Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 July 21

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July 21[edit]

Need help with misc questions[edit]

  • Need help with putting on pictures non the top right of the page (please try to dumb it down!)
  • Does a picture have to be in PGA. Form to post it on wikipedia?
  • How to make one of those charts (mostly in police and fire departments articles on the top right hand corner under the picture that explains the year established,No. Of apparatus/vehicles, How many workers,EMS level,chief,stations ect. Look in the Boston fire department article and you should see what I am talking about.

Thank you for looking at my question Sincerely, 2000navy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.25.213 (talk) 00:03, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! Much of the work at the top right of many pages is done through templates. The two templates to which you are referring are Template:Infobox fire department and Template:Infobox law enforcement agency. You can find these and any of the other thousands of templates on wikipedia by clicking on the "Help" link on the side of any page and perform a search with the "Template" box checked. For example, if you type in "fire department" with the template button pressed, the first entry that pops up is the template to which I just referred you.
I can't stress enough the value in reading Help:Template for someone asking your quesrtions. Happy editing, hajatvrc with WikiLove @ 00:48, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Also, to answer your question about the accepted formats of images, please read Wikipedia:Image_use_policy#Format. Happy editing, hajatvrc with WikiLove @ 00:54, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Grrrrrrr..... Who wrote Bejeweled Twist is designed (wrongly) by George Fan and Laura Shigihara? 125.235.109.177 (talk) 02:35, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your suggestion regarding Bejeweled Twist. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). BurtAlert (talk) 02:40, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

MystBot keeps removing zh: link from new article[edit]

Left-behind children in China is a new article in which I've tried to add a link to zh:留守儿童.[1][2][3] User:MystBot keeps removing the link.[4][5][6] User talk:Myst doesn't seem to be maintained and my French isn't good enough to chime in at fr:Discussion utilisateur:Myst. I gather from {{Bots}} that I could exclude the bot, but I'd rather understand the problem. What's going on here? Thanks, Melchoir (talk) 03:00, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason, the interwiki script doesn't think that zh:留守儿童 exists, which is why it is trying to remove it. See the bot output below. (From my interwiki bot, Avicbot)
Bot's thinking

Avicennasis@Mil-Euclid $
 python interwiki.py -lang:en "Left-behind children in China"
Getting 1 pages from wikipedia:en...
[[Left-behind children in China]]: [[en:Left-behind children in China]] gives new interwiki [[zh:留守兒童]]
Getting 1 pages from wikipedia:zh...
NOTE: [[zh:留守兒童]] does not exist. Skipping.
======Post-processing [[en:Left-behind children in China]]======
Updating links on page [[en:Left-behind children in China]].
Changes to be made: robot Removing: [[zh:留守兒童]]
- [[zh:留守兒童]]

ERROR: Found incorrect link to zh in [[en:Left-behind children in China]]
However, after I did this edit, (using the copy-pasted title from ZhWp,) and re-ran the page, it found it to be correct, left the link in place, and added the EnWp link to the ZhWp article. Presumably, all updated interwiki bots should also leave the link alone.
Also, as a side note, you don't have to speak certain language on talk pages of different Wikipedias. I've done a lot of multi-lingual edits, and no one has ever complained to me about leaving a note in English for a user outside EnWp. :-) Avicennasis @ 06:29, 19 Tamuz 5771 / 21 July 2011 (UTC)
Wow, I couldn't have hoped for a better response! Thanks! Melchoir (talk) 06:47, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Confusing wikitext[edit]

I wanted to make a minor change to this template, but the wikitext seems totally incomprehensible. Where would I find the actual text displayed in the template? I'm not a new editor - I'm surprised I've found myself here. Quinxorin (talk) 04:17, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The template appears to be at {{Usurpation requested}}. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of {{Usurpr}} is. Ryan Vesey contribs 04:23, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The only difference is that {{Usurpr}} automatically appends your signature. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:57, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with the reference tags[edit]

I have got some problems with the reference tags at Michael Pearl. Could somebody help me?--HannahLiberty (talk) 07:40, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've matched the <ref> and </ref> tags. I'll leave you to tidy up the rest of it. - David Biddulph (talk) 07:49, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you.--HannahLiberty (talk) 07:51, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You may want to look at WP:REF. - David Biddulph (talk) 07:53, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Or better WP:REFB. Regards.--♫Greatorangepumpkin♫Share–a–Power[citation needed] 10:35, 21 July 2011 (UTC)--♫Greatorangepumpkin♫Share–a–Power[citation needed] 10:35, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Question again: Notability[edit]

I have written an article about Lydia Schatz, which has been suggested for speedy deletion, because she is only notable as a victim. This is true. On the other hand her death received a lot of media attention. Would Death of Lydia Schatz be an article that could be notable? How could I change this articles name? --HannahLiberty (talk) 08:46, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, articles about crimes should usually be about the event, not the person, but this depends on the focus of the reliable sources. See WP:CRIME and WP:SINGLEEVENT for more information. After moving, please rewrite the article to focus on the event, make sure you maintain absolute neutrality, take note of due and undue weight, and provide as much reliable sources as you can. Nevertheless, I believe that the nomination for speedy deletion is incorrect. -- Obsidin Soul 09:02, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Someone has made a redirect from Lydia Schatz to Death of Lydia Schatz (which looks like it has only 1 reliable source, so needs more). -- Jeandré, 2011-07-21t09:16z
The child's name is not mentioned in the CBS article. It comes from the whynot site which doesn't seem to be a reliable source. You should add a verifiable, reliable, published, 3rd party source for the girl's name, or the article should be deleted. -- Jeandré, 2011-07-21t09:27z, -- Jeandré, 2011-07-21t09:31z
Even a cursory google search verifies the name. I am adding additional sources.-- Obsidin Soul 10:48, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Google's crawling of secure.wikimedia.org.[edit]

Searching the English Wikipedia with google for "foo" <http://www.google.com/#q=site:en.wikipedia.org+foo> gives 15 200 results, but doing the same search on the secure site <http://www.google.com/#q=site:secure.wikimedia.org+foo> gives only 1 hit. I expected the latter to give many more since it would be for all the languages, and that I'd have to include a "inurl:/en/" like: <http://www.google.com/#q=site%3Asecure.wikimedia.org%20inurl%3A%2Fen%2F%20foo>.

Turns out that <https://secure.wikimedia.org/robots.txt> requests no crawling. Anyone know why, and why there is still 1 hit (searching for anything seems to show only 1 hit). -- Jeandré, 2011-07-21t09:16z

If the search engines indexed the secure site as well as the ordinary site, wouldn't that cause everything to be listed twice in the search results? But that's just a guess - you may get a better answer if you ask at Village pump (technical). -- John of Reading (talk) 09:54, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I put it there (I felt HD was the wrong place but couldn't think of the right place) and your possible answer. Thanks.
Future comments at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Google's crawling of secure.wikimedia.org. please. -- Jeandré, 2011-07-21t14:26z

Template_talk:Infobox_television#creator[edit]

The creator parameter at {{Infobox television}} is not working. I have dropped a note at Template_talk:Infobox_television#creator, that has gone unanswered. Can someone here look at the code and see what is going on.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 10:14, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Replied at Template_talk:Infobox_television#creator -- John of Reading (talk) 10:25, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. It was a coding mistake. I replied there.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 11:05, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback on a template[edit]

Is there a place where I can receive community feedback on a template I have created, something like WP:RFF but for templates? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 10:33, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm assuming you mean Template:Stock exchanges in Germany. I recommend asking in the WikiProjects the template would fall under. Probably WP:WikiProject Finance and WP:WikiProject Business. The template looks pretty straightforward though.-- Obsidin Soul 10:42, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that's the template in question. I will post at the talk page of these WikiProjects. Thanks Obsidian. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 10:48, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy Watchlist[edit]

hello,

I need a tool which watchlists every article in a category. For example Category:Blues musicians, I want to watchlist every article listed in this category and/or in its subcats.--♫Greatorangepumpkin♫Share–a–Power[citation needed] 11:13, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Install AWB. Using "Source: Category (recursive user defined level", choose how many levels deep into the category structure you want to go. Hit "make list". When finished, right-click on the list and "save list" to your computer. Then on your watchlist click "edit raw watchlist", then copy and paste the content of that saved list. BencherliteTalk 11:20, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
See also Help:Related changes. I think this question is becoming FAQish. DMacks (talk) 11:34, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much!--♫Greatorangepumpkin♫Share–a–Power[citation needed] 12:03, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Using interactive Flash animations to illustrate articles[edit]

Hi! Is it possible to use interactive flash illustrations to illustrate some articles? In many cases it would be so much better than a static image or an animated gif. I'd be happy to develop a few, already have some ideas. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.238.223.91 (talk) 11:17, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the offer. Unfortunately, Wikipedia does not support Flash and my understanding from the following two discussion is that it will not, at least any time soon: 1 2. But there's lots of stuff that needs doing. Why not sign up for an account and then lend your skills in other areas?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:49, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
There *are* animated images used that are used on Wikipedia. See Category:Featured animations for some of the best. I have *no* idea what software is used to produce them, but if you go to individual images, they should include who uploaded them and probably what software is used..

Picture he[edit]

SomervilleNew.jpg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.25.213 (talk) 13:17, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a question about a specific file or image? I was unable to find a file of that name here on Wikipedia or at Commons. Can you provide a link to the url of the file like this [http://www.wherethefileislocated.com]? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 13:43, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
A Google search turned up [7]. Unfortunately I cannot see deleted pages, as I am not an admin and thus cannot see what the image in question was. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 13:56, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The entire content of the article was "[[File:Example.jpg]]SomervilleNew.jpg|thumb|Somerville Fire Department patch"--Jac16888 Talk 14:04, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WHERE IS "invisible hand" mentioned?[edit]

In the Book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, I read everywhere on the Internet that economists, authors, and writers reference to Adam Smith's book about his observations about the economy and the "invisible hand", but WHERE IN THE BOOK IS THIS MENTIONED? all the economists, authors, and writers reference to the "invisible hand" mentioned by Adam Smith, BUT WHERE IS IT IN THE BOOK, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations?

ANY HELP FROM ANYONE?.....my email: (Redacted) HISMERCYTOME (talk) 14:10, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Page 240 of the Capstone Classics edition, ISBN 9780857080776. Hope that helps. Yunshui (talk) 14:15, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gio-Goi pronounciation[edit]

Hello,

I'm writing from Gio-Goi Ltd and I'd like to report a mistake in the pronounciation present in the article. The correct pronounciation is /giːoʊ ɡɔɪ/, not /dʒiːoʊ ɡɔɪ/ as written. Can you please fix it? Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by ERee (talkcontribs) 14:11, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gio-Goi (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I have edited the article. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:27, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Suppression of the External Link icon?[edit]

Resolved

On a page like List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 127, the entries in the Citation column link externally to places like http://openjurist.org/127/us/1 , However, they don't have the "arrow going up and right out of the square" icon indicating an external link. I appreciate that this comes out of the SCOTUSRow template, but I don't see anything in the template that would particularly do that. Any ideas on how to make an external link that *looks* like an internal link the way that this does?

I think this comes from the parent template {{SCOTUSTable}}, which contains the class "plainlinks". I can't work out where on Wikipedia it's documented, but this Mediawiki page sort of explains it. --Kateshortforbob talk 14:35, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the start in finding info after further research, for less table-ish usage, a single entry can be done that way with Template:Plain link .

Email[edit]

Hello Everyone!

I can not fully setting up, the account that I created. I can not finish in authenticate the email I registered in the account, and I can not have the full benefits.

Still, I have followed all the steps listed in the text of 'my preferences', no email has arrived.

How I can authenticate the email address, then?

Your e-mail address is not yet authenticated. No e-mail will be sent for any of the following features.

Thanks for your time. Fernando. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Muses' house (talkcontribs) 14:27, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Details of the e-mail confirmation process are at this Wikimedia address. Have you been through those steps, and have you received a confirmation e-mail and replied to it? - David Biddulph (talk) 14:40, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c)
Sometimes the email ends up in the spam/junk mail folder of your email account, so you may need to check there if you haven't done so already. Has it been a long time since you requested the confirmation email? I've sometimes had to wait several hours (and once, a day) to receive a confirmation email - it may just be delayed. The main benefit of having your email confirmed on Wikipedia is that you will be able to recover your account if you forget your password; you do not need to have your email authenticated in order to edit articles. --Kateshortforbob talk 14:45, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Albert Pyun Article - Please Cease and Desist[edit]

Albert Pyun (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

It has been brought to my attention that article purporting to be about me exists on your site. Beyond the fact that it has erroneous and libelous information that is unverified and slanted by those who have hijacked the page. The page is controlled by those from Guam or live in Guam in an attempt to smear me because they are trying to discredit my upcoming testimony on Guam that will lead to criminal charges of these individuals . I will be asking my attorney to look into your site to seek damages incurring to my reputation by the posting of libel and slander.

best, Albert Pyun <email redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.142.195.13 (talk) 15:51, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The article is not controlled by any one group of people. In any case, if it really is that bad, we'll clean it up on our own. We have a strict policy against what you described if it's in a living person's article, like that on you.Jasper Deng (talk) 15:57, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And you have been reported for making legal threats. – ukexpat (talk) 16:16, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If you actually knew the policy you cited, you would have noticed that its section What is not a legal threat makes note of WP:Libel:
Wikipedia's policy on defamation is to immediately delete libelous material when it has been identified. If you believe that you are the subject of a libelous statement on Wikipedia, please contact the information team at [email protected].
Rather than "reporting" a newbie with a concern, you should have pointed him to WP:Libel and the the information team's email address. Know the policies you're citing, dear "established editor", or please don't cite them. --213.196.193.4 (talk) 17:46, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I took a look at the article in question. In the two paragraphs discussing the situation on Guam, *every* sentence has a reference, and the references appeared to be in a well cited form. While I did fix one missing close quote, without diving into each reference, I can't find anything else.Naraht (talk) 16:33, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, Jasper, there is an SPA editor who has been adding negative info to that article. User:Readyforanderson says on their user page "Ready for the ANDERSON AIR FORCE BASE! That's me". Anderson Air Force Base just happens to be in - wait for it - Guam. Delicious carbuncle (talk) 16:38, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think that was excessive weight on the item, and contained too many unanswered assertions from one side of the story. I just trimmed it _way_ down. --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 16:39, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For whatever it's worth, there is essentially a longstanding slow burn edit war on Mr. Pyun's page between those who love him and those who hate him. I've taken a stab at cleaning up the article a wee bit (a lot of it is out of my scope) in the past but it continues to draw SPAs on both ends of the spectrum. Really it's ajust a problem child of an article. I, for one, would appreciate some more experienced eyeballs on it. At this point, I pretty much just watch it for the really, really, awkward stuff. Millahnna (talk) 09:27, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tense of "to star" in film articles[edit]

I've now seen a couple of articles where, like in Cinema Verite, the lead is set in present tense ("is a film", "follows a fictionalized account of [...] "), with the exception of "to star" ("the film starred").

I'm not a native speaker, so I'm not sure whether this may actually be correct. Is the "starring" of actors something related to the release of a film in a temporary way? In other words, is the use of the past tense for "starred" in those leads correct? --213.196.193.4 (talk) 17:14, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tenses should be consistent where appropriate. I'll take a look when I have a moment. – ukexpat (talk) 18:36, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That's a good question. I probably wouldn't have noticed the seeming clash of the tenses between the first and second sentences of the lead in Cinema Verite. Which is to say I don't think the error, if one exists, is especially glaring. We could phrase those sentences in a number of ways. I suppose one could rationalize the current phrasing by saying that as long as the film exists, it will always be a film of 2011, so one could say in the future "it is a film of 2011" but "it was a film created in 2011" would be just as correct in the future. "Starring" might be more analogous to "performing" as in something an actor can only do at the time when the film is made, although one could still speak of an actor "starring" in an old film. The reader would have to understand that the film captures and preserves the actor performing the act of starring in the film, so we might refer to that preserved action itself in the present tense, even after the actor is long dead. I.e., we might view the film as a window into the past, bringing a piece of it into the present. One could say "Fred Astaire dances with Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio", or "danced with" would also be acceptable. The former refers to what we see by viewing the film again, and the latter implies the historical action that took place at the time of filming, which can never actually happen again. --Teratornis (talk) 18:46, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PDF for Book Creator always blank[edit]

Basically the PDF seems to generate/render ok 1% 2% etc. through 100% then I get a blank page.

I then had to make an ODT file which came out ok but not as nicely formatted as a PDF would.

I have a 50 page book I really want to print as PDF... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlesmarkcarroll (talkcontribs) 18:07, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There seems to be some problems with the PDF renderer currently. See if the above responses to a similar problem helps you.
Otherwise, you can report this to Help:Books/Feedback. You can also chat real-time with the developers by clicking this link.
Another workaround might be to render a printable version, copy-paste it to a text editing software (like Windows Word), make sure to choose the keep formatting of source options, and simply export as a PDF.-- Obsidin Soul 18:23, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why is there a quote mark (") right before the table at List of Nitrome Limited games#Main games? 199.66.146.123 (talk) 19:10, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(And could someone please fix it? :) 199.66.146.123 (talk) 19:11, 21 July 2011 (UTC))[reply]

 Done Happy editing, hajatvrc with WikiLove @ 19:21, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! 199.66.146.123 (talk) 19:24, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Creating Alternate Pages for Major Cities[edit]

The White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanics would like to create new wiki pages (community profiles) for the following cities:

Phoenix, AZ/ Tucson, AZ/ Inland Empire, CA (Riverside, San Bernardino)/ Long Beach, CA/ Santa Ana, CA/ Miami-Dade County, FL/ Albuquerque, NM/ Las Cruces, NM/ Las Vegas, NV/ Providence, RI/ Rio Grande Valley, TX (Brownsville)/ San Antonio, TX/ Fresno/Merced or Salinas, CA/ Los Angeles, CA/ Sacramento, CA/ San Diego, CA/ San Francisco, CA/ San Jose, CA/ Denver, CO/ Bridgeport, CT/ Hartford, CT/ Orlando, FL/ Chicago, IL/ Kansas City, KS/ New York, NY/ Philadelphia, PA/ Austin, TX/ Dallas, TX/ El Paso, TX/ Houston, TX/ Laredo, TX/

Is it possible to create, for example, a new wiki page for San Antonio with the following content list:


1. Number of districts and universities
2. Data and demographics
3. Sectors Impacting education
3.1. Key players
3.2.Non-profit
3.3.Local government
3.4.Federal government
3.5.Philanthropic
3.6.Grassroots
3.7.Private/business
4. Trend analysis
5. Federal Grants


More specifically, is it possible to create this new page with the New Page Header "San Antonio (Hispanic Community Profile)" or some other variation?

We have created these community profiles and want to put them on the web (they're about 17 pages as a PDF). Ideally, we want to provide direct links from our page to these new pages. Is this possible? We're also open to other suggestions. HispanicEd (talk) 22:01, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia doesn't work that way. We would welcome some additional, well-referenced information to the articles on these cities. However, creating an entirely new set of encyclopedia articles just to present an alternate viewpoint isn't generally allowed at Wikipedia. However, you can create your own website running the Mediawiki software and set this up yourself; you can also use the service Wikia which greatly simplifies the process of creating your own Wiki. Considering what your goal is, I think your best option is to set up your own independent Wiki using one of those two options. Information on using Mediawiki can be found at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki and information on using Wikia can be found at http://www.wikia.com/Wikia. Good luck! --Jayron32 22:47, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Another advantage of creating your own site is that you could control who was allowed to edit it. On Wikipedia, conversely, anyone can edit any article. Do you even want collaborative editing of your articles; I wonder if you really want a wiki at all. —teb728 t c 23:15, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, as TEB728 points out, the whole point of Wiki websites is the use of collaboration to build content. If you've just got a bunch of city profiles you want to publish on the web, there are LOTS of other ways to do it, many much simpler than using a Wiki, which has a LOT of excess functionality it doesn't sound like you may need, if all of these pages already exist as PDFs. There are PDF-to-HTML converters, and you could just publish the information using a standard, non-Wiki website. --Jayron32 23:21, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Wikimedia has helped government before. See Intellipedia. Rmhermen (talk) 23:27, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just for your information: What Rmhermen says is absolutely false. Intellipedia is NOT run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 23:34, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Probably he meant MediaWiki. —teb728 t c 23:40, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just as an aside for the new people, the terms can get confusing, so here they are:
  • A wiki is a type of website that allows people to use the web for collaborative editing of documents. Wikipedia did not invent the term or the concept, and it was not the first wiki. It happens to currently be the highest profile wiki in the world, but that would be like assuming that the Disney Corporation somehow invented the concept of animation simply because it makes a lot of well known movies. Wikipedia:Don't abbreviate Wikipedia as Wiki has more info.
  • Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia built on the wiki model. Despite its high profile, it is still just a specific type of reference work, that being an encyclopedia and there are lots of things that Wikipedia isn't, though its high profile leads people to assume that it is more than it is. See Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation (note the "m") is (sometimes called just "Wikimedia" or just "The Foundation") is the umbrella organization that manages all of the various Wikipedias in existance (there are several hundred, each for different languages) as well as other reference works like Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikisource, etc. and it also manages a file repository known as "Wikimedia Commons" (usually just called "Commons"). Decisions regarding an individual Wikipedia are managed almost completely "in house" at the Wikipedia itself, by the volunteers who edit it. Decisions regarding the entire enterprise of free knowledge managed by Wikimedia are handled at the Foundation level.
  • MediaWiki is the specific brand of wiki-software that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites are run on. It is not the only wiki software, indeed Wikipedia itself hasn't always used it. It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, and is availible under free liscence, so that anyone who complies with the license can use it free-of-charge (it is both "free as in speech" and also "free as in beer"). While all Foundation websites use MediaWiki, there are also lots of unrelated websites that use it too.
  • Wikia is a commercial service for developing and hosting Wikis. Think of it as something like "Geocities" or "Tripod.com", but for wikis. It was founded by the same person who founded Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, but it is run as a completely seperate entity (just like Steve Jobs founded both Apple and Pixar Animation, but ran them as seperate entities).
I think that should clear up any possible confusion. --Jayron32 00:37, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]


Wikipedia is not here to further your noble cause. It has become increasingly evident that this role account is being used by the White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanics, a government agency involved with "HISPANIC EDucation" to publicize and further its own agenda, rather than to improve Wikipedia. --Orange Mike | Talk 02:45, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

AfD deletion process step 3 not working for me[edit]

The third step in Template:AfD_in_3_steps fails to create a valid entry for me in the watchlist using the page names Baylonian astrology or Babylonian_astrology for the list entry and edit summary. Given that everything else is copy-pasted, what could be going wrong? Regards. Peter S Strempel | Talk 23:53, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's no reason why going though the AfD steps would automatically add something to your watchlist, unless you have prefs set to "Add pages I edit to my watchlist". Watchlisting stuff is up to the individual.  Chzz  ►  23:58, 21 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Not in my watchlist, in the AfD watchlist/log/artciles for deletion log. Peter S Strempel | Talk 00:13, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm? Your nom of Hellenistic astrology (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) is in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2011 July 21. What is missing?  Chzz  ►  00:19, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(I just formatted it a bit better with this edit)  Chzz  ►  00:25, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The problem was at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Babylonian astrology. You actually did right in step III. Your error was missing {{subst:afd2 | pg=PageName | cat=Category | text=Why the page should be deleted}} in step II. Among other things, this creates a heading on the nomination page and that heading is needed to be included in the table of contents at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2011 July 21. I have fixed it. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:25, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both for your time yesterday/today. Regards Peter S Strempel | Talk 06:14, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You may want to consider enabling the Twinkle gadget in your preferences. It automates all of the Afd creation steps. – ukexpat (talk) 14:17, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]