Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 March 27

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[edit] March 27

[edit] Search Query Spell Check

I strongly encourage Wikipedia to improve their search query spell check. If a user makes a very slight error affecting only 1 of the letters in the search the result comes up unknown. Instead, like all modern search engines, Wikipedia should be equipped with a spell cheker and offer suggestions if it seems that the input has been spelled incorrectly. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 167.206.128.33 (talk) 00:15, 27 March 2007 (UTC).

The MediaWiki software does have such a feature but is disabled for performance reasons on all language Wikipedias. x42bn6 Talk 02:01, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

In the meantime, you can use a modern search engine to search Wikipedia. Here is a list of several useful search methods. --Teratornis 16:20, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What do we do about vandals

Often, a user will be created and go on a vandalism spree as Grecofski just did (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Grecofski). We can go through and revert what he has done, but are there some immediate steps that can be taken to have him blocked?

Ordinary Person 00:54, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Take them to WP:AIV--VectorPotential^Talk 00:55, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] mariah carey

I use wikipedia to crosscheck birthday info. Some SICKO has left a biography of Mariah Carey that is laden with 4 letter expletives which need to be deleted. Help.Spikerooski 01:02, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

The article was vandalized, it appears to have been cleaned up already. jwillbur^talk 01:08, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox shenanigans

Hi! A new friend of mine tried editing an infobox, and while it looks fine to me, it apparently messed, causing the field below it to be indented. Any thoughts? —Signed, your friendly neighborhood MessedRocker. 03:36, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Please bring this up at template talk:Infobox U.S. state. Most states have so many Representatives that including them in the infobox will cause layout problems. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:45, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] my username and e-mail are not being saved and confirmed.

i keep putting it in and right now i'm logged in, but if i close the window i can't log back on.— (email address removed to thwart spambots) angie lawrence 05:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)ednlynn

This happened to me a while back. Perhaps you can use the "forgot your password" function? This resets your password- perhaps that's where you're going wrong? CattleGirl ^{talk | sign! | review me} 08:08, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

There might be help found at Help:Logging in. If nothing there helps, you might also get help at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). — coel acan — 09:08, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki

I've heard of being able to create a wiki, such as the one called Wookieepedia. I am interested in creating one devoted solely to the "fanon" of Star Wars, where people could contribute articles about common fan "canon" about Star Wars in fanfics, fanfilms, etc. How would I go about applying?

You don't apply; the software is freely available for you to run on your own server. Wikipedia aren't in the business of running Wikis for other people, though. Notinasnaid 06:00, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

The wiki software in this case is MediaWiki, and you can reach it via http://www.mediawiki.org. You will need a web server, a database management system, and PHP. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 06:34, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

And some serious system administrator skills! Life can be simpler with a LAMP or WAMP stack, but starting your own wiki requires familiarity with operating systems, the command line, and a bunch of other things casual computer users do not usually know. See b:Wiki Science/How to start a wiki if you are determined to plunge ahead, but first see if a suitable wiki already exists. Search WikiIndex for Star Wars. That finds, in fact, a wiki which mentions the very word "fanon": Star Wars Fanon Wiki. --Teratornis 16:33, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

See http://www.wikia.com I can't remember the name, but I'm positive you'd be duplicating efforts if you started one. A Star Wars wiki already exists. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:30, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
- It's Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/), at Wikia. --ais523 08:34, 27 March 2007 (U T C)

Wookieepedia has an article on Wikipedia; the questioner mentioned it initially, although without the handy link I edited in up there in the original question. The questioner seems to want to write Star Wars-related material that the questioner seems to think is unsuitable for Wookieepedia. I suggest reading the policies on Wookieepedia carefully first, and checking the Star Wars Fanon Wiki I mentioned above. --Teratornis 16:33, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

One already exists. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 01:55, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do I propose a section for deletion?

I think that a section in the Eminem article should be removed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem#Family ). How do I go about proposing that simply the section be removed? --Scotsworth 06:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Propose it on the talk page of the Eminem article. Anchoress 06:20, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

...or be bold and remove the section, as long as you feel it's reasonable and not vandalism. Scottydude 16:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest, if reasonable and not vandalism, just to delete it with a good edit summary of why, but if somebody changes it back that didn't list "vandalism" (and you aren't a vandal) you probably need to discuss it. [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 16:28, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infoboxes

I'm a little new to Wikipedia, and I'm still wondering how to make Infoboxes. Can you tell me how to?

Supermiggelo 10:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Most probably, you want to add an existing type of infobox to an article. The easiest way for pretty much all infoboxes is to copy the infobox from an existing article on a similar subject and to modify it (change only the bit after the = sign on each line of the infobox). Creating an entirely new type of infobox is also possible, but highly complicated; see Template talk:Infobox for details about that. --ais523 10:23, 27 March 2007 (U T C)

If you can't find a suitable infobox by examining similar articles, or by checking Category:Infobox templates, tell us the name of the article you are editing, and someone will find one for you. In the worst case, someone could help you design a new one. More infobox links are at User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Inf. --Teratornis 16:38, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

I'd like to link to a couple of Categories from my user page (to be able to go straight to them and keep working). However when I put [[Categories:whatever]] on my page, it doesn't show up. Can someone help me please? Cricketgirl 10:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Link to [[:Category:whatever]], with an extra colon at the start. The same syntax works for linking to anything without special processing (but it comes up with categories and images most often; the only other time it can come up involves links to versions of Wikipedia in other languages). Hope that helps! --ais523 10:52, 27 March 2007 (U T C)

[edit] Is it possible to create two different articles bearing the same title?

Is it possible to create two different articles bearing the same title? For instance, there are two great jazz musicians who have the exact same name. I want the name of the article to be the musician's name, but I keep on getting to the other musician's page. what can I do? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Icexcellence (talk • contribs) 11:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC).

No, because there would then be no way to distinguish between them in links, and so on. The convention is to add a modifier in brackets after the name, for instance, Java (coffee) and Java (programming language) are two different things, and Java itself is an article about the island. Once you've done this, it's good practice to link the articles together by writing {{otheruses4|what this article's about|what the other article's about|the other article}} on each article, which produces:

This page is about what this article's about. For what the other article's about, see the other article.

Hope that helps! --ais523 11:09, 27 March 2007 (U T C)

Normally, you would call your page "Joe Bloggs (musician)" or Joe Bloggs (football player), but two musicians obviously needs more specificity. If they play different instruments, you could use that, but check Naming conventions first. Adrian M. H. 16:20, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

And in that case it would be Joe Bloggs (harpsichordist), and Joe Bloggs (mandalinist). :) [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 16:38, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV and Undue Weight: Is this a minor proposal? or a controversial one?

There is a major discussion going on about Wikipedia:Attribution right now. Despite that I have what I think is a minor proposal about rewording "Undue Weight" ... before rewording it though, I'd like to get feedback to make sure my proposal is indeed 'minor' enough to go ahead and change. What's the appropriate next step? dr.ef.tymac 14:04, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wrong info

In the article "synthetic diamond" under the heading "synthetic gems" there is a false company web link that states that Apollo Cultured Diamonds can be acquired through "diamondscultured.com". This is absolutely wrong! We are not affiliated in any way with that link and would like you to remove it immediately. See the paste below.

Synthetic gems Adia Diamonds, Chatham Created Gems, Gemesis and Tairus all produce gems made through HPHT technology. They are grown in split sphere high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) crystal growth chambers that resemble washing machines. The device bathes a tiny sliver of natural diamond in molten carbon at 1500 °C and 58,000 atm (5.9 GPa). This produces a rough diamond which can be cut to down to a polished size close to half its original carat weight. Gemesis diamonds have an orange tint that is rare in natural diamonds. The yellow tint occurs when approximately five out of each 100,000 carbon atoms in the diamond crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms. Adia Diamonds produces diamonds in various shades of yellow and orange as well as blue and white (colorless). The blue color comes from doping the diamond with boron, rather than nitrogen, during the growth process. White diamonds must be grown in an environment free of nitrogen and boron, which makes them very difficult to produce. Yellow diamonds are more profitable because they can be made more quickly and cost less to manufacture than blue or colorless diamonds.

Another company, Boston, Massachusetts-based Apollo Diamond, uses the low-pressure technique of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to produce larger, more expensive diamonds with greater control over impurities. The diamond produced is a single crystal, as opposed to the polycrystalline patchworks formerly produced by CVD. This greater measure of control allows Apollo Diamond to produce diamonds of various colors, from pink to black. The ability to control the intentional introduction of impurities, doping, is necessary for the creation of diamond semiconductor devices. Apollo Diamond gems are currently available on their online store (diamondscultured.com) in the form of both loose stones as well as finished pieces of jewelry.

The mine —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.90.98.1 (talk) 14:37, 27 March 2007 (UTC).

This is a wiki you can change it yourself, for help, get a user account and place {{helpme}} on your userpage. Scottydude 16:29, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help with transwiki

Someone created Lines (poem), and it's a no-brainer candidate for transwiki to Wikisource. The meta help file on this is confusing, so I'm coming here for help in executing the transwiki. YechielMan 16:25, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest writing a WP:STUB, and just copy-pasitng the text of the poem over to the appropriate spot on Wikisource and copy-pasting that little thing on the top you're supposed to have, with a category or two, and link to the author's page. [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 16:35, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing title

Looking at the Main Page, I cannot see how they removed the header (Main Page). I assume it is similar to the __NOTOC___ code. What does that? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you can. I'm pretty sure this takes place in an area that only admins or developers can edit (the MediaWiki namespace or the MediaWiki software, respectively), and is limited to the main page. — coel acan — 17:27, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Each page can have styles specific to it using the class "page-<pagename>". In the Monobook skin CSS the "firstheading" style in the class for the main page is marked as "display: none". -- Rick Block (talk) 18:12, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Ahh, okay. However, this should not be done except perhaps on a userpage, as it will be too misleading anywhere else. — coel acan — 18:53, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I ended up adding bit of PHP to the main skin in the skins directory to tell it h1.firstheading should be set to dieplay:none if $this->title = "Main Page". Now, the Main Page on our Wiki is lacking the title like on Wikipedia. It looks much nicer for the main page to have the title removed. --Kainaw ^(talk) 22:35, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] spell check

frequently if i don't have the correct spelling of an item i am looking up on wiki i have a hard time finding it. Other browsers or search engines ask you "did you mean..." and list several alternative spellings

of the word you have entered. Wiki dosen't do that. Cant you add that feature?

wr —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.139.16.50 (talk) 17:08, 27 March 2007 (UTC).

See Wikipedia:Help_desk#Search_Query_Spell_Check above. Long story short: no. The server load is too large to handle. In the mean time, you can use a normal search engine to search Wikipedia. Veinor ^{(talk to me)} 17:10, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Special pages ranking

Where can I find out about the order in which articles are automatically listed on Special page lists? It seems just hapharzard to me, but I'm assuming that's not really the case. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 17:26, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking the same recently, when using the What Links Here feature. I suppose that they must be listed in chronological order, but alphabetical would be more useful. Adrian M. H. 18:34, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

It is far more likely that they are listed in the order that they exist in the database. It takes time to sort lists and, in this case, sorting is not necessary. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:45, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Alphabetisation would save time/effort when checking for specific entries in the What Links Here list, which I use frequently. Some of the lists are very long. Adrian M. H. 20:23, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Additionally, the option to sort chronologically would be great for the whatlinkshere of user pages, so you can see the order in which you left comments that you've since lost track of. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 12:36, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Google and snippets (subtitle added by Lenoxus to avoid confusion)

I edited this page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jossara_Jinaro but the information still shows up on the www.google.com index, google advices the following:

Prevent or remove snippets

A snippet is a text excerpt that appears below a page's title in our search results and describes the content of the page.

To prevent Google from displaying snippets for your page, place this tag in the <HEAD> section of your page:

How do I do this so that the information doesn't come up on the google index

You can't. Google will update themselves soon. Prodego ^talk 20:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Also, please create a new section (as I just did for you) if your comments do not relate to the previous section; thank you. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 12:30, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help

How do you put change pictures or put pictures on Wikipedia?

Wikipedia:Images. Start there and follow the sub-articles. Adrian M. H. 20:28, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Survey Template protocol

Where am I allowed to post the following type of template:

It has been proposed below that Today's featured article procedures be amended. The original proposal was rejected at as per discussion at the archive.
Discussion is now open on the amended proposal 2 below. Support or oppose the amendment should be on the proposal page, under the heading "Survey". If, after a few days, a clear consensus for the amendment is reached, please notify the administrators noticeboard for further assistance.

TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 20:58, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Other Wikis

I've seen websites called sitename.wiki.com and it looks just like wikipedia, but it's the persons own website, how do I do this?Menma

The Help Desk is intended for questions about how to use Wikipedia, not about other resources that are available. Try [www.wikia.com] . Hersfold ^(talk/work) 21:29, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

The used the freely available MediaWiki software to do this. Questions about MediaWiki should be asked elsewhere, the link is at the top of this page. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:50, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

b:Wiki Science/How to start a wiki. --Teratornis 04:25, 29 March 2007 (UTC)