Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 22

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December 22

Article Views

Is there a way to see the number of times an article has been viewed? I couldn't find anything in the statistics realm. Your thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.217.158.143 (talk) 00:23, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

No. The feature to count how many times a page has been visited has been turned off for performance reasons. For more details please see Wikipedia:Technical FAQ#Can I add a page hit counter to a Wikipedia page?. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:37, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Forbidden list for websites

I tried to enter a website as a citation/footnote. Wikipedia stopped me before it "saved" informing me that the site could not be used. While I was surprised, I'm sure it was for a good reason.

I have another website that I believe should be considered for this "forbidden" list. How/where may I submit this website for consideration? Student7 (talk) 01:22, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

You want meta:Talk:Spam blacklist, however, you'll need a valid Meta account. You must be a Meta sysop to actually edit the list. --FastLizard4 (Talk•Index•Sign) 01:25, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Spam blacklist for blacklistings local to the English Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:47, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Is this allowed?

someone put a link to an pet site in a article but they made it their referral link. it is a pet site.

is that allowed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manofshadows (talk • contribs) 02:44, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Hard to say for sure without knowing which link/article you mean. From your desription, that sounds pretty iffy, though -- might wish to see pages regarding conflict of interest and external linking guidelines. – Luna Santin (talk) 02:47, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok. the article is called

Virtual Pet Site

and the link in question is under

'Currency'

btw tyvm for the quick help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manofshadows (talk • contribs) 02:50, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I would remove the link to Marapets (the one in the middle of the article) and then add it to an External Links section. Definitely remove the id=someusername part of the URL. —Noah 02:56, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

ok thank you. I'll try to do it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manofshadows (talk • contribs) 03:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I think I did it right. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manofshadows (talk • contribs) 03:19, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Cite

I just wrote an ariticle but it says it does not have any sources, how do I cited the soureces so wikipedia will recognize them as creditable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Playwrite26 (talk • contribs) 03:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Check out the "Citing sources" page. If you want to know if the source is appropriate to your article you might want to ask the question on the Discussion page specific to that article. —Noah 03:12, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh... I checked out your page. I know it's not what you want to hear, but my guess is that your page has conflict of interest issues as well as notability issues. Also, if someone tagged the article for review (based on those grounds) it's a good idea to work through the system rather than just quietly removing the tags. —Noah 03:35, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Pages / Topics Visited History?

Is there a way to record and revisit topics / pages visited while in Wikipedia? 75.52.121.119 (talk) 03:53, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

If you edited any pages, they will be saved in Special:Contributions/75.52.121.119. I'm not sure of any way of easily revisiting pages as you described; some browsers have a history for easier navigation.   jj137 ^♠ 03:55, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but if you create an account, then you will have a "watch" tab at the top of each page, and if you click "watch" above the pages you're interested in, it adds them to your watchlist, and you can click "watchlist" and see any recent edits to those pages. You can also see a list of all pages on your watchlist: first click "watchlist" (at the very top of the page if you're using monobook, the usual), then where it says "you have XX pages on your watchlist", click on the word "watchlist" and it will list all the pages you've put on your watchlist. See Help:Watching pages. --Coppertwig (talk) 11:46, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I wanted to contact the President of Nigeria regarding my personal problem

I wanted to contact the President of Nigeria. I got some mails in the name of President of Nigeria Mr.Yaradua. They gave email ID of President of Nigeria. I want to get confirmation of the correct ID of the President, so that I can be able to contact him directly. The email was given as follows:

<email removed>

I want to get confirmation of the email ID. Waiting to hear from you the soonest. 

with regards. Please send email confirmating the above email ID to the following email: <email removed> 04:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)04:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)04:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)04:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)203.153.32.38 (talk) 04:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

This doesn't seem legitimate - I would assume a head of state would not be using a web domain provider's email service. The chief of staff for Yaradua has an email address listed on their site as maimaje@yaradua2007.com. EDIT: Also, this sounds like a 419 scam. Don't send any money! -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 04:11, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Note: Removed section headers on the e-mail address so the message isn't broken up into 2 sections. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 04:37, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree with wooty, this is definatley a 419 scam. Be extremley wary of this, especially if they ask you to actually go to Nigeria or ask for money. DELETE the email, and then report it to your email provider.

Good luck, cf38^talk 11:23, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Map coordinates

Hi.I have typed map coordinates from Wikimapia for King George V Reservoir but the map is pinpointing an area 1 mile to the east.Help please.Cheers —Preceding unsigned comment added by Northmetpit (talk • contribs) 07:56, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, Wikimapia is not affiliated with Wikipedia. Please ask there if it is a problem with their mapping service. NF24^{(happy holidays!)} 12:21, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

want to add Hindi to the "Language List" on the left column

On the main wiki page, I want to add "Hindi" to the list of languages in the left most column. How do I modify that? It says that that the left most column is protected and cannot be changed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.15.189.234 (talk) 08:08, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Template:MainPageInterwikis says: This template contains interwiki links for the Main Page. Only Wikipedias with at least 20,000 articles and a minimum depth of "5" are included. The "Complete list" link at the bottom of the language list goes to m:List of Wikipedias which says Hindi has 15,251 articles and depth 3. If it passes requirements then you can point it out at Template talk:MainPageInterwikis. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:21, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Sorry, on the Main Page you can't add more languages at the left. The Main Page is protected from editing because huge numbers of people look at it. If we listed all the languages, there would be -- I don't know -- 250 of them or something, and the list would go past the bottom of the main page. If you're using JavaScript, you should be able to see as the last language link a link called "Complete list". This goes to a list of all the languages. Otherwise, you can scroll to the bottom of the Main Page and there's a link to "complete list".

You may already know this, but to help anyone who doesn't: on other pages, to add a wikilink to another language: Click "edit this page" at the tab usually at the top. Suppose you want a link from Vitamin to the French Wikipedia page Vitamine. At the bottom of the "Vitamin" page you put [[fr:Vitamine]] and it will put the link in for you in the list of languages at the left. Each language has a special code, usually two letters. It's part of the name of that language wikipedia, for example fr.wikipedia.org. --Coppertwig (talk) 11:26, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

For more details about this last comment, see: Help:Interlanguage links. --Teratornis (talk) 01:26, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Yin Yoga & Simon Low's biography

Hi,

On the page 'Yin Yoga' the is a biography for Simon Low. I don't believe that this is the correct place for this because, although Simon is a respected teacher of Yin yoga, Simon is not really what the article is about. However when I went to create a new page for the biography I found that a page for Simon had existed and been deleted. Simon is a highly influential yoga teacher, particularly in London but also internationally and I believe his biography is appropriate to be on Wiki however I am not convinced it should be on the Yin Yoga page (and from the page history it looks like I'm not the only one!) Could you please advise on how I should proceed?

Thanks SFWhittam (talk) 09:35, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello. Articles must be on notable subjects. Following that link will take you to our general standard on notability, which requires that the topic of an article be the subject of significant treatment in reliable sources. We also have a subject-specific notability standard for biographies. Likewise, since this is an encyclopedia, information in an article must be verifiable through reliable sources. Ideally, then, each and every statement should cite to a reliable source, verifying its content and some of those sources must show that the world has taken note of the person by making them the subject of significant treatment. Please see our citation guideline for how to cite sources. The reason the article on Simon Low was previously deleted was because it failed to sufficiently establish his notability; it cited no sources whatever. If you want to recreate the article and make it "stick" I think and hope you now know what is required—sources showing real world treatment and verifying the information.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:48, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I think you missed the main part of the question: What should be done with the biography in Simon Low in Yin Yoga? The answer is clearly that it should not be there, and I have removed it. But I don’t know how long the removal will stick, for there seems to be an editor intent on including it (and DVD release spam generally). --teb728 t c 17:42, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

to take MP vote value

vote value to elect the Indian President as statewise list —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.169.166.97 (talk) 11:55, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's 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. I hope this helps. NF24^{(happy holidays!)} 12:18, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Please remember this page is for using Wikipedia. Thank you. Rt. 13:24, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Using lyrics in articles

Is using lyrics in an article a copyvio? Littleteddy (talk) 12:03, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi Teddy. Wikipedia:Lyrics and poetry provides some not-very-well-spelled-out guidance on this. Basically, except for some exceptions based on country, if the song was written more than 95 years ago it is probably free to use as it is in the public domain. If it's newer than that, you can use limited excerpts of lyrics as fair use within an analytical framework; that is, for specific analysis in the context of the broader article involved with the subject.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:18, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

If you use references for the lyrics, make sure to use inline citations to attribute the publisher. Rt. 13:25, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Link to references given at the bottom of same page.

Hello, I'm trying to understand how to Link to references given at the bottom of same page.

I would need a detailed but simple explanation please. (Note: I'm familier with book marks and link to book mark)

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sisrivas (talk • contribs) 18:25, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

The reference text is usually written at the place it is originally referenced, inside <ref>...</ref>. Near the end of the page it is indicated where to display the references, for example with <references/>, and the software automatically makes all the links. See the details at Wikipedia:Footnotes and come back if there are problems. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:12, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Also see WP:CITE and WP:CITET. --Teratornis (talk) 01:20, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Another quesiont

I have a ref with a name, is it possible to add the page number each time? or will it allways pile all of the ones with the same name in the same line? --Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 01:25, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Footnotes#Naming a ref tag so it can be used more than once describes the use of named references. You cannot make a separate page number for each use. The reference is only displayed once as in reference 3 in Wikipedia:Footnotes#Notes, with links to each use. If a book is cited many times then you could create a citation template for it with a page number as parameter, but in most cases it's easier to just copy the common part of the reference text to each reference. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:34, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

my mercedes homes listing

I submitted a listing for Mercedes Homes, but it was deleted very quickly for copywrite concerns.

Much of the content of the webpage is taken from our website, MercedesHomes.com. I'm the Director of eBusiness for Mercedes Homes and wrote the copy on the website and on the article submission. There are no issues with the copywrite. Feel free to confirm and/or call me with any questions or problems.

Can you help me get it re-listed?

John Kavaliauskas eBusiness Director Mercedes Homes Inc. <personal information removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kavaliauskas (talk • contribs) 19:16, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, Wikipedia is not a place for ads.   jj137 ^♠ 19:27, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

I know, but all our competitions have listings. Please help me figure this out. thanks!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Kavaliauskas (talk • contribs) 19:35, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Which competitions? Companies are allowed to have articles, but they can't be written like ads. If you say which articles, I'd be glad to help.   jj137 ^♠ 19:56, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Some of the companies are- Lennar corporation, kb home, Centex, Shea Home, Pulte Homes, Wci Communities, Beazer Homes USA, Ryan Homes, M/I Homes..

Thanks for your help!

Also, can you help me revise mine so it is not written as an ad. To me it does not appear to be alike an ad. Thanks much.. and happy holidays!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Kavaliauskas (talk • contribs) 20:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

(This is not directly relevant to your question, but several of the companies you list, but not all of them, are in Category:Home builders. I'm adding the ones which aren't already there. See Help:Category if you are curious about how categories work on Wikipedia.) How to write articles about companies so they don't read like advertisements: see WP:PEACOCK. Most people who work in business have used what we call "promotional language" for their entire careers. The type of writing we want on Wikipedia is "encyclopedic" writing. To see some examples, look at our best articles about companies (which we call featured articles). One example is Microsoft. Also see Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. I cannot help with your article because it was deleted, only administrators can view deleted articles, and I am not an administrator. However, you could write your article on Wikicompany, which is another wiki which wants to list every legally incorporated business in the world. (Wikipedia is different; Wikipedia does not want to list every company, only "notable" ones, and Wikipedia has strict editorial standards as you discovered.) When your article is on Wikicompany, then people like me can see it, and help you edit it to be suitable for Wikipedia. You can help us by supplying some links to third-party publications about your company, such as articles in reputable business publications, that we can cite as reliable sources in an article about Mercedes Homes. The less a Mercedes Homes article resembles copy from the Mercedes Homes web site, the better the article is for Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 01:11, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

It would be nice if one of these administrators could retrieve a copy of your article so we non-administrators can see it. --Teratornis (talk) 01:14, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

All the home builders you listed are now in Category:Home builders (I added the ones that weren't already there). This will make it easier for editors to review your competitors' articles for compliance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. --Teratornis (talk) 01:22, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Neutrality aside, there is another fundamental problem. You say that your contributions were delted because they were copyrighted. The website you mentioned states very clearly at the bottom of every page "Copyright © 2007 Mercedes Homes." Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted material, the text must be released into the public domain, under a CC-BY or CC-BY-SA creative commons license, or under the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Copyrights for more information. --Ybbor^Talk 04:27, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:58, 25 December 2007 (UTC)