Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 January 21

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

January 21

How do I change a snippet?

Searching for "Joe Biden" on the Google yields the Wikipedia page on him as the first result. The snippet reads "Negative impressions of drinking alcohol in the Biden and Finnegan families and in the neighborhood led to Joe Biden becoming a teetotaler." This is a random section taken from the article and appears to be an attempt to portray him negatively. How do I change this to make the Google snippet NPOV? The Sartorialist (talk) 00:02, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You'll have to ask Google (there are some Google-specific Google Groups which have actual Google employees fielding questions, although I have no idea how responsive they are). I am pretty sure Wikipedia has no influence over what Google does. However, the Joe Biden article will almost certainly continue to receive heavy editing for the next, oh say four years, so I would imagine changes to the article will probably end up changing the snippet text Google chooses to display, Real Soon Now in all probability. --Teratornis (talk) 00:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The Serenity Prayer applies to this situation, although I'd like to write a considerably more profane version using Wikipedia lingo. --Teratornis (talk) 00:48, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I think Google prefers the snippet to be part of a proper sentence containing "Joe Biden". The earlier occurrences have circumstances which might (I'm just guessing here) cause Google to dislike them. Some headlines with no sentence say "Joe Biden". Periods in "Joe" Biden, Jr. and Joe Biden Sr. can make them look like incomplete sentences to a computer algorithm. I don't know Google's snippet algorithm but I can imagine an algorithm would consider the chosen snippet as the first proper sentence likely to include useful context. If that is the case then the "solution" could be to make an earlier sentence without confusing periods, but I don't think articles should be written based on speculation about how Google will choose the snippet. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

About accounts

How do I make accounts on other WikiMedia wikis that are all tied to my Wikipedia account? Dalekusa (talk) 00:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Unified login. You have to follow the steps given in the pages there. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 00:27, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

The text on this page, published by the Presidential Inauguration Committee differs in some small ways from what Obama actually said. (e.g. "honesty and hard work" instead of "hard work and honesty"; reject instead of accept) How should this be handled? Should we put a list of differences at the bottom of the page? Should the deviations only be mentioned on the "talk" page? Since this is going to be the page people are going to refer to when trying to find out what he said, I think we should represent that instead of what some committee thinks he should have said. If this isn't the right desk for this question, plse. tell me where to put it. Lisa4edit (talk) 01:07, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The talk page for the article is probably the best place to ask these questions and generate consensus. That is a "working" area and real information (such as explanations of differences) would not be left there in the "final product." Note that the actual text of the speech would best be left to one of the sister projects, Wikisource and would not be in the article itself. SDY (talk) 01:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

There has not been an article at Barack Obama's Inaugural Address and I cannot find a Wikipedia article dedicated to the speech. Are you referring to wikisource:Barack Obama's Inaugural Address? This help desk is for Wikipedia and not for Wikisource. I don't know wikisource policies. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:31, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

That explains things. I had wondered why it didn't link properly. (It does from some pages, but not from the "search". The fact that I had landed somewhere else altogether I didn't notice, because I usually ignore things that aren't in the main screen area - unless I'm looking for a link. (Saves one from being annoyed by lots of ads on other sites.) Thanks for your help in sorting this out. Lisa4edit --76.97.245.5 (talk) 05:18, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Help on deleted article

Copied over from this diff Woody (talk) 01:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I have recently created an account in Wikipedia with the user name being fanz4life. I have written the article on Faizel Mc and then i realized i had a typing error after having saved, they tried to rectify it, but after i saved it, i cant find the page any more, it taalks about deleted item or something, please help me recover the contents and save them on to the page, its gonna take me another hour to retype that whole info,if i cant find it. thank you.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Fanz4life (talk • contribs) 01:24, 21 January 2009

If you take a look at your talk page you will see messages to the effect that both times you have created the article it has been speedily deleted as spam per the speedy deletion process. Please read WP:Spam, WP:BIO and WP:YFA for additional guidance. You can ask one of these admins to undelete it to your user space. – ukexpat (talk) 01:48, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I see that you have created the page at least three times under two different spellings. If you continue to recreate it, the title will be protected to prevent recreation. —teb728 t c 01:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Which CSD applies to...

... to WP:NEO (non-notable neologisms)? I can't find one that fits it exactly, but I'm sure it fits under one of them. I would hate to have to take all of these to AfD... flaminglawyer^c 01:57, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

None that I can see. You'll have to PROD them. Algebraist 02:01, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) None. There have been numerous discussions of making a speedy citerion for dicdefs, as well as neologisms which have never gained consensus. The archives of WT:CSD are where to look if you're feeling especially masochistic and have your sleeves rolled up.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:04, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#Non-criteria specifically says: "Neologisms. If not obviously ridiculous, new specialized terms should have a wider hearing." PrimeHunter (talk) 02:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

How to get KHATHA for a Registered site

I have bought two sites 30'X 40' each in Sri Sai baba layout in Devasandra, Basavanapura , K.R Puram Bangalore 560036. These two sites were registered in my name in the year 2005 in K.R Puram CMC. I have paid proeprty taxes and Cauveri water charges .

Now this area is coming under BBMP.

To get the KHATHA we should pay the betterment charges, but this was stopped since 2003 or 2004. We are ready pay the betterment charges amount but CMC / BBMP is not accepting the payment.So we are not in position to get the KHATHA at any cost now.

Now I am planning to construct the house with the help of Bank loan. banks are not ready to give any loan for the sites which are not having the KHATHA.CMC / BBMP not issuing any KHATHA without betterment charges.

Pl help me by advising how to go about to get the KHATHA from the CMC / BBMP without any problem.

Pl help me.

Regards,

R.Bharatesh —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.16.148.35 (talk) 03:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 2.7 million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck.–Capricorn42 (talk) 03:52, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Some pages extremely slow if logged in, fast if not

I talked about this problem with some pages at the talk page of list of chess books. Basically, if I go to that page and click on one of the articles (A-L or M-Z), it takes about 35 to 40 seconds to load. It is that way in Firefox or IE. I found out that if I don't log in, the pages are fast. If I log back in, they take about 35-40 seconds. Sometimes 20-25, sometimes more than 40 and I give up.

So I discovered that the problem happens when I log in, and not otherwise. I've tried a plain vanilla set of gadgets and options, but I still have the problem when logged in.

How can I fix this? Bubba73 (talk), 04:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed a similar thing sometimes, too, and I suspect it may be connected to global login. Past that, though, I have no idea. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:47, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

What is "global login"? Bubba73 (talk), 04:59, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

See WP:SUL. CHeers. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:20, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Both of you use Azatoth/twinkle.js in your monobook.js's. Possibly there is a strange interaction with the number of links on those pages. Try disabling the script loading in your monobook.js files and see if that speeds things up. (Remember to purge your browser cache when you do) Franamax (talk) 05:24, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think I'm using a global login. I tried deleting both lines from monoblock.js, but I still have the problem. More info: if I am not logged in, going to List of chess books, A-L is fast. If I login from that page it takes 35 seconds or more to login (because it is loading that page again). But you may be on the right track - I've noticed that this depends on the number of links in the article and not the actual length of the article. Bubba73 (talk), 05:44, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you may have more luck with this question at Village pump tech. Off the top of my head perhaps logged out users get served a cached version of the page. Does purging the page as an anon have an effect?--Commander Keane (talk) 09:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm asking over there. If I'm not logged in it is fast. It is slow only on certain pages and only when I am logged in. Bubba73 (talk), 16:57, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I've disabled Twinkle, partially to see if it helps and partially because I don't use it much anyway. I seem to remember having a similar problem on Wikinews, with my other account, so it may be a caching thing. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Photo Submission

Hi. I want to know how we can submit a photo in wikipedia article .. eg I have created an article of vrindavanam Venugopalan, and i am interested to post his photo in that article. Kindly give me the details.

Thnks and Regards,

V S Sanakan —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vssanakan (talk • contribs) 06:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Images. —teb728 t c 07:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Please also read WP:NFC to learn about Wikipedia's guideline on non-free use content. – ukexpat (talk) 14:40, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Inputbox search problem

The search bar used in {{WikipediaFAQ}} has a problem. When you search for "top" and click the button it is fine, but if you press enter on your keyboard you are taken to the article Top. Can this be fixed?--Commander Keane (talk) 07:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

That doesn't happen to me. What browser are you using? Algebraist 10:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Firefox 3.0.5.--Commander Keane (talk) 10:09, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually it was IE 7, firefox works for me.--Commander Keane (talk) 10:10, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe type=search instead of type=fulltext would be better? This option is not documented at Help:Inputbox though.--Commander Keane (talk) 10:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Changing it to "search" would presumably add a second "Search" button. The resulting behavior in this case would also be identical (for IE users). Simply pressing Enter would still do a normal page name lookup. However, this would *change* the behavior for users who are not affected by the bug. SharkD (talk) 01:22, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Which JavaScript file handles the form's behavior? SharkD (talk) 01:19, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think there's any js involved. It's just an html form. Algebraist 01:33, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Columns

What is the standard best-practice way to divide a page into columns? This page used to be in three columns, but now on my current browser, it is only appearing in one column. Thanks, Martin 12:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

• It probably still is three columns, your browser just doesn't happen to support the method that it's using. Have a look at of User:MacGyverMagic/Young to see the code I use.- Mgm|^(talk) 12:53, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes. The page creates the columns with style="-moz-column-count:3; -webkit-column-count:3; column-count:3;". moz refers to Mozilla based browsers such as FireFox, webkit is for webkit browsers such as Safari and the third entry is the generic that should apply to any other browser that supports column-count. All of this is CSS3, which is still in development and not all features have been adopted by all browsers. Bottom line: this page will show three columns for FireFox and Safari and related browsers. IE8 and below do not support this, thus will fail gracefully to one column. This is what it is like when you are on the bleeding edge of technology. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:49, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

general question

dear sir with due respect, i have a general question which is given below

Q : When I give something to someone what would it be?

First i want to make the question clear. For example when i give something to someone it could be a Loan, Charity, Gift, and it could be a sale (in sale we give something to someone in exchange).

So sir answer should be except these which i have mentioned above. Please give me at least 6 point

Please sir take this question under your consideration as soon as possible

Yours Thankfull sameer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Adlbttsilverlight (talk • contribs) 14:37, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Please note we cannot give legal advice and we cannot do your homework for you. – ukexpat (talk) 14:45, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused about what you are asking. You might give someone advice, a greeting card, the "time of day", an answer to their question, a suggestion, "a hard time", some assistance. Do any of these answer your question? --Thomprod (talk) 19:32, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Was the homework assignment looking for something like "I gave him my opinion" ? DOR (HK) (talk) 01:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The questioner writes: "First i want to make the question clear." If the questioner is serious about wanting to be clear, the questioner should carefully read: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. --Teratornis (talk) 08:39, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

CSS question

Anyone knows how to remove the coloured icons on top of the edit window (like B, I, AB... the 'sign' button etc.)? Since they're pictures they're always the last to load resulting in a slower load (and ideally - a link to generate them whenever I want them? I'd also actually like to do that with hotcat because I'd like to use it but I don't want the symbols at all times). -- Mentisock 16:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I can't tell from your question which of these two things you want to do:

• Remove the Edit toolbar altogether (that's easy, just uncheck the box in Special:Preferences, Editing tab)
• Keep the toolbar, but change the icons into some other kind of link (no idea how to do that or what kind of result you want)

Please clarify your question. Incidentally, this question reminds me of the feature I wanted the most when I was first learning Wikipedia, and still wish I had whenever I see something I haven't seen before, or can't remember seeing in the past: a way to ask Wikipedia to annotate every gizmo and gadget on the screen with a callout box giving its name and a link to the friendly manual that explains it. Not everything in Wikipedia is 100% apparent to the user who hasn't yet read and memorized the umpty thousand manual pages yet. Of course this goes double for figuring out the wikitext of pages. The first time I clicked the edit tab, I thought "Wouldn't it be great if I could click a button and get an explanation of all this gibbering code in English?" You know, the kind of explanation a human expert would give. The kind of explanation I can give now that I have read umpty thousand manuals. This is why paradise could arrive when computers finally pass the Turing test, provided they don't decide to eliminate the humans they will no longer need. --Teratornis (talk) 19:09, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I noticed this annoying delay too, since upgrading from Firefox 2 to FF 3; I think it's a problem in the caching algorithm for small images, and one can only hope it will be fixed in the next version. - Erik Baas (talk) 02:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I think disabling it for now works.

I noticed that with small images when logging in as well and trying to load the small logos. -- Mentisock 09:24, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Printout text is black only - how to print the "tags" in blue?

I have tried to look this up several times ... Sorry ... it seems like a simple question, but I can't locate an answer. Regular ink jet printer (HP OfficeJet T45) prints the Wiki text as black but the CRT screen has blue tag fields and shows those that have been reviewed. I want to print what I see on the screen. thanks 141.157.5.183 (talk) 16:33, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Is the problem only with Wikipedia, or does it affect all other sites and files with colored text? For text to get from Wikipedia to your paper, it must pass through several different computers and programs. First you must determine whether your printer driver is receiving colored text to print. Most printer drivers have options to control whether they print in all black or in color. Did you look at your printer setup? Is it set to print in color? Do you understand the basic principles of troubleshooting on computers? The first step is to isolate the problem to its source. That means identifying all the possible sources of the problem, and constructing experiments to rule them out one by one. This is a mundane application of the Scientific method. The first step is to determine whether you can print colored text from any Web site. If every Web site prints only in black text, then it is unlikely that every Web site could have the same problem; it is more likely that the problem is in your printer setup. --Teratornis (talk) 19:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Contents disappeared

Resolved

 – TN‑X-Man 19:18, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi,

When you normally use wikipedia you always see a contents box at the top. Mines disappeared. It happened right after I clicked hide on the banner at the top of the page syaing "nominate yourself for stewardship". When I log out I can see it. But not whilst logged in. Notify me on my talk page if you reply here . cheers--DFS454 (talk) 17:15, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm a little confused. When you hid the box about stewardship nominations, it hid a contents box? To which contents box are you referring? TN‑X-Man 17:27, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Like those donations banner's at the top of the page. I clicked hide and it hid the contents box on every WP page. Content box picture —Preceding unsigned comment added by DFS454 (talk • contribs) 18:00, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You know, I'm not really sure. If you click "show" on the contents box, does the steward notice reappear? TN‑X-Man 18:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

There's no banner or contents box--DFS454 (talk) 18:34, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to the table of contents with links to the section headings on the page? If so, do you see a small box with the text "Contents [show]" on pages and can click "show"? At Special:Preferences under "Misc", is there a checkmark at "Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings)"? Note that the contents box is usually not displayed on pages with 3 or less headings. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:58, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah yes that was it Thank you!!It was switched off in prefs. --DFS454 (talk) 19:03, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

prankster information on Wikipedia listings for "hydrail" and "hydrolley"

Evidence: Please Google "Stan Thompson + hydrail" and visit http://www.hydrail.org/hydrolley.php

Pranksters have put frivolous information in Wikipedia under the "hydrail" and "hydrolley" entries and locked out legitimate sources from making corrections. I coined both those words: "hydrail" in the technical journal, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2004, Volume 29, Issue 4, Page 438, and "hydrolley" at the Fourth International Hydrail Conference in Valencia, Spain, last June (references in the URL above). You will see from the Google returns (above) that I am the main Internet source of information on hydrail. See also http://www.hydrail.org at the University of North Carolina web site.

Can you please remove the correcting blocks on my e-mail addresse and discontinue the ability of whomever applied them to do so in the future?

Hydrail will play a major role in attaining the new Administration's environmental and economic objectives. Kids using Wikipedia as a game piece in Internet vandalism will harm a serious environmental initiative at a critical juncture.

Thanks,

Stan Thompson, Chairman Hydrogen Economy Advancement Team Mooresville, North Carolina

<redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.140.242.79 (talk) 17:15, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure to what you are referring. There is an article at Hydrail which, after a quick glance, seems to be a accurate (if short) article. I cannot find an article about Hydrolley. Were there specific items with which you disagreed? All Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view and must be supported by reliable sources. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 17:41, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm puzzled too. The Hydrail article has had a few recent edits by several users, including an unregistered user whose native language might not be English, but the latest revision looks pretty clean. The Hydrail switcher article is similarly in a starting stage - not well developed yet, but I see no glaring problems, and no obvious vandalism in the current revision. Please give us a link to whatever page you were looking at which contained the vandalism - Wikipedia has some smart volunteers, but no mind readers. Other items:

• You may be interested in joining Wikipedia:WikiProject Energy and Wikipedia:WikiProject Transportation, and see Portal:Energy and Portal:Transportation. Lots of volunteers are trying to build comprehensive encyclopedias on those topics here, but the topics are so vast that we can never have too much help.
• If you have photos or technical illustrations of hydrogen-powered rail vehicles, and you are willing to donate them under a suitably free license, that would help a lot. An article like Hydrail cries out for photographs showing the working units, and technical diagrams to illustrate the powertrain. See for example the somewhat related photos in commons:Category:Locomotives, commons:Category:Compressed natural gas buses, commons:Category:Hydrogen economy, and commons:Category:Hydrogen vehicles. Also see what some people have uploaded to Flickr under free licenses (making the photos suitable for us to upload to Wikimedia Commons so we can use them on Wikipedia):
  • Search Flickr for images with the keywords: hydrogen vehicle under these licenses: cc-by or cc-by-sa
• Not many people are viewing these hydrail articles, most likely. The History page for each article on Wikipedia has a link to an experimental service that attempts to show the number of views. Some of the major topics in energy and transportation get a substantial number of views (for example, Wind power allegedly had over 100,000 views in December), but as you get down to the obscure subtopics, hardly anyone looks at them. This is especially true when few articles link to a given article, so one of the most important things you can do to establish a new article here is to add links to it from all the appropriate places. And did I mention we need photos?
• Only about half of contributors to the English Wikipedia are from the United States. Thus you should say "the Obama Administration" rather than just "the Administration", so your fellow Wikipedia users in other countries will easily know what you mean. While Obama's election has attracted considerable international attention (particularly from the folks in Obama, Japan for some reason), it is not necessarily the first thing on the minds of all users of the English Wikipedia. Therefore, address Wikipedia as if you address the whole world.

--Teratornis (talk) 20:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Pretty Taxonomic/Single-access Key

I'm looking for a way to format Taxonomic Keys. There's an example in the linked article, but it's kinda ugly, and I was wondering if anyone knew of an alternate example, or could think of some formatting code for me to use. Thanks!! --Sfazzio (talk) 17:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The Editor's index lists:

• Wikipedia:Taxobox usage (Manual of Style)
• Wikipedia:How to read a taxobox

Do those help? --Teratornis (talk) 20:28, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Request to be Removed from Blacklist

Hello,

I'm the online marketing manager for Suite101.com. I have recently joined the company and I noticed that our website www.suite101.com is on Wikipedia's blacklist and none of our content can be referenced as an external link in any Wikipedia articles.

I would like to kindly request for this current policy to be reconsidered. Suite101 has a network of very talented writers who are experts in their given field or interest. We have several very dedicated editors who work with our writers to ensure our content is at an optimum level in terms of quality.

If there is any specific issue that caused our website to be added to the blacklist, please provide some additional details. We will ensure to educate our network of writers about Wikipedia's guidelines.

Kind regards,

Marc Bitanga Suite101.com - Online Marketing Manager

199.60.221.253 (talk) 17:27, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

This usually happens when a link has repeatedly inserted as advertising. Remember, Wikipedia cannot be used for advertising or promotion. If you still think your website should be unlisted, go here. TN‑X-Man 17:30, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the blacklisting is at meta so it affects all Wikimedia sites and the place to request removal from the blacklist would be meta:Talk:Spam blacklist. But see meta:Spam blacklist/Recurring requests#suite101.com which says: "There's been strong consensus over the last 21 months to keep this domain blacklisted." PrimeHunter (talk) 18:46, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Wow. That is certainly a thorough evaluation by the folks over at meta. If anyone is interested, it makes for some interesting reading. TN‑X-Man 19:06, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Blimey you're right - it appears to be the very antithesis of Wikipedia. – ukexpat (talk) 19:40, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Magnetic Survey(Geology)

In some case histories related to mineral exploration, it is seen that magnetic low is falling over rocks rich in ferromagnesian minerals and sulphide zones (in geological map). Ferromagnesian minerals have high iron content and must have high magnetic susceotibility. What could be the reason of magnetic low over these rocks?

Good question. I would suggest asking at the Science reference desk, as they deal with specific knowledge questions. This desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 18:15, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

The Quick Index is vandalized!

Someone made all the letters from A to Z (Aa, Ab, Ab, Ad, etc.) disappear and turn red so that all pages do not exist! Can someone please fix the vandalized Quick Index, please? --Angeldeb82 (talk) 17:35, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks like it was template vandalism at {{Quickindexnav}}, now fixed and purged. _Gb^T/c 17:48, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I add an article?????????

Please please tell me how to add my own article!!! I am very knowledgeable and automated underwriting systems used in mortgage applications which are web based. I am so frustrated because I have no idea what to click on to simply add a definition/article! Please help me! Thank you Techguru90214 (talk) 17:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

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 Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. TN‑X-Man 17:50, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

How replace IP Address with username in an edited article?

Dear Wikipedia,

I'm brand new as a member, and even though I signed up for a username and password, my computer's IP address showed up on my edit of an article.

Can you help me remove that IP address and replace it with my username? I REALLY don't want that IP address to be public information.

Thank you for your help!

WikiTikiTavi44 (talk) 19:27, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

You probably forgot to log in on that specific edit. You can simply remove the IP, and change it to your current signature. On the other hand, without you telling nobody will know the IP is you, and by just leaving it there, nobody will ever make the connection. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 19:34, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

If you are referring to removing the IP address from the edit history of an article, that is no longer possible as of 2005. Check out WP:REAT for more info. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:36, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Many users are logged out during a session without noticing it. Help:Logging in has some tips on how to stay logged in. The registered IP address for an edit only becomes unavailable if the page is deleted. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:40, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

But even then admins can see the deleted material and presumably the edit history. – ukexpat (talk) 21:21, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes. There may also be other sites which have copied the page history and still make the IP address publicly available. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Flagged Revisions

This is gonna sound stupid but what are they?--Iamawesome800 Talk to Me 20:11, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:Flagged revisions. --barneca (talk) 20:13, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Small But Meaningfull

On your Sergeant page you have the wrong rank insignia for the USMC. you have a Mater Sergeants instead of a Sergeants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant

Thank you, C —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.78.150.154 (talk) 20:41, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It is labelled Master Sergeant, which leads me to believe no-one's created an image of the sergeant's insignia yet. Xenon54 (talk) 20:53, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

This is a universal article on the common military rank of sergeant; it is not about any specific sergeant rank. See United States Marine Corps enlisted rank insignia. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:31, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I change the picture for Joel McHale?

I work for Joel McHale's publicist and we would like to change his picture, at his request, to another picture we have on file.

I have never done any editing on Wikipedia and I do not know how. I have all the licencing information, I just need to know how to get it to post on his page.

Thanks,

Bncpr —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bncpr (talk • contribs) 21:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

See WP:UPLOAD - your account will have to be autoconfirmed (10 edits and at least 4 days old) before you can upload. Also see WP:COI - please discuss any edits that you intend to make on the article's talk page first. – ukexpat (talk) 21:52, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Also see WP:FUR - a publicity photo would presumably be under copyright, which is not allowed by Wikipedia's policy on non-free-licensed content. In particular, photographs of living people are not allowed at all because it is possible to obtain a freely licensed photo (by finding the person, taking the photograph, and releasing it under an appropriate license) - such as the photo already there, which has been released into the public domain making it about as free as it can get. If you are willing to release the photo of Joel under a free license such as CC-BY-SA (from Creative Commons), aware that doing so grants anyone else the right to use that photo and any of its derivative works for just about any purpose (including commercial ones), then you might consider creating an account at Wikimedia Commons, that would allow the photo to be accessible by all of the Wikimedia projects. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:49, 21 January 2009 (UTC)