Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 December 14

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< December 13 << Nov | December | Jan >> December 15 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


December 14[edit]

Disambiguation[edit]

I apologise for not being able to find the answer to this in Help. What can I say, I'm new (and am probably IT-challenged). If I have another article to add under a specific TLA and that TLA is currently being redirected to a specific article, how do I add a disambiguation? E.g. BJD currently redirects to ball joint doll and I want to add information about the Bone and Joint Decade. Lystrablue 00:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try this: go to BLD and then when it redirects you, see that it has a link to BLD under the title "ball jointed doll". Click on the BLD and you'll go to the raw redirect page. You can edit that page as though it were a normal article, click on edit, take out the stuff that says "#REDIRECT" and then put what you need there. Make sure that when you're done the disambiguation page allows users to get back to the doll too. — coelacan talk — 00:30, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Of course I meant "BJD" in all the above, but you knew that. — coelacan talk — 00:32, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]


I think my account is blocked despite the fact that the block was in error and has been stated as so, by admin on my page. Pco 19:17, 17 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to put a redirect from the term Chrisma to another: Krisma. It's the same pop group that changed name, but the redirect was edited by someone else to point to Charisma. Can a Disambiguation page be created? And how? --Melonarpo 09:41, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The talk page at Penelope Cruz consists solely of incomprehensible, poorly formatted postings about her love life and other irrelevant things that appear to have been cut-and-pasted wholesale from some message board. I am wondering if it is permissible, in this case, to blank the talk page (or the 95% of it that is unrelated to the actual article.) Thoughts? --Dmz5 00:23, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This might be preferable: Wikipedia:How to archive a talk page. — coelacan talk — 00:25, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I agree about archiving. Alternatively, wholesale blanking isn't best, but selective pruning is completely permissible; there are talkpage guidelines, and comments (and whole threads) that are not geared towards improving the WP article may be removed. Or, if you want to be really nice, posting to the talk page of the person who pasted the dump asking them to remove it would probably be best of all. Anchoress 00:28, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, the "discussion" on that talk page was just incoherent drivel. No one's added anything to the talk for months for fear of it being ignored. I've removed the comments myself, as there's no point to archiving nonsense. -Patstuarttalk|edits 00:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's a good idea per WP:TALK and WP:BLP. It's still preserved in the edit history if anyone wants it. Cbrown1023 00:45, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"say where you got it"[edit]

So, Wikipedia:Citing sources#Say where you got it asks us to cite the source of a source when we are using a quote or something that we don't have a first-hand copy of. I need to quote a pamphlet by Hosea Ballou and the only source online is this modern sermon. In order to make it clear that my source for the pamphlet is this sermon on the web, I've tried combining two cites in one ref, because if I use two separate refs then there's no way to specify that one came from the other. The result isn't bad, I suspect there's a cleaner solution. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for improvement or if there's something in the style guides that I'm overlooking. Here's what I'm using:

<ref>{{cite book |last=Ballou |first=Hosea |title=An Examination of the Doctrine of Future Retribution, On the Principles of Morals, Analogy and the Scriptures |origyear=1834 |publisher=Trumpet Office |location=Boston |pages=36}}<br/> quoted from: {{cite web |url=http://www.ucsummit.org/Sermons/VRS/20040222.shtml |title=Is There More to Universalism than Universal Salvation? |accessdate=2006-12-13 |last=Southern |first=Vanessa R. |date=2004-02-22 |publisher=The Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey}}</ref>

And you can see the result at Hosea Ballou#_note-0. I'd appreciate tips or feedback of any kind. — coelacan talk — 00:23, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Personally I would have cited both separately using ref tags and citation templates, then added a note to clarify their connection, similar to the one I used in Thomas Jesty. Notes are also a type of reference format, less used - but very useful for this type of thing. - Mgm|(talk) 00:45, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Wouldn't that give me three superscripts in a row, though? [1] [2] [note] ? It's a possible approach, but I'm not wild about the style. Any other thoughts, Mgm or anyone? — coelacan talk — 03:28, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • You appear to only have consulted the online sermon. On second thought, I'd use that as a reference and leave a note about the book on the talk page. You don't need to cite a book you didn't see. - Mgm|(talk) 09:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I have a reprint of the pamplet in my hands. But since this section (which is one of the more famous parts) is online, I wanted to give a url for further reading. — coelacan talk — 14:58, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would love any further feedback before this gets archived. =) — coelacan talk — 01:05, 17 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Iff you've read the original work, then cite that. You can still provide a link to the online version though, if it's been accurately transcribed. The same thing is done with newspaper or journal articles that in addition to print versions are available on the web. GeeJo (t)(c) • 16:04, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image vandalism[edit]

I don't know if it's only who sees it me but the WP:PR page is vandalized by an image right at the top. I've tried to revert it but i can't seem to figure out which edit was the malicious one. Parutakupiu talk || contribs 02:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try refreshing/reloading the page, or purging it. Some template was vandalized, but it looks fine now. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:23, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the purging worked when the refreshing didn't. Thanks! Parutakupiu talk || contribs 02:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A fresh pair of eyes (and a calculator) on Women's suffrage [1][edit]

I've been reverting scads of IP vandalism on this page, and I am suspicious about the diff above. "The bill passed 83-58 with 6 votes to spare" changed to "...7 votes to spare". Neither sounds right. Was it a 2/3 majority vote? If so, is the math right? I know this should go on the talk page, but it seems like a fairly quiet page and I'd like to fix this if it's vandalism. Anchoress 02:30, 14 December 2006 (UTC) I had bought some BJD items of [Dollmansion],that's gteat! I received the mail of them, share to you.[reply]

We are BJD (ball joint dolls) accessories manufacturer in Hong Kong, China, our brand [dollmansion]. Here are many new accessories for bjd dolls; Shoes, Wig, Hat, Bag, Clothing, Furniture, Bird cage, Watch, Musical instrument and so on. Welcome to visit our site.

[dollmansion] primary objective: Providing customers with high quality products, Customer satisfaction.

www.dollmansion.net

www dollmansion net

info # dollmansion.net


Hope you find the product you are interested in it.

Warwick, Queensland[edit]

I have recently started contributing to wikipedia and while doing a minor edit to the history category in the article Warwick, Queensland I appear to have lost following paragraphs and references section in that category in the now published article, however it does appear when I look it up in the revisions, Can you advise me thanks Matt--Mokgen 03:22, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, see how in this edit you added this tag: <ref http://www.smh.com.au/news/queensland/warwick/2005/02/17/1108500203807.html> ... What you've done here is encase everything between that tag and the next </ref> tag inside a reference block. If you want to get that reference tag right, try replacing it with this: <ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/queensland/warwick/2005/02/17/1108500203807.html | work=The Sydney Morning Herald | title=Warwick | date=15 August 2007}}</ref> ... That should be a quick fix. That's still not the same style of ref that your co-editors are using, as they favor the "cite" tag system of footnotes. But it'll do for now. After you fix that up, you can learn more at WP:FOOT and WP:CITE. — coelacan talk — 05:23, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks I now have things looking the way they should --Matt 21:38, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Multi-way merge and upgrade[edit]

I've just inherited three MediaWiki instances (with differing content). Two are 1.3.x vintage and the third is 1.4.x. I want to merge these three wikis into one current wiki (1.7.x, or 1.8.x, depending on how long it takes to figure out how to get the merge worked out). So, in detail, my questions are:

  1. What's the best way to merge two MediaWiki instances with the same version?
  2. What's the best way to merge two MediaWiki instances with different versions?
  3. What's the best way to upgrade this merged mess to a very current version?

Fuzzyeric 03:38, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for help with editing Wikipedia, you want to use the support listed at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Communication (ie the mediawiki-l mailing list, the IRC channel etc). Good luck.--Commander Keane 03:54, 21 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Are WP:3 decisions binding?[edit]

On WP:3 it says: "While this page is meant to provide a swift procedure, do not provide third opinions recklessly. Remember that in many of these cases, you alone get to decide either way. Read the arguments of the disputants thoroughly."

"You alone get to decide either way" seems to imply that a decision by the WP:3 mediator is binding. Is this the case? Tanaats 03:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To elaborate, if either of us disputants disagree with the opinion of the WP:3 mediator, can we still take it to standard mediation, and possibly then up to arbitration? Thanks! Tanaats 03:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I imagine Wikipedia talk:Third opinion is the best place to ask this question.--Commander Keane 03:54, 21 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Work cited[edit]

who is author of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_system artical and when was it published

If you want to know so that you can cite the information for a paper that you're writing, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Dismas|(talk) 05:04, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

searching for deleted page[edit]

Can you tell me how to search for a page that I believe has been deleted in the last few weeks - or at least for the discussion leading up to its deletion? Thanks Tvoz 04:05, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can search for it in the deletion log. Anchoress 04:13, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Photos and Wikimedia Commons[edit]

When I upload a photo to Wikimedia Commons off Flickr that is public, how do I know what license to use? (Lil Pun)

  • Flickr images usually have a license listed somewhere on their page. Careful though, whoever uploaded it at Flickr can be wrong themselves - especially if they didn't take the picture themselves. The fact it's public has nothing to do with it. Unless stated otherwise those pictures are protected by copyright. Below the tags on the right of your screen is a header "Additional Information", right below that is copyright information. Only images with free licenses like the GFDL and certain Creative Commons licenses can be used. - Mgm|(talk) 09:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What happened to Wikipedia? it looks funky?[edit]

I didn't know where to ask this but the site looks kind of odd and is missing all the pictures. Is it just me or are other people seeing this too? No other web pages appear to be affected... Sifaka talk 06:49, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Strange it's back to normal, and I was wrong before it did have pictures, just no backgrounds. What happened? Sifaka talk 06:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There was probably a server glitch. User:Zoe|(talk) 00:29, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to Align Userboxes on the Right[edit]

Hello,

I am editing my User page right now and I was wondering how I can stabilize my Userboxes over on the right corner of the page, while still being able to type text on the left side, without the UserBoxes moving down.

Thanks! 71.171.5.44 07:00, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Have a look at my Babel boxes at the bottom of my page. Anyway, you'd best log in before you edit anything. - Mgm|(talk) 09:23, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is the user page and my talk page?[edit]

What is user page? It says to start a user page, but what is a user page and how do i start it?

I'm not sure about the my talk page either, what does that do? When i open it, all it says is "Post a message to angelwishes"

Do i post a message to myself or is that option for other users?

Please explain. Angelwishes 07:19, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Answered on Angelwishes' talk.--Kchase T 07:24, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, i just checked and now i want to know how i can get rid of this question thingy...

Angelwishes 07:25, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What question thingy?--Kchase T 07:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • If you mean this question, you don't need to get rid of it. It will be archived automatically in a few days and it might help someone else along while it's up. Don't think it reflects bad on you or anything. It's better to ask than to remain clueless. - Mgm|(talk) 09:20, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For reference to other users visiting this page- Your userpage is technically 'your page'- although you do not own it, according to licensing, etc, with Wikipedia. On this page you can put pretty much whatever you like- information about yourself, userboxes, plans for the future, etc. Your talk page is a page that people can access to send you messages. You can also send others messages on their talk page. For more information, visit WP:UP. CattleGirl talk | e@ 09:26, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Inappropriate word[edit]

In the biography of Florence Nightingale, some idiot has inserted the word " (this word has been removed)." I have tried to take it out--unsuccessfully.

Warren Boroson

Casper got it. Thanks for telling somebody.--Kchase T 08:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
See WP:REVERT. --Joshua Chiew 15:16, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello My Dear Colleagues[edit]

My name is Ave and I'm an Wikipedian at the hebrew-wiki. I noticed that the article Michael Chiklis is contain fair use photograph. I wrote an article about Michael at the hebrew-wiki, but prefered not to use that kind of photograph. That's just an example. Many articles of actors (here) are containing that kind of fair use photographs. As I understand, we can't use screen photographs, unless the article deals with the film/TV series. My question is simple: Do you (En-Wiki) hold a permission for such photographs? Is that really fair use? Gridge 13:42, 14 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Fair-use policy differs between the Wikimedia wikis. On the English Wikipedia, fair-use is permitted in certain limited circumstances but discouraged; you might want to read the rules about using fair-use images. Many of the fair-use images don't have permission, but due to the fair-use provisions in US law consensus seems to be that such use is legal anyway (but I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a pinch of salt). --ais523 13:47, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
"Fair use" means we don't have permission, and are using the image regardless, on the theory that we can claim harbour under the fair use doctrine. Many (most, probably) fair use images on the EN wikipedia have poor or very poor fair use justifictions. The photo of Michael Chiklis is one such - it has no written fair use rationale (as required by WP:FAIR) and is of a living person who is still active in public life, so it's quite reasonable that a free version could be obtained. I wouldn't recommend you use this image, or ones like it, in the HE wikipedia. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:50, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The point about reasonable replaceability is reenforced when one looks at the more famous actors for whom we do have free images, including Jodie Foster, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, and Jamie Lee Curtis. It's becoming clear that, for living actors who're still working, there's every reasonable reason to suppose we can get a free image for them. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Gridge 17:36, 14 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Photo[edit]

Who I can place a photo?

Anyone with the necessary copyright permissions. Notinasnaid 14:59, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mail list[edit]

Is their any feature similar to an email mail list whereby I could send a talk page message to 20 people at one time? TonyTheTiger 15:15, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, posting to a Wikipedia page really requires you to open the page and place your text in there. Due to edit conflicts (among other things) a mass-paste would be problematic. -- Kesh 00:19, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How I can place a photo?[edit]

How I can place a photo?

On an article simply type (in the correct section) [[Image:(and here is the image that you want placed)]] Usually in article space they would use the thumb nail option to do so you type:[[Image:(and here is the image that you want placed)|thumb|And in this part is where you type how many pxs you want it in (size basically)|and here is where you want it placed...usually left or right, almost never center.]] — SeadogTalk 04:29, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I want to place a photo on Papo Lucca article[edit]

How I can place it?

First you must upload the file using the "Upload file" button on the left side bar. After that you should be able to look at the code of other pages with pictures using "edit this page" on the top. Copy the code of an image that has been placed elsewhere in a style you like and replace the Image space name in the code before placing in the code at your destination article. TonyTheTiger 15:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For further help go here: WP:IMAGE TonyTheTiger 15:38, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Helicopter Anatomy[edit]

My 8 yr old son has a Cub Scout Bear project where he has to have a drawing of a helicopter and name its parts. Everytime I download or print preview the page, the picture is there, but when I hit Print, the drawing never prints. What do I need to do? I can't sit long enough to keep trying this as I just had knee replacement surgery and can't support my leg. He needs this for tonight and I'm not having any luck- please, please HELP!

This question may be better answered on the computer help desk, but anyways... it may be that the file size (or the actual pic) is too big for your printer to handle. Try modifying the picture so that it's printing as a line drawing rather than coloured in (assuming it is), or just scale the pic down before printing. Anchoress 17:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Try this one, I shrank it and made the background white instead of transparent. Image:Helicopter Anatomy smaller.png ... If that doesn't work then they may be able to help you over here: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing — coelacan talk — 19:11, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where are my bloody edits?[edit]

I made numerous edits to the Characters of Blood+ page, linked from Blood+. However, today none of my edits are showing up. What's the problem?Spacelion 17:06, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can always see what happened to a page by clicking the "History" link. In this case an editor had concerns about your changes. To continue the discussion you should probably use the article's talk page ("Discussion" link), but to talk the same language as the other editor you should probably first read Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Weasel words. Notinasnaid 17:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

wu[edit]

Carlingmusic 17:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I took this as a call for help with the article you just created, and I've done what I can. More is needed. If you have any specific questions, please let us know. Notinasnaid 17:37, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Upload pdf[edit]

Dear all,

a question. Is it possible to upload pdf files (with no copyright) when editing an article? THnks!

Ccanton 17:54, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it isn't. What would it be for? The only thing Wikipedia can use is text (in an article) and pictures (to illustrate the article). Notinasnaid 18:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You can upload sounds and videos to, but generally speaking the idea is to type out text or link to it. What type of PDF would you want to upload anyway? - Mgm|(talk) 19:30, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For example, if I'd like to edit a very rare early XIXth century piano composer which I've access to a bunch of scores (a legacy from the family). I'd be willing to scan them and post them here. In this way, this knowledge will not be lost and, better, will be digitez and made public for dissemination. What do you think? Ccanton 07:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, if we have an article on the composer, then if you made scans in PNG or JPEG format, you could probably put them up at the Wikimedia Commons and tag them with that composer's name. However, if we don't have an article, they would just be "floating" and I don't know if they would stay around without getting deleted. Who's the composer? — coelacan talk — 08:01, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Scratch that... the commons already does accept PDF files. But if the composer doesn't have an article on Wikipedia, then the content will still be "floating". — coelacan talk — 08:05, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Administrator abuse.[edit]

How can I report administrator abuse?

  • WP:ANI or WP:RFAr but remember to present evidence to back up the claim. Try talking to the admin in question first. - Mgm|(talk) 19:28, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

a news event[edit]

I have here a link from TruthOut a news organization, regarding an important news event. How do I get that and similar links onto Wikipedia? This is the link: VIDEO | Army Targets Truthout for Subpoenas in Watada Case http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306J.shtml In a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment, a US Army prosecutor has indicated he intends to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, a Truthout reporter, and two of the nonprofit news organization's regular contributors, to authenticate news reports they produced and edited earlier this year that quoted an Army officer criticizing President Bush and the White House's rationale for the Iraq War.

THANKS.

At this time our article on Truthout.org has been protected from editing due to some editors behaving badly. You could put the information at Talk:Truthout.org and check back later to see if it's been added to the article, if not, you can add it to the article yourself when the article is unprotected. And be sure to cite your sources, preferably from a source independent from Truthout itself, using the guidelines at WP:CITE. — coelacan talk — 21:15, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Who is the Web Manager of Wikipedia[edit]

Who is the Web Manager of Wikipedia? Thanks Joe —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.30.124.42 (talkcontribs)

We don't really have a "manager" per se. There are about 1,000 admins who can execute consensus, but the community runs the encyclopedia by mutually agreed standards.--Kchase T 21:13, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you can provide more detail about your question, we can help you better. For instance: do you have a technical question? Are you concerned about a particular piece of content? Let us know what is on your mind and we will try to help. Johntex\talk 21:24, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

disabling editing from non or newly registered users[edit]

I would be eternally grateful if someone could let me know how you disable editing for non or newly registered users, thank you very much —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tynedock (talkcontribs)

This form of protection can only be applied by administrators, who will only do it for a limited time and in extreme cases. Notinasnaid 21:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I believe that Tynedock is asking how people without accounts can't create new articles. Am I reading that correctly? It's a feature of the softweare. User:Zoe|(talk) 00:32, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I think Tynedock is upset because a anon user tagged Scammo for speedy deletion. -- nae'blis 06:16, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forgotten Edit Summary[edit]

On a page I have been doing some editing to I have forgootten to put in an edit summary. If I now go back to history and select the date involved and then edit this page can I add the summary without upsetting the current page? THanks --Matt 21:46, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • You can't "undo" a history ... you CAN go back to previous versions in history, click edit, and then save that version, or that version plus any changes you make (like adding an edit summary). So I guess if your summary note is essential, just edit the page again and save with the edit summary you wanted without changing the page text. David Spalding (  ) 22:07, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, that won't work, because the software doesn't accept edits where nothing is changed. What you could do is make a "dummy edit" - a change in the code which has no effect on the appearance of the page - but this is hardly worth the trouble. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 12:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How do I revert articles?[edit]

Many times I see a vandalized article in the Recent Changes, but it would be a lot easier to revert to the previous article than to go back and correct all the mistakes. Do I have to be an admininstrator to do this? Also, I'd like to know how to delete nonsense articles indefinitely. When it's obvious that an article is just spam, is there a way to bypass the speedy deletion nomination and cut right to the deletion?

Slicedoranges 21:54, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To revert, click on the history tab on top, click on the version you want to revert to (you can edit previous versions of the page) and save the page (prefereably with an edit summary like "rvv".) Only administrators can delete a page. Ordinary users must place a speedy tag on articles to be deleted and wait for an admin to delete them. Grandmasterka 21:58, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks; I had no idea you could compare them and then save the older one! Slicedoranges 22:00, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think you'll find your answers here: WP:VANDAL, WP:CUV. There's a link in the sidebar called "Anti-vandalism tools." I'd suggest you'd read up on what is considered vandalism, what types, and also the templates used to warn users who commit vandalism. For me, that's the most important part -- putting warnings on the user's talk pages (even if just an ip-vandal), so that other editors can see if the user is commiting repeat vandalism. Kind of like what they call a "rap sheet" in TV cop melodramas. ;) David Spalding (  ) 22:04, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A shortcut key[edit]

Is there a shortcut key for | sign because it is used a lot. I use Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer under Windows XP. Thank you.

--Meno25 22:11, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're talking about the pipe "|", then it's located right on your keyboard, above the enter or return key, and below the backspace or delete key. Basically, just hit Shift-"\". Hope that helps :o) tiZom(2¢) 22:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It is also on every Wikipedia edit page, underneath the "save page" button, where you see bunch of symbols in blue. It's the second symbol after "Wiki markup". If you have javascript enabled, you just need to click on this and the symbol will be inserted at your cursor position. — coelacan talk — 22:30, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think that is what he was using and why he requested the shortcut key. ;) Cbrown1023 22:37, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Or copying and pasting other people's pipes, which is what I used to do for umlauts before I noticed all those special characters down there. =) — coelacan talk — 22:51, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for your kind help and quick response. Cbrown1023 is right. I used to scroll down every time I needed the sign which consumed a lot of time. I found the key. It is located under the Enter key Shift + \ which gives |

--Meno25 23:11, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

cannot edit Hurriyet[edit]

Hi, I tried to edit the Hurriyet page, but only list of columnists opens up for edit option, not the main text. Thank you, Nuriye

You clicked on the edit link for just that section. At the very top of the page, there are four tabs, "article", "discussion", "edit this page", and "history". Click on "edit this page" and it will give you the whole article to edit. — coelacan talk — 22:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Help with links[edit]

I started by adding categories to the page David C. Lewis (musician). I wanted to see if there were any disambiguation problems so I when to David Lewis. It turned out to be a disambiguation page. After thinking it over I move that page to David Lewis (disambiguation). A lot of the links to David Lewis are looking for David Kellogg Lewis and I started to fix them. I'm I going about this the right way. I think the best thing would be to move David Kellogg Lewis to David Lewis and put template:otherpersons at the top. --Droll 23:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • I think it's better to fix, but changing the links to point to the right page, instead of fixing the page to fit the links. Whenever possible, a more unique name is preferred. In this case his middle name helps to distinguish from the other David Lewises. -- Mgm|(talk) 00:34, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My own pictures of a celebrity[edit]

I have some photos taken by me at a concert of a band. Can I license them to Wikipedia as "free images" or do the subjects of the photos have some interest in the copyright? The band in question currently has a WP page but with only fair use images. JP Godfrey (Talk to me) 23:27, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Excellent, thanks for asking this. Yes you can upload photos you took yourself, and our preferred license is the {{GFDL-self}}. This allows other users to edit the photos (without affecting your original), and so it fits into the licensing system that Wikipedia already uses (the Gnu Free Documentation License). If you're having trouble understanding the license, or if it doesn't appeal to you, bring your questions or concerns back here and we'll try to answer more specifically. — coelacan talk — 23:37, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Thank-you for the answer. So as I understand it, the band pictured in my photos do not hold any copyright to the images and I can use them on WP without needing their approval. Now I was thinking about the license that I will release them under. I would prefer not release them completely into the Public Domain, but would rather keep them attributed to me. I saw that this could be done by releasing them under the Creative Commons License "Attribution alone". All other pictures I have seen on WP that have been CC licensed have (I think) also been licensed under GNU FDL. Is it possible to use the CC without the GNU. Otherwise I was also thinking that I could keep the copyright on the photos but release them for any use. Is this possible and compatible with Wikipedia? If neither of these are possible then I will release them under GNU. Thank-you again. I like to think that I know quite a bit about how WP works, but Copyright law is a bit beyond me. JP Godfrey (Talk to me) 11:42, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It is possible to use a Creative Commons licence without using the GFDL on Wikipedia, as long as it's one of the permitted Creative Commons licences (Attribution is permitted). In order to do this, leave the licence-selection box as 'None selected', and place {{cc-by-2.0|your name or username}} or {{cc-by-2.5|your name or username}} (according to the version you want to use; Creative Commons recommend 2.5) in the description box, which will add a Creative Commons Attribution tag. --ais523 11:57, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
I have uploaded the first of my pictures to Image:Jane Comerford Texas Lightning 1.jpg. Can you check that I have filled in the license correctly before I upload the other two? JP Godfrey (Talk to me) 14:40, 15 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Looks fine, though have you considered uploading them to Wikimedia Commons rather than Wikipedia itself? GeeJo (t)(c) • 16:07, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Marking a potential hoax?[edit]

Hi, I'm a reletively new editor to Wikipedia, and I've never really dealt with templates or found a good guide to using them, but I just found an article that's in desperate need of a "Needs references" and possibly a "disputed" tag as well, how can I put one in. also, is there a special tag for a potential hoax? Wintermut3 20:54, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • To mark an article a hoax put {{hoax}} at the top of the page. --Natl1 23:55, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]