Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 January 14

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[edit] January 14

[edit] wiki links on my userpage

I would like to put a link on my userpage to 'Articles with unsourced statements' and another to 'Help: Contents/links' everything I have tried so far has not worked, and I know someone out there is going to tell me it is easy just do this. Is there a dreaded list of the full names of internal pages and their shortened link titles Many thanks --Matt 01:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You want Category:Articles with unsourced statements for the first. Note that you have to put the ":Category:" part in front. This means the page is in Category space, instead of article space (aka "mainspace"), so it won't show up when folks do a normal search for articles. Same with the latter: Help:Contents/Links is in Help space, so you have to put the "Help:" in front. -- Kesh 01:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Hm. Okay, the category isn't working. I'll have to look into that one. -- Kesh 01:16, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Okay, not as nice, but this can work in a pinch. I'm still not sure why it's not working in the first spot... -- Kesh 01:19, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
You have to put a colon before the name of the category or you'll include the page in the category instead of providing a link. --Sopoforic 01:22, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Aha! That's what I forgot. Thanks. -- Kesh 01:25, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Thank You Kesh and Soporific got it working now --Matt 01:44, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current date!

Hello, I'm working on a WikiProject called Curent Local City Time (WP:CTT) And I'm having trouble with the date at the Ottawa article. The date says the 14th of January, when in fact we are still the 13th. Are there any specific instructions for date and time? --CyclePat 01:28, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

What date are you referring to? Note your date/time right here. These things are going to show up on UTC, to keep a standard for everyone. And right now, it's the 14th in England, where that standard starts. -- Kesh 01:44, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
I imagine it's the time that he put at the top of the Ottawa article, right under the disambig link. It needs manual updating through a purge though, so I'm not sure that it's a good idea. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Note: I just removed it. See diff. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:54, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] login won't stick and cookies are enabled etc

I read your article carefully about login problems and still can't get my login to stick.

I signed up, created an account, and was sent an email enabling me to confirm my membership.

I seem to log in successfully using the userid and password. The banner at the top shows me logged in.

But as soon as I go to any page, including returning to the page I hoped to edit, I am told I must be logged in, and the top right area shows the "Sign in / create account" button. Refreshing the page does not help.

I have tried using both FireFox and MS IE 7.

Cookes are enabled on both.

My firewall is ZoneAlarm and en.wikipedia.org is a permitted site, including enabling of mobile code.

I have run out of options in your help files.

Any other ideas on things to try?

Thanks!

What kind of connection are you using? Some folks on satellite connections have problems with this. In any case, try logging in through the secure login link and see if that helps. It's slower, but more stable. -- Kesh 01:45, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Kesh,

Thanks - I am using HughesNet satellite access. That may be the problem, then.

... a little later - it worked! Using the secure login link kept me logged in and permitted me to edit pages under my login. Thank you very much for the help! This Help Desk works!

[edit] How can I get other editors or admins to monitor a discussion?

I feel that another editor is over-reacting to my reversion of a section he added to the Primal Therapy article. I felt it was poorly sourced. I think that my only mistake was to not carefully explain immediately all my reasons for reverting it. Since the editor in question admitted he would be further researching sources I suggested leaving it on the talk page until he had finished that research. I won't take such an easy out in future. In the meantime, it seems that I unleashed the furies and would appreciate it if some less involved people with experience in such matters would monitor the discussion on the article's talk page where I put the reverted section. GrahameKing 05:30, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You may wish to have a look at WP:RfC and/or Wikipedia:Resolving_disputes - Adrian M. H. 15:59, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bar charts and Javascript in article namespace

Is it possible to use js on article pages? If so, would you please point me in the right direction for guidelines. Alternatively, is there an exisiting template for generating bar charts in articles? Thanks you.

—  Jim Dunning  talk  : 05:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image tagging

I have contacted an author about using her photo, and she has sent me one and stated "Feel free to use it on the wiki." It was a photo taken of her by a friend in a coffee shop. Should I put it under creative commons, public domain, or what? Thanks. DoomsDay349 06:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You shouldn't upload it. One, you have to be able to prove that there is permission, and two, even if you can, Wikipedia only permission isn't allowed. It has to be public domain, free licensed, or fair use. -Amarkov blahedits 06:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
I can prove there is permission...I can show you the emails. But I understand. Isn't there tagging for images released to Wikipedia? DoomsDay349 06:35, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
OK, she has explicitly states "I agree to release this photo into the public domain." Now, then, I can show you a record of the conversation if you need proof. Any way to prove this, tell me and I can. DoomsDay349 06:56, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't think you need to do more than upload the email conversation. Oral agreements don't work, though. -Amarkov blahedits 16:34, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
It needs to be verifiable, which means the artist needs to release the image under one of the free licenses, and explicitly show that on a website with the image. That way, it's easily shown that the image is legitimately available to use on Wikipedia. Emails won't do. -- Kesh 17:46, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] David Sekiguchi

David Sekiguchi is one of Japan's latest phenomenons. With his new hit singe "Can you guess" he has become the leading artist as far as record albums are concerned.

Do you have a question? —Keakealani·?·!·@ 07:16, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thomas Bollinger Photographer

Thomas Bollinger Photographer b. August 3rd 1964, Washington D.C Education Parson's School of Design , The New School for Social Research Dubbed one of the last of the photographic cowboys by a recent critic of his work,

His body of portraits range from Tongan Princesses having tea in the South Pacific to Marine One and The President at the White House. Bollinger's portraits and landscapes grace Fortune 500 collections and private collector's homes worldwide. Pop Artist Peter Max has recently done a series of paintings based on and combined with his portraits. Starting off with a fine art education, years of printing for gallery and museum collections, and combined with his love of adventure travel and ironic satire his work is a rare glimpse of the frenetic heartbeat of contemporary society.


External Link:

[1] Official Site for American Photographer Thomas Bollinger

This page is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. You seem to be in the wrong place. -- Kesh 07:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maybe not so much about using WP..

Does anyone have any input on a page I'd like to create but I'm not sure about it: Eye Color Generator. See the following: ECG. The current page of ECG on wiki links directly to Calgary Science School Which is only the school that the generator designers attend. I don't think thats the best place to link, but eye color doesn't do either. Any suggestions/comments? Please let me know on My Talk Page, otherwise I probably won't see it, as I'm no good at monitoriing my watchlist. Thanks, Ard0 (Talk - Contribs) 07:59, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You probably should not make a page for eye color generator. See WP:WEB for details. Also answered on talk page. --Sopoforic 09:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category Links

I want to link William D. Francis to Category: Australian botanists How do I do it? thanks--Matt 09:06, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Just put [[Category:Australian botanists]] at the bottom of the article. --Sopoforic 09:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks again I was using the wrong sort of brackets--Matt 09:26, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Now William D. Francis is appearing in [[Category: Australian botanists]] but under surnames starting with "W"--Matt 09:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
You needed to pipe the category link. For reference, this is what I am referring to [[Category:Australian botanists|Francis, William D.]]. Essentially what that does is it sorts the page under the correct letter, which in this case is the first letter of the last name, instead of the default sort action which is the first letter of the article name. Have a wonderful day and happy editing. Kyra~(talk) 09:53, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the info and repair job, some days are all cruise and other days seem to be full of bumps--Matt 10:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a new way to get pipe sorting by last name done automatically. I think you have to add something to the article page. Here we go: Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-01-02/Technology_report: "The default sort key of a page for categories can be changed using the new {{DEFAULTSORT}} magic word. For instance, on George Washington, {{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, George}} would cause a subsequent [[Category:United States presidents]] to be equivalent to [[Category:United States presidents|Washington, George]], not [[Category:United States presidents|George Washington]]. This is especially useful when the article belongs in many categories.(Rob Church, bug 5908, r18629)" - so you can put {{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, William D.}} (anywhere in the article, though putting it with the category tags would make sense) and then categorise away without pipesorting manually for that article. Carcharoth 20:19, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Summary

How can i get summary on typhoons in Wiipedia?

Since we are an encyclopedia, we have information on many things already written. Please see typhoon. Notinasnaid 09:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] hello

what is the real meaning of a professional nurse all around the world?124.217.69.242 10:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

See the article Nurse. But notice: this is the help desk, which is meant for questions about using wikipedia. Questions seeking information belong at the appropriate reference desk. --Sopoforic 10:18, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Slow Wiki Navigation

Can someone tell me why my wikipedia navigation has slowed right down, sometimes not responding at all, on external sites it is as fast as ever.--Matt 10:15, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

  • More detail the most difficult page to get to is this one --Matt 10:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
It isn't slow for me right now, and this page doesn't mention unreasonable slowness. It's possible that there's just a little trouble somewhere between wikipedia and you, which should (hopefully) resolve itself after a few hours. --Sopoforic 11:01, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bot

What is a bot? - Patricknoddy 7:52am, January 14, 2007

A bot is a software program designed to do repetitive tasks that are too tedious for humans to do themselves. See WP:BOT for a description of bots on Wikipedia. Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 12:56, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
You can also have a look here – m:Using the python wikipediabot. Regards, — Nearly Headless Nick 12:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ASTROLOGY

I am interested in studying Vedic Astrology.Looking for Free lessons

You would be better off asking this question at the appropriate section of the Reference desk. The Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia itself. --Tkynerd 15:54, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My Signature

Hi there, I am having a few problems with my signature. When I sign some some wikipedia talk pages my signature is not displaying correctly, it's doing This (I warned this user using vandal proof). On some wikipedia talk pages, I sign with three tildes and it keeps going weird and making some of the date go on to a second line. I used to sign with four tildes but when I made my own advanced signature with help from this user I only had to sign with three and it was fine, but I rcently totally changed my signature so it looks different and ever since then it's been going totally weird. On my User Page its displaying the date in light green even though it displays black on other pages and it generally seems to be a mess and I require help to fix it. It doesn't always go funy though just on certain pages. I hope you can help!. Incase you need it my signature page can be found here and it is subst' on my user preferences, so I am not sure whats going wrong.

Tellyaddict Talk 14:33 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Not to be mean or anything, but that is not a very good signature, and goes against the spirit of WP:SIG. The inclusion of a broken <noinclude> tag, in particular, is extremely worrisome. Please stop using this signature immediately; the best signatures are the shortest and plainly coloured ones. There should be no need to include the date/time in your signature; that is what the fourth tilde is for. Thanks, Tangotango (talk) 14:37, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
P.S.: In short, please create a new signature that will fit into the form at Special:Preferences; that will probably fix all the problems you are facing with your signature. Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 14:39, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Duplicate articles

Hi, don't know the appopriate pages and/or templates here dealing with this to fix it myself. Could someone please have a look at White Spirit and White Spirit (band). The former is the largest of the two, the latter the oldest. Maybe someone with adminbuttons can merge the history? Niels|en talk-nl talk (faster response)| 16:46, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Any registered editor can initiate a merge proposal, in which some or all of the content from one article is copied into another before the donor article is marked for deletion. See WP:Merge Adrian M. H. 17:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
I'll try to remember WP:Merge, thanks for the hint. Niels|en talk-nl talk (faster response)| 01:21, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm having caching problems, but I'm on it. All I need to do is get the history to show the restored edits so I can revert to the correct version. - Mgm|(talk) 20:38, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for solving it, Mgm. Niels|en talk-nl talk (faster response)| 01:21, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WIKIPEDIA RSS FEEDS.

I HAVE A VERY FINE RSS READER. I HAVE HAD NO TROUBLE OBTAINING FEEDS FROM OTHER SOURCES. BUT OTHER SOURCES PROVIDE AN ICON I CAN CLICK ON AND OBTAIN AN RSS FEED ADDRESS. ALL I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIND ON WIKIPEDIA ARE COMPLETE HTML PAGES WHICH WILL NOT WORK OR I CAN'T MAKE THEM WORK. SURELY SOMEPLACE WITHIN THIS WONDERFUL SYSTEM IS A LISTING OF ALL THE AVAILABLE RSS PROGRAMS AVAILABLE WITH A LITTLE RED ICON MEXT TO EACH ONE THAT I CAN CLICK ON TO OBTAIN THE ADDRESS FROM. I MAINLY WANT THE DAILY PICTURE AND MUSIC FEEDS. YOUR HELP WILL BE VERY MUCH APPRECIALTED. ROBERT ALBRIGHT email removed —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Robert Bruce Albright (talk • contribs) 18:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

Page histories have an RSS link in the monobook (default) skin. Not all pages feed RSS, and that would be the problem you might have. I don't know how your RSS reader works, so I can't help you in that regard. Either way, I would really appreciate it if you didn't yell so much. It's extremely rude and will not get you the best answers. —Keakealani·?·!·@ 19:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Sorry to intrude, but I have found that some computer users (especially older folks and people from other countries) don't realise that the use of all caps equates with yelling.--Vbd 10:01, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Have you visited the WP:RSS page? - Mgm|(talk) 20:30, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] edit not showing up

why is my edit in Vancouver, WA arts section not showing up ? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.20.108.151 (talk) 19:10, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

You may want to try clearing your cache - often edits appear delayed because your computer is loading an older version of the page. Also, you may want to check the history of the article to see if anyone has removed your edit and why. —Keakealani·?·!·@ 19:13, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Tried all that, how can I tell if someone is deleting the entry

Are you asking how to tell whether the entire article was deleted? Try checking the log for that article, if that's the case. It would be really, really helpful if you provided some indication of where you are having the problem, or nobody will be able to understand what your issue is. —Keakealani·?·!·@ 19:37, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
You can always click on the History tab for a page to see what edits were made. Your last edit was removed as advertising spam. diff -- Kesh 19:58, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Guys, this is the anon user that keeps adding "VANCOUVER COMMUNITY BAND" and a phone number. They have put nothing on Talk, never add a summary, and type always in all caps. I have removed it a few times, and some other patrollers have done likewise. --Bill W. Smith, Jr. 20:21, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
In that case, the user should probably be warned for spamming. He appears not to realise that what he's doing is against policy, and it does need to be taken care of if it's a problem. —Keakealani·?·!·@ 21:07, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is Wikipedia HTML?

I have done quite a few edits on here, and have not known what I was really doing! I went to another website, and it asked for HTML codes to edit, after looking on google it appeared to be similar to Wikipedia's editing, so quite simply is this HTML? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.77.147.229 (talk) 19:32, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

No. There are elements of Wikipedia markup that are the same as HTML, but there are many significant differences. For example, two apostrophes ('') created italics in Wikipedia, but in HTML the code would be <i>Italic Text</i>. While there are certainly similarities, they are not one and the same. —Keakealani·?·!·@ 19:35, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
While Wikipedia generally supports HTML syntax, in articles one is generally supposed to use the Wikipedia syntax. See Help:Wikitext. Nihiltres 19:35, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
No, not really. WML (wiki markup language) has some elements of HTML that it recognizes, but it is NOT a full-set implementation of the HTML standards. --Bill W. Smith, Jr. 19:36, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] moberly department of corrections

can you give me info on whAT the inmates do there and what it looks like and how to get there —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Heathercruz (talk • contribs) 20:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

We don't currently have an article on the facility. Your best bet is to ask this on the Reference Desk. The Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia itself. -- Kesh 20:07, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My revert tools don't work

I tried to fix my revert tools, jesus christ if I know what I've done, I've reverted so many damn times I don't know, but now they don't work, nothing on the whole damned monobook works. Help? DoomsDay349 20:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

  • What was the last time they did work? Was it on another computer or browser? Perhaps the tool just doesn't work with a specific one. If I were you I'd revert to a version with a date I know works before all the changing. - Mgm|(talk) 20:21, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Well, I blanked the page and readded the only two tools I really use, extra edits buttons and reverting, and when I readded reverting everything worked correctly. I dunno. All is well now. DoomsDay349 20:27, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image viewing

I'm almost certainly doing something tremendously dumb here - help would be much appreciated!

I just started a new article at Nappy Brown and uploaded a pic to accompany it. When I preview the article, the picture shows - once saved, the picture didn't show, although it did leave a link which led to the original pic. The image is fair use and nobody has deleted it - what am I doing wrong? --Squeezeweaseltalk 21:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

That's odd - just tried it on my other machine, and it didn't display...then came back to this machine and it was fine again. Fine on the other one now as well - I shall blame gremlins. Sorry and thanks for looking! --Squeezeweaseltalk 21:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Next time, try purging the page by going to the edit page mode and changing the url so that it reads "&action=purge" instead of "&action=edit" - that usually solves the problem, I find. Nihiltres 21:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Making part of a table header non-bold

I have a table like this, and I would like the "B" to be not bold. Is there any way to write an inverted '''?

{|  class="wikitable"
|-
! A B C
| D E F
|}

Result:

A B C D E F

Thanks! — Sebastian 22:35, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll assume, for now, that you don't need the darker grey cell background for that data, which is intended to highlight fields rather than values:
Instead of ! A B C, enter | '''A''' B '''C'''. That will give you a bold A and C. If you do want the darker cell background, enter this:

| bgcolor="#efefef" | '''A''' B '''C'''. If you're pasting from my edit, ignore the nowiki tags. Adrian M. H. 22:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but that's not an option. This is actually for a template, so I have no way to control the surrounding format. — Sebastian 01:54, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
A B C D E F

--Kjoonlee 02:08, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! — Sebastian 02:28, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
It's a pity that you didn't think to mention that at the beginning... Adrian M. H. 20:22, 15 January 2007 (UTC)