Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 February 18

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[edit] February 18

[edit] Help please in dealing with inappropriate edit

About a week ago someone added the following sentence to the Carl Rogers article.

He was a friend of Sean Courtney, a wonderful professor.

Can this just be removed? We all know that Carl Rogers was a true friend to a great many people. But this is not NPOV, its about someone who is not properly identified and its right in the opening paragraph. Is nobody else watching this page?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.118.94 (talk • contribs)

Thanks for catching this! I went ahead and removed it, but in the future, do feel free to make edits yourself! You can always leave a note here or on my talk page if you are unsure what to do. You seem to know your stuff though. If it's at all controversial-seeming, it's good to discuss a removal or large change on the article's talk page, but I thought this was pretty clear-cut. Thanks again! delldot | talk 00:26, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

lollllllll!!!!

[edit] Making an Article using the proper guidelines

How do you make an article using the proper guidelines? E-mail me at <email removed for your protection>.

Go to Help:Starting a new page. And please don't put your email address on wikipedia, if you don't want spam. --K.Z Talk • Vandal • Contrib 05:31, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Frustration

Hi,

My name is Whitney Bost and I am uploading information onto Wikipedia for a research paper in my history class. I wanted to email someone directly to make sure that someone knows about these problems or glitches but I couldn't find any contacts. Anyway, I have two concerns.

1 - In my first entry, Midnight Judges, I had a lot of difficulty with my footnotes and resources and I found the Wikipedia instructional page about footnotes to be very confusing and unclear and it didn't really help me.

2 - In my second entry, I had four paragraphs of information. When I clicked "See Preview" and "Save changes," the information that came back was half of my first paragraph and then some random sentences from the middle of my second paragraph. After trying to fix it and re-saving many times, I logged out and closed Wikipedia completely and then tried again but nothing worked and the same problem still occured.

Why is this happening and what can you do to fix it?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WBost22 (talk • contribs)

Hi Whitney, I bet I know what's happening: It's probably trouble with the <ref> formatting. If you don't put </ref> after where you want the footnote to stop, the software includes everything in the footnote until it finds a </ref>! (Trust me, I'm talking from experience here!) I'll try to fix the article by looking in your contributions, but if that doesn't work or you need further help, don't hesitate to let me know on my talk page. Or you can always post again here. You can email me by going to my user page and hitting the "email this user" link on the lefthand side. delldot | talk 02:51, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I cleaned up the references on Midnight Judges. I have a concern about this article that I'll send to your talk page. *Mishatx*-In\Out 03:03, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I can't edit pages!

I have a problem with eding pages, whenever I click the edit this page link my browser opens up a download file dialog and I can't open a page to edit it...? (Only when i click Edit this page tab
by the way... i am using IE7
--Dangergranger 02:25, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

  • What happens when you click this? or this one?--70.107.112.158 02:35, 18 February 2007 (UTC)


The first one did not work, but the second one did... The box thing happens when i click the first one --Dangergranger 02:38, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried using an alternate browser?--70.107.112.158 02:43, 18 February 2007 (UTC)


no i haven't but i can try that now --Dangergranger 02:54, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I am currently using FireFox and I get the same problem. --Dangergranger 03:01, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

  • That's quite odd--70.107.112.158 03:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC)


Do I need special addons or software to make it work properly? --Dangergranger 03:18, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

It should work normally without any addons or anything, I've never seen anything like that happen before--70.107.112.158 03:20, 18 February 2007 (UTC)


It is always asking me to download Index.php... and my computer doesn't recognize the file, (all this because i wanted to start my user page...)--Dangergranger 03:23, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Check your user preferences, go to the editing tab, and make sure that use external editor by default is unchecked. – Luna Santin (talk) 03:51, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image without a copyright

Someone please help. I recently added this much-needed image to an article on Ninja Gaiden video game. I was not able to find any source of copyrights or ownership! I only have information of the page that the image came from. I don't know what to do....

 http://ninjagaiden.classicgaming.gamespy.com/frames.html

Image:Bloody Malth.gif

You really shouldn't add images that you've just found on websites, unless you can find out the correct source information. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 03:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Everything is copyright unless it's done by certain people (like the US federal government), or it's really old (think 100 years or so), or it is released into the public domain (you'd need an official note of that). If it doesn't say anything, it just is copyright, automatically. So if you don't know, and it doesn't say, the picture has to go. The sad fact is, most articles will never be able to be illustrated with free pictures. Notinasnaid 23:14, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wikipedia's publisher and date of publication

How do I find Wikipedia's publishing information for use in my school assignment? 202.67.65.165 03:12, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

How do I change capitalize the s in scary and the g in guy to make the name show correctly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_scary_guy

See WP:MOVE for an explanation of how to re-name pages -- I've taken care of this for you, since it's limited to users who have established accounts. As for citing Wikipedia, I'd recommend you see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia and/or the cite this page link which should appear on the left bar (toolbox) of the article you'd like to cite. – Luna Santin (talk) 03:31, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] make a page

How Do you create your own page?

See Help:Starting_a_new_page and Wikipedia:Your first article for information on creating your own page. -- Chairman S. Talk Contribs 03:42, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cookies are enabled, but the server doesn't believe me

I have enabled all cookies, but I keep getting an error message telling me to enable cookies! Help please.

Hello! For us to answer your question, we need to know what web browser you are running. Could you produce the information, please? Yuser31415 04:02, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Also, are you using a satellite internet connection?--Werdan7T @ 04:07, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm using Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 on XP Professional (SP2). I'm just using a dial-up internet connection (AT&T Worldnet). Thanks.

[edit] to enter in wikipidia how to work

[edit] The boxes at the tops of pages

I've added the little boxes at the tops of pages to say whether an article is unreferenced, or if it needs to be cleaned up, but I always forget how to get to the page with the large list of all of them. Each time it takes me about a half an hour of browsing the help page. Can someone tell me how to get to that page, or provide a link for me? Thank you! VonShroom 04:28, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps WP:MAINT? -- Rick Block (talk) 04:51, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
What browser are you running? If your browser has a history feature, you might find the link there if you visited it in the past few days. Once you find the link, remember it with this tip. Also check the source of the "little boxes" to see where they categorize the pages you put them on. For example, I checked your contributions, and you edited Honda Fireblade with Template:Inappropriate tone and Template:Advert. Viewing those templates indicates they both categorize articles to Category:Wikipedia articles needing style editing, which may be what you're looking for. --Teratornis 06:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Or maybe not. Upon re-reading the question, I realize the referent of "them" in "the large list of all of them" might mean the "little boxes" themselves rather than the pages the boxes categorize. Template:Inappropriate tone#See also links to: Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup (shortcut: WP:TC), and maybe VonShroom should bookmark that page. --Teratornis 16:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, you guys are quick. And don't worry, as soon as I found it, I intended to bookmark it. VonShroom 17:33, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unable to log in

To whom it may concern:

I have saved my password and had the computer remember me but for some reason tonight I am unable to use the wikipedia sign in screen. I have been contributing regularly for the past year and two months. This is my first sign in problem in a while. I have been contributing to Basal Metabolic Rate. When I follow instructions to have the password emailed the message comes on saying the servoer is having problems. Is that the case? My user name is BRileyPTA for the talk page.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Bill Riley, LPTA <home address removed>

Could just be minor server problems which appear to solved now. It isn't a good idea to put your name and address up because it opens you up to spam. You might want to remove it.--John Lake 06:01, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Search Not Finding Page

On February 9 I created a Coy (Disambiguation) entry to distinguish between the adjective, the Spanish city, the Arkansan city, and the common misspelling of the fish koi, but a search for "coy" lists my disambiguation page 12th. Shouldn't it be first? And if so, how do I make a "Go" search for "Coy" automatically redirect to the disambiguation page? I appreciate your help.

Candent shlimazel 05:56, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

To the second question: the best plan would be to move it to Coy, since there's no page there. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:00, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] s

how to write articles —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sggandh (talk • contribs) 10:11, 18 February 2007.

See: Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article. Jacek Kendysz 10:36, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

To whom it may concern:

My IP address was recently blocked by an editor called FT2 who claims that I've been spamming. FT2 removed a contribution of mine about a legitimate film called COMING SOON (www.comingsoon.cz). The film won an award at the largest competition for Czech films called the Festival Finale Plzen and has become one of the most critically-acclaimed Czech films of the year. Why on earth would this be considered spamming?

I've also included information about a legitimate zoophile-rights organization called E.F.A. (www.equalityforall.net) which is one of the main subjects of the film. These edits are repeatedly removed with the explanation that it is considered "commercial spamming." But there is absolutely nothing for sale on any of the sites and I can't see why it should be considered spamming.

I hope that one of the Wikipedia editors can advise me. I am a huge fan of Wikipedia and don't have the slightest intention of polluting it with spamming. On the other hand I can't see why controversial organizations and films should be banned. Isn't the main beauty of Wikipedia that is censorship-fee?

Thanks for your advice!

Sincerely yours,

Equalityforall

Articles must be written within Wikipedia's inclusion criteria, the bare minimum of which can be found here: WP:STUB. Articles which appear to be written as advertisements meet our criteria for speedy deletion and are marked as such. Even if your sites aren't selling anything, writing your article in a non-neutral point of view could make it seem as though you are marketing the sites, even if that is not your intention. Please read our NPOV policies and consider re-writing the articles to meet those criteria. If the article is tagged with a speedy deletion template again, consider adding {{hangon}} to the article and explaining why you think the article is not spam on the article's talk page. You may also want to contact one of our editors associated with WikiProject Films for assistance with writing the article in a neutral manner.
I hope this has helped some. If you have any more questions, please reply here or leave a comment on my talk page. Hersfold (talk|work) 15:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Phone numbers

Hi. Someone vandalised the Prank call article to add three phone numbers, which they said belonged to three girls. [1] Now, obviously I've removed this, however I wonder if this is the sort of thing that actually needs the edit history 'cleaning out'. Certainly it seems to call for it more than, for example, some silly claim that a public figure was involved in a murder, since it is actual personal info. So, if it does call for this, where would I ask about it? I assume it requires at least an admin. Thanks. Skittle 13:47, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Oversight is what allows this to happen. To request action to be taken, you'll want to follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. -- Natalya 14:12, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, very helpful answer. Skittle 20:43, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding image

I have just copied an image from another site, but how can I paste it onto Wikipedia? Henchman 2000 14:06, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

You can't paste :P, but you can upload it. PeaceNT 14:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Also you should have permission to use the image. Kamope·?·! Sign! 14:14, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

How could I get permission? Henchman 2000 14:25, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Contact the owners of the website and ask them who owns the copyright, or if it's licensed under a free license like the GDFL, or even better in the Public Domain. Wikipedia can only use copyrighted images with permission of the copyright owner or with a reasonable fair use rationale. Hersfold (talk|work) 15:13, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Actually, we don't just need permission to use the image on Wikipedia. Permission for others to re-use the image for any reason must also be included, so long as the re-use is also under the GFDL (or similar) license. The copyright holder must license the image under a free license like the GFDL, or must place the image into the public domain. See Wikipedia:Copyrights and Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ.–RHolton≡– 16:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] membership

if I stop making contributions for a long period of time, does the user page deletes itself?Coffsneeze 15:59, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

No. Your user page will remain. Jacek Kendysz 16:12, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
That being said, you can request deletion of your user page at any time by adding {{db-userreq}} to it. Canderson7 (talk) 17:09, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New article

How can I write an new article about somebody without making it a link that branches off from another article? (new submission?)—Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinkni9 (talk • contribs)

Have a look here for instructions. Hope that helps; ask if you still have trouble. Trebor 16:26, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Finding AN/I Discussion

on February 16 I placed the item "Suppression of Notification to Users Whose Edits are Subject to AfD/DRV)" on AN/I. It can no longer be found there. The discussion was productive but probably had fairly played out. I assume its removal was normal maintenace of AN/I. I can view the discussion by accessing the diff from my "user contributions" but I am not certain this reflects the complete discussion. How can I find the full discussion? Closely related how do I cite the discussion? Thanks. Edivorce 17:21, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

It's been put in the archives (accessible from the main WP:ANI page) and the discussion you said was here. Just link to the discussion to cite it. Trebor 17:26, 18 February 2007 (UTC) Well okay, it's in that page of archives; can't seem to get my link to the exact discussion to work... Trebor 17:28, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. Edivorce 17:51, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikitext in table titles

Greetings. I have created a template containing a table. In the table, I've set the title exactly like this:

|+ ==Title {{{More Title}}}==

But when the template is used, the title of the table ends up being:

==Title{{{More Title}}}==

However, <b> tags seem to work just fine. Is there some way of getting == == and {{{ }}} wikitext to work? or at the very lest some documentation on what wikitext works in titles and what doesn't?

EDIT: Sorry, the variable works, made a stupid mistake. But making the title of the table a subtitle of the page with == == still does not.

The idea is to put the ==headline== on a different line than the |+. If you want to customize the headline, you can fake it with the following code:
<h2><span class="mwheadline">Title {{{More Title}}}</span></h2>

Assuming you have the wikitable class, try the following

{|class=wikitable
|+
<h2><span class="mwheadline">Title {{{More Title}}}</span></h2>
|-
! Column 1
! Column 2
|-
| A
| B
|-
| C
| D
|}

And if you want to get rid of the line underneath the h2 (which goes across the interface), use

<h2 style="border:0px;">

. Hope this helps. GracenotesT § 18:36, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why isn’t editing WYSIWIG (What you see is what you get)?

I am very interested in how Wikipedia works (I’d like to use these concepts in another project). I just tried to see how to edit an article for the first time today. I notice that editing does not seem to be “WYSIWIG” (What you see is what you get). Seems you have to click a “preview” button to see what your edits will look like.

Why did you choose to do it this way? Or did I miss the right way to do it? It seems very awkward and undesirable to me. If I were doing a Wiki (which I intend to do), I’d want the edits to work like word processor. I am interested to understand your approach.

Thanks,

Huck

Most Wikis use a Wikitext, which is meant to be a simplified markup accessible to anyone with the only requirement for use being a web browser. There's a discussion about this at the article on Wiki. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:00, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
To tell you the truth, Huck, I dislike WYSIWYG editors a lot; it feels more natural working with raw wikitext for me. So it's a personal preference, really. GracenotesT § 19:36, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
Fairly sure an addition (if very large) to your monobook.js file can turn your editor into a WYSIWIG editor without putting additional strain on the server, parsing the entire edit box as a preview, but I don't think such a thing exists. The advantage is, I suppose, not having to encode Wikipedia's parsing in JavaScript and then doing elaborate JavaScript to dynamically recreate a page. Doesn't work if JavaScript is disabled, too. If you are thinking of dynamic loading, then this is an effective way of DDoSing Wikipedia, by forcing

the server to regenerate the page again and again by pressing keys. Also, I think Wikipedia tries to parse broken wikicode, such as unclosed wikilinks which can be very off-putting when you add a wikilink in the middle of an article, and the text from then onwards becomes a wikilink. x42bn6 Talk 01:55, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

You might be thinking of User:Cacycle/wikEd, a large addition to your monobook that you can make that lets you use a WYSIWYG editor if you use FireFox. It's somewhat slower to load than using wikimarkup, however, and not compatible between browsers at the moment. As it's a monobook.js script, you also can't use it unless you have a user account. --ais523 16:49, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

I am trying to put an open international team together to work on an eco-village project in China. This project is a concrete example addressing a broader issue of how we can live sustainably and happily on this planet. Participants are located in different parts of the world (currently different parts of the U.S., Canada, England and China. We have other projects in Africa, Central America and Pakistan). They are from different backgrounds from architects, engineers and government officials/politicians to local villagers and farmers. Do you think anyone at Wikipedia would be interested in helping us do this? (The text input question is important because the system needs to be very simple)

[edit] how to add a picture to an article?

I want to know how to add a picture to an article. My daughter recently was diagnosed with a scarcely heard of skin disorder/syndrome and I wanted to post pictures of it to help other parents in the future. How do I do this?

Thanks! User:Kaleysmom71

Look at the bottom left of the screen in the box marked "toolbox" you will see a link called "upload file" click on it and find your file on your computer. Don't forget to add a licence tag such as PD self so we know it isn't a copyright violation.

Once you've done that you can add the file by putting square brackets around the file name on the page you want to add it too. Try uploading it first and we'll add it for you if you like. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 19:00, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lemnos

Hello,

After searching google on lemnosexplorer, the name of my company name, which I represent, as well as hosting a site under URL http://www.lemnosexplorer.com,

I have found results page, and after clicking on the link below,

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Lemnos, then a link to edit text which led me to your Lemnos page and eventually I have added a proper description for what I will describe below.

I have found my URL listed there without my permission as well as desription which I find incomplete, therefore, I believe it is insulting in its textual form.

It seems google displays EXACTLY the text description I find incomplete EVERYWHERE, ON EVERY search result link. It seems someone added an entry on my behalf, without knowing the person at all !!

I read some Q&A at reference.com, which says about DMOZ project, and after writing an e-mail to them asking for explanations, I write one to you as I am not a computer geek, being able to track the pages and the way to edit the description beside my URL, instead of sending solicited material to all responsible for this input, as well as asking for compensation for the time I am waisting to write to you etc. please.

As e-mail is not the best way for me too communicate, however, it is quite direct and I express my thoughts directly to your party, I would like to know why the search results on google especially, did not update with correct description please, so far.

Even when I find pages with licence GNU etc, when I click on the domain name link of mine, it redirects to advertising pages !. As you understand, I am not getting so far compensation for such disputes to my name and my company name !

So, I am waiting for your answer in the near future, giving me full instructions on why wiki link-results appear everywhere with incorrect usage of my domain name please !

Friendly greetings,

Vassilis I.F. Triantafyllidis F.A. Photographer & mixed media artist - Publisher

Interactive Multimedia Communications S/W Engineer Electrical Engineer (I.E.I)

Business Address: 'TAXANDRIA' Store. 1 RALLI KOPSIDI and KIDA Str., MYRINA, 81400, LEMNOS ISLAND, GREECE.

Hi, I apologise if you feel your website has been misrepresented in any way. Your link has now been removed from the Wikipedia article on Lemnos. Is that alright? Wikipedia is mirrored on many other sites, which is why it is still showing up. These mirrors are periodically updated with the latest Wikipedia article, so hopefully in a couple of weeks it will be gone. Hope that helps; please say if there are any other problems. Trebor 19:33, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
This is without a doubt the first time that I've seen a company COMPLAIN about having their external links on WP. -Wooty Woot? contribs 20:17, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maps

Hi, I'm an experienced editor I'm just wondering - where does Wikipedia get there map images from, for example on the Tyne and Wear and many others there is a map of England and the appropriate area shaded in with a colour? Any help appreciated, cheers.TellyaddictEditor review! 20:04, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

You can see who uploaded any particular map by looking at the image file (by clicking it). This particular one was uploaded by user:Morwen, who is still an active contributor. There is also a Wikiproject for maps, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps. -- Rick Block (talk) 20:15, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] quiting

how do i quit —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nejicool (talk • contribs).

If you really wish to quit you csn add the following template to your userpage and talk page; {{retirement}} . This shows to other editors that you have stopped editting, but you don't really have to do anything if you don't want to. I'll talk to you more about your reasons why you wish to quit on your talk page RyanPostlethwaiteSee the mess I've created or let's have banter 21:47, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
See also m:Right to vanish. x42bn6 Talk 01:49, 19 February 2007 (UTC)