Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 January 11

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January 11

Wrong link

I noticed that in searching for "Shanghai Lily" the wikipedia engine takes me to (I kid you not) "Cervical Caps". However, the address in the tool bar still says "Shanghai Lily".

Maybe you could look into this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.144.56.220 (talk) 01:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I have changed it so that it now goes to Shanghai Express (film). It looks like it is a better destination for it. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 01:19, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Apparently the Shanghai Lily Life Rubber Product Co. produced a cervical cap called Shanghai Lily [1] but Shanghai Express (film) also looks better to me. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:25, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Since the phrase can refer to either the film character or the birth control product, I have changed the redirect into a disambiguation page. Does that sound acceptable? Lyrl^Talk _C 02:25, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Do I have to wait 4 days and edit 10 times for my newly created first article to appear?

I created an account, then I went through the Article Wizard to see if the article for "Todd Gogulski" existed and it did not. I clicked the red link, created a page, created internal links and included references, and at the end, I expected when I hit "Save Page" that it would automatically be visible (as it tells me is the case). However, it is not visible. It has been about 40 hours since I joined and made the page. Can you tell me when it will appear and why there is a delay? thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toddwina (talk • contribs) 03:24, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Your article is currently in draft form in your user space at User:Toddwina/Todd Gogulski. In order for it to appear as an article in the mainspace, it must be moved there. You can only move a page when your account is autoconfirmed. A few additional points before the article should be moved: please read WP:MOSBIO for guidance on formatting a biographical article; please read WP:CITE for guidance on how to cite your sources; if you are the subject or are connected with him, please read WP:AUTO or WP:COI. Hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 03:38, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks - that was very helpful. I checked all the sites you mentioned and made some adjustments. however, I have trouble with getting the proper format for the references. I can't tell which symbol to use to get the reference to show at the bottom, rather than internal to the link. for example, the current draft version now has this information, to give more information for a citation, but as you can see, it appears in the text, not at the bottom "in 1987 at the Peace Race in Eastern Europe,[Bundesarchiv, photo by Jan Peter Kasper, 12 May 1987, accessed 10 January 2010, at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1987-0512-031,_Friedensfahrt,_Todd_Gogulski.jpg] and in his career had over 100 victories." I can't find a clear page where the editing symbols are explained. can you give me a link, because the links you gave before took me to new places and were helpful. I'm new to learning my way around. thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toddwina (talk • contribs) 06:38, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I've reformatted one reference to show you how it is done, (and done a couple more bits of formatting). See Template:cite web for all of the parameters for the 'cite web' template I used, and WP:CITE for more on how to do references. Note that I've added {{reflist}} at the end: this is needed to get the references to appear. You should also make sure that the article is in at least one category.

Please sign your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: , but do not sign in articles.

--ColinFine (talk) 08:42, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

But please do not add categories while the draft is still in user space. They can be added when the page has been moved to mainspace. – ukexpat (talk) 15:25, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I've done some more work on the draft and it's probably ready to be moved to the mainspace. Let me know if you need help with that. – ukexpat (talk) 15:58, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

You can, however throw a colon in front of the "Category", e.g. Category:National flags. This will make a clickable link to the category page without including your article on the category page, so that you can verify you've identified the right category. Once the article is moved to the mainspace, removing the colon is a breeze.LeadSongDog come howl 16:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Uploaded image to incorrect article name

Hi, I just uploaded an image (John_Biddle_Onstage.jpg) to an incorrect article name. Could an administrator please delete this image page so that I can correct the situation. Thanks much. Sputtnik (talk) 03:29, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Instead of having the image deleted and then uploading it again with a different name, you can request the file be renamed. Add {{rename media|new name|reason}} to the file page to request a renaming. --Mysdaao ^talk 03:46, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Defining a template within an article

I am hoping there is some way to define a template (or something equivalent), for use on a single page, within that page. There are times when it makes sense to define a template that will only be used on one page, for example a "row template" for a single use table. Creating a separate template has a few disadvantages:

• When trying to examine the WikiMarkup, you have to open multiple pages to see what is going on.
• Testing the template requires saving the template every time you make a change. You cannot just use the preview feature to see how things will be formatted.
• The history of the main page and the template are separate, so retrieving old versions can result in mismatches.

I would like instead to do something like this:

#defineTemplate row
|-
| style="font-weight: bold; text-align: left" | {{{name}}}
| style="text-align: right" | {{{age}}}
| style="background-color: #DDD; text-align: right" | {{{salary}}}
#endTemplate

{|
{{row | name="Sally" | age="25" | salary="$50,000" }}
{{row | name="Dick" | age="30" | salary="$75,000" }}
{{row | name="Jane" | age="35" | salary="$100,000" }}
|}

Is something like this possible?

-- JPMcGrath (talk) 03:33, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

No. Well, you could surround the template bit with <onlyinclude> and then transclude the page into itself, but I think either a separate template or a lot of copy-pasting would be preferable to that level of hackery. It still wouldn't work properly with previews, either. Algebraist 10:53, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree that a kludge like that would not be good. The idea is to make things simpler, not more complex. I suppose the place to suggest an enhancement would be on the MediaWiki Bugzilla, correct? -- JPMcGrath (talk) 14:29, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Enabling email

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 19:02, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I have my email enabled and can see 'Email this user' tab in my toolbox on the left of the screen. Another user (User:Fergananim) who was trying to email me can't see the 'Email this user' tab. Help please! Jasper33 (talk) 08:08, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The poster must also have email enabled. Special:EmailUser/Fergananim shows that Fergananim does not. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:45, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Thanks for that. Jasper33 (talk) 10:49, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

publication in the main page?

Dear all, I just updated a page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cipresso/European_Federation_of_Materials_Handling_-_FEM) for publication. Can someone tell me how long it will take to be published? Is it in the right position (in subpage)? Thanks Cipresso (talk) 09:24, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

By publishing do you mean moving the page to the mainspace ?You can move the article if it satisfies WP:ORG --NotedGrant Talk 10:49, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Hallo again,

thanks for the quick reply. I think my page satisfied the requirements suggested..but how can I move it to the mainpsace? I cannot by myself, I guess.

Cipresso (talk) 09:40, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

pine ridge reservation journalist

I am looking for information on how to contact Al Jazeera anchor John Cookson as I am trying to formulate a plan to help the people of the pine ridge reservation and can get no help from american journalists.Can you help me ? Ms. Kathryn 11:27, 11 January 2010 (UTC)11:27, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Gonzonoir (talk) 11:32, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

We have an article about Al Jazeera English but no relationship to them. Their website has a general contact page at [2]. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:47, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

URLs and Character encoding

Is there a guideline on the use of 2-byte characters in URLs? As an example, the Japanese Wikipedia page has an article with a URL that uses 2 byte characters. Link: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E3%83%A8%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%9E (link above works in IE8) The character encoding is often not displayed and/or handled correctly. (Note that the link was copied from the address bar of Firefox 3.5.7. The 2 byte characters displayed correctly there.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 3sgte (talk • contribs) 12:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

It would help to know what you want to do with the link. Help:URL may have something; if it doesn't ask on the talk page and perhaps the help page can be expanded.---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:38, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Basically, I wondered if it was frowned upon to create Wikipedia URLs using 2 byte characters. In the case in question I was trying to send the link to a friend. Both his computer and my computer can display the target language, but the URL is not readable in the address bar after copy pasting. Thanks for the reply. 3sgte (talk) 12:22, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

How does the"This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources. ..." get removed?

I've added one reference and can add more, but what do I need to do to get the "This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources..." orange Exclamation mark banner to be removed from a page. Thanks 208.50.88.134 (talk) 13:06, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

See User talk:CharlotteWebb =). More seriously though, if you have corrected an issue highlighted by a maintenance template, feel free to simply remove it from the article's wikicode (It is usually located in the very beginning). decltype (talk) 13:17, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

If it has a reference, but the reference does not cover all the details, especially those which could be considered defamatory, you might consider an alternate template. Change the template at the top to Template:BLP sources by replacing the line that starts "{{BLP unsourced" with "{{BLP sources|{{subst:DATE}}}} ". Novangelis (talk) 13:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Centering userboxes

Resolved

 – Mysdaao ^talk 15:44, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello Help Desk :) I am having some trouble centering the userboxes at the top of my user page. I have three in a row and even when I use <center></center> tags, I still can't get it to work. Could somebody please swing by and take a look? Thanks! JulieSpaulding (talk) 14:16, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

You can center userboxes by putting them in a table by following one of the examples at Wikipedia:Userboxes#Using tables. You would center the three userboxes on the top of your userpage by putting them in a table with this code:

{| style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
|-
|{{User Nunavut}}{{user interest Northwest Territories|9}}{{user interest Yukon|9}}
|}

which would produce:

This user comes from Nunavut. This user is interested in the Northwest Territories of Canada. This user is interested in the Canadian territory of Yukon.

--Mysdaao ^talk 14:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! For the life of me, I could not figure out how to do it using the center tags. JulieSpaulding (talk) 15:35, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome! --Mysdaao ^talk 15:44, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

How big is Wikipedia?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 18:07, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

How big is Wikipedias Database from month to month? How much does it grow per month? Are regular Archives made of the Database at certain times? Is it possible to download any of these archives?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.191.231.27 (talk) 14:33, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

According to Special:Statistics, there are 3,155,405 pages on Wikipedia as of 14:43, 11 January 2010 (UTC). Yes, I believe some people do take an 'archive' of the database at certain times (for example, to create an iPhone or iPod Touch app which allows for the offline viewing of Wikipedia) but I could not point you in the right direction as to where you can download these records, although page-by-page histories are available by clicking the 'history' link at the top of every article page. At present, Wikipedia grows by about 35,000 articles per month (the peak was about 60,000 per month in 2006). JulieSpaulding (talk) 14:43, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Database download is where it can be downloaded. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:45, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

If you are referring to how many bytes it takes up, the latest version available of the English Wikipedia (3rd Dec 2009): All pages, current versions only: 10.2GB (compressed; 100-200GB uncompressed; All pages with complete page edit history: 218.7GB (compressed; 2-4 TB uncompressed). -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 15:12, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks all! you answered all my questions —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.191.231.27 (talk) 17:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

How to name an article if the name is already used by another

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 19:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I was about to begin an article on a barge named Enchante. The article name is already taken by what appears to be a combination of an advertisement for a drink sold in the Malaysia and a band of the same name - interesting combination of topics. My first thought was to split the article into two, but I don't think that either of them would stand on their own - much less the combination of the two. So what to do here? Should this article be deleted and free up the name for my use (a bit greedy on my part) or I guess I am best served by using a name like Enchante (barge). Any thoughts? GloverEpp (talk) 17:02, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The band is not notable and would not survive an afd. Kittybrewster ☎ 17:12, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

If you can show that the barge is notable, create Enchante (barge) and then change the current Enchante page (which at the moment is a redirect to Enchante (drink)) to a disambiguation page. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 17:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Kittybrewster has already made Enchante a disambiguation page, so all you need do is create the page about the barge at Enchante (barge). Regards, Spitfire^Tally-ho! 17:15, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Why do we need a disam page if there are only two relevant articles? Isn't the standard practice in this case just to use hatnotes? – ukexpat (talk) 18:04, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Ukexpat is correct. There is even a speedy deletion category for disambig pages with only two entries. TNXMan 18:51, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

More complications: The barge is called Enchanté, so shouldn't the the barge article be at Enchanté, and the drink at Enchante, with a hatnote on each pointing to the other? – ukexpat (talk) 18:59, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I thought that myself when I looked at the page and think that would be the preferable setup, Ukexpat. Ioeth (talk contribs twinkle friendly) 19:01, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The drink's name is actually called Enchanté as well. We could indeed have hatnotes rather than the disamb page, as there are only two entries. I have hatnoted both. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:09, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

More: I have tagged Enchanté (drink) for G11 speedy as it looks to me like nothing more than an advertisement. Also, in the absence of any references I am having a hard time seeing how Enchanté (barge) is notable. – ukexpat (talk) 19:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I have tagged the Enchanté and Enchante disamb pages for G6 deletion. With regard to the notability of the barge, I note that it is both a newly-created article, and shown as "under major rewrite" or whatever - I suggest we leave it for a little while to see if notability is established. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:17, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually G6 doesn't apply as there is no primary topic. I'm removing it. Timotheus Canens (talk) 19:27, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

OK, with the recent deletions and moves, I think we're done! – ukexpat (talk) 19:36, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

editing text without an edit button...

Greetings: I may be slow or dense, or just unfamiliar with the layout of pages, but I can't seem to find a button/link that will allow me to correct the text below to remove "or Lacademy") from the first parenthetical. As its communication director, I can vouch for this: no one refers to us as "Lacademy."

Please advise. I'm happy to make the change myself, but I couldn't get to the text.

A. Brescia

---

Lawrence Academy at Groton, (occasionally called LA or Lacademy), is a co-educational preparatory school located in Groton, Massachusetts, in the United States. Founded by Samuel Lawrence in 1793 as Groton Academy, and chartered by Governor John Hancock, Lawrence was the tenth oldest boarding school in the United States, and the third in Massachusetts, following Governor Dummer Academy (1763) and Phillips Academy at Andover (1778).[1] Lawrence's first headmaster was Samuel Adams Holyoke, a renowned musician. The phrase on Lawrence Academy's seal is "Omnibus Lucet": in Latin, "Let light shine upon all." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.239.21 (talk) 17:38, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry...I left out my contact information: My account is under ajbresh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.239.21 (talk) 17:39, 11 January 2010 (UTC) (deleted email to protect privacy) Bielle (talk) 17:46, 11 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.

You can edit the article Lawrence Academy at Groton or almost any other article by pressing "edit this page" at the top of the article. For more help on editing, please read Wikipedia:How to edit a page. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:15, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

But please be aware that as somebody affiliated with the subject of the page, you should be extremely circumspect about editing it: see WP:COI. Removing unreferenced claims is fine, and correcting uncontroversial factual errors; but anything more than that is best avoided. --ColinFine (talk) 18:52, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Mass null edit for categories

Is there any way of doing a mass null edit to all articles in a certain category? A recent update to {{Infobox NRHP}} had an error in it (which has now been fixed) that put nearly 16,000 articles into Category:NRHP infobox needing cleanup. Since the edit has been fixed, the articles no longer should be in the category (and the category doesn't show up on the article page), but the category still has 14,000+ articles in it after a full 24 hours. While 2,000 articles per day is probably a lot to take out, that means I'll have to wait another 6-7 days before I can actually see which articles need cleanup. I know this is asking a lot of the server, but if there's any feasible way to do this, can someone enlighten me? Thanks! --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 18:33, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Don't stress the servers with thousands of null edits just to update a hidden category page. The job queue varies and it may take much less than a week to clear by itself. I think the count can also take time to update so there may be less than the reported 14,000+ articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:46, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Yea I figured that would be the response haha.. couldn't hurt to ask though. I thought maybe someone might know of a different way to speed it up. I guess I'll just have to wait it out... I'm going to unwatch this page, so if anyone replies to this thread with a method, however unlikely that may be, please comment at my talk page. Thanks! --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 18:58, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Sometimes Google's cached copy of a page shows what it looked like a few days ago. Search Wikipedia with Google for: Category:NRHP infobox needing cleanup leads to this cached copy which shows 65 pages. --Teratornis (talk) 22:19, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

The job queue is a queue for a reason (to spread the work). If you bypass it by forcing edits on all articles in the queue, Wikipedia would become slow very quickly, and server admins would ban you indefinitely very quickly. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:31, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Interwiki vs. Stub

Does anyone have any guidance for decided whether to link to a stub or an interwiki page? (completely contrived example follows) Let say that I'm adding the list of Presidents of Burma to an appropriate page. The Ninety-ninth President of Burma, Ramon Verde, has a stub article in the English Language Wikipedia and a five page article on the Burmese Language Wikipedia. Obviously the best solution would be to have someone translate the Burmese article and put it on the English Language Wikipedia with the appropriate note on the talk page indicating the article and revision that it was translated from. However, until then, which should be linked to? (assume the Ramon Verde English Language Wiki page is appropriate linked to its equivalent in Burmese)Naraht (talk) 18:52, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Guidance for references is always to link to an English one if available. I would suggest that the same applies to internal links. If somebody goes to the stub, it should be interwikied to the fuller version, so if they can read Burmese they can follow the link there. --ColinFine (talk) 18:54, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. The point is that the user should not be exposed to a foreign language unless they are expecting it. Timotheus Canens (talk) 19:24, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

See Help:Interlanguage links. In general, interlanguage links in articles should only appear in the "languages" box. Even a stub article on the English Wikipedia should have all the interlanguage links that are valid. If not, then you can add them. In the example above, the Burmese reader would only be one click away from the article on the Burmese Wikipedia when viewing the stub on the English Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 02:28, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Personal Sandboxes and Making My Page Less Visible

When I began editing pages, I made a workspace in my user space and copied large chunks of material there I wanted to edit. I then did something wrong, and now my personal page shows up on search engines when the text I am working on is permanent. Seemed to me that the answer was to make a sandbox, which I did, but I can't copy from my main page to it, and often can't figure out how to navigate to it. So I need two pieces of advice: 1) how to find my sandbox and copy from my page to it, and 2) how to make my personal page not show up in searches. ThanksBusaccsb (talk) 20:34, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I use a personal sandbox and have no problems....User:Busaccsb/sanbox <,---this is now yours!!! then put this on your user page to get to it [[User:Busaccsb/sanbox]] and you can add this to the top of the sand box page if you wish {{Under construction}}...............

Click "my contributions" and then "Subpages" at the bottom to see your subpages. Place {{NOINDEX}} to prevent a userspace page from showing up in external search engines. You cannot prevent it from showing up in Wikipedia's own search when other users select to search userspace. By default userspace is not searched. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:35, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Deleting a page

How do I go about deleting a page that was submitted by a client that I represent? As I am not the author directly, is there any way I can act on his behalf to remove a page?

Mickylong (talk) 20:59, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

What is the name of the article page? Teapotgeorge^Talk 21:01, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

We need more information. What is the name of the article? If the article meets the criteria for deletion at Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion it may be tagged for speedy deletion; but there are limited reasons why an article may be speedily deleted. Otherwise, deletion of the article is usually managed via an Wikipedia:Articles for deletion discussion, where Wikipedia editors discuss the merits of an article based on Wikipedia policy and decide whether or not to keep it. If you tell us the name of the article, and why you want it deleted, we can work with you to resolve this. Also, please be aware that your client does not own the article he created; if the article is about a notable subject, then it will likely remain at Wikipedia. --Jayron32 21:06, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

There are actually three pages, all about my client and his business: Brand Velocity, Jack Bergstrand and Strategic Profiling, a tool developed by Brand Velocity. My client, the author of all three pages, has asked that all three pages be immediately removed.Mickylong (talk) 22:09, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I have looked over these pages, they all look to meet wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, so I doubt any of them will be deleted. There are some problems with tone and style of writing, but that can all be cleaned up by Wikipedia editors. Sorry, but I see no real reason why any of these articles would be deleted. If you wish, you can file a request at Articles for Deletion, but I doubt that would get very far. On what grounds does your "client" want these articles deleted? --Jayron32 22:15, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I see that User:Ozgurekmekci created both the Jack Bergstrand and the Brand Velocity articles, and was an early editor of Strategic Profiling. A Dr. Ozgur Ekmekci is also mentioned by name in the Brand Velocity article. Starting an article on Wikipedia does not make you "the author", however, but merely one of many contributors. Is your client - whoever he may be - objecting to factual inaccuracies about him that appear in the articles? This can be remedied, if you can provide a reliable source for the correction. But if your client has simply reconsidered his wish to create these articles, I'm afraid it's too late - he released the material under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and the GFDL when he pushed the Save button and the article will not now be deleted without a valid reason for deletion. WP:LUC may be of interest. Karenjc 19:40, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Log info, please

Dear Wiki support, Happy 2010 to all. Requesting user and pw, please. Thank you, How do I share my articles to our awesome community? Thank you, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.3.78.50 (talk) 22:04, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

This is an open wiki, so head over to Register an account, then get started by reading the Introduction. Please don't hesitate to come back here if you have more questions! Xenon54 / talk / 22:08, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Tell us about your articles. Many topics are not suitable for Wikipedia; see WP:NOT. If you tell us what you want to write about, we can tell you whether it is suitable for Wikipedia. If not, then we can (probably) tell you where to find other wikis that would accept it. --Teratornis (talk) 22:11, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm beginning to think the person is just trolling. South Bay (talk) 03:29, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Need tag for inaccurate site identification and coordinates...

Need a tag for the article Bethsaida. "This city was most likely located at et-Tell, a ruined site on the east side of the Jordan on rising ground, 2 km from the sea." HOWEVER (1) the geo-coordinates for and description of et-Tell in its own article are drastically different, and (2) someone has raised this issue on the discussion page, but there is no tag on the article to indicate that this data is contested. I would tag it myself if I knew what tag to use. Sorry. Thank you, Shir-El too 22:23, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

You can use {{geodata-check}} on the article and/or the talk page. It won't display anything visibly if used on the article, but it will put it in the category Category:Articles requiring geodata verification. It will add a visible tag if used on the talk page as well as putting it in the category Category:Talk pages requiring geodata verification. --Mysdaao ^talk 01:21, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry: didn't explain clearly enough. It isn't the coordinates of the article itself that are in question, but rather identifying it with and linking it to a location with entirely different coordinates! This question has already been raised in the talk page, but it seems none of us knows how to get it sorted out. Also, I question its relevance to the "Fishing Portal." Thank you again, Shir-El too 09:08, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

P.S. I'm afraid if I put the above tag on the talk page, someone will just see the coordinates of the page do match, and not check fruther to see what the problem is. Cheers! Shir-El too 09:15, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

From reading the article, it sounds like there's disagreement among scholars on where the site of Bethsaida is, and there might be even be two different locations with the same name. I don't think there should be a single set of coordinates displayed in the top right since the location, if there is a single location, is not clearly known. As to writing a description of the location identified with coordinates, that's a very unique issue, and I don't think there's an existing tag for it. There's a WikiProject that deals with articles with geographical coordinates, and you might want to bring up this issue with the participants at the WikiProject's discussion page at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geographical coordinates. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:10, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

I'll try, but as you have pointed out the problem is identification, not location. If Bethsaida means "House of Fishers" it CANNOT be the site identified as et-Tell: there are no fish in the Dead Sea! Have a Good One! Cheers! Shir-El too 17:55, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Bolding And Color Retained

How come <span style="color:#0000f1", "font-weight:bold;"> doesn't work?!?!?!?!174.3.101.61 (talk) 23:05, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

We tend to prefer to use wikitext where possible, rather than HTML. For example, '''<span style="color:#0000f1">foobaz</span>''' will produce foobaz. In addition, a semicolon ( ; ), rather than a comma, is necessary to separate "color:#0000f1" and "font-weight:bold". It should also be inside the " ", not outside. Intelligentsium 23:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Tried that doesn't work:edit this page

Code:

<span style="color:#0000f1;" "font-weight:bold">edit this page</span>

174.3.101.61 (talk) 23:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I neglected to mention that both need to be within a single set of " ". For example, <span style="color:#0000f1; font-weight:bold;">edit this page</span> produces edit this page. Intelligentsium 00:09, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

<gallery>

Is there a way like <gallery-style:"center"> to make it so that we don't need to use <center><gallery></gallery></center> to center a gallery?174.3.101.61 (talk) 23:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)