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This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (assistance). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.

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How do I (easily) right-align columns in tables?

Hi, I would be very thankful for help. I have delved into the world of wikipedia tables, and after searching the help on tables, I haven't found any easy way to right-align a column in a table. The only way I know is to specify style="text-align: right for every value on every row.

Please see my test in the table on the very bottom of my user page : User:dna-webmaster, where I have right-aligned the value in the cell in the second column, second row.

Isn't there a way to specify that the entire column should be right-aligned?

The table which I eventually wish to right-align is the big one on this page:

World War II casualties

I am very thankful for help! Regards, Dennis Nilsson. Dna-Dennis 00:03, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

You can right-align all entries in the whole table by adding style="text-align: right;"' on the same line as the {{prettytable}}. I don't know of a way to right-align only individual columns. -- Rick Block (talk) 05:25, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! I will go for that! Cheers, Dna-Dennis 05:34, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Note that you want something like a col or a colgroup element supported (in HTML-speak). This is not currently supported by the wiki-pipe syntax. So at the moment, you do have to individually align every cell. It's a bitch. see Help:Table. HTH --pfctdayelise 14:50, 19 November 2005 (UTC)


Article Search

I recently wrote an article on "HMCS TECUMSEH". When I enter this term into the search dialogue however, the article does not appear as a choice, but other links to this article seem to work. Is there some sort of meta-text that must be added to cause an article to appear as a search result?

Search seems to have tendencies toward case-sensitivity. If you search for "HMCS Tecumseh" instead of all caps, do you find the article alright?--SarekOfVulcan 22:30, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
In particular, if you enter "HMCS TECUMSEH" in the search box and hit "go" you won't find the article unless there's a redirect (I've added one, so now whatever case you enter and hit go gets you to the article - for example "hMcS tEcUmSeH" works now). The redirect is usually not necessary (see redirect for the details), but is in this case because of the form of the article's name. You might also want to add a link to this article from Tecumseh (disambiguation) (links need to be an exact case match). -- Rick Block (talk) 23:25, 16 November 2005 (UTC)


References vs Bibliography

The article on Cladistics lists several books and paper from which it was apparently written from. However, these are not referenced in the article's text. Should the existing "References" section be renamed to "Bibliography"? or does the term "References" mean the same thing, regardless? Also, is this article's use of bolding and italics done properly? --maclean25 05:15, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

  • They may have been used as references without being explicitly cited. If you are sure they have not been, the most appropriate term is "Further reading". -- Jmabel | Talk 18:13, 21 November 2005 (UTC)


Creating pages for duplicate titles

How does one create a new page for a title that already exists?Gprice157 21:46, 20 November 2005 (UTC)gprice157Gprice157 21:46, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

You can move pages using the move tab at the corner of (most) pages. For more on this see Wikipedia: How to rename (move) a page,--Sean|Black 22:02, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
I think you misunderstood the question. Gprice is probably looking for Wikipedia:Disambiguation. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:10, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Vandalising?

Hi, I just caught a pro-nazi vandal. IP is 210.54.59.106 , calling someone who put up a holocaust/fascism memorial a traitor, on the page " Braunau am Inn ". I fixed that, but he's posting on a bunch of Jewish pages now.

I'm guessing someone'll be on top of him for this now, but how do I normally go about reporting this? samwaltz 02:13, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism is a good place for this sort of thing.--Sean|Black 02:23, 23 November 2005 (UTC)


Cyrus Vance

Recent edits to the biography of the former United States Secretary of State seem IMHO to have strayed rather far from a neutral point of view. See the last long paragraph concerning his activities after he left the Carter Administration. I am not really familiar enough with the incidents to write intelligently, but the tone of the recent (anonymous) edit seems unencyclopedic to me. Morris 23:20, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

I just reverted it, with a note on the talk page to substantiate the claims if they can.--SarekOfVulcan 23:39, 23 November 2005 (UTC)


Audio Copyrights

Hi, if I have a recording of me playing a piece by a modern composer (Gyorgy Ligeti), would I be allowed to upload it and put it on Wikipedia? I heard something about the composer having to be dead 70 years, but I thought that only applied to sheet music. Thanks :-) --yoshi 21:51, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

You thought incorrectly. Music written down or played is the copyright of the composer (or someone else if the rights were transferred as part of a legal sale). The fact that it's you playing it doesn't mean the composer no longer has rights to it. So, no, you can't upload it. DreamGuy 04:14, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Re-Revert

A user has moved an article Constituencies in United Kingdom General Election to Constituencies inthe United Kingdom General Election (sic). Can I move it;

a) Back to the original page (without the "inthe") b) To a new page with the "inthe" correctly spelled?

Regards

doktorb 20:26, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

If this move was discussed on the talk page, move to the correctly spelled page and drop a friendly note.

If the move was not discussed. . . well. . .you can move it back with an even friendlyer (is that a word?) note explaining why. Also leave a note on the talk page. Wikifun Banana04131 04:19, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Why would there be a discussion about moving a title to a misspeelled version? Just move it back. User:Zoe|(talk) 03:17, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Help in writing in English

Where is the right place to ask for assistance in writing a (small) text in English if one's not fluent in this language? CG 17:34, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

You don't mention what you write comfortably, nor whether this text is for Wikipedia. If it's for Wikipedia, and the language in question is relevant to the article, you can probably write it in that language on the talk page and ask someone to translate. In any event, you can write it in (even poor) English on the talk page and ask for help. If it's not related to Wikipedia, try the Reference desk. Or you could contact someone through Wikipedia:Translators available. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:24, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
I forgot to mention this. I'm creating a template, but the text seems a little too complicated for me. Where is the right place to ask for help? CG 19:42, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm sure that if you do a draft and then post a link to it here, someone will follow up. -- Jmabel | Talk 05:51, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Trashed sig

What has happened to my sig? It worked fine until day before yesterday, and now what should look like

looks like

  • User:Denni|D[[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font style="color:green">'''''e'''''</font>]]nni[[User_talk:Denni|<font color=#228822>&#9775;</font>]]

What's going on?? Denni☯ (I pasted this in)

The Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Just to let everyone know that the addition of links to the Alsos Digital Library (http:alsos.wlu.edu) is not a spam attack. The Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides a broad, balanced range of annotated references for the study of nuclear issues. This searchable collection of 1900 references included books, articles, films, DCs, and websites. All annotations have been reviewed by members of the library's prestigious National Advisory Board.

It is the mission of the Alsos Library to make the history and current status of nuclear issues more accessible and comprehensible to the general public as well as to students and educators in the many fields influenced by the forces of the nuclear age.

Frank Settle, Project Manager Department of Chemistry Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA

That may well be Frank but, in general reference links should be from the sources that the editor drew on for the article. Also I would be better if you got an account here, you must understand that annons dropping the same link into a string of topics looks like a spam attack to the rest of us. 17:50, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

My signature

How can I fix my signature so that it links on a page. It just comes out as flat type now. You can see when I sing here--Pomegranite 01:17, 25 November 2005 (UTC)


People's Mujahedin of Iran

Anon's infrequently sympathize the article. Some of the additions may be factual and may serve to balance the article, but since the edits routinely delete the External links I have to assume they are done in bad faith. Could someone more familiar with it look at the edit history and see if a compromise is possible? - RoyBoy 800 17:42, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Updating Special:Upload

Hi, I don't know who can edit special pages (sorry if this is the wrong place for this, but special pages don't have talk pages), but I think Special:Upload needs a couple of changes.

  • The comment about commons should be clearer so that people understand it's uploading there INSTEAD of here, not as well as. So I think the bold line should read: Uploading your files to Commons instead of here is highly recommended.
  • The drop-down list of licenses is incomplete. In particular, {{music sample}} is missing. I guess there are tons of licenses, but this is pretty much the only one for fair use music samples, so it would be good to see it there.

--pfctdayelise 02:31, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

I've made these changes. Thanks for the suggestions! -- Rick Block (talk) 17:20, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikifi some articles...

They Can be found in thier main article National Grassland. Most grassland articles need to be wikified.


Assisted requested... archive review

I am in the current process restoring a clean, single page, archive of Template:Did you know so that my bot can process the information, and properly archive all the information. There seems to be missing items from the archive, and I require someone to view User:AllyUnion/Did you know archive and double check against from the history of the template starting at here.

Basically, I need someone to hit the "Previous revision" button and double check that it is in order and no information is missing. Newest items are at the top of the page... If you find an item missing, it would be greatly appreciated if you leave a note on User talk:AllyUnion/Did you know archive. Note, not recommended for modem users... Your assistance will be greated appreciated. Thanks. (It also be a great help if anyone can copyedit the page too.) --AllyUnion (talk) 10:08, 27 November 2005 (UTC)


Any administrators able to help?

I am currently renaming many of my previously uploaded images by uploading them agains with clearer and more descriptive filenames. As such, it would be extremely helpful if an administrator could help out by deleting the old images so as not to clog up the WP:IFD page. If any administrators would like to help me with this, please let me know on my talk page. Thanks! :) Wikiwoohoo 17:14, 25 November 2005 (UTC)


General assistance needed to roll out songs

For me, one of the more rewarding aspects of Wikipedia has finding and uploading full length songs for integration into our articles. And until now, I've been doing this more-or-less by myself, and I'm getting a bit frustrated both with the server-side technical problems (all of which have been ironed out now by now) and the lack of help from others.

However, as a result of my work, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and dozens (hundreds?) of other articles all have wonderful song selections.

The full list (of approximately 300 full-length songs) can be found at Wikipedia:Sound/list.

Now, I'm at the point where I need help. There are thousands of articles that could benefit from have an example song (even if we limited ourselves only to the ones already uploaded). Fugue, Canon, Symphony, chord, harmony, counterpoint, 'etc. So I need some help rolling them out - adding them to articles using the audio templates I created (the one found on Beethoven, for example). Raul654 10:15, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

  • I'd be glad to offer my assistance to you; I know how fustrating and time-consuming it is to upload items for articles without anyone else's help. Please give me some URL's and what info I should use for copyrighting, and I'll help out.-MegamanZero 11:34 25, November 2005 (UTC)
    • I should be clear -- I am not asking people to do any uploading (which is nasty buisness because of copyright issues and technical issues). I simply need people to take the songs already available and add them to relavant articles. Raul654 10:21, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
      • For example, tonight I uploaded a dozen christmas carols, many of which have their own articles (and a few which don't but could use one). I still need to go back and add the songs to their respective articles (and any other ones they are relavant to). Raul654 10:22, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
    • Also, maintaining the list (Wikipedia:Sound/list) is a time consuming chore in-and-of-itself. Raul654 10:26, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
      • ...It seems like the kind of thing a machine should be doing. It pains me to see a human doing it! Are you sure you can't write/get someone to write a script to perform a similar task automatically? pfctdayelise 23:30, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
  • My apologies for misinterpreting your request. Still, I'd be glad to offer my assistance in helping you maintain the articles.Are the respective articles that the songs need to go to already listed on the page..?-MegamanZero 12:40 25, November 2005
    • Well, that's the thing - there's tons that they could be applied to (see my list above). Most of the songs listed there exist on their composer's article and their own articles, if any, but that's the extent of it. They could go in other articles, which is where I need the help. Raul654 13:41, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Ah, I see. Well, I'll get started on it nonetheless. By the way, have you thought about the idea of maybe making this a project in wikipedia where we can get other people to join and help out..? Like the Wikipedia:WikiProject Computer and video games, maybe you could start a Wikipedia:Wikiproject music and songs..?-MegamanZero 15:02 26,November 2005 (UTC)
    • There are about a half-dozen different music projects, and in the past, I've asked some or all of them if they would be intersting. The response was, well, non-existant. Raul654 13:51, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
  • That's too bad....I guess we have to do what we can by ourselves then.-MegamanZero 16:13 26,November 2005 (UTC)

Complaint

I have made several edits, all of which were constructive, to my dismay they were all removed almost imediately by Nihonjoe, who sent me a message which stated I was either performing a test or comitting vandalism, niether of which were true. Today I created an article on a historical group of Asian natives called the Kanuni, after I noted that there was no article on Wikipedia, but I did not feel I had the knowledge to write the article so I merely stated that "This article is in need of content" hopeing to draw the attention of some one more qualified. I wanted to clear up any misunderstandings and would also like to add that Nihonjoe seems to be an authority on Japinese Cartooons, but lacks the same knowledge when it comes to history or non-Japanese linguistics, and therefore should stick to editing articles about Anime.

Response

NOTE: The following was posted to my page by the anonymous user from this IP address:
messages to user
hello, you have sent me a warning message, I have not done any thing to warrant this, I have vandalized no pages, nor performed any tests, if you cheek my editing history you will see that earlier today i removed profanity from a place it did not belong, some of my grammar or spelling may be off, but the appropriate response would be to edit it instead of threatinging to remove my privliges, I hope this was merely a misunderstanding, and that it will be cleared up soon, thank you.
  1. First of all, please post comments to my Talk page (click on the discussion tab when viewing my page). Thanks. :-)
  2. Second, I was not the one who sent you a "warning message". As it clearly shows on your Talk page, my message had no warnings at all in it. The second post (the one by Doc) was the one warning you to stop. If you have any questions about why, I suggestion you ask Doc.
  3. Finally, as far as I can tell I've never reverted anything you've done. I looked at all of your Contributions, and I've never edited any of the pages listed there. --nihon 00:03, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
    1. Eh?--SarekOfVulcan 00:18, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
      1. Hmm...must have missed that one somehow. Regardless, that's only one revert, it was a justified revert, and I didn't threaten this anon user. The {{test}} template is hardly a warning. More of a "Welcome, thanks for trying things out, and here's a couple tips." --nihon 00:39, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
I wrote an extensive message about Doc's revert on the complainant's talk page. jnothman talk 02:18, 30 November 2005 (UTC)


Unblock request

Through the Helpdesk I got an unblock request for IP 203.122.254.26. Could this one be unblocked? Here is a quote from the unblock request: - Andre Engels 22:36, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I chased up the User:203.122.254.26 page and it mentions incorrectly 'This ip address is used extensively by an Australian school. See the talk page for communications regarding vandalism from this ip address.Administrators, take note'. It is actually used by nearly every state school, pupil & staff in South Australia, being the IP address of our education system proxy server. Who ever said that "we have no use for editing" isn't someone that should be speaking for the majorty of schools and probably didnt realise the more far reaching consquences for other schools.

Edit check requested

I've just spotted in my watchlist that an anon user has edited image:Autofellatio 2.jpg with an edit summary that has set my alarm bells ringing regarding whether it was apropriate or not. I would check myself, but I am currently at work and have to be very careful about what images I view. The line below is what I saw on my watchlist:

Image:Autofellatio 2.jpg; 12:41 . . 160.10.7.146 (Talk | block) (removed duplicate (c) statement).

I would like to assume good faith but given the history of the image, the anon user and edit summary I'd like someone to take a look. Thanks Thryduulf 14:09, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Looks like a valid edit to me. The anon removed a copyright statement which was an exact duplicate of the wording of a template-based copyright notice immediately following.-gadfium 23:07, 30 November 2005 (UTC)


Articles that are hard to read?

I'm doing linguistics research that involves finding articles that are "hard to read" (bad prose, badly organized, etc.). Is there a Wikipedia category that has a list of these? I found the "'Fix Crappy Prose' Challenge" category, but it only has 4 links, and I was wondering if there were a more extensive list somewhere. Thanks.

Hmmm try Category:Articles that need to be wikified and quite a lot of our more technical articles.Geni 21:15, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


Please Help

From Talk:Answers in Genesis

All of the information below is correct (and sourced) to my knowledge. I have an uneasy feeling there may be legal ramifications to some of the following- and I'd like to ask around before placing this back on the article page. I'll see what "official" Wikipedia guidelines say, and I'd like very much to hear your comments. (Also, please read the Terms of Use of the charitynavigator page: [1]) thanks, Christianjb 08:31, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

AiG is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code [2]. According to the charitynavigator website [3] AiG had a US $9,016,228 total revenue in FYE 2003, with president Ken Ham recieving a compensation of US$170,217. The website of WCPO TV has reported that in 2003, AiG "did not meet all of the [Better Business] Bureau's accountability standards" (emphasis in original) [4] Bill Wise, of AiG answered that this was due to a "miscommunication, understanding regarding document submittals back in August of 2002." (ibid [5])

Update: I've just emailed charitynavigator to ask them if I can quote the two figures I attributed to them. Is there anything else I should do?Christianjb 08:46, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Update: I received a nice email back from Charitynavigator giving permission for the figures to be used in the Wikipedia page. I don't think I've got a problem anymore. I'm pretty certain I'm safe on the rest of the text, which provides a sourced quote from a reputable media outlet. Thanks Christianjb 15:05, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Wrong redirect

Why does Yasmin (which is my daughters name) redirect to Oral contraceptives. Don't think that is correct, maybe some sort of vandalism.--71.28.253.196 07:46, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

No vandalism, Yasmin was explained on that page. I've now created a proper disambig page for Yasmin. Cheers! :-) Peter S. 11:57, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


Find vandals easier

using this.. http://geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm

Help with NNL

In the National Natural Landmarks article I started a list of landmarks. So far I have up to Conn. I can't finish the list due to my schedule so will someone help finish the list. Also help wikify it because I did it rather hastily. You can get info about NNL and what states have which NNL at the following URL Address:
http://www.nature.nps.gov/nnl/Registry/USA_Map/index.cfm

My own subpage disagrees with its code version -- Cancel that, I found my markup problem.

My subpage is User:For7thGen/subpage 3.

I spent maybe 1 1/2 hours going back and forth between editing it and "Show preview" without ever "Save page"ing it, and I think Wikipedia didn't like that. When I did Save page after that long workspan, much of the page was missing, but in a weird way, the most recent paragraph being there just fine.

At present "edit this page" shows the correct code, but neither "Show preview" nor "Save page" will give the complete page that should be generated by the correct code. And of course the code may disappear, so I have it saved on my own computer, via cut and paste.

I have also quit my browser (Safari 1.3), (my computer is a Mac iBook G4 using Mac OS 10.3, a year or so old), and tried my browser Explorer 5.2, with identical results, so I think I pushed Wikipedia beyond its limits.

I tried clearing my subpage 2, via edit this page, deleting it all, and Save pageing it, which correctly shows an empty page. But then doing edit this page and putting in the correct code via cut and paste and then either Show previewing it or Save pageing it gives the same weird result with part of the page missing. I left this page empty in hopes it may be okay tomorrow. I also left subpage 3 undisturbed since I couldn't get the correct version to show on it except in its coded or markup form.

So I'm totally at a loss.

Help me please. For7thGen 02:18, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, I found the problem when I was comparing the two versions so I could continue work, offline. I had stuck half-templates {{ref | and {{ref label | in my markup, before I learned about using the nowiki/nowiki pair which you can see I now know how to use. At first I got away with it, but it bit me hard later on!*! I'll probably remember that lesson at least a week or so. For7thGen 02:58, 6 December 2005 (UTC)


Assistance in uploading hundreds of images

I'm looking to see if anyone can lend me a hand (or a script or a robot) I can use to upload 300+ images. They are for Template:Xiangqi position. These are all roughly repetitive so the template can work and will basically include a GFDL-self license and a Template:Xiangqi-image to describe it. Is there anyway to accomplish this short of pressing the upload buttons 300 times? Is there a mass upload feature? -- Natalinasmpf 02:13, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bots lists this same chore under "Benefits bots can offer", and suggests The Anomebot (run by The Anome) is the first that can perform this. Snobot (run by Snoyes) is also used for this purpose, which is just a use of the pywikipedia bot. See meta:Using the python wikipediabot maybe. jnothman talk 02:39, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
I recommend uploading the images to commons rather than here, this means that if someone wants to write an article about this in another language they don't have to upload all the pictures to their wiki. Thryduulf 08:41, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
And if you're uploading to commons you can use Commonist, a tool designed for mass uploading. the wub "?!" 11:46, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Edits removed in copyvio deletion

I was on WikiVacation and would like to get a copy of the last version of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Undelete/Mirza_Ghalib before it was deleted for copyviolation. Some of the material that was deleted was from my pen/keyboard and could not have been a copy vio.

IFaqeer 02:04, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


Administrators can see deleted edits, so if you don't get a response here, maybe ask on the Administrators' noticeboard. jnothman talk 02:55, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


Sorted - pasted to IFaqeer/deleted edit with a request to delete when reviewed :) Brookie: A collector of little round things 08:11, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


Design changes? Disappearing "|" signs in category sections when using Safari

Funny, since early today, if a wikipedia article is in 3 or more categories, some categories are shown blended together. I.E., Silence of the lambs' category section contains "Best Picture OscarHorror FilmsFilms based on novelsBest Actor Oscar" all in one line. The html source looks correct on first glance. Any idea why this display bug appears? Thanks :-) Peter S. 15:33, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

I believe this is a Safari bug related to the bi-di indicators (the x202a and x202c surrounding each category name). I've added a buzilla entry suggesting the bi-di indicators not be added if they're not necessary, and reported this as a Safari bug to Apple (you might do the same - when you're on a page exhibiting the problem, click "Safari->Report Bugs to Apple..."). -- Rick Block (talk) 17:01, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm using Safari, and I do not see this bug. Joyous | Talk 17:09, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm using Konqueror 3.4.3, and categories look funny to me. Most categories have two vertical bars (pipes) between them (with spaces between them), but some categories have only spaces between them, and the spacing is uneven. I first saw this about 24 hours ago. There's no problem viewing the same pages in Firefox 1.0.7. This seems to apply to any page with several categories, as reported by Peter S above. Konqueror and Safari both originated from the same code base.-Mr Adequate 22:16, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
I've put a screenshot here.-Mr Adequate 22:25, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
I normally use the Classic skin, as in the screenshot, but the same problem happens in monobook.-Mr Adequate 22:33, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
Btw, this is using Safari 2.0.1 (412.5). Peter S. 12:56, 25 November 2005 (UTC) Any leads on this? Has anybody changed a general template or something? It's still there today - how do we go on from this? Peter S. 12:56, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
I believe this is being caused by the code change made under bugzilla:3922, the issue is this change exposes a bug in Safari, and either another change needs to be made as a workaround or those of us using Safari need to wait for a fix from Apple. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:18, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
I think you'd better visit Software Update; everything's fine on Safari 2.0.2 (416.12). --Brion 02:50, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
I think Safari 2.0.2 requires the 10.4 OS (Tiger), which I don't think is upgradeable for free from 10.3 (Panther). The latest version for 10.3 is 1.3.1 (which exhibits this problem). BTW - if this is coming across any other way, I completely agree that Mediawiki shouldn't generally cater to browser bugs (IE is probably a special case). On the other hand, if you can do something about this I'm sure there are a fair number of folks who'd appreciate it (your responsiveness is almost certain to be tremendously better than Apple's). -- Rick Block (talk) 03:34, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
Ok, I found out what is causing this odd behaviour. Before Nov 24, category links used this html code:
<A href="somelink">Category 1</A> | <A href="someotherlink">Category 2</A>
Starting Nov 24, category links suddenly used this html code:
<A href="somelink">Category 1</A>&#x202c; | <A href="someotherlink">Category 2</A>&#202c;
I don't know what what this x202c stands for, but remove it from the source and everything's fine again. Clearly, somebody tinkered with the wikimedia engine and miss-added those tags. Could we revert this, please? Thanks. Peter S. 20:06, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
x202a is a Unicode text direction indicator, which tells the browser the following text should be displayed in left to right fashion. x202c is a Unicode indicator that means "pop to previous text diirection". The same MediaWiki code is used for Wikipedias in multiple languages, including some right-to-left languages. The addition of these characters is not a bug, but part of an ongoing effort to fully support both left-to-right and right-to-left languages. The problem is that some versions of Safari are failing to interpret these characters correctly. If you're using 2.0.1, upgrading to 2.0.2 shoud fix it. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:54, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
Why don't you just insert the x202a if you deal with a page that has different text directions, instead of every time? This might make the wikimedia software more compatible. Peter S. 16:30, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
As far as I can see, the x202a was indeed removed again from the wikipedia a few days ago, so everything is working normally again. Thanks to whoever fixed this! Peter S. 02:07, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Fascism

Recently a new editor has been pushing a viewpoint that the Republican Party is a fascist party. What is the best way to handle crackpot theories like these? Particularly since his edits are across multiple articles on this topic. PPGMD 01:29, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm afraid he is ahead of his time. When he can cite academic journals or other relevant sources that support his views, he can add it to the article(s), properly sourced and attributed, of course. Until then, just revert the edits, explain your reversions on the talk page, and ask others to do the same.--Eloquence* 10:41, 8 December 2005 (UTC)


Im in a bit over my head here, and since copyrights are involved i'm not entirely sure what to do. User:24.147.103.146 has been going around blanking about a dozen pages regarding boston mafia leaders, replacing with the text "Content stolen from www.whiteywatch.com - Your ISP has been notified". I've examined this site and it belongs to WRKO-AM in boston, and it appears that all the deleted artciles are in fact more or less verbatim cut and paste jobs. Moreover, they were almost all added by the same user (or other users with similar IP ranges, which from their user pages appear to be a High School or something).

Anyway, if you check out [6] You'll see all the pages this guy has blanked. While he is clearly right in wanting to protect copyright, this doesn't seem like the right way to do it, especially by adding an advertisement. Should i warn this user? Should i request he be blocked? Im trying to go through now and revert all the pages to the most recent non-copyrighted version, but what should I do with regards to these two users??

Any advice or thoughts are more than welcome! thanks in advance. -Lanoitarus 04:35, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

  • I have posted a polite notice to User talk:24.147.103.146 thanking him for bringing this to our attention and advising him of the standard procedures to address copyright violations. I am now going through the articles he blanked, checking each one for the alleged violations. When found I am either reverting to most recent non-copyrighted version or blanking and replacing with Template:copyvio. In the cases where i can not confirm any violation I am reverting the page back and leaving a note to that effect on the discussion pages. I have left a notice for the original poster of these articles regarding our policy on posting copyrighted material. Any further advice or suggestions would be welcome. -Lanoitarus 05:06, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
    • I have finished going through these articles. Some were indeed plagarized and i have removed these. Some were not, and i reverted these. Thanks to those who helped out! -Lanoitarus 05:27, 10 December 2005 (UTC)


User:RachelBrown/List of Jewish juriststemp

This page is in userspace, but it was moved from articlespace by SlimVirgin apaprently without discussion after an AfD that ended in no consensus. Myself and Antidote have removed the category tag while it is in userspace (as it is an article category, pages in userspace should not be in it), but Poetlister has reverted each change. I'm off to bed now, so could someone else please explain again at user talk:Poetlister why it should not be in an article category while in userspace. Also, please can someone ascertain whether this really should be in userspace or not. Thanks. Thryduulf 23:25, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi Thryduulf, it was List of Jewish jurists that survived the AfD. The article above is a temporary article of User:RachelBrown's that she created in the main namespace, even though it was a personal version, so I moved it to her user subspace. SlimVirgin (talk) 00:09, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
There is far more to it than this, and RachelBrown, SlimVirgin and I are all involved in a mediation on an extremely complex issue. - Poetlister 14:19, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm not involved in any mediation. RachelBrown/Poetlister requested mediation with Lulu of the Lotus Eaters, who I believe may have turned it down, though I haven't checked recently. SlimVirgin (talk) 14:24, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

How to transfer watchlists

Hi. I just changed my username from Hottentot to Khoikhoi. Is there any way to transfer my watchlist from my old account to my new one? Thanks. --Khoikhoi 02:44, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Other than using a database query and insert, I couldn't imagine any particularly easy way, and the former way requires very powerful users. An alternative could be to get your full list from Special:Watchlist/edit; use a search-replace to convert these to the form <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=PAGE_TITLE&action=watch>; open the edited list in your web browser and open all links from there to add the entries to the watchlist (opening all links is easy with tools like Opera's links panel). jnothman talk 02:58, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
I just did the whole thing manually. Thanks anyways. --Khoikhoi 05:09, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

12.208.191.131 needs assistance

Hi, I recently had to revert IP 12.208.191.131's edits over a large range of Anime related pages. His/her modus operandi consisted of removing all material within parentheses, including disambiguation strings in links. I do not believe he/she did this is bad faith, however, his/her lack of understanding about the subtleties of wikitext and failure to report reasons for the deletions in his/her edit summaries could be detrimental. He has made good edits, and I think he/she could become a good editor with some assistance. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 17:55, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

  • First, just tell him/or her on their talkpage your viewpoint and/or how that may (or may not) coincide with wikipedia policy. Tell them the edits may be a little excessive, and if they don't respond or put a clear concensus, consider adding them to WP:NOOB for more assistance.-MegamanZero 19:39, 10 December 2005 (UTC)


Pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wayne_Robert_Smith

Can't get the image up. Anybody here know how to post images on an article? I own the image and the link to a copy of it is on the page. I'm tired of trying to work it out. I'm going to bed.

  • Ah, I remember when I use to have trouble with that myself. Its simple, my friend- Just look at the "toolbox" located on the left of your screen under the search bar. Locate upload file. Click on it, which will bring you to the Special:Upload page. Click Browse, and search for your picture that you want to upload to wikipedia. After that tell where you got in the "summary space below. Finally, use the scrollbar in the last choice at the bottom to select the proper copyright info. Make sure its correct, or it could be put up with deletion. Finally, select the page you want it on, put Image:(name of the file) in [[]]. There's your picture. Hope that helps. -MegamanZero 20:08, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

Transferring contributions to a user name

How would one transfer contributions to a different username or from an IP address? --Jay (Reply) 06:01, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

  • I don't think that's possible, but you can "add" your old and new user accounts together. Simply use the redirect function on the old userpage and link it to your new account. Then verify to other's your previous identity, saying who you were, telling your new username, etc. Or you can just put a sockpuppet notice on your old userpage account. :)-MegamanZero 20:13, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

Strange text

I'm not a newbie to Wikipedia but I ran into something that I'm not sure how to fix. There is a strange sequence of numbers at the top of the bambi page but I'm not sure what they are. A copy and paste looks like this: {{{{{2}}}|{{{3}}}|=|=|=|=|=|=|=}} {{{{{2}}}|{{{3}}}|=|=|=|=|=|=|=}}

I could revert the article but I don't think its vandalism. Instead it looks like someone tried to do something with wiki-markup but made a mistake. Could someone take a look at it and see what is going on? I'll contact the the user who made the change as well (User:Phil Boswell) Thank you. Martin-C 19:11, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

It's some template black-wizardry gone wrong. I'll take a look into it. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 19:45, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
I'll assume this has been taken care of: I found a message in my email first thing Monday morning (not my best time ;-)) and could not figure out what I might have done wrong :-) —Phil | Talk 09:32, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
For posterity, the problem was an = sign inside the parameter, which triggered some function from the black magicky "if" templates. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 17:56, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

I've messed up on AfD

I'm trying to list an article for deletion -- which I've done successfully in the past, so I'm not a complete doofus -- but this time, if I follow the directions, I end up with a listing that lacks a header. (There is a strong possiblity that I messed up on following the directions, of course.) I would appreciate if someone more competent (!) could go to the AfD listings and fix the listing for Non-Muslims Interactants with Muslims During Muhammad's Era.

Already fixed. Thank you, Uncle G. Zora 04:00, 12 December 2005 (UTC)


using external images

i am adding some content to my userpage, and wanted to add this image to it [7], but it will only show as a link. it has to link to an external page as it updates weekly. is there anyway of doing this in the wiki. i understand it would be unacceptable to use it in an artical, but since it is my userpage would it be possible? Junior Aspirin 17:03, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia isn't a free web host, but there are plenty of them that will let you use external images. jnothman talk 11:45, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Watchlist problem

I have an article/Talk page on my watchlist (i.e. Wikipedia talk:Wikiproject:Alternative medicine/Archive 1) that I am unable to remove. I keep receiving the following message: "Couldn't remove item 'Wikipedia talk:Wikiproject:Alternative medicine/Archive 1'...done." Any suggestions on how to get rid of it? Thanks! -- Edwardian 05:37, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Thanks for the reply. I tried it with no luck. The tab at the top of the article page indicates that it is not being watched (i.e. it says "watch" rather than "unwatch") but it still shows up on my watchlist. Edwardian 17:12, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Is there any page on Wikipedia that I can go to in order to ask someone if an article would be acceptable or not?

I want to make a Wikipedia article, but I'm not sure if the article would be considered 'relevant' or not. Is there any page on Wikipedia that I can go to in order to ask someone if my article would be acceptable or not?

The article on question is on the similarities between the two anime Evangelion and RahXephon. Such a page would definately be relevant to fans of Evangelion and/or RahXephon, and to those who debate on whether or not the two series are similar.

I'd suggest the Talk pages of those articles, for starters.--SarekOfVulcan 19:38, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
I would think the appropriate place to ask others on this would be at Wikipedia:WikiProject Anime and manga where there would be sufficient domain knowledge, as well as experienced users. Ultimately, if you create a quality article on the topic, I don't think an AFD would pass. At worst (but rarely) the content would get merged into another article and your time would not be absolutely wasted. jnothman talk 22:18, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Peer review is probably not relevant: it's the last stage of very polished articles before they try to become featured. I think Sarek and jnothman are right. -- Jmabel | Talk 22:45, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

WikiProject Anime and manga it is, then. Thanks, all of you! EvaXephon 23:20, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon already exist. Dominick (TALK) 16:17, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

EvaXephon is asking whether to create an article comparing the two. jnothman talk 23:23, 13 December 2005 (UTC)


Possible vanity and original research pages

I just discovered one vanity page (James P. Kimmel, Jr., J.D.) and several original research pages (Nonjustice, Nonjustice system, Holistic law) while dealing with some recent edits to the Dispute resolution article. This user appears to be promoting his book which is currently ranked at roughly 230,000 on Amazon.com by sales. See also User talk:Bapu and User talk:Coolcaesar.

I don't have the time right now to relearn how to work the "Articles for deletion" process and how to get the articles into that process to be dealt with accordingly on the merits---I just took a lot of great photos I'm trying to upload. Can some administrators deal with this, please? Thank you. --Coolcaesar 04:01, 16 December 2005 (UTC)


Dealing with sock puppetry (and a little vandalism)

I'm looking for some guidance on my first really contentious AfD, one where we seem to have a raging sock puppetry problem. I'm not an admin and while I've nominated lots of articles for AfD, this is the first time I've run into this problem. Someone at one of the puppet addresses blanked my user and talk pages yesterday.
The AfD page is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/GH avisualagency™. My question to folks around here is whether I'm handling it appropriately - am I doing too much, or not enough? Should I be deleting any of the non-voting text? Is it appropriate to warn the user behind this (Lerner, who wrote the initial article about a company in which he's a partner) about sock puppetry? I'm hesitant to do much more than tag the puppets. I've tried to explain AfD policies to Lerner on his talk page, but he persists in trying to rig the vote. I should say I'm not concerned about the results of the vote; there aren't any "keep" votes from regular users, and as long as the voting is fair, I don't care if the article is deleted or not. Anyway, I'm open to suggestions. Thanks. | Klaw ¡digame! 22:39, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

  • And now the company has a page on its own Web site asking users to come vote to "save" its entry [8] | Klaw ¡digame! 22:43, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
    • The employee causing the problems above has taken on a new tactic - he is labelling "delete" votes as "sock puppets," and said of one anonymous user's vote that it was his "first edit," when it wasn't. (It was his sixth. The difference is minor, but nonzero.) I issued a mild warning here [9]. Again, just looking for any feedback if I'm handling this inappropriately. I appreciate the help I've gotten so far. | Klaw ¡digame! 22:09, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Editor removing copyvio notice

Striver recently created an article called Cursing Sahaba is Kufr (Sunni doctrine). The article is Shia-POV, badly titled, and unnecessary, and I was planning on putting it up for deletion. Then I noticed that it was suspiciously well-written and googled for the source, which I found.

I didn't know whether to put it up for deletion or flag the copyvio -- after some thought I decided to do the latter. Striver objected that the material was a "quote" and removed the copyvio notice. This is NOT OK, yes? See Talk:Cursing Sahaba is Kufr (Sunni doctrine) for a discussion of Striver's "quote" claim.

I reverted to put up the copyvio notice again. What should I do if Striver removes it again? Zora 09:02, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Report it on the Administrators' noticeboard pages Brookie :) - a collector of little round things! (Talk!) 09:49, 16 December 2005 (UTC)


Wikipedia awards

I'm sorry if this is'nt the right place for this question:

A few days ago, I found a page that contained some sort of Wikipedia awards for editing. Can anyone direct me to this page?

thanks. Seanmcpherson1 05:15, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Barnstars on Wikipedia.--Sean|Black 05:24, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

MPACUK

articles MPACUK and Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK should be merged and also made more NPOV Yellowmellow45 12:21, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I've marked these as a suggestion for the appropriate merges, hoping the POV can be merged out. jnothman talk 13:47, 18 December 2005 (UTC)


Help!

I've been tryign to get USA PATRIOT Act, Title II up to speed, but have hit the point where I can do no more for a while. Can some help? Here is what I need help with:

  1. Document the commentary of the EFF (found here) in the section USA PATRIOT Act, Title II#Electronic Frontier Foundation
  2. Find information on what the ACLU had to say about title II, and document it at USA PATRIOT Act, Title II#American Civil Liberties Union
  3. Find information on what the United States Government said about the title, and document it at USA PATRIOT Act, Title II#United States Government. This info can be found at http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/index.html
  4. For those who want a challenge, they can document the American Bar Associations commentary, which can be found at http://www.patriotdebates.org

Folks, I've already done the hard part! Now I'm asking for some assistance on some easier stuff, but which is no less important. - Ta bu shi da yu 09:38, 19 December 2005 (UTC)


NATO reporting name

I've mucked up page moves on Air-to-air missiles and helicopters linked from that page. Could someone help me fix it?--TheDoctor10 (talk|email) 07:48, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hadith of the Verse of Rajm

I am being castigated for having listed this article for deletion. It contains nothing but quotes, lots of quotes, long quotes, this is an inappropriate use of Wikipedia. And yet all of the votes are to keep. Can someone tell me if this is a proper Wikipedia aritlce? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:56, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Maybe it is more correct to work on an article initially in their own user space to make it clear. There is clearly a lot of improvement and explanation needed in this article, but the quotes may just be the central focus of an article that will then have a discusion of this content. Ultimately, complete source texts may be better found in WikiSource, but discussions of these texts are relevant.
I think the contention of those at AFD is that, unlike other articles proposed for deletion:
  1. This is a completely notable and valid encyclopedia topic
  2. The article is very new and has time for improvement
Ultimately, then, it needs a lot of editing, but not deletion. IMO, even a few days is not sufficient time before saying that a new article is not going to be possibly made more useful, so comments like "There is still nothing there but quotes." and "Um, no, I don't think so.". I don't know whether you've ever started an article yourself, but no article begins perfect.
jnothman talk 23:18, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
I am not even going to dignify your last sentence with a reply. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:56, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Sorry if it seemed offensive, but I couldn't tell quickly from your contribs, nor from your user page. My apologies if this offended, I merely wished to stress that some articles, and some authors, take time. jnothman talk 00:07, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
Had I looked a little harder at your contribs (or user page history), I'd see you certainly had started numerous articles. I do think that some of the responses at AFD to you are being a bit sharp and fast, but I also think that you were a bit sharp and fast against the given article. If you think it's a big problem, research the Hadith of the Verse of Rajm and change it rather than proposing the article's deletion. jnothman talk 00:13, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

What Zoe knew, and I know, is that Striver generally doesn't improve the articles he starts. He has said that this is a job for other editors. As I just commented on the page for the AfD, the article could be a good and useful one, if it were retitled and if there were more exposition than quotes. Islamic views re stoning for adultery have been in the news lately. But should we keep mistitled articles with no real content around if it's unlikely that anyone will improve them? I dunno if I have the strength -- I'm at loggerheads with Striver in too many articles. Zora 00:29, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Well that was not listed at any point on the AFD page nor here. The appeal here seemed silly to me at first. It could have done with some clarification. I don't yet understand why it is mistitled, though I'm no expert on the subject! jnothman talk 00:47, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Article POV

I have indicate that a part of an page of discussion connected with an article that this seems to be POV (Foiba). Who can place POV template? --Ilario 21:47, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, anyone can place the template. Seeing as I do not know enough about the subject and POVs upon it, I do not really want to place it. There are a number of possibly appropriate templates: {{POV}}, {{POV-section}}, {{POV-check}}. Wikipedia:NPOV dispute gives a good description of the use of each of these, and I suggest you choose the most appropriate from there. jnothman talk 23:09, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Cross Referencing

Not too sure where this one lives. But how do you find a list of articles that cross reference to the article thatyou are reviewing? User:Zogin

Do you mean "what links here", in the toolbox frame on the left? -- Rick Block (talk) 00:25, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes - thanks


April 2004

April 2004 is a mess - It appears to have lost most of its content but had new stuff added. I may get round to analysing all the history and work out what should come from what old version later. If anyone else feels they want to do it first, feel free. -- SGBailey 23:33, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Pcb21 changed it to using a template system on November 19. SimonP then edited the individual day articles, eg April 4, 2004, replacing the heading with a navigator bar linking to next and previous days, and then putting only a summary of each day on the April 2004 page, grouping by category. This is good in one way as it makes for a shorter page. If we don't mind a longer page but want individual day articles to be useful as well, we need the heading there when included and the navigation bar there when not included: good uses of <includeonly> and <noinclude>. jnothman talk 03:20, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Card suit symbol appearances

Having dealt with several Category:Bridge articles recently, I noticed inconsistency in denoting suit symbols. I encountered three general styles:

  1. using HTML codes such as &hearts; (most pages, some of which I fixed).
    1. same, but colored for red suits <font color="red">&hearts;</font> (e.g. Blackwood convention). As far as i see, this style is most frequently used among Category:Card games.
  2. using HTML hex codes such as &#9830;
    1. same, but colored for red suits <font color=red>&#9830;</font>(e.g. Polish club) (also with increased symbol)
    2. same, but using hollow red suits symbols (d'oh, can't find one at a moment, but I know I saw it)
  3. Using plain text H, S, D, C (Acol).

In addition, the default Arial symbols, e.g. ♥ are too small and appear ugly. (Some articles use increased font size for them).

I suggest fixing the stuff by

  • creating 4 templates, named either
  • Writing a bot to replace all occurrences of before-used stuff with appropriate template-links. (I don't know how to write one, but I could do a research and see what stuff should be replaced)
    • the bot would hardly deal with plain text H, S, D, C, but odds are that sole H or H(number) or (number)H, KH, QH and JH represent heart suit if in one of "Card games" (sub)categories.
  • Should templates contain &hearts; or a SVG image? I've been reported at Talk:Blue club that Opera does not render card symbols correctly.

Duja 11:26, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Please don't use templates for this - any of the HTML code, hex code, or (now that the English wikipedia is using UTF-8) inline character is far less overall load on the (single) database behind wikipedia. An article with no templates can be regenerated with a single database fetch. An article using one template requires 2, an article with 4 templates requires 5. From a database perspective the size of the article (or template) isn't really that important, so replacing any of the other methods with templates (assuming no other templates used in these articles) would increase the "DB cost" of generating these articles by a factor of 5. In addition, if done this way various editors will no doubt change the template to suit (no pun intended) their tastes and each time the template is changed it will affect hundreds (if not thousands) of articles. BTW - the Opera problem is almost certainly a font issue rather than an issue with Opera. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:31, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

David B. Steinman

Hi! I'd like some comments on the subject article if folks have some time. This article represents the most extensive article edit I've ever done here. (I didn't start it, others had some content when I got there, as you can see from diffs, but I went to town on it today). I've been a fan of Steinman since I was a boy and it just seemed the thing to do. I'm not really sure it's up to the standards of peer review yet. For one thing it still has a lot of internal comments I left in it about things that still need doing etc, and for another I don't know if it's "finished" enough. Some of my other questions are:

  • Is there too much? Compared to Joseph Strauss or Gustav Lindenthal it goes on forever...
  • Do the pictures help? I could not find a noncopyvio pic of Steinman himself so I just went through bridge articles picking out bridges he had a significant impact on or that had a significant impact on him... not sure if the sky ride is a good example or not.

Hence my request that a few kind souls take a look at it and comment, either on its talk page or mine. Thanks in advance!!! ++Lar 00:50, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Since I posted this I haven't gotten any comments, which is OK, no worries... but some firstedit editors have been inserting text that reads like it is an entire term paper into the article. (2 or 3 different papers on various early life topics) I have been leaving them welcome messages on their talk pages, and reverting the changes. I am not sure that's the right thing to do because the content appears to be actually about the subject and even has references to the sources I used (Ratigan and Petrofsky) but it's in my view way too voluminous for the article. I could use some advice. I don't think it's vandalism per se so didn't post at the administrator area, but is it? Thanks! It's not "my"(WP:OWN) article but I just put a lot of work into it to clean it up and don't want to see it crufted up. Is that wrong? (contrast this version with the reverted one just after it to see the difference the added text has) It should be noted that when I came upon the article, one of the texts recently inserted was there already, and I used some of it as a basis for some of what I did, but I think my editing it down and adding more material made a better article. The other two texts seem at least partly about justifying engineering as a career choice rather than about Steinman directly. ++Lar 21:25, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Flutoride

I ran across this via Special:Randompage, and I wanted to put a category tag on it, but I have no idea what it falls under. Physics? Joyous | Talk 17:27, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like a description of a subatomic particle, but given there aren't any google hits I'd suggest {{disputed}}} with a note on the talk page. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:44, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
It smells cranky to me, but might just be one of the weird subfields that crop up. I'll poke a cosmologist. Shimgray | talk | 18:35, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
This article is of course complete BS. There is no such thing in the research literature (search arXiv or Google.) Admin, please speedily delete this. ---CH 00:33, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
I've deleted it; I suspect this was pushing the definition of "complete nonsense" a little, but hey, physics is a language too, and it was illiterate in that :-) Shimgray | talk | 00:46, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Picture help

I submitted a picture, but am having trouble getting it licensed. How do I do that? —the preceding unsigned comment is by WikiPlayer (talk • contribs)

It depends what you mean by the image getting licensed. Take a look at the Wikipedia:Image use policy and get back to us if you still have problems. jnothman talk 14:27, 21 December 2005 (UTC)


Weißensee Cemetery

Weißensee Cemetery would it be possible to redirect Weissensee Cemetery here (the Anglisised spelling without ß) Yellowmellow45 12:23, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Done.Chelman 13:14, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
Yellowmellow45, in the future this is really really really easy to do yourself. See Wikipedia:Redirect. Simply go to Weissensee Cemetery and enter:
#redirect [[Weißensee Cemetery]]
and save! jnothman talk 14:25, 21 December 2005 (UTC)


Ok!!Yellowmellow45 15:38, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

offensive edit summaries

Could a developer please remove the offensive edit summaries from Jimmy Wales? The same thing may also need to be done on the George W. Bush article. --Ixfd64 02:38, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Help!!!!

I am korean. english is poor... I have question...hmmm...What image license tags is only for enwiki, not for commons? make a tag list only for enwiki not for commons!! -- WonYong 07:52, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

If you are looking for tags to use here on the English Wikipedia (I assume that's what you mean by "enwiki"), then you'll want to visit the Wikipedia:Image copyright tags page. If that's not what you are looking for, please let me know. Hope that helps. --nihon 08:08, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm guessing the issue is which tags mean that you couldn't copy the image to commons? On Wikipedia:Image copyright tags, the Public domain and Free licenses tags should all be OK for commons; none of the others should be. -- Jmabel | Talk 08:06, 22 December 2005 (UTC)


merge watchlists

Is there a way to merge watchlists in English and German Wikipedia? The ammount of separation between the different language Wikipedias - starting with the necessity to create two accounts - is distressing.
Or is this question/suggestion/whatever supposed to be a feature-request or even a bug? Or am I just to tired/stupid to figure things out? greetings --Space-Marine 01:31, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to know that too :-) Peter S. 01:38, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
It's been proposed and asked many times: why can't user accounts be closer between Wikimedia projects. At the moment there are many technical obstacles: each wikipedia is a separate system installation and separate database. Wikipedia wasn't originally designed to be so many related project, and relics of this original idea now make for limitations. So the answer is, sorry: no, not yet. jnothman talk 05:30, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Ok, thanks :-) Peter S. 12:07, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
Lightbulb just gone off above my head. While the server guys can't do it, it should be theoretically easy enough to write a greasemonkey/trixie script that (assuming you are logged into de at the same time through persistant cookies) retrieves the watchlist, parses it, and then inserts the entries into your en watchlist. Hmmm let me have a think about this and I will see what I can do. – MrWeeble Talk Brit tv 20:27, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Password Changed

I tried to log in using IE and got an incorrect password message and I don't know why. Unable to log in I pressed email new password. Is there anyway to get back the password of my choice because the one they sent in email is not one I would choose.--Dakota ? e 21:32, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

You change your password after you log in via Special:Preferences. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 21:37, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
Thanks that worked and happy hoildays.--Dakota ? e 21:59, 23 December 2005 (UTC)


Disambiguation Pages

I'm new here and to be quite honest, I'm afraid to get my toes wet. So I'd like to request some assistance or advice. Two pages, Margaret Ray and MAR, seem to be in need of disambiguation pages. Another entry, C&C Music Factory, seem to have circular links, where clicking on the link just brings you back to the same entry. How would one go about resolving this?--Silverhand 16:01, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Re C&C -- You can do what I just did: click on the "What links here" and look for redirect pages in the list that are pointed to by the same article. Thanks for the heads-up!--SarekOfVulcan 20:45, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Deleted info admitted on site indexed in Google News

This site admitted [10] to deleting information from Wikipedia, but I don't know what article. Can anyone find this out, and revert the edit? -- user:zanimum

It's very unclear what exactly was deleted: it seems to indicate that the only evidence that the author was wrong was on Wikipedia, and has since been deleted. Seeing as said author does not have an article here, I have no idea what it could be. jnothman talk 22:40, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
Looks to me that the author was just making a joke. I wouldn't waste any time worrying that it might be real. DreamGuy 22:45, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
Right, my sense of humour's clearly not up to scratch. =) jnothman talk 13:41, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

translation

Is it possible that I translate some of the articles not available in Turkish to Turkish in order to enable more people to understand them? My intent is not to plagiarize in any way, I will be stating clearly that the article is a translation and offer links to the original one.

Yes, this would be very good, if you put your translated articles on the Turkish Wikipedia. There will probably be a group of people there already doing this and you might like to co-ordinate your efforts with them. I can't read Turkish, but tr:Vikipedi:Köy_çeşmesi would probably be a good place to ask about such projects.-gadfium 19:12, 24 December 2005 (UTC)


AfD closing?

The AfD (Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/GH_avisualagency™) about which I posted earlier is now eight days old, and we haven't had a new vote in over 24 hours. Ignoring all the meat/sock puppets (I used "fewer than ten edits before voting" as the standard; we've had 30, 22 of whom voted "keep"), we have 18 votes to Delete, 1 to keep, and 2 abstentions. If someone could come close this out, I'd appreciate it. Any questions, just ask. Thanks. | Klaw ¡digame! 03:48, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Now done by DocGlasgow - Merry Xmas all Brookie :) - a collector of little round things! (Talk!) 20:54, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Is it or isn't it a personal attack?

This is related to the AfD for which I solicited help above. The user who vandalized my user page has been engaging in a mild harassment campaign against me. I don't care so much about that, but this I do care about: Two accusations that I am harassing him/her, one here on his/her talk page and one on the talk page for the AfD. I placed a short response on the AfD talk page just to have an actual denial on the record. Should I do anything else? I don't like having the claim that I'm harassing anyone out there. Thanks, everyone's been a great help on this AfD so far. | Klaw ¡digame! 19:24, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Maybe, but I wouldn't worry about it. What a perversely amusing AFD! "• Keep - We—uh they—are really, really notable. We're famous. Really. -- Brand New Account 00:00, 19 December 2005 (UTC) ". Over and over. -- Jmabel | Talk 05:20, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

References

  • Opitz, Glenn, B.,editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY 1986


Quelling a persistent vandal

I'm seeking some guidance on what to do about a persistent vandal that's been targeting my user/talk pages, along with the articles I've created, for almost 5 months now. To sum up my addition to the long term vandal alerts page, this particular vandal is on a personal crusade against me ever since I reverted vandalism done by him almost 5 months ago. He has evaded countless blocks, which must total to at least 50 by now; the primary IP ranges he uses are 138.89.xxx.xxx and 141.1xx.xxx, but as of late he has used some anonymous proxies. (A list of IPs he has used to vandalize my talk page can be found on the first heading of my deleted content subpage.)

A whois of the 141.1xx.xxx and 138.89.xxx.xxx IPs all point to a Verizon ISP in Newark, New Jersey. I was contemplating a range block today, but since the range of IPs used is so big, I'm afraid of the collateral damage that it will probably cause to legitimate users. His disruption hasn't stopped at Wikipedia, as he sees to fit to do things like creating a "nufy8" Wikiquote entry and inserting profanity into it, to repeatedly trying to contact/harass me through AIM.

Basically what I'm looking for are some suggestions. Should I try a range block? Should I e-mail Verizon? Is there a solution that I'm not seeing? Nufy8 02:05, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

I would advise against trying a range block. Either contacting Verizon yourself or getting someone else to is technicaly the correct option however past experence suggests it may not help much. In the short term your best bet may be to make as many people as posible aware of the pages that are likely to be hit.Geni 01:54, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Citing pornographic sources

What is Wikipedia's guideline on linking to pornography (text)? I can't cite my sources for parts of the article on intercrural sex without doing so. Njál 20:36, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

There's nothing wrong with it, provided it's a reputable source of whatever you're trying to cite. WP:NOT#Wikipedia is not censored for the protection of minors. -- SCZenz 21:41, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
It's usually helpful if you put a warning on the link so as to let people know what they're about to go to. User:Zoe|(talk) 01:20, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Lisa Collins

This is an easy job, and I'd do it myself, 'cept I'm a bit busy and I'm not sure of the naming conventions in this case.... I'd like Lisa Collins turned into a disambiguation page. The existing article should be moved (but I'm not sure what it should be called) and a new page needs to be made for Lisa Collins, actress (or should that be actor?) - Lisa Collins at IMDb. Thanks. TheMadBaron 05:41, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Wow... IMDB has 9 entries by that name! Agree that the academic shouldn't have the unqualified name, not sure whether it should even perhaps be the Australian actress... but making it a disambig seems the safe option. Andrewa 05:51, 27 December 2005 (UTC)


Infobox on Erich Honecker

Hello there! Me and another Wikipedist are having a small argument about the appropiated infobox that should be displayed in this article. Thus, and avoiding a Rv War, request any person who is willing to give us a hand to solve this problem, to take a look at both Infoboxes (the other fellow wikipedist being Rd232 ) and select wich one is more appropiated, Thanks! Messhermit 00:42, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Just to clarify, the issue is whether the long version of the infobox is better (eg here) or the shorter version (eg here), noting that the shorter version is supposed to be complemented by succession boxes at the bottom of the article. NB these infoboxes apply to a number of political leaders, not just Honecker. Rd232 talk 00:51, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Indeed! I was trying to reorganize most of the East German politicians, and that is why I believe that the infobox that I selected is the most accurate. I currently stop doing it until a consensus is reached. Messhermit 00:52, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
My only opinion is this: To make it easy on readers, try to standardize the info box that you are using across all of the articles in the category, assuming it's not in the 1000's, that you feel relates these bio's; it will make it easier to compare and contrast them if they are in the same location, with the same information. xaosflux Talk/CVU 04:58, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
It's not really more or less information: much of it is a question of style (eg whether to have a Place of Birth in a separate line from Date of Birth) - see the two versions linked in my comment above. Rd232 talk 14:27, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Improper Merger

Dear Rick Block,

Whatever corrections you may have made on the link between the articles and "Gang Stalking" and "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex" did not take.

When you open "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex" and then enter the "Comments" section to that article, you are ONCE AGAIN immediately switched to the "Comments" section to the article entitled "Gang Stalking."

Hence, if you say "Delete this Article," you are saying "Delete the article entitled 'Gang Stalking,'" when in fact you are TRYING to say, "Delete the article entitled 'Gang Stalk Persecution Complex.'"

We are trying to get the "Persecution Complex" article deleted, and we want the "Gang Stalking" article kept, but, because of this improper merger or link between the two articles, we are getting nowhere with this.

Are these pages being hacked? Can you fix it permanently?

Thank you.

Julianne McKinney --68.251.198.41 18:23, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

It was changed back. I'll look into it. -- Rick Block (talk) 20:33, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
The intent seems to be for the single AFD discussion about Gang stalking also to pertain to Gang Stalk Persecution Complex. If the consensus is delete, then both articles will be deleted (I've clarified this at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gang stalking). If the consensus for Gang stalking is to keep the article then a separate AFD should be opened for Gang Stalk Persecution Complex. I'd suggest simply waiting a week or two to see how the first AFD plays out. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:07, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
The intention now seems to be that Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gang stalking proposes deletion also of Brighting. It's a bit of a mess that will be up to the admin who closes the discussion to figure out. The problem with adding recreations into a current discussion is that it's a lot of work to figure out which comments apply to all of the articles proposed for deletion and which apply only to the first, etc.. Far better to let the vote proceed on the one article, and then see if the others qualify as candidates for speedy deletion, most will. Andrewa 21:20, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Swing time etc

I need some help with a long-standing battle which I hope isn't yet to conflict resolution but may end up there.

Basically, swing time and swing rhythm now (again) both redirect to an article swung note which is really only accessible, or of interest, to serious musicologists. In addition, these redirects imply a post-bebop POV that not all of us share.

All I want is a good article on swing/shuffle that is accessible to the layperson (although I have some interest in musicology myself and more than 20 years jazz drumming experience and I'd never heard of a swung note before... but then I don't really like post-bebop rhythms anyway, I like to make people want to dance...), and a logical place to put it, and maybe some see also links from swing time and similar obvious titles where laypeople will look for this information.

See swing rhythm history and Talk:Swing rhythm for some background. Andrewa 16:57, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like a compromising answer would be to change the redirects to go to a disambugation page, where the other articles could be linked from. xaosflux Talk/CVU 21:02, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
That's a good suggestion IMO. I welcome the esoteric contributions of these musicologists, and don't want them to be rejected. I just want some balance. Andrewa 23:21, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Hmmm... but the problem is, we still need to put the article somewhere!
What I'm talking about is what Nat Gonella and Glenn Miller just called swing, and which has been played by every jazz band (with the possible exception of any that played only Latin jazz), and which is essential for many dances, notably foxtrot, quickstep and jive, and it was part of early rock and roll but not post-Beatles. It's a metre, a rhythm and also a convention of notation, but most of all a feel... but it's not just a swung note!
The most obvious place to put it is swing time. Swing rhythm, shuffle time and shuffle rhythm are second choices. I gave up swing time early in the battle as an attempt at compromise but in hindsight perhaps that was a mistake.
Where else should the article go? Andrewa 04:33, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
For my current thinking on an article to go at swing time, see User:Andrewa/Swing time. Andrewa 05:13, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Moon conspiracy and religion

Searching new page additions on Wikipedia: A few days ago I added a new page addition on Wikipedia, Moon conspiracy and religion, however when I try to search from the Wikipedia search box on say, moon, moon conspiracy, moon landing, moon hoax; the new page addition does not get listed.

Could you tell me please if there is some time lag in the process between a new page addition on Wikipedia and the Wikipedia search listings?


Thanks

--Wikiencyc 12:43, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Someone has put the new page addition into the fringe category and they say that it lacks references and they want to merge it with another item - Apollo moon landing hoax accusations where in October 2005 all of my contributions got booted out by the tyrants there. I have added a section on References and cited them and would not like the new page addition to be sidelined, excluded from search results or merged where tyrants can delete the content. --Wikiencyc 15:20, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, there is a lag between adding pages (or content to pages) and the Wikipedia search results. The index used for search is rebuilt only occasionally. Whether the new page should be merged or not should be discussed on the relevant talk pages, not here. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:16, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Need help with the two George Bissell s

I've gone every where [FAQs, etc] that I could think of trying to find an answer to this question. I did not want to bug the chosen few who have already helped me out so many times before, so . . . . . . . .... figured that I'd try here and see what happens.

I have been working on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln#Legacy_and_memorials

and just entered a link for George Bissell, expecting red ink and planning to start a stub for the sculptor, but instead discovered some other George Bissell. I don't know how to do discombobulations - or whatever - but if you do, here is a stub to begin the sculptor's page with.

Thanks,

stub:

George Bissell, American sculptor, born New Preston CT on February 16, 1839 and died in Mt. Vernon , NY on August 30, 1920. Bissell began working in his father's marble business in Poughkeepsie , NY before going to Europe where he studied in Paris, Rome and Florence. His works include the statue of Abraham Lincoln located in Edinburgh, Scotland and another Lincoln in Clermont, IA.

Does the link George Bissell (sculptor) help? -- Rick Block (talk) 23:39, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
I've gone one step further, making George Bissell a disabiguation page, linking to George Bissell (sculptor) and George Bissell (industrialist). Working on fixing the double redirs now. xaosflux Talk/CVU 21:09, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Improper merger

Thank you for checking; however, the problem still exists.

When you open the article entitled, "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex," and then, in the box that begins, "This article is being considered for deletion...," click on the "this article's entry" link (which opens up the comments section), you will note that the title of the article that you have opened is "Gang Stalking," NOT "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex." So any comments you post are directed at the article entitled "Gang Stalking," NOT "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex."

I took the precaution of stating that the article on "Gang Stalking" should be kept, while the one entitled, "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex," should be deleted, but, I can't comment further on this latter because I'm on the "Gang Stalking" comments page.

Thanks again.

Julianne McKinney --70.236.161.247 21:17, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

The link to the AFD page was incorrectly created. I fixed this and both pages now have their own listings. -- Rick Block (talk) 22:47, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gang stalking for more on this. Andrewa 05:17, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Improper Merger

Someone has improperly merged the article entitled, "Gang Stalking" with the article "Gang Stalk Persecution Complex." The result is that, when you attempt to comment on the need to delete the "Persecution" article as being very unprofessional, you are immediately switched over to the "Gang Stalking" article, where your comments in fact are registered.

Please unmerge these two articles. I am not a software expert and am only now beginning to barely grasp your diverse instructions, so, your assistance in this matter will be very greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Julianne McKinney --70.236.161.247 20:43, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of wikifying the article names in your comments so people can easily find these. They don't appear to me to be merged, nor do their talk pages. If there was a problem, it seems already to be fixed. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:54, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gang stalking for more on this. Andrewa 05:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:GermanGov&action=history User Steschke and I are not German lawyers but experienced in German legal issues. There is no doubt in our humble opinion that neither in the written German legal literature nor in court discussion a case is known that a photograph was qualified as an official work according § 5 II German Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz). There was a German discussion on this point at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Amtliches_Werk and the Commons template GermanGov was deleted. The photographs can remain as fair use in the en Wikipedia but the template should'nt be used. Please note: We do not argue that there are not cases according § 5 I (regarding laws, court decisions etc.). Pictures of Bundesgesetzblatt or Reichsgesetzblatt are clearly Public Domain. There is in § 5 I no need of citing the source like in § 5 II. Thanks for all help! --Historiograf 22:01, 27 December 2005 (UTC)


Infoboxes

How much is "too much" to put into an infobox? I have seen some infoboxes like Template:Routeboxca2 that take up almost the entire length of the page. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 20:58, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Looking at how that is used at Interstate 605, it looks to be pretty appropriate. But, as with many things, the answer is "as big as it needs to be, but no bigger". -- Jmabel | Talk 05:45, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

David Miscavige article being vandalized

Nuview is evidently using sockpuppets to delete documentation, material, and even links to other wikipedia articles from this article. I request assistance from an administrator on this.--Fahrenheit451 17:01, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I have posted a request of copyright examination at List of billionaires (2005) that should also apply to all lists based on Forbes' annual world richest people list. The issue at hand is to decide whether the compilation of this list by Forbes required creative work or if it is just a compilation of raw data. This request was prompted by a Featured list nomination of List of Mexican billionaires. People knowledgeable of copyright law are kindly asked to provide their input at Talk:List of billionaires (2005). Thank you. -- Rune Welsh | ταλκ | Esperanza 14:55, 29 December 2005 (UTC)


Gruiformes

Could somebody who knows this material fix the third paragraph of the Gruiformes article? There are a couple of unfinished sentences there. Thanks. User:Zoe|(talk) 18:33, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

I cleaned up a lot of the language but am not intimately familiar enough with the subject matter (ornithologic taxonomy) to confirm facts. alteripse 22:24, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Jehovah's Witnesses

This article and those associated with it need assistance from some new blood who have no investment in the issues. They have become in some instances "exposés" and in others just plain garbled nonsense due to edit confilcts. George 13:58, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Uploaded files

Is there any way of getting a list of all the files you've uploaded? Zafiroblue05 07:57, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

You can check your contributions list, and choose "image" namespace, then click "go." Is that what you're after? Joyous | Talk 14:22, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Yep, that's it. Thanks! Zafiroblue05 08:08, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
actually, the upload log may be better, as it shows actual uploads. -- Chris 73 | Talk 08:22, 30 December 2005 (UTC)


Can someone review a new template

Hello,

I have created a template for the dog project, but I have never done anything this complicated with wikipedia templates before.

The requirements for the dog project are to have a need to have a table in a specific format with many many optional arguments.

I would like someone who is more of an expert with templates to review it and give me any advice (or tell me that I've just gone mad and have done things completely wrong :) )

Template is here: Template:Infobox Dogbreed

I'm not 100% happy with it but it works as desired, you can see an example article here: User:Trysha/Sandbox/Basset or Template:Infobox Dogbreed/test.

I think the only changes that i'd like to see now are that I'd like to be able to hide an entire section if one of 6 variables are not set (you can see where in the comments) - sadly, there seems to be no documentation on hiddenStructure at all.

- Trysha (talk) 07:58, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Use of "if defined" (and similar "logic" templates) is discouraged (see Wikipedia:Avoid using meta-templates). For optional infobox parameters, using class="hiddenStructure{{{param|}}}" (where param is the optional parameter name) is a CSS trick that can be used to mostly do the same thing (at least in fairly simple cases), see for example Template:Taxobox. If at all possible, please collapse this into a single template as well. I suspect user:Netoholic would be happy to assist if you directly ask. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:09, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
That's very helpful! Thanks! I've converted it over to use hiddenstrucutre, one template. - Trysha (talk) 19:08, 30 December 2005 (UTC)


User posting original reviews on hip-hop articles

User:Chubdub has been running amok in various hip-hop articles, rewriting them as critical essays/reviews rather than as encyclopedic articles. I've reverted and/or rewritten his changes several times, and have asked him to stop by providing links to WP:NOR, WP:NOT, WP:CITE, and WP:NPOV, but to no avail. (In a few instances, he has sourced his comments, and I've left those in or reworded them to hew more closely to the original sources.) I'm loath to say anything stronger than what I've said on his talk page, since I'm not an admin or an expert on Wikipedia policies. Any advice on what to do next would be appreciated; perhaps I'm being too bureaucratic about those policies. He also has one habit that isn't a policy violation but is rather annoying - he makes 20-30 small changes in succession to each article, rather than one long one, which makes it hard to go back through the history. The pages in question are Rakim, Das EFX, The Chronic, and Dead Serious (album). My comments to him begin at User_talk:Chubdub#Rakim; he responded twice on my talk page at User_talk:Keithlaw#Rakim. Thanks. | Klaw ¡digame! 19:07, 31 December 2005 (UTC)


User constantly deleting article section

What can be done when a user keeps going in and outright deleting an entire section of an article over and over again for no other reason than that it doesn't fit his political POV? (For the record, I'm talking about the CNN page.) This is apparently collateral damage from the fact that this user hasn't been able to keep the Fox News Channel entry quite as reliably one-sided as he'd like. -- Aaron 17:46, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Submit an RFC. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 18:23, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Pre-disambiguation guidelines?

Hi! I am asking for advice about the naming scheme used for the articles that are in Category:Windows_Vista_typefaces. They all seem to be pre-disambiguated as "(font)", although only 3 (out of 6) actually need this disambiguation. I was thinking of moving Consolas (font), Candara (font) and Calibri (font) back to Consolas, Candara and Calibri. I just can't see the point of having a 'common' scheme just for these 6 fonts, especially as wikilinks to them will almost certainly be piped most of the time (thus removing the "(font)" part). What do you think? laug 02:40, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (precision). Could Candara and Calibri possibly ever mean something else? If not, move 'em! — Ambush Commander(Talk) 02:48, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Even if they could mean something else, there is no problem moving the articles now and then moving them back later if it ever became necessary. —Mike 03:33, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for your replies. I will move the articles accordingly. laug 03:37, 2 January 2006 (UTC)


Dower house category

I ran across this as a random article. It is currently without a category, but I'm not sure what it fits with. Ideas? Joyous | Talk 17:33, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps Category:House types? Clearly something under Category:Buildings and structures. -- Rick Block (talk) 17:50, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Programming Code that relates to article

I made Java code to convert a Gregorian (normal) date to the International Fixed Calendar. Should I post the source code on a subpage of my user page and link to it, or post it there in the same manner as that at Doomsday algorithm, or what? My code is Object-oriented, while the Doomsday code is just simple procedural stuff that can be translated into another programming language very easily (I could translate it to Java without even editing it). I would have to post source code because do not know how to do applets or anything like that.

Thank you, Lee S. Svoboda tɑk 04:21, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a specific suggestion as to what you should do, but do not link from article space into user space. A definite no-no. - Jmabel | Talk 05:09, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
You might upload the source to wikisource, see for example s:Monty_Hall_problem. -- Rick Block (talk) 05:18, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Stuff that is really long (which your Java code probably is due to the nature of OOP) probably should go to Wikisource. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 05:31, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought of that because of WP:NOR, but wasn't sure. Thank you all very much. Lee S. Svoboda tɑk 18:11, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

HEELP! Bad article, undisputed because of big following - what to do?

Could somebody help me here? I found an article that seems to defy any definition of a "good article" (it's extremely biased, outragious claims are made, and the sources used to back up those claims consist largely out of tiny newspaper snippets that are blown up out of proportion to make the subject sound like the second coming of the christ). So far, so easy, but there is a devoted following of wikipedia users that seems to prevent any sensible editing or removal of the article. What should I do? Article here: Aladin. Is there a way to look for sockpuppets in the article history? Any help (and votes) would be greatly appreciated, thanks. Peter S. 19:04, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

  • I just looked at the article. It isn't your imagination. It reads like a public relations brochure created by an advertising firm. Even more emetic are the comments on the Talk page. If there aren't some sockpuppets among that group, I would suspect aladin of "mind control" abilities. Dalembert 20:28, 2 January 2006 (UTC)


Colours

Is there a page here that tells us where the codes for colours are, for my revamp of Wiktionary's main page?. I presumed that Wikipedia:Colours or Wikipedia:Colors would exist. Please ntify me on my talk page, thanks --Dangherous 21:16, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I've replied on the talkpage regarding the query. -MegamanZero|Talk 21:18, 3 January 2006 (UTC)


I need assistance

EffK 01:52, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

But on what? ;-P — Ambush Commander(Talk) 02:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
I request help from anyone concerned to assist here where a problem is most apparent[[11]],http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pope_Pius_XII#Visible_1_1_2006_Impossibility_of_a_Serious_Article and to consider the a.r.t./article resolution template I suggested here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Vatican_Bank#WP__Article_resolution_template. The template is not a template in the wiki form but more in the general working sense. Ambush Commander, I need help from getting my brain intentionally screwed by the denialism apparent fom the first link, the solution to which is in the second. If you as a completely 3rd party feel that this example of denialism is AOK for WP, well,then, I dunno.EffK 11:22, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
User:Bengalski is offering help, but this severe dispute requires the greatest over-sight possible, and the discussion proceeds at first link above.EffK 12:14, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
Nope. The pro-pacelli faction stamped on me so hard I don't think Bengalski alone will make enough difference. I'm a POV pusher, which is the legal way of denying source. I request Ambush Commander to remember this exchange. I am blocked and have been persistently block/harassed because I have had the temerity to challenge the line from Hitler to Catholicism. Why should you care ? Because this is a subversion of verifiability principle amongst others lesser such as good faith. The impossibility is even more apparent following the entry of the defence of the line. I still request assistance. EffK 08:54, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

WP is not only for the tallest, highest, longest...

(Before you ask, the Help desk couldn't help me) I seem to recall reading a nice section somewhere in the WP: namespace, about how "boring" things are worth writing about too. Like, not just the presidents, but also the vice presidents. Not everything needs a superlative to be worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia. (I'm not an inclusionist, but I believe this is true.) But reading over WP:NOT, I can't find this section. I'm starting to have a feeling it was in an old version of this page.

Does anyone recall it, or where I can find it? TIA, pfctdayelise 13:18, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


Windows Metafile vulnerability

Now that the article have settled down a bit since going off In the News on Main Page, and before the next influx of edits when MS release the patch on 10 Jan, I would like some outside opinion on couple of sticking matter over use of language and whether to list specific examples.

The small disputes starts here on the talk page. Basically, the question is whether the article should be listing specific example of operating systems that are not affected by this vulnerability, or is saying this is a Windows vulnerability, and other OS aren't affected (unless...) the better option.

The other one is this. Should the article mention in the Workaround section, switching operating system. If so, how should it be phase.

WP:NPOV need to be taken into account on both this issues. -- KTC 05:52, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Canadian copyrights

Do we have a page for Canadian copyright, specifically Canadian public tags?--Dakota ~ ε 16:08, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi. I’m wondering what the copyright status is of photos taken by Nazis in the course of their official duties before the end of WWII. Are these images now Public Domain and free to be uploaded on the Commons? Or, do we have to know when each individual died and figure it out that way. Thanks. --Quasipalm 14:30, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

There also is some discussion here: [[12]]. This image is the reason I brought this up here. --Quasipalm 02:11, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Please also look here. --ST ○ 10:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Helen Childs Boyden

I created an article within the last week or two on Helen Childs Boyden. Now I can't find it and am wondering if it has been deleted. Can anyone help me with this. It's not in my contributions log, if an article is deleted does that remove the contributions too? Thanks for any help.--Samuel J. Howard 23:26, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't sound right. Could you have gotten distracted and forgotten to save it? I do that all the time. normxxx 00:43, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
It does sound right to me. Yes, contribs to deleted articles aren't listed. Kate's tool had included a listing of deleted contribs, but in what seems to be an over-restrictive response to a change in policy, no longer does. Yes, the article got deleted by Cnwb under criterion for speedy deletion A7: that no assertion of significance was given in the article. That is, other than "teacher of chemistry" and "wife of headmaster", nothing in the article came close to asserting that Helen had any encyclopedic significance of her own. See WP:BIO for Wikipedia's guideline on biographical articles. Of deceased people, this asks "Has the person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in the specific field?" If you can give evidence that the individual was significant, I will happily restore the article as you left it. jnothman talk 00:55, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Also see the deletion log. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 01:08, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the help. I realize it was a rather obscure beginning. Have created article as redirect to Frank Boyden, of undoubted signifigance (profiled in The New Yorker, etc. etc.) will add info there for now until it gets to big (if it does.)--Samuel J. Howard 02:59, 6 January 2006 (UTC)


Help! Major problems with password

1. I have been using Opera and have had no troubles with my automatic signon.

2. I tried to sign on with Mozilla, but was told I had the wrong password. I foolishly asked Wiki to send me a new one (assuming it would take only minutes). After 10 minutes- nothing!

3. I still can get onto Wikipedia via my autosignon on Opera with no problem (and I AM signed on); but I cannot change my password in my preferences-- it tells me my (old?) password is no good.

4. Still no password has been e-Mailed to me after 20 minutes.

normxxx 22:27, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Is the e-mail address in your preferences correct? If you can still login with Opera, you should be able to change the address to something that you know works. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 22:33, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
The eMail address in my preferences is correct. I set it automatically (so mininmal chance of typo) and have visually inspected it several times.
You might still want to try changing it; maybe mail from Wikipedia to you isn't getting through for some reason. You could try replacing it temporarily with a disposable email address. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:03, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


Could you send me an eMail? I am set to receive Wiki eMails. I don't want to change anything more, lest I lose the ability to logon at all!!! normxxx 23:44, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


===>> I eventually received my new password from wikipedia and have straitened myself out (for today?) thanks for your help normxxx 00:39, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

CSS classes on Wikipedia

Hello again! Could you please tell me where I can find a list of CSS classes that may be used on Wikipedia? (if such a list exists.) I have seen various templates use CSS classes, e.g. Template:Current uses class="messagebox current". There are also suspicious-looking CSS classes in some templates. laug 03:45, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

See MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Monobook.css. It seems that the "current" part of the above does nothing, but messagebox is in Common.css. jnothman talk 04:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
There's also /skins-1.5/monobook/main.css, /skins-1.5/common/commonPrint.css and /w/index.php?title=-&action=raw&gen=css, plus a number of style sheets containing MSIE-specific additions and workarounds. You can see them all by looking at the page source in your browser. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 21:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Harvard Cyberlaw Course starting; needs help

Harvard Law School is starting a Cyberlaw course this week (prof: Jonathan Zittrain). They're using Wikipedia as a case study for part of it... I'm encouraging them to create accounts and edit, as part of getting to know what kinds of social and policy issues editors face.

You can track their progress, and account creation, at the Cyberlaw Wikiproject. Please keep an eye on their group user pages, and help them get their feet wet without running afoul of too many local customs. (Though half the fun for them may be seeing how policy like VfD and cleanup-notification is implemented...) You can leave any q's about the project on my talk page. Cheers, +sj + 18:28, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Would you mind posting a summary of the project and some links at Wikipedia:School and university projects? Thanks! --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 21:25, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Help with the Dogpile article

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

^^ It looks like someone got the coding wrong at the beginning of the article- can anyone fix it? I don't know how. I know, I know- I'll learn how to later. Andrewdt85 06:33, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I think they tried to put in a search box so you could search dogpile directly from the WP page. I just removed it, because it's not really appropriate for an encyclopedia article. BTW, you can ask questions like on the Help desk in the future. Although I guess here is OK, too. pfctdayelise 14:02, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


Spreadsheets

I am thinking about uploading a database to wikipedia. The database does only fairly trivial computation but couldn't be sensibly replaced by an html table. It's purpose is to help balance the number of news resources on wikipedia: News sources by the population of the countries involved. I am writing it in open office. In this instance could I upload it in open offices standard format. What is the policy with regard to this? Any advice? Barnaby dawson 01:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to help Barnaby find an appropriate place to ask about this (see my talk page and Wikipedia_talk:Media#Spreadsheets) but he's not getting any response. If there's a more appropriate place, please let us know.-gadfium 05:18, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
commons:commons:File types. (Any media uploaded to commons is available in all wikimedia projects.) Openoffice SXC is acceptable. That page also mentions that it may be more appropriate to upload to wikisource. They accept SXC files too, but it seems like it's not easy: [13]. I don't know if equivalent pages to these exist on en:. HTH. pfctdayelise 14:11, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Policy on 1911 Britannica articles

Are Wikipedians allowed to use material from the 1911 Britannica in their articles? I understand that the 1911 EB is out of copyright. Clarification appreciated. --Peripatetic 21:41, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes. As long as you use the template {{1911}} in the references, you should be fine. --DanielCD 21:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Though please don't just dump the text into Wikipedia. 1911 articles generally need substantial revisions for style, and also obviously often need to be updated. - SimonP 15:20, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

AfD on Paul Crowley

Only three people have contributed opinions to this AfD: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Paul Crowley (2nd nomination). I'd really appreciate some opinions from neutral outsiders. Please take a look and add a comment about what you think. Thanks! — ciphergoth 08:54, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

This is probably more appropriate on WP:VP, but I'm sure some folks from here will take a look. :) pfctdayelise 14:15, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
Um, this obviously IS VP. And I am obviously very confused. Disregard. :) pfctdayelise 14:32, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

3RR violation at John Kerry

Gamaliel violated the 3RR rule at John Kerry today. Here are the diffs:

  1. 05:19, 5 January 2006 - [14]
  2. 05:23, 5 January 2006 - [15]
  3. 09:03, 5 January 2006 - [16]
  4. 02:54, 6 January 2006 - [17]
  5. 08:18, 6 January 2006 - [18]

He's an admin so I don't want to tangle with him, but something should be done. If you study the reverts he made, they were clearly made against non-vandal edits. For this reason, Gamaliel should not be allowed to flaunt the 3RR simply because he's pushing his own preferred text instead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.15.76.242 (talk • contribs)

Why not re-post this on the Administrators' noticeboard? Brookie :) - a collector of little round things! (Talk!) 08:28, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Try WP:AN3. User:Zoe|(talk) 21:58, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
There is a brief relevant discussion at Talk:John Kerry#3RR violation at John Kerry. The anon originator of this section has a Contributions history that makes me wary, but I also do not believe that if you feel you have a legitimate complaint you should make it at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/3RR. Please note that even if an admin finds that that a 3RR has been committed, "it is up to the administrator's discretion whether to take action" and is not mechanistic. - BanyanTree 06:26, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

astronomer needed to check article addition

I added a section to clarify the cosmic distance ladder article, but it needs a professional to verify it. Thanks in advance! 81.188.79.105 16:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


Article Size

I'm trying to identify how long the article Tiger_Balm is. Is there any easy way to do this?

How do the different languages link together for the [this page] "in other languages" side bar? How do you add another article that is in a different language to that side bar, do the bots do it? --x1987x 04:23, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

For the first question, it depends how you measure the length of the article. Do you mean the number of characters in the code that generates the article (what you see when you click edit this page)? Then you could save it in a text file on your computer and see the size of that, or paste it into a word processor to get a character/word count.
For the second question, this is an interlanguage link. It is made by adding [[LANGCODE:TITLE]] to the page where LANGCODE is the language abbreviation for the target wiki and TITLE is the title in that language's Wikipedia. In Tiger Balm, there is a link to Norsk (bokmål) which is made with the code [[no:Tigerbalsam]]. jnothman talk 05:03, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


Wikibox covers text

In case I've goofed about posting here and this comment belongs elsewhere I apologize in advance. I was just looking at the various months articles (January, February, etc) and the Wikitionary link-box covers some of the text in the article. It's only a few characters but I've spent the last hour or so trying to fix it with no luck. I honestly can't be sure if it's only my laptop screen, I know spacing can vary from screen to screen. If anyone can offer a suggestion I'd appreciate it. Naufana 01:19, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I think that can happen when the two floated elements are stacked together and one displaces the other. The Wictionary box is shifted down, overlapping the text. If you move the Wictionary box down the page a little so that the two elements don't collide, it should look okay. — RJH 22:46, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Need administrator help

this picture may need deleted[19] it's got no copyright or anything on it and I am not sure it should be here.--71.28.249.55 01:42, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

NOT WORK SAFE


Revert war

Having some trouble with an anonymous user reversing reverts in Thumbshot. Can someone point me in the right direction to get some help with this? Wrathchild 16:51, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, yeah. He keeps editing comments on the Talk page as well.
Post on WP:AN/I. An admin will help you out. You can put warning templates on the user's talk page, too. pfctdayelise 05:30, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
The user has multiple warnings and has been blocked at least once. Wrathchild 13:10, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I have a concern about User:63.251.16.30 (talk, contribs). This user has made ~100 edits, and all of them are to add links to a personal website at www.cygnus-x1.net. There are a few warnings on the user's talk page, but every couple of weeks s/he returns to add/re-add spam. It's not quite the same as vandalism, in my view. Does anything need to be done? Or should I just keep an eye on it and revert when necessary? Is there a more specific page where this problem can be taken? --Qirex 04:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)


Zamanfou

Is this a joke? User:Zoe|(talk) 19:22, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

IANA?

Many proxy (??) IP-adresses comes from IANA-BLK, and the country is "EU #". Can any administrator block proxy-IP-adresses from iana.org? 1() 21:52, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

IANA is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. My guess is that block includes pretty much every IP address in Europe. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 00:09, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Templates

Is there a way too see a list of all the Wikipedia templates? I can on yppedia using the link [[21]]. Is there a way to do this on Wikipedia? --pevarnj (t/c) 21:03, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[22]. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 21:28, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry

I'm not sure if it's possible, but can the IP addresses of two apparently different users be checked to see if they are the same? I am suspicious of some sockpuppetry going on - at present it's merely annoying rather than actual vandalism, but it would help deal with it if I could be 100% sure, rather than only 90%. The users are user:DeveloperFrom1983 and user:MathStatWoman. The latter has definitely contributed using the IP 151.197.161.81, so if this matches up with the former too, then it would seem to confirm sockpuppetry. Is there any official policy on this? Graham 16:03, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

see Wikipedia:Requests for CheckUser. DES (talk) 21:56, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Music Video infobox

I need help creating a Music Video infobox (Template:Infobox Music Video) - it would go in all music video articles and give information on the Artist, Air date, the Director, and have a link to the Music Video Database.--The lorax 16:27, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

There's a lot of information at Wikipedia:Infobox and Wikipedia:Infobox_templates#Design_and_usage. If you need more help, you might try one of the parent WikiProject talk pages, perhaps Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Television or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Music. --Aaron 23:53, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Reporting GFDL violation

How does a user report a web site that has copied a Wikipedia article with out crediting Wikipedia? -- DanBlackham 10:06, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Mirrors_and_forks#Non-compliance_process. pfctdayelise 10:39, 12 January 2006 (UTC)


Who are these tennis players?

Hi... I want to increase the range of photos that commons: has, especially of players, since at the moment it's quite poor. (See commons:Tennis.) But I need some help identifying pictures. If you know who these players are, could you please tell me?

  1. [23] White woman with brown hair, red shorts at the Australian Open 2005
  2. [24] White woman with long brown hair, white shorts at the Australian Open 2005 (reminds me of Brooke Shields)
  3. [25] Someone (woman) with a plait and visor, about to do a doublehanded backhand? reminds me of the Russians
  4. [26], [27] and [28] are all the same woman, I think (white skin, brown hair, white skirt, Wimbledon)
  5. [29] blonde woman with ballboys in foreground
  6. [30] and [31] She should be easy - very identifiable - Thai, "seagames"? "samart"?
  7. [32] woman with blonde ponytail, blue outfit, US Open 2004
  8. [33] Man with red shirt, kind of "square" short brown hair cut, US Open 2004
  9. [34] Man with ponytail, white headband and shirt, US Open 2004. looks pretty distinctive
  10. [35] & [36] (serving) Man with wild brown hair, very light facial hair, bright blue shirt, US Open 2004. very distinctive!
  11. [37] Man with short dark brown hair, yellow shirt, US Open 2004
  12. [38] Woman with light brown ponytail, white cap, US Open 2004
  13. [39] Asian (?) guy, white outfit, US Open 2004
  14. [40] Black guy, serving, grey shirt, US Open 2004

Thanks! pfctdayelise 09:58, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an avid tennis fan, but here's a couple I recognise:
  • Number 2 - Amélie Mauresmo
  • Number 3 - Anna Kournikova
  • Number 7 - Elena Dementieva (not too sure though)
  • Number 9 - Feliciano Lopez (not too sure, but who else has hair like that and that same face shape?)
  • Number 11 - Sargis Sargsian
  • Number 13 - Paradorn Srichaphan (not too sure)
  • Number 14 - at a wild guess maybe Scoville Jenkins, only because I can't remember ever seeing a black male tennis player apart from him
--Qirex 13:33, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

The Trouble with Merv slotnick

I was doing a bit of new page patrol when I came a cropper of Merv slotnick. Merv looked like a copyvio of a page at askart.com but — well, see Merv's talk page re that. Since I wasn't sure if I should copyvio it, I left that note and went ahead and wikified the article. Then I noticed the lower case 's' in slotnick. When I tried to move ol' Merv to Merv Slotnick, I discovered that that page exists as well, and is a cut-and-paste of the same text, plus a messed-up external image link to what I can only assume is a piece of Merv's "art", which certainly looks meaningless enough to be abstract expressionism.

Not sure how to clean this up at this point. Copyvio both articles? Wait for the askart.com page to unlock in a few minutes (they allow free access to artist bio's on Friday)? Put the wikified text in Slotnick and mark slotnick for speedy? I've pretty much had my fill of Merv at this point, so if anyone can help out, you would have my thanks. Not to mention Merv's thanks. Thanks. --DavidConrad 04:59, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks like User:Woohookitty took care of them all and deleted 'em. Seems like there's been a serious crackdown on copyvios lately. pfctdayelise 06:48, 13 January 2006 (UTC)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Copyrights#Karsh_photos --Historiograf 22:23, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

No? --134.130.68.65 23:53, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

You can send an email to the Wikipedia legal list at juriwiki-l@wikimedia.org. User:Zoe|(talk) 19:28, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I did so some days ago - no reaction (only: message awaits moderation) --Historiograf 23:28, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Recently, User:24.92.139.189 removed several paragraphs from Time Cube and Gene Ray. While I was not exactly happy with the sections he removed (perhaps they should have been removed), the anon's contribution history is a bit dubious. I plan on asking the anon for reasons for the deletions, and failing that, the informations will be reverted back in. If anyone who is knowledgable on the subject can determine whether or not the anon was justified in the removal of the information, please say so and act accordingly. Thanks. — Ambush Commander(Talk) 22:37, 14 January 2006 (UTC)


Mystery revert

My user page has been reverted to an earlier version. Nothing in the history to show how it happened or who or what did it. Has anyone any ideas?--Dakota ~ ε 08:47, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

help with article

need help expanding aticle Vickers Medium Mark II please fix it be making infomation sceen smaller and add a picture of it.uber555 Ok .(Uber555 04:45, 14 January 2006 (UTC))

I left a message on the article's talk page. Can you make you request more clear. "please fix it be making infomation sceen smaller" isn't semm clear to me. Broken S 03:02, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

cc-by-sa

(This was posted on the Help Desk, but I haven't gotten any replies.)

Are we allowed to import cc-by-sa material (text and images) into Wikipedia? In particular, I'm looking at this other wiki: http://wiki.theppn.org/Ping_Pung. Thanks. enochlau (talk) 01:24, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

CC text can absolutely not be used. CC images can be uploaded, as long as derivatives and commercial use are allowed. Be sure to detail the source and copyright information for any images you upload. Superm401 | Talk 03:21, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

translating from the original articles of english to other languages.

I have been curious to ask this but wereas I found things I wanted in english I could get the information straight away but in greek for example I could not or there was just a very vague description. Is t possile for someone to translate from someone's original research in english to another language? Is this permisible? Give me time I'm only a new one here! Any suggestions much appreciated!

I think you would have to bring this up on the wikipedia in your language of choice. I'm sure they all have translation departments. But as a rule we translate things into our target language, not out of it. pfctdayelise 02:26, 16 January 2006 (UTC)


Changing the URL of a page?

This page:

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

is in dire need, not only of some simple rewriting into clear English, but also of a title change, from 'James edward wood' to the proper capitalized form. What's the best way to transport the article to a new page with the proper URL (with his name capitalized properly, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Edward_Wood), and delete the old page with the improper capitalization in the URL? Andrewdt85 23:15, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Pages are "renamed" by moving them using the "move" tab near the top of the page. If your account is less than a few days old, you can't do this yourself. If this is the case, please let me know. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:08, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
I've done it this time. See Wikipedia:Page move for more information about doing it yourself. Superm401 | Talk 09:02, 17 January 2006 (UTC)


Derived work of PD work

I hope this isn't covered somewhere else. If I take a map from the CIA World Factbook (public domain, work of the US govt) and add a dot to it to indicate some location, which license should I choose when contributing this to Wikipedia? I used to use the general "public domain", but since this is now deprecated, which of the various PD-* licenses should be used? Thanks. gspr 18:14, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

IANAL, but: public domain means that you are free to make derivative works, and to publish those under whatever license you want. Those licenses then cover your changes, and therefore also the derivative work as a whole. So if you put the resulting work in the public-domain as well, you could use {{PD-self}}. If your addition is trivial, you may want to use {{PD-USGov-CIA-WF}} instead. Whatever license you use, it is a simplification anyway, so as long as you explain the situation clearly ("map by CIA; location added by gspr"), it doesn't really matter which one you choose. IMHO. Eugene van der Pijll 18:45, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
If you're only adding a dot, that's not a creative input, so it remains under the public domain. You have no option to retain any copyright. The best PD tag is probably {{PD-USGov-CIA-WF}} in this case but {{PD-self}} is acceptable. Superm401 | Talk
Thanks a lot for the help! gspr 19:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)


Is this spam?

User:Jaffer has been adding questionable-quality external links to videos across the project. I'm inclined to revert them, but he clearly thinks adding them is a public service. Is there a good reason to keep the links around? - EurekaLott 05:23, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks quite spammy to me. Whatever small educational use might be there is offset by the huge hunks of ads all over the pages and the clear attempt to sell a product and it being listed everywhere all over this site. He's clearly adding the links to make money. DreamGuy 05:47, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd agree its spam, given that there are ads on the site he links to. I couldn't play the video; perhaps it's in a format not supported by Linux. It didn't so much as ask me to download a Firefox plugin.-gadfium 08:08, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to assume good faith with these edits and I can still assume good faith while pointing out that his links don't comply with WP:EL:
What should not be linked to:
  1. Sites that primarily exist to sell products or services. [on behalf of all his sponsors]
  2. Sites with objectionable amounts of advertising
  3. A website that you own or maintain (unless it is the official site of the subject of the article).
That second point is most important. His motives appear to be backed financially. He should definitely stop, at least until there's a clear consensus as to whether or not he should continue. Would a RfC be helpful in this case? Mrtea (talk) 05:45, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
That probably won't be necessary, since he's no longer adding links. We just need to be certain we've cleaned up after him. - EurekaLott 23:28, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Okay I wasn't sure what kind of consensus you were looking for. Looks like he might be taking the route of "spamming" talk pages now. I quickly replied to one of his posts just to let him know it's not a good idea. I'm sure he's got quite a few people keeping a watchful eye now though ;) [Overlooked his recent additions on his talk page.] Mrtea (talk) 00:49, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Help contacting a user

hi. i need help contacting brendan moody. how can i do that? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.81.2.126 (talk • contribs) .

If you mean user:Brendan Moody, add a comment to his talk page at User talk:Brendan Moody. -- Rick Block (talk) 04:34, 19 January 2006 (UTC)


EasyTimeline, anyone?

Hi, I'm just trying to make my first EasyTimeline. I've tried to copy bits from existing timelines, but I haven't seen one that does exactly what I envisage (which possibly means what I envisage is not suitable for EasyTimeline, but rather a plain table or something).

My attempt thus far is at User:Pfctdayelise/Template:2006 Australian Open and I'm happy it works how I want. (Nevermind I haven't got all the data filled in yet.) I have this line:ImageSize= width:150 height:1200 But what I really want to do is have ImageSize= width=150 height:auto barincrement:30. But it won't let me because I have TimeAxis = orientation:vertical. I have a feeling I am not really using it as it was intended. :)

Having the barincrement statement would be great because then when I put Round 2 next to it, all I need to do is make that barincrement twice as big, offset the things slightly somehow, and then it would emulate this tennis draw (PDF) perfectly.

Any help? If I'm abusing it and should really just use a table, please let me know that too. TIA, pfctdayelise 03:43, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

If I understand you right, you want a layout something like the table here. In that case, I think an ordinary table would indeed probably be best. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:01, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
Cool, I will adapt a table from {{tree}} instead. Ta, pfctdayelise 02:31, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Is it permited ot use a template that is on this Wiki on another Wiki? --pevarnj (t/c) 22:06, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

If I'm understanding your question right, absolutely, but there's a catch. Pretty much everything on this wiki is licensed under GFDL, which basically means anyone can do anything they'd like with any of it BUT they have to in turn license it under the GFDL (well, not exactly, but pretty darn close). So, if the other wiki is a GFDL wiki, go to town. If not, you need to read Wikipedia:Copyrights and make sure you understand it. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I am referring to YPPedia --pevarnj (t/c) 22:35, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Maj IIM

The majority of Maj IIM's contributions appear in violation of Wikipedia:Spam. This especially considering many edits reference an organization named IIM, which is also conspicuously in Maj IIM's username. Looking for advice. jareha 07:14, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Seconded. Caravaca 16:18, 20 January 2006 (UTC)


Adding Accent Mark

Hi-

How do I add an accent mark above the "a" in French?

Many thanks for your help.David Justin 01:47, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

If you have the drop down menu enabled in your "special characters" box below the edit window, you can select "French" and click on "à". If you don't see a drop down menu, click on no menu to see how to enable it.
Alternatively, cut and paste an existing character if you can find one. If all else fails, use the standard html method of adding special symbols: &agrave; which produces à. You can get a list of all such characters at List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references.-gadfium 02:52, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Also from Alt key: "On some keyboards, holding down the Alt key while typing in numbers on the numeric keypad allows the user to type special characters not normally available on the keyboard. For example, holding down Alt while typing 0169 on the numeric keypad will result in ©. These extended keyboard characters are useful for persons using foreign languages, mathematics, currency symbols, business use, etc." Using Alt-133 (on a PC, at least) will type an "à". I'm not sure if there's a list of these anywhere but you can guess and check with different symbols. The accents seem to be all around the 130's. Mrtea (talk) 04:18, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
The relevant table in your case is probably the one at Windows-1252, although actually using that with the Alt key requires you to convert the codes from hexadecimal to decimal notation. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 07:06, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
Or, if you have an accent key on your keyboard, just press that and then A: "`" + "a" = "à". —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 06:57, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for all your help, everyone.David Justin 02:48, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Stage and Hierarchical Complexity of Tasks

I just put up a new page on stage and hierarchical complexity. How do I find it? How do I place it in a category? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Commons@tiac.net (talk • contribs) .

Please sign you edit so we can know who we are talking to. Could not find stage and hierarchical complexity. Are you sure of it's name?.--Dakota ~ ε 10:07, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
The question is apparently about Stage and Hierarchical Complexity of Tasks. I've responded on the user's talk page. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:29, 21 January 2006 (UTC)


German Wikipedia article

I can't decide whether this brouhaha should be mentioned on the German Wikipedia article. There's no German Wikimedia article, so...? --zenohockey 02:39, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

German Wikipedia is still online as least. As I read the family is seeking an injunction to prevent their deceased sons name from appearing in an article.--Dakota ~ ε 10:07, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
The absurdity is that this judgment is left to a court which can't tell St. Petersburg, Russia from St Petersburg, Florida, yet seeks dominion over the Internet. - Nunh-huh 10:09, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

A picture has gone missing

Hi. I checked the South Pole article today, and noticed a picture I'd added some time ago is no longer there. I managed to find where in the history [here] it was deleted from the article, but I don't know how to determine when the actual picture itself was deleted (and why) from wikipedia. How do I find this out please? Thanks. --Rebroad 11:41, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Image:SPSM.05.5.JPG was deleted on December 10, 2005 by JesseW because the source of the image was unknown. See Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#Images/Media. You can find out this sort of information by checking the deletion log or by asking an admin to look in Special:Undelete. Angela. 11:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)


Is there an Admin here-need a little help

have a question about an afd i just put up.--Dakota ~ ε 09:40, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

You could ask your question here, or on the Help desk. Angela. 11:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Coincidence? I think not...Please Help

I haven't a clue where to get help with this issue. If this isn't the right place, can someone point me in the right direction? I brought this up on the image talk page, but no one has replied. Whose hand is this? Are these images the same? The issue is these two images, one a better reproduction than the other but they are both linked to articles about the same subjects, and are likely the same picture. I'd love some help figuring this out. From Image Talk:Roentgen-x-ray-von-kollikers-hand.jpg:

Isn't this picture the same as this other one? And even if not, people usually wear their wedding rings on their left hands so this picture is reversed....unless that's the way the first xrays came out?.....I'm having a hard time believing Roentgen's wife and Albert wore the exact same wedding rings too, as this image is attributed to two different people's hands. If you flip the first one it compares exactly with the second....Only the brightness of the picture is different. One of these is labelled wrong and I suspect its the one referring to this as being Albert's hand, BUT, its hard to tell. Pschemp 20:47, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Actually, I think the correct label on this one is Albert; Bertha's x-ray can be seen here in .html and here, as a .pdf. - Nunh-huh 06:29, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Roentgen-x-ray-von-kollikers
    Roentgen-x-ray-von-kollikers
  • Röntgenwifehand
    Röntgenwifehand
I think the first question we should be asking ourselves is whether it was already common at the time for the husband to be wearing a ring at all. - Samsara contrib talk 06:20, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Hang on, aren't those two rings? If they are, it seems very unlikely they would be at the same distance and angle to each other in both pictures! Moreover, the gem (?) is pointing the same way in both exposures. Yes. I believe they are the same. - Samsara contrib talk 06:23, 24 January 2006 (UTC)


Special:Booksources

If you feed an ISBN to the Special:Booksources page, it brings up a Book sources page. Where is the editable source for this page? It has a dead link -- fetchbook.ca should be fetchbook.info. User:Zoe|(talk) 21:23, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Book sources. —Cryptic (talk) 21:32, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, I've fixed the link. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:31, 23 January 2006 (UTC)


Question

My question is about brands on Wikipedia. I have a picture Id like to upload to the Growth hormone deficiency page but it contains a brand name on it. What is wikipedia policy regarding pictures with brand names on them? Also I dont think this picture could be available without a name on it. Thanks Graxe

Graxe 00:30, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Space at start of article

Can anyone explain why Current science and technology events has a large gap at the top (down to the end of the calendar template) whilst Current events and Current sports events do not - even though they all include the same template. -- SGBailey 17:12, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

It turns out that deleting a blank line after {{Current events box| in science}} fixes it! -- SGBailey 23:08, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Adult to write DMCA

Hey, I work at the Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks department. Many sites' admins are inactive so we have to ultimately contact the host/ISP to take the sites down. This process requires the writing of the DMCA, which looks like the following: 

1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act
on behalf of the owner of the trademark or other intellectual property
interest;

2. a description of the trademarked work or other intellectual property
that you claim has been infringed;

3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is
located on the site;

4. your address, telephone number, and email address;

5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the
disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property
owner, its agent, or the law;

6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above
information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the trademark or
intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the trademark or
intellectual property owner's behalf.

Since many of us are not adults, we cannot send these letters to anyone. Which means that we require an adult to send such things. Is anyone interested in helping us out send such things? More discussions are located in User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Legal_help and User_talk:Simetrical#Legal_help. -- WB 03:09, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Moved to get attention... -- WB 07:40, 25 January 2006 (UTC)


Animated gif

Can someone who works with animated gif's translate the word Monat to Month in Image:Pregnancy.gif? Rmhermen 16:40, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Done. You may need to clear your browser cache. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:48, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I also cleaned up the frames, which contained residual JPEG compression noise, and got the file size optimized down to about one third of the original. It looks nicer too, to me at least. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 00:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


Problem with copyright vio in history of page

Black Rock Rangers was originally a copyright violation (see Talk:Black Rock Rangers). All versions up through this one are a copyvio of this page. Because I was unfamiliar with the copyright violation policy I simply rewrote the page rather than flagging it and rewriting it as a temp (I figured that out just after, and did things right with Kenji Siratori). Anyway, what is the procedure now? How do I get an admin to clean out the old versions? Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 20:22, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

The copyvio was purged from the history by User:Jake Nelson at my request. This issue is solve.d Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 10:52, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Admins needed ASAP to prevent edit war at Bar examination!

Hello everyone:

I've been trying to remove some blatantly POV material from Bar examination, but some anonymous IP user keeps putting it back in. The whole section at issue is clearly opinionated and written in weasel words without adequate support. I tried to explain Wikipedia policy to this user, but instead he or she got all obsessed with pointing out how I am arrogant and a hypocrite (see Talk:Bar examination) and proceeded to defend the preservation of the content with selective quoting from Wikipedia policies rather than acknowledging that the POV content needs to be verified or removed. Even if he is correct about my arrogance, the fact remains that the material as it currently stands violates numerous Wikipedia policies and should be removed.

I'm in the midst of drafting a long-planned rewrite of Lawyer (see Talk:Lawyer), plus my normal responsibilities, and I don't have the time to deal with this clown. Can some admins please deal with this? I think temporary semi-protection for the article may be necessary, as well as an IP block on the user. Thanks. --Coolcaesar 19:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


This article needs help!

The article in question is A Glossary of Confusing Psychiatric Terms. I've marked it for wikification and cleanup, but I suspect it needs more than that. Some bits of it might be better in Wiktionary, it needs a better title and I wouldn't be suprised if there was a better named article it could be merged with. I haven't got time to work out what needs to be done and do it, but as it stands its not how it needs to be. Thryduulf 10:44, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

POV watch

Hi! I just wanted to discuss that in my opinion, the POV criteria isn't what it used to be.

I remember when I was new here, being basically chastizied (is that the word) for the articles I originated about John Ruiz, Felix Trinidad and Wilfredo Gomez. Just click on the history pages on those and go to the first edit. You'll see how terribly point of view I was then.

I now abstain by the NPOV rule; however, I have seen some articles come in that have decidedly point of view statements. I myself can only catch them everyonce in a while because I mainly write.

I don't know what the rules are about POV currently, maybe they've loosen a bit since I came. However, I think we should ALL (that includes me) try to keep an eye on articles that may contain point of view statements. For reference, look at the Manu Ginobili article, where Ive had an ongoing edit war of sorts, and the Jose Luis Cabezas article, where I changed some things around (It looked like Wikipedia was affirming that the Buenos Aires police has criminal contacts!).

Anyways, thats just my POV if you will, that we need to look out for these small sentences where it may show a point of view.

Thanks for reading this, taking it into consideration and God bless you!

Sincerely yours, Antonio Guard of Wikipedia Heaven's Gates Martin


Catch-22 in deletion review, cannot read articles

This has surely come up before, but... I can't make a meaningful contributions to deletion review because the articles, being deleted, are redlinked. Is there a trick that would let me read the article? Or maybe deletion review is intended mainly for admins, by design? (Which would be OK I guess if that's the intention.) Herostratus 18:46, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Deletion review primarily looks at process; the deletion discussions should still be visible even when the pages themselves are deleted. When the page's content needs to be reviewed as well, ask, and someone will usually slap a {{TempUndelete}} on it fairly quickly. —Cryptic (talk) 19:08, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

I think I'll start temporarily undeleting articles that I think merit it, without being asked, so that non-administrators can make informed comments. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 11:42, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you allowed to do that? I thought that sys-ops were governed by the same rules as the rest of us. Cryptic's answer is surely the right one. --Phronima 11:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I'm allowed to do that. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 06:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
Those rules also include a rule to ignore all rules. It's often misused, but I do believe it may apply here. Basically, if you do something that's obviously the reasonable thing to do, and others generally agree, then it doesn't matter if it's strictly speaking "against the rules". That applies to everyone, including admins. After all, we're here to create an encyclopedia, not to play Nomic. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:05, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
This is true, but when something is on DRV there are enough eyes on something that if there is an actualy need for something to be restored, it will arise in discussion. Having someone decide off their own bat leads to chaos. - brenneman(t)(c) 23:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

How do I get cutsie little country flags?

By accident I came across a tiny Norway? flag icon when I was editing and hit preview. Now I can't replicate it; I don't remember the syntax that did it (I thought it was NOR but I was incorrect). I don't want to link to a larger file. At the time I had gathered that all countries' flags had a tiny thumbnail kicking around, but I've searched for 30 min and can't find help on this. If this is depreciated or I've been imagining things, please let me know. What I would like to do is have a cutsie little Canadian flag that attaches to my username when I post. 1) Would this be ok to do? 2) What is the shortcut for getting that tiny pic? -Kat 01:45, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Not allowed, apparently. -geekyßroad 06:54, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Could the one at Wikipedia:Userboxes/Location/Europe be shrunk to fit the bill? geekyßroad is right that it's dicouraged but even some admins do it - see e.g. Just zis  Guy, you know? [T]/[C] AfD?

Dlyons493 Talk 14:16, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Uncontroversial, but non-trivial page moves

It has been proposed to break a section out of Imperium (Warhammer 40,000) into a separate page. This has been discussed on the talk page and I believe there's a consensus there, and as such I've created a draft of the new page in my talk namespace, but I can't move that into Emperor of Mankind (Warhammer 40,000) as there's already a redirect there? Is there any way this can be speedied, or should I just go through Requested Moves? Cheers --Pak21 15:33, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

You can edit it by going here, if that answers your question. - Samsara contrib talk 15:38, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
  • But just copy and pasting the new text in there would lose the now not completely trivial edit history of my talk page, which I'd like to avoid if possible. Cheers --Pak21 15:46, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

If the target where you want to move to is only a redirect to the page you are trying to move, you can move it right over the top of the redirect and it will save your edit history on the moved page. So edit the target page to redirect to the article you are moving. That should work, but might not if the redirect has an edit history. In that case you need the target article deleted and then do the move. I can just delete pages so that's how I do it when needed, so I'm not sure if the first method will work in this case. For the page in question the history is not so substantial that I think it's terribly important. But let me know if you want to delete for the move, or in general ask on the administrator's noticeboard for help in deleting to do a move and make sure there is agreement on doing it in the first place. - Taxman Talk 00:05, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

  • The problem was that the redirect had an edit history, so I couldn't just do the move myself. Anyway, the issue has been "settled" by another editor doing a copy-and-paste edit. As you say, the history of my draft page wasn't that important (but I'll store the information away for future reference). Thanks all who replied. --Pak21 13:29, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I have merged the page histories as the version in the article space had a number of contributors. - BanyanTree 22:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

typography

Hi,
I'm french user, i just edit this article: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, i replace the ," by ", but i'm not sure it's good syntax in english. Someone can tell me ? thx  - lyhana8 (Talk) - 20:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

There is no exact rule and people argue over it far more then the matter deserves. See Quotation_mark#Punctuation. I certainly think your edits are an improvement. MeltBanana 20:57, 28 January 2006 (UTC)


Arrondissements

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but, if not maybe someone can point me there!. I'd like if someone could run a piece of SQL against the DB to help me reduce some article sizes. Something like: select concat( '#', art_title, ' (', art_len, ' bytes)' ) from art where art_title like '%Arrondissement%' order by art_len desc;

Dlyons493 Talk 15:29, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I would suggest Wikipedia:Bot requests, or if that word appears only at the beginning of the title, Special:Prefixindex. --cesarb 16:25, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for that CesarB. Dlyons493 Talk

How can you make oriental symbols visible?

Hi, for example in the article Nippon the japanese name is shown as question marks (???) in Firefox and as squares in Opera, this also happens with chinese names. Do I need to download something or change character encoding or what to make them work? Words in hebrew and arabic etc. are shown correctly. If there is an easy solution or a page about this, we should add a little mention about it to the pages that have special symbols.

You need the correct fonts installed. --cesarb 02:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Care to elaborate? Lapinmies 08:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
First, these aren't oriental "symbols"; they're Sino-Japanese characters, or in Unicode terms, I believe they're "unified Han characters". Specifically, they are these two: 日本. I am not sure offhand what very old versions of Opera do with this. Assuming that your copy of Opera is version 7 or above, and noting that your system is sufficiently new to be running Firefox, I infer that both your browsers are capable of displaying Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. But neither will do so unless you have installed fonts that contain these characters. Various fonts do contain them. They're all large: of the order of 4MB for Japanese and 10MB for Chinese. Do you have any such font files installed? If you don't, consider whether you really want them, in view of their size. -- Hoary 08:54, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
Also see http://www.unicode.org/help/display_problems.html. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Cant change skin back from currently (and very regretablly) installed Chick skin

Hi:

The link _Skin" is not a hyperlink in My preferences <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences> .

Cant change back to default skin. Help.

Rajesh

____________________________ Re:"Help desk for questions about Wikimedia projects" <helpdesk-l@wikimedia.org>, mailtorajrao@yahoo.com

Rajesh,

Unfortunately the helpdesk is not able to help you with technical matters such as this; can you make a note of it on the Village Pump at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29> or on the Mediawiki Bugzilla at <http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/>?

Regards, -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia "We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP

The answer is to use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences?useskin=monobook. --cesarb 02:23, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch! Rajesh

2005 Razzies

I've copied most of the nominations for the 2005_Golden_Raspberry_Awards up. However I've got a nagging feeling that it might be a copyvio. If we can expand the into a bit we should be ok, however if the powers that be want to blat it until the show's been broadcast that's fine with me. However, the 2004 Razzie nominations went up pretty quickly as well [41]. CS Miller 22:49, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

When the show is broadcast is irrelevant to the copyright issues. I think the page is legal under the fair use doctrine; however, it might be safer to remove the "attributes" (i.e. "& His Anti-Psychiatry Rant" and such) because they are where the creativity comes from. Copying just the names can not be infringement because only creative expression in a fixed form (whatever scathing tagline they developed) can be copyrighted, not data (who was nominated). Superm401 - Talk 03:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


Backspace key on Wikipedia

how do i get a link from my web page to a wikipedia article to let the reader return to my page via the "back" key?

That's a feature of a specific browser; it won't work the same for everyone. You should just open Wikipedia in a new window like this:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronics" target="_blank">Electronics at Wikipedia</a>
--Superm401 - Talk 03:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Fucked Company

One more revert from me at the Fucked Company article and I'll violate the three-revert rule. Only problem there is the most recent edit is a page blanking and needs reverting. It'd be helpful to have a couple more folks watch said article. jareha 18:18, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The three-revert rule doesn't apply to "correction of simple vandalism". Just unblank it and say so in your edit summary. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 18:59, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
And there it is, clear as day at the policy page. Thanks for the heads up. jareha 20:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
And if you really were counting up your real reverts (not vandalism) then that would be bad, because there are better ways to handle it. Discuss, gather consensus, etc. - Taxman Talk 06:11, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Right. I'm all about consensus. If (emphasis strongly emphasized) I were to revert someone's content, not vandalism, I'd make sure to copy said content out to the article discussion page, straw poll, etc. jareha 07:44, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
Normally people blanking pages or hardcore pushing POV don't care about discussing, gathering consensus, etc., so you just have to revert them. It's helpful in those cases to count. DreamGuy 01:14, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
No it's not helpful. It's that kind of thinking that gets and keeps revert wars going. If there is consensus that editor is POV pushing and being disruptive, there will be plenty of other users to handle the reverts and no 3RR counting is needed. 1 revert from a few people is enough to stop anything but a repeated problem editor. In either case the user can be pointed to the discussion and warned that they will be blocked if the disruption continues. The worse the problem is the easier the disruption block is to support. In either case no one editor needs to come anywhere close to violating 3RR to solve the problem. - Taxman Talk 13:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Did I do the right thing here? If not, I'd like to learn from my misapplication of policy. jareha 18:02, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
You did fine as far as I can tell, what I'm referring to above is things other than simple vandalism. Things that meet the definition of vandalism are not subject to the 3RR; for those just revert as many times as needed and block or request a block as needed. POV pushing is not vandalism and needs to be dealt with how I explained above, not by counting up reverts. - Taxman Talk 16:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Changing capitalisation of name of article

Hi - have just posted an article on Plans and apologies, but the name of the article hasn't capitalised the 'Apologies'. How do I change it to a capital A? Thanks! Gus Peterson 22:48, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Use the move function (right next to the history tab on the top of the article), or, if it's not available, see Wikipedia:Requested moves. --cesarb 23:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)


Cut & paste page swap help

The article jubilex was moved to its correct spelling of juiblex by cut-and-paste swap. Can an admin please revert and swap the pages normally? --Muchness 22:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I've overwritten instead of swapping. The history of the target consisted in nothing more than some users playing with the redirect, the copy-and-paste itself, and a small formatting correction. Doing a swap would be too confusing; the names are similar enough that a straight move got me confused. I haven't edited the article; it still needs editing to match the new page title. --cesarb 22:44, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the quick help, appreciated. --Muchness 23:56, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Tools

I've been having problems using some "tools", specifically Kate's tool and Interiot's tool, although for all I know other ones wouldn't work either. I added Kate's tool to my monobook.js page, and it worked for a while, but it hasn't in a few days. I checked out the page on it, and it says it wasn't working Jan. 16th, but was then fixed. Whenever I hit the link for either of these tools it just looks like it's perpetually trying to load, I get no content or error message or anything. It looks like they're working for other users, since I haven't seen any comments anywhere else about this. Any simple fixes I should try? Makemi 22:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Need help with my signature

My sig is not working. Need some help to fix it. I would like to add my nickname and a link to my talk. You'll see it when I sign, it's quite messy.--[[User:Super_ Flore|Jayla <sup><font color="purple">[[User_talk:Super_ Flore|hi]]</font></sup>]] 04:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Have you read Wikipedia:How to fix your signature? -- Rick Block (talk) 14:05, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Template:Bio

Not sure what to do about Template:Bio being recreated.

It's transcluded once, onto User:John Coretana. I guess he tried to use a call to Bio, which didn't exist. His only edits are to his userpage and to the template, and this was 10 days ago. I left welcome2 on his talk. TFD? Speedy-delete? Subst it into the userpage? --Christopherlin 11:23, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Copied to Wikipedia:Help desk. --Christopherlin 06:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't believe that threads are supposed to be deleted from talk pages

I dropped a talk page section that was resolved, but another restored it stating: "I don't believe that threads are supposed to be deleted from talk pages". Is this true? Seems pointless to keep around old info that is now resolved on the current page. You can always go to the history to get old information. Please let me know. Thanks. WilliamKF 00:35, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't usually remove threads because you won't know there HAS been a discussion about something unless it's there. Joyous | Talk 01:28, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
So there is no policy restricting this? In this case, the thread goes "Need to add X" reply "X is already there", hence it seems pointless to keep it on the talk page as it adds no real value to others. WilliamKF 01:34, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Probably better to add old comments to an archive, and link to it at the top of the page. But don't do that in a hurry--it doesn't hurt to leave it up for a while. -- SCZenz 01:55, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Leave Talk page comments on article Talk pages (or archive them), but you can refactor your own User Talk page. User:Zoe|(talk) 03:20, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
There's no policy restricting it, but some people might find it annoying. See Wikipedia:Refactoring talk pages. Angela. 10:37, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Also, by leaving a thread in place, if somebody comes along a year from now and says, "why doesn't this article say such and such?", you can point to the discussion which explains why a certain tack was taken. User:Zoe|(talk) 16:32, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Some people like to "refactor" talk pages. This is okay, but they really should be leaving a summary of the discussion in place, and ideally include a link to a revision or archive with the full original discussion. Deco 20:18, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

adjust headlights

I have a 95 oldsmobile ciera with low miles. Does anyone know how to adjust the headlights on this vehicle. It takes bulbs and I can not find any adjusting screwes. The book shows how to adjust with seald beams but not with bulbs and there are no adjustments where it shows for sealed beams

Copied to Wikipedia:Unusual requests. :-) Deco 00:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)


Marquette University

Greetings! I am currently having a bit of a disagreement with another Wikipedian over the list of external links at the Marquette University article. As I don't have much experience with content debates, and I can't authoritatively discuss Wikipedia policy, I was wondering if maybe we could get some expert advice, or at least outside opinions, so that either a consensus on links to include or a rule to follow can be derived from what has so far been mostly back-and-forth with little decision-making. Thanx! --Maxamegalon2000 21:50, 2 February 2006 (UTC)


David Copperfield

Is it me or is there something very funkified about this page (unless somebody has since fixed it). There is some information about Dopamine at the bottom, as if a disambiguation page had been merged. But when I go to edit it there is nothing there about dopamine. — RJH 15:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

You were seeing this. --cesarb 16:02, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. — RJH 23:01, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Academy Award for Animated Short Film

I don't know why it was decided to make the Academy Award for Animated Short Film into a vast table, but it's virtually uneditable. I tried to stick a non-table listing of the 2005 nominees into it at the bottom and I gave up trying to do it as a table and just wanted to put it at the end, but it got stuck at the top of the 2000s. Could somebody fix it, please? I may, at some future date, untablify this mess. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The 2005 films have been added into the table.--Coro 00:24, 3 February 2006 (UTC)


Advice on Translation/Terminology

I am working on the Berlin article and trying to decide the best way to translate the terminology for the city's administrative subdivisions. The top-level subdivision is called a Bezirk in German. This subdivision has an elected Bezirk council that runs a separate Bezirk-level government (below the city government level) handling things like planning and social services. Each Bezirk covers a fairly large area of multiple neighborhoods. Beneath the Bezirk is a subdivision called the Ortsteil, which has no government of its own, but is something like an officially designated neighborhood. Yet there are locally recognized architectural or historical districts that do not correspond to an official Ortsteil.

So, the question is, how do I translate Bezirk and Ortsteil? Here are the issues: I think that the best translation of Bezirk, in terms of giving a clear picture of what a Berlin Bezirk is, would be "borough", since a Berlin Bezirk is very similar in function to a New York or London borough. Do a search on Google, and you will find that some people have translated Bezirk as "borough". However, far more common is the translation of Bezirk as "district". I think this is probably so because if you look up the word Bezirk in a German-English dictionary, the first definition that you will find for Bezirk (a word that has numerous possible uses in German) is "district". So, in terms of usage, "district" is the preferred English term. This would point me toward using "district" for Bezirk except for the ambiguity of the word "district" in English. For example, if you use "district" for Bezirk, how do you describe "historical districts" (meaning areas that have a historic identity but necessarily a history as an administrative Bezirk)? And how do you translate Ortsteil? "Neighborhood" is one possibility, but there are many neighborhoods that are not Ortsteile (i.e. that lack boundaries and a name recognized by the government). (If I do use "neighborhood", by the way, I will spell it "neighbourhood" since the standard spelling for this article seems to be British.) If I used "neighborhood" for Ortsteil, how would I then refer to a neighborhood that is not an Ortsteil? There is an inconclusive discussion of this question at Talk:Berlin but I am looking for more input before I act. Please share your thoughts! Thanks. Marco polo 14:48, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

My advice is to find some well-accepted English-language literature on the topic and use their translations, especially if they're consistent. No sense reinventing the wheel and promulgating inconsistent terminology. Deco 19:29, 6 February 2006 (UTC)


Request

I want to post a feature request to Bugzilla, but I'm lost there. Could someone with an account post my request? Thank you. CG 13:16, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Currency Format

Is there a convention to use when refering to dollar values? I had a quick look in the help section and didnt see anything about this.

For example, when refering to United States currency should you type- "$10" or "(US)$10" or "(US$)10" etc.?

Daniel NZ 23:08, 7 February 2006 (UTC)


Image:ChokedFlowCAPUS.png

A new user has asked me about using such images as this, which he says were designed on WikiCities. I am not familiar with this and would appreciate any help in this regard.

If anyone has information about these things, message me, or see the message on my talk page. The newby's name is mbeychok, and he has made some very fine contributions to some important articles that don't see much action, such as Cooling towers. Let's help him get his questions answered. Thanks! --DanielCD 20:39, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Users should not upload rendered TeX in most cases (and especially not in this case). Instead they should use the Mediawiki software's math markup support, which you can read more about at Help:Formula. Deco 22:25, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

All edit submissions have the following footer: "Content must not violate any copyright and must be verifiable. You agree to license your contributions under the GFDL."

This footer is in error and I shall edit it. Where is the page to do so? - O^O

It's at MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning. Only administrators can edit it, though. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:30, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. It appears to have been protected without going through the proper process. I have tagged it for unprotection at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. - O^O
What do you suggest the footer say? The error isn't obvious to me. I doubt it will be unprotected, but we can always suggest a change for an admin to make. -Kmf164 (talk | contribs) 20:52, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
I prefer to make my own edits. The easy solution would be to temporarily unprotect the article, or to make me an admin. Of course, it is also like that at some point another user will spot the error and act on it. -O^O
All MediaWiki pages are protected by default, I believe, due to the massive potential for vandalism. Shimgray | talk | 21:50, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
Ah, thank you. I was unaware of the automatic protection of the entire namespace. -O^O


Reversing a Redirect

I want to create an article (or at least a stub) on Lipoxin. But currently, 'Lipoxin' gets redirected to Eicosanoid. Lipoxins are sometimes considered to be a subclass of eicosanoid, but they're different. And the Eicosanoid page doesn't even mention lipoxins.

I'd like to see the redirect removed. What should I do? David.Throop 05:55, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Just edit the redirect. When you get to the Eicosanoid page, it will have a link 'redirected from Lipoxin'. Click that link and you'll be able to edit the redirect page. Or click here: [42] Graham 06:00, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

RIAA equalization

This is strange. I created this article about 2 years ago, and it has been edited and altered since as normal. However, just now it popped up as brand new, and with no history! I don't understand this - did it the article get deleted wholesale at some point? If so, why? And shouldn't it still be possible to trace that through the history? Something funny is going on! Can someone help get the original text back please? Graham 02:18, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Further to this, it seems that it was deleted by User:Jareth. Checking the log [43], it seems this user has taken it upon himself to delete many, many articles without due process. This is going to annoy and upset a lot of people. Sure, there may be copyvios there, but earlier versions of these articles were probably fine. Unfortunately they've gone, so there is no option to check back and revert as necessary. We only have his word for the alleged violations. Unilateral deletion without even giving anyone a chance to correct the problems is stupid - the entire history and earlier versions of the articles is lost. This person (who is an admin) is abusing his power and should be set straight. To me this is little more than vandalism. Graham 02:44, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

To the contrary, it appears that Jareth was merely going through the backlog at Wikipedia:Copyright violations. The article was submitted for copyvio by User:Vertigo Acid on January 4th. It was deleted over 3 weeks later. You had plenty of time to complain. Also, it appears that Jareth has undeleted the article in response to your objections. Just an honest mistake - please don't be antagonistic. Deco 03:04, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, I withdraw my comments regarding user:Jareth, seems I did overreact a little there. However, the amount of time available depends rather on whether one notices it. I have several thousand articles in my watchlist, so many that it's easy to miss things altogether if I don't visit for a day or so. Seems to me that the process could be better - like contacting an article's creator if it is listed for deletion. The creator might not be the most interested person after a while, but it could help prevent the incorrect deletion of good articles. Graham 03:14, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
This seems like a good suggestion. You might propose it on Wikipedia talk:Copyright problems or Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). Deco 03:24, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'll do that. One other observation - my comments above were not meant to be antagonistic, but in fact were logically consistent with what I could tell happened from the log. This means that the process of deletion is hiding part of itself once the deed is done. After the event, it is not possible to determine who did what, when or why (at least for non-admins). This might also be something that could be improved. Graham 03:28, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
I agree. Ideally the copyvio deletion would always include at the very least the nominator and the time nominated. In practice people like to save keystrokes, but maybe a special script could help with this. Deco 03:38, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
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