Help desk
< April 4	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 6 >

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.

April 5

Bigfoot

The topic Bigfoot has erroneous information in it, but is 'Semi-Protected'. How do I go about correcting it?

You wait four days. Click the "disabled" link in the {{semiprotect}} template at the top of the Bigfoot article to read about the protection policies. --Teratornis 00:30, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On the page Jane Goodall is quoted as saying 'Well, I'm a romantic, so I always wanted them to exist. . . . Of course, the big, the big criticism of all this is, 'Where is the body?' You know, why isn't there a body? I can't answer that, and maybe they don't exist, but I want them to'. This quote is taken completely out of context and implies the exact opposite of Ms. Goodall's comments.

Dr. Goodall: Well now, you'll be amazed when I tell you that I'm sure that they exist... I've talked to so many Native Americans who all describe the same sounds, two who have seen them. I've probably got about, oh, thirty books that have come from different parts of the world, from China from, from all over the place, and there was a little tiny snippet in the newspaper just last week which says that British scientists have found what they believed to be a yeti hair and that the scientists in the Natural History Museum in London couldn't identify it as any known animal ... They don't match up with DNA cells from known animals, so -- apes.

Please check the footnote indicated on the Bigfoot page (BFRO.net (2006). Transcript of Dr Jane Goodall's comments on NPR regarding Sasquatch.)Rjbudz 00:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IP address appears on Talk Page despite signing in.

help for the talk page editing feature says I should "log in" to prevent my IP address appearing and substitute my username. Is "log in" different than "sign in"? I signed in MULTIPLE TIMES and still see the IP address on the talk page.

I would prefer to edit with anonymity.

How am I going to get a reply?

Signatures are there when you sign, they will not dynamically change because you signed in. Editing out your old signature and resigning should fix it. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 00:45, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I signed in first on several subsequent retries, same problem with IP address appearing when it should not.67.142.130.25 00:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You don't understand, you need to remove your old signature and edit in a new one using four tildes. not just sign in again. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 01:35, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot edit without leaving IP address -- after successful login "not currently logged in" on edit page

I just logged in successfully but, even now, I can see at the top of this page "You are not currently logged in". Very frustrating.67.142.130.25 01:05, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's weird...--$UIT 01:38, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds as though your browser isn't storing session information or cookies properly. Try this:

If you use Firefox, open the Tools menu and select "Options...". Go to Privacy and make sure that Firefox is accepting cookies and keeping them until they expire or Firefox closes. Check the Exceptions list to make sure en.wiki.x.io isn't accidentally blacklisted.

If you use IE, open the Tools menu and select "Internet Options". Go to Privacy and click the "Advanced" button. Select "Override automatic cookie handling", "Accept First-Party Cookies", and "Always allow session cookies". Click OK and apply the settings. Your browser may start whining that your new security settings put your computer at risk - IE 7 is overly paranoid. As long as you use common sense, you should be fine.

If that doesn't work, try searching [1] to see if this is a known problem with our system. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 01:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you're on a satellite ISP, this problem comes up sometimes; in such a case, try the (slower) alternative login. --ais523 11:36, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

How to Edit Wikipedia

How do you edit something in wikipedia. For example, if I was searching...crayons and it said they were made in 1954, how can i edit that and change it to the right date?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Robot Kissez (talk • contribs)

Just hit the "Edit this page" bar at the top of the page. (for Crayon you can click [here].) For more information see Wikipedia:Introduction. --Ybbor ^Talk Survey! 01:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please make sure you have a reliable source to back up to whatever you're changing it to. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

New WikiProject

I've started a new WikiProject on Foreign relations. You can see it on WP:WPFR. You're all welcome to edit it's page as you see fit and add yourselves to the participants list if you'd like.--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 01:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removing edit links on headers/sections

Can it be done with something like NOTOC? -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 02:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You want NOEDITSECTION -- see Wikipedia:Magic words - Mgm|^(talk) 09:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia messageboxes

I couldn't find a directory for all the messageboxes that I see constantly on Wikipedia. For example: This project is proposed to merge with this project; just as an example. All I could find were messageboxes for Books. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong page. Could you help me out?Lighthead 04:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Template messages. DES ^(talk) 05:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the orange "You have new messages"

Whenever you post warnings to an IP address talk page, the bar dosen't show up. The IP I posted to was a static IP and it was not shared. I know that the bar is suppossed to show up but it dosen't. PS this is at a friends house who decided to "test" out WIkipeidia. 71.112.252.8 04:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have noticed this problem too. See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_user_warnings#Do_Warnings_show_up_on_anonymous_IPs.3F for more details. Basically this problem affects many IP users such as you. The problem still has not been fixed yet. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 06:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, its strange, the orange bar shows up but now its stuck up there! I tried clearing the temp. cache and browsing to diffrent pages but now its like stuck up there. Now whats wrong? 71.112.252.8 06:13, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's been a problem for a few months now, there have been several bug reports filed, but as of yet, there is still no solution other than waiting, if you wait a few hours/days the orange bar might go away, in the meantime you'll just have to learn to ignore it--VectorPotential^Talk 23:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Previewing

Don't know whether this is the case for anyone else, but lately for me the "show preview" button hasn't been working? After I click it, the page just refreshes back to the edit window... so it's a bit of a pain when I'm working with things like templates and aren't sure if things'll work. Has this been happening with anyone else, and does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 05:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give an example of an article where it happened? It's supposed to go back to an edit screen, but the edit also supposed to show above it. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Any article lately, but specifically most recently- Template:WPPATD and Romney (sheep), to name a few. After pressing the "show preview" button and the page refreshing, the only difference is that it has the preview of the edit summary under the edit window, as it should, but nothing else. CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 10:48, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You seem to be using navigation popups, which have been known to cause unusual problems with previews before. Does the problem go away if you disable popups? --ais523 10:55, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

I just blanked my monobook js, but still no preview. CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:08, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What about if you bypass your cache, with your monobook still blank? --ais523 11:17, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

I refreshed the page after blanking it, and then tried a preview on my sandbox. CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:21, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not entirely sure what the problem might be then. Does it persist when logged out? Does it persist on another MediaWiki wiki? --ais523 11:30, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

Logged out the preview function works, but I don't have an account on another wiki, so... CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:38, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm somewhat confused as to what could be causing it then. Are you sure you've done a full cache bypass, rather than just a refresh on your monobook.js (press Ctrl-F5 on IE or Firefox on Windows, or see the page I linked for other browser/OS configurations)? --ais523 11:42, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

I've definitely done a full bypass, and the preview still doesn't work... I'm not too fussed, most of my edits don't need the preview function just the occasional template or image, but I wanted to know how to fix it. I take it you're not getting this problem either? CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:50, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not getting the problem, and I have no idea what's causing it. You might want to mention what's happening on WP:VPT, where any people who might know the answer are more likely to notice the question. --ais523 11:54, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

Thanks, I will. CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 02:10, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

?

What happen to Auris .06:57, 5 April 2007 (UTC)88.239.37.122Á

The page Auris was redirected to the page Toyota Auris on March 10. If you search for "Auris", Wikipedia will bring you to the page "Toyota Auris" instead, since we assume that's what you were looking for.

If that's not what you were looking for, let us know and we'll see if we can create an article about your subject. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 15:06, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a Page

I would like to create a page titled "Carahunge" with the following introduction:

QUOTE

This material for Internet is taken from the well-known book “ARMENIANS AND OLD ARMENIA”, by Prof. Paris M. Herouni (Armenia) and included the PART 1 of the book: CARAHUNGE – THE PREHISTORIC WONDER IN ARMENNIA PART 1

CARAHUNGE – THE PREHISTORIC WONDER IN ARMENNIA

                                                                                    “Per Apera ad Astra”
                                                                           (“Through Difficulties to Stars”)

In Armennia, near town Sisian (200 km from Yerevan, capital of Armenia) there is the prehistoric Monument, consisting of hundreds large standing Stones (Fig. 1). Many of these Stones contain holes running through their upper part (Fig. 2). Archaeological excavation had been carried out only near (around) the Monument, where ancient sepulchres and a settlement dated III-II millenium BC were discovered [1 - 4]. But the Stone Monument itself was not investigated. There have only been just assumptions about these Stones containing likely religious [1], spiritual [2] or other significances. Local residents of Sisian call the Monument “Standing Stones” or “Protruding Stones” and tell that it was built presumably for religious or fortification purposes and also that old people were looking at stars through the holes. The first supposition about eventual astronomical function of the Monument (along with other surmises) was published by archaeologist O.Khnkikian in 1984 [4].

UNQUOTE

I am authorized by the author of the above mentioned book to place the relevant text and pictures (original files provided by the author; Prof. Paris M. Herouni) under the title "Carahunge" in Wikipedia. I have tried to do so but confronted many complexities specially with respect to uploading pictures. I need an expert advise that how should I proceed in order to establish this very useful page consisting of about 54 A4 sheets.

Thanks, 08:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)~ Hovik Mirzakhanians

If you have permission from the professor to post this, we'd need him to email permissions AT wikimedia DOT org as proof from an email address that is recognizeable as his to prove it's not a copyright violation. An easier way would be to take the facts from the text and rewrite them in your own words taken an article like Stonehenge as an example of how it should be written. If you do that and cite the book as your source, there's no problem. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another reason to rewrite in your own words is that Wikipedia articles are open to improvement by anyone. When an article comprises a large quote, it is difficult for editors to work on the article. In fact, editors are likely to do the rewrite for you if you do post it in that form, so going to all that copyright trouble is just not worth it. Notinasnaid 09:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Note also that text and pictures must be released for all uses without restriction except a credit, unless a suitable free license. Release for use in Wikipedia is no use at all, because Wikipedia is a seed for many other projects, some of them commercial. Notinasnaid 09:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Question about + and - numbers on my Watch page.

Hey guys, sorry to bother but searched for quite a while and couldn't find the answer... and its annoying me. What to the number's following pluses and minuses mean on my watch page?

For example, currently the page for "seven sisters" (Moscow skyscrapers) is displaying a red -13. The page for Ronald Reagan is displaying a red -1.

Can you decode it for me? Thanks :)

Natebjones 10:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's the number of bytes by which that change changed the page. For instance, if you had the Help Desk watchlisted and saw this answer on your watchlist, you'd get a positive number (probably a few hundred) because I've added some text in answer to your question. If I were fixing a typo, the number would be small or near zero (although this isn't necessarily an indication that the edit is small; it might have removed lots of text and then added a similar amount!), and if I had blanked or archived the Help Desk and you were watching it, the number would likely be minus 100000 or thereabouts. (Numbers in bold correspond to large removals.) --ais523 10:58, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

(By the way, I checked that edit, it was +768). --ais523 10:59, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

If you have a look at this page, you can remove or change the format of the numbers using your CSS page. Instructions are in the link. Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 11:04, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ok now I can type here. Thanks! Dont know what was wrong (Maybe Cattlegirl was typing) Anyways, thanks alot Natebjones 11:38, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can't get edit to work on this page

Just wanted to say thanks for clarifying the watch page question (see above) but when I click edit, it takes me to the post above.

An error on my end I'm sure.

Natebjones 11:17, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is more than one reason why this could happen; in this case, it's most likely because someone added a section above the one you wanted to edit between you loading the Help desk and you clicking on the 'edit' link. If the problem persists, click on this link to synchronize the contents of the Help Desk in your browser with Wikipedia's version of what they should be. --ais523 11:28, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

CNN article

I was a primary anchor person on CNN from November, 1980 through 2001, yet I am not listed among "past CNN personalities." I am writing to ask why I am not listed. Thank you,

Bob Cain 70.170.35.181 11:25, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a source for this fact (it should be pretty easy to find one in this case), feel free to add yourself to the list by editing the page. See the Introduction for help on how to edit. --ais523 11:28, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

If no one listed, it's usually because no one came around to it yet. Everything here is done by volunteers and we can't list everything and everyone at once. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:46, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Really confusing

I am REALLY CONFUSED. Look at this diff. Scroll down a bit and you'll see loads of apparently meaningless "Bard's Beard" links. Yet look at the diffs for the individual edits covered by that diff, and all you see are normal, good-faith edits to the page. Am I missing something really obvious? Can someone explain &/or fix &/or tell me why I'm being stupid? AndyJones 12:46, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That is strange. When I look at the article, the only link to "Bard's Beard" is at the end of the article. I'll look over the source for the page to see if they are hidden there. --Luigi Maniac 12:56, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Checked the source code, and they aren't there either. This is really weird. Could it be an error in the diff? --Luigi Maniac 13:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't be the first, or last, weird glitch to occur, though they are not commonplace. I can't see any obvious explanation for this instance either. The only thing that I could think of is that a template may have been vandalised. That can make the vandalism appear on the page, but not in the edit window. But there's no template code adjacent to the links. Adrian M. H. 14:44, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your help. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one to be confused by it! The page looks OK, so I guess we'll just ignore it. AndyJones 21:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a similar occurance happened again. --Ybbor ^Talk Survey! 02:19, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Odd. I've mentioned this at VP(Technical) to see if anyone there has an opinion. AndyJones 15:19, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creating links

I want to know how I create a link from names, etc, in my article. I am a new user-contributor to Wikipedia. I wish to replace an existing article with a revision. I have the author's permission to do so. Thanks.Paulwigmore 12:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think we need to take a step back to give you specific advice. What is the article? And can you give one example of a name you want to link? And who is the author you contacted - a Wikipedia user, or a person in real life? Notinasnaid 13:35, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The article is The Jubilate Group. Example of one name: Michael Baughen. The person who created this article is unknown. The person who has authorised me to make the edit is Mr David Iliff, a Director of The Jubilate Group.Paulwigmore 13:46, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, if you click Edit on the Jubilate Group article you will see that there is [[Michael Baughen]]. This is how a link is made: two square brackets. The link will appear blue if an article exists, and red if it does not. When you click edit you will see other things in the article like categories and other markers. It's important to keep them, so take care if pasting in a new article that all of the funny looking Wikipedia stuff is preserved.

I feel I need to mention one other thing: Wikipedia articles do not belong to the people or organisations they are written about. Any Wikipedia editor may edit any article (subject to following rules about objectivity etc.) Indeed, the subject of an article, and people connected to organisations that articles are about, are strongly encouraged not to edit articles, because it's so difficult to be objective about onesself. I hope this helps, Notinasnaid 13:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Category: Edit Problem

I cannot seem to edit the contents of "Category: Hamilton Bulldogs players", or "Hamilton Bulldogs players 1996-2002". The players statistics need to be combined and I am trying to do it, but cannot seem to access the players. Suggestions (previous inquiry) that these categories don't exist, is incorrect.

Thanks for the help

Chesterfield99 13:38, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please provide a link to the category (Hamilton Bulldogs players 1996-2002)? I'm having a hard time finding it. I don't know if I will be able to do the merge, but it will help whoever can do the merge. --Luigi Maniac 13:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found this, but not an article. x42bn6 Talk 13:57, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So, let me get this straight. You want this category depopulated, and all the pages in it to just be in the Hamilton Bulldogs players category? Isn't there some sort of process we have to go through before we do this? --Luigi Maniac 14:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is the link below...I dont know the process, I just know that the Bulldogs players from 1996-Present are all on the same team/same organization and should be consolodated, and I cannot seem to access the players - this is the link to the current players - there is another similar site with 1996-2002 players.

Category:Hamilton Bulldogs players

Thanks

Chesterfield99 14:15, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It isn't clear to me what you mean by "can't access the players". You should be able to edit the article for each player, unless they are protected, to change their categories. Notinasnaid 18:22, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The players cannot be changed - their stastics need to be merged and they are somehow blocked from editing.

Chesterfield99 19:55, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here's the link:

Category:Hamilton Bulldogs players Chesterfield99 19:58, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I picked the first player in both categories, Bobby Allen. That article doesn't seem to be locked. I wonder though... is the problem that you aren't trying to do this by editing the player's pages, but somehow by editing the category pages? Notinasnaid 20:04, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, if you want (as in this question) to link to a category, just put an extra colon in so that instead of [[Category:something]] which puts the page in the category, use [[:Category:something]] which links to the category page. Don't forget to formally nominate the category for deletion, removing all the players won't do that, and shouldn't in fact be done without the nomination, I think, though it seems a clear cut case. Notinasnaid 20:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help I have been able to merge the Bulldogs players into one general file

Chesterfield99 17:43, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

about translation

Hey How do I translate a subject if I press "edit this page" I stay on the same page with the same language ... and I don't think I should wirte a new article cause it already exists I just want to translate it to another language !

Genocided 13:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you translate an article into a different language on the English Wikipedia, it will get deleted. You can transfer the article to other Wikipedias, such as the French Wikipedia or the German Wikipedia with its corresponding article title, and work on it there. If you want to translate a page that is (wrongly) in a different language, you will have to move the page to its new article, where I suspect you wish to do. New accounts cannot move pages because it is an action vandals can use and normal users cannot revert, so if you give us the article name, one of us can move it for you, or head over to Wikipedia:Requested moves. Also, don't place your email here, it gets harvested very quickly. x42bn6 Talk 13:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Link

Why is it that when I place the external link [2] on the wikipedia page titled rohs does it disappear after a short amount of time? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A user is removing the link because it looks like spam, advertising products for testing. See [3]. (For those not in the know, the article is RoHS.) x42bn6 Talk 13:55, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

question on referencing

There is a talk going on Newly industrialized country page. There is a list of countries there claimed as NICs without direct refrenece. One wikipedian claims s/he got them from different pages of 3 different books which are mentioned at the end of article. But s/he is not willing to give the number of pages s/he got such a table/list from. I think it is a basic rule in refrenecing that you need to give the exact page number when you want to give a list of countries (Verifiable/OR policy) but s/he insists just giving the name of those books at the end of article is enough refrence for whole page. Would you please clarify?Farmanesh 15:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That has nothing to do with the talk. You first tag the list as OR, without paying attention to the references, two books. Then, when you realized the list was referenced, ingored it and continued to tag it as OR, even if OR only occurs when a claim cannot be sourced, this is not the case. Then, when you understood the list was not OR, you showed unwillingness to go to your library and read the books. You want the editors to give the exact page. You're not assuming good faith, you're almost telling they are lying. However, the references are there, OR is non existent. The only remaining matter is, read the book and add the pages, that's all. I cannot provide the pages since I don't have the book in my hands right now, and when I created the table, the countries were already there, I just created the table. However, I did just add a new reference, with the number of the chapther and all. Now, it is up to you to go and read the book. AlexCov

^{( Let's talk! )} 15:25, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the personal attacks and assumptions about me. Anyhow the mentioned list as stands now doesn't have direct refernece and lacks Verifiabelity. You need to provide the exact page(s) you got the list of countries from or it is not verifiable. We had this disscusion in the talk page so lets see what others think.

Do you need to mention page numbers in the refenerce to make it verifiable or not?Farmanesh 15:30, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, you don't need. Just giving the book and the ISBN should be sufficient. With that information, any willing person can look for the book and read it. As a side note, I did not add those references. However, I did read them, in order to learn about the topic. I asummed good faith. However, I just added a third reference, and to "save your time", I added the title, the chapter, the page number and the ISBN. AlexCov

^{( Let's talk! )} 15:51, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree; referencing in Wikipedia is not just about listing some books at the end. You can get away with this in a short article with only one reference, but not a complex subject. Each separate fact presented should be separately sourced, cited, with a page number. Notinasnaid 15:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for you opinion. I did not added the first two references, so I can't provide the page numbers. I added, minutes ago, a new reference, with chapter and page number. However, the article is not that long, as it is under development. AlexCov

^{( Let's talk! )} 16:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

posting a new article

How do you post a new article on Wikipedia?

thanks

MelHA 15:17, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Starting a new page. ~~Your account will need to be at least four days old in order to make a new article.~~ Never mind, I was thinking of something else. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 16:28, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unfairness

I have had it with User:Metros232! he is being EXTREAMLY unfair! He removed all my questions and ideas i posted on talk pages! He had no reason but, He did not like it! I want someone to tell him to stop picking on me and my edits! Please!--Tatshro Satou 16:04, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Replied on user talk. --tjstrf talk 16:17, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What is the tag for a page violating verifiability rule?

What is the tag for a page violating verifiability rule? I know OR inside {} as a tag for OR violation, what is the one for verifiability policy violation?Farmanesh 16:18, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If a page is unverifiable, it must be (I assume) because it does not have references, or the references to not verify the facts. If there are no references at all or they don't do much for the content, use {{unreferenced}}. Notinasnaid 16:20, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or you could use {{not verified}}. --Luigi Maniac 16:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your opinions guys. As you said, if there are no references at all, a claim is unsourced or unverified. But this is not the case. There are two references (book title, author, edition, year of publishing, ISBN, just not the page number), and I added a new one with all that data included. AlexCov ^{( Let's talk! )} 16:34, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please don't forget to make a distinction between unverifiable and unverified. The first is a reason for deletion, the second can be resolved using cleanup. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:57, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Too many templates?

I've run into a problem with the "player" template (i.e.,

34 David Ortiz) in an article I'm working on. I'm currently working on improving a certain article on a user subpage, and the template seems to be going haywire at a certain point. Please check out User:Masonpatriot/Red Sox Roster to see what I mean. Any help is appreciated!! - Masonpatriot 17:28, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, you've hit the template limit. It could be resolved but it looks like it would take some work. I've looked at that template ({{Player}}) and it looks like it calls the template {{flagicon}} which in turns calls another template (for instance {{Country data USA}}). So for every instance you use that template on the page, its actually called three templates. So take the number of times that template is used on that page (roughly 1,100 times) and multiply that times three and thats how many templates are on that page. If you can somehow combine even two of those three templates, it should help significantly.↔NMajdan•talk 19:37, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Credibility of references

I have read the wikipedia guidlines, but I am still unsure of this.

These three links: [4], [5] & [6], are used as references numerous times on the Psilocybin mushrooms article. These web sites do not cite any sources as to the effects of the mushrooms, but rather just lists all the effects. Is this considered orgional research, or otherwise considered unrealible? Thanks. —Christopher Mann McKay 17:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not original research. That has a very specific meaning in Wikipedia and this isn't it. Whether they are otherwise unreliable, I don't know I know nothing about mushrooms. You could check their information against sources you know to be reliable to see if you can find any errors that make you wary of their judgement. My opinion:

1. http://www.erowid.org/general/about/ "We work with academic, medical, and experiential experts" sounds pretty reliable.
2. http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/aboutus.htm "TGDG began life as a drug section on the lifestyle e-zine seethru.co.uk, the interactive arm of a BBC / World Productions drama series, Attachments, broadcast between October 2000 and April 2002." They may be politically biased as the page makes clear, but pretty reliable where medical info is concerned.
3. I'm less certain about Shroomery, but the recommended reading section seems to indicate they're serious about the site.
I'd consider all of them more or less reliable. The only way to draw them into question would be to prove they provide misinformation. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

inject valium

my 10 mg tabs have lost there effect. i bought some insulin syringes, can i crush the pills mix with water and shoot it for better effect?69.243.29.158

Wikipedia does not give medical advice. Please consult a real doctor. WilyD 17:56, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No you can't. 1) You don't know it will have a better effect and if you don't crush properly the syringe could get clogged and you'd should air into your veins. Don't experiment with medication. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:44, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Finding a particular user's edits to a particular page

How can I find the edits by a particular user to a particular page? For instance, I would like to find my contributions to Wikipedia:Good article candidates. The page has a massive history, so going through it all would be very tedious. I know that the "User contributions page" can be filtered by Namespace. How can I filter it further, down to just a single page? Thanks! Johntex\^talk 18:22, 5 April 2007 (UTC),[reply]

There isn't a feature for this per se, but you can go to either the user's contributions page or the edit history for that page, set the edits to the page to display 500 per page, and use your browser's page search function to search for either the page or the user in question respectively, which would achieve about the same result. Nihiltres 18:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

By editing the URL, rather than using the link, i think you can display up to 5000 history items at once. DES ^(talk) 18:40, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you do as DES suggests, you would be able to use your browser's Find command to search for and highlight instances of the page's title, which would make it easier to spot them. Adrian M. H. 20:02, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Talk to User:Ais523. He/she has a script that automatically highlights your username which is especially handy to spot your edits in an article history page. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello everyone, thanks for the good sugestions. I notice that Interot's edit counter comes up with a tally for the most-frequently editted pages for the user.[7] I also notice that a similar list is now being appended to all RfA's.[8] I will see if I can learn whether one of those scripts could be modified to take two arguments: one for username and the other for pagename. Best, Johntex\^talk 21:25, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Info Box - Article "Cosmos Sports"

I was just wondering how to make a customized info box with the cosmos sports logo, the year the company was founded, the number of clients served, the owner of the company and a list of the company's divisions. If anyone knows how to do this could you please display the language or edit the page on my behalf. I have tried to use template infoboxes but if I change the titles listed they do not display properly.

Thanks.

Smosey 20:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just copy and paste the code from a similar infobox, changing/adding/deleting fields as required. Use Help:Infobox to guide you. Infobox templates are mostly quite straightforward. Don't forget to include the template fields in pre tags, so that users can just copy it straight off the page. Adrian M. H. 21:28, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creating you own image

I saw this image on a friends page Image:The Hybrid.JPG and I was wondering how I would create a custom image for myself. & yes, I know exactly how to upload images. — Razorclaw 20:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

In that case, you just have to use software to create the image, upload it, and insert it onto the page you'd like to have it on. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 21:06, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ah I see, what software? Maybe I can ask the user who made his to make me one also... — Razorclaw 21:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

I strongly suspect you could use GIMP. --Teratornis 15:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Megatech Software & Megatech Games

These pages have accidentally been combined into one with deleting information from the Megatech Games page. Both of the information should be combined into Megatech Games and the information should be combined.

What exactly do you mean? As far as I can tell, there has never been a Megatech Games article. Also, you should provide some evidence that Megatech Software was a notable company and at least get some sources to verify the information in the article. Saying things like "Nothing is known about how the games were licensed or Megatech's motives as a company. Megatech folded sometime in between 1997 and 1999." makes it seem like the company is not notable, which may get it deleted. See WP:CORP for more details. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 21:51, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone else having trouble accessing your watchlist?

ZMine keeps timing out, but I can navigate around everywhere else fine. Viridae ^Talk 23:04, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm having trouble too!!! I can navigate WP just fine, though...Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 23:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Me too. It says it is a HTTP 500 "internal server error", so I guess it is going to be fixed soon.Rjgodoy 23:19, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go to WP:VPT. There should be a discussion about that somewhere.--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 23:19, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My watchlist just disappeared. The pages on it still show as watched, but my watchlist says I'm not watching anything. Could this be a failed fix? Brucemoko 05:10, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I came here to start a thread about this. The watchlist is back -- but it's about an hour behind, updating slowly. What's going on? DanB†DanD 05:20, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is a thread at Wikipedia:Village Pump (technical) for the recent problems. It is the latest thread with watchlist in the title. Also, my watchlist finally caught up, but it is too late for me (I'm on EST) and I am going to bed. Good night! --Luigi Maniac 05:54, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mine's gone now. Pacific Coast Highway ^{{talk • contribs}} 15:39, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Writing an article about a relative

I am interested in writing an article about my great uncle, and I want to know if it would be appropriate.

He was a scientist, and the student of a famous scientist about whom you have an article. In my opinion he would be an interesting subject. He died in 1955.

The article would be based on information from the family. The main points would be referenced, but there would be some small details about his life (to add colour) that would only be unpublished family knowledge.

Ideally I would like to be able to write the article in some private area, and have an expert comment on it before making it into an ordinary page. Mm67 23:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The plan sounds perfect, if the subject is notable. Please also note that since WP:NOT a first-hand source, the colorful tidbits - original research - won't be accepted (WP:NOR). Also, many new users are surprised when their work is deleted per our deletion policy. Xiner (talk) 23:48, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, be aware of Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, which asks you to be sure sure your treatment of the subject is 100% neutral, and be ready to accept some crticism of the subject on the page. (Also, if the subject is living, be sure to look at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons.) --Ybbor ^Talk Survey! 00:17, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Re: writing it in a private place, you can create an article in your userspace just by adding '/article name' to your own username URL at the top of the screen when you're in your own userspace. In other words, go to your userpage, move your cursor to the end of your own URL in the address bar, type '/unclex' or whatever you want the name to be at the end of the URL, hit 'ENTER', and then just start typing and save. When you're done, you can ask for feedback, then the article can be moved to the mainspace. Anchoress 00:21, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How does one ask for that feedback? Mm67 02:06, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you would like personal assistance and feedback, one option is to just keep asking on the Wikipedia:Help_desk or try WP:RFF. You can also ask an individual person for help, for other options, and for assistance in getting a draft of your article started in the "User" space. dr.ef.tymac 03:33, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How to mark an image, if a vector-based format would be more appropriate?

In particluar, I saw this image: Media:Cocaine-3D-balls.png, and thought: "Shouldn't this be an SVG instead? It would take up less bandwidth." Unfortunately, I am not skilled in computer graphics, so I can't create the vector-based version myself. However, I have sometimes stumbled over pages tagged like "This article needs a citation, please help if you can" or "This article needs attention from an expert, please help if you can" or "This page is a stub, please help if you can". Is there any template or other way which I could use to notify (CG-wise skilled) visitors, that an SVG version would be nice? 80.98.114.198 23:35, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

{{Template:ShouldBeSVG}} is probably what you want. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:17, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your response. Meanwhile, I realized, that on the chemical structure drawing guidelines page that currently PNG is recommended, because structure drawing programs do not support SVG yet. So, is it appropriate to flag the image in this situation? Also, when I tried to edit the image page, I received an "Article doesn't exist" message; did I do something wrong, or should I create something in order to insert the template? 80.98.114.198 13:13, 6 April 2007 (UTC)=April 5=[reply]

Bigfoot

The topic Bigfoot has erroneous information in it, but is 'Semi-Protected'. How do I go about correcting it?

You wait four days. Click the "disabled" link in the {{semiprotect}} template at the top of the Bigfoot article to read about the protection policies. --Teratornis 00:30, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On the page Jane Goodall is quoted as saying 'Well, I'm a romantic, so I always wanted them to exist. . . . Of course, the big, the big criticism of all this is, 'Where is the body?' You know, why isn't there a body? I can't answer that, and maybe they don't exist, but I want them to'. This quote is taken completely out of context and implies the exact opposite of Ms. Goodall's comments.

Dr. Goodall: Well now, you'll be amazed when I tell you that I'm sure that they exist... I've talked to so many Native Americans who all describe the same sounds, two who have seen them. I've probably got about, oh, thirty books that have come from different parts of the world, from China from, from all over the place, and there was a little tiny snippet in the newspaper just last week which says that British scientists have found what they believed to be a yeti hair and that the scientists in the Natural History Museum in London couldn't identify it as any known animal ... They don't match up with DNA cells from known animals, so -- apes.

Please check the footnote indicated on the Bigfoot page (BFRO.net (2006). Transcript of Dr Jane Goodall's comments on NPR regarding Sasquatch.)Rjbudz 00:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IP address appears on Talk Page despite signing in.

help for the talk page editing feature says I should "log in" to prevent my IP address appearing and substitute my username. Is "log in" different than "sign in"? I signed in MULTIPLE TIMES and still see the IP address on the talk page.

I would prefer to edit with anonymity.

How am I going to get a reply?

Signatures are there when you sign, they will not dynamically change because you signed in. Editing out your old signature and resigning should fix it. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 00:45, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I signed in first on several subsequent retries, same problem with IP address appearing when it should not.67.142.130.25 00:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You don't understand, you need to remove your old signature and edit in a new one using four tildes. not just sign in again. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 01:35, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot edit without leaving IP address -- after successful login "not currently logged in" on edit page

I just logged in successfully but, even now, I can see at the top of this page "You are not currently logged in". Very frustrating.67.142.130.25 01:05, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's weird...--$UIT 01:38, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds as though your browser isn't storing session information or cookies properly. Try this:

If you use Firefox, open the Tools menu and select "Options...". Go to Privacy and make sure that Firefox is accepting cookies and keeping them until they expire or Firefox closes. Check the Exceptions list to make sure en.wiki.x.io isn't accidentally blacklisted.

If you use IE, open the Tools menu and select "Internet Options". Go to Privacy and click the "Advanced" button. Select "Override automatic cookie handling", "Accept First-Party Cookies", and "Always allow session cookies". Click OK and apply the settings. Your browser may start whining that your new security settings put your computer at risk - IE 7 is overly paranoid. As long as you use common sense, you should be fine.

If that doesn't work, try searching [9] to see if this is a known problem with our system. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 01:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you're on a satellite ISP, this problem comes up sometimes; in such a case, try the (slower) alternative login. --ais523 11:36, 5 April 2007 (U T C)

How to Edit Wikipedia

How do you edit something in wikipedia. For example, if I was searching...crayons and it said they were made in 1954, how can i edit that and change it to the right date?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Robot Kissez (talk • contribs)

Just hit the "Edit this page" bar at the top of the page. (for Crayon you can click [here].) For more information see Wikipedia:Introduction. --Ybbor ^Talk Survey! 01:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please make sure you have a reliable source to back up to whatever you're changing it to. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

New WikiProject

I've started a new WikiProject on Foreign relations. You can see it on WP:WPFR. You're all welcome to edit it's page as you see fit and add yourselves to the participants list if you'd like.--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?} 01:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removing edit links on headers/sections

Can it be done with something like NOTOC? -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 02:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You want NOEDITSECTION -- see Wikipedia:Magic words - Mgm|^(talk) 09:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia messageboxes

I couldn't find a directory for all the messageboxes that I see constantly on Wikipedia. For example: This project is proposed to merge with this project; just as an example. All I could find were messageboxes for Books. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong page. Could you help me out?Lighthead 04:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Template messages. DES ^(talk) 05:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the orange "You have new messages"

Whenever you post warnings to an IP address talk page, the bar dosen't show up. The IP I posted to was a static IP and it was not shared. I know that the bar is suppossed to show up but it dosen't. PS this is at a friends house who decided to "test" out WIkipeidia. 71.112.252.8 04:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have noticed this problem too. See Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_user_warnings#Do_Warnings_show_up_on_anonymous_IPs.3F for more details. Basically this problem affects many IP users such as you. The problem still has not been fixed yet. -- _Hdt83 ^Chat 06:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, its strange, the orange bar shows up but now its stuck up there! I tried clearing the temp. cache and browsing to diffrent pages but now its like stuck up there. Now whats wrong? 71.112.252.8 06:13, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's been a problem for a few months now, there have been several bug reports filed, but as of yet, there is still no solution other than waiting, if you wait a few hours/days the orange bar might go away, in the meantime you'll just have to learn to ignore it--VectorPotential^Talk 23:23, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Previewing

Don't know whether this is the case for anyone else, but lately for me the "show preview" button hasn't been working? After I click it, the page just refreshes back to the edit window... so it's a bit of a pain when I'm working with things like templates and aren't sure if things'll work. Has this been happening with anyone else, and does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? Cheers- CattleGirl ^{talk | sign!} 05:52, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give an example of an article where it happened? It's supposed to go back to an edit screen, but the edit also supposed to show above it. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]