Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:05, 2 August 2009

This is not the page to ask for help.

This page is for discussion of the Help:Contents page itself, and its subpages. You may be looking for one of the following pages: Misplaced Pages:Help desk - For questions about Misplaced Pages and editing. Misplaced Pages:Reference desk - For questions on factual topics (for example: Who is the pope?) See also: Misplaced Pages:Village pump - For policy and technical discussions. Misplaced Pages:Resolving disputes - To resolve issues between users.

To help maintain Misplaced Pages's help pages, see the Help WikiProject.

Archives

Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3 Archive 4 Archive 5 Archive 6 Archive 7

Alignment

For the last change, yes/no, make sense, needs work? Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 08:58, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

I really like the heading-centered alignment. Eleven even (talk) 20:20, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

The question wasn't one of aesthetics, but of usability (I agree that the centered content is more aesthetically pleasing).

I believe the left-aligned version is clearer, and more easily understood as giving just examples of the content found in the subpages; Also, with regards to this page going against our manual-of-style recommendations of not linking headers. Anyone else? -- Quiddity (talk) 22:50, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

A general project

I'd like to develop an alternative introduction to Misplaced Pages that is not focused on how to edit, but rather how to get acquainted with Misplaced Pages. How to use the History tab to see what's happened to an article, why getting an account and using a watchlist might be helpful even if you don't plan on editing anytime soon, how talk pages and archives work. Maybe also how the administrative end of things works: how people get admin or bureaucrat rights, what those rights are, how deletion and merge decisions are made, how consensus works in general. If anybody's interested in collaborating on this, please contact me. -Pete (talk) 21:18, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree. My adoptees would really need something like that. -download | sign! 21:38, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree - there is no need to bombard users with all of the editing help and info from the off, just a genle intro and link to all the editing help would do, there are a lot of duplicate links on the help pages leaving it a little confusing - but everything can be improved eh? I recommend using Misplaced Pages:Help Project as a base camp, it is somewhat inactive but seems to be the place to start ( I have suggested putting it's banner on relevent help talk pages so that good natured editors such as yourselves are led to a central discussion area rather than the isolated mists of little watched pages). I know of at least one other editor keen to fire the project up again... :note there's also a smaller more directed Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Contents. LeeVJ (talk) 23:41, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

A specific suggestion

Misplaced Pages:Introduction 3 should mention joining a WikiProject in a particular area of interest in the right-hand column. (The page isn't editable.) -Pete (talk) 21:18, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes it is. Mallerd (talk) 07:54, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

"Other Media"

The link "Other Media" currently links to Misplaced Pages:Media, a disambiguation page. Looking at the history, it appears the originally intended link target is now at Misplaced Pages:Creation_and_usage_of_media_files. Should this link be fixed? -- 128.104.112.85 (talk) 21:23, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for not only pointing out the problem, but also researching the solution! Ideal. -- Quiddity (talk) 21:29, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Interwiki use of pictures

Can I use a picture from the Dutch Wiki in de English Wiki ? Or dom I have to upload it again ? thanks in advance. Bornestera (talk) 17:04, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

I believe you have to upload it again, but consider uploading it to WP:COMMONS. Then it can be used on all wikimedia projects, including all of the wikipedias. JackSchmidt (talk) 17:23, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try it Bornestera (talk) 18:36, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Editing software

Some links to third-party software that can be used to edit articles would fit well in this article. SharkD (talk) 00:53, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

There is a link to Misplaced Pages:Tools here already. I think anyone who is technical enough to want a separate program to edit with, will be able to find that. -- Quiddity (talk) 02:05, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Problem with IE and searchbox

Hi, I selected the help namespace and entered "test" in the search box. After pressing the enter button, I was forwarded to the article Test. When I use Firefox, I became the search results as expected. Is there a bug with IE? --86.32.239.59 (talk) 14:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

The problem occurs only with IE7. --86.32.239.59 (talk) 14:29, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Pages needing attention

I was looking through the help files and saw a link to under the heading of , and when I clicked on it I saw it was marked as an inactive page and retained only for historical reference.

Maybe that should be noted on the main page, and the link move somewhere down below, seperating it from the rest of the help section.

76.211.8.149 (talk) 03:11, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Done. Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 20:11, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

info box

could someone tell me how to edit info boxes? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.233.153.81 (talk) 05:15, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Try Help:Infobox, or the links in its right-hand navigation box. -- Quiddity (talk) 20:09, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Link to article problems page or "Contact Misplaced Pages" at top

There are Foundation-level discussions in progress of how to deal with our BLP problems - which are probably Misplaced Pages's biggest problem with relations to the outside world. Sue Gardner (WMF executive director) started a discussion on foundation-l (see start of thread here).

One of the biggest problems is that people don't know who to contact about a bad article about themselves. FAT52 Birgitte suggested that people with a problem are as likely to hit "Help" as "Contact Misplaced Pages". I ran some statistics (1, 2) showing the "Help" link in the sidebar gets almost as many hits as the "Contact Misplaced Pages" link. And noted I'd be mentioning it here.

So. Given a reader's idea of "help" may not match our prior neat categories of what we want to offer as "help" ... I think we really should try a link at the top of the "help" page to Misplaced Pages:Contact us and Misplaced Pages:Contact us/Article problem.

I realise the page is cluttered as it is (and could do with reorganisation), but this is a serious problem and these could be really useful to the reader. - David Gerard (talk) 09:39, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Feel free to have a stab at it, or suggest a specific location. I don't think many people are watching this page (sadly). eg. would you suggest within this page somewhere (you say "at the top", but might under the "Communication in the project" header be ok?), or in the {{WP help pages (header bar)}} somewhere? I've made an initial go of it...

I left a suggestion for a potential merge/overhaul between Misplaced Pages:Questions and Misplaced Pages:Contact us in September '06, and still think that might be worth considering.

As for an overhaul here, always needed. I still kind of like the "everything on one page" we had when the Help:Contents/Site map was here (eg Feb 2006). Though John Broughton's Misplaced Pages:Editor's index to Misplaced Pages now does that more comprehensively. Lots of options, too many pages! -- Quiddity (talk) 20:09, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

It should be on this page, and where you've put it is where it would presently go ...

I'd like to stick it at the top, really prominently, for people who see an article on them with rubbish, go "what on earth!" and click "Help!!" in the hope of finding help. I'm assuming they won't read the page - from this usage perspective, it's presently hidden in a wall of text.

I'd like to put a row in a different colour at the top, with "Article problem?" and "Contact us" in it, for at least a week and see if the hits on the article help pages go up. (stats.grok.se is so useful!) If they do, it was needed - if not, it wasn't.

The main watchers of Misplaced Pages:Contact us are the OTRS crew, who see it as a way to minimise or at least direct their email flood, and it seems to help them a bit - David Gerard (talk) 23:22, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm poking at ideas in my sandbox, for what to do with {{WP help pages (header bar)}}, and thinking of maybe something like this:

General help: Contact us · Report an article problem · Any questions? · FAQ · Glossary · Reference desk
Editing help: Help manual · Welcome · Tutorial · Cheatsheet · Help desk

Feel free to edit my sandbox, or throw your own together. It's brainstorming time...

(sidenote: I'm sure someone asked that a link to "Contact us" get removed from some prominent place about a year ago, because otrs was getting too many cranks and kids deluging the queue - however I've searched everywhere likely (all the redesigns i've watched or been involved in), and can't find it. (Not that it matters, all experiments are reversible!))

Do thy will, nobody here but us bears. -- Quiddity (talk) 03:16, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah ... I wouldn't like to instruction-creep the help header. That's why I didn't just add the header, all extra words are bad until proven necessary!

I'll add a test header shortly and see how the hits go after a week, as outlined above - David Gerard (talk) 21:07, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Test header up. It's not ornate in the least, but it'll do. Note bright prominent obnoxiousness. Tweaks OK. The design point is to be the first thing someone sees on the page, so upset people know where to go about a real problem.

I'll keep an eye on the stats for the next week and see if Birgitte was right - David Gerard (talk) 21:24, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

It's a bit in your face and pushes the rest of the items down the page :( I agree a restructure may be needed, the questions etc at the bottom look a bit lost /out of context. I'm not sure about making access for reporting problem articles is more than other questions, but can see your point... maybe a reordering / rationalisation of the sections could be implemented - say with the first section being 'report a problem' subsections factual error / copyright issue, which would make it easier to find and still fit in with the remainder of sections? LeeVJ (talk) 19:42, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

The results

I said a week, didn't I? *blush* Well, no-one zapped it in that time! The numbers from stats.grok.se show March hits so far as:

• Misplaced Pages:Contact us/Article problem - 11595 (up from 7773 in Feb and 8259 in Jan)
• Misplaced Pages:Contact us - 253665 (up from 232227 in Feb and down from 279774 in Jan)

The increased hits on "article problem" may be worth the effort. The increased hits on "Contact us" not so much. What do you all think? - David Gerard (talk) 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I have no helpful insights, hence am keeping quiet.

It's really up to whoever has to deal with the influx, I guess.

We're just a quiet valve, here. :) -- Quiddity (talk) 17:39, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Revising and organizing the Help:Contents/Editing Misplaced Pages page

It might be a good idea to consider better organizing the Help:Contents/Editing Misplaced Pages page, since in its present form, it is hard to locate things on the page and it is a bit of a mess. Don't know if this is the right place to ask for input, but have created Help:Contents/Editing Misplaced Pages/Sandbox for a re-write. Any help or opinions would be appreciated, thanks! --Funandtrvl (talk) 16:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Right place to ask, low quantity of people watching though.

Your sandbox rewrite looks like a good start. Once you're happy with it, feel free to overwrite/update the actual page. -- Quiddity (talk) 17:34, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Ouch

Far too much info on this page; no idea what to click for the best. Can't it be clarified? Like, distinct headings - help for people reading Misplaced Pages, help for beginner editors, help for experienced editors? (I'm not a beginner, but I'm imagining I am, and I think I would be overawed by this page.)--The Early Knight (talk) 18:53, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

NB: edited the header bar

I just jiggled with the header bar (a separate template), if anyone wants to take a look. Template:WP help pages (header bar).--Kotniski (talk) 19:13, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

makes alittle more sense, cheers. L∴V 20:57, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

firewaorks at Disney Resort California

Can someone advice me if there is fireworks at the Disney Resort (Sleepy Beauty Castle) from July 18th to 23th. Thanks

Andy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jesseandy (talk • contribs) 04:34, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Reference desk is where you will get an answer to a question like this. Good luck :-) --Commander Keane (talk) 05:17, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:FAQ/Categories

Misplaced Pages:FAQ/categories has the following statement:

"When using the search box, it is possible to restrict your search to articles in a particular category. To do this, just add +incategory:"CategoryName" to the search string."

I'm not quite sure how this works. I didn't get any results when I did a search for:

+incategory:United_States_Supreme_Court_cases discrimination

I must be doing this wrong. Can you add an example of a properly-formatted search to that sentence? Agradman /_{makes occasional mistakes} 04:05, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

The linked example to do this at Misplaced Pages:Searching is also not working. I would hazard a guess that the feature is turned off. Most likely someone at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical) will know for sure.--Commander Keane (talk) 05:25, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

fuel

can we use rubber band as a fuel in rocket. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.91.204.222 (talk) 07:52, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Good morning

dear sir/madam

i m membar of THE ASSOCIATION OF CRICKET UMPIRES AND SCORERS Surrey (uk.my Name is Farrukh Mahmood.and my member ship no is MO1544.please conform it i m member your association or not.actully i m paid last amount in 2006-2007.now i m not paid anyting.1st you conform it my member ship still start or not.i m waiting u r reply ASAP

my email address is vicky_7011@yahoo.co.in

Best Regards, Farrukh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.229.241.171 (talk) 16:02, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

POSP

PreOrientation Service Program Statistics

Identify POSP students currently within the Lafayette student body and alumni.

Statistic to look at: 1. GPA 2. Major 3. Leadership roles on campus – including RA positions, tour guides and other jobs 4. Pepper Prize

Regarding Alumni: 1. Current jobs 2. Leadership roles after college --Pollackj (talk) 01:44, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Connor the Seagul

CONNOR!

Connor is a bird. He loves his natural habitat- in the air. He often responds to the screaming of his name....CONNOR!!!! hahaha. Bonnie, Raymond, and Jenna are bestest friends with this dude... ahhha

Law on Postage Stamp Image Size & Other Noncopyright Restrictions

Misplaced Pages illustrates U.S. postage stamps and foreign stamps (links as examplars only).

Legal limits govern sizes for uncanceled color stamps. This is not about copyright, which Misplaced Pages addresses. However, there are other non-copyright limits, such as on reproducing the Seal of the President of the United States, and perhaps there should be a page added to discuss all of these limits for contributors to consider.

The statute at 18 U.S.C. 504 specifies some sizes, although allowing exceptions. See also sections 503, on cancellations, and 502, on foreign stamps. I have not researched regulations or case law thereunder. I haven't solicited a precise U.S. Postal Service statement on point, but their website was inadequate.

The U.S. Secret Service asserts more general limits and the private American Philatelic Society, representing collectors and others, apparently agrees with the more general limits. (All URLs were accessed Aug. 2, 2009.) I am not an attorney, but I'm not clear that Misplaced Pages's illustrations meet the size standards or that Misplaced Pages's advice to content contributors is clear on point.

This can possibly be solved by researching original sizes and then, where adjustment is needed, adjusting image sizes in the page source code, preferably in favor of enlargement. I propose this be considered.

Nick Levinson (talk) 15:05, 2 August 2009 (UTC)