Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 October 23

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[edit] October 23

[edit] Missouir government

What document explains the duties of each branch of the Missouri goverment?75.37.215.74 02:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about Law and Government of Missouri. If you cannot find the answer there, click here to post your question at that article's talk page. If that does not solve your problem, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They will be glad to try and answer questions about anything in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. Hersfold (t/a/c) 02:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] EDIT CAN'T BE ADDED

BART WILLOUGHBY - musician I have attempted for the past 5 hours to make an additional edit to Bart Willoughby but it comes up saying the edit can't be added - to log out and log in again. I have done this repeatedly - nothing happens. Could you explain what is happening or where I should seek assistance. Thank you briann kearney —Preceding unsigned comment added by Woonun (talk • contribs) 03:45, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, first of all, I'd really encourage you to take a tour through the help pages first, as the edits you've made are really not in the format of the WP:MOS, or in wiki language. I'd like to suggest some pages for you to review: Cite your sources, Manual of style, Layout guide, First article, Article development and How to edit. Finally, be sure you are not copying and pasting text from another website or source, as that's a violation of the copyright policy. I've reverted the page to an earlier version, because you added information that is not related to the article, such as the entire contents of the characters box below editing boxes, etc. Please review some of the basics, to learn how Wikipedia works, and I'm sure you'll find things much less confusing after that :) Cheers! Ariel♥Gold 03:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Is there a page on Wikipedia like a Wikipedia:Requests for pronunciaton, where if a user isn't sure how to pronounce something, they can ask on that page? --90.38.20.37 09:33, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't you just use the reference desk? Lradrama 09:47, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Multilanguage user

Is it possible to make contributions to, say, the Spanish wikipedia using a username created for the English wikipedia, or must I create a new Spanish language username to do that?

Ordinary Person 10:23, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

There are plans to allow usernames to cross different-language wikis in future, but for the time being, you will need to create a separate account for each language. (If you set the accounts to the same name and email address, they will be easier to combine automatically if and when the global username project ever finishes being implemented.) --ais523 10:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
you need to register with new or the same name on Spanish wikipedia with different or the same pass waord. I do it on both Japanese and English languade Wikipedia. --Namazu-tron 10:35, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NEW ENTRY

I wish to make an entry for the Durrell School of Corfu. Could you explain the first steps - I have written the first section of text but it does not feel right. Could you please direct me to the idiot proof instruction page.

Alex ashcroft —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexashcroft (talk • contribs) 10:27, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] citation

how to use wikipedia citation or how to get the authors of different articles ≈ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.206.48.50 (talk) 11:23, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia and Wikipedia:How to read an article history#Who has worked on the page. All the best, PeaceNT 11:32, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] about addmission class 12

sir tell addmission class 12 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustafeez.alam (talk • contribs) 11:36, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, could you please clarify your question? PeaceNT 11:39, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page move/split

I came across SCIF, a dab page which had been replaced with an article about a football team by a new editor. [1] I restored the dab page with the intention of creating SCIF Kyiv for the football club that had replaced it. I'm wondering if this was wrong - should I be preserving the name of the editor who originally added the football club information in the new article, and if so, how? --Kateshortforbob 12:39, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

And now I've accidentally and stupidly restored the football text to the dab page... --Kateshortforbob 12:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
There is no perfect solution to your problem. You could move SCIF to SCIF Kyiv, then go back and re-create the dab page, but then the dab page would be missing its edit history. Or you could do what you first thought, and revert the edits to the dab page and paste the content about the football team into a new page at SCIF Kyiv, but the new user's edits won't be in SCIF Kyiv's edit history. When I have come across this problem before, I have used the second option but made sure to link back to the page where the content was originally added in the edit summary, such as "Creating page from content added to SCIF". That way someone looking at the history of SCIF Kyiv would be able to trace the content back to the edits at SCIF. There should be some magic administrator tool that would fix this type of problem, something like a reverse history merge (a history un-merge?), but I don't think such a thing exists. jwillbur 00:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the advice! I've used your second suggestion to create SCIF Kyiv. I didn't know there was a way to merge history - that's 2 new things learnt today. --Kateshortforbob 12:46, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Protected Page

Is it possible to create a protected page and for me to act as the editor? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Arkfeld (talk • contribs) 12:55, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Protected pages are only editable by established users or in the case of full protection, admins. Why would you want to create a page that is protected from the very beginning? Dismas|(talk) 13:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
You can create your own test pages. User:Michael Arkfeld/Test page 1 or User:Michael Arkfeld/Sandbox or whatever. It won't be protected as such but there's no reason for people to be editing your pages like that. As far as what you use the pages for, please follow the User page guideline. —Wknight94 (talk) 13:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Also see Wikipedia:Ownership of articles. If you want to control the content of a page then Wikipedia is not the place. PrimeHunter 14:46, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SEARCH WILL NOT FIND MY PAGE AND UPLOADING IMAGES

I just created a new page for my organization, the Center for Domestic Preparedness. I can see page when I'm logged in, but if I search for Center for Domestic Preparedness, nothing appears.

Also, does Wikipedia allow you to upload images with your page?

Centerfordomesticpreparedness 13:36, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You should review WP:COI. The article reads a lot like a promotional blurb for your organization. Cheers Geologyguy 13:44, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
You created it at your user page User:Centerfordomesticpreparedness. User pages are not part of the encyclopedia and not included in normal searches. In addition, it takes time for the search index to update with a new page. A Wikipedia article should be at Center for Domestic Preparedness but as Geologyguy says, your page has problems. And I strongly dislike that seeing the external link requires download and installation of a program. I'm not going to do that. PrimeHunter 14:41, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Sub Category

How do I add a sub category "Museums in Brevard County, Florida" under the category "Museums in Florida"? FieldMarine 14:55, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Before doing anything else, read: Help:Category. Then look at the category page: Category:Museums in Florida, which lists several subcategories for Florida counties similar to the one you want to make, for example: Category:Museums in Broward County, Florida. You need to make a new category page: Category:Museums in Brevard County, Florida by clicking on that red link (alternatively, you can type the text: "Category:Museums in Brevard County, Florida" into the input box in Help:Starting a new page), and in the edit window put the text:
  • [[Category:Museums in Florida]]
--Teratornis 15:19, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
The wikitext for: Category:Museums in Broward County, Florida shows these two category links:
[[Category:Museums in Florida]]
[[Category:Broward County, Florida]]
so you would probably also want to add:
  • [[Category:Brevard County, Florida]]
to the bottom of: Category:Museums in Brevard County, Florida. If this all sounds too confusing, someone else can make the category for you, if you ask here. You should make it yourself if you want to learn how to make subcategories, but if you only want to make just this one, and you don't need to figure out all the details, I or someone else can make it for you. --Teratornis 15:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for detailed answer...I'll read with care & take a stab at it when ready. FieldMarine 15:27, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I see you made the category page, but at the moment the category is empty. That means no articles have category links like this:
  • [[Category:Museums in Brevard County, Florida]]
A Google search on Wikipedia finds some articles that mention museums in Brevard County:
but I did not find any articles specifically about these museums (my search was not exhaustive, so I might have missed something). Do you plan to start such articles? I think they should have no difficulty satisfying Wikipedia's notability criteria, since presumably lots of reliable sources have written about the museums at the Kennedy Space Center. Actually, I'm rather surprised that we don't already have articles about these museums, so maybe I missed something in my quick search. --Teratornis 16:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
List of Foucault pendula#United States has a red link to The Brevard Museum. --Teratornis 17:29, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
I fixed the link & will add the museum shortly. Also will add other Brevard Museums over next few days. Thanks again! FieldMarine 15:33, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

Is it possible to create Categories of multiple categories that share articles. eg a category of films starring MR A and directed by Mr B - comparing the category "films starring MR A" with the category "films directed by MR B" and making a new category of articles in both categories. Chendy 15:26, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

What you describe is "category intersection," a feature that we don't have on Wikipedia, but lotsof people want. See the Editor's index entry: WP:EIW#Cat, scroll down to the subheading "Intersection of two categories:", and read the links there. Also read the "General information" links under WP:EIW#Cat, especially WP:CAT and WP:SUBCAT. Do you want to intersect two categories for your own one-off viewing, or do you want to actually create a new category representing the intersection of two existing categories? --Teratornis 15:59, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply. Both or either. The would defiantly add to wikipedia. Chendy 19:51, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image Copyright

Hi again all, I have uploaded the image Skew_bridge.jpg and I got a bot warning me about it. I'm pretty sure that the image is free as it is very old and is posted on many webpages. What license should I use? Thanks DoyleyTalk 15:36, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Why not ask over at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions? GlassCobra 16:32, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Good point, didn't see that. Thanks! DoyleyTalk 16:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] creating a page

How do I create a page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rreed3512 (talk • contribs) 16:01, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.
If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter 16:03, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] how

how do i make my a site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by C-Money 936 (talk • contribs) 16:01, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

If you mean how to create a Wikipedia article then see the above section. PrimeHunter 16:04, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I gots a problem

I uploaded Image:Custom mudvayne logo.JPG and wish to use it in a userbox that is currently on my userpage but has no picture. when i tried inserting it, a link to the image was put in the space for the picture. what am i doing wrong?the juggreserection 16:05, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what you did so I cannot say what you did wrong. See Help:Images. You can for example write [[Image:Custom mudvayne logo.JPG]]. PrimeHunter 16:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Well thats what i did the first time and it gave me a link. i tried it again, though, and it worked. very strange...the juggreserection 16:20, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You can reduce the size with for example [[Image:Custom mudvayne logo.JPG|40px]]. And I would add the link in "This user is a fan of MuDvAyNe". PrimeHunter 17:26, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] hearing loss

76.98.187.178 16:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)How do i find info about hearing loss

The help desk is for questions about Wikipedia. The reference desk is for factual questions. But, we do have an encyclopedia article on Hearing impairment if that is useful to you. Friday (talk) 16:27, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting images?

How do I permanently delete images I have uploaded?

I removed them from my watch-list, and edited the wiki page - but my images can still be seen by using old versions of the wiki page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.227.149.90 (talk) 16:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You can log in and add the {{db-author}} tag to the image page. Only administrators are able to delete pages. Note that the tag will probably be ignored unless you add it while logged in under the account used to upload the image. Hersfold (t/a/c) 17:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Could you be more specific? How do I add that tag? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.227.149.90 (talk) 17:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Just edit the page and place the text {{db-author}} Leebo T/C 17:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] questions of biotechnology

can we use primer walking to first find the complete sequence of a particular gene then clone it in a expression vector then look for its expression

I don't know, but Primer walking might help you to {{dyoh}}. --Teratornis 16:59, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Translating existing English articles to other languages

Hi, I've tried to search for ways to expand current English articles to Chinese. However, all of the searches on Wikipedia are for information on ways to translating Chinese articles into English. Can someone point me to the right direction as to how I can do this? Thanks! Jameson L. Tai 17:43, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried looking on the Chinese Wikipedia for information on translating other languages to Chinese? It's unlikely for any individual Wikipedia to focus on another language the way you're describing. The focus is on bringing material to this Wikipedia, because the English speakers who come here are more capable of doing that. Leebo T/C 17:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help! I've created a page that is with incorrectly capitalized

the page is

Corinthian yacht club of seattle

and should be

Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle

how do I change this? -Doug —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dstumberger (talk • contribs) 19:13, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I used a page move to fix the title. Hope it is ok now AngelOfSadness talk 19:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyedit Tag needs copy editing

Would it be possible to get the text of the copyedit tag changed? "This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling."

'and/or' isn't really valid so it's kind of funny to see it in a statement regarding copy editing. Simply using "or" sufficiently indicates that any combination of grammar, style, cohesion, tone, and spelling need to be addressed. Either that or it should be changed to "and/exclusive or" but even that is implied by a simple "or" while avoiding the awkwardness of reading "and/exclusive or".

Wikipedia even has an entry about "and/or" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/or

This page also provides a quick synopsis regarding why and/or shouldn't be written http://www.geocities.com/thorin.geo/and_or_invalid.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.103.96.11 (talk) 19:49, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Go to Template talk:Copyedit, click the "+" at the top of the page, then type {{editprotected}} and your reasoning. An admin will get around to it, and if they think it's a valid request then they will fix it. NASCAR Fan24(radio me!) 19:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.103.96.11 (talk) 19:53, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Under the hood

I'm setting up my own wiki for the first time. I want my "Editing help" link to automatically redirect to wikipedia's own Editing help page, which will of course be external to my site.

I tried to set it up as a regular redirect link, but all it does is display the page; it doesn't load the external page into the browser. In other words it doesn't redirect. I tried the suggestions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Purge without success.

1. What should I be doing to make the redirection work?

2. Is there a forum or something somewhere for people who want to learn the software under the hood?

Svanslyck 20:11, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately you can't do redirects to other websites. All I can say is to use a soft redirect (though I don't know if the templates comes default, and if it accepts URL's) or create the page with only a link. NASCAR Fan24(radio me!) 20:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Hmmm. Same situation there. In fact, the page about soft redirects says without a soft redirect there would be no "'Redirected from [foo]' message on the page when you get to the destination, so there would be nothing to click on to take you back to the redirect page..." but such message doesn't appear there anyway. Svanslyck 22:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
When you click on "soft redirect" above, just under the title in grey text it says "(Redirected from WP:SRD)". That's what they are talking about. - BanyanTree 05:06, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
You might want to look at interwiki links — Timotab Timothy (not Tim dagnabbit!) 04:28, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Kot massacre plagarism question?

I am not sure how references work but it seems that the entire Kot massacre article is copied directly from the reference link. I'm not sure if the author of the Wiki article is the same as the author of the linked article though. How do you add a plagiarism tag? '? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.50.91.70 (talk) 20:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I've done it. See here to see how I did it. - Rjd0060 20:52, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Is the material copyrighted? It's from the Library of Congress. I think it's just plagiarized, so instead of blanking out the article, I just removed the copied content. If someone can confirm the copyright status, that would be helpful. Leebo T/C 20:55, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
The material should have stayed blank until copyright status is confirmed, not intact until then. See the LOC disclaimer (4th section on that page) . - Rjd0060 21:00, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
The material was not intact, just the lead paragraph, which was not copied. But I've reverted my edit anyway. Leebo T/C 21:03, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
As long as the lead paragraph didn't come from the LOC too, it probably could stay. But since the LOC didn't note copyright info on those sections --> better safe than sorry with copyright stuff. - Rjd0060 21:05, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help with an entry for Medal of Honor winner

Hi,

I'm new to this, but I made an effort to edit the wikipedia entry for Capt. Joe R. Hooper, Medal of Honor winner.

I wanted to correctly list all of his decorations and badges. I have seen on other wikipedia pages for medal of honor winners more elaborate graphics and images. I found the correct listing of Capt. Hooper's awards, citations and badges, but do not know how to add graphics. I would like to see a graphics listing of decorations like those seen on the pages of Chesty Puller and other decorated military persons.

I don't know how to edit the title of Capt. Hooper's entry, but I wish it said Cpt. Joe R. Hooper versus just Joe Hooper (Soldier).

Capt. Hooper is the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam war.

Any help would be great. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.245.132.2 (talk) 20:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I've created a WP:Redirect from Cpt. Joe R. Hooper that goes to Joe Hooper (soldier). That should be sufficient. Anyways, the reason it probably was Joe Hooper (Soldier) are for Manual of Style purposes. - Rjd0060 20:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.245.132.2 (talk) 21:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

To add images of his decorations, you can look through Category:United States military awards or Commons:Category:Awards and decorations of the United States military, find the images you need, then put them in the article like this:
*[[Image:ImageNameGoesHere|60px]] award description goes here
*[[Image:AnotherImage|60px]] another award!
*[[Image:AndSoOn|60px]] and another!
That uses the same format as in the Chesty Puller article. Note that you need to include the extension (".gif", ".png", etc.) in the image name. jwillbur 00:15, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect

I just added an article “Air Force Space & Missile Museum" & I want to add a redirect from “Air Force Space and Missile Museum”. I want to be sure I am doing this correctly so I will outline the steps I am going to take before I actually do it.

1. Add the article “Air Force Space and Missile Museum” – it currently does not exist
2. Place the following entry in the above article "#REDIRECT Air Force Space & Missile Museum".
Is this correct? Thanks FieldMarine 20:53, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Correct, except for step 2, add #REDIRECT [[Air Force Space & Missile Museum]] (be sure to include the brackets). After that, click save! - Rjd0060 20:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!! FieldMarine 21:21, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] making a new wiki page

i have a avid topic i would like to write about but are unsure on how to make a new page —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fuh que 2 (talk • contribs) 21:10, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

The following page explains the process quite well. See Wikipedia:How to start a page. Good Luck! - Rjd0060 21:12, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Searching

Might be a better question for VPT, but I'll start here. Anyone know of a way to search page histories for a specific string of text? Into The Fray T/C 21:34, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikiblame should fit the bill. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit 21:42, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, that's a useful tool. I was more looking for something that would search all of the en project, including page histories (specified by a certain date) for a specific string of text. Don't know if something like that exists. There would be a lot of data to scan. Into The Fray T/C 21:53, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
That's a tall task. Maybe someone else has a suggestion cause I'm all out:-)--Fuhghettaboutit 22:00, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] hi

what does this mean TS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.244.105.208 (talk) 22:15, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Ariel♥Gold 22:16, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Or have a gander at TS.  :) Into The Fray T/C 22:22, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] where is alaska

is alaska under usa —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.203.106.194 (talk) 22:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

For your reference: Alaska. Cheers! Ariel♥Gold 22:25, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Above administrator?

I've seen reference to volunteer administrators. Is there someone above them, like paid management? Cam809 22:29, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation, has 5 paid employees who operate Wikipedia. However, the Wikimedia Foundation itself has many employees, although they are not directly related to Wikipedia. - Rjd0060 22:37, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
(ec with Rjd) In the managerial sense, Wikipedia is run almost completely by community consensus. Into The Fray T/C 22:42, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
There are user groups with different Wikipedia:User access levels but users with more access are not "above" others in the sense of having control over them. PrimeHunter 22:55, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do I report a page?

Mole Day has been completely removed and it says MOLE DAY SUCKS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.40.93.245 (talk) 22:44, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

It has been fixed. You can do it yourself by going into the page history tab at the top and revert the erroneous edits. Thanks for alerting people. Woodym555 22:47, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
It was vandalism and has since been reverted. Note that the article has been semi-protected, so you will not be able to revert it (by going into "history" at the top of the page and clicking "undo" then "save") until 24 October 2007 (an hour and 13 minutes). NASCAR Fan24(radio me!) 22:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Well, the article was just protected since this user asked the question. - Rjd0060 22:50, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Yep, presumably to stop the vandal. (it has been fully protected, not semi). The system works. Woodym555 22:52, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Sometimes - Rjd0060 22:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)