Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 October 22

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October 22

Lord Sesshomaru!

Where is Lord Sesshomaru, as in the wikipedia user? I remember sending him a message and he hasn't responded in days!Kitty53 00:52, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Except for a few, all users here are volunteers. They are not obligated to be online or edit at any time. By the way, how did you send the message? I did not see it on his talk page. --Mark (Mschel) 01:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

There are messages at User talk:Sesshomaru#Redirects/categories and some of them are replied at User talk:Kitty53#Categories in redirects. If you want another reply then I suggest being more clear about what it should be about. Sesshomaru asked you what you wanted in his last reply at 2.23. You made two more posts but didn't say you wanted anything, except you asked for a response. Response to what? Don't expect people to reply simply to say they saw your message. If you then reply to say the same then an infinite circle can start. You can assume they have seen it when it was on their talk page and they have edited since. PrimeHunter 01:53, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I told him I was happy since he gave me an idea on a new category, Category:Cyborg 009 characters.Kitty53 04:23, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I still have no idea what you want from him (maybe a comment on a new category which you didn't tell him you created?), and I guess he doesn't either. He asked twice without getting an answer I can think of a meaningful reply to (saying thanks for giving you an idea is not a productive answer to "What would you like to know?" and "Please tell me what you want assistance with.") I would probably have stopped posting to you, like he did. Maybe it all seems clear to you but from my perspective, it looks like you posted 4 messages with no indication of what you wanted. He asked you the first two times and then apparently gave up. If you want him to say something then say what it is. We are not mind readers. PrimeHunter 05:07, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Please remember that not everyone has as much time as you. -- Anonymous Dissident^Talk 10:52, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Info on a page

How do ask for more information on one specific article? (Ferdinand Magellan-childhood) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.100.172.36 (talk) 00:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Like, you want more information about a certain topic? Why not just look up more information on Google or some other search engine? Wikipedia isn't the one-stop research shop. GlassCobra 01:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

about 'notability'

I recently started 2 pages and slightly edited another page but some wiki members have raised concerns about notability.

The pages are Ola-abaza, and Ola Kamel. especially in the second case the person concerned was very widely involved in political action and is quite well-known locally. She has also appeared in numerous print media and on local TV.

In the first case, the page resembles numerous others about local artists from New Zealand and I consider it valid to include this info in a wiki. All the info is accurate. What should i do to deal with the notability concerns? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Infoguardian (talk • contribs) 01:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The first page doesn't seem to comply with the notability guidelines. No actual albums yet, article full of redlinks, and only source is a Myspace page. The second page seems more notable, but it needs to be cleaned up a bit. It's not really a matter of accuracy, nor is it a matter of "dealing with concerns", it's a matter of whether or not the subject is notable enough to have an article. GlassCobra 01:24, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I added one more link. If the article stays it will be a good thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Infoguardian (talk • contribs) 01:33, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The second article had a complete copy & paste of comments Ola Kamel made about herself. First, that is a copyright violation. Second, it's extremely weak as a source, as it's self-written. I removed that section, and the link to the original source. The second reference was a dead link. That leaves no citations on the article whatsoever. -- Kesh 01:48, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You state that "All the info is accurate" but you do not provide any way for other editors to verify the info. Notability, verifiability, and reliable sources all go hand in hand. If you can find web pages that provide factual information about your subject, then those web pages can be verifiable sources for the info and will ipso facto demonstrate notability. If the subject is notable there will be web pages that you can cite as the source of the data. And the fact that your subject appears in citeable newspaper articles indicates that the subect is notable. Conversely, if you cannot find any web pages that mention your subject, then the subject must not be notable. So go find web pages about your subject, add footnotes for your info, and the existence of those footnotes will take care of notability. Sbowers3 01:51, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The quote by Ola Kamel is publicly available like all such blurbs, and I have corrected the matter by adding a direct link. It is just like quoting any other politician who published the blurbs or speech publicly. I also added other links citing her work and will add more as i find it. I may also scan newspaper articles and upload them as evidence in the near future.

As for the Ola-abaza article, I added only two links and because the subject matter is a local Christchurch artist and i doubt many more citations would be found, but i would hope this doesn't doom a perfectly valid article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Infoguardian (talk • contribs) 02:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

From your own description, it sounds like you are writing about somebody who will fail our standards of notability. There is no disgrace in not being notable yet; but we can't accomodate articles about somebody on the basis that they might be notable someday, or that they are world-famous all over Christchurch. Sorry. --Orange Mike 03:53, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

bacteria genome

is there a list of all the known bacteria genomes including the sequrnce of nucleotides and how many base pairs are average —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.1.132.93 (talk) 01:47, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

This page is for questions about Wikipedia itself. You'd be better off asking on the Reference desk. -- Kesh 01:49, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

(e/c)Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. You might look for information at the Bacteria, Genome, and Genome project articles. Thank you. GlassCobra 01:53, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ummm, is anyone in charge?

I'm using Safari and Firefox and both are screwed-up! - hydnjo talk 02:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Everything is big. Really big! - hydnjo talk 02:19, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hold down your Ctrl key and scroll your mouse button. You probably hit it by accident, which changes your font sizes. Scrolling up makes it bigger, scrolling down makes it smaller. -- Kesh 02:25, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Firefox is fine with me. Rockpocket 02:26, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

OK - sorry, restart fixed everything. In a mood to blame everything on WP I guess :-( - hydnjo talk 02:35, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

commons people

Where do they get all that nonsense? Is this actually law? I've had a feeling for awhile that they just pull that stuff out of their butts but this is just the last straw.. what a ridiculous rule! I have no idea where you would actually ask this on the commons, so I'll ask here.. is that actually based in law? --ffroth 02:30, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you talking about the fair use part or the copyright laws on different countries? --Hdt83 ^Chat 02:36, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

First off, I'm getting rid of the Godwinned section title. Second, what they're doing is pretty common. The trouble is that Copyright laws are different from nation to nation, and an international media (such as a website) can find itself under a lawsuit from other governments. This is what's known in the profession as "covering your ass." By making sure that the upload adheres to copyright for each nation involved, it keeps the Commons out of legal hot water. -- Kesh 02:41, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know the legal rules but the page has a talk page which includes a link to commons:Commons talk:Licensing/Which copyright law applies?. Somebody there wrote: international copyright is a complete mess, and the situation is even worse if the internet is involved. PrimeHunter 02:42, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Why agribusiness is slow growing?

suggest why agribusiness is a slow growing sector and nutrition and well being is fast growing field? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.76.135.249 (talk) 03:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

They will not do homework for you, but: 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. PrimeHunter 03:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

What if I have information to write a page, but no clue as to how to format it?

Hello,

This is probably a dumb question...

I have been asked by the to update an English page based on a page written in Japanese.

However, I am a bit of a technophobe and have no clue how to layout a page for wiki. Is there someone who can write the information in for me if I email a word document somewhere? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.125.171.101 (talk) 03:15, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• Try WP:AFC and follow the instructions. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleting an article I created

I would like to to delete an article I created. How can I do this?Daniel Mancini 03:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Just add {{db-author}} to the article. --Silver Edge 03:19, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Created page with incorrect name

How do I correct a page title? I created the page with the title 'William chandler iii' while it should be 'William B. Chandler, III'.

Thank you, Joe JT Pickering 03:29, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can move the page. PrimeHunter 03:58, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• I don't think you need the comma. Those are for things like Jr. and Sr. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

ias

sir i want to become collector i want to know more about that so plz arange how to study how enter plz verify me

I would take your question to the reference desk. This page is for questions relating to using Wikipedia. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 05:06, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Changing article name

Hi, I just did an article called "Longue Pointe" but I spelled it wrong. The article is spelled with a small "p" "Longue pointe." Can you tell me how to change the title (from small p to a capital P), without having to make a whole new article (a duplicate)?

Thanks You

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Fenerty (talk • contribs) 05:04, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can use the move tab at the top of the page. See Help:Moving a page for details. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 05:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• I've found no evidence of an article called Longue Pointe ever existing. Longue pointe already exisists at the moment. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Speedy delete

Should pages exactly like this one go through speedy delete? They contain nothing but the track listing of their albums.-- LaNicoya  •Talk•  05:56, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Not necessarily. CSD A3 isn't really the best tag to apply, considering that the article is currently a valid stub, thus making the tag invalid. Asking for cleanup is preferable, unless the article doesn't pass notability, WP:MUSIC in this case, and if it doesn't, then merging should be explored as an option before outright deletion. Sephiroth BCR ^(Converse) 06:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Public domain text

I know we are not supposed to "plagiarize" other people's work, but what about stuff in the public domain? Is it permissible to reproduce public domain documents word for word? I'm sure other people are doing it, but up to now I've been laboriously transcribing the info in such documents into my own words, but when there's a great deal of info to cover, it takes forever. I could do it 1000 times quicker with just a copy-and-paste, so I'd like to clarify the situation, thanks. Gatoclass 09:59, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding PD material or material whose copyright has expired is perfectly all right, so yes, you can copy them word for word. You'll still want to specify the source in a reference though. Here is a list of templates to give credit from a few general sources, if your source is one of the listed you might want to add the appropriate template. henrik•talk 11:26, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'd pretty much figured it out from reading the policies, but thanks for confirming it for me. It is going to save me soooooo much work! :)

Turns out there's even a wiki template I can use to specify this particular source, so obviously it's fine to quote from it. The original text isn't always so flash, but I can always go back and tweak the articles to improve them a bit later. Thanks once again Hendrik. Gatoclass 12:06, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Permissible, but discouraged, because it's not really nice to simply grab and paste. Copyediting is always good. x42bn6 Talk Mess 13:03, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• x42 is right. You should at least spend some time on copyediting so the article fulfills Wikipedia requirements if you choose to copy a PD source. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:09, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

When taking material from an outside source and adding it to Wikipedia, there are three major concerns (that I can think of off the top of my head...).

1. Copyright infringement. Is the material licensed in such a way that it can be used on Wikipedia? Is the material old enough to have lapsed into the public domain? Is it material that cannot be copyrighted (U.S. Government publications, etc.)?
2. Plagiarism. Wikipedia is an academic work, and we (should) take citing our sources seriously. Unique ideas should have a citation for their source; verbatim quotes should be clearly identified as such.
3. Appropriateness. Large blocks of primary source material may not be suitable for reuse in Wikipedia. Even content taken from old, public-domain encyclopedias often needs substantial updating, rewriting, and formatting to fit with Wikipedia's house style.

Obviously there's no problem with copyright infringement when you're working with public domain material, but it's still important to cite your sources and critically evaluate the appropriateness and style of any content that you copy. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:34, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Adding an Info Box

I have looked through and through and can't find out how to add an info box to a page. Can you help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bully18 (talk • contribs) 10:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can choose an appropriate infobox from Category:Infobox templates, though often it is easiest to find an article on a similar topic to the one you are trying to edit that has an infobox, copying the code while in edit mode, and changing the parameters to fit the article. So, for example, if you wanted to add an infobox to a musician's article, you would use this format:

{{Infobox Musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| Name                = 
| Img                 = 
| Img_capt            = 
| Img_size            = 
| Landscape           = 
| Background          = 
| Birth_name          = 
| Alias               = 
| Born                = 
| Died                = 
| Origin              = 
| Instrument          = 
| Voice_type          = 
| Genre               = 
| Occupation          = 
| Years_active        = 
| Label               = 
| Associated_acts     = 
| URL                 = 
| Current_members     = 
| Past_members        = 
| Notable_instruments = 
}}

Then you would fill in the parameters, i.e., add the information requested on the right side of each equal sign. You do not need to fill in each parameter; if you leave some blank they will simply not show up when saved.--Fuhghettaboutit 12:40, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Quoting myself

Hello there,

I have just created an entry for Group Cohesiveness (aka Cohesion)-my first contribution to Wikipedia. I am an academic and I have recently wrote an entry for a print-form encyclopedia on same topic. While I did not reproduce this entry fully in my Wikipedia entry, I do quote myself liberally. Now, I do not believe there is any problem vis-a-vis the publisher, as long as I use it for non-profit publications (such as my own articles). My question is (yes, i did look through the FAQ) is whether I am violating any Wikipedia policy here.

Thanks,

Jacob —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eisenbergj (talk • contribs) 11:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It is against the rules to have quotes from you, as you are a non notable person. I will fix it. Thank you for coming here, and welcome to Wikipedia! Cheers,JetLover (Report a mistake) 21:41, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Template width and rearrange

I would like the two templates here to only be as wide as it takes to make the title fit on one line so that the two templates can be put side by side.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 12:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Forget it I will just go with one template.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/tcfkaWCDbwincowtchatlotpsoplrttaDCLaM) 12:51, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hindi

How do I translate the text into the Hindi Lanuage?

There is no instant translation service, though you might be able to find one online. There may be a corresponding article in the Hindi Wikipedia but that is unlikely to be a direct translation. You can see corresponding articles on the left panel. x42bn6 Talk Mess 13:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Problem with user

Could somebody please take a look at Rex Gildo? User:Euroadonis1 keeps trying to put in POV and I do not know how to deal with it. --Lamme Goedzak 13:31, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm looking at the article now - it does appear to be somewhat non-neutral at the moment. I think I'll try to find some references to add; I'm not German, however, and know nothing personally about the subject, so would welcome other eyes. Eurodonis1 doesn't seem to be assuming good faith with his edit summaries. After I'm done, I'll leave a message for him. Kateshortforbob 14:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I've added some refs and additional information, hopefull removing some of the POV. I'd like to do some more, but I have to leave now - I'll try and do it later tonight. --Kateshortforbob 16:06, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

How to get help getting an article published on a topic that does not exist now?

Hi, did try to find any information about Kawneer that is on of the absolutely larges building and construction companies in the USA. Did not find anything. Went to their website to at least get something in, but it was rejected 2 times. I DID try to adhere to your policies and NPW and no spam, but still it got rejected. I know I saw a line where I could submit a topic and some of you Wiki Professionals, could edit it. How does that work? You can please reply to email redacted or (here I am not sure, but my login is: wiki10peter at Wikipedia). I might be wrong, but there is information about Sony, Canon and other industry leaders, so why not the same in the building and construction industry? Also, I did try to learn how to "write Wiki-ish" but apparently did not succeed. What is the best way to get up to par fast? When is it ok to have a link to a web site, because I saw A LOT of Wikipedia articles with links to external sites that wer not called spam? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.205.118.176 (talk) 13:41, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can request a page at Wikipedia:Requested articles. - Rjd0060 15:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

How to make new subtitles and subsections in an article?

I started expanding an article; the Squalodon. What I am confused about is how to make new sections for the article. Right now everything is in one area and there are no designations on the different areas of information that I covered. I want to break it up into different sections and create an outline that fits the article. I also need to know how to site my sources on wikipedia. A lot of my information came from the internet from scientists who have looked into this species. I just am not sure on how to use wikipedia. It's not making much sense to me on how to use it. If you could please point me in the right direction? Thank you

Lydia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abitbol1011 (talk • contribs) 14:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Section and Wikipedia:Citing sources. PrimeHunter 14:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

And you start a new paragraph by making a blank line. PrimeHunter 14:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Also see WP:LAYOUT for more about organizing an article's layout, and WP:CHEAT for the basic editing commands. Detailed editing help is at Help:Edit. In addition to Wikipedia:Citing sources, also see WP:FOOT and WP:CITET. If you look on Talk:Squalodon you will see that the Squalodon article is part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Cetaceans and Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs (dinosaurs? Can that be right for an extinct mammal?). Follow those links to find more information about how to edit articles of this type, and to find more-experienced editors who can assist. --Teratornis 16:54, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Blocking the editing

I would like to keep the article of 'Sofia Vassilieva', my daughter, protected from vandalizing and uninformed editing. How that could that could be done? Thank you, Dr. Larissa Vassilieva —Preceding unsigned comment added by Otherdrop1 (talk • contribs) 18:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can go to WP:RFPP to request protection. In addition, if you find things inappropriate being added to the article, you can go to WP:BLPN. —Wknight94 (talk) 18:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't see any vandalism having been performed on the article. Please see WP:OWN. Corvus cornix 18:54, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The protection policy dictates that articles cannot be protected preemptively. And then, semi-protection is only for heavy anonymous or new user vandalism, while full protection is to stop edit warring. Both are typically temporary. Leebo ^T/C 18:56, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Maranatha High School

To Whom it May Concern:

Please note that there is inaccurate information currently listed for Maranatha High School. Please make the following changes immediately:

1. Delete the sentence that says "As of 2007, over 700 students attend the school." That is a false statement.

2. Delete the last sentence that says "It also has an unflinching, unyielding, unusually strict dress code." That is a false statement.

3. On the chart, please correct the enrollment figure to "approx. 650". Also, the number of faculty is now 70, not 44. Finally, the campus size is not 5 acres...it is 10 acres.

Please refer to the school's website for further verification: www.maranatha-hs.org Thank you.

Patricia Ostiller Director of Development Maranatha High School contact info removed—Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.129.213.194 (talk) 19:04, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any reliable, third-party references to back up these claims of inaccuracy? --Agüeybaná 19:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• If we can verify the school's website is up-to-date I don't think points 1 and 3 are so controversial, direct info from the source itself would be a problem. In some cases the subject is the best source of info (I prefer birthdates to come from subjects as newspapers often take outdated bios or miscalculate birthyears). Of course, point 2 is a totally different matter. To solve this, it's probably a good idea to see if this anon is indeed the Director of Development. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Linking to my site

Hullo,

I have received a message through another member of my network about linking Wikipedia pages to my own site and apparently to "stop doing it!".

My site is www.naval-history.net. It consists of many pages of well-researched history (by myself and other naval historians and authors) mainly on the Royal Navy in the 20th century, and I only link from pages that are relevant. As these pages are often incomplete or lack suitable links, I was hoping I was adding to the value of the Wikipedia project.

If I am not, could you let me know why and also if there are numerical limits to the link backs you can make?

Thank you

Gordon Smith19:49, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm...it seems like someone thinks your links are inappropriate per the external links policy. You may want to try talking to them if it is one editor, and possibly a request for comment to get another opinion. Just don't be like this guy and everything will be fine. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 20:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear NASCAR Fan24(radio me!)

Thank you for your response. I checked out the policy, but can't see what I am breaching. You obviously know your way about the system.

I haven't seen the original message so I'm in the dark. 1. Would this be the "System" ticking me off?, 2. An individual page author, or 3. A Group of page authors/editors? If so, how can I contact them?

Can they stop me adding links? If I disagree, who can I contact to resolve this. As I have original research material that does not exist elsewhere, it would be a shame not to make it available to Wikipedia users.

Thanks again.

Gordon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.6.16.134 (talk) 20:55, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

• The user with the objection probably thinks you're trying to spam your site into the external links sections to get more traffic. If you want to avoid that, suggest adding the link to the talk page and discuss the addition with other editors, so their opinion counts in the final decision. You step on a lot less toes that way. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Having checked out your site I have to say that it's great! Looks like proper research. I don't know why it was removed because it would be a great reference. While you're here, could I get you to release those image under GFDL (See GNU Free Documentation License for more info) and creative commons attribution 3.0 (see here so we can use them in our articles. GFDL which basically means we can use it anywhere and creative commons attribution 3.0 means we have to say we got it from your site. You don't have to but those images would help wikipedia a lot--Phoenix 15 (Talk) 21:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The fact that Mr Smith has added links to his site on perhaps 25 or more pages, and has added nothing at all else to the encyclopedia, looks pretty spammy, IMO. Cheers Geologyguy 21:19, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

yeah, but this isn't a commercial site. It's a good reference--Phoenix 15 (Talk) 21:20, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

But WP:EL recommends against adding links to sites you have a personal stake in, commercial or not. Corvus cornix 23:01, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

If the links improve wikipedia, great. If not, remove them. If Gordon wants a quieter life, he should probably go to the talk page and say "I have this great link http..., if anyone agrees, please add it." If the link is good, someone will add it. But if the links are good, then there's no requirement that he do things that way. Regards, Ben Aveling 23:10, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

You should avoid linking to a website that you own, maintain or represent, even if the guidelines otherwise imply that it should be linked. If the link is to a relevant and informative site that should otherwise be included, please consider mentioning it on the talk page and let neutral and independent Wikipedia editors decide whether to add it. This is in line with the conflict of interest guidelines. (from WP:EL). Corvus cornix 23:13, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Quick question about lists

I'd like to make a lengthy list appear in 2 columns, similar to how a long references list can appear. Is there a template I can put at the top of the list/around it that will automatically format it into 2 columns? I'm almost sure I've seen this done... somewhere. I've checked out Help:List, but I can only see templates where you have to add each list item between < li > tags manually. --Kateshortforbob 20:27, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You could use {{col-begin}} and its components. See the template documentation on how to use it. Is this what you wanted? Woodym555 21:02, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Another way to do it is to put <div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;"> at the top and then </div> at the bottom. See it in action over here. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 21:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah-ha! I knew it was possible. Thanks to both of you; I shall get experimenting. Kateshortforbob 21:45, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

New User Needs Help

Hello,

I completely rewrote an article about a living person and researched it thoroughly. I have uploaded the text but am having trouble with appropriate formatting and adding my links and citations. I also want to add a photo. I don't have time to study all of the pages devoted to answering these questions (these are not short, easy tutorials). Can someone format the page and add the links if I send them the master Word file with links? I am sure there are savvy users out there who know how to do this. I would appreciate any help I can get.

Thank you. Salbug00 21:15, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Okay then, I'll help. Could you tell me what the name of the article is, thanks!!--Phoenix 15 (Talk) 21:23, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi,

I am so new at this, I don't even know how to respond to your message in respose to my request for help. The article I need help with formatting is "Ian Whitcomb." When I uploaded the file (in MS Word format), my formatting and citations went away. When you respond, please tell me how to reply to your message.

Terribly sorry to inconvenience other readers; I am a writer/editor, not a computer pro.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Salbug00 (talk • contribs) 22:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't panic! Everything is ok.

You can continue a discussion by clicking the "edit" link at the top-right of this section, and adding your reply. I have merged the new section you have created with the previous one.

As for the requested assistance with the Ian Whitcomb article, I'll leave that to Phoenix 15 or anyone else who is interested... -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 22:22, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Getting rid of the grim Donation box - stupid scrolling marquee

Is there a facility for getting rid of the new Donate box "What you don't know about us". I'm buggered if I'm going to watch a jerking scrolling marquee for the next couple of months. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:52, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Seconded. I'm *less* likely to donate if I've got something moving around at the top of my field of vision, constantly niggling me. --Kurt Shaped Box 22:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ack it's on every page! Make it stop or I'll simply take a break until it's gone. Can it be limited to login page only? Or at least have a dismiss option? Benjiboi 22:56, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Not sure. I didn't see anything on the WP:PUMP about it. And I agree, it approaches <blink> in terms of annoying-ness. --Bfigura ^(talk) 22:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Gosh darn it, it broke my userpage! I'm content with the "donate to us!" link at the top of the page. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 23:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

And it takes you to donate.wikimedia.org, which explains diddly-squat about wikipedia, and specifically tells the poor innocent nothing about "us". FFS. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It's a pity it's not a flash animation. At least I could've adblocked that... --Kurt Shaped Box 23:02, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

To remove: Edit your monobook.css file and add div#siteNotice {display:none} Ariel♥Gold 23:03, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Huzzah for Ariel!! Thanks :D --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:05, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. I've been here for a while and this is the first time I've had to do this. --NE2 23:06, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Just passing along the info, I'm no code guru, lol. I got it from Eugene on Wikipedia talk:Main page. Ariel♥Gold 23:07, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

This warrants a barnstar. Many, many thanks! Now my userpage won't look like a shoddy HTML page coded by a 10-year-old! NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 23:10, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, table.fundraiser-box {display:none} is probably better; if you disable siteNotice, you won't receive other important messages (such as Arbcom elections). (Suggested by GraceNotes on Wikipedia talk:Main page.) Eugène van der Pijll 23:12, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

That's a good point. Some of the site notices can be helpful. Thanks again Eugene Ariel♥Gold 23:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't work for me. I've tried clearing my cache and restarting Firefox but inserting either line into my monobook.css doesn't make the box go away... :( --Kurt Shaped Box 23:16, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Didn't work here either. At least one user reported this is triggering migraines on Village Pump. Physically hurting your donors is inadvisable. • Lawrence Cohen 23:10, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ditto. Neither worked on Camino, using a mac. Bleh. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:15, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Does sod all with the latest version of Firefox on Win XP either. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Go to User:your username/monobook.css, edit it, and add table.fundraiser-box {display:none}. Do a hard refresh (ctrl-shift R or ctrl-F5). Voila, no annoying ad. --NE2 23:15, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Nope. Still there. The code looks right though. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Bfigura, not monobook.js. User:Bfigura/monobook.css is what you need to add it to. Try that, refresh, and let us know. Ariel♥Gold 23:20, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You made exactly the same mistake I did at first. It's monobook.css, not monobook.js. --NE2 23:19, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah. Doh. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:20, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hehehe, me three. Sorted now and the damn adbox is gone - thanks. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:22, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

That did it, like this. • Lawrence Cohen 23:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure

Thank you. Of course, the fact that it can be blocked from displaying doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't - in that form - be showing up the first place. Loganberry (Talk) 23:20, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It isn't working for me. :/ User:Moonriddengirl/monobook.js I also tried it with the little ;, in case that was necessary. Ack. Latest version of Firefox on Win XP. And, yes, did hard refresh. Go away, ad! Headaches =/= not fun! --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 23:21, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Swap '.js' for '.css'. Save it there. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:23, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

It's working for me now. Thanks everyone. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:30, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

For me, too. Yay! --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 23:34, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be some kind of discussion before such an intrusive banner is included? Usually there's a [hide] link accompanying the sitenotice - why not this time? --Strangnet _{(t, c)} 23:31, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

This has to be removed. It completely distracts from reading. I can get rid of it, but normal users-readers cannot. /SvNH 23:40, 22 October 2007 (UTC) Ok, after refreshing their browser caches they can, too :-) /SvNH 23:47, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Non-logged in users, migraines?

What about all the non-logged in people? If users are getting migraines from this, as mentioned on Technical Village Pump, could be a concern. • Lawrence Cohen 23:24, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The foundation people are probably going to kill me for this, but if there's a consensus here on en, I'm prepared to take the responsibility in adding that line of code not just to user's private .css, but to common.css. Which would mean the English Wikipedia boykotting the Foundations's fundraising, as long as they insist on this absolutely outrageous design. Fut.Perf. ☼ 23:31, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and done so. Yes, I fully expect to get killed for it. No, I don't care. That scrolling thing is the most obnoxious banner ad I've ever seen. The seizure-inducing blinking ads are at least images that can be blocked. This is in the HTML source of the page. --Carnildo 23:47, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The change was undone, but I don't see the dismiss option when I'm not logged in. It (the migraine banner) is there the whole time. • Lawrence Cohen 00:05, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I've added this to Common.js as a stopgap solution. --krimpet⟲ 23:31, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that within a few hours the developers will have a "hide" option. I'm sure this is simply an unintended issue. But that's a great help, Krimpet, I'm sure appreciated by many! Ariel♥Gold 23:33, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm also getting migraine/nausea from this. It's absolutely ridiculous to make all the users modify their .css files, when Wikimedia should provide it with an option to close/hide. Period. Anything else is counter to the spirit of Wikipedia. And well, to our editors' good health. ~Eliz81^(C) 23:33, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Please just remove it. That ad is doing the opposite of its intention to get money. I understand that Wikipedia needs money but that ad is simply making visitors very irritated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.112.227.133 (talk) 23:37, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the code to get rid of the ad! This creates an issue now... Will I forget that it's there and thus forget to donate? That ad might have backfired on Wikimedia... Dismas|^(talk) 01:42, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

They've added a dismiss option. --Bfigura ^(talk) 23:56, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey, not bad. I estimated a couple hours, lol. Good job devs! Ariel♥Gold 23:57, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

And by they, I mean Krimpet. See here. Cheers, --Bfigura ^(talk) 00:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

It's great that logged in users can now dismiss it but it's still there when I log out, with the very annoying scrolling and no dismiss option. The ability for logged in users to get rid of this crap would be a great argument at Wikipedia:Why create an account? I'm tempted to add it myself. PrimeHunter 03:09, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Bypass your cache while logged out; the scrolling has been removed, but some people's computers will still have the scrolling version cached. (Some lucky anons even seem to have a version without the fundraiser cached.) --ais523 10:35, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Repeat RfA

Hi. For future reference, I applied for an RfA a short while back. I am not trying to apply again but curiosity for future reference. The page where I get redirected to when you enter your username is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Doyley which has my old details. How do I reset it to apply again? To clarify I do not want to apply again just yet, just for future reference. Thanks DoyleyTalk 22:50, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Move it using the tab at the top of the page to Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Doyley/archive1. Then overwrite the redirect with your new page. Woodym555 22:55, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Ahh, many thanks!! DoyleyTalk 23:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually please do not do that. Leave the old RfA where it is, and if you decide to make a new one, the new title would be Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Doyley 2. Ariel♥Gold 23:09, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Just double checked and you edit conflicted with me whilst i was about to change it. Per the instructions at WP:RFA/N do what Ariel Gold says! Woodym555 23:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You can find the instructions here :) Ariel♥Gold 23:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)