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Impeachment in the United States

In the United States, impeachment is the process by which a legislature may bring charges against an officeholder for misconduct alleged to have been committed with a penalty of removal. Impeachment may also occur at the state level if the state or commonwealth has provisions for it under its constitution. Impeachment might also occur with tribal governments as well as at the local level of government.

The federal House of Representatives can impeach a party with a simple majority of the House members present or such other criteria as the House adopts in accordance with Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. This triggers a federal impeachment trial in the United States Senate, which can vote by a 2/3 majority to convict an official, removing them from office. The Senate can also further, with just a simple-majority vote, vote to bar an individual convicted in a senate impeachment trial from holding future federal office.

Most state legislatures can impeach state officials, including the governor, in accordance with their respective state constitution. A number of organized United States territories do as well. Additionally, impeachment is a practice of other government bodies, such as tribal governments.

Impeachment proceedings are remedial rather than punitive in nature, and the remedy is limited to removal from office. Because the process is not punitive, a party may also be subject to criminal or civil trial, prosecution, and conviction under the law after removal from office. Also because the conviction is not a punishment, the president of the United States is constitutionally precluded from granting a pardon to impeached and convicted persons that would protect them from the consequences of a conviction in an impeachment trial.

Constitutional provisions
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution provides:

"The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."

Article I, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7 provide:

"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."

Article II, Section 2 provides:

"[The President]... shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."

Article II, Section 4 provides:

"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

The Constitution limits grounds of impeachment to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors", but does not itself define "high crimes and misdemeanors".

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach and remove "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States" upon a determination that such officers have engaged in treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution does not articulate who qualifies as a "civil officer of the United States". Federal judges are subject to impeachment. Within the executive branch, any presidentially appointed "principal officer", including a head of an agency such as a Secretary, Administrator, or Commissioner, is a "civil officer of the United States" subject to impeachment. At the opposite end of the spectrum, lesser functionaries, such as federal civil service employees, do not exercise "significant authority", and are not appointed by the president or an agency head. These employees do not appear to be subject to impeachment, though that may be a matter of allocation of House floor debate time by the Speaker, rather than a matter of law.

The Senate has concluded that members of Congress (representatives and senators) are not "civil officers" for purposes of impeachment. As a practical matter, expulsion is effected by the simpler procedures of Article I, Section 5, which provides "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members... Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member" (see List of United States senators expelled or censured and List of United States representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded). This allows each House to expel its own members without involving the other chamber. In 1797, the House of Representatives impeached Senator William Blount of Tennessee.

The constitutional text is silent on whether an officer can be tried after the officer resigns or his/her term ends. However, when the issue has arisen, the House has been willing to impeach after resignation, and the Senate has been willing to try the official after resignation. In 1797, the Senate continued impeachment proceedings against William Blount even after he had been expelled from office, dismissing the proceedings only after determining that a Senator is not a "civil officer of the United States". In 1876, William W. Belknap was impeached by the House of Representatives hours after resigning as United States Secretary of War. The Senate held by a 37–29 vote that it had jurisdiction to try Belknap notwithstanding his resignation, but ultimately acquitted him after trial. The permissibility of trying a former official was a major issue in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, which commenced 20 days after Trump's term in office expired, although Trump's impeachment itself occurred while he was president. By a 55–45 vote, the Senate rejected a motion asserting that the trial was unconstitutional. The Constitution does not limit the number of times an individual may be impeached. As of 2022, Donald Trump is the only federal officer to have been impeached more than once.

Process
At the federal level, the impeachment process is typically a three-step procedure. The first phase is typically an impeachment inquiry, though this is not a required stage. The two stages constitutionally required for removal are impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the United States Senate.

 * First, the House investigates through an impeachment inquiry.
 * Second, the House of Representatives must pass, by a simple majority of those present and voting, articles of impeachment, which constitute the formal allegation or allegations. Upon passage, the defendant has been "impeached".
 * Third, the Senate tries the accused. In the case of the impeachment of a president, the chief justice of the United States presides over the proceedings. For the impeachment of any other official, the Constitution is silent on who shall preside, suggesting that this role falls to the Senate's usual presiding officer, the president of the Senate, who is also the vice president of the United States. Conviction in the Senate requires the concurrence of a two-thirds supermajority of those present. The result of conviction is removal from office and (optionally, in a separate vote) disqualification from holding any federal office in the future, which requires a concurrence of only a majority of senators present.

Impeachment in the House of Representatives

Impeachment proceedings may be requested by a member of the House of Representatives, either by presenting a list of the charges under oath or by asking for referral to the appropriate committee. The impeachment process may be requested by non-members. For example, when the Judicial Conference of the United States suggests a federal judge be impeached, a charge of actions constituting grounds for impeachment may come from a special prosecutor, the president, or state or territorial legislature, grand jury, or by petition. An impeachment proceeding formally begins with a resolution adopted by the full House of Representatives.

An impeachment resolution may first pass through a House committee before the full House votes on it. The type of impeachment resolution determines the committee to which it is referred. A resolution impeaching a particular individual is typically referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. A resolution to authorize an investigation regarding impeachable conduct is referred to the House Committee on Rules, and then to the Judiciary Committee. The House Committee on the Judiciary, by majority vote, will determine whether grounds for impeachment exist (this vote is not law and is not required, US Constitution and US law).

Either as part of the impeachment resolution or separately specific grounds and allegations of for impeachment will be outlined in one or more articles of impeachment.

The House debates the resolution and may at the conclusion consider the resolution as a whole or vote on each article of impeachment individually. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for each article for the resolution as a whole to pass. If the House votes to impeach, managers (typically referred to as "House managers", with a "lead House manager") are selected to present the case to the Senate. Recently, managers have been selected by resolution, while historically the House would occasionally elect the managers or pass a resolution allowing the appointment of managers at the discretion of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. These managers are roughly the equivalent of the prosecution or district attorney in a standard criminal trial. Also, the House will adopt a resolution in order to notify the Senate of its action. After receiving the notice, the Senate will adopt an order notifying the House that it is ready to receive the managers. The House managers then appear before the bar of the Senate and exhibit the articles of impeachment. After the reading of the charges, the managers return and make a verbal report to the House.

Trial in the Senate

Senate rules call for an impeachment trial to begin at 1 pm on the day after articles of impeachment are delivered to the Senate, except for Sundays. There is no timeframe requirement for when the managers must actually deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate. On the set date, senators are sworn in for the impeachment trial.

The proceedings take the form of a trial, with the Senate having the right to call witnesses and each side having the right to perform cross-examinations. The House members, who are given the collective title of managers during the trial, present the prosecution case, and the impeached official has the right to mount a defense with his or her own attorneys as well. Senators must also take an oath or affirmation that they will perform their duties honestly and with due diligence. After hearing the charges, the Senate usually deliberates in private. The Constitution requires a two-thirds supermajority to convict a person being impeached. The Senate enters judgment on its decision, whether that be to convict or acquit, and a copy of the judgment is filed with the Secretary of State.

Upon conviction in the Senate, the official is automatically removed from office and may by a separate vote also be barred from holding future office. The Senate trial is not an actual criminal proceeding and more closely resembles a civil service termination appeal in terms of the contemplated deprivation. Therefore, the removed official may still be liable to criminal prosecution under a subsequent criminal proceeding. The president may not grant a pardon in the impeachment case, but may in any resulting federal criminal case (unless it is the president who is convicted and thus loses the pardon power). However, whether the president can self-pardon for criminal offenses is an open question, which has never been reviewed by a court.

Beginning in the 1980s with Harry E. Claiborne, the Senate began using "Impeachment Trial Committees" pursuant to Senate Rule XI. These committees presided over the evidentiary phase of the trials, hearing the evidence and supervising the examination and cross-examination of witnesses. The committees would then compile the evidentiary record and present it to the Senate; all senators would then have the opportunity to review the evidence before the chamber voted to convict or acquit. The purpose of the committees was to streamline impeachment trials, which otherwise would have taken up a great deal of the chamber's time. Defendants challenged the use of these committees, claiming them to be a violation of their fair trial rights as this did not meet the constitutional requirement for their cases to be "tried by the Senate". Several impeached judges, including District Court Judge Walter Nixon, sought court intervention in their impeachment proceedings on these grounds. In Nixon v. United States (1993), the Supreme Court determined that the federal judiciary could not review such proceedings, as matters related to impeachment trials are political questions and could not be resolved in the courts.

In the case of impeachment of the president, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial. During the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, some Senate Republicans argued that the Chief Justice was required to preside, even though Trump was no longer the President when the trial began. However, by a 55–45 vote, the Senate rejected a motion asserting that the trial was unconstitutional. The trial was presided over by President pro tempore Patrick Leahy.

The Constitution is silent about who would preside in the case of the impeachment of a vice president. It is doubtful the vice president would be permitted to preside over their own trial. As president of the Senate, the vice president would preside over other impeachments. If the vice president did not preside over an impeachment (of anyone besides the president), the duties would fall to the president pro tempore of the Senate.

To convict an accused, "the concurrence of two thirds of the [senators] present" for at least one article is required. If there is no single charge commanding a "guilty" vote from two-thirds of the senators present, the defendant is acquitted and no punishment is imposed.

On April 17, 2024, the Senate trial for the Impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, the Cabinet Secretary of Homeland Security, was unprecedented. The trial proceedings ended quickly because after jurors were sworn in, the Senate dismissed the accusations by agreeing to a point of order that the articles of impeachment did not comply with the United States Constitution. The majority of the Senate ruled that the articles accusing Mayorkas of willfully and systematically refusing to comply with Federal immigration laws and breaching the public trust did not "allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor".

Removal and disqualification
Conviction immediately removes the defendant from office. Following the vote on conviction, the Senate may by a separate vote also bar the individual from holding future federal office, elected or appointed. As the threshold for disqualification is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Senate has taken the position that disqualification votes only require a simple majority rather than a two-thirds supermajority. The Senate has used disqualification sparingly, as only three individuals (West Hughes Humphreys, Robert W. Archbald, and Thomas Porteous) have been disqualified from holding future office.

Conviction does not extend to further punishment, for example, loss of pension. After conviction by the Senate, "the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law" in the regular federal or state courts. However, the Former Presidents Act of 1958, which provides a pension and other benefits, does not extend to presidents who were removed from office following an impeachment conviction. Because of an amendment to that law in 2013, a former president who has been removed from office due to impeachment and conviction is still guaranteed lifetime Secret Service protection.

Impeachment by state and territorial governments

State legislatures can impeach state officials, including governors and judicial officers, in every state except Oregon. The court for the trial of impeachments may differ somewhat from the federal model—in New York, for instance, the Assembly (lower house) impeaches, and the State Senate tries the case, but the members of the seven-judge New York State Court of Appeals (the state's highest, constitutional court) sit with the senators as jurors as well. Impeachment and removal of governors has happened occasionally throughout the history of the United States, usually for corruption charges. At least eleven U.S. state governors have faced an impeachment trial; a twelfth, Governor Lee Cruce of Oklahoma, escaped impeachment by one vote in 1912. Several others, including Missouri's Eric Greitens in 2018, have resigned rather than face impeachment, when events seemed to make it inevitable. The most recent impeachment of a state governor occurred on January 14, 2009, when the Illinois House of Representatives voted 117–1 to impeach Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges; he was subsequently removed from office and barred from holding future office by the Illinois Senate on January 29.

In addition, the legislatures of the territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico have impeachment powers.

The procedure for impeachment, or removal, of local officials varies widely. For instance, in New York a mayor is removed directly by the governor "upon being heard" on charges—the law makes no further specification of what charges are necessary or what the governor must find in order to remove a mayor.

In 2018, the entire Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia was impeached, something that has been often threatened, but had never happened before.

Most states follow the same model as the United States federal government of having the lower chamber of their legislatures hold a vote to "impeach", thereby triggering an impeachment trial held in the upper chamber of their legislatures. However, several states do differ from the convention of holding the impeachment trial in the state legislature's upper chamber. In a reverse, in Alaska it is the upper chamber of the legislature that votes to impeach while the lower chamber acts as the court of impeachment. In Missouri, after the lower chamber votes to impeach, an impeachment trial is held before the Supreme Court of Missouri, except for members of that court or for governors, whose impeachments are to be tried by a panel of seven judges (requiring a vote of five judges to convict), with the members of the panel being selected by the upper legislative chamber, the Missouri State Senate. In Nebraska, which has a unicameral legislature, after the Nebraska Legislature votes to impeach, an impeachment trial takes place before the Nebraska Supreme Court. In addition to all the members of its upper chamber, the state of New York's Court of the Trial of Impeachments also includes all seven members of the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.

Impeachment by other government bodies and organizations in the United States
Other governments and organizations in the United States also utilize impeachment.

Tribal governments and other tribal organizations
Many tribal governments have impeachment, with tribes generally utilizing a similar bifurcated process to the federal government, having an impeachment vote followed by an impeachment trial. Examples of tribal governments that have an impeachment process include the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Oglala Sioux.

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy's Great Law of Peace, which predates the constitution of the United States, includes what amounts to an impeachment process through which clan mothers can remove and replace a sachem for misdeeds. This is unique in that only a tribe's women are allowed to remove a sachem through this process.

A notable Native impeachment attempt was the 1975 effort to impeach Dick Wilson as chairman of the Oglala of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This immediately preceded the Wounded Knee Occupation.

Examples of Native tribal officials that were impeached include:
 * Locher Harjo – impeached and removed in 1876 as chief of the Lower Creeks Muscogee
 * Johnathan L. "Ed" Taylor –impeached and removed in 1995 as principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
 * Cecilia Fire Thunder –impeached three times in 2005 and 2006 as president of the Oglala Sioux, removed on third impeachment
 * John Red Eagle – impeached and removed in 2014 as chief of the Osage Nation
 * Ben Martinez – impeached in 2016 as a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council
 * Patrick Lambert –impeached and removed in 2017 as principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
 * Darla Black – impeached and removed in 2019 as vice chairwoman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe
 * Joe Brunch –impeached in 2020 as chief of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
 * Donna Fisher –impeached and removed in 2022 as president of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council

Municipal governments
Some municipal governments allow for officials such as mayors to be impeached by the municipal government. Cities where municipal governments have impeachment proceedings include some smaller cities, such as Houston, Missouri. One example of an impeachment by a municipal government is that of Philip Tomppert, who was removed through impeachment as the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky by the Louisville Board of Aldermen (city council) in 1865.

Other organizations
There are other organizations in the United States that have impeachment procedures, including students' union ("student government"/"student council") organizations.

Impeachment during the Colonial Era
Several of the Thirteen Colonies belonging to England that later formed the original states of the United States of America held impeachments. Impeachment was a process carried over from England. Unlike in modern America, but similarly to the practice of impeachment in England, in at least some colonies impeachment was a process that could also be used to try non-officeholders and give criminal penalties. However, in practice, the colonies primarily limited their impeachments to officeholders and punishment to removal from office. Most charges in impeachments were related to misconduct in office. Impeachments in the colonies used a similar bifurcated process to the common modern practice of an impeachment vote followed by an impeachment trial. Like the English impeachment practice and modern United States federal impeachment practice, the charges would be brought by a colonial legislature's lower chamber and tried in its upper chamber.

Impeachment in independent governments later admitted as states
Some states were independent governments before being admitted into the United States. In Vermont, some impeachments took place prior to its statehood.

title: Impeachment in the United States


text:
LGBT rights in Venezuela

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Venezuela face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female types of same-sex sexual activity are legal in Venezuela, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples. Also, same-sex marriage and de facto unions are constitutionally banned since 1999.

Legality of same-sex sexual activity
Homosexuality has never been punishable since Venezuelan independence, Venezuela being together with Bolivia the only two countries in South America that have not criminalized homosexuality since their formation as sovereign states. However, within the framework of the "law on lazy people and thugs" (pre-criminal behavior laws as in Europe and Latin America during the 20th century) the situation changed slightly; In Venezuela, unlike Spain, this law did not expressly refer to homosexuals, although it was occasionally applied to homosexuals, transgender and/or transsexuals who practiced prostitution, as well as to sex workers in general, as reported by Amnesty International. People subjected to this legislation by "administrative acts" could be placed under "reeducation programs" in "special places of confinement" without trial, as has also happened in many other countries, including Spain. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice in 1997.

The universal age of consent is equal at 16.

Recognition of same-sex relationships
The Constitution of Venezuela, adopted in 1999, defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, thus constitutionally banning same-sex marriage. Article 77 of the Constitution reads as follows:

"Marriage between a man a woman, which is based on free consent and absolute equality of rights and obligations of the spouses, is protected. A stable de facto union between a man and a woman which meets the requirements established by law shall have the same effects as marriage."

Also, there is no legal recognition of same-sex couples explicitly in Venezuelan law.

In 2003, an LGBT NGO called Unión Afirmativa (Affirmative Union) submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court for legal recognition of economic rights (pensions, inheritance, social security, common household, etc.) for same-sex partners. The ruling, issued on 28 February 2008 despite recognizing that "same sex partners enjoy all of the rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights- they do not have special protection similar to concubinage or marriage between a man and a woman, that is, in the same terms than heterosexual partners have. Notwithstanding this, the National Assembly is the government body with the mandate to legislate to protect such rights for same-sex partners." The decision also indicated that these rights were covered under the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

On 20 March 2009, Chamber of Deputies member Romelia Matute announced that the National Assembly would explicitly legalize same-sex unions and recognize them as asociaciones de convivencia (association by cohabitation) as part of the Gender and Equity Organic Law. This initiative was never discussed. Further other initiatives concerning this subject and recognition of identity of transgender people were submitted by the civil society to the National Assembly, but no formal discussion has ever taken place.

On 31 January 2014, during a debate on a civil code reform bill, LGBT activists submitted a proposal seeking to legalize same-sex marriage.

In January 2015, a lawsuit for the right to marry was filed before the country's Supreme Court. On 28 April 2016, the Supreme Court announced it would hear the case. The lawsuit sought to declare Article 44 of the Civil Code unconstitutional because it stated that marriage was only legally valid between a man and a woman in Venezuela.

In June 2016, Venezuela's opposition announced that it would work on a civil union bill. A prominent committee member said that the new Registry Law would allow couples to seek some benefits.

In November 2017, President Nicolás Maduro expressed his personal support for same-sex marriage, and said that the Constituent Assembly would agree to discuss legalising same-sex marriage. In September 2018, Hermann Escarrá, a member of the Constituent Assembly, said that there are currently discussions to allow same-sex marriage under the new Constitution of Venezuela, and that there is majority support in the Assembly. Discussion on the new Constitution was expected to begin at the end of 2018 or early 2019, but has been postponed since then.

Adoption and parenting
Same-sex couples in Venezuela are unable to legally adopt children. However, lesbian couples are allowed to access IVF.

On 15 December 2016, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that a baby boy can be registered in the Venezuelan Civil Registry with the surnames of both his mothers. Basing its ruling on Article 75 of the Constitution, the court declared that the state shall provide protection without distinction to all families, including to children and teenagers born into same-sex families. Additionally, such children must enjoy all the rights and guarantees enshrined to other children born into opposite-sex families. From now on, children with same-sex parents in Venezuela may be registered with the surnames of both their parents, regardless of whether the parents are biological or not.

Discrimination protections
In Venezuela, few legal instruments, in some specific areas (workplace, rental housing, and banking system), protect LGBT people from discrimination. However, even when protections do exist these laws lack mechanisms to implement real and effective strategies to prevent discrimination and inequality.

Since 2012, the Organic Labor Law, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Previously, discrimination in labor on the basis of "sexual option" was outlawed in 1996.

Article 4 of the Organic Law of the People's Power (2010), states that "The Popular Power is designed to ensure the life and welfare of the people, by creating mechanisms for their social and spiritual development, ensuring equal conditions for everyone freely develop their personality, direct their destination, enjoy human rights and attain the supreme social happiness; without discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin, religion, social status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, language, political opinion, national origin, age, economic status, disability or any other personal, legal or social circumstance which has the effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and constitutional guarantees."

Article 173 of the Law for Banking Sector Institutions (2010), includes "gender identity or expression" as protected categories against discrimination.

Article 5 of the Law for the Regulation and Control of Housing Leasing, enacted in 2011, bans discrimination and provides protection to those who are especially vulnerable, or vulnerable to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, among others.

In the process leading up to the adoption of the new 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, anti-discrimination provisions were proposed; however, due to forceful opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, they were dropped from the final draft. In 2001, there were renewed attempts to include them in the Constitution. In 2002, then-President Hugo Chávez voiced his regret for their exclusion, signaling that they may be included in future rounds of constitutional reform.

The Venezuelan constitutional referendum in 2007 would have outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation but both of the two reform packages, which covered a wide range of social and economic measures, were narrowly defeated.

Many LGBT groups have proposed to the National Assembly to legislate on equality since 2009 to 2015, the proposed anti-discrimination laws have never been considered in the agenda.

Gender identity and expression
In September 2016, the Administrative Service of Identification and Migration Affairs (SAIME), through a petition by the Public Ministry, announced that transgender people may request a new identity card according to their gender identity. The photograph on the identity card will be adequate to the gender that manifests the person, regardless of biological sex. However, there's currently no administrative procedure or mechanism to enact article °146, leaving trans people still unable to change their information on their identity card.

In 2017, Venezuela's Supreme Justice Tribunal admitted a constitutional action that intends to allow changing the name and gender of a group of people. Each case will be individually assessed, and all parties involved will need a certified copy of birth certificates and a psychiatric and psychological report submitted by a specialist that demonstrates the veracity of the intended sexual identity. However, the Tribunal still has not granted the change of name and gender to the people involved in the constitutional action.

Military service
LGBT people can serve openly in the military since a 16 March 2023 ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice annulled section 565 of the Military Justice Code, in force since 1998, which previously banned same-sex sexual activity. The court found that the law was unconstitutionally vague and that banning non-reproductive sex was incompatible with the Constitution and international agreements on human rights.

Article 565 stated "The official who commits acts that affront or debase their dignity or allow such acts without trying to stop it by means authorized by law, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to three years and separation of the Armed Forces. The same penalty shall apply to any military who commit sexual acts against nature."

Previously, a number of cases had been known where members of the military have been harassed or dismissed for being gay.

Living conditions
Since 2000, the International Day Against Homophobia has been marked, while recently the government has begun participating in Pride events for the first time. However, police harassment and homophobia in the workplace remain serious problems.

During the 2015 parliamentary election, transgender activist Tamara Adrián was elected as Alternate Deputy to the National Assembly for the Popular Will party, becoming the second transgender member of a national legislature in Latin America, after Uruguay's Michelle Suárez Bértora. Adrián has stated in various occasions she intends to push forth legislation to legalize same-sex marriage and enhance the state's protection of LGBT people. Rosmit Mantilla, also an LGBT rights activist from Popular Will and openly gay, was elected as an Alternate Deputy in the 2015 election as well; the two are the first-ever LGBT members of Venezuela's Legislature.

In May 2016, the National Assembly unanimously approved a resolution establishing 17 May as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, in order to raise awareness in society and to promote the fight against discrimination, stigmatization, violence and denial of rights to individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression. In August 2016, however, the Supreme Court suspended the resolution.

Public opinion
According to a Pew Research Center survey, conducted between 8 November 2013 and 12 February 2014, 28% of Venezuelans supported same-sex marriage, 61% were opposed.

A 2013 Pew Research Center opinion survey showed that 51% of Venezuelans believe homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 42% believe it should not. 57% of people between 18 and 29 believe it should be accepted, 51% of people between 30 and 49 and 45% of people over 50.

In May 2015, PlanetRomeo, an LGBT social network, published its first Gay Happiness Index (GHI). Gay men from over 120 countries were asked about how they feel about society's view on homosexuality, how do they experience the way they are treated by other people and how satisfied are they with their lives. Venezuela was ranked 45th, just above Suriname and below Ecuador, with a GHI score of 48.

A 2023 poll by the Equilibrium – Center for Economic Development (Equilibrium CenDE) found that 55% of Venezuelans supported same-sex marriage (41% "totally" and 14% "somewhat"), while 32% opposed it (25% "totally" and 7% "somewhat"). 48% of respondents also supported adoption by same-sex couples (34% "totally" and 14% "somewhat"), while 39% were opposed (28% "totally" and 11% "somewhat").

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: LGBT rights in Venezuela


text: User:Trapper

title: User:Trapper


text:
User talk:Spiritalien

Spirit Alien

I have the spirit of an alien. I need to find my own kind. I must shed off the dreadful human skin. It is very uncomfortable.

title: User talk:Spiritalien


text:
Warriors' Gate

Warriors' Gate is the fifth serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Stephen Gallagher and was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1981.

The serial is set at an intersection between the universe of E-Space and the home universe of the alien time traveller the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). In the serial, the Doctor and his travelling companion Romana (Lalla Ward) seek to free the time-sensitive Tharils from a group of slavers led by Captain Rorvik (Clifford Rose).

Warriors' Gate is the last of three loosely connected serials set in E-Space. It is the last serial to feature Ward as Romana and the last regular appearance of John Leeson as the voice of K9.

Plot
Inside the TARDIS, the Fourth Doctor, Romana, Adric, and K9, while travelling between E-Space and the normal universe (N-Space), become trapped in a white null space between the universes. Elsewhere in the void, a slave vessel, run by Captain Rorvik, has also become trapped. It uses members of the leonine Tharil race as their navigators. On becoming stuck, the current navigator, Biroc, escapes the ship and makes his way to the TARDIS on the winds of time. Biroc warns the TARDIS crew of Rorvik's treachery before disappearing. K9's memory wafers are shredded by the winds of time, leaving him functional but lacking long-term memories. The Doctor leaves on his own to explore the null space. He encounters some robots, called Gundans.

Meanwhile, Rorvik and his crew have discovered the TARDIS. Romana leaves to talk to them. Rorvik, believing Romana to be time-sensitive like the Tharils, dupes her into returning to their ship to examine the engines. When Romana does not return, Adric and K9 leave to recover her, but get separated; Adric eventually makes it to the ship and hides aboard, while K9 reunites with the Doctor and aids in repairing the Gundan, after which he learns from it that they were built by slaves and used to overthrow their masters in a violent battle. The Doctor's work is disrupted when Rorvik and several of his men arrive. During a stand-off between the crew and the Doctor, another Gundan activates and walks through the seemingly-solid mirror. Rorvik demands an explanation from the Doctor, revealing he has Romana captive, but the Doctor's only response is to walk through the mirror himself.

Aboard the slaver ship, Romana is freed by another Tharil named Lazlo, and she hides in the hull. She encounters Adric; the two work out that the ship is made from an incredibly dense dwarf star alloy that can contain the Tharils. K9 arrives, and informs the two of dimensional instability in the null space, which they attribute to the alloy, causing the space to collapse in on itself. Romana rejoins Lazlo, who takes her to the gateway and through the mirror, while Adric remains aboard the ship.

On the other side of the mirror, the Doctor and Romana are reunited with Biroc in a stable, time-locked universe. A repentant Biroc explains they were the slave masters, travelling on the winds of time in order to ravage other planets and subjugate their populations as slaves until the Gundan revolt. The Doctor and Romana are returned to the null space, and are immediately captured by Rorvik. Rorvik's crew realise that the null space is shrinking as the distances between the gateway, the TARDIS, and slaver ship continue to decrease. Rorvik has ordered the crew to try to blast through the mirrors in gateway, believing it to be the way out, but the mirrors resist all attacks. With the gateway and ship in visible distance of each other, Rorvik resorts to one last attempt to break the mirrors by using the exhaust of the ship's engines against them. While the Doctor warns that this action will be as doomed as the previous ones, Romana regroups with Lazlo and Adric, and together they free the remaining Tharils on the slaver ship. The TARDIS crew flee to the TARDIS as Rorvik initiates his plan—the blast from the engines is reflected by the mirrors back onto the ship, destroying it and its crew.

As the saved Tharils pass through the mirror, Romana announces that she will be staying with them, having become empathetic to their plight and not wanting to return to Gallifrey. The Doctor gives her K9, as passing through the mirror will restore his memory but he will be unable to return. The Tharils, in exchange, provide the Doctor with information on how to leave the void back to N-Space.

Production
Originally, the fifth story of season 18 was Sealed Orders by novelist Christopher Priest before being abandoned. Stephen Gallagher, who had written a number of radio plays, was called upon for a replacement, resulting in Warriors' Gate. Commissioned in March 1980, this was Gallagher's first script for Doctor Who and had the working title Dream Time. The story was influenced by a radio serial he had done in 1979 called "The Babylon Run" as well as the films of Jean Cocteau, such as Orphée (1950), in which mirrors provide a gateway into another world.

On completion in June, script editor Christopher H. Bidmead found the scripts to be overlong, as well as needing more work to keep them in line with other stories in the series. Therefore, he and director Paul Joyce re-worked the story significantly, including re-writing much of the dialogue. Originally, the script was much more comedic, with Rorvik's crew being given a lot of humorous dialogue, two of the workers being played as a double-act. Executive producer Barry Letts in particular was against this, saying that it was turning the show into pantomime and stated that the crewmen must be played for real. As many of these lines were cut from the script, the few remaining "comedy" lines were to be played straight as well. The scripts were finalised in late August 1980, but were then criticised by Letts, who found them rather confusing. By this time however, there was no more time to rework them further as Bidmead needed to begin work on the following story. Producer John Nathan-Turner too found the story complicated but had not got involved with the story during its scripting stages. Bidmead met with Gallagher with the revised scripts, the latter being none too happy with the extensive changes.

Warriors' Gate was significant in that it was the last story to feature companion Romana played by Lalla Ward as well as the last regular appearance of John Leeson as long-running companion K9. Ward had requested to leave earlier, having been offered a part in another series, but Nathan-Turner kept her to her contract. It was also during the making of this serial that Tom Baker let it be known that he would leave at the end of the series. Ward and Baker were in a relationship and had been for some time, but by now things were turning acrimonious between the two, with many production personnel believing that they were on the point of splitting-up. It was with much surprise when they learned that just a few weeks later they had married. Leeson, who left the series at the end of Season 16, returned for Season 18 on the understanding that K9 would be written out toward the end of the season. Joyce was keen to push the limits of the series by directing the serial like a film as he considered some of the earlier productions to be quite bland and workmanlike. This approach however caused problems early on with significant delays in order to achieve various shots such as the pan through the spaceship in the opening sequence. This included shooting the camera upwards where the gallery lights could be seen - known as "shooting off set", something which is forbidden by the BBC. Problems such as this increased as time began to run short and he and producer Nathan-Turner clashed frequently and even executive producer Letts had to step in to advise Joyce. With letters being written to higher executives complaining of Joyce's style of work (also seen as inexperience), Joyce was asked to leave part way through production. His duties were taken up by assistant Graeme Harper, who directed a number of scenes before finally Joyce was re-instated. Setting up of certain shots that Joyce had envisaged proved to take up too much time and shooting over-ran on a number of days. In the end, the serial was completed and was indeed a departure in terms of style over the norm and was complimented by Bidmead, but Joyce was never to work on Doctor Who again.

Background photographs utilised in many sequences were taken at Powis Castle, Welshpool.

Reception
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in The Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide (2013), praising the direction and Romana's departure from the series. Mark Braxton of Radio Times awarded the episode four out of five stars, regarding it as "an elaborate experiment with striking results."

In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Stephen Gallagher under the pseudonym "John Lydecker", was published by Target Books in April 1982. It and Terminus (Gallagher's other novelisation of his own script under the John Lydecker byline) are the only two Target novels that consist of continuous prose with no chapters. The novelisation contains many elements abandoned during the story's production, including the slaver's opening pursuit and damage at the hands of an Antonine Killer craft.

The novelisation was reprinted under Gallagher's own name in July 2023 as Warriors' Gate and Beyond: this edition also includes two short stories by Gallagher; "The Kairos Ring" and "The Little Book of Fate".

Home media
Warriors' Gate was released on VHS as part of "The E-Space Trilogy" boxed set in November 1997. It was released on DVD in January 2009, again in a boxed set entitled "The E-Space Trilogy". This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files (issue 87) in May 2012, and The Collection - Season 18 Blu-ray boxed set in March 2019.

Target novelisation

 * On Target – Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate
 * On Target – Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate

title: Warriors' Gate


text:
FlaK

FlaK may refer to:
 * Preflagellin peptidase, an enzyme
 * Anti-aircraft warfare, another term for air defense

title: FlaK


text: User talk:222.166.160.151

title: User talk:222.166.160.151


text: User talk:198.237.139.240

title: User talk:198.237.139.240


text:
Spali

The Spali (Spalaei, Spali, Palaei, Pali) was an ancient tribe mentioned in classical geography that inhabited the south of today's Ukraine.

Pliny ( 77–79) enumerated a group of tribes through which the Don River (Tanais) crossed, in which the Spalaei are last mentioned. He mentioned the conquerors of the Napaei as the Palaei (6, 50), while in another chapter (6, 22) says that it was the three Scythian tribes of Auchetae, Athernei and Asampatae that defeated them. It is believed that the Spalaei and Palaei are one and the same. Diodorus (2, 43) reported that the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali were descendants of Scythian king Palus, the son of Scythes. The mythical origin and chapter '6, 22' suggests that the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali was a "collective designation of the eastern branch of Royal Scythians". By examinating Pliny and Diodorus, the Auchetae (or Euchatae) were part of the Spalaei/Palaei/Pali. Herodotus ( 440 BC) stated that the Scythians or Scoloti consisted of the Auchatae (descending from Lipoxais), Catiaroi and Traspies (from Arpoxais), and Paralatae (from Colaxais), the latter which was "the youngest of them, the royal race". Tadeusz Sulimirski believed that they were a branch of the Roxolani. Sulimirski attributed Sarmatian archaeology on the mid-Dnieper to the tribe, supported by the Sarmatians' downfall after the Gothic invasion in 200 AD. The "Royal Scythian" connection is supported by Indo-Parthian royal names Spalirisos, Spalyris, Spalahora, and the Slavic word ispolin, spolin ("giant"), assumed to date back to when Slavs were ruled by the Spalaei. Francis Dvornik (1893–1975) believed that the Sporoi mentioned by Procopius (500–560) as being the old name of the Antes and Sclaveni were probably the Spali mentioned by Jordanes ( 551) and Spalei mentioned by Pliny.

title: Spali


text:
The Solid Gold Cadillac

The Solid Gold Cadillac is a 1956 American comedy film directed by Richard Quine and written by Abe Burrows, Howard Teichmann, and George S. Kaufman. It was adapted from the hit Broadway play of the same name by Teichmann and Kaufman that pillories big business and corrupt businessmen. The film stars Judy Holliday and Paul Douglas. The film is in black-and-white except for the final scene, which is presented in Technicolor.

Plot
At a shareholders meeting for International Projects, a billion-dollar corporation, John T. Blessington announces that he is replacing Edward L. McKeever, the company's founder, president and chairman of the board who is resigning to serve as Secretary of Defense in Washington D.C. Laura Partridge, a stockholder with just ten shares, infuriates the company's arrogant, self-serving executives by repeatedly exercising her right to ask questions during the meeting.

Blessington devises a plan to hire Laura for the meaningless position of director of shareholder relations in order to keep her occupied and out of the executives' business. He assigns her a secretary named Amelia with secret instructions to obstruct Laura as much as possible. With no substantial job duties, Laura begins to write letters to the stockholders. She gains Amelia's friendship and assistance by helping her develop a romantic relationship with the office manager.

When the directors discover that Amelia is helping Laura, they fire Amelia. However, Laura discovers that Blessington's unqualified brother-in-law Harry Harkness has driven an apparent competitor into bankruptcy, unaware that International Projects actually owns the smaller company. With that as leverage, she gets Amelia rehired.

Still determined to neutralize Laura, the board sends her to Washington to persuade McKeever to award them some government contracts. She agrees to go, but secretly intends to convince McKeever to return and retake control from the crooked board even though, when assuming his Cabinet position, he had sold his shares in the company to avoid any conflict of interest. After Laura tells him about Harry's blunder, McKeever agrees to leave his government post and try to wrest control of the company. However, Blessington and his men block his attempt, and Laura quits.

McKeever takes the company to court, arguing that sending Laura to persuade him violated the lobbying laws, as she was not a registered lobbyist. When Laura is forced to admit on the stand that she had a romantic reason for seeing McKeever, the judge throws the case out. However, many of the smaller investors with whom Laura had forged relationships through her letters have sent her their proxy votes, granting Laura the right to vote their shares. Laura and McKeever use these votes to replace the entire board. At a meeting of the new board, it is revealed that Laura has married McKeever.

For its final scene, the film changes from black-and-white to color, showing the small stockholders' wedding gift to Laura, a gleaming solid gold Cadillac that she drives around Manhattan.

Cast

 * Judy Holliday as Laura Partridge
 * Paul Douglas as Edward L. McKeever
 * Fred Clark as Clifford Snell, the company treasurer
 * John Williams as John T. Blessington
 * Hiram Sherman as Harry Harkness, a director
 * Neva Patterson as Amelia Shotgraven, assistant to Laura Partridge
 * Ralph Dumke as Warren Gillie, a director
 * Ray Collins as Alfred Metcalfe, another director
 * Arthur O'Connell as Mark Jenkins, an office manager
 * Harry Antrim as Senator Simpkins
 * Richard Deacon as assistant to Edward L. McKeever
 * George Burns as narrator

Reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Holliday, stating, "[T]he invincible Miss Holliday has dared to project her youthful figure and personality into the character shaped by Miss Hull" (Josephine Hull, then in her seventies, played the role in the Broadway play) and is "knocking the role completely dead." However, he felt that the villains were neither particularly convincing ("not precisely representatives of the workaday financial world"), original ("cut from a fairly familiar stencil of Kaufmanesque farce") or formidable enough ("The problems set up by the play-wrights are little barriers of cardboard farce"). He concluded, "[I]t will give you an entertaining ride, but don't expect it to take you or your intelligence very far."

A Film4 reviewer agreed that the story was not particularly convincing ("Yeah – like global capitalism gets overthrown that easily"), but "even so, it's undemanding and amusing."

Awards and nominations
Jean Louis won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black and White. Ross Bellah, William Kiernan and Louis Diage were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black and White.

Holliday was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

title: The Solid Gold Cadillac


text:
WBLL

WBLL (1390 AM) is an American radio station in Bellefontaine, Ohio. It currently broadcasts with country music programming, along with certain sporting events (Cleveland Guardians baseball, local high school sports). The station is owned by V-Teck Communications, and is the sister station of WPKO 98.3 FM.

History
WBLL originally signed on the air in 1951 with the call letters WOHP (for "Ohio's Highest Point"). It was the first radio station licensed to Bellefontaine since station WHBD relocated to Mount Orab, Ohio in 1929 (later known as WPAY in Portsmouth, Ohio).

In the late 1960s, the station's callsign changed to WTOO (for "Top Of Ohio"), in 1981 to WTCY (for "Top (of Ohio) CountrY"), and then switched back to the WOHP calls on February 14, 1983, with a gospel format. On February 19, 1988, the station became WPKO, in recognition of its sister station, WPKO-FM. The call letters became WBLL on May 12, 1989.

Joe Rockhold was a disk jockey at WOHP in the 1950s where he launched his broadcasting career. Shortly before the decade was over he became a staff announcer (and eventually became best known as children's show host "Uncle Orrie")at Dayton's WHIO-TV where he remained until his retirement in 1969. Rockhold however remained active in broadcasting throughout his retirement at WSRW (AM) in Hillsboro, Ohio before his death in 1981.

On January 28, 2004, V-Teck Communications applied for a construction permit for a transmitter in Grandview Heights, Ohio. This transmitter would be well within the Columbus metropolitan area. The FCC acknowledged the CP request on November 17, 2004, and further acknowledged an application for a major modification to a licensed facility on January 21, 2005. This may indicate plans by V-Teck to effectively move the station from Bellefontaine to the Grandview Heights-Columbus area.

While the license location for the newest application is in Grandview Heights, the major modification request is for 39.89417°N, -83.09167°W, placing the new transmitter (if built) near Grove City, Ohio. This is southwest of Columbus; Bellefontaine and the present transmitter are to the northwest of Columbus.

For a brief time in the mid-1970s, WTOO set trends by breaking several songs before the major stations in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. This was under the management of Program and Music Director David Mark early in his career. Mark eventually became one of the country's major voice-over announcers and, beginning in the 1990s and well into the 2000s, was the promotional voice of Fox TV network stations and many UPN TV network stations across the country.

The WOHP callsign was later used at an FM station in Portsmouth, Ohio as a repeater of the former WCDR "The Path" (now WKCD) in Cedarville, Ohio which is now WSGR, formerly part of the Contemporary Christian K-LOVE network.

The WOHP callsign is now being used at a low-power FM station in Huntsville, Ohio.

The WTCY callsign is now used by a Catholic FM station in Traverse City, Michigan.

On January 3, 2018, WBLL flipped from its talk format to country music as "106.9 The Bull".

AM 1390 timeline
WBLL has had several ownerships over the decades (source: Broadcasting Magazine yearbooks)
 * 1950s- Founded in 1951 by C.H. Chaimberlain, (later acquired by Lake Erie Radio and TV Inc.) as WOHP.
 * 1960s- Purchased in 1961 by Hi-Point Broadcasting.
 * Early 1970s- Purchased by WOHP Inc. Callsign switched to WTOO in 1969. FM sister WOGM (98.1 mHz is founded in 1969)
 * Mid 1970s-early 80s- Purchased by Triplett Broadcasting. WOGM becomes WTOO-FM by 1976. WTOO-AM becomes WTCY in 1981. AM callsign reverts to WOHP in 1983.
 * Late 1980s-present- Purchased by V-Teck Communications, Callsign switched to WPKO-AM in 1988 and again in 1989 to the current WBLL.

title: WBLL


text:
Lenin Stadium

Lenin Stadium was the common name of stadiums in the Soviet Union.

The stadiums formerly called the Lenin Stadium include:
 * Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow
 * Petrovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg

The stadiums that still use this name include:
 * Lenin Stadium (Khabarovsk)

title: Lenin Stadium


text:
Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 17

Editing a catagory directory
Trying to edit the catagory US Civil Aircraft to add another name there and cannot figure out how to do it! I click on the edit tab and it gives me the header for the catagory above the one I need. Would like to add a "A", then under it "Aeronca" and then put my addition there.

Just made this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeronca

It should be located here:

Articles in category "U.S. civil utility aircraft 1930-1939" There are 5 articles in this category. E ERCO Ercoupe G Grumman G-21 Grumman J2F Grumman JF P Piper J-3 Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:U.S._civil_utility_aircraft_1930-1939"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:U.S._civil_utility_aircraft_1930-1939

Can anyone pls give me some direction here?

Thx, JA

 * More details are at Categorization, but the basic idea is you edit the article, not the category. The category is automatically updated, and shows member articles (or subcategories) that include a line containing a "link" to the category of the form  .  In your example, you should add  to the Aeronca article.  Although the category link will work no matter where it is added, the convention is to add category links at (or near) the bottom of articles. -- Rick Block 04:58, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Unsuccessfull merge
After an attempted merge of Reaction rate into Chemical kinetics, apparently something went completely wrong since the histories of both pages are now almost empty and instead of a merge, the Chemical kinetics page was overwritten with the contents of Reaction rate. I have been able to find the version of the page previous to this merge attempt. How should we proceed to solve this problem? Jan van Male 09:15, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Looks like someone solved it. For histories to be merged you need the help of an administrator. I'd be happy to do the history merge if you'd like to try again. Mgm|(talk) 12:56, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)
 * Sorry for taking your time. I just found out that the whole thing is a capitalisation problem: Chemical Kinetics versus Chemical kinetics. Jan van Male 13:41, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Rumiñahui
from User talk:Hyacinth
 * Hello again: I am requesting help. A few days ago, I discovered that the title of Ruminahui was misspelled. Silly me, I created a new page with the proper spelling, Rumiñahui, then did a cut-and-paste of the content from the incorrect to the correct, not taking into account that the page history on the old one needed preserving. Would you be able to untangle this? Thanks, Mona-Lynn 09:32, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

from User talk:Mona-Lynn
 * I attempted to fix it, but appears to be worse. I deleted Rumiñahui, then went to Ruminahui and attempted to move an old version to Rumiñahui. Apparently there was a glitch or I moved the redirect to Rumiñahui to Rumiñahui. This still should not have lost the edit history, but when I check the history of Rumiñahui it shows the old edits, and when I check the history of Ruminahui it shows only my move. Hyacinth 09:44, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What's up? Hyacinth 09:48, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * MediaWiki is overagressive on caching history. It's all displaying properly now. -- Cyrius|✎ 12:19, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks.

How to react to information that is untrue or misleading?
What can be done when an article is created and used to post information that is untrue or misleading on a particular organization, for instance GreenFacts. Who is checking the information posted? How can untrue or misleading information be effectively avoided or removed? StephanieM 13:05, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * In general the first thing you should do is raise the issue on the talk page. If you can't come to some consensus, see Resolving disputes. — Trilobite (Talk) 13:10, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

How to deal with a revert/renaming situation
There's a lot of trouble now at Devil's Lake. Originally, there was an article at Devils Lake, which is now at Devil's Lake (North Dakota).

An editor, DreamGuy, posted a comment back in January on Talk:Devils Lake (now Talk:Devil's Lake (North Dakota) citing a need for a disambiguation page between the few Devils Lakes in the country (of which the North Dakota one, the subject of the original article, was the largest). Nobody noticed it or commented on it.  Today, he took it upon himself to move the page to Devils Lake (North Dakota), placing a disambiguation page at Devils Lake.  He then placed the link to  a Devils Lake (Wisconsin) at the top of this page (a page that still has not been made), citing Google hits as the reason it is more significant.

I moved this new disambiguation page to Devils Lake (disambiguation) and then redirected Devils Lake to Devils Lake (North Dakota), believing that the 200 mi2 lake to be the most likely page people looking for Devils Lake would want. DreamGuy reverted the changes and accused me of editing in bad faith.

At this point another editor of the North Dakota article suggested moving the Devils Lake (North Dakota) article to Devil's Lake to sidestep the controversy. I did this and was satisfied after a short rewrite of the disambiguation at Devils Lake.

Then DreamGuy renamed all the other Devils Lakes to Devil's Lake, placing a new disambig page at Devil's Lake and brought the controversy back up again. Now I am concerned that I can't revert the changes without losing edit histories.

What should I do here?! --Alexwcovington (talk) 18:03, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This is confusing. Can you just list where stuff used to be and where it is now? Mgm|(talk) 18:25, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry; here's the general idea.
 * Devils Lake ==> Devils Lake (North Dakota) ==> Devil's Lake ==> Devil's Lake (North Dakota)
 * Talk:Devils Lake ==> "" ==> "" ==> ""
 * Devils Lake (disambiguation) ==> Devils Lake ==> Devil's Lake

--Alexwcovington (talk) 19:47, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The summary above isn't accurate. The third editor did not suggest moving the one in North Dakota to Devil's Lake (with apostrophe) to get around the controversy, he was pointing out that it was spelled wrong and should have an apostrophe. Turns out both lakes have apostrophes. So, once again, Alexwcovington tried to make the one in North Dakota be the primary article and ignore all the other Devil's Lakes as insignificant, when the Devil's Lake in Wisconsin is a prime tourist destination and has far, far more Google hits that the one in North Dakota. I thought that one should have the main Devil's Lake article name with the North Dakota one and others being the ones with parantheses, and still think so based upon notability, but did the disambig page as an attempted compromise. That wasn't good enough and now we have the editor above complaining, making snide remarks about the actual size of the body of water involved (like that makes any difference for notability). At this point nothing really needs to be moved around, although a some pages that are unneeded (like Devils Lake (disambiguation)) could be deleted as pointless. DreamGuy 20:20, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

 * And here's the full list of pages that got moved around:
 * Devils Lake (old one, solely about the lake in North Dakota) ==> Devils Lake (North Dakota) ==> Devil's Lake ==> Devil's Lake (North Dakota)
 * Talk:Devils Lake ==> "" ==> "" ==> ""
 * Devils Lake (new one, the disambig page) ==> Devils Lake (disambiguation) ==> Devils Lake ==> Devil's Lake

As I said, this looks like the best compromise, regardless of whether Alexwcovington likes the fact that the North Dakota one doesn't get to be the main and only one at Devil's Lake this way. I'd rather have the Wisconsin one be the main one, which I think is fully justified, but since he seems unwilling to go that way, the disambig page is clearly the best way to go. DreamGuy 20:30, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

 * DreamGuy is wildly overstating the importance of an article that does not exist. See Talk:Devil's Lake (North Dakota) to follow this situation more closely. --Alexwcovington (talk) 06:20, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

category dilemma
I've created a category for categories which are not self-inclusive and can't decide whether the category should include itself or not. Please see category:categories that are not self-inclusive. Can somebody perhaps write a bot that would add and remove the category endlessly? I suppose that might have a minor performance impact. -- Rick Block 20:18, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Rick, have you been reading Douglas Hofstadter's stuff again? ;-) hydnjo talk 23:35, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Is writing my professional knowledge copyright violation?
I'm about to contribute some articles about medical science (I'm a doctor) but I'm not sure about what constitutes "copyright violation". Specifically, if I write an article in my very own words, format and style but using the information that I've found in books and scientific papers, would that be copyright infringment? --Antono 23:01, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * No, that would not cause any copyright problems. Information cannot be copyrighted;  only the wording that expresses the information can be copyrighted.  If you write using your own words, you're fine.  You should, however, cite the sources you used (see Cite your sources) in writing your article Isomorphic 23:11, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Incidentally, you're probably confusing copyright issues with plagiarism, which is taking someone else's ideas and using them as your own. Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not an academic journal, none of the ideas or research here are original.  All of our information is either taken from other sources, or is common knowledge in some community.  Isomorphic 23:17, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * And please do cite your sources. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 23:28, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * My professional knowledge is all over Wikipedia. When I'm writing things that are "common knowledge" in my field, such as the entire contents of fluid dynamics, which I obviously learned either from a professor or from books, I don't even bother referencing it.  If I actually pull out a book to check the correct form for, for instance, the Navier-Stokes equations, then I reference the book.  I don't consider anything I write to be copyright violations, though nothing is my own work (as it should be, per  No original research).  That's just my outlook, hope it helps. moink 23:30, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you all, I think I'm covered now! --Antono 12:51, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Welcome, Antono -- always good to have more doctors here! Please be sure to check out WikiProject_Clinical_medicine and the Doctors' mess to meet other doctors who are helping to improve our medical articles.  — Catherine\talk 01:57, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The history of wikipedia categories
I know that categories have been around since late May 2004.

Where are the discussions that led to the current implementation of categories in the MediaWiki software? (And why this particular system was chosen.)

I found some old proposals:
 * Categorization requirements
 * User:Brent Gulanowski/Categorization

...But I don't know where the discussions are. What caused one system to be chosen over another? (Presumably ease of implementation.) - Pioneer-12 10:15, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Printing problems
When I print an article, the spacing of letters is messed up. Letters get printed over each other and it makes "the loss of far-away Jerusalem" look like "the loss ofar-away Jerusalem" (from Crusade article).

Also it isn't obvious that the stylesheet changes when printing. I was searching for ages to find a link to the printable version.
 * What OS and printer are you using? Mgm|(talk) 07:43, Apr 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * And, equally important, what browser (since that's what's interpretting the CSS). As for the "looking for a printable version" problem, perhaps you'd like to join the discussion at 1577 about how to make this more obvious/"intuitive" - IMSoP 18:08, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What is the difference between a policy and a guideline?
What is the difference between a policy and a guideline? - Pioneer-12 13:07, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Policies are rules you must adhere to. Guidelines are suggested rules that usually aren't enforced. Mgm|(talk) 15:56, Apr 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * There isn't a completely clear distinction, since many things we call "policy" now evolved as guidelines. Mgm is basically correct, though:  things we call "policy" are usually less negotiable, less likely to change, and more likely to be strictly enforced. Isomorphic 17:13, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * A good example of policy would be neutral point of view. This is Wikipedia's overall editorial policy for articles, and while it's open to some interpretation, the basic principle is not negotiable. Ignoring it over a long period could get you banned.  By contrast, anything in the manual of style is a guideline.  People will often correct your articles if you don't follow the style guide, but you can ignore it if you have a good reason.  Not only that, but the style manual is open to revision. Isomorphic 07:05, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * "You need a decent argument for not following a guideline. You need a hell of a good argument for not following a policy", is the rule I always use... Shimgray 18:57, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * You do? Good thing that Ignore all rules is a policy then ;-) Hmm, and See also: Simplified Ruleset. Kim Bruning 11:46, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Quoting blocks of text
What's the best method for quoting blocks of text on talk pages? - Pioneer-12 14:44, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Indent using a colon, and put the text in italics using '' (two apostrophes.) Isomorphic 07:10, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Major problem with editing.
I attempted a major rewrite of an article and the result was a loss of most of the formatting and a lot of the links. I did preview it first and it looked O.K., but when I came to save it, the problems were obvious. I suppose I should have dome it in small sections rather than in one go. Can you help? The article is "North American Man/Boy love association".
 * Hmmm, that's odd. Did you pasted the text straight from the article window into your text editor? That could cause the loss of wiki coding. Mgm|(talk) 08:33, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! Yes, that's exactly what I did. I'll avoid that method in future!

Song lyrics
I just spotted, among new articles, Master Of Puppets (song). This article has the song's lyrics included in it. I checked some other song articles, and I see that sometimes the lyrics are included, sometimes they're linked to externally. I wonder if we have a guideline regarding this? Should I get rid of song lyrics where they are present and provide an external link, or vice versa? Thanks. Solver 15:58, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Copyrighted song lyrics cannot be included in Wikipedia. Remove them. Non-copyrighted or otherwise free lyrics belong at Wikisource. -- Cyrius|✎ 16:30, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * How are links to lyric sites here on Wikipedia acceptable then? I assume it's because the lyric sites have the appropriate copyright notices? Solver 16:36, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Because we won't be the ones risking a DMCA takedown notice. -- Cyrius|✎ 17:27, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * That makes sense but it's a bit irritating. Lyrics are the best thing to have in an encyclopedia, it's the song itself. But the lawsuits involved would be massive. What about if the writers have published the lyrics like in a greatest hits book or sheet music guide, could they be quoted in that case?Simondrake 04:18, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Odd "discussion" links
I noticed this just now; a Wikipedia page I wasn't logged into, using Internet Explorer, had an odd detail - rather than the tab reading "discussion", it read "babble". Opening another article, for comparison, "discussion" appears as normal. (Both are normal articles, no discussion pages existing). See the screenshot, showing two articles with the different tabs. [screenshot deleted to avoid clutter]

Any idea what caused this? I'm baffled... Shimgray 21:13, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Could it be that one page is still showing a cached version that was pranked for April Fool's last Friday? Mgm|(talk) 21:38, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

 * That'd explain it - I don't think I'd noticed the prank the first time round... Shimgray 18:34, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Reverting to earlier version
I notice that the current version of the article on Narasimhavarman_I, has a number of incorrect references in the War with the Chalukyas section. Someone seems to have confused the fictional account of the war/characters involved mentioned in the historical novel Sivagamyin sabatham with the actual incidents that took place. Can some admin revert back to the earlier version of the article? Calvinkrishy 07:01, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)
 * Done, but you could've done it yourself. How to revert a page to an earlier version. 131.211.210.15 07:29, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Page counters
This is probably an obvious question, but being relatively new and not having seen it answered elsewhere from hunting around I thought I'd better ask.

Can articles have page counters on to count the number of times they are read? And if not, would this be a good proposal?

The motivation being that if you create a new article, particularly on an obscure topic, then for vanity reasons it is of interest to see whether and how often people go and read it. Assuming that some people do turn out to read it, this is a motivation to write more articles, rather than be left with the impression that in the absence of any feedback (e.g. edits by others to your article) your article has been entirely ignored and might as well not have been written.

(On the other hand, I can see that some may argue that page counters would encourage the writing of low-quality articles by shallow people who are less interested in the furtherance of the greater good and the expansion of world knowledge, than in vainly watching the page counters on their articles tick up occasionally. People, that is, such as myself.) Ben Finn 22:28, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I highly doubt there is an existing mechanism to do this, and I suspect the developers would resist the notion on performance grounds if nothing else. Most of the pages are cached.  Any content that would change with each reference (like a page counter) would mean a page including it would always have to be regenerated.  Rather than number of times read, you can look for references from other articles (from the "what links here" link on each page).  -- Rick Block 23:50, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * There is support for page counters in mediawiki (witness, for example, the bottom of a page on Memory Alpha). But indeed, the squid caches that sit in front of the apaches entirely thwart this on Wikipedia, and indeed the developers turned the feature off, long ago.  There is a static page somewhere that someone built from an analysis of the squid logs (I don't know where it is, but I think Raul654 made it).  If memory serves, the top pages were List of sex positions and George W. Bush. -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 00:01, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * The reason they were turned off originally was that the implementation requires a database write for every article read. It's not an efficient use of resources. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:31, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

How to Request
This is liz1848, and I'd like to know how one goes about requesting an article. Please send me messages. Thank you.

 * Easy - you just list it in the appropriate section in Requested articles. -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 16:22, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Alternatively, you could also track down an Wikipedian active in the field of the article's subject matter and ask them to write one. What would you like an article about? Mgm|(talk) 18:07, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

specific date for recent changes search?
hi...i am unable to locate a specific date for the recent changes page...i thought i was able to do this in the past...ie. i am interested in seeing the recent changes for april 1st. thank you for your help!

 * Here you go. To see more, I think you'll have to edit the URL: you'll see the format of the URL at the end is YYYYMMDDhhmmssJohn Fader (talk | contribs) 16:46, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * That link doesn't seem to do it for me even though I tried several variations at the end of the URL. I'm not the original questioner but wanted to do that before. hydnjo talk 18:30, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeah, you're right. It shows changes from that date, but not changes to that date, which is what you want. -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 19:32, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

thanks much....but for some reason i am being silly and only can see the past 500 changes for today when i click on the link you sent...ie. at the bottom of the page only goes to 16:48 which i am guessing is just today? is there a 'next page' or something that i am missing? ekkkk!!!! (and btw why does the time reference 16:--, reykjavik time?) thanks again!

 * is there anyway to do this? should 'normally' it show me recent changes to specific dates? is it just a glitch in the system today?

HTML code
How do I use HTML code in the editor? I think it would be really cool if I could create interactive posts with JavaScript, but the SCRIPT tag won't work! If it is impossible, can you please make it possible? Thank you!

Some tags do work
I have noticed that some, although few HTML tags actually do work.

 * Javascript is turned off (for ordinary articles) on purpose - the possibilities of people doing horrible things with it is too high, and it's impossible to filter out the bad stuff. -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 19:37, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Here's some info on what HTML tags work in wikitext: m:Help:HTML in wikitext FreplySpang (talk) 20:28, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Problem user Brian0918
This user keeps trying to alter the article on the protein titin with some nonsense about it being the longest word in English (when the sequence is expressed in the full chemical name notation). Literally, no one (other than Brian0918) cares about the full chemical name of proteins. Yet seconds after I try to move this nonsense out of the main article into a 'See also' section, he reverts the article. Is there any way to deal with wacky users? was unsigned, but added by User:Lord Kelvin

 * Seems a reasonable enough addition to me. I'm not a chemist, and that is by far the most interesting thing in the article for me. If it is true, I would vote to keep it. Remember, Wikipedia should be technically accurate but is not written for a pure professional audience. If you feel strongly about this, the best place to initiate a discussion is the talk page for the article, so a consensus can be reached. I think revert wars are considered a bad thing. Notinasnaid 04:53, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I just looked at the edits there. I have to say that Brian0918 seems to be making plenty of good edits that you keep trying to change for unconvincing reasons. From my viewpoint you are the whacky one on that page. DreamGuy 05:11, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

 * Leaving aside who's wacky, you can check Dispute resolution. My advice would be to discuss on the talk page as a first step. Meelar (talk) 05:17, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

How do I avoid a nomination for deletion?
An article I wrote was given the status of needing "cleaned up." However, the complaint was that I failed to explain why the article was significant. In any case, I have updated the article, explaining why it is indeed significant. Now, how do I remove the ugly warning at the top of the article?

Thanks

E. Jurgaite

 * 1) Always sign your messages (with four tildes: ~ ). It's also a good idea to provide a link to the article about which you're asking.
 * 2) The question in the text is easily answered: delete the warning. Only do so, however, if you're sure that you've done what was required.  Following this page history to your user page (I've left a Welcome message there, incidentally), and then to your contributions history, I suppose that you're talking about Jeff Cook Effect.  I'm afraid that there's a lot left to do.
 * 3) *There are actually two templates; one concerns notability, the other is a general clean-up notice. There's some overlap between them, though.  You haven't presented the article in Wikipedia style (look at other articles to see what I mean, or look at the Help pages linked to in the templates), which includes telling the reader (in the first sentence) what the article is about.  The phrase 'Jeff Cook Effect' doesn't appear until the end of the first paragraph, and isn't bolded.
 * 4) *Also, you haven't formatted the list of external links properly, and quite a lot of your internal links don't go directly to their subjects, but have to be redirected. You also start the article with a (the only) section heading, in the form of a question.
 * 5) The question in your section heading here is very different, of course — though presenting the article well, and in Wikipedia style, will probably help. The main thing is that the article should be appropriate for an encyclopædia (it's about something real and significant, for a start). Mel Etitis  ( Μελ Ετητης ) 15:43, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for you help.

I have since updated the article on the Jeff Cook Effect. Could you take a look at it again to make sure everything's formatted properly? Also, thanks for your welcome message. Ejurgaite 17:03, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Occasional internal link problems on my home machine, see text?
On my home machine (Apple G3 with OS 10.2.8) and Firefox 1.0.1 (not reproducible on PC with Windows XP at work also with Firefox or IE either) the edit-section (edit this page is fine) and other links on some pages (e.g. 1996) sometimes go to the Japanese page for 1996 (interwikis back, so seems to be right) (edit: using Cologne Blue!!! and to other interwiki pages. There are other problems with Mac Firefox, Cologne Blue etc. as also wrongly put on talk page.) for example. This is only occasional)... Schissel : bowl listen 13:31, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)

Automated VFDing
I'm going to move this discussion now to Talk:VFD, where, I suppose, it has belonged all along. Please continue any further discussion there now.  —msh210 13:56, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Old contributions
I recently registered and all of my old contributions aren't showing up under my account's contributions list. Is this normal, or do I have to make any changes to my old contributions? There's like 500 of those... :l -- Matharvest 21:21, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * There used to be a Changing attribution for an edit page, but it appears inactive...  —  Ilγαηερ   (Tαlκ)  02:32, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * A look at many of the requests indicates that almost all want only a very few (10 or 20) edits attributed (one wanted two attributed), and given that each assignment takes several minutes of developer time, I'm not surprised the developers can always find something better to do. I think if we set a threshold (of say 50 edits) before we'd bother a developer then the developers would be more likely to feel that it's a worthwhile way to spend their time. Matharvest's IP, by contrast, has about 280 edits; that's enough to justify prioritisation, I think.  Hmm, I'll propose this (and some other work-reducing suggestions) on Wikipedia talk:Changing attribution for an edit. -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 14:31, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Because there's always a chance of several people sharing an IP adress, old contributions aren't automatically reattributed. You can post a link to them from your user page while you wait for reattribution by a developer. Mgm|(talk) 08:19, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's what I was thinking it was. Cheers to the three of you for the insight. -- Matharvest 03:20, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Somebody just erased 3/4 of article
Pope John Paul II article has been grossly altered within the last few minutes and 3/4 of it erased. This is wrong, no matter what a person's beliefs.

 * Thanks for reporting this and don't worry, we're onto it. This kind of vandalism happens all the time, but as that article is watched particularly closely at the moment any blanking of the kind you mention is likely to be reverted within seconds. See How to revert a page to an earlier version if you want to know how to do this yourself. — Trilobite (Talk) 17:14, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Reverting
I know this might seem a bit basic, but how do you revert back to certain version? Thought of copy&paste, but that might be a bit of a work.... thanks WB 02:05, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * There's a FAQ on this, see How_to_revert_a_page_to_an_earlier_version. -- Rick Block 02:41, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Citing sources
What should i do if the book i have in hand does not have an ISBN number? i could find the book in Library of Congress catalogue. Here is the info given:

LC Control Number: 84195488 Type of Material: Text (Book, Microform, Electronic, etc.) Brief Description: Yu, Peiming. Qi Jiguang / Yu Peiming zhu. Di 1 ban. [Nanjing shi] : Jiangsu ren min chu ban she : Jiangsu sheng xin hua shu dian fa xing, 1983. 3, 90 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill., port. ; 19 cm. CALL NUMBER: DS753.6.C424 Y8 1983 China -- Request in: Asian Reading Room (Jefferson, LJ150) -- Status: Not Charged

What is the info i should include in my reference citation then? --Plastictv 09:50, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * At a minimum, the author and title of the book. I would also put in the date and the publisher.  ISBN is nice but not crucial; it's not used in academic citations as far as I know. Isomorphic 13:37, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks alot! :) --Plastictv 14:57, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Skin
Most user modified skins are buggy in IE (I can't use much else). I'm especially said about how the Cheops skin renders. I'd love to use it while editing Mummy articles and such. Also, is it possible to code rounded corners in skins for IE? Mgm|(talk) 09:51, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

 * IE doesn't support the forthcoming CSS3 rounded-corner stuff (mozilla does, using prespec markup). There is, however, "Nifty Corners" -- John Fader (talk | contribs) 11:00, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia in the news
I've made my nextaris news tracker available for viewing, could anyone add missing mentions of Wikipedia to the press pages? Mgm|(talk) 12:28, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Article on the Bari.
I authored the article on the "Bari"--see in Ethnic Groups of Africa. I would like to place it on a page by itself, and have the name "Bari" index in the appropriate list along with its peers. I have tried the editing tutorial in vain.

Thanks

 * The relevant help file for this is Help:Starting_a_new_page (which has information about creating a new article, different from editing an existing article), but there's a complication. The complication is that there is already an article named Bari, and it is not about the ethnic group of Africa (it's about the city in Italy).  This situation is actually fairly common and has another help page, see Disambiguation.  If you read these help files and need more guidance, please let me know on my talk page and I'll be glad to help. -- Rick Block 04:24, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

User pages
I was wondering what the policy is on creating user pages, as in, personal sandboxes, storage pages, archives, etc. How many can be made? What kinds can be made? Etc. Thanks! --Holdek 03:33, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
 * Guidelines concerning this are at User_page. -- Rick Block 04:05, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Favour for me.
My Dears,

I want to know which ragam was to playback in a wedding VIDEO CD. And tell me the title of the album IN CD.

And tell me where i will get.

Please contact me to msfelix@rediffmail.com or msfelix@hotmail.com.

Awaiting for the mail.

Do this favour for me.

Thanks from Felix.S.Stephenson

(Formatting fixed by MacGyverMagic)

 * I honestly cannot understand what this question is asking. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:18, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

My brother is trying to send me photos and my computer is not posting them. He also is sending me a video game. Does my Gateway accept photos and will it accept the video game?

Translation source note
In this case I found the author credited the German wikipedia for the text. I haven't ever seen this practiced so I removed it assuming it wasn't part of wikipedia convention. Of course I could be wrong - what is your opinion? Lotsofissues 20:33, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I did something similar on European tree frog when I translated the first few sections and it was also removed. I guess, it's best to leave a note crediting other wikipedias on the article's talk page if needed. Mgm|(talk) 22:44, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Images showing characters in various scripts and font copyrights
I came across the article on Tamil language which uses two images that *might* have been generated using copyrighted fonts -- Image:Tamil alphabet chart.png and Image:AayuthaEzhuthu.PNG. Do such images violate the copyright of the creator of the font unless permission is granted? Especially, the latter image might just be one of the glyphs in some font. -- Paddu 20:49, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The font only seems to represent a standard Tamil alphabet. Surely that can't be copyrighted. Any Tamil speakers around? Mgm|(talk) 22:46, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
 * Most functional fonts cannot be copyright... the letterforms themselves that is. Computer fonts are copyright via the software code that makes them work, but it's been a long tradition in the field to take printed out letter forms and code them yourself into new fonts, which, while often inferior due to spacing problems, is legal. Display fonts (dingbats, or particularly fancy fonts) can be copyrighted as artistic, but there's no way there's a copyright problem with the images mentioned above. DreamGuy 23:39, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
 * BTW does that also mean Image talk:Telugu Script Acharya.jpg is OK? -- Paddu 06:42, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Mgm, there were a lot of things that I thought "Surely that can't be copyrighted" but that can be. And what can be copyrighted varies between nations.... -- Paddu 06:42, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Mgm, I am a Tamilian. -- Paddu 09:09, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * So, is there anything special about the letters you don't find in a regular Tamil alphabet. If there's some creativity involved in creating the font it can be copyrighted. Mgm|(talk) 09:24, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * Well there would always be variation in the thickness of various strokes, the angle of the strokes, aspect ratios, etc. between fonts. That's what counts as creativity, right? And how to define "regular Tamil alphabet"? Probably equal width of all strokes can be considered regular, but what are the "regular" angles, aspect ratios, etc.? That is why I asked the question. What I would assume is having a large text that uses some font only because some font has to be used to display it and doesn't highlight any specific features of the font can be considered fair use of the font but I'm doubtful about showing one particular glyph in a font magnified. Note that it is possible that drawing three circles is so trivial, the uploader drew that himself and didn't use any fonts in the process. I have myself drawn rather crude Devanagari glyph-sequences without using any fonts: Image:Proper-vi-in-hindi.png and Image:Improper-vi-in-hindi.png. -- Paddu 11:31, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Background Colours in Tables
We're having some problems with Template:British political parties. It seems an attribute like bgcolor="#fc0" works in some browsers but not IE 6.0 while bgcolor="yellow" does. Is this documented anywhere, please? --Cavrdg 08:57, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Try using the full 6-digit number: bgcolor="#ffcc00". It seems that IE will reject the 3-digit number. Zzyzx11 | Talk 15:41, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * #RGB is only valid when used in CSS, so IE is actually conforming to the standard better than Firefox here. (Ironically, it only works in Firefox in standards compliance mode.) Goplat 16:34, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Help with the image copyrights
Hi, I'm very confused about the copyright stuff for images. I've gone through the pages related to it and thus the confusion. I am taking my own images and uploading them to wikipedia. Now if copied and used somewhere else on the internet I would like my name to be mentioned. I'm also worried about somebody else using my images, claiming that the images are theirs and making an issue about me using their images. How do I solve this problem. If a problem exists in the first place.

thankz --Viren 16:33, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

 * There's a Creative Comments Share Alike Licence that requires the person who uses the picture to credit the source and distribute it under the same licence you're using... Now if only I could remember that thing. You could ask User:Quadell.

 * Sounds to me like you are after something like cc-by-sa-2.0. That way anyone can use your work, including for commercial use (you need to allow this to contribute to Wikipedia) but they have to credit you and they can't release any derivative works they might produce under a more restrictive licence. All you need to do is slap a copyright notice and this template on the image description page and you're sorted. — Trilobite (Talk) 18:53, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

User contributions data
Sometimes I see a User comment that they've made nnnnn edits or that their 10,000th edit was on mm/dd/yyyy. Is there an "easy" way to get this data (other than messing around with the "User Contributions" URL's offset and such)? hydnjo talk 19:00, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes — here. Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 19:14, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * OK good. From there it should be easy to find one's nnnnth edit. ;-) hydnjo talk 19:35, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Well, it makes it a lot easier to pin down that edit by using the "User Contributions" offset; that's apparently a memory-intensive thing and is discouraged, but once you know your total edits it should only take the one lookup. Shimgray 19:38, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * It seems like an OK way to do it. I wonder why it's discouraged. Can't be that many users being so nitpicky all at once. ;-)  hydnjo talk 19:45, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Ah... but imagine how tricky it'd be if you didn't know how many edits you had. You'd have to fiddle the user-contributions thing quite a few times to figure it out, and then do the offset... Shimgray 17:17, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry — I was rushing, and didn't read your question properly. I suspect that most users know when and what their 10,000th edit is because they were watching for it.  I'll be watching out for mine in two or three weeks.  (By the way, unless you plan to edit twenty-four hours a day, at breakneck speed, I'd not worry about it for a while yet...) Mel Etitis  ( Μελ Ετητης ) 20:46, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * For sure. ;-) hydnjo talk

How do i find link to a subject?
I found similar titles with variants. The title varies with lack of s'es. I found an article that has the information. So I want to check the articles which have linked the wrong titles and correct them by changing to the correct article. And I also want to delete or in this case call for deletion. So how can I find articles linked the wrong ones? And I want to move the article, I mean change the name of the article. Thank you... — Jack in the box 19:26, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I think you're looking for Redirects, which has more information. Feel free to reply here if you need more help. Meelar (talk) 19:39, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

 * Well, I really would like to change the name and correct the articles that linked the wrong titles. Redirect will keep the extra titles. Isn't it better just to delete the wrong ones and correct the links? Well I'm a newbie so, if you say redirect I'll go with redirect. If you tell me how to do it, I'll correct every article. — Jack in the box 19:53, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Usually, we keep redirects. If you think an article is at the wrong title, you can move it using the "Move page" tab at the top of the article--that will create a redirect from the old title to the new one. There's really no need to correct the articles linking to the old title. Hope that helps, Meelar (talk) 19:57, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

 * Okay. I'll go with redirects. I found the articles on Special:Shortpages (#26,29,30,31) and wanted to correct them. So if I'll redirect them. What will happen? Anyway I'll go with redirects. Thank you.. — Jack in the box 20:06, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Category Shortcuts?
Hey, do the category shortcuts work for anyone else? They don't work for me. For example, if I type "CAT:CSD" into the search box, I will get the article text back for Category:Candidates for speedy deletion, but not the actual list of articles in the category, making them pretty worthless to me. Is this just on my side? If it is a general problem, should we just remove all of the category shortcuts? --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 03:13, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)
 * CAT:CSD doesn't work for me (are there others?). Category redirects don't work in general, so I'm not particularly surprised. -- Rick Block 03:31, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * It used to work for me back in December when I did a lot of speedy deletions, but I had the same problem yesterday. In fact, I couldn't even find any tagged articles except the regular ones that can't be deleted even after a cache purge. Mgm|(talk) 08:59, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 17