Wikipedia:Help desk
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wikipedia:Help_desk".

February 6

New feature rquest

Where do I request new features to Wikipedia? -NerdyScienceDude :) (✉ click to talk • my edits) 01:36, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

The village pump is your best bet. TNXMan 01:46, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

If you say what the feature is then maybe we can give more specific advice or determine whether it already exists or has been requested. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:42, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

can this be copied?

http://www.sss.gov/RomoBIO.htm

Public domain, biography of the director? JB50000 (talk) 06:54, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I see -->©2009 Selective Service System...© =copyright.........Buzzzsherman (talk) 06:58, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Works by the United States government are in the public domain and can be copied and reused. Please see Wikipedia:Public domain#Works ineligible for copyright protection and Copyright status of work by the U.S. government on this matter. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:01, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Sir/Mam, please update your database..........

Sir/Mam,

Please update your database along with the heights of celebrities.............. For some purpose, we require the statistical data for heights which is not available in a very well known Wiki-encyclopedia............ kindly act for it........... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.15.131 (talk) 09:36, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

You are addressing thousands of people, some of whom may have an interest in heights of celebrities, but most of whom do not. We are all volunteers, and working towards (our individual views of) what improves Wikipedia. Doing your research for you probably does not come into that goal. --ColinFine (talk) 09:57, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

See WP:Notability, WP:Verifiability and WP:NOR. Kayau Odyssey HUCK FINN to the lighthouse 14:25, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

My text formatting problem

Apologies if this is the wrong place - please advise. I've been editing here for years with no technical problem, but one has now arisen in editing my sandbox at User:Ghmyrtle/sandbox6 and the article I was working on - Big Dee Irwin. Hard for me (no technical background, but I use Firefox) to describe... but basically when I copy and paste material into my sandbox, and from there into article space itself, I suddenly have lost the ability to format automatically. That is, text copied across from other sites into my sandbox retains its original formatting, which I then have to change - and the WP formatting that I add, for example to add Wikilinks, often seems not to work. For example, at Big Dee Irwin, the parentheses that I've used in the references seem not to work. Don't know if I've explained this adequately, but any advice to rectify the problem would be welcome. Is it a problem with Firefox, or something else? Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:48, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I think it's to do with line-breaks. Your paragraphs are not separated because there are not blank lines between them. Your link isn't working because there is a line-break before the "pipe" (I think - I didn't know this was a restriction, but I've just tried and it seems to fix it). Why the behaviour of copy/paste has changed for you I don't know: are you using a new version of whatever you edit in or something? --ColinFine (talk) 10:05, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

This sounds like the problem at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Edit box & monospace style changes. Until Wikipedia fixes it you can disable Experimental features under Editing at Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:37, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. It does seem to be the same problem referred to by PrimeHunter. I had tried to insert line breaks, but they didn't work. I've now disabled the experimental features and re-edited the refs at Big Dee Irwin, but no changes visible there so far - I will play around with the sandbox version to see if it changes now. and that seems to work now, thanks. I haven't been using any new version of Firefox. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:26, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Urdu text in wikipedia articles

Hi, I apologise if this question is quite irrelevant but was hoping someone could be of help. I've noticed that the Urdu text that is written in many wikipedia articles displays in the Nastaleeq style and is still copyable to unicode programs (e.g. microsoft word, etc.) e.g.: the article on Allaamah Iqbal [1] Whereas, usually websites display Urdu in the simple Arabic style or are uploaded as images. I was wondering how that was done and what the requirements are. For example, I have some unicode Nastaleeq fons installed on my computer but is that the reason why the text displays correctly or will it display on any computer etc? Do you need any special programs or fonts to make the website in such a way? Thank you in anticipation of your response. 81.98.252.181 (talk) 14:30, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

creating Wikipedia ID:

I have an article to contribute. to do that I have to log on with Wiki's ID to do that - I have problem, I do not understand why. I contribute elsewhere under "es:". I tried to use the same for Wiki - but it tells me that this is inapropriate - why? It doesn, contravene anything I could read about user IDs on Wiki. 193.122.239.20 (talk) 14:31, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

You may be trying to edit a semi-protected article, which only registered users can edit. -NerdyScienceDude :) (✉ click to talk • my edits) 14:44, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately your question is a bit too vague, thus we can only guess at what you are referring to. Please be more specific. If you want to use the same username on all Wikimedia projects, visit Wikipedia:Single user login here, or es:Ayuda:Login unificado on es.wp. Xenon54 / talk / 14:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

What article are you attempting to edit? If it is semi-protected, not only will you have to create an account, you will also have to make at least 10 edits and be at least four days old. See this link for more information. Immunize (talk) 15:20, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Autoconfirmation requires both: at least 4 days old and 10 edits. – ukexpat (talk) 17:50, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Victimisation

I am being consistently attacked by two other editors who conspire to persecute me. They have a particular view point on historical interpretation (revisionist) which is no more valid than any other. Every single edit I make they revert and just say something like "they have had problems with me before" which then invalidates anything I try to say in my defence. The fact I reference my work and often use primary sources should be taken into account. Some historians which I favour may not present views that these two editors personally support, but all views should be aired. They revert and delete edits I make without process or consideration. I feel victimised and this is totally unfair. I write good wikis and have been using this site for years. I have more to give but I am on the verge of quitting. What can be done. I am at the end of my tether. Please help. The editors in question are Cúchullain and Doug Weller. James Frankcom (talk) 17:26, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Without commenting on the merits either way, have you tried to discuss this with the other editors on the talk pages of the relevant articles? That's the place to start in a content dispute. – ukexpat (talk) 17:53, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

See WP:EIW#Dispute for links to pages that describe how to handle disputes on Wikipedia. See WP:ALTOUT for some other places to try editing if you find the going too tough on Wikipedia. If you are editing topics that are highly controversial, and you favor a side, Wikipedia can be an unpleasant place to edit. You might have more fun editing on a wiki that caters to your point of view; see WikiIndex. It is not natural for most people to write neutrally - for many Wikipedia editors, that is a skill we have to cultivate and then work to maintain. Also, Wikipedia has millions of articles about thousands of topics, so try editing something else that isn't controversial - ideally, some topic that you don't have a life or death personal stake in. --Teratornis (talk) 00:15, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Looking for a template

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 01:23, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I was wondering if we had a template that could produce the month and day as they were 28 days ago. I was unable to locate anything on my first attempt, so I thought I would ask here to see if there was a place I could try. TomStar81 (Talk) 17:49, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't know of one, but I'm a little confused as to why it would be necessary. Are you referring to 28 days ago for one specific date or would it be a rolling date (28 days ago from yesterday, from today, from tomorrow, etc.)? TNXMan 21:08, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Rolling. I ask because 28 days is the usual length of time for a milhist project A-class review to stay open, and I was looking for a template that could provide the date 28 days ago so my coordinators could more easily determine which ACRs were eligible for closure based on the time stamp for the initial nomination. TomStar81 (Talk) 21:56, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

28 days ago was January 12, computed with {{Day+x}} using {{day+x|{{CURRENTMONTH}}|{{CURRENTDAY}}|-28|year={{CURRENTYEAR}}}}. Does that work for you? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:01, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Purrfect :) Thanks for the assistance, PrimeHunter. TomStar81 (Talk) 23:41, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Offensive stuff

Someone wrote offensive (racist) stuff in the article Demographics of Germany [2]. Can this be removed from the article history?-- Greatgreenwhale (talk) 19:02, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

This is standard vandalism. Removing versions from article history is usually done only if an editor's personal information (name, address, etc.) is revealed. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 20:22, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

The policy is at Wikipedia:Oversight. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:05, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Counting Views

Hello everyone. Thanks a lot for all of your help so far. I have another question. Is there a way of knowing how many people have looked at an article? Fly by Night (talk) 19:59, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

If you look under the history tab on the article you are interested in at the top section you will find a link to Page view statistics. MilborneOne (talk) 20:04, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikicode converter

Is there any tool online somewhere where I can convert wiki markup (like seen when editing pages or templates) to html and vice versa? Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 20:11, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, yes there is - it's called the MediaWiki software. There's nothing simpler that I know of, you basically need all the software and extensions (like Cite.php to format references) to see what exactly you're going to get (plus you need to have the template pages if you want to see what a template will look like in use). If you're a little tech-savvy though, it's not all that hard to set up your own wiki. Franamax (talk) 20:18, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Tools. I don't know how they work. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:07, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

And WP:EIW#Tools and WP:EIW#Table. If you tell us more details about what you are trying to do, someone might give you more specific advice. In general there is no magic data conversion tool that meets every need, so the more precisely you define your desired conversion, the better your chances of realizing it. The hardest part of solving a problem is often defining it clearly enough to admit a solution. Incidentally, you mentioned templates. Do you just want to convert the rendered output of a template to HTML, or do you want to embed the dynamic behavior of the template into the HTML? If the latter, then you might need a programming language like PHP. --Teratornis (talk) 00:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You can run MediaWiki as a Personal wiki. See mw:Manual:Wiki on a stick. --Teratornis (talk) 00:08, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The robotics team I'm responsible for designing the website of decided against a wikia wiki (due to advertising) and mediawiki (due to school district server space issues) for their website, opting instead for PBWiki...unfortunately, in their infinite wisdom, they disregarded the fact that I am clueless as to html, thus I need a way to convert wikicode from templates, etc, into html. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 06:20, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

So you are not even talking about a site which uses Mediawiki software, but some other kind of Wiki? I doubt anybody here can help you. But in any case, I don't understand why you should need to convert anything to HTML: surely the point of using any wiki software is that it does that for you? --ColinFine (talk) 10:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't need to, except that this wiki you edit using html...when you hit edit, it takes you to an edit window with html in it. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 18:23, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Right-click on any Wikipedia page, and select "View source". The source code is converted into HTML. Intelligentsium 18:28, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Mmk, thanks. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 18:51, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

(undent) A Google finds: New Feature: Document Import but I don't see anything about importing from MediaWiki to PBWorks. Every time another startup company invents its own proprietary markup/formatting scheme, they create more problems for people who need to use data outside the proprietary domain. The assumption always seems to be "We'll just pretend the whole world will start over from scratch with our system." --Teratornis (talk) 06:45, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

February 7

login to valid account after personal email changed

suggest consider alternate login method for users with valid account and forgotten password but who have changed to a different ISP who gave them a new email address, and hence have lost ability to recieve new password resets from Wiki and therefore cant login at all. Common industry password recovery includes answering secret question(s) and providing account setting details in order for password recovery/reset to proceed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.100.114 (talk) 01:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

This may address your needs Template:User committed identity. Tiggerjay (talk) 07:23, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks TiggerJay - the template for placing a hash is helpful. I would like to know how to reclaim my account after not logging in for a long time, have forgotten my password, and have since changed ISPs so I now have a new email address and do not have access to the email that is associated with my wikipedia userid? I suppose i could establish another new account and attempt to usurp my own old userid but that method seems so pedestrian. Is there a clean way to regain access to my account/userid? Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.100.114 (talk) 19:30, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Same login for different products of wiki

I have a login for ta.wikipedia.org which does not work for en.wikipedia.org or www.wikimapia.org. Would it not be good if the same login makes me accessible for different services of wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.115.196 (talk) 01:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Read m:Help:Unified login to learn how to make your login work on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. Be aware that Wikimapia is not a Wikimedia Foundation wiki, and also note that a "wiki" is simply a type of website and not all wikis are related. Xenon54 / talk / 01:55, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Robot Editor

For about two weeks an external link I have contributed to a Wikipedia article has been frequently deleted by a robotic editor, and also by an author of another external link to the same article.

(1)How can I find out if this other external link contributor to the same article is responsible for unleashing this bot on my external link?

(2)How can I find out precisely what this bot finds objectionable in my link?

(3) How can I get this bot to quit targeting keywords in my external link, or equivalently, get some person(s) with administrative authority over robotic editors to examine these cases of robotic editing and exercise intervention if needed. I am about 100% positive a robotic editor can never make a scientific evaluation of the contents of an external link concerning quantum mechanics, and so this bot must be keying off something else.What would that be?

(4) Is it possible for some author of one external link to program a bot to repeatedly delete another author's external link to the same article? This would be a conflict of interest, clearly, whether the second author did the deleting or caused a bot to do it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rekcana (talk • contribs) 04:24, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The bot is attracted by the website host, Bravehost.com. This site is a free web host and, since it may have been created by anyone regardless of knowledge, is not a reliable source and should not be included. In fact, Bravehost is included on Wikipedia's link blacklist. The website you are attempting to add also has several other issues: It appears to be someone's research and thus may be a copyright violation, it uses Wikipedia as one of its references and thus violates WP:CIRCULAR, and it may be link spamming. It also fits Wikipedia's guidelines on external links to generally be avoided.

For what it is worth, XLinkBot (talk · contribs) is not targeting you specifically and is not operated by User:Michael C Price. Since you are interested in the topic, I hope you will contribute to it through references to reliable sources. Thanks, Liquidluck✽talk 05:22, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

P.S. When commenting on help or discussion pages like this one, please sign your username by typing four tildes, like this: ~~~~ Thanks!

The bot is reverting links to sites like Geocities, Bravehost, Yahoo, etc. We very rarely link to self-published material. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 05:23, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Impostor

My name is Maurice Karnaugh and you have my biography. It seems that some one else has placed his own photo at the end of it. This is the same impostor's photo that appears in Facebook with my name and bio. Please remove that photo and, if you can, give me his email address.

Maurice Karnaugh 74.88.237.148 (talk) 05:05, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The picture at the end of Maurice Karnaugh comes from the Template:US-physicist-stub template. It is not meant to represent you. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 05:12, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

(after edit conflict)As far as I can see, there is no image in the Maurice Karnaugh article, unless you count the tiny image that accompanies the "US-physicist-stub" tag. That image is on every stub sized article of physicists and is not at all directly related to you, nor is it intended to be. Dismas|^(talk) 05:15, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

However, the image is of someone who was a writer (or appears to be; he doesn't seem to have an article), so this brings up the question — why not a physicist in the physicist stub tag? I'm going to change it. Nyttend (talk) 06:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Getting rid of the Try Beta link?

I'm one of those people who, once he figures out how to work something, generally prefers to stay with it instead of going with new upgrades that don't provide major improvements. Accordingly, I have no interest in trying Beta. Is there any way to get rid of the "Try Beta" link next to my username and user talk links in the right side of the top of my screen? Nyttend (talk) 06:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Assuming you are using monobook, add li#pt-optin-try { display:none; } to your monobook.css file. Prodego ^talk 06:15, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Trans Fat

I just visited the page for "Trans fat" and I noticed there's been a series of vandalism on that page. I have no clue what the deal is about it, but I figured I'd take the time to volunteer and call it out here since I don't really even know how to edit well, nor revert at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.79.75.41 (talk) 06:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing up the vandalism on that page, however there is not enough recent vandalism to suggest some sort of page protection is in order... yet... for more information, you can checkout WP:Vandalism and WP:PP. Tiggerjay (talk) 07:17, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Domain Eukarya

I have seen people adding Eukarya or Eukaryota to pages. This is not required. It is an epic fail, and in all nature books I've read there is no mention of the three domains. So this is absolutely unnescary. 89.240.239.157 (talk) 11:42, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

What on earth do you mean by "an epic fail"? And on what grounds do you say that the domain is "not required"? It is no more and no less required than any taxon above the level of genus. I regard your reversions as completely inappropriate. --ColinFine (talk) 11:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Also, on Gecko you have reverted the same edit by two different editors within a few hours. This comes close to WP:edit warring, and I strongly advise you to discuss the matter on the talk page before making any further reversions. --ColinFine (talk) 11:54, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Well, if that's the case then it shouldn't be on articles like Dog or the like. And antway, I've discussed it on Reptile 89.240.239.157 (talk) 11:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and also, some pea-brains even consider Life to be a taxonomic rank. 89.240.239.157 (talk) 12:00, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I've replied on Talk:Reptile. I don't understand what you mean about Dog: it is there, and in my view should be.

Incidentally, Colin Tudge's The Variety of Life (OUP, 2000) discusses the three domains. --ColinFine (talk) 12:20, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, but I haven't read that. It isn't really required on Species (like Mountain Zebra) or subspecies (like Dog). 89.240.239.157 (talk) 12:24, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Rotating images

Does anyone know how to display a number of images in a rotating sequence (on a userpage)? Theleftorium 12:54, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

You could make an animated GIF or a video. I don't think the software does it natively. Xenon54 / talk / 13:28, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I was thinking more of a way to make a random image come up when you reload the userpage. Theleftorium 13:42, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I have a vague memory of seeing a proposal to have such a feature some time ago, but consensus was against it. Nyttend (talk) 14:00, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

It's possible, using {{Rand}} and some parser functions. I use such a set-up on my user page. ​​​​​​​​Niagara ​​^{Don't give up the ship} 17:40, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

{{Rand}} can be used as input to #switch. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:52, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Templates

Could someone please help me with constructing a template. And please don't send me to some confusing instuctions. I just need to figure out exactly what to type in or whatever to get the template to show up like all of the others. Here, have a look. Template: The Cosby Show. Mr. Prez (talk) 13:10, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Fixed it for ya. :) Theleftorium 13:16, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

How? Mr. Prez (talk) 14:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The page history shows Theleftorium added [3] a missing }} at the end. Before this fix the code was not interpreted as a template call. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:35, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, but wait, it's not working again. Mr. Prez (talk) 14:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I fixed it again. The "}}" part should only appear at the end of the page. Theleftorium 15:10, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I am so sorry

Hi there, I did´t now that I cold not register my web page in the external links.

I will not do it anymore.

I am the owner of The Forest Whitaker Information Site.

With warm greetings for Iceland

Fridrik Kjartansson —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.197.244.214 (talk) 13:55, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the notice. You may find our external links guide useful, as well as our information on conflicts of interest. TNXMan 15:18, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

We all learn by mistakes. Perhaps you'd find it useful to read |What Wikipedia is not. --ColinFine (talk) 15:20, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Cite

Which page has the most references on? (Cited things)? Just wondering. Post in my user talk page please (if you know). Neobenedict (talk) 15:15, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

The largest I recall seeing is 911 at List of Barack Obama presidential campaign endorsements, 2008. I doubt it is a record. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:54, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Merge the pages

Hi, I'd like to merge the pages "Rating curve (hydrology)" and "Rating curve" into "Rating curve" and merge the content of both. How can I do that? I'm not adept at deletion process. Thanks --Marturius (talk) 15:52, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Follow the directions at Help:Merging#Performing the merger. What you do is edit Rating curve and copy content into it from Rating curve (hydrology) that you want merged. When you have finished, edit Rating curve (hydrology), remove all content on the page, and replace it with #REDIRECT [[Rating curve]] {{R from merge}}. This will create a redirect so links to that article will point to the other, which will contain all content merged into one article. --Mysdaao ^talk 04:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Beta won't allow me to leave.

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 17:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I tried beta but I don't like it and I want to leave it but I can't. I've logged out and back in many times but each time WP logs me in with beta software. Archives on this subject indicate the way to leave beta is by choosing a "leave beta" option but I don't see one anywhere. I keep getting the "try beta" option even though I'm already in beta. What's going on here and how do I leave beta? Moby-Dick3000 (talk) 16:49, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Go to Special:Preferences, click on the "Appearance" tab, then select the radio button next to the skin you were using before - the default is monobook. Click "Save", then clear your browser cache. – ukexpat (talk) 16:55, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, that worked. Moby-Dick3000 (talk) 17:03, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

No problem. – ukexpat (talk) 17:07, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Problem

Whenever I go to Gender-neutral pronoun, it says that I have new messages which I have checked. 89.240.239.157 (talk) 16:59, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Clear your computer's cache memory.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:14, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

bowel ultrasound to locate foreign body or narcotic capsules

Hi I am a clinical sonologist I want to know how to locate foreignbody or if any body carrying narcotics casules in gut. by ultrasound how findings will be helpful Thanks Dr Asif —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drasifraza (talk • contribs) 17:57, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not give medical advice. Xenon54 / talk / 18:04, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Mod needed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:UFC_110#Event_Date

Resolved

I am only new to wikipedia, I have made a couple of edits on the UFC 110 page, I have already encountered a <removed> can someone with some common sence please intercept this battle LOL. thanks guys--219.90.217.250 (talk) 19:34, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry to hear your having problem...I will look and see...Buzzzsherman (talk) 19:40, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

219, please don't make personal attacks. Xenon54 / talk / 19:47, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

WIKIPEDIA PAGE

Hello I would like to create a wikipedia page on the area of work I am in my name is dorothy spry...author of psychmetric testing, emotional intelligence specialist and author cognitive behavioural coaching 2010...how do I go about getting this set up?

<e-mail redacted>

Thank you

Dorothy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.97.34.28 (talk) 21:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC) First, you need to create a user account, as only registered users are able to create a new page. Once you have created a user account, you can create any new page, but prior to creating your page, you are strongly advised to read this page an should consider using Article wizard to create your new article. Also, the following links may be helpful.

• Wikipedia:New contributors help page
• Wikipedia:Tutorial
• Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
• Wikipedia:The perfect article
• Wikipedia:Introduction

Regards. Immunize (talk) 21:29, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Also, please read WP:YFA, WP:OR, WP:Notability and WP:RS. There is also a new and improved article creation wizard that can help you get started. – ukexpat (talk) 22:03, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikitravel

I was wondering how you copypaste info from wikitravel. I know you have to cite it and etc. but i'm a bit confused. help...--Theologiae (talk) 22:14, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Open wikis are not considered to be a reliable source, and remember Wikipedia is not a travel guide. If you absolutely must include the information, what's wrong with summarizing, rather than copy-and-pasting? Xenon54 / talk / 22:40, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

What changes do you want to make to what articles on Wikipedia? --Teratornis (talk) 06:35, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

We can't accept copy-pastes from Wikitravel as it uses the CC-BY-SA-1.0 license which is not compatible with ours, CC-BY-SA-3.0. Stifle (talk) 12:56, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

February 8

Help with formatting

Resolved

Please assist I'm having a problem formatting two references (#28—{{Citation|title=Sikhism, A Complete Introduction... and 35—{{Citation|title=Sikhs and Sikhism...) on Vegetarianism in Sikhism. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can someone please assist me? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:04, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I have done it..still a few need templates ..i will let you edit ..then come back to them...Tks for taking the time to improve the article !!!..Buzzzsherman 01:19, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

my watchlist only partially updating

I edited "Fuel economy in automobiles" twice today. This edit does not appear in my watchlist: (cur) (prev) 2010-02-08T11:59:21 Adamtester (talk | contribs) (37,744 bytes) (L/100km -> km/L conversion method was just plain wrong) (undo) Any ideas why not? Ta —Preceding unsigned comment added by Adamtester (talk • contribs) 02:54, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Two reasons I can think of: (1) only the most recent edit to an article appears in your watchlist, and (2) your edits don't appear in your watchlist. Both of these, of course, are only by default, so if you've fiddled with your settings they may not apply to you. Have you tried purging, as well? Xenon54 / talk / 02:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Under the Watchlist tab at Special:Preferences is an option "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent". It sounds like you don't have it enabled. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You also might want to check to make sure that you didn't accidentally remove the page from your watchlist. Nyttend (talk) 22:41, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Adding copyright tags

Dear editors:

I have created and edited the page "2009 flu pandemic in Taiwan" Pictures and graphs uploaded were all from public domains in Taiwan. However, I have a problem adding copyright tags to these pictures and kept receiving warning from Wiki that they will be removed. The instructions are more about the rationale of using pictures rather than a step-by-step protocol of adding copyright tags to them.Tsungpei (talk) 03:04, 8 February 2010 (UTC) Tsungpei

The primary problem seems to be that you have not listed on the description page, the source of where you downloaded the images from. This source is required, so that other editors can VERIFY, that you actually retrieved the files form an official government source. You have only stated that these items are in the public domain in taiwan. But you should also specify author (which government organization) and the url you downloaded the file from. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Which AfD deletion category for a non-fiction book?

Resolved: Article deleted per Afd. – ukexpat (talk) 19:45, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The nearest choices are "Media and music" and "Fiction and the arts". Have you seen a non-fiction book at AfD, and if so, do you remember how it was sorted? Yappy2bhere (talk) 03:36, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

There's Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Side By Side The Revolutionary Mother-Daughter Program for Conflict-Free Communication, which was sorted into "Media and music". I think that category is more appropriate than "Fiction and the arts". --Mysdaao ^talk 04:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

the same  ????

I would like to know if ' smile train ' is different from ' operation smile ' of which I am a regular contributor . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.91.33.191 (talk) 05:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you refer to this Operation Smile? Note that this Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. For general knowledge questions, ask on the Reference desk. --Teratornis (talk) 06:51, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

See also Smile Train which mentions Operation Smile. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Remove "show" in Navbox

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 19:44, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for crossposting the same question. Since it is an issue for this featured list candidacy it is somewhat urgent. How do I get rid of the "[show]" in Template:Navbox with collapsible groups? (also see here) bamse (talk) 08:07, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Just don't make that last element of Template:Cultural_Properties_of_Japan a navbox child. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Or you can add the |state = off parameter to each of the groups in the navbox, as described at Template:Navbox with collapsible groups (if I've understood the question correctly). Gonzonoir (talk) 08:56, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. @TheDJ: If I remove the navbox child, I get the wrong background color (light blue instead of green, see User:Bamse/template#Cultural_Properties). How do I fix this? @Gonzonoir: If I put "state=off" everywhere, I'd remove all of the "[show]", but I only want to get rid of the last "[show]", next to "Buried Cultural Properties". bamse (talk) 10:34, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, you are right. I don't see a way around that. Per Gonzonoir, I have now disabled the show/hide of the specific child, but unfortunately that messes with the center alignment of the header. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:07, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Solved by using the "plain" setting instead of the "off" setting. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

That fixes the offset and background colour problems, but doesn't actually display the contents of that child element - bamse, is that what you were after? Gonzonoir (talk) 11:12, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you. It is basically what I was after. (I was thinking of having "Cultural Properties of Japan" expanded as default (such that there are nine lines in total), but the way it is now is very nice as well.) bamse (talk) 13:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Showing A Table But Only Some Rows And Collapsing The Rest

Is there anyway to have a table such as in 1903_Tour_de_France#General_classification, but showing "ranks 1-10", and then collapsing the rest? I am trying to bring the two tables together, then collapsing the lower rows. How do I define how many rows to collapse?

see me.174.3.98.236 (talk) 08:53, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

There isn't a way to collapse only some rows in one table, but two tables put can be put closer together to create a similar appearance. By adding "margin:0px" to the style for both tables, there is no whitespace between them, so it displays the first ten rows and then the next ten rows are collapsed. I've made these changes to 1903 Tour de France#General classification. It's not exactly the same as if it were all one table, but it's as close as it can get. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:48, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Help with a dodgy category

Please assist I generated a list of every article that is under Category:Zoroastrianism and found the following:

• .mc
• `Abdu'l-Bahá
• 1 Maccabees
• 118 WallyPower
• 1929 Monaco Grand Prix

Needless to say, none of these have to do with Zoroastrianism except in the most tenuous way. Can someone figure out how (e.g.) Category:Monaco apparently became a subcategory of Category:Zoroastrianism? Thanks. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Addendum I have a list of the subcategories to Category:Zoroastrianism here. I would do this myself, but as you might be able to tell, I am getting dreary and tired. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:09, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Are you absolutely sure your list generation worked properly? I can't see most of the subcategories in your list from the Category:Zoroastrianism page, and I can't find a category navigation route that gets me up from 1929 Monaco Grand Prix to Category: Zoroastrianism. Gonzonoir (talk) 10:49, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Category:Monaco, Category:Massalian colonies, Category:Ancient Massalia, Category:Phocaean colonies, Category:Phocaea, Category:Ionian League, Category:Ionia, Category:Achaemenid satrapies in Anatolia, Category:Achaemenid satrapies, Category:Achaemenid Empire, Category:Zoroastrian dynasties and rulers, Category:Zoroastrianism. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:16, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Wow Thanks. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 22:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

how do I "Review" an article?

I have consulted an article and above the New Article I have a message saying it has not been reviewed. Is this something done by contributors or Wikipedia personnel?Oscaroliver (talk) 10:42, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

It would help if you told us which article you're thinking of. Dismas|^(talk) 11:23, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

For general information, you would get a message like this automatically on new articles created through the Article Wizard. These messages are added automatically, not manually, and can be removed when someone other than the article's creator has reviewed the article and addressed any issues they see in it. To clarify a point in your question: all Wikipedia contributors are volunteers; the articles aren't maintained by official personnel. I will paste some links on your talk page to help you start to find your way around. Gonzonoir (talk) 11:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

editing city pages (adding second image, map with pin, etc)

hello, I'm trying to work on a page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Meadows ) to update it, I've already been able to move the city seal from the bottom up to the top, but I'm trying to add a second image below it , which is stuck at the bottom of the page as well, and I'd like to add the map and map pin to the right side box with the second image, much like the one in this page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaumburg,_Illinois ) maybe someone here has more experience in this than I do... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Compudude86 (talk • contribs) 13:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The two pages are using different infobox templates, which I suspect is the cause of the confusion. Rolling Meadows has Template:Chicagoland municipality, while Schaumburg,_Illinois uses Template:Infobox settlement. The former doesn't support all the parameters of the latter, including the pushpin map. If you want to get those effects, I think you'll need to add the Infobox settlement template to the Rolling Meadows article, and populate the following parameters:

| image_skyline           = <!-- place the name of the image from the bottom of the article, including the .jpg suffix, here -->
| pushpin_map             = Illinois
| pushpin_label_position  = <!-- the position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
| pushpin_map_alt         = <!-- alt text for the map goes here -->
| pushpin_map_caption     = Location within the state of Illinois
| latd  = <!-- latitude degrees value -->  |latm  = <!-- latitude minutes value --> |lats  = <!-- latitude seconds value --> |latNS  = <!-- latitude North/South: do the same for longitude values below -->
| longd =  |longm =  |longs =  |longEW = 
| coordinates_type        = region:US_type:city
| coordinates_display     = inline,title

Just replace the commented-out text (the stuff inside <!-- these -->) with the real values and it should get the result you want. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Personnel of a Company

So I have searched and tried and experimented for over a week now and my pages keep getting deleted. I am doing a write-up on a company and I wanted to do little "biographies" about the owner, general manager, etc, and then link that person to the Official website where there is more information on them. But everytime I do this, someone comes along and deletes my page. Wikipedia is not clear on how to make this legit, so I was wondering if you can help me out? I would be extremely grateful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjreuter (talk • contribs) 14:37, 8 February 2010 (UTC) Mjreuter (talk) 14:38, 8 February 2010 (UTC)Melody

Articles about people on Wikipedia have to meet notability guidelines described at Wikipedia:Notability (people). What it says is that people are considered notable if there has been independent coverage of the person in multiple reliable sources. An article is less likely to be deleted if it has sources that establishes the subject's notability. I suggest you create a userspace draft, which is a page you can work on and ask for feedback on whether the subject is notable, without the risk of it being deleted. --Mysdaao ^talk 15:01, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

But if I attached the link to the official website to the person Im doing the biography on, wouldnt that be enough? Here's what I was doing: I have the main page, about the company's history, etc, and I have the employees in there. And then from there I was going to do a small write-up on each employee, and when I clicked on that persons name, it brought me to a blank page where you can write, and so I would give some personal info about that person, like where they went to school, etc and then I just put the official website's link under the smaller write up. So if that link isnt enough to make it notable, what else should I be doing, because I have read through the Notability section many times and it doesn't help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjreuter (talk • contribs) 15:23, 8 February 2010 (UTC) --Mjreuter (talk) 15:27, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Notability requires that the subject must have received substantial coverage in multiple independent, reliable sources - for example, that the person in question has had lots of books, newspaper articles, journal papers, and so on written about them. A link to the official website wouldn't be enough: that would work for the verifiability requirement, which confirms that the person exists, but notability is a tougher standard. It requires that the person not only verifiably exists, but has received lots of coverage from independent sources – the official website would be a primary source, not an independent source. Is that any clearer? Gonzonoir (talk) 15:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

So, basically the most I can do is just name them in the main article and then do an official website link from there, I can't actually do individual write-ups on them? And if thats the case, does it even pay to put an "employees" section on the page? Or should I just do a writeup on the history and what we do and are about? --Mjreuter (talk) 15:38, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I'd say you're better off leaving out the "employees" part, as you suggest. (I suspect people are going to jump on you for the "does it pay" phrasing - Wikipedia isn't supposed to be about getting anybody paid, but I know it's just a turn of phrase.) You'll also need to make sure that you are showing that the company itself meets the notability criteria - it too must have been the subject of books, newspaper coverage, etc. in order to stay in Wikipedia.

If all this sounds like it doesn't fit your remit, maybe Wikipedia isn't the place for your content? We do have a list of other outlets that would let you host information without having to meet the notability standards Wikipedia sets for its encyclopedia articles. Gonzonoir (talk) 15:49, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

All your deleted articles were unsourced. A company website or other publications by a company are not independent from the people working at the company and cannot be used to establish notability of those people per Wikipedia:Notability (people). If there are no significant independent reliable sources about the people then they don't belong in Wikipedia and there is no legit way to write articles about them. See also Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:30, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Okay this helps a lot. Im super new to Wikipedia, obviously :) But I have another question, for the company itself you said it needs more than just the official website linked on the page. So if there was a write up about our company in a local newspaper or a magazine, I could use that too? --Mjreuter (talk) 15:52, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes you could, but see WP:CORP and WP:RS for more on notability and sources. As mentioned above, you also appear to have a conflict of interest so please also see WP:COI. – ukexpat (talk) 15:55, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm trying to find a user's IP address...can I do that?

I'm trying to find out the IP address of KellyPR124 who you can see has previously edited this page http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Amess&action=history

Is this possible?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.12.80.171 (talk) 15:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Only someone with checkuser permissions can find out the IP address of a registered user. Why do you want to find it out? Gonzonoir (talk) 15:29, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

While some have that ability, a registered user's IP address is only going to be revealed in very specific circumstances described in the privacy policy. There is no need to reveal KellyPR124's IP address. The user's edits have been vandalism, but all the vandalism has been undone, and if it continued, the user would be blocked from editing. --Mysdaao ^talk 15:35, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

If you believe that KellyPR124 is using multiple accounts in a way that violates Wikipedia policy (not every use of multiple accounts would do that, but maintaining multiple accounts solely to vandalize certainly DOES, see Wikipedia:Sock puppetry) then you could file a request at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations and a checkuser will look into the problem. You would likely need some diffs of concrete evidence that establishes the connection between the KellyPR124 account and other accounts or IP address, checkusers typically do not open an investigation on pure speculation. Also, if you need some more help with the technical aspects of filing an SPI report (it can be a bit daunting for the inexperienced) let me or another experienced editor know, and I can help you work through it. --Jayron32 21:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Adding a reference to Top Gear (magazine) article

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 18:22, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I'm trying to add a reference about Top Gear magazine's 200th issue. I managed to locate a suitable page to back up the statement I've written. I previewed my post and it said I needed to add the reference to the reference list at the bottom of the page. How do I do this? Thanks. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 17:16, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I tried to edit the list, but I can't add any details to it because it just shows up as a 'reflist' Chevymontecarlo (talk) 17:21, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

So you added a <ref>...</ref> pair after the statement you added. If it is not already in the article, the {{reflist}} template needs to be added like this:

   ==References==
   {{reflist}}

See almost any other article to see how this works in practice. Astronaut (talk) 18:04, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You have to add the reference in line with the text. At the place in the article where you want to add it, place the reference within ref tags, eg <ref>Reference text here</ref>, and it will show up in the list of refs generated by {{Reflist}}. If you are feeling more brave, use one the citation templates as explained at WP:CITE. – ukexpat (talk) 18:03, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Chevymontecarlo (talk) 18:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Table in talk page

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 19:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

How can I force a table to appear in the exact same order it appears in the Wiki source, so that contributions in a talk page will be associated with the correct editor? See Talk:Conversion between Julian and Gregorian calendars.

The table wasn't formatted correctly. It was missing the last |}. That is why it wasn't appearing in the right place. I have corrected this at Talk:Conversion between Julian and Gregorian calendars#February 29, 1700. --Mysdaao ^talk 17:49, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Resolved, thank you. Jc3s5h (talk) 18:45, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome! --Mysdaao ^talk 20:09, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Tab key function on edit screen

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 04:55, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I use Firefox 3.0.11 to edit. Until this morning I was able to tab directly from the edit pane to the edit summary box without stopping at the intermediate links, such as the link to Wikipedia:Verifiability. (Internet Explorer wouldn't let me do that - perhaps the main reason I am using Firefox.) This morning... no more. Now I actually have to scroll down and look for and find the edit summary box before I can complete the edit. Meanwhile, nothing has changed when I edit on the Commons: the tab there works the same as it always did. (For what it's worth, this change on Wikipedia coincided with another change where the text in the edit pane grew much larger and more widely spaced so that I can only see a smaller portion of what I'm working on. I don't like that change either, but on its own it wouldn't be worth whinging about.) What happened? What can I do to get back the old functionality? —Ipoellet (talk) 17:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You can try to disable Experimental features under Editing at Special:Preferences. You may also be interested in Wikipedia:Keyboard shortcuts. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:58, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Disabling the experimental features did the trick - thanks. I also appreciate the tip about the shortcuts. — Ipoellet (talk) 03:44, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Adding IPA

Is there a Wiki-project which has a mission to add IPA where it is needed, or is adding {{Need-IPA}} sufficient? Astronaut (talk) 17:56, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

One of the daughter WikiProjects of Wikipedia:WikiProject Linguistics probably concerns itself with that. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:28, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Storage Heater

looking for info on storage heater divi system----------<blanked>

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. TNXMan 19:39, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I have also removed your email address to prevent the spambots that crawl the web from picking it up. TNXMan 19:42, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Purchase

how can i purchase a documentary seen on ancient almanac?19:30, 8 February 2010 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Edward clayton (talk • contribs)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. TNXMan 19:40, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Maybe contact the History Channel? – ukexpat (talk) 19:42, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Creating accounts for other people

If you go to WP:Request an account, you can, well, request an account. When you do, where does your request go to? --The High Fin Sperm Whale 19:52, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

You can register to be an account creator. The details are at WP:Request an account/Guide on how to become one. The requests are routed to them to confirm everything and set up the account. TNXMan 20:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) The tool used for the request an account process is hosted on the toolserver. The toolserver is run by Wikimedia Deutschland, Germany's local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. Once a request is submitted, there are established users, called "clerks", who have access to the administrative parts of the tool and manually action requests when they are not otherwise engaged. Xenon54 / talk / 20:08, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

But what I'm asking is, where is the page of requests people file? Also, do you have to get permission to view it? --The High Fin Sperm Whale 22:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Posting Business on Wikipedia

I am authorized to post my business on Wikipedia but keep having my page removed. is there someone on Wikipedia that gives specific instructions on how to create a page for your company?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Melbrand (talk • contribs)

Couple of points, you should not create an article about your own business, see WP:COI. For notability guidelines for companies etc see WP:CORP. Also please note that Wikipedia is neither a free webhost nor a medium to advertise your business. – ukexpat (talk) 20:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

So, if you think it will pass our guidelines on notability, you can ask for an article to be created by going to WP:REQUEST. If it is created, our guidelines basically say that except for trivial edits, you should use the article's talk page to make suggestions about the article rather than edit it directly. Please note that I've just deleted it, partially because it was copyright violation (yes, it's your company, but without permission being given officially to Wikipedia, which effectively voids your copyright, you can't do that), and obvious advertising with language like "our company). Please don't recreate it. And don't take this personally, everyone would love to use Wikipedia to advertise. Dougweller (talk) 20:59, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

theroy of evolution.

I was searching for theroy of evolution, but was redirected to "evolution". Once on this page, it is nothing clearly indicating it as theroy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.186.80.1 (talk) 20:36, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

There are many parts of the article that explain observations, measurements, and tests of evolution. Therefore, it is a theory. Please understand that "theory" when used in "theory of evolution" does not mean "a whacky idea that some dude had a long time ago". It means "a set of testable observations". The observations have been (and continue to be) tested all the time. -- kainaw™ 20:41, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Further, please see evolution as theory and fact. -- kainaw™ 20:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

While not the best place to address this question, but since there was this confusion, perhaps moving the redirect to evolution as theory and fact would be a better. Tiggerjay (talk) 05:00, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Just to be safe, maybe we need a redirect for theroy of evolution. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:05, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

The IP was right about being redirected when searching "theroy of evolution". It finds Theroy of Evolution! PrimeHunter (talk) 12:38, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Perfect! I wonder how many other misspellings are redirects. I know there are quite a few. KInd of like an anecdotal spell checker. I wondered how many started with "Teh", and there a number of them beyond just the obvious, "Teh internets". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:52, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Fix templates

Resolved:  – ukexpat (talk) 04:54, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I've just created two templates {{Family tree of Trần royal family}} and {{Family tree of Lý royal family}} but when I placed those templates next to each other, there was always a space between them, I tried but could not find the way to kill this space, someone can help me out? Example of error:

Thank you! Grenouille vert (talk) 22:05, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I have fixed it by removing newlines before <noinclude> in the templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:25, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Many thanks! Grenouille vert (talk) 22:34, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

What's the tag to indicate a section of an article is under construction?

Resolved

A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 23:08, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

{{underconstruction}} --Floquenbeam (talk) 23:11, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Duh! Thanks. :) A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 23:16, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Copyright violation?

I recently made an edit to the poliovirus page that consisted of adding a section on poliovirus disease.My source was emedicine.net, and as I have had problems with copyright infringement in the past, I became concerned that this edit might not be enough in my own words, and thus consist of a copyright violation of emedicine.net. Please look and see weather or not you think it is a copyvio. The page is here. Immunize (talk) 23:26, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

February 9

Highly inappropriate language

Hi, I suggest you look up Bolter in Wikipedia. Dandg-os (talk) 01:05, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Y Done Someone vandalized the article. I have reverted it back to the last good version. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 01:08, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

How can I reclaim my account?

I have a wikipedia userid. I would like to know how to reclaim my account after not logging in for a long time, have forgotten my password, and have since changed ISPs so I now have a new email address and do not have access to the email that is associated with my wikipedia userid? I suppose i could establish another new account and attempt to usurp my own old userid but that method seems so pedestrian. Is there a clean way to regain access to my account/userid? Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.100.114 (talk) 01:42, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Without access to the old e-mail account you are scuppered. Your only option is a new account and then try usurpation. – ukexpat (talk) 01:47, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm afraid not; if you don't have your password, don't have your old email, and didn't have a WP:Committed identity, then there's no way we can verify that you used to have that old account. Assuming your account had a decent number of edits, I can't imagine they would let you usurp it, though I could be wrong about that part.

Best to just create a new name, and add notes on both talk pages "claiming" the old account. If no one ever disputes the claim, there will be a link, just not a technical one. And if the old account posts to dispute the link, then... you've got some 'splainin to do!

One other idea. Do you have any accounts with the same name on other Wikimedia projects that you still do control? Or, does your account's user page link to an account offsite somewhere that you do control? (I only ask because then usurpation might be more likely; you still can't use that to get your account back) --Floquenbeam (talk) 01:53, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Unified login

The unified login for my username has been successful on 60 or so non-English Wikipedias. I am now thinking of visiting them all and adding a message saying I don't understand their language and redirect people to my en.Wikipedia userpage. However, for six languages the same username seems to have been registered separately. Of the six, three (de, sr, zh) seem to have made no edits at all, and the other three (hr, no, vi) have made just a couple edits each over 3 years ago. Is there a way to WP:USURP the username on these other Wikipedias if I don't know the relevant languages? Astronaut (talk) 04:09, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Is there a specific reason why you want to register on those other wikipedias? If you don't speak those languages, wouldn't you be swatting on the name. and have no edits like the users you're attempting to usurp the username from? Tiggerjay (talk) 04:44, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

With the unified login, I only have to visit a non-English wikipedia to suddenly be registered there. A few of them now have messages from other editors and I thought it would be a good idea to redirect all such comments to my talk page here on en.Wikipedia. It's only really for the sake of completeing the migration to unified login that I thought it might be a good idea to try to usurp the six others. See m:SUL for some more reasons why this might be a good idea. Astronaut (talk) 05:51, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

If your username is already taken somewhere then you will not be registered if you visit there. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:12, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Finding the source of information in a wiki article

Dear Wiki,

I found some data that interests me in one of your articles. How can I find the source of this data? I already looked for it in the References of the article, but all of them are dated years before the time mentioned in the article for the data of interest.

Best regards, Wiki reader. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.65.188.186 (talk) 06:36, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

All information should have a little number nearby, which looks like this:¹. This number may be directly beside the sentence or may be several sentences later, so continue reading until you see one. If you click on this number, it should take you to the source of the information. If the information is not in the source, you may remove the sentence, mark the sentence with {{CN}} (this produces ^{citation needed}), or bring the matter up on the article's talk page. If you are unable to edit the article, type {{editsemiprotected}} on the article's talk page and someone will come by to edit the page for you. Liquidluck✽talk 07:52, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

But in practice very many articles do not have these little numbers. If the lack of them or the fuzziness of (or nonexistence of or other problem with) "sourcing" of an article concerns you, you may wish to (a) improve the article via your own research or (b) raise questions about it on its "talk page" (which you'll reach by clicking a link saying "Discuss this page"). -- Hoary (talk) 08:26, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

You can also check the page history to find when it was added. Maybe a source was indicated at the time in the edit or the edit summary or other contributions by the same editor at the same time. You can also ask the editor on their talk page but some editors are no longer active. If you say which data in which article then we can also try to find out. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:07, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I would like to know why you and other companies seem to not want to print the truth about something to let the public know even if you have been told otherwise.

I would like to know just why you are not allowed to publish genuine information even if it might be against information that has been published on your site? Isnt it right that the truth should be known and not hushed up as it is being done so in this country by the corrupt British government? It is totally unfair if people like this can guard the truth being told to the public even though it might discriminate against the information you are given as the truth can be total deformatary against the British government for example and they could be prosecuted if people were to know the real truth.Thenewrobinhood (talk) 07:07, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Please see WP:Battleground and WP:GREATWRONGS. LeadSongDog come howl 07:53, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Also see the essay Wikipedia:Truth and Wikipedia:Verifiability. The latter says in its first paragraph The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—what counts is whether readers can verify that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether we think it is true. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:19, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

music

Looking for a song that came out around 1965 to 1975.Was a man and little girl singing. The part the little girl always sung was the chorus, " Daddy don't be mad god and the rain will bring it back." It is a country song and I remember it from when I was a little girl around the age of 7 - 10. that's about the last time I heard it too.. I would appreciate it if you could help me find out who sang this song all those years ago... Janetrosser (talk) 09:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:09, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I do not understand sending a enquirer to an internal site when an external site (in this case, Google) will answer a question better and faster. The enquirer is asking after lyrics. Many sites are better suited to this than the editors of Wikipedia. 71.234.215.133 (talk) 09:45, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Updating of a page

Dear Helpdesk

The information on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singita_Game_Reserve is factually incorrect and I can't update the page as I work for the company that is being referenced.

I do not want to add any opinions or views, just add some more information and correct the facts. Please can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you & I look forward to hearing from you. Catherine Biggs (talk) 09:41, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Your best option would be to discuss this on the article's talk page (here) and explain the situation. Please make sure that you have some reliable, independent sources showing the correct information - it is this verification which will allow editors to know that the information is incorrect as it stands and what the correct information is. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:46, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Dear PhantomSteve,

Thank you for your response. Yesterday I did add that to the article's talk page and was sent a warning message as I work for the company. The username that I was logged in on was Singita Game Reserves. As you can see, I have now changed that username. Will I be able to edit the page now?

I went into the discussion page and the editor AlmostReadytoFly has made the following comment: An editor who works for the reserve (Catherine Biggs (talk)) has expressed concern that the article is incorrect. Her information on developments was removed as the text was copied from another site (see this talk page's history). AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 12:00, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

I did not copy the text from another site, the text is from my copy deck that I keep on my computer. I am really getting very confused and don't know what to do re updating the information. Please can you help me? Thank you Catherine Biggs (talk) 13:13, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Freeze Panes - Top Row in Tables

Could we implement an option where the top row in a table (the one with labels) would scroll along with the broswer window when viewing long tables? Microsoft Excel has a similar feature called "Freeze Panes." It's rather annoying to have to scroll back up to recognize what a column means and we have many pages of long tables where I think such an enhancement would greatly aid the user experience. For example Assembly of the International Space Station TheFutureAwaits (talk) 10:04, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

fas

I would like to start a new article under this title. I intend fas as a technical term specific to ancient Roman religion. How can I do it? There are already more than ten pages that use the word as an acronim. Thank you for the help.Aldrasto (talk) 12:10, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Is it the meaning mentioned in Fasti? The disambiguation page Fas could add a link to Fasti. I don't know whether it is notable enough for its own article. If it is then see Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Naming the specific topic articles. It could for example be called Fas (ancient Rome). PrimeHunter (talk) 12:25, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

In search of a Director/Producer

www.jomococo.com

The trajectory of TITLEMANIA by Brother Jomo Coco is to titivate the development of one-world and titillate the one-world society.

A Director/Producer is urgently required for the production of the film TITLEMANIA. 92.11.51.235 (talk) 13:08, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:12, 9 February 2010 (UTC)