europe_countries_map.png) with Europe and one with the USA; I would also ask kindly if you have the same kind of map (like the one with Europe) for the United States of America. ( I only found this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Average_precipitation_in_the_lower_48_states_of_the_USA.png ) and it’s not that good for my website?

The questions I have for you is: 1. Can I use these maps for my website? 2. Do I have to write something on my website if I post them there (ex. that they are from Wikipedia)? 3. Can I add something on them (modify something)?

I look forward for your answer!

Thank you! With respect, Cosmin Zamfir —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.35.182.49 (talk) 21:32, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

1. It depends on what the uploader of the image has specified. For most, if not all, maps, the answer is yes. On the image page (for example, Image:Europe countries map.png), scroll down past the image preview; in the blue box there should be some sort of "permission" template telling you what license the image is under. By reading this license (or its article here), you should be able to tell what you can and can't do.

2. See #1.

3. See #1.

A map of the US can be found with state names at File:Map of USA with state names.svg. I haven't been able to find one without state names yet, though you can use an SVG editor like Inkscape to remove the names. Good luck, Mr Zamfir! Xenon54 (talk) 22:21, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How can I suggest a new article- I'm not very good at writing myself

I want the documentary film maker Tony De Nonno to have a page, see www.denonnoproductions.com. I am new at this and would like to submit just the idea. please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jujifruite (talk • contribs) 22:28, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Click on over to articles for creation where you can make a request. – ukexpat (talk) 22:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically Wikipedia:Requested_articles/Biographies#Filmmakers and add him to the list plus the information requested at the top of the page. In particular provide links showing who he is and why he deserves an article : Imdb may be useful for this.Carrolljon (talk) 22:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category merge

Is it possible to machine merge

Category:Rolling stock leasing companies and Category:Rail transport leasing companies

I created the former not knowing the second existed.

As far as I know the two terms mean exactly the same thing. If possible preserve the first as it contains a decription. Thanks.Carrolljon (talk) 22:31, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot really merge categories. The best thing to do is delete the newer one from the articles where it is used, add the older one in its place, then make a request at WP:CFD for the newer cat to be deleted. – ukexpat (talk) 22:37, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure that the description belongs on the category page -- it's probably enough for a stub article of its own - Rolling stock leasing company, or a redirect to an existing relevant article if there is one. – ukexpat (talk) 23:06, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

stubs

how do i find stub articles? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.21.124.230 (talk) 22:39, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Stub#Locating_stubs is the place to start.Carrolljon (talk) 22:47, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist too big

My watchlist currently has 65,000+ articles on it. It works if I limit it to the last hour of changes (or up to 6 hours). If I go to Special:Watchlist/edit, the server times out. If I go to Special:Watchlist/raw and remove them all and click Update watchlist, the server times out. The Special:Watchlist/clear command doesn't work. If I had known about the size limitation earlier, I wouldn't have gotten myself into this jam.

Any ideas? Ask a developer if they could clear it? Searching for "watchlist" at bugzilla turns up 121 bugs, but none seem applicable. Should I file a new bug report? I could also ask at meta or Help talk:Watching pages. I'd appreciate any help. --Pixelface (talk) 23:44, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bugzilla:13250 has a few ideas on how to clear the watchlist - let us know if they work. By the way, how did you get so many pages on your watchlist?--Commander Keane (talk) 03:14, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much! I should have looked through that buglist more carefully (or at least searched for "clear" :X). There's a link there to this thread at the village pump on how to empty a watchlist. I tried the 'log in with another account' trick and it didn't work, although I may have gotten the steps wrong. There are other methods listed at the village pump thread that I may try, but in the meantime I've created an account at bugzilla.

My watchlist is so large because a long time ago I looked through some categories and copied all of the article names and pasted them via Special:Watchlist/raw. I did that before I knew I could check the Related changes of a category and use that as a watchlist (and before I knew about the watchlist size limitation).

There's still a drawback to "rc cat" watchlists though — it doesn't follow changes to pages that only exist in sub-categories (although I guess that could really suck up resources — and someone could just check the related changes of the sub-categories).

I guess the user watchlist starts having trouble around 9,500 or so? I discovered how to use userpage subpage watchlists (by creating a subpage in userspace with a list of wikilinks and clicking Related changes). Such a watchlist is public not private, but is one option for people with too many pages on their watchlist. Page titles can be hidden like [[This| ]] and related changes will still work, but the titles are still visible in the source. It can be checked even if a user is not logged in, and also, any user can use it as a watchlist. (I apologize for my wordiness, I wanted to include several keywords and hopefully help anyone else reading this). --Pixelface (talk) 19:36, 24 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

purging?

At User:TonyTheTiger/creations, I want to see related changes for while I was at the Inauguration in DC. However, the Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration is keeping me from going back far enough so I temporarily removed it from the page. However, the related changes still includes it. I think there is a purge problem. I still don't understand purging and what I need to do.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 23:52, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A link to Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration still exists under "Current GACs". -- RattleMan 23:57, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I thought it was a complicated technical reason.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 06:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are several ways to purge. You can read about them at Wikipedia:Purge. A purge forces your browser to load the latest copy of a a page rather than using its cached copy - stored on your hard drive - which may be out of date and is only periodically refreshed. If you still aren't getting it, think of a fat man watching football and drinking a beer. Purging forces him to get up to get a fresh beer right now, instead of getting the last few drops out of the can (cached copy) and getting a new one at half-time. Xenon54 (talk) 00:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nav box

Hey Wikipedians, I have a problem here with the navigation box. I don't know if it's me or if I've done something wrong.

For example go to this link:

DFX2 may refer to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force:_Xtreme_2

What you'll see down bottom in the nav box "Delta Force video games" is this:

Delta Force · Delta Force 2 · Land Warrior · Urban Warfare · Task Force Dagger · Black Hawk Down · Team Sabre · Xtreme · Xtreme 2 · Angel Falls

However, when I go to another article in the series like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force:_Xtreme

And when I go down bottom to the nav box, I don't see any sign of "Xtreme 2".

Could this be explained and fixed for me please? Thanks. :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrispy645 (talk • contribs) 23:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No problem here. Xtreme 2 appears as a link instead of bolded, of course, but it's still there. Algebraist 00:19, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I see "Xtreme 2" in the navbox on both pages you linked. When a template is edited it takes a while before the change is propagated to all the pages which use the template. The longer the job queue is (given at Special:Statistics) the longer it takes. — jwillbur 00:21, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

@Jwillbur: You can also purge, of course. — neuro^(talk) 02:11, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Okay thanks a lot mate. Cheers for explaining. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrispy645 (talk • contribs) 08:12, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Watch list Question

What are the numbers after an entry on my watch list, some red and some green? Baiter (talk) 23:57, 22 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

They are the net number of bytes added or removed by the edit. Green means added; red removed. —teb728 t c 00:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]