Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 February 20

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February 20[edit]

Templates[edit]

How do you make the {{CURRENTDAY}} tag in a template so that it doesn't change after it is used, but rather is the day of when the template is applied to the page?

Thanks in advance,

--Falconus|Talk 01:26, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use {{subst:CURRENTDAY}}. Prodego talk 01:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I tried that, but it all it did was put "20" (today's day), replacing the {{subst:CURRENTDAY}}.--Falconus|Talk 01:34, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
That's intended. In that case, you'll want substitution to occur only when the template is transcluded. There is an HTML-like tag made specifically for that: <includeonly>. So instead of having the text be {{subst:CURRENTDAY}} in the template, put {{<includeonly>subst</includeonly>:CURRENTDAY}}. There's only one catch, though: the template that has this text in it must ALWAYS be substituted, not transcluded, or else an extremely ugly mess will occur. GracenotesT § 01:42, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
This is what the final output looks like: Message posted on {{subst:CURRENTDAYNAME}}, {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}}, {{subst:CURRENTDAY}}, {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}} :-( Here's a link to my project.--Falconus|Talk 01:49, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oof. I made a typo! Instead of "{{<includeonly>subst</includeonly>CURRENTDAYNAME}}", try "{{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTDAYNAME}}". Note the difference in colon position. And feel free to borrow elements from {{mwarn}} if you need to, which I created and previously used. GracenotesT § 02:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks greatly! It works now. Hopefully this will help me go more quickly with my patrols...--Falconus|Talk 02:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

searching by wikipedia article editor's name?[edit]

I know how to click the history tab to see who edited article X, but how can I search to see all the articles which a particular editor has contributed to?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.203.36.60 (talk • contribs)

Just click on the "User contributions" link on the left of the page when you're at a user's user or talk page. Xiner (talk, email) 01:33, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A few questions about AfD policy[edit]

Hi, could someone please answer these three questions:

  1. May non-admins close AfDs?
  2. Is it policy (or just a guideline) that admins who participate in an AfD shouldn't close it?
  3. What is the effect of conducting a pagemove during an AfD? Is it discouraged (even if there is consensus support)? Would any technical problems arise (e.g., renaming [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName]])?

Thanks, Black Falcon 01:42, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  1. Certainly, as long as the consensus is clearly "Keep", or any other action that involves keeping (for example, "Cleanup"). See Wikipedia:Deletion process#Articles for Deletion page for information on how to do this. In general, don't close something as delete and then ask for an admin to do it. But keep closes are fine.
  2. It is strongly discouraged for admins to close discussions they've participated in; same with non-admins, I assume. See Wikipedia:Deletion guidelines for administrators#Deciding whether to delete
  3. No technical problems would arise. If you want to move the page to attempt a WP:HEY, then that would be fine if uncontroversial. Moving a page to conform with WP:NC, or to fix a spelling error, should also be fine. The AfD page shouldn't need to be renamed, I don't think, although someone else could back me up on this, perhaps.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. GracenotesT § 01:53, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thank you very much for your detailed and informative responses. Cheers, Black Falcon 02:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Page Title Capitalization[edit]

What is the policy about capitalizing a hyphenated phrase in a page title? I couldn't find any reference in the Manual of Style or the like. The phrase I'm wondering about is "Cross-country". My instinct was not to capitalize the 2nd word but i wanted to check. Thanks Goodnightmush 01:43, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It really depends on the context. If it's the name of something else, try to keep it as accurate as you can; otherwise, keep everything lowercase that you can. But I don't know, so Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization) should provide all the help you need. GracenotesT § 02:19, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gare Centrale (Montreal)[edit]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rail|title=Via}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Toronto-Montreal|previous=Dorval|rows2=2}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Ottawa-Montreal|previous=Dorval|hide2=yes}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Montreal-Quebec|next=Saint-Lambert|rows1=5}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Ocean|next=Saint-Lambert|hide1=yes}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Chaleur|next=Saint-Lambert|hide1=yes}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Saguenay|next=Ahuntsic|hide1=yes}}
{{s-line|system=Via|line=Abitibi|next=Ahuntsic|hide1=yes}}
{{s-rail|title=Amtrak}}
{{s-line|system=Amtrak|line=Adirondack|previous=|next=Saint-Lambert}}
{{end box}}

Aldershot (GO station) & Fallowfield railway stationare quite irrelevant, but I can't find where they are embedded in the table (box) so I can't remove them. Peter Horn 20:55, 5 February 2007 (UTC) Peter Horn 20:57, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you are asking. Can you specify exactly which line of the box you are trying to remove? --`/aksha 01:29, 6 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm talking about the phrases "toward Aldershot" and "toward Fallowfield", two phrases that do only appear in the finished version and that are meaningless & irrelevant. "Dorval" is OK. Peter Horn 02:06, 18 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
"toward Aldershot (GO station)" & "toward Fallowfield railway station". Within this context this info is erroneous. How does one get rid of those out of "Dorval????? Peter Horn 01:40, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It appears as though whoever made these templates thought that railroads will stay where they are for all of eternity :) Check out this page for how far this kingdom extends! I'm looking into it... ack... GracenotesT § 01:59, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It seems like User:Mackensen created these templates. Really an awesome (if not magnificently terrifying) system. You could try asking him any questions. GracenotesT § 02:10, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
At this point, my lack of knowledge about these sorts of systems kicks in. I'm sure that Mackensen would know, though. GracenotesT § 02:17, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

discrimination in our small school district[edit]

do you know who I can get help from or what I can do as a parent to help my children against an administrator in a high school who has it in for them,and in order to get what he wants is putting one race against another and then turning a blind eye until these two races fight so he can kick them all out of school?

I personally would first complain to people higher up than him, and if that doesn't work, go to the media (newspaper, TV News, Internet News, etc.) See what other people have to say.--Falconus|Talk 02:31, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Parents have been known to relocate to different school districts they like better. It's sometimes easier to move than to get other people to do what we want. Another option is private school. Some parents resort to home schooling. If you suspect the administrator is doing something actionable, consider hiring an attorney. But this is the Wikipedia Help Desk, where the only conflicts volunteers attempt to resolve are edit wars; perhaps someday your children and the administrator will write conflicting accounts of their experience on Wikipedia, and then we can get some traction. In the meantime, you might pose your question to the Reference desk where volunteers attempt to answer any question. --Teratornis 02:37, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Portal[edit]

I want to make a portal I already read the instuctions but when it says I should " Create a new page using Portal:Topic as the title of the page " I know how to make a new page but when I put the name of the portal in the 'Type a title:" it says "The requested page title was invalid, empty, an incorrectly linked inter-language or inter-wiki title, or contained unsupported characters".Bewareofdog 02:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What portal topic are you trying to create? (copied from WP:RD/M) V-Man737 02:34, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Desktop Widget for Photo of the Day[edit]

Is there a desktop widget that will automatically post the daily feature photograph? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.155.82.2 (talk • contribs)

I rather doubt there is. You can ask at WP:VPT or on WP:IRC whether anyone's whipped up a script doing that, though. Xiner (talk, email) 14:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Citation formatting[edit]

Is there any guideline about how references in the form Template:cite news or Template:cite web should be formatted--horizontally or vertically? I find the horizontal format to make editing harder and to increase the likelihood of accidentally deleting from/adding to a citation (e.g., the URL). Another user I've communicated with has indicated a preference for horizontal formatting because it requires less scrolling through an article. Does the MOS (or some other guideline) say anything about this? By the way, here's the section of text we were discussing in horizontal and vertical format (as it appears in the editing window).

  • Horizontal
The suicide attack killed at least 135 people and injured 339 others.<ref name="Washington Times">{{cite news|title=Terror takes toll on market, vendors|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070206-115808-3925r.htm|work=[[The Washington Times]]|date=[[2007-02-07]]|accessdate = 2007-02-07}}</ref> The bomb, estimated to be about one ton in weight, brought down at least 10 buildings and coffee shops and obliterated market stalls in a largely [[Shia Islam|Shi‘ite]] enclave less than a half mile from the [[Tigris River]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news|first=Richard A.|last=Oppel, Jr.|coauthors=Qais Mizher|title=Dozens Killed in Baghdad Bombing|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?hp&ex=1170565200&en=59fcaa94aad23546&ei=5094&partner=homepage|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=[[2007-02-03]]|accessdate=2007-02-03}}</ref>
  • Vertical
The suicide attack killed at least 135 people and injured 339 others.<ref name="Washington Times">{{cite news
 | title = Terror takes toll on market, vendors
 | url = http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070206-115808-3925r.htm
 | work = [[The Washington Times]]
 | date = [[2007-02-07]]
 | accessdate = 2007-02-07}}</ref>
The bomb, estimated to be about one ton in weight, brought down at least 10 buildings and coffee shops and obliterated market stalls in a largely [[Shia Islam|Shi‘ite]] enclave less than a half mile from the [[Tigris River]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news
 | first = Richard A.
 | last = Oppel, Jr.
 | coauthors = Qais Mizher
 | title = Dozens Killed in Baghdad Bombing
 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?hp&ex=1170565200&en=59fcaa94aad23546&ei=5094&partner=homepage
 | work = [[The New York Times]]
 | date = [[2007-02-03]]
 | accessdate = 2007-02-03
}}</ref>

I know this may sound like a minor technical issue (and it probably is), but there've been a number of times where I've found and/or made errors in sourcing when using the horizontal format. Thank you in advance for any comments, Black Falcon 04:51, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment. For some reason, I can't get it to show appropriately for the vertical formatting, so please view it in your edit window. -- Black Falcon 04:52, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's normal for text to do that. I changed the blockquote, nowiki text into "pre", an HTML tag that combines nowiki formatting, monospace font, and line breaks. If the source code of a document says mary had
a little

It would display as:

mary had a little

First, this is definitely a matter of preference. No one way is really suggested. Now, I personally prefer the horizontal format. It's a lot easier to edit with than vertical, and certain you can work with vertical and then turn it into horizontal. Now, you could set up a poll, but it wouldn't accomplish much. It's really just a matter of preference. (And someday I'll get around to make a subst-able {{cite news}}, if people like the idea.) GracenotesT § 05:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again for your response and for the new text format--I can think of some possible uses for that on my user page. Cheers, Black Falcon 05:45, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Signing out[edit]

For some reason, I keep getting signed in or out, depending on the page. I'll get signed out from going from one page to another, and then, without signing in, I'm signed in when I go to the next. Any ideas as to why this is happening? ShadowHalo 05:08, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There's a discussion about this at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Constantly being logged out, by the way. It happened to me, once, when I was looking at a diff page. No idea, though. GracenotesT § 05:11, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The same thing has started happening to me today as well. I don't even leave the site - just going to and from certain pages has me apparently signed out and in again. No settings have been changed on my computer whatsoever. ComaDivine 07:57, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • (reloading the page seems to work) ComaDivine 08:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • It sounds like a cache issue, but at the moment I have no idea whether it's your cache or one of Wikimedia's caches that's acting up. I have had situations where occasionally I get someone else's preferences (this clears up next time I access or reload a page), so presumably there are crossed wires in the caches somewhere on Wikimedia's end. --ais523 08:56, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
      • Actually, there's something about this on the developer's mailing list. It seems that there was recently a change which introduced a bug that does this; the bug has now been fixed, but there are buggy pages still left in the cache. The error should sort itself out over time now, so I'd suggest just refreshing when a page goes wrong. --ais523 08:58, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Special Procedure for WikiProject deletion?[edit]

Is there a special procedure to speedy delete a wikiproject, or do you put a normal speedy delete tag on it? See, I've come across the page Wikipedia:WikiProject Ham Sandwiches And I'm pretty sure it should be deleted. The speedier the response, the speedier it is off Wikipedia! Thank you! Cream147 Shout at me for doing wrong 09:19, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can only use G-class (general) speedy deletion criteria on Wikiprojects; see G-class speedy deletion criteria. If any apply, you can use its speedy tag (for instance, {{db-vand}}) to request its deletion as normal. If none of them apply, you can request the project's deletion by using the Miscellany for Deletion process, which works in a similar manner to Articles for Deletion. I hope that helps! --ais523 09:24, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Or you can get a rouge admin to delete it for you. No need to waste time on process with this. Kusma (討論) 09:33, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, thank you (both of you). And this Idunnoreally guy is getting annoying. Cream147 Shout at me for doing wrong 09:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I blocked him as a troll account. Kusma (討論) 09:55, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Category not to be found in wikitext[edit]

The article William Gaines has a category I want to change: Category:MAD Magazine to Category:MAD Magazine people. However, I can't find the first category in the wikitext. What should I do ? stefanomione 11.50, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

The category's added by the navbox {{madcontribs}}; it's probably best to use both categories in this case, but I'm not at all sure (some other navboxes I checked didn't use categories at all). --ais523 12:00, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
It's probably best to remove the category from Template:Madcontribs and to add it to the individual articles to allow for better sorting in the category. Or at least remove the {{PAGENAME}} in the template and use {{DEFAULTSORT}} in the articles. Kusma (討論) 12:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Where exactly do I find the category in Template:Madcontribs ? Removing {{PAGENAME}} in the template doesn't work. stefanomione 12.20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
It's right at the bottom, where it says [[Category:MAD Magazine]]. --ais523 12:31, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Really, it doesn't work. The redundant category [[Category:MAD Magazine]] is still there. Are you sure its wikitext is added to the template ? Maybe you can remove the category [[Category:MAD Magazine]] and I'll learn a lot. stefanomione 19.20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

How to rename (move) a page? "Move" tab missing.[edit]

I was following the steps outlined in the "Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page" Help article, but with the correct page displayed, I found no "Move" tab near the top of the page. (the default skin is on and the Quickbar is enabled)

How can I have the "Move" tab appear, or otherwise rename a page (request renaming)?

thanks!

Which page do you want to move, and to what name? How long ago did you register as a user? Notinasnaid 13:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Earthrotator, your account is less than 3 hours old. Renaming pages becomes available once your account is 4 days old; until then, you could place a request for a page to be renamed on Wikipedia:Requested moves or Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance). --ais523 13:17, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Geocode Definition Replacement[edit]

I am trying to replace the basic defintion of geocode in the wiki. The page is: Geocode.

I am requesting that the basic definition of geocode be replaced with the following. <message edited for clarity, info being moved to Geocode page> I you need to contact me please do so at <email removed>. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeoQwest (talk • contribs)

Be bold and add it yourself! That's the great thing about Wikipedia. Hersfold (talk|work) 16:45, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, this thing and WP:COI suggest that this may be the way to go for people involved with the subject of a Wikipedia article. I'll do it now. Xiner (talk, email) 16:56, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Done. It'd be great if you could provide references for the info, too. Xiner (talk, email) 17:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Linking question[edit]

I have a question about external links. On the Warriors (book series) page we had some problems with linking to fansites. I was going over Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and found that we could link to one major fansite. But my main question is: Does the Harry Potter fandom article violate the external linking guideline under Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not?--Res2216firestar 17:40, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're misreading WP:NOT if you think it says that one fansite is acceptable but two or more are not. It depends. If an article is about a fansite (rare), then it's okay to link to that fansite, just as if an article is about a well-known blogger, it's okay to link to his/her blog. The more relevant policy is WP:EL.
To answer your question - yes, in the article about fans of Harry Potter books, it's certainly appropriate to link to multiple fansites (in this case, to those that - reportedly - have won awards). Note that links to tens or hundreds of fansites would make the page into a directory of sorts, which isn't acceptable. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 02:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If John is right, then what is the action we should take?--Res2216firestar 22:26, 25 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help finding similar template to {{la}}[edit]

I'd like to have a template similar to {{la}} that contains the same information but in an abbreviated format. So instead of: Wikipedia (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views), I'd like to have something like Wikipedia (e|t|h|li|w|lo). Anybody know if such a template exists?↔NMajdan•talk•EditorReview 17:52, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

{{la}} uses {{Lx}}, whose code should be easy to modify to read as you wish. Xiner (talk, email) 18:15, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Got it, thank you. I decided not to create a separate template so instead I just created it as a subpage on a WikiProject. If you feel I should create a template, I can do that as well. The only bad thing is it is broken when you view Wikipedia:WikiProject University of Oklahoma/Articles but it looks fine when you view the main project page. I know this is because I am using {{/OUarticle}} but I guess I'll just live with it for now.↔NMajdan•talk•EditorReview 18:49, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cite?[edit]

How do you cite wikipedia as a source?

In the 'toolbox' to the left of each article, there's a link saying 'cite this article', which should give you the information you need. Be warned, though; many educational institutions won't accept Wikipedia as a valid source to cite; you may be better off looking at the sources for the article you want to cite and using those instead. See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for more information. --ais523 18:52, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

some one stop this![edit]

I CANNOT & WILL NOT STAND FOR NO MORE DISRESPECT FROM NO EDITORS! I HAVE HAD IT WITH USER: wooty! I WAS JUST SLECTED FOR A SPEEDY REMOVAL FOR NO REASON! MY PAGE WAS JUST REMOVED! NOW THIS AS..THING WANTS ME GONE! IF SOMEONE DOESENT TELL ME WHAT I AM DOING WRONG...I..I DONT KNOW WHAT IN THE NEKO I AM GOING TO DO! PLEASE TALK TO THIS THING PLEASE!--Lolicon(Anti Child Porn)Saikano 19:00, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please be more specific in your question? Is this regarding an article/another user/etc?↔NMajdan•talk•EditorReview 19:21, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
He's referring to the fact that Wooty recently had his Userpage deleted through MfD because it contained a lot of attacks and was being used as a soapbox. After it was deleted and replaced with a more friendly version, Saikano re-added some of the information to his userpage, prompting Wooty to flag it for speedy deletion, as a recreation of previously deleted material. To Saikano: This has nothing to do with deleting you as a user, or banning you, or anything like that. It's just regarding the information on your userpage. --Maelwys 19:50, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Articles[edit]

How do you delete unwanted articles?

adding terms in the Glossary[edit]

Am I able to add a term to the glossary? if so how is that done?

Bismarck State College[edit]

Hi, I am the webmaster at Bismarck State College.

I was asked by various depratment at our institution t0 edit the original Bismarck State College site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck_State_College because it contained biased and inaccurate info.

I asked the original author to removed the biased info. He did so.

I then added objective info about BSC.

The original author continues to tag the site indicating that it contains "errors" and does not follow policy.

This is not true. The site follows policy and is free of errors.

I have attempted to reason with the original author (MatthewUND) but he is intent upon acting as if he solely controls the page. Bottom line: he is seeking retribution simply because it was brought to his attention that he had interjected his own point of view into an article without provided any evidence.

As I said, I cannot reason with this individual so please resolve this issue as you see fit.

Thank you and, if need be, I can be reached at <personal information>.

Bjork53 19:27, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Editing an article in which you are involved is a conflict of interest. Be particularly thourough in citing your sources and make sure they're reliable. As long as controversial or negative content is sourced, please don't try to delete it. - Mgm|(talk) 19:34, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Please note also Wikipedia:Three Revert Rule. You are in breach of this, and can be blocked from editing if you continue this revert war. Notinasnaid 19:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Also, I have no problem having a {{cleanup}} tag on the article as it does still need some cleanup. Please try to limit external jumps and try to add citations.↔NMajdan•talk•EditorReview 19:42, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Bjork feels that, since he is the webmaster for this college, he owns the article. I suggest he take a look at Wikipedia:Ownership of articles. I don't really have a problem with a paid employee of the college editing the article on their own time and while they are not editing in the capacity of being the school's webmaster. However, I do have a problem with that editor continually using his position at the college as the reason why he and he alone should be able to edit the article. I should mention that, although Bjork calls me the "original author" of the article, that isn't the case...any edits that I had previously done on the article were routine and minor. Any material that Bjork objected to was not added by me. Over on my talk page, Bjork just left me a message which included this sentence: "As a result I have registered a general and legal complaint with Wikipedia, and have asked other editors to contribute their complaints as well. You are attempting to subvert the Wikipedia's very "reason for being.". Bjork should know that leaving a message on the Wikipedia help desk page doesn't consitutute a "legal complaint". My original problem with Bjork was that, even though I repeatedly warned him against doing so, he routinely added copy-and-paste material taken verbatim from the school's website. Finally, he started changing a word here and there to make it "in his own words". I disagree that the text was adequately rephrased, but I'm more than willing to move on from that. I thought that, since Bjork's edits to the articles still contained text virtually the same as that found at the college's website and that since the article now looks very poorly put together and clearly needs some work, I would put up a cleanup tag on it and try to work on it in the near future. I also left a message at WikiProject North Dakota requesting help cleaning up the article. Bjork has repeatedly removed the cleanup tag and filled in the edit summaries with misleading things like "editing to remove unnecessary and inappropriate commentary" and "Edit for insignificant text". I'm tired of trying to reason with Bjork, so I'm going to simply leave the college's article alone for the time being. It's unfortunate that a paid employee of an institution would try to bully others into accepting him as the only legitimate editor of that institution's article. --MatthewUND(talk) 21:55, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Cleaned up, taking all of 30 seconds. Instead of editwarring over a cleanup tag, why not just fix the damn article? -Wooty Woot? contribs
Thanks for cleaning up the article, Wooty. I would have done the cleanup myself, but I can guarantee that any changes I made to the article would have been quickly reverted by Bjork. I hope he is satisfied with the article now and doesn't feel the need to fill it up with misplaced/redundant external links and material ripped from the school's website. I would appreciate it if you could keep this page on your watchlist for a while. --MatthewUND(talk) 00:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bismarck State College Followup[edit]

Hi again, this is the webmaster from Bismarck State College<email removed>

I have checked other sites that MatthewUND has written to, and have discovered that he has responded in a similar manner to others who choose to edit his submissions.

You may want to look thru some of MatthewUND's submissions (Baker Boy, in particular). How he responds to other submitters replicates my own experience.

Clearly he is displaying a dictatorial approach to Wikipedia by misrepresenting your policies.

Bjork53 19:52, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Could you indicate a specific occasion where you feel that Wikipedia's policies have been misrepresented, and which specific policy you feel is being misrepresented? Thank you. Notinasnaid 19:55, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I should point out that the Baker Boy article was another example where a paid employee of a company tried to add material that was taken verbatim from the company's website. --MatthewUND(talk) 21:59, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Wild Brain" versus "W!LDBRAIN" ;; which is the correct orthography[edit]

The official company name has (apparently) been changed from "WildBrain" to "W!LDBRAIN." Is it appropriate to use the latter form in the WP article Wild Brain? dr.ef.tymac 20:18, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

From WP:MOS-TM: Avoid using special characters that are not pronounced, are included purely for decoration, or simply substitute for English words (e.g. ♥ used for "love"). In the article about a trademark, it is acceptable to use decorative characters the first time the trademark appears, but thereafter, an alternative that follows the standard rules of punctuation should be used:
  • avoid: Macy*s, [ yellow tail ]
  • instead, use: Macy's, Yellow Tail
Which says to me ... probably not. But I'm not 100% convinced. *Mishatx*-In\Out 21:43, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Persistent vandalism[edit]

I was just wondering where to report persistent vandalism by a certain IP address? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jedmiller (talk • contribs)

Please see WP:AIV. —XhantarTalk 20:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Inmarsat[edit]

Wikipedia incorrectly redirects queries for "Inmarsat" to "International Mobile Satellite Organization". The article correctly describes Inmarsat but the IMSO is a different body entirely.

Some of the recent discussion on the page describes the issue correctly.

For reference see www.imso.org and www.inmarsat.com

If there's anything in particular you want fixed, let us know. You're more than welcome to edit the article yourself as well. This link: (clicky) should bring you to the Inmarsat page without redirecting you. Hersfold (talk|work) 23:25, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Substituting (as opposed to transcluding) templates in a signature[edit]

The reasons given at Wikipedia:Sign_your_posts_on_talk_pages#Transclusion of templates for why one's signature should not include any transcluded templates make sense to me, but is this also the case for substituted templates? Specifically, a user wanted to know whether it is possible to change one's signature timestamp from UTC to EST, and I thought that something like the following (as a raw signature) might do the trick (when then signing with ~~~ instead of ~~~~: 

—[[User:Username|Username]] {{subst:UTC|2}}

—XhantarTalk 22:58, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, that definitely works. For example, I have just changed my raw signature from {{subst:User:Gracenotes/sig}} (meaning that every time I sign, my signature is substituted from User:Gracenotes/sig) to {{subst:User:Gracenotes/sig}} {{subst:#time:H:i, j F Y|-5 hours}} (EST), and sign with ~~~, the result is
GracenotesT § 18:09, 20 February 2007 (EST)
However, four tildes will result in
GracenotesT § 18:09, 20 February 2007 (EST) 23:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Not pretty. See m:PF for more information, specifically the time section. GracenotesT § 18:09, 20 February 2007 (EST)
Ah, using #time - even better! Thank you. —XhantarTalk 23:17, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why is the edit option missing from some pages/sections?[edit]

I have yet to try editing any pages on wiki, but I've been using it as reference for sometime. However, today was the first time I noticed that certain pages are lacking the edit options, such as:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_attacks#Conspiracy_theories

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_attacks

what's up? Are these articles uneditiable?

That page is semi-protected. *Mishatx*-In\Out 23:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Some articles on Wikipedia are heavy candidates for vandalism, and steps have to be taken in order to ensure that they maintain useful, neutral content. I'm not surprised at all to see that the 9/11 article is one of them. Semi-protection means that the article cannot be edited by unregistered users, or by accounts less than four days old. Once you've registed and hit that mark, you will be able to edit the page. Other pages, such as the Main Page, are fully protected and may only be edited by sysops (Administrators). These pages are open not only to vandalism by IP addresses, but by actual members as well. Wikipedia tries to limit the number of pages with protection and only does so when absolutely necessary, but unfortunately it still happens more often than we like. Hersfold (talk|work) 23:50, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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