Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 14

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< December 13 << Nov | December | Jan >> December 15 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


December 14[edit]

New title[edit]

Resolved

I want the article St Peter Port to instead be named St. Peter Port. Other cities show the period, such as St. George's, Grenada and [[St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda. Could someone do this for me, as I do not know how? S♦s♦e♦b♦a♦l♦l♦o♦s (Talk to Me) 01:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, I didn't see the above, I'm a retard. S♦s♦e♦b♦a♦l♦l♦o♦s (Talk to Me) 01:34, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Redirects from misspellings can cause confusion. As far as I can tell, we only have them to kludge around MediaWiki's built-in search feature, which does not tolerate minor variations of spelling, case, and punctuation as well as a modern search engine. I don't think it is an advantage to have redirects for people to link to accidentally from articles, because when an editor sees a linked word finding a target, the editor may not notice that the article contains a misspelling. Of course this kind of problem should be easy enough for a bot to find. But still, it would be better for the editor, I think, if a link on a misspelled word would show up as a red link instead of appearing to be correct. Maybe when MediaWiki gets a modern search feature, we can clear out some of the gazillion unnecessary redirects. Of course we could keep redirects from alternative names which are not misspellings. --Teratornis (talk) 08:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikisource Copyright[edit]

I have a user at Talk:Nicolas Gikkas asking about Wikisource's copyright licensing rules. Yes, I know I'm registered there, but I never edit and therefore don't know their policy. Could someone who knows more drop in or drop me a line? Thanks Mbisanz (talk) 01:50, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try wikisource:Wikisource:Copyright policy. Note: I'm not a user there. x42bn6 Talk Mess 03:37, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol[edit]

In the credits for this program you list Joan Janis as a writer. She had nothing to do with the writing of this program. The writer is Barbara Chain only.

I cannot get into the credit box on the side to correct this. How can this be done?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Finkylinky (talkcontribs) 02:24, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Click the "edit this page" tab at top of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Wikipedia "secret mailing list"[edit]

I wanted to complain to Jimbo himself, however his talk page asks that I start here, which actually makes more sense....

I'd like to hear back from the powers that be about this, specifically the last paragraph, where the email was oversited and the editor who revealed the mailing list banned. [[1]]

Thanks, Sethie (talk) 05:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The email was oversighted -- I can't speak for the exact reasons for doing so, which makes it rather difficult to explain their validity or lack thereof, but the general hubbub seems to be over posting private, copyrighted material (such content is routinely removed, in other cases; whether doing so, or doing so via oversight, was appropriate in this case, I'll leave for you to decide). Giano, on the other hand, is far from banned and has been editing as recently as today. This isn't the first time he's run into controversial waters -- it may be helpful to read up on past history, there, as it'll give a bit of context to the arbitration committee's considerations. Again, of course, whether these decisions are proper or not, that's something you can and should decide for yourself. – Luna Santin (talk) 07:51, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Thanks for the heads up on him being able to edit again.
My concern is with the existence of a behind the scene mailing list which people "in power" in wikipedia use to co-ordinate their activities, it just goes against everything wiki is supposed to be.
If you could point me towards the history of this incident, that would be appreciated. Sethie (talk) 16:27, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to see a discussion about the use of confidential evidence, see the proposed guideline at Wikipedia:Confidential evidence. Keep in mind that sometimes private information will be important to an Arbitration, but for obvious reasons cannot be placed on-wiki for all to see. Folks are trying to work out a guideline to handle such situations. -- Kesh (talk) 23:36, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your reply... and actually I am not really concerned about confidential evidence, I am concerned about various "cliques" in wikipedia using an off-wikipedia mailing list to co-ordniate their actions. Sethie (talk) 05:39, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

grace period[edit]

Can we delete an uncited info just immidiatly after its addition or should we have a grace period? I mean if someone added an uncited info, should't we give it the benefit of the doubt and wait some time before deleting it? If you agree on this grace period, then how long is it? Is there any policy for it or just it is up to people?Farmanesh (talk) 05:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's more or less up to you. If it's particularly controversial, you could probably remove it as soon as you notice it. This should definitely be done in a biography about a living person. If it's not overly controversial, you may want to just watch the page. In any case, an alternative option could be to tag the statement with {{fact}}. It also depends on the user - if it's an experienced editor (which you can check by going to the edit history and checking their talk page and/or contributions), you may want to give a longer grace period than someone with no edits. You may also want to see WP:IAR. Hersfold (t/a/c) 06:18, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

help me[edit]

where is moody tx? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.115.110.202 (talk) 08:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Moody, Texas shows a locator map, and gives coordinates. --Teratornis (talk) 08:08, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Please remember that the help desk is for question relating to the use of Wikipedia. Thank you. — Rudget Contributions 16:45, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rhys Is The Word[edit]

Anybody know what this is? It seems to redirect from user space (User:Rhys_Is_The_Word) to wiki space. A list of TV show episodes or highly esoteric bloggy user thing disguised as one? I can't figure it out. Rivertorch (talk) 08:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a hoax to me (and Google). -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 08:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like nonsense to me, tagged it for deletion. --Kudret abiTalk 08:52, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I've had a look, too. I agree it doesn't look promising, but it wasn't blatant nonsense so I've taken it to AfD, instead. AndyJones (talk) 09:03, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Here's the link: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Rhys Is The Word. AndyJones (talk) 09:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

sadomachoism[edit]

why is a human sadomachoist ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.167.133.180 (talk) 10:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. This help desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. Knowledge questions should be asked at the reference desk. In any event, you might find some useful information in our articles, Sadomasochism and Sadism and masochism as medical terms.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Posting email addresses in articles[edit]

Hi all. I've been working on Andover F.C., and I've recently been contacted by one of the club officials enquiring whether it would be possible to post the club officials' email addresses as listed on the official website. I have a feeling this would be forbidden (or at least very strongly discouraged) for security reasons but I've been unable to find some sort of official policy on this matter. Could someone confirm this for me? Bettia (talk) 10:27, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure there's a strict policy, but I'd strongly advise against it for SPAM reasons if nothing else. If the official site is listed here then people who want to contact you can presumably go from Wikipedia, to your site and then e-mail you from there. Pedro :  Chat  10:49, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Just a side note, but your official website [2] is using the Wikipedia logo. Although just about everything here is GFDL free use, the Wikipedia logo itself is actually copyrighted. Not sure if you're aware of that. Pedro :  Chat  10:52, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Many thanks for your help Pedro. I've made the site owner aware of the logo issue. Bettia (talk) 11:21, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
There are some free alternatives in the first two sections of Wikipedia:Banners_and_buttons. —Random832 17:10, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Fixed. Cheers mate B e t t i at a l k  11:18, 17 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright Violation ?[edit]

Browsing on the Internet this morning I came across your article on HMS Ulster which is a direct copy from my HMS Ulster website, which is included in www.candoo.com/ncot/ulsterhome.html

I have no problems with you using information from my site, however it would have nice to have at least been asked if this was OK.

Sincerely N.Millen Webmaster

PS: My site temporarily closed whilst an internal executive dispute is settled. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.64.116.90 (talk) 10:37, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Very sorry for the possible copyright violation. Because your site is down I can't obviously verify the copyright infringement. However as you have stated you're happy with it, and your site is down, then I guess the content can stay. If, however, your site is put back up again we will either need to re-write the article, or you would have to grant permission for the text under GFDL on your site. Is the site likely to be going back up soon? Pedro :  Chat  10:47, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The text, which I have reverted, had every hallmark of being copy and pasted from somewhere—so much so (even mentioning a webmaster) that if I had come across it, having never seen this post, I would have removed it as a suspected a copyright violation. In any event it was unverified material.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:37, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

download[edit]

i want to download wikipedia page.how can i? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.161.59.9 (talk) 10:54, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Have you got Webaroo, because i don't know if it's possible to download it but it is possible through Webaroo. SKYNET X7000 (talk) 11:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to save a Wikipedia page to your hard disk then go to the page, possibly click "Printable version", and try your browser's file menu. If you want to download the whole of Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Database download and think carefully about it. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:45, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

User Talk Page[edit]

How do you create an auto-reply message which appears on your user talk page every time. SKYNET X7000 (talk) 13:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cancelled Question, found out what to do. SKYNET X7000 (talk) 13:34, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Contacting authors of Wikipedia information[edit]

Sirs,

Is there any way of finding out the identity or assumed ID of the authors of Wikipedia information and further, to contact them on a forum board or any other means to ascertain the source of the info'? The authors of the material on Wikipedia do seem rather anonymous - or perhaps I am not navigating the site properly?

Regards

Michaelstmark (talk) 13:26, 14 December 2007 (UTC). England[reply]

There is a history button right at the top of the article. Pressing that you can see who (that is, a user that could be indeed anonymous) has added the information. You might have to go through lots of history pages before you can actually find who added what. To contact that user you just press the talk button next to the user's name and then leave them a message at their talk page. You can also try leaving a message at the article's discussion page. -Yamanbaiia (talk) 13:34, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
And if you have reason to question the validity of an assertion, you can always edit the article to insert either the {{cn}} or {{fact}} tag, querying the accuracy thereof. Any information in a Wikipedia article is supposed to be verifiable. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:51, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion to improve Wikipedias - The Search Box.[edit]

Hello Help-Desk,

I browse Wikipedia on a daily basis and I would like to suggest something to help improve Wikipedia.

If I go to Google.com and do 'Ctrl+V'(Paste), it directly gets pasted in the search box or for that matter if I type something it goes into the 'Search Box' and then I just need to press Enter/Return key. I guess this is the way most search-boxes work.

I wish Wikiepedia could do this too. I am sure almost everybody, every time have to do a search to find whatever they want as they come to the Wikipedia website. But they still have to click on the Search box (or even worse for people who don't have a mouse as they need to run the 'tab' key) before they can actually type or paste something.

I would like to request the Wikipedia team to look into this matter and make searching one-click less :-)


Thanks,

Prashanth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.248.127.11 (talk) 13:35, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This has been suggested several times but rejected. See for example Wikipedia talk:Village pump (proposals)/Searchbox redesign#Default text cursor in searchbox for a discussion. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:39, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Personally, I don't see the need to click at all when searching Wikipedia. I achieve this on Firefox with a bookmark with location http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s and keyword wp. That allows you to go to a Wikipedia article with the command 'wp foo' in the address bar. You could do the same thing for search with location http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/%s if you want. Hope this helps. Algebraist 19:38, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

why my e-maill address is not valid?[edit]

This is the message I receied "No send address", "You must be logged in and have a valid authenticated e-mail address in your preferences to send e-mail to other users". I did log in, I did have valid authenticated e-mail address in my preferences. please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JWLSHA (talkcontribs) 15:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Emailuser/JWLSHA indicates no email confirmation is registered. Have you received a confirmation mail and successfully clicked the confirmation link as described at Help:Email confirmation? PrimeHunter (talk) 16:24, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Changing page name[edit]

I cannot figure out how to change a page name.

I couldn't find it in the FAQ or in other searches/hunting.

The page in question is called "Sunken Gardens (Virginia)," which refers to the Sunken GardeN, singular, at The College of William and Mary. I will be editing this to the singular but don't want to do anything until I can fix the title of this page.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blandcrowder (talkcontribs) 15:10, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Using the move button/tab on the top of the page. WP:MOVE might help out. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 15:16, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

uploading image / connecting to the article[edit]

hello please tell me how to connect uploaded image to article —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shotikow (talkcontribs) 15:10, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Images and other uploaded files#Linking. In your case, I suspect Template:Infobox Album#Cover is more relevant. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:39, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia for Idiots[edit]

It seems that the longer Wikipedia ages, it becomes much more technical and difficult for a non-expert to understand. Is there any effort within the Wikipedia ranks to provide a "Wikipedia for idiots" page where you don't need to have a grad degree in math or science to get an answer to simple questions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.137.139.242 (talk) 15:53, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is always simple English Wikipedia. On the other hand, there will always be difficult topics. You can't expect a every complicated formal mathematicl topic or physics topic to be easily explained, for example Hilbert space. Sometimes, things are just complicated. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 16:05, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
True, but I'm finding that Wikipedia is less and less useful as a learning tool. I'm finding it easier to go to other internet sources for anything dealing with science. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.137.139.242 (talk) 16:28, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
There is the Simple English Wikipedia at http://simple.wikipedia.org/. It's much smaller than the normal Wikipedia. Here at Wikipedia you can place {{Technical}} or {{Technical (expert)}} on an article. And see Wikipedia:Make technical articles accessible. In rare cases there are two articles aimed at different levels, for example Introduction to special relativity and Special relativity. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:13, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I looked at Simple English Wikipedia, but there are very few articles. For example, I looked up eigenfunction, and there are no articles. If you look at the Wikipedia article on eigenfunction, it's a very technical explanation.
And if you want to ask questions directly then there is Wikipedia:Reference desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:15, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, but the reason that Wikipedia has been so helpful is that you don't have to send questions to a reference desk to be able to understand the material. However, with it gaining as much popularity as it has, you are getting Ph.D.s providing a very carefully composed and concise mathematical, scientific, philosophical, (etc.) explanation, and this is making it less useful for me. My question is whether this issue has been considered in the Wikipedia community, or is it not given much thought.

Frequently Asked Questions & Very Frequently Asked Questions are often very helpful to new users, the closest thing to "Wikipedia for idiots", which I take to mean a simple guide is Wikipedia:Tutorial. ▪◦▪≡SiREX≡Talk 16:31, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Perhaps a better question is: Who do I need to ask if they could put a Grade Level tab so that if you want a lower grade explanation, then this text will appear. If you want an expert explanation (if available), then you hit the Expert tab and the low level explanation will not show. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.137.139.242 (talk) 16:48, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, as pointed out, we already support 2 levels- the simple one, and the full encyclopedia. My guess is that we would see diminishing returns as we tried to add more levels. There'd be no way to automate this- each article would really have to be 5 articles, if there were 5 levels. Five times the maintenance would be required. Friday (talk) 16:53, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for all of your answers. I was hoping for more, obviously. The problem I see is that there is a trade off relationship between expert accuracy and layman explanation. It seems that Wikipedia naturally will go the route toward satisfying expert accuracy, which is a good thing, but experts already know the material and it is not citable in scholarly material anyway. So, what began as a layman tool, will be more limited. Of course, it will always be of use, but Wikipedia might be a disappointment to the vast majority of people who just would like an explanation that they can easily understand. (I.e., most people are not experts.) Anyway, if there are any "powers that be" in Wikipedia-land, please pass this concern onto them even when they won't hear anything of it. =)
Maybe we can have a Wikipedia for Dummies Edition in the future. Dr.K. (talk) 18:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The larger Wikipedia becomes, the more it needs collaborative filtering. The basic idea behind collaborative filtering is that you have a large number of users rating Web pages by whatever criteria they care about (appropriateness to their task, grade level, offensiveness, etc.). Then the collaborative filtering engine compares your ratings to the ratings of other people. If it turns out that a subset of people agree in their ratings of the pages they have all seen, then their ratings may have predictive value. I.e., if someone who thinks like you do likes a page you have not seen yet, odds are you will like it too. Collaborative filtering can be powerful because it accounts for the vast disparities in personal preferences, which simple schemes of article rankings cannot. As to who might implement collaborative filtering for Wikipedia, we are a volunteer project, so the only way anything gets done is when somebody decides to do it. Alternatively, a third-party project might set up collaborative filtering for Wikipedia (lots of people are mirroring or indexing Wikipedia's content in various ways, attempting to add value to it). --Teratornis (talk) 18:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gas prices[edit]

Gas Prices in 1958 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.4.27.248 (talk) 17:32, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This has nothing to do with the Wikipedia Help Desk, where you ask questions about USING WIKIPEDIA , please use the Wikipedia:Reference Desk for references. The Helpful One (Talk) (Contributions) 18:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Gasoline usage and pricing shows some historical data, along with current prices for various countries. Note that the pump price of gasoline varies enormously around the world, largely as a function of local government policies. The general rule is that countries which initially had little petroleum deposits had to import most or all of their motor fuel from the beginning of the automobile age, so they taxed motor fuel heavily, conditioning their citizens to think of fuel as expensive, whereas countries with large petroleum deposits tended to develop a cultural perception that motor fuel should be cheap. The United States, for example, used to be a petroleum exporting country, and the U.S. oil embargo of Japan was a significant motivating factor in Japan's decision to attack the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor - to clear the way for Japan to sieze the oil fields of Indonesia. Today of course, the U.S. imports more than half of the petroleum it consumes, as U.S. domestic production continues to fall as predicted by Hubbert's Curve (and by an interesting coincidence, the U.S. has also invaded an oil exporting nation). And yet most of the U.S. population, conditioned for generations to expect cheap motor fuel, seems not to have realized the need to move to European-style fuel pricing. (No Presidential candidate can seriously suggest it yet and have any chance of being elected.) That is, the U.S. population is largely in denial of the fact that the U.S. is now an oil importing nation, and has the same need to price motor fuel like the other oil importers. The few remaining nations that still have abundant petroleum deposits (e.g., Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia) persist in absurdly low motor fuel pricing policies, and this may generate political unrest after they too hit and pass their oil production peaks - which must inevitably happen (unless the Abiogenic petroleum origin theory turns out to be true, and the Earth's petroleum turns out to be essentially unlimited - anyone who believes that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you). --Teratornis (talk) 19:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the entry under Hajj, first paragraph is *very* not correct (and offensive to boot).[edit]

Also, it would be good if there was a clearer way on your website to report abuse like this! It took me 5+ minutes to try and find information about reporting abuse, and I couldn't find anything. Wound up here. Hope you can fix Hajj entry at least!! 66.182.6.170 (talk) 17:55, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Be Bold! - And change it. Make sure to add references which are reliable and can verify claims. If there is any more vandalism by a single editor, report it to AIV. — Rudget Contributions 18:21, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The lead of Hajj was vandalized shortly before your post. It was reverted a little after. You are welcome to revert vandalism by yourself. See Help:Revert. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:38, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Carleton Holbrook[edit]

Greetings - I just entered some substantive changes to the entry for Carleton Holbrook, said to be the University of Iowa's first black football player. I have researched this (I am the university archivist) and have concluded that the correct name is Frank Kinney Holbrook. My changes to this entry reflect this. However, the title of the entry needs to be corrected to read "Frank Kinney Holbrook." I was unable to do this - perhaps you or a colleague could?

Thank you, David McCartney University of Iowa <personal info redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.255.55.83 (talk) 19:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

 Done - I have done this as requested, the new page is now at Frank_Kinney_Holbrook The Helpful One (Talk) (Contributions) 19:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Page deletion[edit]

Dear Wikipedia,

I recently posted a new entry to Wikipedia about titled MAX Awards, about the marketing awards for excellence in Georgia and is was deleted very quickly. Could you please help tell me why it was deleted and how to edit the material so that it can be posted. There are lots of other awards wiki entries so I feel that we should be able to post ours but maybe it was just too promotional to begin with.

Thanks you for all your help.

19:18, 14 December 2007 (UTC)19:18, 14 December 2007 (UTC)~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lindseybrooke (talkcontribs) 19:18, 14 December 2007

MAX Awards was deleted under the Speedy deletion criterion G11, blatant advertising. Having looked at the article, it was spam. Leaving information on the page, that directs readers on how to enter into the competition is spam. Please be aware of our Conflict of Interest policy on wikipedia before you recreate the article. You need to write a neutral article, with verifiable sources. Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted? is also a good place to start. Woody (talk) 19:28, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Plagerism?[edit]

This section of the Tommy Lee article reeks of plagerism. Notice how it's written. It looks like someone copy and pasted this portion of the article. Can someone help me? --EndlessDan 20:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What would you like us to do with it, would you like me to remove it? The Helpful One (Talk) (Contributions) 20:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm looking for advise on what I should do when I come across articles that appear to have been copied and pasted. Is there a tag that can be placed on that section? Whats my best course of action? --EndlessDan 20:06, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It says here to revert to a non-violating version, when there's non-copyright material that would be left. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:20, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It appeared to be a copy of this: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=80694 so I deleted it. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:10, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Cool, thanks. In the future - is there a tag I could add if I cannot find exactly where something has been pilfered from? --EndlessDan 20:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If you can't find it by googling (include googlebook and googlescholar), then tagging it with {{copypaste}} is the way to go. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you --EndlessDan 21:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Debate[edit]

I need to find the debate section of wikipedia that contains all of the debates they hold —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.184.3.108 (talk) 20:59, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Including user and article talk pages, there are probably more than 100000 pages with debates. What are you looking for debate about? Maybe Wikipedia:Village pump is of help. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:06, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading 2D artwork[edit]

A question at WP:MCQ asks how to upload 2D artwork. Obviously the image should be tagged with {{non-free 2D art}} and have a non-free use rationale. But is there an item in the Licensing drop-down of Special:Upload for 2D art? I don’t see it. --teb728 t c 21:07, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can't you just put the template in the summary box and not pick one of the licenses there? Xiong Chiamiov ::contact:: help! 02:05, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Download file name and location for data export[edit]

Under a GNU documentation license we would like to find and download all country and city text data for credited insertion into various web pages in english. Where is the appropriate file located in wikipedia and what is the name of that file.

Many Thanks for your prompt attention,

John Noller (email address removed for protection) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.162.92.64 (talk) 21:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Database download for general information. I haven't heard of downloads limited to certain topics like countries and cities. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help With Sevendust Page......[edit]

Hey my name is Josh and my username on wikipedia is crueddude. My favorite band is Sevendust and one day I went on here to look up some info and saw that someone deleted their whole history. So what I did was edit in a new and longer biography with much greater detail than before. I believe it lets everyone know the full history of Sevendust. I also edited in some Extra Tracks they did along with names to the videos they have done. After I did all that, a couple days later, someone edited in the old and short biography and delted the extra tracks section and videos section. I have the code for the Sevendust page I made and will show you at the end of this message. Is there anything you can do to help this situation? Your help will be greatly appreciated. Here is the code, I just recently edited in this code, but hopefully no one else tampers with it again.

Crueddude (talk) 21:51, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's no need to paste the entire article here (see: Sevendust). The information was removed because (according to the edit summary)Further revisions are simply copy and pasted from various internet sources. Did you write all that or did you took it from some website? -Yamanbaiia (talk) 22:17, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
That entire "biography" was simply copy/pasted from this site. I have since restored the original biography for the band from a previous revision, but retained the newer/acceptable additions of "extra tracks" and "videos". --Mtjaws (talk) 18:34, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Make an article[edit]

How do you make/create an article?


Jisulee96 (talk) 22:12, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.
If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Algebraist 22:23, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Antique round cardboard container with metal and glass lid containing game of chance spinner and lithographed figures playing game[edit]

looks to be spanish or french . spinner activated by push button on side of lid. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.252.49.134 (talk) 22:22, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This page is designed for questions about using Wikipedia. This would be better placed on the Reference Desk. If you do decide to ask this question at the Reference Desk please phrase it in the form of a question and be more specific as to what you are looking for. Right now I can't tell what you are asking. Raven4x4x (talk) 22:50, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why does this page show up as CSD?[edit]

Resolved

User:Flarn2005/Design 2 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) shows up at Category:Candidates for speedy deletion by user, although it doesn't contain any direct delete request. It could be that one transcluded page template, User:Flarn2005/ubx (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs), is the culprit, but that page has been deleted some time ago, and purging doesn't help. — Sebastian 22:27, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not showing up any more - must be a lag issue or something. x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:53, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Having {{User:Flarn2005/ubx}} in User:Flarn2005/Design 2 was indeed the reason. The list of transcluded templates in the edit window for User:Flarn2005/Design 2 included Template:Db-userreq which originated from the deleted User:Flarn2005/ubx. It appears that transclusion lists and the categories which list a page are not updated when entries originate from a now deleted transcluded page, until the transcluding page is edited (purging only affects the rendering of the purged page). I made a null edit of User:Flarn2005/Design 2 to fix it (any recorded edit would also have worked). PrimeHunter (talk) 23:03, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot! Next time, I'll do the null edit, too! — Sebastian 00:42, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Two questions....[edit]

1) - Can Franz Fuchs be considered an Austrian serial killer? or he's serial killer, mas murderer or terrorist? 2) - Why two users say that Moninder Singh Pandher and Surender Koli mustn't be added to Indian serial killers if they are suspected of the murders of 19 little girls? I asked it on Here but I don't have answers there. Thanks and Merry Christmas to you and your family. Ahmed987147 (talk) 22:54, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This has nothing to do with the Wikipedia Help Desk, where you ask questions about USING WIKIPEDIA , please use the Wikipedia:Reference Desk for references. The Helpful One (Talk) (Contributions) 23:00, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The question didn't say so explicitly but it's about Wikipedia categories so it's not for the reference desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I note that you have made a query on the talk page of that article. The user that removed it was User:ExRat ([3]), so perhaps you should talk to him. Not that I know anything about these people, but if they aren't convicted, then it makes no sense for them to be on that list (see [4]). I don't, however, have an answer to your first question, and you may get a better response at the miscellaneous Reference Desk. x42bn6 Talk Mess 23:04, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting a noncontributing user accounts.[edit]

How do I delete a noncontributing user account? Please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andrew j chorny (talkcontribs) 23:51, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can't delete accounts, but you can retire by adding {{retired}} to your user page, if you would like to create one. Thanks! Jonathan 23:58, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
See also Wikipedia:Right to vanish. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:36, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]