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plagiarism is sometimes done by people on wikipedia.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.225.113.122 (talk) 01:47, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a question? GB fan (talk) 01:49, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Should Julie Kavner go under the catgeory American_people_of_Jewish_descent? Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 03:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it does say "Because of her being of Jewish descent..." in the Personal life section. So, I would think so. Is there a reason why you think the article shouldn't go into that category? Dismas|^(talk) 04:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The Jewish reference in the article is unsourced (there's a source, but the source doesn't say that). There's nothing else in the article that addresses her ethnicity or religion. Therefore, after I've removed the unsourced reference, I will also remove the Jewish categories.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:57, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is Eli Wallach of Jewish Polish ancestry and should he go under that category? Neptunekh2 (talk) 04:46, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Its best not to bother categorizing people by ancestry, except in cases where that ancestry forms a core part of their reason for being notable. See Wikipedia:Categorization/Ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality. When I think of Eli Wallach, I think of an actor in western movies, so his ancestry is probably not much of a reason to categorize him. This is distinctly different from Elie Wiesel, whose reason for notability is intricately tied to his ethnic and religious ancestry. However, the best place to have this discussion is at the talk page of the article in question. --Jayron32 05:47, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you wait a while (ten years? twenty years?) Wikipedia (or a third-party fork of Wikipedia) might have semantic wiki features, which would make it easy for anyone to make queries for topics having arbitrary combinations of traits. Categories are at best a very weak approximation of what would be possible on a semantic wiki. On the latter you could, for example, search for people with particular ancestry, who were born in months with the letter "e" in the name, who stood within a particular range of heights, etc. Since there are combinatorially many such groupings of traits, it is impractical to capture them all with categories. The necessary collection of (static) categories would be many times larger than Wikipedia itself. But also see Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates - categories are not the only tool for grouping articles. A single article could, for example, appear in arbitrarily many list pages, without likely attracting as much controversy, because the list of categories at the bottom of the article would not grow without bound. Editors would be less likely to notice or complain about an article appearing in 50 list articles, whereas they would notice and complain about 50 categories at the bottom of the article. Of course you can't do everything you might want with lists; they are subject to deletion like everything else here. --Teratornis (talk) 21:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't it time to update the federal budget page? The current budget in the works is 2012 and your site still uses 2009 data, very outdated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.162.22 (talk) 05:58, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).  Chzz  ►  07:08, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

sir , me ek esha remote banana chahata hu jo ki ushi remot me hone wali working ka use karke power produce kar le taki ush remot me bar bar koi dushara bettery source lagane kai jarurat na pade . i think ki ushame jab hum batan dabate hai toh virbation ata hai our jaha vibration ata hai waha par vibration enegy hoti hai jishko ashani se elictric energy me convert kar sakte hai and jishase powere save kakre sale ki jagah par rechargeble sale laga dete hai , vibretional energy sai jo energy milati hai wah energy sale ki charge karne ma madad karegi , so sir me kaha se suru karu our kya karu . mera mobile no. (Redacted) and my name is (Redacted) thanks sir —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.193.214.22 (talk) 07:17, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please ask your question at the Help desk for your native-language Wikipedia. The List of Wikipedias may help, or use the "Language" links at the left of this page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This from user yoopernewsman Please excuse my ignorance - could not find proper way to report a broken link

Broken link on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smut_%28fungus%29

It is the only link under "External Links" near end of page ie: Smut Fungi from Deacon, J: "Fungal Biology", Blackwell Publishing, 2005

I clicked on edit - this is current info - not sure how to repair link:

==External links==

• Smut Fungi from Deacon, J: "Fungal Biology", Blackwell Publishing, 2005

This broken link reported by Greg John Peterson 10:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)yoopernewsmanGreg John Peterson 10:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi there. You don't have to report broken links anywhere. This is a wiki and you can just fix it yourself. In this case, the best way is probably to add {{dead link}} to the entry to inform others that the link is no longer working. I did so in this case. You can also try to find the webpage on the Internet archive and change the link in the article to the cached link you found there. Regards SoWhy 10:45, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi all, I noticed that the singlechart template Template:Singlechart is doing weird things. See the examples in Template:Singlechart/doc. There is a whole bunch of text appearing about "On the Floor". I have no idea how to fix this. - Akamad (talk) 11:06, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, someone fixed it. - Akamad (talk) 11:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(Moved down) I have read through the various Wikipedia articles related to inserting external links to videos into articles and still find myself confused. I am wishing to add several video highlights to the 2011 Atlanta Braves season article under the Notable occurrences section. The links (one is still present on the article right now as "Watch") go to the official MLB.com highlight of specific memorable plays during this season. Is there an issue with this type of external linking (does it violate copyright rules, etc.)? Thank you in advance. Bbqsauce13 (talk) 03:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hiya,

Thanks for trying to improve these articles :) The first thing to note is that links to external websites shouldn't go in the main article text: this is partly to stop peope getting whisked away from wikipedia, and partly to discourage external websites from constantly adding their links. As far as I'm aware, linking to the official highlights wouldn't be a copyright problem, it's not as if you're trying to link to a plagiarised youtube video. Personally I can't see the harm in adding it to the external links section, it seems like a positive addition to the article. Label it as a video file so people with slow connections know not to click on it, don't add an excessively large number, and if there's more than a couple you could maybe create a subsection in the external links section, to put them in. Hope that helps, --Physics is all gnomes (talk) 13:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I wonder how to make Wikipedia appear with a fixed width. For us with widescreen monitors the text lines become too wide to read smooth. I found this script which is exactly what I need, but it's old and doesn't seem to work with the current version of Wikipedia. Help would be greatly appreciated! /Caelus sv (talk) 16:07, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You could reduce the width of your browser window? I must be missing something... -- John of Reading (talk) 16:21, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, but I don't want to do that everytime I go to Wikipedia. Must be possible to do it with a script like the one I linked to. /Caelus sv (talk) 16:23, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've tried a search or two without much success, but at Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts/Scripts the "TwoColumns" script might be relevant. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:39, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It would be nice if browsers had a side-by-side tiling option. Many Web sites have a similar problem. Some but not all people have difficulty following line wraps when line lengths get much over 70 or so characters. Particularly if paragraphs are also long so you are looking at a wall of text. See Characters per line#Human perception. --Teratornis (talk) 21:45, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if anyone wants to work on Human energy. Someone, however, wants to delete it. I'm not sure why someone would want to delete an article, since writing them is what this site says it does. Yet there are notices for people who want to delete articles.--Rhbsihvi (talk) 17:08, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you object to the proposed deletion, you can remove it - by editing the page, and just removing this part;

{{Proposed deletion/dated
  |concern = This article is an example of [[wp:Synthesis]]
  |timestamp = 20110408223524
}}

As the notice says;

 Chzz  ►  17:13, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm just wondering, why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.209.135.37 (talk) 17:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mostly, because everyone has their own opinion of what is, and is not, "appropriate". This topic has been extensively debated. You can read the policy in WP:NOTCENSORED and the links - Wikipedia:Profanity, Wikipedia:Sexual content, Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles.

Also, please note Wikipedia:Options to not see an image.  Chzz  ►  17:29, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia currently has no method to control content other than manually blocking individual images for logged-in users. There is an ongoing discussion on adding content control features; see meta:2010 Wikimedia Study of Controversial Content: Part Two, especially the section User-Controlled Viewing Options. See also WP:NOTCENSORED, WP:CHILDPROTECT and Wikipedia:Guidance for younger editors. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:50, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think the pictures are actually quite appropriate. After all, if I am reading an article about a vulva, I expect to see, you know, a picture of a vulva. If I am reading an article on Mickey Mouse, and saw a picture of a vulva, I would find that inappropriate. However, finding pictures in articles which show what the article is about seems quite appropriate to the mission of this encyclopedia. --Jayron32 00:26, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

who is the Nicki Manaj article author —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.205.4.173 (talk) 18:12, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean Nicki Minaj? You can see who contributed to the article by clicking on the 'View History' tab to the left of the search field. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 18:58, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) All of these people, and more. Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you'll look at the top right of the Nicki Minaj article, next to "Edit" is an option called "View history". (see picture) If you click that, you can see every editor that has made changes to that article. Hope that helps! ^Avic_ennasis @ 19:01, 5 Nisan 5771 / 9 April 2011 (UTC)

People often ask this because they want to cite an article. If that is the case then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia and Special:Cite/Nicki Minaj. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How do I cancel my account or change my user name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Social A List (talk • contribs) 20:16, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You may not cancel an account, but you may change your username following the instructions at Wikipedia:Changing username. --Jayron32 20:17, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)

As you have made only one edit, it is easiest to simply scramble the password, and forget it, then create a new account.

Alternatively, accounts can be renamed through the process described on WP:CHU (but it's really not worth bothering with that, in this case - that's useful if you have lots of contributions).  Chzz  ►  20:19, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When I look at the pages for municipalities, there is an indicator at the upper right with the geographic coordinates. These are almost always the coordinates of the administrative seat, but I noticed one exception among the Swedish municipalities, namely Gotland_Municipality. Its seat is Visby, but the coordinates displayed are not those of the Visby page, but something which seems to be the central point of the island. I would try to edit this, but it seems to be calculated automatically by a template or infobox - I don't know the correct terminology. How does this come about? 78.69.124.133 (talk) 20:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Towards the bottom of the article you will find {{coord|57|30|N|18|33|E|region:SE_type:adm2nd|display=title}}. If you think you can improve those degree/minute figures, be bold and edit them. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Team,

I am a very frequent reader of Wikipedia and always request the people to read and get informed thoroughly and freely from Wikipedia site. Currently, I have found a problem in the articles translations, as I am very good in some languages, and I have found that the information written in English is not equivalent as translated in Arabic language. and the information written in English is perfect information but I cannot understand why its not translated in Arabic as same!

For contact, my info: Name: Hasan Zaidi Address: (Redacted) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.237.196.44 (talk) 21:52, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I removed your email address, to prevent you from getting spam.

If you can help improve the articles - please, go ahead and click 'edit'. We're all volunteers, all trying to improve pages. Articles are not translated automatically - they're done by editors, like you and me. Please help out!

You might want to create an account. That is not essential, but it is often a good idea.  Chzz  ►  21:54, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also, if you want to help with translating articles into English, please start out at Wikipedia:Translation, which will walk you though how you can contribute. This is a much needed area of work, so if you decide to help in that way, it would be most appreciated! --Jayron32 05:45, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you are interested in improving the Arabic-language Wikipedia by translating from the English Wikipedia, the place to start is ar:ويكيبيديا:ترجمة مقالات للعربية, I believe. --Mathew5000 (talk) 23:55, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When ever I undo a user changes with Wikipedia:Twinkle it puts the page on my watchlist. Can I do something to make this not happen?  jorgenev (talk) 22:48, 9 April 2011

Yes; edit (or create) your user javascript page, Special:MyPage/skin.js, and add the following two lines;

if( typeof( TwinkleConfig ) == 'undefined' ) TwinkleConfig = {}; // DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE - ALL TWINKLE SETTINGS AFTER THIS
TwinkleConfig.watchRevertedPages=	[];

That will prevent it from watchlisting all twinkle reverts.

You might want to add further lines to prevent other items being watchlisted, e.g.

TwinkleConfig.watchSpeedyPages	=	[];
TwinkleConfig.watchWarnings	=	false;
TwinkleConfig.watchProdPages	=	false;

See Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc.  Chzz  ►  22:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Chzz!  jorgenev (talk) 00:59, 10 April 2011

Is there an easy way to find out how many times an article has been deleted/PROD-ed/sent to AfD and so forth? doomgaze (talk) 22:50, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The talk page should have how many times it went to AfD. CTJF83 22:56, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Number of times deleted is in the deletion log..what page? CTJF83 22:56, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No page specifically, it's just something I've often wondered, like whether a page had been speedied before or something. Where can I find the deletion logs? doomgaze (talk) 23:00, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you are already on the page, click "View history" and then "View logs for this page" at the top. If there are many logs you can select Deletion log in the drop-down box. You can also start at "Special pages" in the Toolbox at the left of every page, and click "Logs" to get Special:Log. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Why have I never noticed that before... doomgaze (talk) 23:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Prime. CTJF83 01:32, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Syed Enam Ahammad is a Labour Councillor of London Borough of Barking & Dagenham , Born 10th August 1979 in Habiganj, Bangladesh — Preceding unsigned comment added by Enamsa (talk • contribs) 23:23, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you wish to create an article, first, you 2.31.223.139 (talk) 12:09, 12 May 2013 (UTC)need to gather references to "reliable sources" such as books or newspapers. The references do not have to be in English. There must be enough to show that the person is notable. Please see WP:VRS and WP:FIRST.  Chzz  ►  23:27, 9 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In this category listing, it appears that whenever someone tags a page with a {{db|reason}} tag as opposed to using a more standardized tag such as {{db-bio}} or {{db-nocontext}}, the page shows up on CAT:CSD's "alphabetical" listing under the letter M, which is placed at the end of the alphabet. This is very difficult to understand. Can anyone explain it? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:59, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The template deliberately sticks a Greek "μ" in front of the page name. The history page helped me find this archived discussion. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:04, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks in advance, I need some help with template editing. How come the v and e buttons do not work here? [1]. Also is there a tutorial for templaes?--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 03:14, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

First of all the name of your template needs to match the title of the template space in order for the 'v' button to work. This field should have been:

|name = Iranian Festivals

I have fixed it for you in this edit, I assumed you simply switched the intended fields by default. The 'd' button points to the talk page. It will be red if the talk page of the template does not exist. I have also fixed it by adding the appropriate wikiproject banner.

As for tutorials, don't know, honestly. These pages might help, though:

• Help:A quick guide to templates
• Help:Template
• Help:Advanced templates
• Wikipedia:Template documentation

Maybe someone else can help you with that, cheers. :) --Obsidi♠n^Soul 04:27, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To understand complex templates, you will also need to read Help:Magic words and mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions. See WP:EIW#Template for links to more pages about templates. {{Iranian Festivals}} is a navigation template, so read Wikipedia:Navigation templates. There is a lot to know about template coding on Wikipedia. {{Iranian Festivals}} is based on {{Navbox}}; you don't need to know everything about how the base template works to use it in another template. Read the documentation for {{Navbox}} carefully.

• Note that {{Iranian Festivals}} seems to violate the style guidelines in WP:LOWERCASE and WP:CAPS. Those guidelines apply primarily to articles, but most of Wikipedia's template coders follow them for template names too (because the guidelines say "page" rather than "article" and a template is a page), which would imply "Iranian festivals" (second and following words in page titles begin with lowercase characters unless they would normally be capitalized in an ordinary sentence).

--Teratornis (talk) 03:10, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a Patroller on Simple English.

Is there a similar position on this board?

If so, how do I become one?

EoGuy (talk) 04:07, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a special user right, if that's what you're asking. Guidelines are here: Wikipedia:New pages patrol and WP:NPPLOG. You only need to be autoconfirmed to volunteer for NPP.--Obsidi♠n^Soul 05:28, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Se me permite hablar idiomas diferentes en la wikipedia? Neptunekh2 (talk) 04:18, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is discouraged. Using English makes the discussion more transparent to the rest of the community who may not speak your language. If using another language is unavoidable, it is better that you also include a translation of it in the same post. See Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#Good practices.

No se recomienda. Inglés es más facil por otras personas puedan entender, quienes puede que no hablan su idioma. En caso de que el uso de otros idiomas es inevitable, debes incluir una traduccion en su mensaje. Ve Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#Good practices. Como ves? Mi español es mierda. --Obsidi♠n^Soul 05:20, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just to add to this, if you wish to converse in another language, there are other Wikipedias that have help desks and reference desks and the like. If you are more comfortable conversing in Spanish or Japanese or any other language, you should ask your questions at es.wikipedia or ja.wikipedia. If (as I suspect) you are merely typing english sentences into Google Translate and posting the results here, either to attract native speakers of that language (the good faith assumption) or just to be "cute", please don't. Machine translations are attrocious for anything longer than one word, and if you really want to attract attention from a speaker of a language, just ask, in English "Is there anyone who speaks spanish natively who could answer this question for me...." --Jayron32 05:43, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I spend a lot of time correcting spelling errors.

The two that most often occur are seperate (should be separate) and recieve (should be receive).

Is there a function I can use that will search them all out and correct the spelling?

EoGuy (talk) 04:22, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You might be interested in participating in the Guild of Copyeditors. It's a Wikiproject devoted to correcting mistakes like that. They may have specialized tools as well, so if no one here can answer your question, try asking in their talk page.--Obsidi♠n^Soul 06:12, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you use a Windows computer, the AutoWikiBrowser tool will help you find and fix spelling mistakes more quickly. There's no automatic find and replace; each edit must still be checked before it is saved. For example, mistakes inside quoted text need to be checked with the source, and the article Commonly misspelled words is full of mistakes. If you do try this tool, you may find my working notes helpful. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:17, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

At the beginning of the Ramen article there is a "Bold text" writing, that I'm not able to clear out: I can not found it in wikicode. --Porta seriale (talk) 07:10, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There was a temporary glitch in a template; it has been fixed now. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:36, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. --Porta seriale (talk) 08:12, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have created a new entry called "Guy Cook" but although I have tried to follow instructions there is still a problem. Can you help? Best wishes Lucien ^{[details removed]}— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucienyahinna (talk • contribs) 07:59, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I removed your email address, it's not good to have it visible here. About your question, I'll take a look - meanwhile, you can see WP:REFB unless you've done so already, it contains the referencing stuff in a nutshell. Happy editing! Zakhalesh (talk) 08:01, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And done. The problem was that you had a reference below the reflist, while reflist only works for references introduced before it. I removed the reference, but feel free to replace it, but place it where it belongs in the prose or don't use the ref tag at all and place it at the bottom of the article as an external link. Zakhalesh (talk) 08:04, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have been experiencing slow Wikimedia sites for a while now. Sometimes pages don't load, I get "connection reset", sometimes it is slow, sometimes the style sheet is missing. This happens on multiple computers. Is there a know server problem? F (talk) 10:39, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have been having speed problems for a while now. Top level use like reading articles and simple editing seems to be fine, but when I start looking at something deeper like page histories etc things get slower. I dunno if this is my imagination or not, or what's the cause if not. Rehevkor ✉ 11:07, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes the Wikimedia Technical Blog gives information about server problems. --Teratornis (talk) 15:50, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

File:Max Shertz Painting 01.jpg

I apologize in advance for posting this here, but I'm at a loss on how to question the copyright rationale for an image file on Wikipedia. I've questioned the legitimacy of an image file on Commons many times, and it's SO easy to do. On Wikipedia, the policies and instructions on what to do and what not to do are enough to drive an editor batty.

The uploader of the Shertz painting image file says it is fair use because it has "educational value". The warning template says it should be used for "critical commentary". In my discussion at WP:MCQ here, one editor told me that WP:NFCI#7 is the applicable policy, but when I followed that up by asking for the procedure for challenging the uploader's assertion, no one responded. In my experience, comments by editors on WP:MCQ are generally helpful, but getting someone to comment isn't always easy. I've looked at WP:FFD, and none of the subst templates mentioned on that page seems to apply to this situation.

Can someone help me out with an answer, or at least point me in the right direction?--Bbb23 (talk) 14:58, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've never actually followed the applicable procedure myself, but WP:MCQ displays {{Noticeboard links}} which links to Wikipedia:Copyright problems where the lead section says:

• "List ... images with disputed fair use rationales at Non-free content review."

Have you tried that page yet? --Teratornis (talk) 15:57, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Another approach would be to add a {{Di-disputed fair use rationale}} to the file page. This places the file into a cleanup category. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:02, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also, no need to apologize for asking a question on the Help desk, especially a question that is as well-posed as the question you asked. Even when we think we already know the answer to a question, it never hurts to get more opinions, to increase our confidence that we really do know what the best practice is. Posing a question may inform someone else who is reading the Help desk who faces a similar situation. For almost every problem any one of us might experience on Wikipedia, someone else is probably having the problem now, or will have it in the future. Having all the solutions in writing is the first step to minimize the number of wheels we re-invent. The second step is enabling people with problems to find the written solutions (we're still working on that). The Help desk is more than just a place to ask questions and get answers - over time, it accumulates into a kind of narrative that describes, in detail, everything that is still wrong with Wikipedia, and therefore what still needs to be developed in the system. Why are Wikipedia users having questions that the software itself does not answer? As long as people are still getting confused, that means we can still improve Wikipedia. Imagine if the software was so good that nobody needed to ask a question on the Help desk. I believe that should be our goal, to build a system that immediately answers every question it generates. --Teratornis (talk) 16:17, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Thank you both for the suggestions. I'm not sure which of the two is more appropriate or correct in this instance, but in looking at {{Di-disputed fair use rationale}}, the uploader can just remove the tag if he feels the rationale is good enough or if he adds to the rationale. Based on the history of this particular editor and the files, I assume he will do that, and I would have to start again. The Wikipedia:Non-free content review page seems to be more in lines with nominating an article for deletion, which may work better (although the note of a backlog is troubling). So, I'm going to try that first. Also, thanks Teratornis for the kind comments about "no apologies necessary".--Bbb23 (talk) 16:24, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What are some of the names of Mpindi clan? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.210.173.34 (talk • contribs) 18:06, 10 April 2011

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. This page is only for questions about using Wikipedia, not for general knowledge questions. If you have any factual questions, please use the search box or post them on the Reference desk. Finally, please 'sign' any statement you post here by placing ~~~~ at the end of your post.

 Chzz  ►  18:07, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason, on some pages I"ve edited today, including a userspace page and an IP talkpage, I've gotten a large blue box above the normal box for editing. The blue box is about the same sizze as the editing box. Has this been happening to anyone else? Thanks, Buggie111 (talk) 18:12, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

• Which specific page(s)?
• What did the box say?

It is possibly an edit notice on a specific page - for example, if you edit my own user page, you'll see a notice up top (saying "This is a user page, not a talk page").

Could it have been one of those, perhaps?  Chzz  ►  18:14, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just big, blue and empty. And I'm certain that on a redirected page in my userspace, there was no edit notice. Maybe it was a relic of my browser from viewing my talkpage's edit notice. IDK. Buggie111 (talk) 21:02, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, missed your other question. The first page User:Buggie111/Dwight B. Heard has been deleted, but the other is User talk:83.31.213.157. After viewing the latter again, I bet it was my browser. Buggie111 (talk) 21:04, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for providing more info. I can't see anything about those particular pages; maybe it is something in your configuration; I notice that if you're using monobook, User:Buggie111/monobook.js is active - and uses User:Macy/FastButtons.js and other calls. It might be one of those; so next time it happens, it would be useful to pinpont it, by a) logging out and seeing if the page displayed the box, and then b) if it does not, then clearing items from your custom js (purging each time) and seeing if removal of one of those fixes it. (Or, I'm hoping others reading this will have ideas)  Chzz  ►  00:30, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How can I create a photo montage? Or where may I seek directions to help me create a photo montage? MR. PreZ 20:46, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Does Template:Multiple image help?  Chzz  ►  00:31, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am interested in being able to export Wikipedia citations directly into Refworks. Is there a process for doing this or is there something in the works? Alternatively, I would like Wikipedia to generate a text export of the citation information that I can copy and paste into Refworks for import. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.29.165.212 (talk) 01:42, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, you can use a plugin called "RefGrab-It" to import Wikipedia citations into RefWorks. See this for more information. Goodvac (talk) 01:51, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can IPs create new pages in their user space? The Resident Anthropologist (talk)•(contribs) 03:36, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No; users who are not logged in cannot create a page in user namespace. (Which is one of several good reasons why it's best to create a user account)  Chzz  ►  03:40, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The question said "user space". This usually includes User talk, and IP's can create pages in all talk namespaces. However, they cannot create pages in their User namespace which is the one starting with "User:" and doesn't include User talk. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:40, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am having trouble deciding whether to create a disambig page or whether to put a hatnote on the already created article and was wondering whether people can give me some tips. An article has been recently created about a newly elected state politician Chris Patterson (politician). Chris Patterson already exists and is a current professional rally driver.

There is another example where another newly elected state politician Leslie Williams (politician) wand Leslie Williams is a former football player who has passed away. Does it come down to judgement? Thanks U8701 (talk) 06:03, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A Wiki-search on "Chris Patterson" (in quotation marks) gives this, which indicates that a disambiguation page is worthwhile in that case, because there are others with that name - ie, it could have entries such as "Chris Patterson, a member of the UK-based heavy metal group Cronos (band)" (or whatever).

Same for "Leslie Williams" [2].

If there are only two people with the specific name, then I'd go with hatnote. As there are more than two likely targets in those cases, I'd create a DAB page.  Chzz  ►  06:09, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

On the Wikipedia:WikiProject Iran rating system, giving a "B" to an article is fairly difficult relative to other similar wiki projects. Is there a way to delete the six criterions associated with ranking of B? I have discussed this proposal before and got no objection. But I am not sure how to technically accomplish it and bypass the six requirements checks for a B rating. --Khodabandeh14 (talk) 06:27, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think you would do this by editing Template:WikiProject Iran and removing a block of twelve lines - beginning at "|HOOK_ASSESS = {{WPBannerMeta/hooks/bchecklist" and ending at the following "}}". Disclaimer: I haven't tried this! -- John of Reading (talk) 06:59, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help. I am not sure what section that is.. I want to get rid of this part: [edit] B-Class checklistThis is available only for unrated articles and articles rated as "Stub-Class", "Start-Class", or "B-Class". See the assessment department for more details.

With any of these classes, the banner will automatically display directions on how to use these parameters.

For an article to qualify for B-class it must meet six criteria. Each one of them has a corresponding banner variable. For each, assign "yes" if the criteria are met, and "no" if not. Leave blank if uncertain.

B-Class-1 – Is the article suitably referenced, and are all major points appropriately cited? B-Class-2 – Does the article reasonably cover the topic, and not contain major omissions or inaccuracies? B-Class-3 – Does the article have a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content? B-Class-4 – Is the article free from major grammatical errors? B-Class-5 – Does the article contain appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams? B-Class-6 – Does the article present its content in an appropriately accessible way, and explain or avoid technical terms whenever possible?

--Khodabandeh14 (talk) 08:08, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I can see which bits you want to disable. I'll be happy to make the edit for you, if you can point me to the discussions which show there is an agreement for making the change. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:25, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can I - and if so how? - upload my own text as a Word document, in the process of editing an existing entry?Suesman (talk) 14:03, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is an add-in that converts Word-text into MediaWiki code, see Help:WordToWiki. Does that help? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:10, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That works OK for creating a new article from a Word document, but for editing an existing article, it would be a little more difficult -- you would have to selectively cut and paste the Wiki markup text from the converted Word document into the existing article. – ukexpat (talk) 14:43, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm wanting to create a wikipedia page, but feel uncomfortable making it on my own. I went through the wizard and it meets the qualifications, but would prefer making it with someone who has experience.

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drewkia (talk • contribs) 16:03, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can either create a draft version in your userspace; how to do that is described at Help:Userspace draft or you can request that someone else create the article. You do that by following the instructions at Wikipedia:Requested articles --Jayron32 16:05, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What's the page to be about? If it's something that I have some vague knowledge of then I'd be glad to help out. doomgaze (talk) 16:30, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone help? Thanks in advance. Ward20 (talk) 20:54, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are only 3 sections; and a table of contents only automatically appears after the 4th section is added. I have added the magic word __TOC__ to the page, which forces the TOC to appear regardless of how many sections there are. --Jayron32 21:15, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Ward20 (talk) 21:36, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I wanted to add a new image from commons here. But there shows some other image, I don't know how it is possible. The image on commons is here: [3] --77.42.157.74 (talk) 21:07, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Go ahead and add it! :) It is a relevant picture, I'd say in the "society" section would be good. CTJF83 21:12, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I understand now, same name, one second....CTJF83 21:14, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I renamed the electrical wire image, and the children image is on the article now. CTJF83 21:17, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I finished the renaming by pointing the original use to the renamed image. —teb728 t c 23:45, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For the List of Alpha Phi Omega members page, I would like to reference a page for Alpha Phi Omega of the Philippines, but I'm not sure how to do so in a way which would indicate it as a reliable source. The "Join us" page on the Alpha Phi Omega of the Philippines website (http://www.apo.org.ph/?mode=default&cmd=get&id=14) has "We are very proud of our Distinguished APhiOs" and Distinguished APhiOs links to another page. This would *not* be a problem if the link was to elsewhere on the APO-Philippines website, but it is to a docs.google page (https://docs.google.com/View?docID=ajd4f6k5cp6f_82fk6phgfb&revision=_latest). What would be a good way to use the docs.google page as a reference, with an indication that it is a link from an official source?Naraht (talk) 20:10, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the link, per WP:ELNO: WP is not a directory. In fact List of Alpha Phi Omega members should be pruned to include only people who are notable in their own right. --ColinFine (talk) 23:06, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I looked at the WP:ELNO criteria, and do not believe that it fails any of the criteria other than possibly 19, which is why I want to make it a reference source with a proper noting indicating that it is an official list. I feel that expanding the list on wikipedia to include those that are from the Philippines is part of countering systemic bias in the article. There certainly are those on the list at the external link that are notable (President and Vice President of the Philippines, Senators of the Philippine Legislature, members of COMELEC, etc.)

It is a self-published document and doesn't show the author or publisher. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 02:20, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gadget850, good point, is there any way to reference it instead as a designated linked article from the Alpha Phi Omega - Philippines website. Say as "List of Distinguished APhiOs as referenced by the Alpha Phi Omega of the Philipines website (http://www.apo.org.ph/?mode=default&cmd=get&id=14)" I missed that the article itself doesn't mention Alpha Phi Omega of the Philippines as an author.

I'm concerned about the article on Zondervan, and I want to template it. The tone of the article itself is fairly NPOV and doesn't read like much of an ad, but it is concerning that all of the sources are Zondervan, and doesn't mention anything about the Zondervan pornography controversy, in which several prominent Christian leaders have criticised Zondervan for its connection to pornography through its owner, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. The template I'm looking for would say something like:

• Most or all of this article's sources are all from the publisher this article is about. Please help by expanding the article or adding neutral sources!

All of that article's sources are either:

• Zondervan's web site
• A book of Zondervan's history published by Zondervan
• A book of Zondervan's history published by a parent company (HarperCollins)
• A press release by one of Zondervan's partners, announcing the partnership (Logos, Benson Music)

Thanks!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jsharpminor (talk • contribs) 00:48, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also -- whether or not the argument over porn, Satanism, or other dubious connections has any merit, it is a fact that most or all of that article's sources are from the company itself. That, alone, seems concerning to me. Jsharpminor (talk) 00:51, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How does {{third-party}} strike you?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:57, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much. That'll probably do just nicely. Jsharpminor (talk) 00:59, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We are looking for a mailing address as we intend to take Wikipedia to Our local court in New Jersey Reason being that your org has stop anyone from using our Name Foodfacts.com and taking all references to our company off your site Thank you Stanley Rak ^{[details removed]} —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.221.216.42 (talk) 01:50, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This forum is for asking questions about how to use Wikipedia, not for announcing legal action or asking for legal advice.--Bbb23 (talk) 01:54, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your recent edits could give Wikipedia contributors the impression that you may consider legal or other "off-wiki" action against them, or against Wikipedia itself. Please note that making such threats on Wikipedia is strictly prohibited under Wikipedia's policies on legal threats and civility. Users who make such threats may be blocked. If you have a dispute with the content of any page on Wikipedia, please follow the proper channels for dispute resolution. Please be sure to comment on content not contributors, and where possible make specific suggestions for changes supported by reliable independent sources and focusing especially on verifiable errors of fact. Thank you. --Orange Mike | Talk 02:00, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's reasonable to hypothesize that this is User:IngredientsMaster, who tried twice to create spammy "articles" about foodfacts.com, the first of which was deleted as a copyright violation and the second as obvious spam. --Orange Mike | Talk 02:05, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That would be User:IngredientMaster I assume? DMacks (talk) 02:20, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

• Serious... business... must... resist... making... inappropriate... lame... joke.... "I WILL SUE YOU IN A COURT OF LAW IN TRENTON, NEW JERSEY!" Rats, couldn't stop myself. --Floquenbeam (talk) 02:08, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hilarious. They're suing because they can't have an article here?

As if anyone believes you tried at all. I had to look up the joke - it's a Wikipedia-only joke if I understand properly after doing 30 seconds of research.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:16, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'll volunteer to create the foodfacts.com article, with a link to this page saying that they threatened to sue Wikipedia on 12 April 2011, or would that be original research? ;-) Jsharpminor (talk) 02:31, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that would be original research. We don't have verification that 98.221.216.42 is from the site. And if we had that verification then the incident would seem non-notable for mention in an article about the site. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:24, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Stanley Rak: Allow me to attempt to explain in more detail what's going on here.

• First, Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. As a private organization, Wikipedia is not legally obligated to reference any company, and could block mention of anyone at its own discretion. It chooses what to mention and what not to mention based on certain notability guidelines, and has kept some non-notable information off. For example: Wikipedians frequently make pages about themselves, and such pages are promptly deleted if the Wikipedian is not notable. We're not required to make an article about you, your company, your poodle or your house's insect problem.
• First-and-a-half, no one, ever, is required to make mention of your company unless you have a contract or you're paying them to do so.
• Secondly, your article on your own company violated the conflict of interest standards (not surprisingly, almost by definition.
• Thirdly, the article violated Wikipedia's copyright violation standards.
• Third-and-a-half-ly, note that Wikipedia is not your personal Web hosting provider -- you have your own site for that.
• Fourth, Wikipedia did not actually banish all mention of your company -- we simply deleted an article for the reasons I've just mentioned.

If, in fact, your company is notable in its own right, you probably don't even need to bother creating an article, someone else will do it for you -- and threatening to sue us won't help. Jsharpminor (talk) 02:55, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For the curious, some background at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/TheEatery/Archive. --CliffC (talk) 03:11, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The site is blacklisted, so one could assume they just discovered that by trying to add a new link. --CliffC (talk) 03:31, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. Should I strikethrough my fourth point? Or should I assume that the blacklist simply resulted from this site being spammed to the wiki, and future notability would revert the blacklisting? Jsharpminor (talk) 03:54, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps it should be clarified that the link is blacklisted because it was used inappropriately but that if used properly and in good taste it can be removed from said list? 212.68.15.66 (talk) 05:07, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is a bit like suing a homeowner for refusing to let you into his house after he has caught you stealing a few times. Hilarious.

• Hint 1: Wikipedia is not a public service. It's not obligated to publish or mention your company in any way whatsoever. In the same way that I can't demand to be mentioned in your site.
• Hint 2: Wikipedia is not a billboard for your ads, if you took the time to read the policies you would have known that easily. It's free and user-contributed, that doesn't give you the license to abuse it for monetary gain.
• Hint 3: Threatening legal action is not helping you get into the good side of the thousands of international editors currently in Wikipedia.

I say keep them on the blacklist until they understand what they're doing wrong.--Obsidi♠n^Soul 05:32, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have recently found a bot that has been approved, but I have concerns that it may be used against project policies. Which is the right place to voice my concerns? Cambalachero (talk) 02:36, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Bot policy#Dealing with issues. I found that by going to WP:BOT and poking around. Dismas|^(talk) 02:41, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to know how would one do a normal seach on a search engine and my wiki info pops up.Like when I search for people on google and their wiki info pops up with autobiographical info. This is what I wantAJ KELLI (talk) 04:21, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is there an article about you on Wikipedia? Also note that it there is, the Wikipedia article is not yours, it's about you. Many people seem to forget =) 212.68.15.66 (talk) 04:59, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not really sure what he means there. But there are plugins for different browsers that integrate Wikipedia into search engines. Try here and here. Disclaimer: I have not used any of them. Use them at your own risk. :P --Obsidi♠n^Soul 05:43, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have a feeling that they're talking about self promotion such as this. In which case, WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY would be the best thing for them to read. Dismas|^(talk) 05:46, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see that the Page View Statistics under View History for the article Greeks in New Zealand shows that 0 people have viewed this article the last few days which I think is incorrect especially since i have visited this site a few times on each of these days. Is there aproblem that can be fixed? Thanks. Edititok

It looks like the Page View Statistics figures are currently broken for all pages. Several people have already notified the person who maintains the tool. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:20, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote an article on MormonWiki and would like to put it on Wikipedia. Other people have attempted to write the article here, but at the time, there wasn't enough reliable published sources. I believe there is enough now. Can I copy my article with a few changes, like removing the religious citations? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MargieM10 (talk • contribs) 06:43, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Most probably not. For one, all articles must abide by the WP:NPOV policy (all information have to neutrally worded, verifiable from third party reliable references, and facts not held as true by scientific consensus not given undue weight). An article coming from the MormonWiki about Mormons has a very high chance of being biased. Secondly, there is nothing in MormonWiki that indicates that its text are released under a license compatible with Wikipedia (CC-BY or CC-BY-SA are two such compatible licenses), copying text verbatim from there (even if you wrote it) would constitute a copyright violation and be deleted on sight. Still, if you think your article can be included, you might want to check with other editors interested in the same areas as they might be interested in collaborating. See WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement --Obsidi♠n^Soul 08:06, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Johnson (writer) is a widely published author, who is notable in a variety of disciplines from journalism to history. If referring specifically to material in one of his books on history, is the following no-wiki construct acceptable for notable relevance, or just WP:OR on its face:
Historian [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]]
Thanks and regards, CasualObserver'48 (talk) 07:22, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The first line of his article specifies that he's a historian. So I don't see a problem with referring to him as such. Or am I misunderstanding the question? Dismas|^(talk) 07:40, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You understood perfectly, as I intended, but the construct does include the inherent question. Resolved and thanks, CasualObserver'48 (talk) 08:17, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]