Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/Archive 2

message: several ppl come here, left their question together with their email and they wait from us to send them the answer in their mailbox. I would prefer if they could come back in RD after some hours or days and check for the answer by themselves. Do you think we should write something at the top of RD like "It would be better not to give ur email and come back after a few hours or days to check for answers" ? Optim 17:03, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Lots of the questions with email addresses are from very naive users. I don't think that would work for them. We should suggest it as a better thing to do, but expect to bear with the email thing. On the other hand, if you are answering someone's question who did this, it's probably best to answer on the page and add to your remark the fact that you are emailing as well. -- Jmabel 00:11, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Email

message: Since Zap's been moving things around, Reference desk has been moved to Ask Wikipedians... I don't really mind the new name all that much, but we should be all going through consensus decisions first, so you can express views on a possible move to a new name here. Dysprosia 11:27, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I like the current name just fine.  I think it adds a touch of class.  Plus most people arriving here with a question won't know what a "Wikipedian" is, or why we're worthy of being asked.  Reference desk is good. Jwrosenzweig 18:02, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[User:Zap!|Zap]] moving pages 

message: I made the 'Post a question' link more prominent at the top of the page, as it was previously easy to skip past it.  I think it's slightly more usable this way, but it's easy to change back if anyone disagrees.  Chopchopwhitey 03:05, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  'Post a question' link 

message: Lots of people come over here asking about how they should cite Wikipedia on their essays and such. So, I suggest we here (and in Help Desk as well) something like the following, somewhere in the top of the page :
*If you desire to know how to cite Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia
But, of course, with some changes for clarification (I'm not particulary good at that myself). I think that would help some of these users.  — Kieff | Talk 04:59, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
:I think half the problem is some people don't know the word "cite" (or at least don't recognize it without more context).  I added the text "how to reference W in a research paper or bibliography" on the RD header template, and the number of questions has dropped quite a lot.  Sad but true....  Catherine\talk 04:34, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quick info about citing Wikipedia 

message: Someone asked on Wikipedia:Requested articles#Social sciences and humanities
: I would like to find out who doscovered Anencephaly and when. I need this information for a biology report. If you can post it, it will help a lot. Thanks!
The question concerns Science (either Anatomy or Medicine), rather than Social sciences and humanities, and that distinction is worth learning. But there is no answer to the question as you pose it.  Anencephaly is a condition that has no doubt been occuring in humans (and proto-humans) throughout our evolution as a species; it must have been independently observed by many midwives and shamans, and probably even independently identified many times as something distinguishable from other birth defects. Understanding of it in other than magical terms has surely been a process of too many small steps to identify, in general understanding of the world, and eventually in the field of embryology.  WP articles linked in this response, including cephalic disorder, may be of interest to you. 
--Jerzy(t) 01:48, 2004 Oct 20 (UTC)
Though there is an interesting article that points out that anencephalics are lacking in the archeological record ,, and another that points out that one scientist who was instrumental in the (relatively recent) beginnings of teratology and studied and classified anencephalics was Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire  . You will find other articles at the PubMed index by searching various other combinations of "anotocephaly" "anencephaly" "teratology" "history" and "paleopathology". -- Nunh-huh 03:29, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anencephaly