Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 March 27

= March 27 =

Wi-Fi and Wi-Max Ownership
My name is Dereck T. Dodson, I am the Original Owner and Founder of Aluminati. My concern surrounds your article on "Wi-Fi". I am the Original creator of the     Wi-Fi and Wi-Max frequencies. This information can be confirmed at the New York Attorney General's Office with New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo who is also the head of the U.S. Organized Crime Task Force and a blood relative of mine. I took six years setting up a timeline of my entering the Wi-Fi/Wi-Max frenqencies to the Maryland University Science Lab in early 2006 with the New York Attorney General's Office as a safeguard for my rights. My Corporation Mason Inc. In Switzerland is the primary financier of every Government Worldwide as well as every College and University. My Corporation Merrick Inc. in Sweden registered in Switzerland is the primary inancier of every Science Laboratory Worldwide College, University, and Private Labs which is why I chose Maryland University Science Lab in College Park Maryland. I have sent in my frequency to the Library of Congress but have yet to get my registration number and Official Seal. I read your article and found it to be "dancing around the truth" and fact of my identity. Please correct your article post haste.


 * You'll have to provide us with a reliable source for that information, and one that we can reasonably verify without contacting Mr. Cuomo. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * (ec) Hi Dereck. Changes to articles are usually best made on the article's talk page - if you go to the article, right up the top of the page you should see a tab marked "discussion". Click on that, then click on the "+" tab to add a new section. On Wikipedia, article content needs to be verifiable, so it would be great if you had any links, ISBNs or Library of Congress numbers to sources that detail your involvement, as they will aid editors who are willing to help you. It would probably also be a good idea to take a quick look at Wikipedia's guidelines on making legal threats and editing an article where you have a conflict of interest, not because you have in either case - far from it, you appear to have been doing things perfectly by the book - but because when you are involved with the subject of an article they are risks you have to be wary of. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 00:28, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Create an article
How I can create an article.--195.229.127.124 (talk) 00:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC) Why my title has been deleted.--195.229.127.124 (talk) 00:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * WP:1ST may be a good starting point. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 00:25, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * (ec) You can submit your article to articles for creation or you can register an account and create it yourself. I can't tell you why your title was deleted without knowing what and where it was. Someguy1221 (talk) 00:28, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, 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 which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.


 * Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.


 * If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Your first article and How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 00:30, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I've taken a look at your contributions, and in the past couple of days you have added the name "Sarmad Akhtrabadi" to List of Urdu poets several times. Please read up on edit warring and the three revert rule, which essentially say that you must not repeatedly add, remove or change content against consensus, and doing so could get you blocked. In general, lists such as this article only contain entries that either have an article, or are likely to get one, so please consider creating an article on Sarmad before adding him to the list again - and make sure the article satisfies WP:Notability or it will be deleted. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 00:36, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

General WikiProject help
As a new user (only about 1000 edits), I have yet to join a WikiProject. I would like to know the following: exactly what are the criteria expected of a new member of any wikiproject (such as food, India, or Artemis Fowl) and what are the obligations of being a part of one? Sorry about my ignorance :-). Thanks, GlobeGores (talk page | user page) 00:33, 27 March 2008 (UTC) Addendum: I have stricken out part of my statement as being in extremely bad taste. Please do not consider it. Thanks. GlobeGores (talk page | user page) 00:39, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, you its not that much of a commitment. Sign up if you really like it, but you can always take your name off the list if you don't like it. Anyone can be a member of a Wikiproject including a new editor. If you are looking for WikiProjects that need attention, head over to the community portal, or go to WikiProject Long Island.  Not hing 4 44  00:42, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * In general, very little. Being a member of a Wikiproject just means that you identify as someone who would like to help improve articles that come under that project's scope. They have varying levels of structure, usually based on their size (the Military project I believe has quite a complicated one compared to others that are practically just a bunch of people), but most of the ones I know of don't have any kind of rules that say "you must edit these articles in this way to stay in the project". Think of it more as being a way to stay informed on articles that you might be able to help out on. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 00:42, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot for the advice! GlobeGores (talk page | user page) 00:47, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See WP:PROJGUIDE for some information about organizing a WikiProject. That might have something useful about one's "obligations" as a WikiProject member (I put "obligations" in quotes because Wikipedia is an all-volunteer project, so nobody is obligated to do anything other than adhere to the policies and guidelines when we do decide to do something. Perhaps "opportunities" is a better word). Also see WP:DEADLINE. By the way, I don't see anything distasteful about indicating your approximate edit count. Including one's edit count with a Help desk question helps volunteers adjust their responses accordingly. Someone with 1000 edits probably knows more about Wikipedia than someone with 10 or fewer edits, so two different types of responses would be appropriate. Since Wikipedia is different than anything most people have experienced before, many brand-new users may have misconceptions about Wikipedia; an experienced editor usually understands more about how things work here. The collaborative nature of Wikipedia requires everybody to work with other users at all levels of experience, so it is helpful to know what experience level one is working with in a given interaction. --Teratornis (talk) 03:00, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Creating an article
how do I create a whole new article?
 * 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 which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
 * 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 which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.


 * Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.


 * If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Your first article and How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Xenon54 00:56, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Where are you?
Recently I've kept the Wikipedia:Help desk on my watchlist (need all the help I can get.)

The page is still on my list. But sometime between now and two hours ago, updates have stopped being displayed on my watchlist.

??? Something weird has happened. Wanderer57 (talk) 02:18, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Whatever the problem was, it has gone away again. Wanderer57 (talk) 02:27, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

How to find if there's a sockpuppet
How do I discover if one "user" is the sockpuppet of another, please? Or is this just for admins. Julia Rossi (talk) 02:55, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I would start by reading everything under WP:EIW. As I have never done this myself, I don't know how easy it is to identify sockpuppets. It probably depends on how smart the sock puppeteers are. --Teratornis (talk) 03:08, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * A relative handful of admins (called checkusers) have the ability to see what IP address was being used when a logged in user made an edit. They can also check what logged in users were using a specified IP address. You can request a checkuser look at a set of accounts to check. However, the privacy of a user's IP address is considered very important, and these are only used in cases of severe disruption from multiple users in the same area of Wikipedia. Aside from that, there is no standard or absolute way to identify a sockpuppet; you just have to analyze two accounts and see what similarities you can find. Obviously, you start by looking to see if they edit the same articles, similar topics, if they have similar edit summaries, similar word choice, similar persistent typos, if they commonly !vote in the same XFDs or strawpolls, and vote the same way at that. People also look for editing at similar times of day, or never editing at the same time of day (some sockpuppeteers have been accused of dodging checkuser by having a "work account" and a "home account" so their socks use different IPs and never edit at the same time). There is even a place to alert the project to possible sockpuppet situations. And possibly most important, assume good faith and don't go hunting for evidence (not that we'd know) unless there's already reason to suspect. Someguy1221 (talk) 03:21, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that. All very helpful. No, I noticed separate users were causing concern, but had the same kind of language. When others began talking about socks of this and that account it seemed something was obvious that I was missing. Happy to be that way really, cheers Julia Rossi (talk) 05:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Problem with interface
I am having problems with Special:SpecialPages, when I click on it, all that's displayed is a blank screen. Is it broken? Nan oha A's Yu ri    Talk, My master 02:58, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I get a blank page too. I haven't seen that one before. --Teratornis (talk) 03:09, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * PrimeHunter reported it on WP:VPT. That page probably gets the attention of more technical types who might fix the problem. Or they might see the problem here. --Teratornis (talk) 03:12, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Special:SpecialPages is working again. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Copyvio or not?
I've been going over Richard Widmark's films, in tribute, and a bunch of the plots seem to be copied word for word from Turner Classic Movies. I've replaced several, e.g. Pickup on South Street, Garden of Evil, Run for the Sun, and have found more, e.g. Road House vs here. But before I continue, how do I check if permission has been granted for this, or if maybe a TCM contributor copied the text from here? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:38, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It was added by User:Thismightbezach, and I doubt there was permission. I'm going to look into this further to see if it's a chronic problem, and also try to verify whether the material appeared first here or there; TCM has a 2008 copyright notice, so it's unclear whether they copied us. I've also brought this up on ANI. Someguy1221 (talk) 03:49, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Navbox below background color
I have transcluded the following four templates into numerous templates using the below= command within navboxes: Template:NFL Draft template list, Template:NBA Draft template list, Template:Playboy Playmate template list, & Template:Swimsuit Issue template list The templates are without a specified background. The navbox has a background that that it puts in the below areas. Is it possible to override this. Preferably with one command at the source template as opposed to one at each point of transclusion.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 04:01, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Image editing
Does anyone have the software to erase the website from the bottom of this logo with matching blue?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 04:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I just did it with MS paint easily enough. I'm not sure if we're allowed to alter fair use images like that, though. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:21, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Since McCain uses a logo with the same website on the bottom, I will just leave it then.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 04:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

publish
How to publish article on wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.99.117.194 (talk) 04:40, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Articles aren't published per se on Wikipedia, they are collaboratively written by multiple users and created/started by one author. Unfortunately, IP addresses (unregistered users) cannot create articles themselves, but can request them at articles for creation. You may way wish to create an account.  Wisdom89  ( T |undefined /  C ) 04:48, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * And if you choose to create an account, you can start a new article. For help on this, please see Your first article.  Voyaging  (talk) 04:49, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

article
i have created a new article after creating a account if that article is legal then when i will find it in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.99.117.194 (talk) 06:13, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It will show up on Wikipedia immediately. It may be several days before other search sites, like Google, link to it. -- Kesh (talk) 06:34, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, but your proposed article was declined Articles for creation/Today. The reviewer said it read like an advertisment rather than an encyclopedia article. —teb728 t c 07:25, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

doubts
Hi there,

I have a doubt, I want to know how many wiki's are there in total? Cause recently heard it somewhere that there many different wiki's.... Is that true? Please help me with this am very confused..

Thanx & regards,

KateKatewilson (talk) 06:19, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * There's a ton of different wikis out there, most of which are completely unrelated to Wikipedia. The main Wikimedia Foundation wikis all have the wikipedia.org address. Then there's World of Warcraft Wiki, Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki), Ubuntu Team Wiki… the list goes on and on. Since anyone can download the base software that Wikipedia runs and start their own wiki, a lot of people have! -- Kesh (talk) 06:38, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Meta-wiki contains lists of all of the official, Wikimedia Wikis. Such as List of Wikipedias, List of Wiktionaries, etc. Someguy1221 (talk) 07:02, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Of course, MediaWiki isn't the only Wiki software out there, either. For a small list of some of the wikis out there, there's List of wikis, and for something a bit bigger you can look at the somewhat confusingly named http://www.wikindex.org and http://www.wikiindex.org Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 22:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * wikiindex:Category:MediaWiki gives a count of 2475 public wikis that run on the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia. In addition, there are public wikis that nobody has indexed on WikiIndex yet, and many private wikis that the general public cannot see (e.g. corporate wikis and personal wikis), along with many more wikis that run on different wiki software. Wikipedia is the world's most popular wiki, but the world of wikis is very large, and growing fast. If you want to start your own wiki, see Wiki Science/How to start a wiki. --Teratornis (talk) 03:25, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Side note to Confusing Manifestation: I'm confused as to why http://www.wikindex.org gives me a Server not found error. Does that link work for you? --Teratornis (talk) 03:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you offer working while studying in National University?
Dear Sir/Madam:

I am a Filipina and a bachelor's degree holder and have more than eight(8) years of working in a business office. But because I really wanted to become a nurse, I want to ask from you if do you offer working while studying in National University. Please reply me with my email add: or mobile number.

I choose National University because I have researched of being excellent in Asia and aside from that, Singapore is very clean country and the people around are very warm, it is also near in Philippines.

I would appreciate your kindness and care. Have a nice day and Thank you.

Very truly yours,

Emily Jane Abellana  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.84.126.215 (talk) 07:58, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I belive you have us confused with another site. This is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. We are not connected with any universities. Raven4x4x (talk) 08:05, 27 March 2008 (UTC)\\

Looking for something to do
I just wrote an article on the 2006 South Dakota abortion referendum but I accidentally clicked the 'close' button, losing all my work. I'm looking for something to do, what can I do? I could help with some maintenance stuff. Valkyrian (talk) 09:07, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Please read this section on the article to find out how you can contribute to Wikipedia.  Lra drama 09:27, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the frustration. Would it be in your online history, or was it a word doc? Julia Rossi (talk) 10:09, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I always suggest writing new articles in Wordpad, emacs, or whatever your preferred text editor is. It'll save you a lot of grief in the long run, since you can save your work locally just in case something like this happens. -- Kesh (talk) 21:11, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Spider life time
What is the average age of a spider before it dies? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.186.82.64 (talk) 09:47, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Please use the Reference Desk for questions like this. The help desk is for Wikipedia-related questions only.  Lra drama 09:57, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * You are at an encyclopedia. Before asking questions anywhere, why not look first in the most logical place for an answer: the encyclopedia itself. In this case, our article on spider has a separate section labeled lifespan.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:46, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Fools
What is wikipedia's policy on creating april fools day articles? Is it allowed? xxx User:Hyper Girl 12:49, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * No. Creating hoax articles is considered a form of vandalism, and can lead to the same ugly consequences as any other kind of vandalism to this project. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  13:03, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * However, if you have something clever that is not offensive you might put it in your user space. There are a number of amusing essays and mock-policy pages that live in user space that are a nice break from the sometimes stuffy rules-bound day-to-day wiki life. &mdash;Noah 14:09, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I would make a change to an article and change it back soon after. You might be warned about vandalism though.(But i'd do it anyway)


 * This page is highly enlightening on the April fools' "policy." Someguy1221 (talk) 17:43, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Replace current image option
Why am I not seeing the replace current image option at either Image:2102130452 fdf1e34434.jpg or Image:2101345479 5b9127e1ec.jpg? I realize I forgot to upload the largest file size of each.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 13:04, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The link is there, I see it. But why not upload the new pictures with more sensible filenames (now's the chance I mean), or even upload them to Wikimedia Commons instead. -- Sverdrup (talk) 14:06, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The image name is the one used at source on Flickr, also be careful with licensing ans ensure that you used the same license as that source, you use CC-by-3.0 but at flickr it 2.0. I agree you should upload free license images to Commons Gnangarra 14:13, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I have reuploaded with meaningful names. However, I am not a big flickr guy because I don't get licensing error messages and challenges and such from over there.  I have posted the smaller files over there however if I recall correctly.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 07:59, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Also miss orphaned images messages at commons.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 14:24, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Commenting in article body bad form?
I've seen a couple instances where, instead of using the talk page, someone deletes text by commenting it out in the article body, sometimes adding additional commented explanations. Today I saw another case where a template was added to an article, with the only explanation for it commented out in the article body, so you never see it unless you happen to be looking at that spot in the edit box. Is this considered bad form? I find it kind of annoying. 66.152.245.18 (talk) 13:29, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * More often than not, text that is commented out in articles is in dispute, and is usually being talked about on the discussion page in the article. That way, when the discussion is over, the text is easier to recover. This isn't considered bad form. However, we occasionally do get people that will write comments in the article itself and even sign them; this is highly frowned upon. GlassCobra 13:52, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Formatting references
The references at the end of the Methuselah article are sqeezed onto the right-hand side of the page and I can't see how to fix it. Could someone have a look please? Thanks.--Shantavira|feed me 14:19, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I made one minor change to the references tag but that wouldn't cause it to move from the right hand side of the page. Which raises the question: are you sure you meant "right-hand side of the page"? Are you using a non-english OS or browser? &mdash;Noah 14:31, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks it looks fine now. I should have mentioned I am using IE6.--Shantavira|feed me 14:37, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Advantages of Silver Oak tree
Is it true that Silver Oak Tree emits Oxygen (O2)59.184.56.95 (talk) 15:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC) in nights also or it emits more oxygen then other trees?
 * Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.  Stwalkerster  [  talk  ]  15:30, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * All photoautotrophs, that is, plants that conduct Photosynthesis, emit oxygen as a byproduct of that process.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:39, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Deleted Page Question
Hi,

An article I posted recently was deleted - I posted a question for the admin responsible, but seem not to have heard back yet (that was ten days ago).

My question is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DragonflySixtyseven

- item 175, near the bottom. I'm a bit in the dark here - should I just continue to hope for a reply, or if not, what should I do to resolve whatever the problem was and get an entry for Sounds-Write Ltd established?

Many thanks, Garry —Preceding unsigned comment added by Synthphon (talk • contribs) 16:35, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Not all editors/admins are available to respond in a timely fashion. Administrators are sometime exceptionally busy virtually. Also, editors in generally have lives outside of the wiki. You could pose your question again. Also, make sure you sign your posts.  Wisdom89  ( T |undefined /  C )
 * The article's deletion log will state a reason. What article was it?  If it was tagged, a reason will be on your talk page.  Please remember to sign your posts.  George D. Watson  (Dendodge). Talk Help 16:39, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * According to the deletion log it was deleted because it read like an advertisement - probably WP:CSD criteria G11.  Wisdom89  ( T |undefined  /  C ) 16:40, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

The content of Sounds-Write was: - Sounds-Write is a system of synthetic phonics. Training in this method, and resources such as children's reading books and interactive whiteboard software, are provided by the UK-based company Sounds-Write Ltd.

More information will be found on the company's website

The company's programme is also profiled on the UK government's education standards website

This sounds like it was written to advertise for the company. If you are associated with the company then see FAQ/Business. See also Notability. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses guys, this has helped a lot. I can see I'll have to rethink my approach a bit here. Cheers, Garry Synthphon (talk) 15:56, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

List of recent headers in article
Suppose I would want to make a list of the five most recently asked questions at this helpdesk. How could I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 145.94.122.175 (talk) 16:43, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't think there's any simple way to do this. If you have programming experience, you could write a script to strip out the last five sections with "" anchors; that should give you the five most recent questions.  Sorry I can't be of more help. &mdash; P urple   RAIN  19:46, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Inserting an image 1/2 way
Hello. I am trying to insert an image 1/2 way down in an article. I am having trouble putting it in. Glenn Strange Thanks Electric Japan (talk) 17:01, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * See Help:Images and other uploaded files. What is the problem? I don't see any image attempt in your edits to Glenn Strange. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:12, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

publish my article
How do I make my user page my article? I created my article, then save my page and tried to look it up and it came up "no article by that name". Is there a step I am missing? Aamatrix (talk) 17:15, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Your user page does not belong to you, it's in the public domain once you start editing Wikipedia. If you search for your user page as an article it will not show up.  Wisdom89  ( T |undefined /  C ) 17:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

If you want to find your user page by searching type in User:[your user name goes in here] and press enter! If you are logged on then you can click on your username in the top right corner of your screen.Ardeshire Babakan (talk) 17:35, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Then how do I create an article? I followed the instructions on Creating my first article and I created a user page instead of an article. I'm confused. Aamatrix (talk) 17:42, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * You can create an article by typing the title you want into the search box, clicking 'go', and clicking the red 'create this page' link. However, the contents of User:Aamatrix are not currently suitable as an article: it reads like advertising for the company concerned, rather than an encyclopedic article. It is also copied straight from the company's website, in violation of their copyright. There might be notability issues as well. A complete rewrite will be necessary if you want there to be an article on this company. Algebraist 18:00, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * What I suggest is to create the article in a sandbox of your user space. In other words, something like User:Aamatrix/articlenamehere. Once you've finished writing your article, and feel it's good enough for the encyclopedia, you can click on the Move tab at the top of the page and move it from User:Aamatrix/articlenamehere to articlenamehere, which will put it in the main article space where everyone can find it. -- Kesh (talk) 21:21, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Changing the title line of a page - how?
Please let me know how to change the title or header of the page. Nicole Johnson Baker - is the title on the page. The name needs to be Nicole Johnson. (Baker was removed legally through divorce.) 18:15, 27 March 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by LaurenNJohnson (talk • contribs)


 * You can change the title of a page by moving it. Someguy1221 (talk) 18:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The account was created today and accounts must be 4 days old to move pages. I have moved it. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:26, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Headline text
I have just finished reading Wikipedia Signpost and I have a question about Single User Login. The news article states that "users will be asked to provide their password; this password and their e-mail address will be compared to those on other wikis; those that match will automatically be transferred." Does this mean then that wikipedia user's passwords can be viewed by the owners of wikipedia? It seems somewhat of a security risk if passwords can be viewed and compared so openly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madox5 (talk • contribs) 18:37, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I believe they're stored as a salted hash (which is why SUL needs to ask you for you current password again). But the servers that host Wikipedia already have the capability to validate your password on each project.  There is no additional exposure here.  Bovlb (talk) 19:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Visitor numbers
how do i find out how many people have been to a certain page on wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.135.27.118 (talk) 19:03, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Please sign future edits with four tildes ( ~ ). Try this page here WikiProject edit counters...--Cameron (t/c) 19:30, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This is on the FAQ. Try this site. Algebraist 20:36, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Adding to categories
Can I add a category to a hierarchical sequence of categories and their contituent articles?

For instance, can I add Category:Human cells to Category:Blood cells and Category:Leukocytes and Category:Granulocytes and to the Mast cell article?

I wouldn't necessarily want to add all the sub-cats, but if I did, would it break anything by creating category loops? I do want to add Category:Human cells to Category:Blood cells and to all the articles on (human) cells within that whole category tree. Will that work OK? Franamax (talk) 19:30, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Changes to existing categories can affect lots of articles, which in turn may affect lots of other editors, some of whom might disagree with the changes. Before poking at that potential hornet's nest, I would recommend reading the guidelines under WP:EIW, such as:
 * Help:Category
 * WP:CAT
 * WP:SUBCAT
 * FAQ/Categorization
 * The idea is for the help pages and guideline pages to document what to do in every situation that comes up on Wikipedia, so Wikipedia can function as a "self-service" site to the extent possible. I.e., everybody can read what to do and then do it, with a minimum of repeated discussion or second-guessing. If you find that the guidelines do not adequately cover your situation, then we may need to further edit the guidelines. The guidelines we have now represent the accumulated learning of all the previous editors who faced these problems in the past. That's a lot of accumulated learning. --Teratornis (talk) 20:29, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * For example, WP:SUBCAT says:
 * In straightforward cases an article should not be in both a category and its subcategory.
 * Then the guideline page goes on to discuss exceptions, and how to determine if you have an exception. Let us know if reading the links I gave does not clear things up, and then someone can take a more detailed look. --Teratornis (talk) 20:35, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks TT, I'll review those links. I'm not sure if you followed through my example above, what I am trying to do is populate Category:Human cells, so I'm not really changing any existing categories (I think), nor am I wishing to add an article to both a category and a sub-category. Part 1 of my question was putting a category into a "category and its subcategory" and part 2 was about adding into the Category:Human cells all the articles which are about human cell types and also the top-level existing categories in which those articles reside. Basically, creating a directory to investigate all the types and categories of human cells, I don't want to change anything, just work on another way to slice the cube. Franamax (talk) 21:15, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I gave quick advice without studying the question in detail. I would suspect a category should also not be in both a category and its subcategory, but there could be exceptions. (On Wikipedia, we have strict rules for everything, except when they don't apply. Whenever that is.) Since you understand what you are trying to do better than anyone else, I'd suggest reading the guidelines carefully, and if the answer is not stunningly obvious, get back to us and someone will look at it. In general, my experience with reading guidelines has been pretty good, when I'm working on some problem and I understand the details. Usually someone else has already thought about and described almost every kind of problem that can come up. So I would be surprised if reading the guidelines doesn't clear things up for you. Regardless of what you decide to do, it's good to have the guidelines in hand, so you can defend your edits if someone challenges them. It helps to add links to the relevant guidelines in your edit summaries, as you probably already knew. Then other editors can link directly to whatever guideline informed your edit. That helps to avoid wasteful disputes, or at least put the dispute on informed ground. --Teratornis (talk) 03:16, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

San Francisco (Whitney's) playland at the Beach Carousel
I can't find photos of the OLD carousel at Playland at the Beach SF. I see the new photos where the horses have all been painted white but I so long to see the photos of it when it was at playland. I rode this carousel every time I got the chance as the horses were different than other carousel horses- THEY WERE ARABIANS! SOME of these horses (the one I always rode) looked as if they stepped right of the pages of Walter Farley's BLACK STALLION & ISLAND Stallion books series!

Can you help me find the photos I so dearly need to see? PLEASE?

Heidi Çhristensen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.133.167.105 (talk) 20:18, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, but this page is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. You might find someone who can help you at the reference desk. -- Kesh (talk) 21:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Simple Spanish Wikipedia?
Do we have one? I just wanted to know because it would be useful in learning the language. I didn't see it on the front page, but I only skimmed for sencillo. Andrew Kanode (talk) 20:40, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The creation of a simple Spanish Wikipedia was opposed last year, largely on the argument that there is no formalized "simple" form of Spanish, unlike simple English. Someguy1221 (talk) 20:47, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

My userpage
Can anyone explain why the images in my userpage NavBar are not displaying correctly? - Diligent Terrier and friends 21:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It looks fine to me, but if they're displaying gigantically to you, you may be suffering from the ClickFix bug. There are a number of possible fixes listed on that page. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:27, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Filing A Lawsuit against you!!!
Thank you for resolving this issue. I NEED someone to contact me at I have asked repeatedly for you to remove an article about me that has false information that is the subject of a lawsuit and I am tired of still seeing these lies here. Please contact me so I can let my attorney-Jessie Castillo know whether to enjoin you in this lawsuit with The Express News and the City of Eagle Pass. Glen Starnes —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.69.29.137 (talk) 21:47, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Please see Libel for who to contact.  Gtstricky Talk or C 21:52, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * (ec) The most we can do here is look at the article and make sure it conforms to our content policies (you would have to tell us what article it is). If you want to sue us, you'll have to contact the Wikimedia foundation, the entity that owns Wikipedia. No one on this desk has any authority to speak on the foundation's behalf, or to respond to legal complaints. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:55, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Presumably the article is Glen Starnes. —Bkell (talk) 22:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * First, threatening legal action is a bad idea. That shuts down dialogue between individuals and can get you blocked from editing Wikipedia. That said, the article Glen Starnes is essentially a coatrack for negative attacks on your person, so I have tagged it for speedy deletion as an attack page. -- Kesh (talk) 22:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Article has been deleted as a BLP violation. And per WP:NOT (all of five days of local media coverage that I could find) and WP:BLP, Glen Starnes should not have a Wikipedia article anyway. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:22, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Also got rid of the talk page, which contained more BLP violations against the subject. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 23:15, 27 March 2008 (UTC)