Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 June 15

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June 15

Link to article without it showing up on "what links here"

Can you put a link to an article (i.e. on a talk page or user page) so that it does not show up on that article's "what links here"? I thought adding a colon after the two left brackets and before the article's title might do it, but it doesn't. Bubba73 (talk), 00:33, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it can be done with a wikilink. You can do it as an "external" link with the full url. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:19, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Putting a colon before the title in a link to a picture makes a link to the picture instead of showing the picture. It would be nice if something like that could do what I asked about. Bubba73 (talk), 21:40, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

More appropriately, putting a colon in front of a category makes a link to the category but does not add that article to the category. It would be good if doing that in a link would not show it up in "what links here" - to be used for user pages and talk pages. Bubba73 (talk), 17:53, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The what links here page has a namespace field where you can choose to only see articles, so I don't see a big need for the suggested feature. As mentioned, you can make a url instead if you for some reason really don't want it in what links here. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:32, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The reason is that it is easier to put in the name of the article than the entire URL. I'd rather not have pages I link to on my user page show up on their "what links here". Bubba73 (talk), 21:00, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests if you want to make a feature request. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I want to do that. Do I put it on the talk page there? Bubba73 (talk), 15:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

No. Try reading the linked page. Algebraist 15:06, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

 Done. Bubba73 (talk), 15:12, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Nightingale birds

Are there any nightingale birds in Northa America most especially the southeast. (as in Alabama. Georgia, Mississippi, etc) Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.242.144.228 (talk) 01:10, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Our article on nightingales might answer your question. Otherwise, please take your question to the Science reference desk, for this page is for questions about Wikipedia. Xenon54 (talk) 01:13, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

My date of birth & profession

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I wish to find out how I may go about adding my name & profession to the 10-10-1958 birthday section.Revrinjoe (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 01:35, 15 June 2009 (UTC).

Birthday lists like at 1958#October–December and October 10#Births are only intended for people who satisfy Wikipedia:Notability (people) and have or should have a Wikipedia biography. Writing an autobiography is strongly discouraged. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:47, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Help

How do i get a needed article added by wikipedia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Olohun (talk • contribs) 02:50, 15 June 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. TNXMan 02:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

You could request an article at Wikipedia:Requested articles, but it might take a long time before someone gets around to creating it. Or if you have an idea and sources you could propose an article at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Or you could create an article yourself as TNXMan described. —teb728 t c 06:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Linking dates: Who won the war?

Date linking has been going through an arbitration case. Just now, I wondered if this was settled yet (after all, it's been six months!). So, I checked WP:MOSNUM which has a big box saying that it's still being fought over. The link that the box provides goes to an arbitration case which has been closed as of yesterday. My problem lies in that I don't see where anything was actually decided on the topic of linking dates. I see where a bunch of people were banned, restricted, and had their hands slapped but I don't see any word on what we should be doing about linking of dates. So, can someone tell me in simple (non-governmental, non-red tape) terms what the guideline is now? Dismas|^(talk) 04:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Date delinking. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:23, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Can we use our User IDs for more than Wikipedia?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

For example, I want to be able to help fix up or upload images to Wikimedia Commons, and might want to add to Wiktionary. The problem is that I can't log in with my Wikipedia User ID. Is there a way to use this, or could I suggest that the Wikimedia Foundation considers User IDs for the whole Foundation? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevetsjc (talk • contribs) 05:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes. It's called m:SUL. Go to Special:MergeAccount and you should be set to go. ÷seresin 05:24, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Note that after you unify your account, you will still have to wait for separate autoconfirmation on the various Wikimedia Foundation wikis, starting from your first edit on each one. On Commons, this means you have to wait four days to upload new versions of existing images, but you can create new images there with no delay. See Commons:Commons:Autoconfirmed users. --Teratornis (talk) 19:18, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Pages in Script font - help

When I am in Explorer, all of a sudden everything is written in a tiny script font, which I cannot read. It didn't used to be that way. If I open Wikipedia in Firefox, it's not that way. Can anyone help? Thanks joan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.168.103.236 (talk) 06:02, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Try to hold down Ctrl while hitting the '+' key or scrolling the mouse wheel. If that doesn't help then try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:19, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Replacing the incorrect logo with the correct one

I'd like to replace the company logo. The logo currently posted in the page describing our company is not official one. Can I replace it with the correct one? If I can, please advise how to do it. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by A1190469 (talk • contribs) 07:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Which company are you referring to? See Help:Images and other uploaded files for basic image help. -Optigan13 (talk) 07:25, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

And please read Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:55, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Logos. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:15, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

The problem was resolved. Thank you for your kind help.--A1190469 (talk) 03:46, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Acronyms

where do i give alternate definitions to acronyms ? i tried to create a new page but it was deleted for being too short.Shraktu (talk) 09:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a dictionary. I see you created Ssfdr with the only content "Semi-Submersible Floating Drilling Rig". That would be considered a dictionary entry, and a very short one. If ssfdr was mentioned in an article like semi-submersible platform then you could create a redirect at Ssfdr. If Wikipedia had articles about different things with the acronym ssfdr then you could have created a disambiguation page. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:12, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Article abused with advertising

Hello, I noticed that an article I wrote has been abused by an anonymous user, who has transformed the text into a (blatant) advertising, and also removed certain references. Obviously, this was done by the representative of a company, who wants to advertise it in Wikipedia, while removing or writing against its competitors (inadmissible for an encyclopedia). All of this destroys weeks of research and writing effort - and the effort of further contributors. I would like to ask for advise and help. Thank you! Article is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_translation Edits are by: IP:68.174.131.183.

The above unsigned paragraph re the article on Mobile_translation was posted by: Dalai.lamia (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). Trafford09 (talk) 10:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I'll take care of it. Aditya ^α _ß 10:44, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Removed all advertisement-ish material added by the IP. Aditya ^α _ß 10:50, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:GAN help?

Could someone take a look at my review of this article over here and see if it's all right? This is my first review so I'm unsure of how to go about this. Thanks.

(BTW, the review is in hidden comments to prevent it from showing up on the article talk page, so to see the review you'll have to edit the page, remove the <-- --> symbols, and then preview it.)

Thanks. Aditya ^α _ß 10:41, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Why does every edit I try to do create an exception error?

Can't really say anymore than that. If possible please reply on my talk page. Thanks!  _♫ Яєd_{xx ♪}♫♪_♫♪^Talk 10:46, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Discussed on IRC. Should be fixed. Aditya ^α _ß 11:20, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Error messages are same as below. Thanks.  _♫ Яєd_{xx ♪}♫♪_♫♪^Talk 12:41, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

MediaWiki internal error

When I try to save changes made to the articles I get the MediaWiki internal error. Can anyone help? Here is the whole text: "MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: exception 'AFPUserVisibleException' with message '<abusefilter-exception-regexfailure>' in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.parser.php:1604 Stack trace:

1. 0 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(1075): AbuseFilterParser::regexErrorHandler(2048, 'Only variables ...', '/usr/local/apac...', 1075, Array)
2. 1 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(801): memcached->_flush_read_buffer(Resource id #38)
3. 2 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(413): memcached->get_sock('enwiki:abusefil...')
4. 3 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.class.php(469): memcached->get('enwiki:abusefil...')
5. 4 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.class.php(448): AbuseFilter::recordProfilingResult('81', 0.019469976425171)
6. 5 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.class.php(398): AbuseFilter::checkFilter(Object(stdClass), Object(AbuseFilterVariableHolder), true)
7. 6 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.class.php(673): AbuseFilter::checkAllFilters(Object(AbuseFilterVariableHolder))
8. 7 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.hooks.php(37): AbuseFilter::filterAction(Object(AbuseFilterVariableHolder), Object(Title))
9. 8 [internal function]: AbuseFilterHooks::onEditFilterMerged(Object(EditPage), '{{Infobox Singl...', , '/* Formats and ...')
10. 9 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Hooks.php(132): call_user_func_array(Array, Array)
11. 10 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/EditPage.php(956): wfRunHooks('EditFilterMerge...', Array)
12. 11 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/EditPage.php(2503): EditPage->internalAttemptSave(false, false)
13. 12 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/EditPage.php(449): EditPage->attemptSave()
14. 13 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/EditPage.php(340): EditPage->edit()
15. 14 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Wiki.php(520): EditPage->submit()
16. 15 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Wiki.php(66): MediaWiki->performAction(Object(OutputPage), Object(Article), Object(Title), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
17. 16 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/index.php(116): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(Article), Object(OutputPage), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
18. 17 /usr/local/apache/common-local/live-1.5/index.php(3): require('/usr/local/apac...')
19. 18 {main}

Exception caught inside exception handler: exception 'AFPUserVisibleException' with message '<abusefilter-exception-regexfailure>' in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/AbuseFilter/AbuseFilter.parser.php:1604 Stack trace:

1. 0 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(1075): AbuseFilterParser::regexErrorHandler(2048, 'Only variables ...', '/usr/local/apac...', 1075, Array)
2. 1 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(801): memcached->_flush_read_buffer(Resource id #116)
3. 2 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/memcached-client.php(413): memcached->get_sock('enwiki:gadgets-...')
4. 3 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/Gadgets/Gadgets.php(79): memcached->get('enwiki:gadgets-...')
5. 4 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/Gadgets/Gadgets.php(55): wfLoadGadgetsStructured()
6. 5 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/extensions/Gadgets/Gadgets.php(171): wfLoadGadgets()
7. 6 [internal function]: wfGadgetsBeforePageDisplay(Object(OutputPage), Object(SkinMonoBook))
8. 7 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Hooks.php(132): call_user_func_array('wfGadgetsBefore...', Array)
9. 8 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/OutputPage.php(1011): wfRunHooks('BeforePageDispl...', Array)
10. 9 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(159): OutputPage->output()
11. 10 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(186): MWException->reportHTML()
12. 11 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(284): MWException->report()
13. 12 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(343): wfReportException(Object(AFPUserVisibleException))
14. 13 [internal function]: wfExceptionHandler(Object(AFPUserVisibleException))
15. 14 {main}"

Max24 (talk) 11:10, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Discussed on IRC. Should be fixed. Aditya ^α _ß 11:21, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Donations To Wikipedia

What does the wikipedia do with the donations it receives? Isnt it run by a non profit organisation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shraktu (talk • contribs) 11:15, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

For a full detailed answer please read foundation:Fundraising. Specifically this page. Aditya ^α _ß 11:22, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Editing the titles of articles

Hi,

I'd like to know how to edit the titles of articles. Many thanks.Jprw (talk) 11:25, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

That's done by moving the page in question. Click the "move" link on top of the article. Then, redirect the old article to the new one by replacing the text of the old article with #REDIRECT [[Target page name]]. Aditya ^α _ß 11:30, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

A couple of things to add: first, your account must be autoconfirmed before you can move pages. This simply means that your account has been active for four days and made at least ten edits. Secondly, the redirects are created automatically, pointing from the old page title to the new one. Admins have the option of not leaving a redirect behind when they move a page. TNXMan 11:44, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Yea. Tnxman307 (talk · contribs) has got it right. My bad, sorry. Aditya ^α _ß 11:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Editing Existing Article Titles

How do you edit an existing article title? For example: existing article is Back on my feet. Should be Back on My Feet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Carolyn711 (talk • contribs) 13:18, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See the question right above this, as Aditya has provided a good answer. TNXMan 13:24, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Moved, and message left at your talk page. Bencherlite^Talk 13:24, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

As a side note, your account will need six more edits before it is autoconfirmed. Once that happens, you can move articles yourself. TNXMan 13:25, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Viewing a commons image page through wp

Anyone know why the little Commons logo is no longer visible in the upper right corner of file pages of files on commons while being viewed through WP? This one for example.--Rockfang (talk) 16:35, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

The one you click to go to the relevant Commons page for the file? I still see that. Is it there for you now? Gonzonoir (talk) 18:12, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

That is indeed the logo I was talking about. It is showing up now. Thank you for replying.--Rockfang (talk) 00:35, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Number of edits, and signature

Resolved

Two questions:

1. I have popups, and normally when I hover over a user name, I see the number of edits. Not today - is this just a temporary glitch, or did something change?
2. Edit ignore this question, I wear it wasn't working two minutes ago - I tried to add a signature, which mostly works, except the "link" to the talk page, doesn't seem to be a link. I've looked at other sigs, and haven't noticed what I'm doing wrong. I'm sure it's simple, but I don't see it. Here's the code <font style="font-family:Monotype Corsiva; font-size:15px;">[[User:Sphilbrick|<span style="background:#091C5A;color:#fff;padding:0 4px">SPhilbrick</span>]][[User talk:Sphilbrick|<span style="background:#ADD8E6;padding:0 4px;color:#fff;">T</span>]]</font> --SPhilbrickT 17:08, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Were you testing your sig on your talk page? If so, the link won't work (since you're already on the page). FWIW, the link in your sig seems to work from here. TNXMan 17:11, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

duh, exactly. Thanks.--SPhilbrickT 17:13, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)And for your first questions, I use popups as well and can still see the number of edits at the bottom of the popup window. Have you tried purging your cache? TNXMan 17:14, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Yep, the best idea is that you'll need to recache - popups no doubt needed to have its code changed after the recent update of the MediaWiki software. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:33, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Sounded plausible, however - I purged my cache - no change. Thought maybe I needed to exit Mozilla and get back in, no change. OK< maybe I need a reboot, no change. OK, I'll purge my cache and cookies. Other than the pain of having to do all the logins again, no change, that is, no edit counts. I guess I can try powering down, but that doesn't seem likely. I did not purge my passwords, but I can't believe I need to. Not a big deal, just reporting in case someone else is having the same issue.--SPhilbrickT 21:34, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I completely powered down the computer, modem and router, and started over. No change - still no edit count. I tried uninstalling popups and reinstalling. Still no luck. Am I the only one with this problem?--SPhilbrickT 14:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Didn't do anything else, but it now works.--SPhilbrickT 17:01, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Now...

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 16:59, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

...I'm trying to download vandal fighter. However, when I try to download version 3.3, I get this message: "Safari can’t open the page “http://hekla.rave.org/vf/3.3/vf33-English.jar” because Safari can’t find the server “hekla.rave.org”. Any explanation? --I dream of horses (talk) 17:56, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I can't open it using Firefox either... I think this should be moved to the Vandal Fighter bug reports page. Cureden 18:44, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Computing section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 21:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you to everyone that helped. It appears that the server is down. --I dream of horses (talk) 16:48, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

creating French pages and linking to them from English

Hi - I want to create a French wikipedia page and link to it to the English page - can I do that from my English Wikipedia account or do I need to set up a French Wikipedia account? Thanks. Marier2008 (talk) 18:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See Special:MergeAccount and follow the instructions to set up a single user login. Bonne chance. --Teratornis (talk) 19:07, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) Hi Marier, in order to create a page on the French Wikipedia, you will need to have an account there. However, an option you might like to consider is creating what is known as a "unified login", sometimes also abbreviated to SUL (Single Unified Login) and sometimes also referred to as a "global account". This feature creats an account for you on every Wikimedia project (French, Spanish, German wikis, etc, Wikispecies, Commons, etc), using your current user name and a single password. You can easily move between projects without having to login or create accounts. I have a unified login, and this is what my range of contributions looks like. It effectively reserves my username, even on the wikis that I have never edited. If you go to m:Help:Unified login, you can read more about it and set this up. If you don't want to go that route, then yes, you will need to go to the French Wikipedia and sign up for an account. Once you've created an article there, you link to the English article by placing [[en:Articlenamehere]] at the end of the article's text. Hope that helps! Maedin\^talk 19:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See also Help:Interlanguage links and the links under WP:EIW#Translate. If you want to display images on the French Wikipedia that are currently only on the English Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons. --Teratornis (talk) 19:11, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Deletion of an article in the space of other user

I want to nominate for deletion an article that belongs to the personal space of other user. Should I do it like with a regular article? Can anybody help to do this? Hunshi (talk) 19:21, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

If it's blatant advertising (and the author does not appear to be actively improving it) or if it's an attack page, you can mark the page with {{db-g11}} or {{db-g10}}, respectively. Otherwise, it's generally considered proper to ask the user about the page and allow them to mark for deletion themselves. TNXMan 19:31, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion 龗 (talk) 00:14, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Bot creating nonsense articles

A bot is creating inaccurate articles from a database. The problem appears to be the bot owner does not know much about the topic of the articles the bot is creating (this from reading the bot owner's responses to other editors reporting problems), and the bot owner is using a partial database as if it is an authority on the taxonomy and a completed database rather than a work in progress. Other IP users have brought up serious problems with the taxonomies of the articles, but the bot is still creating articles. In addition, the bot does not search the literature and note when a species is extinct. Wikipedia now is the proud owner of hundreds of incorrect articles on obscure species of algae. This is a problem. The articles are copied by wiki mirrors and are sometimes the dominant return in a search engine and other times the only return in a search engine. But, they are wrong.

Other users have pointed some problems out:

• [1]

The bot is not copying the taxonomies correctly. The bot is listing extinct species without mentioning that they are extinct. The bot is mixing taxonomies. The bot is listing species counts incorrectly. The bot is listing species incorrectly. Every article I have looked at appears to have at least 2 major errors in it. Every article out of hundreds viewed.

Wikipedia appears to be the proud hoster, distributor, and source of hundreds, if not thousands, of incorrect algae articles (even using the term "algae" in articles about coccoliths and diatoms is debatable). I attempted to start fixing them, but the sheer number is beyond the scope of occasional editing.

These algae articles are wrong. It would be better to give no information than to give the incorrect information and allow wiki mirrors to build up dozens of pages of nonsense.

The bot should probably delete or fix the algae articles it has created ASAP. Or someone who cares about wikipedia should do something to fix this situation instead of continuing to ignore the comments of IPs. --Contributions/69.226.103.13 (talk) 20:41, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Does that bot has no permit? If yes, I also want to create a bot to automately sign or add certain text to articles I have been edit. Bus88MRT (talk) 00:35, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

See a related article such as Charophyta which has received substantial edits from actual humans. Talk:Charophyta displays the {{WikiProject Plants}} banner. You may wish to report this bot on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants where hopefully you will find a concentration of other Wikipedia editors who have relevant domain knowledge to address this problem. On the Help desk there are probably not many helpers with enough knowledge of botany to be of much use with this problem - but you never know. Someone authoritative may chime in. --Teratornis (talk) 02:04, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the help. Wikipedia writers take IPs pointing out errors as affronts. It turns out there are over 6000 algae articles written by this bot. I posted at the plants page, maybe this will get fixed. --69.226.103.13 (talk) 22:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

You can probably thank the legion of vandals for the bias against unregistered users. Most vandals prefer to edit without creating an account, and if you don't create an account, you can't build up a recognizable editing history that would allow other users to easily distinguish you from the horde of drive-by vandals. In an ideal world, Wikipedia editors would refrain from committing the Style over substance fallacy and instead judge every edit on its merits, not on the basis of who posted it, but in practice it's just a whole lot easier to keep track of who is doing what if editors create accounts. That's why the majority of high-volume editors eventually do create accounts. Even though one of Wikipedia's Founding principles is "The ability of anyone to edit - including modifying most articles without preamble or registration," the endless fight against vandals causes Wikipedia to chip away over time at the editing privileges of unregistered users. However, if it's any comfort, lots of people who do create accounts may still have a rough time anyway, depending on what they want to do, and who else doesn't approve. No matter how great an idea is, somebody will probably oppose it. To get things done around here, one may need to be persistent and be able to write persuasively. --Teratornis (talk) 03:25, 17 June 2009 (UTC)