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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Noisy (talk | contribs) at 22:25, 28 October 2004 (→[[Information species/Taxonomy]]: well done). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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NOTE: This is not a page about specific factual questions (e.g., Who was the first Pope?). For that type of question, see Wikipedia:Reference desk.

Welcome to the Help desk! This is a place to ask questions about Wikipedia and get help with editing problems. It's mainly for newcomers and users who don't yet have an account, but anyone is welcome to ask a question. Remember to check this page again (how about a bookmark?) to see if there have been any replies.

If your question has already been covered in one of the help pages, you could get the answer you're looking for more quickly by checking the topical index.

If your question is not specifically about the Wikipedia, you'll probably find the Reference desk a better place to ask; if you want to start a more detailed and inclusive discussion, try the Village pump.

View old Archives
Archive 1 Prior to June 2, 2004
Archive 2 June 2, 2004 - June 18, 2004
Archive 3 June 18, 2004 - July 2, 2004
Archive 4 July 2, 2004 - July 18, 2004
Archive 5 July 19, 2004 - July 31, 2004
Archive 6 August 1, 2004 - August 18, 2004
Archive 7 August 18, 2004 - September 5, 2004
Archive 8 September 5, 2004 - September 25th, 2004
Archive 9 September 26, 2004 - October 15th, 2004

Post a question here!


Problems with underlined texts(i.e. hyperlinks)

I am using Mozilla Firefox v 1.oPR. Whenever I access any Wikipedia page, the text and the underlines ovelap, making it difficult to read the letters such as capitalized L. And I found this problem exists when I use Mono Book skin. In other skins, it worked fine. And I tried with MS Internet Explorer, and the display was fine.

But I really like to use Mono Book. Is there any way to use Mono Book skin without having to decode the overlapped texts?

Hi; it seems you're not the only one to have this problem, but I can't seem to reproduce it myself. Clear your cache, and if the problem's still there, perhaps you could give some more details: What version of Windows/MacOS are you using? Does anything other than the skin make a difference (e.g. logging in/out)? - IMSoP 17:45, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

subst:vfd versus vfd

When nominating a page for deletion, some of the documentation says to put "vfd" (in double braces {{}}) at the top of the nominated page, and some says to put "subst:vfd" at the top of the page. So which is it, or does it not matter?

(Also it seems hard to find the documentation of "subst" -- where is the easiest place to look? I eventually found it by crawling around wikimedia.org.) -R. S. Shaw 22:05, 2004 Oct 16 (UTC)

If you put 'subst' in front, then the text from the template is copied into the article. Without the subst, the text is reconstituted from the template each time it is rendered. I prefer the latter, because if the template changes, then each view of the article will reflect the change. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 23:01, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • Right. But the question is, which for "vfd"? There is much mention of using "subst:" for vfd. I've just found this discussion on it: Template_talk:VfDFooter. That doesn't really clear it up. Is it just an ongoing debate?

Something is seriously screwy with WP's cache

I keep finding articles that I've added to (or someone else added to) and find that the last change isn't updated in the current revision. I have to manually purge the page to view the changes. The latest article this happened on was in Strathfield. Also has happened on my userpage and on WP:RFA. Anyone know what's wrong here? - Ta bu shi da yu 03:12, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It's been going on for some time. I've posted about it here over the weeks. Sometimes it lasts for a few minutes, other times for a few hours. I've noticed that the changes will eventually appear, though. --Viriditas 09:37, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Another history merge

Requesting that radio frequency interference and its history be merged back into electromagnetic interference, which has twice as many hits on Google, and covers the fact that RFI is only one type of EMI. Thanks again.   –radiojon 03:54, 2004 Oct 17 (UTC)

Given that the RFI article just got written, you should discuss this with the author first. History merges are near-irreversible (requires a developer to undo), and this isn't a clear-cut case like copy/paste page moves. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:37, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I know how to use the square brackets to link to another article on Wikipedia, but is it possible to easily link to a definition in the wiki dictionary? There are some words that I feel could use a link for a proper definition, but do not warrant a full wikipedia article. For instance, I wrote an article on urchin when a dictionary entry would suffice. Kainaw 15:09, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

To link to articles on a sister project, you would type [[(sister project):(title name)|(word name)]]. For example, help is done by [[Wiktionary:Help|help]]. Skyler 15:21, Oct 18, 2004 (UTC)

Someone put a link at the bottom of an article I'd written, Julia Stiles, that was "de" followed by the title of the article. Is this a link to the German language edition of Wikipedia? If someone searched for this article in the German edition, would they be redirected to this page? Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 19:28, Oct 18, 2004 (UTC)

It is the German Wikipedia entry for Julia Stiles (love that girl). On the left side of the screen, pages often say "in other languages". Your Julia Stiles page now has Deutsch as one of those opinions, so if someone wants to read about Julia in German, they can click there. Skyler 19:42, Oct 18, 2004 (UTC)

Project Liberty Ship copyvio

I am the author and owner of material, Project Liberty Ship, that was flagged for copyright violation. How do I get the page reinstated? Oldfarm 03:59, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've done it for you, but for future reference. You add a note to the talk page explaining thatbyou are the copyright owner, then you go to the page history, click on your previous version, click "edit this page" ( ignore the warning) then save. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 08:17, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for info Oldfarm 14:42, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

How do I filter out my changes from my watchlist?

Most of the changes on my watchlist are my own. How can I make my watchlist only list other people's changes? JesseW 06:57, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't think that's possible. There is no such option on the preferences page, neither on the watchlist page. — Kieff | Talk 07:19, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)
Ok. I'll hack up a bookmarklet and post that. Sigh. Hopefully it'll be easier than the last one I tried to make, which is 95% done and stuck. JesseW 08:21, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Amazingly enough, this one actually gelled. It is available on my User page: User:JesseW#Bookmarklet. Enjoy it, and feel free to make improved versions! JesseW 09:26, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
That's pretty nice. I'm now using it. Thanks. - MattTM 10:55, Oct 19, 2004 (UTC)
I'm so glad you like it! It's great to know it's being used by people. JesseW 04:43, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
How do you invoke this script? Paul August 03:28, Oct 20, 2004 (UTC)
Make a bookmark whose location is the text of the script. See bookmarklet, including the external links. Tell me on my Talk page if you have any trouble. JesseW 04:43, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Need an image removed.

I uploaded an image today for my User page, one which proved to be darker displayed on a web page than in Photoshop. I lightened it, then uploaded the same image with another name. How do I get the attention of a Sysop to facilitate removal of the first one?--NathanHawking 08:08, 2004 Oct 19 (UTC)

I've done it for you, but for future reference don't change the name. The new image will then replace the old one (you may need to refresh the page by pressing F5 in order to actually see the change) You can then go to the image info page and delete the old image yourself.(You need to be an admin to delete all versions of an image but anyone can delete old versions). Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 08:22, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, TK. I think I refreshed the pages, but failing to do that may have been why the images didn't seem different. Thanks for cleaning out the deadwood!--NathanHawking 08:48, 2004 Oct 19 (UTC)

Slowdown

Hi.

1:44 am. Oct. 20, Pacific Coast Time. Your site has slowed down over the last several days to the point where it is virtually unusable. This saddens me, because I love Wikipedia. I don't know if there is an answer, but if there is, I am dick@dickhindman.com.

Thank you.

Dick HIndman

Yes, I've noticed the slowdowns at this time as well. --Viriditas 09:25, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It seems too much people love and use Wikipedia, every day. Our traffic is steadily increasing, even from week to week; we have lots of servers now, and will eventually acquire even more. Sometimes, our volunteer developers and tech guys can't help downtime or slowness -- often the slowness is a better alternative to closing down the site for a short time span. We are always working to keep wikipedia usable and speedy -- but on a volunteer basis. ✏ Sverdrup 17:54, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Mp3 files on Wikipedia

I have been editing the files for The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, specifically the Regimental Insignia, of which I have created jpg's. I would like to improve the entry where it lists our regimental march. Is it possible to upload an mp3 file to enable people to hear it whilst online, if so how. - Anon

See Wikipedia:Sound. Mp3's cannot be used, but other sound file formats can to some extent. Skyler 15:35, Oct 20, 2004 (UTC)

Deleting templates

Do templates use VfD or is there another place to list them? Template:War is unused and quite POV, and should be deleted as a matter of housecleaning. Isomorphic 16:18, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Templates should go to Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. - 16:24, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)

Bibliography

Hi, I'm doing a bibliography on this site. My search was on about 'Bali'.

I need:

-author's surname, initials
-(year)
-Publisher
-Place of publication

Thank you!

P.S: If you feel untrustworthy about me needing a bibliography, don't hestiate to contact me. I'm doing this for my Bali assignment.

Ye Ji Kang

yeji_93@hotmail.com or mashimaro93@gmail.com

Kindly change my username

Kindly change my username from "Rajasekaran Deepak" to "R. Deepak". --Rajasekaran Deepak 09:56, 2004 Oct 21 (UTC)

Please go to Wikipedia:Changing_username and follow the instructions. --Viriditas 10:10, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Marriage?

What do we do with marriages here? Say, for example, Patrick Stewart marries Emma Bunton, and she changes her name to Emma Stewart, do we move Emma Bunton to Emma Stewart, or leave it as it is? Also, when referring to a person post-marriage (that is, say they got married in 2003, and I'm talking about them in 2004) would I refer to Emma Bunton as EB or ES? Many thanks. - Vague Rant 10:06, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

Most notable people tend to stick with one name, regardless of who they marry or divorce. So, it's really not a problem. However, if the problem does arise, you just go with the name the person uses in public, which for publicity reasons is unlikely to change anyway. I think there is a precedent for using legal names in the article itself, and for redirecting article titles to the common, notable name. See Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (pseudonyms). But, I could be wrong. --Viriditas 10:27, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I suppose we'd add redirects. In your example, Emma Bunton would still be known under that name by a lot of people because of her career. If people saw, for example, the Spice girls movie and wanted info on her, we need the old name to point them to the current article. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 10:51, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)
Right, that's what I did with Heather Mills a while ago. It now redirects to Heather Mills McCartney. But then I started to wonder if I'd done the right thing. But I figure, her domain name has been updated to http://www.heathermillsmccartney.com/, so she's probably pretty sure about wanting to be called a McCartney, and most likely legally so, also. - Vague Rant 11:39, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

Where do you find the author of an article?

[no text here]

Any article has many authors - you can see who has worked on an article by viewing the Page history. If you're wondering how to add a citation or reference to a Wikipedia article (e.g. in an essay), please see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. - IMSoP 22:41, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Edits not showing up in contributions list

I've just noticed that the edits I've made today aren't showing up on "my contributions" (yes, I was logged in when I made them). The changes do however show up in the history of the articles. Is this a regular event or a one off? Thanks --Roisterer 21:48, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This has been mentioned by other users on the mailing list, as well. I assume it is some sort of glitch with the server or with the Wikipedia software. I've had the same problem myself a couple of times, though, except I was not seeing the edits on my watchlist. I found that if I reload once or twice, the new page shows up. It seems like some sort of caching error. Skyler1534 22:10, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)
Interestingly, I just checked then & found my edits included. I guessed it may have been server lag or similar. --Roisterer 22:32, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wrong Author Link!

Hello. Under your BattleTech universe material, you list most of the authors and artists attached to the world building. Unfortunately, you have one wrong. Loren COleman, the cryptozoologist, does NOT write for BattleTech. Loren L. Coleman writes for BattleTech. Loren COleman writes mothman and yeti books. :) It is a very common mistake, given the names, but I would appreciate it if someone could delete that link.

thank you.

Loren L. Coleman lorenlcoleman@hotmail.com

At BattleTech, I've renamed the link so that it points to the correct (though as yet nonexistent) article. (Whether all of the red links on that page should actually become articles, I'll let someone better versed in the subject matter decide.) For future reference, you should feel free to click the "edit" or "edit this page" link at the top of any article to make changes like this yourself. You don't need a user account or anything. (However, please do provide an explanation for your change in the "Edit summary" field, especially when making content changes like this, or when making changes without being logged in to a user account.) —Triskaideka 17:47, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Errors Importing Wikipedia DB Dumps into local MySQL

I download the cur edition of the english wikipedia and tried importing into a local MySQL DB. Everything was running A-OK for a while until the import crashed out with the following error:

ERROR 1053 at line 792: Server shutdown in progress

Any idea what the cause and resolution might be? Thanks a bunch.

Displaying foreign language fonts

This was posted as an article, thought I'd pass it along:

Dear sirs,
I came across your website recently and find it very nice. I am from Tamilnadu, India. My mother tongue is tamil. So when i visited ta.wikipedia.org to view articles in tamil, my browser did not display the tamil fonts correctly. Please help me. (posted by User:219.65.125.213)

Postdlf 02:02, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This would, of course, depend on what browser the user is attempting to view Wikipedia with. Hopefully the user will find this page and can give us some further information so that we can help him/her view our wonderful site. Skyler1534 02:41, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)

I'd guess that his problem is, that most Tamil sites use either "Dynamic Fonts" in zillions of propietary encodings or charset x-undefined with TSCII or TAB/TAM. If he has no Tamil Unicode font or a setup which won't display Tamil Unicode at all, the http://ta.wikipedia.org main page give's no hint what to do. Perhaps a short english and/or romanized tamil text should be added to the page. --Pjacobi 18:43, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia uses Unicode. If you're on Windows 2000 or XP, you may have to turn on "native" Tamil unicode support, which is not get installed by default. More info is here http://lrrc3.sas.upenn.edu/tamilonline/unicodehelp.html

If you're on older systems like 98, there seems to be some support in Internet Explorer alone, for which you need to install Arial Unicode font (AFAIK, this font is proprietary of Microsoft, available when you install MS Office; though it might be available individually somewhere)

--Rrjanbiah 07:05, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

How can I find out who a page's original author is?

I am writing a paper in which I may not use information from a website without a human author cited (ex. no "Encarta" in my works cited page). How can I find out who the original author of a page is for my Works Cited? I'm not allowed to use a page for which there is no author cited. JP

Click the history tab on the top of the article and use the navigation on the page to go back to the very first version to see who wrote it. Can anyone provide a link to how histories work? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 17:53, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
Usually one person didn't write the whole article. Citing only one author would not comply with the GFDL Lee's link below is the only way to go. Theresa Knott (Not the skater) 22:04, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Try Help:Page history. As for the original question, have a look at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for appropriate ways of citing articles. - 18:06, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
The purpose of this restriction may be specifically to prevent you from citing reference material such as an encyclopedia. You might want to check with your instructor (assuming the paper is a school assignment) before you turn in a paper that cites any Wikipedia article, no matter who is credited as the author. —Triskaideka 18:05, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Search does not find my page

I contributed a page on Digital Network Theory, which is only found by 'Search' if the full title is given, but not found if only part(s) of it are given, like digital network. However, the latter *does* yield some 27 entries with digital and/or network either in the title (7) or in the text (20). Must I register my page separately for 'Search'? Nico B. 17:19, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The article is quite new, and due to caching it takes some while before the search database updates. Until search updates, remember to Build the web the old way; add the article to a relevant category, add a link to the article from relevant lists and/or articles. I'm not saying that this will speed the process to get it into the search database, but that it's a oft-forgotten method to make other editors and readers note your article. ✏ Sverdrup 18:05, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
PS. For easy access to readers of the discussion, here is a link: Digital Network Theory. ✏ Sverdrup 18:06, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Sysop please delete a page of mine?

I tried to create a page called User:NathanHawking/Personal_style_sheet earlier today, but the resulting screen did not give me the new article option. My talk page did, however, so I put it there. Later today I could create one under my User section, which seems to be the custom here. Would someone please delete the one at Talk:NathanHawking/Personal style sheet? TIA --NathanHawking 07:21, 2004 Oct 25 (UTC)

I've deleted it. The best way to request that a userpage be deleted is simply to add {{delete}} to the top. Incidentally, your user talk space is User talk:NathanHawking rather than just Talk:NathanHawking. [[User:Rdsmith4|User:Rdsmith4/sig]] 12:06, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the deletion and the clarification.--NathanHawking 18:01, 2004 Oct 25 (UTC)

180mb Wikipedia Tomeraider File?

Hi everyone, I wanted to know where I can download the 180mb Tomeraider File for my Pocket PC. The download location worked about 2 weeks ago but I had to unfortunately format my hard drive and thus lost the TR file before I sent it to my SD card. I appreciate any help as the encyclopedia is simply amazing. Thanks and take care. Robert M. P.S. here is the broken link: http://download.wikimedia.org/tomeraider/current/

About those changes in attribution

I requested a change in attribution from anonymous user 140.239.85.68 to Pasquale on 25 Jun 2004. I don't believe the change has been implemented. Today, I requested another change in attribution, this time from 69.25.77.51 to Pasquale (with two exceptions that are not mine). Will I have to wait four months or more to see this done? Do you ever actually make these changes in attributions? BTW, all of my recent anonymous attributions are due to being logged out without warning while editing a page, THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING ASPECT OF CONTRIBUTING TO THE WIKIPEDIA !!!!!

Pasquale 19:27, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

database dump for use in MS Access

Hi How do I go about obtaining an export of pages pertaining to U.S. Towns and cities? I've got a simple Access database setup for use for my own project. I have no experience with working with an sql database. Thanks, MJH

Adding info to category pages

How does one add info to category pages?Mike HackneyMike Hackney

Copy from answer on Mike's talk page: Add the code [[Category:Example]] (where example is the name of the category) to the bottom of the article you want to add to the category. If you want to add Mr. Example to this category, you need to make sure he's indexed under E instead of M. This is done by writing: [[Category:Example|Example, Mr.]]. Always make sure the category you are using exists and whether I similar category doesn't already exist. More info can be found on Wikipedia:Categorization. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 09:43, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

Note that if what you were after was just to add some text to the description at the top of the Category page, you can just click "edit this page" in the normal way. - IMSoP 00:49, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Document Mode vs. Thread Mode

Hi! I've been reading The Wiki Way (by Leuf and Cunningham), and it references Document Mode and Thread Mode. I've seen examples of Document Mode in the posted articles, but I can't seem to find the Thread Mode areas. Can anyone direct me to these pages that reflect more personal views and opinions? They seem to be more discussion-oriented. Thank you.

You want talk pages. Click on the discussion link that's at the top of every article, if it's not red (red meaning there isn't one). We don't do thread mode in articles themselves.
If you haven't already, you'll also want to visit Ward Cunningham's original Wiki for a sense of what a "pure" wiki is like. Wikipedia's quite a bit removed from the normal wiki process. Some go so far as to say it isn't a wiki at all. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:01, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi,

I check my site with Xenu, and have links to here. When I run it, it comes up with forbidden - do you block the user agent of Xenu? I'd just like to know if there is something wrong with it/my site or if it's specifically blocked. If you do block it, how do you do it? I've tried to do it on parts of mine but with no success -whatever I put into my .htaccess it either does nothing or takes the entire site to a 500! What do you have in your .htacces to acheive this?

Thanks,

P

Xenu is disallowed in robots.txt and blocked in the squid configuration. It probably requests many pages from the site without a delay between requests. -- Tim Starling 14:57, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

frequency of visits of single pages

Where can we find out the frequency of visits of single pages?

16:08, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

user:kils

uwe kils

kils@imcs.rutgers.edu

Information species/Taxonomy

Where can I find a computer science Wikipedian to evaluate this page? Rmhermen 23:59, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)

Information Habitat, aka Information Ecologist was a very strange user who posted all kinds of weird stuff all over Wikipedia. Most of it was deleted, or moved to his own personal Wikibook. Looks like this one escaped notice. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:00, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Godd catch. Well done. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 22:25, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

My contributions

How can i make it so I can edit my mycontributions page. or set it so it only stores the last 1 entries. can someine reset my my contributions page? please

What, you mean this page? - Vague Rant 06:29, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)
As far as I know, your contributions list cannot be changed I'm afraid. The user conntributions list is a very useful tool for dealing with vandals. Many vandals spread their edits over a number of different pages. When a regular wikipedian spots a vandal edit to one page, they can go to the contributions list and from there, go on to revert all the vandals edits.
The one problem with user contributions lists is that people cab use them to wikistalk you. I've had a person follow me around wikipedia editing every page I've edited. It's creepy. Is something like this happening to you? Theresa Knott (Not the skater) 07:49, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

no, it just bugs me to see a bunch of pages related to porn on the. my contribuations list.

Well, I'd have thought the best solution to that would be to go round editing lots of other pages which you'd be more proud of having editing; that way, the porn will fall off the bottom of the page, and be lost amongst the excellent contribution you'll have made to the project! :D - IMSoP 15:02, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)

ehh, i was hoping for an actual wipe MaximusNukeage 00:03, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

One of the oddities of Wikipedia: pretty much everything you ever do here stays permanently in the history. If I were bored and had some time, I could go see what pages I was editing a year ago. Vaguely weird, but you get used to it. Isomorphic 20:31, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Wikifying- how should I do this?

This is my first attempt at a contribution, and I have tried to follow the rules for formatting as far as possible. I wrote a contribution on samarium (II) iodide, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarium_%28II%29_iodide and it tells me that the article needs to be "wikified". What is wrong with the article at present, and how will I know when all of the problems are fixed? I am following the American Chemical Society format for references (this very familiar to any chemists), except that in the text itself I am writing "ref 4" instead of a superscript 4. I left out author names in the articles, this was done for speed (I have very limited time), but again this is routinely done in many books and reference volumes.

Martin A. Walker walkerma@potsdam.edu

All of the problems will never be fixed, so don't worry about that. We're a work in progress, and someone will always be able to find something in an article that needs work. The major problem right now is the complete lack of internal links. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:13, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Technical question

In article Category:Comedy films, there is an entry of "Cats_and_dogs_%28movie%29 " which is probably a non-exist article. There is already an article of Cats & Dogs movie. Is there any way to delete that entry? Thanks. --*drew 06:51, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Question about copyrights.

Say you take a copyrighted text, and completely change the way it is frased. Does the copyright then still apply, or could you use it here? S Sepp 19:27, Oct 28, 2004 (UTC)

Copyright laws are tricky. If you read something, get an idea of the concept being conveyed, and then re-write that idea in your own words, then you would not be in violation (in most cases). In order to violate copyright infringement safeguards, a work of literature would have to be "reproduced" in whole or in part for public distribution. A person cannot copyright a concept, so if all you are doing is explaining that concept in your own words, you should be fine. However, if you use phrases used in the original work and only change some of the words, you would be dangerously close to the line (too close for Wikipedia standards). Skyler1534 19:45, Oct 28, 2004 (UTC)
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