Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 November 1

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= My Life

when i was four years old i started in junior marines and in 1992 i was getting ready to go to desert storm as a Major and commander of special operations Task force of 4th infantry 12th division of the northern and central command center in southern Iraq. on july 12,1993 to august 1,1994 we was persioners of war. by the time i got back i was a major General. i stayed home from 1994 to 1999 as a Major General of junior marines and as commander of joint chiefs of staff to all junior military divisions of the junior Marines and President Clinton pointed me chairman of joint chiefs of staff to all junior military divisions on june 15,1999 to january 20,2001. i worked for the pengaton as chief commander of 19th infantry division of operations task forces to the Middle east to june 15,2002 when i retired from junior marines i was given my third star making me a three star Lt General spet on Monday the 23 of March i was given my fourth star making me now be a four star General and for the last seven years i have bin the deputy director of the department of CDA and on february 19,2009 my director and his wife was killed in there home making me the acting director to monday the 23 of march when my job closed down.

My Life in office

i was elected to the U.S. peoples House of representatives from 10th district of Texas in november 4,2008. i am the speaker now spet i was the Majority leader for six years and Majority whip for four years and i am chairman of six committees and chairman of four subcommittees and i am a ranking member of six committees and a ranking member of two subcommittees. i was secretary of Immigration reform and urban affairs from june 21,2007 to june 9,2008.

Editing inaccurate and promotional information in the Medical Tourism article

Since I am involved in the medical tourism industry I did not want to appear to have a conflict of interest by editing the Medical Tourism Article. I posted concerns on the article discussion page along with links to references hoping they would be addressed. Thus far they have not. Below are my concerns. How can I get these concerns addressed?

1. Since I am health care professional and involved in the industry, I will not edit this article. I do hope the administrators will take note of what follows and act accordingly. The following statement placed in the article appears to lack neutrality and appears to be more commercial puffery than factual. "While the tourism component might be a big draw for some Southeast Asia countries that focus on simple procedures, India is positioning itself the primary medical destination for the most complex medical procedures in the world. India's commitment to this is demonstrated with a growing number of hospitals that are attaining the U.S. Joint Commission International accreditation to help to capture the US medical tourism market, while others looking beyond just the US market to potential clients from the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia may also look towards other international healthcare accreditation schemes for brand advantage." In fact the primary medical tourism destinations in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore all perform complex procedures and are competent to do so. Singapore for example is home to Dr. K.C. Tan one of the world's best liver transplant specialists (http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2006/03/06/WLBG2006030657679.html). In Thailand Bumrungrad, Bangkok Hospital and Samitivej Sukhumvit all have accreditation by the US based Joint Commission International Program (http://www.jointcommissioninternational.com/23218/iortiz/). Singapore has 14 JCI accredited hospitals. Additionally Bumrungrad Hospital was selected by Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, an American Health insurance company as the first non-US hospital to be accepted into its network of providers (http://www.bcbs.com/news/plans/bluecross-blueshield-and.html). To say that the focus of some Southeast Asian countries involved in medical tourism is, "simple procedures" is not factual. All of the countries actively involved in medical tourism offer a broad spectrum of competencies as evidenced by JCI accredditation and in one instance accreditation by BCBS of South Carolina. To claim otherwise merely serves to degrade the reputation of the facilities in that region

2. The following additions also appear to be more commercial puffery. Both organizations are newly founded and aside from their own press releases are not recognized authorities on health tourism as they suggest. While they may become independently recognized as neutral sources for information in the future, that is not currently the case.

"The Society for International Healthcare Accreditation, or SOFIHA, is a free-to-join group providing a forum for discussion and for the sharing of ideas and good practice by providers of international healthcare accreditation and users of the same - the primary role of this organisation is to promote a safe hospital environment for patients, wherever they travel to in the world for health care."

"HealthCare Tourism International, or HTI, is the first U.S.- based non-profit organization to accredit the non-clinical aspects of health tourism such as language issues, business practices and false or misleading advertising prevention. The group has accreditation for all the major groups involved in the health tourism industry from hotels, to recover facilities to medical tourism booking agencies, etc. NYerkes 05:18, 31 October 2007 (UTC)"

3. The Following addition appears to have been placed with the intent of disparaging Thailand rather than offering objective neutral information. "However, there is indisputably a major HIV/AIDS problem in Thailand, as acknowledged by the World Health Organisation [17] and dengue is becoming increasingly common." The linked report is dated material published in 2001. Other countries mentioned in the 2001 WHO report that are also medical tourism destinations are not mentioned. No mention is made of Thailand's HIV prevention treatment program being suggested as a model for other countries (http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=39235. Further, the addition of the information about HIV serves no purpose in the context of this article. HIV is not airborne nor is it spread via vectors. Thailand's hospitals practice Universal Precautions which makes nosocomial transmission highly unlikely. Regarding dengue fever, it common in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific countries (http://www.who.int/features/qa/54/en/index.html. Again, no other countries offering medical tourism were singled out for inclusion of this information despite some having a higher incidence of dengue fever than Thailand. There is no suggestion by the WHO that Thailand is experiencing an increase in the number of cases of dengue fever. Thailand is not mentioned by the WHO in reports on major Dengue Fever outbreaks (http://www.who.int/csr/don/archive/disease/dengue_haemorrhagic_fever/en/index.html). Thailand has not been associated with major outbreaks of Dengue fever unlike some of the other medical tourism destinations (http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DVBID/DENGUE/)

4. The insertion of the line "Dubious given that Rockefeller was in Thailand from the early 1920's and Mahidol was a low-ranked royal, not in Thailand most of the time]." It is an expression of opinion and is not supported by the facts. "During the first period of his residence at Harvard, Prince Mahidol also negotiated and concluded, on behalf of the Royal Thai Government, an agreement with the Rockefeller Foundation on assistance for medical and nursing education in Thailand." (see http://kanchanapisek.or.th/pmaf/complete-biography.en.php). Mahidol was not a low ranking royal as suggested. He was the youngest son of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). His two male children, one of whom is the present monarch, would become kings of Thailand. In 1921 Prince Mahidol was appointed Director-General of the University Department, Ministry of Education giving him considerable authority to implement the improvement of Thailand's medical education system.

Are the links to the information insufficient or do I need to do something additional? Thanks NYerkes 03:02, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Even though you don't want to edit the content of the article yourself, it would not be at all inappropriate for you to add tags to statements or sections of the article. E.g. you might add {{fact}} or {{NPOV}} tags. Sbowers3 12:09, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

If I were in your shoes, I'd declare my interest then go ahead and edit the article. Being in the industry is not the same as person X editing his own article or company Y's PR department editing its article (and we have plenty of those things going on). If your edits prove controversial, then that's what the talk page and dispute resolution are for. AndyJones 19:56, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

There's a difference between being knowledgeable in a field and having an agenda. Julia Rossi 23:30, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

To NYerkes: I agree whole-heartedly with some of your points, but not with some of the others you make. This particular article, "Medical Tourism", is problematic in view of the great commercial importance of medical tourism (and its huge potential) in some parts of the world, including Thailand - as a person born and brought up in the USA, I would assume you are well familiar with commerciality in medicine and healthcare, and in many of the countries included within this article they are doing exactly that - being commercial ! However, we all know that the whole world does not revolve around the USA - for example, JCI/JHACO is not the only decent hospital accreditation system in the world - although it is probably the best marketed scheme - and some of the other accreditation groups come from countries ranked well above the USA in the WHO lists ranking healthcare systems (UK, Australia and Canada). JCI also charge a lot of money.

In fact, standards of healthcare, staff training, ethics etc. are really not too bad in some countries outside of the USA - for example, Dr K C Tan, who you mention specifically, trained in surgery in the United Kingdom (see http://www.kctanliverclinic.com.sg/our_team.aspx?pid=34390 for details). You often allude to US-sourced examples in what you write, and I would certainly not wish to base my complete scientific analysis on Michael Moore's "Sicko", but the fact that a hospital in Thailand (however excellent) happens to be chosen as a provider by a US-based insurance scheme may conceivably have something to do with cost rather than just excellence.

SOFIHA (the Society for International Healthcare Accreditation) is a free-to-join group (no one is making any money out of it !) which merits attention because it is interested in both in the quality and availability of healthcare accreditation and, potentially, in seeking out high-quality healthcare accreditation for those hospitals in based less wealthy countries (including those which are interested in medical tourism) which would be both less costly to them and less overtly didactic in its content than some other schemes. Because it is British-based, there is, naturally, an interest in socialised medicine as well as in safer commercialised medicine (we are all keen that patients who go overseas as medical tourists come back alive and well). Would you agree that it would be good to get a few non-commercially orientated voices on board to balance the arguments ?!

On to travel health. The Thai problem with HIV relates more to the "tourism" part of the equation than the "medical tourism" part of the equation. Any pre-travel healthcare professional in the field worth his or her salt would include HIV prevention in the briefing - prevention is always better than cure, as people are living breathing creatures who occasionally have sex, and sometimes engage in it in an unsafe fashion. In the hospital context, as long as staff obey universal precautions and as long as blood products and human organs are sourced according to what would be universally regarded as good practice, there should, of course be no problems. However, no one should ever assume that all human beings know how to protect themselves against HIV in the social settings they encounter - anyone who has ever worked in a sexual health clinic knows the utter stupidity of such a viewpoint. The Thai authorities should be commended for the work they are doing with HIV, but they would no doubt admit that they still have much to do.

As for dengue in Thailand, try a few more web sites for further information (for example, "Deadly dengue fever explodes in Thailand" 2005 - 0681.htmhttp://www.cdnn.info/news/travel/t050210.html ; CDC site http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol9no10/02- Science site - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040122083820.htm). There are many many more. I myself have had dengue, caught in South-East Asia, and I can vouch that it is not a pleasant experience. It is reasonable to advise a traveller coming to Thailand to use DEET liberally, which will not only repel Aedes but will also help to repel the Anopholes mosquito, the vector of malaria, which the US CDC will tell you is extremely common around the borders of Thailand. As for countries other than Thailand, you may wish to insert some appropriate data for dengue and hiv prevalence for them too - this web site is about facts, not selling.

If you have problems with the way that other countries are portrayed in this article, you should feel free to edit, as long as you provide evidence. Others will take you on if they feel you are wrong, being unreasonable or being biased. However, I would humbly suggest that no one should ever take too much of a US-centric approach (e.g. with respect to accreditation) when it comes to discussing such points - healthcare is a universal phenomenon, and it would also be wrong to take too much of a stance viewed from an an Anglo-centric, a Russo-centric, a Thai-centric, a Franco-centric, an Isreali-centric, a Sino-centric........ you know what I mean !

Best wishes,

Professorial

Formally asking for collaboration with articles

A doubt about Wikipedia's functionalities:

Suppose that one is making an article, and wishes others' help for some issues. Particularly, for example:

• Formatting references.
• Correcting or introducing links.
• Correcting style issues.
• Translating text that is to be inserted into the article.
• Finding or editing an image.

We can, of course, leave a note in the talk page, and that's what I've done so far. Is there any more formal way to mark an article for a pending task, so others can find it? For example, using tags or any kind of metadata? That is, when you create an article, leave an indication of the kind "I can't do this X thing by myself; if you like and can, please do it".

I'm guessing that there are Wikipedians for every task; that I will always find someone that would be glad to do the task X, and will do it better than I would. But, how to leave the indication for them?

Thanks in advance for your help. Alfredo J. Herrera Lago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.220.222.140 (talk) 03:40, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes, there is. Assuming that it's just cleanup issues, there's a host of tags at Wikipedia:Template_messages/Cleanup. (Ie, insert {{FACT}} after a statement that needs to be sourced). Best, --Bfigura ^(talk) 03:45, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Also look for a WikiProject that covers the article. --Teratornis 19:31, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Iggys House Realty, Inc

I would like to see an article on Iggys House Realty and Buy Side Realty. Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.26.189.239 (talk) 06:27, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Two of Wikipedia's most important policies are notability and verifiability. A subject must be sufficiently notable to be worth including in the encyclopedia and that notability must be able to be verified through references to reliable sources.

Put simply, if there are newspaper articles with enough information to write about a subject, then that subject is notable and those articles can verify the information in the Wikipedia article.

If you cannot find newspaper web sites that provide information for an article, then the subject is not notable or verifiable and almost certainly will be deleted. Sbowers3 12:03, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Odd Diff results-- a bug?

• There was a version of a page that did reflect what I wanted. [1]
• The system log reports me as having made a very weird edit which I don't remember making. The diff looks most strange.
• But visually inspecting the two version fails to show that they are substantially different.
• When I self-reverted the edit I don't recall making using the undo function, the diff reports no substantial change.

Any idea what's up?? --Alecmconroy 06:38, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

That's very strange. In the second diff, you can see in the edited section that Gwern's comment should appear on the page twice, but it doesn't. Still, the diff of all three edits shows that it's fine. Weird. WODUP 06:49, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

It's a bug in the diff engine, I think. It's happened to me before (and I even reverted a legitimate edit as vandalism due to it). It tends to clear itself up after a while. --ais523 15:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Maybe there was something odd before, but now I don’t see any weird thing going on to be honest, diff 1 and diff 2 (the undo) just removes and adds back a period (.) behind Wales of two links to [[User:Jimbo Wales]]. --Van helsing 12:19, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Deleting account

How can I delete my wikipedia account? 195.195.166.31 07:44, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Due to the fact that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. You do, however, have the right to vanish, which you can exercise by (1) requesting your user page (found at Special:Mypage) and/or user talk page (found at Special:Mytalk) be deleted, by adding the {{db-userreq}} template to them; (2) requesting to change your username to something that is unconnected with you (possibly a random collection of letters and numbers); (3) never logging in to your account again. If you do this, you are still free to register a new username if you wish to continue editing Wikipedia. --Silver Edge 07:55, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Deleted Article

It's me again. Thank you for your answer and i'm planning to make my first article on the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" animated special. To make sure I'm not violating anything, I took a look on the book article. The small article created on the TV special doesn't seem to be there anymore. I'm afraid it might have been deleted. Is there any way to bring it back? Also, is there any way I can put pictures on my article --Silvasdfj, 5:13 AM (EST), 1 November 2007 Silvlasdfj 09:15, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

• If you want to add an existing image to an article, type [[Image:File name.jpg|center|Optional caption.]] to the article – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, center with the alignment of the image on the page and Optional caption with the caption, which of course, is optional. See our picture tutorial for more information.
• If you want to upload an image from your computer, to put in an article, you must find out what license the image is licensed under. If you know your image is licensed under a free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons, where all projects have access to the image. If you are unsure what license your image is licensed under, see the file upload wizard for more information. Also, please read Wikipedia's image use policy, because if you upload the image under a false license, you may be blocked.

Hope this has helped. --Silver Edge 09:35, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Speedy deletion

Hi!

I published an article about Tilgin on Wikipedia and got the message below:

"This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. The reason given is: It is blatant advertising for a company, product, group, service or person that would require a substantial rewrite in order to become an encyclopedia article. (CSD G11) Speedy concern: It is blatant advertising for a company, product, group, service or person that would require a substantial rewrite in order to become an encyclopedia article. (CSD G11)"

What is wrong in the text? It´s an objective text about a company. EVery sentence is 100% right. Can you please help me? I don´t understand what I have done wrong...

Kind regards

Caroline —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tilgin (talk • contribs) 09:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

First, you may want to read CSD G11 for yourself. Basically, information is deleted even if it's all factually correct if it appears to be there only for advertising purposes and not an attempt to present a neutral encyclopedia article. Advertisments and encyclopedia articles tend to be quite different in style; note that if notable and referenced negative information about a company comes to light, it would also be included in an article about a company, whilst such information would generally be omitted from an advertisement. You may also want to read the project page about spam, and about how not to be a spammer or advertiser; for users unused to Wikipedia, it's sometimes possible to produce spam or advertising material inadvertently. --ais523 10:08, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I should also note that the user name "Tilgin" violates our policies on user names. User names should not be used to promote a product or company and should not include trademarked names. Rklawton 14:35, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Unable to print an article

Hi Folks, When I try to print this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Navy_SEALs

my browser hangs. I have tried this about 10 times. Any suggestions? Sorry, if this is the wrong place for this question. If so, can you please tell me where would be the right place to ask this question. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.236.110.88 (talk) 13:43, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean it "hangs"? Try going to the printable version directly. - Rjd0060 14:19, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I think he means it gets a run-time error and times out. Leebo ^T/C 14:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I just tried it via "Print" and "Print Preview" and it freezes up both ways. I don't know how to fix that. Sorry - Rjd0060 14:24, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

You could try copy-pasting the article into a word processor and printing from there; that sometimes solves printing problems in Web browsers. --ais523 14:39, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Another option is to view the (HTML) "page source" of an article in your browser, and copy and paste the HTML into an HTML editor which is able to render and print HTML. HTML editors are probably more common than editors which could understand wikitext. And if you only want to print the text of an article, see TomeRaider. --Teratornis 21:16, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Don't know if this is too low tech to help, but as a Mac ox 10 user, I save it as a pdf file and it will print from that. Julia Rossi 22:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

School assignments

Do we have an "educator's section" of Wikipedia we can use to brief teachers and professors about Wikipedia? Useful topics might include an overview of our censorship policy, school blocks, and a "how to" or FAQ on the do's and don'ts of making class assignment out of creating a Wikipedia entry.

Why?

Apparently (and I'm in the middle of one now), teachers/professors have been known to make poorly thought out projects which require their students to create new Wikipedia articles. This often results in ill considered articles and associated deletions not to mention (possibly) underage students being forced by their teachers to give up their intellectual property rights (GNU Free Document License).

Indeed, it would make sense to have an "Educators" link to this and related information in the "Interaction" navigation box or in the Community Portal.

Thoughts? Rklawton 14:32, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:School and university projects? x42bn6 Talk Mess 14:34, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

User:Teratornis/Tips for teachers is kinda like that, but not exactly. Leebo ^T/C 15:00, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Any ideas for promoting this to a higher profile? Consider the novice professor attempting to guide novice students. Where can we place a link where such a professor is likely to stumble across it? Rklawton 15:29, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

See WP:EIW#School. (The Editor's index is where we try to list all the information relating to editing on Wikipedia; it is very comprehensive. But it is also not yet complete, so there aren't a lot of links to the index that new users might find readily.) As far as how to make particular items of information more noticeable to particular groups of people, consider that Wikipedia draws tens of millions of unique and highly diverse visitors each month. Obviously we cannot give equal emphasis to every particular item that every particular individual or group needs to see. To get an idea of how much "essential" information there is (essential to someone), browse through the Editor's index. Until computers can pass the Turing test, and become smart enough to intelligently advise their human users, we will have to limp along with the current unsatisfying situation in which everyone is under-informed to a greater extent than we would prefer. While we're on the subject of schools, I will shamelessly repeat Leebo's plug of my User:Teratornis/Tips for teachers user subpage (which may go into the project (Wikipedia:) namespace someday, if people think it's worth putting there). --Teratornis 19:01, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

While I'm yapping, I might also add that that passive methods of informing people (such as writing instructions for them to read) tend to be unreliable. Note how many people ask questions on the Help desk which demonstrate they ignored the instructions at the top of the Help desk. Many people who are new to anything as complex as Wikipedia are prone to making Hasty generalizations. There is a very strong human tendency for people to look at Wikipedia for the first time, and immediately assume it would be perfect for whatever arbitrary purpose pops first into their minds, without first making a serious effort to read the guidelines, or ask for exert advice. That means newcomers to Wikipedia are always going to make some mistakes, and the community of experienced editors will have to use their human intelligence to recognize the mistakes, and provide mild corrections as necessary. Now, one would hope that teachers (of all people), would know enough about Critical thinking not to make the hasty generalization fallacy, but often that appears not to be the case. Wikipedia is unlike anything most people have experienced before, so it's not surprising that Wikipedia tends to be initially misunderstood. Which is a long way of saying that even if we could somehow insure that every educator sees some customized instructions, the instructions won't always sink in before some educators do something inappropriate. --Teratornis 21:10, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

why not accept it?

Dear wikipedia,

I am talking about new art movement in the United Arab Emirates, called UAEism and about its artist founder Wasel Safwan. Why do I get warning and deletion about it? How can you help me on adding this cultural issue to wikipedia please?

Best Regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by WaselART (talk • contribs) 15:02, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

It's being deleted because the content is promotional rather than encyclopedic. Your username suggests you have a conflict of interest. I recommend you review Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, Wikipedia:Spam, and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Leebo ^T/C 15:06, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted?. Also see wikiindex:Category:Art for other wikis which accept a wider range of articles about art than Wikipedia does. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so Wikipedia tends to be much fussier about content than many other wikis which specialize in a particular subject. --Teratornis 19:04, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikidrama

Good morning:

A Wikipedia user identified as Sukecchi has used an extension of your site to pronounce his sexuality and express his wish for a boyfried. This is info that is better suited for My-Space or other sites. His abuse of your site weakons your its redibility.

Concerned Parent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Green Kirby (talk • contribs) 15:29, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I see no violations of Wikipedia:User page here. Rklawton 15:33, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Turns out this is part of a Wikidrama between Green Kirby and Sukecchi. I fear it needs to go to the admins. --Orange Mike 15:38, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

It's not abusive to provide basic info about yourself. Unless you are suggesting it would be equally inappropriate for a straight male to announce his interest in obtaining a girlfriend. If you think that's the case, then you have a general disagreement with Wikipedia's user page standards and should seek to change consensus. It's not disallowed for a user to have a userbox saying they are gay, or bisexual, or whatever. In fact, it promotes discussion between those interested in such encyclopedia topics as those falling under WP:LGBT. Leebo ^T/C 15:39, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

 Unrelated - Although this isn't really that relevant, can I ask why you state that your a "concerned parent" here, whilst on your user page and user talk page, you appear to be 12 or about that. Rudget _{Contributions} 16:35, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

The account was created by the son, but the parent has taken it over. Rklawton 16:37, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I see. Regards, Rudget _{Contributions} 16:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

See also WP:VPT#Parental control. — Sebastian 20:39, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Browsing answers for a response to my previous question

How do I gain access to the place where, hopefully, someone has responded to my previously posed question?

I have been juggling the various pages on your site, trying to find my way back to where I was when I typed in my question. 90.194.116.56 15:41, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Just below the 'Click here to ask your question' box are links to the Help Desk archives; follow the links there to see all the questions and answers on a particular day. You can also search the archives via Google: use inurl:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk as one of the search terms. (You need to click on 'repeat the search with the omitted results included' to get more than 2 results if you do that.) --ais523 15:45, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

If you can figure out which IP address you used to ask the question then you can find the question in the contributions. The only contribution for the IP used here is this question: Special:Contributions/90.194.116.56. If it was asked with an account then just log in and click "my contributions" at the top. PrimeHunter 18:59, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Someday, maybe, we will replace MediaWiki's talk pages with a real threaded discussion tool: mw:Extension:LiquidThreads; when that happens, you might, for example, be able to get e-mail notifications whenever someone adds a reply to your Help desk questions. That would obviously be useful, because multiple replies for a single question can dribble in for days after the question first appears, and the later answers often add important information. --Teratornis 19:26, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I might add that when you search the Help desk with Google, you may prefer to use a link like this:

• Search Wikipedia Help desk with Google

which uses a longer syntax than the {{Google}} template, but generates a nice search page. (I might write a variation on the {{Google}} template that generates Google custom search forms from a compact wikitext syntax.) Also note that Google takes several days to index new pages on Wikipedia, so if you search for a question you asked very recently, Google might not find it yet. --Teratornis 19:40, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I wrote {{Google custom}} which can, among other things, generate links like this:

• Type this wikitext: {{google custom|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk||Search Wikipedia Help desk}}
  • to display this link: Search Wikipedia Help desk

--Teratornis 23:32, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Clear Search History

How do I clear the list of searches that appear below the search window of the left side of the browser? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.166.104.67 (talk) 15:55, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

That's a question for whoever made whatever browser you are using and has nothing to do with Wikipedia. Sorry. Rklawton 15:58, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Or you could just avoid those pages and then the computer will eventually "forget" them. :) Rudget _{Contributions} 16:02, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Usually, if you highlight them and click delete on your keyboard, they disappear. Woodym555 16:11, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

How to find the author or editor of an article.

How do you find the author or editor of an article?71.53.96.150 16:06, 1 November 2007 (UTC) I am doing a research article on Moses in Christian thought which is listed under Moses.

Click on the history tab at the top of the page to find which editor added certain pieces of text. As a whole the wikipedia community creates the article. See Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for some information on how to cite wikipedia. Woodym555 16:16, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:How to read an article history#Who has worked on the page. :) PeaceNT 16:19, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

i want to make my own wikipedia pages

billy wayne engle jr —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.19.14.16 (talk) 16:19, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Are they notable? Rudget _{Contributions} 16:26, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Please also be aware of WP:COI. PeaceNT 16:31, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

First try the WP:TUTORIAL. And check WikiIndex to see if some other wiki is more appropriate than Wikipedia for the pages you want to create. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and that sharply restricts the type of content which belongs here. There are thousands of other wikis, almost certainly including some that are appropriate to whatever you want to write about. If you decide that what you want to write really does belong in an encyclopedia, then you have to create an account before you can create new pages here. And see Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted? to see what often happens to new articles by new users. --Teratornis 19:47, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

question re: finding "future" entries

Hello,

I'm doing some research on wikipedia entries that report on future events or activities. For instance, this entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Songdo_City about is about a planned city to be built in Korea (but doesn't currently exist). I've noticed others, such as this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongtan - which includes the disclaimer that the entry contains information about "planned or expected infrastructure.".

My question is: I'm looking for other entries (not necessarily about cities, they could be about anything) that refer to a future or planned event. Is there a way to search using tags?

THANK YOU! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.74.215.41 (talk) 16:21, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

In general, we discourage articles about future events. However, some future events receive significant coverage from reliable sources, and so they might rate articles. Movies under production by major studios often qualify. Rklawton 16:24, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi. You'll probably find Category:Future events[2] will help you ! Pedro :  Chat  16:25, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Phillip Goldson International Airport in Belize

Your article on the Phillip Goldson International Airport is incorrect in many aspects including the runway lenght, expansion project and bus service. For correct information kindly visit our official web site at www.pgiabelize.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.19.14.37 (talk) 16:25, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion. You may get more of a response at Talk:Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport. If the changes are uncontroversial, and can be sourced to verify them, then you can make those changes yourself by clicking on the "edit this page" tab. Controversial edits should be avoided if you are affiliated with the airport. Leebo ^T/C 16:28, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

As far as I can see, the page doesn't show what you suggest may be wrong. Could I ask specifically what you are referring to? And remember, as Leebo says, verifiabilty is important. We couldn't possibly base the whole of the majority of the article on one website, if you could I would suggest trying to get more internet pages or literary references (books) to cite sources. Regards, Rudget _{Contributions} 16:32, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I think Rudget is being a little unfair here. I sounds like you are asking Wikipedia to correct factual information about your airport and providing a source where the correct data might be found. IMHO, to say "We couldn't possibly base the whole of the majority of the article on one website", when it already seems to be based on a single source, is not really being fair to someone requesting a change and armed with a source that is the airport's official site. Astronaut 17:50, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Google summaries: Where are they entered?

See for example this: http://www.google.com/search?q=energy&as_sitesearch=wikipedia.org

That description looks hand-written. Where does it come from? Did someone submit it to google or is it on this site? Functor salad 18:16, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, thats a good one. That sentence isn't in that article, so I don't know where it comes from. Maybe somebody else will. - Rjd0060 18:27, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Typically Google's web crawlers just take the first sentence of a page and that's the description you see. However, there have been situations where vandalized versions of articles were the ones to be picked up, so maybe they're changing their policy and giving popular static articles simple descriptions. Leebo ^T/C 18:34, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Google gets many of its descriptions from Open Directory Project, including this one which is from http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Technology/Energy/. The description will either have been written by a volunteer ODP editor or submitted to the ODP by the public. You can suggest a changed description to ODP by clicking "update listing" but the reviewing editor may reject it. PrimeHunter 18:40, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Functor salad 18:46, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

By the way, Google Directory [3] is an ODP copy with each category sorted by PageRank. It copies all the descriptions, including this one.[4] PrimeHunter 18:49, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Correcting a MIsspelled Title

01NOV07 - I inadvertantly misspelled the word "continuous" in the internal link to an article on Continuous Integrated Triage spelling out "Continous Integrated Triage" rather than "Continuous Integrated Triage" when I editted the Triage article. I used the misspelled link to create the article on "Continuous Integrated Triage" except the title is now "Continous Integrated Triage" and does not correctly search nor link to the spell corrected triage article. How do I fix the title? Do I just copy and paste the article from the misspelled title to a new article page under the correct title? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Renaissancedoc (talk • contribs) 19:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorting it on user's talk page. Tiddly-Tom 19:28, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Wong picture?

Your page on Potter Stewart . . . is that a picture of Byron White? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.178.35.223 (talk) 20:57, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Not unless the Library of Congress has their records wrong - that's his official picture. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:05, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

e-mails - are they considered real-time?

e-mails, are they considered real-time? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.213.72.2 (talk) 20:59, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean, but I think you'd be better off asking at the Reference Desk - they handle knowledge-type questions, we only deal with how to use Wikipedia. You may also want to take a look at the article on Email. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 21:06, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Check out the definition in Real-time computing; I don't think e-mail satisfies that definition. E-mail is more properly a form of asynchronous communication. A wiki such as Wikipedia is another example of asynchronous communication. --Teratornis 21:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Instant messaging is probably closer to satisfying the definition of "real-time" than e-mail is. --Teratornis 21:37, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Pass word protected information

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a section where technical information for a specific company Service information could be posted but password protected for only Company personnel. Thanks, Donna --DonnaLauzon 21:46, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

If you want to download the MediaWiki software and run it for your own company (separate from Wikipedia), that is allowed. That said, if you actually mean to create a locked article on the company, please read WP:OWN and WP:COI. No, it is not possible to get your own section of Wikipedia for your company's use. -- Kesh 21:53, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

If you have installed your own wiki based on MediaWiki software then see mw:Extension:PageProtectionPlus. PrimeHunter 23:48, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

See b:Wiki Science/How to start a wiki for more information on setting up your own corporate wiki. If your company has a competent system administrator, he or she should easily be able to install MediaWiki on your company's intranet. However, it may be a challenge to get enough people in your company trained to use your corporate wiki, and motivated to add useful content. But at least the MediaWiki software is free, and relatively easy to install. You might as well put a wiki in and let your people start experimenting with it. --Teratornis 03:28, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Solar Roast Coffee

It came to my attention that Solar Roast Coffee was deleted from the wikipedia site. I assure you that this is not spam, and the method that we use for roasting coffee is unique. The methodology has been featured in articles by Home Power, Tea and Coffee, USA today, and CNN radio. Please advise. Thanks, Mike Solar Roast [email protected] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.160.41.221 (talk) 21:54, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

It looks like Solar Roast Coffee was marked on grounds (pun seriously not intended) of being spam and issues regarding notability. Without being able to see the article as it was, I will point out that all articles on Wikipedia have to be written with a neutral point of view, and verifiable through references to reliable, third-party sources. While it appears that there are certainly enough media articles (and proper articles too, it seems, not a one-off mention in an article about something else) to pass the grounds of notability, I'm guessing that the article itself read like an advertisement, which is guaranteed to be non-neutral. Also, since you are apparently associated with the company, there is a conflict of interest concern that would occur if you were involved in writing the article. I would suggest you take a look at the Wikipedia Business' FAQ, and then perhaps try to write something passable at articles for creation, where it will be reviewed and then, possibly, recreated. Confusing Manifestation 22:21, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

adding a person

Greetings-

Our Hollywood based production company (Bliss Productions) is centered around the creative efforts of director / actor Stefan Lyenko:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0529263/

www.blissing.com

We would like to add Stefan Lysenko to Wikipedia due to his long time contribution to the industry and his unique approach to the arts. Our attempt is to follow the Wikipedia rules and regulations so we have sent his reference information along with the Bliss Production website which he heads. Looking foward to hearing your suggestions. Cheers and thanks-Bliss Productions 1blissing 22:35, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Looks like Mr. Lysenko meets the notablity guidelines; just remember to cite reliable independent sources. You are discouraged from creating or editing articles about yourself or things you are related to, except to correct factual errors, so you may want to check out the drawing board to get other's opinions on the appropriateness of the article for Wikipedia. NF24^{(radio me!}_{Editor review)} 22:57, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I have always found the guidelines for conflict of interest guidelines that should be taken with a pinch of WP:COMMON and a dash of WP:IAR. Do be very reluctant in writing about something you have a conflict of intrest in. But if you do write something, and maybe ask for comment on it, declaring your conflict of intrest, it can lead to a very decent article. You will just have to accept that it will be edited mercilessly, and that it could happen that none of the information you provided ends up in the final article, or that the article may paint a picture that you don't agree with. Other editors may strongly disagree with me on this one though. Martijn Hoekstra 23:17, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Also, please note that for legal reasons, we can't have role accounts. I.e., you can't share one account between multiple people. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:21, 1 November 2007 (UTC)