Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

Regular patrollers may add {{User HPP}} or {{user help desk}} to their user page:

This user is a help page patroller

This user volunteers at the
Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
Answer questions,
Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

#~~~ (Joined ~~~~~)

and if you are not using the userbox, add yourself to the Help Desk Patrol Category.

List

Levonscott User talk:Levonscott User:Levonscott (Joined 07:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC))[reply]
StewieGriffin! • Talk 07:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC) I'm Back Founder of the HPP[reply]
RyRy5 (talk) (Joined 00:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Hersfold ^(t/a/c) (Joined 21:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Soxred93 | talk bot (Joined 19:57, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
...... Dendodge.Talk^Help (Joined 09:34, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Alexfusco⁵ (Joined 14:32, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Bauani (talk) (Joined 22:31, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Kerotan ^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) (joined 06:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
::Manors:: talk to me (Joined 15:10, 22 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Sunny910910 ^{(talk|Contributions|Guest)} (Joined 02:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Teratornis (talk) (Joined 06:37, 5 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) (Joined 01:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Mr. Green^{Hit Me Up}Userboxes (Joined 16:13, 16 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Josh Powell (talk) (Joined 14:18, 23 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- ShinmaWa^(talk) (Joined 19:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- Natalya 22:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Active earlier this year, hope to regain that. Rudget (Help?) 13:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
ChristopherJames2008 (talk) (Joined 13:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Iamzork (talk) (Joined 11:22, 6 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Cedarvale1965-08 (talk) (Joined 02:30, 15 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
:-) Stwalkerster [ talk ] (Joined 16:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC), but have been doing this for ages)[reply]
–thedemonhog talk • edits (Joined 18:13, 15 June 2008 (UTC); made twenty-three edits to the help desk page prior to joining the patrol)[reply]
IaM7DeadlySins (talk)
Scottydude _talk (Joined 02:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]
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Chamal ^talk _work (Joined 15:20, 16 October 2008 (UTC), but have been contributing to Help desk long before signing up here.[reply]
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Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 06:46, 19 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
-Porchcrop ^{(talk|contributions)} 04:29, 28 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
$\xi ri\pi i\vartheta \alpha \xi$ (Joined 09:34, 1 August 2009 (UTC))[reply]
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December 10

Login question

DearWik' I have done everything the login page asked me to yet I cannot create a new account, which I am. It always says there is a login error with the confirmation code. What the heck is the login code? and how do I put the right one in? I have copied the phrase well. What's wrong? Garrett P Edmands —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.142.10.100 (talk) 01:13, 10 December 2008 (UTC) [reply]

Directly above where it asks for Username, there is a text box. Above the text box is an image containing a distorted word. If you have images blocked for any reason, you will not see this image. You must view the image and type the word into the box. This is not anything unique to Wikipedia. See captcha for an explanation of what it is and why it is used. -- kainaw ™ 03:55, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Make sure you have scripts and anything else enabled that could make the login code not appear.

Ertemplin (talk) 04:15, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New messages

Hi, I use internet explorer 7 on a windows computer and whenever it says that i have new messages on the main page, it won't let me click any of the links in the orange box. I can click "my talk" and get there, and I can click within the orange box on other pages, but not the main page. Thanks, Hazelorb (talk) 04:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That happens to me too. TopGearFreak 19:45, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template date autoformatting

At Elmer Gedeon, {{cite news}} is doing some autoformatting while {{cite web}} does not. Thus the Elmer_Gedeon#Notes section looks inconsistently formatted. Is there something that can be done?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 07:45, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Official links in infobox and external links

I frequently wondered if it really is the intended practice to have the official site of a company / product / institution linked twice in the same article: Once in the infobox and once under "external links". I personally (coming from a DMOZ editors point of view) consider that duplicated information without added value. I read WP:EL and some of the linked documents, but could not find what I am looking for.

See for example Eudora_(e-mail_client) or Google. --Windharp (talk) 07:52, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In a typical infobox almost everything duplicates information elsewhere in the article. I am not a fan of infoboxes for this reason, but the consensus is in favor of them. —teb728 t c 08:18, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just done with companies, but also in infoboxes of places (if they have a website) and people. - 131.211.211.61 (talk) 08:51, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, so that's intentional. Thanks TEB --Windharp (talk) 13:58, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Bar with buttons missing

How come I can no longer see the edit buttons above the edit box? I figured that perhaps the images were broken, but I can't click there either. Also, I have an extra button.js running. But that only removes buttons if it actually works... Any ideas? I'd like my citation button back in particular... =- Mgm|^(talk) 09:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried restarting? I think that happened for me a while back, and that solved the problem. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 09:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't, but I'll try it. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:54, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm, didn't work. I guess I'll have to use another machine in the future then.. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:17, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You might try checking your preference settings. Go to the link "My preferences" at the top of the page and then click "Editing" tab in the box. Make sure the box before "Show edit toolbar (JavaScript)" is checked, then save. This will probably solve your problem. You might also check to be sure your Java is enabled and updated. (I updated this answer once but apparently lost the change in an edit conflict. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:06, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

right aligned thumbnails push down table

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I could not find a solution. This page shows my problem. A list of thumbnails (aligned right) I created in the first heading pushes down the tables in a following heading. How can I solve this? Thank you. Merikilpikonna (talk) 11:06, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, you need to tinker with sizing, placement and alignment of the images and text in the article. You may need to use a gallery table for the images. At present, they are overwhelming the rest of the article with their size vs. the size of the content before the table. If the software works like it does here, you can experiment with font size in the tables as well. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:11, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for the quick answer! I would like to have the thumbs just run down on the right all the way, because they are supposed to show chronological progress of the design. Is that not possible or not advisable? If not I will have a look into the gallery thing. However the person who set up the wiki did not even include simple classes like wikitable, which is a bit of a pain. Merikilpikonna (talk) 11:15, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I figured it out. Your comment on font size gave me the idea of taking out width=90% and that helped. thank you.Merikilpikonna (talk) 11:18, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My pleasure. I just happened to stop in. It looks much better! Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just a quick point: the page in question is not a Wikipedia project. While we are always happy to help where appropriate, projects other than English Wikipedia are technically outside the scope of the Help desk. – ukexpat (talk) 14:10, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's technically true, but it only starts to matter when a question requires work to answer. If someone would have to actually lift a finger to answer a question, well then it had better be for Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 09:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the Wikimedia Foundation gives away the MediaWiki software, and I believe Wikipedia stands to benefit if MediaWiki becomes a widely-used software standard. Potentially millions of people could learn MediaWiki editing and administration skills on other wikis, and then come to Wikipedia and make some contributions. As long as the "other wiki" questions don't get too far out of hand, I don't see the harm in entertaining the low number we get on the Help desk. However, the fact that other wiki users occasionally come to the Wikipedia Help desk illustrates how critical a user community is to a wiki's success. Those other wikis should have their own Help desks, and when they don't it's probably because their user communities are small. Only a low percentage of users would have any interest in staffing a Help desk, so it takes an enormous user community to translate that low percentage into a viable number of helpers. The English Wikipedia has 49,139,788 registered user accounts, and probably only a few dozen of them monitor the Help desk at any given time. Those of us who answer questions here must be some pretty unusual people. --Teratornis (talk) 09:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Help finding a template

I'm just looking for a template I've seen used before. It is placed on the talk page when news/newspapers/magazine/etc. prints a mention of a Wikipedia article on a subject. I've seen it before, but I'm not finding it anywhere. Thanks. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

{{Onlinesource}} is the general one, also see {{High traffic}}. Nanonic (talk) 12:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much. Wildhartlivie (talk) 12:11, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See also, {{press}} or {{pressmulti}} -- GateKeeper^(X) @ 12:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Request lost in limbo?

No one has helped me with my request posted on this page, most likely because my request is lost in limbo -- too current to be archived, but not current enough to still be posted on this page. How is anybody supposed to help those of us who posted on this page during the first week of December? Minaker (talk) 14:55, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the delay! What was your question? We'll do our best to help. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:18, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The page for article expansion has been archived and more or less abandoned. So if I think there is an article that needs help, where do I post such a request? Minaker (talk) 15:34, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If there is an article due for deletion that you think can be rescued you might want to see the people over at Wikipedia:Article Rescue Squadron..--intraining ^{Jack In} 15:41, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can see your previous question as a diff and it is archived here: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 December 3#Request for Work on Article but for some reason Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives shows no link to the month of December yet. To respond to your last comment, of course a person cannot usefully contribute to an article he or she knows nothing about, which is why I said it's fun to contribute to articles I initially know nothing about. On Wikipedia, the whole name of the game is finding reliable sources. We don't write articles based on our knowledge of subjects, because that would tend to become original work. Instead, we try to only write what has already been published elsewhere. Thus on Wikipedia it is often more fruitful to start with some sources and find articles to add them to, rather than pick some arbitrary article and try to improve it. To give a concrete example, I am interested in Wind power, so I browse and search the Web for reputable articles on the subject, and when I find some interesting well-sourced fact, I look for a suitable article on Wikipedia where I can plug it in (with a footnote citation). This is, of course, backwards from the way most people approach things, and that is one reason why Wikipedia can become frustrating for some people. If you get locked into the idea of improving a certain article, and you don't know how to do it, that's like fixating on any sort of unattainable goal. It doesn't make sense to do on Wikipedia when there are so many articles that you are able to improve. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit on Wikipedia, no matter who you are. Just learn how to do one thing, for example to clean up sloppy references and put them into citation templates. Then you can browse around articles at random and apply that one type of fix. When thousands of people do that sort of thing, each one focusing on a few things they like to do, then collectively the whole encyclopedia tends to improve. This untargeted improvement is the great strength of a wiki, and it is the opposite of traditional, institutionalized, top-down, command-and-control thinking. --Teratornis (talk) 10:11, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Teratornis: I certainly appreciate the time it must have taken to write such a long response. But the whole point that I brought up is that I came to Wikipedia to learn about a topic, and I was thwarted by the lack of information. All I want to know is where to post a request for improving an article, since the place where people used to do that no longer exists. Right now, as far as I know there is no way to get the general Wikipedia community to find out about an article that is sorely lacking information; my only recourse seems to be to try researching elsewhere, which is fine, but doesn't say much for Wikipedia. Your suggestion to try improving unrelated articles seems to have nothing to do with this dilemma; it certainly doesn't help me at all, and really seems to be a tangent if not an outright change of subject. Minaker (talk) 10:50, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried posting to the talk page of one of the several wikiprojects listed on the article's talk page? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:30, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not changing the subject, I'm attempting to change your assumption about what Wikipedia is and how it works. When a question goes unanswered on the Help desk, there is always a reason. Something about the question put off every one of the dozens of people who monitor the Help desk. If you want to get some of this free help, you have to know the right way to ask for it. Wikipedia has a lot of inertia. If you see something on Wikipedia that needs improving (we have a lot of articles like that), the easiest way to make it better is to do it yourself. Wikipedia probably does not have many people who sit around with nothing to do until someone pops in and tells them what their priorities should be. The people who slogged through the friendly manuals and figured out how to contribute usually did so because they already had a list of things they wanted to do here. All the skilled editors here have a big backlog. They don't need more people to give them even more things to do, they need more people to start contributing. If you don't want to improve some article yourself, then you will need to find someone who knows how to improve it, and would be motivated to improve it, but for some reason hasn't already found it. Fans of team sports are familiar with the low percentage play - that is, a play which has a low percentage of success, such as the Hail Mary pass. The way you are approaching this problem makes it a low percentage play. (I didn't make this news, I'm only reporting it. Most of the other Help desk volunteers simply ignored your question - what does that tell you? I would rather try to help you, and the first thing you need help with is to change the way you view Wikipedia, from seeing it as a place to get things, to seeing it as a place to give things. When you focus on giving rather than getting, then other users will notice and become more likely to give you things in the future. This is something you work toward indirectly, not something you dial up on demand.)

If someone was going to improve a particular article, their first step would be to find some reliable sources. Finding sources is the primary limiting factor on Wikipedia. If there are no suitable sources anywhere on some topic, then Wikipedia cannot have an article about it. Everything we do depends on finding sources. If you want to get an article improved, it will improve faster if you can come up with some sources. Everybody who looks for sources uses basically the same tools: search engines and libraries. You can use these tools about as well as the next person. If not, then you can ask for help on the Reference desk. Tell them you want to improve an article, and you're having trouble finding sources. Other Wikipedians are more likely to help if they believe they are working with you rather than for you. When you ask someone else to do something, they are more likely to help if you show them something you are doing for them. To see this in action, search the Help desk archive for: TonyTheTiger, a user who frequently asks for help with articles he is editing. Since he is an active contributor, lots of other Wikipedia users are willing to help him, because he takes whatever he gets and puts it into improving Wikipedia. He doesn't ask other people to do everything for him, he just asks for help with the parts he gets stuck on. --Teratornis (talk) 00:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Teratornis, your replies are a lot more frustrating than getting no reply at all. Hello, Wikipedia is supposed to be an information resource -- you know, an encyclopedia? As it says right there in the logo? As in, a place where you find information? The fact that you think my philosophy is skewed because I came to an encyclopedia looking for information is bizarre. And your suggestion that I simply don't know how to ask for something is condescending in the extreme, and overlooks the fact that I've gone to the proper place to ask questions about Wikipedia, and have asked for the same thing in plain, concise language three times now. Where do I post a request, where do I post a request, I keep asking, and you keep ignoring the question in favor of lectures, "oh ho you silly man, you clearly have no idea how to view Wikipedia with the proper philosophy!" But not once do you actually attempt to answer my straight-forward question, with the exception of referring me to the Wikipedia Reference Desk, which of course refers me back to here. Maybe people aren't getting involved with this discussion, not because I don't know how to ask a question, but just because they see all the space your lectures are taking up and falsely assume that you've already attempted to answer my question. Which you haven't. Then you have the nerve to boast about how nice you're being by pointing out that unlike all the other editors, you've chosen to grace my questions with a response, and if your response makes no attempt to answer my actual question, well, that's just because in your judgment my need to re-shape my "philosophy" far, far outweighs my need to actually improve Wikipedia by knowing the answer to a specific how-to question. If you don't know the answer than either admit it or move on. If you're simply uninterested in answering because you're too busy standing on your soapbox, at least stop scaring away all the people who might have been able to add something useful to the discussion. Either way, cut the "I'm so much wiser than you" attitude. You've already made it clear this is your only real message. At this point, I'm inclined to disagree. Minaker (talk) 09:58, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As Zain Ebrahim said above, you could post to a wikiproject. You could also post to the article talk page. And there are some this-article-needs-work tags that you could post to the article itself—perhaps someone knows where there is a comprehensive list of them. —teb728 t c 10:53, 12 December 2008 (UTC) And as for Teratornis’s posts, yes they are too wordy, but if I understand him correctly he is saying the opposite of your interpretation: He is not claiming to be wiser than you; rather if I understand correctly, he says nobody is wiser than you or has more responsibility for editing articles than you. —teb728 t c 11:16, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A recent attempt to attack your computer was blocked

See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Intrusion attempts on edit pages? -please continue the discussion in that message thread. Thank you. – ukexpat (talk) 16:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

Norton is whining that Wikipedia is attempting to download a "suspicious pdf," automatically blocks something, and says "An intrusion attempt by en.wikipedia.org was blocked." Whiskey tango? SDY (talk) 16:40, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Leaking info while in SSL mode?

While browsing SSL wiki, it includes lots of non-SSL images from upload.wikimedia.org (e.g. icons and images on the page)

When fetching those images, does the referer tag (and indeed, the image locations) mean you're sending unencrypted information about which pages page you're looking at in the SSL session? (data which would otherwise be hidden from anyone sniffing on your network) Ojw (talk) 18:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think this was discussed before, probably on the Village Pump/Technical. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 02:31, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New Message message

Why isn't mine clickable? Grsz ¹¹ 19:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You know, someone posted that above, but there were no answers. I'm not sure, as I've been able to click mine. Have you tried purging your cache, restarting your browser, etc.? Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:07, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's been like that for a couple of days. Grsz ¹¹ 19:09, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I must say, I'm at a loss. :( However, the village pump may be able to help (unless someone here know?). I don't see any relevant posts at the pump, so I'm not sure if this is something other editors are experiencing. Best of luck! TN‑X-Man 19:17, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What browser do you use? - Mgm|^(talk) 19:23, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

IE. 19:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, works now. Grsz ¹¹ 21:21, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Font Question

All of the font on Wikipedia got smaller, How do I increase the size of the font back to normal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.87.212.247 (talk) 21:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hold control and use your center mouse scroll. Grsz ¹¹ 21:46, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Edit went wrong...

Last night I made a couple of small updates to the article on Victoria Pendleton - namely I added her new pro team to the template. When I checked back on it today, it appears I inadvertently undid a few previous edits, which themselves had removed mistakes and junk information. If you compare 18:00 5th December 2008 revision to the 23:01 9th December one you'll see what I mean (it was only line 16 I intended to change).

I've undone my own edits again tonight, got it back to how it was before I laid my hands on it, then re-did what I set out to do, and it looks OK now. But I haven't a clue how I cocked it up yesterday. Can anyone advse before I do it again?

Thanks Iain Iainjones1980 (talk) 22:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Most likely, you were viewing an old version of the page when you clicked "edit this page"; I know that still happens to me occasionally. --barneca (talk) 22:23, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like it was this version based on the diff. Note the warning at top when you edit an old version. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First post just got removed, need guidance

Hi,

I'm the Web guy at Vision Solutions, Inc. I typed in our name to see if there is an entry and there was nothing. So to help, I copied the About Us text from our Web site, and put in some links to 3rd parties like the operating systems we provide products for (AIX, IBM i, Windows).

I got an email saying my post was bad and it can't be accepted. What advice do you have? Can you view the short content that I tried to post and tell me what's wrong with it?

I also noticed that there is no entry for the category of solutions we provide - Diaster Recovery software. So I started to create an entry for that, and planned to cross link back to our Vision Solution, Inc. page. I decided to bag it since I just got the notice that my first posting about Vision was denied.

This is my first posting, the information is helpful, so I'm already discouraged about the process. Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Visionsolutions (talk • contribs) 22:36, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. You see, the thing is, Wikipedia is an enyclopedia. You have a declared conflict of interest which is a bad thing for an encyclopedia that presents a neutral point of view about things. Anything your company does is not necesairally notable and writing about it can be considered spam which is not to good. We can't empasise enough about this place being an enyclopedia, not the yellow pages or a list of what every company does. If you click the blue links that may help, as migh the links on this page although I appreciate the article on your company exists. Pedro : Chat 22:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also (1) the text from the "About us" page of the website is almost certainly copyright material and adding it to an article on WP is in breach of WP's copyright policy; (2) you user name is almost certainly in breach of WP's user name policy; (3) if you want to recreate the article, please do so in a user subpage, where you can work on it in relative safety from speedy deletion. – ukexpat (talk) 23:08, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vision Solutions, Inc. has now been speedily deleted per WP:CSD#A7. – ukexpat (talk) 04:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a lot of good info at the Business FAQ. —teb728 t c 05:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It should also be noted that this account has been blocked from editing Wikipedia because the name is that of a business (a forbidden thing) and all of your edits seemed calculated to publicize your company. The purpose of Wikipedia is to provide impartial, unbiased verifiable information from reliable third-party sources; we do not provide an advertising venue. If Vision Solutions is in fact a notable company, somebody without a conflict of interest will eventually write an article about you. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:57, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just a note Orange Mike, but the article on Vision Solutions had existed since the middle of 2006 and was not created by this (now blocked) editor. Pedro : Chat 15:07, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Help with infobox publisher

Originally I had posted a message here, but it told me to post on this page instead. Accordingly...

Is there a template wizard who can help me with {{infobox publisher}}? The country of origin parameter isn't showing up even though its filled out. Also, there were originally two documents - infobox publisher and infobox Publisher (capital P), I redirected the latter to the former, but lost some fields in the process (here is the diff and here is the previous version). WLU (t) (c) ^{(rules - simple rules)} 22:59, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Country of Origin field responds to "country = ...", not "country of origin = ..." as it's currently listed on the /doc page. Xenon 54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 23:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

lovely, thanks! WLU (t) (c) ^{(rules - simple rules)} 00:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 11

Account deletion

I have created an account in error (0 edits) and would like to delete it so I can create another, with a similar name (this is not possible while the original remains in existence). Can this be done? Bastie (talk) 00:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- Account deletion is not possible, but changing username is possible. It seems that is what you really want. —teb728 t c 04:57, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like the OP made a post on a user talk page of an account that is registerd with no edits. Usurpation is probably possible. Grsz ¹¹ 05:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

^^ that was my first choice for a new name but it has been taken. The account I'm asking about here is completely different. Bastie (talk) 05:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The fact that it has been taken doesn't mean you can't usurp it. That's just what usurpation is. —teb728 t c 05:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I see, thanks for your help. Bastie (talk) 07:25, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

avoiding a bot

I am trying to add an external link, but a bot keeps removing it.

How can I prevent the bot from removing my link? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mercurye (talk • contribs) 02:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your links are blacklisted, as they are inappropriate to be linked to. I can't comment much more than that, but I'm sure somebody else can. Grsz ¹¹ 02:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply, but actually my specific site isn't blacklisted. However, my server also offers blogs, and there appears to be a sweeping blacklisting of the blogs and everything else from that server.

I received an automated Wiki note that I could "revert the bot," but I have no idea how to do that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mercurye (talk • contribs) 02:53, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please read our guidelines for external links. Wikipedia is not a collection of links. I have reviewed your links, and I believe they are inappropriate. They add little if any value to the articles; they are just on the general subject of ventriloquism. The fact that you add the same link to multiple articles is a pretty clear indication that you are spamming. In answer to your question of how to avoid removal of your links: don’t add them in the first place. —teb728 t c 04:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

envci sci

what would it take to human development to be truly sustainable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.84.115.240 (talk) 02:43, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This forum is for help on how to use Wikipedia. In order use Wikipedia for general questions like that, ask at the Wikipedia:Reference desk, or search for information in articles. —teb728 t c 04:18, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Be sure to make it a meaningful question, by specifying for how long. Human development is almost certainly sustainable for the next ten minutes. Maybe even for the next ten years. Beyond that, who knows. If humans continue to evolve like other mammal species, then human development is probably not sustainable for more than a few million years, because few mammal species persist that long. One thing is for certain: if human population continues to grow exponentially at the current rate, that growth is not sustainable for more than a few thousand years, because at the current rate of population increase, the mass of humans will exceed the mass of the observable universe by then. Even with super-duper space travel technology, we'll just run out of atoms that we can convert into more people. Unless maybe someone figures out how to start colonizing parallel universes. --Teratornis (talk) 09:19, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First Post

how do i make a post on wikipedia??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suzie0520 (talk • contribs) 04:21, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You just did. This help desk is on Wikipedia and you posted a questions. Perhaps you are trying to create a new article.

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.. -- kainaw ™ 04:23, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Re-inserting deleted article

If my article was deleted, and I did some changes to fit the post criteria, how can I re-insert it ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marcoulises (talk • contribs) 12:37, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I presume you're referring to EKN which was deleted by User talk:Akradecki as "blatant advertising". To get it into article namespace again, you need to move it but I would recommend leaving a note at the deleting admin's talk page first. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:42, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To avoid having it deleted again, the best course of action would be to put the new version on a subpage of your userpage like User:Marcoulises/Sandbox and ask a more experienced editor to doublecheck to make sure your work truly meets the criteria. After that, you can move it to the right place (if you're autoconfirmed (4 days, 10 edits)) or an experienced user can move the page for you after they checked it. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unified Login with Wiktionary removed editing privilege

A few weeks ago I unified my Wikipedia login with Wiktionary. I did not realise that Wiki login is case senstive and used login 'MonoApe' instead of 'Monoape'. My 'new' login does not have editing privileges for semi-protected pages, even though I unified several weeks ago. How can I fix this, please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MonoApe (talk • contribs) 13:32, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You have had this account for more than a month, but autoconfirmed status requires that you also make at least ten edits. Since you have now done this, you should now be able to edit semiprotected pages (assuming you do not use TOR). Algebraist 14:23, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Typical! I wasn't aware of the 10 edit limit and it just switched over. Thanks for your help. MonoApe (talk) 16:38, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template Pages

Are there Template: pages where the content is like {{yada yada yada}} and {{thingamabober}}?

So in the Template: page, it would look something like:

{{yada yada yada}}
{{thingamabober}}

96.53.149.117 (talk) 15:11, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

{{I don't understand your question, please clarify}} – ukexpat (talk) 15:18, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you mean whether a template can use other templates then the answer is yes. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please answer

--Treanna2011 (talk) 15:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)How do you add a search???[reply]

I have no idea what you are asking. Please clarify your question. Algebraist 15:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe Wikipedia:Searching is of help. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably the most vague request ever. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 06:48, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Album cover images in discographies

The discography at Bardo Pond includes album cover images. I've seen other discographies where these have been removed because they are deemed not to be fair use in galleries. So I think this should be done for the album cover images in this article too, although I don't want to do it myself. --Richardrj ^talk ^email 16:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have tagged it for the moment. The applicable guideline is Wikipedia:Non-free content#Images.

All the images are used in other articles, except for Amanita and Batholith. Amanita needs to be added to the album article; there is no article for Batholith, so if the image is deleted from Bardo Pond it is going to be orphaned and deleted.

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Richardrj, you're entirely correct - the images should be removed in order to comply with the non-free policy. PhilKnight (talk) 17:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I added the Amanita image to the album article and updated the rationale. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WikiAdmin?

Hi there. I know this is only for using wikipedia, but I've no idea where this might go. A few minutes I deleted a suspect email that supposedly came from 'WikiAdmin', and an unfamiliar email address. The language was foreign, and not one I was able to trabslate through babelfish very well. It mentioned my username and had several links to tr.wikipedia. I don't know what tr.wikipedia is, and suspect that the email was a hoax trying to get my password. But can anyone help me out - anyone experienced this before, or know what tr.wikipedia is? Would I ever get an email from a 'WikiAdmin'? Skinny87 (talk) 19:33, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

tr.wikipedia is the Turkish Wikipedia. I don't know about that one, but some of the smaller Wikipedias automatically send emails to anyone who creates an account, which includes merely visiting them if you have a global account (visiting could be accidentally clicking on an interwiki link). Or it's just a hoax, or some wierd canvassing. Do you know the sender of the email? Someguy1221 (talk) 19:39, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(after EC)There are a number of possibilities... Either you created a universal login, and thus had an account at the Turkish wikipedia created for you, or someone is hoaxing that event. Did you create a universal login? Now that you know its Turkish, perhaps you could use Babelfish or InterTran to translate it for you?!? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 19:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I did just create a universal log-in. I'll translate the email through babelfish. Thanks for the help! Skinny87 (talk) 19:43, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also sometimes emails are sent when someone leaves a message on your talk page or changes a page you have on your watchlist. Matt (Talk) 23:11, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I started getting similar e-mails after I set up a single sign-on account. Google language tools was able to translate them semi-coherently. They are just welcome e-mails from the various language Wikipedias that I have been visiting in the course of following Interlanguage links. (Incidentally, it would be nice if the single sign-on feature had some way to automatically inform the other language Wikipedias of your language preference. It's easier to navigate on a Wikipedia whose language you don't read if you set your language preference to a language you know, which causes the standard navigation links to become readable, but it's a little difficult to do that because you have to find your way to your user preferences in that other language. You kind of have to navigate by selecting buttons, tabs, and links according to their position, by referencing a Wikipedia you can read. The automatic welcome e-mails should also be in your language preference, if possible.) I've been looking to see what some other language Wikipedias have about some topics I am interested in. I created a {{Translate wikipedia}} template which simplifies generating machine translations of them into somewhat readable English. See the template page for examples. --Teratornis (talk) 23:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

While we're on the subject of other language Wikipedias, has anybody tried moving images to Commons from a Wikipedia whose language you do not read? I moved some images from the English Wikipedia, and it was pretty easy with CommonsHelper. CommonsHelper looks to be usable from any language Wikipedia, but I'm a little hesitant to move images from a Wikipedia whose language I don't speak, just in case I mess something up and I can't tell what devastation I'm wreaking over there. (I don't want to be a stereotypical ugly American, although that's probably unavoidable in my case.) --Teratornis (talk) 23:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 12

Help Desk Templates

Oh help desk masters, where might I find the help desk template responses to the basic questions asked so often? :) 04:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Here. Algebraist 04:32, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have also created a nav box template that I am currently working in a sandbox: {{User:Ukexpat/Help desk templates navbox}} - upgrade suggestions welcome!. – ukexpat (talk) 04:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can also place {{Help desk templates}} somewhere convenient for easy access.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:59, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's a much more aesthetically pleasing format, plus the editing links are a good addition. I think you should just go ahead and replace the current code with it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:06, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I was thinking of leaving it as a separate nav box so that editors can just transclude it to an appropriate place in their user space. – ukexpat (talk) 14:42, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Userbox

I created this Userbox, and tried to delete it, but can't, and likely made it worse. I don't want to be associated with it anymore. Please help. I think Admins can only delete things. Pumapayam (talk) 04:59, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have deleted both that userbox and the old redirect to it. In the future, just put the following template: {{db-userreq}} on any pages you want gone from your userspace. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 07:08, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your quick response. Appreciated Pumapayam (talk) 15:05, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

customizing signature

How do I go about customizing my signature?

Sardaka (talk) 09:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Click on "my preferences" (in the default Monobook skin, it's at the top right), then type the Wikicode corresponding to the signature you want in the "Signature" textbox. Be sure to tick the "Raw signatures (without automatic link)" box! Xenon 54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 11:10, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, and you may see also Wikipedia:How to fix your signature and Wikipedia:User_Page_Design_Center/Style#Text_formatting (some very useful tips on changing fonts, colors, etc!) --PeaceNT (talk) 11:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Don't know about you, but I hope there is a page about customizing signatures. I mean, the person with the first customized signature had to learn somewhere.--Archaeopteryx (talk) 02:55, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

JOHN BLOOM

I Worked for John Bloom as Personal assistant for 6 years and have followed his career ever since I have several press scrapbooks to which I refer to provide correct information to correct a load of scurrilous rubbish and when I refer to papers or magazines in inverted commas it doesnt seem to come out as some other do how do I correct this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xol2007 (talk • contribs) 12:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

References are added inline next to the text it applies to, like for example:

<ref name="sundaytelegraph12-12-08">[http://www.example.com John Bloom gets elected], Sunday Telegraph, 12 December 2008.</ref>

See WP:REF and WP:CITET. If you need any further help, click the word talk in my signature and I'd be happy to help you.- Mgm|^(talk) 13:09, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note also that because of your connection to John Bloom, you have a conflict of interest, so it may be preferable to discuss the changes that you propose on the article's talk page first. – ukexpat (talk) 14:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If he makes changes based on the content of newsclippings, it's very unlikely any conflict of interest is going to present itself in a troublesome manner. - Mgm|^(talk) 18:32, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Noted, but some editors get very worked up over potential COI issues so I made my comment ex abundante cautela. Oh and please use colons to indent your comments! Thanks. – ukexpat (talk) 18:49, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pan-Wikipedia "New message" alert for my User account?

I've engaged the unified login to my great satisfaction, as I'm pretty active in numerous languages though most only intermittently. Is there some tool available (or in the works) that would provide a "New Message in :fl:WP" alert (i.e. a particular other-language Wikipedia) when I sign on or refresh my screen, either in my "home" language Wikipedia or in whichever I happen to be working, without my having to enter each and all to discover where a new message may have been posted? (BTW, I did try searching the Help Desk archive for this, to no avail.) -- Thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 12:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unified login is relatively new, so I'd be surprised if such tools existed already. I think your best hope is asking for a script at Wikipedia:User scripts. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:12, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unified login does not allow for shared message notification at this time, though I believe it is being worked on. — Manti core 13:18, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use of colon before wikilink

What is the difference between in the links [[Category:Wikipedia]] and [[:Category:Wikipedia]]? What is the effect of the the prefixing a colon sign (:). Well, the colon sign before image links (ie [[:Image:Example.jpg]] displays a link to the image whereas [[Image:Example.jpg]] actually displays the image) make sense to me. But I can't understand the use of colon in Category and other links. Please explain. Regards, --KnowledgeHegemony ^talk 15:13, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's the same thing. Placing a colon before the category produces Category:Living people, which is a link, instead of adding this page to that category. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:22, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can also do the same for images, prefixing a colon will make a link to the image instead of embedding it on the page. --Charitwo ^(talk) 15:29, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

So for example, if you are creating an article in userspace, you should format categories with a leading colon, then if the article is moved to the mainspace the colons should be removed. – ukexpat (talk) 16:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Right! I feel so dumb. Thanks to all. --KnowledgeHegemony ^talk 16:02, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Template font changes

Is there any way I can change the userboxes' font when using Template:Babel? -- Menti sock 16:00, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think you may substitute the userbox you want and change the font after that. --PeaceNT (talk) 16:11, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Resume Question

Please help me find a sight or link to do my resume/oportfolio well. I am a teacher.thanks. a web sight will do too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.243.165.60 (talk) 16:14, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! This help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. You may want to ask your question at the reference desk, where they answer specific questions such as yours. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:17, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I would hope that a teacher knows the difference between "sight" and "site"! In any event you could try http://monster.com or one of the bio wikis like Wikipopuli or Wikibios. – ukexpat (talk) 16:53, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Firouz Naderi

Hi... I accidentally made edits to Dr. Naderi's page while logged in as him. This happened yesterday. He does not want his name Fmnaderi to show up in the history page has having made edits (Dec. 11 only). I tried to UNDO, but UNDO was not allowed. Can this be fixed? Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

ThanksCdloewen (talk) 16:57, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How did you manage to log into his account? Removing edits from the history of the page is only done in extreme cases where the edit breaks the rules. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:29, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And use of a user account by more than one person is not permitted. – ukexpat (talk) 17:52, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To permanemently remove edits from the history you will have to contact an oversighter. These are the only users with this access. However, your case is probably not strong enough to warrant a removal - since they only respond in extreme cases of potentially personally identifiable information being posted. Hope this resolves your issue, Mattie^TK 20:00, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Suedeheads

Are they any Suedeheads on Wikipedia? --Teacake Martyr (talk) 19:12, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you mean. Possibly suedeheads? TN‑X-Man 19:17, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I meant that --Teacake Martyr (talk) 19:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. Well, there aren't any of which I'm aware, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. The music Wikiproject may be your best bet. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:44, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you come here ? And why do you hang around ? I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry --Teacake Martyr (talk) 20:07, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

We edit on Wikipedia for one of the same reasons that musicians play musical instruments - because the exercise of learned skill enables us to attain the pleasant sensations of flow (psychology). Wikipedia facilitates flow in part because it has readily discernable rules. Sadly, Wikipedia does not seem to facilitate the accumulation of groupies. --Teratornis (talk) 23:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you weren't around for the heyday of Clio the Muse at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities, Teratornis. Deor (talk) 17:48, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Declining blatantly bad faith unblock requests

Adminship isn't required to decline a bad faith unblock request is it? PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 21:49, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what the official stance, if any, is, but I'd think that only admins should deal with unblock requests. Could be wrong. Tan | 39 21:52, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that it's probably best if administrators deal with unblock requests - as they have the tools to unblock should they need to. Save yourself possible hassle and let the cleaners deal with it :) Mattie^TK 22:26, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Since admins are the only ones who can unblock, I think it's better to leave the decision to admins. In the end, whether someone is unblocked is based on their willingness to unblock, and a non-admin can't really determine that accurately. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone else can leave a *comment* in an unblock discussion. If you are are sure it's a bad faith unblock request, you could say why that is. Especially if you have some bit of information that the admin may not be aware of. EdJohnston (talk) 07:20, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Links on my user page

The internal links on my user page don't all seem to be working. Some at the top, including the convenient link to my user page at the Commons, are dead. Anyone know why this might be happening? Is it just my user page that's doing this? Richard001 (talk) 21:54, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The link to commons:User:Richard001 works for me. It's made by {{User Commons}} which has not been edited since August. If you still have problems then can you give the dead url's? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:00, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Really? This is weird. The links still aren't working for me. For example, the none of the userbox links work for me, and only some of the others do. They behave just like ordinary text - they don't provide anything for 'copy link location' or anything. Richard001 (talk) 04:20, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I checked out the page with Firebug, and it seems this code is causing the trouble:

<div style="position: fixed; left: 40%; right: 10%; top: 10%; bottom: 10%;"/>

This is covering the area around the userboxes causing some browsers to not let you access the userboxes behind it. I have no idea where it's coming from, I'll see if I can find out. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 04:33, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

fixed. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 18:30, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that template was recently vandalized and might not have been properly fixed perhaps. Thanks! Richard001 (talk) 22:41, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tionne Watkins/T-Boz

I would like to know if I could upload a different file photo of Tionne Watkins? The one on file doesn't do her justice at all, as compared to the many beautiful pics she has. I'd be willing to email the photo so that you could change it, if necessary?

Thanks, raregold1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raregold1 (talk • contribs) 22:06, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi raregold1. Please remember to sign your posts by placing four tildes at the end of your message (like so: ~~~~). In regards to your question please review the image upload rules at the upload page. If your image falls within these guidelines and is decidedly better than the current by consensus (you may want to upload it with a different file name and post on the talk page of the article) then we would definately welcome the contribution (especially if it is under the GPL). I hope this resolves your issue, Mattie^TK 22:21, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

photo

How do I upload a photo?

I am an Olympian and want to upload a photo under my name. Eric Fonoimoana —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.229.170.109 (talk) 22:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the upload page. There is a whole wizard there which will guide you through the upload process and allow you to have an image ready for embedding in articles in minutes. Hope this resolves your question, You will need to create an account before this can happen though. There's a link at the top-right corner of your screen. Mattie^TK 22:40, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think that in order to upload you have to be logged in. Also any picture of you would have to be license under a license that allows reuse by anyone for anything; this excludes most photos by professional photographers. —teb728 t c 22:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Another option would be to go through the process given at WP:YOURPHOTO. It does not require you to create an account. — jwillbur 01:42, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't use pictures from Commons!!!

I was perfectly able to insert files from Commons into Wikipedia pages, but now I can't. And why are they now "File:" instead of "Image:"? -BlueCaper (talk) 23:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give an example of an attempt that doesn't work? "Image:" was renamed to "File:" because some of the files are not images, but "Image:" still works. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:04, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Those are the two I tried. Since they're blue links now, I'll try them again. -BlueCaper (talk) 00:10, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They work for me. Another user reported a dead link to Commons a few sections up in #Links on my user page. Maybe there was a temporary problem but I don't know. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:19, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No More Problems I guess it was just temporary. Well, thanks in any case. -BlueCaper (talk) 01:30, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

.js Pages

Hello! I was just wondering if I could create more than one .js page (as in other than my monobook.js page). I know that I can always just stick a .js on the end of a page name, but will it execute the code? Thanks, Genius 101^Guestbook 23:59, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The only code you can create on Wikipedia that will be automatically executed is the code in your monobook.js (or the equivalent files for other skins). If you want to execute code stored elsewhere, say at User:Genius101 Wizard/foo.js, then add

importScript('User:Genius101 Wizard/foo.js');

to your monobook.js. Algebraist 00:05, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, thanks a lot! Genius 101^Guestbook 13:31, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 13

Quoting a foreign language

How do I quote a foreign language in an article? Grsz ¹¹ 00:39, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What exactly do you mean by "quote a foreign language"? Do you want to cite a foreign language source while you write in English, or do you want to add something in a foreign language to an article? If it's the latter then please describe the situation. If it's the former then see Wikipedia:Citing sources#Sources in different languages and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links)#Non-English-language sites. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:21, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The first one, I guess my question was vague. By now I've got it. Thanks, Grsz ¹¹ 04:44, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pictures?

How do I add Pictures to my wikipedia page?????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by TnTcutie (talk • contribs) 01:07, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. I'm not sure what you mean by "my" Wikipedia page but Wikipedia:Ownership of articles may be of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:26, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As may WP:UP#NOT and WP:NOTMYSPACE. – ukexpat (talk) 03:13, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps TnTcutie meant their user page? Hermione1980 03:57, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not MySpace, but we have some JimboSpace. TnTcutie, if your interest is pictures, you may like Wikimedia Commons. If you are willing to contribute your photos under a free license such as the GNU Free Documentation License, and if your photos could be useful in any one of the Wikimedia Foundation projects (such as Wikipedia), then you can upload all the photos you want, and display them on various gallery pages, such as commons:New York City or the equally exciting commons:Category:Wind power in the United Kingdom. If you tell us the subject(s) of your pictures, we could give you more specific guidance. --Teratornis (talk) 10:19, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wapedia

I'm not sure if this is relavent, but is Wapedia truly a product of Wikipedia? I sometimes use Wapedia as it is more mobile friendly when I am away from my desktop computer, and it all appears to be connected. Just curious. --Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 03:47, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. Not sure, but AFAICT it is not. It appears to be a mirror (see this). Hermione1980 03:55, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not really a mirror per se, see Wapedia. The official English Wikipedia mobile portal is http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 03:58, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Category list order

I recently started a page on Catfish Stephenson and put it in the catagory for Wisconsin Musicians; oddly, though, it is the only one that comes up filed by first rather than last name. Did I do something wrong? --76.208.68.247 (talk) 05:15, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you need to specify that you want it sorted in the category by last name using {{DEFAULTSORT: Stephenson, Catfish}} [1]. See Help:Category#Default sort key and the sections above it. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 05:20, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to Get Someone To Help Edit A Protected Entry

Someone has added a false (and potential libelous) arrest record to an actors Wiki page. It is protected, though, so it cannot be edited by me to remove it.

Who can be contacted to assist in removing the erroneous entry? The person who has added it (twice) lists their source, but the source in question is for a different actor and clearly says so. tracygee (talk) 07:05, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the talk page of the article and create a new section like this:

== edit protected request ==
{{editprotected}}
I would like you to change _____ etc
Thankyou ~~~~

and then an admin will come along and fix it for you. Foxy Loxy ^Pounce! 07:14, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Protected entries can be edited by administrators, you can draw their attention with {{editprotected}}. Which page would you happen be referring to? If the issue needs discussion as well as administrator action, you might want to take your case to the biographies of living persons noticeboard. Icewedge (talk) 07:11, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at Tracygee's contribs list, it looks like the page in question is Robert Pattinson. The offending text has been removed. Hermione1980 14:58, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

File space vs. image space

What is the difference between file space and image space. How did File:Sandi and Jesse Photograph.jpg end up in the former when I uploaded it?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 15:53, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is no difference. The label "Image" was changed in the software to "File" to reflect that there are a lot of things in that namespace that weren't images - such as pdfs, movies and sounds. This change has apparently been on the cards for a few months now and the code was finally updated on weds/thurs. Nanonic (talk) 16:03, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Buttons

You know when you press 'edit page', the white edit box comes up, as do the buttons above it that insert bold and italic text, etc.? Those buttons aren't working. None of them work apart from the 'cite reference' button (and that's only there bacause I use refTools). Is this happening to anyone else? TopGearFreak 15:50, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me. Is it a security/browser issue, possibly? Hermione1980 16:26, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Disabled refTools. Buttons now work! TopGearFreak 18:27, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's kind of pointless, refTools is a crucial gadget. They should be working nicely together. I suggest you contact Mr. Z-man about it and tell him as much details as you can. Do they fail on IE7 for you? - Mgm|^(talk) 22:21, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Changing Password

Dear Administrator, I (Sicilianu101 (talk) 19:07, 13 December 2008 (UTC)Sicilianu101) have forgotten my password and would like to change it. How do I goa bout doing this? Thank you[reply]

If you have an email set, you may request another password on Special:UserLogin (top right hand side of the screen - log in / create account). However, if you do not, I'm afraid that won't be possible. Sorry. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 19:10, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(Update) I'm afraid you don't have an email set, and therefore you will have to create another account to continue contributing. Apologies for the inconvenience, and I look forward to seeing your contributions. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 19:18, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Allied control council

I am a novice and I just tried to edit this and instead of just changing a few words I ended up adding the same paragraph with the changes but leaving the old paragraph with the picture. It was the last paragraph.

Sorry

Could you fix back. I was just trying to correct the word guards to military police that was in there and U.S. military guards to U.S. Army Military Police.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Usber (talk • contribs) 00:23, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've undone that edit, and given you a welcome box on your talk page, with lots of useful links to help you edit. Thanks for asking for help - it's very easy to make a mistake on Wikipedia, and usually someone can fix it straight away when asked, best wishes, DuncanHill (talk) 00:29, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Need help controlling image size and position

I need help controlling the size and position of the image on the article page TikiTag. Let me know on my talk page what I can do to help. --Christopher Kraus (talk) 01:17, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

SEALs page

Is there a userbox that says "This user is in The US Navy SEALs?"--U.S. Navy SEALs Commando (talk) 03:15, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Statrep

Hello, how do you report your offline/online status--U.S. Navy SEALs Commando (talk) 03:35, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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