Help desk
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February 25[edit]

Whats wrong with my article?[edit]

Hi I made an article about me. I'm a local rapper and i was just putting up a small piece of my life with absolutely nothing inappropriate. (BanksKarter (talk))

It's not considered a good idea to write articles about yourself or people/organizations you're closely affiliates. See WP:Autobiography and WP:COI for more info. --- c y m r u . l a s s ^{(talk me, stalk me)} 02:34, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Making an article live[edit]

Done I have made an article and would like to make it live. How can I get the article online (i.e., not in my sandbox). Thank you!

Jmgrants (talk) 01:42, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You'll find a down arrow at the top of your article next to "History". When you hover over it, you'll see "Move". Click that and remove the "User:Jmgrants/" from the page title. I've already taken care of it for you. Transmission_Electron_Microscopy_DNA_Sequencing. Great article, good job.--v/r - T P 01:47, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

THANK YOU SO MUCH :D!!!!!!!

Jmgrants (talk) 01:51, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Remove "Redirected from User:name/topic" from new article header[edit]

I just created a page, and the following shows up at the top: (Redirected from User:Jmgrants/Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing)

Currently, when the article is searched for in Google, the title "User:Jmgrants/Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing". When the page is opened, the real title of the article appears "Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing"

How do I get rid of this redundant redirection?

Thank you in advance :)

Jmgrants (talk) 02:05, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User:Jmgrants/Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing is currently a redirect (in the Wikipedia sense) to Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing. Google will discover the new location and update their search index to point directly to Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing when their Googlebot visits the new article. Wikipedia does not control when this happens but it's usually within days and often hours for Wikipedia articles. Until then, it's an advantage that the old location User:Jmgrants/Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing links to the new. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:49, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If incoming links and categories are added to the article then there are more ways for Google to find it and it may be indexed earlier. These should be added anyway to help Wikipedia's readers find the article. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:57, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Eventually, you can put {{db-user}} on the redirect page (your sandbox) and an admin will delete the redirect. Dismas|^(talk) 03:01, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, I'm not even an amateur in what your article is about but is it the same as Transmission electron microscopy? If so, we don't need two articles about the same thing. Dismas|^(talk) 03:04, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To PrimeHunter: Thank you for the information! To Dismas: Thank you for the suggestion. And Transmission Electron Microscopy DNA Sequencing is not the same as Transmission Electron Microscopy--it is a third-generation sequencing technology that is currently being developed which applies the principle of Transmission Electron Microscopy in order to sequence DNA.

Jmgrants (talk) 03:08, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

qustion[edit]

calculate hot and cold temprature after 25 orbit .assume a 100kg sherical spacecraft is in an equatorial orbit.How is calculation different for a spacecraft in a 90 degree polar orbit.124.124.247.141 (talk) 08:14, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for Wikipedia questions, not for your homework questions. CTJF83 08:24, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

publish my article[edit]

I wrote my first article over 4 days ago, but when I search for it, it's not there. How do I make my article visible and searchable on wikipedia? Please help!Pscore911 (talk) 08:32, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What is the article in question? It's possible that it has been deleted, or that you didn't place it in the right place or namespace. If you are new to Wikipedia and creating articles, you might find Article wizard useful, and perhaps reading Wikipedia:Your first article for more info. :-) DARTH SIDIOUS 2 ^(Contact) 08:41, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The article is there, but there is always a delay in updating the index used by the search box. There's a report here that the delay is currently much longer than usual. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:50, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

...but now it's been deleted as advertising. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:09, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with reflist[edit]

Resolved

– Thank you very much!-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 14:28, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

hello,

please solve the problem here; why it says there is no reflist even if there is one. I could not find the problem. Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 10:12, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've solved it with this edit [1]. There were comments in the See Also section above and these were causing the page to render incorrectly. CaptRik (talk) 11:03, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

linked page completely missing[edit]

this subject link

Messinian_salinity_crisis

brings up a totally blank page. It has been referred to in at least two articles, but clicking on this link brings up a totally blank page.

Referenced here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(prehistoric) and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.163.3.16 (talk) 13:27, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Are you still experiencing the problem? The page at Messinian salinity crisis loads fine for me (using Firefox 3.6 on WinXP), including as a link from the two articles you reference, and the page doesn't appear to have been blanked and restored recently. Gonzonoir (talk) 13:54, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

create an article with an existing name[edit]

i want to create an article about air new zealand flight 103 when i search all that comes up is pam am 103 it won't let me create a new article how do I do it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.36.5.201 (talk) 15:11, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's no article at Air New Zealand Flight 103, so you should be able to create it there - though you'll need to have an account registered and be logged in to create it.

Before you start, it's a good idea also to read our guide to writing your first article, especially to establish whether the article's subject is notable (has been the subject of substantial coverage in multiple independent reliable sources - books, journal articles, devoted newspaper coverage, etc. There is some more precise advice about notability for aviation subjects in this essay. If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask again here. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:20, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is now, but it needs a lot of work. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile Wikipedia.[edit]

In fact, what is the relation of en.m.wikipedia.org and mobile.wikipedia.org to wikipedia itself? and why, when i use zh.m.wikipedia.org to visit some articles that with chinese character in their name, and then press the button "view page on regular wikipedia", as when i using android's deafult mobile chrome browser, i get another page with a messed up title? Also, when i finally get into the ppages, and try to click on the textbox and try to edit things in it, why i can't click into the textbox, or even when i can edit it, i can't type anything new in it? At the same time, if i use Symbian S60 and its deafult browser and edit the wikipedia, why the browser not letting me to add words if i not delete sth before first? (i.e. it set the textbox have a upper word limit as same as the character count in the section at that time) And, why when i use wapedia.mobi and press the [edit] link in it, it jump out 404 not found? Also, if i change some character on chinese wikipedia's section edit oage, the coding of whole section would get into mess? At the same time, is there any better method to edit the wikipedia on my phone? C933103 (talk) 16:32, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The wapedia part can I explain: wapedia is a mirror of wikipedia and is a "read-only" wikipedia. if you want to change someting, you have to go to wikipedia.

The rest of problems seem to be problems at your mobile browsers. ave you tried to use another one like Opera mini? mabdul 17:55, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Global account s4 warning[edit]

I have a global account. When I look at Users with name Toshio Yamaguchi on Wikimedia projects, on the left side there is a box titled "status". In this box, an s4 Warning is shown. What does that mean? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 17:11, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it's the server status. If I read it correctly, there are six servers (SQUID servers?) and a sql server. I've seen that warning before as well and I don't think anything is affected. TN X Man 17:31, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c)That doesn't have anything to do with you; it's part of the toolserver menu. It's on the toolserver main page too. I believe (though someone might be able to correct me) that those are various servers, and the box is giving the status of each one. --Floquensock (talk) 17:32, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Article not Appearing in Search Results[edit]

The article Richard Barrett (author) was created a couple months ago. The article appears in search results in the drop down from the search bar, however if you search for Richard Barrett, the article doesn't appear in the list of other Richard Barrett articles. Should it take this long for the article to appear in these results? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rldecker47 (talk • contribs) 17:58, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I add him to the Richard Barrett-list. You could also did this. To this article very few articles links - it is "hard to find". For that reason the "orphan"-tag is there. go and search articles where he could be notice and link him. then were will come more wikipedia users and help improving the article! mabdul 18:12, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

He's there when I Search (as opposed to Go). – ukexpat (talk) 18:30, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

University of London emblem[edit]

This week the new Uni of London logo was uploaded to the Uni of London page, but the old emblem still remains at the top.

Please can someone extract the new emblem from here: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/resources/images/general/logo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.london.ac.uk/&usg=__gHgwhSKNGMKxu2EhVrXzZExakUI=&h=65&w=300&sz=14&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=-DVFbr8B2d3ahM:&tbnh=52&tbnw=240&ei=PfNnTfL_OcK1hAfBzNGvDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Duniversity%2Bof%2Blondon%2Blogo%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1400%26bih%3D935%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=350&oei=PfNnTfL_OcK1hAfBzNGvDQ&page=1&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=87&ty=3

And replace this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:University_of_London_arms.svg

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.25.146 (talk) 18:23, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That may not be quite so easy. If the logo is cropped just to leave the arms, it will be very low resolution and at the moment I cannot find a higher res version of the arms that could be converted to svg format. – ukexpat (talk) 18:48, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What is the difference between the logos? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:49, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can see the differences between versions of the logos here. I think the OP is requesting that the shield emblem be updated to one similar to the stylisation in the logo, but I can't find a suitable image to use, if indeed one exists. – ukexpat (talk) 19:58, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That one is too small for any detail. The shield colors are a bit different. I poked around but don't see a style or brand guide on their site. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 05:15, 26 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with pdf[edit]

Cannot form usable pdf with "Incandescent Lightbulb" article —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.197.217.20 (talk) 19:01, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! Do you mean this link? Seems to be a dead link, I have changed it to point at this archive copy. In the future the best place to bring this is the article's talk page, in this case Talk:Incandescent light bulb. Cheers. Rehevkor ✉ 19:50, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think the OP is having a problem downloading the Incandescent light bulb article as a PDF, at least that's how I read the question. – ukexpat (talk) 20:01, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

identifying authors[edit]

How does one find out who wrote an article on Wikipedia? I would like to use a photo an author has used in a book I am writing. I need to find out if the photo is copyrighted and whether the author will give his permission.Benert (talk) 19:33, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, no one person has written a Wikipedia article, but rather, the articles are the result of a collaborative effort between editors. Images are a little different. Most have been released in the public domain (or otherwise appropriately licensed). You can learn more about a particular image's license by simply clicking on it and reading the description page. TN X Man 19:39, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Au contraire, when I have written an article, I have written the article, until and unless someone modifies it. Edison (talk) 03:55, 26 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See commons:COM:REUSE and WP:REUSE. --Teratornis (talk) 01:53, 27 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation guide[edit]

How can I reset the pronunciation guide? The current setting appears to be something devised for students aged 10 and under. I'm older and need the old-style pronunciation (proh-nun-cee-AY-shun) guide. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.194.166 (talk) 19:36, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All articles use (or should use) the International Phonetic Alphabet, which, although it may look funny, is a fantastic creation of various linguists. For a guide to what each symbol means, see IPA for English. Hopefully you will find that IPA is far superior to using regular letters to transcribe the pronunciation of a word: there are three symbols for the three sounds of a, for instance, and letters do not have to be strung together to represent sounds that do not exist or are difficult to make in English. Xenon54 (talk) 21:34, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt if even one reader in a hundred has a clue how something is pronounced based on the IPA heiroglyphics. I have tried to find out how to pronounce something,from them, but online search only leads to more and more esoteric pages about "subglottal labio-alveolar flap fricatives" or some such gibberish. It is an absolute farce. It is far better to provide a recorded sound sample of the pronunciation. Someday, perhaps someone will take the time to provide a sound generating program which will combine the phonenes and utter the desired pronunciation. Without sound samples even in the IPA article, "proh-nun-cee-AY-shun" would be far superior for 99% of readers. Edison (talk) 03:51, 26 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where does his response go?[edit]

I'm currently working on the 2011 Iranian protests article and i've come across a response to it from Reza Aslan, which I would like to include in the International responses section. However...i'm not quite sure where to put it, since he doesn't work for the government and he himself is not an organization. Should I just put him under United States regardless? Silver seren^C 21:04, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It seems pretty round peg, square hole to list any single person's response under a section that unambiguously calls for reactions of states. One of the arguments you might get against including his reaction at all is on the basis of WP:WEIGHT, and I think this criticism is more easily drawn where his one voice is being listed in the same section for the reaction of whole nations. You could maybe make a new section entitled something like Reactions of scholars?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:33, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Scholarly responses sounds like it would work, since i'm fairly certain there's been other responses from scholars out there. Thanks for the response, you raised the exact point that I was concerned about. I'll see what I can do. Silver seren^C 23:47, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Glad to help.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:12, 26 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Misinformation[edit]

I'm pretty new to all this, but can I please flag this entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacamas_Lake It looks as though somebody is trying to remove accurate information from the Dead Zone section. There's a link to the basis of the article that I found here: http://www.co.clark.wa.us/water-resources/monitoring/lakemonitor.html

I've got no vested interest here except that I don't like the idea that somebody is actively trying to hide an environmental issue nearby. Better out in the open: I believe that's the power of Wiki, isn't it?

Can somebody who knows how this works make sure this joker doesn't get away with deleting information?

Thanks Wikipedia People

Matt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.214.187 (talk) 21:47, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I reverted a series of bad edits. I don't see the article having a recent history of problems other than this one spate of edits by this one editor back in January and I don't see an ongoing problem with this editor, so I think for now there's nothing more that needs to be done. Thanks for catching the problem! DMacks (talk) 22:53, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2011 EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION[edit]

on the above article, in the "Naming" paragraph, the last sentence reads "My penis is very large." I believe that this information is irrelevant to the article.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.54.59.70 (talk • contribs)

I checked the article, it had already been reverted by User:Logan. Feel free to remove such vandalism yourself in the future. Rehevkor ✉ 22:47, 25 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]