Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2006 November 9

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Help desk
< November 8 << Oct | November | Dec >> November 10 >
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.


Contents

[edit] November 9

[edit] Science Fair Project

I am using your website for information for my science fair project. My teacher needs to have the copyright date of this website. It's due tomorrow, so please respond soon!!! (I don't have access to a computer so I'm using the Library's computer. It closes in thirty minutes!!! PLEASE HURRY!!!) thanks! :)64.107.61.66 01:23, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Information on Wikipedia is not copyrighted. Instead it is licensed as free content under the "copyleft" GNU Free Documentation License, designed by the Free Software Foundation. Please click on "Cite this article" in the toolbox on the left hand side of an article in order to access citation information for that particular article.--Fuhghettaboutit 01:35, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Copyleft is still copyright, it's just the hip subset. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:57, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Well, sort of. But maybe even hep, you dig?--Fuhghettaboutit 03:11, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Submitting a new topic

how do i submit topics to the wikipedia encyclopedia?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by T3Stev0 (talk • contribs) .

Please see Wikipedia:Very Frequently Asked Questions#How do I create a new article?. Thanks.--Fuhghettaboutit 01:30, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiDefcon

I'm trying to add the wikidefcon tag to my userpage and I would like to know if it is possible to make it appear on the left side of the page, and if so how do i do it? Malevious 01:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Check out the template, adding "|align=left" to the template will change that. —Mitaphane talk 02:15, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Thank you very much :) Malevious 02:26, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] how do I

How do I put my own entry on?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Otter123 (talk • contribs) .

Please see the post two above this one. Thanks.--Fuhghettaboutit 02:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] re {{ConfirmationOTRS}}

Template ConfirmationOTRS is placed on pages on where the user has released the text under the GNU Free Documentation License and has so stated to the WikiMedia PR Department and has recieved an OTRS ticket number. My question is, supposing I want to suggest this path to an editor, what is the procedure for them (or me) to contact the PR Department and receive a ticket number? Herostratus 02:32, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

The copyright holder should send an e-mail to permissions at wikimedia dot org or a postal letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, stating specifically that the material is released under the GFDL, which pages are covered by this release, and what the original source is (whether website or book title, etc.). Upon receipt and verification, one of the OTRS volunteers will add that tag with the OTRS number to the relevant pages. —Centrx→talk • 02:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks! Herostratus 04:48, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] STA Annual Reports

Could you please advise how I can access State Transport Authority of South Australia, Australia. Annual Reports 1982 to 1994

J vernon brown

This section is for questions about Wikipedia. It seems as if that agency was disbanded and TransAdelaide took over it's functions. I would check their website. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 05:32, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikispecies edits

I entered paragraphs on the endemic Australian chydorid cladocerans Pseudomonospilus and Australospilus into the Wikispecies directory on the weekend of Nov 4-5, pressed 'save page' but nothing has subsequently appeared there. I reentered a short test paragraph into Australospilus today, Nov. 09...it has appeared in the discussion page...how does one enter a definitive systematic article. I work on chydorids, btw. Thanks Russ S.

Hi Russ. I'm not sure why your edit didn't "stick". The edit history of Chydoridae] (is that the page you mean?) at Wikispecies doesn't show any edits by someone with your username. Could it be that you hit "show preview" instead of save page? In any case, once you save, your edits, even if reverted, should remain in the edit history so if indeed it was saved you are the apparent victim of a glitch. You might want to inquire further at the Wikispecies:Village Pump. This page is really for questions about using Wikipedia.--Fuhghettaboutit 04:12, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Editing Issues

I just want to know why i keep getting messages on my screen from other uses telling me to stop editing content. About a year ago now i addes some information about a particular style of housing and even then it was only a couple of lines that i had researched. Now most of the time when i visit wikipedia i get messages from users threatening to block me. I dont edit any content just look. I think everyone needs to get a grip, or sort out your IP tracking issues. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.87.67.252 (talk • contribs) .

I'm not sure, but maybe you have a Dynamic IP, or one that changes. You can prevent mistaken identities by creating an account. In any case, comments like this will not help in any situation; please remember to always remain civil. Cheers, Dar-Ape 04:08, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Remember, of course, that in the case of a rapidly reassigned dynamic IP, the user who made that comment may not be the user who posted the query here, leading to understandable frustration. --MCB 06:37, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Looking at the related contribution and edit histories, it looks like someone with your IP added some nonsense in 2005 (specifically "Sean whom attends CDSHS is the coolest, and jons a dork!!!!!!!" ) to the Nelson Mandela article. User Fvw then left a message to your IP in 2005 asking the owner not to post nonsense. Someone with your IP then responded with personal attacks to Fvw in 2006, and the user with you IP was asked to be civil on Wikipedia. Definitely looks like a case of mistaken identities. You should totally get an account. Breenius 07:34, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] japanese kanji

how do you add japanese kanji to an article

reference shorinryu nder karate

thanks

If you can write Japanese in your browser, do so there. If not, I'd just copy-paste. Works fine for me. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 05:27, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IP Numbers and signatures

Hello,

After acquiring a username and then logging in at the Enlish language portal in Wikipedia, I went to the Spanish language section of Wikipedia to do an edit at a talk page. I noticed that instead of my new user signature, my IP was stamped as a sig. Can you guys replace my IP with my sig.? I'm concerned that my IP might be harvested. --- I've also done some edits in the past. Is it possible to change my IP automatically to my new User sig.?


Thanks.

It's not possible to retroactively change or delete signatures or other content. I don't know why it would be printing your IP though - are you sure you were logged in? I'd just go back to the relevant pages, edit your IP out and add your sig. Note too that I can't really think of any danger of "IP harvesting" - though I might be wrong. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 05:29, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
That's because each Wikipedia language has its own registration system. You have to register separately there. Don't be afraid about your IP address being "harvested". Every website you visit grabs your IP address, and people can set programs to scan large swathes of addresses looking for computers. You're not any more vulnerable by having your IP address here. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:31, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Each Wikipedia is their own entity rather than a lanaguage "section". You need to register for each one separately until the single login has been created. That's why your username wasn't showing. - Mgm|(talk) 09:45, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


Thank you all for your quick responses. I guess that I'll just have to make sure that I'm logged in each time I go from one language to the other. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eltenoch (talk • contribs)

[edit] subnetting

I want to know how to do the subnetting and also want to calculate the subnetmask

First, take a look at the article Subnetwork. If that does not answer your question, try asking at the reference desk, which is set up to answer factual and research questions. --MCB 06:51, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Editing Questions

Hello, i added a new link to one of the articles, and when i checked back to see if it was still there, it wasnt. I was wondering why. Could you please tell me?

On Wikipedia, pages are being edited continuously. It may be while you are visiting another page, someone edited the article. Hopes this answers. Joshua Chiew 06:47, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question about photos

I have read the image policy guidelines,but I still have a question about a specific photo.The article 'Donna Williams' has no photo.Now,I know of someone who took a photo of Donna at a Neopets promotion event in Singapore a while ago,in 2003.Is this photo able to be used if I ask permission from the original photographer? Sorry if I have missed a part in the policy that would answer my question,but I'd like to know for sure. Serenaacw 08:11, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Only if the original photographer is willing to release it into the public domain fully - it can't be specific to Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Image_copyright_tags#For_image_creators should explain how that is done. Trebor 08:29, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Trebor Serenaacw 08:50, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

  • It doesn't have to be the public domain. A free license is enough. - Mgm|(talk) 09:41, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Does {{-}} Do?

Thanks.100110100 08:52, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

That is explained at Template:-: It clears both margins, helpful to make sure the text following it starts below all floating elements like images or infoboxes Kusma (討論) 08:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Square brackets inside a wiki link

Hi, is there a way to create a wiki link with the linked word containing square brackets? Ie. if I want to link the word [foobar] to some page, how do I do that so that the square brackets show up in the link? --Jopo 12:47, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Theoretically, one can use the hexadecimal ASCII value with % in front. For example, [ is %5b and ] is %5d, so linking to [foobar] should work as [[%5bfoobar%5d]]. It doesn't seem to be working and I don't know why... There's always an external link.... --Keitei (talk) 13:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
To make a link to say, A, written as [A], you type [[A|[A]]]. So you want [foobar] to link to Wikipedia, you type
 [[Wikipedia|[foobar]]]
Hope that helps! --WikiSlasher 04:33, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I want slogan or jingles on Wheat flour

I want slogan or jingles on Wheat flour

"Wheat flour, we use it every hour, it's quite a neat little powder, sometimes I use it to make chowder." --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 22:47, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Publication on Wikipedia

Sorry for my poor english but I try to explain my problem.

I try to post an article about PLANIGO such as that of VENERE article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venere)

Unfortunately, my article is always refused. Thank you communicate me the reason.

Thanks

Franck Viano www.planigo.com

COPY OF MY ARTICLE

Planigo.com is an online hotel reservation platform based in Switzerland with many offices in Europe: France, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Monaco, Germany, Romania, etc.

With more than 11 500 hotels, Planigo proposes an exhaustive choice of hotels (hotels of 1 to 5 stars, palaces, castle residences, chalets, etc) displayed in over 23 languages, thus allowing its users to compare the hotel offers in their native language.

Moreover, Planigo publishes in 15 languages the opinions of its customers having stayed in the hotels. Therefore, every net surfer is able to refer to these opinions in order to have a clearer idea about the establishment in question.

Corporate

Established in 1998 by Gil Guyomard, Planigo started in France as a hotel booking website known under FranceHotelReservation.com. Today, less than 10 years later, Planigo is positioned as a leading player on the European market and is registered as a trademark.

Planigo.com is part of the international group QCNS. While the head office is based in Switzerland, the operational headquarters is located in Romania which includes the Call Centre, the technology departments and the administrative offices. QCNS also owns two travel agencies (Aeromar Travel Agencies), one located in Monaco, and the second in France, Beausoleil.

Business model

Thanks to its large portfolio of hotels under contract, Planigo has set up a savvy business model, managing the whole reservation process including the booking itself, but also the billing.

For one, your article sounds too much like an advertisement. Also, the company may not live up to the requirements for notability for a company which are spelled out at WP:CORP. Dismas|(talk) 13:43, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Identification of nationals of non-sovereign peoples

Is a nationality belonging to a non-sovereign people worthy of removal in the introduction paragraph of a biography article? Can Scottish, Tibetan, Mohawk, Porto Rican people be identified as such, or must we all accept forceful replacements to British, Chinese, etc.? I feel like these are sociological realities that transgress the official political structures and documents. If one waits for the powers that be to reflect faithfully the reality of the people, one will wait a while. What do you think? --Liberlogos 16:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think there's a style guideline or policy regarding this, so it's something that should be handled on a per article basis. I think the most important thing is what the person in question identifies himself as. For example, the Dalai Lama would certainly identify himself as a Tibetan, as he's trying to achieve it's independence. That perhaps the most important thing to consider when identifying a national status. —Mitaphane talk 21:11, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the answer. Where would one go to officialize this? --Liberlogos 15:57, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
You would need to go to Village pump (proposals) page -- Lost(talk) 18:34, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Where can I find common templates to welcome or warn new users?

Question 1: I know there are templates created that can be placed on the talk page of a brand-new user, saying "Welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for editing - we appreciate your contribution, but in your future edits please be more careful regarding spelling/grammar/POV/etc." or something to that effect.

But I can't seem to find where these templates are located. I expected they would be included in, or referenced on, the "please do not bite the newcomers" page, but I didn't see any links/references there. I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

Question 2: I am interested in assisting with "recent changes patrolling" and when I looked at the RPP page, it mentioned the "old school" way of finding recent changes, but didn't actually explain how to see a list of the most recent changes. If someone could give me some guidance on the easiest/most efficient way to look at recent changes, I'd appreciate it. —SaxTeacher (talk) 16:05, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I found some answers myself: {{welcome}} is the standard greeting; alternative greetings are found at Wikipedia:Standard_user_greeting and Wikipedia:Welcome templates. —SaxTeacher (talk) 16:31, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
(1) I don't know if it's exhaustive but there's quite a list at WP:UTM. (2) The easiest way to see a list of recent changes is to visit Special:Recentchanges. Depending on your display preferences, there's probably a link to it at the left of your screen, labeled as "Recent changes". There are also various tools for monitoring recent changes in real time, but Special:Recentchanges is a good place to get started. FreplySpang 16:33, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Revert problem

I'm trying to revert changes to Trippin'_On_a_Hole_in_a_Paper_Heart due to copyright violation (song lyrics in article), but I think I may have messed up. I'd removed the lyrics manually as a normal edit, but later I noted they still show up in the article history. I then tried to follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Revert, but the copyrighted material is still in the history. Is this the case, that article revisions cannot be purged from the history? Or could someone more wiki-savvy fix this article, and maybe post back here telling me what I should have done instead? Thanks. 158.140.1.25 16:52, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Have a look at Wikipedia:Copyright violations on history pages. The consensus was that they do not need to be removed from the history unless a specific complaint is made. Trebor 17:22, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, the only people who can remove article revisions are administrators; all other edits remain in the history. If you want to see if an admin can remove that revision, pop over to WP:AN and make a request there, I'm sure someone can deal with it for you. Tony Fox (arf!) 17:21, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting cookies - previous search words

How do I delete the cookies/previous search words used in the Wikipedia Search box?

That's pretty browser specific, I'm afraid. --Gwern (contribs) 18:33, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
On some browsers, you can click on the search box, hover over the saved word that you want to delete, and strike the "Delete" key on your keyboard. Kind of a hassle though, if you are trying to delete every one of them. What browser are you using? tiZom(2¢) 18:50, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] desperately looking

Hello,

I AM DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR MY SISTER. I JUST FOUND OUT SHE DIED ON NOV 13,2001. I WENT TO THE VITAL STATISTIC IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY AND I WAS TOLD THAT SHE DIDN'T DIED IN THESE STATES. NOW, I DON'T KNOW WHERE ELSE TO LOOK FOR HER. THEY KEPT ON ASKING ME IF SHE WAS EVER MARRIED. I KNOW SHE WAS MARRIED TO SOMEONE A LONG TIME AGO BUT I NEVER ASK WHAT WAS HER LAST NAME.

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME FIND MY SISTER...

YOU CAN CALL ME AT (REMOVED)

SISTER'S NAME IS (REMOVED) QUITE ALARMING AMOUNT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION REMOVED

Wikipedia is not a lost persons index. --Gwern (contribs) 18:31, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Can an admin delete the history of this section? It included some rather nasty stuff an identity thief could use. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 22:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Security Concern

Why aren't our logins encrypted? --AquaRichy 19:24, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Citations

When I select the Cite this Article link and View the list of contributors I get a run time error. I have tried this on both IE and Firefox. I believe this function is not working.

Here's the message:

RuntimeError Python 2.4.4c0: /usr/local/bin/python2.4 Thu Nov 9 19:40:42 2006

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.

/home/tim/public_html/cgi-bin/contribution-counter
 175 else:
 176     print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\n"
 177     print """<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 178 <html>
 179 <head>

dbname = 'enwiki_p', replag = <module 'replag' from '/home/tim/public_html/cgi-bin/replag.pyc'>, replag.getlag = <function getlag>, conn undefined, db = <_mysql.connection open to 'sql' at 725af0>, cgi = <module 'cgi' from '/usr/lib/python2.4/cgi.pyc'>, cgi.escape = <function escape>, page = 'Foreclosure'

/home/tim/public_html/cgi-bin/replag.py in getlag(conn=<_mysql.connection open to 'sql' at 725af0>, db='enwiki_p')
  36                 replag_export["%s_formatted" % unit] = '%s %s ' % (str(raw_replag[unit]), unit)
  37         replag = replag_export['years_formatted'] + replag_export['days_formatted'] + replag_export['hours_formatted'] + replag_export['minutes_formatted'] + replag_export['seconds_formatted']
  38         return replag
  39     except Exception, value:
  40         raise RuntimeError ('Failed to retrieve replication lag: %s' % (value))

builtin RuntimeError = <class exceptions.RuntimeError>, value = <exceptions.TypeError instance>

RuntimeError: Failed to retrieve replication lag: unsubscriptable object

     args = ('Failed to retrieve replication lag: unsubscriptable object',)

Thank you,

[edit] I am one of the great grand children of the da_silva family in porto_novo, and I will like to know about the man joaquem who came to ouida in 1700 in Dahomey now Republic of Benin

I am raphael olaonipekun and one of the great grandchildren of desuado francisco da_silva one of the portuguese slave trade marchant that resided in ouida. I am very eager to know the geneologie of my great grand parents who came from portugal in 1700.Though, Ihave some of the typed and written documents from my grands mothers father, but they are not realy completed.So I desided to search on how to know more about this vital information because, my grandmother who is late now told me to do so, and that we have opportunities also in portugal since our great grand parents came from there.I will be very greatful if you can help me trace the geneologies of these influencial men who miggrated to Dahomey in 1700 of whom my grandmothers father was one of their great grand sons. Please I will like to leave my email address (EMAIL REMOVED)Once again, I will be very greatful.Hoping to hear from you soon. Thanks from Raphael Olaonipekun.

Please read the third topic above yours. Wikipedia is not a genealogy service, it is an encyclopedia. --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 22:51, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should entire credits be listed for TV series, films, etc?

I don't mean the cast or the main crew, but the minor crew members such as electricians, boom operators, etc. I've seen quite a few articles that list every onscreen credit, but often the credit list takes up three-quarters of the entire article. I'd delete the minor crew but I don't know what the general style is on Wikipedia. 172.206.2.54 20:27, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

  • They're not quite minor. Those films would've been different without them working on them, but I agree, you generally mention director, producer and major actors. People in Special FX and things like that should only be mentioned if you have something to tell about them. I would hate to see an article titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix credits and I would hate to see them in the movie article even more. - Mgm|(talk) 22:53, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
    • I would hate to see the cleanup necessary after some fan(atic) created articles for each one of the minor people. The AFD nominations would clog the system worse than Granny's meatloaf. Dismas|(talk) 22:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] editting a page

Hi, there was actually a page on wikipedia that i thought needed more pictures so I was going to add a picture that fit very well with the paragraph. But I couldn't seem to figure out how to attach a picture and put it on the page. If you could please repost to this as soon as possible I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

22:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)22:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)22:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)70.119.205.246 22:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

You will have to create an account before you can upload images.--Joshua Chiew 23:06, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


[edit] article about 100,000th active user

Do you think it would be a good idea to create an article about the 100,000th active user (like similar rules of the millionth article pool such as guessing and the deadline where you can't make any guesses).--PrestonH 22:50, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

No. Users are not consistently active so it would be impossible to define and administer. Dismas|(talk) 22:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
By what standard would you "bet" on such a thing? By date of sign-up, or what? Who determines if the user is "active"? Good idea, though I doubt we need any more contests ;) --Wooty  Woot? | contribs 22:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
It's a little late :) Special:Statistics shows we have over 2,000,000 registered users :) Although you have to take into consideration indef blocked, bots, inactive, we would still have more than 100,000. :) But yes, I agree with Wooty.. More contests! — Deon555talk 23:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Oh yeah, here are some policies I think up for the contest...
  • In order for a user to become active, users must make at least 5 edits a month.
  • The contest will end if there are 95,000 active users.
  • Any guesses after the deadline will be reverted.
  • Guesses can be divided by month and year for categorization.
  • The person who guessed the right month of the 100,000th active user will be the winner (and maybe a barnstar)

We might want to delay the contest because the Wikimedia Statistics are not working. So should I create an article about this contest?--PrestonH 23:29, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photos #2

Okay,the person who took a photo that I want to use on Wikipedia has said that she will release the work under a free license.What do I need to put under the photo?I mean,does it need to have a decleration under it and an image source or what? Sorry,but I'm *really* confused.Serenaacw 23:09, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

If she has released it to the public domain, put this "{{PD-release}}" tag on it. If it's another type of free license look here for the corresponding license to put on the image page. Also, if you have an email(or some other correspondence) with this declaration it would be good to put it(or a hyperlink to it) on the page as well. —Mitaphane talk 00:17, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] categorizing an article

Can someone please add the categories to an article I wrote? Your help was extremely detailed, but hard to apply to my simple case. Article: Thermodynamic databases for pure substances Categories I want to use: Natural sciences | Physical sciences | Chemistry | Chemical thermodynamics Thanks, Thermbal 23:13, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FAQ / Help Desk

where do i find FAQ FOR THE ANSWERS

Try the "Help" link which goes to (Help:Contents) in the left column of any Wikipedia page in your browser for a list of Help topics and FAQs.

how do i login to wikipedia help desk

This page is the Help Desk - you can ask any question related to using or editing Wikipedia right here. --MCB 00:37, 10 November 2006 (UTC)