Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 May 21

= May 21 =

logging on
I'm having a similar problem. My saved password (in Seamonkey) didn't work. Tried the one I had in my records (should have been the same). Asked for a new password, that worked but it told me to create a new one. That one gives me an error. So I requested my password again. Same thing, took temporary one, rejected new password.

jrstark

unable to log on with various passwords.

please let us know how?

Thanks

Rarcardo


 * Do you have cookies enabled? What about any types of locks on (caps lock, scroll lock, etc)? ~ Magnus animuM &#8776; &#8730;&#8734;  00:10, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Only one password is going to work. If you selected something similar to your username, it's probably autoblocked. If you asked for a new password by email, only the last one you requested will work. -- Mgm|(talk) 08:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Dating format
Why do some articles have May 21, 2007 and others 21 May 2007? Does/should Wikipedia have a guideline on the "proper" way to do this? If there is, please point me in the right direction! Thanks! --164.107.223.217 00:23, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * There is no guideline but consistency within an article there, as it causes more problems than it solves trying to force people to spell or date differently than they are used to. However, we have a technical workaround to this: If you make an account, then the dates will "magically" convert themselves to your set date preferences, be that day month year, month day year, year-month-day, or whatever. --tjstrf talk 00:26, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay, thank you for the fast reply! --164.107.223.217 00:29, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * See the guideline Manual of Style (dates and numbers). PrimeHunter 00:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Since one date format is preferred by Americans, another by Brits, this is basically part of the whole spelling debacle. We can't force people to spell one particular way, so we try for consistency within an article based on its subject. The same goes for dates. - Mgm|(talk) 08:29, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

can you show me how to speak English in front of people in order to be afraid
can you show me how to speak English in front of people in order to be afraid ?


 * No.
 * Eleland 02:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I have an idea. Go to Baghdad, Iraq, stand on a street corner, and start speaking in English over a bullhorn while waving an American Flag. In short order you will probably start feeling afraid, as the AK-47s, RPGs, and IEDs start firing/exploding your way. --Teratornis 05:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Maybe you misphrased the question. Maybe you want to stop being afraid while talking in public? Visit a library or bookstore, there's multiple books on this subject. - Mgm|(talk) 08:27, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

new entry
how can I make a new entry to Wikipedia?


 * Hey, you might find detailed instructions at Help:Starting a new page and Your first article. Hope this helps. PeaceNT 03:40, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Image duplicates
Hi, editing the Rottweiler article here, and I wanted to put in a new image to increase the usefullness of the article. Only one problem, the Commons image I wished to use,, has an image of the exact same name on Wikipedia. How do get around this to use the image I want? VanTucky 03:54, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * You could simply move the Wikipedia image to Commons, since it's licensed appropriately for that - download it, upload it to Commons properly with a slightly different name, tag the Wikipedia one for speedy deletion per image speedy deletion procedure, and leave the article as is to automatically update with the image change. Make sense? Nihiltres(t.c.s) 04:11, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, and I'll try that. I've also contacted the user who created this image, they seem to be reasonable and have contributed many other qualiy images to WP. Thanks! VanTucky 04:16, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Website language
Hi, I occasionally get a wiki site that has the majority of text in englcish, but things such as movie titles show up in gobbledy0gook. Any suggestions?

Brajendranath Dé, esq., ICS, (December 23, 1852 – September 20, 1932) was a civil servant, historian, linguist and translator of Tabaqat-i-Akbari in to English.

Formative Years:

Dé was born in to a Kayastha family of Bhowanipore in Calcutta, with Brahmo leanings. He used to visit the Sammilani Samaj, branch of the Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta. He was a nephew of Babu Peary Charan Sarkar, a leading figure of the Bengal Renaissance Movement and a student and teacher of Presidency College, Calcutta. When still very young, he was taken to Lucknow. He was a student of Canning College, Lucknow, where he completed his B.A. degree in the first class. At Lucknow among others he studied Arabic under Syed Hossain Bilgrami. He completed his MA (Honours) degree at Calcutta University in 1871 ranking first class second in the university. In 1872 he went to England, and joined University College, London. He appeared for the Open Competitive Service Examination which he successfully took, becoming the eighth Indian to join the Indian Civil Service. He was also called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. In 1875 he was awarded the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship which he held at St.Mary’s Hall, Oxford for one year.

Career:

His first posting in the civil service was as Assistant Magistrate of Arrah in Behar. The Ilbert Bill controversy of 1883 took place when he was the Joint Magistrate of Hooghly. In the official circles he was known to have sided with the Indian nationalists. He was Magistrate and Collector of a number of districts in Bengal and Orissa, namely Faridpur, Khulna, Hooghly and Balasore. As the District Officer of Hooghly he became Chairman of the Hooghly Municipal Corporation and contributed to its civic upliftment, such as the improvement of the water works there. He became the Commissioner of Burdwan in 1905. Due to his pro-nationalist sentiments and decision to visit a number of Swadeshi Bazaars in the division in that year, he was criticized by the colleagues in the civil service. He also started a club, called the Duke Club in Hooghly exclusively for the Indians. He retired from the civil service in 1910. After retirement he became a Vice President of the Bengal Asiatic Society.

Publications The Tabqãt-i-Akbarî of Khwãjah Nizãmuddîn Ahmad, translated into English by Brajendranath Dé, Vol. I, Calcutta Reprint, 1973.

Brajendranath Dé, esq., ICS, (December 23, 1852 – September 20, 1932) was a civil servant, historian, linguist and translator of Tabaqat-i-Akbari in to English.

Formative Years: Dé was born in to a Kayastha family of Bhowanipore in Calcutta, with Brahmo leanings. He used to visit the Sammilani Samaj, branch of the Brahmo Samaj in Calcutta. He was a nephew of Babu Peary Charan Sarkar, a leading figure of the Bengal Renaissance Movement and a student and teacher of Presidency College, Calcutta. When still very young, he was taken to Lucknow. He was a student of Canning College, Lucknow, where he completed his B.A. degree in the first class. At Lucknow among others he studied Arabic under Syed Hossain Bilgrami. He completed his MA (Honours) degree at Calcutta University in 1871, ranking first class second in the university. In 1872 he went to England, and joined University College, London. He appeared for the Open Competitive Service Examination which he successfully took, becoming the eighth Indian to join the Indian Civil Service. He was also called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. In 1875 he was awarded the Boden Sanskrit Scholarship which he held at St.Mary’s Hall, Oxford for one year.

Career: His first posting in the civil service was as Assistant Magistrate of Arrah in Behar. The Ilbert Bill controversy of 1883 took place when he was the Joint Magistrate of Hooghly. In official circles he was known to have sided with the Indian nationalists during the course of the controversy. He was Magistrate and Collector of a number of districts in Bengal and Orissa, namely Faridpur, Khulna, Balasore and Balasore. As the District Officer of Hooghly he became Chairman of the Hooghly Municipal Corporation and contributed to its civic upliftment, such as the improvement of the water works there. He became the Commissioner of Burdwan in 1905. Due to his pro-nationalist sentiments and decision to visit a number of Swadeshi Bazaars in the division in that year, he was perceived to be a nationalist by his colleagues in the civil service. He also started a club, called the Duke Club in Hooghly exclusively for the Indians. He retired from the civil service in 1910. After retirement he became a Vice President of the Bengal Asiatic Society.

Publication: The Tabqãt-i-Akbarî of Khwãjah Nizãmuddîn Ahmad, translated into English by Brajendranath Dé, Vol. I, Calcutta Reprint, 1973.

Sections appear in editing page but not on article?
Hi, I just expanded William Barker (prospector), added sections and a photo and so on. The categories, notes and external links are shown on editing page but not on the main article. How did that happen and how I fix it? Some of these now invisible sections were there before, like the categories.CindyBo 05:36, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * A common cause of this problem is failing to close a  tag. Look for such an unclosed tag at the point where text starts to be missing when you view the article. --Teratornis 05:42, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It was just that, I've fixed it.--Alf melmac 05:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks!CindyBo 06:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Want to use Wikipedia in website
Hi,

Iam new to this site. Actually I have few articles on my own website and want to connect those articles to wikipedia, so that the it is accessible to all users in world who are accessing wiki. Please guide me how can I incorporate wikipedia in my own website. Is there any WIKI API I can use in my site? What is the exact way please help me with this.. Thanks in advance

I would like to upload a file on an individual [Brajendranath De, ICS] on the wikipedia. How do I do that. Do I send the article to the editor of Wikipedia? What is his email address? Where do I find it?

Bikramjit De [email addressess removed]


 * Hello Bikramjit. Please read Contributing to Wikipedia, WP:1ST and Help:Starting a new page to get you started. Before you start working on a new article, please be sure you familiarize yourself with WP:NOT though. We have specific rules that we use to determine what is and isn't appropriate for inclusion on Wikipedia. Specifically, we require a certain degree of notability. That's why there's no way to directly import content from a website. If you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Cheers -- Seed 2.0 11:10, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Log In Problems
I am having difficulty logging in as a new member. Looked in the FAQ section but didn't find an answer other than directing me to the log in page. After completing the log-in information an answer cam back advising the user name was not recognised. After many unsuccessful attempts, decided to go to this help page. Can you assist? Thanks for your attention to this request. Dick —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.155.112.218 (talk • contribs) 09:22, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Hi, usernames on Wikipedia are case-sensitive. Did you type your username exactly as you registered it? Please feel free to write back if that doesn't solve your problem. Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 09:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * If you ever edited an article with your username, look in the article's history (click the 'history' tab) to find its list of authors; you might recognize your name there. If you didn't, but can remember the approximate time and date you signed up, and approximately what your username was, tell us, and we might be able to find it in the new-user log. Does that help? --ais523 09:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, and one other possibility: you may have signed up for a username in a different Wikimedia project (such as Wiktionary), or a different-language Wikipedia; usernames aren't shared between projects or languages, so in such a case simply register your username again here. --ais523 09:42, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

australian, local governments are wrong
according to australian constitution, we only have two levels of government in australia federal, and state

it is only our state govt by bracks that has tried to convince others in victoria that councils are government

in 1992 there was a federal referendum to change councils to parliament, to make them government, it was rejected by the population since then, our federal and state govts have tried to hijack the population into believing council are local government i had to go to my kids school to tell the teacher to stop lying to my kids all her excuse was, " state government prints these posters so it must be true" i asked if she had read the constitution, her reply was " how am i supposed to know all of that"

this is unacceptable, we are forced by state legislation to vote for councils, but when i asked all the people from the electoral commission in victoria, i was told same thing, councils are not government under our constitution.

Malcolm Pearson
 * Have you found an error in a specific article? If so, please tell us the article's name. And can you cite a reliable source for your claims above? On Wikipedia, it is not enough that something is true, it must also be reliably sourced. That is, we are only supposed to write what has already appeared elsewhere in reputable publications. --Teratornis 15:24, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

About Media Wiki
what is media wiki for? whats its purpose is? please tell me.

Vindu


 * Hello Vindu. Media Wiki is the software that this Wiki runs on. For more information please see MediaWiki. Cheers, -- Seed 2.0 11:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Our own wiki
Hi, Please guide me in creating my own wiki in my website, however want to link users to wikipedia site to view my articles.

Sincerely, Vindu

Can I use media wiki in my own site for articles on my own website?


 * MediaWiki is a free program, so yes you can use it on your own site. Dismas |(talk) 13:18, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * You can also use a free wiki-host such as elwiki.com. Scottydude talk 16:16, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * If you want users to link from your own Wiki to Wikipedia articles, you can do this via the "Interwiki linking" feature. See mw:Help:Interwiki linking.  (That in itself is an interwiki link; the "mw:" prefix goes to mediawiki.org.)  --Elkman (Elkspeak) 20:13, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Updating URL for Reference Links
I work for an on-line news publication that has recently changed it's name and URL. In the past, some of our articles have been sited as references for Wikipedia articles. While we are currently forwarding between old links and the new URL, we intend to phase that out over time. Thus, many of those reference links will go bad. I have two questions. First, given that these are reference links and thus refer to the address and the date at which the article was accessed, is it appropriate to update the link to reflect the new URL? The article would be the same but it is obviously not the address on the date the article was accessed. Second, if appropriate, how should I go about making this change? I have not previously been involved in editing Wikipedia. Thank you for your help. - Michele
 * You can update the date on which the link content was last checked. As long as you clearly explain you're fixing links because the place changed its URL in the edit summary and make absolutely sure you're linking to the correct page, you won't have any problems. - Mgm|(talk) 12:13, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Using Wikipedia in My web application
Hi, I want to use Wikipedia Search in my web application. How can i do this in my web application? Please reply me ASAP. Thanks in advance.
 * You could link to Google Search on Wikipedia. That may be better than Wikipedia's own search feature for what you want to do. --Teratornis 20:02, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Saxophones
I really need your help. I need to find out all the different types of saxophones before thursday. If you know them or now where to find them leave a message. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ilikedmyoldnamebetter (talk • contribs)
 * An editor linked your headline. See also Category:Saxophones. PrimeHunter 13:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * First, this is an encyclopedia so searching Category:Saxophones and Saxophone will probably yield some results. After that, check the Reference desk. Scottydude  talk 16:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Get listed on searching.
Hi I want to add one or more tags representing a document so that during searching in wiki,the document is listed.This is because the respective document have one or two title names.so how can i accomplish this. Thanks Yeldo


 * I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your question. Are you asking about Redirects? Are you asking about information to cite sources or footnotes? If you can clarify your question I'm sure I can give you a simple answer. Nihiltres(t.c.s) 13:52, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I believe Yeldo is asking about keywords (ie. like the meta keyword tag search engines used in the old days). If that's indeed the case: we don't use those on Wikipedia, Yeldo. As long as you have the alternative title somewhere in the article, it can be found using the search function. There may be a bit of lag though so don't expect your article to show up immediately. If both titles are commonly used, it may indeed be advisable to create a redirect as well. Please also remember to sign your username using the tildes or the button in the toolbar at the top of the editing textfield. Thanks. -- Seed 2.0 14:05, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Templates for "TipCollection" and "Wikihowto"
I am editing the article Idea and would like to add these above templates to section "See also", however I can not find such templates for these Projects. Is these such?--Doug talk 14:11, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * No, those projects are not part of Wikimedia, so there is no template for those. I've moved the Wiki howto link to the external links sections - the links in "See Also" should only link to other articles on Wikipedia. Hersfold (talk/work) 15:03, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * On second thought, I've removed the link completely, as it didn't really seem relevant to the article. Hersfold (talk/work) 15:06, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Why???
Why is it that anyone can EDIT a page ... They can change FACTS... why would you permit this ????

Please let me know..

Bill Cannon
 * (comment: This one will definitely get a lot of replies) I believe that, given enough time, any one entry will stabilize, because there are many, many people who contribute by reverting people who remove facts from articles, rather than add facts of their own. This also encourages people to contribute, in my opinion; while I wish Citizendium no ill will, I believe that requiring an actual name will turn off many people; by allowing anybody to edit, we let people drop in to quickly correct an error they just noticed. Granted, this makes vandalism easier, but like I said, there are hundreds of people who revert vandalism, and I ultimately believe that the constructive people will win out. Veinor (talk to me) 14:27, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Bill. You may also find this and this link useful to get you started. Wiki also makes for a pretty interesting read. -- Seed 2.0 14:31, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * A wiki is a great thing becuase anyone can edit. The element of community adds so much to the value of wikipedia. There are so many editors, with so much knowledge, and so many eyes, that most incorrect and/or vandal material is removed.  Almost all vandalism added to wikipedia, and nearly all new nonsense pages are removed, tagged, and fixed very shortly after its addition.  Wikipedia opens so many possibilities for community knowledge etc.  Happy editing and be bold. Scottydude  talk 16:12, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Bill, actually it isn't quite true that anyone can edit (any) page. Wikipedia administrators can block or ban users or IP addresses for vandalizing; sometimes entire ranges of IP addresses get blocked, for example when numbers of students at a particular school go on a vandalism spree. Administrators can also protect or semi-protect pages, that is they can restrict those pages to be editable only by certain classes of users. If a particular page gets vandalized a lot, it tends to spend more time under some level of protection, until the vandals appear to lose interest. Some high-risk templates remain protected indefinitely, so only administrators can edit them. A template may appear on thousands of pages, so a vandal could corrupt many pages simultaneously by vandalizing it; that is too much destructive power to trust to strangers who have not demonstrated their goodwill by making many constructive edits yet. The trend over the years is for Wikipedia to become less permissive, despite the lip service paid to the lofty ideal of free editing by all. For example, unregistered users were once able to create new articles; now they have to create accounts and wait four days.
 * Wikipedia functions something like a department store, where people can walk in, roam around, and pick up products right off the shelves. There are mechanisms in place to discourage theft at a department store; it's not the same as leaving the products sitting out by the street unattended. At a department store, there are cameras, clerks, and security staff keeping watch. But just as shoplifting remains a problem for retailers, vandalism remains a problem for Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a lot of very smart people working hard to find the right balance between freedom and security, and the situation evolves continuously. --Teratornis 00:37, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Editing is permitted for a very simple reason. Many hands make light work. If this wasn't an open system we wouldn't have 1.7 million articles. The vandalism is a small price to pay. It has no effect on accuracy as long as you know how to check your information (as you should with any source - online or in book format. - Mgm|(talk) 10:18, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

/creating an account
When i clik on "create account" and enter a user name, it tells me that such an name does not exist. Well, duh. Of course it does not exist. i am trying to set it up. Help, please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.10.212.179 (talk • contribs)
 * Try this--69.118.235.97 17:25, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

if you write an article about yourself and you are verifiably worthy, why is this a conflict of interests?
In the spirit of contributing to Wikipedia, and because I realized there wasn't anything submitted yet about The Advice Sisters, a twin sister team of advice columnists who are to the Internet, as Ann & Abby were to print media. I happen to be 1/2 of the Advice Sisters (the other half is deceased).

Every time I have tried to suggest something about The Advice Sisters, credited with bringing the adivce info-tainment genre, online more than 14 years ago, someone "speedily" deletes it. I tried to appeal, but someone suggested that my submitting information about this topic is a conflict of interests.

If no one else cares to submit anything about The Advice Sisters, and I have a verifiably worthy reason to add something, how could this be anything but beneficial to Wikipedia?

Is there any way to make The ADvice sisters inclusion, possible (other than for me to re-submit, which I am srue will be "speedily eliminated"). We worked hard and long for our legitimate place on the net...it's humiliating to just be summarily "deleted." I do not know who your editors are, but perhaps THEY are the ones with a conflict of interest?

I am so frustrated. The Advice Sisters have earned a place in internet history. Why not on Wikipedia? -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Askalisonb (talk • contribs) 13:37, May 21, 2007


 * Please see Conflict of interest and Neutral point of view. Also, if they are notable enough for an encyclopedia, someone else will eventually write an article on the topic. —Centrx→talk &bull; 17:46, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * (May the other half rest in peace.) Users who are new to Wikipedia often have trouble writing in an "encyclopedic" style, because hardly anyone writes that way in real life. See Why was my article deleted?. Also see WP:PEACOCK and WP:VERIFY. A conflict of interest is not necessarily fatal in and of it itself, unless you write as if you have one, by failing to be objective, balanced, and neutral. Unfortunately, those of us who are not admins cannot see your deleted article(s), making it difficult for us to advise you on exactly what changes would be necessary to make your article "stick." If your article is getting speedily deleted, that suggests it has glaring problems, at least compared to the million-plus articles that aren't getting deleted. If you want Help desk participants to review your article, you could put it in your user space at something like: User:Askalisonb/The Advice Sisters so we could look it over and explain what it needs. Have "The Advice Sisters" been the subject of any articles in reputable publications? On Wikipedia, we have to source all our claims. It is not enough for something on Wikipedia to be true; it must also be sourced. You might also find all the Wikipedia articles about other advice columnists, and study how they are written. Start with: Advice column, Category:Advice columnists, Sex columnist, and a Google search on Wikipedia for advice columnist. --Teratornis 19:25, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I looked at every possible spelling I could think of and I was unable to retrieve any deleted material. What title did you post it under? - Mgm|(talk) 10:15, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Copyrighted images
What is the page that lists the tags to put on image pages to warn that they do not meet Wikipedia fair use policy? Lara Love T / C  17:50, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * WP:PUI, try also to look through WP:FU. --Brand спойт 19:05, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Photo Captions
In the Héctor Lavoe article, there are a couple of errors in photo captions displayed on the main article page. When I click on the photo to edit, it only saves the changes in the photo page, not the main article page with the smaller sized photo and caption.

How can I, or a Wikipedia webmaster, fix the captions on the main article page?
 * Done... Cometstyles 18:01, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Since you asked how to do it rather than for someone to do it for you, you edit the article page. For example, the main image in the edit page is [[Image:hectorlavoe.jpg|thumb|Hector Lavoe]] Where you see Hector Lavoe (the current caption) is where you want to put your caption.  Lara Love  T / C  18:05, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Categories
I wondered how you can put an article in a category, and make it show up under a different name in the category. For example, I added Trace Memory to Category:Nintendo DS games with different names in Europe and the U.S.. Now I want it to show up in that category under the name "Another Code: Two Memories (EU)/Trace Memory (US)". Is this possible? Salaskan 13:49, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
 * What you want is called a sort key. --Teratornis 14:30, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I may have misunderstood your question. A sort key can change the position of an article's entry on a category page, but it does not change the displayed text of the article's title. The only way to change the text that appears on the category page (rather than just moving it around) is to change the article's title. --Teratornis 15:33, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * That's too bad... Then, how can I propose that this feature be included in future versions of the MediaWiki-software? :-) Salaskan 17:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Technical FAQ. --Teratornis 18:58, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

You could technically categorize the redirect from the European title to have a similar effect, but I believe categorizing redirects is generally frowned upon. --tjstrf talk 18:05, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia logo font
Does anyone know what the font of the Wikipedia logo is? Or is it proprietary? I'm referring to the "Wikipedia" part, not the "The Free Encyclopedia" part, in case they're different. Thanks. -
 * I don't know, but a Google search for Wikipedia logo found this: Wikipedia logos. That might help you find what you need. --Teratornis 18:56, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Apparently it's Bodoni's capital letters. --Brand спойт 19:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much. - Рэд хот (t • c • e) 20:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

"creep"
Don't know how you use the system. Want to say that "creep" also has a definition describing a person which you currently do not list that definition.
 * It's in Wiktionary: the box at the side of creep. Dictionary definitions are generally not put into disambiguation pages.  x42bn6 Talk Mess  18:45, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It could be included, as per the Disambiguation guideline: "A disambiguation page is not a list of dictionary definitions. A short description of the common general meaning of a word can be appropriate for helping the reader determine context. Otherwise, there are templates for linking the reader to Wiktionary, the wiki dictionary; see Wikimedia sister projects."   Th e Tr ans hu man ist    19:39, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Reference section
I've just created the Women's League of Burma page, about the only women's organization involved in the political pro-democracy movement for Burma. My article shows, and the footnotes show in-text, but they do not appear at the bottom. How can I get these references to show at the bottom of the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lmokhtarzadeh (talk • contribs)


 * I have added a references section . (There are other ways to do it). PrimeHunter 19:20, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Book listings
We are a publisher of books on lean manufacturing and related topics. We have never added to any Wikipedia listing. However, we have noticed that some of our titles are in the lists of books within certain articles. In some cases, the title of the book is a link to the page about that book in our website. Again, we did not create any of these listings or links.

Questions: If a book is in the list of books for a particular article, but its title is not a link, can we make it a link? If so, how do we do that? Also, if we believe a particular book is appropriate to a particular article, can we add it to the list of books? —Preceding unsigned comment added by LeanInsider (talk • contribs) 19:25, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The quick answer is yes, you can add the link, but be aware of WP:COI. Just be sure that 1) the link is appropriate, and 2) the book referenced meets Wikipedia's notability requirements.  It may be best to place a proposal to add the link on the article's talk page, and if there aren't any objections, or the consensus is to add it, then go ahead.  The way to add such a link is covered at External link.   Th e Tr ans hu man ist    19:33, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * May I suggest that you start by creating an account and a user page? on that page, state your affiliation with the company. Then, as Transhumanist recommended, avoid adding new reference to your books to any article directly: add a suggestion to the user page and then if nobody objects after about a week, add it to the article, or another editor may decide to add it immediately if it is obviously useful. For books that have already been added by someone else, I think it is acceptable for you to add the external link and otherwise tidy up the reference (ISBN, dates, author names, etc.) since the original editor already made an independent decision on notability. To demonstrate you good intentions in such a case, you should consider tidying up all the references in that article (within reason) whether or not they are your books. This approach will put you in the top tier for ethical avoidance of COI while still permitting you to make Wikipedia better. At some point, you may decide that we need an article about your company. You should probably request the article rather than writing it yourself. Alternatively, you might write the article in your workspace and then solicit for reviewers to check it for WP:COI and WP:NPOV before moving it into the main wikispace.In my opinion, a publisher who already has several several cited refrences on Wikipedia deserves at least a stub article. Caveat: Wikipedia is a strange place. I'm just some random guy who chose to respond to your question and I have no more (or less) authority than you do. Good luck, and welcome! -Arch dude 00:04, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Linking to specific Excel worksheets in a workbook
The process of establishing a link to a specific Excel spreadsheet on a wiki page seems straightforward. But I was wondering if it was possible to link to a specific worksheet within a workbook.

Thanks, PC
 * You can link to anything that has a distinct URL. So you are really asking whether a specific worksheet within a workbook has a distinct URL. I don't know anything about how Excel generates URLs for spreadsheets, so I cannot answer that question. However, you can convert a spreadsheet to a wiki table. --Teratornis 00:43, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Finding new article related to a specific topic
Sometimes I find new Dragonlance articles (the area of the mainspace I primarily edit) about two months after they get created, with no categories and no other alerts. I was wondering if there's any way to search the new articles log with relation to a certain topic. Thanks.  Dooms Day349  20:40, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It sounds like you are asking how to do keyword searches on articles, limited to articles that appeared in some date range on Special:Newpages. I'm pretty sure that goes well beyond what is possible with the humble search function on Wikipedia. You might study all the links under: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia. The idea is to make the Editor's Index the most comprehensive list of links relevant to editing on Wikipedia, so if there is a useful method for editors to search Wikipedia, we'd like to have a link to it in the Editor's Index. Of course if you are handy with MySQL and a scripting language such as Perl, PHP, etc., you could download the Wikipedia database and run your own custom searches on it, limited only by your scripting prowess. --Teratornis 00:50, 22 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Old databases are generally useless when it comes to looking at newpages. - Mgm|(talk) 10:09, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

"Changes newer than 1 seconds may not be shown on this list"
What's with that message that keeps appearing and disappearing in watchlists and contribs lists? &mdash; MalcolmUse the schwartz! 21:34, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Server lag. I had a problem with this via Twinkle reverts.  Real96  22:00, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Search Engine
I made an entry for an organization on Friday...when will the google search (and other search engines) pick it up?
 * It normally takes a few days before Google, and other search engines pick up changes, so you'll just have to be patient :) Bjelleklang -  talk  Bug Me  21:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Be sure your article has not been deleted. If you refer to Midwestern Higher Education Compact, it appears to still be up. I left a suggestion on Talk:Midwestern Higher Education Compact that the article needs more sources besides the organization's own Web site, along with a search link to get you started. --Teratornis 00:15, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Height
Is there a way to use the Height template so that 0 inches does not display. E.g., Palmolive Building. TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 21:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Need help starting
I started to input some information, now I don't know how to retrieve it and someone left a message for me that sounds as if I did something wrong. I just wanted to put a listing about SheetSuspenders, something I invented & patented after an accident that led to spinal cord surgery and was bedridden for some time without being able to walk. I was able to turn a bad thing into a good thing. Can you please tell me what I should know to start? Thanks, —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mariat69 (talk • contribs) ````
 * See Why was my article deleted?. --Teratornis 23:31, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Definitions on Wikipedia
how do you submit a definition on wikipedia?
 * Generally you don't, you submit them on Wiktionary instead. --Teratornis 23:31, 21 May 2007 (UTC)