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Wikipedia:Help desk

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Meelar (talk | contribs) at 06:00, 17 September 2004 (→20000 quotations for you..: question). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
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NOTE: This is not a page about specific factual questions (e.g., Who was the first Pope?). For that type of question, see Wikipedia:Reference desk.

Welcome to the Help desk! This is a place to ask questions about Wikipedia and get help with editing problems. It's mainly for newcomers and users who don't yet have an account, but anyone is welcome to ask a question. Remember to check this page again (how about a bookmark?) to see if there have been any replies.

If your question has already been covered in one of the help pages, you could get the answer you're looking for more quickly by checking the topical index.

If your question is not specifically about the Wikipedia, you'll probably find the Reference desk a better place to ask; if you want to start a more detailed and inclusive discussion, try the Village pump.

View old Archives
Archive 1 Prior to June 2, 2004
Archive 2 June 2, 2004 - June 18, 2004
Archive 3 June 18, 2004 - July 2, 2004
Archive 4 July 2, 2004 - July 18, 2004
Archive 5 July 19, 2004 - July 31, 2004
Archive 6 August 1, 2004 - August 18, 2004
Archive 7 August 18, 2004 - September 5, 2004

Post a question here!

"Standard" skin?

Various Help comments refer to a "standard skin", yet when one looks at the skin options in preferences none is labelled "standard" -- so what is going on here?

The reason I was looking at preferences in the first place is that, unless I am just imagining things, the elegant Verdana typeface which was formerly used seems to have been changed at some point in the last few days -- and without so much as a "by your leave" -- to thin and nasty Ariel, and it seems there's not a darned thing I can do about it.  :-( -- Picapica 14:47, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Classic has been called standard for some time, please change Standard into Classic in help pages.--Patrick 21:32, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
You can create or edit your personal style sheet at User:Picapica/monobook.css. See m:Help:User style for more details on how. If you copy this text into that file, it should give you Verdana as first preference:
#content {
font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}
You may need to clear your cache and/or hard-refresh (CTRL-F5) to see the changes. --Catherine | talk 21:03, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC) (anyone else feel free to edit the css code if it's not right.)

I want to link to a Cookbook entry on Wikibooks from Wikipedia. How do I accomplish that? Only through the full URI, or is there a namespace? --Cluster 05:24, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

See m:help:interwiki linking.--Patrick 08:25, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Auto-external linking of RFC names

While editing the delta encoding article I discovered that the double square brackets around an RFC name are ignored, which makes for an ugly page. Here's an example: RFC 1. The RFC name is automatically linked to the actual RFC text on the IETF website, which was suprising for me as I didn't realize Wikipedia did any automatic linking like this. Actually, after some searching of the help pages, I could find no list of automatic links, not even a mention of the RFC auto-linking. Can anyone point me to more info on this? --Jarsyl 06:20, 2004 Sep 6 (UTC)

I have added it to m:Help:Editing.--Patrick 08:22, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If you want to make a link to the wikipedia page called RFC 1, put it inside nowiki tags, like this: [[RFC 1]] that is, [[<nowiki>RFC 1</nowiki>]] --Goplat 15:40, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
This links to the edit page even if the page exists; easier and without this problem is putting an underscore: RFC_1--Patrick 02:00, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
As far as I know, the only other auto-link is for ISBNs. "ISBN" followed by a number will auto-link to our book-source page. -- Cyrius|✎ 17:00, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I am terribly confused. I want to use an article (specifically the article on "kleptocracy") in a book I am writing. The article is absolutely perfect for my needs.

I certainly want to give credit where credit is due, but I'm afraid I do not understand the conditions in the "GNU Free Documentation License".

Can I acknowledge the source of this article with a standard bibliographic entry, or am I actually required to post the entire license somewhere in my work?

If that's the requirement, I'm afraid the value of that short article won't be worth the trouble of adding such an incredibly long license document.

Someone please give me some good news! Thanks ahead.

Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and Wikipedia does not give legal advice. With any luck, your publisher will have a lawyer they can contact about matters like this, and I'd recommend that you have them do so. That said, I'll see if I can help shed any light on the subject, and hopefully I won't misinterpret the law too badly.
If you want to use only a part of the article, it may be considered fair use, in which case you could quote and cite it as you would any other excerpt from a copyrighted work, and not have to worry about the GFDL. If, on the other hand, you are copying the entire article, things become a little more problematic.
It seems like you would be printing a verbatim copy of the article, and that you would indeed be required to include the full text of the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Verbatim_copying#Printed_copies for a more thorough explanation. Compared to the length of an entire book, I don't think the GFDL is all that large, but that's your decision.
You should also keep in mind that, depending on various factors including the nature of your use of the article, it's possible that some lawyers would consider your book a "derivative work" based upon the article, which would mean that your entire book would have to be licensed under the terms of the GFDL as well. This might seem strange to you and I, but it's not our opinions that matter—again I would urge you to obtain professional legal advice.
Hope this helps—Triskaideka 17:38, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Stub query

In particular with Richard Blumenthal... I personally still think it's a stub as it only covers a mere fraction of the man's career and what you could talk about. I'd like to put it back and have people expand it... should I do this? - Ta bu shi da yu 11:58, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You mean put the {{stub}} tag back? I don't think it deserves one; there's no way an article that long (and that good) is a "stub" according to the definition on Wikipedia:Find or fix a stub. A stub is a mere placeholder for what will eventually become a real article; Richard Blumenthal is a real article, just one that could be elaborated on (like many of our other real articles). People are still encouraged to expand articles even in the absence of any tags that indicate they're in critical need of attention. If you want to try to draw attention to it, you could mention it on your User page or list it on Wikipedia:Peer review. —Triskaideka 15:04, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Also try listing the article Requests for expansion, and/or add the Category:Requests for expansion tag. Good luck! Catherine | talk 21:38, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Government website copyrights

Government websites such as georgia.gov generally do not have copyright notices on them anywhere; how are such copyrights generally treated? ~ Booyabazooka 18:17, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That's a state government website. Material published by all states except California is under copyright unless explicitly disclaimed. -- Cyrius|✎ 21:23, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Two tables overlapping

I noted that the Leo von Caprivi page has two tables overlapping (at least it does in my browser). My complete lack of technical knowhow means I would rather not attempt to fix it without advice on how to do so. Any ideas? --Roisterer 04:50, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

By inserting <br clear="all"/> above the second table, as I have done. HTH HAND --Phil | Talk 10:19, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)

Where's the default text on the blank pages?

What's going on that the blank pages don't have that table with links to wikitionary and page editing anymore?

Only "(There is currently no text in this page)" makes Wikipedia look horrible and void — Kieff | Talk 11:31, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)

This is an ongoing problem with the way messages are handled. Sometimes the MediaWiki: namespace messages (e.g. MediaWiki:Newarticletext) are not used, and the software defaults are used instead (which is this case is "There is currently no text in this page"). Angela. (adapted from Kate's response on WP:VP) 20:40, Sep 7, 2004 (UTC)

Counting number of contributions

How can one count the number of contributions made by self or others (short of making an SQL query)? I always see people making comments on how many edits a particular person or themselves did, and never could figure out how they got those numbers. On a related note, would it not be more useful if the list in user contribution pages was numbered? I guess I'll make a feature request. ato 20:27, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The only way is to go to the contribution list, set the # per page to 500, and count the number of pages, then lowering the # per page as you approach the end. Sorry, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 20:31, 2004 Sep 7 (UTC)

Once your contributions get high (over a couple thousand), thumbing through them even by 500 at a time becomes quite inefficient. If you can estimate your contribution count, there's a faster way that helps minimize the number of page views required to count them:

As my contrib count increases, I find this technique increasingly more valuable. Your mileage may vary. --Diberri | Talk 04:30, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)

Redirecting to an anchor

Is it "legal" to set up a redirection to an anchor on a page? For instance, could Carth onasi be redirected to Minor_characters_in_Star_Wars#Carth_Onasi ? ~ Booyabazooka 03:16, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

nevermind - apparently yes. should have read the discussion page first. ~ Booyabazooka 03:17, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm the owner and author of a web page but I can not put a small article

reference informatoin about: Ted Wong

Hello,

My name is Albert Grajales and I'm the owner and author of the web page

http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico

A day ago I was writing about my teacher Ted Wong in Wikipedia and it appears on your advice notice that it can not be posted because it is copyright to my own web page. I took my information from my web page that is


http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico/JFJKD_PUERTORICO_BRUCELEE_TEDWONG_SIFU.html

and of course I modified it with more data. My question is how can I post my data again or HOw can I authorize myself to post the article about Ted Wong? I'm not to avid in computers so please explain me carefuly.

just in case:

Me Albert Grajales authorize wikipedia to use my information from my web page:

http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico

specialy part of the page:

http://www.geocities.com/junfanjeetkunedo_puertorico/JFJKD_PUERTORICO_BRUCELEE_TEDWONG_SIFU.html

Albert Grajales PO Box 1068 Aguadilla PR 00605-1068

email: [email protected]

Thank your help on this matter.

Albert

You are of course allowed to post your own text on Wikipedia, but if you don't say that you're the copyright owner, other editors may assume that you're some third party who's using the copyrighted content without permission. You've already done what you need to by posting your permission to use the text on Talk:Ted wong. I've added a note to Wikipedia:Copyright_problems#September_6 to draw attention to your permission. A sysop should fix the article within a few days. —Triskaideka 15:48, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

__NOEDITSECTION__ and __EDITSECTION__

The __NOEDITSECTION__ directive prevents an [edit] link from being placed on a section. Is there anything like an __EDITSECTION__, to produce an edit link? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 05:31, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Use of __NOEDITSECTION__

The following two sections use __NOEDITSECTION__. Are both of these correct? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 05:31, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

broken examples removed

__NOEDITSECTION__ is a page-level flag. Placing it anywhere on a page removes all edit section links, which is why I removed your examples. There is no flag that will remove the edit links for a single section. -- Cyrius|✎

How can I e-mail a user?

How can I send e-mail to users. I can not find the E-mail this user link mentioned in Preference AnyFile 18:18, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

In most skins, when you go to a user page, e.g. User:Triskaideka or User:AnyFile, the "E-mail this user" link will be in one of the menus on the left side of the page. In the "Monobook" skin it appears under "toolbox". You type your e-mail into that web page, and it gets sent to their e-mail address. I don't know what happens if they haven't provided a valid e-mail address. —Triskaideka 18:35, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Do registered user's email addresses ever get displayed?

I'm very interested in registering to participate in Wikipedia, but I've just got a new email address that I don't want displayed anywhere on the web (for anti-spam purposes). On my own site I use a contact form to keep the address on the server. I've searched the FAQ's and can't find any mention of policies regarding the display or non-display of email addresses of users.

No your email adress is kept private. If I as a wikipedian want to send you an email I can do so by clicking email this user, but even then I don't get to see what it is. (But you get to see mine). What's more you don't even have to fill in the email field when you regidter if you don't want to. Get an account 90,000 registered users can't be wrong! Theresa Knott (Nate the Stork) 22:02, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Linux

Does anyone know how to install a wiki using Linux? Every time I search for info on the subject I find a page about Linux in the wikipedia. Any help would be tremendous!! Thanks. :v) {re-posted on behalf of Anon User:66.168.237.136}

If you want to install MediaWiki, the wiki software which Wikipedia uses, first download it at SourceForge. The only official install instructions I can find are available at m:Installation, though it doesn't appear they are very good. That page links to m:Running MediaWiki on Linux and three distro-specific guides, m:Running MediaWiki on Slackware Linux, m:Running MediaWiki on Gentoo Linux, and m:Running MediaWiki on Debian GNU/Linux. Hope this helps. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 03:42, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

references to external web pages via Internet Archive?

I think that references to external web pages should, where possible, be made to the Internet Archive. I have some questions.

  • is this the right place to ask these questions ?
  • where should I discuss this idea with contributors ?
  • is there a bot checking that references to external web pages have not become broken, maybe even fixing the references automatically to the Internet Archive ? PeterGrecian 11:06, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
You could ask at Wikipedia talk:external links. If you don't get much response there, you could advertise the discussion on the Village pump. I don't know of any bots checking external links. Angela. 02:53, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)
Thanks Angela, I'll look around try a few things out. PeterGrecian 10:55, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

chemical formula editor

Hi. I'm Paginazero, an Italian "rookie" contributor to it.wiki.
Has wikipedia ever considered to set up a tool like ChemTex (or similar) which is based on the same Tex technology currently in use for writing math formulas?
That would help for creating a common standard and would save space (code vs. images).
Thank you for your kind attention. --195.75.15.2 12:42, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC) (Paginazero on it.wiki)

Try looking at Wikitex currently in testing. --Phil | Talk 10:21, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

Advice please. I'd like to add a much improved image to M51. I have the permission of the copyright owner for its use in Wikipedia. Is this enough? He merely requests an acknowledgement, but would remain the copyright holder. Given the 'free content' nature of Wikipedia should I use it?

Thanks, Arcturus 19:31, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Yes. This is perfectly compatible with GFDL which is the license for Wikipedia. GFDL keeps the copyright and requires attribution. No one is required to waive copyright to make a contribution, only to licence the work. ato 20:23, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Redirect from article with an image

I'd like to make the article Chucky a redirect to Child's Play, but Chucky has an image. How does that affect the procedure? Joyous 02:29, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

If you think the image is worthwhile, then add it to the Child's Play article. —Stormie 05:06, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)
Simply replace the Chucky text with #REDIRECT [[Child's Play]] and move the relevant content by hand, though it doesn't look very substantial. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 00:52, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

How to get tables to stay in their sections

Take a look at User:Pyrop/Table example. How do i get the tables to not do that, and stay in their sections? Pyrop 16:26, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)

You can use <br clear=right /> or perhaps <br clear=all /> to make the parser fill the space with whitespace. [[User:Sverdrup|User:Sverdrup]] 16:34, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
If you don't like either formatting solution, try other editing solutions. Without knowing which article/subject is vexing you, this has to be general:
  • First (and perhaps ideally), fill the section with an attractive (!) amount of text by finding more to write about the subject! Describe the meaning of the tabular data, what distinguishes it from tables in other sections, provide sources, discuss historical significance -- make it an encyclopedia article that is more than just a collection of reference tables.
  • Alternately, don't use sections at all: include an extra row at top or bottom of the table as a caption, containing the text which is currently under the section header. (Search for "rowspan" in the table markup help pages to make the caption row stretch across all columns -- I don't know how to do this in the new table markup.) There may be a way to display the tables side-by-side, in this case (short of enclosing them in another table, which is dang ugly code-wise).
Good luck! Catherine | talk 23:23, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I recently got the standard orange box indicating that I have new messages, only the link, oddly enough, sent me to this site. I am baffled as to how this happened. Any explanations? Livajo 00:09, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

No idea, but note to others: don't follow the link, it displays "you are an idiot" in blinking lights, along with a song. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 00:11, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)
It was a vandal. He copied the format of the new message box and put it on recent changes. Grunt blocked him milLiseconds before I could. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 00:26, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Aha. I didn't think the Recent Changes page could be edited. Oh well, glad to see justice served. Thanks. Livajo 03:22, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
To edid recent changes go here Wikipedia:Recentchanges. The page needs to be updated every few days as requested articles become fulfilled. If you ever see a blue one, replace it with a new one from Wikipedia:Requested articles. Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 17:35, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Creative Commons licenses and Wikipedia

What's the deal with incorporating content licensed under various creative commons licenses, and images in particular, into Wikipedia? — Matt 22:37, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

As far as I know Creative Commons ShareAlike is incompatible with GFDL whether noncommercial or not since it requires releasing the derivative works under the same license. Public domain is fair game of course, so do works whose copyright have expired due to licensor's choice of limited time (e.g., framer's) copyright. -- at0 17:01, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Images under Creative Commons licenses are allowed under the GFDL's aggregation clause (or at least the Wikipedia interpretation of it). Non-commercial is discouraged as it limits our ability to redistribute. No-derivs is frowned upon, but I think it's tolerated. -- Cyrius|✎

How do you find your number of posts?

Hey everyone. I've looked all over for a way to find an exact number for your number of contributions. The my contributions page doesn't seem to give one. I'm interested to find out how many edits I've made, so I'd appriciate it if anyone enlightened me. --pie4all88 01:43, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Go to your contributions page, then select "500" as the limit. Count the number of pages until you get to the last one, then set the limit to 100 and repeat. Do this until you get a working number. Hope this helps, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 06:32, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)
I've gathered from IRC discussions that this is very hard on the database and that the developers would like everyone to stop doing it. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:14, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Ok, thanks for the help. I wish there was a more convenient way of doing it, though. :) --pie4all88 23:25, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Just so's you know, the reason an easier method hasn't been added is because there are worries that this would lead to undue importance being placed on the number of edits a user has made, as opposed to more accurate measures of their contribution to the project. Not having the feature creates a technical problem, as people try to find out manually, but having it might create a social problem, because it would be too easy to put importance on it. - IMSoP 19:25, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I agree that emphasizing the importance of number of edits is a bad idea, but as long as number of edits is a factor in evaluating, for example, Requests for adminship, people are going to keep doing this. Perhaps updating List of Wikipedians by number of edits more frequently, say once a week, would help? (Maybe this suggestion belongs somewhere else, but I don't know where.) —Triskaideka 19:42, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Well, that criterion for adminship is exactly the kind of controversial reliance on numbers that the developers are trying to discourage by making it harder. I'm pretty sure there has been some very heated debate regarding how strictly that rule should be applied. Not that that means it's wrong, of course... - IMSoP 19:58, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
There's always the CSV, an unformatted list of all contribs to all wikipedias, updated weekly (more often than Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits). See here for a list of what each column means. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 23:08, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hurricanes Ivan

Why when I click on the link for Hurricane Ivan, I get a very gross and sick photo of a girl in the bath tub, I have no idea who to contact about this or how ones gets the right photo ther, Please clean this up before a child see it!!!!!!!!

  • Someone vandalized the article. Has been fixed. Click "reload" if your browser still shows it. Andris 21:04, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)

page is hard to reach.

Someone put up a page about my programming language called SuperCollider. The page is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercollider_%28programming_language%29

However searches for "SuperCollider" "SuperCollider programming language" do not find the page. links to SuperCollider (programming language) don't work.

The page is nearly inaccessible and unfindable for these reasons. How to fix it?

  • I created a redirect to fix the red link. The other problems were because there was only a small 'c' on 'Collider'. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 11:10, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Category creation

I have posted the following at the Wikipedia talk:Tutorial (Namespaces), where such questions are encouraged, but no one seems to be home... Can any one explain to me:

How to create a Category, to add or edit an existing category is not covered, or I can not find this informaton...Please expand on this topic. Faedra 09:26, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC). please also drop a note on my talk page if this is done so I can read it!... All the best.

Further research revealeda bit of helpful info, so I added it to my question, thus:

NB: Found this:

I want to create a new category at the bottom of a page. How do I activate a new category and what are the criteria for addition?

First check to see if an appropriate or very similar category already exists (just click on the Categories link in any article for a full list). (This seems untrue all I get is some inane list of numbers and dates and info on some irrelivant pop band, whats going on here?)

If not, you can create the category just by adding the category link, .

That's all there is to it--you've created a category. After saving the article, you can click on the category link and enter a description and some information about the category.

Still uncertain about adding to existing categories and what categories should be limited to Please specify and clarify, if at all possible.... Faedra. Thank you.

Category:Test Category

Sounds like you found the List of Categories all right. Some one went through and made categories for dates and "irrelevant pop bands". More useful might be the Wikipedia:Browse by category Rmhermen 12:31, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

Inter-project image linking

Can wikipedia images be used in sister projects? For example, can I directly use a Wikipedia image in a Wikibook, or do I have to save it and upload it again under Wikibooks? ~ Booyabazooka 03:04, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You have to upload it again. Wikipedia Commons is being set up to do this in the future though. Rmhermen 14:04, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

photo mess

Sorry to say, I have just made a mess, and I worry that trying to fix it will make things worse. I uploaded the wrong picture as "Aktobe's coat of arms", I tried to upload the right one but I won't work.....I see a discussion about this type of problem but the technical talk in that discussion is right above my head. To add insult to injury trying to replace it I made another mistake and I uploaded the right picture as "Aktobe coat" (not my day today, I promise I am stopping right now), can we delete that page entirely. The problem is I am not computer savvy and I cannot find a picture unless there is a link to it in a page, so I can't even get to it right now! Sorry for the work I just created, but can somebody please help...tell me what to do in none "....cache.....server..." terms. 04:36, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You can get to an Image page by prefixing the picture filename with "Image:" and typing it in the Search toolbar at the left (in the default skin). For example, Image:Wiki.png. Alternately, you can go to your contributions list by clicking "my contributions" at the top of the page. The Image pages that you created will be there.
Now then, if you've accidentally uploaded duplicate pictures, it's not a problem. List the duplicate at Wikipedia:Images for deletion, and an administrator can delete it. --Slowking Man 06:00, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)

Thank you. I asked to have both deleted and will load the right one CAREFULLY with the right name etc. Obvioulsy I am new around here. Carole a 06:53, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

No big deal - you'll get the hang of it. Ðåñηÿßôý | Talk 23:16, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Hi

I have a real estate business on Russell Island (a small island off the coast of Brisbane, Australia). Is it possible to set up a reciprocal link with you. My web sit is www.brisbanebayislands.com.au.

Thank You

Dominic Alberth

Hello Dominic. Welcome to Wikipedia. Unfortunately reciprocal links with your site would not be appropriate content for Wikipedia. This site is not just a collection of links. Please read a summary of our site and what it is not. --Jarsyl 09:36, 2004 Sep 15 (UTC)

20000 quotations for you..

Hi,

I have a database with nearly 20000 English quotations (19920 exact) quote +author. I have created this database with the help of a small bot which I coded myself. I don't know if you could do anything with it (is copyright a problem?), but I would like to send it in csv format to you (if you want to have it), let me know..

That sounds like an impressive collection. Wikipedia does not collect many quotations, but our sibling project Wikiquote (http://www.wikiquote.org/) may be interested. Wikiquote:Village pump is probably the place to ask. —Triskaideka 20:19, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
But note that yes, copyright may well be a problem - you say you got these quotes with a bot, so where exactly did you get them from? I mean, a website of quotations probably won't be too happy with you trawling through their pages and copying all the quotations so that you can go offering them to their rivals... - IMSoP 20:36, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

If it's a quotation then surely the copyright lies with the quoted people? How can any website have a copyright on what other people said? Theresa Knott (taketh no rest) 05:47, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Theresa is quite correct. A collection of non-creative information is not copyrightable in the US (as a result of Feist v Rural). Also, quotations are a very, very, very well establish form of fair use recognized explicetely by the Bern treaty. James and I wrote this all into Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ - go there for further discussion. →Raul654 05:55, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
But could the selection of these particular quotes represent a creative work? [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 06:00, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)

Boilerplate request for permission

To whom should the replies to an emailed Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission be addressed if the recipient wishes to discuss the request or has questions about copyright and so forth? --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 23:26, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Well, I'm not 100% sure, but I think you should just continue the discussion yourself. If they ask for more details about the site, you can point them to the appropriate parts of the site, or perhaps to the mailing lists - the "Foundation-L" list covers legal matters, I believe, so that might be a good place to take the discussion if you find yourself out of your depth with copyright clarifications. Best bet, though, is to knock their socks off with how great the project is, and you won't have to worry about it! ;) -- IMSoP 00:05, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Referral to a mailing list seems impolite, somehow. I'm concerned that most users do not have the legal authority to discuss Wikipedia's use of the GFDL or possible alternatives. --[[User:Eequor|η υωρ]] 00:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
What you are describing is called "unauthorized practice of law" - see Practice of law. In general, as long as you do not present your statements as legal advice, or present yourself as a lawyer, you are on safe ground - hence, the commonplace IANAL disclaimer. As far as the GFDL, James and I wrote Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ to give people a basic idea about copyright. That should help answer most basic questions. →Raul654 02:06, Sep 16, 2004 (UTC)

crew of the Prince of Wales.

My father in law was rescued off the Prince of Wales during WW2. I don't believe it was part of the Pearl Harbour event. Can you tell me if there is a list of the crew of the Prince of Wales so that I can pass it on to my grandson, Robert Andrew Murley. His great-grandfather was Officer Leonard Seymour Murley. There was a newspaper photo in existence that showed him being hoisted from one ship to another. Yours truly Sylvia M Murley

Hello, Sylvia. It looks like our article on the HMS Prince of Wales (1939) is still somewhat incomplete. However, after a quick Google search, I did discover this fairly extensive list, which may be what you're looking for. (Click the links with the groups of letters near the top to see crew members whose last names start with those letters.) I hope that helps.
FYI, for the future, reference questions like this one should be posted at Wikipedia:Reference desk. —Triskaideka 15:50, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Innocence Project

I've found that both Innocence Project and Innocence project seem to be about the same organization. The latter is more complete and has numerous contributors, while the properly named one has only one contributor and has very little content. Could someone delete the Innocence Project article and move Innocence project into its place? Thanks. - MattTM 04:02, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)

I have merged Innocence project into the proper article and made it a redirect. Duplicate pages with usable information should not be deleted, as the edit history is necessary for compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License. --Slowking Man 05:17, Sep 17, 2004 (UTC)
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