NOTE: This is not a page about specific factual questions (e.g., Who was the first Pope?). For that type of question, see Wikipedia:Reference desk.
Welcome to the Help desk! This is a place to ask questions about Wikipedia and get help with editing problems. It's mainly for newcomers and users who don't yet have an account, but anyone is welcome to ask a question. Remember to check this page again (how about a bookmark?) to see if there have been any replies.
If your question has already been covered in one of the help pages, you could get the answer you're looking for more quickly by checking the topical index.
If your question is not specifically about the Wikipedia, you'll probably find the Reference desk a better place to ask; if you want to start a more detailed and inclusive discussion, try the Village pump.
Archive 1 | Prior to June 2, 2004 |
Archive 2 | June 2, 2004 - June 18, 2004 |
Archive 3 | June 18, 2004 - July 2, 2004 |
Archive 4 | July 2, 2004 - July 18, 2004 |
Archive 5 | July 19, 2004 - July 31, 2004 |
Archive 6 | August 1, 2004 - August 18, 2004 |
Archive 7 | August 18, 2004 - September 5, 2004 |
"Standard" skin?
Various Help comments refer to a "standard skin", yet when one looks at the skin options in preferences none is labelled "standard" -- so what is going on here?
The reason I was looking at preferences in the first place is that, unless I am just imagining things, the elegant Verdana typeface which was formerly used seems to have been changed at some point in the last few days -- and without so much as a "by your leave" -- to thin and nasty Ariel, and it seems there's not a darned thing I can do about it. :-( -- Picapica 14:47, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Classic has been called standard for some time, please change Standard into Classic in help pages.--Patrick 21:32, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You can create or edit your personal style sheet at User:Picapica/monobook.css. See m:Help:User style for more details on how. If you copy this text into that file, it should give you Verdana as first preference:
#content { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }
- Way to go, Catherine! I've been whimpering silently for weeks about the Arial font in articles, gurgling "Verdana...Vardana..." Your advice works and my eyes thank you.NathanHawking 22:15, 2004 Sep 30 (UTC)
How to link to Wikibooks?
I want to link to a Cookbook entry on Wikibooks from Wikipedia. How do I accomplish that? Only through the full URI, or is there a namespace? --Cluster 05:24, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- See m:help:interwiki linking.--Patrick 08:25, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Auto-external linking of RFC names
While editing the delta encoding article I discovered that the double square brackets around an RFC name are ignored, which makes for an ugly page. Here's an example: RFC 1. The RFC name is automatically linked to the actual RFC text on the IETF website, which was suprising for me as I didn't realize Wikipedia did any automatic linking like this. Actually, after some searching of the help pages, I could find no list of automatic links, not even a mention of the RFC auto-linking. Can anyone point me to more info on this? --Jarsyl 06:20, 2004 Sep 6 (UTC)
- I have added it to m:Help:Editing.--Patrick 08:22, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- If you want to make a link to the wikipedia page called RFC 1, put it inside nowiki tags, like this: [[RFC 1]] that is, [[<nowiki>RFC 1</nowiki>]] --Goplat 15:40, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Copyright question
I am terribly confused. I want to use an article (specifically the article on "kleptocracy") in a book I am writing. The article is absolutely perfect for my needs.
I certainly want to give credit where credit is due, but I'm afraid I do not understand the conditions in the "GNU Free Documentation License".
Can I acknowledge the source of this article with a standard bibliographic entry, or am I actually required to post the entire license somewhere in my work?
If that's the requirement, I'm afraid the value of that short article won't be worth the trouble of adding such an incredibly long license document.
Someone please give me some good news! Thanks ahead.
- Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and Wikipedia does not give legal advice. With any luck, your publisher will have a lawyer they can contact about matters like this, and I'd recommend that you have them do so. That said, I'll see if I can help shed any light on the subject, and hopefully I won't misinterpret the law too badly.
- If you want to use only a part of the article, it may be considered fair use, in which case you could quote and cite it as you would any other excerpt from a copyrighted work, and not have to worry about the GFDL. If, on the other hand, you are copying the entire article, things become a little more problematic.
- It seems like you would be printing a verbatim copy of the article, and that you would indeed be required to include the full text of the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Verbatim_copying#Printed_copies for a more thorough explanation. Compared to the length of an entire book, I don't think the GFDL is all that large, but that's your decision.
- You should also keep in mind that, depending on various factors including the nature of your use of the article, it's possible that some lawyers would consider your book a "derivative work" based upon the article, which would mean that your entire book would have to be licensed under the terms of the GFDL as well. This might seem strange to you and I, but it's not our opinions that matter—again I would urge you to obtain professional legal advice.
- Hope this helps—Triskaideka 17:38, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Stub query
In particular with Richard Blumenthal... I personally still think it's a stub as it only covers a mere fraction of the man's career and what you could talk about. I'd like to put it back and have people expand it... should I do this? - Ta bu shi da yu 11:58, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You mean put the {{stub}} tag back? I don't think it deserves one; there's no way an article that long (and that good) is a "stub" according to the definition on Wikipedia:Find or fix a stub. A stub is a mere placeholder for what will eventually become a real article; Richard Blumenthal is a real article, just one that could be elaborated on (like many of our other real articles). People are still encouraged to expand articles even in the absence of any tags that indicate they're in critical need of attention. If you want to try to draw attention to it, you could mention it on your User page or list it on Wikipedia:Peer review. —Triskaideka 15:04, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Also try listing the article Requests for expansion, and/or add the Category:Requests for expansion tag. Good luck! Catherine | talk 21:38, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Government website copyrights
Government websites such as georgia.gov generally do not have copyright notices on them anywhere; how are such copyrights generally treated? ~ Booyabazooka 18:17, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- That's a state government website. Material published by all states except California is under copyright unless explicitly disclaimed. -- Cyrius|✎ 21:23, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- However, state court decisions and enacted laws are public ___domain. - Mateo SA 14:54, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
Two tables overlapping
I noted that the Leo von Caprivi page has two tables overlapping (at least it does in my browser). My complete lack of technical knowhow means I would rather not attempt to fix it without advice on how to do so. Any ideas? --Roisterer 04:50, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Where's the default text on the blank pages?
What's going on that the blank pages don't have that table with links to wikitionary and page editing anymore?
Only "(There is currently no text in this page)" makes Wikipedia look horrible and void — Kieff | Talk 11:31, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)
- This is an ongoing problem with the way messages are handled. Sometimes the MediaWiki: namespace messages (e.g. MediaWiki:Newarticletext) are not used, and the software defaults are used instead (which is this case is "There is currently no text in this page"). Angela. (adapted from Kate's response on WP:VP) 20:40, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)
Counting number of contributions
How can one count the number of contributions made by self or others (short of making an SQL query)? I always see people making comments on how many edits a particular person or themselves did, and never could figure out how they got those numbers. On a related note, would it not be more useful if the list in user contribution pages was numbered? I guess I'll make a feature request. ato 20:27, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The only way is to go to the contribution list, set the # per page to 500, and count the number of pages, then lowering the # per page as you approach the end. Sorry, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 20:31, 2004 Sep 7 (UTC)
Once your contributions get high (over a couple thousand), thumbing through them even by 500 at a time becomes quite inefficient. If you can estimate your contribution count, there's a faster way that helps minimize the number of page views required to count them:
- Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&limit=100&offset=RoughEditCount&target=YourUserName (replacing YourUserName with your Wikipedia username, and RoughEditCount with a guesstimate of your contribution count +/- a few hundred)
- Thumb through the results by pressing "Next 100", gradually lowering the number per page as you approach the end (as Meelar said)
As my contrib count increases, I find this technique increasingly more valuable. Your mileage may vary. --Diberri | Talk 04:30, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)
- If your contribution are "over a couple thousand" then you're probably listed here: Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits. Paul August 17:24, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
Redirecting to an anchor
Is it "legal" to set up a redirection to an anchor on a page? For instance, could Carth onasi be redirected to Minor_characters_in_Star_Wars#Carth_Onasi ? ~ Booyabazooka 03:16, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- nevermind - apparently yes. should have read the discussion page first. ~ Booyabazooka 03:17, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I'm the owner and author of a web page but I can not put a small article
reference informatoin about: Ted Wong
Hello,
My name is Albert Grajales and I'm the owner and author of the web page
http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico
A day ago I was writing about my teacher Ted Wong in Wikipedia and it appears on your advice notice that it can not be posted because it is copyright to my own web page. I took my information from my web page that is
http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico/JFJKD_PUERTORICO_BRUCELEE_TEDWONG_SIFU.html
and of course I modified it with more data. My question is how can I post my data again or HOw can I authorize myself to post the article about Ted Wong? I'm not to avid in computers so please explain me carefuly.
just in case:
Me Albert Grajales authorize wikipedia to use my information from my web page:
http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico
specialy part of the page:
http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico/JFJKD_PUERTORICO_BRUCELEE_TEDWONG_SIFU.html
Albert Grajales PO Box 1068 Aguadilla PR 00605-1068
email: jeetkunedo@prtc.net
Thank your help on this matter.
Albert
- You are of course allowed to post your own text on Wikipedia, but if you don't say that you're the copyright owner, other editors may assume that you're some third party who's using the copyrighted content without permission. You've already done what you need to by posting your permission to use the text on Talk:Ted wong. I've added a note to Wikipedia:Copyright_problems#September_6 to draw attention to your permission. A sysop should fix the article within a few days. —Triskaideka 15:48, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
__NOEDITSECTION__ and __EDITSECTION__
The __NOEDITSECTION__ directive prevents an [edit] link from being placed on a section. Is there anything like an __EDITSECTION__, to produce an edit link? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 05:31, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Use of __NOEDITSECTION__
The following two sections use __NOEDITSECTION__. Are both of these correct? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 05:31, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
broken examples removed
How can I e-mail a user?
How can I send e-mail to users. I can not find the E-mail this user link mentioned in Preference AnyFile 18:18, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- In most skins, when you go to a user page, e.g. User:Triskaideka or User:AnyFile, the "E-mail this user" link will be in one of the menus on the left side of the page. In the "Monobook" skin it appears under "toolbox". You type your e-mail into that web page, and it gets sent to their e-mail address. I don't know what happens if they haven't provided a valid e-mail address. —Triskaideka 18:35, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Do registered user's email addresses ever get displayed?
I'm very interested in registering to participate in Wikipedia, but I've just got a new email address that I don't want displayed anywhere on the web (for anti-spam purposes). On my own site I use a contact form to keep the address on the server. I've searched the FAQ's and can't find any mention of policies regarding the display or non-display of email addresses of users.
No your email adress is kept private. If I as a wikipedian want to send you an email I can do so by clicking email this user, but even then I don't get to see what it is. (But you get to see mine). What's more you don't even have to fill in the email field when you regidter if you don't want to. Get an account 90,000 registered users can't be wrong! Theresa Knott (Nate the Stork) 22:02, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Linux
Does anyone know how to install a wiki using Linux? Every time I search for info on the subject I find a page about Linux in the wikipedia. Any help would be tremendous!! Thanks. :v) {re-posted on behalf of Anon User:66.168.237.136}
- If you want to install MediaWiki, the wiki software which Wikipedia uses, first download it at SourceForge. The only official install instructions I can find are available at m:Installation, though it doesn't appear they are very good. That page links to m:Running MediaWiki on Linux and three distro-specific guides, m:Running MediaWiki on Slackware Linux, m:Running MediaWiki on Gentoo Linux, and m:Running MediaWiki on Debian GNU/Linux. Hope this helps. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 03:42, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
references to external web pages via Internet Archive?
I think that references to external web pages should, where possible, be made to the Internet Archive. I have some questions.
- is this the right place to ask these questions ?
- where should I discuss this idea with contributors ?
- is there a bot checking that references to external web pages have not become broken, maybe even fixing the references automatically to the Internet Archive ? PeterGrecian 11:06, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You could ask at Wikipedia talk:external links. If you don't get much response there, you could advertise the discussion on the Village pump. I don't know of any bots checking external links. Angela. 02:53, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks Angela, I'll look around try a few things out. PeterGrecian 10:55, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
chemical formula editor
Hi. I'm Paginazero, an Italian "rookie" contributor to it.wiki.
Has wikipedia ever considered to set up a tool like ChemTex (or similar) which is based on the same Tex technology currently in use for writing math formulas?
That would help for creating a common standard and would save space (code vs. images).
Thank you for your kind attention. --195.75.15.2 12:42, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC) (Paginazero on it.wiki)
Copyright on images
Advice please. I'd like to add a much improved image to M51. I have the permission of the copyright owner for its use in Wikipedia. Is this enough? He merely requests an acknowledgement, but would remain the copyright holder. Given the 'free content' nature of Wikipedia should I use it?
Thanks, Arcturus 19:31, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Redirect from article with an image
I'd like to make the article Chucky a redirect to Child's Play, but Chucky has an image. How does that affect the procedure? Joyous 02:29, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)
- If you think the image is worthwhile, then add it to the Child's Play article. —Stormie 05:06, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)
How to get tables to stay in their sections
Take a look at User:Pyrop/Table example. How do i get the tables to not do that, and stay in their sections? Pyrop 16:26, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)
- You can use <br clear=right /> or perhaps <br clear=all /> to make the parser fill the space with whitespace. [[User:Sverdrup|User:Sverdrup]] 16:34, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- If you don't like either formatting solution, try other editing solutions. Without knowing which article/subject is vexing you, this has to be general:
- First (and perhaps ideally), fill the section with an attractive (!) amount of text by finding more to write about the subject! Describe the meaning of the tabular data, what distinguishes it from tables in other sections, provide sources, discuss historical significance -- make it an encyclopedia article that is more than just a collection of reference tables.
- Alternately, don't use sections at all: include an extra row at top or bottom of the table as a caption, containing the text which is currently under the section header. (Search for "rowspan" in the table markup help pages to make the caption row stretch across all columns -- I don't know how to do this in the new table markup.) There may be a way to display the tables side-by-side, in this case (short of enclosing them in another table, which is dang ugly code-wise).
- Good luck! Catherine | talk 23:23, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- If you don't like either formatting solution, try other editing solutions. Without knowing which article/subject is vexing you, this has to be general:
"New messages" link to external site
I recently got the standard orange box indicating that I have new messages, only the link, oddly enough, sent me to this site. I am baffled as to how this happened. Any explanations? Livajo 00:09, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- No idea, but note to others: don't follow the link, it displays "you are an idiot" in blinking lights, along with a song. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 00:11, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)
- It was a vandal. He copied the format of the new message box and put it on recent changes. Grunt blocked him milLiseconds before I could. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 00:26, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Aha. I didn't think the Recent Changes page could be edited. Oh well, glad to see justice served. Thanks. Livajo 03:22, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- To edid recent changes go here Wikipedia:Recentchanges. The page needs to be updated every few days as requested articles become fulfilled. If you ever see a blue one, replace it with a new one from Wikipedia:Requested articles. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 17:35, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Creative Commons licenses and Wikipedia
What's the deal with incorporating content licensed under various creative commons licenses, and images in particular, into Wikipedia? — Matt 22:37, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- As far as I know Creative Commons ShareAlike is incompatible with GFDL whether noncommercial or not since it requires releasing the derivative works under the same license. Public ___domain is fair game of course, so do works whose copyright have expired due to licensor's choice of limited time (e.g., framer's) copyright. -- at0 17:01, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
How do you find your number of posts?
Hey everyone. I've looked all over for a way to find an exact number for your number of contributions. The my contributions page doesn't seem to give one. I'm interested to find out how many edits I've made, so I'd appriciate it if anyone enlightened me. --pie4all88 01:43, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Go to your contributions page, then select "500" as the limit. Count the number of pages until you get to the last one, then set the limit to 100 and repeat. Do this until you get a working number. Hope this helps, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 06:32, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)
- Ok, thanks for the help. I wish there was a more convenient way of doing it, though. :) --pie4all88 23:25, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Just so's you know, the reason an easier method hasn't been added is because there are worries that this would lead to undue importance being placed on the number of edits a user has made, as opposed to more accurate measures of their contribution to the project. Not having the feature creates a technical problem, as people try to find out manually, but having it might create a social problem, because it would be too easy to put importance on it. - IMSoP 19:25, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I agree that emphasizing the importance of number of edits is a bad idea, but as long as number of edits is a factor in evaluating, for example, Requests for adminship, people are going to keep doing this. Perhaps updating List of Wikipedians by number of edits more frequently, say once a week, would help? (Maybe this suggestion belongs somewhere else, but I don't know where.) —Triskaideka 19:42, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Well, that criterion for adminship is exactly the kind of controversial reliance on numbers that the developers are trying to discourage by making it harder. I'm pretty sure there has been some very heated debate regarding how strictly that rule should be applied. Not that that means it's wrong, of course... - IMSoP 19:58, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- There's always the CSV, an unformatted list of all contribs to all wikipedias, updated weekly (more often than Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits). See here for a list of what each column means. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 23:08, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Hurricanes Ivan
Why when I click on the link for Hurricane Ivan, I get a very gross and sick photo of a girl in the bath tub, I have no idea who to contact about this or how ones gets the right photo ther, Please clean this up before a child see it!!!!!!!!
- Someone vandalized the article. Has been fixed. Click "reload" if your browser still shows it. Andris 21:04, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)
page is hard to reach.
Someone put up a page about my programming language called SuperCollider. The page is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercollider_%28programming_language%29
However searches for "SuperCollider" "SuperCollider programming language" do not find the page. links to SuperCollider (programming language) don't work.
The page is nearly inaccessible and unfindable for these reasons. How to fix it?
Category creation
I have posted the following at the Wikipedia talk:Tutorial (Namespaces), where such questions are encouraged, but no one seems to be home... Can any one explain to me:
How to create a Category, to add or edit an existing category is not covered, or I can not find this informaton...Please expand on this topic. Faedra 09:26, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC). please also drop a note on my talk page if this is done so I can read it!... All the best.
Further research revealeda bit of helpful info, so I added it to my question, thus:
NB: Found this:
I want to create a new category at the bottom of a page. How do I activate a new category and what are the criteria for addition?
First check to see if an appropriate or very similar category already exists (just click on the Categories link in any article for a full list). (This seems untrue all I get is some inane list of numbers and dates and info on some irrelivant pop band, whats going on here?)
If not, you can create the category just by adding the category link, .
That's all there is to it--you've created a category. After saving the article, you can click on the category link and enter a description and some information about the category.
Still uncertain about adding to existing categories and what categories should be limited to Please specify and clarify, if at all possible.... Faedra. Thank you.
- Sounds like you found the List of Categories all right. Some one went through and made categories for dates and "irrelevant pop bands". More useful might be the Wikipedia:Browse by category Rmhermen 12:31, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)
Inter-project image linking
Can wikipedia images be used in sister projects? For example, can I directly use a Wikipedia image in a Wikibook, or do I have to save it and upload it again under Wikibooks? ~ Booyabazooka 03:04, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You have to upload it again. Wikipedia Commons is being set up to do this in the future though. Rmhermen 14:04, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Does this apply to interlanguage image links as well? I'd like to link to some images in the Japanese version of Wikipedia from the corresponding English version of the same article, but I tried various syntaxes (ja:image, :ja:image, even ja:画像 and none of them worked.) -- Che Fox 18:01, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
photo mess
Sorry to say, I have just made a mess, and I worry that trying to fix it will make things worse. I uploaded the wrong picture as "Aktobe's coat of arms", I tried to upload the right one but I won't work.....I see a discussion about this type of problem but the technical talk in that discussion is right above my head. To add insult to injury trying to replace it I made another mistake and I uploaded the right picture as "Aktobe coat" (not my day today, I promise I am stopping right now), can we delete that page entirely. The problem is I am not computer savvy and I cannot find a picture unless there is a link to it in a page, so I can't even get to it right now! Sorry for the work I just created, but can somebody please help...tell me what to do in none "....cache.....server..." terms. 04:36, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You can get to an Image page by prefixing the picture filename with "Image:" and typing it in the Search toolbar at the left (in the default skin). For example, Image:Wiki.png. Alternately, you can go to your contributions list by clicking "my contributions" at the top of the page. The Image pages that you created will be there.
- Now then, if you've accidentally uploaded duplicate pictures, it's not a problem. List the duplicate at Wikipedia:Images for deletion, and an administrator can delete it. --Slowking Man 06:00, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)
Thank you. I asked to have both deleted and will load the right one CAREFULLY with the right name etc. Obvioulsy I am new around here. Carole a 06:53, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
reciprocal link
Hi
I have a real estate business on Russell Island (a small island off the coast of Brisbane, Australia). Is it possible to set up a reciprocal link with you. My web sit is www.brisbanebayislands.com.au.
Thank You
Dominic Alberth
- Hello Dominic. Welcome to Wikipedia. Unfortunately reciprocal links with your site would not be appropriate content for Wikipedia. This site is not just a collection of links. Please read a summary of our site and what it is not. --Jarsyl 09:36, 2004 Sep 15 (UTC)
- Is this what Wikipedia:Friends of Wikipedia is for? — Matt 13:13, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Yes --Hemanshu 03:47, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
20000 quotations for you..
Hi,
I have a database with nearly 20000 English quotations (19920 exact) quote +author. I have created this database with the help of a small bot which I coded myself. I don't know if you could do anything with it (is copyright a problem?), but I would like to send it in csv format to you (if you want to have it), let me know..
- That sounds like an impressive collection. Wikipedia does not collect many quotations, but our sibling project Wikiquote (http://www.wikiquote.org/) may be interested. Wikiquote:Village pump is probably the place to ask. —Triskaideka 20:19, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- But note that yes, copyright may well be a problem - you say you got these quotes with a bot, so where exactly did you get them from? I mean, a website of quotations probably won't be too happy with you trawling through their pages and copying all the quotations so that you can go offering them to their rivals... - IMSoP 20:36, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If it's a quotation then surely the copyright lies with the quoted people? How can any website have a copyright on what other people said? Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 05:47, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Theresa is quite correct. A collection of non-creative information is not copyrightable in the US (as a result of Feist v Rural). Also, quotations are a very, very, very well establish form of fair use recognized explicetely by the Bern treaty. James and I wrote this all into Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ - go there for further discussion. →Raul654 05:55, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, in theory, it could qualify for the same protections that an anthology does. However, if they were gathered with a bot, on its face, that would seem to negate the 'creative' element. →Raul654 06:02, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- Even if the collection does constitute a copyrightable creative work, it appears that the owner of that copyright is offering the collection to us, so No Problem. -- Derek Ross | Talk 06:07, 2004 Sep 17 (UTC)
- No, you both miss the point: if they were gathered by a bot, they have been gathered from somewhere. My guess is that they have been gathered from somebody else's collection: probably another website (note that this is a "small bot"; not "an advanced piece of software capable of extracting notable quotations from the Internet at large"). If I'm right, that other website may well argue that it is publishing a "creative work" or somesuch, and challenge our right to simply extract their content (NB: IANAL, this just seems fair enough). If this person (who I only now notice left no means of contact, so we no only that they were using IP:83.116.124.128) clarifies where the quotations came from, we can work out whether they are, in fact, usable.
- Meanwhile, is there anywhere on Wikiquote yet that deals with copyright issues? I mean, can one just blatantly rip off other people's quotation databases? Is the only thing stopping this being done that it is hard to verify the quality of them? And what about a bot that used OCR to process all the quotations in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations? OK, maybe I'll shut up now. - IMSoP 16:18, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Boilerplate request for permission
To whom should the replies to an emailed Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission be addressed if the recipient wishes to discuss the request or has questions about copyright and so forth? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 23:26, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Well, I'm not 100% sure, but I think you should just continue the discussion yourself. If they ask for more details about the site, you can point them to the appropriate parts of the site, or perhaps to the mailing lists - the "Foundation-L" list covers legal matters, I believe, so that might be a good place to take the discussion if you find yourself out of your depth with copyright clarifications. Best bet, though, is to knock their socks off with how great the project is, and you won't have to worry about it! ;) -- IMSoP 00:05, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Referral to a mailing list seems impolite, somehow. I'm concerned that most users do not have the legal authority to discuss Wikipedia's use of the GFDL or possible alternatives. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 00:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- What you are describing is called "unauthorized practice of law" - see Practice of law. In general, as long as you do not present your statements as legal advice, or present yourself as a lawyer, you are on safe ground - hence, the commonplace IANAL disclaimer. As far as the GFDL, James and I wrote Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ to give people a basic idea about copyright. That should help answer most basic questions. →Raul654 02:06, Sep 16, 2004 (UTC)
- Referral to a mailing list seems impolite, somehow. I'm concerned that most users do not have the legal authority to discuss Wikipedia's use of the GFDL or possible alternatives. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 00:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
crew of the Prince of Wales.
My father in law was rescued off the Prince of Wales during WW2. I don't believe it was part of the Pearl Harbour event. Can you tell me if there is a list of the crew of the Prince of Wales so that I can pass it on to my grandson, Robert Andrew Murley. His great-grandfather was Officer Leonard Seymour Murley. There was a newspaper photo in existence that showed him being hoisted from one ship to another. Yours truly Sylvia M Murley
- Hello, Sylvia. It looks like our article on the HMS Prince of Wales (1939) is still somewhat incomplete. However, after a quick Google search, I did discover this fairly extensive list, which may be what you're looking for. (Click the links with the groups of letters near the top to see crew members whose last names start with those letters.) I hope that helps.
- FYI, for the future, reference questions like this one should be posted at Wikipedia:Reference desk. —Triskaideka 15:50, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Innocence Project
I've found that both Innocence Project and Innocence project seem to be about the same organization. The latter is more complete and has numerous contributors, while the properly named one has only one contributor and has very little content. Could someone delete the Innocence Project article and move Innocence project into its place? Thanks. - MattTM 04:02, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- I have merged Innocence project into the proper article and made it a redirect. Duplicate pages with usable information should not be deleted, as the edit history is necessary for compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License. --Slowking Man 05:17, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, there is an even better way, which I see someone has now done: an admin can delete a page, move something to its ___location, and then undelete the original, thus merging the two edit histories. This is mainly useful for copy-and-paste moves, where the history begins in one place and then contines in the other, but I guess it makes sense here too. - IMSoP 16:29, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Screenshots
What format do I use for screenshots, and would it be a bad idea to use Paint to convert to that format? --Sgeo | Talk 13:23, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- I would say PNG (that is not lossy), without size reduction. Yes, you can use Paint.--Patrick 13:32, 2004 Sep 17 (UTC)
French "Droit de citation"
Apparently France has some sort of fair use legislation. See fr:Droit de citation. Can anyone tell me what this page says? I'm kind of wondering whether we could get this translated into English also. It'd be helpful for pages like Tintin where we need to clarify the license of French images from the books. - Ta bu shi da yu 15:31, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC) P.S. how do I link to the French article?
- Add a colon to the front of the link (as I have done above). Incidentally there is also a French article on fair use which seems to tie the two concepts together. HTH HAND --Phil | Talk 16:11, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
- Cheers :-) The French article (when I passed it through a translator) appears to talk about American fair use law. I'm interested in French fair use. - Ta bu shi da yu 16:19, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
images
I'm accessing Wikipedia from a different machine, and none of the images display. This computer uses XP instead of 98SE, but there are no other changes that a computer illiterate like me is aware of. I have Zone Alarm security suite and SpybotSD. Any ideas how I can make the images visible again? jimfbleak 15:34, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Some web browsers allow you to turn off display of images. Any chance that that's what happened? Also, glancing at the source code, it looks like CSS and JavaScript are used to display images. Could support for either of those be lacking or turned off? What browser and version are you using? —Triskaideka 16:10, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a badly configured Zone Alarm: in my experience personal firewalls will limit the number of successive connections made by an "unknown" piece of software, and browsers fetching images tend to do so in a whole burst of connections. The same thing happens if a page has multiple frames: some of them will mysteriously be unavailable. If this is your problem, you need to go into the settings of Zone Alarm (which I've never used, I'm afraid) and find some way of telling it that whatever browser you're using is "trusted", or just that it exists (it may well have automatic settings you can tell it to apply, and even an option to search for 'net-enabled apps; I know Norton has both). Good luck! - IMSoP 16:36, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- My ISP is AOL 9.0, which I assume uses IE (as I said, I know nothing about computing). images on a couple of other sites I've used seem to display, and one of the media links to a larger image worked, although not one jpg in an article will display. I'll play around, but from my position of ignorance, I'm not hopeful. jimfbleak 05:26, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I've had this problem too. Going to ZoneAlarm - Privacy - Ad Blocking and turning off the blocking of banner ads fixed it for me. --Cavrdg 18:13, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Help with move over page (Tintin)
Could an admin help us move Tintin to The Adventures of Tintin? - Ta bu shi da yu 01:20, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Has this been discussed anywhere? It seems a bad idea considering most pages link to Tintin, not to The Adventures of Tintin. Angela. 06:55, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- Sorry, I did not check to see if it had been discussed or a consensus reached -- I've already deleted and moved. I was coming here to confirm it was done and ask the requestor to fix all links at Special:Whatlinkshere/The_Adventures_of_Tintin -- if need be, I will undo the changes in the morning, if another admin has not yet done so. -- Up too late in California, Catherine | talk 07:05, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Can we just setup a redirect? The article is about the Adventures of Tintin, not about Tintin himself. - Ta bu shi da yu 14:59, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I agree, the article is about the Adventures; that's why I didn't hesitate before moving. I also see that the article is a Featured Article candidate, and those should definitely reside at the proper title.
The redirect was created when I moved the page, so it's already in place. However, you should still go to the What links here page and check every article that was linked to "Tintin" and is now linked to "Adventures" through the redirect. Anything that is referring to the "Adventures" should have the link manually fixed to point directly to that article, rather than redirecting -- rewrite the sentence so it can use [[The Adventures of Tintin]] directly, or change [[Tintin]] to [[The Adventures of Tintin|Tintin]]. This is cleaner and reduces the chances of users accidentally creating double redirects.
This is a also lot of work, but that's the responsibility you take when you move or request that a page be moved. It's important to clean up after yourself! (There are probably a number of organizational changes that might be worthwhile, but keep getting deferred because they would be too much work for one person to take on comfortably....)
In addition, if it seems that a good number of the articles that link to Tintin are actually about the character and not the book series (a subtle distinction at times), it might be worthwhile to change the current REDIRECT at "Tintin" into an article on the character, comparable to the articles on other characters in the series. This should of course have a prominent disambiguation block at the top, pointing to the "Adventures" article.
I will not be on for much of the day, but I'll try to pitch in later if I can; I have a soft spot for the little guy as well.... -- Catherine | talk 15:55, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I'll check for double redirects, but I can't see the point of worrying about those articles that point to the character Tintin. The story contains more than enough information about Tintin himself. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:25, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
To make things more complicated, there's also an article Tintin (character) about the character. Maybe links about the character should be changed to this article? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 12:22, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
Images of book covers ok to use?
Are images of book covers ok to use. Can you copy them from Amazon say, under "fair use"? Paul August 05:01, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
Or, in a related thought, if you can't use Amazon, could you scan them yourself? Rhymeless 05:29, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- In general, it's OK to use the book cover on an article about the book - that's pretty squarely fair use (see Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ - I wrote the US fair use criteria in there). About using it from amazon - I suspect it would be the same as scanning it yourself, but I'm not sure (so don't quote me on that). →Raul654 06:32, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- Take this as you will -- here's what their Conditions of Use page says, in part:
- All content included on this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, [...] is the property of Amazon.com or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws.
- Take this as you will -- here's what their Conditions of Use page says, in part:
- Amazon.com grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of it, except with express written consent of Amazon.com. This license does not include [...] any derivative use of this site or its contents [...]. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of Amazon.com.
new punctuation; punctuation combinations
I am curious about new punctuation usage, mostly in e-mail and Web site pages. I have searched on Google but have had no success finding any definitive meanings for the following punctuation symbols: (::) and (.:) I am interested to know if anyone in this community has researched this topic. thanks >> bartlett@b-creative.com -- User:Jrbartlettjr
- Also see the C++ programming language, where (::) is used as a namespace operator. Dmeranda 03:04, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Also used in ratios e.g. 2:3::4:6 Rich Farmbrough 22:11, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Other language Wikipedias
Is it possible to log in to other language Wikipedias using my English Wikipedia User name or do I need to register as a new User in each language? -- DanBlackham 07:46, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You need to register in each language. A unified login proposal has been floated, though, so maybe in the future there will be single logins. Rmhermen 14:24, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- See meta:Single login and the more recent meta:Single signon transition for discussion on this. That page seems to imply it could be available soon. Angela. 22:42, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- How are they going to deal with the inevitable name conflict? Salasks 23:22, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
- That is in fact the main topic of discussion on meta:Single login (the two pages referenced above having been merged and expanded), it being the largest single stumbling block to making the change. Take a look, and feel free to add any comments that come into your head, either within the page or on its talk page. - IMSoP 23:27, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Coat of arms of Corsica
The image of the Coat of Arms of Corsica is blank in the Corsica article. The image is in the French Wikipedia. Where should I post a message asking for help to import the image from the French Wikipedia for use in the English article? -- DanBlackham 08:17, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You don't need help. Just save the image (right click and go to "save as") and then reupload it to the english wikipedia. Make sure to say where you got it from and tag it (In this case, with {{GFDL}}). (User:Raul654 03:20, 18 Sep 2004)
Two tables overlap
In the article Military of the United Kingdom the two tables don't display right when saved although they do display correctly when you hit preview. What is the problem here? Rmhermen 15:32, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- When I first looked, the tables seemed to be lined up fine, but looking at the source, I saw this was because you'd put some blank lines in. The overlap was caused by the first paragraph being shorter than the first table - the problem being that on different people's screens, this difference will vary; I guess it might also vary from skin to skin, and be effected with extra bits from the preview screen, etc.
- To solve it, I replaced the blank lines with the somewhat magical <br clear="all" />, which I'd seen other people use. This ensures that however much or little of the screen is taken up by the first paragraph, the second table will always line up to the right of the first subheading. - IMSoP 16:22, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- There were actually two problems. IMSoP fixed one of them. The other problem is that <table align="right"> does not prevent the table from overlapping with other text. To prevent overlap, you should use style="float:right". Almost all uses of align=right in Wikipedia should use float:right instead. The difference between IMSoP's version and my version is visible only when you view the page in a very narrow window, or with a very large font. —AlanBarrett 16:52, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, your version behaves exactly the same for me, but maybe that's a difference between browsers (I use Moz). Still, seems to me that your style attributes are just CSS versions of the HTML attributes that were there in the first place / in "my" version. But what do I know, eh? - IMSoP 17:24, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, <br style="clear:both"/> is just the CSS equivalent of <br clear="all"/>, and either would work equally well. But align="right" and style="float:right" behave differently for me in Opera, if I make the window so narrow that there's enough horizontal space for the table and a few letters of other text (but not enough space for complete words of the main text). I suppose the ugly way the text overlaps the table with align="right" could be an Opera bug, but it could also be that align="right" is not as well specified as style="float:right". —AlanBarrett 18:09, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, your version behaves exactly the same for me, but maybe that's a difference between browsers (I use Moz). Still, seems to me that your style attributes are just CSS versions of the HTML attributes that were there in the first place / in "my" version. But what do I know, eh? - IMSoP 17:24, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Do colons break wiki links on 3rd party sites?
It seems that using a colon (:) within a wiki link causes that text to be supressed on third party sites.
Example: The entry for Haven Kimmel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haven_Kimmel) has four books listed under the 'Works' heading. On a third-party site such as TheFreeDictionary.com (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Haven%20Kimmel), the two titles with colons are suppressed.
Is this a known issue? Would using the ASCII code for the colon fix this? -- Metabolome 18:50, 2004 Sep 18 (UTC)
- Hmm, that's interesting. It certainly seems to work as you describe. Probably the third-party site is mistaking links containing colons for interwiki links, links to other namespaces, or category links, and it doesn't want to display those. However, Wikipedia:Naming_conventions#Be_careful_with_special_characters suggests that colons in article titles are okay, as long as the part before the colon doesn't coincide with a namespace or language code.
- My experimenting suggests that using Unicode escape sequences in wikilinks doesn't work, so I think we've got to stick to typing them from the keyboard as usual and live with the fact that they display wrong on third-party sites. Anyway, the real problem here is bad code at the third-party site, and I don't think we should go out of our way to compensate for their problems. You could contact the site administrator and draw their attention to the problem if you wanted to. —Triskaideka 19:48, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I agree, particularly with this site. If TheFreeDictionary.com chooses to employ aggressive filtering to remove references to Wikipedia and even wiki, I see no reason why Wikipedia should be expected to accommodate bugs they may have introduced. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 20:18, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
A couple observations after more research:
- Other 3rd party sites (e.g., SmartPedia and WordIQ don't seem to have a problem parsing links with colons, whether they use the full Wikipedia implementation or a stripped-down version without links.
- Other Wikipedia entries that contain links with colons use piped aliases, and these seem to transfer intact to TheFreeDictionary.com. See e.g. Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business) and Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer).
- I agree with both of you that it's not a Wikipedia problem, but I still want the entries to be as complete as possible on the site of whoever uses the content.
Thanks for the replies. -- Metabolome 00:13, 2004 Sep 19 (UTC)
Creating new anchors
Is there any way to create an anchor on a Wiki page that is not a part of a section or subsection? I would like to use the [[#link]] syntax in order to link from footnotes in the text to a corresponding footnote in the References section. Instead of having footnotes refer to a manually numbered list (with the instrinsic problem of having to renumber each pair of footnotes whenever a footnote is added or deleted), I would have each footnote in the text refer to an anchor in the References section. For instance, if I had "Henry Ford created the automobile" in the text, I would then have an entry in the References section with the appropriate reference, say (I'm making this up) "Smith, R. Automotive Weekly, 1988. page 69." The anchor that I would use would have a shortened name of the reference, like #SmithR, or #Smith1988, or whatever is needed to avoid ambiguity. I'd then place a footnote after the text with a reference to the anchor in the References. This system allows one to have an extensive References list but avoids the problem of having to renumber footnotes. This could be accomplished with the use of HTML anchor tags, but the <A></a> tags are disabled by Wiki. Is there any other way to place anchors in the text that I'm not aware of? I realize that each subsection is an anchor, but I don't want the References section to have each entry as a subsection, as that would make the text look messy. Also, I would like the tags to be invisible rather than a part of the text. (In other words, I don't want "[Smith1988] or whatever to appear in the text of the bibliography.) Any suggestions? —Brim 21:56, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- Nope. Improved footnote handling has been on the various wishlists for quite a while, but no one's gotten around to implementing it. -- Cyrius|✎ 22:25, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- See the comments on this at MediaZilla:192 where "Forest" has created some patches that might address this feature request. There is also some discussion of it at meta:Footnotes. Angela. 22:39, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
I found a system that works okay. If I put the References in a Template, then it will hide those sections from the Table of Contents, so the TOC won't appear so messy from all of the references being seen as subsections. It's a little cumbersome having to edit two documents (article and the template), but it's a temporary solution, until a better system gets implemented. —Brim 22:52, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
- There is also a low limit on the number of times a template can be used in an article - five I think. Rmhermen 22:58, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
Yes, it is possible, make an anchor with <div id=".."></div> or add id=".." to the start tag of any existing element, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk#test and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_area#neth --Patrick 02:15, 2004 Sep 19 (UTC)
- Thank you! That is exactly what I was looking for, and it works great for my system of footnotes. (Actually I had just found the answer posted on Talk:How to edit a page by Merriam, and I was just coming here to post about it here). —Brim 18:54, Sep 19, 2004 (UTC)
Internal link style seems to work sometimes, not always: Wikipedia:Help_desk#test and List_of_countries_by_area#neth --Patrick 02:22, 2004 Sep 19 (UTC)
Template rendering problem with "liberal party"
On the page New Patriotic Party there appears to be a strange template rendering problem. I don't know much about templates or I'd try to fix it. Part of the template markup is appearing in the body of the text, as shown here:
|--- |align=center|This text is part of the Liberalism series (III) |- |
- Not sure why it's happening, but separating both template texts ({{election ghana}} and {{liberal party}}) putting them in different lines solves it. The problem is, then the div's will float wrong in the middle of the text, since both tables are set to be at right. Check the entry again, I "fixed" the way I could. — Kieff | Talk 03:17, Sep 20, 2004 (UTC)
- The table syntax requires the "{|" to appear at the start of the line. If you have two tables defined in two templates without a newline between the template references, then the "{|" of the second table will not start on a new line. The parser used in the MediaWiki software is quite bad at recovering from syntax errors, so you often get weird stuff happening quite far away from the true ___location of the error. —AlanBarrett 08:11, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I see. Is there anything we can do about the two tables being at the right? It looks really ugly like that. I'd suggest if we made the template for these sort tables with variable position (we just use {{{1}}} on where there should be "right" or "left") so we define, for each article, which position is more suitable. What you think? — Kieff | Talk 08:40, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
What is this?
I just found this out: Imdb:tt0094721
It generates links to Internet Movie Database. Now, it seems to be a namespace, but I couldn't find anything about it.
I wanna know because I've created Template:imdb title and Template:imdb name for this purpose, and I wanna be aware of any previous projects regarding imdb links.
In anycase, templates seem to be better for this purpose than this is — Kieff | Talk 02:55, Sep 20, 2004 (UTC)
- See m:Interwiki map. →Raul654 02:59, Sep 20, 2004 (UTC)
Article moving
Could someone move Thomas Hamilton, spree killer to the proper disambig title of Thomas Hamilton (spree killer) (currently a redirect to the former)?
Also, a while ago I changed all instances of G4TechTV in articles to G4techTV, as it's the proper name for the television channel, but G4techTV still redirects G4TechTV. Could someone fix this as well (make G4TechTV redirect to G4techTV)? The current setup gives people the wrong impression of which name is correct.
Thanks! - MattTM 10:02, Sep 20, 2004 (UTC)
- Done Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 14:56, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Rewritten article to replace copyvio text now orphaned
I noticed that the Netfilter article had been on the copyvio list for quite a while and decided to write a new replacement article Netfilter/Temp from scratch. After I saved it I then noticed that the original Netfilter page is now completely gone and there is no reference to the copyvio problem, it's history, or any link to my replacement Temp article. In addition the original Netfilter article is no longer listed on the Wikipedia:Copyright problems page. Is this the way things normally work here, or did I happen to write the new article at the same time that the old one was finally deleted? And if so how long does it normally take before my temp article gets put in place for the real one? -- Dmeranda 04:52, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, this was deleted while I was writing the replacement page. Found the entry in the deletion log, "03:39, 21 Sep 2004 Delirium deleted "Netfilter" (copyright violation, reported Sept. 10)".
What's the correct way to move the Temp page to be the main page now? -- Dmeranda 06:05, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Okay, I moved the temp article to the main article myself. It is clear that this has escaped the administrators attention because they were deleting the article at the same time I was writing the replacement. However this has left the temp article as a redirect to the main article rather than deleting the temp article outright. -- Dmeranda 06:17, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I have deleted it.--Patrick 11:36, 2004 Sep 21 (UTC)
indication when "discussion" is not empty
Dear friends,
Maybe it is a good idea to have an indication when "discission" is not empty.
What about showing "discussion+"?
- No need for special text, just make the css for "li.new a" the same as for "a.new". For myself I do that, perhaps that should be in the default css also.--Patrick 11:53, 2004 Sep 21 (UTC)
- I just checked: the default already shows whether the page is empty.--Patrick 12:14, 2004 Sep 21 (UTC)
Regards
When italicizing quoted text, should we italicize the quotes as well? I mean, should it be like "this" or like "this"? — Kieff | Talk 05:41, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
Italicizing quotes
When italicizing quoted text, should we italicize the quotes as well? I mean, should it be like "this" or like "this"? — Kieff | Talk 05:42, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
- For what it's worth, both of those look the same on my computer. Anyway, I'd say that you should not italicize the quotes unless they're part of the quoted text. Think of it this way: if only the first word(s) of the quote were italicized, you wouldn't italicize the opening quote marks but not the closing ones, right? Similarly if only the last word(s) of the quote were italicized? So why make a special case for when the whole quote is italicized?
- Hmm..I'm not sure about this argument. These types of formatting are used for different purposes, so I'm not sure if you can reason by example from one to the other. Usually if you italicise one or two words, it's for emphasis of those words (or because the quote emphasises them); if you italicise the entire quote, it's to indicate that it's a quote. — Matt 16:28, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- If you're italicizing a quote to indicate that it's a quote, then why would you also be using quotation marks? One or the other method is sufficient—the policy I cited below says as much, and prescribes the use of quotation marks. It also says that for especially long quotes, indentation can be used in addition to the quotation marks. So italics shouldn't be used to indicate a quotation. —Triskaideka 17:16, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You could raise the issue at Wikipedia_talk:Manual of Style if you wanted to get a definite consensus. Note, however, that Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks says that "Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be italicized." Are you sure that the words inside the quote marks need to be italicized? Or alternately, are you sure that the italicized words need to be quoted? —Triskaideka 16:13, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
How to move a page to its redirect
The article African language is about African languages and language families. On its discussion page I proposed a move to African languages (plural) since that seems to be the more appropriate name. (According to the naming conventions and/or the WikiProject Linguistics, an article titled African language would be about the African language, by analogy with Swahili language and the like; however, 'the African language' does not exist.)
Coming to my point. Currently African languages is a redirect to African language. How do I move African language to its plural counterpart now? I understand that just copy/pasting is not the best thing to do because of losing the page history. Thanks in advance for the help! - Strangeloop (talk) 10:29, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Only an admin can do this i'm afraid :-( I've done it for you. In case any admins don't know how to do this, you have to delete the redirect page (african languages) move the page to the old redirect page, then undeleted the page you just deleted to get the history back. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 10:37, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thank you! Strangeloop (talk)
Self-created images & copyright / CC-by-2.0
(copyright question) - Strangeloop (talk) 11:12, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Never mind, I see that CC-by-2.0 is included in the list of 'Free licenses' and I guess that's what I was looking for. - Strangeloop (talk) 20:31, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Wire Measurements
moved to the Reference Desk
Special:Linkedfrom
Is there any simple way to produce a list of articles which are linked from a specific article? Something of the sort ought to be available; the server already does this automatically when any page is saved. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 19:44, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, I'm not sure there is specifically a page for listing links from an article - probably not often needed/wanted. The closest I can think of is Special:Recentchangeslinked, which is like a watchlist only for the articles linked from a particular page. What were you hoping to use it for? - IMSoP 20:11, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- This is such a list if large parameters are used, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Recentchangeslinked&target=Wikipedia:Help_desk&hideminor=0&days=3000&limit=1000 , just not alphabetic, and not including interwiki links.--Patrick 00:03, 2004 Sep 22 (UTC)
To my knowledge, there's no such function built-in to the Wikipedia, and there likely won't be any time soon because the developers have much more pressing concerns on their plates. OTOH, it might be a good idea to submit a feature request at Sourceforge, if there isn't one already.Thanks to Patrick for pointing out the Recentchangeslinked trick. It's not formatted nicely, though, so I'm glad the script that I wrote didn't end up being a complete waste of time:
- I do agree that this functionality would be very useful, though. I've written a Python script to accomplish this at User:Benc/Scripts/what links out.py. It should be very simple to use: you just copy the page source into the script and execute it using a Python interpreter. It still has a few rough edges, and it's certainly not the most user-friendly solution, but it's a start. • Benc • 23:26, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
What links here from other xx.wikipedia.org sites
Halló!
Redacting in different languages it would be helpfull to see the links from other xx.wikipedia.org sites too.
Is this possible so far?
Regards Reinhardt
- Unfortunately, this isn't currently possible. You could try using Google (Google:link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk) or submit this as a feature request at MediaZilla:. Angela. 01:41, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
Users defacing pages
Hi - I've been led in circles trying to find out how to start a discussion about banning a person with the IP 62.171.194.11, as they have been defacing pages since May of 2003 (albeit infrequently). So this is a joint request to 1) start a discussion to ban this user and 2) make it easier to create discussions on people (i.e. have a "Report this user" on the user's profile). Thanks! FranksValli 07:34, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress would be a good place to start. -- Cyrius|✎ 11:56, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Edit made to page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web#Beyond_text
Hi,
I corrected the myth that the first CERN web browser was text only. I was intimately involved in the creation of the Web at CERN from 1990 to 1997. In addition to the edit, I uploaded a screenshot that I made using the original web server (which I still run from time to time, and which is located at CERN in our visitor centre).
However, I was unable to fill in the details about the image (WWWonNeXTScreen.jpg) despite clicking on it and exploring the various guidelines. What did I do wrong?
Second, there is a book by James Gillies (that also carries myself as author unfortunately) which relates in detail the creation of the web. Can a reference to that book be made?
Thank you for your answer.
Robert Cailliau
- It seems reasonable to add a reference to that book, even though you were co-author. I don't think anyone would consider it self aggrandisment! Rich Farmbrough 22:24, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Agreed, don't worry about it. Our concern on potential conflict-of-interest cases like this is that we don't trust people to tell us how important they themselves are, or how notable their own achievements and creations are. In this case, however, I don't think that anyone will question the relevance of a book coauthored by someone who was part of the project. Isomorphic 22:38, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- As to the first problem I couldn't reproduce it. Double clicking on the article brought me to the picture page, then clicking on the "Edit this page" link brought up the the edit window. Perhaps a transient problem? Rmhermen 22:42, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)
That's so cool... I don't suppose there's a chance you could upload the full-sized version of that screenshot? We have automagic code for making a smaller thumbnail version built into the software (see Help:Images and other uploaded files), and it would be good to click on the shrunk version and get to see it in a bit more detail. - IMSoP 23:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Misnamed (typo) image found
I need to move [[Image:Map of California hightlighting the LA Metro Area.PNG]] to [[Image:Map of California highlighting the LA Metro Area.PNG]] (or .png even), but the standard move doesn't work. Any advice? Rich Farmbrough 22:15, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Just re-upload the image under the new name, make sure the old one is orphaned and then list it for speedy deletion. (You don't need to go through WP:IFD if it's an exact (bitwise) copy). - 22:39, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
State Copyright / Public Domain Question???
My question relates to whether or not information published by an individual state is classified as public ___domain. I know federal government publications are, but what about states (WV specifically). I am particularly interested in information published on a state university website that I would like to use as part of a research project. --ScottyBoy900Q∞ 01:38, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- See the section Government website copyrights on this page. Mateo SA 01:41, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Ok, so if its copyrighted it can't be used as public ___domain?--ScottyBoy900Q∞ 01:43, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Yes. "Public ___domain" means that a publication is not under copyright. If something is under copyright, it can't be used without the permission of the owner of the copyright. Mateo SA 04:42, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- James and I wrote the Copyright FAQ to answer basic questions like yours. Go read :) →Raul654 04:53, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Ok, so if its copyrighted it can't be used as public ___domain?--ScottyBoy900Q∞ 01:43, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Full Wikipedia syntax
Moved from Wikipedia:Reference desk by Trilobite (Talk) 13:30, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
As a new user, I read the tutorial, but was dismayed to not be able to find a full syntax listing. Is there one available, or did I miss it? - Alphax 10:32, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- If by syntax you mean the wiki markup used to create bold or italic text, headings, links, images, tables, etc. then details can be found on Wikipedia:How to edit a page, specifically this section. — Trilobite (Talk) 13:27, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thought so. Thanks. Alphax 14:29, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
Help with Firefox 1.0PR and editing
Hi -- while editing an article with Firefox 1.0PR, if I click on the editing field and hit ctrl-F for Find and type some string of text that is present, the Firefox find bar at the bottom of the screen claims the text isn't found. It finds it fine when reading the article. For example, when reading this Help Desk article, if I search for angela then it jumps right to the text. But when editing the article, searching for angela doesn't find it.
Previous versions of Firefox used a dialog box that popped up (as IE does) and it always worked fine. Tempshill 17:29, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Never used Firefox, but in IE, sometimes you have to search backwards to find the word. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:49, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Neither button ("Find Next" and "Find Previous") works, and in Firefox 1.0PR, you don't actually have to use the buttons; the browser just jumps to the first instance as you type. This doesn't work, either, for the editable text. Tempshill 17:59, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You can't search for text in a text box (i.e. the edit box) - only in the body of an article. If you hit "preview" and then search it should be OK (unless I misunderstood your question). Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 19:21, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- As an aside, I'd sure love to be able to search the edit box. Paul August 05:38, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
- Get yourself firefox 0.9.3 works fine. It seems daft to me that a later version can't do what an ealier one could. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 05:44, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Theresa, are you saying you can search for text in the edit box (contrary to what Ðåñηÿßôý said above? Paul August 05:51, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
- Get yourself firefox 0.9.3 works fine. It seems daft to me that a later version can't do what an ealier one could. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 05:44, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- As an aside, I'd sure love to be able to search the edit box. Paul August 05:38, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
Dr Stephen Ward/Profumo
I was going to take up the invitation on the page - http://www.fact-index.com/s/st/stephen_ward.html - to furnish more biographical information for that entry. Following the directions I can find no 'edit' button on the page. I have some biographical notes prepared. Just though they might be useful. Any clues on how to go about uploading? Dennis
- In this case, that's because you were using one of the many wikipedia mirrors that copy its articles and combine them with some ads. The fact-index.com articles have a "see live article" at the top that leads to the original wikipedia entry, and that's the one that can be edited. Personally, I don't quite see the point of using ad-ridden mirrors when the original Wikipedia is such a fine place to hang out, but maybe that's just me :P -- Ferkelparade π 18:31, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Dennis just edit our article here. You' find it at Stephen Ward. Click the edit tab at the top of the article to edit (Just like you did to edit the help desk. Oh and welcome to Wikipedia! Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 20:23, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Thank you Theresa. I guess I need to spend some more time on this to get a handle on things. At least this is a start.
Edits while not logged in
I've accidentally made many edits while not being logged in today, and a few in the past under user:66.30.119.190 I believe I've read of a way to have these edits attributed to me. Can someone tell me how? Paul August 18:57, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit -- Cyrius|✎ 19:09, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks. Paul August 19:36, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Be aware, however, that the developers are overworked and regret having ever created that page. It might take a long time for them to get around to reattributing anything. Isomorphic 20:47, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Too bad it requires the developers - I won't bother them with this, let them concentrate on more important things;-) Paul August 17:16, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- Be aware, however, that the developers are overworked and regret having ever created that page. It might take a long time for them to get around to reattributing anything. Isomorphic 20:47, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks. Paul August 19:36, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
Specific Pages,,,
Is it possible to see all User talk: pages that haven't been edited for over 6 months? Specifically anon IP's? I want to do a little janitorial work there — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 00:44, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
URL not displaying properly
For some reason, I can't get this url to display properly: http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/ It appears that the number at the end is incorrectly handled. This is from 1984 (television commercial) pstudier 02:52, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- When I look at [1], that link looks and works fine for me, and the page that it points to seems to work fine as well. What's happening on your end that makes it look wrong? And what browser are you using? —Triskaideka 05:14, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I use Windows XP and have tried both Windows Internet Explorer and Netscape. I see 4 bullets under External links, but the third bullet is blank. pstudier 05:36, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Check it now, is that better? --Phil | Talk 11:07, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)
- I think you just changed it back to the format that wasn't working for him, Phil. Unfortunately, I don't have any more bright ideas. I've looked at it with IE6 on Win98SE, and with IE6, Opera 7, Mozilla 1.2.1, and Netscapes 4.7 and 7 on Win2k, and in all of them that link and its target display perfectly normally for me. —Triskaideka 15:39, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The version that I altered had a
<nowiki>
tag stuck in the middle of it; can't see how I could have made it worse :-) --Phil | Talk 17:13, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)- You made it look right again for me. My point was just that if you look at the history and the diffs ([2], [3]), you'll see that pstudier "fixed" a link that wasn't working for him by putting in the
<nowiki>
, and you "fixed" it by taking it back out, so it's back to how it was ([4]). :) —Triskaideka 17:20, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You made it look right again for me. My point was just that if you look at the history and the diffs ([2], [3]), you'll see that pstudier "fixed" a link that wasn't working for him by putting in the
- Check it now, is that better? --Phil | Talk 11:07, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)
- I am really perplexed. It is broken for me in both Explorer 6.0, SP2 and Netscape 7.1. It works with Mozilla 1.7.2 under Linux. Since it seems to work for others, I am inclined to leave it. By the way, if I delete the trailing 1984, then it works but obviously points to the wrong place. pstudier 18:51, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- You are absolutely right, it is the ad blocker! Thank you very much. pstudier 20:11, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
This page is n kylobites long
Hey everyone. Great to be here.
Okay. I'm working on my User page, Bobo192, and I come across the note, "This page is.. approaching 32 Kb, please cut it down".
I know what some people do is move their previous work to another page so to retain their previous writings, and hyperlink to the other page. I'm just wondering how I go about doing this, hyperlinking to a page which doesn't yet exist, and creating a second page for which to write.
Or am I just being greedy..?
I know I haven't worded this as best I could, but I hope someone can help me out.
- What you can do, working with a
User:
page, is add sub-pages and transclude them. For example carve out your13.09.2004
section and stick it in[[User:Bobo192/13.09.2004]]
. Then add{{User:Bobo192/13.09.2004}}
to your main user page at the appropriate point. Do this for each section and you're laughing, particularly since the software now allows section editing to jump through a transclusion to the correct article. HTH HAND --Phil | Talk 11:05, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)
- The thing to remember about the 32Kb "limit" is that it's purpose is to allow people with really old browsers to still be able to edit a page (see Wikipedia:Page size and Wikipedia:Browser page size limits). However, since it's "your" userpage, it should really only be you editing it anyway, so as long as you personally don't have any troubles editing long pages, I wouldn't worry too much about it. - 16:04, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
Thank you for the advice, Lee. What I think I'll do for now is to keep it as it is, because, just like you say, I'm going to hopefully be the only one editing it. So I think I'll just keep on adding to it.
(But, having only done a diary for the last eleven days and it already being impossibly long, is rather worrying..!)
I'll give what you suggested a shot, but if I find it too tricky, I'll give up and just keep it as it is.
Thank you again.
Matt
- A personal diary is not appropriate content for a user page, see Wikipedia:user page for user page guidelines, specifically note the section what should I avoid?. Paul August 16:45, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
Editing before sections
I find the "edit section" option very useful, since I allows me to edit certain big pages without problems due to my slow connection. The thing is, sometimes I must edit the text at the start of the article, before any section started, and so the only way of doing this is editing the whole page.
Is there any way to edit only the "pre-section" text at the start? If not, is that some feature we'd likely to add in the future? Where can I suggest such feature to Wikipedia?
Thanks — Kieff | Talk 14:34, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)
- It is possible, but unfortunately the [edit] link to actually do it is not provided on the page (it used to be). If you look at the URL when you section edit, you'll see "§ion=XX" at the end, (this section is currently 68, for example); the number for the pre-section is 0, so if you select a different section to edit and then replace the last number with 0, it'll work. - 15:26, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)
- There is a way of doing this and it's not altogether obvious, but makes sense and is helpful once you've been told about it. When you click on a section edit link you will be sent to a URL that looks something like http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit§ion=68. The edit link next to the first subheading of an article will take you to an edit screen for section number 1, second section's URL has number 2, etc., so all you have to do is manually change the number at the end to 0 and you will find yourself at an edit screen for the introduction. It's rather unfortunate that this simple task has to be achieved in a way that requires explanation each time someone wants to know how to do it, but maybe the developers will come up with a way of making editing the introduction more intuitive. — Trilobite (Talk) 15:32, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If the large page in question is not in the main article namespace, you can also add a wikilink to accomplish what Lee and Trilobite explained above:
[{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}|action=edit§ion=0}} edit]
appears as:
Obviously, this is too distracting to appear on articles themselves, but for lengthy talk pages and the like, it's useful. • Benc • 20:54, 24 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Images & Copyrights
Hello, I wish to add images to articles pertaining to Star Trek. How do I determine if an image is of a wikipedia approved copyright? I have seen Star Trek images (i.e.: Deep Space 9) that seem to be mere photos released by Paramount or screen captures of shows. So.. if I find an image on the official site, can I assume it's OK to use?
I appreciate any and all help as I am anxious to improve my Star Trek articles. EDGE 03:02, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I don't know if people would say that's copyrighted or fair use? You'll have to wait for someone else to answer. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 03:16, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Assume they're copyrighted - they almost certainly are. Check the Copyright FAQ (that James and I wrote) to see what the criteria for fair use are. →Raul654 03:25, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I have read the Copyright FAQ and it seems that these two statements concerning fairuse apply:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes Is it a for profit competitor or not? Is it for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research? Is the use transformative (of a different nature to the original publication)?
- Does this use hurt or help the original author's ability to sell it? Did they intend to or were they trying to make the work widely republished (as with a press release)? Are you making it easy to find and buy the work if a viewer is interested in doing so?
- These would seem to support the fairuse designation of a screen capture. If not, what of all the images of artists, musicians, actors, politicians that are released by companies and such? How about the images on 50 Cent or Deep Space 9? Fairuse seems to apply to all of them. EDGE 04:09, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- You have to consider all 4 of the criteria -- None of these factors alone is sufficient to make a use fair or not fair - all of them must be considered and weighed.. In such cases, it's hard to speak in general terms - you have to decide each image on a case by case basis. →Raul654 04:15, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I must say that it is difficult to make such decisions given the high degree of personal judgement involved. I believe that usage of this image is within the fairuse clause. I am especially convinced given the high level of precedence available on Wikipedia, notably in articles dealing with television series, music artists, and movies. Thank you for your insights. EDGE 04:22, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- In the articles on Sisko or Garak - almost certainly; in the article on Star Trek, maybe. In an article on Alien, probably not. →Raul654 04:26, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I must say that it is difficult to make such decisions given the high degree of personal judgement involved. I believe that usage of this image is within the fairuse clause. I am especially convinced given the high level of precedence available on Wikipedia, notably in articles dealing with television series, music artists, and movies. Thank you for your insights. EDGE 04:22, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- You have to consider all 4 of the criteria -- None of these factors alone is sufficient to make a use fair or not fair - all of them must be considered and weighed.. In such cases, it's hard to speak in general terms - you have to decide each image on a case by case basis. →Raul654 04:15, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I have read the Copyright FAQ and it seems that these two statements concerning fairuse apply:
- Assume they're copyrighted - they almost certainly are. Check the Copyright FAQ (that James and I wrote) to see what the criteria for fair use are. →Raul654 03:25, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
If this image has peaked your curiousity, you are all invited to view the episode's article at In the Pale Moonlight EDGE 04:29, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- I remember that episode - it was one of my favorites :) →Raul654 04:31, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- Please DO NOT use anything from the official Star Trek site. If you click Terms and Conditions at the bottom of each page, you'll find this:
- 3. TM & COPYRIGHT 1996-2004 BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation. This Web Site and all of the content it contains, or may in the future contain, including, but not limited to, articles, opinions, other text, directories, guides, photographs, illustrations, images, video and audio clips and advertising copy, as well as the trademarks, logos, ___domain names, trade names, service marks and any and all copyrightable material (including source and object code) and/or any other form of intellectual property (collectively, the "Material") are owned by PDE, Paramount Pictures Corporation or other third parties, and are protected from unauthorized use, copying and dissemination by copyright, trademark, publicity and other laws and by international treaties. Nothing contained in these Terms or on the Web Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Material in any manner without the prior written consent of PDE or such third party that may own the Material or intellectual property displayed on the Web Site. UNAUTHORIZED USE, COPYING, REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION, REPUBLISHING, UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING, POSTING, TRANSMITTING, DISTRIBUTING OR DUPLICATING OR ANY OTHER MISUSE OF ANY OF THE MATERIAL IS PROHIBITED. As a user of the Web Site, you agree not to use the Material for any unlawful purposes and not to violate PDE's rights or the rights of others. PDE may add, change, discontinue, remove or suspend any of the Material at any time, without notice and without liability. --Catherine | talk 15:55, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Fairuse laws in the United States grant permission to use copyrighted works (no matter how harshly the note is worded) under certain conditions. I believe these conditiosn apply to the image in question. EDGE 23:51, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- This was covered earlier when I said Assume they're copyrighted - they almost certainly are. ;) →Raul654 19:08, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
- 3. TM & COPYRIGHT 1996-2004 BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures Corporation. This Web Site and all of the content it contains, or may in the future contain, including, but not limited to, articles, opinions, other text, directories, guides, photographs, illustrations, images, video and audio clips and advertising copy, as well as the trademarks, logos, ___domain names, trade names, service marks and any and all copyrightable material (including source and object code) and/or any other form of intellectual property (collectively, the "Material") are owned by PDE, Paramount Pictures Corporation or other third parties, and are protected from unauthorized use, copying and dissemination by copyright, trademark, publicity and other laws and by international treaties. Nothing contained in these Terms or on the Web Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Material in any manner without the prior written consent of PDE or such third party that may own the Material or intellectual property displayed on the Web Site. UNAUTHORIZED USE, COPYING, REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION, REPUBLISHING, UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING, POSTING, TRANSMITTING, DISTRIBUTING OR DUPLICATING OR ANY OTHER MISUSE OF ANY OF THE MATERIAL IS PROHIBITED. As a user of the Web Site, you agree not to use the Material for any unlawful purposes and not to violate PDE's rights or the rights of others. PDE may add, change, discontinue, remove or suspend any of the Material at any time, without notice and without liability. --Catherine | talk 15:55, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Please DO NOT use anything from the official Star Trek site. If you click Terms and Conditions at the bottom of each page, you'll find this:
Be bold. Upload under fair use anything you like, regardless of copyright, and then discuss each image individually on the proper page for discussing "fair use" claims. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 18:52, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Usage statistics
The Webalizer URL statistics collect monthly statistics for pages visited in individual Wikimedia projects (en, fi, meta, etc.).
- Is there a similar compilation for the entire wikipedia.org ___domain?
- Is there a yearly version?
- Are there compressed versions of these pages?
- Are there versions which use HTML entities rather than raw UTF8?
I need a "works cited" for this website and an article I found on social class?
I am doing a paper on social class and I somehow stumbled upon this awesome website. Kudos to the editor! I have tried numerous times to find the editor's name and the author of the article I read on social class (www.wordiq.com/definition/Upper_class) Could someone please assist me with this? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Christina
- Dear Christina - See Citing Wikipedia →Raul654 18:52, Sep 26, 2004 (UTC)
Finding Sound Files on Wikipedia
I was wondering if there was an easier way to find the sound files on Wikipedia than stumbling upon them? Is there a list of them available? thanks --Roisterer 02:21, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Special:Imagelist, search for ogg, wav, etc.--Patrick 09:01, 2004 Sep 27 (UTC)
How can I clean up old search topics that come up in the SEARCH input field?
How can I clean up old search topics that come up in the SEARCH input field?
On Wikipedia's first page is the input field for the search string. When I click this, all old search item I have ever looked for come up. Some are out dated, some annoying, some just clutter the picture. Sometimes I would like to delete the all.
Is there any way to erase them all or edit this list?
If there isn't any, I strongly recommend to add an option "clear history". How many decades and centuries do you want to let these data accumulate into data graveyards? Obviously they become less and less useful over time if you cannot clear or edit these lists.
If such an option is there, it is very well hidden. I doubt that it exists.
Thanks, Karl Scherer
- These search terms are stored in your browser, not on Wikipedia. To get rid of them, you'll have to clear your browser's stored forms data (depending on which browser you use, you probably won't be able to selectively clear the search term list...) -- Ferkelparade π 09:10, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Plural in article titles???? Upper/lower case both valid???
Wikipedia urgently needs a cleanup of all articles that have upper/lower case wrong and/or plural in the title where there should be singular.
Two examples:
Apart from the (correct) article with title
there are also two other articles on the same topic called
- "Mechanical puzzles" and
- "Mechanical Puzzles".
As far as I understand Wikipedias, they both should not exist at all and be replaced by reference to "Mechanical puzzle" (maybe some of the text can be salvaged and integrated).
Similarly, apart from the (correct) article with title
there are also two other articles on the same topic called
- "Chess puzzles" and
- "Chess Puzzles".
The more unclean titles exist, the more Wikipedia guarantees that the information can NOT be find.
Obviously there is no mechanism to avoid these wrongdoings, so I uggest maybe someone writes a computer program to check for such plural-containing article titles.
Also, even when only one article exists on a topic and its title is a plural for no good reason, this should be changed into a singular.
Also, unnecessary Upper Case Words in titles should be eliminated for consistency. But of course the first complaint is the most important, because it stops people from finding information in Wikipedia, and I suppose we all agree that this is to be avoided.
Cheers, Karl Scherer
- I checked the first set of three: the problem has been taken care of long ago, by making redirects.--Patrick 08:55, 2004 Sep 27 (UTC)
- Likewise with the second set of three. Karl if you click on the link to Chess puzzles it actually redirects you to the page Chess puzzle. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 10:05, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
"you have messages" message
I keep on getting the "you have messages" message when I am not logged in (like right now). I go to check it out and there is nothing there. how do I get rid of it? Carole.a (my logged in name)
- Since I note that User talk:212.116.232.34 does at least have some text on it, I suspect that this may be some kind of "caching" issue, and the message is left over from when this was new - see Wikipedia:Clear your cache. If that doesn't help, it might be worth doing a quick nonsense edit (add a . or something) on the page to make sure the software notices you. And of course, the best way of avoiding it is to always log in before you do anything, but I appreciate that may be annoying, especially on a shared computer where you can't use "remember my password" type features. If this carries on happening to you, it may be you've uncovered a bug in the system, so let us know and we'll see if we can fix it. - IMSoP 16:35, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Did it all, but no go. I cleared my "cache" (thanks for the link to the very clear explantions "how to"). I added something to the talk page. Shut down the computer and restarted it. I bet you it is the the true sign of a computer dummy: I case of doubt shut it down and hope. Next I think I am left with "use a bigger hammer" approach to life, "just ignore it" or, "just log on, why don't you?!" though this requires a certain discipline! Thanks for your help. If this thing ever goes away I will let you know. To be honest it is mildly annoying but I am not all twisted up about it. Carole a 09:23, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The message is gone. Thank you. Carole a 15:52, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Did it all, but no go. I cleared my "cache" (thanks for the link to the very clear explantions "how to"). I added something to the talk page. Shut down the computer and restarted it. I bet you it is the the true sign of a computer dummy: I case of doubt shut it down and hope. Next I think I am left with "use a bigger hammer" approach to life, "just ignore it" or, "just log on, why don't you?!" though this requires a certain discipline! Thanks for your help. If this thing ever goes away I will let you know. To be honest it is mildly annoying but I am not all twisted up about it. Carole a 09:23, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Tabs moving
Why on some pages do the tabs move? That is, the "edit this page," "watch" and so forth move from being in a horizontal row to a more-or-less vertical column when I bring my mouse over a tab. Thanks. Maurreen 00:00, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- That's a CSS-related bug in Internet Explorer, if I remember rightly. I remember it being discussed while the new site skin was being designed, and I'm not sure there was ever a full solution found. You'll just have to put up with it, I'm afraid. - IMSoP 00:06, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks, I do have old version of Explorer, I think. Maurreen 00:29, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Ooops... I think this was for the Reference Desk... And now I do not know how to delete it. Can somebody delete this for me, please?
I think Ferrari is cited not correctly here, but I do not know, where the mistake has been made.
On
Italic texthttp://mathworld.wolfram.com/QuarticEquation.html
they cited him correctly, I think...
Does anybody see the mistake quickly (I would need at least several days, because: I am not so good in mathematics)...
-Arne
Rqst move Totie Fields from "T" to "F" on U.S. comedians page
Hello,
Could someone move Totie Fields on the Category: US comedians page? She is listed under T. She should go under F since "Totie" is her first name and "Fields" is her last name. Thank you. C Adams
- I just did that change, but the beautiful thing about wikis is that you can edit everything yourself if you notice something's amiss :) For reference, cat entries are sorted by adding "|sortkey" to the article's category entry, so the entry in the Totie Fields article now reads [[Categories:U.S. Comedians|Fields, Totie]]. -- Ferkelparade π 10:06, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Request to take over user account
I'm known as "User:Shannon" on several wikipedias, and would like to keep this name when editing in the english version as well. But the user name is already in use. Unfortunately, User:Shannon never made any edits, and has no user & discussion page as well, so I cannot reach him. I would like to take over his account, since he obviously does not use his, but how?
Maybe some admin / developer can help me. My "home" Wikipedia is the german, please leave a message on [5].
Thanks!!
- I have heard of this being done before. It would require a developer, however. Isomorphic 22:47, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I would suggest asking on either one of the IRC channels (#MediaWiki would be your best bet) or the "wikitech-l" mailing list. - IMSoP 22:50, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Newspaper Article
I want to add pictures to The Irish Times and Irish Independent. I have both newspapers - how should I add them? Scan just the masthead? The whole front page? Is this fair use? JOHN COLLISON | (Ludraman) 16:04, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- IMO it is fair use. I would just scan the masthead unless either of these papers has a especially interesting layout of their front pages. If you do decide to scan the whole front page reduce the image size down so that it is not possible to actually read the articles. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 21:51, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
User talk and templates
I know that the {{ns:3}} template tag produces a User talk substitution, but is there an easier way to get a Talk link in a signature, like with ~~~~? I'm using the rather convoluted [[{{ns:3}}:Alphax|(talk)]] at the moment - Alphax (talk) 10:28, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
- Using the following code is easiest in my opinion:
- [[User:Alphax|Alphax]] [[User_talk:Alphax|(talk)]]
This way there's no chance of forgetting which ns code it was. Calling it User_talk actually makes sense, so it's easier to remember.
Hope that helps, if not, drop a note on my talk page :) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 21:28, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
My watchlist and contributions don´t show
A few hours ago I registered at wikipedia. I edited a few pages and added some to my watchlist. I checked my watchlist and my contributions and they did show up. After that I logged out. When I came here again, I wanted too see if there were any changed made on pages that are on my watchlist or my contributions. But when I open my watchlist or my contributions it says there are no items on them. --Mixcoatl 12:25, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- I'm also having problems with my watchlist. Items I delete not being deleted. New changes not showing up. Paul August 13:30, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
- Mine seem to be working OK, although somewhat slowly at times. Are you sure that you're logged in under your user name and that for some mysterious reason you have not been logged out at some point? That has happened to me a couple of times over the last two months -- maybe something to do with Temp files or Cookie files being screwed around with by Internet Explorer. Just a thought.... Hayford Peirce 18:29, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Wikipedia just had a server move and had several problems during that period; downtime and slow connections being the most noticeable. I think the problem was just temporary. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 21:31, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
- His morning contribs seem to be showing now. Salasks 23:16, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
Just to note that I had this problem the other day - I was being served an out-of-date watchlist, as though the last few hours hadn't happened; rather spooky, really. I suspect it was just the side-effect of either maintenance or excessive load on the server. Annoying, but temporary. - IMSoP 23:18, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
User Edit Counts
I could have sworn that I posted this question earlier, but then I came back and couldn't find it anymore.
How do you know how many edits you have made without actually sitting there and counting every one on your "My Contributions" page? I am assuming there is an easier way to do this.--ScottyBoy900Q∞ 02:18, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The subject is discussed above at Counting number of contributions. (I made this response and it appeared on the Page history but not on the page; if it turns up twice feel free to delete this one.) JamesMLane 06:46, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks, didn't see that up there. --ScottyBoy900Q∞ 23:21, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- This question is a FAQ. ✏ Sverdrup 14:53, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Just for the record - I invented this technique :) →Raul654 20:17, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
American or British English?
Obviously, with writers from around the world, there are various "dialects" of English used here at Wikipedia, and I was wondering which was correct. That is, is it color or colour? Do quotation marks go inside or outside punctuation?
Thanks. Vague Rant 05:01, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
- Try this: Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Usage and spelling. Adam Bishop 05:08, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The issue of quotation marks is addressed elsewhere in the Manual of Style: Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks. JamesMLane 05:19, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Meetup definition page
Your search engine is temporarily out of order, and when I reached the Meetup definition page via Yahoo, I made a startling discovery: In the second sentence of the very first paragraph, which is uneditable, the words "such as" are use twice, back-to-back, duplicating them unecessarily. As that segment isn't editable, and I can't find an "errors and ommissions" tab, I am sending this comment to you in the hopes that this grammatical error can be corrected. After all, an encyclopedia, like a dictionary, should have correct spelling and grammar.
I hope my time and effort is not wasted.
Thank you,
James Taylor
PS. If you wish to respond, or I can help in any way, you can get my email address from Meetup. The name is "Melior", and I am the organizer for the "Capitalist Party Meetup" in Vancouver, BC, Canada. If you had an errors and ommissions page that was not publicized, I would have given you my email adress directly.
- Fixed. James Taylor, thanks for the notice. The reason you couldn't find an errors and omissions page is that every page is its own errors and omissions page. If you see a mistake, just click on "Edit this page" and fix it. JamesMLane 06:52, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Perhaps he was looking at a mirror site. Paul August 14:56, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
- He said "that segment isn't editable" (about an error that preceded any headings). My guess was that he noticed the edit bars along the right margin of the text, but overlooked the "Edit this page" links in the menus along the top, left and bottom of the page. For anyone else who misses the distinction: "Edit this page" opens the entire article and lets you edit anything in it. The "edit" link to the right of each heading opens only that section. In a long article it can be a convenience, because you don't have to scroll down to find the point where you want to make a change. Text that precedes any heading isn't accessible by such a link, but "Edit this page" still works, and of course you won't have to scroll very far. JamesMLane 16:51, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Article statistics?
Short question: Is it possible to obtain statistics about individual articles? - Logariasmo 07:12, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Statistics about what, exactly? — Kieff | Talk 07:53, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
- The number of visitors to an article, and the origin (or 'referer') of the visit.--Logariasmo 22:11, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- No we used to have hit counters way back when but they had to be dropped because they placed too much loaf on the servers :-( Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 22:35, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- And as if all that bread wasn't bad enough for the servers, it placed quite a bit of load on them also. ;-) Jwrosenzweig 23:52, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The pun in your edit summary was terrible. Shame! Isomorphic 00:08, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- And as if all that bread wasn't bad enough for the servers, it placed quite a bit of load on them also. ;-) Jwrosenzweig 23:52, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- No we used to have hit counters way back when but they had to be dropped because they placed too much loaf on the servers :-( Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 22:35, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- The number of visitors to an article, and the origin (or 'referer') of the visit.--Logariasmo 22:11, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- There's a monthly usage page, which includes hit counts for each article. September's is here. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 15:21, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
adding links
i am creating an article for an author and wanted to add a link to a book he wrote for a synopsos ex: toxin when i add the link it directs to a page about the word toxin. how can i fix this??
- A link entered as [[Toxin]] will point to whatever article has the name Toxin. When more than one article has the same natural title, one or both of them has to be given another name; you can then make links to each of them look the same, by doing something like [[Toxin (book)|Toxin]]. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation for details. - IMSoP 17:57, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Uploading images for personal use
I would like to post a screenshot of my customized stylesheet on my userpage. Is this acceptable and how exactly do I go about doing this? --Will2k 18:09, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
Yes it's acceptable. To do it save the screenshop in .png format, with a sensible name (e.g. Will2k's stylsheet screenshot) then hit the "upload file" and put a copyright template in the summary ( e.g. {{GNDL}}). Once it's uploaded go to you user page an put it in in the form[[Image:Will2k's stylsheet screenshot.png|thumb|200px|This is my customized stylesheet pretty cool eh?]] . Let me know if you have any trouble but it's all pretty easy. Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 18:45, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Ok, I do know that much, I was just concerned that filling up Wikipedia with personal images would be frowned upon, and thought maybe there are several places to upload for different areas of Wikipedia. I'll just be doing one image so thanks for the help.--Will2k 23:28, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
- The odd photo, added to the user page of a regular wikipedian is considered perfectly ok.Lot's of people do this. Abusing the goodwill of the wiikmedia foundation by using it to store personal files, or photo albums not intended for the encylopedia is frowned apon and the files get deleted very quickly. (This obviously doesn't apply to you, I'm just puttung here in case others get the wrong idea) Theresa Knott (The torn steak) 16:21, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Help with standard.js to make it load?
No mater wat I type in standard.js it dus apsulutly nuthing in the page! I try downloading the raw JS file it try to load, and it downloaded a blank file. I try reload/refresh and it still not work. Wat rong with this? -- zzo38 19:24, 2004 Oct 1 (UTC)
Table wrapping
Hi, just created a table at the Netball World Championships page, and the external link section after it seems to be wrapping around the right hand side. How do I make it stop? Ziggurat 02:56, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Take out the
align="left"
in the table. Goplat 03:16, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)- Ah, thanks. Must've been a relic from before I converted the table from html.
Ziggurat 03:22, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Watchlist
My Watchlist appears to have stopped updating. Anyone else having that problem? - Ta bu shi da yu 15:19, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Yup, here, too. [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 16:05, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
User CSS question
I borrowed my css style from User:Fredrik (see User:Rdsmith4/monobook.css), and I'd like to enable the external link icon and the icon in front of my username at the top of every page. I found what I thought was the css to include the icons commented out, and I uncommented it, but now I simply have a blank space where the icon should be after every external link. Any suggestions? Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 16:25, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Accented Characters
When I do a accented character, the edit text for the character always shows as regular text if I put something after the accented character. How can I stop this?
- Some advice is available at Wikipedia:Special characters. See if one of the methods there might solve your problem. JamesMLane 16:32, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
table help
The table on USS Lynx (AK-100) appears after the text and not to the right of it. I used the Wikiproject table set up by others and didn't change it, so I'm not sure why it's doing this. I'm off to read the table faqs again, but if someone has a quick fix, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. [[User:Gamaliel|Gamaliel File:Watchmensmiley20.gif]] 18:39, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Done. It just needed to be moved to the top of the article. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 19:07, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks. [[User:Gamaliel|Gamaliel File:Watchmensmiley20.gif]] 19:16, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
License question
Is it O.K. to use text governed by this license:
PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO USE OR REPRODUCE THIS ESSAY PROVIDED THAT PROPER CREDIT IS GIVEN AS FOLLOWS: Hratch Tchilingirian, The Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church (www.sain.org) 1996. Copyright 1996.
As attribution of credits is part of GNU-FDL, I'd guess it is O.K. but IANAL. -- Pjacobi 00:33, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- That's a BSD-style license, which is just fine for use here. (For more info, read the Copyright FAQ) →Raul654 11:47, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
IP Address Edits merged with account
Is there a way of merging the contribution history designated to my IP address (done while not logged on) with my named user history? Dainamo 11:22, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Yes. See Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit. →Raul654 11:45, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
Contents of user pages
Is there a policy on what is and is not appropriate content for user pages? I've recently discovered one that has questionable elements. Tregoweth 17:23, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:user page. Paul August 18:45, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
- Ugh, don't start policing user pages. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 20:14, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Like it or not, pages in the User: namespace are part of Wikipedia. They use the same software and take up the same server space, bandwidth, and money. Certainly, there are much looser regulations on User pages than other namespaces (except maybe Talk), but things like posting copyvio material or using User pages to make personal attacks (for example, maintaining a "blacklist") are subject to the proper actions. --Slowking Man 00:16, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
User:Unhelpful user
What is User:Unhelpful user, and how would it end up on my watchlist without me placing it there? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 19:23, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- When a page is moved, the new title is automatically added to your watchlist. Goplat 19:25, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Help with category
I just created Category:Planetary engineering on my user page User:Viriditas/sandbox and now I can't delete my user page from the category. What did I do wrong, and how can I prevent this from happening in the future? Thanks. --Viriditas 02:34, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Ok, it's gone now, but the removal took about five minutes. Any ideas why this is happening? --Viriditas 02:40, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Probably you were seeing a page on your browsers cache. See: Wikipedia:Clear your cache — Kieff | Talk 03:59, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
- That's what I originally thought, but after clearing my cache and checking the page on another machine, the article was still a member of the category. Apparently this is a known bug referred to as Bug 632. I was just wondering if anyone knows why this is happening, because it doesn't always occur. --Viriditas 05:25, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Probably you were seeing a page on your browsers cache. See: Wikipedia:Clear your cache — Kieff | Talk 03:59, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
Where to report doubles in the future?
I found both a stub Juan Luis Vives and a good article Juan Luís Vives. Where to report doubles in the future? Please look also at ca:Joan Lluis Vives i Marc. Wath name should be used? Gangleri 03:23, 2004 Oct 4 (UTC)
- Wikipedia:Duplicate articles Rmhermen 03:50, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
Wrong move
Seanieboy92 moved the article on Jacques-Yves Cousteau to the page Document1 - Microsoft Windows I am not sure where this should be reported but I made a mistake I copied content from Document1 - Microsoft Windows and moved it to Jacques-Yves Cousteau which means the edit history is in Document1 - Microsoft Windows. Please make amends.
Second thing - can anyone tell me how to find where to report problems like this.
And finally - why are Help Desk and Village Pump not being archived anymore? --Ankur 04:16, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- That's extremely bizarre...perhaps they were trying to save the page as a Word document. Well, whatever they were trying to do, I've fixed it now. Adam Bishop 04:23, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Preferences not working
I set on my preferences to underline links and do not justify paragraphs. But, for some reason, I'm oftenly getting links without underlines and with the paragraphs justified.
When I go check again the peferences, everything is normal, so I guess they're not working for some reason.
Is this some sort of bug, or perhaps an ongoing problem? — Kieff | Talk 05:09, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
- I don't know about paragraphs, but I can confirm the underlined-links-weirdness - i often see that when browsing Wikipedia with Firefox. Have never seen it when using IE, so it might be a Firefox bug (or at least a Firefox-related issue in the Wiki code). Which browser are you using? -- Ferkelparade π 23:33, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I had the problem with no underlined links yesterday using IE, but today it is working OK Petersam 00:10, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I've seen the "justification issue" a couple of times and others have reported it elsewhere. Emptying your browser's cache can fix the problem - for awhile. Paul August 05:14, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
Standard index for main article of category?
I was wondering if there is an existing policy on where the "main" article of a category should be indexed. I've seen a "blank" index: like [[Category:History| ]], a * index [[Category:History|*]] and just a normal index [[Category:History]], and I'm not sure which is the best. —siroχo 05:16, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
- The text after the | character is used only when sorting the list, not on the list item itself.
- [[Category:History|*]] (and probably [[Category:History| ]] as well) are used to place these items at the top of the list, in order to bring up the items with more relevance or to group items with common relevance. Using the category link without any piped text (text after the |) will sort this item on the category page according to the page title.
- So, my guess is, whatever works is enough. — Kieff | Talk 05:41, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
There are some attempts on categories modelling an "is-a" relation. For such cases the main article about the topic shouldn't be categorited into this category at all, you should use "See also" to link it. -- Pjacobi 21:32, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Want to delete a Messed up VfD
I attempted to put Thesis Parade on VfD but somehow I've got things a bit confused. The boiler plate shows up on Thesis Parade, and if I follow "This pages entry" I find my vote for deletion, but when I look on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion there is no mention of Thesis Parade. Could explain why nobody else has voted!
I'm a relative newby and I'm gradually finding my way around. I now realise that the best solution to the original problem is to make the Thesis Parade page a redirect to Reed College since that's where the material really belongs.
So how do I tidy up here, or do I need a Sys-Op's help?
--Cje 20:29, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I don't think you need any help. It looks like somebody added a VfD notice back in April, but didn't realize that there was more to the process. Follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion#VfD_footer to finish adding the article to the VfD page. Seems like a clear deletion candidate to me. —Triskaideka 20:55, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Writing in Chinese and tables
Hello, I have two questions about how to make my Wikipedia pages better. How do you find the Unicode equivalent of Chinese characters? I am trying to add the Chinese station names to the List of Hong Kong MTR stations page, but I keep getting ?? marks unless I add Unicode notation.
Second question, how do you create the tables that have a list of articles an an Icon, such as the Countries in the Commonwealth, or Nations in North America. Thank you! PZFUN 05:24, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- You didn't specify what type of computer you're using, but if you're on a Mac, I suggest you install UnicodeChecker, which is freeware. With this installed, you can just type in your non-ASCII characters as usual, then select them and select (App Menu):Services:Unicode:Unicode -> HTML Entities and the characters will be converted to Unicode entities. (Hey MediaWiki developers! Check out the mb_string module for PHP; it's awesome, and it makes Unicode compatibility a non-issue!) Garrett Albright 05:29, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
what type of processor?
- Moved to Wikipedia:Reference Desk
RE: Password
How do I recover my password without my e-mail on file?
Username: Mistress
-Ami Hughes
- (personal info edited out)
"non-commercial" image issue
After having a welcome message - I put up the following:
"Thank you for the welcome after I put up Hardangerfjord which I discovered was not covered yet while searching for it. Hope there is no problem in having a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 setup for the photos. Have quite a number of original photos I can share with Wikipedia if that is no problems."
Got the following answer from Meelar
"Actually, there might be an issue with the "non-commercial" bit. We try to avoid non-commercial images, because it will prevent their being reused by the sites that mirror us, and this is not compliant with the GFDL (see Wikipedia:Copyrights for more). I'd recommend you raise the question on Wikipedia:Help desk--my grasp of the copyright law here is slippery, and I wouldn't rely on me for a clear statement of your options.
I do hope that you keep contributing, especially images; they're a crucial resource for an encyclopedia, and we're woefully short."
So to the issue itself, as seen from my side (-:
As said, I have thousands of images - especially from Norway and Egypt. Being a professional artist, originally in the area of fine art paintings - I have now added the use of camera to my profession. As I also work with consultancy and tour planning for travellers who need tailor made travels - I highly depend on these photos to be able to both show and explain destinations and to use these as highly needed images to my articles.
When photos in addition is purchased by other commercial publications (online as offline), these photos have both become part of a needed resource for income - and a images I don't want let other start to tweak without my permission (the last is mostly the artist in me I guess).
I have no problems in giving a free licence even to commercial entities when related to the work or mirroring of Wikipedia - but the problem is to have photos in Wikipedia for a totally free use when I on the other side have sold and will sell same or similar to commercial media.
If there is a way for me to protect my back and at the same time share my photos with Wikipedia and mirrors - then I will be the first to say "hey, that's great"
- Can you use Creative Commons perhaps? I don't know enough to comment further, unfortunately. - Ta bu shi da yu 13:13, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I'm afraid the GFDL license is specifically for "totally free use", which may not be compatible with your personal commercial goals. We run into this over and over again when soliciting photos for use on Wikipedia; while it's easy to ensure attribution (under a Creative Commons license as Ta bu shi da yu suggests), we cannot guarantee the downstream uses of your photos -- all the GFDL requires is that re-users do not try to claim copyright on the work themselves, and that they pass on the usage rights to others. It's simply a fact of open-content availability that what is meant to provide education to all -- Wikipedia CDs will soon be distributed for free among developing nations as well -- will inevitably also end up not just on ad-laden mirror sites, but also probably on calendars, coasters and clip-art collections.
- My one suggestion might be to examine your archives for photos that you might not have a commercial interest in. Surely there may be a one or two on a given roll (memory card?) that you will not be using in your business, nor are too sentimentally attached to artistically. Granted that these are not likely to be the most beautiful images for our purposes, but they may be better than nothing at all. And perhaps during future photo-taking expeditions, you can keep an eye open for extra shots that might be specifically useful to Wikipedia (and not to your personal needs); this kind of volunteerism is not rare among our Wikiphotographers, and is profoundly appreciated!
- As an artist myself, I applaud both your generous instincts and your caution; only you can make the decisions about how and whether to license your own work. Please don't let me discourage you from contributing anything at all -- I really believe in what we do here, and I believe that we can always find ways to contribute our creativity without undermining our personal interests. Best wishes, Catherine | talk 19:00, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, now that it's been further clarified for me: we vastly prefer images to be licensed under the GFDL -- it allows all of our material, both images and text, to be truly free. Although we don't encourage it, you MAY contribute under the Nonderiv-Noncommerc-2.0 -- just please be sure to add this template to the image page: {{cc-by-nd-nc-2.0}}, along with your own description of the image's source and your intended licensing details. However, these other Creative Commons licenses are preferred, as they provide cleaner access for downstream users:
- * Attribution {{cc-by}}
- * Attribution 2.0 {{cc-by-2.0}}
- * ShareAlike {{cc-sa}}
- * Attribution-Sharealike {{cc-by-sa}}
- * Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 {{cc-by-sa-2.0}}
- For more details and options, please see Wikipedia:Image copyright tags, and its accompanying talk page for discussion of some of the issues. Cheers! Catherine | talk 04:15, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Is it impossible to link to an article named "C+C Music Factory"
I'm getting a weird bug. I can't seem to create a link called C+C Music Factory. Obviously the plus sign is the offender. Any suggestions? --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 18:25, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)
- See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions); you'll have to rename it something possible, then use the {{wrongtitle|title=C+C Music Factory}} at the top of the page. (See the C Plus Plus article for an example.) Catherine | talk 18:42, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
User subpage question.
There is a certain user from San Diego who periodically adds sneaky vandalism to various cartoon-related pages on Wikipedia. Previously, User:Morwen and I, along with other users, were recording appearances, etc, on User:Morwen/Cartoon. However, it appears that Morwen may be gone for some extended/unknown period of time, and the vandal is still active. I've put a similar subpage under my own name, but I was wondering it is appropriate to redirect another user's subpage to one's own, provided that it's for the same cause, etc? [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 00:59, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I don't see a problem with it as long as the content is saved somewhere and as long as the user the subpage belongs to is notified on their talk page, so they can reclaim it on return. You might want to ask other users involved in the tracking of this vandal. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 06:24, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)
Framed images messing up
Check out this:
In Opera, the framed version messes up on the bottom for some reason, as if the images was squeezed to 64x62.
I checked the Pixel art article under IE here and the images were squeezed a lot more.
Not sure what's going on here... — Kieff | Talk 09:14, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)
- Seemed to happen in Firefox too - the image on the left was stretched. Maybe the minimum frame size is bigger than the image is. --Golbez 09:11, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)
need clarification for a definition of lambda convex function
Hello,
I am new to Wikipedia and don't know who I should contact. I found in Wikipedia a definition of a lambda convex function which I would like to seek a clarification. I thought the best would be to consult the author of the definition. I would appreciate if you could help me to find who the author is and how I could get in touch with him/her.
Your help is much appreciated
Krzysztof Krakowski
My email address is kris@mcs.une.edu.au
- As I see no article named lambda convex function and searches aren't turning anything up, I can't tell you who wrote the text in question. If you go back to the page and click the "History" tab, it will show you a list of all past revisions of the article, and who made the edit. From there you can find the author.
- If the author is a logged-in user, the best way to contact them is through their User talk: page, which will be at "User talk:Username". If the person is anonymous (their username in the page history is recorded as an IP address), then you'll probably have a tough time getting a hold of them, and should ask for clarification on the article's talk page. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:14, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
History merges
Assuming this is the apropos place to do so, I'd like to request two history merges for pages that were inappropriately cut-and-pasted by others:
- Competitive Local Exchange Carrier into competitive local exchange carrier
- ham into ham (disambiguation), then moving ham (meat) to ham
Thanks. :-) –radiojon 07:15, 2004 Oct 11 (UTC)
- Ok, I think that should do it. →Raul654 07:29, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)
Getting image revisions to stick
I attempted to correct an error in Renormalized-vertex.png, and the corrected version seems to have uploaded fine, but Wikipedia insists on linking to the earliest version of the image as the current one. Re-uploading didn't fix the problem, nor did reverting to the first corrected version. (To make absolutely sure it wasn't just a problem with my browser cache that was somehow resistant to explicit flushing, I even looked at the page in a different browser that had never visited the page before.)
I'm obviously at the point of thrashing about like a fool. Is this just a bug, or some sort of anti-image-vandalism safeguard, or is there something obvious that I'm missing (quite likely)? --Matt McIrvin 15:18, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
wishing to read a sociology article by an author
Firing system in marine gas turbine.
Hello sir, I need your help regarding firing system used in marine gas tubine. First of all i would like to know which type of firing system are used in marine gas turbine. If i have one model of gas turbine, can i guess this perticular firing system is used in this model?
Hoping for your kind positive response. Best regards, Rajesh Mehta.
- This is better asked on Wikipedia:Reference desk. - Ta bu shi da yu 06:47, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Finding an old deleted page
(William M. Connolley 09:01, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)) I have reason to suspect that there used to be a page on the George C. Marshall Institute (or, err, some variation thereof). Probably a year ago, no idea when it disappeared. Is there any way to go back and search when it was deleted and why (if it ever existed of course).
- It doesn't show up as an edit that I'd be able to view/restore, if that helps. [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 09:30, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks. In that case I suppose I'd better create it :-)
Can I get edits assigned to me from when I was an anon?
Is there a snytax to make a link to user:IP address 64.32.180.82 so that I can link on [[User:Rye1967}} to the very first changes I made when I didn't have a user-id
- Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit Rmhermen 19:43, Oct 12, 2004 (UTC)
Category GFDL images
Category:GFDL images needs breaking down into sub cats. Too big a job for one person and I'd need guidance on the best way of sub-categorising images before being confident enough to do it myself. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 02:54, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
Table help
Hey all, I would like to make a table that looks like the table on the right. How would I do this in wiki-markup? - Ta bu shi da yu 06:45, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Checked Wikipedia:How to use tables already? — Kieff | Talk 07:40, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
Search problems
Dear Wikipedia,
I just googled "pork barrel politic" and got directed as one of the first hits to an excellent Wikipedia article. When i searched for the very same term in Wikipedia directly, it didn't produce a result. Could you please explain to me how I should use the search function?
Many thanks, Silje
- The problem seems to be that Google is doing a full-text search on all articles, while Wikipedia's own search by default just looks for a matching article title. Since the article in question is called Pork barrel (without politics), it won't show up when searching for all three terms. However, the search results page will give you the option to do a Google search on all Wikipedia articles if no matching article was found.
- (Note: Wikipedia also has ist own full-text search, which in principle eliminates this problem. However, full-text search is very often disabled for performance reasons :P ) -- Ferkelparade π 07:41, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Looks like I've broken an article. How do I restore it?
Hi everybody. I just reverted some vandalism in the Homosexuality article, and it seems to be broken now. It shows this error message:
- The database did not find the text of a page that it should have found, named "Homosexuality,oldid=6549621".
- If it is a recently changed page, trying again in a minute or two will usually work. Alternatively, you may have followed an outdated diff or history link to a page that has been deleted.
- If this is not the case, you may have found a bug in the software. Please report this to an administrator, making note of the URL.
Does anybody know how to restore it? Thanks. Sietse 14:48, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)