Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 March 11

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March 11

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Regex question

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OK, so I need a regular expression so that I can add a certain class to a talk page assessment template. For example, the template is {{OlympicsWikiProject}}. Some pages already have "class=" on the page, so all I would have to do for these is add the class name. But two problems arise here. First, if something is already coming after "class=" (like a class!) then it adds a second one, which is undesirable. (Note: I tried doing "class=|" as the text to be replaced, but I soon found out this doesn't work because "|" is part of the regex coding scheme.) Second, even if this did work, sometimes, it will add a class to another WikiProject's assessment banner. In addition, for those pages that do not have "class=" already on them, it needs to be added before I add the class.

Could someone make me a regular expression that will ensure that there is nothing defined in "class=" before it adds the class that I specify, that it only works for OlympicsWikiProject, and that if "class=" is not there, it adds it before it adds the class. Thanks so much! Jaredtalk00:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I can use my bot, User:WatchlistBot to make the change for you if you post a note to my talk page with the details. I didn't use a regex, so I can't give you that. It's python code using pywikipedia. The bot can also tag articles, and create a watchlist. Check out the bot's user page to see what it does, and let me know if you want any help. Ingrid 05:33, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

CONTRIBUTIONS

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How do we delete contributions? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Robert.godwin (talkcontribs) 00:50, 11 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

You can't, but your contributins can be reverted. Only in special cases will they be hidden, see Wikipedia:Oversight for details. BuickCenturyDriver (Honk, contribs, odometer) 00:51, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If you're worried about privacy you can also request a name change. That'll make your edits a little harder to be connected to you. --WikiSlasher 02:44, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, if your username is changed, all the edits you made will be attributed to your new name, the only things that will not be changed are signatures, but as your old userpage is redirected to your new one, this won't hide much either. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:55, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What template should i use if i think an article should be condensed?

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I think that the holocaust article should be decreased, a lot. I was wondering what template to use —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ahadland1234 (talkcontribs) 01:13, 11 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I would use {{toolong}}. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 01:14, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Embroidery software

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Hi,

I noticed your article on embroidery digitizing mentioned that digitizing programs start at a few hundred dollars. I wrote one that sold for a while, but then didn't sell much, so it is now available for free at:

http://www.thredworks.com/dwnlod.htm

Would it violate any of your policies if I put this into the article?

Thanks,

Marion McCoskey Http://www.thredworks.com —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mckyyy (talkcontribs) 02:25, 11 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Unless there is already a list somewhere on the article with different programs and links to the websites for each one, I'd say it would probably violate policy on spam or external links. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:23, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You may want to take a look at the external links policy. Xiner (talk, email) 04:03, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Installation

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218.101.28.180 02:36, 11 March 2007 (UTC)I have just had my computer changed over from Windows 98 to XP and in the process I have lost the ability to do jigsaws which I receive off the net. In looking at the site it seems that I need to install JavaScript.. can you tell me the exact site I need to go to make this installation. I am a 74yr old not really conversant with the technical side of things.[reply]

Thank you

This would best be answered at the Reference Desk but I'll give it a shot. Try going to the Java website and downloading the newest version here. Click the circle next to "Accept License Agreement." Then click the square next to "Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language" and click the orange "Download Selected" box. Click "Open" in the window that pops up and follow the directions after it finishes downloading. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:21, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PAREF Southridge School Article

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There has been recent vandalism in the article on PAREF-Southridge School. People are posting links to malicious websites and insulting fellow students online. Is it possible to block editing on the Southridge page by non-registered users? If you view the page history, you will clearly see the vandalism in the past few weeks.

Thank you.

A Southridge Year I Student —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 222.126.97.144 (talk) 02:38, 11 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

  • You can request protection at WP:RPP but a look at the history shows there probably isn't enough vandalism for protection. The only thing you can do is warn the vandals with templates at WP:UTM and report persistent vandals at WP:AIV. Unfortunately, school articles tend to attract a lot of vandalism. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:14, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Might we have another institution working towards the coveted Template:Schoolblock? See also: WP:ABUSE. I like this optimistic sentence in the PAREF Southridge School article: The school, which is patterned after Fomento schools in Spain and South America, was founded through the initiative of a group of parents who wanted a school that will emphasize not only academic excellence, but sound character formation as well. Perhaps the soundness of character being formed at the PAREF school is unable to withstand the temptation of Wikipedia, whose wide-open edit links practically scream "vandalize me" to the tortured adolescent male mind. Having once been an adolescent male, I must say it seems to me the kids of today are, on balance, showing remarkable restraint. It's amazing Wikipedia remains usable at all. --Teratornis 03:33, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Spam on Wikipedia - not sure what to do

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This page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDG_Computers ) is clearly an advertisement for the company MDG Computers. If you check out the discussion page and the edit history, MDG employees are constantly re-editing the article to conform to their needs. This is clearly a violation of Wikipedia rules, but I'm not really sure what I should do (nominate for deletion, or tag it?). Would someone mind pointing me in the right direction? Thanks in advance. --Funnykidrian 03:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'v put an {{advert}} tag on it while I do some further investigation. While the page was started by a user:MDG, the recent edits are by anons. If it looks like they are working for MDG, I'll nominate it for deletion. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:32, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Most of the IP's are registered in Ontario, some Windsor, most Toronto, but I don't think there's quite enough for deletion just yet as none are specifically registered to MDG and it isn't too bad. I'll go in and remove some of the obvious ad stuff and watch it. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:39, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Somebody beat me to it, but if you want to help, it needs cleanup. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 03:42, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • The recent changes included text copied straight from the company's website. I've reverted to the most recent version without this and warned the user about it. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
          • Thank you so much for the quick response! I would volunteer to rewrite the article, but I am neither familiar with the company nor do I have any reliable sources of information. I was actually led to this article by a lot of infuriated customers who were complaining on a message board. They mentioned that MDG repeatedly spammed the article, so I decided to check it out for myself. Since I do not know much about this company, I do not really know if they really are as dishonest as people say. I was actually quite surprised that the page was in such clear violation of Wikipedia rules. Anyway, thank you for taking quick measures. --Funnykidrian 04:26, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Template for bad movie plot summary

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What kind of template message should I on an article describing a movie's plot that needs to explain it better? --Wykypydya 04:02, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You could post a notice at Wikipedia:Pages needing attention/Culture and Arts#Film. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 06:02, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you hiring?

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I was wondering if your hirinh any people to edit pages right now. Please get back to me at <e-mail address removed>. THANK YOU!!!!!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.87.234.181 (talk) 05:56, 11 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Wikipedia doesn't hire people to contribute - anyone can edit it! See Wikipedia:Introduction, Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia, and Wikipedia:Tutorial for more information. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 06:05, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

clioneman

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can i get some help i was just witing down the facts im not good at fancy stuff, please can i get some help —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rex king (talkcontribs) 17:25, 11 March 2007

I assume that you're referring to the Clioneman article? You're first going to need to explain the context, as currently I have no idea what the page is actually about. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 07:39, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Googling the term reveals that Clioneman is an anime character, or at least that's what I think it is – there aren't many English results. I'll watch the article for a while to see if/how it develops and shape it accordingly. KrakatoaKatie 06:00, 13 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Image Too Big

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On this wikipage that I'm editing for my school (Boulder Creek High School), the school logo is appearing way to big for some reason.

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

MttG 06:36, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ive changed it for you, but you can change the size by using the following code [[Image:???|???px]]. The smaller the number of pixels, the smaller the image size --KZ Talk Vandal Contrib 07:01, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The code should be [[Image:???|???px]]. Also make sure you add a source tag the the picture page otherwise they could be deleted. For example on the logo page you should add {{logo}} because it is a logo. :) --- Hdt83 | Talk/Chat 07:04, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, you can change the sizes of images easily. Just add them to the page, then add |Thumb|(number)px|Left (or right]] to the end of it. Retiono Virginian 12:40, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Article inaccessible from Search

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Dear Sir

I want that my article with URL "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shivjay" should be accessible from any search engine with keyword Shivjay or Shivjay astrology .

Could you please guide me how to do this.


Regards Ajae shivjay sharma

Userpages will automatically appear in Google search results but I would strongly suggest removing the content on your Userpage as it is violating the rules of userpages as Wikipedia is not a free web host. Best Regards - Tellyaddict (Talk) 10:57, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

census

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what is the latest population in nueva vizcaya

Our article on Nueva Vizcaya gives the 2000 census figure as 366,962. --Cherry blossom tree 13:06, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia and Google Earth

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I was playing around with Google Earth today and discovered that places can be marked on Google Earth with links to the corresponding Wikipedia articles. I've searched here and on Google's pages, but can 't find any information about how to create these types of links. Does anyone know if this is content that only the Google folks can add, or is it user created content? If it is user created, can someone point to any information/tutorial about how to do it? Thanks.

Ahhh, Google Earth is a program which is downloaded onto a computer. You cannot create links on wikipedia to the place on google earth. But as you know on google earth, the wikipedia links link directly to the updated wikipedia articles for your convience, anyone can add those links. And could you also please sign your messages with four of these ~'. Retiono Virginian 14:46, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
See: Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates which mentions Google Earth and NASA World Wind. See the examples. You can search Wikipedia for Google Earth to see what else Wikipedians are saying about it. For example, that finds a Category:Wikipedians who use Google Earth. Perhaps there you will find kindred spirits; you might join by placing the wikitext:
[[Category:Wikipedians who use Google Earth|{{PAGENAME}}]]
at the bottom of your user page. --Teratornis 15:47, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Also see: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Map. --Teratornis 15:58, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted/missing image

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In the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigha my image of the Clan MacNeill badge has been removed. Can I please ask why?

I completely created this image myself, therefore it was not copied or interfered with any known copyright issues. If I have done something wrong please let me know so I know to avoid it in future.

Thanks Alasdair MacNeill (Allymac1314)

Allymac1314 14:00, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The image was deleted because it did not specify its copyright status. This was mentioned on your talk page on 11 February. If you upload the image again using a proper tag then there shouldn't be a problem. --Cherry blossom tree 14:03, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Selenite

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Hi, I've just written an article on selenite - posted only in the discussion part of the selenite page. And because I'm feeling unsure, I would greatly appreciate any feedback - it's my first article.

One issue - and probably most important issue - is that I have a section on "Crystal Therapy" - and from what I can tell that section would be considered controversial, etc. So, for the Crystal Therapy section, I really do need help. Personally, I believe in Crystal Therapy [as well as practice it] but I do want to ensure that it is presented properly within Wikipedia's guidelines. Also, when I "pasted" in the article, I lost all my links - so, when I post my article, I'll have to correct that - links were both Wikipedia and external.

I also lost my formatting - so right now the article is a little harder to read - sorry. [And, I've also noted at least one grammatical error - so I'll correct that too.] I'll also have six pictures to post along with the article - four are usual examples of selenite, satin spar, desert rose, and gypsum flower each - and the other two are of a fossilized insect wing encased in a selenite crystal [one is detail of wing]. I'm still waiting on permission to reproduce all of the pictures - so they aren't posted yet.

I'm not in a big hurry for feedback - just would like some, please and thanks. AshleyWitchcrafter 15:21, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The text you typed on Talk:Selenite would be better to place on a user subpage, for example: User:AshleyWitchcrafter/Selenite. Then other Wikipedians could more easily help you wikify your text, and they could comment on User talk:AshleyWitchcrafter/Selenite. The Talk:Selenite page is not a convenient place to develop an article, so please move your material to User talk:AshleyWitchcrafter/Selenite, and leave a request on Talk:Selenite (under a proper heading) for people to help you develop your material there.
As far as what you can put on Wikipedia, your material appears to make a number of claims which are, more or less, religious in nature. Wikipedia has thousands of articles about religion, including Charmstone of which your article is an example, so that is not a problem in itself, but you will need to reword your statements to be factual (i.e., neutral). You did not cite conclusive proof that selenite crystals have the magical powers you attribute to them, so you have not properly placed your claims in the realm of fact. However, if some people believe those things, then it is a fact that they believe them (just as it is a fact that some people believe in a flat earth, or that Jesus walked on water, etc.; most people believe lots of things which are not facts). You can make factual claims about what people believe, regardless of whether their beliefs qualify as "facts." Read some of the better religion articles to see how this is done. For example: Wikipedia:Featured articles#Religion, mysticism, and mythology lists some articles that set the standard for this subject area. Also, you will need to properly cite your sources; this will be easier to hash out on User:AshleyWitchcrafter/Selenite. --Teratornis 16:28, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

how do I remove quotes from the name of a page I created

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I created an entry for a band called The Teenage Prayers. For some reason it shows up only when searching with quotes "teenage prayers" and when I look at the page, it shows up as "teenage prayers" at the top, though the body content doesn't have the name of the band entered that way....sorry, I'm new and could use some help.

thanks

Jennifer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Netjen (talkcontribs)

To rename a page, click the "Move" link at the top of the page, then fill in the new name for the page and the reason you're moving it. Shadow1 (talk) 15:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Their account is too young to have pagemove privileges, so I've moved it for them--VectorPotentialTalk 16:36, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Just so you know, the article should also provide some mention of why the band is notable, otherwise it may be deleted. General notability guidelines can be found at Wikipedia:Notability and music-specific guidelines are at Wikipedia:Notability (music). Mike Dillon 15:40, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

History of Cadillac Motor cars in the last 40-50 years,

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Cadillac motor cars have worked hard to make a sucessful comeback in the past decade. I'd like to hear of their history of their fall from promance since the 1960's (including Annual Sales Figures)until present16:01, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Cadillac#History might be a start. In addition to the annual sales figures, I'd be interested in learning how many people their products have killed, maimed, or injured, and how many irreplaceable resources they have consumed. --Teratornis 16:33, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help me!

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I want my user name to be Randy6767, when I sign my name that is what it says but my user page now says Randy2626, thanks to a younger sibling of mine who decided to mess up my user page and redirect user: Randy6767 to user:Randy which now directs to user: Randy2626, I want my user name and my user page to be back to Randy6767 the way it was, i liked 6767 to symbolize the fine line between good and evil 6 being the mark of evil 7 being the perfect number. Someone please help me out here. Randy6767 16:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You'll have to move it (the current userpage) to the location you want with the move button on the top of the page. However, I already tried and it didn't work, so you might need admin assistence on Wikipedia:Requested moves. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 16:57, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes it appears someone using your account move Randy6767 to Randy and then moved Randy to Randy2727. To be honest, I didn't know it was possible to move a user's account pages Nil Einne 17:17, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Note you might want to try it yourself first. It's possible we can't move it because it's your user account. However if you do the move yourself it might work... Nil Einne 18:12, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It's perfectly possible to move user pages just like other pages. I've moved the content back to User:Randy6767 and deleted the other two redirects. The same has been done with the talk pages. —Cuiviénen 18:48, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism cracking: or more specifically, test edit cracking

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I have an Idea for Wikipedia, but I have no idea where to put it. Please can you advise me.

My idea is basically this:

  • add a link to the toolbox which points to the sandbox
  • those people can then quickly and easily access the sandbox to make their test edits.
  • this reduces the amount of test edits in the main article namespace.

I don't know where to put this, so please can you help me. If you think this is a good idea, then please support it when it gets put somewhere. Thanks for advance for your anticipated help about where to put this. Stwalkerster 17:04, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd put it in the village pump somewhere. Either in WP:VP/T (technical) and/or WP:VP/P (proposals). Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 17:17, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Wait, I meant WP:VPR for proposals. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 17:19, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
A link to the sandbox already exists: see MediaWiki:Edittools, or edit any page. And I don't think that it's a good idea to expand the toolbar any further -- too much feature creep already. GracenotesT § 18:14, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mistake in an entry

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

There is a mistake here. However, I can't simply edit it because I don't know the details and I don't know where this person got his/her information. It's one thing when the information is obviously wrong, but this is a gray area because the person could be right about something and just incorrect in the exact description.

It says Muzak only uses "original artists" and has since 1982. However, the Environment format generically known as Muzak does use musicians specifically hired by Muzak. I could check their web site to see exactly what I think I mean by that, but then there's the issue of having to get permission to copy that information onto this site.Vchimpanzee 18:56, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Something went wrong when I tried to get back here. Muzak's site is no longer simple to use. So whatever I thought I could find isn't there. Vchimpanzee 19:53, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Do a google search for it. I would reccommend something like +muzak +musicians -Wikipedia to get what you need minus Wikipedia pages. Or, use the wayback machine at archive.org to get an old bersion of the page. As for copyvio problems, it isn't illegal just to get information, its only illegal if you just copy and paste it. If you summarize, paraphrase, and cite, its not a problem. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 19:57, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • This is after an edit conflict, by the way. As Mr.Z-man said, you shouldn't copy content over from one website to Wikipedia, unless that content is released under a "free" license (like the GFDL, public domain, or similar). The best thing to do in this case, and in all cases, is paraphrase the content, and then attribute it to where you got it from (citing sources). Although, if you can't find the content to begin with, that's not good. You can always be bold and change the article if you're sure about a statement being incorrect, but without citing any source, the person who is going to view that article after you won't know where you got the info from (and the same has happened to you). The best option if you can't find a reliable source would be to talk to the person who originally added the information. GracenotesT § 19:59, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I finally did it. I managed to find that statement on the Muzak web site that the one format uses custom recordings. I found it in another article after a search--after I finished editing and was told I wasn't signed in! I had to search for the information all over again, but I would have been wrong since the last article I found said the change in Muzak's image occurred a decade after the Yesco merger. So the Yesco merger wasn't that important.

help!!

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where do i find the date publicated and the author for your page?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.177.51.194 (talk) 07:11, 12 March 2007

If you're talking about articles, there is no publication date or single author. You can click on the 'history' tab at the top to get the page history which tells you which users contributed what and when. If you're asking how to cite an article, bring up the article and at the left column in the "toolbox" there will be a link called Cite this article. Click it and it will tell you how to cite. -SpuriousQ (talk) 20:18, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Stop redirect

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How do I stop an automatic redirect? The specific case is if you type "Volta" in to search, you are sent straight to Alessandro Volta. Now Björk's new album will be called Volta and I expect this would be a poular search so I suggest you aren't redirected to Alessandro Volta. Can the search result be a proper search result page (ie listing articles that mention the word Volta), or go straight to the disambiguation page. Then there's the problem of articles that are linked to Alessandro Volta that just use "Volta" as the link (if there are any). Thanks, Rogwan 21:15, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Two things - when you get redirected, in the top left hand corner there will be a blue link saying something like -(Redirected from Volta). Click on the blue link, and it will let you go to the redirect page and edit it is you want to.
Secondly you might want to have a disambiguation page at Volta] - see WP:DAB on how best to set this up. Cheers Lethaniol 21:28, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Although frankly, I'd be happy keeping the redirect to Alessandro Volta, since in the great scheme of things, he's far more important than any Björk album (as much as I like Björk). -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 21:32, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
He may be great and all but I don't think he should have a monopoly on his surname! Also, there are a few other "Volta articles" to warrant the search leading to the disambiguation page. But, I've encountered a problem. So I went to the original Volta page to change the redirect. Currently the background text is #REDIRECT [[Alessandro Volta]]. Changing this to #REDIRECT [[Volta (disambiguation)]] doesn't get the right result. The text shows as "1. REDIRECT Volta (disambiguation)" Rogwan 21:45, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I wouldn't change the redirect to do to a disambig page if there are only 2 pages. I would just call the album article Volta (album) and put one of the standard This page is about the person, for the album, you want Volta (album). or however they go exactly. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 22:03, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It looks all sorted now - though of course (should have thought of this before) I agree Volta should redirect to Alessandro Volta he invented the term Voltage lol, only slightly important. Cheers Lethaniol 22:04, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind my previous comment, there already is a good disambig page. You should use something like This page is about the person, for other uses, see Volta (disambiguation). Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 22:08, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to waste time, but I think I may leave this. I had started a discussion on the Talk page and I'll see how that goes. Maybe my love of Björk has blinded me a bit. But I'm not convinced that Alessandro should be the number one Volta. Other examples where you are not automtically redirected to the person are Curie, Gauss and Geiger. Rogwan 22:22, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Curie, Gauss, and Geiger go to a disambig or another page because their names are the units named after them. With Volta, the unit is a derivation of his name. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 22:34, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

adding information to wikipedia

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is it possable it create information on a subject if it isnt already created by wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by S-claffey (talkcontribs) 09:39, 12 March 2007

Yes. However, please mind our policies - attribution to reliable sources (not your own research) and verifiability, A neutral point of view, and what Wikipedia is not. If you were to be a little more specific perhaps someone could help you determine whether the subject you want to write about is appropriate? -Wooty Woot? contribs 22:51, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
See Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article for more information on this. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 23:39, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This page is extremely long, and it's mainly due to a couple of editors passing theories and postulates back and forth along a rope. I've seen Template:Talkheader used on other pages, and I am wondering if it's appropriate to post that there. If so, where would those two duke it out? ALTON .ıl 23:48, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you just want to shorten it, I would just archive the old parts, anything over a month or 2 that isn't being discussed. There is already an archive for the page. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 23:50, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I was about to, until I saw what comprises the entire page. What I'm confused about is whether that template is applicable there, since it exists on God but doesn't seem to do any good.ALTON .ıl 23:57, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
If the discussion has nothing to do with the article, use {{offtopic}}. Even if it is about the subject, talk pages are for discussion of the article, not general discussion of the topic. To warn users, try {{uw-chat1}}. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 00:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind, not offtopic. There is a template though to put on talk page that are getting off topic. I don't remember what it is now. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 00:03, 12 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I think that explaining to the editors involved that the talk page is for discussing changes to the article (perhaps pointing them towards a proper discussion forum or the email link) should be enough. --Cherry blossom tree 00:06, 12 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]