Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 September 23

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[edit] September 23

[edit] External Link to Racist Commercial Site

I am concerned about an external link on an entry for a racist musician; this external link leads to a commercial mail-order site that sells the racist recordings of the musician in question. (I refer to Johnny Rebel (singer).)

Is it acceptable to permit an external link to a purely commercial site of this nature?

Sincerely,

--Skb8721 00:50, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I removed this. Were this the official site of a racist musician, it would be acceptable to include. However, it appears to be a catalog link. May or may not be the "official source" to buy this artist's music, but WP:EL requires either the artist's official site, or something uniquely informative. / edg ☺ ★ 01:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Racism really should be of no concern in this decision. External links should be directly related to the subject, officially affiliated with the subject, or at the very least a reliable source if the link is for additional information. If a link doesn't meet these requirements (expanded upon at Wikipedia:External links), then it can be removed. This is true whether we're talking about Ghandi or Hitler. Leebo T/C 01:49, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Right. I should have made that more clear in my reply. / edg ☺ ★ 02:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
OK, thanks. I understand, and will remove this external link in the future if reinstated by others, not because it is racist, but because the external link leads to an unofficial commercial site that contains no additional or reliable information.--Skb8721 18:19, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] creating websites

how do i make a website —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.210.108.68 (talk) 01:25, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I would bring your question to the reference desk. This page is for Wikipedia-related questions. Thank you. Sephiroth BCR (Converse) 01:36, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Some people don't know the right terminology. If it is a Wikipedia article you want to create then read the following.
You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, 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 02:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Icons and images

Is there a page, perhaps on commons, that lists images to be used on wiki for userboxes and such? Like the little smilies and icons used in headers, warning templates and userboxes. LaraLove 04:27, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Nuvola, Category:Icons, Icons (computing), Archive, Icônes, and I'm sure there are more. Sebi [talk] 04:30, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! I found Category:Icons like 45 seconds after I posted this. I very much appreciate that and the other links, however. Thank you! LaraLove 04:31, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Expand an article code

Quick Question what's the code to put a box at the top to request expanding an article.

i thought it was {expand} —Preceding unsigned comment added by DTGardner (talk • contribs) 04:35, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

{{expand}}, not {expand}. You must use the two curly brackets, rather than just one. Sebi [talk] 04:47, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] discussion page

How do I contribute to a discussion page? I am registered. SmJOE 06:10, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Go to the discussion page by clicking on the "discussion" tab at the top of the page, and edit it. For more information on what to put on a talk page, see WP:TALK. Hersfold (t/a/c) 06:15, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New pages

How do I find out all the new articles created by a user? -- Jreferee T/C 06:11, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

In Special:Newpages, enter the user's name in the box. Note that this list may not show older additions, as some of the articles I've created do not appear. It also does not appear to list articles that were created as redirects. Hersfold (t/a/c) 06:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Rugz created Jeff Bays, but when I enter Rugz at Special:Newpages, nothing show up. -- Jreferee T/C 06:18, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I think the log is cutting off all entries older than a certain date for some strange reason. The only other alternative would be to search though the contributions, which would appear to be a potentially nightmarish task, unfortunately. Hersfold (t/a/c) 06:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
The date seems to be sometime between August 22nd and August 24th - apparently logs get truncated at some length, which currently is somewhere in that range. Hersfold (t/a/c) 06:52, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
There appears to be no automatic way to find old articles created by a specific user.[1] PrimeHunter 12:12, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I looked briefly through the Editor's index with Ctrl-f searches for "stat" and "query" (by no means would this be an exhaustive search for pages that might pertain to the question, so I would suggest further search in the Editor's index). That finds several interesting links about Wikipedia statistics and querying Wikipedia's databases, but I did not immediately find a simple way to determine a user's page creations. (The brute-force method, of course, would be to download a Wikipedia database dump and figure out some queries to run on it.) DBpedia.org looks interesting, but the sketchy description only mentions information from article content, not article authorship. You might find someone to help you at Wikipedia:WikiProject Database analysis, or m:Requests for queries. --Teratornis 16:24, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Other people want to do this: m:Requests for queries#List of all articles created by user foo and m:Requests for queries#List of pages I created. I suspect this user could determine the necessary query (she started Wikipedia:WikiProject Database analysis). --Teratornis 16:34, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article # 2,000,000

What was the 2,000,000th article? 72.197.202.36 18:23, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

See the previous discussion at: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 September 10#What was the two millionth article? --Teratornis 18:32, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Be aware that because Wikipedia administrators frequently delete articles, while editors constantly create new articles, there may be uncertainty about exactly which article is the two millionth article. It is possible for the article count to have crossed two million more than once. For example, suppose the article count reaches 1,999,999 for the first time. The next article to be created will be the two millionth. But then if administrators delete several articles quickly, the article count could drop below two million, and another new article could then be the two millionth article. And with something like 50% of new articles getting deleted, it's possible one or more of the (potentially several) two millionth articles themselves could be deleted later. If we ignore deletions entirely, and only consider the two millionth article to have ever been created, the English Wikipedia probably passed that threshold months before the count of existing (created and not yet deleted) articles reached two million and stayed above it. At best we can probably say that on a particular day, the article count reached two million, and after some time had passed, the article count did not decrease below two million again. Of course there is nothing to stop large-scale article deletions in the future, for example if Wikipedia adds more things to the list of what Wikipedia is not, or decides to change the way it handles stubs and redirects. And of course I could be completely wrong about all of this. --Teratornis 19:55, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Please help...need a link

Hello tthere,

11:30, 23 September 2007 (UTC)11:30, 23 September 2007 (UTC)~I want a link in wikipedia, that can give me answers to various "synonyms and antonyms".

thanks. neha

I'm not sure what kind of answers you want but it doesn't sound like something Wikipedia does. The external links in synonym and antonym may be useful. PrimeHunter 12:08, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Microsoft Word will provide synonyms and a limited number of antonyms -- select the word while holding down the ALT key. Accounting4Taste 15:04, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
You are asking for a Thesaurus. Many entries in the English Wiktionary list synonyms and antonyms for a given word. There is also a wiktionary:Category:Wikisaurus, but it doesn't seem very far along. --Teratornis 16:52, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] José Bernal: Artist bio

I have been working on the bio for José Bernal and I have not finished working on it. Two days ago I found out that the bio -although not posted under the heading of José Bernal- is appearing under my user name: Labs1950 -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, José Bernal... I would like to know how that happened. Please inform, I would be most appreciative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Labs1950 (talk • contribs) 11:44, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

User:Labs1950 is your user page. According to the history [2] you created it there. You can move it if you want. PrimeHunter 12:02, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hello

Hello.I am a Turkish Wikipedian.I want to help you against vandals.Because I think I can learn the working of en.wikipedia fighting against vandas.To do this I need a monobook.Could someone prepare me a monobook?Thank you in advance.Sincerely.Sağlamcı 13:06, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by a "monobook" -- Wikipedia seems to define that as a "style sheet" -- but if you read the article at Wikipedia:Vandalism, you should have a good understanding of what things are considered vandalism and what Wikipedia editors do about them. If you're looking for templates of what to write, one way would be to observe how other editors work against particular kinds of vandalism (you can find test cases by reading the postings at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism) and by copying those messages and trying to use them in the same circumstances. I hope this helps; if this isn't the information you were looking for, you can reply here. Accounting4Taste 15:01, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
The MediaWiki software which Wikipedia uses offers a monobook skin, which you can select in your preferences. I'm not aware of what the monobook skin has to do with fighting vandalism, which is not to say there is no connection, just that I cannot recall hearing of one. In addition to the above references about vandalism, you can also see WP:EIW#Vandal for all the heavy reading material a person could need to eradicate insomnia. --Teratornis 20:29, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
There are a few scripts you can add to your monobook to help fight vandalism, such as TW. -- 68.156.149.62 21:12, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help with {{articleissues}}

How can I make the template {{articleissues}} have a "show button" so issues are hidden to take up less space. See below.

Issues

[edit] search for a contributor or user

Is it possible to search for a contributor/user?Capp131e 14:04, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

To search for them by their username on wikipedia, you can use Special:Listusers and type their username in the box provided. AngelOfSadness talk 14:11, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
(edit conflict)Yes, just put the prefix "User:" into the search bar. So for yourself you would type User:Capp131e into the search bar. Or you could look through Special:Listusers which lists all usernames. (it has about 6 million entries, though there is a search bar there.) You could look through Category:Wikipedians as well to see wikipedians by their interests. Hope this is what you want. Woodym555 14:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help finding the name I used to edit an article and log in name used?

I edited an article and went back to it to see if I was in the history in my attempt to find the log in name I used or the account name I created. The information I posted is about an athlete I went to school with, Fred Carr. Few few, if any, other persons would or should recall the information.

However, I am not in the editing history, although the text I typed is posted and shown correctly. Is there some way for me to recover or find my log in name, password and then be able to edit other sites with this same information, or is it simply easier for me to create a new name for editing?

Tx's George Salazar Barnett, I may have used just: "George Salazar" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.226.114.164 (talk) 15:11, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

User:George salazar made this edit to Fred Carr (football player). Click the "History" at the article to see it. PrimeHunter 15:18, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How does one overcome this tag -- "This article or section is written like an advertisement."

How does one overcome this tag -- "This article or section is written like an advertisement."

The article can be found at -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Starr

I have thus far searched the FAQ and followed the guidelines. FYI, as I am actually the subject of this article (but not the original author), I've attempted to follow the guidelines to clean it up, but I'm not sure how to address the tag further and would appreciate guidance.

Thank you,

Vaneigem 15:22, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

  • I see you embedded several external links in the text that are meant to verify the facts. You should put those in a references section (or link them at the end of a sentence (simply put square brackets around the link.) What is it that makes you noteworthy to mention? That should be in the article's lead section. I think producing films and those awards are more important than being the CEO of a website. - Mgm|(talk) 15:35, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] indicators

how do we prepare natural indicators at home —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.97.26 (talk) 16:51, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Hello! This isn't the kind of question that should be asked at the help desk, have you tried the Reference Desk science section? 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! Love, Neranei (talk) 16:53, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

"Indicator" of what? And if you "prepare" something, is it still "natural"? --Teratornis 18:27, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
You can try a Google search.[3] PrimeHunter 23:44, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to find the author of a particular passage within a topic?

I am looking for the author of a particular passage (phrase or sentence or paragraph) within a topic, but I get lost trying to use the "low level" tools hist and diff, partly because the topic I'm looking at (Text-to-Speech Conversion) has a quite long, voluminous and many-many-authored history.

So, how can I focus my search for an author of a particular snippet?

(I ask because I want to check with the relevant authors before making a change that has significant implications for the (sub-) topic as a whole.)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.252.57.111 (talk) 17:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

  • Hello! What I would suggest doing is checking the history for the most frequent authors and asking them first. However, one of the core policies of Wikipedia is to be bold in editing; if the editor does not agree with you, he or she will revert it, and you can discuss it on the article's talk page. Hope this helps! Love, Neranei (talk) 17:15, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
  • (edit conflict) You can try User:AmiDaniel/WhodunitQuery. I haven't used it. If you give the exact article name and text here then we can find it for you. PrimeHunter 17:19, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
  • The exact article name is Speech Synthesis and the text is "extremely irregular spelling" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schwenn (talk • contribs) 17:35, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Added in [4] in 2004. PrimeHunter 17:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
    • Thank you very much. To pursue my original question (so that I can do that sort of thing on my own in future), generally how did you find that particular contribution (i.e. what search tools did you use)? (I tried WhodunitQuery.exe but it failed in a way I couldn't debug.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Schwenn (talk • contribs) 18:06, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
      I examined the history manually, viewing 500 versions at a time and using (approximately) binary search on the versions to see which had the text. It took 1-2 minutes. I have not attempted to use WhodunitQuery. PrimeHunter 21:08, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] .

Hello, I am a reformed vandal turned into editor. I know how to get unblocked automatically. Would you like to know? --Daaneoapaariechenstaatz 18:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, what you should do is post an unblock message on your talk page. The blocking admin will review your request, and decide whether or not to unblock you. Though, if you can post here, then you are probably already unblocked. Hope this helps! -- Neranei (talk) 18:18, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
If you really know a way to unblock yourself without administrator help then it would be a type of hacking and the method should not be published. You can email an active m:developer about it. PrimeHunter 21:21, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] uploading articles

I'd like to upload my research article on Rev. George Micklejohn, an Anglican bishop of North Carolina, and a fiery Tory, who was a prominent tract writer during the Revolutionary era and a well-known eccentric. Wiki doesn't have anything on him. Problem is that I can't cut and paste the article, or upload and then edit it. Is there no alternative to typing the whole thing over again. Kristina Simms —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kristina Simms (talk • contribs) 20:07, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

if you have it typed, there is no reason why you can't create a new article on Micklejohn, then cut and paste. However, you should probably read the guildelines for making a new article first. Smartyshoe 20:15, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
If, as it seems, you don't have a computer source from which to cut and paste but just a hard copy, one alternative is to scan the material and then use a text recognition program. For example, if you have adobe acrobat (not the free version) you can "recognize text using OCR" (OCR stands for optical character recognition). It's a pretty good program, though it always makes some mistakes. One thing you should be aware of is that if your paper simply synthesizes other sources, that may be appropriate, but if your research is to attempt to expand the literature on this person, to reach original conclusions, that material would not be suitable. We must not publish original research here, as Wikipedia is by definition an encyclopedia—a tertiary source.--Fuhghettaboutit 20:39, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I will take some time off and study this. May or may not be able to do it. My enthusiasm is waning.  :-) The article is in in WORD on my computer. I tried "select all." "copy" and then "paste" and that didn't work. I looked for a way to simply upload the article into the box on Wikipedia but could not find a way to do that. Nom, it's not research that comes to an original concludion. It's just historical research with proper citations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kristina Simms (talk • contribs) 01:28, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not allow Word documents as articles. It must be converted. See Wikipedia:Tools#Importing (converting) content from other formats to Wikipedia (MediaWiki) format. PrimeHunter 01:39, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
Converting, as noted above, is useful because it automates certain formatting issues, but something else is going on that the copy and paste is not working. I'm betting this is a matter of pasting to the correct place. Clicking here will take you to the correct place to paste the word content. If you don't avail yourself of a conversion tool, and even if you do, you would likely benefit from taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial which teaches wikimarkup and the basics of Wikipedia's style guidelines.--Fuhghettaboutit 03:55, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hallo!

Is there someone who can tell me how my article about "Titus Leber" is not only found with the checkbox User on. I want that this articel can be found under "Titus Leber". What kind of change do I have to do?

Best Regards

Janina Fischer —Preceding unsigned comment added by Janina Fischer (talk • contribs) 20:58, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

You have edited your user page User:Janina Fischer which is not part of the encyclopedia and not included in standard searches. If you want it to be a Wikipedia article then move it to Titus Leber. PrimeHunter 21:13, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
I've taken the liberty of moving the article and removing the redirect from the User page. That said, the article will need some work before it's up to Wikipedia's standards, so I've added a cleanup tag to it. -- Kesh 23:26, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Edit history

Is there a way/utility that will ferret out a specific user's edits to a specific page? Into The Fray T/C 22:07, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

This might do and there are similar tools here. However, things on the toolserver are using a replica database, which has a variable time lag. At the moment it is nearly 6 days out of date. Angus McLellan (Talk) 22:26, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks much! Into The Fray T/C 22:36, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Orphaning bot (no, not OrphanBot)

Is there any bot that orphans or switches templates? It's for this TFD closure, and would no doubt be useful in the future. — Malcolm (talk) 23:14, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Many of the generic bots can do it, and you can ask for the job to be done at WP:BOTREQ. However, in this specific case it would probably take longer to approve and code the replacement than to switch them all manually. --Pekaje 23:49, 23 September 2007 (UTC)