Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 December 6

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Help desk
< December 5	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

1 December 6

[edit] December 6

[edit] Editing (spacing) question

Since yesterday, whenever I try to edit, the lines I type are separated (think 1.5 spacing in MS Word) -- the same thing is happening right here. My questions are: does this have any consequences on the appearance of an article and is there any way I can get rid of it? Thanks in advance. Black Falcon 00:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

OK, it doesn't look like it affects an article's appearance... And now the text of my initial post looks fine (although this current post is still 1.5-spaced... What's going on??? Black Falcon 00:21, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

The same thing happens to me sometimes, it doesn't really matter. I just ignore it. Cbrown1023 00:42, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] errors on "Knight" entry page

Hello, Someone has put up headings on the page for "Knight" that are inaccurate and childish, and as the headings don't come up when I go to "edit this page" I had to write in, though I'm not sure this is the right e-mail to send this to and I apologize if it's going to the wrong person; please pass it on if you can. The heading that should read Etymology says Shitology, and Origins has been changed to Orgies. I also suspect the word Bastard is out of place. These inaccuracies can also be seen in the Table of Contents. Thanks very much for your attention to this.

Thanks very much for reporting this wikipedia:vandalism. It was fixed by this edit. If you see problems like this, please feel free to fix them yourself using the procedures described at Help:Reverting. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:05, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Importing Maple 10 Workbook

Does anyone know how to convert a Maple 10 workbook / document into a format that i could then post under appropriate subjects. The content is a mix of equations and text on electro magnetics and some Optics.

Icerogue 00:55, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't know of a way to convert it directly; if there's an option to translate it into TeX, that's quite close to Wikipedia's math format, and the text can normally be done easily by hand if you know a reasonable amount of wikimarkup. --ais523 09:14, 6 December 2006 (U T C)

[edit] Ellipsis

I submitted an edit a few minutes ago regarding the use of 3 and 4 dot ellipses.

I wish to retract that as I made a misread the Chicago Manual of Style on this. The original author was correct in indicating that there is no such thing as a 4 dot ellipsis.

Sorry for the trouble.<e-mail address removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.62.238.194 (talk • contribs)

Which article?--Kchase T 04:11, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Editors can revert their own edits if they discover a problem. I don't know which edit you refer to. The IP number 207.62.238.194 used to make your comment here has no other edits. Ellipsis says there is no such thing as a "four-dot ellipsis." and has not been edited since November. Maybe you clicked "Show preview" or "Show changes" but not "Save page". Only "Save page" changes the saved article. PrimeHunter 04:13, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] About the programs in the university

Can i Have a Research program in Statistics or related topics kindly send the information to my email id [ e-mail redacted to save you from spam ]

What are you research program? Do you mean Special:Statistics? ---J.S ^(T/C) 06:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

We also normally don't like to respond to emails; it would be better if you could check back here on your own. Patstuart^talk|edits 06:40, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My Watchlist

How do u add articles in your 'My Watchlist?'

There's a nifty little button at the top of the page. If you see "edit this page", keep following the line of buttons to the right until you find "watch". While you're at the page you want watched, click that button.--Kchase T 08:04, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Spot on. You can also check out the Wikipedia:Watchlist article for more detailed info. ---J.S ^(T/C) 08:06, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Statement

how can i rephrase this statement As i became older and the knowledge that i have?

I'm sorry, I'll have to see it in context to be able to help you there.

Also, Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Patstuart^talk|edits 09:29, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Road Less Travelled

Is it possible to see the number of page hits for two different articles? The reason for the question is that there are two articles with effectively the same name (in this case, Twiki and TWiki) and whenever I type twiki (hoping to get the TWiki web software) I end up with the article on the Buck Rogers robot. I have nothing against Buck Rogers but feel that more people would be searching for the web software and hence would like to change the entries to reflect this. However, before I do anything I just wanted to check out this fact - ie that more people were hitting on the TWiki page. Wikikob 09:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the page-hit counters were turned off for performance reasons (now only the 100 most popular pages can be found). Wikipedia uses capitalisation as a tie-break in cases where there are two articles with the same name but different capitalization; TWiki would go to the article about the software. One possibility in many cases is to use Google on the names and see which gets more results, although this is an imperfect method (especially as the queries would need to be carefully crafted to get the results separately and not combined). --ais523 09:56, 6 December 2006 (U T C)

[edit] Citing sources previously cited

Hi - I was wondering what is the proper way to cite a source that has already been cited earlier in an article. On the page for the Iran-Contra Affair, the second paragraph of the second section ends with a quote from an speech by Ronald Reagan that was previously cited at citation 4. But its not readily apparent where this direct quote came from. Thus do I duplicate the citation, cite the previous footnote (how?), or...?

Gsnixon 10:00, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

You reference the footnote twice. In the first occurence, instead of using <ref>, use <ref name="some name">, and then where the second occurence would occur just type <ref name="the same name" /> (notice the slash at the end); don't use a </ref> after the second occurence. See also Wikipedia:Footnotes. --ais523 10:04, 6 December 2006 (U T C)

Great, thanks. Sorry I missed the page on footnotes... I'm new at this. :) -Gsnixon 11:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AFD discussion template

I nominated an article for deletion and in doing so I found out that the article had already been voted on once before though there wasn't a note on the article's talk page as to the previous vote results. Where can I find the template for the talk page that goes something like "This article was the topic of a vote for deletion, the discussion of which etc etc..."? I'd like to add it to the article's talk page. The article in question is Shoko Goto. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 10:44, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

You're thinking of {{oldafd}}. --ais523 10:50, 6 December 2006 (U T C)

Thanks! Just one thing though, that one defaults to keep. On this particular afd the consensus was no consensus. Is there a different template for that? Dismas|^(talk) 11:08, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

There's a parameter - use {{subst:oldafd|result='''no consensus'''}}. Personally I prefer {{oldafdfull}}, which allows you to use a date= parameter. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 11:39, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Maurice 1900-2000

I bought a five-packet CD named Maurice 1900-200 when visiting the island. Coming home unfortunately I couldn´t open it. It is produced by:

Talipot productions Ltd. www.talipot.com (remove email)

They seem to use TAL-file system which even Dell buiseness support failed to find for me. Can you help me, please?

Gunnar Birath (remove email)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Patstuart^talk|edits 11:01, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

How do I find out about The History of Jewish Music89.242.251.127 12:44, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

You also probably want to try the Reference Desk, as explained in the question above; the Help Desk is for questions about Wikipedia, so we'll tell you about the Reference Desk which is for questions about anything else. --ais523 13:24, 6 December 2006 (U T C)

[edit] Removal of vandalism warning and other negative comments from user's talk page

I left a vandalism warning template on a user's talk page after having several comments about the vandalism left ignored. Some of the comments and the warning template have now been removed by the user. Is there a policy against removing the warning templates (it had been on the page less than a week) or is it just considered bad etiquette? Is there anything I can do because if he commits a further vandalism act then someone might not realise he's already had the first warning. Alexj2002 13:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

No, there's no policy against it at the moment. Grouse 14:19, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

There is a discussion about this however, Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Removing warnings. There are many suggestions but currently there is no policy. James086^{Talk | Contribs} 14:21, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] image portrait/landscape problem

Hi.

I'm finally getting round to making a user page. I uploaded a file, Childs drawing of Venus transit.jpg, to my user page, user:Robinh.

But it's in portrait mode and I want it in landscape. I edited the image using photoshop, turning it 90 degrees, and uploaded the new image....which is still in portrait mode!

How do I force the image to appear as a landscape?

Many thanks (please feel free to edit my user page if you can fix the prob!), Robinh 13:46, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I re-uploaded it after rotating it in MS Paint (eew, Paint, I know). It seems to work OK for me, that is it looks correct. BigNate37_(T) 14:05, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

problem solved! Robinh 14:32, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to get our organisation listed?

Hi, Can you please tell me how to get my organisation listed on wikipedia as our competitors have? 212.53.64.71 15:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If it meets notability criteria , consider making a request at requested articles. BigNate37_(T) 16:35, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sending and Receiving messages

How do I send and receive messages? Once I saw a notice that I had messages, but I was in the middle of editing something so I didn't click on it. Now I cannot find any place to click to get to "my messages" ......... Please advise.

At the top right corner it says my talk, my preferences, my watchlist, my contributions, log out. Where is "my messages" ???

The notice that you have messages simply links to your talk page. That's it. BigNate37_(T) 16:36, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Final Fantasy XI is somehow listed in Cleanup templates

I was just looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cleanup_templates to figure out if a newly created template is unnecessary and noticed that the page that it had been placed on, Final Fantasy XI, is somehow now listed as a template for cleanup. The template in question is Template:fancruft. I can't figure out how the article page ended up being in the category along with the template used on it - can someone help me out so I can fix this? Thanks! -RaCha'ar 17:41, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Wrap the category in the template with <noinclude> tags. I've done it for you here. Tito xd^(?!?) 17:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, I guess the user who made the template didn't know to do that. :) -RaCha'ar 17:57, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Effecting a CfR

I have closed debate at Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion/Log/2006_November_28#Category:S.C._Johnson_brands. I am not an admin. How do I actually get a category renamed once debate has closed. TonyTheTiger 17:58, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Aside from the category page itself, every page in the category must be adjusted to use the new name. AFAIK, this is generally done with bots for large-ish categories. I'm not sure how the category page is moved in a way that is compliant with GFDL. Perhaps admins have the move tab; we do not. BigNate37_(T) 18:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

To move the category, you have to copy and paste. As for the pages in the cat, I'm changing them now with my bot. Yuo can request that a bot do a certain category at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working ST47Talk 20:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

It sounds like the history will be lost. I am not sure what you are directing me to do. See what I did here. TonyTheTiger 18:48, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

exactly - though it is impossible to move a category, so history is lost. ST47Talk 19:46, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Short Story Analysis

How can I find a short story analysis on "The Necklace" 72.23.85.49 18:11, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Try the reference desk. This is the help desk for issues with Wikipedia, not its content. BigNate37_(T) 18:16, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huge table

Nearish the top of Special:Longpages is Money creation. It's 176kB! There is a table at the bottom that seems to take up vast quantities of wikicode. Aside from the fact that the table may well not be necessary, is there any easy way to convert the table to a less memory intensive form? Inner Earth 18:25, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox Template Help

All, I created a new infobox meant to display basic information regarding fire departments. It can be found here. I want to include a logo in the top of the infobox but my code seems to be improperly done. I copied it from another infobox so I may not have done it properly. Can someone with experience with infoboxes or related codes take a look at it, maybe fix it or at least let me know what the problem is? Cheers! --Daysleeper47 18:30, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Nevermind, I figured it out. Thanks to BigNate37 for the organization help! --Daysleeper47 19:30, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

A subcategory (linguistic anthropologists) is missing from one of the anthropology subcategories (anthropologists). How do you go about adding a subcategory? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metonym (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:Categorization#How_to_create_subcategories and Help:Category#Subcategories. I don't know the field but only create a new Category:Linguistic anthropologists, if it's not enough to have the existing subcategory Category:Anthropological linguists. PrimeHunter 20:44, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image Tags

I have some photos that I have not uploaded to Wikipedia but could be very beneficial in articles related to these photos. I know there are image tags for works from the United States Government but what about state governments. Two of the photos I have were created by state agencies. I can list creator and source but are there tags for specific states? (Lil Pun)

If you plan on uploading free material (like the US Government photos) then it should be uploaded at Commons and not here. State Agencies don't fall under the "government created it so it is free" license, so you would need to apply a different tag. I don't know of any state tag. Good luck. --MECU≈talk 19:35, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

These will be copyright images, so you generally cannot use them unless you can produce a good fair use argument. If you can suggest a particular photo, tell us where we can see it, and suggest what article you plan to use it in, we may be able to suggest whether Wikipedia can accept the photo, and what tag would apply. Notinasnaid 19:39, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

It will depend on the particular state and other perhaps other details in the state's laws. If there aren't any templates for public domain images created by state employees then there have been deleted because there used to be some for particular states. --ElKevbo 21:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How????

Yea i want to start a page about a band called tough luck what are the steps i need to do to start it?????

Find out if the band is notable. If it isn't, don't create the article!
Go to Tough Luck. If there is an article there, you may need to move it, depending on which is more notable.
Create the article at either Tough Luck or Tough Luck (band) by editing the non-existent page. Click on the link to go to either of those pages.
Create see-also links at the other page.

Hope that helps. Since this is a band, be very careful about notability. I recommend a Google search - If you get under 50,000 results, that may be a sign that the band isn't notable. Good luck, Nihiltres 19:04, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Done there are currently 1,130,000 results for the words "Tough luck" + "band", so I would say go for it. — Seadog 19:33, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure that searching for a common phrase and a common word are the best ways to measure noteability... --ElKevbo 21:46, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Hmm...I guess you are right those are very common words and well you know. — Seadog 21:47, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If you know the name of one or more of the band members, try that in a Google search. Try "Tough Luck" and "(band member's name)." — Michael J 16:06, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Yep you found it. --Missingno 19:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Edits not showing

I recently made some new edits to the article Life on Mars about the recent discovery of liquid water. However, when I went back to look at the article (whether I'm logged in or not) the edits don't show. I've cleared my browser cache, but they still won't show unless I select the last version from the history. This has never happened before. Any ideas? Could it just be my computer? GhostPirate 19:29, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

OK, it's working now, so forget about this. GhostPirate 19:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject banners

The Template:LGBTProject has in its code an apparent automatic assessment system if an article is a stub - however, no stub appears to have been rated without human assistance. How does this system work? Does it need to be kicked into action somehow, or is there something wrong with the code, or what? Dev920 (Have a nice day!) 19:51, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you're asking... if you have something similar to {{WPMILHIST}}, then you have to place class=Stub by hand. Everything else is added as "Unassessed". If you have something different, and put some more magic onto the template code, it can do it automatically, but WP:1.0 might not like that... Tito xd^(?!?) 23:42, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hmm...

About the USB-to-Ethernet adaptor. Would that be under the Nintindo USB adaptor? And would that need to be linked?--Your friend, Darkest Hour 19:54, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Also

How do I start a page like eg. WI?

Revolution may refer to

Revolution
Nintendo's fifth home video game console Wii, previously codenamed Revolution
etc.

Try checking out WP:DISAMBIG. Patstuart^talk|edits 20:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fair Use Image Licence

Could the logo at http://www.f3euroseries.com/images/logo.gif be considered usable for the infobox in the F3 Euroseries article? I have read through the fair use guidelines (not totally clear in this instance, though it looks like it's probably okay). Precedence has been set with The DTM logo but I want to be sure before going ahead and uploading it. Adrian M. H. 20:21, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I agree with you. There really is no problem as long as you fill out the "Fair use" guidelines properly.Also think about if it has any thing to do with the article. --Your friend, Darkest Hour 20:28, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the article will benefit from the logo as it will bring it into line with other similar articles about racing series, such as Formula One and the DTM. Thanks for your assistance. Adrian M. H. 20:40, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

How do you add an infobox to wikipedia? Lamboman 21:02, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

See Help:Infobox --Darkest Hour ^$_$^$_$ 21:26, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mediocre response to a poll

I recently asked a question at Thanksgiving Proposal. Only 2 people responded (one Support, one Oppose). I'd like to hear from a few more people to help decide whether I should go ahead. I tried listing it at WP:RfC, but there were no further responses. Is there another way to ask more people to comment, and if not, can I go ahead and split the article? What's the protocol/procedure here? —P^urple ^RA^IN 21:08, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Well you could put {{helpme}} on your talk page with a comment.As a last resort see Wikipedia:Requests for administrator attention. And then if no one still does not awnser you you can go ahead and split it. --Darkest Hour ^$_$^$_$ 21:26, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Encyclopedia?

Is it proper to use another encyclopedia, say, Encarta, as a source? I think it would be more proper to link to the source they used if it is given or to find another reference.68.191.243.140 21:51, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I wouldn't see a problem with using another encyclopedia as a source, but if you can get to the original source and use that one instead, all the better. Alternately, you could source it using "original source via sourced source", if that makes any sense. It's best to let your trail be easy to follow. —K e akealani 23:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I seem to recall reading that general encyclopedias are not in themselves acceptable. Specialist encyclopedias are a different story. Notinasnaid 09:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New topics

How do I enter a new topic? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jgilman75 (talk • contribs) 16:20

Try taking a look at Help:Starting a new page. BigNate37_(T) 22:24, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Album and song articles

I notice on a lot of albums that only some of the songs are listed as having songs of their own, while others are just left as standard text. Should the other songs be listed as articles that need creating (red underlined text)? I looked around but couldn't find anywhere that dealt with this. Thanks. Desdinova 22:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

You might try asking at Wikipedia:WikiProject Songs, that's about all I know about the topic. BigNate37_(T) 23:07, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Most songs on albums do not merit individual articles - the only thing to say about them is what album they're on (which you know from the album article) and stuff gleaned from listening to the song, which tends to verge on original research. Songs that do have their own articles are generally either singles (about which you can usually say something about their release, video, etc), or notable for some other reason, or someone's just created an article despite the fact that there's nothing much to say (it happens). --Sam Blanning^(talk) 01:46, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I think the general idea is that songs should only have articles (I assume that's what you mean, not songs) if they're notable enough - for example, if the song was released as a single that has some chart info on it, or if it's a version of a famous song (e.g. on Yusuf Islam's new album An Other Cup, I've linked to existing article Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood).

[edit] copyedit tag runs over?

Can someone help here? the copyedit tag runs over into the info box - I have no idea why. --Charlesknight 23:18, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I looked at the article in question and it looks fine. Maybe you need to refresh the page in your brower? Occasionally tags overlap, but a refresh normally solves that. — QuantumEleven 09:06, 7 December 2006 (UTC)