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Shofar

A shofar (from, ) is an ancient musical horn typically made of a ram's horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur; it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars come in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the choice of animal and level of finish.

Bible and rabbinic literature
The shofar is mentioned frequently in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud and rabbinic literature. In the first instance, in, the blast of a shofar emanating from the thick cloud on Mount Sinai makes the Israelites tremble in awe.

The shofar was used to announce the new moon and the Jubilee year. The first day of Tishrei (now known as Rosh Hashana) is termed a "memorial of blowing", or "day of blowing", the shofar. Shofars were used for signifying the start of a war. They were also employed in processions as musical accompaniment, and were inserted into the temple orchestra by David. Note that the "trumpets" described in Numbers 10 are a different instrument, described by the Hebrew word for 'trumpet' (חצוצרה), not (שופר).

In the Temple in Jerusalem, the shofar was sometimes used together with the trumpet. On Rosh Hashana, the principal ceremony was conducted with the shofar, with the instrument placed in the center with a trumpet on either side; it was the horn of a ibex (a type of wild goat) and straight in shape, being ornamented with gold at the mouthpiece. On fast days, the principal ceremony was conducted with the trumpets in the center and with a shofar on either side. On those occasions, the shofarot were rams' horns curved in shape and ornamented with silver at the mouthpieces.

On Yom Kippur of the jubilee year, the ceremony was performed with the shofar as on New Year's Day. Shofar first indicated in Yovel (Jubilee Year—Lev. 25:8–13). Indeed, in Rosh Hashanah 33b, the sages ask why the Shofar sounded in Jubilee year. Rosh Hashanah 29a indicates that in ordinary years both Shofars and trumpets are sounded but in the Jubilee Year only the Shofar blasts. The Rabbis created the practice of the Shofar's sounding every Yom Kippur rather than just on the Jubilee Year (once in 50 years).

Otherwise, for all other special days, the Shofar is sounded shorter and two special silver Trumpets announced the sacrifice. When the trumpets sound the signal, all the people who were within the Temple complex prostrate themselves, stretching out flat, face down, and on the ground.

The shofar was blown in the times of Joshua to help him capture Jericho. As they surrounded the walls, the shofar was blown and the Jews were able to capture the city. The shofar was commonly taken out to war so the troops would know when a battle would begin. The person who would blow the shofar would call out to the troops from atop a hill. All of the troops were able to hear the call of the shofar from their position because of its distinct sound.

Post-Biblical times

While the shofar is best known nowadays for its use on Rosh Hashana, it also has a number of other ritual uses. It is blown each morning during the month of Elul, and to mark the end of the day of fasting on Yom Kippur, once the services have been completed in the evening.

In Talmudic times the shofar was also blown to introduce Shabbat. It was also used both to initiate and dissolve a Herem.

At the inception of the diaspora, during the short-lived ban on playing musical instruments, the shofar was enhanced in its use, as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the temple. The declaration of the ban's source was in fact set to the music itself as the lamentation "Al Naharoth Bavel" within a few centuries of the ban. (A full orchestra played in the temple. The ban was so that this would not be taken for granted, hence the wording of the ban, "if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, over my chiefest joy...".) The shofar is generally no longer used for secular purposes (see a notable exception in a section further down).

Halakha (Jewish law) rules that the Rosh Hashana shofar blasts may not be sounded on Shabbat, due to the potential that the (shofar sounder) may inadvertently carry it, which is in a class of forbidden Shabbat work. Originally, the shofar was sounded on Shabbat in the Temple in Jerusalem. After the temple's destruction, the sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was restricted to the place where the great Sanhedrin was located. However, when the Sanhedrin ceased to exist, the sounding of the shofar on Shabbat was discontinued.

Mitzvah
The Sages indicated that the mitzvah was to hear the sounds of the shofar. If a shofar was blown into a pit or cave, one fulfilled the mitzvah if they heard the original sound, but not if they heard the echo. Thus, most modern halakhic authorities hold that hearing a shofar on the radio or the Internet would not be valid to satisfy the mitzvah because "electronically reproduced sounds do not suffice for mitzvot that require hearing a specific natural sound.... However, one should consult a competent rabbi if an unusually pressing situation arises, as some authorities believe that performing mitzvot through electronically reproduced sound is preferable to not performing them at all."

According to Jewish law women and minors are exempt from the commandment of hearing the shofar blown (as is the case with any positive, time-bound commandment), but they are encouraged to attend the ceremony.

If the (shofar sounder) blows with the intention that all who hear will perform the mitzvah, then anyone listening—even someone passing by—who intends to hear the Shofar can perform the mitzvah because the community blower blows for everybody. If the listener stands still, it is presumed he intends to hear. If one hears the blast but with no intention of fulfilling the mitzvah, then the mitzvah has not been fulfilled.

Qualifications
The expert who blows (or "blasts" or "sounds") the shofar is termed the or  (lit. "master of the blast"). Being a is an honor. Every male Jew is eligible for this sacred office, providing he is acceptable to the congregation. The one who blows the shofar on Rosh Hashanah should be learned in the Torah and shall be God-fearing.

The Shulchan Aruch discusses who is fit to blow the shofar on behalf of a congregation:
 * Anyone not obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of sounding the shofar cannot fulfill the commandment for (cover) another whose duty it is to perform the mitzvah.
 * Although a woman (who is exempt from this mitzvah because it is time-bound) may not blow the shofar for men (whose duty it is to perform the mitzvah), a woman may intone the shofar for herself and other women. Similarly, she may say a blessing over the mitzvah even though it is not mandatory (the requisite blessing contains the words "asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu", "who sanctified us with His commandments [mitzvot] and commanded us to ...", but women are not commanded in this mitzvah).
 * Only a freeman (not even a slave who will become free in the next month) can be a Ba'al Tekiah.

Choice of animal
According to the Talmud, a shofar may be made from the horn of any animal from the Bovidae family except that of a cow, although a ram is preferable. Bovidae horns are made of a layer of keratin (the same material as human toenails and fingernails) around a core of bone, with a layer of cartilage in between, which can be removed to leave the hollow keratin horn. An antler, on the other hand, is made of solid bone, so an antler cannot be used as a shofar because it cannot be hollowed out.

There is no requirement for ritual slaughter (shechita). Theoretically, the horn can come from a non-kosher animal, because under most (but not all) interpretations of Jewish law, the shofar is not required to be ('permissible in your mouth'); the mitzvah is hearing the shofar, not eating the animal it came from. The shofar falls into the category of – objects used to perform a mitzvah that do not themselves have inherent holiness. Moreover, because horn is always inedible, it is considered ('mere dust') and not a non-kosher substance.

The Elef Hamagen (586:5) delineates the order of preference: 1) curved ram; 2) curved other sheep; 3) curved other animal; 4) straight—ram or otherwise; 5) non-kosher animal; 6) cow. The first four categories are used with a bracha (blessing), the fifth without a bracha, and the last, not at all.

Construction
In practice, two species are generally used: the Ashkenazi and Sefardi shofar is made from the horn of a domestic ram, while a Yemeni shofar is made from the horn of a kudu. A Moroccan shofar is flat, with a single, broad curve. A crack or hole in the shofar affecting the sound renders it unfit for ceremonial use. A shofar may not be painted in colors, but it may be carved with artistic designs. Shofars (especially the Sephardi shofars) are sometimes plated with silver across part of their length for display purposes, although this invalidates them for use in religious practices.

The horn is flattened and shaped by the application of heat, which softens it. A hole is made from the tip of the horn to the natural hollow inside. It is played much like a European brass instrument, with the player blowing through the hole while buzzing the lips, causing the air column inside to vibrate. Sephardi shofars do usually have a carved mouthpiece resembling that of a European trumpet or French horn, but smaller. Ashkenazi shofars do not.

Because the hollow of the shofar is irregular in shape, the harmonics obtained when playing the instrument can vary: rather than a pure perfect fifth, intervals as narrow as a fourth, or as wide as a sixth may be produced.

Use in modern Jewish prayer
The shofar is used mainly on Rosh Hashanah. It is customary to blow the shofar 100 or 101 times on each day of Rosh Hashanah; however, halakha only requires that it be blown 30 times. The various types of blast are known as tekiah, shevarim, and teruah. The 30 required blasts consist of the sequences tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah, tekiah-shevarim-tekiah, tekiah-teruah-tekiah, each sequence repeated three times.

The shofar is also blown in synagogue at the conclusion of Yom Kippur. Some only blow a tekiah gedolah; others blow tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah.

Because of its inherent ties to the Days of Repentance and the inspiration that comes along with hearing its piercing blasts, the shofar is also blown after weekday morning services (in some communities, also at weekday afternoon services) for the entire month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish civil year, preceding Rosh Hashana. It is not blown on the last day of Elul (in some communities, the last 3 days of Elul), however, to mark the difference between the voluntary blasts of the month and the mandatory blasts of Rosh Hashana. Shofar blasts are also used in some communities during penitential rituals such as Yom Kippur Katan and optional prayer services called during times of communal distress. The exact modes of sounding can vary from location to location.

In an effort to improve the skills of shofar blowers, an International Day of Shofar Study is observed on Rosh Chodesh Elul, the start of the month preceding Rosh Hashanah.

National liberation
During the Ottoman and the British rule of Jerusalem, Jews were not allowed to sound the shofar at the Western Wall. After the Six-Day War, Rabbi Shlomo Goren famously approached the Wall and sounded the shofar. This fact inspired Naomi Shemer to add an additional line to her song "Jerusalem of Gold", saying, "a shofar calls out from the Temple Mount in the Old City."

The Shofar has been sounded as a sign of victory and celebration. Jewish elders were photographed blowing multiple shofars after hearing that the Nazis surrendered on May 8, 1945. The shofar has played a major role in the pro-Israel movement and often played in the Salute to Israel Parade and other pro-Israel demonstrations.

In the inauguration ceremony of the President of Israel, a shofar is blown once the President has been sworn in, followed by a call of "Long live the President".

American political use
An American group called Shofar Army, described by outsiders as Christian nationalists, have adopted the use of the shofar into their activities.

Non-religious musical usage

In pop music, the shofar is used by the Israeli Oriental metal band Salem in their adaptation of "Al Taster" (Psalm 27). The late trumpeter Lester Bowie played a shofar with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In the film version of the musical Godspell, the first act opens with cast member David Haskell blowing the shofar. In his performances, Israeli composer and singer Shlomo Gronich uses the shofar to produce a wide range of notes. Since 1988, Rome-based American composer Alvin Curran's project Shofar features the shofar as a virtuoso solo instrument and in combination with sets of natural and electronic sounds. Madonna used a shofar played by Yitzhak Sinwani on the Confessions Tour and the album Confessions on a Dance Floor for the song "Isaac", based on Im Nin'alu. In 2003, The Howard Stern Show featured a contest called "Blow the Shofar", which asked callers to correctly identify popular songs played on the shofar. Additionally, Stern Show writer Benjy Bronk has repeatedly used a shofar in his antics. The shofar is sometimes used in Western classical music. Edward Elgar's oratorio The Apostles includes the sound of a shofar, although other instruments, such as the flugelhorn, are usually used instead.

The shofar has been used in a number of films, both as a sound effect and as part of musical underscores. Elmer Bernstein incorporated the shofar into several cues for his score for Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments; one of the shofar calls recorded by Bernstein was later reused by the sound editors for Return of the Jedi for the Ewoks' horn calls. Jerry Goldsmith's scores to the films Alien and Planet of the Apes also incorporate the shofar in their orchestration.

title: Shofar


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Wikipedia:FAQ/Overview

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title: Wikipedia:FAQ/Overview


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Suit (disambiguation)

A suit is a set of garments with matching pieces, typically a jacket and trousers.

Suit or suits may also refer to:

 * Suit (cards), one of four groups into which a deck of cards is divided
 * Lawsuit, an action brought before a court to recover a right or redress a grievance

Arts and media

 * Suit (album), a 2004 album by Nelly
 * Suits (album), a 1994 album by Fish
 * Suits (film), a 1999 American comedy film
 * Suits (American TV series), a 2011 series on the USA Network
 * Suits (South Korean TV series), a Korean remake of the U.S. series
 * Suits (Japanese TV series), a Japanese remake of the U.S. series
 * "Suit & Tie", a song by Justin Timberlake

Clothing

 * Beekeeping suit, worn by an apiarist to prevent stings when handling honeybees
 * Boilersuit, or coverall, a loose-fitting one-piece clothing
 * Diving suit, for use under water
 * Dry suit, for use in colder water, or where hazardous chemicals may be encountered
 * Wetsuit, for use in warmer water
 * Environmental suit, a clothing used for a particular activity or environment
 * Jumpsuit, a one-piece clothing with sleeves and legs
 * Leisure suit
 * Racing suit, a special clothing worn by racing drivers during races
 * Ski suit, for skiing
 * Space suit, for use in outer space
 * Swimsuit, a clothing for use in water sports or sunbathing

title: Suit (disambiguation)


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Talk:Universe Championships

Mr. Universe be smart?
Somehow, despite the assertion that "Like Miss Universe, it is also supremely important that Mr. Universe be smart, culturally rich and kwoleageble about world issues. " I don't recall that Mr. Universe is asked to demonstrate any talent other than flexing, or asked to opine about world peace. Someone else
 * I didn't remember that either, but I don't think I've ever seen one of the shows all the way through. --KQ
 * I think the original author may be having a bit of a laugh. The Anome

Error in winners titles
You have the miss physique and miss figure winners in the wrong headings. I know this because my mom won the title of Miss Universe - Miss figure in 1972...Christine Charles.

82.3.83.168 21:34, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

additional to error
The names are in the correct places from 1986 onwards...

82.3.83.168 21:39, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

additional error
I noticed the names of the men's winners are significantly different than the NABBA official page listed in the links.

For example the 2006 amateur winner is listed in wikipedai as Austin Hoover but as Tomas Bures on the NABBA page. Both the 2007 Amateur and Professional winners are listed as Orazio Salvatori on the NABBA page but as Tony Sorowka and Dino Cajo here in wikipedia.

Fillups44 (talk) 00:51, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Earth
With all the galaxies in the infinite vastness of space how come Mr. Universe has only ever been won by entrants from Earth?--EchetusXe (talk) 19:27, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Multiple Errors in Men's Winners Listings
Spent some time going over several differences between Wikipedia page and official NABBA winners. Not sure why the discrepancies and the names that were listed don't even show up under google searches for bodybuilders except in relation to this page. It is unfortunate because this list of NABBA winners is more widely disseminated on google searches than NABBA's official resource. Fillups44 (talk) 14:41, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Lee Priest an amateur?
The table says Lee Priest won the amateur Mr. Universe in 2013. The article about him says he's a NABBA pro athlete.

Can someone find an official website, or even just a reliable and up-to-date one, with the list of winners and their categories? Gronky (talk) 15:11, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120403111247/http://www.worldfitnessfederation.de:80/nabba/frame1/na_int1_1.html to http://www.worldfitnessfederation.de/nabba/frame1/na_int1_1.html

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Unnotable?
Any reason as to why the Universe Championships are "non-notable", and how this violates WP:Sports? Supertanno (talk) 14:27, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

no longer NABBA?
was the mr universe pro competition taken over my IFBB? https://www.evolutionofbodybuilding.net/2021-mr-universe-pro-returns-with-success/ https://ifbb.com/mr-universe-pro-is-here/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Christo1234 (talk • contribs) 01:32, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

JON MIKL THOR
There is this Canadian heavy metal musician/singer with the name Jon Mikl Thor (real name Jon David Mikl as i found out by searching in Google, not totally sure though) who was a bodybuilder and claiming to have won titles like Mr. Canada, Mr. USA and Mr. Universe, but i never see his name on the relevant catalogs. Is he saying lies or his real name is a different one than the one i found out (Jon David Mikl)? 2.84.177.144 (talk) 11:10, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

Miss fitness universe and Britain
Andi Magee aka Andi Black from Northern Ireland won the British and Universe 2004/2005 before moving up to the first ever Miss toned class where she placed In top 3 before ending her career in figure before breaking her neck 2008! Andi Magee (talk) 08:03, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Universe Championships


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Dave Stieb

David Andrew Stieb (born July 22, 1957), nicknamed "Sir David", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) starting pitcher who spent the majority of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays. A seven-time All-Star, he won The Sporting News' Pitcher of the Year Award in 1982. His 56.9 career wins above replacement (according to Baseball-Reference) are the highest of any Blue Jays player, and he also holds the franchise records for complete games (103), strikeouts (1,658), and innings pitched (2,873).

A promising outfielder prospect at Southern Illinois University, Stieb was converted to a starting pitcher after being drafted by the Blue Jays, who told him that it would be the quickest way to get him to the majors. Fast-tracked through the minors, he debuted in 1979. Stieb led the American League (AL) in earned run average (ERA) in 1985, finishing in the top five four other times (1982, 1983, 1984, and 1990). Stieb also twice led the AL in innings pitched (1982 and 1984). Injury prevented him from playing in the 1992 postseason, where the Blue Jays won their first World Series. After a stint with the Chicago White Sox, Stieb retired from baseball, only to make a brief return as a reliever for the Blue Jays in 1998 before retiring for good.

Stieb won 140 games in the 1980s, the second-highest total by a pitcher in that decade, behind only his rival (and later teammate) Jack Morris. He was known for flirting with no-hitters, having reached the ninth inning with no hits four times in five years before accomplishing the feat in 1990. As of 2024, Stieb's no-hitter is the only one in Blue Jays history.

Early years
Born in Santa Ana, California, Stieb played varsity baseball at Southern Illinois University. At this point, Stieb played primarily as an outfielder. In his 1978 junior season, Stieb hit .394 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs, and was named to The Sporting News All-American team (along with Kirk Gibson and Bob Horner).

Scouted by Bobby Mattick and Al LaMacchia of the Blue Jays as an outfield prospect in a varsity game, Stieb's performance failed to impress until he was pressed into service as a relief pitcher. His pitching surprised and convinced the Blue Jays to draft him in the 1978 Major League Baseball draft. Stieb was initially reluctant to take the mound as a starting pitcher until he was told by the Blue Jays front office that "the quickest way to make it [to the major leagues] would be pitching."

Professional career
Stieb entered the Blue Jays farm system with very little pitching experience. Over the course of his college career, he pitched a grand total of 17 innings, mostly in relief. Nevertheless, he made four starts with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays in 1978, working to a 2.08 ERA. In 1979, he was promoted to the Blue Jays' AAA affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs, working to a 2.12 ERA over a 5–2 record and 51 innings pitched. He made his first start for the Blue Jays on June 29, 1979, just a year after being drafted as an outfielder and with just 128 innings pitched in the minors.

Stieb made 18 starts in 1979, ending with seven complete games, a 4.31 ERA, and an 8–8 record (the best winning percentage on the pitching staff). Nevertheless, the Blue Jays were the worst team in the majors, struggling to a 53–109 record. The 1980 season was a big step for Stieb (if not for the team), who worked to a 3.71 ERA and established himself as the No. 2 starter in the rotation (behind Jim Clancy). This was after an April where he was named AL Pitcher of the Month, pitching to a 1.06 ERA over four games (three complete). At the end of April, the Blue Jays were atop the AL East, but faltered as the season went on and ended with a meager 67–95 record. However, Stieb was named to his first All-Star Game.

With a 3.19 ERA, Stieb led the Blue Jays staff in 1981 (ranking third among AL pitchers for WAR), though the season was shortened due to the 1981 strike. Friction between Stieb and management led to talk of an offseason trade (including one with the Philadelphia Phillies for Ryne Sandberg), but he was eventually considered too valuable to trade.

In 1982, Stieb worked to a 3.25 ERA, good enough for fifth in the AL, and a 17-14 record. He led the league in complete games (19) and innings pitched, with 288.1 (22 more than teammate Clancy, the next closest). For the first time he received votes for the Cy Young Award, finishing fourth behind winner Pete Vuckovich (who led the league in wins but had a worse ERA); he did win the Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award. At the end of the season, he signed a six-year, $5 million contract with Toronto. In 1983, he again won 17 games and finished third in AL ERA (3.04) and second in IP (278.0). However, he did not receive any Cy Young votes.

Stieb finished with a 16-8 record in 1984, as Toronto finished second in the AL East to the Detroit Tigers, headlined by Stieb's rival Jack Morris, who eventually won the 1984 World Series. Stieb worked to a 2.83 ERA, started the All-Star Game, and led the majors in IP (267.0) and in WAR (7.9), but finished seventh in Cy Young voting. The 1985 season saw Stieb led the AL with a 2.48 ERA, as well as the Blue Jays' first postseason appearance; Stieb started three games (1, 4, and 7) in the ALCS, but the Blue Jays fell to the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals. Despite his strong campaign, he again finished seventh in Cy Young balloting, losing out to Bret Saberhagen of the Royals.

In 1985, Stieb signed with the Blue Jays what was then one of the most lucrative contracts in baseball. The contract, including options exercisable by the team, was for a term of eleven years and specified a salary that increased to $1.9 million in 1993, $2 million in 1994, and $2.1 million in 1995. While this was seen to be generous at the time the contract was signed, by the time the later years of the contract came around this was a bargain, considering that several players were receiving several times the amount per year. The Blue Jays voluntarily renegotiated the last three years of his contract to pay him a higher amount in recognition of his years of service.

Stieb finished the 1986 season 7-12, struggling to a 4.74 ERA. He improved in 1987, finishing with a 4.09 ERA in 185 IP, and in 1988, with a 3.04 ERA. However, Toronto struggled to repeat the success it found in 1985.

Stieb was known for flirting with, and struggling to close out, no-hitters. He took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in a 1985 game; this bid was broken up by back-to-back home runs and Stieb was replaced in the game before he recorded an out in the ninth. In 1988, he was a single strike away from a no-hitter in two successive starts, on September 24 against Cleveland and September 30 against Baltimore; both attempts were broken up on 2-2 counts by the 27th batter (Julio Franco and Jim Traber, respectively). On August 4, 1989, he nearly had a perfect game, but it too was broken up with two outs in the ninth. On September 2, 1990, he pitched the first (and,, only) no-hitter in Blue Jays history, defeating the Cleveland Indians 3–0.

Going into the 1989, Stieb brought a scoreless streak to 34 straight innings, the longest such streak in franchise history, before giving up one run to the Royals on April 5, 1989. He finished the season at 17-8 with a 3.35 ERA, but lost both of his starts in the ALCS, as Toronto fell to the eventual-world champion Oakland Athletics. In 1990, Stieb finished with a 2.93 ERA, fifth in the AL, and earned his seventh and last All-Star nomination. He also finally pitched his no-hitter against the Indians in September.

After an excellent 1990 season, a series of shoulder and back injuries early in the 1991 season ended his effective pitching years, culminating in a 4–6 season in 1992 that resulted in his release after the season ended. He was awarded a World Series ring after the Blue Jays won their first championship later that year, despite not pitching in the postseason due to injuries. In 1993, he played four games with the Chicago White Sox, before finally retiring due to lingering back problems.

In 1998, Stieb returned to the Blue Jays as a spring training coach. Despite a five-year hiatus from baseball, Stieb noticed that his old injuries did not bother him while throwing, and he eventually asked manager Tim Johnson for the opportunity to pitch. At 40 years old, he worked his way through the minors and eventually pitched in 19 games (three starts) for the major league club, going 1–2 with a 4.83 ERA.

Pitching style
Stieb entered the league primarily as a power pitcher, relying on a high, inside fastball to strike batters out. The brushback pitch was an integral part of his repertoire to back batters off the plate, and was especially tough on right-handed hitters in this respect. As a result, he was the leader in hit batsmen in the American League in 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1989, and he was in the top three in 1985, 1988, and 1990. But arguably his best pitch was his slider that had a late and very sharp break, especially difficult for right-handed batters to handle; modern commentators have characterized this pitch as a "sweeper," though the term was not in use during Stieb's career.

Later on in his career he developed his breaking ball repertoire, and he became very effective with a "dead fish" curveball that would break into the dirt as the batter swung.

Stieb had a high-strung personality and was known as a fierce competitor on the mound; he was regularly seen having animated conversations with himself between pitches when in difficult situations. Whereas with other pitchers this would be seen as a sign of weakness, with Stieb it was perceived as the best way to motivate himself to get out of a jam. Early in his career, Stieb would also frequently yell at his teammates after errors, for plays that he thought they should have made. His personality also did not endear him to baseball writers, according to columnist Stephen Brunt:

"He was angry. Eventually, you figured out that he was almost always angry. Some teammate had let him down by not making a play, some writer had written something that had struck him as unfair or, more likely, he was beating himself up for a pitch not made, for some minor imperfection. A shrink might have found him a sympathetic figure, but among a bunch of sports writers feeling a deadline approach and waiting forever for Stieb to deign to speak to them, there were few warm thoughts."

In later years, Stieb mellowed somewhat, although a fierce glare after a botched play was still not uncommon.

Personal life
He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, located in St. Marys, Ontario, with the Class of 2005.

Stieb currently resides in Reno, Nevada, where he works as a building contractor. After his career in baseball, he has taken up the electric guitar.

Stieb's older brother, Steve, was a catcher and pitcher in the Atlanta Braves minor league system from 1979 to 1981.

Legacy
During his career, Stieb won 176 games while losing 137. Only Jack Morris won more games in the 1980s. Stieb holds career records for Toronto pitchers in wins, games started, shutouts, strikeouts, complete games and a variety of other categories. Stieb appeared in seven All-Star games, also a Blue Jays team record.

Baseball writer and statistician Bill James called Dave Stieb, in his prime, the best pitcher of his era. He compared Stieb to Jim Bunning, arguing that both pitchers deserved "more than one" Cy Young Award, but never won one, thanks to poor run support. In 2009, a panel of Baseball-Reference historians listed him as the fourth best pitcher of the 1980s, behind Tommy John and Hall-of-Famers Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven (and ahead of Jack Morris).

On August 29, 2010, Stieb threw the ceremonial first pitch at the Rogers Centre, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his no-hitter game, with the anniversary coming four days after the celebration. Stieb's number 37 was written on the pitcher's mound for that game and 10,000 bobbleheads of Stieb were handed out to fans upon entrance.

Stieb's autobiography, Tomorrow I'll Be Perfect, was co-written with Kevin Boland and released in 1986.

Stieb was the subject of a 2022 four-part miniseries by Secret Base's Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein, entitled Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb; in addition to discussing his career, the series advocated for his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame based on his accomplishments. The New York Times praised Captain Ahab as "not a standard, staid hagiography — it’s a whimsical and discursive look at statistics, passion, fandom, culture in general and baseball culture in particular," while Paste included the series in its list of the best documentaries of 2022.

Hall of Fame consideration
Stieb became eligible for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in, but received only seven votes (1.4%) and fell off the ballot in his first year. He was omitted from the Modern Baseball ballots in and  and the Contemporary Baseball ballot in.

Since falling off the ballot, Stieb's candidacy has attracted renewed interest. Part of the reason has been the emergence of advanced sabermetrics; among starting pitchers in the 1980s, Stieb leads the decade in wins above replacement (WAR) and adjusted ERA+. Writing for The Athletic in 2020, Joe Posnanski listed Stieb as one of the 100 best players not in the Hall of Fame. Posnanski called Stieb "a master at being underrated and underappreciated," noting that Stieb has a higher JAWS score (measuring a player's merit for induction into the Hall) than Dennis Eckersley, who was also on his first ballot in 2004 and inducted with 414 votes. Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus (the creator of JAWS) wrote that Stieb, along with Orel Hershiser, was the best pitcher from "[a] very underrepresented era of pitchers" in the Hall of Fame, adding that his career "[fits] well within the range of many Hall of Fame starters whose places in Cooperstown don’t keep us lying awake at night."

In their Captain Ahab documentary series, Alex Rubenstein and Jon Bois suggested that Stieb's brief comeback in 1998 hurt his candidacy; by "restarting the clock" on the five-year retirement period necessary before consideration, Rubenstein and Bois argued, Stieb guaranteed that the BBWAA members voting in 2004 would barely remember his dominant seasons of the early 1980s.

In 2017, Stieb told The Sporting News that, based on the traditional metric of wins-and-losses, he knew that he didn't belong in the Hall of Fame. However, he added that he felt he did not deserve to be "just wiped off the map" after one year on the ballot. "It's like an insult," he said. "What it told me was in [the voters'] minds, I didn't even do anything worth recognizing."

Awards and accomplishments

 * Seven-time MLB All-Star
 * World Series champion
 * AL ERA leader (1985)
 * Pitched a no-hitter on September 2, 1990
 * 1982 Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award
 * Toronto Blue Jays Level of Excellence
 * Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame (inducted 2005)
 * Ontario Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 2014)
 * San Jose Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 2023)

title: Dave Stieb


text:
Wikipedia:FAQ/Contributing

This page of frequently asked questions is devoted to answering those questions commonly asked by contributors to Wikipedia.

How can I contribute?

 * For how to volunteer, see Help:Introduction.
 * For how to donate, see Donations FAQ.

Why would I want to contribute?

 * See why on Earth would I want to contribute to a wiki.

Do I have to register to edit pages?

 * No. Anyone can edit without any kind of registration (except disruptive users who have been blocked).

What, then, is the point of getting an account?

 * There are many reasons: see Why create an account?

Is there a minimum age requirement to contribute or register?

 * No. Anyone of any age may edit articles or register. Wikipedia does not even require that users disclose their age when registering!

 * Note that users who identify themselves as minors (generally those under 16 years of age) are encouraged, and will be required, to protect their identities via safe practices where the posting of personal information is concerned. See Protecting children's privacy.

Do I have to use my real name?

 * No. Real names are not required; some Wikipedians use real names, some don't: see Username.

How do I change my own username?

 * See Changing username.

What does that word mean?

 * On talk pages and in the edit summaries of a page history, you will often see editors using terminology and abbreviations which are unique to Wikipedia.
 * rv or revert, usually in an edit summary, indicates that the page has been reverted to a previous version, often because of vandalism.
 * NPOV means working towards a Neutral point of view, whilst its opposite, POV, is used to suggest that an edit was biased.
 * To Wikify means to add internal links and other formatting to an article which was mostly plain text.
 * dab means a small touch, and can also be short for disambiguation, or improving a link so that it goes straight to the relevant article.
 * For a more comprehensive list see Glossary.

What is the difference between a page and an article?

 * The term "page" encompasses all the material on Wikipedia, including encyclopedia topics, talk pages, documentation, and special pages such as Recent Changes. "Article" is a narrower term referring to a page containing an encyclopedia entry. Thus, all articles are pages, but not all pages are articles. See What is an article for more.

What is an "orphan"?

 * An orphan is an article that no other article links to. Such articles can be found on Wikipedia, but it is preferable that another article should link to each article. You can find a list of orphans at Category:Orphaned articles.

What is a stub?

 * A stub on Wikipedia is a very short article, usually of one paragraph or less. For a more comprehensive explanation, please refer to Stub.

What is disambiguation?

 * See Disambiguation.

What is a minor edit? When should I use it?

 * When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option to flag an edit as "minor." You should flag an edit as minor only when you believe it is an edit that no one would object to, such as fixing spelling or grammar.

 * This feature is important because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.

 * See also: Minor edit.

Are there any rules or guidelines I should be aware of?

 * Yes. See Policies and guidelines. There are a lot, but you'll get the hang of it!

What is "Recent Changes", and what do the abbreviations used there mean?

 * Recent Changes lists all the edits that have been made over a given time period. See Recent Changes.

Are there any standard formats, for things like dates for example?

 * Yes. We have a Manual of Style that articles should follow.

What do I do if I find two articles on the same subjects?

 * You could merge them yourself if you are feeling bold. Pick the most suitable page name (which may not necessarily be one of the existing ones!). If you're not sure which name to use, or whether the two articles should really be merged, use the procedure at Help:Merging. You can also make a mention of the problem on the list of Proposed mergers.

What is the ideal/maximum length of an article? When should an article be split into smaller pieces?

 * See Article size.

Can we debate or talk about the subjects here?

 * No. Wikipedia is not a forum. Talk pages are for discussing improvements to the article.

I've found vandalism, or I've damaged a page by mistake! How can I restore it?

 * See Help:Reverting.

Which languages can I use?

 * On the English Wikipedia, use English, unless you're mentioning a name or abbreviation that has no known English translation. If you want to write using other languages there are many other Wikipedias in different languages. See Multilingual coordination for links to these versions. If your language is not active yet, and you would like to change that, read the language proposal policy to find out how to create a new language edition of Wikipedia.

Should I use American English or British English?

 * The official policy is to use British spelling when writing about British topics, and American English for topics relating to the United States. General topics can use any one of the variants, but should generally strive to be consistent within an article. See Wikipedia's Manual of Style for a more detailed explanation.

 * Use of one English variation in article titles can cause a Search in another variant to fail. In this case, it is recommended that you create a new article using the alternative spelling that redirects to the main article.

How do I check spelling on a page?

 * A spelling checker has been requested for Wikipedia, but has not been implemented yet, except as a third-party extension. The Firefox 2.0 web browser automatically checks spelling in forms such as Wikipedia editing forms. When editing a larger article, it may be more convenient to paste the text into your text editor or word processor first, to edit and check the spelling there, and then paste your corrected text back into Wikipedia editor to complete your contribution. You can also use an online spelling checker.
 * There is a list of common misspellings, which you can use to check if a listed misspelling is on any page in the database, although this process fails to identify any misspelled words not on that list.

Why are some links red?

 * A page with that name has not yet been created. You can click on that link and start a page with that name. But be careful: there may already be articles on similar topics, or an article on the same topic under a different name. It's pretty important to hunt around for similar topics first. See Article titles for information on naming pages, and Red link for more guidance on red links.
 * If you just registered, your username is probably shown as linking to a page that doesn't exist. Don't worry! This just means you haven't filled out your user page yet. Click on the link and tell the world all about yourself! See User page for more information.

What about the pale blue links?

 * Those are external links; i.e. those that link to pages outside Wikipedia. They look like this.

What happens when two users edit a page at the same time?

 * This is called an edit conflict. You'll get a conflict screen that displays both versions in separate windows, along with a summary highlighting the differences, and instructions on how you should proceed. It's virtually impossible to lose any data.

What happens if my computer or browser crashes mid-edit, or if the server does not respond?

 * You'll lose your edit. To some extent, you can guard against this by editing in a text editor, for major work (but note that with regard to a system crash this does not help, unless you save frequently to disk).

 * When you get a time-out when you try to save, you might or might not lose your edit depending on your web browser. Some browsers (e.g. Opera and Mozilla Firefox) will recover the text you have tried to save if you use the back-button. In other browsers you will lose your edit. You can protect against this by copying the text (at least to the clipboard of your system).

How do I learn about changes to certain topics without having to go there from time to time?

 * If you are a logged-in user, on every page you will see either a link that says "Watch this article", or a small five-pointed star next to "View history". If you click on it, the article will be added to your personal watchlist. Your watchlist will show you the latest changes on your watched articles.

What file formats should I use for pictures/videos?

 * For images, use JPEG for photographs, and SVG for drawings and logos. PNG can also be used. Use GIF for inline animations.

 * For video, Ogg Theora is currently the only recommended format. See Image use policy for more.

What file format should I use for sound?

 * Multiple encodings are encouraged. WAV and Ogg Vorbis are allowed, but MP3 is not.

One of the contributors is being unreasonable. Help!

 * See Etiquette and Dispute resolution.

I've made a suggestion on an article's talk page, but have not gotten any responses. How long should I wait before implementing my suggested change?

 * Per Be bold, there's no need to wait at all. Simply make your change. If someone else disagrees with it, they can always revert the change, and then you can talk the issue out with that person.

Can I change the default number of contributions displayed in the "My contributions" list?

 * No. You can, however, change the setting on the page and bookmark the resulting page.

Why was the article I created deleted?

 * New articles are deleted for not following Wikipedia policies and guidelines. See Why was my article deleted?

Why was the edit I made removed?

 * There are a variety of reasons (some common reasons). The first thing you should do is look at the history page for the article you edited. This will tell you who changed it, when they changed it, and hopefully a short reason why they changed it. If it says something like see talk, then you should look at the talk page for the article. Also, you should look at your own talk page to see if you have a message there. If you don't find a reason that is satisfactory, politely ask in the article's talk page about your proposed change, and maybe you will get suggestions about changes that you can make so that your change will go in, or you may get reasons why your change should not happen.

Should I translate pages across the various Wikipedias?

 * Yes, it's a good idea to cross-pollinate. Please give credit to the contributors of the original article by noting that you have done so, with a link to the original, in the edit summary or at the article's talk page. See Translation for further information.

What about using machine translation?

 * Machine translation is useful for obtaining the general idea of a text in an unfamiliar language, but it produces poor translations and should not be used on its own. If you want to use machine translation as a translation aid and intend to edit the result, please go ahead if you think it would be helpful. Do not paste a machine translation directly into an article.

How can I tell if an article exists in another language Wikipedia?

 * We try to build links between different language pages – that's one way of seeing if an article exists elsewhere. If you don't see the language links at the left of a page, go looking for the corresponding article(s) on foreign Wikipedias. If you find them, make a link both ways; if not, you can translate. Bear in mind that article may not be in one-to-one correspondence between Wikipedias. See Interlanguage links and Multilingual coordination for more information.

Is it ok to link to other sites?

 * External links are certainly allowed. Properly used, they increase the usability of Wikipedia. Keep in mind, however, that Wikipedia is not a web directory; external links should support the content of the article, not replace it. An article should be more than a container for external links, and the content should not require the reader to leave the site to understand the subject.

 * Do not place advertising links in Wikipedia. Commercial sites are obvious, but this prohibition usually includes links to fansites and discussion forums as well unless the site is a notable one in the field. As a general rule of thumb: if you wish to place the link in Wikipedia in order to drive traffic to a site, it probably doesn't belong here.

 * The current convention is to place external links in a separate "External links" section at the bottom of the article. Sites used as references for the article should be listed under a "References" section, or sometimes placed within the article as a footnote. See How to edit a page for different ways to create external links.

 * See the relevant guideline for more examples on when external links are appropriate.

How do I link from book articles to the online text at Project Gutenberg?

 * Use Template:Gutenberg.

I have, or can get, special permission to copy an image or article to Wikipedia. Is it OK to do that?

 * Unless the article you want to copy to Wikipedia is covered by Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA), a CC-BY-SA-compatible license or is in the public domain, it cannot be used on Wikipedia. Images, too, must be public domain or licensed under one of allowed licenses at Image copyright tags. You have to ask the copyright holder of the material to license it so it can be used. See Requesting copyright permission. Under very limited conditions we can use copyrighted material even if it is not licensed compatibly; see Non-free content for how and when.
 * The text of Wikipedia is covered by the (CC-BY-SA) and, in most cases, the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). Images are covered by various free licenses (see the Wikimedia Foundation Licensing Policy).

I have an out-of-copyright image (or text) that is reproduced in an in-copyright book. Can I scan / type it into Wikipedia?

 * Providing they haven't altered the image then they can't claim a copyright on it. If it was in the public domain before they used it, it's still in the public domain afterward.

Does using a GIF image in Wikipedia violate its patent?

 * No. The patent of the LZW compression algorithm used with the GIF format has expired.

Can I really change whatever I want on Wikipedia?

 * Yes, you can on almost any page. There are some pages on Wikipedia that are protected, so that only administrators can modify them. This includes pages like the Main Page, which are permanently protected, or normal articles which are temporarily protected during the resolution of an edit war. Some pages are also semi-protected, so that anonymous and new users cannot edit them, to reduce vandalism. The vast majority of pages on Wikipedia are editable by anyone, at any time, and any changes made will be reflected instantly.

How do I get a count of my edits?

 * Your edit count, including deleted edits, is displayed when you enter your preferences.
 * There are a number of tools called edit counters that can display the total count of your edits as well as the number of edits in various namespaces.

How do I edit the Main Page?

 * See Editing the main page.

title: Wikipedia:FAQ/Contributing


text:
Wikipedia:FAQ/Technical

This FAQ answers some questions related to the technical workings of Wikipedia, including software and hardware.

Note: If you're trying to get help for a specific technical problem that isn't answered by the FAQs, read Troubleshooting or ask question at the technical village pump.

What happens if two or more people are editing the same page?

 * When the second person (and later people) attempts to save the page, MediaWiki will attempt to merge their changes into the current version of the text. If the merge fails, the user will receive an "edit conflict" message, and the opportunity to merge their changes manually. If multiple consecutive conflicts are noticed, it will generate a slightly different message.

 * See Help:Edit conflict for more information.

How do I recover a password I have forgotten?

 * If you entered your e-mail address when you signed up, you can have a new password generated. Click on the "Log in" link in the upper-right corner. Follow the link near the bottom of the page titled ""
 * On the Reset password page, which loads, enter either your username or your email address (the one you associated with the username), and select the Reset password button.
 * You should receive an e-mail message with a new random password; you can use it to log in. You will then be presented with the opportunity to change your password to something you'll remember.
 * If, however, you did not enter an e-mail address, you cannot recover your account. Simply create a new account and declare that you had a previous account.

How do I change my password?

 * You can change your password via Special:ChangePassword; you can also find a link to this in your preferences.

How do I report a bug?

 * The developers use the Phabricator bug tracking tool to keep track of bugs. Anybody is welcome to create an account there and report any bugs they encounter; however, if you prefer, you can post about your bug at the technical village pump. For more information, see Bug reports.

How do I suggest a new feature?

 * To make an official feature request, use Phabricator.

What software is used to run Wikipedia?

 * Wikipedia currently runs on MediaWiki, created by Lee Daniel Crocker and written in PHP 7. We adopted this software in July 2002. Wikipedia originally ran on UseModWiki, a general wiki script by Clifford Adams written in Perl. In January 2002, we switched to the Phase II software written by Magnus Manske in PHP.

 * database backend: MariaDB
 * frontend and caching: ATS and Varnish
 * application server: Apache
 * domain-name service: gdnsd
 * Search: Lucene-based ElasticSearch

 * See Special:Version for software versions. The Wikipedia servers' operating system is Linux, using the Debian distribution. Previously, Ubuntu was used. For details, see Wikimedia servers.

Current situation

 * See Wikimedia servers.

History of Wikipedia hardware

 * A brief history of Wikipedia servers:
 * Phase I: January 2001 – January 2002
 * One of Bomis' servers hosted all Wikipedia wikis running on UseModWiki software
 * Phase II: January 2002 – July 2002
 * One of Bomis' servers hosted all Wikipedia wikis; English and meta running on the php/mysql-based new software, all other languages on UseModWiki. Runs both the database and the web server on one machine.
 * Phase IIIa: July 2002 – May 2003
 * Wikipedia gets own server, running English Wikipedia and after a bit meta, with rewritten PHP software. Runs both the database and the web server on one machine.
 * One of Bomis' servers continues to host some of the other languages on UseModWiki, but most of the active ones are gradually moved over to the other server during this period.
 * Phase IIIb: May 2003 – Feb 2004
 * Wikipedia's server is given the code name "pliny". It serves the database for all phase 3 wikis and the web for all but English.
 * New server, code name "larousse", serves the web pages for the English Wikipedia only. Plans to move all languages' web serving to this machine are put on hold until load is brought down with more efficient software or larousse is upgraded to be faster.
 * One of Bomis' servers continued to host some of the other languages on UseModWiki until it died. All are now hosted on pliny; a few more of the active ones have been gradually moved over to the new software, and an eventual complete conversion is planned.
 * Phase IIIc: Feb 2004 to Present
 * Wikipedia gets a whole new set of servers, paid for through donations to the Wikimedia Foundation.
 * The new architecture has a new database server (suda), with a set of separate systems running Apache, as well as "squids" that cache results (to reduce the load). More details are at Wikimedia servers.
 * New servers bought as needed, bringing total number to about 350 servers.

How about the connection?

 * Wikimedia Foundation has multiple facilities spread out worldwide served by different bandwidth suppliers.

 * See the Statistics page for information about bandwidth usage.

How big is the database?

 * As of 2012, the combined size of the databases being backed up was between 4 and 6 TB for the copies of the Primary database, and perhaps 27 TB for the images and media (based on Backup procedures).

 * Early in Wikipedia's history, in February 2003 the database was about 4 GB in size. By April 2004, it was growing at about 1 to 1.4 GB per week, and by October 2004, it had grown to about 170 GB.

 * Uploaded files took up approximately 372 gigabytes, excluding thumbnails.

 * For current information, see Backup procedures.

 * Compressed database dumps can be downloaded at https://dumps.wikimedia.org/.

What kind of markup language does Wikipedia use?

 * Wikipedia uses wikitext.

Why not use HTML?

 * The short answer is: for simplicity and security.

 * And now the longer answer. Wikipedia, and wikis in general, are meant to be edited on the fly. HTML is not easy to use when you simply want to write an article. Creating links gives us a particularly dramatic example. To link to the Paris article using HTML, one would have to type

 * Paris

 * Using MediaWiki markup is much easier:

 * Paris

 * A special markup language even allows you to "transclude" special snippets of code, called templates, into wiki pages. (You can also "substitute" the code for that template, effectively copying and pasting it into the document.)

 * Then there's security. Different web browsers have bugs that can be exploited via HTML. Malicious users could also do things like JavaScript popup windows or page redirects if they had full HTML ability on Wikipedia. Several "experimental" sites that allowed full-HTML editing have suffered such attacks, including a couple of other wikis that allowed arbitrary HTML.

So we can't use any HTML?

 * That's not true. Certain HTML tags work—namely the ones in this list. It's still best not to rely on using HTML directly, because support for these tags is not always guaranteed to remain; they might affect the results achieved with VisualEditor; and if you can achieve your needed effect using only WikiText markup, you're most likely to get a result that is stable when the MediaWiki software is updated.

What about non-ASCII characters, and special symbols?

 * Wikipedia uses Unicode (specifically UTF-8) and most browsers can handle it. Font issues mean that more obscure characters may not work for many users. See the Meta:Help:Special characters page for a detailed discussion of what is generally safe and what isn't.

 * See http://www.unicode.org/help/display_problems.html for instructions on how to enable Unicode support for most platforms.

What about math topics, which require many special symbols, fonts, and graphics?

 * Just use TeX! See Help:Displaying a formula.

Is it possible to download the contents of Wikipedia?

 * Yes, the complete text and editing history of all Wikipedia pages can be downloaded. See Database download.

 * Note that downloading the database dumps is much preferred over trying to spider the entire site. Spidering the site will take you much longer, and puts a lot of load on the server (especially if you ignore our robots.txt and spider over billions of combinations of diffs and whatnot). Heavy spidering can lead to your spider, or your IP, being barred with prejudice from access to the site. Legitimate spiders (for instance search engine indexers) are encouraged to wait about a minute between requests, follow the robots.txt, and if possible only work during less loaded hours (2:00–14:00 UTC is the lighter half of the day).

 * The uploaded images and other media files are not currently bundled in an easily downloadable form; if you need one, please contact the developers on the wikitech-l mailing list. Please do not spider the whole site to get images.

Is there a library to query Wikipedia in my programming language?

 * Generally speaking, yes. Client code is available in many languages, see here for a non-exhaustive list. See also the API documentation and our bot tutorial.

Does Wikipedia use cookies?

 * Cookies are not required to read or edit Wikipedia, but they are required in order to log in and link your edits to a user account.

 * When you log in, the wiki will set a temporary session cookie which identifies your login session; this will be expired when your browser exits (or after an inactivity timeout), and is not saved on your hard drive.

 * Another cookie will be saved which lists the user name you last logged in under, to make subsequent logins just a teensy bit easier. (Actually two: one with your name, and one with your account's internal ID number; they must match up.) These cookies expire after 365 days. If this worries you, clear your cookies after completing your session.

 * If you check the "remember my password" box on the login form, another cookie will be saved with a token that authenticates you to our servers (which is unrelated to your password). As long as this remains valid, you can bypass the login step on subsequent visits to the wiki. The cookie expires after 365 days, or is removed if you log out. If this worries you, don't use the option. (You should not use it on a public terminal!)

 * See the cookie statement linked at the bottom of each page for other details.

Why was I automatically logged out?

 * This could be a result of your cookie, browser cache, or firewall/Internet security settings. Or, to quote Tim Starling (referring to a question about "remembering password across sessions"):

 * In other words: click the "remember me" box when logging in.

 * See also Help:Logging in.

The software that runs Wikipedia is great! Can I use it for my site?

 * You can, but depending on your needs you might be better served using something else; MediaWiki is big and complex. First, see Wiki software for a list of alternative wiki software.

 * If, after scanning, you're still sure you want to use MediaWiki, see the MediaWiki web site for details on downloading, installing and configuring the software.

Is the "random article" feature really random?

 * No, although it's random enough to provide a small sample of articles reliably.

 * In the Wikipedia database, each page is assigned a "random index", which is a random floating point number uniformly distributed between 0 (inclusive) and 1 (exclusive). The "random article" feature (Special:Random) chooses a random double-precision floating-point number, and returns the next article whose random index is greater than the selected random number. Some articles will have a larger gap before them, in the random index space, and so will be more likely to be selected. So the actual probability of any given article being selected is in fact itself random.

 * The random index value for new articles, and the random value used by Special:Random, is selected by reading two 31-bit words from a Mersenne twister, which is seeded at each request by PHP's initialisation code using a high-resolution timer and the PID. The words are combined using:

 * (mt_rand * $max + mt_rand) / $max / $max

 * Some old articles had their page_random value reset using MySQL's RAND:

 * rand_st->seed1=(rand_st->seed1*3+rand_st->seed2) % rand_st->max_value;
 * rand_st->seed2=(rand_st->seed1+rand_st->seed2+33) % rand_st->max_value;
 * return (((double) rand_st->seed1)/rand_st->max_value_dbl);

 * Due to a bug, many pages created in 2004 and 2005 used to have non-random page_random values; this was corrected in 2018.

Are page hit counters available?

 * Yes. "" under "" in the desktop sidebar shows "" with a link to a simple graph.

 * There is an advanced pageviews analysis tool, maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation, which allows you to view hit counts for one page or for multiple pages concurrently. Additionally, the weekly Top 25 Report provides a list of the 25 most popular articles (with commentary) in the last week.

Can I access Wikipedia via HTTP, due to problems using HTTPS?

 * No. In 2015, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to move to only allow access via HTTPS. HTTP access is no longer available, and automatically redirects requests to HTTPS access. HTTP Strict Transport Security is enabled, so recent browsers should actually refuse to even attempt to connect via HTTP (automatically rewriting URLs into HTTPS before connecting), after the first successful connection via HTTPS.

Are there currently problems with the servers or network?

 * For the current server or network status, please see www.wikimediastatus.net. More detailed information about specific services can be found on Grafana.

I have a problem not on this list, where do I go?

 * See Troubleshooting—if it's not on there try the village pump. For help with a particular software task see Computer help desk.

I want to merge my multiple user accounts into one, where do I go?

 * As of 2021 it is technically difficult/unavailable with the risk of database logs/history corruption. See T154290.

title: Wikipedia:FAQ/Technical


text:
Wikipedia:FAQ/Problems

The purpose of this page is to help users of Wikipedia solve problems they may encounter when browsing or editing.

Note: If you're trying to get help for a specific technical problem that isn't answered by the FAQs, try asking at Troubleshooting or at the Village pump.

How do I report that something isn't working properly?

 * If you think it's a bug in the software, you can send a bug report to the developers. See Bug reports for directions. It may also be a problem with your browser; see the next question...

My web browser and Wikipedia do not work together!

 * Report the problem at Village pump (technical). Include a description of the problem, the name of your browser, the version number, and the operating system you are running.

How do I know if the problem is in the Wikipedia software or my browser?

 * If you have another web browser installed, you can try to reproduce the problem in both. Failing this, you can describe your problem at Village pump (technical) and ask other Wikipedians if they are having a similar problem. If no one else is, it's probably a problem with your particular browser setup.

Some, but not all, images don't show up. What's wrong?

 * Usually this is caused by ad-blocking software; uploaded files are distributed into random subdirectories, and 1/256 of all images on the server end up in http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/, which trips off some advertisement-blocking proxies. Configure your proxy to allow this directory, and you should be fine.

I object to the very concept of Wikipedia. How can you expect me, or anyone, to take it seriously?

 * See Replies to common objections for the most common objections, and answers given by participants.

Is it possible for a vandal to delete all Wikipedia pages?

 * No. You need to be an administrator to delete pages. Any user can remove text, but another user usually reverts the edit within a matter of minutes. If someone begins an extensive attack, they will be blocked from further editing by admins.

Is it possible for spammers to advertise on Wikipedia?

 * Unfortunately, spammers can and often do add spam to Wikipedia pages. Fortunately, anyone can quickly revert to a spam-free version of the page; it's so simple that most spam is eliminated within minutes. See Help:Reverting for what to do if you happen to be the first on the scene.

What should I do when I see plagiarism?

 * If you see an article including inadequately attributed text or images, or, worse, copyright violations, please tell us about it in the "talk" page of that article. Then report it at Copyright problems.

The words I just typed in are in a code font. How do I fix this?

 * Remove the space before the first word. When you need to indent a section of text you can use a colon (as has been done with this paragraph), but the first words of Wikipedia paragraphs are not indented. For more information on formatting, see the Manual of Style.

title: Wikipedia:FAQ/Problems