Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 March 6

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March 6

Wikipedia does not display correctly in my browser

I am using Firefox 3.0.7, and it simply doesn't display. I wonder if it is because I have some configuration unchecked.

George —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.41.14.55 (talk) 18:50, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

TONY ALVA'S WIKIPEDIA

Hi there,

I handle much here for Alva Los Angeles and Tony Alva, I'm having trouble editing the external links, i'll edit it and a bit later it is deleted. This is what I would like my external links to look like:

• The Official Tony Alva website
• ALVA Official Myspace
• ALVA Official Twitter
• ALVA Official Facebook
• ALVA Official Wordpress
• ALVA Official Blogspot
• Skoundrelz Official website —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alva los angeles (talk • contribs) 00:01, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest that you read WP:ELNO, specifically items 5 and 10. The official-site link is OK in the Tony Alva article; but the next five appear to be to networking and/or commercial pages, and editors are correctly deleting them. (The Skoundrelz one appears to be a dead link.) Oh, and you should probably also read WP:USERNAME#Company/group names. —Deor (talk) 00:35, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Citation template trouble

Resolved

At Cimetidine, I tried to use the {{cite news}} template to format a malformed ref added by a new user (here's the diff). But instead of the title of the article appearing as a link to the cited page (i.e., Tagemet to Treat Herpes and Shingles), what shows up in the article is a linked url followed by an unlinked title, both enclosed in single square brackets—see footnote 3 in the article. I'm damned if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone enlighten me? Deor (talk) 00:15, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I fixed it by removing a newline in the title. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:00, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I was messing about with it while you were, and when I saw it display correctly, I thought that I had somehow fixed it! Deor (talk) 01:03, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Articles I would like others to take a look at

I often browse and make minor contributions to wikipedia, but occasionally come accross articles on subjects of which I lack specific knowledge, but which I believe are in urgent need of looking at. For instance I just came accross the article Olusegun Oni, which is in extreme need of wikification, assuming it meets notability criteria. Where is the best place to go to ask for help, when i would like somebody else to take a look at, or work on a specfic article? 79.67.228.216 (talk) 01:47, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

We encourage you to make any changes you think may help the article. I can't say I've ever run into a page where you can submit an article and say "can you fix this". As an all volunteer group of editors, we're kind of at the mercy of "who wants to work on this". Sometimes if you can find a category that the article may fit (see WP:CAT you could try to encourage some folks there to help. Also, if you are interested in doing some editing, sometime if you submit an article for peer review you can get some good feedback on what the article needs. Sorry I couldn't be more help than that. — Ched ~ ^(yes?) 02:31, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Many articles may be under the purview of a Wikipedia:WikiProject which may have people who are experts on the subject. I would suggest finding an appropriate WikiProject and notifying them of the article... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:37, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

You can also add maintenance tags to articles that need attention. Where a page needs wikifying, for example, you could add {{wikify}}. That lists the page automatically in the category Articles that need to be wikified, where people interested in that kind of work - including members of WikiProject Wikify - can find it.

There's also the {{Expert-subject}} tag, which when placed on an article includes it in lists of articles needing expert attention. If you replace the word "subject" in that tag with the article's subject, the template can sometimes suggest an associated WikiProject whose members might be able to help. Gonzonoir (talk) 09:04, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Mega Tribulus PM

What is the use of this Mega Tribulus PM for? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.98.195.46 (talk) 03:39, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello. This page is for questions about using WIkipedia. Please ask knowledge questions at an applicable section of the reference desk. However, Google is your friend (as is Wikipedia for looking up results once you find out stuff using Google, such as ingredients in supplements). A quick search that took a matter of seconds, shows this is apparently intended to be a dietary supplement containing tribulus as the main active ingredient which some claim to raise testosterone levels. Draw your own conclusions.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:17, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Live near SF and have an hour to help Wikipedia?

This link "Live near SF and have an hour to help Wikipedia?" sometimes appears at the top of pages. The link to it is "ethnio.show" that when I click, it does nothing because the javascript was badly designed and only works on maybe 1 web browser out of all the many varieties (this is very common that big companies do when they make javascript). I've noticed a trend where people who write webpages for large companies do not understand basic HTML, as proven by putting all simple a href links in javascript, and unfortunately now the problem of big companies has come to wikipedia which in the past has always had skilled web designers instead of the overpaid ones that do bad work. Well "ethnio" and anything related to "Live near SF and have an hour to help Wikipedia" do not appear in the HTML source, so it's hidden in one of the many style sheets.

Anyone know where the link "Live near SF and have an hour to help Wikipedia?" that merely goes to the nonfunctional "ethnio.show" is supposed to go? Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 04:11, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I must add to this point that I've also seen it and it appears only from time-to-time on the same webpage. At first I thought it would be an advertisement but it was just a dead link. Kazkaskazkasako (talk) 11:13, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you give an example of a page where it is or has been? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:31, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

It sometimes appears on about all pages when javascript is on, or it did last night. It says, "Live near SF and have an hour to help Wikipedia?" and then has a link that doesn't work. I live somewhat near san francisco and am interested in whatever the event was. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 20:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll assume it's this? Could you provide a screenshot of the end-result? §hep^Talk 21:54, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The banner you saw was indeed part of a central notice banner (as User:Stepshep mentioned) which integrates software provided by Ethnio, an online recruitment tool. Unfortunately our team has experienced a few small periods of time in which the banner was not completely functional, causing users to either get no response to clicking the "Lets do it!" button or receive errors when submitting the form which appears after clicking said button. At this point we believe these bugs have been worked out. We have tested the software on Windows, Mac and Linux in Firefox, IE, Safari and Opera where available, and have found the notice to be functional in all cases. The recruitment results so far have confirmed that the notice has been working on a large variety of browsers and platforms. Trevor Parscal (talk) 18:00, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Please help! Another editor keeps reverting my corrected page.

I hope you can help me. I have been trying for days to get a corrected and expanded page on Kentucky author Gurney Norman posted, but another editor "Badagnani" keeps taking the page down and reverting to a previous page. The changes I am making are a result of an oral history interview with Prof. Norman at the University of Kentucky in February of this year. In that interview we specifically discussed the Wikipedia entry and he cited corrections, additions, and deletions (for personal reasons) that should be made. I posted the reference to the interview clearly on the page I posted but Badagnani took it down anyway. I don't know what to do. The changes made are strictly factual, confirmed directly by Prof. Norman. What else can I do? Is it necessary for Prof. Norman to contact you directly? At this point, it seems clear that if I repost the page, Badagnani will simply take it down again. I don't want to get into "edit warring," so I thought I would appeal to you for help before attempting to repost the page. What are the options here? Since Prof. Norman is a living person it does seem he should have the authority to correct biographical information on his page and remove personal information that he does not want revealed. This is my first experience with Wikipedia as an editor, and I'm really mystified. I would appreciate any help you can give me. Spudsparo (talk) 04:30, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you a journalist by any chance? Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 04:48, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Click the "discussion" or "talk" link at the top of the Gurney Norman page. You'll see a link for "new section" appear. Click that. Explain the changes you want to make there. From what I can see, you are wiping the page and completely rewriting it without proper use of the references tags. Doing something in that fashion will normally get your edits immediately reverted (even if they are factually correct). -- kainaw™ 05:04, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by "you are wiping the page and completely rewriting it without proper use of the references tags." Isn't is okay to take out sentences that are incorrect? And to add additional information that is correct? I didn't change anything about the structure of the page. Can you help me understand a little more? Thanks

Your question is specific to the Gurney Norman page. Therefore, I directed you to the discussion page for that particular article where you can receive the help you are looking for. -- kainaw™ 05:25, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Am I correct in understanding that the interview has not been published? If so, it is original research and cannot be used in Wikipedia. Sorry, but all content in Wikipedia must be verifiable by a citation to a reliable published source. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is not truth but verifiability. —teb728 t c 08:13, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

If you are new to Wikipedia, there are many basic concepts you must have before this site will make sense. Many of these concepts will seem alien because Wikipedia is unlike anything most people have experienced before. Consider that if you could go back in time ten years, you would not be able to convince anyone that a site like Wikipedia was possible or that it would work. The average person would ask "Do you mean that anybody can edit it?" and the conversation would stop there. What Wikipedia does by existing, and not turning quickly into complete garbage, seems like a miracle. Therefore it stands to reason that Wikipedia must operate on principles that most people cannot guess, but must rather learn. I strongly suggest you read Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, after which your experiences on Wikipedia thus far will make sense to you, and you will know what to do next. We can cite various policies and guidelines to you, but they may be difficult to understand in isolation, something like trying to grasp one narrow aspect of a foreign culture in a short time. To understand a foreign culture, one must immerse oneself in it for a while, and then the individual aspects of the culture will make more sense in the context of the culture as a whole. On Wikipedia, once you firmly understand the policies and guidelines that allow the site to thrive, the seemingly arbitrary actions of other editors who are following the rules will make sense. --Teratornis (talk) 09:21, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

One additional point, it's not your article. – ukexpat (talk) 14:42, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding a space in a template

As I'm about to go on vacation (real life, not just online :-) I decided to put {{Vacation3}} on my talk page, along with a short message. However, the message isn't displaying properly: there's no space between the end of the default message and the beginning of the extra one — the wording reads "He may pop in now and then from an available online source.And don't worry...", with no space after "source". I looked at the template, but I don't know how most template coding works, so in this case it would be foolish rather than bold to make a change. Can someone please recode the template so that it has proper spacing? Nyttend (talk) 05:52, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

• Often templates ignore leading spaces. I re-coded it. - 131.211.211.150 (talk) 08:25, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Question

Why do some users move pages without explanation and some admins protect page from creation without explanation. 78.144.172.188 (talk) 08:25, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Asking an editor to explain something he or she did is more likely to be productive than asking uninvolved people on the Help desk to speculate hypothetically on why some unidentified person did or did not do something to some unspecified page. See Wikipedia:Talk page and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. It would be nice if everyone left understandable edit summaries, preferably with links to the policies and/or guidelines which informed their edits, but lots of people care more about saving their own effort than saving other people some effort. I wonder if any of the uncommunicative editors you have in mind have spent much time writing our friendly manuals, or writing tutorials for new users, or answering questions on the Help desk? Of course on Wikipedia, everyone who edits an article is sharing their knowledge about the article's subject, but there is also meta-knowledge of how Wikipedia works - the mechanics of editing and so on - that fascinates some of us right along with the content of articles. I think the process by which we build Wikipedia is even more remarkable, wonderful, valuable, etc., than the encyclopedia itself. Because if we can build the largest encyclopedia in history this way, what can't we do this way? --Teratornis (talk) 09:36, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

unreadable font

Dear Sirs,

with thanks for your all efforts and help,i would like to tell you i used to visit Wikipedia in good format.but its been days that the font has been changed and its difficult to read.i have to choose Larger Font from IE toolbar but the font is not easy to read.PLS help —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mehdieliot (talk • contribs) 09:20, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

We have a hard time helping with font problems because all such problems are in the user's Web browser. Nobody here can see what your browser is doing, or why. You can see Wikipedia:Browser notes and search the Help desk archive for: font difficult read. When a problem has something to do with Wikipedia itself, then other people can look at whatever problem you are seeing, and figure out the problem. If you want to mail me your computer, I might be able to puzzle out what is going on, but I can't do it from around the world. If you can't figure it out by Googling for clues and so on, you might have to find a knowledgeable human in your locality who can look at your computer. --Teratornis (talk) 09:41, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis is absolutely right: this will be about your browser or other local settings. But a few quick suggestions you might try: if you're using IE7, go to Tools > Internet Options. At the bottom of the General tab you'll see an "Appearance" section; click Fonts. Choose "Latin based" from the dropdown next to "Language script", "Times New Roman" for "webpage font", and "Courier New" for "Plain text font." Press OK. If the font still looks small, try pressing CTRL and + a few times to increase the size. This will apply to all webpages, though, not just Wikipedia. If these don't help, as Teratornis says, your best bet is to find a tech-savvy person locally to take a look. Gonzonoir (talk) 09:54, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia tells your browser to use its default sans-serif font for most text. For IE, this is generally Arial. Unfortunately, because IE is broken, it sometimes randomly switches to another font as default, which is often difficult to read. Even more unfortunately, IE (being broken) doesn't allow you to easily change the default sans-serif font. There are fixes for this; the easiest is to switch to a browser which is not broken. Algebraist 10:00, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

AARGH! Purge!

I have set to lowest cache and deleted my internet temp files. Project talk pages which were altered last week still do not show me the current version...!? What am I doing wrong? When I look at my watchlist it seems to be up to date every day but many other wiki pages do not correspond to the history. Probably a Windows or IE8 problem but maybe a lot of people had it? (most people i know are still using IE5 or 6 why i don't know) Anyways, if you can shed light here please do, thanks. ~ R.T.G 11:11, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this happening now? Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Lots of outdated revisions shown today? says there were problems two days ago. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:21, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I didn't see this reply until I pressed "edit" so it is a bit impossible. Yeah the link is about the same thing. It happened to me once before but is more persistent now. ~ R.T.G 11:31, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Note: When it happened before I deleted my internet temp files and it corrected itself ... that's why I would imagine it is more likely to be an IE (Internet Explorer) problem ..? ~ R.T.G 11:33, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

about hartley oscillator

sir, i want to know about hartley oscillator.what is the minimum and maximum frequency we can used in this hartley oscillator.And also the application of hartley oscillatir. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jannat mai (talk • contribs) 13:01, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found our article on Hartley oscillator, 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. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:02, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

How to archive a GA review

How do I archive an old Good Article review? I'm specifically trying to archive the incredibly long Talk:Pride & Joy (comics) first GA review. -- A ^talk/_contribs 14:10, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

• Wikipedia:Archiving talk pages? GA reviews are simply transcluded on regular talk pages, you can archive them like any other message assuming they're not ongoing or too recent. = Mgm|^(talk) 16:43, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia looking strange

Resolved

 – Algebraist 19:00, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I was just on WP last night and it looked fine. But this morining I get on it and the infoboxes are at the top of the article, not to the side. But the position of the code hasn't changed it just looks different when not in edit mode. There are some other strange things to. Has something changed and made everything look wierd or is this from my computer?Ltwin (talk) 16:35, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

If infoboxes are in the wrong place, that's probably related to CSS. Have you changed your wikipedia preferences in any way? What browser are you using? Have you tried bypassing your browser cache? Are any browser features/addons installed that could be blocking CSS from en.wikipedia.org (such as Adblock Plus, for example)? Algebraist 15:38, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

to Algebraist: why would Adblock Plus be blocking WP CSS? Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 15:39, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Because the user told it to, possibly accidentally. I mentioned it simply as something in common use which I know can block specific CSS. Algebraist 15:42, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

The only thing different I did was download a Java update. I thought that might have caused it so I uninstalled Java then reinstalled it but it still looked the same. Thats the only thing I can think of. Ltwin (talk) 16:35, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Anyway when I got back on my computer it looked normal again so I guess my computer just had a brain fart or something. Thanks. Ltwin (talk) 16:38, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

RfC Template Help

I tried to do an Request for Comment (RfC) on the Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by military branch. I copy and pasted the RfC template but it was not clear as to where it should go and when I did paste it, the wikilink showed up as the color red, so I must have mistyped the information and/or location where it should go. There is a discussion in progress between myself Signaleer and Vsmith, please see Wikipedia talk:List of Wikipedians by military branch. -15:50, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm having this same problem at Wikipedia_talk:Notability (web); the RFC bot is messed up at the moment and all the RfC instructions say is to ask at the help desk for the correct topic no. (something I've never heard of). Why can't they just list it there? AHGHH! --Kraftlos (Talk | Contrib) 20:31, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorting Wiki pages

I'm trying to get an album article on a greatest hits record up to GA status and want to look at some articles that are already there. Is there a way I can sort articles by category and status or similar? I'm guessing probably not but it's worth an ask! Cavie78 (talk) 16:23, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

It may be possible with CatScan or some other tool under WP:EIW#Cat, but I suggest looking first on the relevant WikiProject page (perhaps Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums). The various WikiProjects often maintain tables that show the number of articles under their purview that have attained various class rankings (stub class, start class, etc.). --Teratornis (talk) 19:43, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

What does it take for a new page to stay up?

There are two articles that I would like to start new Wikipedia posts on: "The Adobe Flash Ecosystem" and "Flash Alternatives". What do I have to do (content, etc) to make sure these pages stick online? I've heard so many stories about pages being taken down after one day... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbkreiss (talk • contribs) 16:41, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Standard template message follows:

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..

Please also take a look at The Missing Manual. – ukexpat (talk) 16:47, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Note that your proposed article titles do not follow Wikipedia's WP:TITLE#Lowercase guideline. Have you read every article we already have in Category:Adobe Flash? The type of article you seem to be describing is what we call a list, for example see List of wiki software, Comparison of wiki software, List of web browsers, List of word processors, and for lots more: Special:PrefixIndex/List of. Starting new articles on Wikipedia is an advanced task. Your contributions show four edits on your account so far. When you have at least 1000 edits, you should know enough about Wikipedia to be able to create new articles that have a reasonable chance of sticking. You've heard stories about Wikipedia; read Wikipedia: The Missing Manual to get the real story. Please tell everyone who tells you a story about Wikipedia to read it too, to keep their stories straight. As you know from the telephone game, when people hear and repeat stories, the stories tend to evolve toward nonsense. At least you did get the correct message that Wikipedia deletes a lot of articles, and aspiring article creators need to understand how to avoid that fate, even if the stories you heard provided no useful information as to how one might get an article to stick. --Teratornis (talk) 19:04, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Citing Magazine

Would you use the cite news template to cite a magazine interview? Queenie 16:45, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe so. The page for {{Cite magazine article}} redirects to {{cite news}}. TNXMan 16:47, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Queenie 16:49, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

No problem. Best, TNXMan 16:49, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Wait! {{Cite magazine}} redirects to {{Cite journal}}. And in the intro it says it's for citing magazines and academic journals. This is better, isn't it? Queenie 16:55, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah-ha! Agreed, this is the better template. This raises questions: Why is there a {{cite magazine article}}? Should it be redirected to {{cite journal}}? Where would we discuss a change? Why can't I stop asking open-ended questions? TNXMan 17:16, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I suppose if there was an article in a magazine it would usually deal with something in the news, while a simple magazine interview is different. Possible? Queenie 17:21, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

You know, I don't think there was ever a discussion on the {{cite magazine article}}. The template's history shows one edit (possibly by a confused editor) and then the creation of the redirect. This was almost two years ago. There is also nothing on the template's talk page. I would be in favor of changing the redirect to {{cite journal}} to save future confusion. TNXMan 17:26, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Seconded. Queenie 17:39, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

 Done I've redirected the template to {{cite journal}}. TNXMan 17:51, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Product label

Just a quick question; is a candy label (wrapper) a sufficient source for a wikipedia article? thanks Ottawa4ever (talk) 17:41, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

In what context? TastyCakes (talk) 17:57, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

On a candy page to describe the flavours or ingredients Ottawa4ever (talk) 18:00, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Depends on what you mean by "describe"; none of the advertising-type language is acceptable, of course. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:01, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Ill give a few examples of what im trying to figure out; basically if its mentioned like a list ie; starch, sugar then thats clearly not advertising. but if it says its in blue wrapping as 55g bags like another product is that advertising? thanks Ottawa4ever (talk) 18:10, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm totally confused. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:21, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I think Ottawa4ever wants to use the wrappers as a source to back up information about the product such as the nutritional information. You can't use those sources to establish notability but I don't see a problem with using them to verify those kind of facts. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 19:25, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

That's one possibility. Unfortunately the question is too vague to answer with certainty. To Ottawa4ever: please tell us the name of the candy, and exactly what you want to write about it. Feel free to create a user subpage such as: User:Ottawa4ever/Sandbox and type in enough of the article text you have in mind so we can understand what you want to do. On Wikipedia there are so many rules and possibilities and exceptions that we need more information to give opinions on what you have in mind. The information on a product label might also be available on the vendor's Web site, which would let you cite it with {{Cite web}}. I don't think we have a "Cite candy wrapper" template. Such a wrapper might be an example of ephemera, but I'm not sure. --Teratornis (talk) 19:37, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for trying to clear it up a bit for me. I actually dont want to use the wrappers as a source at all. Basically im working on an article on the skittles list of products page List of skittles products(recently the company has made the skitles wikipedia page their home page, so ive been doing some work to downplay the advertising and moved the list off the main page to form its own page) and Im trying to sort out what is a source and isnt on the page. The candy's wrappers are used to describe the product as a source quite frequently on the page. I understand that the wrapper can identify ingredients, but it appears the list looks like they are advertising by sourcing the colour of the package, the size of the packages and the relation to other products. But Im unsure, so Ive left it the way it is for now. Im just hoping someone can basically determine or tell me if packaging can be used as a valid source Ottawa4ever (talk) 19:49, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I see it's already being used as a reference in List of skittles products. Have you tried using google to find a better source? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 19:55, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

"recently the company has made the skittles wikipedia page their home page" - good grief, what were they thinking? It almost looks like their site got hacked or something. --Teratornis (talk) 20:00, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Isn't that a breach of the reuse terms?  – ukexpat (talk) 20:12, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

All they're doing is acting as a proxy between you and Wikipedia. IANAL, but Google (and others) do this sort of thing all the time, so I assume it's legally unproblematic. In any case, they're complying with the GFDL, so the only issue would be the (copyrighted and trademarked) logo. Algebraist 14:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

database administrator in canada

i want to know the list of university that offer data base addministrator in canada —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.219.205.76 (talk) 18:34, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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. Algebraist 18:39, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

language

Why Gujarati language is not being seen in wikipedia. You might have more then 10 million users who know and want to have this language.

shailesh shah —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.143.226.245 (talk) 18:37, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

The Gujarati Wikipedia is here. Algebraist 18:40, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

There is also an article on the Gujarati language. —teb728 t c 21:44, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

FPC, sort of...

Is there anywhere on WP that I can go to find out what needs to be fixed with this photo to make it FPC worthy, without actually nominating it?
Thanks! WiiWillieWiki 19:25, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you read Wikipedia:Featured picture criteria? Doesn't give you tailored advice for that photo, but it should tell you everything you need to know. --Fullobeans (talk) 19:36, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikimedia Commons also ranks photos, as "featured", "quality", and "valued". I moved the image to the right so it would stop messing up our paragraph indents. --Teratornis (talk) 19:52, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

You can also see Picture peer review to get advice and reviews for a photograph to be nominated at FPC. ZooFari 03:42, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Quoting a letter

In Conclusion of the American Civil War#Disbanding of Mosby's Raiders (April 21) I am quoting a letter in a quote box. Is the best way to do this, or should it not have a box? Should the wording in the letter be italicized (and in or out of a box)? What is the best way to present this letter? --Doug Coldwell ^talk 21:22, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

See WP:MOSQUOTE and WP:QUOTE. To see examples of Wikipedia's best practices, look through the featured articles. Unfortunately I don't know a way to efficiently search the featured articles for examples of extended quotations. --Teratornis (talk) 05:03, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

COI resolution

I declined a speedy on an article, Thomas Monroe Campbell, and went ahead and did some minor work on the article. Reviewing it today, the original prod'er added a {{coi}} without an explanation.

How does this get resolved? Can I remove the COI tag, which I believe ise unjustified? Will it be admin reviewed?

TIA.

Vulture19 (talk) 21:26, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

It's a content dispute and should be discussed on the article's talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 21:32, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

My bad, I used the specific article in question to get a more general understanding of the process. Reading WP:COI doesn't really indicate how the issue gets resolved, or give an indication of "good form" (i.e. should the tag be placed without an explanation, who should remove it, etc...). Let me review the question and attempt to clarify. Vulture19 (talk) 21:52, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

That article was one of a big batch created by a spammer for the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, who created articles for everybody who'd ever headed it (or even worked for it, it almost seems). The original spammer has been blocked, but the articles still carry a taint of spam (and an ACES template created for the spammer's project). --Orange Mike | Talk 21:34, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I see. Thanks for clarifying this situation. I question (not you, Orange, just in general) how the subject of this particular article could be spam. I'm reasonably sure he would survive an AfD discussion. Vulture19 (talk) 21:49, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

More Than Warmth and Judith Meeker

What to do with these two pages? They are almost identical. Should they be merged, and if so, which way? Or deleted? And the notability tags? RenegadeMonster (talk) 22:03, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I have redirected Judith Meeker to More Than Warmth. – ukexpat (talk) 22:14, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

print friendly version

Is it possible to have a print friendly verison for Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tinagzh (talk • contribs) 23:08, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Try 'printable version' in the left sidebar. Algebraist 23:09, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Also try the new create a book option, and let us know whether it works for you. --Teratornis (talk) 23:34, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

If you have anything like a modern browser that supports CSS, then simply printing will apply the CSS print stylesheets automatically. The printable version is for previews and browsers without CSS. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 23:43, 6 March 2009 (UTC)