Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 September 29

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[edit] September 29

[edit] edits disappeared

Hello, I just spent about an hour correcting and updating the page for the California College of the Arts only to find that an hour later all of my changes had disappeared. What happened??? Larry Rinder Dean of the College California College of the Arts —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.40.95.3 (talk) 00:06, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

It looks like a lot of these edits were violations of our strictures on conflict of interest. They include redlinks to persons apparently not notable, peacock words, etc. Please contribute to the project in other areas where a conflict of interest does not exist. (Also: please sign your posts to talk pages and the like.) --Orange Mike 00:32, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
The article history [1] shows many edits by your IP address and 209.40.81.3 (maybe also you or at least somebody at your college), and nobody else. Try to bypass your cache. PrimeHunter 00:40, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright

Are Wikipedia's images copyright free? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.242.115.159 (talk) 00:10, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

No. They are licensed for certain uses, like everything else here. --Orange Mike 00:33, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Some of the images are public domain. See Wikipedia:Copyrights and click on an image to see its status (which isn't always given correctly). PrimeHunter 00:44, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Some are. They are marked as public domain on their image pages. Many are not, though the conditions of use are not too restrictive for GFDL or CC licensed images. Rmhermen 00:46, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ALPACA - Wikipedia

Hello,

Would it be at all possible for me to use a link to the alpaca page on Wikipedia on the links page of our website? We own a small alpaca farm in Cochrane, Alberta. Our website is www.camelothaven.com

Thanking you in advance.

Julene Camelot Haven —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.31.193.42 (talk) 01:42, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely you may place a link to Wikipedia at your website. Permission is not required. :) --Moonriddengirl 02:09, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
  • As long as you don't pretend to have written the page yourself, you can link to absolutely everything online - except for password-protected content and you also can't use images by directly linking to the other site. That would be called leeching because you would be using their bandwidth to use their image on your site. Those are the most important rules I can think off -- let's not forget copyright, but yes, link away. - Mgm|(talk) 14:09, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] space adventure cobra picture

Hi. I'm new to wikipedia contributions and i am wondering how do you put a picture you uploaded to an article. I uploaded a space adventure cobra vhs cover and i don't know how to put it on to the space adventure cobra page. Please help me!!!

SmackBoy69. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Smackboy69 (talk • contribs) 05:01, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Use the syntax [[Image:Manga Entertainment Cobra Cover.jpg]]. For information on resizing and floating it, see Wikipedia:Picture tutorial.--Max Talk (+) 05:16, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Logon problems

I just created my account on August 31,2007 and it seems like everytime I try to longon I get the error message that the user name I set or my email address in not in your database.

Do I have toi create another account. Disregarding all the information I already have from my 1st account set-up on 8/31/07?

Thank You scooterfoxx Marianne —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.197.185.199 (talk) 05:12, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Probably the username you typed in when trying to login was different from that one you created in August. Note that the "User" field is case-sensitive. If you remember a page you've been editing using that account, you can click on the 'history' tab to find your username. Otherwise the only possibility is to create a new account I think. --Oxymoron83 06:42, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Perhaps you accidentally hit capslock when you registered. Are you sure you made the first letter of your username capitalized? Did you confirm the email address when you signed up? - Mgm|(talk) 14:05, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] two geographic coordinates in one article?

is it possible to add two coordinates on one page?

i have an article that describes two locations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelmo_Park-Humberlea

if a i add two coordinates they will overlap at the top corner of the page. how can i add two coordinates on the same article without them overlapping?


Just add them as text in the text body using {{coor d}}. (The "title" in the template name means that it places the result in the title bar.) There is a way to put them both in the corner, but it would be an ugly hack involving putting the complete code for one of the coordinates onto the page. I can guess how it might be done, but finding the exact code would take some digging. All in all, you'd be better off just using {{coor d}}. - BanyanTree 14:49, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Earlier responses tell you how to do this, but we also need to ask why you should do this. It should be a very rare situation. In general an article about an area with two notable locations (e.g., a town with two historical sites, say a church and a park) should actually have a total of three Wikipedia articles. Each of the three articles would use the "coor" template. The only time that you need to have all three locations in one article is when the secondary places are not separately notable, but this raises the issue of whether they should be in the article at all. -Arch dude 23:27, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

i want to do this because the article is about two locations, that historically were separate. two communities were merged into one, pelmo park & humberlea. rather than put the coordinates in the geographic center of both, i would rather put coordinates for both pelmo park & humberlea in their former centers.

P.S, would coordinates on redirect pages show up in google earth?

Weston ontario 03:25, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Coordinates on redirect pages would break the redirect function, so please don't do this. I don't know the answer to your question. - BanyanTree 04:12, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


thanks for your advice guys. i used the "coor d" templates and things worked out well. Weston ontario 05:21, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Searching for help info

Is there a way to search the Wikipedia help pages? (And only the help pages?) --RenniePet 10:00, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Sure. Just go to this page.--Fuhghettaboutit 10:25, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Thank you. --RenniePet 13:03, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
That's actually a search for the Help desk pages, which is useful, but might not be exactly what you meant. If instead you meant the pages in the Help: namespace (such as Help:Contents, etc.), you should use this search. And be sure to see the Editor's index (hint: browse to that page and try a Ctrl-f search in your Web browser). I listed several search links at User:Teratornis#Useful searches - for example, many pages that clearly have "help" content on them are in the project (Wikipedia:) namespace rather than the Help: namespace, so you may have to search in several places to find what you want. --Teratornis 16:11, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation guidelines

In particular, I'd like to be directed to the guidelines about disambiguation.

When should one article be considered so dominant that a search goes there, and that article starts with a "for other uses see disambiguation page"?

If the article in question is not considered that dominant, but is still the most likely object of a search, is it acceptable to start the disambiguation page with the link to that article, instead of (or as well as) having it somewhere in a long disambiguation list?

The case in question is "Blackwater". Question has been raised here: Talk:Blackwater_USA (first item). --RenniePet 10:10, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

The guidelines about disambiguation are found at Wikipedia:Disambiguation (see also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) for organizing same, including prominence of items in the list). If you're searching for a policy page, put "Wikipedia:" in the search box before the word you want, and quite often that will lead you where you want to be. Wikipedia folk do a good job naming guidelines. :) As far as your other questions, I would think there would need to be a clear case that one usage is far more common than any other, like White House, which pointers to White House (disambiguation). If you have good reason to believe that Blackwater USA is a much more common search term, the MOS suggests raising it in the list. If I were to make such a move, I'd probably explain it in the talk page of Blackwater and point other editors to that talk page in my edit summary, since it could easily be misunderstood. :) Before considering switching out Blackwater USA with Blackwater, I would seek wider community consensus, including at Talk:Blackwater and probably either Wikipedia:Requests for comment or one of the departments of the Wikipedia:Village pump. --Moonriddengirl 12:20, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Thank you. I've added a (temporary) duplicate entry for Blackwater USA to the top of the Blackwater page and explained why on the Talk page. --RenniePet 13:03, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copying List Problem

When I attempt to copy a list into Word, it creates around 17 blank pages. All other text will copy, and it only messes up when i try to copy something that is bullet pointed. Has anyone else had this problem? themcman1 talk 14:15, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, the Help Desk is really supposed to be about using Wikipedia, not Word, but . . . that being said. Did you try "paste special" and pasting it into a different format? MSOffice can be tricky about pastes from different sources. Into The Fray T/C 15:00, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] imagemap questions

I've been playing around with the ImageMap extension in my sandbox and am pretty confused. Here is an attempt as a thumbnail and here is the same as a naked imagemap. First, why did the link to the image page, in the lower left corner, disappear in the thumbnail version? Second, is it not possible to add wikilinks to the thumbnail caption text in an imagemap? Note my attempt to link to Yambio. I can't figure out if I'm being ignorant or whether there's actually something wrong with the extension. Thanks, BanyanTree 14:36, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

The link to the description page should be added using a line containing "desc X", where X is either none or the location, if you're talking about what I think you are talking. I haven't ever used the thumb layout with ImageMap, but I doubt they're fully compatible, hence the wikilink problem. Most ImageMaps should specify a minimum of advanced image syntax. You might have better luck by manually wrapping the imagemap with code to emulate the image thumbnail setup, that's what I'd try. Also, there's a WYSIWYG toolserver tool to make mapping the ImageMap easier: WYSIWYG ImageMap editor. Nihiltres(t.l) 15:47, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your response. I have "desc bottom-left" on both on the versions, but it only appears in the non-thumbnail. I guess that the thumbnail option just has some problems with it. I'll see if I can come up with some emulation code. Cheers, BanyanTree 22:35, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question from Mihai Simu

Greetings

How can I create a "criticism" or a "debatable" paragraph on the article on Ion Antonescu ? In order to signal deliberately ignored, biased or errnoneous data.

Thank you Mihai Simu 14:56, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

It appears that that page is presently protected due to content disputes. I see that you are actively discussing your proposed changes on the discussion page, which is what you should be doing. If you're asking how to go about formally requested removal of page protection, visit WP:RFPP and make your request according to the instructions there. Into The Fray T/C 15:05, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Footnooting needs to be simplified

As much as I want to include footnotes - I loath articles without them - I find the whole process of inserting them laborious and tiresome. There needs to be a simpler, more user-friendly way of incorporating footnotes. When I try I usually finish up mutilating other peoples' work - and spending an eternity trying to rectify my clumsy formatting. It would be great if an instant footnoting function could somehow be incorporated into the toolbar. CallMeHenry 15:10, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it would be. :) I have no idea if such a thing is possible, but I'd be happy to use it myself. This is the kind of thing you might want to discuss at Village Pump. --Moonriddengirl 15:25, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Well none of the cite templates are there (such as {{cite web}} etc.), but in the editing toolbox at the bottom of the screen when one is in edit mode, appears <ref></ref> {{Reflist}} and <references/>. To insert the <ref></ref> automatically, you can simply highlight a portion of text, click it, and it will surround the highlighted text. Does that help?--Fuhghettaboutit 15:30, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
If you use the appropriate citation template for a footnote, you don't have to format it. While I agree that the current footnote "system" is cumbersome to say the least, I haven't run into serious problems using it. It's just a matter of reading and following the instructions in WP:FOOT, WP:CITET, and WP:CITE (of course, one would have to know about those instruction pages in the first place). You might want to see User:John Broughton/Cite.php version 2 which is a proposal to simplify footnoting. We do have a problem that with all the different options for footnoting, it seems every article uses a different combination of them. As to how much footnoting help could cram into the editing toolbar, I'm not sure. MediaWiki uses the Web browser as its thin client, and that limits the potential user-friendliness to some extent. There are other tools, but I don't know whether any of them help with footnotes. And previously on the Help desk I have suggested that MediaWiki needs its own lint-like syntax checker, to help with problems like mismatched <ref> tags. --Teratornis 15:37, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Me, too. And here is what I did to make it much easier. On my user page I added this:
<ref>{{cite web 
  | author = 
  | title = 
  | publisher = 
  | url = 
  | date = 
  | accessdate =  }}</ref>
Now, I just copy and paste, then fill in the fields. It's pretty easy but it would be even easier if that were included with the other markup items so I could just click to insert. Sbowers3 15:41, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Somewhere under WP:EIW#Tools I remember reading about an editing tool for Wikipedia that lets you create your own customized editing context menus. I think. I haven't used it myself; I prefer to curse about all the browser tabs and clicking and waiting I have to endure to look up stuff. Really, wallowing in misery and self-pity is one of the great joys of life. --Teratornis 18:53, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
In the interests of recognizing progress, I'll note that the previous version of footnotes required manual numbering at the bottom of the page. This meant that anytime a cite was inserted into an article, all subsequent cites had to have their numbers manually changed. This resulted in a lot of articles with numbers mismatched between the text and citation list, and an outright refusal by many editors to use citations due to the sheer aggravation. The current system, for all its flaws, is finally useful enough that it has gained a wide user base and made citations commmonplace. - BanyanTree 22:49, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] To All Wikipedia Admins

You guys are the best. Please have my babies --Italian Coffee Wehr Gut 15:35, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks on behalf of the rest of us for the first sentence, though I'll pass on the second. :D Nihiltres(t.l) 15:54, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Depending on how one parses the latter request, the questioner may be looking to unload some babies. If that is the case, I suggest trying to place them with Angelina Jolie, with whom they should at least have a bright financial future, as well as no risk of loneliness thanks to the constant attention of paparazzi. --Teratornis 18:25, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
If you wish to applaud individual administrators, you can give them barnstars. (The real test of your gratitude, of course, will come should you ever need to ask: Why was my article deleted?) --Teratornis 18:45, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citiation (third party)

How does one add a third party citation to an existing entry? I can't find it in the tutorial. Am I blind? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ecolwitz (talk • contribs) 16:41, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Citing sources provides a guide on how to cite sources. Some templates for citing sources in articles are available at Wikipedia:Citation templates. The templates make it easier to cite sources as you just need to enter the relevant details about the source. Hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to ask for further assistance if necessary. Thanks. Tbo 157(talk) (review) 17:07, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
You may want to bookmark this popular cure for instructional "blindness": Editor's index to Wikipedia. --Teratornis 18:48, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] micro and macro environmental factor

hi ,

  i want to know how the micro and macro environmental factor is affecting the companies and how the companies are affecting the environment?

i want to know about any 5 companies of 5 different countries? could u help me in this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.61.56.51 (talk) 17:36, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Hello. You will have more luck at WP:Reference Desk with this question. Help desk is for questions about how to edit wikipedia etc. AngelOfSadness talk 17:38, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:whitelist

What is the WP:Whitelist? Jeff Dahl 18:02, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

The MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist "lists strings of text that override Meta's blacklist." Basically, if for some reason a legitimate site is on the blacklist (due to overlapping domains), then you can place the specific site on the whitelist to ovveride it, and allow the link. --YbborTalk 18:26, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
WP:WHITELIST is a redirect to MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist, which more or less documents itself in the comments at the top. More explanation is on the talk page: MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist. Is that what you meant? --Teratornis 18:30, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
OK, I understand now, but the description at the top of that page was not that helpful. Thanks! Jeff Dahl 20:42, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Like almost all other pages on Wikipedia, You can edit these pages. If you think the description was not helpful, then fix it. If you are unsure, then propose a change on the talk page, but it's probably better to be bold. That description was intended to help people such as yourself. Since it did not help you, you are in a position to make a very valuable contribution to Wikipedia by refining the description to help the next person in your situation. You, personally, have every bit as much right as any other Wikipedia editor to make the change, and at this point you are the indesputable expert on the usefulness of the descriptive header. -Arch dude 23:01, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the principle, but if the page in question is MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist, only administrators can edit it, because it is in the (protected) MediaWiki: namespace. Thus the only available option for the vast majority of users would be to leave comments on the talk page: MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist. But also note, the MediaWiki: namespace contains a lot of highly technical pages that the average Wikipedia user would not be able to understand without a substantial effort of RTFM. For example, reading the latter parts of the MediaWiki Handbook (the material for administrators) might be necessary. And those get rather hairy. I suppose we should ask Jeff Dahl to tell us more about why he wants to know about the whitelist, and then we might advise him on where to start reading. It does appear that we might need a better introduction to blacklisting/whitelisting on Wikipedia for nonspecialists, because the pages I am seeing so far are a bit cryptic. --Teratornis 02:50, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Userbox collapable problem

I have on the bottom of the page, there are two collapable bars which, when opened, reveals my other userboxes. The problem is that some of the userboxes don't have their rightful images on them, nor there is a link to the image. Is these a way to fix this so the images appear, or is it just something in the coding that makes it like that? . (If you don't get what I'm saying, or if you can see it, leave a message on my userpage and I'll send a screenshot of how it looks from my view. I've already posted a message regarding this above, but I haven't gotten any help at all.) MITB LS 18:40, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

I can see all the images. There was an issue a few days ago that caused images to no longer display. You need to purge the cache for those images. To do that, go to the link of the image, click on the edit tab. Change the URL from "action=edit" to "action=purge". They should display then. Lara❤Love 19:08, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Um, yeah. I still can't see the pics from my userpage. I can see the images in stand-alone. I think it's something with the collapable bar, cause I would be able to see the pics if they weren't in the bar. If it helps, I can e-mail a screenshot of how I see my userpage. MITB LS 19:19, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HOW TO VERIFY IF AN IP ADDRESS HAS BEEN BLOCKED IN THE PAST

Hi

How do I check if a particular IP address has been blocked in the past?

Thanks

Marie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.253.62.180 (talk) 19:04, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Go to Special:Log/, type in the IP, and search the block log. Best, --Bfigura (talk) 19:08, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
(edit conflict) You can look at the block log for the address to see if it has ever been directly blocked. Note that addresses can also be blocked due to range blocks (which can also be found in the block log, but not as easily) or autoblocks (which are not listed in the block log, but only last 24 hours at most). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:13, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Facebook

Do you think Wikipedia should have a facebook? Can I make one for Wikipedia? --Aartiikaaldoen 21:24, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Actually, there is one already. It's here.--Bfigura (talk) 22:08, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] why arn't people aloud to chang colors i mean what if there color blind to pink or some thing?

why arn't people aloud to chang colors i meanwhat if there color blind or some thing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.223.173.196 (talk) 21:37, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Individuals with accounts can alter the site CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): how the page is viewed. Wikipedia is "skinnable". This means that colorblind people with user accounts can change the color of site elements with CSS, and make it more readable. But, the only caveat is that you need an account to do it. See Wikipedia:CSS for more information. To answer your question, the color can be changed, although being color-blind shouldn't really make the site unreadable. GracenotesT § 21:50, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Per Wikipedia:Accessibility#Color the colours should not impede your viewing. The taxoboxes which you are trying to change have been developed along with the guidelines at Wikipedia:Taxobox usage#Color. You should discuss it there if you think that some colours are not accessible. Woodym555 21:55, 29 September 2007 (UTC)