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Graham Pirt
Graham Pirt has become known for his contribution to two main areas. The first is his work with, and knowledge about, special educational needs and the second his recognised talents as a singer in the English folk tradition.
Born in Jarrow-on-Tyne on 11th December 1947 to parents John and Jean Pirt. Moving to the colliery village of Bloemfontein near Stanley in County Durham, England he gained some of the great insight he has into the north eastern coal mining traditions through the work of his father. When the colliery was closed the family moved back to Jarrow for Graham to complete his education. Graham's school life at Jarrow Grammar School was unremarkable and he left at 16years of age and then attended Sunderland College of Art to undertake a Pre-Dipoma in Art & Design, but not before beginning to develop an interest in folk music through his neighbour Barry Ord. He then moved on to Northumberland College of Education to study to become an art teacher. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Porty2 (talk • contribs) 14:15, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
How does a user bring challenge against unsourced material? Does that need an administrator? All of these have been marked for some time. As far as I can tell, they all refer to each other and don't make much sense. Thanks. --Neptunerover (talk) 00:45, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
I just looked at the first one (all the examples are WP articles about web hosting services). It has some section-topper boxes stating problems and "unsourced material may be challenged and removed", but does not state exactly what is being proposed for removal. These boxes tend to be not too useful since they aren't actually saying what part they are challenging. I strongly advise against trying to remove entire sections or articles, as these pages are useful, and it is not against Wikipedia policy to have uncited articles. The boxes are there to highlight the need for improvement. Controversial claims can be removed, but the user who put in those boxes should have pointed to exactly what he wants removed. From the way it is now, the user was not proposing any particular removal; that threat is just part of the template. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 12:05, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
If other articles in that list have tags like: [citation needed], and they have been around for a long time with no attempt to improve, nor any discussion on the article's talk page, you can remove the disputed content. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 12:08, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm sorry, but my question here only pertains to how such a challenge may be brought about. I made no such proposal as to vanquish free material from the free WikiSpace, and so it appears you have misunderstood me. The information contained in the numerous pages in question is of no use to me, and I feel no duty to get off my ass to improve articles that have been wasting away in stasis for years, especially considering the articles in question are being made reference to in an action against me and the free use of my userspace as I freely chose to use it. I mean, I had to get a guard dog for the love of god. (not that he minds: It pays well)--Neptunerover (talk) 02:54, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
If the page is fully protected, only administrators can edit the page. To request a change be made, create a new section on the article's talk page and add {{editprotected}} and a detailed description of the change you want made. If the page is semi-protected, you will be able to edit the page when you are autoconfirmed, which happens automatically when your account is at least four days and old has made at least ten edits. You can either wait or request a change be made by creating a new section on the article's talk page and adding {{editsemiprotected}} and a detailed description of the change you want made. --Mysdaaotalk20:41, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Can a section from a help page be archived into a user's space somehow? I don't really know how to form the question I'm trying to ask, so I hope that makes sense.-- Neptunerover (talk) 03:13, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
You can create a userspace page- for example, by clicking User:Neptunerover/Sandbox and creating the page - and copy and paste the content from the help page into that userspace page. If that doesn't answer your question, tell us what section of what help page you'd like to archive. Liqudluck✽talk06:03, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
I think I figured out part of something that was confusing me. The term 'sandbox' is sometimes used just as an example of what something can be named, but using 'sandbox' as a name for a page doesn't make it into anything special, right? The 'Sandbox' is something different, right? (I'm real green at programming these pages) Is it easy enough to rename the page to something else later? --Neptunerover (talk) 09:32, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Yes, you've got it! TheSandbox is a special Wikipedia page shared by all for testing, but it is updated so frequently that if you add something to it, it will be gone within minutes. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 16:21, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
By the way, when I prepare a new article on a personal sandbox page, I don't rename it when I'm done, I just create a new page with the article name and copy/paste from the sandbox, so my (embarrassing) early drafts don't get saved in the article history page. Also, if the article were to be deleted (and none of mine ever have been! - lucky me) I can still access it from old history versions of my sandbox page. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 16:25, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Actually, I think I'm starting to understand where I'm confused on these pages now. I was wanting to add another talk page to my user page because I've been using my talk page for sort of a project. That's what I meant by adding another tab. The page I created though, "sandbox," comes with it's own talk page. Okay then. How about, can a new blue link be added at the top of my page by the "my preferences" etc. linking to my new page? --Neptunerover (talk) 02:59, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
This might be possible with javascript, but I don't believe a script has been created which allows people to add links there (I could be wrong, and there is a library of scripts located here:Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts. You may link to your userpage from your main userpage (User:Neptunerover) by typing [[User:Neptunerover/Userpage name]].
Please move the Yakuza 4 page to Ryū ga Gotoku 4 as Yakuza 4 is merely what one supposes the Western release of the game will be called. However no such announcement of a Western release has been made and as such, the title remains Ryū ga Gotoku 4. Helfwisner (talk) 03:46, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Right now, it looks like Yakyza 4 is a redirect to Ryū ga Gotoku 4, so anyone searching for the article under the name "Yakuza 4" will be redirected to Ryū ga Gotoku 4, which seems like an appropriate way to solve this. However, if you ever need help moving a different page, you can read Help:Moving a page and (if you have trouble) request it at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Liqudluck✽talk06:00, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Generally, a subject is notable if it meets the General Notability Guideline. Depending on the subject type, it may still merit an article if it meets more specific notability guidelines- for example, a band may be notable if it meets at least one of the criteria for musicians and ensembles.
It may be helpful to read Wikipedia:Your first article. Don't worry if your article is determined unnotable- at worst, it is deleted. Nothing terrible will come of a deletion, and you will likely learn from the experience.
OK thanks. Can I just go ahead and say that my proposed page is the Christmas Eve Blizzard of 2009 (the one that hit the southern Great Plains), and see whether this would count as a notable topic for its own page? toll_booth (talk) 22:21, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
I have an article on AOC which is currently a user draft. I want to move it. However, AOC is a disambiguation page. Can you please help me as to how I can make my page public? Anantshah (talk) 05:23, 31 December 2009 (UTC) Anant
Please note that this is not vengeance seeking. My utmost interest is in keeping this community safe, however that may be best served. --Neptunerover (talk) 09:32, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Anyone is free to post messages directly there. Be forewarned, though, that you are not likely to find much sympathy there if you didn't bother seeking dispute resolution or talking to the administrator just because you found it "distasteful". rʨanaɢtalk/contribs10:37, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
But for what it's worth, assuming your dispute is over Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Neptunerover/Theory About Everything (which I have read), I would say there's no reason to bother filing an "incident report". Editors have the right to nominate articles for deletion and see what the community consensus is, so the user there wasn't violating any rules (what would have been administrator misconduct would have been if he just deleted the page without asking anyone). And the point of ANI is usually to seek remedies (such as blocking someone for misconduct); since no one has done anything blockable here, there is absolutely no reason to bother with a report just because you don't like someone. rʨanaɢtalk/contribs10:40, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
The administrator to whom I am referring, since you brought it up, never did the aforementioned courtesies on my behalf, and so I feel absolutely no need to do any on his. As well I clearly see the administrator rules he violated even if you do not. Your response does not answer my question very well, while your opinions are noted and unrequired. Thank you. --Neptunerover (talk) 11:45, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Neptunerover, the notices on your page, and creation of a discussion for removal, ARE the courtesies, as opposed to just deleting pages, which would be a justification for opening an incident report. You said, "I feel absolutely no need to do any (courtesies / notification) on his (talk page)" - but that's a requirement prior to opening an incident report, and the report is certain to be rejected if you don't follow the steps. You are being given good advice. If our advice is "unrequired", don't bother asking here, just learn from your mistakes randomly. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 12:15, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Also: I looked at the admin/user's talk page which you didn't want to post on because it's "distasteful", to see what you meant. I can't see anything distasteful on it. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 12:50, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
You can discuss my nomination of that page for deletion here, if you like. You can report me to WP:ANI, but I'd not recommend it as I've done nothing that would need admin attention. Fences&Windows21:06, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm sorry, but it appears you misunderstand the purpose of this page. This is a help page, which is not meant for arguing or debating, nor for deliberating over the merits of any OP's personal reasons for being so curious. It appears my initial query has been ignored. Thank you very not much. --Neptunerover (talk) 03:07, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
In Sucrose, section 1.1 [11] has a rotating image of the molecule. While this is nice, it somehow overflows its box and overlaps the text. I'm using Firefox 3.0.16. Is anyone else having this problem, and are there ways to fix it? Insorak (talk) 03:08, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
I had a problem with Firefox, but its fine in IE. When looking on Firefox, it looked like the problem began in between these edits (it was fine at the IP version, but overlapping following Smokefoot's), but I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I think it's just a problem with the browser. Liqudluck✽talk08:20, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
I read a short paragraph about a topic and due to me experiences in the field I have been anxious to add content to the paragraph already posted. My problem is that, the topic is somewhat technical in nature and having written a piece that I would like to add, I feel that it will read as a disagreement to the existing section. While there is some argument to the existing comment, It is not my intention to combating views. After all, this is supposed to be an Encyclopedia, not a debate. I guess my question is what is the policy of adding or editing a section that might argue against the previous section?
I have written what I would like to post in a couple of ways to try to tone down the differences and no matter how I try to edit my piece, it is still somewhat contradictory of the existing piece.
Thank you for offering your expertise! If your additions are cited to reliable sources (see WP:Referencing for beginners), which may be reliable websites, books, and journals, there shouldn't be a problem. You are welcome to remove unreferenced information from any article- if another editor disputes your edits (as an IP editor, editors may incorrectly assume siginificant edits are vandalism), discuss the edits on either the article or editor's talk page. Please be aware of Wikipedia's policy against original research, although if your experiences have been published, you may cite those works. If you have further questions, leave a message below. Liqudluck✽talk07:35, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
If there is disagreement on the subject between reliable published sources, then the article should say so. But it is probably best to bring the matter up on the talk page first, and get agreement among the editors interested in the page on how the disagreement should be covered. --ColinFine (talk) 09:43, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Changing a current page into a disambiguation page
Hello. I would like to change the title of Cintamani/Chintamani (redirection) to "Cintamani jewel" or "Chintamani stone", but without having the original "Cintamani" title transformed into a redirect to the new title. Rather, "Cintamani" should become a disambiguation page (suggested content below):
Cintamani or Chintamani may designate:
A wish-fulfilling gem Cintamani jewel in hindu and buddhist mythology.
I hope you don't mind, but I created the pages for you. The jewel article is now at Cintamani (jewel), and Cintamani is now a disambiguation page containing the articles you mentioned. I also left a note at Talk:Cintamani saying it was your good idea, not mine.
For future reference, this is how to do this:
First, make sure your account is autoconfirmed. Autoconfirmation requires that your account be at least 4 days old and have 10 edits, and gives you several tools.
Once your account is autoconfirmed, you should be able to see a "move" tab at the top of each article, right next to the "history" tab, which is next to the "edit" tab. See Wikipedia:Move#How to move a page for directions for moving.
The article has now been moved to its new name (in this case, Cintamani to Cintamani (jewel)), and the old article name (Cintamani) is a redirect to the new name.
Go to the old article name and click "edit". Remove "#REDIRECT" (see the Cintamani redirect), and fill in the information you want- in this case, the links to the appropriate pages.
I have created my page, but i cannot seem to get the blue box with all the person information on the far right of a page or the blue contents box to appear on it. Please tell me how and notify me on my talk page. Thanks
And the contents box will appear once there are a certain number of section headers on the page - three I think, but I may be wrong. --ColinFine (talk) 23:31, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
We visited your beautiful park and climbed the Fire Tower last
summer and also saw where the tenders house once stood
. Is there any history as to who tended the tower.
I noticed many flowers and thought ???? they did not get there
by themselves. Any Books written? Mary Becker —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.252.133.215 (talk) 03:49, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Sorry, it sounds like you tripped over a Wikipedia article. This is an volunteer-written encyclopedia, and is not affliated with any such park. The article here about the park has no connection to it, so if you are interested in contacting that park, you should perhaps try Google instead to locate the "official" webpage... --Jayron3204:40, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
New Contributor, New Article. Total Confusion as to how I transfer to the main Articles from Userspace Draft
I have produced an article which I believe is about a notable person, properly written and referenced.
However, as this is my first article I find the means by which I can transfer it to the main body of work impossible to fathom. Can you please, somebody, help me. --Corynebacterium1 (talk) 15:16, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
You can move it into the mainspace; for this you will need to have at least 10 edits and 4 days' experience. Once you have these, your account becomes automatically "confirmed", and you will be able to move pages by using a "move" tab at the top of the page, near the edit and history tabs. However, looking at your draft, it seems it includes some content not particularly appropriate for Wikipedia. Some of the content seems subjective and unencyclopaedic in tone (i.e., "A generous, witty and gregarious man, Weipers was an excellent raconteur and particularly successful at negotiating with those in high places who were in a position to help his beloved School"). All content in Wikipedia must be neutral, meaning not appearing biased towards one view or another. In addition, some of the references you have provided, such as the "University of Glasgow, Graduate Register.", while permitted as sources of information, are not acceptable as indicators of notability, as the University of Glasgow probably graduates thousands of students a year; not every one of them is notable. Intelligentsium15:32, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
If you don't want to move (or don't mind not moving) the editing history while it was on your own user page, you can just use the simple, quick and dirty solution. (1) Open edit for the user page, (2) copy all of the code (text) in the edit box onto something else (such as Notepad or Wordpad in Windows, or any word-processing program), (3) instead of editing anything in your old user-space article, enter the title for your new article into the search box at the left of this frame and press the "Go" button, (4) start a new article when the page opens up as empty ("no such article exists; would you like to start one?") and (5) paste your text onto the empty page. (The intermediate home for your text is not strictly necessary if you can avoid cutting, copying or pasting anything else between steps 2 and 5.) However, this is the technical answer; it doesn't respond to whether you're yet able to start a new article on your own, or the content problems that Intelligentsium sees. —— Shakescene (talk) 16:13, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
That would cause a few problems, such as text immediately before links losing spaces. A more effective method would simply be to type {{subst:User:Your username/Your user draft name}}. Intelligentsium17:39, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
yavapai dances of the early yavapai people
Questioning Wikipedia's information on early dances of the Yavapai tribe. The oldest members of
the Yavapai tribe deny Bird dancing and Bird singing/Gourd dancing and Gourd singing as ever having been done by the early Yavapai,when I put the question to them. Old history books state only War dances, Victory dances, and an occasional (social)Round dance (similar to the Apache Round dances), were done. The Sunrise Dance is not Yavapai! It, apparently, may have been "borrowed" from the Apache, after the Yavapai were "imprisoned" on the San Carlos Apache reservation from 1865 to around 1900. But, the Yavapai tribe, itself, does not claim the Sunrise dance! The Apache tribe intermarried with the Yavapai and the two tribes live together on both the Camp Verde and Fort McDowell reservations. So, when the Sunrise dances are performed on these two reservations, it is the Apaches of the rez, NOT THE YAVAPAI, that do these dances! Also, there was never any dancing for the "little people!"
Since there is very little on the early Yavapai, it appears some "modern" Yavapai people (and writers as well), in attempting to expand Yavapai historical information, have "borrowed" from other tribes! Yavapai elders say, the Hualapais of northern Arizona were the only Arizona tribe known to do the Bird dance. The Gourds were the sole property of the Yavapai "MEDICINE MEN" - American Indians across the U.S. referred to "Medicine Men" NOT SHAMANS! "SHAMAN" IS A RUSSIAN TERM THAT CAME TO AMERICA WITH THE EUROPEANS! Only the medicine men made gourds for use when trying to heal the sick or when at a dying person's bedside. Women never touched gourds! Also, Yavapai women did not enter sweat houses or lodges. It was believed that their monthly menses "purified" them and the women did not need to use sweat baths. Only the early Yavapai males used a sweat house, AND, for cleansing of the body only! There was no ceremony involved! Now, modern Yavapai and non-Indian Gurus, "Shamans" and charlatans have made it into a big ceremonial that a person has to go through involving the sweat house or sweat lodge. All for a profit! American Indians (Native Americans) have never charged any kind of fee for taking a "sweat!"
Thus, I am questioning what, supposedly, credible sources this information has come from? It is too bad that Wikipedia is giving out such erroneous information to the public as factual information! The Yavapai oldsters have told the younger generation that eheir
culture department is wrong in these matters, but their voices fall on unhearing ears. The people heading the Culture department continue to make the rounds at different events doing the Bird dances, Gourd dances, and their singing, as well as other dances and ceremonies, and claim these to have been done by the early or ancient Yavapai. These "modern" Yavapai are not
telling true history of the Yavapai tribe! Nor are the writers who believe them and write about these things in articles, books, etc., to be believed by their readers!
I suppose this writing will not get very far. I tried to create an account but, somehow, the prompt kept saying my username was "invalid." I tried various ways and did read the instructions, but to no avail, nothing worked. I do hope someone reads this so Wikipedia will delete the erroneous info. that is totally untrue of the Yavapai! Ask Yavapai Elders! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.121.222.151 (talk) 19:07, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Please discuss your concerns on the article's talk page, but note that you are unlikely to convince other editors without reliable sources as defined in WP:RS to support your position. – ukexpat (talk) 19:30, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Regarding the username problem, is it possible you are trying a name that has already been used? Please try again, and post a quote of the exact message. We will try to get you signed up! --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 01:26, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
I have not received my confirmation email yet. I have tried resending it, but have still not received it. It's not in my spam, and I certainly have not woken up in the middle of the night, sleepwalking, and tried to delete it. I'm sure my email is typed correctly in my preferences. Where is my confirmation? Insorak ♫ talk21:32, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Ensure once again that you have the right E-mail typed in, and and it may help to check the "Enable e-mail from other users" box if you have not already, after you click "save" clear the cache on your browser. Give it a while and then check your account for the E-mail, if you do not have it, then go to Special:ConfirmEmail, if it says something like "Your e-mail address was authenticated on 30 November 2009 at 19:47." then you're already enabled, if it does not then click the button to mail the confirmation code and check your account again. If it still doesn't work it may be something to do with your account host (i.e. hotmail/yahoo/blueyonder etc). You may have already tried all of this, but if it doesn't work then I have no idea what will.
I am logging out now, but will check in again tommorow
I am certain that I have typed my email address correctly. (I fix computer viruses on online forums, and know how hard it is to get people to type/click/download/follow instructions properly, so believe me, I really checked!) When I go to Special:ConfirmEmail, I get the message "A confirmation code has already been e-mailed to you; if you recently created your account, you may wish to wait a few minutes for it to arrive before trying to request a new code." Only I haven't gotten an email. If it's really necessary I'll switch to another email provider... gmail works fine for everything else though. Insorak ♫ talk22:43, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Hmm, if you get Yahoo you can have it forward all your E-mail's to your primary account (you should be able to do this with gmail too, not sure). Kind regards, SpitfireTally-ho!12:19, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
No need to ask to ask ;) Yep, I switched to another email account and it worked fine. Forwarding FTW. Thanks, guys, for all your help! Insorak ♫ talk17:49, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
This is my first time posting an article in regards to a new director who is a friend of mine and has credits and awards and everything.. I just need to make sure my sources are okay, if anyone could help I'd really really appreciate it, thank you :)
I'm not sure what happened here, or even if what happened is right or wrong. I'm currently validated on "the usual suspects", i.e., commons and meta, English wikipedia/news/quote, and www.mediawiki.org. No problem with that; it's more or less what I expected even if I don't know exactly what they're all for.
I'm also validated on French wikipedia, and a language code I don't even recognise, rm -- neither of which I requested, since I don't know a word of either language. How did THAT happen? How does that work, exactly?
Finally, I'd like to be validated on the German site, de.wikipedia.org. How is that requested or made to happen?
The SUL Utility shows that you have a Single Unified Login set up. If you sign in using your username DaHorsesMouth and your Wikipedia password at any of the WMF projects (including the German Wikipedia), your account will be autocreated there. For some reason, your SUL status here is showing as ??? - I would suggest going to Special:MergeAccount - you will either get a message saying "You can now log in to any wiki site of the Wikimedia Foundation without creating a new account." or instructions on setting this up.
With regard to the German Wikipedia, your status is showing as "unattached" - first, perform the MergeAccount mentioned above, then go to the German Wikipedia and see if you are autologged in. If not, just log in using your username and password that you use here.
With regard to the French and the Romansh (rm) Wikipedias, as a rule this would be if you had visited them (with "remember me" on the English Wikipedia) as your account would be auto created.
If you get an error when you do the "MergeAccount", or any other problems, please come back and let us know, so we can help you further. Regards, -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:31, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Hi, I'm back. I did the Merge Account thing, without errors or messages; but also, it didn't tell me anything I haven't already seen. I then gave the system a couple of hours to rest up :-).
Then, I logged in ("here", = en.wikipedia.org) and checked the "Remember me" box. Just for grins, I logged out, dropped all my browser windows, and restarted. I am still logged in here. So far so good.
I left that window and that browser open, opened a new tab and went to de.wikipedia.org (= "there"). No luck; I'm neither already logged in, nor can I log in there. I think, however, that I may have been able to create a user page there -- and by the way, I have never actually created a user page here. Think that might make a difference?
So, I'm open to further suggestions. On the other hand, if this is a bona fide mystery, it's not that big a deal, I can certainly live without a German login! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 04:46, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
I've no idea! SUL shows you as "unattached" to the German wikipedia, and with "???" as your status for the English wikipedia (it should read "home wiki" if this is where you created your first account). For example, my SUL record shows this Wikipedia as my "home wiki", with Commons as "merged" (I had an account there with the same name when I created the SUL) and the rest all show as "autocreated" (i.e. the first time I logged in at them (or autologged on when visiting), the account was created. My suggestion is that you ask at meta - the relevant page is meta:Help talk:Unified login. Sorry I can't be of more help, but if you find a solution, please contact me to let me know! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 18:25, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
How do you use Geo Hack?
How do you create a location using Geo Hack? I am wanting to post a location to Google earth and am having a hard time doing it. The location is for the Gurdon Light. I have already uploaded the longitude and latitude coordinates onto the wiki page, now I want to log it into geohack. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Special:Contributions/jc103089 (talk) 16:19, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Use the template {{coord}}. For the coordinates on Gurdon Light, the syntax would be
Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 17:25, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
However, even at the Reference Desk, they will (or should) only answer factual questions, not requests of opinions or attempts to start debates. They might perhaps direct you to some pages or external sites where the question is discussed, but Wikipedia is not the right place for discussions and arguments, other than those about Wikipedia or its contents. --ColinFine (talk) 23:29, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Also note that this is an international encyclopedia with editors from more than a hundred countries. Others don't know what you refer to with "our defence budget". People at international websites who write like there are no other countries are usually American but your username makes me question that. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:51, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Saharareporters.com
Extended content
SaharaReporters is an outstanding, groundbreaking website that encourages citizen journalists to report ongoing corruption and government malfeasance in Nigeria. Using photos, text, and video dynamically, the site informs and prompts concerned Nigerians and other human rights activists globally to act, denouncing officially-sanctioned corruption, the material impoverishment of its citizenry, defilement of the environment, and the callous disregard of the democratic principles enshrined in the constitution.
In the context of Africa's generally unfree press, either government-controlled, censored, or cripplingly underfunded, this internet format has whetted hopes among an international following of Nigerians and others that information will lead to change. The site presents users with a wide range of rare documents, analyses, commentaries, interviews, and reader input and debate, updated daily. It is a reference point not only for Nigerians but for international media which frequently visit the site and request photos and story leads. Launched in 2006, the site now receives over 2 million page views per month.
SaharaReporters addresses the critical need for information without which citizens are unable to judge their public officials, their local leaders, political parties. The website supplies this critical information, posting exclusive rarely-seen documents, videos, photos, reports, diverse opinions, commentaries, and analyses, engaging not only academics and researchers but ordinary citizens and the new online community of Nigerians in country and in the diaspora. The site itself is a challenge to business as usual, asking why a country rich in resources cannot manage to provide basic services, educate its youth, enforce its laws and preserve its environment.
In its beginning days, SaharaReporters was a one-man operation, working from home, self-funded. The website now receives reader support, attracts dozens of writers, citizen journalists, video reporters, and is widely known and highly praised among Nigerians everywhere. The director/publisher has faced and continues to resist government efforts to shut the site down. It routinely breaks stories before mainstream commercial media has had a chance to publish a piece. Its now sizable number of contacts in the region was instrumental in obtaining the first photo of the Nigerian bombing suspect - a photo that was used by CNN, CBS, Reuters among others.
This is not the right place to create a draft article.
A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.
Thank you.
Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should citereliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
How to identify a person who is known under 2 different names
How do you identify a person by 2 different names under the default sort feature? The person I am writing about is known under two different names. When a search is performed under Wikipedia search feature, I would like both names to point to the same article.Lezahstar (talk) 04:42, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Well, your declaration of Wikipedia being a piece of crap notwithstanding, the article is located at Rich Castro so it looks like you managed to work it out. --Jayron3222:34, 28 December 2009 (UTC)
If you'd like to tell us which Wikipedia help page you feel is "crap" and why you think that help page is confusing, we might be able to clarify the page. Liqudluck✽talk06:06, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
the help page is set up like BNF syntax - Backus Normal Form - ridiculous!
The help desk is set up like every other part of Wikipedia. You should get used to the way that Wikipedia discussion pages work, because they all work exactly like this one, and have for many years. --Jayron3206:21, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Exactly which page are you referring to? You can just copy-and-paste the title of the page here. Remember to "sign" your comments by typing ~~~~, or clicking the "sign" tool in the edit tool bar (when editing, it is the tool with the cursive in the blue tool bar right above the editing space). Liqudluck✽talk06:24, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
As an assistance to anyone trying to decipher the complaint above, I think Nwerle is talking about Wikimarkup (a.k.a. Wikitext) language, and its similarity to Backus–Naur Form, both of which are quite practical. I find it odd that he is tech-savvy enough to know what BNF is, but considers it "ridiculous". Oh well. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 16:15, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Hi, I have decided that I don't want to have a Wikipedia account, the good thing is my user page has not been created yet, only my talk page has one post on it, and the edits are just a couple to my own page. If I delete my talk page, would it then delete my account? Or is there any other way I can delete my hole account permanently, i.e vanish? Thanks a bunch.--Aeaige (talk) 15:25, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
Hi, I know my user page does not exist so I am fine with it, but for my talk page, I requested to be speedily deleted (if my deletion template is wrong, if you can, please tell me which is the correct delete template) I was wondering if you can come to my talk page to see if this is okay, thanks again.--Aeaige (talk) 16:48, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
From WP:OR: "... Wikipedia is not the place to publish your own opinions, experiences, arguments, or conclusions."
Would the following scenarios violate the principles stated under WP:OR?
I conduct an interview (with a famous person on which there is already an article), post the interview online, and use the information from that interview in an article.
Same as above, except a newspaper conducts the interview.
I publish a research paper with some novel findings on, say, protein folding. I update the article and cite my paper.
if the interview was published online at a reliable source (e.g. if it was on the NYT's website as an interview, rather than a comment or OpEd), it would be usable - but if it was on a website where anyone could upload it, then not so. Where would it be posted - then we can give better advice.
if it is a national or international newspaper (such as the Washington Post, New York Times, London Times, Guardian, USA Today, etc) then definitely. If it in a small-area (local) paper, it may or may not, depending on whether it would meet WP:RS. Again, if you told us the newspaper, we could give a definitive answer
No. This would certainly be counted as OR. However, if the paper was peer-reviewed in a national/internationally-recognised publication (e.g. Biochem. J., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., J Mol Biol, etc) then it could be used, as long as the peer-review was the citation rather than just the paper.
Again, we would need more information, as it would depend on the source used - and the details of the interview. If the interview was along the lines of "what do you think will happen in the field of Protein folding in the future", it could not be used. If it was "what work have you been doing in the field of Protein folding", it might possibly be used. It all depends on whether the source is independent and reliable - if you could give us more information, we could give a more definitive answer! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 18:09, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict): I think the basic principle is that there has be some outside, disinterested "peer" review of the material, as by a publishing house, a newspaper editor, a broadcast news director or the publication committee of a learnèd society or professional journal (e.g. The New England Journal of Medicine, The Biblical Archaeology Review, The Political Science Quarterly or The Lancet). ¶ As for your last point, that's a much trickier one, because "original synthesis" of verifiable facts in order to advance a position is frowned upon. See WP:SYNTH. What's tricky is that Wikipedia can't stand behind stuff that some anonymous or verified contributor has put together without some reliable external support (e.g. a non-fringe magazine article advancing the same notion), but, on the other hand, Wikipedia would be far less inviting to both readers and editors if there weren't some latitude about how to arrange, present and explain all that reliable outside material. If your hypothetical research paper were subjected to some outside review and correction before publication, that might work, but only, as said above, if you avoid a WP:Conflict of interest. We don't want to be like some of those third-rate "science news" segments on television that seem to be a collection of manufacturer-produced, self-promotional videos about new breakthroughs in cancer therapy (e.g. our new device) or the virtues of drinking more coffee. —— Shakescene (talk) 18:31, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Donnell Alexander (b. 30 July, 1966, Sandusky, Ohio) is an African-American journalist and author, best known for his acclaimed 2003 memoir Ghetto Celebrity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amarillolee (talk • contribs) 04:32, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
Background: I attempted to use the "editsemiprotected" template to suggest a change to the Human influences section of the Climate change article. I made the suggestion on the article's Talk page. Still not sure if I used that template correctly. Anyway, I replied to the last editor's alternative to my suggested edit by editing the Talk page below his last post (14:46, 30 December 2009) sometime in the last day or so of December to thank him for improving the precision of the original statement I had questioned. Checking back on 02 January 2010 (roughly) I noticed that I did not see my post on the Talk page or an entry on My watchlist. So I edited the talk page again to leave a similar followup (thank you) to the last editor's post ensuring that I did a Show preview (my post was there in the preview) and a Save page (I looked at the Talk page after saving and my post was there). Looking at the Talk page again tonight, I see that my post/followup to the last editor is still not there, nor in My watchlist.
Question: Does the Article probation that is noted on the Climate change Talk page have something to do with not seeing my post? I understand that "Editors making disruptive edits may be blocked temporarily," though I certainly can't be in that category of editors.
Hi Oxylotyl, and thanks for wanting to help improve the encyclopedia! Looking at Special:Contributions/Oxylotyl, I can see your 23 Dec edit to the talk page (10:39, 23 December 2009), but nothing after that apart from edits to this page. My best bet is that when you did an edit on 30/31 Dec, you clicked on "preview" instead of "save" the second time - it's easily done, and it is a common enquiry result both here and on the main Help Desk.
Your account is showing a total of 7 edits (with no edits being deleted) - two to that article's talk page (14 and 23 Dec); 2 to your user page (both 14 Dec); 1 to Dolichopodidae; 2 to this page (both today). The only way in which edits would not show on your contributions would be if the page the edit was made on had been deleted.
Thanks Phantomsteve. I also thought that could be the reason the first time (i.e., didn't actually Save page, though I am pretty sure I did), so I was extra premeditated the second time to Save page. Anyway, I just tried a 3rd time and so far all is well. Thanks again. Oxylotyl (talk) 10:19, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
I have been working on a draft for a new article, in my userspace, but I saved it before giving it a name.
It is now called "User Strickja/new article name here".
How can I change the name to the correct one, "Getchellite", before moving it? Or request someone else to change the name?
I want to translate an English page into Afrikaans and then link it onto the languages box on the English page. How do I go about it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by CasKru (talk • contribs) 09:26, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
Do you know Afrikaans well enough to reliably translate it yourself (i.e. not just using machine translation such as Google Translate)? If not, you'd probably need to ask at af:Wikipedia:Geselshoekie, which I believe is the Afrikaan Wikipedia's equivalent to our Help Desk. Alternatively, look at Category:Wikipedians who contribute to the Afrikaans Wikipedia and Category:User af (although not all of those will speak it fluently)
If you do, start off by creating a copy of the article into your user space (just go to the article, edit and then copy the text; then create an article in your user space - for example, at User:CasKru/Sandbox) and do the translation. Once you have done the translation, edit and copy it all, then go to the Afrikaans Wikipedia and just create a new article there.
To link to an Afrikaans article from the English one, edit it so that it says [[:af:Article name]] at the bottom of the English one (and on the Afrikaans one, add [[:en:Article name]] at the bottom of the article's page).
I thought that was probably the case, but I thought I'd better cover all my bases! If you have any other questions, please feel free to pop back here -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 12:49, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
The article Addisen West was quickly deleted because it was an "article about a real person, which does not indicate the importance or significance of the subject". To establish notability, a person must meet Wikipedia's standard for notability. Check to see if your Addisen West is notable by looking at Wikipedia:Notability (people). If West fails to meet this, she may still be notable if she meets the most basic guideline, the general notability guideline.
Up and comers rarely meet the notability guidelines, but if you think West might, you do not need to finish your article in a single sitting. You can start your article at User:Addisfaction/Addisen West, where you can develop it until it is ready to be public. This is called making a Userspace draft, which you can read about at Help:Userspace draft.
It will not be deleted as long as it is a draft, but as soon as it becomes public it is open to deletion once again- so make sure your draft meets a notability guideline! Good luck, Liqudluck✽talk05:04, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
How do you create an external link that links you to a specific page on another web site? I created external links providing the entire URL of a specific page but you are not linked to the specific page but to the home page of the web site.Lezahstar (talk) 04:40, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
The syntax for creating an external link is [http://www.example.org link name] which creates link name. The full URL should be first, and anything after the URL will be displayed to the reader but won't be used to create the link. You can read Help:Link for more information. --Mysdaaotalk14:17, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
You might find what you are looking for in the articles about Engine, Internal combustion engine or Hybrid vehicle. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:55, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Information about article
I have posted a article (Mitr - mobile application platform) But it is not included in Wikipedia. I got message that article is not having assertion notability, since its a new platform so i don't have proper reliable source other than the its website. what should i do now.I have seen such type of platform already existed in the Wikipedia.
so please consider my request and give me proper assistance.
As far as possible i ll try to give some reliable references
The article is currently part of Wikipedia. It was moved to the title Mitr by another user. A user proposed it for deletion, saying it does not meet the notability guidelines for software at Wikipedia:Notability (software). If it is a new platform that does not have reliable sources for it, then it is probably not notable and should not be on Wikipedia. The topic needs to have significant coverage in reliable, independent, secondary sources in order to verify the information. If you can find more reliable references, that would be helpful. You can also ask the user who proposed its deletion, McGeddon, for what he or she thinks it needs to assert notability on the user's talk page at User talk:McGeddon. --Mysdaaotalk14:11, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Move your page to "Hannah Tompkins (artist)" and leave a "hatnote" at the other article, something like {{otheruses}} lists a whole bunch of templates. I would use {{about|the wife of Vice President Daniel Tompkins|the artist|Hannah Tompkins (artist)}}. This will return:
This page is about the wife of Vice President Daniel Tompkins. For the artist, see Hannah Tompkins (artist).
at the top of the VP's wifes page, so that anyone searching for the other Hannah Tompkins can find her. If there were three or more Hannah Tompkins, you would do best to create a disambiguation page, however with only two articles, just make sure to direct each to the other using a hatnote... --Jayron3216:47, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Adding pictures
I dont understand how to add pictures into an article, can anyone tell me how?
There are two steps. First, you must make sure that the image is available on Wikipedia. Use the link "upload file" on the left. Unfortunately, there is a quite a bit legalese to make sure all images on Wikipedia have a clear copyright status - just follow the instructions. Secondly, you must integrate the image into the page. Use a link like this: [[Image: The Earth seen from Apollo 17.jpg|thumb|right|50px|Caption goes here]]. Here is the result: Caption goes here. There are several parameters you can pass, including size, placement, and caption. There are the Wikipedia:Cheatsheet and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial to help you along. Good luck and have fun! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:36, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Getting someone independent to write a wiki page biog for me
I am mentioned on wikipedia but don't currently have a link to an entry, I realise it would not be ethical for me to write my own entry but could provide information and links for someone else to extract what they think is relevant or answer any questions. The current location of my mention is:
Hello Mr Smith. I'm currently looking into whether or not you'll meet our notability requirements. If you do then I will try and create an article about you. My thanks to you for your prudence in not creating the page yourself, many are not as sound. Regards, SpitfireTally-ho!20:01, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Gandalf, I believe that they do since they appear to have significant coverage in reliable and independent sources (#3 of Wikipedia:POLITICIAN). (Please note, I have E-mailed the IP to alert them to this thread, since if they were expecting E-mail correspondence they may not check it). Kind regards, SpitfireTally-ho!20:18, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello again Mr Smith, its tricky to say whether or not you currently meet our criteria for inclusion, although you fail our criteria for politicians, I had thought that you might meet our general criteria for biographies, which requires that you have significant coverage in third-party sources, the only significant sources I can find are the following: http://www.labourlist.org/ppc-profile-paul-smith (<not third party) and http://www.labour.org.uk/ppc/paul_smith/370/ for this reason I am going to say that I personally do not feel satisfied that you meet the requirements for inclusion at this current time and therefore I will not be writing an article.
But I'll do you a deal, if you win the election, I'll write an article for you (Provided you are then notable, which is likely, as Stephen Williams demonstrates.).
Thanks clearly I am not the right person to state whether or not I meet the criteria. I am an Honorary Alderman of the city of Bristol and was a Bristol City Councillor 1988-1999. If you need any links to check me out - I realise there are many paul smiths let me know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.173.248.170 (talk) 20:56, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
That makes the matter interesting, our criteria states that "generally speaking, [...] members of the main citywide government or council of a major metropolitan city [are likely to meet this criterion]". As a previous member of Bristol city council you may meet the criteria after all. Its a bit awkward, since you're not actually a member anymore, but I imagine this shouldn't prove to much of an obstacle. I'll try and write the article, if it gets deleted as non-notable then that will just be too bad, but we'll see how it goes, I may not be able to finish the article until tomorrow, so please bear this in mind. Kind regards, SpitfireTally-ho!21:05, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
That kind of proves my point, he was notable in 1999, and since notability is not temporary, he technically still is notable. Anyway, I have created the page Paul Smith (politician), feel free to AfD it if you wish. Mr Smith; please read the page, Paul Smith (politician), and if you find any inaccuracies or problems let us know. Kind regards, SpitfireTally-ho!21:51, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
PS, ah, I see, I thought you were saying he isn't notable, but re-reading your comment it looks like you were actually saying he is notable, sorry for any misunderstanding, regards, SpitfireTally-ho!21:54, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for doing this. I think the description of the FRN is not quite accurate as it is a national co-ordinating body for organisations which collect furniture etc - the link for the charity is www.frn.org.uk for you to check - perhaps they need their own page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.36.78.253 (talk) 14:45, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Is there someone monitoring our organizations listing and are they deleting my edits? How do I let them know I work for the organization and have rights to change things? How do I find out who this person is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kahartke (talk • contribs) 22:49, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
I presume you mean that you work for the Weston A. Price Foundation? Although the article is about the Foundation, it does not "belong" to them, and working for them does not give you the "right" to change things.
Writing about an organisation with whom you are connected is a conflict of interest, and is strongly discouraged. It is hard for you to write in the neutral point of view as required.
Further, the biography you inserted into the article is the part which the "undue weight" is about. The article is about the organisation, not about Fallon. That is why it was reverted. Again, I would suggest that before you make any changes to the article, you discuss them on the talk page. Explain there about your connection with the organisation, what changes you think should be made, and what independent, reliable sources of information for your changes exist. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:14, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
Answering your general question, to know who edited a page press the History tab at the top of the page. You will find all the changes made to that particular page and who made them. Beside each user name, you will find "Talk", it is the place where you can contact a user. Sole Soul (talk) 17:34, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Easiest Way to Add Pictures to an article?
Howard County Historical Society would like to add a couple of historic photographs of the Continental Steel plant to the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Steel_Corporation which was written by one of its voluteers. After over one half hour of skimming 26 pages of wikipedia help, I am a little daunted by this task and would greatly appreciate any advice and help that might be available to fasttrack the addition of the photos. HCHS would prefer to retain the copyright on these images from our photoarchives if possible.
To upload images, you need to have a logged-in account, to start with; unregistered users are not able to upload files. Once that's done, you can upload by clicking the "upload file" link in the toolbox to the left of your screen. However, if you want to keep the copyright, it's probably not the best idea to upload them, as Wikipedia prefers files released through the Creative CommonsCC-BY-SA 3.0 and GFDL licenses (as noted in the paragraph below the edit box). Tony Fox(arf!)17:07, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Skype
I currently use Skype to make calls to my daughter who lives in the middle east and others who are on Skype. I am not all that happy with Skype recently and was wondering if Google Talk might offer a better alternative.
At present I can use my standard telephone which is connected to a TPB-8 Personal VoIP Gateway package.
Any help would be much appreciated. 78.144.98.133 (talk) 20:18, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. TNXMan20:40, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
(after edit conflict)
Please use a descriptive title in future questions.
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.
This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.
However, the reference desks are for factual questions rather than opinions, so you may get less useful replies than you would on other forums. --ColinFine (talk) 20:44, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello...Sorry to say I can't figure out from the available instructions how to make my article "live". I've edited it satisfactorily, but it sits there. What do I do next to move this along? Thanks...dcGreek Dcgreek (talk) 02:21, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
(please note this is mostly a repeat question that was never answered when previously posed here)
How does a user bring challenge against unsourced material? Does that need an administrator? All of these have been marked for some time. As far as I can tell, they all refer to each other and don't make much sense. Thanks.--Neptunerover (talk) 05:42, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
I hereby wish to challenge them all, along with any others that I find that violate Wikipedia's rules. How do I do this? Can it be done for me? What do I need to do, other than bringing attention to the questionable pages?--Neptunerover (talk) 05:42, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
To challenge an article, add clean up tags (as each of these have), edit the article to delete unsalvageable material, and generally be bold. If you are asking to delete the articles, I'll remind you that deletion is for articles that are fundamentally inappropriate topics for an encyclopedia- see WP:POTENTIAL. Still, any user (not just admins) may nominate an article for deletion- see WP:AFD. The article is then subject to a discussion (not a vote), and once consensus has been established, a neutral admin will close the discussion (In straightforward cases, regular users sometimes close- but that's always when consensus is very clear). Liqudluck✽talk06:47, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
I don't want to delete them, just challenge them, and this certainly does not mean that I want to edit them. I firmly disagree with them, since they make no sense, and I do not believe they belong here. Someone else who thinks they are appropriate for Wikipedia can do whatever it takes to make them acceptable here. They need to be cleaned up, not necessarily deleted. Deletion should only occur if they cannot be cleaned up, yet the articles in question have been tagged for cleanup for years, and nobody seems to care. I do. I like Wikipedia, and I believe nonsense has no place here. Can the articles be removed from general accessibility until they get cleaned up, since they do not at present meet Wikipedia's article guidelines? Thank you Liquidluck. --Neptunerover (talk) 22:18, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
No. This is the down-side of WP's being a volunteer organisation. What will get done is what somebody chooses to do. In an ideal world, the cleanup templates would not be needed, because when anybody found anything wrong in an article they would just fix it. But that is not going to happen, so flagging with those tags is the best we can do, so at least the reader has notice that somebody has found the article to be lacking in some way. --ColinFine (talk) 00:42, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you ColinFine. So perhaps you can see the problem I'm pointing out here. The problem is that the articles in question are being used to support rule enforcement activities on Wikipedia, and even though the articles were noticed to be lacking in something years ago, they are still being used as if they are supported solidly by facts. The tags mention challenge, and my challenge is that they should not be used in such a manner until (and how about this?) whoever wishes to use them to support any rule enforcement (such as deletion) should first make them acceptable under Wikipedia's clear standards on the issue of outside support. I would consider trying to fix them myself an extreme waste of my skills. I am however extremely good at detecting errors, and so my pointing out such errors is being helpful to Wikipedia, I believe. I assure you that I am not a trouble starter; I am merely a trouble fixer. --Neptunerover (talk) 01:15, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Hi, neonlover96. Plenty of articles need editing. You may be looking at some of the more popular or "well taken care of" articles just by chance, but you'll find as you move through this site, that some articles are in dire need of copyediting, grammatical fixes, etc. If you're more interested in adding substantial information, simply choose a topic you enjoy (such as neon) and add information that you've read about, so long as it's all verifiable and cited properly! If you're currently reading a book, look up the book and/or author, maybe you can contribute something you've read about. If you watch a TV show, look it up too. It's easier to tie articles to your own specific interests and field of knowledge. Lots of people edit their favorite band's page since fans are always reading interviews and discovering new facts. Many of the lesser known bands may have pages that are entirely lacking in information! This is far easier than looking at a list of random articles that need to be created because you're searching through dozens of topics you may know nothing about. – Kerαunoςcopia17:44, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
Why would an 'article' a new user is practicing on and learning how to code these pages with be nominated for deletion? It's just a practice area right? I'm being attacked. Just a couple days ago I got help here on starting a new user page. Maybe I did it wrong though? Thank you.--Neptunerover (talk) 22:46, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia, including user pages, should not be used for social networking (unless you keep it brief). If you put up a lengthly personal page just for fun, it might be regarded as something more appropriate for MySpace, etc. If you make a page that resembles an article, but has no chance of being accepted as a real article, that could be a good reason to delete it. If you have created a pseudo-article for practice, you should put a note at the top explaining this. I notice you have created some "fun" pages which have a lot more content than what we would expect to see for a practice / sandbox page, and that is probably the concern. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 23:25, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you, A Knight Who Says Ni. As far as I know, I have riddled it with warnings stating it isn't any sort of reference from Wikipedia. Do I need better warnings? And I am not trying to social network, that's not something I do. I don't know how that could be an interpretation. (Talk about TMI, some of these other users' pages...). If I am speaking there to anyone, it is to myself. Web hosting? What's that? There are no links to anything outside of the encyclopedia except for a reference or two. Is there any way to get the deletion warning off my page other than going through whatever the appeal process is that has been artificially imposed by the warning itself?
In truth, I have severe memory problems, and that's the only way I can keep track of what I'm reading and take notes. I paid money to this, not to pay for my own space, but because I think this is a great place. I've never been able to keep track of so much different easy to reach information from one central location before. I love it here. I wish they would leave me alone. I'm not hurting anyone. Thank you. --Neptunerover (talk) 23:53, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) A web host is a place where people can publish their own web pages with content usually unrelated to the organization running the host. The concern is that you appear to be using the Wikipedia website http://wikipedia.org as a web host. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:18, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
From the above policy: "Deletion discussions that are really unresolved content disputes may be closed by an administrator, and referred to the talk page or other appropriate forum." So, do I need to get an administrator myself? I think I have seen how to do it by going through some links that Ukexpat left for me on my talk page. --Neptunerover (talk) 02:47, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
As someone else stated at the deletion discussion, the discussion is not about an unresolved content dispute, so that policy is not relevant. There are already admins posting on the deletion discussion page, so you already have some working with you. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 12:46, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you, but I still don't get what you're saying. If it's not too much trouble, could you please explain how this dispute does not concern the content of the page in question? Are deletions also proposed for other reasons? --Neptunerover (talk) 02:41, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Content disputes would be, as an example, editor A saying "List of Toys" should be organized alphabetically, while editor B says the list should be organized chronologically. The discussion here is how to format the page, or whether bits of the article are appropriate, but both A and B agree a "List of Toys" as a whole deserves a page. Deleting the page is not appropriate, and deciding how to organize it can be discussed on the talk page.
Deletion discussions like the one your userspace article is facing are debates about the appropriateness of a certain page as a whole for Wikipedia, no matter how the content is organized. I hope that explains it. Liqudluck✽talk02:57, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Organization is just an example I used while trying to define a content dispute for you. The spirit of my comment is that deletion is only appropriate when the page is fundamentally inappropriate, not when a portion of the content is inappropriate. If it helps, WP:Content dispute redirects to disputes over percieved bias, another type of content dispute; an article on Abortion may be biased, but the article is not fundamentally a problem- abortion is an appropriate topic for an encyclopedia. Similarly, a short article is not fundamentally a problem, as long as the article's subject is appropriate for Wikipedia.
In your case, the question is whether a personal "theory of everything" is fundamentally appropriate for Wikipedia. It does not matter what exactly the theory is, whether it can be disproved, or anything similar; it is whether any user may use his userspace to host his personal theory. The nominator believes hosting theories is not an appropriate use of userspace, no matter what the theory is. Liqudluck✽talk08:30, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
So the question was over the content of my userspace page, with one user believing personal theories are inappropriate content for userspace. Wikipedia:Deletion_policy#Discussion states clearly that deletion is not the way to deal with an inappropriate user page. None of these drive-by deletion taggers ever tried discussing anything with me first. Such an occurrence I equate with cops being so sure of themselves that they fail to get a necessary warrant, which is fruit that produces a poisoned tree. Had the nominator followed proper Wikipedia procedures, there is no telling how anything would have turned out. Perhaps a whole lotta arguing could have been avoided, which is generally the point of discussions. (BTW I am offended when called a wikilawyer, for I do not have a forked tongue. If a legal term fits, I will use it rather than avoid it out of fear.)--Neptunerover (talk) 05:32, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
As a general rule, you don't! Wikipedia is not a directory, or a promotional tool. However, if you were to provide us more information with the event to which you are referring, we can give a more definitive answer! Basically, though, for an event to have an article, it needs to meet Wikipedia's Notability Guidelines. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:35, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
Where do I find information about how a person’s name may appear under a search with different foreign languages? After the default sort feature, sometimes there is a section listing abbreviations for foreign languages. Also, do I have to have an article appearing in that particular foreign language? For example, I list French, so do I need to have a French article on that person in the French Wikipedia?Lezahstar (talk) 04:44, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
My question is not how to create articles in a foreign language but how to edit an existing article in English. At the end of some English articles, there is a section after the Default Sort Section that lists foreign language abbrevations. I do not know what this section is called. Where do I go to find information about this feature. I have provided an example:
How does such a notice get added to a page? Does it require special status in terms of what the user has contributed to a page?
Peteinterpol (talk) 16:38, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
Exactly what Floquenbeam said. You add the template by typing {{maintained}} on the article's talk page if you believe you are familiar enough with the article and its subject. There is no real condition. Liqudluck✽talk04:37, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Citing a magazine article posted on a separate website
I came across a dead improperly-formatted reference link, so I would like to replace it. I found the original article and now would like to use a proper citation template.
The original Q&A article was published in Rolling Stones in 1994 and the article was uploaded in 2008 on a different website. What template should i be using? The Wiki citation article didn't seem to clarify this. Thanks! – Kerαunoςcopia06:43, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
IPs have talk pages similar to user talk pages. However, since IP addresses constantly change, there's no guarantee that a message left there will be read by its intended recipient. Your talk page for example, is located here. TNXMan18:12, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
Also, there is no way to contact an IP editor other than either there own talk page as mentioned by Tnxman307 or through an article's discussion page. Registered users may set up an e-mail account which can be used for contact, but IP users can't. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 15:34, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
How's my editing?
Over the past week. I have somewhat extensively edited lactic acid fermentation and User:Insorak/Ballades, two topics which need some love. Now, I seek some criticism of my editing skills. How am I doing? Any areas (besides referencing) that I should improve on? Any feedback at all? :P (Just a note, the first one is still not finished; I save the page whenever I get to a somewhat presentable state.) Thank you! Insorak ♫ talk01:31, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Why are some posts allowed and others are not when they seems to be the same
We noticed there is a page for the National Association of Realtors, this is a trade association for home stagers. They provide support to real estate agents and information to consumers. We are the Real Estate Staging Association, the trade association for home stagers. We also provide support to home stagers and information to consumers. When we tried to create a page for us, it was rejected, but yet NAR's page is allowed. In addtion on the page for home staging in general we tried to put information about our organization and a link and it gets removed. We are very confused. We dont sell anything so we are not trying to self promote for profit. If someone can notify me on our talk page of why we cant be allowed but yet other organizations are this would be fantastic. Resahq (talk) 17:17, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
I have created a new article: Jane Anderson. I need help with disambiguation because there is already an article on a different person named Jane Anderson. I also need help moving it to the mainspace. Thank you.
When is moved it should be to something like Jane Anderson (journalist) or Jane Anderson (broadcaster). But it is not ready to be moved yet - the tone is way too flowery and unencyclopedic, Anderson led an amazing life filled with exciting adventures, daring deeds, breathtaking escapades, and romantic interludes, a life stranger than the dreams of most people. is just one example. It also needs to be broken into sections, the by-line removed and the references properly cited. Please take a look at other biographical articles and WP:MOSBIO for further guidance. – ukexpat (talk) 20:57, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Your advice was certainly sensible, correct, and well needed; I didn't mean to knock it. I simply meant that she/he might be able to get further, peer-review type comments there as opposed to WP:NCH, which is quick answer for specific questions. When patrolling WP:FEED, I generally edit the draft/article myself to fix major problems and leave comments for problems I can't fix. Liqudluck✽talk22:13, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
project portfolio management in Italian Opera houses
helpme
I'm writing a master thesis about challenges and benefit of project portfolio management in Italian Opera houses.
i use the PMI standards and has an qualitative research method approach with use of empiri based semi-structured interview. I would like to work on the research as a case study.
I would be interested to have your expert and practitioners knowledge or material on the subject.
thank you
Susanne Plaehn —Preceding unsigned comment added by Susanneplaehn (talk • contribs) 22:44, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Humanities reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.
However - there may or may not be any specialists on this field who look at the reference desk. You might do better asking at the Opera WikiProject.
Juggling a standard football, 3400 times in different patterns, using different parts of the body except the hands
first-person account of juggling a football
The secret of how to master unbelievable football juggling skills or recordbreaking football juggling in different patterns
To master elaborate football juggling tricks, with different parts of the body, needs many hours of consistent training.
I was inspired by 2 south korean football jugglers, after watching them doing various football tricks at the national stadium.
I used to trained up to four hours per day, at Woodsville Secondary School.
The secret of mastering amazing football juggling skills, which I innovated a way to improve my juggling skills, by tying the rubber bands together to form chains or strings.
And then tied it on to 3 parts of the football net, which I put the football in it. And connected the strings to the wall.
I use it to train, difficult to train- parts of the body, like the heels and the shoulders etc.
These ways so the when I kicked the football, it will bounced back to the original position. Which I didn't needed to pick up the ball again and again.
My record breaking feat of juggling the standard football, 3400 times, where at the Woodsville secondary school, in more than an hour, where I used to train regularly.
Many students had seen and cheered me on.
At that time juggled the ball with my head, neck, shoulders, back of the body, my heels, my thighs, my insteps and outsteps in different patterns, non-stop, without the ball dropping on the floor.
Hundreds of Woodsville students saw it, it was around the time, when the morning sessions students went home and the afternoon sessions student came to school. At around 12 pm.
I had the foundation laid because during younger days, I needed to wake up early in the morning 4 o'clock, to sent trays of foods to my mother hawker stalls from my house, everyday 365 days with the tricycle.
In front of the tricycle, which I put the food on it, and covered it. And placed my bicycle on top of it. My mother sitting behind it.
After sending the food from Mattar Road to Sims Drive hawker centre, I cycled my bicycle to my school, at Upper Aljunied Technical School.
After school, I would cycled back to Sims Drive, picked my mother from the stall together with tricycles and utensils back. Rain or shine, even the tricycle tyres were flat. So these regular trips built up my stamina and endurance.
Photo of me in an interview with sport writer Janice Seah was published in Straits Times
My bicycle skills and football juggling feats, were broadcasted by SBC(Mediacorp). Since the master videotap was erased, I received from the Executive Producer, a letter of verifications, of what she had seen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.74.243.121 (talk) 23:44, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello, anonymous user. You seem to think that this is some sort of blogging or social networking site. It isn't: it's an encyclopaedia, and this page is for people's questions about how to use the encyclopaedia. If your feat has been reported in several independent reliable sources, so that it is notable by Wikipedia's standard, then somebody could write an article on it - but not you, because you are likely to find it difficult to write in the neutral way that wikipedia requires. --ColinFine (talk) 00:12, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
When do you move the redirect pages associated with an article? I wrote a draft article in my Userspace. I also created redirect pages in my Userspace and I put the anticipated name of my live article as the name tag in the Redirect code. So when I finally move the article, do I then move the redirect pages? Or do I wait until the article has been approved by the Editors to go live and then move the redirect pages? Lezahstar (talk) 03:47, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Don't worry about he redirects for now. The redirects can be created when the article is moved. Having just looked at your user page, do you really think all those redirects will be necessary? – ukexpat (talk) 03:55, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank your for your observation on the number of redirect pages I had created. I had previously asked under a helpme template on my Cynthia Cozette Lee-Draft page about Do I have to create a redirect page for every possible combination of names? For example, do I also have to create a 4th page entitled 'Lee', etc. I was told--Put that on any pages you think are appropriate. I thought appropriate meant to add the Lee redirect page. So how do you determine what is the appropriate number for redirect pages? I thought these redirect pages' titles are what appears when you use the Wikipedia search feature. Lezahstar (talk) 10:30, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
After you move your draft into article space – presumably to Cynthia Cozette Lee – I'd suggest you think about what are the likely search terms someone might put into the search box if they were looking for your article. My guess is Cynthia Cozette and Cynthia Lee are the only redirects that would make sense. A single name like Lee probably has far too many entries to be helpful. --RexxS (talk) 01:52, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
The redirects from your userspace have been speedily deleted as redirecting to a non-existent page. Userspace can be used to create article drafts that are later moved to mainspace, but this is pointless for redirects. Once an article is in mainspace, you can create redirects to it directly in mainspace without moving the redirect from somewhere else. If you don't know how to create mainspace pages then see for example the procedure at Wikipedia:Your first article#How to create a page. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:47, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
New Topic Question
I am interested in writing an article on Planning Intelligence. There does not seem to be an article about it yet and it is something that my company is creating a knowledge base about. There is already "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence" which discusses what business intelligence is, the concept and analysis of it, and the future of it. I would like to present Planning Intelligence as a concept since we and many other companies working in project and resource planning use it on a daily basis without an appropriate name for it. I would like to write the article with references to project and resource planning and with reference to the business intelligence article. I am wondering if this is permissible, and what considerations I might take in making this article as un-biased as possible, I would like it to be a purely knowledge contribution, providing expertise in a previously un-named subject.
It would really depend on what reliablesecondary sources there are that cover the subject, otherwise it would be considered WP:Original research. If there is no existing appropriate name for it then it is indeed original research and not allowed. Also, you may not cite another Wikipedia article itself as a reference, you can however use the same references that were cited in that Wikipedia article as a reference in another article. Hope I phrased this in a way that you can understand. -- Ϫ11:56, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
request for necessary tools
The current wikimarkups are insufficient for my procedures.
Well I can see how the quotations and some other things are coded, but I'm wishing I had insert tags for stuff like that to make it easier. Other things like colors for text, where do you find how to do that stuff? Thanks! --Neptunerover (talk) 11:17, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm creating my very first page. I went to upload a picture but because I have not been around long enough, I could not upload directly but had to upload the image to Wikimedia. So now the image exists on the web somewhere.
How do I embed that image in my article? All the help pages I can find on it assume you managed to upload directly to Wikipedia. I'm after the equivalent of the HTML IMG SRC (if that helps describe my problem!).
Hello, Peter. Unfortunately, the image you uploaded, [23], doesn't have quite enough proof of ownership. Wikipedia is very selective about what images we show (for copyright reasons) and we need you to prove that you own it. Further instructions are at its page there.
Thanks - I see. I don't need to put any special syntax in there to say it's on Wikimedia rather than some sort of direct upload - it knows to look there.
Daniel Sandford (bishop), (1766-1830), Bishop of Edinburgh. (Referred to on the Sandford page; no page for him yet but probably notable enough for one).
Daniel Sandford, (1882-1972), Brigadier in the British army who became an advisor to Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
A search on the words "Daniel Sandford" takes you to the fourth of these. For the moment I have added a "This page refers to" statement on Daniel Sandford (journalist) and Daniel Sandford to differentiate them, but I am aware of the other two people.
My initial view is that there probably needs to be a disambiguation page for these four entries, with the fourth of these entries being renamed something like "Daniel Sandford (brigadier)".
Do other editors agree with this? And how should it be done from a structural point of view? I have read guidance at WP:MOSDAB which is clear but I can't find anything on what needs to happen to the actual pages themselves. Can anyone help please? Peteinterpol (talk) 19:56, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
My thought on this is that the 4th one should become Daniel Sandford (soldier) and then a disambiguation page created at Daniel Sandford that links to all four of them. Doing it is easy enough: move Daniel Sandford to Daniel Sandford (soldier), then edit the Daniel Sandford page to create the disambiguation page. Do you want to do that, or would you like me to do it? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:11, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
(ec) If there is no primary topic – and you'd need to establish consensus on the talk pages first – then Daniel Sandford would have to be moved to Daniel Sandford (brigadier), and the redirect left behind at Daniel Sandford would have to be replaced with a disambiguation page containing links to pages which exist (so no redlink to the bishop for now). I'd advise that the first step before embarking on any action would be to start a discussion at Talk:Daniel Sandford. For what it's worth, Google gives the primary results for "Daniel Sandford" as the journalist, but that may be an effect of recentism. --RexxS (talk) 20:12, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you Phantomsteve and RexxS for your very helpful advice. I have commenced a discussion on Talk:Daniel Sandford as suggested by RexxS. Once that has concluded, I may come to you both again for advice on the mechanics of the process as you kindly offered!
I uploaded an image to wikipedia for use in The Torchlighters: Heroes of the Faith page, and it emerged as a negative. Click on the negative and the full size image looks just fine. --DanDanGraves (talk) 21:14, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
The image File:Torch Perpetua.jpg looks fine to me both at its description page and at The Torchlighters: Heroes of the Faith. Either there was a glitch in the software resizing or perhaps you accidentally had the image highlighted? Clear your cache and check again.
Nevertheless, are you sure you have permission to release that image under CC-BY-SA-3.0? Without a better indication of source and who holds the copyright, it stands a good chance of being deleted, so please check and clarify those details on the image description page. --RexxS (talk) 22:18, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
I can't see the image at all, but its "File:" page is still there. The image may have been deleted, but there is nothing I can see saying so. There must be a system glitch. Try again later, and I will too, if I remember. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 14:21, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
I've restarted my mac completely, cleared Safari's cache, and the image still shows as a negative. It shows up fine in Firefox. As to how to confirm the image is allowable, what wording can I add? "Permission granted by the owner, Christian History Institute"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by DanGraves (talk • contribs) 21:07, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
I created a new page on Bruce Phillips, Canada's Privacy Commissioner, and saved it but it does not come up when I search. I'm not sure waht to do now. --Wabigoose (talk) 06:59, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
You can always retrace your steps by clicking "my contributions" in the top right corner of the screen when you are logged in, or by searching for Special:Contributions.
However, if you moved your article to regular Wikipedia space, it may have been deleted. If you did move it and it was deleted, it was most likely because the article is written in a very promotional manner. All articles on Wikipedia must have a neutral point of view, and statements like "Crisscrossing the country, he brought his considerable powers of oratory to ordinary Canadians, putting the issue of protection of personal privacy on the national agenda at a critical moment when the speed of technological change threatened to overwhelm it." are extremely praising. I would also recommend taking a look at Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners to learn about formatting references on Wikipedia.
Can I paste in the text of a proposed new article from an already existing MS WORD document (originated by me) stored in MY DOCUMENTS on this computer?
If I can, how do I do this?
15:08, 13 January 2010 (UTC)15:08, 13 January 2010 (UTC)~
A bibliomystery is one in which a book or manuscript is central to the plot of the novel. This term is a sub-genre within the mystery novel category. A bibliomystery may include novels in which libraries, librarians, bookstores, booksellers, publishers and/or authors play a key role in the story.
One of the best bibliomysteries is Booked to Die by John Dunning (1992). It is the story of a Denver cop-turned-rare book dealer Cliff Janeway. It teaches one about the book and takes the reader on a myster thrill-ride at the same time. Dunning is himself a rare book dealer, which makes the story even more authentic.
The list of bibliomysteries is not confined to detective novels, however. Some of the best feature protagonists who are ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances within the plot line of a book or manuscript at the heart of the story.
A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.
Thank you.
Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should citereliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
With ~40,000 google hits, it looks like a promising topic for an article. The draft article seems to have been taken from "Book Genres: The BiblioMystery" on the 'associatedcontent.com' site (currently blacklisted by Wikipedia), so perhaps a word of caution about not making too close a paraphrase of copyrighted work is also in order. --RexxS (talk) 20:17, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
Conflict of Interest question
I work for a magazine that is not listed in Wikipedia, and am at somewhat of a loss as to how establish the magazine.
I realize, and quite agree, that it would be a conflict of interest for me to create this page - but it is also a source of media and in my opinion it is valuable to the completeness of this site. Any ideas how I go about this without stepping on any toes?
Please remember wikipedia is an encyclopedia and has certain standards for inclusion of topics. The most important is probably notability (click the link to see the policy), which requires that the subject of an article has received substantial coverage in independent sources that have a reputation for accuracy. If your magazine has had an article devoted to it in a major newspaper, or multiple non-trivial mentions in the national press (or their websites), you should meet the wikipedia concept of notability.
If that is the case, the next hurdle facing you is potential conflict of interest, which strongly advises you against editing articles on subjects where you may have a financial interest. If you are going to create an article under those circumstances, I'd suggest you draft the article in your userspace: User:Abuchner/Parts and People magazine - clicking that link will create a subpage where you can put together your references and then write a balanced, non-promotional article (see WP:NPOV). There's a quick summary of what's required at WP:Articles for creation.
What is the purpose of the what links here feature in the toolbox? Several editing article I have read refer back to this feature. Where can I find information on the items in the toolbox as to their purpose and how to use them for editing? Lezahstar (talk) 03:48, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Another use is when articles get renamed, redirected, merged or deleted. Although it's a great deal of work that it isn't done nearly as often as it should be, all of Wikipedia's references to the current title of an article should be changed to the new title once it's changed. An example of where this wasn't done properly is Yankee Stadium, which used to be the name of a facility which stood from 1923 to 2009 (now called Yankee Stadium (1923)), but which is now the name of the facility across the street that opened in 2009. Hundreds of wikilinks in other Wikipedia articles to events in the old Yankee Stadium still need to be changed to Yankee Stadium (1923), but this can't be done automatically because some links to Yankee Stadium do indeed refer to the new facility. ¶ As for your second question, it's a very good one to which I fear there may not yet be a good answer (i.e. a single place to explain all that Wikijargon. —— Shakescene (talk) 14:22, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm sorry that I'm not clear on this, but why are certain images used in Wikipedia not free images? For example, this image, which immediately under its title says,"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Something is very wrong here and I'm trying to figure it out. It should say something else around the picture warning people of the possible danger in trying to use it as if it were a free image. It should say Non-Free Image in bold letters around it somewhere. As it is, it's kind of cryptic. Putting such important details in the fine print is something that is supposed to be done exclusively by tricksters who are trying to steal money from people. Opening up the unwary to potential copyright infringement lawsuits is something to be considered tricky in my book. Did the lawyers design the layout, because that would then make sense.--Neptunerover (talk) 08:59, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
Oh, you mean the Fair Use statement. I see now. I wish it were plainer than that though. I'm a firm believer that things should be obvious without having to read through a bunch of details. Especially important details like that. Thank you for explaining it to me. --Neptunerover (talk) 11:10, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
You might find what you are looking for in the article about 1981 Irish hunger strike. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. --Mysdaaotalk13:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
electronics and communication engineering seminar topics
I am an electronics and communication engineering student.
I want some seminar topics and project topics so please send me to my e-ID (<blanked>)
thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinodkumarmd (talk • contribs) 19:13, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. TNXMan19:41, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
I came across two different ways of marking an article for deletion, and I think the path I chose is going to be pointless.
I am trying to AfD (I hope it's okay I'm verbing this term) the article ITunes Live from Soho, and the method I discovered to do this earlier this morning was as such:
Place {{dated prod|concern=''reason''}} at top of article page, listing reason
Place the resulting "prodwarning" template on author's page.
I figured a bot would come along and add the article to the AfD discussion boards.
Later today, I came across a whole different set of instructions, the {{AFD in 3 steps}} template, which is a lot more involved.
So which path should I take? I'm patient, but I would like to know that I've done this the correct way. If not, I'll gladly start the process over. And maybe I'm wrong about the article's intentions anyway! – Kerαunoςcopia21:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
There are three ways in which an article can be put up for deletion:
Speedy Deletion (SD): very precise criteria, which if an article meets them means that once tagged they can be deleted immediately, if they meet the criteria. The SD notice cannot be removed by the article creator, but any other editor can remove it if it's inaccurately tagged for deletion
Proposed Deletion (PROD): the one you used: if the message remains in place for a week, then after that week any admin can delete it. If the PROD notice is removed by anyone (including the creator) then it is called a "contested PROD". A new PROD notice should not be added - if you still think it should be deleted, you need to take the article to...
Articles for Deletion (AfD): A week of discussion takes place, where arguments are given for keeping or deleting the article. After a week, any admin who has not taken part in the discussion can judge the concensus and either delete the article, redirect it to another article, merge it with another article, or leave it as it is. Note that it is not a vote: it is the arguments that are important, not the number of 'keeps' and 'deletes'. It is possible to have 20 deletes (all saying "not notable", but with no further detail) and 5 keeps (with different links to reliable sources of information showing notability) - and the article would be kept! (That's a very unlikely scenario though!).
As I said, you went through route 2 (PROD) not route 3 (AfD)!
Incidently, a look for "Live from Soho" on Wikipedia search yields quite a few hits of articles for bands' EPs - perhaps the article could be re-written as a kind of disambiguation page, with links to the different EPs which have resulted in the last 2 years+? I would do it, but I am in the middle of working on a couple of articles at the Simple English Wikipedia! i hope this has explained the different deletion processes, but if you are unsure about any of it, just ask for more information! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 21:53, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you so much for clarifying, obviously a lot got lost in the translation (I was sorting back and forth through all the different deletion processes pages). Also, thank you for going into depth about the arguments-not-the-votes bit, I was actually unfamiliar with that. The disambiguation page idea is excellent; I'll be more than happy to take that up. Thank you for the article link! – Kerαunoςcopia22:37, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
Is my proposed article acceptable?
I'm involved in a project called the North East Festival of Learning - a series of informal learning events at libraries in North East England (http://www.northeastlibraries.org.uk). Would it be acceptable to create a page on this topic or would it be considered advertising?
Jane Byrne (talk) 11:39, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
I think it would be advertising, Jane. The Festival is a time-limited programme of local events that hasn't happened yet, not inherently notable, and local and regional coverage is limited to times, dates and what's on - in other words, press release material rather than news. If your intention in creating the article is to promote the event as one of those involved in it, then that's your answer. Having said that, you did exactly the right thing by asking. Many people create articles like this without checking policy and are then disappointed when their contribution is deleted as advertising. Thanks for your question, and happy editing in the future. Karenjc12:17, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm working on a couple of related technical articles. All of the introductory material is from a single secondary source. Do I need to add a ref tag after every affirmation or does it suffice to just list the reference in a References section? JPatterson (talk) 14:59, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
You need a citation at the end of each quote and at the end of each paragraph. If you're citing several sentences from a single source, you may put the citation at the end of the last sentence sourced from that source. It's wise to put citations directly beside a sentence containing contentious or strange information, especially when the information is related to living people. Liqudluck✽talk15:08, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
When you say "each quote" do you mean it in the sense of a phrase in quotation marks or in the sense of material that is coming from the sec. source? Thanks! JPatterson (talk) 15:17, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
Each phrase that is actually quoted from the secondary source, placed in quotation marks. Paraphrased information does not need a citation at the end, assuming the following sentence(s) come from the same source. Liqudluck✽talk15:21, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
I need to add a cite to a footnote, but I can't seem to get rid of the big red cite error. Here's the tag I'm using:
<ref>While some authors use the terms DDS and NCO interchangeably.<ref name="latticeSC"/>, by convention an NCO refers to the digital (discrete-time, discrete amplitude) portion of a DDS.</ref>
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Someone used a {{corrected citation needed}} template, and while the article does not show a red-texted error message, it doesn't show a "citation needed"-style note either. A quick Google-and-Wiki search for a "new citation"/"corrected citation" template brought up no results. – Kerαunoςcopia22:31, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
If the citation does not support the text, there is a {{not in citation}} template. If the citation is malformed or contains incorrect information, then I'd recommend fixing the error if you can. If neither of these apply, probably the best way to sort out the problem is to make a new section on the article talk page and state your concerns there. There is a {{dubious}} template that you can use to draw attention to the talk page discussion. --RexxS (talk) 23:01, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you PrimeHunter. As a side note, the citation is correct (I was the one that put it in), but there may be an issue with differing editions of the book that I will look into when I get my hands on the original source again. – Kerαunoςcopia00:56, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
Question About References
Everything that I have put onto Wikipedia has been in good faith. My question is this. If we ourselves have written on a particular subject and published it on the web; can we use ourselves as a reference and/or a citation on Wikipedia pages when we add information to an article? Thank you to whomever answers. Paul Kondor Poduszlo (talk) 08:46, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
It depends - where is it published on the web? If it is on a personal webpage, then no. If it is on a reliable source (for example, a newspaper's website) then possibly - as long as it was not an OpEd. If you give more details about the website or subject, we could give a more definitive answer -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:02, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
Publishing new page to the web
Hi, I just started creating a personal wikipedia page with my own artwork and cannot figure out how to publish it to the web, or how to move and resize pictures on the page. Please help. Thank you. Victor Victori 17:20, 16 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Victorvictori (talk • contribs)
I see that the draft at User:Victorvictori is an autobiography. May I suggest that you find independent, reliable sources of information which confirm what is in the article? Then these can be cited. Writing an autobiography is not prohibited, but highly discouraged as a conflict of interest. Also, regarding the pictures which you have used, you need to prove that you are indeed the copyright owner. If you read Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials, this will explain how you can do this. Please note that anything on Wikipedia may be freely copied for any purpose (including commercial) - original artists (i.e. the copyright owner) tend to say "I will let Wikipedia use it, but no one else" - this is not possible under the licensing conditions on Wikipedia. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 18:37, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
I have created a new article called Diana Whitney, which is ready to be posted as a live article. How do I get this out of my editing space and make it live. I thought I was awaiting feedback that was to occur within 24 hours but I have heard nothing? KamiKG (talk) 00:22, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Please use a descriptive title in future questions. I've added one. I see you've worked out to move it. I have added the 'unreferenced' tag to it - you really need to find some independent reliable sources that discuss her, otherwise the article will certainly be deleted as non-notable. --ColinFine (talk) 00:33, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) It is also helpful to link to the article you need help with, by typing two brackets around the phrase- for example, if I wanted to link to the apple article, I would type [[apple]] . This produces apple.
Almost all articles receive some feedback, such as cleanup tags, but some are not attended to. As for feedback on your article, Diana Whitney, you'll need to provide references that prove Whitney is notable. The best way to do this is to add references to published articles or books that mention Whitney. See WP:Referencing for beginners for help learning to do this. Liqudluck✽talk00:35, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
I am working on an article, West Jefferson High School (Louisiana). That article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale, and also the article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. How can I take the article to re-rate it to get a new rate for this article after I am finish developing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JacquelineX (talk • contribs) 06:21, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
You could ask at the talkpages for any of the three Wikiprojects that the article comes under (so — Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Louisiana and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject New Orleans.) Also, as anyone can change an assessment, you could simply look at the quality scale once you have finished your improvements, see which class applies and make the change yourself. If a project has rated the article as "low" on the importance scale though, there's probably a reason for that and you shouldn't change that without discussing with other roject members. Hope that helps, --BelovedFreak14:17, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Possible Article: Steve Voake
I am considering creating a Wikipedia page on the children's author Steve Voake but am uncertain as to whether he would be regarded as sufficiently Notable. The following web link lists most of the elements that would count towards such Notability for him, including his published work, current role as university lecturer etc:
That web page is self-created by Steve Voake himself so I would need to find independent verification and citations, though it does tally with what I have seen about him on more reliable websites. In addition, his books have been reviewed by The Guardian and Daily Telegraph and he was interviewed by CBBC for Newsround. Could other editors please advise on his likely Notability? Thanks, Peteinterpol (talk) 12:36, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Notability (people) outlines the notability guidelines for writing about people. From that page: "A person is presumed to be notable if he or she has received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject." So, if you have significant coverage of him in newspapers, perhaps interviews of him, that would help. If he has won any awards, that would also help to demonstrate notability. Please be aware though that creating autobiographies on Wikipedia is strongly discouraged, and if you work for Voake, or know him personally, that would be considered a conflict of interest.--BelovedFreak14:12, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you Belovedfreak. I am not Steve and I don't know him. I tend to concentrate on articles about people and places in the Somerset area (where he lives) hence my interest. I suspect two articles in the national newspapers I mentioned probably won't count as "significant coverage". Peteinterpol (talk) 14:15, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Ok, I misunderstood when you said "That web page is self-created by Steve Voake himself" - I thought you meant he had written an article ready for Wikipedia, but I see I misread! It can be frustrating meeting the notability guidelines, I sometimes end up writing articles and storing them on my computer in the hope that something will turn up to make the subject more notable. If you're living in that area, then you might have more luck with local newspapers maybe?--BelovedFreak14:21, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.
Thank you.
Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should citereliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Despite the rule listed in MOS:DOB, is there a reason why biographies have dates listed both in the opening paragraphs and in the infobox? – Kerαunoςcopia◁talk03:15, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
I might be misreading it, but the MOS doesn't appear to say that they shouldn't be in both! Could you quote the part of that section which says this? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 07:57, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Sorry, I mis-worded my original question. In MOS:DOB, I read, "At the start of an article on an individual, his or her dates of birth and death are provided" and "In biographical infobox templates, provide age calculation...." Since people usually include the birth (and death) dates in the infobox, isn't this becoming redundant with the information? Or is the policy to make it so, for example, external sites quoting the biography will have all the information included? –Kerαunoςcopia◁talk09:30, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
I understand what you mean now! The MOS doesn't say anything about "either/or", so there is no 'rule' - which is what confused me in your original question! If the precise dates of birth and death are known, then as the MOS says, the age calculation templates can be used (readers shouldn't have to do working out!), otherwise just the birth and death dates as known are used. Yes, it might appear to be redundant, but all of the information in the infobox is redundant as it's all in the main article - the infobox is purely a "summary" of the main facts about the person. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 10:04, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Les éditions Take5 basées aujourd’hui en Suisse ont été créées dans le but d’éditer des livres d’artistes qui rassemblent en fonction de leurs affinités les talents des plus grands artistes contemporains, en matière d’art, de littérature, de design et de graphisme. L’idée est de proposer un autre regard sur l’art contemporain à travers le medium du livre.
Chaque édition fait l’objet d’un tirage limité (30 à 50 exemplaires selon les livres), avec des œuvres originales signées. La majeure partie des livres figure dans les collections des plus grands musées et collectionneurs. Une autre idée du livre
Le choix éditorial de Take5 consiste à proposer des associations originales entre artistes et écrivains d’horizons culturels divers et partageant des sensibilités communes. Les livres naissent de ces collaborations et s’articulent autour d’un thème choisi par les intervenants. La forme du livre intègre de manière indissociable le texte et l’image. Le design et le graphisme sont novateurs. Ils ne se limitent pas aux outils traditionnels du livre de bibliophilie, et les designers sont choisis parmi les grands noms du design (Ron Arad, les frères Bourroullec, les Radi designer…).
Au 21ème siècle, le format traditionnel du livre semble s’ouvrir à d’autres formes, multiples et inédites.
Derniers livres publiésVETRI ROSA : photographies Mat Collishaw, texte inédit d’Ornela Vorpsi, emboitage par Philippe Cramer, graphisme de Philippe Millot MONSTERS : photographies et textes inédits de Tony Oursler, boitier conçu par les Radi designers, graphisme de Philippe Millot.
BEYROUTH : photographies de Gabriele Basilico, texte de Wajdi Mouawad, boitier conçu par Robert Stadler.
BEYROUTHHistorique
Les éditions Take5 poursuivent la publication de livres d’artistes dans l’esprit des éditions Coromandel.
Ces dernières avaient été créées en 1997 et avaient publié les livres dont la liste figure ci-dessous, lesquels figurent dans leur majorité dans les collections des plus grands musées. En 2003, les associés de Coromandel ont décidé d’un commun accord de mettre un terme à leur activité éditoriale.
Editions Coromandel : 1996-2003
William Klein/Jerome Charyn
Nicolas Bouvier/William Cliff
Graciela Iturbide/Aimé Césaire-Edouard Glissant
Francisco Toledo/Raphael Confiant
David Levinthal/James Ellroy
Mary Ellen Mark/Anita Desai (emboîtage par Ettore Sottsass)
Mario Testino/Martin Amis (emboîtage par Ron Arad)
Pablo Ortiz Monasterio/William Cliff
Christer Strömholm/Yves Martin
Vik Muniz/Lynne Tillman
James Casebere/Mohammed Dib
Kiki Smith/Lynne Tillman (emboîtage par les frères Bourroullec)
Seton Smith/ Lydia Davis
Miguel Rio Branco/Dos Anjos (emboîtage par Michele De Lucchi)
Musées ayant acquis les livres pour leur collection
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
The New York Public Library, New York, USA
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
Harvard University, USA
Yale University, USA
New York University, USA
Aperture, NYC, USA
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs (Palais du Louvre), Paris, France
Caisse des Dépots et Consignations, Paris, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Spain
Centro Portugues de Fotografia, Porto, Portugal
Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi, Belgium
Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Fondation Suisse pour la photographie, Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland
Bibliothèque Publique de Genève, Suisse
Bibliotheque Cantonale de Lausanne, Suisse
Fondation Martin Bodmer, Genève, Suisse
Bibliothèque Nationale Suisse, Berne, Suisse
Hi, it looks like you were trying to create a new article! This is not the place for that - this is a Help Desk for asking for help about using Wikipedia.
A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.
Thank you.
Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should citereliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Hi,
I'm not normally a Wikipedia contributor, but I had to point out this one thing that just irks me. I am trying to find out information about NPD Group (their size, capitalization etc.), the article about NPD group lists it as a top market research firm according to a Hamachi Top 50 (something like that), there is a link the the PDF of the list, but the link doesn't work. I've gone to the site, Marketing Power.com where the document is apparently from, and can't find it.
I have no problem with someone putting the information there, and it's helpful, but it would be even more helpful is the referring source actually worked. How does one go about changing it, or even better, getting the author to get a working link in there?
More than likely, it was working when it was added, but the host site has since deleted or moved the document. It appears MarketingPower.com requires people to join the American Marketing Association in order to view full content, so that might also be an issue. However, this site from MarketingPower.com states that "The NPD Group is a fixture in the Top 50" of the Hamachi Top 50. For further help finding facts, you should try Wikipedia's Reference Desk. Liqudluck✽talk19:44, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
I'm guessing that you currently have two different accounts on the English Wikipedia, and have realized this is usually against our policy. Judging by the fact that you have just three contributions on this account, you want Peterqrh (talk·contribs) to be your new username. If this is correct,
The easiest way would be to simply edit your old account, announce you are retiring it, and link it to your new account. You can also redirect it to your new account, so that users clicking links to your old account will be sent to your new account. Either way, make sure to leave a note on your new account linking to your old one unless you have privacy issues with it.
You could try asking at WP:USURP, although your request is likely to be declined unless you were a regular contributor on your old account.
If I'm wrong, and you simply want to rename your current account (Peterqrh (talk·contribs)) and the account you want has not been created, you can request the move at WP:RENAME. However, it may be easier to simply abandon this account, since you haven't used it to edit very much. Abandoned accounts (meaning you will never edit from the account again) are harmless, but if you actively use more than one of your accounts at any one time, you will likely find yourself blocked (see WP:SOCK for more information). I hope this answers your question. Liquidluck✽talk07:45, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
Using two accounts is perfectly OK provided that they are not used to evade blocks or bans, or for other disruptive behaviour. For example, I have a second account, User:Ukexpatmobile that I use when accessing Wikipedia on mobile devices. – ukexpat (talk) 16:47, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
Yes. Ukexpat's second account, User:Ukexpatmobile, is an example of redirecting to the main editing account. Again, read WP:SOCK to learn more about the appropriate and inappropriate uses of multiple accounts. Hope we've answered your question! Liquidluck✽talk04:55, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
The VA Hotline
New article?
VA Loans for Veterans
What makes us different from others is the fact that we specialize in VA loans. Furthermore, we strive to provide unparalleled customer service by assisting and explaining everything to our clients through the entire process step-by-step.
We encourage our VA loan specialist to educate you about the process of obtaining a VA loan. Our vast experience helps us avoid frustration that may often be encountered with working with those inexperienced in VA loans. It is our pledge to provide customers with a team of highly trained VA mortgage professionals, coupled with an exceptional level of service. We want to help you get the most out of your VA loan, so let us help you today.
Our Mission is to assist veterans and active duty personnel purchase and retain homes in recognition of their service to our Nation. All veterans, active duty members, or other participants in the program will be treated in a courteous, responsive, and timely manner. We will endeavor to operate in the most efficient manner possible to minimize costs and ensure the best use of the taxpayer's dollar. We have reformed our department internally and are striving for high quality, prompt and seamless service to veterans. Our department's employees continue to offer their dedication and commitment to help veterans get the services they have earned. Our nation's veterans deserve no less.
VA loans offer the following important features and benefits:
•Ensure that all veterans are given an equal opportunity to buy homes with VA assistance, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, handicap, or national origin
•No down payment (unless required by the investor, the purchase price is more than the reasonable value of the property as determined by VA, or the loan is made with graduated payment features)
•A freely negotiable fixed interest rate competitive with conventional mortgage interest rates
•The buyer is informed of the estimated reasonable value of the property
•Limitations on closing costs
•An assumable mortgage. However, for loans closed on or after March 1, 1988, the assumption must be approved in advance by the lender or VA. Generally, this involves a review of the creditworthiness of the purchaser (ability and willingness to make the mortgage payments). Be sure to see section entitled "Loan Repayment Terms"
•Long amortization (repayment) terms
•Right to prepay without penalty (lenders may require that any partial prepayments be in the amount of at least 1 monthly installment of principal or $100, whichever is less)
•For houses inspected by VA during construction, a warranty from the builder and VA assistance in trying to obtain the builder's cooperation in correcting any justified construction complaint
•Forbearance extended to VA homeowners experiencing temporary financial difficulty.
A VA loan is an incredible benefit for those who served our country. We feel that there simply is no better 100 percent home loan out there than the VA loan. And now that 100 percent conventional loans have virtually disappeared, the VA loan is perfect for military homebuyer or veteran.
VA Home Loans are great for qualified Veterans that want a low interest rate mortgage. VA home loans are not available to everyone. They are restricted to those who have served 90 days during wartime or 181 days during peacetime and obtained an honorable discharge. Veterans discharged for a service-related disability are also eligible. VA home loans are important for first-time buyers because they require no down payment. VA
FAQs on VA Loans
What is a VA Guaranteed Home Loan?
VA guaranteed loans are made by private lenders, such as banks, savings and loans, or mortgage companies to eligible veterans for the purchase of a home which must be for their own personal occupancy. The guaranty means the lender is protected against loss if you or a later owner fail to repay the loan. The guaranty replaces the protection the lender normally receives by requiring a down payment allowing you to obtain favorable financing terms.
What is pre-purchase counseling and why is it helpful?
Pre-purchase counseling gives a person information on (1) the process of buying a home, (2) the key players in the home buying process, and (3) debt management. The goal is to create a more well informed homebuyer. While VA does not require such counseling, we strongly recommend it. There is usually no charge for the housing counseling.
Does my entitlement guarantee that I will get a home loan?
No, VA cannot compel a lender to make a loan that would violate their lender policies. Lenders must also comply with VA income and credit standards. If a lender is unwilling to make a loan to you, we can only suggest that you try other lenders.
How much is my entitlement?
Your basic entitlement is $36,000. For loans in excess of $144,000 to purchase or construct a home, additional entitlement up to an amount equal to 25 percent of the Freddie Mac conforming loan limit for a single family home may be available. This loan limit changes yearly. This means that qualified veterans could get a no down payment purchase loan of up to $417,000 through December 31, 2006 effective January 1, 2006.
Is there a maximum loan limit?
There is no maximum VA loan. Lenders will generally lend up to 4 times the amount of a veterans entitlement without requiring a down payment.
How do I get a Certificate of Eligibility?
ACE (automated certificate of eligibility): It may be possible to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility from your lender. Most lenders have access to the ACE system. This Internet based application can establish eligibility and issue an online Certificate of Eligibility in a matter of seconds. Not all cases can be processed through ACE - only those for which VA has sufficient data in our records. However, veterans are encouraged to ask their lenders about this method of obtaining a certificate.
How do I obtain a VA Home Loan?
Here are the steps:
•Select a home and discuss the purchase with the seller or selling agent. Sign a purchase contract conditioned on approval of your VA home loan.
•Select a lender, present them with your Certificate of Eligibility and complete a loan application.
•The lender will develop all credit and income information. They will also request VA to assign a licensed appraiser to determine the reasonable value for the property. A Certificate of Reasonable Value will be issued. Note: You may be required to pay for the credit report and appraisal unless the seller agrees to pay.
•The lender will let you know the decision on the loan. You should be approved if the established value and your credit and income are acceptable.
•You (and spouse) attend the loan closing. The lender or closing attorney will explain the loan terms and requirements as well as where and how to make the monthly payments. Sign the note, mortgage, and other related papers.
•The loan is sent to VA for guaranty. Your Certificate of Eligibility is annotated to reflect the use of entitlement and returned to you.
What are the benefits of a VA home loan?
There are many benefits of a VA Home loan:
•Equal opportunity.
•No down payment (unless required by the lender or the purchase price is more than the reasonable value of the property).
•Buyer informed of reasonable value.
•Negotiable interest rate.
•Ability to finance the VA funding fee (plus reduced funding fees with a down payment of at least 5% and exemption for veterans receiving VA compensation).
•Closing costs are comparable with other financing types (and may be lower).
•No mortgage insurance premiums.
•An assumable mortgage.
•Right to prepay without penalty.
•For homes inspected by VA during construction, a warranty from builder and assistance from VA to obtain cooperation of builder.
•VA assistance to veteran borrowers in default due to temporary financial difficulty.
What can VA not do?
Guarantee that a home is free of defects. VA guarantees only the loan. It is your responsibility to assure that you are satisfied with the property being purchased. The VA appraisal is not intended to be an "inspection" of the property. You should seek expert advice (a qualified residential inspection service), as necessary, BEFORE legally committing to a purchase agreement.
Is a guaranteed loan a gift?
No, it must be repaid, just as you must repay any money you borrow. If you fail to make the payments you agreed to make, you may lose your home through foreclosure.
Can I get a loan for a home outside of the United States?
Unfortunately, the law only allows VA to guarantee loans on property in the United States, its territories, or possessions.
Can I get a VA loan if I have had a bankruptcy in the last few years?
The fact you and/or your spouse have been adjudicated bankrupt does not in itself disqualify you for a VA home loan. The following rules apply:
•If the bankruptcy was discharged more than 2 years ago, it may be disregarded.
•If the bankruptcy was discharged within the last 1 to 2 years, it is probably not possible to determine that you and/or your spouse are a satisfactory credit risk unless both of the following requirements are met:
◦You and/or your spouse have reestablished satisfactory credit, and
◦The bankruptcy was caused by circumstances beyond your and/or your spouses control (such as unemployment, medical bills, etc.
•If the bankruptcy was discharged within the past 12 months, it will not generally be possible to determine that you and/or your spouse are satisfactory credit risks.
Why do I have to pay a fee for a VA home loan? Since I paid a fee for my first loan, why is there a larger fee for my second loan?
The VA funding fee is required by law. The fee is intended to enable the veteran who obtains a VA home loan to contribute toward the cost of this benefit, and thereby reduce the cost to taxpayers. The funding fee for second time users who do not make a down payment is slightly higher. The idea of a higher fee for second time use is based on the fact that these veterans have already had a chance to use the benefit once, and also that prior users have had time to accumulate equity or save money towards a down payment. Second time users who make a down payment of at least 5 percent pay a reduced funding fee of 1.5 percent, the same as first time users making the same down payment. For a 10 percent down payment, the fee drops to 1.25 percent. The effect of the funding fee on a veteran's financial situation is minimized since the fee may be financed in the loan. National Guard and Reservist veterans pay a slightly higher funding fee percentage.
I want to buy a house with a VA loan. Do I need to occupy the property?
The law requires that you certify that you intend to occupy the property as your home. This requirement is considered satisfied if you actually intend to occupy the property as your home and in fact so occupy it when the loan is closed or within a reasonable time afterward.
May a veteran join with a non veteran who is not his or her spouse in obtaining a VA loan?
Yes, but the guaranty is based only on the veteran's portion of the loan. The guaranty cannot cover the nonveteran's part of the loan. Consult lenders to determine whether they would be willing to accept applications for joint loans of this type. Lenders that are willing to make these types of loans will likely require a down payment to cover risk on the unguaranteed, nonveteran's portion of the loan. Unlike other loans, the lender must submit joint loans to VA for approval before they are made.
Both incomes can be used to qualify for the loan. However, the veteran's income must be sufficient to repay at least that portion of the loan related to the veteran's interest in (portion of) the property and the nonveteran's income must be adequate to cover the rest.
If a veteran dies before the loan is paid off, will the VA guaranty pay off the balance of the loan?
No. The surviving spouse or other co-borrower must continue to make the payments. If there is no CO-borrower, the loan becomes the obligation of the veteran's estate. Mortgage life insurance is available but must be purchased from private insurance sources
If you intended to create an article, then you are at the wrong place. Also, the content you left here would not be accepted, as it is too promotional in tone. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 01:19, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
I an new here and am sort of becoming frustrated with myself.
I have written one thorough article (I am proud of my first article, but need some help perfecting it further, more than likely). Also, I have edited small grammatical errors, typos, and spelling errors of other Authors, plus I helped to expand a "stub" topic....
My biggest issue is that I love this site and I feel that there is more I need to learn about PROPERLY editing the posts of others & using the correct codes when suggesting a change to the Author....Bold text I simply just do not understand these codes used to do so yet. I need some advice on positively contributing while following all editing guidelines/rules of Wikipedia and being able to help out with more of the "needy" articles. I want to do it CORRECTLY and without upsetting the original auther with suggestions.
Also, I am unaware and feel uncomfortable pointing out Biased opinions and one-sided article formats when I see them. I wish to speak out and to help WIKIPEDIA's articles to improve when a one-sided, opinionated, offensive, or slanderous topic is stumbled upon. I am trying to be polite, fix my own errors online, and am generally not educated well-enough currently on Wikipedia's ways. So I feel as if it's not my place to make suggestions, even against slander and bias.
I need the help of experienced experts for any advice that you may have to offer regarding wiki-editing-codes and conflict resolution and/or offensive & biased publications found.
Please let me know what I can do to improve myself as a positive Author and editorItalic text in the Wikipedia world?
Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! You sound as if you might benefit from Wikipedia's adoption program, where an experienced editor will help you. Click on the link for "adoption" and then read what it says on the page you get to! Hope this helps, -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 18:11, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
I second Phantomsteve's suggestion of being adopted by an experienced user. Your adopter will help you learn your way around (although you are welcome to ask any questions you have on this page!).
If you spot bias or other problems in an article, bring the issues up on the article's talk page if you aren't comfortable fixing them yourself. If no one responds, feel free to edit accordingly- but make sure your information is accurate by referencing it to reliable sources! If you see unreferenced, contentious information in an article about a living person, DON'T hesitate to remove it. Use an edit summary to explain and, if you believe the edit may be disputed, post on the article's talk page. Thanks for joining! Liquidluck✽talk04:49, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Since you are interested in bias and neutrality, you might want to hang out over at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard where people go for advice. Reading what other people have to say will help you to get to know the policies and guidelines, and hopefully improve your confidence about getting stuck in yourself.--BelovedFreak12:52, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Hi Larry4953, although it appears you are already logged in, you can access the user login page by clicking here or clicking the "Log in / create account" link at the top right hand corner of the page. Regards, Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 13:54, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I guess you mean the login page? You were logged in when you posted this. When you are not logged in there is a Log in link in the upper right corner leading to Special:UserLogin. When you are logged in there is a log out link instead. If you want access to your account information when you are logged in then click "my preferences" at the top to get to Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:57, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello. I would like to have a massive block of text (full of signatures and code-heavy text) with a single shade of color (e.g., beige) behind it. The point is to make this block of text stand out, as this is of the utmost importance (I am retrieving old archives and in one case, an incredible amount of text from one archive is repeated in a separate archive, but with continued text). The blockquote code is not what I want... and I would have thought creating one massive single-cell table would be easy, but evidently I'm a code-idiot.
This gives a representation of what I want, but on a much larger scale.
I actually saw the Collapsed boxes on this page (farther above) and I used that idea; it worked perfectly for my needs. – Kerαunoςcopia◁talk
Just a quick note about your signature - the colors make it very hard (for me anyway) to see the link to your talk page. Any chance you can fix that? Thanks. – ukexpat (talk) 20:37, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
I agree completely; I've just been lazy. Thanks for helping me move it up my "queue." – Kerαunoςcopia◁talk21:50, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Hi. I wrote an article recently and would like to have it reviewed by someone in order to make it active. How do i find someone to review it? The article title is:
User:Hr4321/Draft
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer me. Hr4321 (talk) 22:08, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Requests for feedback, or here. Someone will review it soon. BTW I moved it back to your userspace, and will ask for all the redirects resulting from your moves (and my goofed ones) to be deleted. Don't worry about the stray "d" (my goof again trying to keep up) - we can fix that when finally moved to user space. – ukexpat (talk) 22:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
Log Ball was invented by one Reed Iculus in 1858. Reed, whilst clearing his Montana estate for grazing, relaxed with his son by bouncing a basketball off a felled log. Quickly understanding the potential of such a game, Reed developed and copyrighted what were to become the International Rules of Log Ball. In America, where anything can happen, Log Ball quickly took hold across 20 States. The first World Championship (though only american teams participated) was held in 1860 at the home of Log Ball - Havre - and was known as the Bark Bowl.
The first recorded game of Log Ball was held in the sleepy coastal town of Long Jetty in New South Wales on 29th December 1982. During a social game of bouncing a ball off a log, Ian Brooks and John Bradridge of Sydney, found themselves embroiled in a competitive exchange. In front of a small crowd, Ian, realizing his skill level was insufficient, introduced the International Rules of Log Ball by pronouncing "You can't do that". John and the majority of the small crowd pleaded for an explaination - none was given. Though not fully explaining the new rules both Ian and John pressed on. The small crowd became mesmerized by the competitive intent of the players and the ever changing rules that Ian introduced.
Frustrated by thinking he had won the point only to find out that he 'couldn't do that' John retired from the game a defeated and confused warrior. The game finished around 4.30 that afternoon. To date, no other reported games of Log Ball have been played in Australia. However, on record is that Ian was and is still the only National Log Ball Champion.
Interesting, but as there's only been one log ball game, the game would likely not merit an article (and would probably be deleted under Wikipedia's speedy deletion process). Log ball can live on forever in memory, though. On another note, this is a page to ask questions about editing, not the page to submit new articles; check out the article wizard for help creating. Liquidluck✽talk04:31, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
It was a hoax. Note the name: Reed Iculus ("ridiculous"). Note the reference to a basketball in use 33 years before the game of basketball was invented. —Largo Plazo (talk) 05:08, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Yeah, but I decided to play along. I didn't catch the Reed Iculus, though, and it made me laugh. This is one of those times when I feel bad after finding vandalism/hoaxes/new pages funny =]. Sometimes I have to resist congratulating the editor. Liquidluck✽talk05:12, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Malayalam Lexicon is the greatest organized lexicographic venture ever undertaken in a modern Indian language. Entry word with transliteration in Roman script, phonological and orthographic variants, cognates from different Dravidian languages, etymological indication of loan words, morphological composition, grammatical category, meaning in Malayalam and English, extra-linguistic information, polysemy represented as numbered items, synonyms, citations arranged chronologically, classification of verbs, tense forms, derivation of gender from bases, restrictive labels, zoological and botanical terms in italics, cross reference-phonological and semantic, indication of homonymy, usages, idioms,proverbs, indication of dialects, authoritative references and many more features make this a unique dictionary. (eight volumes published. Vol I &II edited by Dr. Suranad Kunjan Pillai. Vol III edited y Dr.K.V. Nambudiripad. Vol.IV to Vol.VI edited by Dr.B.C.Balakrishnan. Vol.VII edited by Dr.P.Somasekharan Nair. Vol.VIII edited by Dr.P.Venugopalan)
Oops, before I do that, are you the John Kerastas who is Director of Marketing Communications for SmartSignal? If so, please read WP:COI - you are strongly advised not to create articles on subjects where you have a conflict of interest. Also, the text looks like it was extracted from a company publication, if that's so it is almost certainly copyrighted and in the absence of a clear copyright release (see WP:IOWN) cannot be accepted on Wikipedia per WP:COPYVIO. Even if the copyright is released, the draft is very promotional in tone and would probably be speedily deleted if moved to the mainspace without a substantial rewrite. If you need further help, please contact me on my talk page. Hope this has helped. – ukexpat (talk) 15:58, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
If you mean how you would link to the video, you would put it under an external link section and give the link a title. In other words, at the bottom of the page you would add,
== External links ==
[http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/01/21/lkl.gabriel.heroes.cnn?hpt=C2Haiti Live performance of "Heroes"] for [[CNN]]
Somebody has edited my company's page (Harvey Nash) describing a court case in 2003 in the Netherlands. We are not denying this happened, however, our NL business is of about 50 people out of 550 and we are so much more than that. How can I get this removed?
Please do not edit Harvey Nash directly because it is a conflict of interest, and you are strongly discouraged from editing an article on a subject you are associated with. You should bring your concerns to the article's talk page at Talk:Harvey Nash. Since the case is real and has many sources, I don't believe you will be able to convince editors to remove it completely. You might be able to get consensus to have the wording changed or reduce the length of the text. --Mysdaaotalk16:21, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
My Article is DAKSH 2010 . It says it has copyright infringement . It is my Organisation i'm wrting about and sources can be verified by checking www.daksh.sastra.edu
Language like ""It offers three days of technical indulgence" guaranteed that it was going to be deleted as a blatant advertisement anyway. --Orange Mike | Talk11:41, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
Additionally, according to the website it was taken from, this florid advertising language is copyrighted by "Daksh 2010", not by you, the individual human being. --Orange Mike | Talk11:43, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
Question on Providing an External Link to a Page
I have a quick question on providing external links. Under the page "Little House on the Prairie", I don't see any info on "Where are They Now". If I added in a page on that, is it alright if I posted an external link, having to do with that information (even though it's a fan-made site?) Thanks for your help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Littlehousefan always (talk • contribs) 04:09, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
Hello,
I am trying to create a disambiguation page for the name "Hudson Taylor." Currently, the name brings you to James Hudson Taylor (who went by Hudson Taylor). However, there are two additional individuals (family relatives of James) listed on Wikipedia who also go/went by the name Hudson Taylor. Their pages are currently listed as Herbert Hudson Taylor and Herbert Hudson Taylor IV. I tried using the "for other uses" technique to link the current James Hudson Taylor page to the other two individuals. However, I think it would be most convenient for the search of "Hudson Taylor" to bring you to a disambiguation page with the three individuals. Can someone please help me do this?
We wrote the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Khmer_House where we have two tags. Although we changed the article in order to satifsay the tags we are not able to let remove them. Or: Maybe wiki did not yet controll our article for a long time?
Can you help us to remove the tags? resp. what do we have to do?
How is it possible to cite Billboard album and singles chart positions? A search in the Reference archives on WP gave me proof that Billboard keeps a tight lid on their numbers, which on this page—called "US Main"—shows information that I can't verify. Not a biggie considering I couldn't easily verify a book or journal offhand, either. I was just wondering if there's any other way of getting my hands on Billboard info? –Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies10:53, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
How do I edit material that is inflamatory and biased? Not to mention untrue! When a living person is being attacked in the press and then that is assumed to be factual and placed in Wikipedia just because it has a reference to a newspaper article and the information is not complete and not factual.
Bsure (talk) 19:43, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
The threshold of inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not the truth (See Wikipedia:Verifiability). If a fact can be verified by a reliable source, it is appropriate for inclusion in an article. In the case of the National Ignition Facility, the information you removed was sourced to the New York Times, a very reliable source. However, if the organization disputes the facts reported by the NYT, you are welcome to find an article stating such and then add that information to the article. Please be aware that if you have a conflict of interest due to a personal association with the NIF, you are strongly discouraged from editing the article.
Just because an article is in a newspaper, doesn't make it a true representation of the events. It is "verifiable" but not true. This is about a person's personal history and does not relate in any way to the subject being discussed on Wikipedia. I think it should be removed - how do i go about getting it removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bsure (talk • contribs) 20:36, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
Hi, I have been working on a Wikipedia page about a woman in Canada Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo. I have finished but don't know how to get it on the internet on the search engines to come out. Is there an upload I have to do? Can you help me? I am working on other pages too.
Akiomoawo--AK 01:53, 26 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Akiomoawo (talk • contribs)
I am new to the Wiki community and just want a clarification of rules regarding citation. On the article "Light Effects on Circadian Rhythm" I added a section about measuring light using a new measuring device. I backed this information up from a peer-reviewed journal article (Chronobiology International). Someone subsequently took this information down, claiming that it was "self-referencing." This is documented research from an educational journal. Can someone explain why this was taken down and how to avoid making this mistake in the future? Can I -- or should I -- undo their deletion? Please respond via "my talk." LightingResearchCenter (talk) 14:21, 25 January 2010 (UTC)LightingResearchCenter
Is it not possible to simply download a file. The article has already been written and it contains images. It is a word doc or can be a pdf or a jpeg for the web B'Nita1942 (talk) 13:29, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
Unfortunately, there is no way in which this can be done. If I was you, I would copy the text of the article and then read Wikipedia:Your first article, which explains how to create a new article. Once the article has been created, you can upload an images (assuming they meet the criteria for inclusion) and add them to the article:
If you want to add an existing image to an article, add [[Image:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text.]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information.
If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must find out what the proper license of the image is. If you know the image is licensed under a free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure what license the image takes, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy. I hope this helps.
This showed up at the very bottom of my article. I entered my references without any tag and they showed up, then I added the <ref> before and after each reference and the reference does not display, but th statement below does.
Please use a descriptive title in future questions.
You would need to add </ref> at the end of each reference. You would also need to add {{reflist}} to display the reference list. However, the way you are doing references in History of hospitality international inc, you shouldn't use <ref></ref> because you have a general list of references. The tags should be used when doing inline citations, which are references for specific information within the article text. I have updated the article to be a general list of references not using the tags. Please read Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners for a guide on how references work. --Mysdaaotalk15:38, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
Adding a page about a company
I have added a page about my company, it is no different from pages on any other games publishers but mine keeps being removed for blatant advertising.
What do I need to do to get the information live, we are one of the longest established developers of pocket pc software.4pockets (talk) 17:47, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
I have a question regarding style. In my draft page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Weatherlands/European_Climate_Assessment_and_Dataset_%28ECA%26D%29 in the section right above the subheading "metadata", should I use a dash (like in the first few examples) or brackets (like in the last few)? I looked at the Manual of Style and couldn't find a clear answer to my question. Which do you think is (more) correct?
I like dashes better, because text in brackets is usually additional explanation for the benefit of a non-technical person, but in this case, some of the items before the brackets would be exactly the same. So when you have:
Warm temperature extremes (fixed thresholds)
Warm temperature extremes (percentiles)
the part in brackets cannot be an elaboration on what "warm temperature extremes" means, since you have two of them. (Hope that makes sense.)
When using a dash as a separator, you should use an endash instead of a hyphen. The endash is not on your keyboard, but it is on the edit page below the editing window. Look for a string of symbols beside the drop box that says "Insert". Click on any symbol to insert it. (The drop box is used to select other symbols, such as accented letters.)
A hyphen looks like - this
An endash looks like – this
There is also an emdash which looks like — this
Explanations of what endash and emdash mean, and which to use, are explained at the Manual of Style which goes into great detail about punctuation. (Update: whoops, I forgot you said you already know about MOS; sorry!) --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 13:50, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
I took the liberty of fixing your heading levels. Main sections should have an H2 level heading (two equals signs each side, == Section name == ), and subsections of main sections an H3 level heading (=== Subsection name ===), see WP:MOSHEAD. – ukexpat (talk) 19:41, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
Article page
Resolved
I cannot find the page where I can post my article. I can only find the USER page. Also, how you cite sources or references?Nks1 (talk) 16:51, 29 January 2010 (UTC)