Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 February 9

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< February 8 << Jan | February | Mar >> February 10 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


February 9[edit]

Global account username change[edit]

I was known as User:DCI2026 on all wikis until a few months ago, when my username on the English Wikipedia was changed to User:DCI. However, my other accounts still have the username "DCI2026." I've tried using Special:MergeAccounts to combine all of them, but that doesn't help at all. Do you have any idea how I can change all of my accounts to the username DCI? dci | TALK 00:03, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think you need to rename each of them (that you want to keep) by requesting rename separately on each project and then unify them under the new name. You may have a problem renaming your Spanish Wikipedia account because there is a User:DCI (is that you?) on Spanish Wikipedia. —teb728 t c 00:19, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Could I successfully apply to change them all back to DCI2026? dci | TALK 01:47, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know that there is any facility to change them all at once. However, rather than making a name change request with the admins at every project, you might make a list of the projects you are especially involved with and ask a m:steward to change you on each one (stewards, unlike admins, have the power to make such changes on multiple projects). I have found this page: m:Steward requests/Username changes but they seem to limit requests to only changes on wikis with no bureaucrats. You might try asking a friendly appearing steward who acts there anyway, explaining the problem.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:22, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I'm going to try this: I'm going to change my username here back to DCI2026. Then, I can consolidate all of the accounts using MergeAccount, and see if I can get a steward or bureaucrat somewhere on Wikimedia to change everything to DCI, usurping the dormant Spanish and Chinese "DCI" accounts that have no connection whatsoever to me. dci | TALK 02:25, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Google 'Define British Person'[edit]

If you google 'Define British Person', the top entry is a vulgar profanity, and perhaps the most offensive word in the English language. The first link brings you here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt

If it is possible to pervert wikipedia in such a way, then it is wide open for any kind of abuse.

Does anyone know how to stop this, and remove the offensive smut from the 'Define British person' problem?

PS. I am actually of Franco-German descent.

Contact Google about it. - Purplewowies (talk) 00:28, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
See also #Definition on Wiki of "Evil" above (or Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 February 7#Definition on Wiki of "Evil" when it gets archived). Wikipedia is not perverted just because that article happens to be shown by Google on a particular search. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:39, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia is not associated with Google. However, what you are describing could be a result of the quite sad bombing of Google. 71.146.12.197 (talk) 05:27, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Just to clarify: the problem is on Google's end, not Wikipedia. Try this imperfect analogy: If you get in a taxicab and ask the driver to take you to church, and instead you end up at the pub, you don't blame the pub for being where your church is supposed to be, you blame the taxi driver for taking you to the wrong place. Google is the taxi driver that took you to the wrong place. Ask them to fix it. --Jayron32 05:31, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What template to use?[edit]

If I wanted to copy the information in a section into another article, and I wanted to gain consensus first, what template should I use to notify users of the copy proposal? I thought about {{merge}}, but I wasn't sure if that was right. - Purplewowies (talk) 01:00, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which section and other article? Would you keep everything in the original article after it had been copied? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Specifically, I wanted to copy the "Today" section of History of deaf education in the United States to the article Education of the deaf, since the destination article doesn't really have much of an explanation of the various methods. The source section will probably have the other methods that it currently doesn't have added before copying. Right now, I'm unsure whether it would be best to leave the original section alone after copying or to shorten it to cover the bare basics. - Purplewowies (talk) 02:18, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There is no process like merging or splitting for copying material from one page to another. Just note it in the edit summary making the copy, with a link to the original article. However, making a pure copy does not sound ideal to me here, and the two versions would probably evolve differently unless somebody monitors the articles and copies each change. Wikipedia:Summary style may be relevant instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:49, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing[edit]

How can I add reference to article? --Master Sun Tzu (talk) 01:39, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Read Referencing for Beginners to start. If you have more questions after that, let us know. RudolfRed (talk) 02:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled section[edit]

Dear Sir,

With great pleasure I log on to Wiki every morning and read an article and quite regularly am blown away with the facts of the world. Today, I decided to read about hydroelectric dams but have come to note that perhaps the articles on the The Gorges Dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam) as well as the list of largest hydroelectric power stations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_hydroelectric_power_stations) may need to be updated. For example, the list of the largest hydroelectric power stations article states that it is only on plants with capacity larger than 2,000 MW are listed. I read that the Bakun Dam in Malaysia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakun_Dam) is planned to generate 2,400 megawatts (MW) of electricity once completed and it came online on 6 August 2011. Shouldn't the Bakun Dam then be included in your article on the list? And the Three Gorges Dam article states that six additional turbines in the underground power plant were not expected to become fully operational until mid-2011, which was six months ago. Has there been any new developments?

Wiki is amazing. Thank you for enlightening the world :)

Have a great day! Salmah Ariff (talk) 04:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you see something that needs to be improved, please Be Bold and fix it. You just need to find a reliable source for the information and add it to the article. RudolfRed (talk) 04:49, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I received a Wikipedia:Articles for deletion for my three articles I created List of plasma (physics) articles, List of laser articles and list of infrared articles but I cannot find out how they determine if the article should be deleted, I checked deletion process and some others, is it based on it's votes or Wikipedia rules which is more important. And where can I send some kinda request to undo it, because they qualify WP:LIST. If it gets deleted do these articles get another chance.Shawn Worthington Laser Plasma (talk) 04:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your “If it gets deleted do these articles get another chance” question, you should read Wikipedia's policy on recreating articles that have already been deleted. 71.146.12.197 (talk) 05:15, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Math codes[edit]

Is there any page which can help me on <math></math> codes. I want to add an example, and I need a help page for these tags? --Extra999 (talk) 05:21, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Displaying a formula. --Jayron32 05:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thxx. --Extra999 (talk) 05:33, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How do you display a Coat of Arms in an InfoBox?[edit]

I'm editing the Article on Beta Beta Beta, which is an honor society and academic fraternity for biology majors. I can not seem to display Triple Beta's Coat of Arms in the InfoBox, as is consistent with other Articles on Greek-initialed organizations (academic as well as social or service). (See Articles on Alpha Epsilon Delta and Sigma Tau Delta for support of that argument.)

I have a copy of the Coat of Arms saved, and I do believe this would fall under fair use for informational/educational purposes. The question is: How do I upload it so that it displays? The Mysterious El Willstro (talk) 07:12, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see you have uploaded files to Commons. Upload the crest to Wikipedia (not Commons), and use the crest=[[File:"image name"]] parameter of the infobox to display it. —teb728 t c 07:35, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
And use {{non-free logo}} for the tag and {{non-free use rationale logo}} for the non-free use rationale. —teb728 t c 07:53, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I want to congratulate El Willstro for understanding the difference between a coat of arms and a crest (heraldry). I'm sorry that so sound (and helpful) an editor as teb728 does not know the difference; but it's an incredibly widespread confusion. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:43, 9 February 2012 (UTC) (I geek heraldry)[reply]

I'd just like to say it is a tough fight. I'm on the National History Committee for my fraternity and the National Office *still* uses the term Crest when they should say Coat of Arms.Naraht (talk) 17:11, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Whatever the design is called, the parameter in Template:Infobox fraternity is "crest". —teb728 t c 19:06, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Broken thumbnail[edit]

The approximate present-day distribution of the Indo-European branches within their homelands of Europe and Asia:
  Italic (includes Romance)
  Celtic
  Non-Indo-European languages
Dotted areas indicate where multilingualism is common.

This image's thumbnail at 300px only loads about a quarter of the way before stopping. 299px and 301px work fine. Is this happening for anyone else? I have tried purging with no success. Hayden120 (talk) 09:25, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it's broken at my end too. BTW if it is a browser issue I'm using IE9 on WIN7. Roger (talk)
Fine for me - Firefox 8.0.1 on Vista -- John of Reading (talk) 10:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, it appears to be fixed now... not sure what changed, but it's fixed. Thanks, Hayden120 (talk) 10:13, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
...Hmm, it appears to broken again. Odd. I'm using Google Chrome, for what it's worth. Hayden120 (talk) 02:51, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I purged the page on commons (that took ages), then the file description page here, then this help desk page, and that seems to have fixed it again. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:48, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

why is my edit continuously deleted?[edit]

Is it bcos wikipedia is not for the truth but favours only biased one sided facts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.109.125.128 (talk) 12:09, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No, it isn't because of that. Wikipedia is based on the principles of verifiable information and neutral point of view If you could give us some idea of what edits you're talking about then someone might be able to explain why they were reverted. (IP has no contribution history apart from this entry.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:29, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A lack in Languages..[edit]

Hello to everyone,

I was looking for the poincare conjecture and because it would make more sense to me if i read it in my own language which is Greek i checked at the language stack on the left side of the screen and i was amazed when i figured out that there is no Greek there.

Is there anything we could do to change that even with my contribution??

Thanks for the understanding,

elliott kappa — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elliott kappa (talkcontribs) 13:52, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The language links on the English wikipedia article point to articles on other wikipedia sites. Each language has its own instead of having lots of languages all on the same wikipedia. http://el.wikipedia.org is the Greek one. So you could search that site to see if there is an article on this topic--maybe it exists and just needs to be linked from the English one. For example, are any of these [1] a starting-point? If not, anyone could start to write the article on the Greek site. Maybe someone could help translating the English one? DMacks (talk) 14:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
See also Wikipedia:Translation and el:Βικιπαίδεια:Μεταφράσεις. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:09, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There is an article el:Ανρί Πουανκαρέ about Poincaré himself, but that is only a stub and doesn't mention the conjecture, so it looks as if nobody has yet written an article on the conjecture in the Greek Wikipedia. --ColinFine (talk) 11:48, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Glue[edit]

We are having trouble editing this page Araldite (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

We would like to update it as Araldite have some new details. When we have uploaded new content it keeps saying it has been deleted. How do we go about resolving this? Allaboutglue (talk) 14:06, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The links you are adding are contrary to Wikipedia's external links policy, which is why they keep being removed. Try discussing your additions on the article talkpage instead. Yunshui  14:09, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
In addition, your use of the pronoun "we" suggests that your account is being used by more than one person - this is not permitted; see the policy on usernames. Yunshui  14:10, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
... and you were also removing, without giving any reasons, existing material that was sourced to references. Please read about Wikipedia's policies on verifiability and reliable sources, and read WP:Referencing for beginners. If the existing material is sourced in that way, you need to give good reasons (in your edit summaries or on the article talk page) for removing it, and you need to ensure that anything you add in its place is adequately sourced. - David Biddulph (talk) 15:13, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
... and the material you are inserting is blatently promotional: "Araldite® in your daily life": "Recognized as the strongest and most durable adhesive in the consumer market,..." Please read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. It looks to me like you are here for to promote this product; that is not is not permitted. —teb728 t c 19:54, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User contributions[edit]

Where would I find the discussion on the recent changes to the template at the bottom of the "User contributions" page. Evidently a tool that I frequently used (edit count, and most importantly, pages created) was deleted from toolserver.org because of user inactivity. I would think there would be some discussion about this, but I'm evidently not bright enough to find it. Thanks! 78.26 (talk) 14:29, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here [2] is the history of that page, so you can see who removed what and why. If a service is using an account or service via some third party and that account gets suspended or the tool somehow else becomes unusable, makes sense to me that it gets removed. Maybe someone else will pick up running one or more of those now-unavailable services? See Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard#X!'s bots. DMacks (talk) 14:33, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Many thanks, that's just what I needed! For what it's worth, there's also discussion at the Village Pump. 78.26 (talk) 14:41, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Blue background[edit]

As i was browsing wikipedia, every single background changed to light blue as you can see from the picture attached. How can i go back to the classic white background? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cos93 (talkcontribs) 17:46, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see no picture attached. Your choice of skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering can affect background color. The default Vector should be white. Do you also have blue background on articles like Dheftera or only on "Wikipedia:" pages like Wikipedia:Skin? If it's only the latter then you may have set the skin to MonoBook. You can also try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry but i could not upload the picture. As per your question, every single Wikipedia page has a blue background and the default and selected skin is Vector. I tried clearing my cache, history and, cookies but nothing changed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cos93 (talkcontribs) 18:18, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is it the same when you log out? Can you try another browser for comparison? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:40, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I tried with Interent Explorer and it works so I'm guessing the problem is because I am using a dev edition of Chrome.

That may be it. I just tested Google Chrome. It updated itself to 17.0.963.46, the current stable release, and I see white background on articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Uninstalled and re-installed Chrome everything works now. Thanks for your help Cos93 (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Double vote[edit]

Can some one block this sardar for casting double vote? --Repitile1 (talk) 17:56, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Sherepunjab

he added a vote without a reason

making this ID to cast another vote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Gabrupunjabi

here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Pakistan#Support

--Repitile1 (talk) 17:56, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly don't see any suggestion that Sherepunjab (talk · contribs) and Gabrupunjabi (talk · contribs) are in fact the same person, even if they did !vote "support" in the RfC on Talk:Pakistan/Archive 14#Pakistan has been characterized as "failed state" from last 4 years. Do you have any evidence to warrant further investigation? Astronaut (talk) 18:17, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See the time of vote for both ID and second ID was created after that and see the similarity in their account name both are Punjabi, from Indian Punjab from edit history of one as he is editing Sikh article. The second ID voted after I asked a reason at the poll. Both ID names mean almost same. --Repitile1 (talk) 18:33, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The place to report suspected sockpuppetry is Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations. —teb728 t c 19:27, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The aim of Request for comment ensures WP:NOVOTE policy, so closing admin will certainly look into this. --SMS Talk 20:39, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Web Page Format[edit]

I don't know why but I get a weird format and font when I open Wikipedia recently. I'm talking just in termso of viewing the Wiki site.

I use Firefox 1.9.2.4410. It worked fine but just recently changed. Is there a way to get the default web page settings? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.28.224.49 (talk) 18:03, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Try to clear your entire cache. If that doesn't work then try to describe more accurately what you see. Logged out users should always get default Wikipedia settings. Logged in users can change various things. You were not logged in when you posted here. Are you logged out when it happens? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Review[edit]

Hello. I have indicated a willingness to review Constantine Lekapenos and Stephen Lekapenos at GAN. The author requested that the same reviewer perform both reviews, as "the bulk of the text" is the same in each. I have found this to be true after reading both of the articles, and am a bit confused. In the case that both are of GA quality, I don't feel that I should promote two of the same thing to a more exclusive category. So, I'm wondering if I ought to suspend the review, propose a merge of both articles, and then go back to reviewing? What do you think? dci | TALK 18:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Revision History Statistics Broken?[edit]

The revision history statistics link from the view history page seems to be broken for all articles. What happened? — Preceding unsigned comment added by KlappCK (talkcontribs) 19:01, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The owner (User:X!) of the tool's account on the Toolserver retired from Wikipedia, so his account expired. I'm certain it will get fixed sooner or later. jonkerz ♠talk 19:23, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It said soxred93 on my machine? thanks for the reply though.KlappCK (talk) 19:26, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
soxred93 is one of his other nicknames. I forgot to post the links to other discussions: #User contributions, Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#"Edit count" and "Articles created" links and Wikipedia:Bot owners' noticeboard#X!'s bots. jonkerz ♠talk 19:28, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

trouble with code[edit]

I am having trouble removing code from a sidebar on this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Melapatella/Manoj_Bhargava

Can you please help? Thank you, Melanie — Preceding unsigned comment added by Melapatella (talkcontribs) 19:10, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

 Fixed, here is a link showing how it was done. jonkerz ♠talk 19:12, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to locate article in search function[edit]

I was able to find the below links via a Google search but when I search within Wiki for either "Chicago Human Rhythm Project" or "Lane Alexander" neither article appear. How can I make them searchable?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CHRProject/Chicago_Human_Rhythm_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CHRProject/Lane_Alexander


I tried to add a redirect on the article but that didn't help.

I also noticed a Red link reference to Chicago Human Rhythm Project in another article (see below) but the link shows as "page does not exist"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Brown_%28dancer%29

Thanks, Bridget 19:55, 9 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by CHRProject (talkcontribs)

User:CHRProject/Chicago Human Rhythm Project and User:CHRProject/Lane Alexander are userspace drafts; you have not published them to article space. —teb728 t c 20:07, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
BTW, your username is problematic because it seems to indicate a connection to the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. Your username should represent you as an individual. —teb728 t c 20:10, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Broken edit statistics[edit]

I have used http://toolserver.org/~soxred93/pcount/index.php?name=Mortense&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia for a few years to get an overview and statistics of my edits. But today I got this message:

403: User account expired
The page you requested is hosted by the Toolserver user soxred93, whose account has expired. Toolserver user accounts are automatically expired if the user is inactive for over six months. To prevent stale pages remaining accessible, we automatically block requests to expired content.
If you think you are receiving this page in error, or you have a question, please contact the owner of this document: soxred93 [at] toolserver [dot] org. (Please do not contact Toolserver administrators about this problem, as we cannot fix it—only the Toolserver account owner may renew their account.)

Is there a chance it will come back into operation? Or is there an alternative? --Mortense (talk) 20:33, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See This discussion at the Village Pump for more information. UltraExactZZ Said ~ Did 20:45, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]


You can alternatively use: http://toolserver.org/~tparis/pcount/index.php?name=Mortense&lang=en&wiki=wikipedia , which displays the correct stats. --Extra999 (talk) 04:19, 11 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That works great. Thanks! --Mortense (talk) 00:04, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User John Petrov's image source website seems to be getting deleted[edit]

Looking at this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chesmabattle.jpg, I tried going to the link for the Source/Photographer, and at that link it says his material has been deleted and he has 30 days to undelete it. This may be OK, but I thought it might be useful to let him know in case it is an oversight.

I don't know how to find other users on Wikipedia. I think I found him on LiveJournal, so I signed up there just for the purpose of sending him a note, but can't send him notes there without paying. So it's up to you! :D

Good luck, and I hope this is helpful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gar37bic (talkcontribs) 21:17, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You refer to http://lj.rossia.org/users/john_petrov/491883.html. I haven't found signs that John Petrov is a Wikimedia user. [3] shows many images have been copied from http://lj.rossia.org/users/john_petrov but by different users. One of them made this post: [4]. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:30, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Republicanism in the United States--a bright shining lie masquerading as an encyclopedia article[edit]

I call on honest american wikipedia admins to get involved and prevent a takeover of wikipedia by paid rightwing flacks, for example in this article. A real patriot wouldn't write this squeaky-clean whitewashing pap. It's obviously written to be associated in the mind of the reader with the Repubnlican party. My guess is the authors are the "scholars" at the American Enterprise Institute.--Richard Peterson198.189.194.129 (talk) 21:22, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I may be the person who has brought the most Republicans to FA, but I have never dealt with party philosophy. Can you leave your objections on the article talk page?--Wehwalt (talk) 21:30, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, this is an issue about content of the article, now with how Wikipedia works. You'd be welcome to discuss on the article's talk page where you think the article is "white-washing" things, as long as you don't turn it into a forum or political discussion. --McDoobAU93 21:32, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No it's not just about the content, it's also about how wikipedia works, which is why I wrote the above. Many articles are swamped with teams of paid contributors. If that is going to be adequately dealt with, note has to be taken at places like the help desk, where admins from many specialties hang out. This is a wikipedia-wide issue and shouldn't be fenced off in a "free speech zone" like a talk page. To Wehwalt: What is "FA"? Thanks. 198.189.194.129 (talk) 21:58, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
With all due respect, it is indeed what's on the page. If you have an issue with it, raise it on the talk page. Or, better yet, be bold and make the appropriate changes. Better still, since I'm sure there are just as many "leftwing flacks" (to use your term) as there are "rightwing flacks", maybe this belongs on the Village Pump instead. --McDoobAU93 22:02, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)Where are you getting this information that articles are "swamped with... paid contributors"? I thought Wikipedia was (basically) against paid contributors, since they usually have a COI. Also, for the meaning of FA, see WP:FA. One more thing: this isn't the main place you would take something up with a admin. In fact, only one out of the three (including myself) who have replied to you is an admin. I'm a non-admin contributor who does not get paid to contribute. - Purplewowies (talk) 22:06, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I looked up WP:FA and i had actually thought of FA as "featured article" before, but his (Wehwalt's)sentence didn't make sense to me if he meant featured article and it still doesn't. ... Yes, with all due respect I think it's more than just the article, it's the wikipedia project and its perversion, which is an issue that doesn't belong only on an isolated talk page. Yes, almost all of us, including me, are unpaid contributors. But "almost all wikipedians", since there are perhaps 300,000 frequent wikipedians, doesn't preclude large numbers of teams of focused, paid flacks, each team of which can readily control an article. Also, I don't think there are as many, if any at all, paid leftwing flacks on wikipedia. Because for one, there isn't someone to pay them. I do appreciate and thank you all for your responses.--Richard Peterson198.189.194.129 (talk) 03:25, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Local info[edit]

At some point recently, I thought I saw that there was an effort to have more local information on Wikipedia, i.e less notable info. I think there was a project for a particular city (I know that there are wikiprojects for various cities, that's not what I'm talking about). It seemed to me to be like a local wiki, but on mediawiki servers. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?Greg Bard (talk) 21:39, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you mean by mediawiki servers. A wiki is a type of website. MediaWiki is our wiki software. It is also used by thousands of unrelated external wikis. Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation which runs several other projects with MediaWiki. Do you mean it was a wiki using MediaWiki, or a project run on Wikimedia servers? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:52, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I mean it is being hosted on Wikimedia Foundation websites, not something like WikiSpot.Greg Bard (talk) 21:59, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps you saw Wikipedia:GLAM/MonmouthpediA which has been in the news recently. MilborneOne (talk) 22:06, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. That is exactly what I was looking for! Now I am wondering if there is a different standard of notability for this type of thing (Monmouth has only about 8000 people), and how I can start one for a community I care about.Greg Bard (talk) 22:16, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The stuff I've been seeing the Monmouthers add has mostly been things like listed buildings and other features that are pretty clearly notable. (It's a small town, but it has plenty of history.) The U.S. equivalent would be NRHP sites, I suppose, which are also almost always considered notable. I don't think anybody wants every local Thai restaurant or anything; the usual rules for notability apply even for such local projects. Deor (talk) 00:12, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

check my work?[edit]

I'm looking to post a autobiography for a living musician and am doing so with his permission. my previous page was deleted and I'm not sure why? can any one review this and give me some tips? this is my first time on wiki so I'm flying blind here! thankyou

Macario De Souza

Macario De Souza

Born to Macario Snr and Maria De Souza on the 14th of June 1983, Macario is the youngest of three children. Macario Snr and Maria immigrated from Minas Gerais, Brazil in the mid- seventies and settled in Sydney, Australia where they still live today. During Macario’s childhood his father taught him to play guitar and ensured a strong traditional Brazilian musical influence in Macario’s and his two sisters, Glenda and Ingrid’s lives.

Growing Up:

After attending Matraville public primary school, Macario went on to complete his HSC at south Sydney high school, graduating as school captain. During his time at south Sydney high school Macario took an active lead in his musical and film skills development. “ I was always in and out of punk rock bands in school but it wasn’t until the bra boys film that I got the chance to professionally record my music” Macario also displayed and interest in film from around the age of 14 when he borrowed his sisters Hi-8 camera. After that Macario often went out and filmed his best mates Mark Mathews and Richie “Vas” Vaculik surfing at Maroubra beach.

Education:

After high school, Macario was in the minority of his circle of friends, who applied and were accepted into university. “Maroubra is a party town. It is very easy to fall in that trap. I put in the hard yards at a crucial period through my teens. While everyone else was on the drink and on benders every weekend, I was putting in the work.”

Maccario went on to study film and music production in a bachelor of fine arts degree, majoring in time-based art at the university of new south Wales, Fine Arts College. After graduating Macario put into action the idea’s that had stemmed from his childhood and teenage years of friendship and looking after your brother’s with his first feature film “bra boys”. Shot locally in and around Maroubra and edited in his family’s modest apartment near Maroubra beach, “Bra boy’s” is a documentary encompassing the lifestyle and ideals of the bra boy’s brotherhood. It portrays members of the “bra boys” during difficult times in their lives and reflects on both the benefits and difficulties of growing up in Maroubra. Narrated by Russell Crowe “bra boys” also features three of Macario’s original compositions in the soundtrack, which were written and recorded for the film.

Beginning of Success:

After the success of “bra boys” Macario began building his brand, marketing himself with his music under the name of “Kid Mac” and continuing to gain experience in the film industry. Since graduating university Macario has produced two short films “ours” and the “hard way”, the feature length documentary “bra boys”, two eight episode seasons on the reality television show for Foxtel “football superstar” and the six part documentary called “south side story” featuring Russell Crowe and the battle for the Rabbitohs football club.

Fighting Fear:

In 2011 Macario completed shooting his second feature length film “Fighting Fear”. The film features Macario’s two best friends and fellow “bra boy” members that he grew up with, big wave surfer mark Mathews and Mixed Martial Arts champion Richie “vas” Vaculik. The film “fighting fear” depicts the challenges of growing up with a kind of “gang mentality” influence on the male youth of Maroubra and how Richie and mark redeemed themselves in the eyes of the law and their own minds after countless personal success’s in each of their professional careers and personal lives being hampered by mistakes made under the influence of alcohol and reverting to the ways of their youth. Macario describes the film as “ a story of friendship and redemption” and attributes his own experiences growing up to the passion behind “fighting fear” and his desire to be an ambassador against the dangers and easy trap of alcohol and drug abuse, especially in the youth of Maroubra and surrounds area’s.

Over all:

Throughout the last eight years Macario under his stage name “Kid Mac” has collaborated musically and toured with many Australian and international recording artists including;

  • Mat McHugh and The Beautiful Girls (Aus)
  • Mickey Avalon (USA)
  • Marcello D2 (Brazil)
  • Bliss N Esso (Aus)
  • The Game (USA)
  • Natiruts (Brazil)
  • WU-TANG (USA)
  • Lil John (USA)
  • Dirt Nasty (USA)

Macario also remains a strong ambassador for the education of youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. In September Macario, Richie “vas” Vaculik and Mark Mathews were feature on the ABC’S show Australian story. The episode highlighted how each of them had turned their lives around after alcohol related incidents as teenagers and the sometimes life long consequences that can ensue. In February Macario took on the challenge of Feb Fast 2012 to raise money for alcohol related danger awareness.


Macario will release his first LP in April of 2012, which has been four years in the making.


Film History:

Ours 2004 • Mambo snap off the lip surf film festival award 2004 • Youth Week film festival award 2004 • Tracks Surfing Magazine DVD compilation

The Hard Way 2005

• Mambo snap off the lip surf film festival award 2005 Bra Boys 2007 • Narrated by Academy Award winner Russel Crowe • Best Documentary Film ink Awards 2007 • Best Documentary X-Dance movie of the year • Best Documentary Surfer poll awards 2008 • Best Documentary Huntington Beach Surf Film Theatre Festival • Best Picture Mostra Film Festival Foot Ball Super Stars 2009/2010 South Side Story 2011 • Narrated by Russel Crowe Fighting Fear 2011 • Theatrical Release November 2011 • Best Performing Aus Documentary in Australian cinemas 2011 • Narrated by Award Winning Australian Actor Joel Edgerton • Features international 11 time World Champion Kelly Slater, BJ Penn, Bruce Irons and more.

References: http://blog.cofa.unsw.edu.au/?p=7149

                  http://fightingfearthefilm.com/macario-desouza.htm
                  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2530692/
                  http://www.stabmag.com/individuals/macario.php
                  http://www.kidmacmusic.com/
                  http://www.southsidestory.com.au/Who-is.html
                  http://www.trespassmag.com/fighting-fear-interview-with-macario-de-souza/

http://kmmovement.com/

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lharriet1 (talkcontribs) 23:43, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Previously deleted:
  • 01:01, 25 July 2009 Alexf (talk | contribs) deleted "Macario De Souza" ‎ (A7: No indication that the article may meet guidelines for inclusion) &
  • 08:34, 7 March 2008 Jmlk17 (talk | contribs) deleted "Macario De Souza" ‎ (A7 (group): Group/band/club/company/etc; doesn't indicate importance/significance)

References should be Independent Reliable sources. Dru of Id (talk) 23:57, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any indication of why he would be notable enough for an article. —teb728 t c 00:06, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Also note that autobiography is strongly discouraged here, and so is editing to publicize a friend, lover, relative, client, boss, etc.. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:16, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]