Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 June 30

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[edit] June 30

[edit] Links

How do I create a link to another page in Wikipedia, like when its blue and underlined and takes you somewhere else. Anna F C 00:30, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Add four brackets around it. For example, [[Wikipedia]] turns to Wikipedia. Tim Q. Wells 00:49, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

You can often see how something is done by clicking edit (or view source for protected pages) on a page that does it. For example, the source for your above signature says [[User:Anna F C|Anna F C]] which creates a piped link called "Anna F C", but linking to User:Anna F C. PrimeHunter 01:14, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requesting article topic without writing it

Can I request Wikipedia to create an article, though I don't want to be the one to write it? Can I do this without registering?

For example, I'd like to see Arthur Sulzberger's article expanded or a new article that addresses his role in fighting Zionism and his apathy towards the Holocaust.

Can I request this somehow? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.123.235.53 (talk)

You can make suggestions and edit most articles without registering. I guess you refer to Arthur Hays Sulzberger. You can suggest additions to the article at Talk:Arthur Hays Sulzberger. You can request a new article at Wikipedia:Requested articles. But I cannot say whether any action will be taken. PrimeHunter 02:58, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Theoretical Work On Absolute Maximum Temperature Possible

This question relates to the subject of "temperature."

It is my understanding that "Absolute Zero Kelvin" is the lowest temperature that matter could possibly attain. When I read articles about cosmetology and astronomy I see temperatures mentioned of tens and even hundreds of millions of degrees.

My question is this: Has there ever been any theoretical (mathematical, etc.) work done to try and find out (establish) what, if any, is the absolute maximum temperature that is possible for "matter" and/or plasma to attain?

Thank you.

Dean M. Schlarbaum

I really hope that "cosmetology" was a typo. Raymond Arritt 03:41, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Thermodynamic temperature article appears to explain what your looking for, from there the references would also be another place to get the information Gnan garra 03:45, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mark Wilkinson Music

I created a page (Mark Wilkinson Music) my user ID is nman3912. However when i try to search for it using wikipedia search engine it doesnt come up. I think that i may have saved it as a JPG instead of an actualy Page. Im really lost. Help —Preceding unsigned comment added by nman3912 (talk • contribs)

Did you click search instead of go? Try clicking go if you've been using search. No, you didn't save it as JPG or anything like that. Tim Q. Wells 06:55, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

No, you did a good job! If I remember correctly, the search function doesn't update immediately, but you can access the page by naming it exactly and clicking "Go".

Also, I've linked the title above, and I just want to let you know that per our naming conventions, the name of this article should be Mark Wilkinson (musician) or Mark Wilkinson (singer) or something like that. I've gone ahead and moved it to Mark Wilkinson (musician).

Regarding the content - Wikipedia gets tons of new musicians every day. To have an article, a musician has to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines. I think you've done a good job here, but you may want to review the rules here, just to make sure.

Hope this helps. If you need anything else, just ask here, or you can ask me on my talk page, and I'd be happy to help! tiZom_(2¢) 07:04, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation

I'm planning to do an article on the sternwheeler Moyie this weekend, and as you can see, that title is available. However there is a Moyie Lake, Moyie River, Moyie Springs and an unwritten (but undoubtedly forthcoming) Moyie, British Columbia. In light of these other "Moyie" titled articles and articles to be, is now the time to think about making a disambiguation page? And should the simple title Moyie be saved for the unwritten town article? Because I could use Moyie (sternwheeler) instead.CindyBo ^talk 07:07, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I'd say make Moyie a dab page, create the town article at Moyie, British Columbia, and create the sternwheeler at Moyie (sternwheeler). On a side note, I had to get out my dictionary to find out what the heck a sternwheeler was. --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ 08:26, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that makes sense. I do try and make the term sternwheeler clear in the articles, and link to paddle steamer right off the bat. Because you're right, it's hardly an everyday word. Thanks again for your help.CindyBo ^talk 08:47, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Why a dictionary? Why not sternwheeler, which does redirect to paddle steamer. -Arch dude 18:23, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Because, as I recall, the Wiki categories distinguish between sternwheelers and sidewheelers, even though the redirect-to article does not.Skookum1 17:11, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Get admission

Sir me from Pakistan. i am very good player of football "i dare say" that's way i wanna join your academy. sir please tell me how i join your acadmemy.

                                          thanks 
                                       Name----Waseem
                                      E-mail--- <e-mail address removed for privacy reasons>
                                     Mobile no--- <phone number removed for privacy reasons>

You are in the wrong place; this is the help desk for Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia. We are not a football academy. If you wish to ask about joining a football academy you might want to use the Reference Desk. I have also removed your e-mail address and phone number to prevent spam. Raven4x4x 09:28, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wikipedia

view full episode of mr bean (original) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.78.170.3 (talk • contribs).

I'm not sure what you want but List of Mr. Bean episodes may be of interest. PrimeHunter 14:42, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Missing page

I created a page called Princess Marcella Borghese on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at approximately 20:30 EST. I do not have an account, and created the page anonymously.

The page does not seem to be up, and it is not listed on the deletion logs I checked.74.99.2.250 11:44, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

You suggested the page at Wikipedia:Articles for creation/2007-06-29#Princess Marcella Borghese where it was declined. You can see the reason there. Submissions at Articles for creation are listed on an existing page and is not the same as creating a page. No page has been created at Princess Marcella Borghese. PrimeHunter 12:37, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Signature

Is there any way to make a template or something so I don't need to type in my signature every time? How? Thanks a lot, Wikihobby ҈ ^►^talk

See Wikipedia:Signatures#Customizing your signature. PrimeHunter 14:39, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Elvis Presley's favorite books

Hello,

I wrote an article entitled "Elvis Presleys favorite books" which was deleted because the people in charge said it was "bollocks", not well researched (there were 33 references), irrelevant etc.

One critic even went so far as to say, "Why not have a page on my favorite books?" Strange. I don't think they really understand what a cultural phenomon Elvis was and how much his fans want to know about him. Just for the record I didn't like his movies either.

In short I would like to appeal this decision.

Bruce7777777 30 June 07 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bruce7777777 (talk • contribs) 15:46, 30 June 2007.

See Wikipedia:Deletion review. Jacek Kendysz 15:51, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia:Deletion review says: "This process should not be used simply because you disagree with a deletion debate's outcome but instead if you think the debate itself was interpreted incorrectly by the closer or have some significant new information pertaining to the debate that was not available on Wikipedia during the AfD debate." The debate at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Elvis Presley's favourite books cannot be interpreted to keep. PrimeHunter 16:11, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do I change an articles Name?

The article titled 'Doncaster Lakers' needs to be changed because the club is now called 'Doncaster RLFC' how do I change this or can someone do this for me?

I changed the name for you. To change an article name, you need to move the page by clicking the move button. Once an account is more than 4 days old, you can move pages using your account. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 16:46, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do I make the new messages thing go away?

I've read all my new messages. How do I make the thing that says I have new messages here go away? 63.224.202.1 17:37, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I think it's a bug/glitch/problem with the MediaWiki program for anonymous users. Try purging your cache (Ctrl Shift R from Firefox, Ctrl F5 for Explorer), or quitting your browser and opening it again. Evilclown93_(talk) 17:39, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

You could also create an account, and then have the message page only for messages specifically targeted to you, instead of to anyone using the anonymous address. Corvus cornix 18:29, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

This is caused by a bug with the program the Wikipedia runs on. See Bug ID 9213 --_Hdt83 ^Chat 18:39, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] copyright rules for pictures on wikipedia?

Can I use photos that appear in the pages of wikepedia on my website for free?

I'm so confused by Wikipedia! I'm trying so hard to figure this out. For starters, why can't I upload images that I own? Why am I being told I'm doing something wrong with photos I have permission to use? What do I need to include in the HTML to make this all better???

Do you contact me via this, or via my e-mail- <email removed for privacy>

A public domain image of a Russian stamp

You should check the licensing information on that image's page. If the image is in the public domain or under a free license, it'll be ok to use (just check the terms of the license if you want to make any changes to the image). Some pictures are under copyright, however, so you should check with the holder of the copyright (who should be named on the image page) before you use them. For example, the image below is in the public domain, but this image is held under copyright (which is why I can't show it on this page).

Wikipedia itself holds no copyright on any information or images on this site. All material is licensed under the GFDL, unless otherwise stated as on the image pages.

For more information on how to upload images properly, see WP:IMAGE and WP:IUP. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:19, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How long to allow "citation needed" tag?

If a particular item has been tagged with the "citation needed" tag since Februrary, can we delete that uncited item? What is the acceptable length of time to allow something uncited to remain in an article?

Primarily, one should try to find a source. If you can't find it, and no one else has been able to add one since February, I don't think it would be unreasonable to remove the item. It's something that have to be decided on a case by case basis though. Happy editing! Henrik 20:55, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Citing sources#Dealing with citation problems. If it's harmful, it should have been deleted long ago. If it's harmless then there is no fixed time limit. If it sounds dubious, it would probably be OK to delete it now. If it doesn't sound dubious and it's on a page with low edit frequency then I suggest you either search for a source (e.g. with Google) and remove it if you fail, or leave it if you don't want to spend time searching. What is the article? Then we can help better. PrimeHunter 21:06, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] added photo

hi I uploaded a photo and added to a wiki article. The only probelm is that i there is a box around the image. How do i fix that--Gustyfalcon 21:00, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

This is about Jason Derek Brown I assume. It seems it has been fixed. You get that box if you add spaces before text

like this

ssepp^(talk) 21:17, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Userboxes on User page

How do I get the userboxes on my user page to sit nice and not go all over the place? I am one of these people who communicates using the boxes and right now they are all over my user page.--Brianna Goldberg 21:09, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

There is some info about this at Wp:userboxes#Grouping_userboxes but that might be a bit confusing (at least I thought so when I grouped my userboxes). I used the table method on my userpage, you could use the structure of that as an example if you choose to use a table (by clicking edit on my userpage and viewing the code). Each pair of boxes shows next to each other, and the |- creates a newline. ssepp^(talk) 21:28, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SPA (meatpuppet?) flood

Is there any particularly-efficacious way to contend with the flood of SPA's in this straw poll and the not-quite-3RR-violating insistence on change in violation of consensus? Permanent semi-protection of the page seems ridiculously extreme, and would just mean that all those SPA's would be creating throwaway accounts, instead of posting anonymously. Is this just destined to become a slow-burning WP:LEW? While we're at it, can anyone Goggle up any obvious WP:MEAT recruitment, such as blog or forum posts, for example? Jouster (whisper) 21:44, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

WP:VOTE might have some relevance here... ssepp^(talk) 21:55, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I'm familiar with it, and I even went so far as to cite it on the Talk page in question. Please don't WP:WTF and WP:BITE. Jouster (whisper) 23:48, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Anyone have any actual suggestions on how to curb this situation? Jouster (whisper) 05:58, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

I added the {{afdanons}} template to the poll. I know it's suited more for AfD, but it gets the message across. Shadow1 (talk) 23:02, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, me likes. Thanks. Jouster (whisper) 08:29, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Leaving Messages

I logged on and found a message on "my talk", how do I send a message back to that person, (or anyone) Anna F C 22:05, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

If they signed the message, there should be a link back to the sender's talk page. If there isn't, you can always check the page history and see who sent it there. Then, once on the sender's talk page you can click the small "+" at the top of the page, which will allow you to create a new thread on the page. (spebi · talk) 22:09, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I was wondering about that 2, but what if you want to send a message to a user that hasn't sent u a message. 216.184.34.43 22:11, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

You need to go their talk page, either by clicking on their name (which normally leads to their user page) and then clicking discussion, or by entering User talk:(username) into the search box. The click the "+" at the top. ssepp^(talk) 22:14, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

I am no good with computers, so I got 2 ask a dumb question, how do I add pictures to Wikipedia. Anna F C 22:09, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

If it is not uploaded yet, need to upload it through Wikipedia:Upload (make sure to read the instructions well). Then you can include it in an article using the markup explained in Wikipedia:Images. Note that images that are not freely licensed can normally not be used in Wikipedia. ssepp^(talk) 22:17, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

If you want to upload an image from your computer onto Wikipedia, you must know what license is the image licensed under. You can't just upload any photo that you found off the Internet. I recommend reading the Wikipedia's image use policy before uploading the image. If you do know what license the image is under, you can upload it now by going to Special:Upload. If you upload an image under a false license, you will be blocked indefinitely.

On the other hand, if you want to add a picture that is already on Wikipedia to an article, you need to place [[Image:Image name.png|150px|thumb|right|Caption here]] to the article.

replace Image name.png with the exact filename of the picture
replace 150px with the size in pixels you want the picture to appear
replace thumb with frame, or you can leave it as it is.
replace right with either right, left, center or none; and
replace Caption here with the optional caption

I also recommend reading our picture tutorial. Hope this helps, (spebi · talk) 22:28, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mayor vs Supervisor in Geobox Settlement

Many of the Town articles use the Geobox Settlement template, which contains a Mayor field. However, in many towns (e.g.-those in New York State), the town leader has the title Town Supervisor, not Mayor. Could someone please explain how to use the Geobox so that it says "Supervisor" when needed? Thanks. Truthanado 22:45, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know, a new template would have to be made. Fields cannot be changed as needed for templates. Doing so voids the field and it just doesn't show up on the page. Go to Wikipedia:Requested templates to request this. LaraLove ^T/_C 13:45, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Login problem - "Remember me" seems to have forgotten

When I set up my account some months ago (User:Struway) I clicked the Remember me button, so it would log in automatically. Came back from holiday a couple of days ago, login working fine, suddenly today it wants me to log in explicitly i.e. to enter user name and password. So I enter what I'm pretty sure is my password, but apparently it isn't, and (stupid, I know) I didn't supply an email address so can't request a password to be sent.

I know I can create a new account (though it's a pity, as I was quite happy with the one I had), but was wondering if anyone knew why this might suddenly happen? 86.131.13.222 22:51, 30 June 2007 (UTC) (who used to edit as Struway)

You may have accidentally cleared your cookies and your saved passwords in your browser. (spebi · talk) 23:15, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I may have - but other sites supposed to "remember me" still do, and that wouldn't explain my password not being what I ~~know~~ sincerely believe it to be. Thanks for replying, anyway; I've now created a new account, and supplied an email address, so if it happens again at least it'll be recoverable ;-) Struway2 | Talk 08:06, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Questions about Wikipedia's survivability

Hello.

I posted a question up here most recently, and I'm wondering about something.

Wiki trolls are shredding wikipedia. Not just my soap box, the Otherkin page, but tons of them. People who go crazy on the small technicalities of Wikipedia's rules. Otherkin went from a 4 page article, very well written, neutral, and an excellent reference... even though I didn't completely agree with it... and because it used online references, it was ripped to shreds, now a tiny article that even includes a references to Clinical Lycanthropy, which has nothing to do with the belief, and uses a reference from a website maintained by a skeptical teacher who's admittedly biased, but say that the recently published book about otherkin isn't valid, because she wrote books about things they don't find valid, like animal magick and alchemy. Even though those are published, too.

Sometimes common sense is thrown into the wind in favor of obsessive technicality, ruining the greatest thing about wikipedia: it's the online source of information about obscure topics. Yeah, you can read about the Holocaust, for instance, in any random encyclopedia. But you want to read about Otherkin, or some other obscure, fringe topic, and it's available on wikipedia... at least, up until a few years ago. Tons of pages are getting shredded to bits. Some of it's valid, but they're not using common sense in a number of cases, but an obsession with technicality instead.

I can't really do editing stuff, because I don't understand HTML and related things. But even if the 3 year long battle to the death on the Otherkin article is finally resolved, it doesn't fix the problem that caused it.

How can we fix wikipedia's current, inherent flaw: wiki trolls? How can a movement be made, to change and fix wikipedia back to it's original beauty? There has to be something that can be done. It pains me to see obscure, but accurate articles disappear into oblivion because the information about them only exists online. The internet is such a massive tool for data sharing, a lot of information about some subjects can only be found online. Why should those subjects be entirely discarded? Why is a website dedicated to the study and publishing of it's findings, made by a passionate user, less valid than a random reporter, putting in some comment in the news?

Wikipedia needs a makeover. Maybe this place isn't the best place to ask this, but where is? What can be done? —Preceding unsigned comment added by RubyCona (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia is not for everyone, but that is not immediately apparent to a number of new users. Only after gaining some experience on Wikipedia can people see how well it fits with their particular agendas. As you are probably aware, the world is full of many sharp disagreements; in some cases, people are even willing to die or kill over differences in belief. Given that Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that (almost) anyone can edit, that raises questions about how Wikipedia can avoid descending into endless edit warring. (Actually since the edit warring around here is endless, the real question is how to keep a lid on it.) The answers are in Wikipedia's policies of WP:NOR, WP:NPOV, and WP:RS. Those documents do a better job of explaining themselves than I can here, so read them as many times as you need to understand them.

If you have content you want to edit on a wiki, but Wikipedia deletes it, then go find another wiki with different content policies that favor your point of view. There are thousands of public wikis; see: List of wikis for a very incomplete list, and search WikiIndex for a lot more. You might, for example, prefer to edit on WikInfo because it rejects the neutral point of view in favor of the sympathetic point of view, and welcomes original research. You might also think about starting your own wiki if you can't find an existing wiki you like. --Teratornis 00:09, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

I should also point out that Wikipedia's survivability is not in question at the moment, with 7,309,517 registered user accounts and 2,413,332 articles, both numbers continuing to burgeon. That is why Wikipedia has the luxury of deleting up to several pages per minute. Wikipedia has no problem getting vast amounts of content which complies with its policies. But for some odd reason, it seems many contributors of noncompliant content are unaware of the existence of other wikis which might welcome their content. Wikipedia is not the "only game in town" (or, more specifically the only wiki), yet it seems to be the only wiki many people have heard of. Wikipedia was, for example, the first wiki I looked seriously at. When a new user creates a new article, there is no obvious mention of the fact that other wikis exist, and the new user should first determine the most appropriate wiki for the article he or she wants to create. I think if that message could be gotten across to new users clearly somehow, it might save everyone a lot of grief. --Teratornis 00:22, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

To the original poster, your use of "my soap box" indicates that you have not read WP:SOAP. To boil down all the Wikipedia rules into a single sentence: Wikipedia is focused on organizing online (and sometimes print) references, not specifically truth or fact. In other words, there are many things on Wikipedia that are not true, but they are referenced. So, they stay. There are many things on Wikipedia that are completely true, but not referenced. So, they get removed. -- Kainaw^(what?) 00:30, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

I was just about to post the same thing. The fact that you refer to a Wikipedia article as "my soap box" is disturbing. Do you really understand the purpose of Wikipedia? Corvus cornix 18:31, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image link

How can I display a text-only image link? Tcrow777 talk 23:02, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I found out how. Tcrow777 talk 23:12, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

By typing the following code: [[:Image:Image file name.png]] – replace Image file name.png with the actual filename. This same method can be used to display text-only links for Categories, and transclude pages in the article namespace (e.g. {{:Main Page}} transcludes the main page). (spebi · talk) 23:13, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] EDUCATION

EDUCATION IN CANADA —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.10.60.10 (talk • contribs).

See Education in Canada for the article on education in Canada. (spebi · talk) 23:11, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article Photos on a User Page

If a photo appears on a Wikipedia article, can I put a link to it onto my own User Page ?

Tovojolo 23:27, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes. See Help:Image. --Teratornis 23:32, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

And also: Special:Mostimages. You can browse to some of the most-linked-to images, scroll down to see the pages that use the image, and see that many users have linked to some of them from their user pages. --Teratornis 23:36, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Just to be clear since the word "link" may be ambiguous, you may not post fair use images on on your user or talk page. By contrast, images that are free to use, such as those that have Creative Commons licenses, are under the GFDL or in the public domain (images residing at the Wikimedia commons) are okay.--Fuhghettaboutit 23:48, 30 June 2007 (UTC)