Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 April 4

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April 4

Too much security

Wik wrote: "Consider logging in on the secure server. If your password only contains letters or numbers, please read our article on password strength and consider changing it (in Special:Preferences after you log in). To avoid becoming a victim of phishing, always verify that you are viewing Wikipedia's login page when logging in. Do not give out your password to anyone"

My question is, what's the big deal if somebody gets my password to Wik?

Phising for what? A password to an encyclopedia?

Why the password in the first place?

Why all the paranoia?

Ed Brooks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.6.152.181 (talk) 01:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

To some people it's a big deal, especially with those who edit on a regular basis. A phished account used for vandalism could mean that even constructive edits made by that account's legitimate owner are systematically undone. Basically, it's about your reputation.

Additionally, to avoid having lots and lots of passwords to remember, many users use the same password in Wikipedia that they use in, say, their bank accounts. --Blanchardb-^{Me•MyEars•MyMouth}-timed 01:46, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

If someone steals your password, they could go on a vandalism spree that gets your account banned. That's generally considered a bad thing. -- Kesh (talk) 02:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Especially if you became an administrator or something like that.--Sunny910910 ^{(talk|Contributions|Guest)} 02:16, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I tried the "secure" login once, and before each and every page I clicked on, it notified me that the page contained both secure and insecure material, and "did I wish to proceed?" with no way to opt out from that continued slow torture of question and answer before each page opened. I would have had to answer "Yes!" about 300 times an hour. Thanks, but no thanks for all the "security." Edison (talk) 20:41, 4 April 2008 (UTC)!

Depending on the browser version, Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 July 11#secure.wikimedia.org may help. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:36, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

What is the protocol on articles under the banner of dead projects?

Resolved

I want to make what I think some people might think is an important change to Federal Bureau of Investigation, see Talk:Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation#One_or_two_infoboxes?. The new infobox has been announced in the LE Project for quite a while now, and is starting to be picked up by editors.

BUT, the FBI Project is tagged as inactive and the only listed FBI Project Administrator's user page states that they are no longer a Wikipedian? How long do I wait before I be bold and just do it?

Peet Ern (talk) 05:55, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

That Wikiproject has been dead for 3+ months, so waiting for them isn't really in the equation here. If you feel like being cautious or think this will be a contentious decision, giving the topic a day or two for anyone who has the page on their watchlist to see the proposal might be good. Otherwise, just go for it. --erachima talk 08:31, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I will wait a couple of days and sort it. Peet Ern (talk) 11:44, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Strange error when trying to access pages

Help! Every time I try to access a new page (whether it be the Main Page, this page, an article, etc.), I get a strange error message:

http://en.wikipedia.org

Replaced by addPortalLink()

The error window appears twice per page, and only gives me the choice of clicking "OK" to make it go away; if I want to avoid clicking "OK", I have to force my browser to quit. This only happens when I'm logged in, though. I use Safari 3.1 on a Macintosh computer. I have a friend who also uses Safari on a Mac, and she does not experience this problem (although she has no account to log in to). The problem only started about an hour ago.

Any help is much obliged! — Dulcem (talk) 08:34, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 134#Strange error - "Replaced by addPortletLink()". (I worked around this by blanking my monobook.js.) —teb728 t c 08:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

about running a bot

Iam a user in telugu wikipedia. I want to categorize the wiktionary articles according to some areas like Mathematics, Chemsitry, Physics, etc...I want to develop a bot in Python to do this task. Can anybody give some links which explains how to create and run bots in Python thoroughly? Ravichandrae (talk) 08:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Start with WP:EIW#Bot. In particular see: m:Using the python wikipediabot. --Teratornis (talk) 06:57, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Users own verse on a page?

A user has added their own verse to the Whitchurch Canonicorum page. Is this allowed? White43 (talk) 09:12, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

No, it is not. I've removed that from the page. A small snippet from the poem might be appropriate, provided it's relevant to the topic at hand and cited. But there's no reason whatsoever to post an entire poem, especially given the copyright issues involved. -- Kesh (talk) 12:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Editing removed

Hi, although I have used Wikipedia, I am a newbie at editing.

I would like to inquire why each time I have edited the Throughput Accounting [[1]] page someone removes my editing. The latest removal was done by Zahnrad [[2]] but I don't know how to ask that person why the editing was removed. I also noticed that editing done by TOCExpert was removed. These were done to improve the page.

Zahnrad added an information point on my discussion page [[3]] and I replied there but I don't know if Zahnrad will see it there.

Can someone tell me how to contact Zahnrad?

Thanks. TA User (talk) 09:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

See here [4]. User gives reasons.White43 (talk) 10:18, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I have seen the history but reasons given do not make sense, that is why I should find out why the editing was done from the person doing it. TA User (talk) 10:22, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You can leave a note on his talkpage: User talk:Zahnrad. The mediawiki software will alert him to it with the new messages bar. Woody (talk) 10:31, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I didn't know I was supposed to use edit to leave a note on someone own page but left a note there. Did I do it correctly? TA User (talk) 11:39, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that was correct. I would watchlist his page to see if he responds there. Woody (talk) 12:34, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

At least one reason for the removal is that the references were formatted incorrectly. The paragraph you added (and he removed) was not written in an encyclopedic manner, and sounded more promotional of the concept of Throughput Accounting than descriptive. Finally, adding bunch of external links isn't the way to properly source anything. See WP:EL for the rules on adding links to other sites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kesh (talk • contribs)

Thanks Woody. I have included it in my watchlist. TA User (talk) 13:44, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Kesh. I have read WP:EL. I understand that it was not 'encyclopedically written' and will rewrite it. TA User (talk) 14:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I have re-done the References and the External Links of Throughput accounting according to the policy. I just can't find a way to capitalize the A of accounting in the title. Can someone please check if I did it correctly. Thanks for helping this newbie out. TA User (talk) 16:51, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Is it a proper noun requiring both words to be capitalized at all times? It seems like a common noun. Leebo ^T/C 16:54, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes Leebo, it is the generally accepted given name of the techinque in the accounting world. Throughput Accounting is often confused with the noun, accounting. Professionals universally refer to it as a concept, philosophy and technique. There are also books written about it. TA User (talk) 20:04, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I corrected the capitalization for you. For future reference, this is done with the move tab at the top of the page. This moves the current page to a new location and leaves a redirect behind. Leebo ^T/C 20:10, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Your help is much appreciated. I will remember for future use. TA User (talk) 20:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

political science

please give me some questions and answers in political science.

Hi, you should check out the Wikipedia article on that topic. If you still have any questions which are not answered there, please come back and ask and we'll try to help. -- Kesh (talk) 12:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. NanohaA'sYuri^{Talk, My master} 00:50, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

How do you put a rationale on a image you uploaded

I recently uploaded a image and it said that i need a license, or a rationale to put on the page. hwo do you do that? also, are pictures on strategy wiki already licensed? cause that is where i got http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Image:CNCGenerals-CHI2B.JPG

Also can you please tell me how to put images cause i don't get the how to edit wikipedia artical

Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Windowsdefender (talk • contribs) 09:55, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

While the StrategyWiki does have a GFDL tag on the page, as this is a screenshot (I would assume from one of the Command & Conquer games), you will need to tag the image with {{Non-free game screenshot}}. And, since it is not freely licensed, you'll also need to add a fair use rationale for each article the image is used in.

To actually use the image in an article, read the picture tutorial. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 06:40, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Finding reference

How please can I find all instances of [:http://www.leighrayment.com/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page] ? - Kittybrewster ☎ 10:09, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

There are quite a few links using Special:Linksearch: [5]. Woody (talk) 10:28, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Username Case Problem

I just signed up for an account and intend to start adding information soon. When I signed up, I requested the name "matatk" as this is the username I use elsewhere. The software seems to have translated it into "Matatk" (not what I wanted). Is there anything that can be done about this? I know it's a minor point in the grand scheme of things but I would like my name to be listed correctly :-).

Matatk (talk) 11:18, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You can set up a signature in "My Preferences" which appeasrs when you sign a comment and can have an initial lowercase letter. But I am almost certain your account name has to have a initial capital. It used to be a problem with article names as well, like IPod (now properly at iPod). Rmhermen (talk) 12:32, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The system capitalizes the first letter of all pages automatically. It's not possible to create a page (and thus an account name which corresponds with a user page) with a lower case first letter. What you can do is edit your signature so it appears as a lower case "m" when you sign pages, and you can place {{lowercase}} on your user page to make it look lower case. Your name will always be capitalized in the page history and contributions though. Nothing to be done about that. Leebo ^T/C 12:33, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

international standards

what is international standards —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.106.240.12 (talk) 12:25, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Try International standard
--Badgernet (talk) 13:03, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Shiatsu and Acupressure

Shiatsu and Acupressure both need someone who knows how to work with tables to fix their tables. Farmanesh (talk) 12:58, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Ignore the above, I fixed it myself. Farmanesh (talk) 13:13, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Need help

hi this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Baby has a link to a site that leads to a virus/spyware/adware i dont know how to report this please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thelastjedimaster (talk • contribs) 14:39, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You didn't say which link, so I can't delete for you. But, you can delete it yourself. Astronaut (talk) 15:03, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Sarahmckem/Simon Bruce

Can someone please help. My client's page has been deleted and now is locked. This all happened in the first 25 minutes of me creating it, I had placed the {{holdon}} tag on it which you can see was removed by an admin for some reason. In my attempt to honor all copywrites, rewrite the bio from what I had written on the actual webpage, the page seems to have been removed

Can someone please reinstate the Simon Bruce page? He has sold over 100k albums at the age of 19 in Australia and is in the process of getting a major record deal in Nasvhille Tennessee. I can send out a bulletin for his 65k fans on myspace to come to wiki and "request" a simon bruce site if that will help.

Please advise.

Sarahmckem (talk) 14:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not the place to promote this non-notable musician. The fact his is your client reveals an obvious conflict of interest. All this has been explained many times on your talk page. Please go and read the comments left there and in particular follow the links to the various Wikipedia policies and read them as well.

Requests from 65,000 "friends" (who the hell has that many real friends?) will not help you circumvent Wikipedia's policies. Astronaut (talk) 14:56, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You have a major conflict of interest here. Since Simon Bruce is your client, you should not be creating or editing any articles about him in or on Wikipedia. And, while you may not mean it that way, the suggestion about sending out a bulletin to his fanbase sounds like a threat to have Wikipedia vandalized, especially since you have put the word "request" in scarequotes. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:57, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Copied over from my talk page for comment by other editors, re WP:COI and/or WP:BITE

Can you please explain my code violation I read the conflict of interest and I dont see how it applies.--Sarahmckem (talk) 15:54, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

No, he is not my client. I am a 43 year old mother of 2 in San Francisco and I have no connection at all. My 16 year old son lives in Nashville and heard about this kid Simon Bruce. I contacted the girl who made his webpage and asked since she wrote the bio could she make the wikipage page account and upload it because she had all the copywrites and of course I wanted to comply (i have had my own account for 3 years). It was shut down the minute she put it up and I have been on here trying to comply with all the requests to make the page right. I have no conflict of interest, I was just trying to get the sources of the copywrites to upload it themselves.

I had thought it would be better for them to do it than for me to do it. Would it be better for me to make this page under my own established account then, and get many people to request the page?

--Sarahmckem (talk) 16:15, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

OMG you said i made a page about myself? You are so wrong. email me and i will give you my phone number and you will see I am an old lady that lives in San Francisco! email removed --Sarahmckem (talk) 16:22, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

In your post to the Wikipedia talk page, you described him as "my client." Are you now claiming he is not your client? --Orange Mike | Talk 16:25, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

given that these are 20 year old kids who work at Walmart trying to use Wiki to bring awareness of their talented friend You have really given them a hard time. I have instructed Sarah to close her account. I have only been trying to help these kids out. this isnt some big management, pr company. We will leave you now with your really bad attitude and delete this account.. happy now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sarahmckem (talk • contribs) 16:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

How do we delete our user account?--Sarahmckem (talk) 16:49, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You may have seemed harsh, with wordings such as “grossly in violation”, but the user (or users) seem to be confused about what Wikipedia is and what it should be used for. If they wish to find another site to promote their friend, it’s all for the best. Leebo ^T/C 17:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry you have not had a pleasant experience on Wikipedia, but you appear to have misunderstood the purpose of the site and its rules. Accounts cannot be deleted, due to the licensing Wikipedia uses. Simply cease using your account if you no longer wish to contribute, or see m:Right to vanish. -- Kesh (talk) 17:10, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

New user creating pages

I am a first-time user (just created an account today) and I want to upload a short article. I've read the instructions and tried to upload my file, but got an error message saying “The action you have requested is limited to users in one of the groups Autoconfirmed users, Sysops.” I am assuming that I will get an "Autoconfirmed" status 4 days after creating an account (i.e., on Wednesday), but I wanted to confirm that my understanding is correct and I am not missing anything.

Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nsmalyuk (talk • contribs) 16:02, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I believe new users can create new pages. So, you may be misunderstanding how to create a new page. It's not done through the file upload process, which is restricted to autoconfirmed users. Try following the instructions on Help:Starting a new page. Leebo ^T/C 16:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Right, new users cannot create or move articles until 4 days after their account was created. -- Kesh (talk) 17:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

No, new users can create new pages, they cannot move them. Woody (talk) 17:13, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I think Nsmalyuk figured it out, because he created a page not long ago. Leebo ^T/C 17:15, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Ah, my apologies. I must not have remembered correctly. Though its seems odd to restrict moves and allow page creation. -- Kesh (talk) 22:09, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

What type of file did you try to upload? Wikipedia articles must be written with wikitext and cannot be uploaded files in other formats like Word, PDF, ... Maybe Wikipedia:Tools#Importing (converting) content from other formats to Wikipedia (MediaWiki) format is of help if you have content in another format. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:11, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

However, please be aware that starting new articles from scratch is often not the best idea for brand-new users. Wikipedia has many policies and guidelines that surprise a lot of newcomers. There are many things that Wikipedia is not. When new users start new articles, often they violate some rule on Wikipedia, and their articles get deleted. It's better to start by making small edits to existing articles, and reading our manuals. After you have several hundred edits, you'll know more about how Wikipedia works and have a better chance of starting a new article that "sticks." Be sure to save a copy of any new articles you do create, on your own computer, so you still have your work if it gets deleted here. --Teratornis (talk) 06:26, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

i cannot add my submission for the 2nd time!

I run and own Speaker Junkies. It's my band. I uploaded our biography twice and for both times, Wikipedia says i'm copyright infringing on another site!!! Well, that biography is posted all over the internet. I wrote it. I keep contesting it, but Speaker Junkies keeps getting deleted w/out fairness. How do i fix this?

Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TeknoPunk (talk • contribs) 16:26, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you could provide proof of the ownership of the content in question...--Cameron (t|p|c) 16:41, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You shouldn't be trying to copy over that biography anyway. Firstly, you have a conflict of interest when writing about yourself. On top of that, it's unlikely you wrote the biography to the standards of encyclopedic tone that Wikipedia requires. Lastly, you probably aren't establishing your band's notability either. If you are notable, someone else will write about you. Leebo ^T/C 16:45, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Looking at the deleted version of the page confirms my thoughts above. Lines like "Their addictive music will awaken your inner dance child and their amazing LIVE performance will leave you craving for more" have no place in an encylopedia. Let someone else write this if you meet the notability requirements. Leebo ^T/C 16:48, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Please read WP:PEACOCK to learn about "promotional language" and why we don't use it on an encyclopedia. --Teratornis (talk) 06:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

The J.M. Smucker Company/Hungry Jack Link

Resolved

Good afternoon. When following the hot link from the Smucker page, readers are taken to the Hungry Jack/Burger King Australia site. Is there a way to have this link removed?

In [6] I have changed it to a red link to Hungry Jack (Smucker brand) instead of removing the link completely. This should ensure that somebody else doesn't accidentally link the unrelated Hungry Jack again. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:55, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Warning message

When I load any page here, I get a message that says: " Replaced by addPortletLink()". It's rather annoying. Grsz11 16:53, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I fixed it. Thanks anyways! Grsz11 17:00, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

who was the father of the science fiction?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.74.65 (talk) 16:56, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Depends on what you mean by the term "father." Cases could be made for anybody from Lucian of Samosata to Hugo Gernsback. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:03, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Moved to Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities#Who_was_the_father_of_science_fiction.3F. --Cameron (t|p|c) 17:04, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Links to Wikipedia articles

My web site has a dozen or so links to Wikipedia articles. When I run some software (Xenu) to check the integrity of my site, it checks not only my internal but my outbound links, and reports on the ones that point to pages that don't exist. But it can't do this for the links to Wikipedia, I get messages like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry
error code: 403 (forbidden request), linked from page(s):
[etc.]

Is there a reason for this? Does Wikipedia block the requests from Xenu? and from other automated accesses? Is there a way round it?

It's not really a problem for me, Xenu lists all the "forbidden request"s, and there's few enough that I can check them all manually. But it seems odd. Maproom (talk) 17:01, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Our robots.txt at http://en.wikipedia.org/robots.txt says:

# Some bots are known to be trouble, particularly those designed to copy
# entire sites. Please obey robots.txt.
...
User-agent: Xenu
Disallow: /

So yes, Wikipedia prevernts Xenu access. I don't know whether there is a recommended alternative. You might get better answers at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). PrimeHunter (talk) 00:31, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Copyright restrictions

I uploaded a jpg file to attach to the article on Madeline Schiller, but apparently did not click a box on copyright, which I did not see. There are no copyright restrictions on this picture, which I noted in my comments. What should I now do? Wikipedia has the picture somewhere. ````Michael Keyton —Preceding unsigned comment added by Keyton (talk • contribs) 17:31, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the orphan bot deleted your picture already so what i would suggest is to re upload the picture and make sure that you put the correct copyright information for that picture

Staffwaterboy ^Talk♂ 17:37, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You will also have to re add the image to the article.Is there anything else that i can help you with ?

Staffwaterboy ^Talk♂ 17:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it's deleted. It's this right? Image:Madeline Schiller.jpg‎. Leebo ^T/C 17:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I Changed the copyright to you as the image holder and provider all you have to do now is edit the information that goes with the picture which can be done here [7] i hope that helps Staffwaterboy ^Talk♂ 17:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

According to the metadata on the image, the image was created by a scanner. So presumably you scanned it from a published work but did not take the original photograph (as the caption itself suggests). So your scan is a derivative work which does not give you a copyright which you can license. Judging from the style of the image, however, it may be in the public domain, depending on who took the photo and where it was published. —teb728 t c 18:00, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Freezing computer which finally shut down

I've asked about this several times before. Perhaps someone knows how to find the other details from the other times I asked it.

All I did was go to the Wikipedia Help Desk archives. I had done nothing else except try to go to another web site which wouldn't let me in due to not having Adobe Flash on this computer, which I am not in control of.

Then I got a message that Internet Explorer had a problem and needed to close. The reason was Macromedia Flash. (I had gotten a message saying there is a new version of that, but that too is not under my control).

I was in the archive and able to scroll down and read despite this annoying message in the middle of the screen. Then the screen went blank and I saw a list of places I could go, such as Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word.

What could possibly be going on in Wikipedia? It's usually the ads that cause this mess.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:44, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think this is a wikipedia problem. IE apparently had a problem with the flash you viewed, and which persisted until it finally crashed. It just happened to be when you were viewing WP. -- Kesh (talk) 22:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I've had problems with IE7 specifically when viewing Wikipedia, but nothing that uninstalling/reinstalling IE7 didn't fix. You may get more help at the reference desk. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:14, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Corporate Listing Question

I need some direction on how we might be able to list information about our company, Next Generation Logistics, Inc. on Wikipedia.com

I have noted that there are several other companies such as West Libert Foods, US Foodservice and Sysco Corporation just to mention a few.

Our listing keeps getting deleted by the various administrators because of different reason which I really don't understand. It seems a bit discriminatory to us.

Is there someone we can talk to for assistance?

Best Regards,

Aristides P. Smith, President Next Generation Logistics, Inc. contact info removed for user's safety —Preceding unsigned comment added by AristidesSmith (talk • contribs) 18:52, 4 April 2008 (UTC) AristidesSmith (talk) 19:01, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, the article was only created/delete once, and it was deleted as a copyright violation. I assume you copied information that was already on your website? While you could release the copyright on your website information (by either contacting OTRS or placing a notice of such on the page you're copying, that content is probably too advertorial in nature to be appropriate for Wikipedia, and individuals associated with a company are highly discouraged from writing about it. And any article you do write is liable to be deleted again unless it demonstrates it meets our notability requirement. The main criterion is that your company have received coverage from multiple reliable sources, and from searching the web none seem apparent to me. Someguy1221 (talk) 19:02, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

It is not impossible to write an encyclopedia article about your own company, but it is harder than it sounds. I suggest that you either: ask someone else to write an article at Wikipedia:Requested articles or Wikipedia:Bounty board; or write the article yourself as a user sub-page, and then ask for help at Wikipedia:Articles for creation or Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard. Bovlb (talk) 21:25, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

how to search for investment companies

I would like to read articles on invesment in different companies for;

 Infrastures, water, food, energy.

How do I look for these options in wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tcha (talk • contribs) 19:21, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You don't. That's far too detailed information on corporate spending for any encyclopedic article. You'd want a more specialized financial source for that. -- Kesh (talk) 22:14, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

We don't give investment advice but maybe something in Category:Investment will be of generel interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:13, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Threats to "subpoena" IP Address, etc.

I'm really sorry if I've missed this elsewhere but I'm wondering if it's considered acceptable for users to make these kind of threats...

"If you keep up your current shenanigans, I will act to have your IP blocked, and traced. If you happen to have made these alterations from an official computer that is in an office allied with Hillary, or Waters, or Richardson, I will be sure the media finds out. You don't want that kind of press." from 75.61.78.77

(For the record, I don't work for any of the above politicians...or any politician)

The "shenanigans" referred to was the removal of irrelevant information about how particular Democratic Superdelegates intended to vote compared with how their districts voted in primary elections. As discussed on the Wikipedia Superdelegate page, Superdelegates are unpledged and free to vote for whomever they choose. There is no correlation between how a Superdelegate votes and any of the various votes cast by constituents as is being implied by continued edits to Maxine Waters' biography and to those of several others.

--Smart Ways (talk) 20:09, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it can definitely fall under the heading of "threat". However, the only policy I know off that specifically prohibits such behavior is the uttering of legal threats to another editor, or Wikipedia itself. Warn the user about WP:CIVIL, WP:HARASS and no personal attacks. I suggest that if it continues to drop a note at WP:ANI. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 20:13, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

The arbitration committee has made it very clear that any threat of off-wiki action made to stop a content dispute is a potentially blockable offence. Someguy1221 (talk) 20:20, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the link Someguy. Very informative. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 20:28, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I gave the user a 4im attack warning, as well as a legal threat warning. Grsz11 20:25, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all your help! I was beginning to get a little bit freaked out about the whole "I'll track your IP address" thing. Smart Ways (talk) 20:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Help using IRC to fight vandalism

I have requested that I be granted Huggle and it says that IRC access is recommended. I use Mozilla Firefox which I don't think is compatible with IRC. Could someone recommend a browser that is and explain to me how to use IRC to fight vandalism?--Urban Rose 20:27, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

ChatZilla is compatible with Firefox. Someguy1221 (talk) 20:37, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Can you post an article

Can you post your own article/page on one person, and write things about them? --Littledonkey786 (talk) 21:42, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, easily. If you search for someone's name and nothing comes up, there will be a red linked labled "Create this article." You should probably read Wikipedia:Your first article, and also the notability guidelines for people. If this person doesn't meet that guideline, the article will probably be deleted. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:48, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

You may write an article about an individual if that person happens to be notable per our guidelines and written from a neutral point of view, that contains no original research and is verifiable by reliable sources. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 21:48, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) :The short answer is "yes." The longer answer involves some of the policies and restrictions involved with editing Wikipedia. Firstly, no one "owns" any individual page. All pages belong to the community, even user pages and talk pages. So, when you create a page, be prepared for it to be edited by anyone else in the community. On the topic of creating pages about a person, the person has to meet Wikipedia's notability requirements. You can find these at Wikipedia:Notability (people). So, if you don't mind other people editing the page, and the person is notable by Wikipedia's standards, you can create a page about them. There are other policies too, which are at Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines. Leebo ^T/C 21:50, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Help using IRC

• #vandalism-en-wp - I have installed ChatZilla now, so I can open IRC with Firefox, but I can't seem to get access to the chat. It says I have to register or something. I'm sorry I'm not more familiar with this stuff.--Urban Rose 21:55, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

  I'm sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious here, but have you read WP:IRC? Bovlb (talk) 00:10, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

To edit article heading

The article titled Mantena Venkata Raju has a typo. It should read 'Manthena Venkata Raju'. Can you please help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by C3pix (talk • contribs) 22:24, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I've moved the page for you. You can also move pages - your account has been around for long enough (4 days minimum). x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:26, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Editing Conflict

I think I understand what an editing conflict is, but why does it delete all the text you've typed when it happens? Is there a way to prevent this from happening? I just typed a question a minute ago and someone posted the same time I did (apparently) and all my text was deleted from the edit box. —Preceding unsigned comment added by --Equilibrious (talk) 22:32, 4 April 2008 (UTC)Equilibrious (talk • contribs) 22:31, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the software can determine the "merged" changes between edit conflicted users. An edit conflict occurs when you "lose out" and your edit is saved after you start your edit. I think this is why it's not possible for your text to be retrieved. There's also the case where you either:

1. Put replies in multiple locations of a thread at the same time
2. Do other things like just reply, such as correct the spelling of your previous replies

Neither of which have an easy mechanism for retrieving your text. x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:35, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I had just posted a question, and when I hit 'Save Page' it came back with 'edit conflict', and all the text I had typed was gone. This has happened to me several times. --Equilibrious (talk) 22:39, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree. But as I said above, there's not always an easy mechanism to return what you typed. Edit conflicts don't just happen because you reply to a thread, but can happen when I fix spelling errors, for example. And how should my text be returned in that case? x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:41, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Below the edit window that accompanies an edit conflict, there should be a "show changes" view and an edit view of the changes you tried to make. If your edits don't overlap with the conflicting edits, you can copy paste from there. Also, if you are trying to start a new thread on a page such as this one, you can click on the + tab at the top of the page to add a section, which isn't affected by edit conflicts. Personally, I try to remember to copy my additions before saving a page, just in case. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

So you have to type everything you just typed all over again, even though there was no error??? Ahhh...I see...thanks!!--Equilibrious (talk) 22:45, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Part of the reason for my question is if an edit / discussion took a long time to type, and someone posts an edit while I'm typing, it seems like the edit conflict shows up (?)--Equilibrious (talk) 22:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

And I think that's about correct. The software cannot guarantee that it can merge both edits so it edit-conflicts the one who took longer. The alternative would be to "lock" sections or articles so that only one person can edit it at a time but I know how this can be abused... x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:45, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I don’t believe the text is actually lost on an edit conflict. As I recall, when I have an edit conflict, there are two text windows in the edit conflict page. I believe that the second contains my edit. I usually develop new text in MS Word. That way I have the advantage of a spell checker, and I can just paste it into the edit window when it is ready. (That’s the reason I’m not certain about the edit conflict page: When I have edit conflicts, my text is still in Word.) —teb728 t c 23:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the text you tried to save is on the edit conflict page. See more at Help:Edit conflict. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:08, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Whenever I experience an edit conflict, I simply hit the back one page button on my browser and it takes me to the original window. Cut and paste your text, go back to the page in question and resubmit. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 01:23, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

That method usually works for me. Note to Equilibrious: the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia does not have a true threaded discussion feature. We are just using an ordinary wiki page here, which works well for pages that change slowly, but shows signs of strain when lots of people hammer on the same page (such as the Help desk). But someday, we may have liquid threads, which may work better for discussion. --Teratornis (talk) 06:14, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

I might mention another possibility: when editing a busy page, open it in two separate browser tabs. You can edit in the first tab, and before you click "Save page", switch to the second tab and reload the page. If the section you are editing has changed, you can copy your text from the first tab and edit it into the latest state of the section in the second tab. --Teratornis (talk) 07:07, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

DRAFT Article Creation

1. If I want to begin a draft article for submission, where / how do I store it until I get it completed?
2. Can someone steer me towards wikipedia formatting instructions for new articles?

Hopefully these questions aren't too dumb. I did search and found plenty on editing, but didn't see much about new articles. Thanks! --Equilibrious (talk) 22:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi! WP:MOS, and if you want, you can draft out an article in your own userpage, or your own sandbox. I hope this helps, Stwalkerster [ talk ] 22:39, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Your first article and links there like Wikipedia:Writing better articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I learned a lot from WP:LAYOUT when I was new. I still refer to it when I have to remember the order of the standard sections (See also, References, External links), although I guess I just remembered them. And then there's Help:Category, Help:Infobox, Help:Template, and oh about 2000 other essential instruction pages. Just read everything linked from the Editor's index and you're good to go. The cool thing about Wikipedia is you'll still be learning things worth knowing even when your edit count is up in the thousands. By the time you learn everything we've got now, our 47,336,959 users will have invented a whole new raft of great stuff. In some ways, Wikipedia is the center of the universe. --Teratornis (talk) 07:14, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism Accusation

I have been accused of vandalism by the user User:Papajohnin for the removal of the image image:BilboTBaggins.jpg from the article Teabagging. I think this is unfair as i felt it was a valid edit - he then instantly accused me of vandalism which is extreme for a simple edit. He then removed my complaint directed at him from his talkpage and undid an earlier edit i made to the Jin Shin Do page, for no reason presumably other than spite. I think that is he that is the vandal, or at least incredibly rude and uncivil for doing this. 77.96.99.100 (talk) 23:32, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I stand by my claim of you making disruptive edits to Wikipedia. You don't just impulsively remove content on a whim when the issue has been decidedly discussed and considered closed. If you have problems with content add to the discussion. The actual reason Mr. 77.96.99.100 decided to delete the image is false anyway as it's for commentary on Halo as it relates to the article not the article in general so his argument makes no sense anyway. He is just trying to find away gratify himself and excuse his childish behavior.--Papajohnin (talk) 23:49, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

The rationale was acceptable for removing the image from the article. Wikipedia encourages being bold when updating pages. Discussion is required when disputes occur, not accusations of vandalism. Leebo ^T/C 23:53, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Please no personal attacks.

If it is a commentary on Halo, why is it on a teabagging page? 77.96.99.100 (talk) 00:05, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely, that's what I'm saying, no discussion took place. It may not have been vandalism now but that still makes it disruptive. 77.96.99.100: Have you read the article? It is in the section dealing with video games - specifically, the act being performed in Halo. Not having an image there is detrimental to the readers understanding - ESPECIALLY since there is no main image with which the reader can identify with, your more than welcome to add one though.--Papajohnin (talk) 02:04, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I can already imagine the MfD over an image like that... :D -- Kesh (talk) 02:31, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

As Leebo says, “Discussion is required when disputes occur.” There was no dispute until you reverted the removal of the image; so it was your job to initiate the discussion. It was your bogus accusation of vandalism that was disruptive. —teb728 t c 02:48, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Removal of content can also be considered as initiating a dispute (since you believe it doesn't belong there). I suggest the two of you both remove the chips from your shoulders and just settle down to a discussion on the article's Talk page to reach a consensus. -- Kesh (talk) 03:13, 5 April 2008 (UTC)