Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 November 4

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[edit] November 4

[edit] editing a category page

I'm trying to add "Canadian Linguistics Association" to the following page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Linguistic_societies

When I click on 'edit this page' there's nothing to edit. How do I add the above entry this this page?

You add [[Category:Linguistic societies]] to the Canadian Linguistics Association page, preferably at the bottom. That's all there is to it. :-) --Tkynerd 02:23, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with images at City & South London Railway

The City & South London Railway article is currently (4 November) featured under "On This Day..." on the main page. When I pull up the article, neither of the two images on the right shows up. The first image is displayed if I click on it; the second is only visible if I click on it and then select "Download high-resolution version." Can someone who's more conversant with how Wikipedia handles images try to sort this out? Thanks. --Tkynerd 03:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I've fixed the images.--TBCΦtalk? 04:02, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
They're still broken (not displaying in the article) for me, and neither a forced reload nor a purge did the trick. :-( --Tkynerd 12:41, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox formatting problem

I've just created a new article, and borrowed an infobox for the appropriate topic. I can't figure out what I've done wrong in the formatting, since I basically cut and pasted the code. The article is National Treasury Employees Union. Help!--Orange Mike 05:09, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Looks like you had a few too many brackets in the image notation. Fixed! --Wolf530 05:15, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, Wolf530! --Orange Mike 05:22, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia user statistics and tables.

The page: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm Now seems to require special permissions. How do i view this page - I recall seeing these tables a couple of years ago. I would like to see the distribution of editors by frequency of edits. Any advice? thankyou!

Here you are. For more statistics see Special:Statistics, Wikipedia:Statistics and Category:Wikipedia statistics -- Lost(talk) 09:20, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Where is a complete list of Barnstars?

I want to award a Barnstar to User:H Padleckas and I want to see a list of the available ones so that I can select one that is appropriate. Where is such a list? Thanks for your help. - mbeychok 06:10, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

  • Try Wikipedia:Barnstars, that page has a list of all barnstars currently in use as well as links to other types of Wikipedia awards. --Nebular110 06:15, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
    • Thanks a bunch. - mbeychok 06:52, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] translating language

how to translate a language of a web page in wikipedia

For english wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Translation into English -- Lost(talk) 09:22, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Multiple Monobooks?

Is it possible to have multiple monobooks on the same account? -AMK152 13:08, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

By putting the code in subpages of your user page I think you can easily switch between them by copying and pasting into Special:Mypage/monobook.css. --WikiSlasher 11:09, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WHAT THE HECK

I went to look at Lake Mary Florida maps and was told this is my last warning and that I would be blocked, What are you talking about. I have never used this site for anything but research. Do you have me blocked with someoneelses address?????Not very nice to be accused about something I did not do.

This IP address, 205.188.116.71, is the address of a shared America Online (AOL) web proxy server and may be shared by hundreds of AOL users at any given time (see AOL ranges). Comments left on that Talk page may be received by other users of this IP and appear to be irrelevant. -- Ec5618 13:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Please create an account. You are probably using a shared IP address to read/edit Wikipedia. Someone else, who shares your IP, vandalised Wikipedia. As per Wikipedia policy, they received a warning. However, you received the warning intended for them. --J.L.W.S. The Special One 13:56, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Statistics for a certain page

Is there a statistics bit where you can see how many views a certain page has received? Chris_huhtalk 14:10, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

It is a feature that is supported by the Wikimedia software under which Wikipedia runs. However, the feature is not turned on for Wikipedia, because page hit counting a) would not work properly because of the way Wikipedia's proxy and cache servers are set up, and b) because we don't want to pay the added server load penalty that the hit counting would incur.
By the way, have you considered drastically reducing the length of your signature? In wikicode, it's larger than my entire reply to your question, including this request to trim the sig. Really long sigs make it difficult to edit threaded discussions. Cheers, TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
You can, however, get a look at the most-visited entries at WikiCharts. It's kind of disturbing how many of them are sex-related. GeeJo (t)⁄(c) • 16:38, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't think it's disturbing. There's nothing strange about the fact that humans are interested in sex. :-) --Tkynerd 17:04, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contributor

Please let me know how I can register to become a contributor to WikiPedia. I am a physics professor of more than 30 years and have a number of books that I have written and scores of other publications. I think I can help and would like to participate. Thank you.

Dr Dave Menke <email removed for security reasons>

Click here to register an account. The signup form seems pretty self-explanatory. I hope you enjoy contributing to Physics articles on Wikipedia! --J.L.W.S. The Special One 14:29, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] who found chicken gunia virus

the person who found or discovered chicken gunia virus
You need to ask this question in the appropriate section at the Reference Desk. The Help Desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. --Tkynerd 17:05, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
Another hint is to do a search here on Wikipedia before asking the question. I did so, and quickly found the article about the virus, which gives the answer to your question. --Tkynerd 17:09, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Calculation: Numbers as input (or "Plucking commas")

  • I can use {{ formatnum: }} to convert output like 1234.5 to 1,234.5, but I need the reverse.
  • I need to convert numeric inputs which might or might not include commas into a form {{ #expr: }} can digest.
  • Is there a way to do this?

Thanks. --OWL 16:08, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Answered on usertalk page. - cohesion 00:05, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] my changes show in two browsers but not Internet Explorer

I made numerous changes in the photo content of Caves. They show fine in both Firefox and Netscape, yet Internet Explorer only shows the old photos, even when reloaded. Curiously, it shows my activity under "history." Please advise.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dave Bunnell (talk • contribs) .

Force a refresh with CTRL + F5, or if that doesn't work, clear your Temporary Internet Files cache. -- zzuuzz (talk) 16:32, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] user edit

can you remove edit history from user account?

if user account is deleted, will edits also be deleted?

We can't remove people's edit history or delete accounts under the GFDL. Sorry. -Royalguard11(Talk·Desk·Review Me!) 17:26, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
if user is deleted, edits also be deleted?
No, they can't be. The record of edits must be kept. Trebor 19:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Search not returning an existing article

When I search for "Rezko" I don't get the intended page of "Antoin Rezko". It does not even show "Antoin Rezko" as a result, even though there is an "Antoin_Rezko" article. It says no such article with that title exists.

What do I have to do so that when a user types in "Rezko" one of the following results occurrs: 1) The article for Antoin Rezko is returned. 2) "Antoin Rezko" is returned in the list of results

  1. See Wikipedia:Redirect for instructions on how to make a redirect so that "Rezko" will send users to "Antoin Rezko".
  2. The search is only updated every month or two so it will show up eventually, it would just take time. Dismas|(talk) 17:44, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] new article

i have a problem with my grypania article thare is this large dotted line around the text and it cuts off the rest of the text how do i get rid of it?

A box like this?
That's because there is a space before the first word. Although, looking at the article, I don't see a box there. Are you sure your browser has refreshed the page? Dismas|(talk) 17:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] no edit link

I wanted to edit the first part of the article on "carousel", I found no edit button. It was possible to edit the subsequent sections, i.e. history, trivia, etc. Is it not possible to edit the first segment? Also, I tried to include a photo and could not find how up load the image and get it placed in the gallery. Wdentzel 18:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

My experience is that there generally is not a separate "edit" link for the introductory section of an article; this is because those sections usually don't have headings. To edit that portion of the article, you must use the "edit this page" link at the top of the article. --Tkynerd 19:22, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
If you prefer not to edit the whole page in one go, you can get around this by clicking the top edit button you see and changing the '1' at the end of the URL to a '0'. This allows you to edit the very start - "section 0". Trebor 19:53, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question about redirect - need to find article that disappeared upon redirect!

I asked a question about how to find the original ariicle yesterday and never was able to get an answer that worked for me.

I want to find the original article Parchman Farm that has been redirected to (perhaps) two other articles and the original information is gone. I wrote it in conjunction with Gates v. Collier and want to get the original article to put in Gates v. Collier. How can I do that? My followup question was not answered yesterday. (Or at least I cannot find my question or answer!) Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 19:16, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

There's no evidence of there ever having been an article at Parchman Farm, it has no deletion history and doesn't appear in the deletion log. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:19, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Looking at your edit history for that period, you did edit the Parchman article quite a bit, however. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:24, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
So is it gone forever? I though Wikipedia kept everything. I don't know how to stop this from happening. Should I keep a copy of every article in my user page box? (This very thing has happened before.) Is there a way of getting it back? Mattisse(talk) 20:18, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Since the history is at Parchman rather than at Parchman Farm, you should be able to retrieve it from Parchman. --Tkynerd 20:20, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks! Could you explain how you made that link (to my contribution)? Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 20:36, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
I didn't do it (that was Finlay), but I can explain how it's done: (1) go to your user page; (2) click the "User Contributions" toolbox link on the left; (3) page through to the relevant page of the contributions; (4) copy its URL to the clipboard; (5) put it in single brackets to make it an external link (rather than a wikilink), followed by a space and the text to be used for the link (here, "your edit history for that period"). --Tkynerd 21:50, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 21:53, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WIkipedia signing in issues

I cannot stay signed in more than about 10 seconds, or shift from page to page, without being automatically signed out. Any suggestions? (mowens35, as yet again, the sign-in has signed me out)

See "Log in problems" section here and if that suggestion helps. - Tutmosis 20:04, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Search Box for thrid-party website

Is it possible to add a Wiki search box (entry field and button) on my personal website?

If you know JavaScript it shouldn't take any time at all to code up a box.
Create a form with two buttons and a text field. The "Go" button will open up the URL ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/"+TextField.value) and the "Search" button will open up the URL ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search="+TextField.value+"&fulltext=Search")
If you don't know JavaScript or HTML, send me a message and I will code up one for you. —Mitaphane talk 19:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to set a redirect? ... and how to delete an article (completely)?

How do I set up a redirect? I moved the article from its misspelt lemma Albatros (ship) to Albatross (ship, built in 1920). I would now like to redirect from the page of Albatros (ship) to Albatross (disambiguation) (because there are several ships of this name, and Albatross (ship) is also a redirect as well). One question, though, does the history of this article then become unaccessible? Would it then be better to write one or two sentences instead of a redirect, just so that people interested in the history of the former Albatros (ship) and current Albatross (ship, built in 1920) can still access the history?

My second question regards an article (Albatross (schooner, built in 1920) that I've erroneously saved under this misfit lemma (and despite checking 1001 times, I've figured it out only after it happened...). So how can I delete an article that I myself have written and that actually exists elsewhere (see above paragraph) without any (undocumented) changes? [Yeee, that's starting to get complicated :-) ...] Thanks for helping! --Ibn Battuta 20:24, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Okay, we've got a few different issues here... First, to create a redirect: #REDIRECT [[Albatross (disambiguation)]]. As to where the history goes, the answer is "sorta inaccessible." You can still go to "Albatros (ship)" and click on History to see the history, but one would have to know the exact title to go there.
Second, if you need to delete a page that you created erroneously, you can use this template: {{db-author}}. For more in depth information about deletion, head to Wikipedia:Deletion policy. --Wolf530 (talk) 21:16, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! Just a quick follow-up question: What do you mean by the "exact" title? This link? Just wondering because a) it is an external link, and b) I'm not sure if this link really remains functional after the redirect... - ?

"Exact title" would be "Albatros (ship)". It's only an external link because you're linking directly to the history. If you just put "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros (ship)" into your browser's URL bar, you'll go to the page and see the REDIRECT message. Then you can click on the "history" tab to see the history.

And second, as to the deletion... I guess I don't have to start a discussion then, but do I have to notify someone (step 3 of the general process)? Or is the tag enough? ... Thanks, Ibn Battuta 23:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

If you're just using {{db-author}}, then you don't have to notify anyone. An admin who monitors the appropriate category will remove the page the next time they see it. If you're doing a "normal" deletion, then you need to follow the process as listed on that template.

PS: Where do I set the redirect tag? Again, top of page, leaving the rest as is? Or deleting the article text and replacing it with the tag? Sorry to be so clueless :o) ... and thanks a lot for your help! --Ibn Battuta 23:22, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

When using redirects, you replace the entire contents of the page with the redirect tag. Re:clueless - NP. --Wolf530 (talk) 04:38, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Or was it something I said?

No reply to my earlier question about "Plucking commas"?

Is an "oops" in order? :-)

--OWL 20:31, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I couldnt find the question that you asked earlier. Can you ask again please. -- Lost(talk) 04:38, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] editing

how do you place images —Preceding unsigned comment added by Don paddy (talk • contribs)

Short answer: [[Image:example.png]]
Long answer: Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. --Wolf530 (talk) 21:08, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] [anonymous question]

WHAT WERE THE GOOD THINGS THAT HE SAID ABOUT THE MISSIONS?

He said "you're asking the wrong question, on the wrong page". If you can word your question in a way that it can be answered without extra-sensory perception, and you're not trying to get you're homework done for you, try the reference desk. - IMSoP 22:45, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Smaller than a 'project'

What's an appropriate place to discuss or coordinate entries on topics that are smaller than a WikiProject, i.e. 12 pages. The article pages themselves seems too difficult, yet it's not large enough to be a Project. An example is Jonathan Edwards College and the pages linked at the bottom of the page. CoolGuy 22:53, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Categories do have talk pages, Category:Colleges of Yale University so that might be a good place to start. It's unlikely people interested in the subject will be watching that page though, so if you're proposing something you might just start on an article. If there is a community that wants to discuss those things eventually you might get them all on the category talk page. - cohesion 22:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bypass redirect?

We're supposed to bypass redirect pages, but what if the first letter is lower case, i.e. iPod. Should the wiki link be iPod or IPod? CoolGuy 22:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

You can make the wikilink display text be different than the link target. For example [[IPod|iPod]] creates iPod. I think this answers your question, but if not feel free to update it. :) - cohesion 23:08, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Which is preferable: [[IPod|iPod]] or [[iPod]]. Or does it not really matter. CoolGuy 23:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Doesn't really matter. iPod is simpler. Neither is a redirect. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Text boxes

Is there any way to have the text in text boxes wrap to the next line, or will it always run off the screen.  I know it's supposed to be used sparingly, but I am just wondering. (I can't tell how the page will look on others' monitors.) CoolGuy 22:57, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Is there any way to have the text in text boxes wrap to the next line, or will it always run off the screen.  I know it's supposed to be used sparingly, but I am just wondering. (I can't tell how the page will look on others' monitors.) [[User:CoolGuy|CoolGuy]] 22:57, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Like that. :) Luna Santin 23:33, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Setting a width for a PRE doesn't work for all browsers (Safari, for one). -- Rick Block (talk) 23:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Producers of Uranium Ore

Caan you give me a list of mining companies which produce and sell uranium? ----

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. - cohesion 23:11, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trigonometry

How do you find cos x if: y intercepts and slope angle are equal to cos (x+y)?

Have you tried the Mathematics section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here's the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. - cohesion 23:47, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Searched Keywords

While back i saw a page which had all the keywords used to get to wikipedia ... aka search queries from google. But i can't find it now ... someone help?

Wikipedia:Searching? -- Rick Block (talk) 00:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

No, not that. I'm talking about the search engine queries done from google, msn, and yahoo. When a user comes from google to a wikipedia page, it is logged and displayed on this page im trying to find.

Is this what you were after? GeeJo (t)⁄(c) • 16:16, 5 November 2006 (UTC)