Wikipedia:Help desk

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Jprdtalk

Hello. Sorry about this but I have a complaint about something that has happened due to this person messing up my Wikipedia screen skin. I find this totally unaceeptable that someone with a troll mind goes into other's work and messes it up. He and some other's can smea the reputation about Wikipedia. I can't understand the thinking of doing botched job on a page. I am sure there must be a list of problems associated with someone clled Jprw on Wikipedia.

He went into my page and screwed up the skin color and other thins that are too technical to put in words.

Jprwtalk is all I know.

I just fixed up his mess to my own page. Kinda childish to have someone claiming to be someone of importance on Wikipedia to behave like that. Anyways, I thank you. Electric Japan (talk) 13:03, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

April 5

Vandal Report

Im trying to tell somebody to check the entry on Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Someone has written that she was born in "pussyville" and "took it in the ass". I thought someone should know that this entry has been wrongfully tampered with. Thank you. Karen.wedderburn (talk) 01:20, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Will sort out. Thanks. (Although in the future, you can fix it too :) Be Bold!). --Bfigura ^(talk) 01:21, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, see WP:REVERT and WP:WARN for future occurrences. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 01:25, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

What you are describing here is blatant vandalism and should be treated accordingly. Please note that the three-revert rule does not apply to that kind of vandalism, and you may revert such edits as often as required. But before reverting an edit, you should warn the perpetrator according to WP:WARN. If the perpetrator persists after you issued a level 4 warning, report him at WP:AIV. At this point, it is pointless to continue warning him, so just keep reverting his edits. --Blanchardb-^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}-timed 13:00, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Daytona Beach Notable inhabitants -- How to make Lee Apperson's Bio and many awards on the page accessable

[edit] Notable inhabitants Dan Allen, comedian Duane Allman and Gregg Allman, musicians Vince Carter, professional basketball player Bill France, founder of NASCAR Ryan Lochte, 2004 Olympic medalist in swimming Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Kevin Nash, professional wrestler Josef Papp, engineer who was awarded patents related to the development of a fusion engine and claimed to have invented a jet submarine. Ron Rice, former owner/founder of Hawaiian Tropic Glen "Fireball" Roberts, former NASCAR driver David Sholtz, 26th governor of Florida. Mike Skinner, NASCAR driver Howard Thurman, author and theologian T. K. Wetherell, president of Florida State University Robert Wright, musical theater writer Lee Apperson, professional body builder and former Mister America Fulgencio Batista, 19th Cuban President Ransom Eli Olds, Automobile Pioneer Smokey Yunick, mechanic and motor racing innovator —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.207.97.42 (talk) 03:54, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to understand. Are you asking how to create an article for Lee Apperson or are you asking how to add Lee Apperson to the list of notable residents in the Daytona Beach, Florida article? To create an article you must register for an account and follow the guidelines at Wikipedia:Your first article --Torchwood Who? (talk) 04:06, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

If you click "edit this page" or the section editing button for the section, which appears right next to the headline for: Daytona Beach, Florida#Notable inhabitants, you will see that some of the names are surrounded by two [[brackets]]. These brackets tell our software to link the word inside them to an existing article. You don't see these brackets when you are in read mode but just the link created by their addition. If the link is blue, that means we have an article on the subject; if the link is red, that means we don't yet have an article and clicking on the link will take you to a page which, if you have signed up for a account, will allow you to create the article. Lee Apperson can be linked by placing his name in brackets, but there is no article on him on Wikipedia yet. See the post above for advice about how to create the article, but please review first our notability requirements for biographies, and our policy for articles abut living people. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:12, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

call monitoring sys

i have to change datagrid values regarding their district wise and status wise..

i have 6 district and 5 status...

first i have to bound 1st district and its 1st status values in datagrid using asp.net

then  1st district and its 2nd status values like that....after changing 5 status then show 2nd district and its status one by one

i have to do this for a call monitoring system.

i have to do this as a web application also.

how can i do this programm.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.96.47.18 (talk) 09:12, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Is there a specific article you are working on that I can take a look at and try to assist you with?--Torchwood Who? (talk) 09:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

If not, I think you misunderstood the help desk. The help desk is here to service wikipedia related issues, not as a general all-purpose help chat.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 09:20, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

If you have a question about how to write a program in a specific programming language, please ask on our Reference desk/Computing. For general information about call monitoring systems, you can search Wikipedia with Google for: call monitoring system. --Teratornis (talk) 18:45, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

How to make a big border in a table ?

Hi, I want to make a bigger border in a table to split up a Comparison of layout engines (SVG). By the bigger border it will be clearer the difference of layout engines and plugins. by ! style="width: 9%; border-right:3px solid grey;" | It works, but in the next row it won't work if i try to make it by the following line: Mabdul (talk) 13:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC)| style="border-right:3px solid grey;" | How do I have to code this? Mabdul (talk) 13:00, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

You might want to use nested tables. --Blanchardb-^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}-timed 13:07, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

that don't want i use: I want to make only a big "line" from the first row to the last in the "middle" of the table (between amaya and adobe svg viewer) --> so there it becomes clearer to the reader that are layout engines in the first section and in the second libraries and plugins. There need any way to style the table without making a new stupid 1row-1column-table in another table. the table will become to big for that (on my talk page i give an example what i mean!Mabdul (talk) 13:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I've done something that means it shouldn't require such a change, by adding a new row at the top. Feel free to mess around with it and give your thoughts. x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:06, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

mmh I updated the table, that would woirk, but how making the extra column shouldn't be have a width of 1 so it shouldn't seeable... Mabdul (talk) 20:26, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

ah you edited the table in the SVG-comparison! em, that would work, but than it wouldn't be better in the middle of the next table... (how about the solution on my talk-page? how can the extra column invisble?)Mabdul (talk) 20:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not a fan of enforcing more CSS styles where possible as that is not how CSS should be applied. If there's a bold line in between the columns, it is not clear why there is a bold line there, which is why I put an extra row at the top which solves things. I'm not sure how to hide the column. I know how to do such a bold line but then one cannot use the yes, no and partial templates. x42bn6 Talk Mess 21:09, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm also not a fan of too much css, but the combination of extra line and the extra information in the extra row would - in my opinion - the ebest solution. BUT: without the templates it would be very hard for somebody else who is not familiar witrh css, to edit the tables (without correction of an external person) to edit the tables. Mabdul (talk) 22:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I know. The templates seem to be designed for a single purpose - generate the cell background and text, and worst of all they cannot be "prefixed" so I cannot override the CSS of the cell. The solution is to use border-left: 3px solid grey; on the right cell (as the left cell's right border CSS is overridden by the right cell's left border CSS immediately afterwards) which isn't possible with the templates. x42bn6 Talk Mess 23:17, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

OK, and now the solution? maybe a new column with a width of ziro? or how?Mabdul (talk) 23:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it's possible to have a column width of zero if your CSS doesn't work. If you want it to work, one can't use the templates. x42bn6 Talk Mess 15:35, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I think I have found a solution which is ok. it works. see: User_talk:Mabdul (the explanation-row of yours will be included as well!) Mabdul (talk) 20:41, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

That's quite good, actually, although the line is a bit thick for my liking. x42bn6 Talk Mess 21:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

You're rightr, but how to make this rcolumn smaller? it is already width=1! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mabdul (talk • contribs) 22:24, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

width: 1px; would make a 1px width border barring any stupid CSS quirks, for example. I believe "1" means "1em". x42bn6 Talk Mess 12:21, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

doesn't work :( that idea had I before, too. But i tested and got no results... Mabdul (talk) 16:24, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Archiver not working again...

Can someone fix the archiver on my talk page? Maury (talk) 14:04, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

We've already had complaints about that bot. The maintainer asked for its deletion. You'll have to look for a new one...or do it manually. Feel free to contact me if you want it done manually and dont know how to...or read Help:Archiving a talk page--Cameron (t|p|c) 14:59, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

For archiving bots, there's MiszaBot III and ClueBot III. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:22, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

referencing

I have made an update to the section on The Carbon Reduction Commitment but I'm having difficulty in setting up the referencing. I note the last person used <ref name=DEFRA-CRC"/>, which now links to the updated page, but needs to be updated in the referencing section. How did they set this up and how can I update this or add another reference in the same format?

Thank you

Whiz10 (talk) 14:57, 5 April 2008 (UTC)Whiz10

At the bottom of the article is a section denominated "References", which has a template placed in it you can only see while in edit mode: {{Reflist}}. This template tells the software that references placed in the text of the article in <ref></ref> format will appear as footnotes at the end of the article in the "References" section. So, if I wanted to cite to a reference at the end of this sentence, I would type<ref> followed by some text and ending with</ref>. Anything I typed between those two tags would appear, when saved and in read mode, as a footnote entry under the references banner if this page had one. However, every time I use <ref>text</ref>, a separate footnote is created. If I want to use a single reference more than once and not have this redundancy, I give it a name. The first time I use it I type <ref name="name">text</ref> and every time I want to use the exact same reference again, I simply type <ref name="name"/> (note the closing slash). Please see WP:CITE for lots more information. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:08, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Uploading a file

Hi,

I have followed all the directions for creating a page, but my article has not shown up. I first tried to upload my file, with no error messages, on April the 3rd. Please advise to as to how to proceed. How long is the review period, if there is one at all.

Thank you for your time and help —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mesobones (talk • contribs) 18:04, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Assuming the topic of the article you wish to create is regarding Akan Goldweights, you have never created this article, instead posting text on that subject to your user page. In order to post such a page, you need to create it under an appropriate name that exists in the article space, rather than in your user space (see Help:Namespace for information on namespaces). To create the page you can follow the directions at Help:Starting a new page, or you can move your user page to the article space by clicking on the tab marked "move" at the top of your user page, and typing in the article's proposed name. Doing so will preserve the existing page history currently attached to your userpage, which has only been used for this topic. Note that moving the page will automatically result in your user page being made into a redirect to the article, which you should then manually unwind. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 18:38, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I have moved the article to Akan goldweights. Note however that the article needs quite a bit of work, and I have tagged it accordingly. That should ge the attention of some editors who can help out. -- Kesh (talk) 00:03, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Searches on Wikipedia

When I type quotation marks in the Search box, a list of topics for articles that I have previously searched for appears. How can I delete those prior searches? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.153.214.148 (talk) 18:47, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps try clearing your cookies/cache on your internet browser. Then close the browser, and open it again. Does that clear the searches? --JamieS93 19:12, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

On Internet Explorer: Put your cursor over the first result and then hold down delete (not backspace) - all the results will whizz away. You can do this selectively, of course, by highlighting an entry and pressing delete. On Firefox, it's the same but with shift-delete. x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:16, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Clear your autocomplete forms. In Internet Explorer, properties/internet options-->content tab-->autocomplete-->self explanatory from there. In safari I think it's called autofill. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:21, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

If none of the above apply to your particular browser, you can find more answers to this semi-frequently asked question by searching the Help desk archive for: clear search history. --Teratornis (talk) 18:40, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Starting this college

dear mr/mrs am glad to see this link on the internet, but my question is what do i need to start this college i will be glad if u reply. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.120.225.114 (talk) 18:49, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:56, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Qwanell Mosley

Since i'm not a certain tyoe of user can you put a picture of him on his page please i'll edit the rest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ladii.breezy (talk • contribs) 21:10, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

We need a picture that is freely licensed, because we can't use a copyrighted picture of a person. If you have a picture of this person that you took, we can help you upload it. Please see WP:COPY and WP:NFCC for more information. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:15, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Your account is 3 days old and can upload images when it's autoconfirmed which will happen tomorrow. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:13, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Own article

Can we create our own article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maliksefrioui (talk • contribs) 22:00, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Creating your own article is usually frowned upon (please read WP:COI), but if it is done in a non-promotional way (please read WP:NPOV) and everything in the article can be sourced to reliable third party sources (see WP:RS) and provided you meet the guideline for what wikipedians define as notability (see WP:N) you are free to introduce a self-written article without penalty. Just make sure to follow the guidelines very carefully.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 22:29, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

By the way, Torchwood means creating your own article about you or something you are personally involved with - you're welcome to make a new page about just about anything else; just see this page for how to get started. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:42, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Hersfold! Yes, if you want to create an article on any subject you are very welcome to do so, if you are creating an article on yourself or something you are involved with you should following the guidelines I placed earlier.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 05:20, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Coding boxes

Will someone please look at this code?

User talk:Wanderer57/Birthday Greeting#Thank you!

On the page the box is the way I wanted it. When I am in edit / preview, the box has extra space at the bottom under the signature. Am I coding it wrong or is this quirk a standard feature? Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 22:40, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

The code doesn't jump out at me as incorrect, although you don't need the extra } at the end (according to my tests). Maybe it's just a function of the padding?--Torchwood Who? (talk) 22:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Nope, not the padding. It might just be the way the cookie crumbles on this one, but you should wait around for a second opinion.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 22:49, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

You seem to have forgotten the |} at the end of the wikitable. I fixed it for you. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 22:58, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

HA! Sorry about that. I was looking at your thanks for the barnstar code! I was a little distracted, I apologize.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 23:01, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you both. With the |} at the end of the wikitable, it is fine.

If I only have } at the end of the wikitable, it is not fine. I did not realize that last vertical at the end meant something. Using the "borrow someone else's code and mess with it" approach is such an adventure. Wanderer57 (talk) 23:15, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

For more help, see Help:Table. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:24, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks again. I'll print it. I guess a 39 page manual isn't bad. I have an old PowerBuilder one here that's over 700. Wanderer57 (talk) 23:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Print a manual? I suggest just bookmarking it, and open it in another browser tab. One would have to slay entire forests to print all the manuals one needs to edit on Wikipedia. Or better yet, ask User:Calvin 1998 when there's a question. --Teratornis (talk) 19:50, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

And if you have any further trouble just jump on here and I promise I'll actually look at the correct code next time. lol.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 23:34, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

April 6

Can not print graphs and other "illustration" type equations in wiipedia mathematics articles

Wikipedia articles on mathematics frequently contain "illustrations" that is graphs, equations and charts in separate boxes outside the main text. These all print as black boxes when I attempt to print the page.

The mathematic equations within body copy are no problem.These have always printed out clearly.

I tried turning off Java and printing out article, but this does not help. Because I download mathematics articles from other Internet resources, I have also installed the basic Firefox mathematics fonts.

Please tell me what steps I should take to be able to print out mathematics articles in their entirety, including all "illustrations"

Thank you

tilde can not print —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.216.103.72 (talk) 02:40, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

First you should make sure that your browser settings for printing are set to print graphics from webpages. Other than that I don't know if anyone on this help desk can assist you. This help desk is primarily for help using the wiki itself, not for technical support related third party hardware/software.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 02:45, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

A test you can use to determine the problem might be clicking on a graphic you want to print, then trying to print the page of that specific graphic. If the graphic is still black it is an issue with your settings or your printer.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 02:47, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

posting PDF

I tried posting a PDF of the California Constitution here: Image:California State Constitution of 1879.pdf (1.6MB). However, test downloads won't open with Acrobat. Is there a special way to post PDFs, or are they not supported? The CA constitution is not available in its original form online, and I had to go to the state archives to get this, so this would appear to be our best option. Thanks, — kwami (talk) 05:39, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

PDF files are not supported because they require third party software to view. You should read Wikipedia:Uploading images for details. I would suggest that you find a place to host the document off wikipedia and then link to the file directly.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 05:53, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Is the PDF file one single page or multiple pages? If it's one single page you may be able to find a converter to change the PDF to an acceptable format.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 05:54, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

It's multiple pages, though we could convert to jpeg and create a book on wikisource. kwami (talk) 18:08, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I opened the pdf without trouble by clicking on the “California_State_Constitution_of_1879.pdf‎” link at Image:California State Constitution of 1879.pdf. —teb728 t c 06:00, 6 April 2008 (UTC) I can also open it by clicking here. —teb728 t c 06:10, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

It will open correctly via direct link, but you can't place it within an article the same way you would with a traditional image, it will show the acrobat icon. Also, it has always been my understanding that uploads of pdf files in the image space were discouraged. I see that the editor asking the original question also posted this question to image upload talk page, maybe the people who monitor that page have a better grasp on what is appropriate use of PDF files in the image space. As it stands in the policy the technical aspects do not mention PDF as an acceptable upload format and the external linking policy WP:External links states that a PDF file should be linked with the specific descriptive text that it is a PDF format file.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 06:13, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

The image namespace is meant for media files (pictures, video, and sound files), not text. This would be more suitable for Wikisource, and then link to it from the article. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, the second option works on my browser.

I'll look into Wikisource. kwami (talk) 06:52, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't have permission to upload files at Wikisource, so I'll let someone else do it if they like. Meanwhile I've corrected the link in the article. kwami (talk) 06:59, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure wikisource allows you to upload text in PDF format, I think they require ASCII text files. Best to leave well enough alone for now, especially since you found something that is working. I would suggest that you place a question about a suitable place to house a PDF file on the talk page of the image. This will alert editors who might try to move or delete the file that there is some discussion about where such a document should be housed and it will help to avoid future conflict over the issue.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 07:06, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Language

if for example the language that im using is espanol and i would like to know the meaning in inglish what im going to do,to see the meaning in english. thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.111.234.41 (talk) 06:50, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

When viewing an article, you'll see on the left, below the search bar and "toolbox" a list of links to alternate language versions. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

If no one has translated the article for you, you can get a machine translation with Google Translate. For some examples, see the {{Google translation}} template documentation, and search the Help desk archive for: translation. --Teratornis (talk) 19:31, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

For example, these are some machine translations of the English Wikipedia into Spanish, and the Spanish Wikipedia into English, using the {{Google translation}} template:

• Translate the Spanish Wikipedia to English
• Translate the English Wikipedia to Spanish

You can browse around in the translated versions for the most part normally, and Google will translate every page for you on the fly. However, some Wikipedia features will not work inside Google's translation frame, so the translated version is not fully featured. But it's good enough if you are just reading. --Teratornis (talk) 19:36, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

John Adams (miniseries) Inforbox

Can someone take a look at the infobox at John Adams (miniseries) to help determine why certain fields like cinematographer aren't showing up? Thanks in advance.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 11:09, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Infoboxes only have a certain number of parameters, and "cinematography" and "budget" aren't defined at Template:Infobox Television Film. So, they won't show up on the final infobox. Xenon⁵⁴ 12:18, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Ah, I thought that might have been the case. Do you know of a television related template that might include those parameters by any chance? I know film covers at least some of them, but I'm hesitant to use it in this context because I like have episode count in the infobox.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 12:25, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

{{Infobox Television}} has a "cinematography" parameter. Xenon⁵⁴ 12:57, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You can also edit an infobox template to add more fields to it. In general, adding new fields is not destructive to existing pages that use the template, as long as you write your new template code so it does not display your new fields when their input parameters are empty. However, template coding can be difficult and scary, and messing up a template can mess up many articles at one time, so you would want to approach that carefully. A simpler option is to examine the history of a template (for example: Template:Infobox Television Film), find some users who have extensively edited the template, and ask them on their talk pages if they can add the extra fields you need. You could also ask on Template talk:Infobox Television Film, but sometimes a template's talk page doesn't get attention often. Incidentally, the Template talk:Infobox Television Film improperly shows documentation for the template which should actually be on a /doc subpage, which one creates by adding the {{documentation}} template to the template page. See: Wikipedia:Template documentation#How to create a documentation subpage. --Teratornis (talk) 19:27, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Adoption program

I'm going to ask here because more people read this... won't probably get any answer on WT:ADOPT. Okay, so, I suddenly thought that I could adopt someone to further train my WP skills (since I'm not that frequently online for now and can't access my account) but there are criteria for the adopter... since this is an IP and I obviously don't have 500 edits with it I can't adopt? 86.154.180.0 (talk) 13:05, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, what is your account? If you cant acess it, then click email password on the login screen. Otherwise maybe admins can help you with this. Nothing444 13:36, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You can learn almost everything about Wikipedia by answering questions on the Help desk. Unlike with adoption, you don't have to meet any requirements to answer questions on the Help desk, other than being able to figure out questions and look up the answers. You don't even need an account, although having an account would be a good idea if you want to build up a reputation for being a good helper. See: Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer to get started, and study other users' answers to learn how we do it. Even though we have lots of Help desk volunteers, you will almost always find questions that haven't been answered yet, or questions with partial answers to which you can add more information. Because we get lots of edit conflicts on the Help desk, we try to answer briefly, so lots of questions require several responses to build up a complete answer. --Teratornis (talk) 18:21, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Uploading picture

How do I upload a picture to a page on wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djdevious (talk • contribs) 14:32, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Images and other uploaded files and Wikipedia:Image use policy. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:46, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

If you trying to do this on an IP, then it wont work. Nothing444^{Go Irish!} 18:21, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Edit special page

hi how do i edit a special page on my own hosted wiki using the thing downloaded from media wiki —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.158.160.14 (talk) 15:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Editing Special pages is not possible, please can you rephrase the question: what is the "thing" ? Stwalkerster [ talk ] 16:00, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You can modify all special pages at includes/SpecialXXXXX.php. Also, to change the interface messages, see a list at Special:Allmessages. In the future, remember that this is a Help Desk for using Wikipedia. For questions about MediaWiki, please try at mediawiki.org. Good luck! Soxred93 | talk bot 16:02, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Specifically, use the following links to get information about MediaWiki:

• mw:Project:Support desk - to ask questions
• Search Meta-Wiki with Google
• Search MediaWiki.org with Google
• m:Help:Contents#For administrators - the MediaWiki manual section you must read if you run your own wiki

--Teratornis (talk) 18:13, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Writing Practice Problems/Exercises for Wikipedia Articles

Hello,

For topics on science, I was wondering if Wikipedia allowed users to create practice problems on another page linking to the topic page.

For example, if I wanted to create some exercises on Logarithms, could I create a link on the Wiki article on logarithms to another page with exercises?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vertciel (talk • contribs) 18:30, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

This would probably be more suitable for Wikibooks. So yes, I imagine you could add your exercises on Wikibooks, and use the {{Wikibooks}} template to link from the Wikipedia article about logarithms to the corresponding Wikibooks entry. --Teratornis (talk) 19:13, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikiversity would be another possible site where you could develop exercise problems, study guides, lesson plans, etc. --Teratornis (talk) 19:15, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You can search those wikis with these links, to see if anyone has already started pages relating to logarithms you could expand:

• Search Wikibooks with Google for: logarithm
• Search Wikiversity with Google for: logarithm

Not surprisingly, both sites have lots of pages mentioning the topic. Also, now that you mention logarithms, I recall that Wikipedia has several articles relating to exponential growth that could use more practical examples and exercise problems. For example, Post scarcity#Unavoidable scarcity mentions that if world population continues to grow at its present rate for just a few thousand years, the resulting mass of humans will exceed the mass of the Observable universe. However, the section does not show the math. You might work up some illustrative examples on Wikibooks or Wikiversity and link to them from the section on Wikipedia. Similarly, the article about Albert Bartlett cites his famous lecture about exponential growth but shows no math examples. You could go through all the articles about population and put them on a firmer mathematical foundation. --Teratornis (talk) 20:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

My opinion--No, it is not appropriate to link from a Wikipedia article to a quiz or other study guide. Wikipedia is an Encyclopedia: a repository of facts. It is used by many people for many purposes, not just by students, and the "quiz" links would add unnecessary clutter for other users. Consider your example of "logarithms." There are thousands of websites that can aid in learning about Logarithms. How many of these should we link to? Further, there are many levels of knowledge about logarithms, should the quiz be for 12-year-olds? 18-year-olds? professional engineers? Professional mathematicians? math historians? This problem gets a lot worse for other types of articles. On the other hand, quizes are an excellent idea for Wikiversity: people go there to find teaching resources. Material threre can make great use of the material on Wikipedia by linking to it. -Arch dude (talk) 22:13, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

We use the {{Wikibooks}} and {{Wikiversity}} templates to get around such external link proliferation. See some examples of their use in Engineering#External links and Arithmetic#External links. That's how we link articles on Wikipedia to corresponding entries on those other wikis. The link from Wikipedia would not say it is to a study guide, just to more information on Wikibooks or Wikiversity. --Teratornis (talk) 23:18, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

peer review - clock conflict

I recently added the show clock personal preferences feature and now my peer review button is hidden. Is it possible for both to show simultaneously.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 19:21, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Not really, you may want to contact the author of the gadgets you selected and see if they have an update you can put into your monobook.js that will work correctly. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 19:44, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

One wonders if stacking enough gadgets into the same pixels might create a singularity. One also wonders why the gadget designers each assumed their gadget was the only gadget a person would ever need (well, isn't it?). Speaking of utterly off-topic non sequiturs, just last night I stumbled across SkySails, and what a clever idea that is. --Teratornis (talk) 19:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

How do I figure out who was the author of a gadget?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:41, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Ask here, I suppose. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 21:59, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You could search Wikipedia with Google for: preferences gadgets tab. That finds several mentions in the Village pump, and Wikipedia:Gadgets. If you read that page, its talk page, and the pages it links to, you can probably figure out who added a particular gadget, or some users who might know who did. It's somewhat strange that the Gadgets tab on Special:Preferences does not link to Wikipedia:Gadgets. Someone should look into adding that obvious link to the text at the top which says: "Please note that these special gadgets are not part of the core MediaWiki software, and are generally developed and maintained by users on Wikipedia." That sentence needs a link on "gadgets", and also on "developed and maintained" (to whatever page has the relevant discussion). --Teratornis (talk) 23:09, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

archiving own talk page

I know I may have missed this somewhere but I would like to archive my talk page on yearly routine. I know that says I might not get a lot but hey...! I have looked at MiszaBot/Archive HowTo and ClueBot III#How to archive your page but they seem to deal in hours or days. 1stanniversity coming up so any assistance gratefully received. Edmund Patrick ( ^confer _work) 20:20, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Then you can set the archive length to 365 Alexfusco⁵ 20:22, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Just try to set up with your config as

{{User:MiszaBot/config
|algo = old(5d)
|archive = User talk:Example/Archives/%(year)d
}}

see if that works, if not you can revert. -Optigan13 (talk) 20:28, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Opps simple when you stop and think about it. Thanks to both above. Ho Hum Edmund Patrick ( ^confer _work) 20:40, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Album Citation

How do you cite something recorded on an album, or something found in the booklet included with the album? Youre dreaming eh? (talk) 22:04, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

There is {{Cite album-notes}}, although I don't believe there is a template for the album itself. The closest I could discern was {{Cite video}}. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:28, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Hints to screen readers

Is there a template to insert hidden text which will be read by screen readers and the like? --h2g2bob (talk) 22:20, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Will ask for change at MediaWiki:common.css --h2g2bob (talk) 22:47, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

WIKIPEDIA & PDA Accessibility

please help me to visit and/or contribute to Wikipedia using my Palm Treo 680 to access the internet. THANKS! Kennethstrauss (talk) 22:25, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

It depends what browser you are using within your Palm Treo. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 22:29, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You might find something useful under WP:EIW#Mobile. --Teratornis (talk) 22:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

making articles

how do i make articles on wikipedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Buubin (talk • contribs) 23:06, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Your first article -Optigan13 (talk) 23:08, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

New accounts can create articles right away (some other things take 4 days). Our general advice:

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:11, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

April 7

How to add external link wiht good information?

I would like to share a relevant information with all wiki users about call center industry. Please have a look on both of links... Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre External link: http://www.callcentersindia.com/call_centers_news.php

Please assist me for the same.

Ajay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.174.5.2 (talk) 03:49, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Please read our guidelines: WP:RS, WP:EL, and WP:ADVERT. You may wish to use Wikicompany, which accepts articles about any legally incorporated company in the world. --Teratornis (talk) 04:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

People born in 1926

What percent of people born in 1926 are still alive today? 76.17.183.82 (talk) 03:52, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I have no idea, but I tried {{Google}}ing your question: What percent of people born in 1926 are still alive today? and that led me to a site I had not seen before, WikiAnswers. I'm guessing you haven't seen it yet either, otherwise you would have asked over there. As Jerry Pournelle might have once said, "Recommended." You could also try asking on our Reference desk. This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia, not general knowledge questions, although depending on who is watching the Help desk at a given time, someone might take a stab at just about any question here. --Teratornis (talk) 04:17, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

commercial self promotional edits

As a watcher of recent changes, I try to look beyond the obvious vandalism. I occasionally come across changes that seem to be commercial self promotions such as this change. Are these appropriate? Should they be flagged or removed? I'm aware of the spam link, but not sure if it applied to this type of addition. I'd like a little guidance please. -- Tcncv (talk) 04:20, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

No, it's not appropriate. I removed it, and will warn the user. Grsz11 04:22, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I would say revert with a custom edit summary, then warn the user. -- Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:24, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. As a relative newbie, I want to be careful not to overstep the bounds of good judgment. -- Tcncv (talk) 04:34, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

How to correct date format?

I noticed some incorrect date formats on the page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19 near the bottom, for example "Verified 2008-08-03" which does not look right since this is only April, so apparently it should be 2008-03-08. The edit form does not present that text for correction. What is the proper way to fix such dates, or who to contact about fixing them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steve Wise (talk • contribs) 05:45, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I fixed it - you can see the changes I made here: [1]. Unfortunately, those dates were inside references, which meant I had to look through the text of the entire article to find where each reference was defined (which I did in a text editor). Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 06:14, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Your diff shows your text editor didn't keep some special characters in interlanguage links. I have fixed it. I once did the same thing with an old text editor to a couple of articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:57, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for that, I should have checked. Funny, since UltraEdit is pretty good at a lot of other things. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:25, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

How to nominate picture from Commons for Featured Picture

I asked this question at the FPC talk page, but have found that policy talk pages seem to be ignored on Wikipedia. Can someone here answer?

I would like to nominate (or someone else can) an image that is in a Wikipedia article that is a Commons image. When I get to the step of editing the page to add the FPC blurb, it says the page does not exist, because it is in commons. What do I do? Does transclude just mean put it in squiggly braces? --Blechnic (talk) 06:19, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

That´s the general idea of transclusion. To substitute, put subst: in the squiggly braces before it. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 07:38, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Copy text from WIKIpedia in order to use it on my website

I am creating a catalog of software systems and sometimes need parts of text from WIKIpedia. Is it valid to copy small parts of text for use on my site? Do I have to rewrite it in order to use it? 79.181.123.3 (talk) 07:11, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is licensed under a GNU Free Document License [2] which states that to text can be reproduced under certain circumstances. Please read the license to find out if it applies to your project, if not you might need to reword the text you're attempting to use.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 07:16, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

use of colors

example, faulkner's short stories, why listed in black, red or blue?? 08:36, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean links?

In Wikipedia, blue are good links.

Red are links to articles which don't exist.

Black is simply text.

Other websites have their own colour schemes set by their creators.

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 09:40, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

links

how to connect links? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.126.39 (talk) 08:57, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

You can link something by putting square brackets before and after the word like [[this]]. More information here. -- 194.75.236.69 (talk) 09:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

spanish page wanted in english

im not really sure if im doing it wrong but ive tried everything. i was searching for a spainsh actor (juan jose ballesta) ...it seems his page is found when its in spanish but it cant be found when its in english.. anyway. i visited the spanish page and looked for a something that said transalate into english. but it couldnt be found. so what should do? 213.42.23.73 (talk) 08:58, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I guess you could try using BabelFish ([3]) or another computer translator to roughly translate the page in English. Other than that maybe you can request its translation since the English version hasn't been created yet. -- 194.75.236.69 (talk) 09:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

It seems you are describing this article on the Spanish Wikipedia: es:Juan José Ballesta (see: Help:Interlanguage links to see how I made that link). We can use the {{Google translation}} template to generate a machine translation into English:

• Translate Juan José Ballesta from the Spanish Wikipedia to English

The result is not brilliant prose, but it's more understandable to me than Spanish. --Teratornis (talk) 01:42, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

commodity tracking system

want to know about the literature review concerning food allocation either for relief or donation.thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.255.43.5 (talk) 11:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

help pls

how do i shot web? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.2.175.71 (talk) 13:36, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean by "shot web"? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:40, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

It's not a serious question, it's an Internet meme. Leebo ^T/C 13:46, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. In that case: I dunno lol.[4] PrimeHunter (talk) 15:00, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

It is amazing how inventive people can be when it comes to wasting time. Imagine if all that brainpower went into mitigating the effects of peak oil, for example. Then civilization might not collapse. --Teratornis (talk) 18:19, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

next 2010 football world cup

next football world cup —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.169.164.30 (talk) 13:38, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:41, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Georgia On My Mind

Hello everyone

I'm thinking about creating the article Georgia On My Mind in the Portuguese Wikipedia, but i have doubt. Can i put the full lyrics in the article or not? Maybe i can, but i'm not sure, so i'm asking. Thank you. -- Bluedenim^talk 13:54, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

No, the lyrics are copyrighted; that's a copyright violation, big-time. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:05, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

What's the status of the lyrics in the article here? Leebo ^T/C 14:12, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

They were a copyright violation, and have been removed. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:23, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. -- Bluedenim^talk 14:12, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Indicating Ancestry in BLP articles

Is there a policy to help with questions such as (for example):

If famous person XXXXX was born in America and his parents were born in America, but one of his grandparents was from Scotland, should the person be included in the category Scottish-American?

Wanderer57 (talk) 14:00, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Unless the subject is described in a reliable source (rather than a gossip rag) as Scottish-American, or as self-identifying as Scottish-American, I would say no. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:05, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Since biologists generally agree that the most recent common ancestor of all living humans lived in Africa, every American can claim to be African-American, but most Americans do not reach that far back in their ancestry when concocting labels. --Teratornis (talk) 18:14, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Can I change my username?

Can I change my username? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pericone (talk • contribs) 14:18, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

If it's important to you that your contributions remain with you, you can go to Wikipedia:Changing username and request a change. If not, you can simply create a new account. Leebo ^T/C 14:21, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Where did the archive go?

I'm two months behind but this is always fun to read.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 15:36, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

They didn't go anywhere, I don't think. Though someone did blank the the main archives page and one of the pages from January today. Leebo ^T/C 15:42, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Problem solved, at least for me. I went to the archive from before October 2006, and clicked where it said to go for more recent archives.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 15:44, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Explaining red-linked terms

If an unusual term is a red link, rather than having a page describing it, should you explain the meaning in brackets? Obviously it would be best to create the page but I am trying to familiarise myself with style guidelines (which I already have a good understanding of but I can´t find this bit anywhere). --George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 16:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

No. The page will quickly become bloated if every unusual term is defined inside the article. The link should be made, which will give others the incentive of creating the article. If it is just a term (and not a subject that requires an article), you can link it to wiktionary instead of wikipedia where there are many terms defined. -- kainaw™ 16:19, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

For finding an author of a poem

Hi, let's look at a hypothetical situation. Joe Bloggs knows the first line (or title) of a poem, but not the author. He wants to find more info at Wikipedia about the poem or its author. He searches for the poem, but gets no relevant results. What can be done to help him? FYI the poem is My Heart's In The Highlands which I swear was by Robert Burns but I can't find any sources that say so at Wikipedia or Wikisource. --Kjoonlee 16:21, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not have full texts of poems, as that is not part of our purpose. I would suggest looking elsewhere, such as various online quotation dictionaries. (And that is by Burns, incidentally.) --Orange Mike | Talk 16:25, 7 April 2008 (UTC) whose folk were frae the Lallans

Thanks. :) OK, full texts are better off elsewhere, but what about titles? --Kjoonlee 16:27, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Again, Wikipedia's not a search engine; in fact, our search function is notoriously one of our weakest features. (When I do a search within Wikipedia, I do it from Google's "Advance Search" feature.) I always advise using your search engine of choice, first with the supposed title or long quote in quotations; then without. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:30, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

For something like this, I suggest asking at the Reference desk. Folks there might recognize it. -- Kesh (talk) 17:41, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I know Wikipedia's search is weak. What I'm asking is what can we do to provide info that the wikisearch program can grasp. --Kjoonlee 17:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

(undent)Now that the Wikimedia Foundation has some money, maybe Wikipedia will finally get a decent search feature. In the meantime, I suggest searching Wikipedia with Google. See {{Google custom}} for some examples. Learning to search means learning to use various search tools, and also it means learning where to look for various kinds of information. Wikipedia, thus far, is not trying to be a comprehensive directory of everything, but only what is "encyclopedic." An encyclopedia would probably not contain the full text of all an author's poems, or even all the titles of that author's poems. A search strategy I often use is:

1. Search Wikipedia with Google; if that fails, as often it does, then:
2. Search the Web with Google

Since Wikipedia is whatever its users decide it should be, the definition of what belongs here tends to change slowly with time, usually in the direction of including more material. Ultimately, Wikipedia might contain everything that can be reliably sourced, but that isn't nearly the case now. Another point that relates to your question of how to increase an article's visibility to the built-in MediaWiki search feature is to create redirects from letter case variations and alternate spellings of article titles. --Teratornis (talk) 18:06, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Question

If somebody vandalize some Wikimedia project and get banned indefinetely from editing, will his/her IP address also get banned indefinetely? --88.113.132.153 (talk) 16:39, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

When a user account is blocked, the IP address may be autoblocked, but I believe this only lingers for 2 days. After that, the IP is no longer autoblocked. Banning is different and doesn't relate to technical restrictions. Leebo ^T/C 16:51, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I may also be remembering this incorrectly, so if anyone wants to correct me, go right ahead. ;) Leebo ^T/C 16:55, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

We rarely indef block IPs, as most IPs get handed out to different people (known as a Shared IP address). If the vandalism is coming from a fixed IP (usually a school or a business), indef blocks can happen, but are still considered a last resort. Usually if a specific user account is blocked, their IP is not blocked for this reason. However, the block may include restrictions preventing anyone editing from that IP from creating a new account; that's usually reserved for people who keep evading their blocks by making new accounts. -- Kesh (talk) 17:44, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

IfD

Hi there - if there is an image that is on Images and media for deletion that is under discussion but hasnt been closed, yet the discussion is archived quite a few days in the past. What do you have to do to get the discussion closed and consensus reached? It is here - [5] 77.96.99.100 (talk) 16:45, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

If the discussion is old, you can contact an administrator to overview it, or just make a simple note on the project's talk page. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 17:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it appears as though the discussion was closed, but not properly. I believe the discussion tag can be removed from the image since it was closed as keep. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 17:19, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Centre alignment in tables

Is there some way to centrally align a whole column of a table without having to put align=center in every row, or centre-aligning the whole table? I am trying to centre align the attendance and reference columns in Record home attendances of English football clubs. Oldelpaso (talk) 17:18, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Help:Table mentions nothing on how to change this, and I haven't seen any examples of anyone doing this. I just looked at the table at American Idol 7 (which has been heavily edited over the past number of years) and it uses align=center on every row. So were I to venture a guess it would be that it can't be done. You could try the village pump and see if you can get a developer. —BradV 17:54, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Some IFD formatting errors

Above, an anon user noted a non-closed IfD - which seemed improperly closed/formatted, not forgotten. I attempted to close it, but apparently somewhere someone affected the bottom and top closure headings. I don't have the time to fix the affects of what I did to properly close [6]. But can somebody take a look at [7] and see what they can do. I have to get to work. Cheers. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 17:35, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I fixed it, and removed the tag from the image. Apparently for media the begin tag goes under the heading, whereas at AfD the begin tag goes above the heading. It must be one of those undocumented inconsistencies. —BradV 18:03, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

License

When uploading an image, how do i tell which is the right one license to use, if i had not encountered them before? Simply south (talk) 18:48, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

If it's your own work, you can choose a license (preferably {{pd-self}} or one of the tags on this page). Otherwise, the image is owned by somebody else, and you will need to provide reasons why we can use the image and a tag from this page. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:17, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Create Your Own Article

I really want to create my own article but I have no idea how. Seriously, how do you do it? I hope to add some important articles into this website for the benifit of others. PLEASE help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pirate"aargh" (talk • contribs) 19:53, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article! --Orange Mike | Talk 19:58, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I just need a little help

I am trying to upload a file and it says that I am not a confirmed user. I was just curious to know when I would be confirmed.

Ags07gigem (talk) 19:59, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

User become autoconfirmed 4 days after their account is created: Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed#Autoconfirmedusers. For you, that would be 23:31 on April 10th. --barneca (talk) 20:01, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Redirects

How can a registered user make a redirect without requesting it.

• Guy1423 (talk) 20:11, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Just like you would make a new page, except with the content being #REDIRECT [[Location of the desired target]]. See more at Wikipedia:Redirect. Leebo ^T/C 20:19, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

According to your log, it looks like you recently made your account. You might have to wait another day or two to be able to create a new page, which is what creating a redirect amounts to. --Teratornis (talk) 21:27, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Ooops. I checked more carefully and learned you should be able to make new redirect pages right now. --Teratornis (talk) 21:28, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Jimmy Carter

I have read the fAQ but did not find my answer. I recently edited the page on Jimmy Carter, inserting a section on Carter's envirionmental commitment. But the last segment of my edits did not appear on the edited page; and instead the treatment omitted part of the original text. Being a new contributor I don't know how this happened o4r what to do about it.

Frank Manheim Mysmakar (talk) 20:57, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

If you're referring to this edit, you added your signature to the end of the paragraph, which is not needed on an article page. You need only add a signature when leaving a message on a talk page. ~ Bella Swan 21:01, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Or help desk and village pump. Nothing444^{Go Irish!} 21:17, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

The problem was caused by an unclosed ref tag, fixed by this [8]. When you insert a reference, it's important to enclose it in <ref>these</ref>, if you forget the last </ref> then things start disappearing. It's an easy mistake to make, and is also the usual reason for text disappearing. DuncanHill (talk) 21:25, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

April 8

List of Mosques

Hello whoever is in charge. I am unable to make any edits to the List of Mosques article, why is that?--Brad M. (talk) 00:51, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean List of Mosques? I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to edit, I don't think the article is protected. --Bfigura ^(talk) 00:54, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Please describe the problem more exactly. Are you able to edit, and not save? Or are you unable to open the article or a section in an edit window? I just tried clicking the edit tab on the article, and I get an edit window. I did not make any changes since I have none to make, so I didn't actually try saving anything on it. Can you edit the article's talk page? The article is rather long, but it doesn't seem huge enough for the length to cause problems. Some browsers can't handle long articles. --Teratornis (talk) 01:48, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I just edited List of mosques without problems. Your problem might be a lot of different things so we need more information. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:28, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Adding my full text

Hello, I recently just saved my page titled Northern Lights Community School. However, only half of what I wrote in the box showed up. When I go to edit it, it's still there. I don't know if it will show up later or there is something in my text that may have stopped the last few sections. It happened when I added a footnote. Please help. Thanks so much. --Cwgrlnthsnd (talk) 01:23, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It appears to have been fixed. From the look of things, you were missing a closing tag. Ie, you had <ref> instead of </ref> at the end. Best, --Bfigura ^(talk) 01:27, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

(e/c) Hi Cwgrlnthsnd. I've fixed it. Please note that reference tags (like most html tags) work like this, the first tag specifies the type of command, and the ending tag is the same but contains a slash (/). Thus it's: <ref>text</ref>. You never closed your tags with the slash. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Help with bad editors

Could some of you please add Hannah Cornett to your watchlists? There seem to be a few anon IPs and at least one registered user who keep insisting that she was born in 1982 in Hawaii even though there is a source for 1980 and Ohio. I seem to be the only one fixing the error. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 03:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Image upload

I've been sent an image for an article and told to go ahead and upload it and the name to give credit to. The author knows it's for free distribution/use and is a busy specialist. Is there any way I can go ahead without bothering them any further? or do I have to get them to fill out a form and such. Julia Rossi (talk) 04:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It seemed to me that you can use this page to upload the image. Visit me at Ftbhrygvn (Talk|Contribs|Log|Userboxes) 05:21, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Cool thanks Julia Rossi (talk) 05:36, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Contents box

How do i prevent the Contents box from appearing on a page?--IngerAlHaosului (talk) 07:00, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Put __NOTOC__ in the page somewhere, location doesn't matter but usually near the top is preferred. Dismas|^(talk) 07:18, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

equity share in standerd medicals and pharmasuticals ltd

I have moved this question to the humanities reference desk. PeterSymonds, hope you don't mind but I deleted your comment. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:26, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Missing image?

Half way down the article Ben-Hur (1959 film), there's a screenshot of the chariot race. But when I click on the image, a blank page loads. Is this just me, or is the image broken in some way?

Later: this is happening to me with many different images as well, although not all. Curious. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

You're not alone, this is happening to me too. I've been getting several server and database errors from wikipedia tonight. I'm sure this will get worked out soon.--Torchwood Who? (talk) 09:07, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

And me. I don't think the link is broken; otherwise it would go to a page of some sort. Hopefully it's just a technical glitch that'll be resolved soon. PeterSymonds | talk 09:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I had the same problem today and curiously only when i used firefox 2.0.0.13, when i used IE the image page loaded with out any problem.Now it started working correctly with firefox again.--IngerAlHaosului (talk) 10:09, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, all seems tickety-boo again. That was exciting. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:21, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

page search

If you are on a page can you search for a word or a name on that article only so you don't have to scan the entire page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.235.56.73 (talk) 10:18, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Your web browser allows you to do this. Look for 'Find' under the Edit menu, it should bring up a box that you can type your word into. Or hold down the CTRL key and hit 'F'. That normally works too. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:20, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

red links

I found a page full from top to bottom with red links List of Slovenian photographers and i do not now what to do in this case, normally i remove red link on sight however this page would become useless if i remove the links.Can any one tel me what to do in this situation.--IngerAlHaosului (talk) 10:49, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

When you say you normally remove red links, do you mean that you just remove the square brackets around the name or do you remove the name altogether? Personally I would not be inclined to do either. As I understand it the presence of a red link acts as an invitation for someone to create an article, and is therefore a useful part of the project. And removing the names altogether doesn't seem very sensible, either. I would be tempted to leave the page alone. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, please don't remove red links just because they're red. If the subject is worthy of an article, the red link is an indication to those who read it that an article is needed. Leebo ^T/C 11:31, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I usually remove the brakes but you are right on both accounts it is a invitation and i am reluctant to take action.I got to rethink my red link policy.TX ---IngerAlHaosului (talk) 11:35, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Red link. List of Slovenian photographers is unsourced and says "A list of notable photographers from Slovenia". If you wonder whether they are really notable then you could ask the creator how they were selected. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I've discovered that that list is one of dozens generated by a new template, {{Lists of Slovenians}}. Most of the lists generated are either null sets (List of Slovenian astronauts) or full of non-notables (List of Slovenian missionaries). I have nominated the template for deletion; you are welcome to participate in the discussion. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:00, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Account email address reset

Hi, I am no longer able to access my old wikipedia account because it is set up with an email address for an old domain name that I no longer have access to. Unfortunately as I reset the password ages ago, the account generated a new password and sent it to the old account. Despite reading various FAQs I can't seem to find a way to get my account reset. (At ODP we do allow users to send a meta editor evidence of who they are, and if this is sufficient - their email address is updated. If you goto my Wiki profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Deathowl you can see that I have an ODP profile associated on it. If you can contact me via that link (it will email me at my current email address) I can provide you with my current email address to associate with the account. I can also forward an old wikipedia password reset email to the person who contacts me to further prove that I am who I say I am.) Thanks for your help, Andy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.185.144.121 (talk) 13:54, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid there's no process in place to use ODP as a verification. -- Kesh (talk) 14:45, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

According to the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy policy (linked at the bottom of the page "you may contact one of the Wikimedia server administrators to enter a new mail address in your preferences." DuncanHill (talk) 14:47, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Template help

Sorry for the trouble...I am trying to bring the template {{PermissionOTRS}} in line with the Commons version but am getting my butt kicked by includeonly/noinclude. I want the template page itself to be in Category:OTRS and images tagged with the template to be in Category:Items with OTRS permission confirmed and not vice versa. But I just can't seem to get it right, can someone good with templates please help? Thanks! Kelly ^hi! 14:34, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Cite error

What is causing the big red "cite error" in the reference section of Luft? Bubba73 (talk), 15:17, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I fixed the problem. Bubba73 (talk), 15:41, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

History

how do I find my Family heritage on Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.52.221.118 (talk) 15:19, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Unless you are a member of one of the royal or noble families of Europe, you generally can't. That's not what Wikipedia is for. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

page "Nosle" gets deleted

Hi,

I have been trying to add a brief note about the website Nosle and the feature it offers. But it ends up getting deleted. I do see other websites/companies explanation on wikipedia, so am not sure why this gets deleted.

page was created with name Nosle. Kindly let me know.

thanks Amer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.130.238.15 (talk) 15:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The page was deleted because it was not considered notable. Please read Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted?, WP:N and WP:WEB before rewriting it. Harland1 (^t/_c) 16:01, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Cut and paste content about music

I have a music store and I love your site and the information it provides. I would like to share this very valuable information to my customers. I am thinking of adding a fun facts section to my website and I would like to know if I can cut and paste parts of your music history information and have a link pointing to to the main page on my website. Thanks.

Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music

Please email me at <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucenainc (talk • contribs) 15:52, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes you can, all wikipedia content is released into the public domain (I think!). Harland1 (^t/_c) 15:54, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It´s released under the GNU Free Documentation Licence, it´s basically the same as PD. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 16:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

How do I upload an image?

I'll give it this, this is the most confusing website to contribute to I've every visited.

I saw an article that needed an image. I shot and prepared a picture for that page. I tried for about twenty minutes to add the picture to the page but it never appeared. I even tried to add a link to the picture hosted elsewhere -- still no luck. I found a thing that said I had to create an account and log on to add a picture. I did that. Then it said I had to put the picture somewhere else than in the article and figure out how to link to it in the article. So I clicked the link on the left that said Upload File. It took me to a page that said:

The upload directory (/home/cacheopedia/public_html/mw/images) is not writable by the webserver.

I don't know what that means but there was no place shown on the page where I could upload the image.

I've now spent about 45 minutes trying unsuccessfully to add one simple picture to an existing article. I'm surprised this place get any contributions.

How in the devil does one add an image to an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.29.1 (talk) 15:57, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Make an account then click the upload link. --George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 16:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

As I explained in my question. I had created and account and was logged on and had clicked the Upload File link. It didn't help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.29.1 (talk) 16:13, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, I just tried uploading an image and it seemed to work fine - it maybe that there was a problem with the servers when you tried before. Try logging back in and uploading again DuncanHill (talk) 16:21, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. I just tried again. Same result.

The upload directory (/home/cacheopedia/public_html/mw/images) is not writable by the webserver.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.29.1 (talk) 16:24, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Add [[Image:yourimagename.jpg|thumb|right|description for caption]] to the article, with all those brackets ([]) and pipe symbols (|) just like that. It's really quite simple. But the trick is that the image has to be uploaded first, either to Wikipedia or to Wikimedia Commons[9]. And don't forget to add license information so that your image won't get deleted. Are you following the instructions on Upload file? Or are you just trying to use ftp or something like that? 199.125.109.104 (talk) 16:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

You clearly don't appear to be logged in. All your comments here are from an IP user, and not from a logged in account. IPusers can not upload files. 199.125.109.104 (talk) 16:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

As I keep saying, I clicked the "Upload file" link on the left of the screen below "Related changes" and it gave the message I've quoted —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.29.1 (talk) 16:34, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Quit logging out. You won't ever be able to upload it unless you create an account and log in. 199.125.109.104 (talk) 16:37, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

See that link at the top right that says "Log in / create account"? Click on it. 199.125.109.104 (talk) 16:40, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

As I've explained again and again, I *AM* logged in when I go to the Upload Image page. Here is a screen capture of the screen I get. Now this help area is asking me to enter validation words, while it didn't for my initial post and subsequent edits up 'til now. This is a weird and confounding place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.196.29.1 (talk) 17:47, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

What are you typing in the box on the "upload file" thing? You can only upload images that are saved on your hard drive, you cannot link to an image on the web. J.delanoy^gabs_adds 18:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It should be something like C:\Users\Admin\Pictures\example.jpg not http://www.flickr.com/photos/23946873@N08/2395510477/ J.delanoy^gabs_adds 18:07, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

retaining wall

hello, does anyone Know if you have to put a tar base on retaining wall? we put it in to hold back the bank, the retaining wall is for are above ground pool, I know that they do it for a foundations when building a house will wait for reply thanks --Lois 999 (talk) 16:33, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, wrong forum. This is for Wikipedia-related questions only. PeterSymonds | talk 16:41, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

However, you can try one of the WP:REFDESK's. --barneca (talk) 17:05, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Image:Mick Jagger August 6, 2006 - Dübendorf, ZH.jpg

Can one of you Wikipedia Admins go and check this photo and just delete it. There's been a deletion notice on this photo since December 2006 !!!!! What is going on ?

Tovojolo (talk) 17:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Huh. Looks like the IfD discussion never got closed. -- Kesh (talk) 17:18, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

It's a Commons image, can't do anything about it here. Someguy1221 (talk) 17:51, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

gold from rock

What are the steps to get the gold out of the rocks. my friend gave me a rock from a mine and i want to learn to brake it up and get the gold —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.121.165.249 (talk) 17:52, 8 April 2008 (UTC) Moved to Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science#gold_from_rock by --Cameron (t|p|c) 18:07, 8 April 2008 (UTC)