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The assistance section of the village pump is used to make requests for assistance with Misplaced Pages.

If you wish to report vandalism, please go to Misplaced Pages:Requests for investigation or Misplaced Pages:Administrator intervention against vandalism instead.

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NASA logo

This appears to have been lifted wholesale from here, however, it is my understanding that since NASA is a US government agency it might not strictly be a copyvio. This aside, it seems distinctly not on to simply lift texts wholesale. Thoughts? Chris cheese whine 13:23, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The work of U.S. federal employees carried out in the course of their official duties is public domain, per the message on {{PD-USGov}}. The work of "Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian" definitely applies. Wholesale copying is not illegal, but it's considered good manners to acknowledge the source. If you want, you can add a note, either to the bottom of the article, like {{1911}}, or to the talk page acknowledging the source. - BanyanTree 14:34, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
I've added an explicit notice of the source. Superm401 - Talk 08:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
True as that may be, I'm not really sure that the fact that we can implies that we should simply lift text from elsewhere. Wouldn't this somewhat hurt the 'Pedia's credibility ("Hey, they'll copy from anyone if they can ...")? Chris cheese whine 03:04, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Well then you might as well delete all of Category:Wikipedia_articles_incorporating_text_from_the_1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica. Lifting content from a public domain source is perfectly acceptable!  ALKIVAR™ ☢ 19:18, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Portal stuff

I'm working on a portal at the moment, and I have a question: Is it acceptable to copy and paste the lead paragraph of a selected article into a "selected article" section of the portal, like the main page does with FAs? Or should I write a separate paragraph to go into the section? Thanks, PTO 18:34, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The Main Page doesn't copy text from the FA, it transcludes it - you can see this if you select "view source" at the main page. You can find more about transclusion at Misplaced Pages:Transclusion.
And, to answer your question, yes, it would be (in my opinion) acceptable to copy a paragraph from an article in mainspace to an article in portal space, though copying (unlike transclusion) has the disadvantage that the two paragraphs may diverge. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 21:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure you understood my question. I am transcluding a portal sub-page onto the main page of the portal. My question had more to do with the acceptability of using the lead of the article as the blurb that is transcluded. Cheers, PTO 21:51, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Our Cry For Help

Dear Misplaced Pages and Wikimedia Affiliates,

I am a current high school student who has had trouble with the accreditation of your site as a useable resource. On behalf of the many student here at my school, my friends and I have started a petition to allow Misplaced Pages and Wiki resources to be used as credible, official sources in reports, essays, and research. My fellow Wiki advocates and I fully understand the workings of contributors, editors, and the occasional vandalizers, yet we believe that Misplaced Pages in its whole is a valuable source and is at most times more credible than other sources available to us. We understand that when researching, one should double check citing and information, and yet one should always do the same for all sources that are used. The other complication that had been aroused from our teachers was the necessity for a proper citation for Misplaced Pages. I explored the content section in your database and was pleased to find not one but multiple examples of each type of citation. I hoped that from this e-mail concerning your site your supporters and I would be able to acquire some positive feedback from any position in the inner workings of this helpful source. I hope to get a reply soon and to the site and its future, we give our best wishes.

Sincerely, Tom Hart

1/14/07

I attempted to send this email to "Misplaced Pages information team" and got no response other than that they thought that I wanted to make a change to the site. I really don't want anything to change because I love the site. I was just hoping to get some response to my plea and this is my last idea of where to send this request. Please give me something I can bring back to my friends or somewhere else to send this message where I can get a response.

Please and thank you, Tom Hart

1/25/07

I think it is great that you are taking an interest in working out with your teachers what you think is a credible resource. With regard to citations, you can click on the "cite this article" from any article (it is in the left column at the bottom). You have to choose which citation style you use, in the US, MLA is quite common in high school (if you're not sure, your teacher should be able to clarify which style is prefered).
In regard to the concerns about credibility, you may want to check out Misplaced Pages:Replies to common objections and Misplaced Pages:FAQ. Beyond that, you may want to consider how to argue a source is credible. Is it more or less credible than a website, for instance (anyone can put up a website). Because Misplaced Pages is easier to edit, does that make it less credible? How do you decide in general if a source is credible, and then apply those criteria to Misplaced Pages.
Finally, keep in mind that there may be secondary goals behind keeping Misplaced Pages out as a reference. Not so long ago, when I was a high school teacher, my school generally let students have only one Misplaced Pages article citation. We did not want students to give up doing their own research. Moving on to college, you will find professors and TAs not accept any encyclopedia as a reference (or rarely), simply because they expect primary research and sythesis of ideas from multiple sources. Your teachers may be trying to prepare you for that.
Hope all goes well and you can reach an agreement with your teachers. --TeaDrinker 02:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I'm a Misplaced Pages sysop and I sympathize with where you're coming from - but for the most part I agree with your teachers. Way back when I was in high school the English class came right after study hall and cave painting, just before they taught us how to carve spearheads from rocks. Starting at age fourteen the rule came down like a hammer: no encyclopedia citations...none. We could use an encyclopedia as a starting point to look for other material, but we could expect a dismal grade and probably an order to rewrite the assignment if we broke that rule. Now once in a while you might find a subject where the school library doesn't have any material but Misplaced Pages does. On a case-by-case basis, go to your teacher and see if they'll make an exception. We're here to help, but the site isn't perfect. Best wishes, Durova 23:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I too would agree with your teachers on this. Misplaced Pages is not (yet) a reliable source for information. Our goal is to make it so, but we still have a long way to go before that is achieved. Given that our own rules and guidelines don't even allow citations from Misplaced Pages articles (or articles from other wiki type encyclopedias) to be used, I am not at all surprized that schools don't allow them. That said, Misplaced Pages can be a good place to start your research... it can be a very useful tool for compiling a bibliography of sources that can be used in school. Blueboar 15:32, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Same with my school! When they see you using wikipedia they get angry! They say its not reliable source because anyone can edit, but that isn't true because if you were a vandal, then you would want to destroy the whole page - not just make a change in the facts. In the report I was doing, I compared the facts of book I checked out with the site, and it was all verifiable and trustworthy information. Some of my classmate agree with me, the facts on their topics with wikipedia are the same, yet they still don't allow it. The requirements for a secondary source for my school thing are: site should end in .edu or .org, must be updated recently, and creator must have credentials (editors). A sad NS Zakeruga 01:12, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Help with my page

I was trying to sqaush down the space in my awards section by adding the following code:

<div style="height: 300px; width:100%; overflow:auto; border: thin solid black; background: #FFFFFF; padding: 4px; text-align: left;">

but when I scrolled down, the smily pictures immediately began floating out of place . Can someone help me with this? --AAA!

Anyone? --AAA! 22:13, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Is this a browser problem - does it behavior the same in IE7 as in Firefox? -- John Broughton (☎☎) 21:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I dunno. I use IE 6. Another thing about it is the cookie picture doesn't float out of place, but the smilies do. I think it's something in the HTML code. --AAA! 08:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Requesting to place online survey link

Hi, I wish to make a request to the administrators here. I am doing some research on Misplaced Pages and I wish to survey fellow Wikipedians on what motivates them to contribute their time, effort and knowledge to this great resource. I have prepared an online survey form hosted on my school server and I wish to contact Wikipedians to help me fill out this survey form, by email or by posting the link on the user's discussion page. Should the user not reply or delete my post , I would not pester them. Is this acceptable behaviour on WP? I don't wish to unwittingly flout the rules here. And also, any data collected would be kept private and confidential. I would only be asking questions that are related to my research and probably the most sensitive questions I would ask for are the Wikipedian's username and simple demographics (no income and such). I would require the Wikipedian's username because I am going to engage in a lucky draw for gift certificates as a reward for respondents who complete my survey. Is this OK? --WikiInquirer 15:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

You could post the link here and see who bites; that's what's usually done and ensures more of a random sample than putting it on people's pages. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 18:02, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Or post at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (miscellaneous). But, to answer your question, as long as you don't post to individual user pages requesting partipation (that's considered internal spam), you're pretty much okay. Other places you might want to post to would be the talk pages of Misplaced Pages:Who writes Misplaced Pages, Misplaced Pages:Meetup, and Misplaced Pages:Wikipedians. Try to keep the posting down to four sentences or less - interested editors can follow a link to your site to read about privacy, for example, or any specifics on the type of questions; the shorter your posting, the less likely someone will object to it. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 21:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

But I have drawn up a sample of Wikipedians to be surveyed (to satisfy some research criteria) and the only options open to me would be either to contact these people via email or post to the user's talk page. Can I post on the user's talk page and limit my request to just 4 lines like you said? I would KISS. In addition, I would state clearly that if the user deletes my post, then it is understood as a sign of objection and I would not pester them again. I would also send the soliciting message block to you for approval before circulation. --WikiInquirer 06:49, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Different IP addresses, same vandalism MO

Recently, several fairly minor Misplaced Pages pages have been being vandalised. The reason I'm coming here for assistance rather than reporting it to WP:RFI or WP:AIV is because there are so many different IP addresses involved, and every time the vandalism takes place, it's with a different IP. I would normally guess that this meant it was a dynamic IP address (say from an AOL account) but some of the IPs aren't even in the same range as each other.

The articles affected have included The Dreamstone (now semi-protected), The Bluffers, SuperTed, The Dreamstone Pilot, Danger Mouse and Victor and Hugo. The vandalism consists of replacing entire blocks of text in the articles with nonsense (in the case of Victor and Hugo, the main body of text was removed entirely and replaced with what looks like a Spanish translation). This link shows a typical example of this vandalism. There is an obsession with certain random words such as 'mouse' and 'police'.

The IPs involved so far are User talk:80.189.172.7, User talk:80.189.172.74, User talk:84.65.26.30, User talk:84.66.78.177, User talk:81.79.196.181, User talk:90.240.251.88 and User talk:84.71.6.250, and I'm fairly sure that doesn't cover all of them, and that there are others on articles that I haven't noticed. Many of the IPs have been warned by myself and others, though not to the point of a final warning. The problem is that a block will have no effect, since the IP addresses change with every instance of the vandalism. I'm not sure exactly what can be done to stop this vandalism; even if you semi-protected all the pages that had been vandalised, the same vandalism would likely take place on other related pages. The other problem is that the pages involved are what I call 'minor' pages - pages that aren't read by very many people - so the vandalism has remained for hours, even days, before someone has noticed it and reverted it.

I'm sure this isn't the only time something like this has happened, and obviously I'm not an admin so beyond warning them - which has no effect - and reverting the articles, there is little I can do. As far as I see, there's no really easy way of stopping this vandalism, but perhaps some admins will know what to do? --Stevefarrell 16:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Based on a couple of IP lookups, it appearst that all the IP addresses are associated with RIPE in Amsterdam. I'd guess that the only way to stop this vandal would be to file an abuse report with that ISP - see Misplaced Pages:Abuse reports. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 23:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Doesn't really narrow it down that much - the RIPE Amsterdam thing is a kind of 'backbone' in Europe - if I was editing with my IP address, it would trace back to that as well. I'm just really confused as to why those articles are being targetted. I'd hardly say they were high-traffic articles, and they're certainly not controversial. --Stevefarrell 02:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
RIPE is the RIR for Europe, responsible for dishing out IP addresses. If you do a whois at ARIN on an address not administered by ARIN, it will show up as the relevant RIR. You need to do a non-specific whois (aimed at a DNS server, Or Something) rather than an ARIN-specific one. The first two are Brightview (UK), the next three are Energis (UK), the last two Cable & Wireless (UK). Definitely looks like one or more people with far too much time on their hands got bored. Chris cheese whine 02:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

HELP! I AM BEING ATTACKED ON MY TALK PAGE, AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT.

I am being repeatedly attacked on my Talk page by a clever editor who is repeatedly twisting my words, assuming bad faith repeatedly even after my attempts to explain that what I said was completely innocuous, and, even though I asked in a civil manner, will not stop his deceptive criticism of me - out of context - on my Talk page. I asked him to confine his comments to the Talk page in question (Talk:Jonathan_Wells), but he has refused to do so. The worst part is that he is an administrator! I would have thought that administrators would be held to a higher standard of behavior. I never thought it would give them a licence to blatantly and repeatedly violate "assume good faith" and also impugn editors' character on their Talk pages. He is accusing me of the very things he is actually doing. If I have the ability to lock my Talk and User pages to prevent editing, I don't know how to do it. I am a relatively inexperienced user (no longer a newcomer, but still naive enough to think that people are honest and that the rules should be followed and that people should be civil), and I need HELP! I am watching his Talk page, so you may respond there if that is the most appropriate place. -Exucmember 20:22, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Admins are held to the same standard of behavior as everyone else when it comes to editing... no more and no less. While I don't think you intended a personal attack, from the outside looking in it is easy to see how Guettarda could have taken it as such. Beyond that, I wan't to point you to WP:USER and WP:OWN; you don't own your user talk page so even if you could lock it, there would be no reason to; nothing Guettarda was saying really constituted a personal attack or incivility as it would commonly be defined here. The bottom line is that this appears to be a simple misunderstanding over the usage of a phrase and at this point Guettarda has indicated he will drop it, so case closed.--Isotope23 21:10, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

attitude poem

i have been trying every way i can think of to find the saying that talks about attitude. the last line in the saying says something like 'life is 10% what happens to you and 90% your reaction to it'. can anybody help me? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.241.227.254 (talk) 23:43, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Try asking at the reference desk. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Request for assistance

Hello, if anyone who understands esoteric template syntax could help me out at User:Angr/Template request, I'd be very grateful! Thanks. (Crossposted to WP:VPT.) —Angr 23:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The best place to make requests of this sort is at Misplaced Pages:Requested templates. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 21:23, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Making pictures?

I don't know how to add a picture to an article... HELP! Also, how do I get adopted in adopt-a-user? NS Zakeruga 00:54, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding pictures is explained at Misplaced Pages:Picture tutorial. To ask to be adopted through Misplaced Pages:Adopt-a-User, add {{Adoptme}} to your userpage (which you've done, so wait a while). -- Rick Block (talk) 01:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

New Organizations WikiProject

I've just started throwing together the beginnings of what I hope will become a well-organized and active project. I'm going to be putting in lots of my time setting up the Project pages and categories but I need some technical help from people who've got experience with bots and templates. Some things I'd need specific help with are auto-assessment features I've seen elsewhere. Please check out the page → (under construction), and sign up if you'd like to lend us a hand. Cheers! Oldsoul 05:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Lufthansa History

Hello. I search wikipedia for the following information:

What are 4 towns of SouthEastern Europe that received Lufthansa's service for the first time since 1967?

Can anyone help me where else to search for ?

Thank you —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Akrepja (talk • contribs) 09:28, 31 January 2007 (UTC).

I assume you've read Lufthansa, so I would suggest you ask at the reference desk. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Peer review is backlogged

Lots of articles currently on Peer review, inlcuding the one I put there yesterday (Angie's List, Misplaced Pages:Peer review/Angie's List) are not being adequately reviewed. There is a bot that does reviews and it gets to most of them, but that's not exactly a peer review. I'm gonna stick a backlogged tag at the top of peer review, and I'd like to encourage denizens of the Villiage Pump to head over and review articles. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Which photographer is best?

Hi all, I've been organizing to get a photographer at the Annie Awards, which are animation's highest honour. I need to decide which photographer we're sending by this afternoon. Who should I choose? (Edited list of applicants.)

  • Jason Jones:
  • Roger Snider:
  • John Mueller: "I use top of the line Nikon cameras & lenses and can either FTP or send you a copy of the images within a couple days." Ace Young Birthday Benefit, Red carpet for cancer benefit
  • Lafayette Height: "My experience includes more than 15 years behind the lens as a professional photojournalist and an event photographer for corporate events, parties, private celebrations and weddings. My cameras are a minimum 6.5 megapixel resolution."
  • Alicia Hopson: "I am currently pursuing my degree in Photography and would like the opportunity to come in for an interview. The equipment I use are the Canon 20D, Canon Rebel XT (back up), Polaroid 600SE & Mamiya RZ67. I'm familiar with the Hassleblad 500c but do not own that camera. I have experience in BW printing & developing as well as color. I also have experience in shooting event & portrait photography."
  • Kevin Knight: "I'm a big animation and comic book geek."

I'd like people to pick their top 3, in order of preference. This person will then be "accredited" by Wikinews. -- Zanimum 15:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

List of Major League Baseball players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs

A lot of the information at List of Major League Baseball players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs is sourced from SteroidList.com. I asked this on the article's Talk page, but it has not been answered. Does anybody have any idea how reliable SteroidList.com is? Is it a reliable source? Corvus cornix 16:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I've replied at the talk page. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 21:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible to only watch a particular section of an article?

For example, I don't particularly care about the rest of the discussions being carried out on this page, but obviously I want to know when someone replies to this question. However, this being a somewhat busy page, I then got all the edits to this page clogging up my watchlist. I know that I can just scan the edit summaries for the right section header, but let's face it, I'm lazy. I would appreciate everyone's help on this! Thanks! --Aervanath 18:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I wish it were, but I don't think it is. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 21:28, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
It might be possible if you turn the section into a transclusion of a page, and watch that page. There is a discussion at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy)#It's time to tag. When you try to edit the whole section, you get:

(Cross posted from Misplaced Pages talk:Fair use)

{{Misplaced Pages talk:Fair use/Tagging1}}

But when you edit within the section, you end up editing the transluded page, which puts that page on your watchlist. It also seems a very good way to cross post efficiently. There are probably some disadvantages to this method though, so don't use this unless you know what you are doing. Carcharoth 21:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
That seems useful, but limited. That means that every section of this page (for example) would have to be a transcluded page. That is, it would have to be already transcluded from somewhere else. Or, every time I join a discussion on a high-traffic page, I move the discussion to subpage, then transclude it back to the original page. This seems like a pain in the gluteus maximus to me. Thanks for the idea (I learned about transclusion, which was interesting) but remember, the reason I want this is because I'm lazy. Now if every high-traffic page were to be in that format automatically, that would be cool. I doubt that'll happen though. Thanks anyway! --Aervanath 22:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, and then imagine if you wanted to watch just a section of an article rather than a talk page... can you imagine having all articles consist of transcluded sections? That'd be really confusing for newcomers. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Would it be possible to do the reverse? That is, can I transclude a section of an article to a subpage of my userpage, and then just watch that?--Aervanath 02:56, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
You might be able to transclude a section to a subpage (I'm not sure; maybe I'll experiment with it some); but if you watched the subpage via your watchlist changes to the section wouldn't show up on your watchlist at all. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 21:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

My password request eMails are not arriving.

I was unable to sign into my account SquidThing and so I requested a new password. I have tried on two days now, but the eMails are not arriving, it is possible (although, I think, unlikely) that the account has a now obsolete eMail address.

Where should I got to try and resolve this problem?

Regards,

Andrew 62.49.21.229 20:18, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

You might try Misplaced Pages:Contact us/login problems. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 23:09, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Unlinking years?

Does anybody know why there are editors who seem to be going around Misplaced Pages relentlessly unlinking years, even though Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Partial dates specifically says there is no consensus on this? I don't much care either way, but to me it seems more civil to leave articles alone that other editors have worked on, rather than risking starting edit wars over this small matter. AFAICT these are not editors who have otherwise worked on these articles. Recent example: Stockholm Metro, which is on my watchlist. But I've been seeing this on several of my watched articles over the last few days, and I don't think it's always the same editor. Has a new consensus developed, or is there a movement I don't know about? --Tkynerd 01:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I thought there was consensus on this. I prefer delinking solitary years. Not whole dates of course because of date preferences. It just seems so pointless to link to 1994 when all the sentence says that the green line (to take your example) was built in that year. Garion96 (talk) 14:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
I like linking to years; it gives context to historical events. In an article about the green line (to stay with that example), saying it was built in 1994 and linking to the year allows you to look at that year and maybe the few years before and after to see what could have happened that made Stockholm decide they needed it, and if it was effective in solving the problem. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
In matters of politics, history, and art, then years should be linked. But things like this show how unnescessary it is to link every year in every case. doktorb words 16:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Can you expand on that? Per ONUnicorn's post above, I don't see that it shows that at all. --Tkynerd 16:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
That has changed - at one time it was a clear consensus that standalone years should not be wikilinked unless they were historic. I am one of the editors who undoes the links unless they are specific to topis, like 1983 in music, or older than 1900. (One of the problems with the wiki system is that the rules also get edited over time - but who goes back and checks those again and again?) I agree that links like 1994 are pointless distractions. - DavidWBrooks 11:17, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
If there is no longer a clear consensus for this, why do you do it, and why should anyone else do it in an article they randomly happen upon? That's my question. In my view, it's one thing to do this in an article where you're doing other work, and quite another to perform these edits in an article you otherwise have nothing to do with. Also, what on earth does it mean for a year to be "historic"? --Tkynerd 11:45, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
I think it's clear that "In 1995 the City Line opened" is different to "In 1995 The Prime Minister of Where-ever resigned" doktorb words 12:39, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
I don't see a significant difference. It's almost always better to explain oneself than to assume that everyone else knows what one means. --Tkynerd 14:35, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

How to report abuse???? Lawrence Eagleburger page

I have been trying to figure out how to report a page that obviously contains incorrect/abusive material. Is there no SIMPLE way to do this??? It is incredibly frustrating.

Th following page seems to have been vandalized: http://en.wikipedia.org/Lawrence_Eagleburger

It seems that some of the quotes do not match the source cited. Additionally, foul language and poor attempts at humor are used. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.150.209.62 (talk) 17:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

Hello. The simplest thing to do is to fix it yourself. This can be done by clicking on the tab up top that says, "history" and then editing the version before the most recent one. See Help:Reverting for more on how to revert. However, since you didn't know how to do it, posting here is fine and I have taken care of it. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 17:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
When you're dealing with articles about living people, the best place to discuss it is at Misplaced Pages:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. Corvus cornix 17:36, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Web.com

I just tagged this article for an NPOV problem. Basically, every edit made to this page in the last few weeks have been done by SPA and IP's who only edit this and related articles, including removing references to a lawsuit against the company at it's former name. I suspect a rather orchestrated attempt to scrub the article. I don't know if anyone is interested in taking a look and doing some research here, but I thought I'd toss it out here since it could use some attention from people with an outside viewpoint.--Isotope23 18:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind... User:Ohconfucius just did a bang up job on a rewrite.--Isotope23 18:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Need help with list of uncategorised articles that previously had categories

User:Alai has made a list of articles that previously had categories but lost them because of some reason. A big reason is vandalism, usually very old vandalism even. Help is appreciated since it's a depressingly big list. The list can be found here. Garion96 (talk) 19:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Should we do anything to indicate ones that have categories now? ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 19:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Just remove them from the list. But still check for vandalism, often a categorie is replaced, but old vandalism/blanking can still be there, usually from an IP. Garion96 (talk) 19:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Swedish editor needs help

I just got done proding a series of articles on articles created by Matrix17 (talk · contribs) about contestants on the forthcoming Melodifestivalen 2007. The creator seems to be a bit challenged by sourcing these articles and demonstrating how these artists meet WP:MUSIC as well as correct wikiformating for a band page. Some of these articles may be about notable artists; I don't speak Swedish so I'm having a bit of trouble finding sources that I can understand. Anyway, if an editor from Sweden could perhaps look at the articles he's created today and clean them up/source them I'm sure he'd appreciate it (and feel free to deprod them in the process).--Isotope23 20:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I've seen a few of this guy's articles, and it seems like he has problems with English. If anyone who speaks Swedish could help him out, it would be great. GhostPirate 23:15, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
For a while, Matrix17 has been creating substubs with bad grammar, no context and a complete lack of capital letters on the Swedish Misplaced Pages, and didn't change his/her behaviour despite instructions, suggestions and appeals for better edits from around ten other users, including a complete "How to write a good stub" tutorial by LX. As a result, he/she has been blocked for progressively longer periods, currently two weeks. I have not been directly involved with the case and do not know whether the blocks have been reasonable, but I thought it would be worth noting that Swedish-speakers have already discussed the matter with him/her. //Essin 04:27, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Searching for templates

Recently, I saw an article that used a template that does something cool - it sets a quote out in indented style, with a pair of very big, colorful doublequotes around the text, and with some special handling for the name of the author of the quote. Today I want to use that template, and I can't remember the article.

So I really have two questions: What was that template? And, more importantly, how do I search for templates? David.Throop 23:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

You're probably thinking of Template:Cquote. I found it by guessing template:quote (which is probably not it), and following the category link to Category:Quotation templates. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Is redirect broken?

I tried to make a redirect at National Wildlife Service but I do not think it worked.--Filll 00:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

There was an extra linefeed in the link. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:01, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Moderator needed

A longtime effort to improve physics needs a neutral moderator to help referree the different POV. The person need not be an expert, and in fact there are some advantages to them being a nonexpert in physics but having some exposure to other sciences or even philosophy of science. The relevant pages can be viewed at:

Suggestions? Comments? Ideas?--Filll 19:24, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

You can find a mediator at Misplaced Pages:Mediation. There may be a backlog, so don't be surprised if a mediator doesn't appear immediately (we're all volunteers here). -- John Broughton (☎☎) 02:48, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

name of page

I signed up on wikipedia to help get a hip hop artist a bigger fanbase. I got the page all set up, had no issues with that at all. The issue i am having is the title of the page. All these other band/artist pages i'm seeing all have their band/artist name at the top with no errors. The title to the page that i created looks like this: "User:NeeziePleaze" and it's irritating me. I cant change it for the life of me. All i want it to say is "Neezie Pleaze" someone, please help.— Preceding unsigned comment added by NeeziePleaze (talk • contribs)

Well, it seems like what you're describing is generally not allowed. It is not a good idea to write an article for publicity purposes, see this page for more info. As for the "User" thing, it means that you've written your article on your userpage, not in the main namespace. I can't in good conscience tell you how to move an article written for promotional purposes to the main area. GhostPirate 23:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
I've posted a note at the user talk page about a number of policies and guidelines the user should be aware of. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 02:41, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Merging pages

I want to merge Florida Soft-shell turtle and Florida Softshell Turtle but I don't know how, can someone please help Tremewanbill 04:58, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Check out Misplaced Pages:Merging and moving pages. - BanyanTree 05:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Military units claiming an Alliance

I hope that the experience of others can provide me with some direction as I have searched several times and found no definitive answers.

I have been working on the Canadian Military unit The Grey and Simcoe Foresters. And, as with all Military unit pages, there is a heading of Alliances. This heading is what is confusing to me. Many Military units claim a Alliance with other Military units (and some rightly so), but I can find no reference sources for this type of claim in many cases. This is especially so for the case of a Forester unit (as there is only 1 other in the world that shares the Forester designation ... that being The Sherwood Foresters ). I don't want to add any additional implication of a link between the Units beyond their names by listing an Alliance.

Is it fair enough to simply remove the heading ?
Is there a reference source that I (non-military type that I am) am overlooking/missing ?
Is there a source where I might find info about the headings on Military units pages ?

exit2dos2000 11:37, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It is completely acceptable to leave out a section if you have nothing to add to it. Someone who knows more can always add things later. If you want to investigate further, the folks at Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Military history, especially in their Canadian military history task force, are probably your best bet. (If you work on Canadian military units with any sort of regularity, you may just want to join as a participant.) - BanyanTree 17:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

How does someone copy an Italian Misplaced Pages page to create an English Misplaced Pages page here in the USA?

This site is Misplaced Pages in Italy. There is no Misplaced Pages page for Fr. Gioacchino here in the USA. How does someone merely translate the Italian page so the USA page can be created? Or is there an easier way to do this? Misplaced Pages Translator maybe?

Thanx in advance - wh1skeyman

Well, if you're somewhat adept at reading Italian, you could translate the article into English yourself. I wouldn't at all recommend using any kind of system translation software or website, they tend to give very very poor literal translations, and some words won't translate properly at all.
You could also simply start an article yourself if you know something about the subject, rather than translating it. --Stevefarrell 00:51, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
Misplaced Pages:Translation might be useful to read. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 02:30, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
Just a little clarification: This Misplaced Pages is for everybody in the world who speaks English, it isn't the USA Misplaced Pages.  :-) Corvus cornix 17:36, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Signing posts script?

Is there some script that will help an absent minded person such as myself remember to sign my posts. Any help would be appreciated.--John Lake 01:32, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

There's a bot that helps by signing for you on some pages. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 21:14, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Northland Communications cable possible spamming

User:Bill_Clark appears to be engaging in spamming on behalf of "Northland Communications."

See for example this change.

There may be hundreds of these in the last few days. See this list.

Would you be kind enough to look into this? Spamreporter1 02:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah, sorry if I've violated some policy. I'm not partial to Northland Communications, it's just that they were first on my list. I've just recently compiled the list of cities serviced by Mediacom and was planning to add Public utilities sections to each of the pages for those cities. I'll probably end up doing some smaller cable companies as well, before I finish with Mediacom (it's a huge list). I've also restructured the templates for Cable Television companies in the US (see {{CATV USA}}). My interest is in cable companies in the United States, in general. --Bill Clark 03:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

NOTE: I'm going to begin removing the external links on city pages, since I think that will resolve this issue. I'm announcing this here so that I can refer to this message in my edit summaries. This issue has also been discussed here, here, here, here and here. --Bill Clark 19:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC) UPDATE: I'm done removing the external links. I'm going to continue creating new articles for US cable companies that are missing from WP, but will wait a while before editing any articles on cities, to give enough time to make sure everyone's objections have been addressed. --Bill Clark 20:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I have left a note for Bill Clark on his talk page thanking him for starting the removal of the commercial links. However, there remain a number of commercial links, and I have asked Bill Clark to please continue with the removal of all the commercial information. Spamreporter1 07:31, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I have moved the discussion from my talk page to the discussion page for WikiProject Cities. --Bill Clark 15:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Dominator UAV

Hello, would people with experience in naming conventions for articles please chime in at the Discussion page here: Talk:Dominator UAV. I am flexible on the article name, but I want to ensure people using search engines like "Google" and "Misplaced Pages" will find it quickly and easily. Thank you Headphonos 16:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You are complaining at the wrong place. You should be taking this to WP:Air, which, by the way, has a policy for aircraft article names. You were not conforming to this policy, which is why you ran into difficulties with your chosen name. —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 17:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Unrequested password changes? Hacking?

Hello, I have received a few e-mails now from 'wikipedia' telling me that I have had a request to reset my password from (most recently 82.38.8.75) IP address. I have not requested to reset my password at all recently, nor is the IP address mine. Does anyone know how or who would be generating these requests..I'm am not technically savvy enough to figure this out myself.

Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Liv (talk • contribs) 00:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

It is nothing to worry about, someone at that IP is saying that they are you, and requesting a new password. That then gets e-mailed to you. There is no way for them to see it, so you can just continue using the password you usually use, and wait until they give up. They may have thought they registered your username, or they might just want to annoy you, but it isn't a threat to your account's security. Prodego 00:26, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

help with a conflict of interest

From time to time, I have made edits to the James Anderson (computer scientist) article. Editing the article has been very contentious at times because of the outstanding claims that Dr. Anderson has made.

The article recently came to the attention of Ben Moore, one of the authors of an article about Dr. Anderson. Mr. Moore is understandably sensitive about the whole issue because he has been roundly criticized for his reporting on Dr. Anderson's work. However, for this reason, I don't think he should be editing the article. He has repeatedly inserted weasel words to soften the description of this criticism. He has edited from the IPs 132.185.240.120, 132.185.144.120, 132.185.240.121, and 132.185.144.122. He has also edited as User:Benthebiscuit‎.

I'm not quite sure how to move forward here. I'm also tiring of editing the article and thinking I might just drop the whole thing. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks, Lunch 17:42, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

An addendum: I didn't write the statement that so offends Mr. Moore (" criticized for irresponsible journalism"), but I think it's a fair summary of the criticism. Any hints on an appropriate Misplaced Pages forum where I should direct my pleas would be welcome. Lunch 23:26, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

FYI, the Misplaced Pages:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard was established to help with COI problems. -Will Beback · † · 01:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll try there. Lunch 01:53, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

nude photos

HELP! I want to research on Feb. 5 page, and found nude photos there. don't know how to delete them (looked in recent changes but couldn't find. g —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.243.3.46 (talk)

It's been fixed. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:31, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Image resize in mediawiki install

i realize this might not be the right place to ask this because it's a mediawiki question and not a direct wikipedia question... but: i have mediawiki 1.9.1 installed, everything is going great but when i try to use ] it does not resize the image. i'm new so forgive me, i really did try to find the answer myself. is there something simular to templates where i need to have another page assist with the resizing?

Kevlar 05:11, 6 February 2007 (UTC)


what do the numbers mean

on a history page there are these numbers in brackets such as ....(+6,434).... what do they ,mean? JUBALCAIN 08:46, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

They mean how many bytes have been added or removed from an article during an edit. They are good for identifying blanking and nonsense. --AAA! 09:26, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

fanxJUBALCAIN 09:57, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Given the number of times we get asked this question, I keep wanting to answer it with: "It's a vote tally on whether other editors like your hair done that way ... (You did know that we spy on you through your computer, didn't you?)"  :>) Blueboar 19:12, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Renaming an image file

How do I rename an image file?--Janarius 14:54, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I think (but could be wrong) that you have to re-upload it. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:10, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Yes, you have to reupload it. Be sure to mark the non-used image as redundant to the new image so it gets deleted please. Put {{isd|<newfilename>}}. --MECU≈talk 15:16, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Weirdness

I have, on two occasions, gone to a Misplaced Pages page and seen some vandalism (a couple sentences that were clearly fake and poorly spelled to boot). The first page was Gambling and the second was J.K. Rowling. Both times I clicked on the edit tab to delete the offending section but it did not show up on the edit page to delete. Then, when I went back to the article, the incorrect section was gone.
Anyone have an idea what happened here? The only explanation I can think of is that in between the time that I first went to the article and then went to the edit page, someone else (Speedy Gonzalez apparently) saw the vandalism and deleted it. Has this happened to anyone else? --PickettJ 18:36, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Probably true. You can check the history of any article to see who edited it when. Rmhermen 18:44, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Portal:Isle of Man

Could an interested editor please take a look at this portal and touch it up? Thanks. >Radiant< 08:30, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Citing info. (with permission) from sitting MP(UK)

I have some correspondence from my constituency member of parliament (UK) which includes, among other things, views on some key current events and things she desires to accomplish during her time in parliament/government. Through a colleague, she is close to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is likely to be the next Prime Minister and there are good chances that she will get some sort of ministry.

Given that I have written permission to communicate this information to others and I have been making contributions to her Misplaced Pages entry, I would like to know how to cite the info. for 'verifiability.' Do I have to copy to Wikisource/Commons ??

Excuse me if this is some sort of FAQ, but I'm still kind of a newbie at this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dsmith1usa (talk • contribs) 11:34, 7 February 2007 (UTC).

Well, to post it to wikisource, you might have to get it put under the GFDL - and this may fall under crown copyright rather than the writer's personal copyright, which could complicate things. (I am not a lawyer) --Random832(tc) 15:18, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

testN

Are ordinary (non-admin) users allowed to post these warnings? The wording of them gives an impression of authority, and it's unclear from anything I have been able to find who is allowed to post these. --Random832(tc) 12:16, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, ordinary users are encoraged to post those warnings to the talk pages of users who are vandalising. The number of warnings posted to a talk page is a signal to adimns that it's time to block the vandal. ~ ONUnicornproblem solving 15:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
It just seems kind of "off" somehow, for a non-admin to be able to issue a "last warning". But anyway, is there a page with instructions on this? (I saw someone mention elsewhere a "recommended edit summary") --Random832(tc) 15:15, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Using a video game as your main reference

Abus Gun, and I suspect several other contributions by the main editor, draw on video games as their main sources of information and reference. Is this reasonable or advisable?--Filll 15:09, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I think that another source would be needed. Although the Age of Empires series tends to be accurate, there is no way to be sure that this information is correct without consulting another source. GhostPirate 16:08, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

SPLC and identifying hate groups

For reasons that follow, the SPLC should not be considered a reliable source for who is and who is not a 'hate group'. 1.) USA Today reported that "... in a recent report on arsons at black churches in the South, his Klanwatch newsletter included five 1990 fires in Kentucky. The article doesn't mention they were set by a black man." 2.) Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights describes Dees, the SPLC leader, as " a fraud who has milked a lot of very wonderful well-intentioned people. If it's got headlines, Morris is there." 3.) The Montgomery Advertiser has said that from 1984 to 1994 the SPLC received almost $62 million in contributions but spent only $20.8 million on its anti-poverty and anti-discrimination programs. 4.) Harpers Magazine has said that most alleged 'hate' groups on the SPLC's list are non-violent. 5.) The American Institute of Philanthropy gave the center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors 6.) David Horowitz of Front Page Magazine writes, "The effect is to multiply the number of racial hate groups, to scare well-meaning citizens into the belief that mainstream civil rights organizations like the Center for the Study of Popular Culture are really fever swamps of hate that deserve to be lumped alongside the Ku Klux Klan. The purpose of this fear-mongering is transparent. It is to fill the already wealthy coffers of your organization by exploiting unsuspecting donors into helping you promote leftwing agendas under the guise of civil rights" In short, the SPLC is to social work what Robert Tilton is to televangelism. Using it's statements to mar other groups with the label "hate group" is indefensible. However, in many articles on Misplaced Pages it has been used for just this purpose and attempts to point out its dubious legitimacy have been systematically shot down. It should be noted somewhere on Misplaced Pages that the SPLC is not a reliable source when it comes to what is a hate group. I should also point out that because it has been used on several different articles, one RfC for one article isn't sufficient.-Psychohistorian 18:40, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

should these be AfDed?

List_of_dialing_codes_in_Greece_alphabetically, and List_of_dialing_codes_of_Greece_numerically both seem strange for wikipedia. Misplaced Pages is not a directory (ie phonebook) right? The list also has many entries that leads to other fishy articles like Greece_dialing_code_26230 and Greece_dialing_code_22440. Should these be AfDed, proded or something? JoeSmack 20:43, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Fetus review request

I have been involved with content disputes on a number of pages with Ferrylodge (talk · contribs). Dealing with this user is too stressful for me, and I believe I am too emotionally involved with the conflict so I am backing out, reluctantly, because I feel that Ferrylodge has been able to bully controversial content into articles. I would request that any editor interested review the talk page and article history of Fetus over the last month.

Here is how I remember things from the beginning. Ferrylodge went to the fetus page and copy and pasted information from his pro-life advocacy cite verbatim into the article. This information was cherry picked data from questionably reliable sources emphasizing that a fetus was nothing more than a little adult human. At that point, the article had a section called "fetal development" and we had an article called "fetal development", and I pointed out that our content forking policy said we should just summarize the existing article, and any new information should go to the main article (it would be backward to have content not found in the main article in a summary section). So instead of moving content to the "fetal development" article, Ferrylodge moved that article without a proposed move or talk page concensus (based on a narrow definition of the word 'fetus' which is ironic*)and played semantic games with section titles in the Fetus article to try and avoid addressing my concerns. Since then I have tried to make the article more concise, and move related content together, while Ferrylodge wants to be redundant, and spread out similar content over multiple sections. I am frustrated, and if you look at the talk page, you can see a number of other editors who are similarly frustrated and have left. Because of my history with this user, and the recent content dispute, I do not feel like I can rationally deal with this issue, but would like to see a third party at least examine the history. Thank you for your consideration.

*It's ironic because a previous content dispute was over the definition of stillbirth where I was arguing for a narrow definition which I believe is the most widely used definition, and Ferrylodge was arguing for a broad definition. Any interested users may want to review the Stillbirth article as well, because I still believe it is giving undue weight to the idea that stillbirth is synonymous with early miscarriages.

(if I posted this in the wrong place, I would like to hear suggestions on where else to post). The main issue is that people involved in the abortion debate have started messing with content in science/medical related articles. I feel strongly that these article should use college level textbooks and journal articles as primary sources, and that we should be summarizing the scientific consensus, instead of inserting obscure facts that are favorable to pro-choice or pro-life arguments. Thanks again.-Andrew c 22:35, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

  1. Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," USA Today, 3 August 1996, A-7
  2. Andrea Stone, "Morris Dees: At the Center of the Racial Storm," USA Today, 3 August 1996, A-7
  3. Montgomery Avertisor, Feb. 13-14 1994
  4. ^ Ken Silverstein, "The Church of Morris Dees," Harper's Magazine, 1 November, 2000, No. 1806, Vol. 301; Pg. 54 ; ISSN: 0017-789X. Text can be viewed at the Federation for American Immigration Reform website here (scroll down). Harper's article verified in D.F. Oliveria, "Dees can Buy Poverty Center a New Name," Spokesman Review, Feb 12, 2001.
  5. http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Readarticle.asp?ID=9830
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