Wikipedia talk:Contact us/Archive 1

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Vandalism contacts

Since Wikipedia is a wiki we get our share of vandalism. If you see vandalism to a page then please revert the page to its last version (see: Wikipedia:How to revert a page to an earlier version for details). If you do that and the user is still vandalizing pages, then please alert other Wikipedians about this on our Vandalism in progress page. Then, if needed, a Wikipedia Administrator may block the IP address or user name of the vandal.

Is this necessary? I know people sometimes contact us about spelling errors and suchlike, but I'm unaware of any non-Wikipedians contacting us about vandalism. Martin 23:48, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it deserves a whole section, but it is worth mentioning in the "article content" section. Is leaving in the summarised version ok? Angela. 14:23, Mar 14, 2004 (UTC)

I removed it, but I will add it back, I think. Martin

Being blocked from editing

Sometimes it becomes necessary to block the IP address of a troublesome user. Rarely, however, that user may share the same IP address with another person trying to edit Wikipedia.

If you are such a person, you should follow the directions on the 'Blocked user' message that is displayed when you try to edit. You can also directly contact a Wikipedia Administrator by visiting Wikipedia:Administrators#List of administrators (look for Administrators who have "email" links by their user names, then use those links).

I removed this, because it duplicates MediaWiki:Blockedtext. Martin 15:00, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Didn't know there was any sandbox where you can edit whatever you can to test, didn't see it anywhere

Drop "Us"?

Anyone have any problem with moving this page to Wikipedia:Contact and dropping the "Us"? It implies a closed, insular community of editors and seems amateurish. I'd also like this page to express a greater distinction between contacting editors and the Foundation/Jimbo. Andre (talk) 08:30, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

I think "Contact us" is the more familiar term on the Internet, and the one people are likely to look for when they do want to contact someone. The phrase has 1,330,000,000 Google hits. Angela. 06:47, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Templates to generate

I never can memorize the code to generate a bordered window with a color background. like for instance, this template below: {{sandbox}}

I want a template with a raw text field and variable background color to be generate, will you consider that? It would be much easier than memorizomg the code. --SuperDude 16:06, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

This is discussion about the Contact us page. If you need help, please go to the Help desk. Angela. 06:47, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

A header to Help Desk and Reference desk?

After looking into a little of this page's history, I'm wondering if a header like the {{RD header}} or the {{HD header}} which would offer links to the Help desk and Reference desk might be suitable here. I don't mean the extensive instructions on those headers as much as the large red notices at the top. I know that any patient user would be able to actually read through the page to find those, but I realize that some users aren't getting the picture. Any ideas? -JJLeahy 00:41, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Well, I made what I was proposing - feedback welcome. -JJLeahy 05:15, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

There should be a front page link

At the bottom next to "about us" there should be a "contact us" link. If I were a casual browser, I would find locating a contact address too difficult. lots of issues | leave me a message 22:33, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Are you using the default skin? Contact us is linked from the sidebar on every page. Angela. 05:50, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Yes I'm just not very perceptive. :-(... lots of issues | leave me a message 09:00, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Makes it impossible to contact us

What is the purpose of a "how to contact us" page which hides or omits the addreess of the English Wikipedia Mailing List? I can't even find a link the archives.

As the admin of the mailing list, this greatly offends me, and I daresay it disturbs our community and those seeking to join it, interact with it, or even just enjoy our product. Uncle Ed 16:06, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

That's true. After all, many new users often come to this page asking for an email address. It would increase the mail from newcomers. I'm not sure of the orginal purpose of the mailing list, but if its to respond to newcomers, then I think we should add it. Idea - what about making a new mailing address for people not familiar with Wikis? That way, members (like those on the Wikipedia:Welcoming committee) could easily reach and respond to newcomers, and prevent newcomers from flooding any of the others. I'm not as experienced with Wikipedia as I'd like to be - is this a reasonable proposal? -JJLeahy 16:46, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes, an additional mailing list for topics other than "discussions among old-timers" sounds good. Let's bring that up at wikien-l and bat it aroud a bit befor creating it, though. Uncle Ed 17:21, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

I concur. I've sent an email - let's see what reaction this gets. -JJLeahy 19:49, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

A new list has just been created at helpdesk-l. Angela. 19:37, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

Stylistic Revision and Inclusion Suggestions

Please simplify or at least include easy-to-follow suggestions for the brain-weary! I am not sure I understand how any of this works.

I did what I could. Please let us know what else could done to clarify this page. -JJLeahy 01:26, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

suggestion

hi my name is Sofia Im new to Wikipedia and, from what I can see, It looks great!!. I want to suggest this page to my friends who can I Do it? Could you add a link to suggest this site.

Sofia

Sofia, I'm not exactly sure what you mean - if you want to give your friends a link to Wikipedia, you can give them http://en.wikipedia.org or http://www.wikipedia.org - or copy and paste the address of an article you like. If you want a good introduction to Wikipedia, you can go to Wikipedia:Introduction (or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction). If you want to suggest a new article to us, you can go to Wikipedia:Requested articles. Once you get there, you'll see a bunch of big catagories - Applied arts and sciences, culture and fine art, etc. Click on the catagory that you think is best, and add your title to the list.

If you have questions, feel free to add it here or on my talk page, User talk:JJLeahy. Thanks! -JJLeahy 20:09, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

(removing the VfD notice on Potterish)

moved to Talk:Potterish

Restructuring

The page was changed from a bunch of paragraphs to a series of lines to make it easier for users.

Some guidelines on what to add or not to add: The page must remain relatively short, or people won't take the time to find out the proper link to use. That means stuff already on the Help Contents or on one of the links already on the page should not be added. If you think a useful link should go there then go ahead and add it to the proper section. Elfguy 16:46, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

Removal of all addresses

Is there any reason all the email addresses have been removed? The page used to include the email addresses of Jimbo, the Board, info-en, and the wiki-en mailing list. Now most of those are gone and the Board's address seems to only be hidden in the "Wikipedia users" section with no mention in the Foundation section. Angela. 15:43, August 22, 2005 (UTC)

• Modified accordingly. Elfguy 18:11, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

• I also refer you to the above comment from Uncle Ed, although the email I sent isn't in the archives for some reason. --JJLeahy 18:22, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Offensive Users

Where does one go to:

1) See the rules on offensive users

2) Complain about offensive users

??? 71.33.53.65 21:47, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

WELL??? how long does it take to get an anwer? 207.69.139.149

1. Please post unrelated questions as separate entries :P

Moved from project page

Hi, Do you have information about living scientits Hans Bhete.

putt_jattande2005@yahoo.com unsigned by 169.199.16.27 El_C 20:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Please see: Hans Bethe. Regards, El_C 20:36, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Inclusion of a Hits Counter

Hi, this is not a complaint. I was just wondering whether it would be a good idea to have a hits counter included in every article. In this way, we can see which articles generate the most interest, and which articles can be deleted, if necessary. — PM Poon 02:03, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

We had this in the past, but since the articles are cached in several places, the counting of hits is not easily possible.

Questions section

There was a complaint on the helpdesk mailing list about the confusing mass of links on this page with no clear way to email anyone (even though they did manage to mail the list) - so I've taken the liberty to move the questions section to the top of the page, as I feel these will be the main issues/wants a total newbie will have. Still, the section could be even clearer, I think. Cormaggio ^@ 22:58, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

irc link

I was wondering if we should remove the mention of the IRC channel from the contact us link since the majority of users are not active on IRC and in general consensus lately has been to seperate the IRC channel from wikimedia at least at the official level including the recent removal of mentioning the IRC channel on the error notices. Jtkiefer ^{T | @ | C} ----- 20:54, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

• I don't really care but how else will new people find it? Elfguy 19:43, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

"Unofficial" press contacts

A recent news story [1] mentions that "Wikipedia did not respond to the M&G Online's queries". I asked the reporter how she contacted us, and she responded that she used this page, looked under Press Inquiries, and emailed Jimbo as directed.

Now I don't know why she didn't get a response, but I'd imagine Jimbo is rather busy. Could we put some other options under Press Inquiries? Jimbo and others designated by the Foundation should be making the official press comments, but with active Wikipedians online 24/7, there ought to be a method for getting comments from ordinary users (at least, the active ones.) Maybe a short listing of active Wikipedians who are willing to give interviews/comments? With the number of people in this project, there should never be an article on us going to press with no comment from the Wikipedia community at all. Isomorphic 02:27, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

It's a difficult issue because most journalists are not able to grasp the difference between what's an official statement of Wikimedia and what's just personal opinion. I'm currently compiling a list of active wikipedians as interview partners for journalists - suggestions welcome. There's also a press address on meta:OTRS (press@wikimedia.org) but it isn't very much in use yet. It would be nice to have a team of volunteers from the english wikipedia for this like in the other languages (french and german wikipedia handle their press contacts in the OTRS). If you'd like to help, please contact me. --Elian ^Talk 04:17, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

More on contacting the helpdesk

I think this entire page could do with a bit of a reword, to format it into a table or something easier to navigate than at the top. In particular, people going to a contact us page are looking for an email address, and when they see it will click it and write an email. So here, people don't read the bullet points, they only read the email address and so send many unneeded requests to the HelpDesk. Also, while there is a big header on WP:HD explaining what should and shouldn't be asked, there is none here when linking to the HelpDesk.

But what is most important is that people know that anything you write to the HelpDesk and all related correspondence will be published online under the GFDL. Archives are found here or something of the kind.

jnothman ^talk 11:10, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Radical rethink

The contact us page is awful in just about every single way it can be.

It's too long. It's got too many options. Too much text. Too many links. It's confusing. It doesn't what it wants to be - a list of contacts or a list of useful links. It doesn't help new users much.

To be honest, I could probably write a 5 page essay on what's wrong with it.

So I present to you, the lovely and wonderful radical rethink of "contact us". It's very much work in progress, and I've only really started thinking about this in the last few hours :)

Very interested in comments though. Thanks, Tom- 02:17, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree. This much text is too much for a "contact us" page, and will likely look confusing to the reader. And I like your way of splitting it up into seperate pages concerning the various different kinds of requests a user might want to make. So I say: Go for it! Shanes 02:31, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

As noted above in a mess of a post, I definitely agree. I'm making some minor changes to your mock-up if you don't mind. Also, I think we need something more than "a specific fact" to direct people to the reference desk, as reference questions often come through to the HelpDesk that aren't specific facts, but certainly aren't on using Wikipedia as the HelpDesk seems to be intended for. I also think donate should be directly available. jnothman ^talk 06:57, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I certainly agree, though the content and wording of the proposal could use some work. — Dan | Talk 18:55, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I think Tom is mostly looking for simplicity and usability, which will hopefully also reduce nonsense requests to the HelpDesk. But I guess you should just edit it yourself if you think it needs changes. jnothman ^talk 00:43, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

I like the overall concept (navigate to get to a specific question), and it can be filled out over time in wiki-fashion. Is there any reason not to just do this? -- Rick Block (talk) 00:58, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

There's no reason it can't be made live now, but I wanted to give it a little while to let the linked content mature. Maybe give it a week or so first. Tom- 01:05, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

Having thought about it I doubt the linked pages will really mature unless it's live... so I've been bold and made it so. Comments still very much appreciated! Tom- 00:26, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

• I think it's a very bad design. Wikipedia is lagged enough as is, there there is no need to put the content of a single page into many. Plus these chances are purely to make it 'look' better, and ends up saying nothing at all. Elfguy 22:56, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Your analysis is not perfectly informed. This change will not impact the servers in any way, as this is by no means a "major" page. It is also not analogous to splitting up a (small) article. By making it "look better", it is made more usable, and more inviting - so yes, these changes are to make it look better, and good on them for doing so. As for "saying nothing at all", you seem unfamiliar with the fact that users are highly discouraged by being given too many things to choose from/consider when they intend to make a simple choice. Your preferred version [2] is overcrowded. A user will open it, and attempt to scan it for relevant words. Failing that, they'll either become frustrated and leave, or they will become frustrated and attempt to use the page. Both cases are not desireable. In my opinion, the new version is drastically better. –M^T 07:35, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

should this page remain protected?

Usually, protection of pages like this is not done without consensus. However, there seems to be no consensus in protection this page. I would like to hear some thoughts on whether this page should be protected. I personally think that it shouldn't be. --Ixfd64 18:16, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

• This page has gone to complete hell. From a page that had easy to follow links to the various information, to a page that says absolutely nothing, made that way simply for appearance sake. And now it's protected. Shame. Elfguy 22:54, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Two e-mail addresses

Having two e-mail addresses is not a good idea. What on earth is the difference between "e-mailing the help desk" and sending a "private inquiry" to new users? We should just have the one, or have some very clear guide as to what "private" means exactly.

The first question I was asked when I showed the current design to a new user was "what's a private inquiry?". So what address should we have? Tom- 01:13, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree. private inquiry isn't clear and is generally unnecessary. The public nature of the lists is only there as a warning, not for an alternative. jnothman ^talk

HelpDesk-l made private?

Depends on what you mean by private: Anyone can still subscribe to the list and read all emails, but the archives are no longer being put on the web. Yes in terms of why we were warning, maybe the message should be removed.

As for info-en: why do we need it if HelpDesk-l is the same but has a larger set of respondents?

jnothman ^talk 22:21, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Suggestions

We need still more links to the reference desk: I would put under top questions "Who led Nairobi in the 1960s? and other factual questions..."

Also, since Rdsmith4's revision adding "about using Wikipedia" to the HelpDesk-l description:

1. Make using wikipedia emphasised
2. Put the email address on a new-line, for the sake of look at most common screen resolutions.

jnothman ^talk 21:44, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Insulting the Muslem's Prophet

We reject insulting the Muslem's Prophet because press freedom don't mean to insult the others religion

Actually, freedom of the press absolutely does extend to criticizing, satirizing, or insulting others' beliefs. Regardless, Wikipedia seeks to insult no one, but we do present information that is unpopular with adherents of various belief systems. Wikipedia is not censored. Babajobu 20:31, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

K"OE"NIG not K"O E"NIG

Hello,

• To log in I need a special character in large letters. Thank you. Stephan

That's OK! Stephan KŒNIG

Login is okay !

If you have any difficulties to find something: contact me and let me know. (Bee Gees, Beatles, Bill haley, surf music and so on  :-) Stephan KŒNIG 19:17, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Just saw a TV journal in Belgium 1 hour ago...

WARNING: a very naughty virus is announced to be launched on the Net next Feb. 3 , 2006. You might have to update your antivirus and firewall!!! All the best from Liège (Belgium, western Europe). Stephan KŒNIG 19:23, 29 January 2006 (UTC) * code: as "blackmail" which will install itself in all the PCs connected and afterwords

• 1. will delete all your files then
• 2. will infect the USB keys, floppy discs etc.
• 3. will destroy irreparably all the PCs connected!!!
• Info taken from M. Rudi Smet (IBPT) - Belgium Stephan KŒNIG 09:02, 30 January 2006 (UTC) (GMT + 1) :-)
• I think the better thing is to disconnect all the material on that day: I will do that.

Interwiki link to vi:

If there aren't any problems with having interwiki links on this page, could someone please add an interwiki link to the Vietnamese version of this page?

[[vi:Wikipedia:Liên lạc]]

I haven't translated everything that the page links to yet, but I'm working on it. Thanks.

 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 00:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Done. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 22:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Nyxem.E - blackmal - blackmail...

Sorry, I did not find a link written in English... Stephan KŒNIG 11:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/27012006/7/le-virus-nyxem-e-se-propage-discretement-avant-d-attaquer.html

Redirect 'specific fact'

I propose redirecting the 'Wikipedia:Contact us/Specific fact' subpage to Wikipedia:Questions, which serves the same purpose. Naturally, the link in this article would be changed to match. -- Ec5618 17:38, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Done (the redirect was made by Ec5618 yesterday with no objections). --RobertG ♬ talk 10:34, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Please don't revert/delete seeing it's only a discussion between Dr. Debug and I. Thank you. Stephan KŒNIG 23:55, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Are you talking about Blackmal?

I, in fact, wrote a naughty virus called Blackmail is installing itself all over the Net and in all the computers connected and then will attack next Feb. 3, 2006: it will copy all your files, then will destroy them and your comp too. Pay attention with suspect e-mails (file(s) to be downloaded: don't open! Was it you wanted me to reply? Stephan KŒNIG 23:49, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Sindhi Language Page must be in SINDHI-ARABIC script

Dear Sir/Madam, It is mentioned on the page

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

that there are 23 million Sindhi speakers. Though this figure is much lower than the fatual figure, but an other page

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

states that the number of Sindhi speakers in only 19.7 millions. It is contradictions in what the Wikipedia states for Sindhi lanauge.

There is an other controversial statement on

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

that Sindhi is written in Devnagri script. The fact is that the Devnagri script is never recognized officially. Even the govt. of India declares Sindhi as one of its official and national languages in ARABIC SINDHI script. Even if you consider the Devnagri script more acceptable to Sindhi Hindus in India, considering their smaller number (2.8 millions: as stated by one of your pages), the Sindhi article on the page

http://sd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

must have been place in Sindhi Arabic script. Sindhi is practically used as official language in Sindh in Sindhi Arabic Script. The official website of NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTION OF SINDHI LANGUAGE (INDIA) provides a Sindhi font for downloading, which is an ARABIC-SINDHI font. This established the fact that even in INDIA, Sindhi is dominantly accepted and written in ARABIC-SINDHI script.

Kindly redress the issue; by placing the articles in ARABIC-SINDHI script. In Devnagri script, that article on the page

http://sd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

seems NONESENSE to almost 100% percent of the Sindhi speakers.

Ahsan Ahmad Ursani

Avoid overloading info-en

A lot of people email info-en asking for:

• Information about products of companies on which we have articles.
• Information about registering in universities.
• Permission to reproduce our text or images.
• General questions on science, history etc.

All these people receive "boilerplate" answers which redirect them away. In order to relieve the load on info-en, all such requests should be discouraged. David.Monniaux 13:19, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure I agree. Boilerplate answers are exceedingly easy to send, and I doubt many people will bother to read the now-lengthy instructions. I prefer to keep it short and sweet. — Dan | talk 15:59, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with this, with one exception: We need to discourage questions about text permissions. Linuxerist E/L/T 17:44, 23 April 2006 (UTC)