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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 13

March 14

Assistance with creating an account and error made

Hi,

I added an article to Wikipedia travel page under heading of SLEEP. There was one other property her: Merimbula Motor Lodge. Anyway, I manage to enter article correctly, then went back through edit to make a small change. Believe I tried to underline a word. I am not sure what I did or why or how it happened, but when I 'saved' I discovered that both the Merimbula Lodge article and what I had typed in as 'Capri Apartments'were NOT as they were previously - appearance is now totally different and can only read a small portion of both articles. Sorry, I do not know how to fix: can you help me? Also, I tried to create an account without success: kept coming up with error message saying ....no such name. Can you please explain how I create an account/log in? Sorry to be a pest!

Sincerely,

Jennie Knight Capri Apartments Merimbula <email redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.33.165.63 (talk) 02:00, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Go to Special:UserLogin to create a account. DES (talk) 02:12, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
In response to your first question, I can't find the page you're referring to. The only edit made from your IP address 203.33.165.63 is to ask these questions, so your IP address must've changed since you made those changes. What is the exact title of the article you edited? If you can, please create an internal link to the article by adding [[ and ]] around the title. For example adding [[Article]] creates Article. Thanks! --Mysdaao talk 02:37, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
I can't find the article either. I found Merimbula, New South Wales but nothing on a search for "Merimbula Lodge". DES (talk) 02:46, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
found it http://wikitravel.org/en/Merimbula#Buy that is on wiki travel, which is not part of wikipedia. i fixed the formatting error. DES (talk) 02:56, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Click the "Create one" link at Special:UserLogin to create a Wikipedia account. Wikitravel and Wikipedia use the same software but are unrelated sites and not run by the same organization. There are lots of Wikis. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:02, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Subcategory

alt= Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 19:18, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Why isn't Category:Films set on an airplane showing up as a subcategory of Category:Aviation films? I thought the Seealsocat template might have been responsible, but taking it out had no effect. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:33, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

I see it. Did you click "next 200" to get to subcategories starting with F? PrimeHunter (talk) 03:36, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Hah! I thought subcategories were all lumped together on the first page. Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:55, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Mechanics of adding a comment to help improve a Wikipedia article

How do I get to a place,page, or window within Wikipedia which allows me to type in, and then post, a comment on a particular Wikipedia article intended to help improve it? (I have created an IP account under my nom de plume with which I'm signing this post.) There is a space under the article which can be called up by clicking Discussion, and that space already contains several such comments by other people. But I'm 'hanged' if I can find any way or route which enables me to add my own comment. Any help on this, much appreciated - and (within reasonable limits) the more detailed and step-by-step the advice, the better. James No Blames 14 March 2010 —Preceding unsigned comment added by James No Blames (talk • contribs) 12:53, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
At the top of the discussion page you mention (known as a "talk page") there is a tab labeled "new section". Click this tab, fill in a title in the "Subject/headline" box, and then type your message in the large box. Please consider reading the talk page guidelines before posting. Xenon54 / talk / 13:12, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) If it's unrelated to the existing comments then click the "new section" tab at the top (it may be a link placed elsewhere or say "+" instead if you have changed preferences for your account). A few talk pages are protected and will not have the link for a new user like you. Which article is it? See more at Help:Talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:13, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
And a useful tip: to sign your comments quickly and easily on a talk page and produce a timestamp, just type four tildes after your comment like this: ~~~~ and the software will sign and date your contribution for you. Don't sign your contributions to actual articles, though. Karenjc 16:26, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Backward "R"

I noticed that the Fred Figglehorn article conains a backward "R" an was wondering how this can be made. Mr. Prez (talk) 15:53, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

See Ya (Cyrillic). You can simply copy that character, or type it (for example, using a Russian keyboard layout), or use the HTML entity. --Martynas Patasius (talk) 16:00, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
I found this method also works[1]--intraining Jack In 16:03, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
(e/c*2) Я is part of the Cyrillic alphabet, which is used to write Russian, Ukranian, Serbian and other Eastern European languages. You can get an Я in the character box under the edit window. Click the "Insert" drop-down menu and select "Cyrillic", and Я is located on the second row in the last "block" of characters. Xenon54 / talk / 16:03, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. Mr. Prez (talk) 16:06, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
I'd just like to correct something - Я is not used by the Serbian language. Cheers! --Магьосник (talk) 20:11, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi

Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Андрей. Я хочу использовать в английской Википедии. Можно ли научить меня? Я ношу подгузников много времени. Где я могу начать редактировать Wikipedia? --RealentPottage (talk) 16:20, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
http://ru.wikipedia.org Xenon54 / talk / 16:26, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
I need russian speaker on this website please? --RealentPottage (talk) 16:32, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Пожалуйста, прочитайте Wikipedia:Tutorial (Википедия: Учебник), и вы также можете прочитать Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome to Wikipedia (Википедия: приветствуя комитета/Добро пожаловать в Википедию). Однако, если вы не понимаете по-английски, это будет очень трудным для редактирования в английской Википедии. Вместо этого попробуйте Русская Википедия которые здесь, как другой человек говорил выше. Я сделал эту должность с помощью программы перевода компьютера, и я надеюсь, что это не слишком искажены. удачи.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:53, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

WMRO-AM Radio, Gallatin, TN

To: Jimmy Wales:

The information on WMRO Radio, is somewhat wrong. I ask that you correct some of the information, due to it is killing my business. First thing, the station is on the air, 24/7. The wrong log is on the page. The Logo has changed.

You may reach me at <tel# and email removed>

Please help this little business out! Thanks for your time.

Scott Bailey Owner/Operator WMRO Radio, Gallatin, TN —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.13.241.254 (talk) 16:36, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello Scott. Jimmy Wales probably doesn't look at this page (he might - who knows?) Many volunteer editors look at this page, to answer questions.
You can edit the page, just as you did this page, to remove any errors. You should be aware that editing an article you are closely associated with is frowned on, as you are likely to have a conflict of interest; but removing incorrect, unsourced information from the article will certainly be acceptable. If you were tempted to add material (especially if it is not sourced by an independant reliable source, that would be more problematical, and you would be better advised to post on the article's talk page, saying what you think should be added (with references), so that an uninvolved editor can add it. --ColinFine (talk) 18:56, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Instructor wanted

Quesiton:

How can I find an instructor (for pay) to show me step-by-step how to upload an article on Wikipedia? and other functions fo Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Taghzieh (talk • contribs) 17:37, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello Taghzieh. I don't know where you can find somebody who would want paying. If you go to Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User, you'll see how you can put out a request for a volunteer Mentor. Perhaps one of them would be happy to be paid! --ColinFine (talk) 18:59, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia is -- and always will be -- free. You will never need to pay an instructor. I recommend you take a look at the tutorial or the missing manual, which is literally the a book on Wikipedia. Xenon54 / talk / 19:11, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Also, we generally don't "upload" articles, we edit them. "Uploading" refers to content created elsewhere, such as images. It is permissible to upload text content from another source only if that source is Free content. Otherwise, the text we add to Wikipedia is in our own words. See Idea-expression divide. What content do you want to add on Wikipedia? Be aware that Wikipedia does not want most knowledge, only a particular subset of it. Many people come to Wikipedia with wrong ideas about what is allowed here. --Teratornis (talk) 20:50, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
The only "upload" of an article would be to write it in plain text on Notepad and then create-and-paste. That's not really necessary, as you can do that within a newly-created article, provided you remember to scan-and-copy before you hit "save", in case the site wacks out. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:20, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Login question

Hello Wikipedia staff,

The Log in says I have an account but says the User name is already established, but will not direct me on how if so do I get or change my password to it.

Please Help, <e-mail redacted> ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.44.225.100 (talk) 20:24, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Maybe you chose a user ID that someone else had already set up. Try going to that user page and see if anything is there already. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:25, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
What is the username? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:25, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Template states

alt= Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 19:18, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

I have a navigation template, {{modelling ecosystems}}, which contains two sections. The first section defaults to "autocollapse" and the second section defaults to "collapsed". On some articles, such as Photosynthesis, there is already a navigation template which should take precedence, and I want to collapse both sections on my template. On other articles I want to reverse the states, so the first section is collapsed and the second section is expanded. How can I pass parameters which achieve this? --Epipelagic (talk) 23:13, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

To collapse both sections, set |expanded= to something other than the value of |abbr=. If these two values are equal, the |state= parameter is overridden. You may wish to make different parameters (i.e., |state1, |state2, etc.) for the state of each section, for greater flexibility. Intelligentsium 23:30, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Thank you very much!--Epipelagic (talk) 23:46, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

March 15

Vandalism Level on all pages

Is there some way to set up CSS or Javascript to make a note withe the current vandalism level appear on all pages. I want to move away from essentially solely vandalism fighting and work on content as well, but want to know when vandalism is high so I can help in the fight. If someone can help me with this somehow, I'd greatly appreciate this. Thanks! 03:02, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you seen {{Vandalism information}}? PrimeHunter (talk) 03:18, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
I have. I want a way to put that information on every page somehow. Is there some javascript for that?Hamtechperson 18:23, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
You can translude the template on your your user page, is that what you mean? – ukexpat (talk) 19:17, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
I want to find some way to make the information show on every page. Can someone code this for me please, or is this not possible? Hamtechperson 21:45, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
I'd prefer User:Barek/Wdefcon to be the style used. Hamtechperson 21:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Template_messages/Maintenance

alt= Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 16:25, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
In the information for the "copyvio" template on Wikipedia:Template messages/Maintenance, it says "If you have just labeled this page as a possible copyright infringement, please add the following to the bottom of Wikipedia:Copyright_problems/2010_March_15/Articles", while on Wikipedia:Copyright problems it says "Put new article listings in Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2010 March 15." The latter edit seemed to work, in that it put the information onto the bottom of Wikipedia:Copyright problems, while the other addition didn't seem to have any effect. I guess I need to clean up at least one of the two additions I have now made. Thanks in advance. –Syncategoremata (talk) 03:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Hi Syncategoremata. The template is expected to be placed in the offending article and only then do you follow the instructions inside. The link in the display at the template view page in the form "/articles" is an artifact of its placement there and is not expected to be used ever. In other words, next time place the template in the article in the form {{subst:copyvio|url=http://www.example.com}} and then follow the instructions inside the template. There was a minor complication here because the url is blacklisted so I had to fiddle with the formatting to place. I have deleted the other page and placed the template for you in the article on Science and technology in Iran. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:45, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Ah, my bad. Many thanks for sorting that out for me and for deleting the bogus page I created in error. I've added something to the talk page of that article to explain the situation too. –Syncategoremata (talk) 16:20, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

A few questions

Hullo, I been editing on Wiki for a few years now and have a few questions please:- I know the hierarchy is ordinary readers/registered editors/administrators but who administers on the administrators? Are there 'super-administrators' ? ( Is there anybody higher than this rank? ) If not how are disputes resolved when two administrators disagree? How many editors and administrators are there? Thanks for the answers in advance.

(Not sure if I should be asking this here or at the Village Pump. )  SmokeyTheCat  •TALK• 06:18, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello, there are Bureaucrats after Administrators, then Stewards after that. As for the number of users and such-like: Special:Statistics should help you :) SS✞(Kay) 06:44, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
See also Wikipedia:User access levels but note that higher user access doesn't give power to decide over others. Wikipedia works by consensus. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:01, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
And see Wikipedia:NOTWIKI. --Teratornis (talk) 18:34, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello!

alt= Resolved: on Belinda's talk page. SS✞(Kay) 06:41, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
My name is Blessing-light, but I have a short question. I used to work here, but semi-retired, and now I've come back and changed my user name to work more nicely and helpfully to wikipedia. I hope I can do well here. I also work in seWP (simple english wikipedia) in the name "Belinda", but I am a rollbacker there. I want to be a rollbacker in English wikipedia, too, please, but how do I request for it? :) I'm sorry for bothering you with these questions! Belinda ♥ 06:28, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Colors

Where can I look at a list of colors for different tables of different seasons of an episode list? Mr. Prez (talk) 11:07, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
If you are looking for colors to use in a table, you can find them at Web colors or List of colors. But please read Wikipedia:COLORS before using them. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 12:14, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Existing 'summary boxes' in articles

Hi. Can anyone tell me how to go about editing an existing summary box? I'm referring to the text box on the right hand side of most wiki entries.

There is an obvious one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Day-Lewis Under children, there are 2. however reading the article ("paragraph 5 of personal life") there are the names of 4 children. (I know that this is the case, as my dad is one of the 2 children not mentioned, my uncle being the other!)

Hope that this hasnt been asked before - I searched the FAQ for 20mins before I resorted to this! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spirodefiero (talk • contribs) 11:31, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

The summary box is called an "infobox" - that might help you searching. It's best just to name children in the infobox that have an article written about them. The other children are mentioned in the article. Thanks for contributing to the article, but please bear in mind that it could be considered a conflict of interest and it may be best to make suggestions at the talkpage for the article (Talk:Cecil Day-Lewis). Also, everything must be verifiable, so it's best to add references to reliable sources. Even if you know something to be true, our readers need to be able to verify information for themselves. One last thing, everything needs to be neutral and in a proper tone for an encyclopedia. I don't doubt that your dad (or uncle?) is or was a proud father, but it's probably best not to say that here.
Otherwise, thanks for contributing and I hope you stick around. Feel free to ask any more questions you have. Regards, --BelovedFreak 11:39, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Infoboxes are in the lead section which can be edited by clicking "edit this page" at top. Infoboxes are used by assigning values to fixed parameters for that infobox as in Template:Infobox writer. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:56, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Editor's User page and talk page are both redirects to article space

alt= Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 19:15, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Hi! I'm uncertain where to go with this... I've noted that another Editor has set his/her User page to be a redirect to an article and his/her talk page to be a redirect to the talk page of an article. The User Page is "unusual" but I don't see a fundamental issue with. The talk page redirect seems to me to be a problem - plenty of room for confusion. I'm not sure if it was deliberate or accidental.

Absolutely no evidence of vandalism, trolling or whatever by this editor - though I do need to contact them to discuss if there is a copyright issue with one of their contributions.

Should I report these redirections? If so where - admin noticeboard? And where do I leave the courtesy note to the editor that I'm "reporting them". On the article talk page - see what I mean about room for confusion.

Or should I "be bold" and overwrite the redirect on the talk page???

Thanks Cje (talk) 16:34, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:USERPAGE is very clear about User Talk Page redirects: "User talk pages should not redirect to anything other than the talk page of an account controlled by the same user". It appears to be silent on the subject of User Page redirects. Gandalf61 (talk) 17:06, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Well that clarifies the rules. Next step? Do I go in and edit, or should I bring to an admin's attention? I'm leaning towards the latter because it would probably be a good idea to clean up the linked talk page too. Cje (talk) 17:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
I would just leave a friendly message on their talk page (effectively removing the redirect in the process) informing them of the relevant guidelines. You could also mention that redirecting their userpage to an article is quite confusing. Maybe they haven't heard of Wikipedia:OWN either, so that might be informative as well. I don't think an admin needs to get involved unless for some reason they become uncivil or belligerent. —Akrabbimtalk 17:18, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
OK - will proceed as you suggest. I think this thread can be closed. Cje (talk) 17:24, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Mass-moving articles

Is there a tool or bot that will help simplify the process of moving a large amount of articles (almost 1,000) based on categories or page name prefixes? I am planning to propose a mass rename for the districts of Thailand, which currently are named Amphoe <Name>, to <Name> District to be in line with Wikipedia:ENGLISH and Wikipedia:PLACE, but would like to know more regarding feasibility first. --Paul_012 (talk) 16:50, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Nope. Moves require a human because of the complications involved in fixing double redirects, sort keys, and the fair use rationales of images in the pages (so they list the new article title and don't appear orphaned). See Wikipedia:RM/CI. I recommend making the request on behalf of a segregated number of articles, say fifteen, to test the waters. If that results in a precedent, then move on to dealing with a larger request. It is very difficult for those coming to a request to digest and come to a considered decision when the request involves a very large number of articles, and often such requests are defeated because someone will point out an exception, and rightly argue that the request is too broad—where one exception exists, other may but no one can be expected to go through over 1,000 articles to analyze each.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:28, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Recreate a deleted article

The article "Steinway D-274" created on March 13, 2010[1] was deleted today by User:Binksternet. The article was – against the Wikipedia proces – deleted without noticing the creator of the article. Furthermore, the article was deleted before anyone could make the requested changes and before a discussion was started on the discussion page.[2]

How do one recreate this new article? Fanoftheworld (talk) 18:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

:Leave a message on User talk:Binksternet and ask if they will undelete the article to your userspace so you can work on it. Assuming it was not a copyvio there shouldn't be a problem with that. – ukexpat (talk) 19:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)Should read the history more closely! – ukexpat (talk) 19:14, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

(e/c#2) The article was redirected, not deleted. This can be done if a consensus is reached on the talkpage (it appears this is the case); notification of the article's creator is not required. You may revert the redirect, but I would strongly advise against doing so without beginning a discussion with Binksternet and others first -- this situation could easily descend into an edit war if is is not dealt with carefully. Xenon54 / talk / 19:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Emily Austin Perry -- Adding picture

To Helpdesk:

While I work hard on getting research done, I'm kinda new at doing the photos. There's a photo from a local museum (Brazoria County Historical Museum) of a portrait of Emily Austin Perry. The photo is found at http://www.bchm.org/Photos/P83-006-0024.jpg and elsewhere online. Another picture is found at http://www.bchm.org/Photos/P89-006-0015.jpg (the historical marker) for her at her grave.

I would like to upload these to wikipedia commons but I could not answer all the questions or get it done without getting some kind of warning about copyright. Can you assist me? Thank you,

Bull Market Bull Market 19:06, 15 March 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bull Market (talk • contribs)

For help at Commons, please ask at the Commons Help Desk. – ukexpat (talk) 19:12, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Can't post a question to user:nawlinwiki

I need to start a discussion about a page that user:nawlinwiki deleted but the "edit" link is not active when I view that user's talk page. Any insight is appreciated. Amandagjohnson (talk) 19:50, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Try this direct link to post a message – ukexpat (talk) 19:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)[Will write out 100 times "I must research more carefully"] – ukexpat (talk) 20:29, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Ok his page is semi protected ..meaning only established editors can post to his page...If you like post what you would like to say here ...and we will post a notice on his talk page that links here.Buzzzsherman (talk) 19:55, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) User talk:NawlinWiki is currently semi-protected as someone has been vandalizing it a lot lately; usually we don't protect user talk pages however it sometimes becomes necessary to stop persistant vandals who are trying to dodge the system. Since it is only semi-protected, you will be able to edit it as soon as you become autoconfirmed, which happens as soon as your account is 4 days old and you have made 10 edits with it. If you have some question that cannot wait until that time, you can ask it here, and someone can drop a note for NawlinWiki to check it out; or maybe someone else could answer it. --Jayron32 19:57, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
I take it NawlinWiki will refrain from using admin tools in any situation which might entail an IP or non-autocinfirmed user needing to contact him? It really is unacceptable for an admin to use tools while unavailable for communication. DuncanHill (talk) 20:44, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
The easy solution is for NawlinWiki to create a sub-page from his talk that has no protection, and link to it on his main talk page. Whilst I agree admins should be open to communication, the somewhat harsh tone of your comment Duncan belies the reality of the ammount of abuse and vandalism that occurs on admins talk and user pages. Pedro :  Chat  20:53, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
The page is less than semiprotected, see Edit filter 233. Amanda should be able to post there now, and I have so advised her. NawlinWiki (talk) 21:21, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

How do I get a page in Wikipedia?

A competitor of mine is listed here-I want to be also. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rick_Pierchalski&printable=yes How do I do this? There is an overwhelming amount of info in the help section here. Thanks, Emery Levick —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elevick (talk • contribs) 20:02, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

OK first, you don't "get a page" - on Wikipedia articles are written about notable subjects and in the case of people the inclusion criteria are set out at Wikipedia:BIO. Having read Rick Pierchalski, I don't think he meets those criteria so I have proposed the article for deletion. If you are still interested in the creation process, a standard message about that follows:
Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.
If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. – ukexpat (talk) 20:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Help desk help template help requested!

alt= Resolved: Thanks Fuhghettaboutit! – ukexpat (talk) 02:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Would someone more expert in template coding than I please take a look at {{Creation}}? The last time I tried to subst it (question immediately above), a stray colon was added before the {{Quote box}} that munged the quote box completely (so I removed the qb from the subst'd text in my reply). I have been playing with it in Template:Creation/Sandbox but I can't figure it out. Thanks in advance. – ukexpat (talk) 20:27, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Haven't figured it out yet, but it has to be a change to quote box or the software or something, and not a shift to the template because the same code which was working fine for months is suddenly not displaying. You can see this by looking at its usage a month ago, where the code is now showing the same error, when you and I and others would have noticed the problem long ago if it was broken at that time.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:50, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Fixed. There was a major revision to {{quote box}} and reverting that fixed this.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:01, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Not so simple. While the fix did fix the display in creation, it also broke other uses of quote box, as there was a merge of other templates into it. I have reverted my reversion and await word from a user who implemented the change to Quote box for a global fix.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:20, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Okay, to sum up a bit, {{creation}} is fixed for future displays but past versions will still show the error, and there may be no way to fix all past versions without doing it manually, short of undoing the change to quote box entirely, which may not be advisable. If that's the case, which is under discussion here, the only manual remedy for past versions is to go through the archives of this page and New contributor's help desk and remove the colon just before the code for quote box (ugg).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:44, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for your determined efforts to get to the bottom of the problem. I confirm that it works now. Resolved, here at least. – ukexpat (talk) 02:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Glad to help. I've manually fixed all the past displays as well. I thought the quote box had been in creation longer than it had but there were only about 35 to fix.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:37, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

coolio page help

How do i make my page cool? like some peoples? (RIS-Lt.JG CODY 21:01, 15 March 2010 (UTC)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by RIS cody (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:User page design center for some help. --Jayron32 21:09, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
Remember: 80% of your edits should not be you grooming your userpage, and if this becomes the case then you are liable to be blocked for using your userspace inappropriately. All the content on your userpage needs to have something to do with Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Userpage for a better idea of how to responsibly create and maintain a userpage and an explanation of what is considered appropriate. Xenon54 / talk / 21:24, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

badimage tagging

I have a problem. I tagged several images with {{badimage}}. SoxBot comes and removes the template on several of the images I tagged. The images are: NERDYSCIENCEDUDE (✉ msg • changes) 23:27, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

{{badimage}} is meant for images on MediaWiki:Bad image list. Only administrators can edit the list, so you have to make a request to add images to it on the talk page. --Mysdaao talk 23:41, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

March 16

Could someone please replace the pornographic image in the Gustave Courbet listing with a link?

Hi,

I don't know how to make changes to a listing, but I'm hoping someone can help me out. There's a pornographic image ("The Origin of the World") in the Gustave Courbet listing that I'm afraid is going to get me fired, since it appeared on my screen at work without any sort of warning. Could someone please replace it with a link to the image that includes a warning?

I'm not trying to censor - just trying to prevent people from getting fired.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. Camvltr (talk) 00:40, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia contains content that may be considered objectionable.
However, Wikipedia is not censored, and sexual content can be used in encyclopaedic contexts. Censoring an image -- or even placing a warning -- at the behest of a person or a group of people is seen to directly contradict Wikipedia's policy requiring a neutral point of view. As an example, similar requests come up all the time on Muhammad because Muslims are not allowed to view pictures of him, but editors have steadfastly refused to remove the images for the same reason. Along the same lines, Wikipedia was once filled with warnings telling readers that "Plot and/or ending details follow", but those were removed as well. Sorry. Xenon54 / talk / 00:49, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
There are ways for individuals to disable the display of photos, which I think is explained on the Mohammad articles' talk pages. Individuals are free to censor themselves without impacting the rest of the wikipedia readership. Also, pulling up the article of an artist which unexpectedly contains a racy photo is not likely to get someone fired, but if it does, is it the kind of place you really want to work in? There's also a way to play it right. If there were others watching, and that came up, and you said, "What the...?" and quickly exited from it, I don't see why they would get upset. Unless you weren't supposed to be in wikipedia during company time, in general. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:58, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Having a job means an employer is paying you to create value - for the employer. If reading the Gustave Courbet article has nothing to do with your job, best to read it on your own time. There are many articles on Wikipedia that are relevant to particular jobs. If your job has nothing to do with pornography, then most of the articles on Wikipedia that would be work-related are unlikely to have pornographic images in them, unless you happen to see an article shortly after it was vandalized. --Teratornis (talk) 06:16, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Courbet was an artist, so your statement could be broadened to, "If your job has nothing to do with art..." Typically, companies will have an internet policy that says net surfing is to be restricted to work-related matters. As a practical matter, companies are usually pretty tolerant of benign uses of the internet, like checking news, weather and sports from time to time; and notably intolerant of going to porn sites. Wikipedia is most certainly not a porn site, but it's also not censored for content, so caution/discretion are called for. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 06:38, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Aren't Websites containing pornographic material required by law to include warnings for kids under 18? Camvltr (talk) 12:04, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

There are no pornographic images in the Courbet article. I smell a troll. DuncanHill (talk) 12:09, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
There's a link to Wikipedia's disclaimers at the very bottom of every page. The disclaimer regarding our content can be found at Wikipedia:Content disclaimer. However, we don't display disclaimers in articles themselves; see Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 12:15, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
It is specifically against Wikipedia policy to have specific warnings, beyond the general disclaimer that appears on every page, for particularly pages with "pornographic" or sexual content or images. This is because a determination of which pages or images ought to be so marked is not consistent with our neutral point of view policy. DES (talk) 16:46, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Where should I put this Request?

I want Wikipedia to stop asking me for a User Agent String.
I feel like 1984. It might be a simple error but I very
much dislike the fact that the server denies me entry if I
do not wear badge. Is this some kind of military facility.
Wasn't it the purpose of Wikipedia to help establish a De-
mocracy on this planet.
I spare you the rest and hope it's just a mistake.

Thanks for making the server stop requesting a UAS
Jangirke (talk) 01:57, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

The proper place to ask for this is at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). However, this has been discussed recently at wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 71#User-agent nonsense, so you can read the reasons there that a User-agent header is required. --Mysdaao talk 02:21, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
See also http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User-Agent_policy DES (talk) 03:50, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Broken image history

See File:Resilient Barnstar.png for an example of the problem. See below for screenshots:

1. The original trouble:
2. The result of clicking on the broken thumbnail:

I have noticed this issue a few times now. Thanks! Cheers!☮ —Ecw.Technoid.Dweeb | contributions | talk 02:07, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

OS and version? Browser and version? (please) – ukexpat (talk) 02:25, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Mac OS X 10.5.7, Google Chrome 5.0.307.11 beta Cheers!☮ —Ecw.Technoid.Dweeb | contributions | talk 02:29, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
This is not a user end problem. I get it in 4 browsers on Windows (with small layout differences). The current image links to the url http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Resilient_Barnstar.png. The place where the former image should have been displayed links to http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/c/c1/. It should have been a url starting like that but ending with a timecode and file name. For example, the correctly working File:Barnstar-camera.png has a link to the current image at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Barnstar-camera.png, and old versions at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/1/13/20080106201537!Barnstar-camera.png and http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/1/13/20050628184636!Barnstar-camera.png. I don't know what causes it and it is a Commons image but maybe somebody at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) can say more. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:44, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Filed as https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22847 —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks! Cheers!☮ —Ecw.Technoid.Dweeb | contributions | talk 01:36, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Adding an entry

I suppose my answer is somewhere under Help, but so far I cannot find it. Several months ago I wrote an article. How do I add it to Wikipedia? 1814K (talk) 02:28, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Your draft is at User:1814K/Norman W. Larson - Professor. It will have to be moved to the mainspace for it to appear in search results. However it is not ready to be moved yet - please take a look at Wikipedia:BIO, Wikipedia:MOSBIO and Wikipedia:LAYOUT and the other helfpful links I have just added to your user talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 02:56, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

References not appearing on page

Wikipedia:AFD includes two references, but for some reason they don't appear in the references section. The coding for these references is as follows —
[http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10789354&logout=Y "The battle for Wikipedia's soul"], [[The Economist]], Mar 6th 2008.Seth Finkelstein,[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/sep/28/wikipedia.web20 "I'm on Wikipedia, get me out of here"], [[The Guardian]], September 28 2006. "At Wikipedia, contentious decisions are made by a process of elaborate discussion culminating in administrative fiat. Deletions go through a comment period. The process is not a vote, but the result forms a recommendation to the administrators."
Any idea what's wrong here? I suspect that it's a rather simple thing that I'm missing. Since the page is fully protected, please post an editprotected request or a note at Wikipedia:AN if you can find the mistake. Nyttend (talk) 05:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Someone fixed it and I tweaked it. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 05:26, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

How do you find in an article the bits one user contributed over time?

How do you find in an article the bits one user contributed over time?Septagram (talk) 05:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Use this, Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:48, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Merging an image to Commons

Will someone please help me merging this image to Commons: [[File:Lola Astanova & Meredith Vieira on NBC.jpg]]? It would take me a lot of time to learn how to merge an image to Commons and when I have learned it I will probably never need the information again. So I hope that someone will help me.

On Commons there are a category for Steinway grand pianos named "Grand pianos by Steinway & Sons" and a category for Meredith Vieira named "Meredith Vieira". I know how to put the image in the categories, I only need help for the merging process. Thank you. Fanoftheworld (talk) 08:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

It's done. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:18, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Did Peter Graves act in a couple of episodes of Golden Girls?

Did Peter Graves act in a couple of episodes of Golden Girls? Was he the Lucas who married Dorothy at the end?67.188.68.115 (talk) 09:34, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Our article on The Golden Girls says that yes, he was in a few episodes, as Blanche's boyfriend Jerry. For future reference, this page is for questions about using Wikipedia; knowledge questions like yours belong on the Reference Desk. Best wishes, Gonzonoir (talk) 09:55, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Your bot sucks

I keep trying to edit this page "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound_Gang#Early_days", because the name of their band was actually VAGINAL BLOODFART, which I can VERIFY ON THE BAND WEBSITE, but your stupid bot keeps editting it.
You need to correctly cite reliable sources that verifies your information, otherwise it will get removed. You can't just say "as verified on the band's website". That's almost as bad as not saying anything as to the information's origin. I cannot verify what you say at all. Let me clear up a misconception as well: there are many automated bots on Wikipedia, run by many different people. There is not just "your bot". Plus, bots will normally only revert once so if you have edited multiple times there must be a user who is also reverting you. Xenon54 / talk / 10:22, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
The page history [3] shows the first revert was by a bot and next two by a human editor. The name sounded unlikely and many vandals add obscene words to articles but I can see you are not a vandal. However, all your edits were unsourced and spelled the name wrong. This combined with their website being hard to navigate made it difficult to search information but I found out that two of the members had earlier played in a band called Vaginal Bloodphart.[4] I haven't found support for your claim "The Bloodhound Gang began as a small alternative band called Vaginal Bloodfart". Lots of musicians have earlier been in other bands. I don't know what other Bloodhound Gang members would say to a statement that their band began without them. Do you have a reliable source or the band itself saying the band "began" as Vaginal Bloodphart. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:13, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
I have reverted you again [5] with edit summary "Sources confirm they began as Bang Chamber 8 with Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs. Later the band got Spanky G and Evil Jared from the former Vaginal Bloodphart". I don't believe you have a source claiming that Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs began in Vaginal Bloodphart and not in Bang Chamber 8. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:43, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Using Wikipedia templates on other wikis

I have two questions about using Wikipedia templates on other wikis.

  1. technical requirements. I've tried copying a template, including every template it depends on, for testing - and it just doesn't work. I think there's some extra bits that need installing separate from the main MediaWiki software? I'm sure this is written down somewhere, but I can't find it now, and last time I looked it wasn't clear enough. Is it just the Parser Functions that need installing?
  2. attribution requirements. Presumably copyright applies to templates same as to articles? So how to attribute these - is pasting the link to the Wikipedia source in the edit summary enough?
thanks, Rd232 talk 12:22, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

  1. you probably also need to whitelist the html that wikipedia allows to use.
  2. I always use a permanent link (see toolbox or history tab), to make sure that people can figure out where I got my pages/templates from. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:35, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
My guesses for the "extra bits" that Wikipedia has and your wiki doesn't are a parser function created by an Installed extension or some other Magic word. --Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 13:24, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. Maybe it is just the Parser Functions extension; I'll try and get it installed and see how that goes. Yes, permanent link is best for these sort of attribution links. Rd232 talk 17:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Editing People

I can't edit people even though I know more about them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dgamber (talk • contribs) 15:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
i can't tell what problems you are having. In general, information should not be added to articles simply because you "know" it, you must have (and provide) a reliable source that others can verify. Can you indicate what article or articles you are trying to edit and what changes you are trying to make? I see only one edit in your contributions to Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. That edit has been reverted because the referenced source does not support it. DES (talk) 16:04, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

request to be UNBLOCKED, please

Dear Wiki Help Desk,

Here's a letter I sent to OrangeMike, one of your editors. After three unanswered letters to this person, am seeking your expert assistance, please.

I kindly ask that SOMEONE please intervene on my behalf so I can have full privileges again.

Thank you,

William Dean A. Garner

wiki username Wangtopgun

Dear Mike,

You might recall that, over a year back, we had some rather unpleasant exchanges, due to my unprofessional conduct on Wikipedia. I deeply apologize for these transgressions of mine, and hope you will forgive me for them.

As you know, I am a NY Times bestselling ghostwriter and editor of many fiction and nonfiction books. With 7 bestsellers written for others, people love and respect my work. I’m also a former US Army Airborne Ranger and corporate mercenary for international private military firms. Did 211 missions, escorting good people out of hostile territories so they could have a voice of democracy . . . or one of opposition to oppressive regimes.

You know the meaning and importance of Democracy. You and your wife are patriots. It shows in all you and your family do.

I also am a Jeffersonian Patriot who will do whatever it takes to bring back Peace, Freedom and Democracy (okay, Constitutional Republicanism) to our beautiful country, and maintain it at all costs.

With this in mind, I’ve been writing about the very people who have been stripping us of our Constitutional rights: Zbigniew Brzezenski and the family Rothschild. In fact, I even wrote a letter to ZB a couple of weeks ago, putting him on notice. If you wish to read it, please visit here: http://thatsjustplumdumb.com/index.php/2010/01/zbigniew-brzezinski-for-your-consideration/.

Mike, I feel it is time for us to put our past differences behind us, so I can once again contribute important information to Wikipedia. More than ever, it is imperative that we have professionals like me, those who have edited and written professionally for many years, making meaningful contributions to Wikipedia. As a professional yourself, I’m sure you agree.

What will it take for me to get reinstated in good and full standing? Please call me at home: <phone number redacted>

Thank you for taking the time to consider my request.

Sincerely,

Dean

William Dean A. Garner

I can be reached here: <e-mail redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.91.11.99 (talk) 15:57, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

This Desk cannot help you, please make your request at Wikipedia:ANI. – ukexpat (talk) 16:07, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Actually, ANI isn't the best place to go for this. Assuming that this is Wangtopgun (talk<dot-separator> contribs), that account has been indefinitely blocked by Barneca (talk<dot-separator> contribs) "due to real world threats. Unlike my normal policy, please do not unblock without discussing with me first". So the IP is liable to be blocked for block evasion, although there seems little point at present. Wangtopgun, log into your account and post an unblock request on your talk page, following the instructions at Wikipedia:UNBLOCK. Alternatively, email arbcom-llink=lists.wikimedia.org. Having said that, I have read the deleted history of your talk page, I would be surprised if your request was granted. BencherliteTalk 16:30, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Some more points:
  • This is the English Wikipedia for English-speakers around the world. The servers are hosted in the United States, and many contributors are from the US, but this is not a project specific to the United States nor to any particular political ideology.
  • On Wikipedia, we do whatever it takes to present a neutral point of view. Please read that policy page carefully and decide whether Wikipedia's goals are consistent with yours. Note that hardly anyone naturally has a neutral point of view about anything that matters to them; neutrality is a learned skill requiring diligence and discipline, like soldiering.
  • Wikipedia is not a platform for advocacy.
  • There are many other Wikis with different policies. You might like Conservapedia - it is very far from editorial neutrality, and might be a mercenary-friendly site. See WikiIndex for lots of other wikis.
  • This sentence contains a Dangling modifier: "With 7 bestsellers written for others, people love and respect my work."
--Teratornis (talk) 17:20, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

How do I get rid of the "This article has multiple issues" box at the top of a page?

We have been working on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Improvement_Grants_(SIGs)

At the top of the page is a box reading, "This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article..."

We have addressed the issues raised, yet the box remains. How do we get rid of it?

Clonus44444 (talk) 16:03, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

If you think you have improved School Improvement Grant so that the tags no longer apply you can simply edit to remove the {{article issues}} tag on the top of the article or to remove some of the listed concerns if some remain valid. On a quick look, it seems to me that some cleanup is still needed, particularly for the bulletted lists. DES (talk) 16:14, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Couple of points: First, I have moved the article to School Improvement Grant in accordance with Wikipedia's naming conventions; second, the issues have not been dealt with: the layout is a mess (see Wikipedia:LAYOUT) and it needs to be wikified and copy edited; third, you use the pronoun "we" - are you editing on behalf of a group etc that has a conflict of interest with the subject matter? – ukexpat (talk) 16:23, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
On looking are the article more fully, I agree with ukexpat's comments above. If you simply remove the tags at the moment, they will probably be replaced, or most of them. I have made some specific suggestions on Talk:School Improvement Grant. DES (talk) 16:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

teachersdomain.org terms of use

Are the terms of use at [6] compatible with using photos from the site on Wikipedia? --Pascal666 17:05, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so. The restrictions in the "Permitted Uses of Content" section would appear to be incompatible, though it is possible that use of some content may fall under Wikipedia's non-free content policy. If you want a more detailed, more expert response, please ask at Wikipedia:MCQ. – ukexpat (talk) 17:23, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) The page you linked says "Non-commercial, Educational Use Only." That rules out uploading anything from there to Wikimedia Commons. If you upload from that site to Wikipedia, you would have to claim a fair-use rationale. See Wikipedia:NFCC. --Teratornis (talk) 17:26, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
See commons:Commons:Project scope#Must be freely licensed or public domain, in particular there can be no non-commercial use restriction for images on Commons. You might like to search Flickr for freely licensed images with {{Flickr free}}. You can also request the copyright owner of an image to release it under a free license; see Commons:COM:OTRS. --Teratornis (talk) 17:29, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

No section edit link on page

I've just observed that Wikipedia:Appealing a block doesn't have any links for editing individual sections, but I can't understand why. Except for __TOC__ near the top, there are no magic words on the article, and while it's semiprotected, I see that the edit section links display on Wikipedia:Protection policy, also a semiprotected page. What am I missing? Nyttend (talk) 19:10, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
The page transcludes the content of MediaWiki:Blockedtext which contains a __NOEDITSECTION__ magic word. --Teratornis (talk) 20:39, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
That stumped me at first until I copied the wikitext from the page to a user sandbox page. The no edit section behavior followed the page to my sandbox, so I knew the behavior had to come from the wikitext. So I looked carefully at the list of transclusions below the edit window. --Teratornis (talk) 20:51, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
OK, so the solution would be to go to MediaWiki talk:Blockedtext and add a {{editprotected}} with a request to move the _NOEDITSECTION_ into a block (I'm thinking the _NOTOC_ should go in there too), right?Naraht (talk) 21:05, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
It might be simpler to not transclude the MediaWiki:Blockedtext directly onto Wikipedia:Appealing a block. An alternative would be to transclude it onto a subpage, and merely link to the subpage. Currently the BlockedText is in a collapsed table, so the user already has to click on something to see it. A link wouldn't be any worse. Pages in the MediaWiki: namespace are part of the user interface, so they might not behave exactly like templates when they get used as interface elements. I'm not sure. Someone would have to verify the ... tags would behave correctly on the pages that display the BlockedText content via the interface and want the __NOEDITSECTION__ magic word. It's pretty obvious why MediaWiki:Blockedtext is not a template - administrators don't want blocked users finding ways to edit it off their talk pages. --Teratornis (talk) 22:35, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Delete the transclusion and some of the text around it. The page transcluded is still linked from the page. Both linking to a page and transcluding it seems a little strange.Naraht (talk) 02:05, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

External links %7c

Hi

I've created a Wiki page for James Moy, which include external links, but for some reason they aren't working correctly. Currently when you click on them it is adding %7c to the end of the link, which is not visible during the editing process...can you help?

Many thanks

Mel Mel wicks (talk) 20:35, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

I've fixed the links so that they work. However, I've removed the links to Facebook, Twitter & Linkden per the policy on external links. Regards, Orphan Wiki 20:42, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Vcard

There are directly linked external sites in the history section of VCard yet when I click to edit that section there is no evidence of external links? --Cameron Scott (talk) 20:58, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Typing "RFC 2425" automatically links to the appropriate RFC. For example, RFC 2425. It's quite an interesting feature...I wonder what had to happen for it to be added. Xenon54 / talk / 21:13, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Considering the people who write the software, not much I think :D Other magic words like this are ISBN number btw. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:50, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
Interesting...ISBN 0060139331. (Special:Booksources in itself is quite a useful page.) TheDJ, is there a page you know of that lists all of these words? I am only familiar with the term "magic word" being used to describe, say, __NOTOC__. Xenon54 / talk / 22:00, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Colourz

There's a list of colors, but I'm not sure how they correlate to colored signatures. Can you add any color on that list into the "insert color name" spot? I need some spice to my signature. And why is there such a short limit to signature characters? 2J Bäkkvire Maestro stuff more stuff 21:17, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
The limit is because decorating your signature is not really helping the encyclopedia, it just makes pages bigger and bigger. So make the thing useful and fun, but don't go too wild. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:49, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

A question about a reliable source.

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask but I'll give it a shot anyway. If a reliable source (website) has an interview with a creator of a new show, and gives information regarding this new show, like a name change, and then posts the interview on their website, could that interview be considered a reliable source?--ETLamborghini (talk) 23:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
If the website is truly independent and reliable (such as the website for a published magazine or newspaper, or an independent and reputable webzine with an established track record), then yes, you could certainly source to an interview with that. If it's a fansite or blog or other self-published source, with no real-world presence and no way of confirming the accuracy of the interview or whether it took place at all, then no, it would not be a good citation for Wikipedia. The phrasing of the citation will also matter. If you simply asserted "Show X will be retitled Show Y as of June 2010" and cited the interview, it might well be reverted per Wikipedia:CRYSTAL unless the source was exemplary. If you said "In an interview published on celebritychat.com in March 2010, director Edith Slugg announced that the name of Show X would be changed to Show Y in the following season" and cited it to the website in question, then your statement is accurate and checkable as far as it goes and the reader can decide for him/herself what weight to place on the information. Karenjc 23:29, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

How do I post my article onto Wikipedia

How do I post my article onto Wikipedia so that it is accessible by other people? In other words, I would like to PUBLISH the article on Wikipedia. I have saved the article in My Account, but I don't see any button that allows me to publish. I have checked your FAQs and all your other Help menus (archives, chats, etc.). Srcaulk (talk) 02:36, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

The draft is currently in your user space. For it to appear in the mainspace it has to be moved there. Your account must be autoconfirmed (4 days old and 10 edits) before you can move articles. However, the bigger issue is that the subject does not appear to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines set out at Wikipedia:BIO. You will need to cite significant coverage in reliable sources to demonstrate notability. Hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 02:45, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
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