Foundation wiki feedback/Archive/2008

This page is for resolved problems, carried out suggestions and old comments from Wikimedia site feedback. Please do not add new comments to this archive.

• Discussion from 2007 is at Wikimedia site feedback/archive/2007.
• Discussion from 2006 is at Wikimedia site feedback/archive/2006.

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Erik Möller

Now that Erik is the Assistant ED, Deputy ED, or something along those lines, could Current staff be updated to reflect it? Also, could his bio on Board of Trustees mention his new position please? Thanks! Greeves ^{(talk • contribs)} 04:04, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I was going to wait until all of the new staff members were announced and the office was settled before we made all of the changes we are going to have to make, see wikimedia:User:Cbrown1023/Relocation updates. Cbrown1023 talk 22:19, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed in general. However as far as I understand, officially he isn't a such yet. It is effective from the mid January ... Thank you for your patience.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aphaia (talk • contribs) 17:10, 5 January 2008.

Yes, we would wait for official press releases / agreement of the Office before making such changes. Cbrown1023 talk 19:49, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Alright. Thanks! Greeves ^{(talk • contribs)} 20:18, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Donation

Why are we restricted to paypal only? See the google checkout policy and it is convenient for me to donate from there. What is the proper forum for this question? Mlpkr 19:40, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Fundraising 2007 or post something to mail:foundation-l, maybe? Cbrown1023 talk 22:17, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Common logins across all wiki sites

Working as I do for Audit Bureau of Circulations I can't but help notice I need separate login's for all the different wiki sites (wikipedia, wikiquote...etc) - Surely it makes sense to have a common cookie and indeed registration policy? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.12.124.124 (talk)

Unified login is being developed and is coming soon. Nakon 03:28, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Right to left pages

Right to left languages such as Arabic or Persian need some tweaks to the site CSS to render fine. For example, the tiny icon which appears to the right of the external links (like this) will be trouble in RTL text, or some bulleted lists may show up stupid in Firefox, unless some CSS are applied to them.

There are two approaches:

1. To apply some minor CSS changes (just like what we have already done on quality.wikimedia.org to make sure http://quality.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portal/fa shows up correctly) which only make the text of the page appear in right-to-left style and fix some major bugs. This way, the overall layout is not touched.
2. To apply more massive CSS changes, which will fix some more bugs, such as making the first header on the page (like Portal/fa in the above example) to appear RTL as well. This will minorly touch the overall layout, but perhaps makes the page look more familiar for people form RTL langs.

I believe it is important to make the decision now, about what to do and the languages to include (I suggest fa, ar and he at least). The changes may reappear on other multilanguage wikis (quality, wmf, etc --even commons--) so we need a good base to be made, and then copied to other wikis.

I'm going to make suggestions, and I'm also looking forward your comments here in the mean time. Huji 09:08, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I would prefer to the former option personally unless you give us more information. ;-) (like what other problems would be fixed/how necessary would this be/a possible demo-code). Cbrown1023 talk 01:41, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I would go for the first suggestion as well. --Meno25 15:54, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Confused in Alabama

I don't exactly know how to go about voicing this insight.. however.. here goes>>> during the year of 2004 I had the oportunity to perform (I am a poet) at Lemoyne-Owens College, which is located in Memphis Tenn.. After the show we went to a resturant. At this resturant was Rufus and Carla Thomas.. Cala introduce the man with her as her father "Rufus Thomas". He appeared to look as I remember him to be and from photos I have seen with regard to the age over time. What puzzles me is that someone brought to my attention that "Wikimedia" has posted that Rufus Thomas died in 2001... if this is so then the man that was at the resturant was a fraud and so was the woman who introduce him as her father whom I believe to be Cala Thomas also contributed to this fruad... Please can someone either verify that he did not die in 2001 or support I am loosing my mental faculites... Signed...confused in alabama—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.186.163.195 (talk • contribs) 16:19, 28 February 2008.

Hello confused in alabama, this page is for comments about the Wikimedia Foundation's official website (http://wikimediafoundation.org/). If you have a question about a specific article or person, please visit the English Wikipedia's Reference desk which is staffed with a number of volunteers who can help you answer your query. Cbrown1023 talk 22:16, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi to you all. i hope every thing is good with you all. so my only problem is about the history of Africa, i mean you you did not include the history of Hausa land and its people,so i try to add or i mean to edit but i can't without you. i hope you will add the history of Hausa language and Hausa people together. Wish you all the best.

This page is for feedback on the Wikimedia Foundation's official website (http://wikimediafoundation.org/). If you have a question about a specific article, you are in the wrong place. Please contact the "Hausa people" article's editors on w:Talk:Hausa people and read our introduction for new editors if you would like to help edit the page yourself. Cbrown1023 talk 14:39, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikileaks

Dear whomever,

I have just awakened to the existence of Wikileaks.

I am a columnist and it occurs to me that the potential of Wikileaks is colossal.

BUT (there's always a but isn't there) there appears ot be a lack of organization, simply solved I think. Most of my columns are Canada-relatedand it would be good to have a resource to which I could go for Canada-leaks. Is there any possibility of setting up a bunch of sites or just organizing them under categories such as Canada-leaks, Bush-leaks, Exxon-leaks, US-leaks and so forth

The more easily accessible wikileaks is/are the more powerful the impact.

Just a thought.

Max Wolfe

Thank you for contacting us regarding this matter. Unfortunately Wikileaks is not a Wikimedia Foundation project (it just shares the same software), so we can do nothing to help you. :-( I suggest you contact Wikileaks directly with your suggestion. Cbrown1023 talk 20:44, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

This page could be simpler to use

Try keeping the format of this page simpler I think.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.181.78.131 (talk • contribs) 23:18, 5 March 2008.

I'm not sure how we could make it more explicit, there's even a direct link above. Cbrown1023 talk 23:41, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Maybe a prominent Click here to add feedback link at page top, for newcomers to the page who only want to leave feedback and don't want to spend further time understanding the page and where feedback actually goes on it. The intro text at top of this feedback page has gotten far to long and that confusing Main section, what does that mean? --69.181.78.131 03:42, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I've added the link to the top, per your request. The "Main" section is just what it sounds like, the Main section of the page as opposed to the Admin noticeboard section. Cbrown1023 talk 22:33, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Taiwan chapter

http://www.wikimedia.tw broken on wikimedia:Local chapters.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.181.78.131 (talk • contribs) 23:18, 5 March 2008.

Fixed, thanks for the note. Cbrown1023 talk 23:41, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Advice

Remove all Sketches Of Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) from wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons I heared that a group of hackers are trying to remove all Sketches Of Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) from wikipedia.org, So my advice is that, do it by your self.

Thanks, wikimedia user

Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website, http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about that specific Wikipedia article, you should direct those to the article's talk page where its editors can find your comment. Thanks, Cbrown1023 talk 22:38, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

left on home page

wiki was left on my home page after a pain staking deletion of a virus!now i cant get it off! being connected to a virus does not impress me. in fact im not intrested in this web site at all because of all the procedures i went thru to remove [mona,virus]left this web site stuck to my home page. ?CARMA? IM NOT LOGGING INTO THIS!

I apologize for the fact that your computer was attacked by a virus but assure you that it was not caused by Wikipedia. The are some great instructions for removing the virus here. I believe the virus also sets your home page to one of our websites, you should be able to fix this by editing your internet options. Without knowing your browser information, I can't give you exact instructions, but if you're on Internet Explorer 7:

1. First, if the navigation bar at the top is not showing (the thing that says File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help), then hit the Alt button to show it.
2. Then go to the Tools drop-down and click Internet options at the bottom.
3. Then under the first tab (General), there will be a spot where you can input an address to set as your home page.

I hope this helps. Cbrown1023 talk 22:49, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Your Cause

I would really like to have been able to donate to your cause. But I have a problem about people who go around violating my rights by infecting my personal property with a virus. Just because you have a problem with other people don't include me as a solution. If you would have sent e-mails I would probably supported your cause. But breaking the law is no way to get people to help you. I will be getting in touch with the proper authorities and send them the link to your site. What they decide to do with you is up to them. As far as I am concerned you are no better than the people who violate other peoples human rights.

I apologize for the fact that your computer was attacked by a virus but assure you that it was not caused by Wikipedia. The are some great instructions for removing the virus here. I hope this helps and assure you that we would not infect you with a virus to get you to donate. Cbrown1023 talk 01:38, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Links need fixing

See [1]. Angela and Tim no longer have a bio on Wikipedia, both are redirects. It seems pointless having a link to non-existent bio. 82.31.2.84 23:17, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your note! It seems Angela still has an article, but you are right that Tim does not. Fixed. :-) Cbrown1023 talk 23:41, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Future?

When it's Wikimedia's turn to step into mobile world?

You are a very big organization, and i think that many of us users will use e.g. Wikipedia from their mobile device.

And now the main question. Is it possible to convert e.g. Wikipedia to an offline java program for mobile use?

You might want to check out w:Wikipedia:PDA, w:Wikipedia:WAP, this mailing list post by our CTO, and mw:Mobile browser testing (a testing page). So if one of the current options don't already work for you, more solutions are being looked into. :-) Cbrown1023 talk 01:58, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

poor working slob

i found wikipidia as a redirect on a web page as a cisco student without a whole lot of resourses to rely on wikipedia has become my number one source of tech info its wonderfull and to the creators and people who have donated time and $$ into this project i have but one word

         KUDOS !!

THANKYOU

 JEFF LARSON

Thanks for your kind comment! :) Majorly (talk) 21:46, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikimedia visual identity guidelines

I am a bit confused about why the Wikimedia visual identity guidelines say that "localized Wikimedia logos should not be used on business cards and letterheads". Wouldn't the WikiMedia organization rather that people know that a letter is being issued by a regional chapter rather than having it look like it came from the head office? --Arctic.gnome 03:30, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

If you read the full line... you'll see that the next part of the sentence says but the branch of the organisation should appear prominently in the design.. Basically, the idea is that the logo "Wikimedia" is a stand alone, and the name of the organisation will appear prominently on the page. In short, you'd have for example a big WIKIMEDIA _COUNTRY_ on the left of the letterhead, while the WIkimedia logo would appear non-localized (ie. only with Wikimedia). So people are very much aware whether the correspondance comes from Wikimedia Foundation, or Wikimedia France, or Serbia etc. notafish }<';> 23:16, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

html archive links broken...

The languages stop at "eml" under http://download.wikimedia.org/... I was trying to get EN but its not there. Please help. :)

This is a bug the developers are aware of (see bugzilla:13420). Majorly (talk) 21:51, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Falsified Informations

I observed falsified informations under the title >>>>The bombed King David Hotel Jerusalem<<<<<<

Someone marked as if the Haganah and Palmach were Partner in the rediculous "IRGUN - Begin" Bombing !

My father was one of the victims killed, I was a member of the Haganah .

There was absolutely no coordination between the"Begin Melitia" and the Haganah its rediculous.

Y.v T Gad Hofmann GADG@AOL.com

Unfortunately, I'm not too sure what you are talking about... is this an article on Wikipedia? If so, you should bring up the problem there. Majorly (talk) 21:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Migraines

In your "Migraines" entries I see there is absolutely no mention of the true cause of migraines, nor anything about the true cure... I have both, but this item is so extremely controversial that I cannot add it to your system without your staff's and bosses approval.. therefore I am presenting it to you this way, for you folks do do with as you please...

Thank you for contacting us for assistance. Unfortunately, articles are not controlled by a central authority so there is no "staff's or bosses approval" to be gotten. You should discuss the addition of that content on the article's talk page. Cbrown1023 talk 20:49, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Embedding Wikimedia fundraising videos on sister projects

Please see commons:Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2008Mar#Looking_for_wikimedia_promo_video. I am trying to work out how to embed WMF fundraising videos in Wikiversity pages. Jtneill 14:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Somali clans

I'd just like to correct some account on Somali clans Particularly 'Daarood'.

I assume there was mistake when a large clan of Daarood has nat mentioned in your account of clans of Darod, and I don't think somebody can porposely do something like that. I hope you just correct that 'Gheri' is one of the main clans of Darod and you can even check with the history books on this part of the world. I surprised that when mr Ahmed gran was mentioned and not even mentioned hit traibe or clan which was Gheri.

Gheri Koombe is a brother of Harti koombe which I think the latter would try not mention his brother, but why no body can answer.

I believe this is in the wrong place, this is for comments related to the Wikimedia Foundation's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. If you feel you can help in the writing of an article, you are more than welcome to edit it and add information. Your help would be probably greatly appreciated! :-) Cbrown1023 talk 00:31, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Bohemian Club

I believe this is in the wrong place, this is for comments related to the Wikimedia Foundation's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. If you feel you can help in the writing of an article, you are more than welcome to edit it and your help would be greatly appreciated! :-) Cbrown1023 talk 00:29, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Backup

I think it is important to engineer a feature whereby wikipedia can be donloaded in its entireity and stored by any third party. This would serve to protect such an important body of information in the event of it being unavailable in the future for many possible reasons. Examples are a dicatorial govenment that censors free information, or a nuclear holocaust. If Wikpedia was available to be stored at will, it stands to reason that the probability of it surviving and being available for future generations is higher than if it only exists in its entireity on servers at a small number of locations.

I believe this already exists, see http://dumps.wikimedia.org. Other technical questions can also be asked on the public wikitech-l mailing list (subscription required before posting), where you will most likely get a more informed answer. Cbrown1023 talk 21:33, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Mediawiki authorship

The foundation wiki page on "MediaWiki" incorrectly lists Magnus Manske as the original author. While I certainly used his screen design and features as inspiration--for which he deserves much credit--the codebase that became mediawiki was designed and rewritten from scratch by me, using none of Magnus's code (The first working versions had only my code and Geoffrey Dairiki's diff function). The wikipedia page is correct on this. I would correct the article here if I could. -- w:User:Lee Daniel Crocker

I hope you wouldn't mind if I check with brion before I changed that. Cbrown1023 talk 22:28, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Lee's initial phase3 code was indeed a pretty much total rewrite from Magnus's phase2 code base; of course it's seen pretty much total turnover since then, as well. ;) How you want to divvy up the credit is more an art than a science. :) --brion 16:22, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys, I've removed all names because it would be awkward to try to include everyone. :-P I just mentioned that it was made by many people and continues to be updated, if they want more information they can peruse the MediaWiki website. Cbrown1023 talk 21:31, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

It's true--there's not much of my code left these days, so credit for actual current working code is pretty ambiguous. --LDC

feature suggestion

I had an idea for a feature which would probably be easy to implement. You could allow users to highlight wikipedia pages and save those highlights with their own special link (something like what tinyurl.org does). That way users could link wikipedia pages with the pertinent information highlighted.

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately we don't handle technical matters and suggestions here. I would advise that you contact Wikimedia's developers or system administrators about this by creating a bug report. If you are happy for your mail to be public, please register and create a bug on our Bugzilla <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/>.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.226.65.70 (talk • contribs) 01:34, 3 April 2008.

Thank you for writing to us about this, and I hope you will be able to reach a satisfactory resolution. Cbrown1023 talk 21:05, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

wiki thesaurus—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 194.80.20.10 (talk • contribs) 13:28, 3 April 2008.

New Wikimedia projects are only launched after extensive discussion by the community and the Board. If you would like this project to be part of Wikimedia, please see the information on project creation at Proposals for new projects where you will find instructions on how to propose a new project.

However, the idea of a wiki thesaurus might be able to be incorporated into a current project, Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Either way, thank you for your suggestion! Cbrown1023 talk 21:05, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

spelling mistake

There is a spelling mistake in the note at the bottom of foundation:Resolution:Ombudsperson checkuser : "mentionned". John Vandenberg 11:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks! Cbrown1023 talk 16:22, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Vikidia et Wikipédia

Je ne comprend pas pourquoi, Vikidia n'est pas un projet de Wikipédia, simple english est un projet de Wikipédia, et c'est beaucoup plus simple !? Cancelos 07:29, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Translation: "en: I don't understand why not make Vikidia a project of Wikipedia, simple English is already a project of Wikipedia, it would be much more simple?" —translated by Pathoschild.

fr: Bonjour Cancelos. Les nouveaux wikis de la Fondation Wikimédia (l'organisme qui opère Wikipédia) doivent conformer au règles décrits sur la page "Meta:Language proposal policy". Entre autres, une des règles requiert que la langue soit "suffisamment unique qu'il ne pourrait coexisté sur un wiki plus générale", ce qui ne permettrai pas un wiki en français pour enfants. (Les quelques wiki en anglais simple ont été crées avant que le processus et les règles fut établis.)

en: hello Cancelos. New wikis of the Wikimedia Foundation (the organism that operates Wikipedia) must conform to the rules described on the page "Meta:Language proposal policy". Among others, one of the rules requires that the language be "sufficiently unique that it could not coexist on a more general wiki", which would not allow a wiki in French for children. (The few wikis in simple English were created before the process and rules were established.)

—{admin} Pathoschild 23:15:29, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Trademark Inmfrengement

I am the creator of the WORD CHECKERMATE, I paid to trademark this name that you are using illegaly. Of the 16 people that I have contactacted, you have angered me the most. Cointact us? is a joke on you site, cest & desist now or I will send my attourneies, King & Schickly at you. Answer me within 24 hour's, due to your site's copyrights notification & your frustrating COBNTACT UDS bologna! 859-309-9118 859=396-6909 crhttn@aol.com YES I AM MAD!

日本語ページにて　

　日本語ページにて、「要出典が無ければ掲載すべきではない」という部分で討論となっている所があります。

　利用者だけでは纏める事が困難であると思われる為、管理者側より調停をして頂きたいと思います。

　ちゃんと纏める事ができない場合は、一時的に閉鎖する等の処置をとるべきではないかと進言いたします。--221.185.26.238 18:17, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

コメントありがとうございます。財団サイトの話ではなく、とある日本語プロジェクトの話かと推測しましたが違いますでしょうか？　このページは財団サイトのコンテンツについてのご意見のページです。また財団は個々の編集内容やプロジェクトの運営について介入することが原則的にございません。当該プロジェクトの管理者の方にご相談されるようお願いします。--Aphaia 22:43, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

プロジェクトではなく、WPの日本語サイトに関してです。言葉足らずとなり大変申し訳ありあません。ページを閲覧すると多くのページで出典が無記入の記事に「出典を明記して下さい」としつこく表示してあります。利用する側（閲覧する側）としては不愉快に感じる事があります。

また、「要出典」を強要しておきながら「原文の記載はNG」としているのは如何なものかと思います。出典元を記載するのであれば、原則原文記載が望ましいのではないでしょうか？　投稿者によっては記載文の内容自体が原文と異なった物になる事も十分に考えられるからです。--221.185.26.238 15:26, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

メッセージを読んでいただけていないようですので再掲いたします。

このページは財団サイトのコンテンツについてのご意見のページです。また財団は個々の編集内容やプロジェクトの運営について介入することが原則的にございません。当該プロジェクトの管理者の方にご相談されるようお願いします。

ご指摘の点は財団公式サイトhttp://wikimediafoundation.orgではなく、財団の一プロジェクトへのご意見と拝察しました。日本語版ウィキペディアのことのようですが、それをプロジェクトと呼びます。詳しくはfoundation:ウィキメディア財団のプロジェクトをご参照ください。

日本語版ウィキペディアでしたら先述の理由でこのページとは無関係です。ここでご意見をいただいても改善にはつながりません。個々のプロジェクトへご相談ください。ご理解をよろしくお願いいたします。--Aphaia 18:09, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Foundation licensing policy and American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term

To whom it may concern:

When you passed the Foundation licensing policy resolutionon 23 March 2007, perhaps you were not fully aware of what I have called the American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term. I started that Meta page on 25 January 2007, earlier than your passed resolution excluding Wikimedia Commons from having Exemption Doctrine Policy. While I generally support that non-free media should be excluded from Commons to discourage easy widespread misuses and I do not blame you in case you have missed my started Meta page "American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term", I would like to ask you some important questions as Commons now has a major upheaval concerning commons:Template:Not-PD-US-URAA. As the strict interpretation of your licensing policy would not allow them, but uploading them to local sites predominantly accessed by non-Americans would require local uploading and possibly increased local workloads, I would like to kindly ask you to consider my proposed idea copied from commons:Template_talk:Not-PD-US-URAA#Legality:

---

In order to fully enforce the Foundation's Licensing Policy, local Wikis that now disable local uploading have to reopen local uploading to claim American fair use for images that are PD in most countries. Otherwise, if any images are PD in 70 pma countries and sourced in any of them but copyrighted in the USA, I consider that the Foundation should allow Commons to claim limited fair use in cooperation with local Wikis in the following scenario:

1. There should be no gallery display on Commons, whether in articles or categories, which would not be fair enough in the USA without violating GFDL.
2. Honestly admit Not-PD-US-URAA and indicate the copyright status in the source countries and 70 pma countries. Only a few countries copyright for life plus more than 70 years.
3. Use them in relevant pages on local Wikis only.
4. Indicate which pages use them.
5. Explain why such uses contend to be fair in the USA without violating GFDL.--Jusjih 00:32, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

---

My rationale to propose this limited exemptions are that:

1. Only very few countries for life plus more than 70 years. The USA does it for works published through 1978 because the term is up to 95 years after publication,
2. English Wikipedia already has so many image description pages for fair use images used with relevant articles.
3. With my scenario above, I have no good reason to believe that someone will try to sue us when we do say on Commons which local Wiki articles use them and why we contends the uses to be fair in the USA while users in most other countries can free use them. If interlanguage links connect all relevant articles, perhaps just one set of fair use rationales will suffice. However, totally disallowing them on Commons could require each local Wiki to explain why the uses contends to be fair in the USA, even for sites predominantly accessed by non-Americans who can freely use them in their countries and areas. This could cause more local burdens.

After all, please seriously note my suggestions and reply as soon as practical with regard to the feasibility to slightly amend your licensing policy for Commons with regard to Not-PD-US-URAA images affected by American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term. Thank you for your understanding.--Jusjih 00:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC) (an American steward with adminship on 11 Wikis, outraged by the American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term)

As you have not answered, I would like to mention an alternate idea from a Commons-l message dated on 25 May 2008. It has suggested a site similar to Wikimedia Commons but hosted outside the USA, so media that are copyrighted in the USA but in the public domain in most other countries, such as Canada, can be hosted like Commons. There is a reply to that message. After all, please do not leave us hanging around about media that are copyrighted in the USA but in the public domain in most other countries. Answering my questions here when practical is very vital in order to fully enforce the Foundation's Licensing Policy.--Jusjih 01:50, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

ogg Media files

Please consider changing the ogg media audio files to a more generalized type that can be played by all media players.

You might want to bring this up on the public system administrators' mailing list, wikitech-l. (subscription required before posting) Cbrown1023 talk 22:47, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

fetching.net link error on Board photos

While browsing the Board of Trustees page, I noticed that all the images which were taken by Lane Hartwell have an invalid external link on their image description pages. The link to www.fetching.net has a typo, in that an extra '|' character has been appended to the link making it invalid. Harryboyles 09:28, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks for the note. Cbrown1023 talk 20:41, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Link to Wikimedia site feedback

If a reader clicks on a red link, for example a non-existent discussion page (e.g. [2]), or tries to edit (views the source of) a page (e.g. [3]), they get the following error message: "You do not have permission to do that, for the following reason: The action you have requested is limited to users in the group Users." This message could be more helpful to the reader; assuming they would discuss or correct something, I think it would be worth directing them here. I propose to modify the system message wmf:MediaWiki:Badaccess-group1 by adding, for example, "You can leave feedback at Wikimedia site feedback." What do you think? Korg 22:05, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree that that would be helpful, now to flag down a sysop. ;-) Cbrown1023 talk 22:08, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your good suggestion! How about this? --Aphaia 12:48, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

That's perfect! Thank you, Aphaia. Korg 18:20, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

directions, please

where i can submict/contact about serious issues on Italian Wikipedia & wikipedians ? thanks. Dott. Piergiorgio Maria d' Errico 81.208.83.253 17:28, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

info-itwikimedia.org might be a good place to start. Cbrown1023 talk 21:24, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

A credit card as a fundraiser for the organization.

I was setting up a small, monthly donation and paying my credit card bills at the same time and a thought occurred to me-- have you ever considered setting up a credit card where instead of frequent flier miles, a small donation goes to the foundation?

Kindest Regards,

A. Whitson

Comment

god bless everyone at wikimedia —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.68.248.130 (talk • contribs) 16:50, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, please allow me to extend a sincere thank you for taking time out of your day to write us. We appreciate your kind words and are thrilled that you enjoy Wikimedia. We hope to continue to live up to your expectations and that you continue to find our site a useful resource. --Az1568 00:06, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

It seems the answer do not fit the question... edit section trouble ? Anthere 14:04, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I split it into two sections... should make a bit more sense now. :) --Az1568 19:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

to the patrons & users

As anew person to your site . I thank you and your editors and patrons. for giving me access to valuable information, that I was searching for.I'm looking forward to accessing more of the information that I'm able to access...... Thank you, from an unemployed man in Australia.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 122.109.132.91 (talk • contribs) 15:00, 3 June 2008 (UTC).

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, please allow me to extend a sincere thank you for taking time out of your day to write us. We appreciate your kind words and are thrilled that you enjoy Wikimedia. We hope to continue to live up to your expectations and that you continue to find our site a useful resource. Cbrown1023 talk 21:35, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

BEATLES

--165.130.136.206 21:16, 5 June 2008 (UTC)Thank you for such great information on the Beatles and really everything. Your great. I was wondering how many copies of Meet the Beatles album were made during the release of 1964. I have ST 2047 although it states that it is the 1st album, I learn from your information that 10 day earlier that Introducing the Beatles came out. My sincere thanks. My e-mail is lynnlewispaint@msn.com

I am afraid that the Wikimedia Foundation is not able to help you with this request. As an organization that relies entirely on volunteer work, Wikimedia doesn't have the resources to research questions unrelated to its projects.

However, there is a page on the English Wikipedia where various volunteers try to answer questions such as yours, called the Reference Desk <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk>. Instructions for using the Reference Desk are on this page.

Though there is no guarantee that they can provide an answer, they are often able. Please be specific in your question so that others can better assist you! Sorry I couldn't be of more help; good luck in finding the answer to your question.

Cbrown1023 talk 23:58, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Unable to Correct False Information on Wikipedia Articles

I have come to Wikipedia on occasion but lately I have been noticing articles which are well written but with completely false information.

I attempted to correct the information to reflect the truth, and was instead warned about "vandalizing the page."

As far as I'm concerned, Wikipedia is a big joke. I won't come here expecting accurate information anymore. Don't you realize that intelligent people read things on the internet? You're defeating yourselves. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.234.67.211 (talk • contribs) 22:08, 11 Jun 2008 (UTC)

I believe this is in the wrong place, this is for comments related to the Wikimedia Foundation's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. I suggest that you direct your inquiry to Wikipedia's Help Desk, which is staffed by a large group of volunteers who are more knowledgeable on these issues.--Az1568 23:46, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

PARADIGM + SYNTAC

YOU HAVE A GREAT WEBSITE( WIKIPEDIA) BUT YOU SPEND SO MUCH TIME EXPLAINING THE WORDS "PARADIGM" + "SYNTAC" EXCEPT FOR THE SIMPLE DEFINITION- THAT'S ALL US FOLKS WANT: IS THE SIMPLE DEFINITION. BUT I LOVE WIKIPEDIA NONETHELESS.

Thank you for you nice words. :-) I understand what you mean about the long pages, sometimes I run into the same problem. However if you just want "the simple definition", you might want to turn to our sister project Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Cbrown1023 talk 14:19, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

I appreciate the info. collected in Wikipedia, but would like to see submitted articles dated in order to assess current conditions. For instance, reading the articles on satellite phone systems, I found much of the info/data to be 10+ yrs. old and not relevant to today's market. Several of the listed companies are out of business or in grave difficulty.

quick search bar

Dear Wiki,

Please create a quick search bar like google has in the tool bar on the top of the page so that I can just type in what I am looking for and I dont have to go to your site first.

Thanks,

MM —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.31.230.193 (talk • contribs) 18:08, 21 June 2008 (UTC).

Hello,

If you're referring to the Google Toolbar, then a similar toolbar for Wikipedia exists, the Wikipedia Toolbar; however, please note that it only works with Mozilla Firefox, and it is in beta development stage.

Otherwise, your browser has probably a built-in search engine that can be set to search Wikipedia; please see w:Wikipedia:Searching#Browser-specific help or w:Wikipedia:Toolbars#Direct wikipedia search from Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

Best regards, Korg 18:53, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Please Help Me

I wrote an article about Andor Szentivanyi who discovered The Beta Adrenergic Theory, accompanied Swedish hero Raoul Wallenberg, and co-discovered the role of the hypothalamus in immunology. I would like Wikipedia to either elevate my article to a featured article or create a featured about Andor Szentivanyi. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 131.247.56.195 (talk • contribs) 01:06, 24 Jun 2008 (UTC)

I believe this is in the wrong place, this is for comments related to the Wikimedia Foundation's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. I suggest that you go over Wikipedia:Featured article criteria, which describes in detail the requirements for an article to become a FA. --Az1568 03:28, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

you suck

look all i wanted to do was to submit a simple question about an entry, i thougth was incorrect. i cannot figure out how to do this. i did not want to change the entry. i did not want to discuss the entry. i just wanted someone who was responsible to verify the entry. can't you figure out a way to make this happen?

Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately, this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. --Az1568 05:32, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

same comment

you need to provide some way for people to question the content. i did not want to offer a change, though i could propose one. i did not want to engage in a discussion. you need a button, a way to say disagree, think you are wrong, think you need to verify.

See above. --Az1568 05:33, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

Well done

I just wanted to say thanks for such a great service that is provided and controlled so well.

I think everyone appreciates what you guys do.

Thank you for your kind compliment, and for using our projects! Majorly ^talk 14:43, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for kind words. NonvocalScream 18:55, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Add link on http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy

Please link Whereas the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to "empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free content license on [4]. G.A.S 06:37, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

"Licensing clause for new wikis" reference

Since Licensing clause for new wikis is referenced as the copyright policy for several projects it would be prudent to provide - fully linked - background information on the talk page, namely:

• The origin of the decision,
• The discussion about the license,
• The possible problems arise because of this license, and
• The solutions for the aforementioned problems, most probably regarding license clashing between GFDL-only licensed projects and GFDL+CC-BY-SA licensed projects, most importantly about the transfer (im)possibilities between these projects.

Right now it stands alone without any reference whatsoever, which makes it basically a new, noncompatible licensing with wikipedia. Thank you, --grin (talk) 09:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Some changes on the Board page

I think a picture of Ting needs adding, as he's the only one without one. Angela's biography is linked again. Curiously, I do believe I asked for it to be removed before, as it's now a redirect to Wikia, but perhaps it was added back. Thanks. Majorly ^talk 00:10, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Re:Angela: Angela's biography is not redirect anymore, it's a legitimate article.

Re:Ting: Sure, I'll ask him what picture he'd like to use (preferably one of those on Commons). Cbrown1023 talk 18:03, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Minutes/March_16-18_2007

Minutes/March_16-18_2007 is not public. In http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Talk:Resolution:Minutes_approval_March_2007, Anthere said that he/she would public the non-confidential parts, but I can not find any. Are board minutes supposed to be secret?

Are these the minutes you are talking about? If so, they are linked from the "Minutes" page. Cbrown1023 talk 13:59, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Reporting Vandalized Page

I noticed my 13-yr old son's friends are passing the link to a Wikipedia page. I followed the link and noticed that the page seemed to be vandalized. I thought I should reported it to someone but I don't know the right place to report to. Here is the link to the hacked page:

[5]

Thanks the page has been fixed. In the future, vandalism can be reported on the Administrator's noticeboard. Cbrown1023 talk 19:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Tour de State

I cannot believe you revoked 'Tour de State's' entry from Wikipedia...That's one of the biggest events at Penn State, other than football. You just lost 40,000+ Wikipedia enthusiasts. That was a blow to the heart of a shit load of constant internet users. Myself personally used to use Wikipedia all the time, and being one of the founders of Tour de State, am disappointed at the decision of whoever made the choice to not allow the entry. We're not trying to be inappropriate, we're simply shedding light on a very 'important' weekend at one of the finest Universities in the nation. If that's too 'trashy' for the world to read on Wikipedia then maybe you should get rid of some other entries such as...milf, gang bang, roofie, anal, cheating, masturbation, alcoholism, cocaine, lesbian, gay, foreigner, traitor, abuser, douchebag, dildo, threesome, etc...if you can't allow an entry about, yeah, an excessive amount of alcohol, I can understand that to a point; but to be honest how many 13 year olds are Wikipedia'ing 'Tour de State' and not MILF...Holla at ya boyyy, and get your shit in check for the 21'st century, yeah we all know it's fucked up but...hey G.W. won 2 terms, we're allowed to be a lil' fucked up huh!??!? -not Obama '08....Penn State '08, ya feeeeelllssss?!

If you want to contest an article's deletion, please list it on deletion review. Thank you. Majorly ^talk 10:38, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

wikimediafoundation.org / Did you know?

That section on wikimediafoundation.org reads "Did you know Wikimedia Commons is a multimedia repository which hosts over 2,000,000 multimedia files?". There are over 3 million files. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 01:55, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

That's because that is a hook from a DYK by Brianna from September 2007... :-) (done, nevertheless :P) Cbrown1023 talk 02:28, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

I did see the article was from a while back. But for us it is important that we hit 3 mil. So I thank you on behalf of Commoners everywhere. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 00:48, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

african americans by occupation non ending expanding column

[−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2) [−] CL Smooth albums (1) [−] Pete Rock & CL Smooth albums (2)63.245.162.139 21:25, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

I believe this is in the wrong place, this is for comments related to the Wikimedia Foundation's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific category you can post them at the category's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. Cbrown1023 talk 22:05, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Suggestion

Wow, I hope I'm in the right place! It is not easy to simply make a suggestion to Wikipedia site administrators. But, here goes...

How about including pronunciation guides with each entry. I understand that is not a traditional part of an encyclopedia but it sure would come in handy.

Thank you for your suggestion and your interest in improving Wikipedia. However, new ideas are not implemented directly by request; all changes to the way Wikipedia works come from its community of editors. If you'd like your idea to be considered by other Wikipedia editors, you might like to post it on thier community forum, the Village Pump, for further input and suggestions. You can do this at: Wikipedia:Village pump --Az1568 14:34, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Navigating across Wikis

I do not know if this is the "Wiki Head Office", but I would like to share some difficulties I have with practical aspects.

I find navigation between Commons Wikimedia - between different Wikipedias - en - fr - etc. quite a huge difficulty.

Let's say I see a very interesting article in one language, well sourced, well documented, and sometime later, I see one on the same subject - (but not equivalent in title) - in another language, and wish to add some substance to it, it is very hard to navigate away and look up the info I had seen beforehand in a different language. Or sometimes it could be a picture that is in one article in one language and that could be used in a similar article in another language.

I do not understand why this is so difficult, because this is supposed to be "one big family"

Could it be made easier?

--Bouleau 23:04, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Have you noticed the "in other languages" or "languages" bar at the bottom of left of the page? There, you have links to the article in other languages. See today's Featured Article on the English Wikipedia for example: w:Ryan White. Cbrown1023 talk 00:05, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

This is incorrect. The "languages" option at the left appears only on some pages. Example if I wish to research comics; there is no way for me to get from this gentelman's article fr:Patof to other languages, and there never appears a "Wikimedia" option on the left or "Wiki other" option on the left. And even on this page, there is no option on the left to ge to the "Wikipedias"! --Bouleau 13:22, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe there are no other language versions of that page? If you have a request to improve the software though, you might want to bring it up on wikitech-l (public developers' mailing list, subscription required) or Bugzilla (our bug-tracking software). Cbrown1023 talk 20:35, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

A lack of links there is (generally) an indication that an article doesn't exist at all. There are bots and some editors (including myself) that do their best to maintain the interwiki network across articles, but we can't link to stuff that doesn't exist (to use your example, see en:Jacques Desrosiers).
As for images being available in only one language, if the image exists on Commons, you can add it just like any other image, and it will show up just fine. Sometimes, perfectly free images are only available on one project because the uploader didn't know any better (there are plenty of public domain pictures on the English Wikipedia, for example), but other times it's because the image isn't free to use; each Wikipedia has different policies regarding Fair Use imagery, with some (like the Spanish Wikipedia) going so far as to remove them all. EVula // talk // ☯ // 21:06, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Incubator

As someone working on the Wikimedia Incubator, I'd like to see it at least mentioned on the foundation wiki somewhere. When I searched for something about Incubator, I found only two results about the proposal of such a wiki. Thank you, SPQRobin ^(inc!) 21:33, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry no, since Incubator is no Wikimedia project in the sense of those nine other Wikimedia projects. It is a list of official project (including beta) which are introduced on wmf:Our projects. Managerial wikis like meta or incubator is not in that scope. If you disagree with me on that point, please get community and office agreement it should be added to that place. Thank you for your understanding. --Aphaia 19:32, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Why shouldn't we mention our non-official projects? (we could perhaps create such a page "Non-official projects" – or something like that, it's not a good name). Even Main Pages on Wikipedias list Meta-Wiki, an organisational wiki. Btw, Incubator is not a managerial wiki, since there's nothing organised or managed on that wiki. It's rather an exception. Or that is my POV at least :-) SPQRobin ^(inc!) 15:55, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Sister projects

I'd like to replace wmf:Template:OurProjects-multi with Template:Sisterprojects, updating it to re-arrange the layout and add Meta in place of the WMF. The -multi template doesn't make use of imagemap or link to the wikimania stuff. MBisanz ^talk 03:35, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

I like the idea (it also helps solve Robin's suggestion), but I'm concerned that it might be too big for the page. (Just a note, this would be for updating wmf:Template:OurProjects-multi only and hopefully not all the other language versions :P). Cbrown1023 talk 04:07, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Of course, given that many of the projects listed there, like Bugzilla, have no internationalized version. MBisanz ^talk 11:03, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Seems like a good idea. —Giggy 12:05, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure if it is a good idea. It rather is the opposite course we've been organizing things. The WMF version is a showcase for the outside people. Template:Sisterprojects on meta is rather for the community use. And most of those wikis on the two bottom lows are no "project" in the narrow sense. Please we already removed meta from wmf:Our projects; why do we want to add those wikis to the front page now, while the foundation doesn't count them as its project? --Aphaia 19:12, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I reverted your edit. You at least would have liked to talk to Jay or Comcom members. It is not up to two or three editors to decide what Wikimedia projects are. It is related to several things like trademark registration etc. Please remind it is not just like a community wiki but it may reflect backyard things. Thanks. --Aphaia 19:18, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok, Cbrown had indicated it wasn't a terrible idea, so I went ahead with the coding since it seemed ok, but I don't mind the revert. MBisanz ^talk 23:43, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Cbrown is not a member (yet). See Comcom#Membership for further details. --Aphaia 04:07, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

My apologies, I'll check with one of them (probably you or swatjester) in the future. MBisanz ^talk 10:43, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

YouTube

I don't know if this is in the right place... but whatever

Suggestion:

I think that videos from youtube should be able to be placed within articles. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jcfreaknrdfghtr (talk)

WIKIOS

I'm thinking about an opensource operating system. I know there's linux and other stuff. But I want one made by people of WIKI. Any ideas? — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.239.103.83 (talk) 19:04, 6 September 2008

As far as I am aware, a number of Wikimedians have already contributed code to Linux. Linux, of course, is the base of the LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) used by MediaWiki. I think in a very real sense, Linux already fills your description. For the record, I mostly work on Macs and XP systems, here. :) Kylu 19:14, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Automatic language selection

For the past few weeks, I've been getting increasingly annoyed about the fact that suddenly the www.wikipedia.org front page automatically selects Dutch as the language in which I want to search. Yes, the language version of the OS on my computer is Dutch. No, this does not mean I want to look things up in Dutch. Dutch is not my main language of use, if I want to look something up, I'll click the link to Dutch or go to www.wikipedia.nl.

I'm not sure what - if anything - can be done about this. Maybe an option to set preferences, like there is in Google? Because like I said, this has become a major irritant for me.

=/

Linda (professional translator)

If you want to search just the English Wikipedia, you can visit it directly at http://en.wikipedia.org/ (or the actual search interface at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search). You might be interested in the discussion about this on the www.wikipedia.org discussion page, I'll note that there that you commented here. Cbrown1023 talk 20:50, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

See also https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15518 . Daniel (talk) 10:38, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Philipsburg Osceola Senior High School

Hey I am a student at POSH and our history class is doing a project with you wiki articles. However we cannot edit them because our schools network has been blocked by one of your workers named Edgar181 and the lock does not expire untill 4:58 PM October 14th 2008. By then our papers will be do and we will not have anything done. So please could we at least have a temporary unlock. You can visit our school website at http://www.pomounties.org/poshs/site/default.asp

The block explains...

---

Due to persistent vandalism (see edit log), anonymous editing from your school, library or institution's IP address is disabled. You continue to have access to read the encyclopedia. If you are logged in but still unable to edit, please follow these instructions. To prevent abuse, account creation via this IP address is probably also disabled.

If editing is required for class projects, please have your teacher or network administrator contact us (with reference to this IP address) at unblock-en-l from an email address listed on your school's website. Alternatively, if you have no Internet access at home, you may email us using your school-issued email address, telling us your preferred username. An account will be created for you. Please check on this list that the username you choose has not already been taken.

Thank you.

---

This block has been set to expire: 16:58, 14 October 2008.

---

Please Unblock By, Anonymous

Please e-mail unblock-en-llistswikimediaorg and include all of the above information to be unblocked. Cbrown1023 talk 20:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

censorship

WHY HAVE YOU CENSORED MY WORK?WHY DO YOU NOT LET ME LOG IN.WHY ARE YOU PREVENTING ME FROM LOGGING IN WHY HAVE MY RIGHTS AT WIKIPEDIA BEEN SUSPENDED.PEOPLE ARE GOING TO REALIZE THAT WIKIPEDIA IS IN THE BUISNESS OF CENSORSHIP AND FORBIDING THE TRUTH.THAT WIKIPEDIA ONLY WANTS PART TRUTHS,BUT THAT THE WHOLE TRUTH ISNT WANTED HERE.THAT HOMOSEXUALS HAVE DELETED MY WORK.YOU DECIDE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO TELL THE WHOLE WORLD VIA THE NET THAT WIKIPEDIA IS IN THR BUISNESS OF CENSORSHIP AND THIS BY LESBIENS AND HOMOSEXUALS.YOUR SITE WILL LOSE WHAT LITTLE RESPECT IT HAS LEFT. DAVIDON4U

Thank you for contacting us for assistance. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter. This is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article. If you need to request unblocking, the first method of requesting an unblock is to contact the administrator who placed the block. You will see this person's username in the message that appears when you attempt to edit a page. If for some reason you cannot do this, you may email unblock-en-lmail.wikimedia.org and an administrator will look into your request. --Az1568 14:46, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Mirror Site

Dear:

I am an assistant professor in National Taichung University, Taiwan. We have an academic project that needs Wikimedia api service. In order to accelerate the response speed to Wiki, we might need a Wiki mirror site in my school to provide us the Wiki api service. Is it possible to build a Wiki mirror site in my school? What kinds of server/OS/database/software or device need to buy?

Thank you.

best wishes,

Dr. Chih-Hung Wu E-mail: chwuntcu.edu.tw

Hey Dr. Wu! Would you mind e-mailing brionwikimedia.org or tstarlingwikimedia.org about this? They should be able to give you all the information you need. Cbrown1023 talk 20:03, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Parental filters for WIKI?

I have come across a number of articles whose subject matter and illustrations may not be appropriate for children.

Is there a filter setting that a parent can set to help protect children from material that is inappropriate? I'm specifically concerned about the sexual material, especially given some of the rising problems with early sexual experimentation.

Thank you.

Buddy Knight rampager83@charter.net

Nothing that is provided by Wikipedia, unfortunately. There are, however, plenty of free internet filters here: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q="free+internet+filter" that will filter out "inappropriate" content. Regards, Majorly ^talk 07:20, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

How do I sign up on wikimediafoundation?

--123.114.219.194 12:04, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Please see and read the instructions on Request for an account on the Foundation wiki. --Az1568 20:21, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

...for access to the Wikimedia Foundation's official wiki (http://wikimediafoundation.org/). For all the other wikis, you can just visit the "Create an account / Login" button in the top right. Cbrown1023 talk 21:01, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Access to complaints system

It's absolutely amazing how many hoops you have to jump through to get a dispute arbitrated upon. There is a whole long process to go through first and and then a strange piece of HTML code but no instructions what to do with it.

I guess it's all designed to put people off complaining about disputed material. I certainly don't have the time to go through such a long process. We contribute without payment and because we believe in the project, the least we could be given is easy access to arbitration or dispute resolution. The obvious solution is to stop making contributions.

It's in marked contrast to how easy Wikipedia has made the system to donate money.

'Nuff said.

Thank you for your comments. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter, as this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article, or you might want to direct your comments elsewhere. I hope you will understand that we cannot help you any further. --Az1568 16:39, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

violation of rights

I was visiting the wikimedia and found some information which is not correct. I just request you that before you put information on the website please investigate the reality and accuracy. Some times it gives mental torture that you make the person hero of Human Rights but actually he is the great violator.

Thank you for your comments. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter, as this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article, or you might want to direct your comments elsewhere. I hope you will understand that we cannot help you any further. --Az1568 16:39, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Admin Black Hats

I am running into a strong anti-Christian POV on .en that results in blocks from one or two admins that have tools from private industry internet security firms and / or government agencies. Please email me at doug@youvan.com for details. Doug youvan 21:44, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Please see http://www.childpainter.org, http://www.wikipediaversusthegodofabraham.org, and then look at the orginal diffs on .en.

Thank you for your comments. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter, as this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article, or you might want to direct your comments elsewhere. I hope you will understand that we cannot help you any further. --Az1568 16:39, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

How does one do that if the blocks appear to be limited in time, as posted, yet they do not expire, and there is no ability on any page, including those used for appeal that are open from one's IP addreess or MACID? In other words, they are hacked in by an admin who is a Black Hat. Doug youvan 17:18, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

"Legal Threats" versus Lawsuit

In order to improve WP policy, please consider the following two hypothetical editors:

• EDITOR 1 makes one or more vague or well-intended "legal threats" on WP, but no action is actually filed.

• EDITOR 2 makes no legal threats on WP, but an actual lawsuit is filed.

Ironically, EDITOR 1 is banned from editing, but EDITOR 2 can't be banned from editing because of a pursuant court order.

What is the reasoning behind banning EDITOR 1?

Doug youvan 22:48, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter, as this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article, or you might want to direct your comments elsewhere. I hope you will understand that we cannot help you any further. --Az1568 16:39, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

There is no specific article, because this is a matter of policy. Given the problem cited in the feedback subject directly above this, would you like to suggest a page where such a discussion should occur? Doug youvan 17:23, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

I would try asking over at en:Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). --Az1568 17:50, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

I am blocked there down to my IP address and MACID by a black hat admin or two. So, I will continue to address this problem though my ISP as being hacked.68.103.31.116 22:31, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a page about Wikipedia:Appealing a block, and a Wikipedia:Guide to appealing blocks which suggests approaches that may be helpful in resolving rather than aggravating the situation. The message shown to blocked users also contains contact information, including (under "Additional information") how to get in contact by e-mail if all else fails. - IMSoP 03:02, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

Thousand salutes for such wonderful project. And Million salutes for providing this wonderful encyclopedia without a single advertise on the site!!

this is a great web site, although reading up on a slug I found out in my front yard, made me question the accuracy of accounts regarding the information on Kerry Slugs I believe I have one that I recently found. and I live in Memphis Tennessee. I do not have a camera to send you a picture but I do have the snail. this is from Memphismable@aol.com.

You deserve so much credit

Dear Wikipedia Foundation,

I would like to thank you for making such a wonderful resource available to the world online.

In a time of information poverty around the world your web service must be the best in providing such a fundamental resource. It is a sheer stroke of genius but also heart and ethics to make so much information available to so many people. You should receive the well deserved gratitude of the online world for being so generous of your time and dedication to such a worthy cause.

I'm reminded of my inspirational grandfather who owned half a street comprising many different businesses, the warehousing behind those businesses and behind that again a long row of terraced houses. He lived his life above the drapery shop in modest dwellings whilst providing jobs and homes to many of the families of the town. He could have shown off his wealth living in one of the many fine big houses to the periphery of the town but he didn't. I feel the same spirit of giving to others is very much in evidence in your web service.

You deserve so much credit. My sincere thanks to you all.

Kind regards,

Mark Healy

markhealy@oceanfree.net Dublin, Ireland.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, please allow me to extend a sincere thank you for taking time out of your day to write us. We appreciate your kind words and are thrilled that you enjoy Wikipedia. We hope to continue to live up to your expectations and that you continue to find the site a useful resource.

If you are interested in becoming involved in the site yourself, please see our tutorial at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial> which contains all the help you need to get started. We could always use new volunteers! :-) Cbrown1023 talk 21:23, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is amazing, the best source of information hands down. I seen something today however that has shaken my opinion significantly.

I tried authoring up an article discussing the notable achievements of a local individual who single handedly designed from the ground up what is easily one of the most intelligent software solutions available today. He did it as a hobby for fun and provided his work for free. The project was posted on digg.com a year ago and made it to the front page for the incredible achievements behind it.

Today's featured article is about a computer company and their products...

My article was deleted by Administrator NawlinWiki after minutes of being live. There was nothing malicious about my article, no advertisements or anything. The reasoning I got was that it looked like an advertisement.

My logic compares my article to today's featured article and compared to that, mine looks nothing like an advertisement at all.

I wrote your administrator to point these things out and got no acknowledgment or any form of response to my logic at all. Hoping he'd just made a mistake I added my article again. I don't think it even made it live. After reading some of the comments made about this guy, I have to ask why Wikipedia still allows him to have any form of administrative privileges.

Not knowing where else to post this, I posted here. To my knowledge you don't have any US numbers to call or anybody such things can be taken to so here it is. I would like to be able to submit articles to Wikipedia, but it seems I've been targeted by your Admin.

Hopefully somebody will do something about this. You have my login info through this post, it shouldn't be hard to track down and verify what has happened.

Cold War error Tanks

I spent 20yr in the US Army, and most of that on the M60 series tanks(M60,M60A1, M60A1E1, M60A2, and M60A3) also in the 20yrs I was at Company, Battalion, Brigade, and Division level. I went to Master Gunner School in 76 on the M60A2 tank and was quite good at what I did. I was also Master Gunner for two tanks battalions and one armored division.  I was in the last two Battalions that had the M60A2's, one of which turned there tanks in with a 100% combat ready condition.  

The other Battalion, I was the Battalion Master Gunner and gunned for the Battalion Commander. He gave his tank to me and told me it had not fired in 3yrs and to fix it, and I did, for three months I worked on that tanks to get it ready for gunnery and all the while we were in gunnery (another 30 to 45 days)we fired high tank in the battalion. So I find some wholes in your account of the M60 series tanks. Both on the M60A1E1 and the M60A2. The only M60A1E1 I was on did not have Stab but had the fire control that later was on the M60A2. The M60A2 was in some kind of development during the testing of the MBT70/XM803 because I saw it on video, that I had back in either 77,78, or 79. We also never really had a problem with the missle system, but we did have problems maintaining the stabilization system, and other fire control systems.

Richard Finley MSG RETIRED

discrepancy between two wiki pages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Cermak#cite_note-autogenerated1-5

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

These two pages diasagree on whether only Cermak was killed that day:

Cermak page says he was only one who died.

Zangara pages says a woman also died.

Thank you for your comments. However, we are unable to assist you with this matter, as this is the page for feedback on Wikimedia's official website: http://wikimediafoundation.org. If you have comments about a specific article you can post them at the article's talk page, accessed by clicking on the "talk" or "discussion" tab at the top of the article, or you might want to direct your comments elsewhere. --Az1568 (talk) 17:08, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I cant report an error so ill report it here

I was told i edited a page i didnt edit. This was the message i got.

User talk:194.125.54.200 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Difference between revisions) Jump to: navigation, search

ClueBot (Talk | contribs) (Warning 194.125.54.200 - #1) Next edit →

---

Current revision as of 21:56, 8 March 2008

[edit] March 2008 Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to make constructive contributions to Wikipedia, at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to British Army, did not appear to be constructive and has been automatically reverted by ClueBot. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you believe there has been a mistake and would like to report a false positive, please report it here and then remove this warning from your talk page. If your edit was not vandalism, please feel free to make your edit again after reporting it. The following is the log entry regarding this warning: British Army was changed by 194.125.54.200 (u) (t) deleting 47247 characters on 2008-03-08T21:56:34+00:00 . Thank you. ClueBot (talk) 21:56, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:194.125.54.200"

"If you believe there has been a mistake and would like to report a false positive, please report it here and then remove this warning from your talk page. " --Az1568 (talk) 17:06, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Missing "@" sign

Here is an error: For all other types of donation, please contact us through donatewikimedia.org. This is meant to be "donate@wikimedia.org", right? /skagedal^... 10:23, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, fixed! Cbrown1023 talk 00:41, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Making Life Easier?

You guys are great but "Making Life Easier" sounds lazy. I dont feel that at all. Id think to hear something more positive from you. Wouldnt a line that motivates and inspires people to be on wikipedia serve your purpose better? How about "Making Life Smarter" or "Moving Us Forward". Thanks for the great site and our collection of information easy to access.

Alex

Ditto. You need a more intelligent slogan than "Making life easier."

James

Agreed. And you are completely correct: we tested the message against the others and it didn't do as well as many of the other messages. See (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/12/06/site-notices-people-actually-read-them/) for more details. We're still testing other messages and images. Rand Montoya 23:27, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

typo in censorship press release

In wmf:Censorship of WP in the UK Dec 2008QA, the linked text "Virgin Killer" is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer%7C (note the "|" at the end). Please remove the vertical slash at the end. - BanyanTree 07:18, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Done by Mido. Cbrown1023 talk 22:20, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Donation Currencies

Request you to allow payment in Indian Rupees too. I bet there would be many like me who would want to donate for Wikipedia.

Contact me at : pratapgadgilgmail.com

Agreed and understood. I'm still working on finding a good solution to allow donations via rupees that fit within our needs. I do not think we will have a solution to this before the end of year, but I am hopeful. Rand Montoya 23:12, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

There is an error in toulouse-lautrec's page.

In the same page, his death has two different dates. Which one is the correct??

Take care. LadyCabaret.

skin

Wikimediafoundation.org should use a slick skin by default - logged-in users can choose to continue using Monobook or any other skin. Monobook is very utilitarian, but since WMF.org isn't publicly editable, that's not a consideration for the default skin. Consider using a modified version of Rounded Blue 2, which is slick already (but WMF.org should have a unique skin that's not used elsewhere).  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 01:01, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Why should it? A wiki that looks like that simply doesn't fit in the family. Majorly ^talk 01:04, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Typo in wmf:Press releases/Censorship resolution of WP in the UK Dec 2008

There is a 'the the' in the press release. Cenarium (Talk) 18:13, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Done Thanks Cbrown1023 talk 15:30, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Small translation need fix

I was reading the italian pages about donations, and found a bad translation in "Donor comments" page ("Commenti dei donatori" in italian). "Newer donations | Earlier donations" is translated as "Le donazioni più recenti | Le primissime donazioni", which means "Newest donations | Very first donations". It should be better something like "Donazioni seguenti | Donazioni precedenti". --Kar.ma 18:56, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Done --Az1568 (talk) 16:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

All right now, thank you. --Kar.ma 19:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

What is 'Finance and Admin. 1.619K$' ?

visible there, where can we have more details ? Yug 08:54, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, please explain that mysterious "Finance and Administration" as well as "Programs" (what kind of programs?), "Board" (Wikimedia Board of Trustees? Eight people?) and "Office of the ED" (Executive Director? Few persons?). If I see this right, at least 0.6 million $ are spent for some few people. Even if I exclude office costs, I still don't see why so much money is justified in any way (note, I do -not- question "Legal"). So, where can I apply for being paid by Wikimedia? I really didn't know that some few people can make so much money per year with a free encyclopedia, where volunteers (!) are doing all the work (but some lucky ones seem to get the money for that). Please provide more transparency (as I hope that I am wrong). --87.173.247.109 10:54, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The page you linked says on it that it's from the wmf:Annual Report and includes a link. All the information you need is in that Annual Report. (You might also want to see this explanation about last year's budget). Cbrown1023 talk 01:02, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Donate Questions

On the question and answers page regarding the Wikipedia Foundation (Reached by clicking the "Learn More..." link, the following typo occurs:

nyone who donates by paypal or credit card will receive a an email tax receipt as long as their email address was included with the donation.

Not being picky, just thought you should know.

Fixed, thanks. --Az1568 (talk) 20:00, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

hey guyz

hey guyz great great job on the wikipedia data. i m a realy huge fan get a my knowledge from and dont do any where else. just want to add that could u guys make an article about the most educated person in world i read it some where about dr Ashok Johnubiprasad but could not find any thing about his on wiki. so please let me know if guys decide to write anything on these two topics thanks. my e-mail id is: sheru84 on the web service gmail.com

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, please allow me to extend a sincere thank you for taking time out of your day to write us. We appreciate your kind words and are thrilled that you enjoy Wikipedia. We hope to continue to live up to your expectations and that you continue to find the site a useful resource. Wikipedia is a "wiki", which means that everyone can edit pages. You don't need to apply or get special permission to join us. If you are interested in becoming involved in the site yourself, please see our tutorial at Wikipedia:Tutorial which contains all the help you need to get started. --Az1568 (talk) 20:24, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Typo

"When you've only actually received 1m from the Sloan Foudnation thus far" should actually be "When you've only actually received 1m from the Sloan Foundation thus far"

Greets, Jan.

Thanks for the catch! Fixed. --brion 01:16, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

censored wikipedia

I spent a month quoting U.S. government documents, published books, AP, the Rocky Mountain News, and the New York Times. Over half of my references and the text explaining them were simply deleted. The stated reason was that the Pro Se Wikipedia article was too long. These "editors" edited "pro se wikipedia" to make it shorter than the article about "Boston Legal" discontinued television show. The time I spent was a waste and now my references are hidden away so that they are hard to find. The same editors have deleted other comments and references from other legal articles including the one on "fundamental rights", one on former judge Edward Nottingham, and one on the ABA. Kay Sieverding

I'm sorry you are having trouble. This is not the place that can help, however Dispute Resolution on Wikipedia can help. Very best, NonvocalScream 22:43, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Question and editorial comment

You have a misspelling at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Values (subheading: Freedom): freely-licensed is misspelled. Question: does any of the money donated to the foundation make its way to political parties? I do not want my money to be used to fund either party.

I've fixed the spelling error. Thank you for pointing it out to us. To answer your question simply, "no". Funds raised are not given to political parties. I invite you to review this link for further details about what the money raised is actually used for. Thank you again for informing us of the spelling error. - Rjd0060 15:48, 27 December 2008 (UTC)