Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

Regular patrollers may add {{User HPP}} or {{user help desk}} to their user page:

This user is a help page patroller

This user volunteers at the
Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
Answer questions,
Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

#~~~ (Joined ~~~~~)

and if you are not using the userbox, add yourself to the Help Desk Patrol Category.

List

Levonscott User talk:Levonscott User:Levonscott (Joined 07:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC))[reply]
StewieGriffin! • Talk 07:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC) I'm Back Founder of the HPP[reply]
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Hersfold ^(t/a/c) (Joined 21:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Soxred93 | talk bot (Joined 19:57, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
...... Dendodge.Talk^Help (Joined 09:34, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
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-- ShinmaWa^(talk) (Joined 19:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- Natalya 22:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Active earlier this year, hope to regain that. Rudget (Help?) 13:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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:-) Stwalkerster [ talk ] (Joined 16:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC), but have been doing this for ages)[reply]
–thedemonhog talk • edits (Joined 18:13, 15 June 2008 (UTC); made twenty-three edits to the help desk page prior to joining the patrol)[reply]
IaM7DeadlySins (talk)
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October 20

No Progress on Article Name Change

I've posted my thoughts regarding Patlabor 2's title in its discussion page, as was suggested to me, but no one has yet to reply: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Patlabor:_The_Movie_2

Is there anywhere else where I can get more coverage on this matter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stepusual (talk • contribs) 00:31, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could try to file a request for comment. People often use these to solve conflicts, but in general, an RFC can be used to generate additional interest in any article where more eyes are needed. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 00:36, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There are no comments so no conflict and I don't recommend RFC here. You can list it at Wikipedia:Requested moves, or just move it yourself since nobody has objected so far. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:43, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can also list it on the talk page of the WikiProjects that have their banners on that talk page, namely the Films and Anime and manga projects. This is generally the easiest way to make sure that people who are likely to be interested in participating in the discussion are notified of it. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 02:57, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User:HunterRaven and User:Pendragon

User:HunterRaven seems to have created the page User:Pendragon while logged in as HunterRaven, which I am assuming should not be done. Neither accounts have been active since August of this year, so should User:Pendragon be tagged for deletion, or should I do something else to handle the situation? ~ Bella Swan^? 01:02, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Autoconfirmation

Can I please get this now? I need to upload figures for an article and I must have it complete before 4 days from now.

~~DanerAbdula~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by DanerAbdula (talk • contribs) 03:02, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Autoconfirmation is autodetected by the software and cannot be granted individually. If you create a Wikimedia Commons account at http://commons.wikimedia.org then you can upload images there right away (assuming they have an acceptable license) and use them in Wikipedia pages like if they had been uploaded to Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:09, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Interestingly, since Wikipedia:There is no deadline, what is the big rush? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 11:15, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Archive on Talk

Hello. If you got to my talk page, you'll find that there are numerous entries. Do you recomend I archive, and, if so, how can I?--Archeopteryx (talk) 03:10, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Archiving a talk page. I know some folks who never archive, and some who do so almost fanatically. It's a judgment call, but in general, if it becomes a pain to scroll down the Table of Contents(TOC) of your talk page, then it may be time to archive. Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 03:18, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

question about bridge

why is an arch bridge is stronger than an ordinary straight bridge? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.50.56.217 (talk) 06:50, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Arch#Technical aspects. You should ask this at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous if you would like a more extensive reply. Darkspots (talk) 07:31, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I WANT TO BE UPGRADE MY PC

HA I AM KUMAR_DORA14 I HAVE AN DESK TOP PC THE CONFIGURAION OF MY PC IS INTEL CELLRON 733MHZ.128RAM.40GB HDD. AND I WANT TO UPGRADE MY PC AND I WANT TO CHANGE THE PROCEESOR PLEASE TELL ME THE WHATS PROCESSOR TO SUIT THE MOTHER BOARD TO MY PC AND WHAT WILL I CHANGE THE HARDWARE IN MY SYSTEM.

THANK YOU <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kumar dora14 (talk • contribs) 07:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 07:22, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Noinclude?

What does it do? And is it doing anything useful in HVA? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:50, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This Page covers the reasons for non inclusion and why it is on that disambiguation page. Pedro : Chat 07:53, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Control over controversial issue pages

I heard that it was possible to lock pages that contain controversial information or that was written on a controversial issue to prevent an unending editing war between both sides. Is this the case, and if so, how would someone go about doing this? For example, information on the Brady Campaign and gun violence in the United States have contained inaccurate statements, and there is a worry that correcting such inaccuracies will lead to a constant back and forth between people on either side.

Lbrooker (talk) 18:33, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Administrators can protect pages. You can request that a page be protected here. Scottydude _talk 18:36, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using Expressions With Variables In Templates

Hello, I'm actually very new to wiki formatting, or to be honest, any kind of formatting. And perhaps I'm already stretching my limits, but I can only see one thing I want to do and there's no better way to learn than through practice, right? Well, anyway, my goal is to make a template for a table that I expect to be used quite commonly to collect data on a certain subject, and rather than asking that users update certain fields such as "Total" or "Percentage", I hope to use expressions to have it calculate such values automatically.. As such, I've been dabbling and reading on various guide and FAQs almost non-stop for about a day, but I still seem unable to grasp the required knowledge. My template will have 17 numbered variables, and then in the final column I want to use he expr function to find the total of the variable by adding each of these variables together. Then, in the next row down, I want to use the expr function to find the percentage of each user-entered variable in comparison to the total, which is calculated in the aforementioned expression. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could let me know how I might go about this, or if it is even possible. Thanks! Kallnohae (talk) 18:46, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, template editing is near the top of the difficulty scale on Wikipedia, which makes it hard to explain how to edit templates to someone who is new to Wikipedia editing. It's like someone who has never played baseball asking how to play in the World Series - usually that's not where a person would start. We would basically have to rewrite a kazillion manuals, because template editing involves a large number of subsidiary editing skills that a user would normally pick up over months of lower-level editing on Wikipedia. First you have to learn the basic markup, then the trickier stuff like categories etc., and then learn to edit simple templates like navigation boxes, before moving up to templates with intricate syntax. The question you are asking is pretty open-ended, and thus is difficult to answer briefly. (Note that my reply is coming an hour after you posted your question, which is a pretty long delay for the Help desk.) You omitted details necessary to let someone understand what you are trying to do, and whether the approach you are choosing is the best one:

Where did you "dabble"? Your contributions show no edits that look like templates.
What is the "certain subject"? See How to Ask Questions the Smart Way.

The only way to discuss templates is with examples, and we can't do that conveniently on the Help desk. We have to create some actual templates somewhere. The best way to pose a question about template editing, to make it answerable, is to create a test template, get it as far as you can, and when you get stuck, give us a link to your test template so we can look at it and get you un-stuck. To answer the question the way you asked, someone would need to write the template for you. That would be easier than trying to think of exactly which friendly manuals you would need to read to write the particular template you need. (With template coding, we can't easily imagine all the steps and predict exactly which manuals we will need until we actually start writing the template.) The first step is to make some user subpages where you can practice and take notes. It's easier for me to edit your (currently non-existent) user page a little for you to set this up, rather than try to explain all the steps. So I will do that now. (If you don't like what I put on your user page, you can change it to whatever you like.) The second step is to search the Template: namespace for some existing templates that are similar to what you want to do. I'll put notes on a user subpage (User:Kallnohae/Templates) telling you how to do that. --Teratornis (talk) 20:15, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK, now you have a user page and some sandboxes to play with. I'm putting some instructions on User:Kallnohae/Templates to get you started. Wikipedia is pretty rugged, so you don't have to worry about breaking anything important when you experiment on your sandbox pages. --Teratornis (talk) 20:30, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Now you have a test template in User:Kallnohae/Sandbox2 that sums two named input parameters. User:Kallnohae/Sandbox transcludes it. When you understand how that works, you can then play around with those sandbox pages to develop a more complicated template that does what you want. When you have a template you like, you can document it and move it to the Template: namespace. And hope nobody deletes it. --Teratornis (talk) 20:57, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My immense thanks to you, Teratornis, you've put more effort into helping me learn this than I would have ever expected. I certainly hope that my failed attempts at deciphering all of the information you've left for me aren't too disheartening, as I did learn a fair deal. I simply have yet to find when the correct times to put such bits of knowledge to use are correct. I've gone as far as I can on the sandbox pages you've created for me, and unfortunately I hadn't seen your latest reply until after I had gone ahead and experimented. At this point, I'd love it if you or anyone else could take a look and tell me just how horrific of a monster it is that I've created. Thanks again, all is much appreciated! --Kallnohae (talk) 21:56, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removing a section from the Table of Contents

I am working at WP:WPTC/A and I want to stop the subsections of section 5 from appearing in the table of contents. Does Wikipedia support this? Plasticup ^T/C 18:53, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here is the link I think you need. [1] I don't understand a word of it, but there it is. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:03, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's on a per-wiki basis. It can't be used randomly in an article. Some experimentation would allow you to format some text to look like a heading, but that's all I can think of. DendodgeTalk^Contribs 19:09, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See also Help:Section#Limiting the TOC for a possibility which applies to the whole page. You could change the headings to level 4 and use {{TOClimit|3}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:18, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I saw that feature. The problem with that solution is that the headings are part of a widely-used template, so I can' reduce them willy-nilly. Thanks for your help, I'll try to incorporate that into a work-around. Plasticup ^T/C 23:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

user acct in one language only?

Hi I am user PGes (on the English pages) - I want to contribute something to the French section but my PGes acct doesn't appear to be valid there- do I have to create a separate user name to contribute to a French article? PGes (talk) 20:22, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:EIW#SingleSignon. --Teratornis (talk) 20:31, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Broken Link

Hi there.

I attempted to do this myself, but I am not sure how.

On this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equus_(play), there is a broken link in the section labeled "references."

The first reference is a broken link. Here it is in full: ^ "Equus by Peter Shaffer". Penguin Reading Guides. The Penguin Group USA (2008). Retrieved on 2008-06-18.

This line links to a page and reading guider on PenguinGroup.com that is no longer available. Please remove this citation.

- Ponline —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ponline (talk • contribs) 20:48, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have replaced it with another link with the same content.[2] See Wikipedia:Dead external links. I found the old content in the Internet Archive and searched it with Google to find a replacement link. Footnotes are edited in the section the little up arrow in the references section points to. See Wikipedia:Footnotes. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:36, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

DELETE

Hos do I delete a post that I just submitted? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gmarchiori (talk • contribs) 21:20, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's already been nominated for speedy deletion under criteria A7 - non-notable company. Just wait an hour or so for a admin to come round and delete it. You could blank the page and place {{db-g7}} at the top (G7 is author requested deletion) but there's really no point as A7's are usually given higher priority. Xenon 54 21:27, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gma images was deleted at 21:25 while Xenon54 wrote the reply. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:39, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Renaming

I want to change my user name to "mSilica Inc." It is currently "MSilica"

I tried chaing it from the page but the wrong format still keeps showing. I need to get this fixed asap since my company is waiting for me to upload content.HELP!

-shefali —Preceding unsigned comment added by MSilica (talk • contribs) 22:32, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia's username policy dictates that you cannot use an account to promote any sort of company, organization, or group, non-profit or otherwise. That means that you cannot have a company name in your username, especially if the account is going to be acting on behalf of that company (that forms a conflict of interest with Wikipedia, which strives to create a neutral encyclopedia). For future reference however, the venue for requesting a change of username is Wikipedia:Changing username. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 22:49, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, MediaWiki always begins user names and page names with a lower-case letter. You'll see that the link to User:raven4x4x just points to User:Raven4x4x. As far as the software is concerned those two names are identical, but the name will always be displayed with an upper-case letter at the start. The same applies to page titles. Raven4x4x (talk) 11:40, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

{{lowercase}} can change how a page title is displayed at top of the page, but it has no effect in some other places. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:46, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A hoax?

I have not been very active for several months, and I am afraid that I forgot most of the procedures relevant to controversial content. Now, just today I've randomly found this article Derry Brownson, which seems a great joke to me, or am I wrong? If so, it is very sad that many editors contributed to such a childish game.--Doktor Who (talk) 23:44, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, he definitely does seem to exist, according to Google. However, given that he isn't on Google much, I added a {{notability}} tag. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 00:55, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like it was a victim of vandalism, I reverted it back to to last version that appeared to have good faith. There may have been some information loss though, that I don't plan to uncover.

Louis Waweru Talk 01:08, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your edits, I have to "study" again how this site works. :-). --Doktor Who (talk) 20:18, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

October 21

Barney's picture

A few years ago I started the bio article about Bernard M. Oliver. I naively included an image of the man which I found on several websites about him. Well you can imagine how that went :( so I deleted the image. So I'm here asking the following question: just how does one go about getting an acceptable image?

I've tried contacting [3], [4], [5]. [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11] (with image), [12], [13], [14] (with image), [15], [16] and some others to no avail.

Is this like rocket science or am I just a dinosaur in these matters? -hydnjo talk 00:01, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Honestly, when it comes to living people, you just have to find them and take a picture. Sorry. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 00:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oliver died in 1995. Try contacting HPs publicity department and asking for them to release a photo. That is how the Jerry Falwell article got the main photo after he died. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, you're not a dinosaur, but Barney is. Joe 22:31, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your responses - you too Joe ;) hydnjo talk 00:01, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User box search...

Hi. Are there userboxes hat exist that say:1.) This user is a member of the National Geographic society, and 2.) this user is a middle scholer; or will I have to create them myself?--Archeopteryx (talk) 00:36, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here you go: {{User:Barfbagger/Userboxes/nat_geo}}

The closest I know of to middle schooler is {{User:Scepia/teen}}. You could always get a userbox that says your age… — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:32, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Although identifying yourself as a youth on the internet can be problematic. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:02, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah; thanks for the temps.! --Archeopteryx (talk) 00:31, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Indentation

This question actually relates more to Wikisource, but you here at Wikipedia are generally brighter: is there a way to make an indentation WITHOUT MAKING A SPACE BETWEEN LINES OF TEXT. To explain this, I'll use the following examples of ways I already know to make an indentation:

1. :

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

2. <div style="text-indent: 1em">Text</div>

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet;

And so are you.

I simply want it to look like:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

which I accomplished using multiple & n b s p ; (without spaces, of course). The m-space ( ) does not show up as any longer than an ordinary space in Wikipedia or Wikisource, so it will not serve. The use of & n b s p ; has the perfect result, but is messy when editing. Is there some means of creating an indentation WITHOUT creating space between each new line of text (and that isn't so messy as & n b s p ; & n b s p ; & n b s p ; & n b s p)? — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 00:46, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can you rewrite your question so it is shorter and simpler?--Archeopteryx (talk) 01:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, now I understand. Maybe you should take your question to WikiMedia directly.--Archeopteryx (talk) 01:12, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, simpler wording: how do I make an indentation that does nothing more than indent? — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 01:16, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ordinary spaces within the <poem> tags, before the apostrophes, seem to work:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

The following also works:

<poem>
<div style="text-indent: 1em">''Roses are red,</div>Violets are blue.
<div style="text-indent: 1em">''Sugar is sweet;</div>And so are you.
</poem>

- SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:38, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes: the poem extension is the simplest way to do this, and it is installed on Wikisource. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:14, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Troubles with new submission

I work at the South Bend Tribune and was troubled that the newspaper's only mention in Wikipedia was a stub that contained no usable information. I asked our promotions staff to remedy that. One of the staff members put in the information he thought readers would need to know -- about our circulation, coverage area, etc. Now it is labeled with three problem areas: 1. It needs additional references. 2. It reads like an advertisement. 3. It may need to be rewritten to meet quality standards. We're confused because sources are cited, more or less, when needed. We consider this fairly objective stuff -- numbers, dates, names, etc. Can someone check the South Bend Tribune listing and tell us if there truly is something wrong with the posting, or is this just a message than always pops up? KenBradford (talk) 01:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC) KenBradford[reply]

First of all, the main reason it was tagged as reading like an advertisement is probably because of the in-line address and phone number. There is a place for this in the infobox — do not have it in the text, ever. Furthermore, the entire article is not remotely encyclopedic in style (nothing against the contributers…). It needs to be written in an engaging and, more importantly, incorporated manner. That is, write paragraphs, not bullet points. All information should either be incorporated into full sentences and paragraphs that flow, moved to the infobox on the right, or deleted. Also, several "sections" are simply stated in the text. To create a section, place two equals signs on either side of the text (like this: ==Section==). — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:08, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and about it needing citations. While it may have citations (I only skimmed the article), they, too, are unincorporated. In-line citations are formatted like this: <ref>SOURCE</ref> — This will put a link like this: ^[1] next to whatever it is in the article that needs citation. I see that this has already been done once. Where I have written "SOURCE" above, cite your source. If it is a website, use {{cite web}} (click to learn how); if it is an article, use {{cite article}}, etc. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:18, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Before you edit articles about your business, you need to read WP:BUSFAQ. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 08:58, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Template:Infobox Newspaper for the information you can put in the infobox. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:39, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Article Size Graph

This is a somewhat esoteric request but I don't want to underestimate the ingenuity and energy of Wikipedians.

Is there a utility to create a graph of the size of an article as a function of time?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 02:46, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia article traffic statistics may help. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:00, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I was making one, but it seems Wikipedia doesn't want me programmatically accessing history pages. Does anyone knows how to get around the 403 - Forbidden errors? Louis Waweru Talk 10:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I guess I shouldn't try to get around them if it's forbidden to begin with. Anyway, I made you a webpage! It works, kind of. Louis Waweru Talk 14:32, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Javascript link

Hey how possible is it to have wikipedia generate a javascript link, ive been working on the list of house episodes page.. i used a multiline hide template(Template:HiddenMultiLine) to create individual show links for each diagnosis(for spoiler protection).. but I cant find a good way to have wikipedia reveal all of the hidden elements on the page at the same time. I know how to do it with a javascript loop like: javascript:var i=0;do{i=i+1;toggleNavigationBar(i);}while(i<=91) but i cant find a way to do this in wikipedia. Any ideas? thanks Rampagez99 (talk) 03:19, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Per Wikipedia:Spoiler you should not have "spoiler protection" in any articles. Sorry. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:42, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And in general, you can't include javascript on pages. You can put it on your monobook.js file (found at User:Rampagez99/monobook.js) where it will work for you on all pages, but that won't affect anyone else. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 21:56, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Expressions that call on Sums of Parameters

Hello, this is my second call for help on here, the first of which was MUCH more than I would have expected and helped a great deal, but once again I find myself stuck. I'm looking to find a way to call on the result of an expression used in a template to calculate more expressions in the same template. Most namely, the first expression adds a number of values and then the following expressions find the percentages of each individual value in comparison to the sum of all values. To make myself a little more clear, I've been dabbling in my sandboxes and am at that point as of 11:15 PM EST. -- Sandbox with the template & Sandbox with a template call for testing -- Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks again! --Kallnohae (talk) 03:21, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

lost password and email i cannot reset my password please help

i have lost my password and so i decided to reset my password. unfortunately the email i registered with was my ISP email its expired as i moved to a different ISP. i dont know what to do how can i gain access back to my account? please help me. --74.12.123.130 (talk) 04:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC) immortals.[reply]

You can't. Create a new account. Algebraist 08:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted images

Yes, it was my fault, I accidentally chose the wrong permission (I chose educational uses, thinking that's what wiki was, didn't read the text in red boxes that came next because I had uploaded so many images over the years I thought I knew what I was doing). Usually in the past, if I have made a mistake someone posted a thing on my talk page letting me know so I could fix the problem. But this time a bot just completely deleted it and I cannot figure out how to change the permissions because I can no longer find the image. I went to the owner of the bot's help page but, although s/he is an admin, the page says ATTENTION! IF YOU ARE REPORTING AN ISSUE WITH ONE OF MY BOTS, AND YOU'D LIKE IT TO BE FIXED BEFORE THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE:

   * Visit /dev/null
   * Don't come back

I don't know what /dev/null means and otherwise it doesn't seem very admin-like. Can someone tell me where to go to restore and change the permissions for Image:Condensedmudrawikisonya.jpg Digital Mudra (1988 – 1989) featured people making hand signs, here the lower two images feature the sculptor Kati Casida and her husband John E. Casida.

And how to change the permissions on this one.

thanks Saudade7 05:49, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What admin? What bot? On Wikipedia, or on Commons? Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 06:03, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, Sorry, I'm tired...I guess the person here: User talk:ST47 is the person that gave me time to fix the problem and is also the admin.

The bot here User:ImageRemovalBot is the one that removes without giving me time to do anything about the problem. Let me go apologize to the first person... Saudade7 07:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image:Condensedmudrawikisonya.jpg was deleted by User:Stifle not by a bot. What User:ST47 is telling you is that he does not accept bug reports on STBotI at User talk:ST47. If you want to file a bug report, read the large gray box at the top of User talk:STBotI, and file the report as explained there. BTW, /dev/null is the Unix bit bucket. —teb728 t c 08:03, 21 October 2008 (UTC) ImageRemovalBot does not delete images; it removes links to images that have been deleted. —teb728 t c 08:08, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

PLEASE

Today, 21 October 2008, i saw a new message on my talk page. And i don't now why. You can see on my talk. Pedrovip (talk) 08:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)Pedrovip[reply]

There was some vandalism that was reverted. Then you added {{pp-dispute}} and {{editprotected}} for some odd reason. {{pp-dispute}} does not actually protect your page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 08:54, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

page go live

How can I make this page go live so users can see it and search for it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hillvic

Many Thanks

vicky —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hillvic (talk • contribs) 10:16, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:MOVE - you need 4 days' experience and 10 edits, then follow the instructions on that page. Densock|Dendodge^{in public} 11:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

please also bear in mind that PR pieces are against wikipedia policies - see WP:SPAM#Advertisements_masquerading_as_articles, WP:COI and related policies. Sssoul (talk) 15:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My contributions were deleted

My contributions were deleted. I have posted an external link on September 12th which was stating debate on iphone 3G vs Nokia N96 in Nokia N96 wikipedia page.

Please explain me the reason, so that I don't repeat it again.

Thanks Rajdeep —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rajdeeprathod (talk • contribs) 11:51, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know the specific problem in this case, but some relevent reading might be: Wikipedia's External Links guidelines. In general, Wikipedia is fairly conservative with regards to allowing external links in articles. Links that are only tangentally related to the subject (such as, for example, a debate on the relative merits of two products) are generally discouraged, so I can see why it was removed. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 11:58, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The page in question has the following message commented into its external links section (you have to press the edit button to see it):

   ==========================(NoMoreLinks)================================
   | PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. WIKIPEDIA  |
   | IS NOT A COLLECTION OF LINKS NOR SHOULD IT BE USED FOR ADVERTISING. |
   |                                                                     |
   |           Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED.         |
   | See Wikipedia:External links & Wikipedia:Spam for details.  |
   |                                                                     |
   | If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or   |
   | replacements on this article's discussion page, or submit your link |
   | to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz . org) |
   | and link back to that category using the {dmoz} template.           |
   ===========================(NoMoreLinks)===============================

Of course, I don't know whether there's any connection between that message and the removal of your link. However I'd say discussing on the talk page would be a good idea. AndyJones (talk) 14:57, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Look at some of our featured articles. Those are the best articles on Wikipedia. They reflect the type of editing that all Wikipedia contributors should aspire to. Understanding exactly what makes up a featured article can be difficult, because a featured article embeds extensive know-how - specifically, knowledge of how to write for an encyclopedia. Wikipedia lets anyone try editing, but unfortunately only a tiny fraction of people have written encyclopedias before, so most of us have to learn how after we get here. To your specific problem: most of the featured articles have relatively few external links in their External links sections. Instead, most of their external links are in the form of footnotes. If you have an external link to a page with content that would improve an article, you should rewrite the content in your own words, add it to the article, and cite your source. To understand how, read: WP:CITE, WP:FOOT, and WP:CITET. Other editors are less likely to remove footnote citations than plain external links, as long as your content addition really improves the article. External links by themselves do not help an article much, because readers can only tell by following the links. --Teratornis (talk) 21:17, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can see a clear trend among featured articles to have many references and few external links by clicking this handy random featured article link repeatedly. --Teratornis (talk) 03:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Citing videos

Is it appropriate to cite video clips and how? Grsz ^Review! 15:01, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

here's the "cite video" template. whether it's appropriate or not probably depends on what you want the citation to support 8) Sssoul (talk) 15:09, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Previous Searches

Is there any way that I can see a list of my previous searches? I located an article a few weeks ago that was very useful and now I can't find it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.100.48.210 (talk) 16:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There isn't a way of which I am aware that allows you to view previous searches. However, if remember even a little bit of the term, you can enter it into the search box on the left. Alternatively, if you edited the page, it will show in your contribution list. Also, it may still be in your browser cache. TN‑X-Man 16:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some more suggestions:

If you create an account, you can add articles you like to your Watchlist.
If you are using a capable browser such as Mozilla Firefox, click the "History" menu item and it should show your browsing history back for a week or two, maybe more.
If you want better search capability, you could install a Desktop search program which can search your browser history.
In addition to Wikipedia's search function, you can try searching Wikipedia with Google, which provides more flexibility with mispellings and word stems. Google caches copies of Wikipedia pages for a few days if they get deleted; Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles for violating various policies and guidelines, so if you can't find an article you are sure you saw before, maybe it got deleted.
If you can remember the general subject area of the article, you can browse Wikipedia by content.
If you can't remember it with all of those methods, you could ask for more help on the Reference desk. I'm sure the volunteers there could suggest articles that would fit even a sloppy vague description. Even we might have done that if you had told us whatever you can remember about the article.

--Teratornis (talk) 03:26, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Creative Commons-licensed wiki

Who can give me Creative Commons-licensed wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.235.137.205 (talk) 17:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your question does not parse. A wiki is a type of Web site that is editable by its users. Whoever operates a wiki may either copyright its content, or license it to be freely copyable (for example, by declaring the wiki's content to be under the GFDL or a Creative Commons license). If you want to start your own wiki, see b:Wiki Science/How to start a wiki. --Teratornis (talk) 17:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot use contents menus on articles

I am a long-time user of Wikipedia, and have encountered a new problem with a new computer. When I click a contents menu on an article, it will not bring me to the appropriate section below. Even when I enter a URL with a # in it, it will always bring me to the title. I am using Internet Explorer 8 BETA. Any reason for this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.240.89.80 (talk) 21:29, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe this is a problem on our end - I just checked on Firefox 3 and IE 6, and both work without a problem. Since you are using a Beta version, it's very possible they forgot to put that in or it's buggy somehow. You may want to let Microsoft know. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:09, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is a known problem with Internet Explorer 8. Emulate IE7 works according to Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 September 9#Contents Navigation links within articles - not working! :s. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What is the best way of letting Microsoft know? Do you think the best solution to just switch to IE 7 then? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.240.89.80 (talk) 14:30, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft knows about it.[17] Doesn't your Internet Explorer 8 have an "Emulate IE7" button as seen at [18]? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:52, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

October 22

Link to talk page in signature does not work

help. someone please analyze here it is

RaveRaiser ^H^a^t^e^r^s

It appears to be working just fine. What sort of problems are you having? Andrew Nutter (talk) 00:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It works fine. Maybe you tested it in your talk page? Then it wouldn't work. BTW, isn't it a bit too long? See WP:Sig. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 00:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted Articles

Is there any way to view old versions of articles that once existed but have since been deleted? Andrew Nutter (talk) 00:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can find all versions from the article's history. Click on the date and time link and it will show you the version that existed on that day. But if you're talking about deleted articles, you'll have to ask an admin to allow you to view those pages (you have to provide a good reason too). Cheers. Chamal ^talk 00:19, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify, history and deletedhistory are two separate things. Admins can delete revisions from the page history (or the entire page history) so that it will only be visible to them (through the interface Special:Undelete). For a deleted page, only an admin can provide the history, if it's not a copyright violation, spam or BLP-problematic. In rare cases, the edits can be oversighted, so only oversighters (a very select group with this extra user right; see also m:Hiding revisions) can view them. This is done in extremely rare cases, in which a privacy violation has occurred. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 00:23, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unadministration member semiprotecting(?)

Hello. I am going to create an article about Doctor Bryan Dennis Boyd, Ed.D. He is the inventor of an education method that improved schools.

However, despite his degree(s), Dr. Boyd teaches at a middle school (I have him in fact!). As a result, I want to have the article semi-protected so only established users can edit it. Is it possible that a user that is not an administrator could semi-protect such an article?--Archeopteryx (talk) 00:35, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, no. WP:SEMI says that protection cannot be pre-emptively placed on an article. If there is persistent vandalism, the page can be protected. Also, only admins have page-protection rights. A good way to maintain the article is to place it on your watchlist so you can keep track of recent changes. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 00:46, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I fail to see why him teaching at a middle school would require the article to be protected. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:56, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I thought about that also, but then I remember what middle school was like. If I knew one of my teachers had a Wikipedia page…, well, let's just say I'm older and wiser now. :-) TN‑X-Man 20:02, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted Edits

I've long been confused about this issue. Today, for example, I checked my edits using Interiot's tool, which came out to ~3000. However, I checked back a few hours later and the number was all the way down to 2950. What happened that I had something like 70 edits deleted in a number of hours? Would these be rollbacks, edits to pages that were later deleted, or what? --tennis man 01:45, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A rollbacked edit would still count as an edit, to my knowledge. Page deletion is the only way to make edits disappear, to my knowledge. You can check your total edit count in Special:Preferences, which will include deleted edits, although that wouldn't tell you when the pages got deleted. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 03:03, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The deleted edit count confused me. At one point I had -200 according to the counter! PeterSymonds (talk) 07:20, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You had a lot of edits to User:Teh tennisman/Userboxen which was deleted a few hours before your post on your own request. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:15, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Le random communes

I have noticed that when I use the "Random article" link, I almost always get an article about a French commune within a few clicks (I just got two in the last 5 clicks). Is there just a large number of articles about French communes, or is there another reason for this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by WAYB (talk • contribs) 01:58, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just got two more, but this time with 54 clicks. Even this seems very high as I can't imagine that 4% of articles on Wikipedia are about French communes! —Preceding unsigned comment added by WAYB (talk • contribs) 02:08, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think articles on all the French communes were created semi-automatically some time this year, similarly to the way that many U.S. geographical articles were created a couple of years back. I suspect the 4% is an overestimate based on a small sample size, but with about 37,000 Communes of France, then assuming an article on every one out of about 2,600,000 articles gives about 1.4% of articles. By comparison, User:Rambot has created over 30,000 articles on U.S. cities and towns, giving it about 1.1% of all articles. Assuming that Special:Random picks out of those 2,600,000 articles with equal probability (I can't remember what its algorithm actually is), you'd expect to run into a French commune every 70 articles or so. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 02:59, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some more information about Special:Random is under: WP:EIW#Random. For example, you could try reading random featured articles and that would presumably eliminate most of the French communes, as I doubt many could have attained featured article status yet. You can also search the Help desk archive with Google for: random article and see what people have discussed here in the past. --Teratornis (talk) 03:08, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

2 in 100 for me. At #18 and 51. Grsz ^Review! 03:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pan Cyber

<spam removed> Bencherlite ^Talk 11:04, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Accidentally log myself out

Whenever I delete my browsing history, if I happen to be editing on Wikipedia, I accidentally log myself out too. How do I prevent that? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 05:51, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My suggestion is to not delete your browsing history until you're not using Wikipedia at the moment. That way, it won't log you out during session time. Master&Expert (Talk) 06:09, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. :) --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 06:11, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. :) Master&Expert (Talk) 06:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At a guess, you're deleting cookies at the same time as your browsing history. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 20:18, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

can wikipedia be my homepage??

Can wikipedia be my homepage?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.130.47.145 (talk) 10:57, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. What browser are you using? In Internet Explorer, go to Tools-->Internet options and put http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (or any other wikipedia page) in the box under Homepage. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some users like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random which produces a random page each time. The "Random article" link in the navigation box to the left also links there. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:04, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Categories confusion

I couldnt really get to grips with how to include a living person in categories. The page I am helping to edit on the artist Nadia Hebson has a message saying I need those categories but am unsure how to include on the pages 'British painters' and 'Alunmi of Central St. Martins School of Art'. what wiki character do I need and where do I put it on the page? Thanks very much for your help, sorry if it is glaringly obvious. mea culpa! --Humblejohn (talk) 12:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just add [[Category:name]] at the bottom of the article for each category you want to include (replacing "name" with the name of the category). By the way, the name you want for the second one you mentioned is "Alumni of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design". (You may want to look at the edit window of an article that's already categorized to get a sense of the usual placement and arrangement of the category tags.) Deor (talk) 12:23, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fuhghettaboutit has added categories to Nadia Hebson. See [19] for how it was done. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Foreign language links

How should we proceed with foreign language links? For me it is understandable that the Japan wiki-page has links to Japanese web-pages, but should random links for non-English pages be deleted? I personally don't believe they are useful for most user, since they could consult a foreign language wiki for that purpose. Mr.K. (talk) 15:47, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I personally believe they shouldn't. Each link isn't random; they cover the subject on all wikis with that name. On some articles, they can't have all international links, due to the coverage. If you wish to proceed with a proposal, WP:VPP is the correct place to go. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 15:53, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Links in foreign languages usually aren't random. Either they are in the language that is relevant to the article (French links for a French singer article for example) or they are simply the only resource there is. Just because a link is in non-English, doesn't mean it's not reliable. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:00, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

Hi there, I hope you don't mind me coming here to ask a question. It's my first day at Wikipedia and I'm going through the Tutorial. I've got the external sources figured out, I'm only stumped by how to add a source to a book which is not on a website, perhaps I've missed it on the tutorial. Thanks. Titch Tucker (talk) 16:11, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

sure, no problem. There's no requirement that the source has a link. You could footnote the source exactly as you would footnote a source in a print report. We have citation templates, located at WP:CITET which can help you organize bibliographic information. If you find these hard to use, drop me a note on my talk page and I can teach you specifically how to do it! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 16:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, see Plymouth colony, a featured article I worked extensively on, as to how both books and websites can be cited. You could use examples from that article to help you see how things are formatted. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 16:19, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your reply and information. Titch Tucker (talk) 16:37, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's good that you are tackling references on your first day of editing on Wikipedia. You'll need to read these pages: WP:RS, WP:V, WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and the above-mentioned WP:CITET. See the {{Cite book}} template's page for documentation on the specific input fields. If you have trouble figuring out how to use {{Cite book}}, you can tell us the name of the book, and we will show you what to do. Citation tools are available to help with formatting citation templates. For example, {{Google scholar cite}} sometimes lets you look up a book on Google Books and automatically generate a pre-filled {{Cite book}} template for it. --Teratornis (talk) 19:45, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm very grateful for the advice. I have copied the pages you recommended to me on my sandbox and will read through them all. Thanks. Titch Tucker (talk) 20:01, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I predict from your logical approach to learning Wikipedia that you will be a successful contributor. You might want to group items on your user page into sections, because you will probably add to them. Click on my username to see how I organized my user page. My user page is by no means the state of the art in userpage design, but it's simple enough for a new user to emulate right away. When you get into heavy article editing, you might want to keep detailed notes on a user subpage, like I do here: User:Teratornis/Energy. On that page, I keep track of some articles I'm working on, how I search for references, and so on. If you do complex edits, it's hard to just wing it by looking only at the articles as you edit them. You might also need to write some notes about what you are doing. Plus your notes then become handy for other users to examine, if they want to know what you are doing. --Teratornis (talk) 07:50, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Barack Obama

I'm trying to read about Barack when I encountered a really bad paragraph about him in the Early Life and Career section. Please clean this up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.201.253.22 (talk) 16:20, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It has already been removed, and the person who added it has been blocked. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:23, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the future, you can fix it yourself. Wikipedia receives its fair share of vandalism, and anyone, even you, can fix it. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 16:24, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The article is semi-protected so only autoconfirmed users can edit it. Others can suggest edits by posting to the talk page (click the "discussion" tab). PrimeHunter (talk) 16:35, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

copy of proof of graduation

require proof to become substitute in Arizona elementary school —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.44.6.188 (talk) 16:22, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To get proof of your graduation from college, contact the transcripts department of the college you attended. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:24, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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 contact the school (high school or university) that you graduated from and request transcripts through the transcripts department. Best of luck! Scottydude _talk 16:30, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image Trouble

Hello, Help Desk; long time listener, first time caller. So there I was, tooling around Wikipedia, minding my own business, when all of the sudden I noticed that about two-thirds of the images aren't working. Instead of Wikipedia's beautiful public domain (or at least fair use) images, I see little boxes with red "x"s. Did I break Wikipedia? I KNEW I had too many userboxes on my page... ;-) Nutiketaiel (talk) 18:45, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You broke everything! :-) Actually, I spot checked some articles and can see images. Are there any particular articles where the images do not display? TN‑X-Man 19:10, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, my user page for starters. About 2/3 of the images there don't work. Same with almost every article I visit, including Alien (Alien franchise), Dawnstar, Ayla Ranzz, Superboy, Legion of Super-Heroes, all the images on the Main_Page, and even some of the editing buttons up above this box that I'm typing in right now. Nutiketaiel (talk) 19:35, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I'm not sure what to tell you. I can see the images on all of those pages. It may be something with your browser. Have tried restarting your browser and/or clearing your cache? TN‑X-Man 19:48, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've restarted the browser AND the whole computer. What's a "cache," in this context? Nutiketaiel (talk) 19:51, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Other users have reported this problem. Search Help desk for: cannot see images. The problem would seem to be in the user's Web browser settings (since most other users can see the images, the problem almost certainly cannot be on the server). Many browsers have the ability to block images from particular sites, and somehow this setting can get toggled on even if the user does not consciously select it. I don't know how that happens; it might result from bumping a hot-key combination accidentally. If you want specific advice about where to find this mysterious setting, you will have to tell us the name and version number of your browser, and maybe someone who reads this will have the same browser and know where the setting is. --Teratornis (talk) 19:52, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A cache in this context would simply be your browser cache - your history, cookies, etc. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 20:33, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it's Internet Explorer, but I don't know how to determine the version number. Nutiketaiel (talk) 11:27, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Found it. Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_qfe.070227-2300 Nutiketaiel (talk) 19:24, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And never mind. The problem seems to have corrected itself. Nutiketaiel (talk) 11:55, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

help plz

I was wondering on your page how you can get the boxes that say, this user is canadian, a femanists, etc... If you could help, that would be great. Thanks!

Rockergurl92 (talk) 23:04, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try looking here. There are some Canadian ones here, and some feminist ones here. Add the code shown (e.g. {{User:UBX/feminism}} on your userpage. Hope this helps. Bencherlite ^Talk 23:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can also check out Wikipedia:Userboxes for general info. Darkspots (talk) 00:36, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And for more information than you probably wanted, see WP:EIW#Userbox. --Teratornis (talk) 01:03, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Admin help

I was an admin on wikipedia for quite some time. but one day, i went on and found that i had been reverted back to a normal editor. all of the tools were gone! Can anyone help? Cole Davidson ><}}}`> (talk) 23:09, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, perhaps it's due to the fact that your account was created in July 2008, and this account has never had admin rights. Are you confusing Wikipedia with another wiki where you had admin rights? Bencherlite ^Talk 23:12, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I forgot to elaborate in the first statement. After the admin status was gone, the next time I tried to log in, it wouldn't let me. I did the send me password, buut it said that the account dosen't exist. I created this account so that I would still have one.

Cole Davidson ><}}}`> (talk) 23:31, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What was the name of the previous account. We can't really help you if we don't know that much. Scottydude _talk 23:47, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The account was cole1181. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cole12321 (talk • contribs) 23:51, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That account never existed. PeterSymonds (talk) 23:53, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Like i said, the system says the same thing. Cole Davidson ><}}}`> (talk) 23:55, 22 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you must be confusing this account with another. All accounts registered on Wikipedia are never allowed to be registered again, unless a rename has occurred, vacating the former account. There's no record of a user by that name, nor of a request for adminship, the only way to become a sysop on this wiki. Are you quite sure this is the account you're thinking of? PeterSymonds (talk) 00:02, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can see all English Wikipedia accounts starting with Cole1 (treated the same as cole1 by the software) at [20]. Note that an account at another Wikipedia language or Wikimedia project or wiki would not work here on the English Wikipedia or not be an admin account. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:59, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

When Wikipedia first started, some of the tools now relegated only to admins apparently were available to all users; everyone was an "admin". I don't know about the account name issue, and suspect like others that you are not remembering it quite right, but is it possible that the time you are thinking of when you "were an admin" was around 2001-2002? If not, please explain the process you went through in order to become an admin. Early adminship (once it became something that could actually be granted) was not apparently done through a formal request page as has been for the past few years. Like Peter says, it most likely that you would have to have had a page like Wikipedia:Requests for Adminship/name, and have gone through a nomination and examination process, but if it was in that early window you might not have. I thought this: Wikipedia:Administrators as it existed on September 20, 2002 was interesting. None of the admins listed there have formal request pages unless they later had to reapply.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:10, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, everything was the same as today (there were still users and sysops). There was only one administrative role account in the early days, and editors who wanted +sysop had to request the password from Jimbo Wales. Then user groups became more advanced in 2003/2004; a number of users were assigned +bureaucrat, and a proper requests page was set up as we know it today. PeterSymonds (talk) 07:46, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At least according to what is implied at in the current text of WP:ADMIN, in the very early days, in 2001, when you signed up you were automatically a sysop, set up as the signup default. This further implies that they only later changed the signup parameters so that when you signed up you were defaulted to a user account, and only then had to request it from Jimbo (or maybe Jimbo and Sanger). This is all probably academic with respect to the OP.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:30, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

October 23

Lost draft of new page

A couple of months ago I became dissatisfied the Wikipedia page on "Greater Victoria" (BC) and decided to draft a replacement. I didn't push my draft out onto wikipedia at the time because it involved some questions of policy that I felt needed discussion first.

Now I can't find my draft of the replacement!

I don't have as much time to spend on Wikipedia as I'd like so I can't remember where and how the system files such private drafts and I find the help pages and the FAQ unhelpful: too many trees, not enough forest, you might say. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Floozybackloves (talk • contribs) 00:23, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at your contributions and your deleted contributions (which you can't see as you're not an admin, but you don't have any deleted contributions), you didn't save the draft anywhere on Wikipedia. "The system" doesn't file private drafts automatically; you have to create a page for them. So, unless you remembered to save your work on your own computer, you'll have to start again... PS please remember to sign your talk page messages using ~~~~. Bencherlite ^Talk 00:33, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A user subpage like User:Floozybackloves/Anemonopsis (which currently redirects) is a good place for drafts but experience shows that new users often place drafts and tests in strange unpredictable places. All of them should show in contributions. If you saved a draft somewhere without logging in then I don't know how to find it, except if you can find the used IP address and use Special:Contributions. IP addresses can change. You can get a link to the contributions for the current IP address of your Internet connection by logging out, typing ~~~~ somewhere, and clicking "Show preview". Does that help? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:46, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A common (and unfortunate) place for new users to type drafts is the sandbox, but Wikipedia's software periodically clears that out. Here are all your user subpages (just one, the redirect) and all their talk pages (zero, so far). If you don't like Wikipedia's online help (usually the problem is not knowing where to start, because it's a gigantic mass of interlinking hypertext), you may prefer to read the book: Wikipedia - The Missing Manual, which covers all the basics of Wikipedia editing in a serial order. Once you learn the basics, you'll refer to the online help routinely, for example by doing Ctrl-F searches on the Editor's index. --Teratornis (talk) 01:15, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at Special:PrefixIndex/User:Floozybackloves, you saved it as a subpage. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:37, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That subpage was created after the post here. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:10, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

plz help

how can I get the user boxes? Because I want to add some on my page but I dont know where everyone gets them. Thank u! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rockergurl92 (talk • contribs) 00:30, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You've already asked this, I've already answered - look a couple of sections up. Bencherlite ^Talk 00:34, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but how do u look it up? (and thanks 4 b4 btw.)

Replied on your talk page. Bencherlite ^Talk 00:40, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you want more help, you can request adoption. Remember that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so the idea here is to edit some articles eventually. The userboxes you have added to your user page so far express some general interests, but do not suggest much about the kind of article editing you would like to do. The easiest way to start contributing to Wikipedia is to read articles on subjects you find interesting, and correct any typographical errors that you see. --Teratornis (talk) 01:23, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unnessary Page

There's no point for this page or any of its articles'.

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

Thank-You. --i-am-entertainU (talk) 02:06, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pointing this out. I've changed Materum to redirect to the Nigerian city as there was only one valid link. Probably the page for the Nigerian city should stay because places are usually deemed notable enough to have articles about them.--92.41.205.233 (talk) 06:34, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

using google earth and wikipedia

I have noticed on google earth that there are links to wikipedia that display a photograph of the geographical area. How do I create one of these links. Thank You. M.B.Berry —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mbberry (talk • contribs) 08:06, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that such links are created by google not by wikipedia. So you should contact them. —teb728 t c 20:55, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They're generated from co-ordinate tags in Wikipedia articles, though. See WP:COORD for more details. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:27, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Problem editing sections and subsections

The little edit links on the right hand side of section and sub section headings are missing. Is this a problem with my browser? or a setting in wikipedia? Sometimes they re-appear, but they have been missing for a long time now. I'm struggling to find info in any help sections, what's the deal? I don't want to keep editing an entire page just to access one small section. Any help would be much appreciated. Nick carson (talk) 08:07, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try clicking "My preferences", then "editing". If the first box ("Enable section editing via [edit] links") isn't ticked, tick it. Bencherlite ^Talk 08:09, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

...could also be a problem caused by putting too many images or templates all in the same place. It can be fixed, see Wikipedia:How to fix bunched-up edit links. Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 08:32, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, it was a problem with my preferences, thats all. I have changed the preferences in the past but it seems that they are reset every now and then and the [edit] links dissapear. All good for now though :] Nick carson (talk) 08:38, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tables--major help needed!!!

You know, I thought I was getting better at Wiki-markup, but the tables in List of Sesame Street characters have got me stymied. Could someone with a bit more expertise tell me why, for example, in the "B" section, there is no row-marker line between "Buffy" and her description? Or why, in the "F"'s, there's no column-marker line between the names of the characters and their corresponding actors?? In each of these cases I tried to put the relevant marker in, but when I hit "preview" the markers were still not there. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong--extra line breaks, maybe, or...I have no idea. I believe, if we're going to use tables in a list, that the formatting should be consistent, and in this case it totally isn't. Any assistance would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!Gladys J Cortez 09:47, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is that hows its supposed to be for Buffy? I dont know about the other one though. Thanks Monster Under Your Bed ^(talk) 09:51, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It should be: Character name, then a vertical line, then the actor's name. Underneath both of those columns, a horizontal line should run from one edge of the table to the other. Under the horizontal line, the character description, followed by another horizontal line running end-to-end. In other words, all the entries in the table should look alike. Buffy doesn't look like the other entries in the "B", and that's what I want to remedy.Gladys J Cortez 09:59, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A further question: could this just be a browser thing? Because I just went back to that page, and now "Buffy" has a line between the two rows, but there's no line separating the "Buffy" entry from "Buddy and Jim", the item just above it. I'm running Firefox 3.0.3, if that tells you anything about it.Gladys J Cortez 10:07, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Buffy looks fine to me after i changed it. I can't see any problem with any of the "F"'s. I dont think its your browser because i just checked it in 3.0.1 and theres no problem. But then again maybe your seeing something i dont, someone i am sure will come along and check everything it, i am not an expert at all with tables. Monster Under Your Bed ^(talk) 10:49, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have noticed that in FireFox, when you make the font smaller (Ctl -) lines in tables start to disappear. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:23, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well shut my mouth--that WORKED!! Weirdest damn thing I've ever seen--THANK YOU for figuring that out!!! Gladys J Cortez 11:34, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What's the right place for burdensome biographical details published by relatives?

I'm having problems figuring out how to approach the article George Weller. It's excessively long, not cited in Wikipedian style, and filled with strange layout such as paragraphs that are multiple pages long, and what seems to me like almost random use of emphasis. I think the first step toward improving the article's quality would be tossing all the long quotes, details about the house he died in, etc. out. That way it wouldn't be such an overwhelming task to change over all the cites and fix the layout.

So why don't I do that? Well, it appears, putting some trust in usernames, that most of the content in it comes from his daughter User:Ann weller tagge. She seems to be quite protective of the article, so I'd like to approach it delicately. After all, she has cited her sources quite well, just not in the right style, and where she hasn't, you'd expect her to be a fairly reliable source anyway. So, the information is good. I don't want to hide it in a dusty Wikipedia article history.

Any ideas on how to keep the fruits of her work easily available while bringing the article back to a more manageable state? --Ari Rahikkala (talk) 11:02, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see what you mean, both in terms of the content and style, and also the creator's apparent attitude to edits by others so far. I don't doubt that Mr Weller passes WP:N, but the article as it stands has multiple issues and your tagging to that effect was a good start. Also kudos to you for not just wading in, tackling the obvious problems head on, and probably provoking a confrontation over what could be a very good and interesting article, given some help.

I think engaging directly with the creator on her talk page would be a way forward, with an offer of assistance to tackle the issues. Perhaps start with sorting with nuts-and-bolts formatting issues - refs, citations, wrongly placed external links - without touching content. Add a writer infobox and request a photo from Ms Tagge - this would be a really useful addition if she can help. Offer assistance with the upload and copyright if she's not sure how. Sure, there are COI issues, but these could be negated with help from neutral editors. If you manage to make a positive start and would like any help collaborating on this, I'd be glad to assist if I can. Good luck. Ka renjc 11:29, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Contributions/Ann weller tagge shows that nearly all of Ann weller tagge's edits have been to the George Weller article. This suggests, to put it charitably, that the user lacks a general understanding of Wikipedia and the proper way to edit encyclopedia articles. I.e., the user's primary interest is in the subject of the article, and not in advancing the encyclopedia project. However, one way to show some respect for the contributor's efforts, misguided though they may have been, would be to find another wiki for them. When someone has poured hours of their time into working on something they feel emotionally connected to, having someone else mercilessly delete the content can be quite insulting. Moving the content to some other wiki at least leaves the contributor with the knowledge that the material is still available online somewhere. Something may be better than nothing in this case. What Ann weller tagge needs is a site that allows anyone with an interest to elaborate at any length about a person they probably consider more important than most other people would. For example, Wikipopuli is a wiki that runs on the MediaWiki software (the same software that powers Wikipedia) and has fewer restrictions of notability than Wikipedia does. Someone could copy the current version of the George Weller article there, and encourage Ms. Tagge to add her extensive personal knowledge to it. Then the serious amateur encyclopedists could clean up the Wikipedia article with no insult to Ms. Tagge. --Teratornis (talk) 20:08, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User:Ann weller tagge removed all of the issue tags. Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 23:23, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MIKE TYSON FACT PAGE INCORRECTION

ERROR IN WWIKIPEDIA MIKE TYSON PAGE. HE WAS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION FOR OVER 4 YEARS NOT TWO. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.16.185.247 (talk) 14:57, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for spotting that. If you have a reliable source that indicates that Tyson was champion for four years, please feel free to jump in and correct it. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:10, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The lead of Mike Tyson says: "Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion for over two years". There are several boxing organizations which often have different champions. I think "undisputed" means champion in all major organizations at the same time. As far as I can tell, Tyson became undisputed on August 1, 1987 where he beat Tony Tucker and the article says "Won IBF Heavyweight title and retained WBA/WBC Heavyweight titles, becoming Undisputed Heavyweight champion." He lost to James "Buster" Douglas on February 11, 1990 and did not become undisputed champion again. So that was 2 years, 6 months, 10 days. Article leads are brief and often omit details so I think "over two years" is OK. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:31, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Editing introductory material

I attempted to edit the short introductory section of the article on Voicemail (reading, "Voicemail (or voice mail, voice-mail, vmail or VMS, sometimes called messagebank) is a centralized system of managing telephone messages for a large group of people."). But there is no edit link for that section that I can see. How could I edit that section? ~Richard —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Odin Johnson (talk • contribs) 15:23, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lead sections do not have a link to edit just that section. You must click "edit this page" at the top, which lets you edit the entire article at once. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:29, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

fishing

WHY NO FISHING ON RIVER TWEED UK ON SUNDAYS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.209.15.16 (talk) 16:22, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this:

. Do NOT sign in articles. DendodgeTalk^Contribs 16:25, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cast in Films

How is the cast in films suppost to be set out? Is there a set thing because at the moment to connect actors to there roles there are different connectors such as: "as"; "-"; "..."; in table form and others. Which is the correct one to use? Ste900R (talk) 17:25, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know, but in general these types of detailed style guidelines may lurk in one or more of these locations:

In the Manual of Style.
In a WikiProject (in this case, perhaps in Wikipedia:WikiProject Film).
In featured articles (by example).

If you find conflicting information in various sources, you could start a discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Film about standardizing this style detail. If for example you find two featured articles about films that use different punctuation between actors and roles, that would be annoyingly inconsistent, and would be easy to fix, although possibly not so easy to generate consensus on which style to follow. --Teratornis (talk) 17:32, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I didn't really know where to ask so I thought I'd try here even though it wasn't the right place. I'm still going to have to get this one sorted out though. Ste900R (talk) 17:43, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Help desk is usually a good place to start when you don't know where to ask, but we are generalists here, so we don't know the answer to every question. We do, however, usually give you the clue to get to the next stage in the treasure hunt. You can be pretty sure that most of the people who answered other questions here today looked at your question, and had no more specific information to add to what I wrote. Which means this is probably a pretty obscure question, because the Help desk volunteers know an awful lot about Wikipedia between them (peruse the other questions and answers to see what I mean; it's kind of amazing). You should actually feel somewhat proud to have stumped us. When you stump the Help desk, you did not ask a stupid question. --Teratornis (talk) 07:41, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore. Television 1992

October 23, 2008

Dear Sir,

You state in your website on page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk/Instructions , that,

...about some objectionable content you have found in an article

Wikipedia is not censored, and in our effort to provide information on a broad range of topics, we may cover some material which is potentially offensive. You view Wikipedia at your own risk.

I am no longer able to find the article, “Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore” that until recently used to be on your website. A link to this article, Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore, can be found on a page in your website at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Matthau in the section titled, "Television." This link suggests that this article once existed on your website.

Was this article removed from your website within the last 48 hours?

I am trying to find a DVD for the movie of this title also, and cannot find one in the stores. If it is possible, please would you restore the article, Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore to your website. If you cannot restore it to your website, please can you fax it to me. I shall appreciate it very much.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.176.158.225 (talk) 20:35, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There was never an article about that non-notable TV movie. The Matthau article includes what we call "redlinks" for all of Matthau's appearances, no matter how obscure, in case somebody writes an article about one, and successfully makes a case that it is notable. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:42, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. I just checked the deletion logs, and there was never an article by that or any similar name. Checking on the Internet Movie Database, the link for DVD details does not show a release.[21] --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:47, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See also Wikipedia:Red link for how red links are used. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:07, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Subtlety or Nonsense?

Please will someone look at this edit. It seems to me pointless but perhaps I'm missing some subtlety.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Were&diff=244694328&oldid=220847470

Wanderer57 (talk) 23:10, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably nonsense, a variation on "where". I think it's vandalism, but I left a {{uw-test1}} on the page in case it wasn't. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 23:17, 23 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

October 24

Incumbent overload in template

Resolved

At Steve Driehaus the incumbent is showing in a district he has not held since 2003

I see my error.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 00:50, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Countdown timer on userpage?

I was just curious if there was a template that could count down to a specific date that I could add to my userpage, or if there was some code available to make my own. Thanks. ShadowUltra (talk) 01:12, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Template:Days from now? ie. Christmas is -5804 days days away. Nanonic (talk) 01:21, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that works perfectly! ShadowUltra (talk) 01:26, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Italacized text.

Hello. On my article, Bryan Boyd, there is a majority of italicized wording. I did not mean for this to happen, nor can I find the cause. I would greatly appreciate it if someone went in and fixed it. (Also, your date clock is off by about 5 hours!)And I do have a picture of Dr. Boyd, but it was taken by LifeTouch photography studios, so how would i upload such an image? Thankyou.--Archeopteryx (talk) 01:52, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed the italic text for you, But as for the clock I really do not know much about it sorry.--intraining ^{Jack In} 02:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). At Special:Preferences you can set your time zone which affects the display of some times for you but not the time in signatures. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:39, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

propsed Deletion

I am an established user, though not an admin. There is an article I wnat to flag for speedy deletion becuase there are no references at all! Am I allowed to do so?--Archeopteryx (talk) 02:15, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lack of references is not by itself a Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, but many unreferenced articles can be nominated for other reasons. Wikipedia:Proposed deletion is a different process. See also Wikipedia:Deletion policy which mentions more processes. There are different ways to suggest deletion depending on the article. What is it? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:34, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) Citing no sources doesn't make an article speedy-deletable. You can add the {{norefs}} tag, {{prod}} if needed, or nominate for speedy deletion as vandalism if it is. Which article is it? WODUP 02:36, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of trying to delete the article, perhaps you could attempt to add references, inform the creator or tell a relevant wikiproject. Also, are there any external links? Sometimes what is listed as external link is actually used as a source. And finally, have you checked the history, references that are badly labeled sometimes disappear when someone removes them, have you checked the article history? - Mgm|^(talk) 04:38, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Failing to provide references in an article is a lot like asking about an article on a Help desk without telling us the name of the article. If we knew the name of the article, we might for example try some Google searches to shake the reference tree for its low-hanging fruit. Maybe we should speedily-delete Help desk questions that allude to an article while refusing to identify it. At least the article with no references has the plausible excuse that looking up references and formatting them takes a little work. Telling us the name of the article you have in mind requires virtually no work, and would resolve a vast number of conditional branches. The degree to which a lack of references constitutes a problem depends very much on the topic. In particular, if the article is a biography of a living person then the lack of references could be a greater problem than if the article contains common knowledge about a non-controversial topic. In other words, failing to tell us the article might mislead people into answering very differently than they might if they could see the darned article. --Teratornis (talk) 07:31, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I greatly admire and appreciate the work of the Help desk volunteers and have said so in the past. However, I think this particular comment is unfairly critical of the OP. When someone asks a question, they may be seeking factual information or advice (or both) to allow them to personally make edits to fix the issue that concerns them.

If that is what they want, then a reply from the Help desk to the effect "I fixed the problem" might not meet their needs. I think in general they will learn less by being told that someone else corrected the problem than by being allowed to correct it themselves.

In this case, the OP (IMO) was looking for a general "rule". Citing a specific case would have made it much more likely that they would be answered WRT that case. Perhaps they deliberately did not mention a specific example for that reason. Wanderer57 (talk) 11:59, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia and Google Earth

I have noticed that when viewing Google Earth certain geographical locations have a pop-up that shows a general picture of the area taken from panoramio.com and a brief written description of the area. There is also a link to the full wikipedia article. I know that pictures can be posted onto google earth from panoramio, but these links are visible when the earth is viewed from higher up, unlike the photos without the wikipedia link. How can one make this link? Please explain. Thank You

--Mbberry (talk) 02:34, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Confusing Manifestation's reply to your previous post. —teb728 t c 06:48, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What link are you trying to make? From Wikipedia to Google Earth we can help you with; from Google Earth is a different issue. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:46, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can u get banned from WP for being a cr*p editor?

I know a guy on here, everytime he tries to edit he seems to make a complete mess of the formatting etc, countless people have tried to coach him but he will never improve i dont think so can u just kick him off for being rubbish? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.159.190 (talk) 04:30, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I sincerely hope not, There are various tools/programs available to help new or inexperienced editors such as the sandbox which is used for testing edit's, There is also the adopt a user program that's is aimed at this type of editor who wants to contribute but just needs a little guidance with formats ect. I would highly recommend s/he makes full use of these.--intraining ^{Jack In} 05:52, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I share your hope, but unfortunately my awareness of the Dunning-Kruger effect tempers my hope. Anyone who has dealt much with other people has surely noticed this effect - often the people who are most inept are the last to realize their ineptitude. According to the Dunning-Kruger hypothesis, the ability to do a task closely relates to the ability to tell the difference between doing it well vs. screwing it up. (You will see this routinely if you ride a bicycle with groups; the bicyclists who can't ride in a straight line are usually the last people to notice they can't ride in a straight line, and furthermore to understand why riding in a straight line is better than squirreling around the road.) And when you try to break the bad news to them, they get upset and don't believe you. Gordon Bell wrote about "negatively productive people", people whose every unit of work generates more than one unit of work for other people to clean up the mess. Bell suggested the strategy to corporate managers that they should try to place such employees with competitors, for example by sending them off with glowing recommendations. This is, by the way, one reason why Wikipedia should probably not get serious about developing a WYSIWYG editing interface. Anyone who started with computers before the Internet got big saw what happened to e-mail after Microsoft made it accessible to the masses. Because wikitext is somewhat difficult to grasp, Wikipedia automatically filters out potentially vast hordes of incompetent people, who might otherwise overwhelm the tiny minority of competent users who try to maintain order. --Teratornis (talk) 07:21, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The last point in the above reasoning flies in the face of the slogan: "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." IMO the slogan should be dropped as it creates unrealistic expectations. Wanderer57 (talk) 12:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Photo

I have a personal photo of Josh T Pearson which I thought you would like to use on his page - it seems silly not to have an image of what can be considered quite an iconic look - Beats ZZ Top hands down.

Anyway photo was taken in Hull in September '07 while on tour with him - he is infront of Pearson Park in Hull which is why it was taken. This was pure coincidence as we walked around after a heavy night after a show.

I dont know how to place a photo within this message

Ross —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gingermule (talk • contribs)

After 4 days' editing and at least 10 edits, you will be an autoconfirmed user and you can upload files to Wikipedia. Use this page to upload. Alternatively, you can create an account at Commons:Main Page and upload it there straight away. Read Wikipedia:Uploading images and WP:Images for more information and instructions. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 11:50, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to Display article in main area

Hi, I have article in in user page and would like to move or display in main area. Could you please help me out.

Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Red eye2008 (talk • contribs) 12:50, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean the "How to get rid of red eye" quasi-article that is on User:Red eye2008 ? There is already an article on about the same subject: Red eye (medicine). I suggest you compare what you have written to the existing article, and make improvements to the existing article. --Gerry Ashton (talk) 15:05, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to find where a template is used

I'm trying to find out where the {{Date}} template is used. When I go to the template page and click "What links here" in the toolbox, I get a list of items such as :

Andrei Tarkovsky (transclusion) (links)

I take this to mean that some template within the "Andrei Tarkovsky" article uses the time template. How can I figure out which of the templates within that article is the one that uses the time template? --Gerry Ashton (talk) 14:43, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see where the template is used in the article you mentioned. Nowhere in the article or he talk page does it mention the current time. ~~However, I'm going to take a shot in the dark. Could it be used for the info at the very bottom of (almost) every Wikipedia page, where it says "The current date is…"?~~ TN‑X-Man 15:05, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Boy, it would help if I read things all the way through. The bottom of the page says "Last modified on…". I apologize, but I'm really not sure. :( TN‑X-Man 15:08, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the edit window, press Ctrl-F, and type {{time}}. It will then highlight the occurence of the template in the edit window. DendodgeTalk^Contribs 15:12, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, that won't work, because the Date template is not used directly in the "Andrei Tarkovsky" article, rather, the "Andrei Tarkovsky" article uses some unknown template, which in turn uses Date. --Gerry Ashton (talk) 15:33, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's {{Citation}} but I don't know an automatic way to detect that. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:43, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How do I add my article to other articles?

I would like to add my article on "PA. Groundhog Day Litigation Post-settlement Lawsuit-Terrorist Extortion Scam” under the following two titles since it would be useful to others facing this situation. 1.) "Chronic Court Abusers" 2.) "vexatious Litigants"

Also, at the end of my article, I would like it to say, see "Chronic Court Abusers" "vexatious Litigants" since these terms are used by other authors including lawyers, judges and other officials, to describe a similar phenomenom.

Thanks, Helen Lerner, M.D. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.242.194.3 (talk) 15:03, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This doesn't sound like it's particularly notable in any way. I'm also concerned (due to the title and the links you propose) that it will grossly violate our policy which requires a neutral point-of-view on topics. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:14, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have no particlular comment to make about this question, but think the article referred to must be this one: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/373/RipOff0373064.htm AndyJones (talk) 16:23, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And since you're the author of the article, it's a bit of a conflict of interest, too..._Gb^T/c 16:38, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm having some trouble understanding the original request. Wikipedia currently has no articles with the titles "Chronic court abusers" or "Vexatious litigants", so it's not immediately clear where the questioner would like to cite the external article from within Wikipedia. (We do have a Frivolous litigation article, which might be a place to start looking.) I looked at the article itself, and it uses some informal metaphors without explaining them up-front. For example, the article title contains the word "terrorist", but upon reading into the article I gathered that the author is using the term figuratively. This style of writing may be colorful and entertaining for its intended narrow audience, but it is not suitable for an encyclopedia. On Wikipedia there is no common sense, so one cannot assume everybody will understand words such as "terrorist" to refer to figurative meanings depending on the context. --Teratornis (talk) 21:12, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If the question is how to add the content in the external article directly to Wikipedia as a completely new article here, in general this is the most difficult way for a new Wikipedia user to start. Just as in medicine, where brain surgery is not something to try on one's first day in medical school, on Wikipedia it's much better to start out by doing simple edits such as correcting typos, and read the friendly manuals and try progressively harder tasks. Unfortunately, something about the nature of Wikipedia seems to encourage lots of new users to attempt new article creation before they are ready. That was pretty much what I did. My original motivation to edit was when I searched Wikipedia for some information and could not find an article about it. Through sheer dumb luck I happened to pick a topic that was sufficiently notable and so on, but many new users are less lucky and then discover to their horror that Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles. --Teratornis (talk) 21:21, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Math Question

When A<3>=I,where A is a squire matrix and I is unit matrix.then Is A is dignolizable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rtkhuman (talk • contribs) 17:39, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! This desk is for asking questions related to using Wikipedia. You may be better served by asking your question at the math reference desk. Be aware, though, Wikipedia will not do your homework for you. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 17:47, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image Question

I need to post an image to a musical artist's site. This artist has granted permission to me in order to fulfill this task. How would I go about filling the copyright requirements to have the photo remain on the article? Another editor, who happens to have permission as well, posted the photo once before in the past and the photo was removed. Please help, because this is important. Thank you for your time in advance and have a good weekend. --Candy156sweet (talk) 18:05, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is usually better to post images to Wikimedia Commons (that is, http://commons.wikimedia.org). There is a template there, Commons:Template:OTRS pending, which can be placed on the image while the artist sends an email granting permission to use the image, as instructed in the template documentation and at Commons:OTRS. As explained at Commons:OTRS, it needs to be the right kind of permission. --Gerry Ashton (talk) 18:17, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I want to be sure you understand that Wikipedia does not accept permission to use an image only on Wikipedia. The permission has to allow reuse by anyone for anything. See WP:COPYREQ for how to handle permission. —teb728 t c 01:18, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism Templates...

When you want to show the vandal the recent edit and it says {{#if:, what do I put in for the edit? Hairy Perry 18:09, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In order to fill that part in, simply place the name of the article that was vandalized after a pipe. For example, using {{uw-vandalism1}} place "|Example Article" after the 1, but before the closing }}. This will place a level 1 warning about vandalism on Example Article. I hope this helps! TN‑X-Man 18:30, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is that the same for the substitute vandal template and what a pipe, sorry but I have no idea what that is. Hairy Perry 18:36, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is indeed a substitute vandal template. A pipe is simply this: |. It does a variety of things, but for our purposes with this template, the pipe tells the template which article to reference. In my earlier example, the full mark-up would look like this: {{subst:uw-vandalism1|Example Article}} (the level 1 warning about vandalism to Example Article). You can find out more about pipes at WP:PIPE. TN‑X-Man 18:44, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

October 25

Delete vandal's image

Resolved

So a vandal uploaded an image hereMedia:FLAG OF TIBET.png, which was used for vandalising the article Tibetan sovereignty debate recently. I presume that the image serves no other purpose and should be deleted, however I am uncertain in how to proceed, any help would be appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.Clown (talk • contribs) 23:54, 24 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It has now been deleted as vandalism. AngelOfSadness talk 00:03, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the speedy response.Mr.Clown (talk) 00:11, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Signature problems

I type four tildes and no link to my user page as you can see, it's plain and black. Same with the signature button. What's up with that? --Crackthewhip775 00:20, 25 October 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crackthewhip775 (talk • contribs)

Uncheck the "Raw signature" field at Special:Preferences and leave the Signature field blank. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh wow, thanks. Silly me. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 00:25, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Searching within categories

Neither Wikipedia nor Google seems to allow me to limit a search to pages within a category or categories. It would also be nice to be able to view a random article within a given category. Does anyone have any advice? Richard001 (talk) 02:34, 25 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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