Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 November 17

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[edit] November 17

[edit] List of events on dates

How do I get a timeline of certain dates or just a list of events for certain dates?

216.180.114.25 00:33, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but if you type March 20 into the search box for example, that will give you everything that happened on March 20 throughout history. Same goes for years, like 1834. Hope that helps! Cephyr 00:42, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Electronic Voice Phenomena

I have a suggested rewrite for the section concerned with Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)[1]

I attempted to correct what is on the page now, but it is so full of errors and misdirection that I think a different approach is called for. As a director of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP), it is my job to contribute material, but I am up against a hard schedule and all I have been able to do is produce the text on a word format.

I can offer the text, and offer answers to questions. I have no problem with the text being changed or added to so long as evidence and factual reporting are kept in mind.

Can you direct me to a means for including this material on that page? I will admit that it looks like a full-time job to figure out how to make the changes myself.

In advance, thank you for your assistance.

If you have a suggested change for an article, try using the article's talk page: in this case, Talk:Electronic voice phenomena. If no one responds to your comments within a week or so objecting, I would go ahead and make the changes, but make sure you use Wikipedia formatting, keep the article verifiable (see WP:RS and WP:V), and you'll want to use the edit summary as well, so people don't think you're making changes at random. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 02:31, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My whole article was deleted.

A man named Philip Riteman came to our school, a holocaust survivor. I wrote a WHOLE ARTICLE on him today, and because I made a mistake in listing an external source, the entire thing was deleted. How do I get it back?

Mattjblythe 00:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

No offense, but in all likelihood the problem wasn't in the citing; it was likely the fact that he wasn't notable. Not every Holocaust survivor is notable; at least not by Wikipedia guidelines. Sorry. DoomsDay349 01:00, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Yeah not all of them are "notable" by wikipedia guidelines, so they speedy delete them without worrying about the possibility that some of them might be. Kappa 01:58, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
There is some process by which people can undelete articles, but I couldn't give you the link. There's little chance, IMO, but if you feel strongly about it you can do it. Someone else can throw the link out. DoomsDay349 02:08, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Deletion Review. When creating an article, you will need to state right in the text of the article why the person is notable; generally, a person will need to fulfill the guidelines put forth in WP:BIO. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 02:29, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I just don't see how an article about a gay porn star is more notable than an article about a holocaust survivor, a page that i know A LOT of people would be interested in seeing. 24.222.212.152 23:41, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article in Category page?

The category page for Category:Pakistani politicians has an article at the beginning of it, and I'm not sure what the right thing to do is. Do I delete the article portion? Do I copy the article to a new page before deleting from the category page? Do I just tag it with some maintenance tag? Is there some nice template I can post on their user page to help the person who is trying so hard to contribute? Thanks! Kathy A. 01:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I've removed it... it shouldn't be there... It was also written by newbies and anons... I doubt it asserts nobility... and it's just not in the right place... Cbrown1023 01:31, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I've moved the contents to Sanaullah Baloch, since it asserts he's a member of the senate of Pakistan. Newbies and anons can't make articles so they end up putting things in the wrong place. Kappa 01:53, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks much! Kathy A. 05:48, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article with over 100 external links - Take along Thomas & Friends

This article just seems to be a list of over 100 external links to commercial websites. Should I delete these links, or should the article itself be deleted? I check the section that dicusses external links but that is about links at the end of an article, and these are placed all through the article. There are several other related articles that mainly consist of lists of external links;

172.142.123.44 02:02, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

That article actually might fall under the criteria for deletion under the concept that Wikipedia is Not an Indescriminate List of Information. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 02:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
It does have some other text, but if you removed some of the external links, it might be OK. Just make sure you write something in the edit summary explaining your change; in any case, the person who added the links may become offended and restore them, but IMHO, it's pretty clear there are too many links in that article. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 02:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I removed the list and added a stub template. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 04:30, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • One or two of those may be a legitimate topic, but the external links have to go. - Mgm|(talk) 09:03, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • The list of character really do nothing to add to the article. Perhaps we should compile an article on Thomas the Tank Engine toys and redirect these titles here and do some serious stubbing. - Mgm|(talk) 09:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • The first two links in the list are particularly troublesome, but other material could be integrated into Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends models (which itself contains a self-ref I'm going to remove). - Mgm|(talk) 09:47, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • I've deleted the external links in the remaining articles, and Hornby Thomas And Friends, which was another one with lots of links. I'm not on Wikipedia much, so if anyone could watch these articles because I've noticed that there is at least one unregistered user who's tried to revert to the spammed versions, and will probably do so again. 172.201.35.137 22:24, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] editting question

Sometimes when people edit an article, they include a short note about what they changed. It's visible in the history tab, but not in the article itself. How do you do this? --murrayjames 02:16, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

You can do that by typing a brief description in the edit summary box. For more info, see Wikipedia:Edit summary. —The Great Llama talk 02:20, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to Handle Bulleted Lists

I'm working on another Mediawiki project and I was wondering what Wikipedia's guidelines on lists were... Let's say you have a list of thirteen or so items, like signs of the Zodiac or whatnot. A straight bulleted lists looks so... Unencyclopediotic. Ugly even, creating lots of negative space on the right. Any suggestions or links one could point me to about how to write articles that could potentially or do include long lists (not long enough to merit full articles)?--Htmlism 02:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Articles that link to themselves?

Looking at the article Harpactirinae, I noticed that one of the article's wikilinks (to Baboon spiders) links back to the original article via a redirect. Is this good form, or should this link be removed until such time as the Baboon spider article exists?

dpotter 03:16, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

The link should be removed. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 03:18, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with template

This template:

v • d • e
United States Network Television Schedule
1946–47 · 1947–48 · 1948–49 · 1949–50
1950–51 · 1951–52 · 1952–53 · 1953–54 · 1954–55 · 1955–56 · 1956–57 · 1957–58 · 1958–59 · 1959–60
1960–61 · 1961–62 · 1962–63 · 1963–64 · 1964–65 · 1965–66 · 1966–67 · 1967–68 · 1968–69 · 1969–70
1970–71 · 1971–72 · 1972–73 · 1973–74 · 1974–75 · 1975–76 · 1976–77 · 1977–78 · 1978–79 · 1979–80
1980–81 · 1981–82 · 1982–83 · 1983–84 · 1984–85 · 1985–86 · 1986–87 · 1987–88 · 1988–89 · 1989–90
1990–91 · 1991–92 · 1992–93 · 1993–94 · 1994–95 · 1995–96 · 1996–97 · 1997–98 · 1998–99 · 1999–00
2000–01 · 2001–02 · 2002–03 · 2003–04 · 2004–05 · 2005–06 · 2006–07 · 2007–08 · 2008–09

Is missing the 40's TV schedule articles, which have been created by someone. I dont know how to edit the template myself, So does anyone know someone who could.DesignForDreamingFan 03:23, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

To edit a template, go to Template:TemplateName. In this case, Template:US TV schedule. Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 03:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I just said I dont know how to edit it! DesignForDreamingFan 03:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
What i ment was, I cant edit the template myself, It's too confusing for me. I am looking for someone who can.DesignForDreamingFan 03:34, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Done. Although, there don't seem to be articles for '40-'46. Dismas|(talk) 04:00, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I dont think they had scheduled TV then, Thats why there are no pages. Thank you!!! DesignForDreamingFan 04:02, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I am not a vandal.

Hello,

I was reading a page on Wikipedia. A page about a place called Monteria in Colombia. There was a sub-section entitled "Important People In Monteria" which listed some prominent identities.

Some bozo had added their own section, something like "Unimportant people in Monteria" and had listed some other names. To me, this looked like abuse of the page.

I clicked on edit and simply deleted those lines.

On my next visit to Wikipedia, I noticed I had a message:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:203.184.29.182&redirect=no

At the above URL I am informed that vandalism is not tolerated and given a link to vandalism, just in case I didn't know what vandlism is.

As already stated, my intention was NOT to vandalise a page, but to undo what I saw as vandalism.

Please review the before and after edits of the "Monteria" page and make your own decision (although it does appear that a decision on my action has already been made.)

It looks like someone made a mistake. You only removed vandalism; the message may have been meant for someone else. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 04:21, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Account creation

I have just created account in wikipedia.Do I have to pay for it?

No, Wikipedia accounts are free. There is more information about accounts at Wikipedia:Why create an account?. --ais523 08:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • And if you are unsure whether you have to pay, it's a good practice to ask before you sign up. - Mgm|(talk) 08:59, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] factual correctness

IIRC, i read something about how wikipedia is about writing about things accurately. So it doesn't matter when something is "wrong" (as in incorrect or untrue), if it exists, we're supposed to write about it accurately. Although state that it may be factually wrong if there are reliable sources to verify from.

I think it was in either an essay or a guildline, but i really can't find it. Don't suppose someone knows what i'm talking about? --`/aksha 08:49, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

You're probably thinking of this famous quote from the policy Wikipedia:Verifiability: "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth." The rest of the policy goes on to expand on that. Hope that helps. --ais523 09:26, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • (after edit conflict) What do you mean by "Although state that it may be factually wrong if there are reliable sources to verify from."? Was it that even though a source may be reliable, it can be factually incorrect? Have you tried WP:RS or WP:V? - Mgm|(talk) 09:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Don't worry about it. ais523 already hit the spot. What i meant was that if someone published a book on why the earth was flat, and the book became famous enough for wikipedia. Then we would right about the book and how the author argues that the earth is flat, despite the fact that it is the truth the earth is round. --`/aksha 10:53, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
This is really the only way Wikipedia could work. Consider, for instance, that there are articles on creationism and evolution. There will be many people who believe that one is right and that the other is wrong, but they are not allowed to delete the opposing article, because verifiability overrides their belief (or certainty) of correctness. Notinasnaid 14:31, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, yeah. I understand. I just needed the actual guideline page, because i was quoting it in a debate with another editor. And i don't believe the said other editor believed me, so i was trying to find where the quote came from. --`/aksha 02:46, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External link

I have to add an external link given below. So how can i add it?

(\\salos\d$\Dralasoft\dw3.4_winx86.exe)202.56.245.162 10:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

  • That is the name of a file on your local computer network. You cannot add this as a link to Wikipedia, because only people on your local computer network could read it. You also should not link to EXE files. What is it that you want to link to, and in which article? Maybe we can suggest an alternative. Notinasnaid

[edit] Blank line bet 2 rows

I want a blank line between 2 rows while editing a file. How can i do it?202.56.245.162 10:12, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Add a blank line in your text, like
this. Alternatively, you can put <br> anywhere you want the cursor to drop to the next line. --Kainaw (talk) 15:00, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What to do when user talk page is an advertisment

I have found User talk:Anmsoft (thank you for the tip, 202.56.245.162) which seems to have been created as an advert. I am not sure how to proceed, since normal criteria for deleting an article don't seem to apply here. Any suggestions? Notinasnaid 10:22, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Blatant adverts like this are an abuse of the userspace. Since this was the user's only edit, it doesn't appear as if he wants to contribute. I've blocked them and deleted the material. (I think it's actually a speedy criterion under its userspace heading. More questionable cases can be sent to WP:MFD. - Mgm|(talk) 10:41, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Zork I Record Walk-through

                       Stylin’ Through the GUE
                A 231 Move Solution in five easy trips
                 through the Great Underground Empire

"Zorksters will quickly agree that the thief’s unpredictable and disruptive appearances greatly befoul strategic planning. Despite expert advice that the dangerous thief must be avoided until later in the game, the efficient suggestion proposed by Jacob Gunness way back in 1990, recognized the importance of eliminating this wild card as soon as possible. His solution took 311 moves, however, which can be easily improved upon. As if to illustrate, the following scenario scores 350 points in only 231 moves, and furthermore allows for lunch and a drink on the way to the Stone Barrow."

This is how my record walk-through begins. For the last few days I have been trying to post it in the Wikipedia, but to no avail. The three walk-throughs there posted all take over 300 moves and can easily be improved. I managed to tune up the Plot description, but I cant't seem to get my walk-through submitted.

Bill Piercy

  • Thank you for your interest, but this does not seem appropriate for Wikipedia. If I may quote Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information/current consensus is that Wikipedia articles are not simply... video game guides". You may be able to find other sites that accept game guides, or create your own site. But I hope you will be able to stay and contribute in other ways. Notinasnaid 10:34, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Annoying template

Hi Helpdeskers - my template I made bugs me. I made the template Template:J-League Teams Of the Year, just by copying the frameworks of Template:FA Premier League seasons, which works as a navbox template and changing the links. But the Template:J-League Teams Of the Year doesn;t look good on the pages it's transcluded on. It has loads of "style="background:#bfd7ff;"|" crap on those pages. Can someone change the template so it works? Thanks --Dangherous 10:49, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Can you give some examples of pages where this happened? The first few links I've seen don't contain any of the code you described. Did you actually add it by using subst: or anything? - Mgm|(talk) 10:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
    • (edit conflict) It's a bit tricky to explain. Suffice to say, it centers around the noinclude tags, and the {{fb start}} template that was contained inside them. I've gone ahead and fixed up the template so it will work the way you want. To see how the original template might be "fixed," see an example of its use at the bottom of Arsenal F.C.. But, if you're happy with the way it works, right now, no problem. :) Hope that helps! Luna Santin 11:03, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
      • Yeah, it looks fine. Thanks --Dangherous 11:23, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Language

Dear Sir, I need help on how to make my profile availabe in two languages, for example, there are lots of articles available in many languages on the left side of the page, so how can i make my profile available in many languages. Thanks SeMiTiC

  • It only needs to be available in the languages of the Wikipedias you edit otherwise you might attract questions/comments in a language you can't respond to. To do that, you need to sign up at the relevant projects and create Wikipedia:Interwiki links. Remember, though, Wikipedia is not the place to promote yourself. - Mgm|(talk) 12:46, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi!

I just tried to create a redirect cross-reference to provide automatic redirection from "panantheism" (which didn't exist in Wiki) to "panentheism" (already there).

But for some reason my

  1. REDIRECT Panentheism

which I just created is merely displaying an arrow with "Panentheism" at its right instead of actually PERFORMING the redirection to the desired item.

Please fix this if you'd be so kind, and also let me know what I did wrong so I can avoid the problem in the future.

Thank you!  :-)

Bruce

That isn't what you typed. You typed
  1. REDIRECT PANENTHEISM

and there is no article by that name! Wikipedia is case sensitive. Notinasnaid 14:28, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adding blog external links regarding factual events proving blog contents correct

Here is an interesting one:

A recent blog entry stated that Google were going to do certain things following the purchase of YouTube. The blog, although anonymous, appears to be from someone inside Google and makes fascinating reading. Now it appears what they say would happen is happening. Is it acceptable to place this as a link on the page? - do blogs equal verfiability accord to Wiki guidelines - if what they say was going to happen does happen, and this gives the writer a lot of credibility and adds great interest in the article JulianHensey 15:34, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

No, in general blogs (and particularly anon blogs) certainly aren't reliable sources. The exception to this is where the blog is a direct publication of the the specific corporation, agency, person, or entity in question. So Google's corporate blog would be a reliable source for information about Google, and a politician's blog would be a reliable source for their opinion about something. And even in these cases we have to be sure that it's really that person - so a MySpace page that claims to be written by Britney Spears isn't a reliable source, but one on her official website would be. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:39, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

What about link to blogs rather than a statement of fact? A link to a discussion forum (or blog) about an article is surely acceptable without any statement of fact in the article? A link with "certain allegations regarding the take over have been made in blogs" for exampleJulianHensey 15:48, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think so. Anyone could say anything in blogs. I know how interesting unsubstantiated and anonymous rumours are, but that doesn't make it encyclopedia material. Notinasnaid 16:03, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Use of image

Argggh - help please! I have waded through the Wikipedia article on Image copyright tags as well as having read several other articles about the use of images, and I don't seem to have taken anything in at all!

I want to use a pic which I found through a Google images Search of the singer Emmett Tinley about whom I have written an article. I wrote to the owners of the image - his record company - and they have given me permission to use the image wherever I like, just saying, 'No problems - go ahead.' So obviously I have permission to use the image, but have no idea what to call the tag - whether it is copyrighted or what. I am a complete beginner in this sort of thing so any help as to what to do now I have received permission to use the image would be greatly appreciated!

--Needs fixing 17:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

A safe bet would be to add the {{Promotional}} tag under the image description.¤~Persian Poet Gal (talk) 17:23, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] editing

I am an engineering scientist and I wrote some additions to the entry for Peep and the Big Wide World, and educational television show. Yet it was like talking to a wall. I can write on a wall, but my additional short paragraphs -- well -- it's clear you have to be a computer geek to make this site work, and while I'm a geek, I'm not that kind. I do not know how to edit HTML nor want to know.

lskarin

Actually, the whole idea of Wikis is that you don't have to know how to edit HTML nor want to know. Do you have a specific question that we can help you with? Notinasnaid 18:34, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Have a go at the Wikipedia:Tutorial. If you can post a question here, you can write a basic article too. You have pick up the harder things one at a time so you don't get overwhelmed. - Mgm|(talk) 21:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] HOROSCOPE

THIS MONTHS PEOPLE MAGAZINE. WANTED TO KNOW ON THE SIGN OF TAURUS. THE TRANSLATION OF THE HOROSCOPE IN ENGLISH....PLEASE I UNDERSTAND A LITTLE OF IT BUT, I WANT TO KNOW THE WHOLE THING. PLEASE IF YOU CAN HELP ME. THANKS JOZZIE.—Preceding unsigned comment added by JOZZIE (talk • contribs)

FYI- All caps is considered yelling, please check and make sure you caps lock is not on so that you are not construed as yelling. Thanks, --Frozen at 0° 20:58, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism of a user page

I have just found a user page (User:Elkman) that appears to have been vandalised. The warning templates seem to be genuine (?) except for the last one. To whom should I report this and how do I do it?

If you look at the page's history, it seems that the user put all that there. So I wouldn't say it's vandalism per se. Dismas|(talk) 20:47, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
User has been given a 24 hour block; if he returns, it will probably be indefinite. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 21:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hmmmm

What doi do? User:Aelfwine Has had his page deleted and has not made edits in a long while. I stumbled acrossit while Trying to find my user space. My question is, could I redirect his user space to mine to save problems? Oh yes, sorry, If my account is too closely related to his I will change it. --Ælfwine 21:11, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

No - it would be confusing, because people looking for his userpage might think that you were him. It's common practice to redirect userpages once someone has changed their name (e.g. User:Last Malthusian, my old username, redirects to User:Samuel Blanning, as does the talk page). It's generally not a good idea to have the same name as another account, so if you're not hugely attached to that name you can request a username change at WP:CHU. Besides, I and probably most other Wikipedians have no idea how to type in that AE thing, so I would have difficulty finding your userspace just as you did. --Sam Blanning(talk) 21:25, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Incidentally, Aelfwine with an Ae has never created a user page. --Sam Blanning(talk) 21:26, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Aelfwine (talk · contribs)'s last contribution was on 27 October 2006 which means they could come back. I really don't like say to this, but Aelfwine's first contribution was on 7 October 2004. At the rate you're going you though it will only take you a few days to surpass the other one's edit count ;) --WikiSlasher 04:51, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Can you get a list of Wikipages that reference a given page?

Is if possible to get a list of all the Wikipages that link to a given page?

For example if I wanted to see all articles that linked to "Brazil"?

Thanks,

JBonsie

Yes, click "What links here" in the toolbox on the right left of the screen. Trebor 21:50, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photo permission

On a whim, I e-mailed J. Hillis Miller about permission to use a photo of him on his page. He replied most graciously in the affirmative, even attaching several high-quality ones, as well as his CV. And he says he uses WP "often" (not bad for a 78-year-old Distinguished Professor of English)!

Question: Is there someplace where, for legal safety, I should deposit his message? --zenohockey 22:36, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

You need to check the permission you have, permission to use it just on the article or just on wikipedia is insufficient (see here). Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permission contains a few boilerplates of what should be asked for, and the second paragraph there includes what you should do with regards posting copies of the permission onto wikipedia. --pgk 22:43, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I see. Okay, I've sent him a more detailed description of the GFDL terms. Thanks. --zenohockey 03:18, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
You could also post a copy of the message on the image description page if you would like. Cbrown1023 04:47, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sean Connery

Oi on the article on sean connery, someone has messed up the personal life section. Fix it! (im here because its so complicated to get questions answered) —Preceding unsigned comment added by CrazySlyHawk (talk • contribs)

Hi. That was fixed about 2.5 hours ago, and should no longer be a problem. If you can figure out how to do so, you can try Wikipedia:Reverting and Wikipedia:Vandalism for ways to handle the problem. If you have any more questions, feel free to write back. Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 23:07, 17 November 2006 (UTC)