Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 February 28

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1 February 28

[edit] February 28

[edit] Wikipedia color scheme

Is there a way to changing wikipedias base color from white to black and text from black to white to use less electricity? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.89.178.5 (talk) 00:02, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You will need to create an account to do so, however once you are logged in, you can edit Special:Mypage/monobook.css to fit your desired appearance. Cascading Style Sheets can give you some help with how to do this. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 00:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I believe both Mac and Windows have a screen inversion feature in case you are interested in doing it in general and not just in your browser. —Noah 00:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I also believe that there is a new feature in the preferences that gives you a new color scheme. Go to your preferences, click on the "Gadget" tab, and check the option that says, "Sets the monobook skin to a black background with green text. Does not require Javascript; CSS only." Press save. If you can't figure it out, see Help:Preferences. Good luck! Soxred93 | talk bot 02:36, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure this was discussed on the Village pump (technical), and someone commented that the actual saving is minimal, or possibly non-existant depending on your monitor. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 02:48, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

If you are using a CRT, there is a small savings. If you are using an LCD, there is no savings. An LCD is in general more energy efficient than a CRT in any event. The most important thing you can do is to activate all of the power-saving features of your computer, and if you find this to be too complicated, then turn the computer off when you are not using it. -Arch dude (talk) 03:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Create Contents

How do you create the CONTENTS section so it links to the rest of the page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rwulbecker (talk • contribs) 02:18, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

when you create 3 headings like "== Heading here == that for example, a contents page on the article is automatically created.--Kerotan ^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 02:20, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

If you have fewer than 3 headings marked off with double equals signs, you can still get a table of contents by typing "__TOC__" (two underscores on each side; you don't need the quotation marks.).

See Help:Section. --Coppertwig (talk) 03:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Counter oddity

You can see here that I started Yasmin Brunet on February 15th. However, here it looks like the page has page views that precede its creation. What's up?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 03:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't really know, unless the script is counting searches for "Yasmin Brunet" where people actually clicked the redlink, but I can't believe it would be that many hits. You should probably ask Henrik; as it's his script, he should be able to figure it out. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:09, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Seems that people were viewing the nonexistent page. Can't be anything else, because an error that serious would be glaring... Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 03:12, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

No, actually it was a bug. I recently started adding statistics for all projects (not just en), and the counter displayed the stats for all pages across the projects with the same title (pt:Yasmin_Brunet is the other existing one, in case you're curious). It's fixed now. henrik•talk 15:01, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How do you underline text?

When editing an article, it is pretty clear how I can italicize or bold text (with the proper use of the apostrophe symbol). I can't seem to find how I underline text? Any ideas? Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:15, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

I'm afraid that for that one, the only way to do it is using HTML. You use TEXT HERE.--Sunny910910 ^{(talk|Contributions|Guest)} 03:16, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

That bit of help can be found at Help:Wikitext. —Noah 03:19, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Any idea why that command is not included in the "palette" line on the Edit Box? I mean, they have such obscure stuff as subscript and superscript and striking out text and square root/math ... I would think that underlining text is a much more common need than some of these other silly conventions? (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

Underlining is associated with links on the web and some skins underline all links so I think underlining would confuse and should not be used without very good reason. It can be suggested to add underlining to MediaWiki:Edittools at MediaWiki talk:Edittools but it may be opposed. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

OK. That makes sense. I never thought of that. I assumed there was some good reason why such a commonly used feature would be excluded from the palette. I just didn't know what that reason was. Thanks to all for your input above. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:58, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

[edit] TABs

Is there any way in Wikipedia to format text in such a way as "TAB" works on a keyboard -- without using a whole bunch of non-breaking space ( & n b s p ; ) symbols? For example, if I want this text:

Name of United States President: Abraham Lincoln
Years in Office: 1903 to 2003

to appear like this:

Name of United States President: Abraham Lincoln
Years in Office: 1903 to 2003

How can I get the text "1903 to 2003" to begin / line-up directly underneath the text "Abraham Lincoln"? That is the type of thing that I would use a TAB command on a keyboard or in Microsoft Word. In Wikipedia, I would normally type a whole bunch of & n b s p ; commands ... like 20 or so. Even then, it doesn't quite "line up" correctly. And you have to do trial-and-error a million times to see exactly how many & n b s p ; commands comes close to working. Is there a better way? A way that simulates a TAB command? Thanks a lot. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:27, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

Usually, for such tables, we use, well, tables. I don't know of a practical tab option aside from the method you already know. Sorry I can't be of more assistance. Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 03:32, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. But who said anything about Tables? If I was typing an entire section on Abraham Lincoln, and I wanted the intro to look as above, I would just want that text --- not a table. It would look silly to have something like below:

Name	Abraham Lincoln
Years in Office	1903 to 2003

Lincoln was a great president. Blah Blah Blah. He was born in 1900 and he died in 2000. He started the Civil War and he ended the Civil War. Etc. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

(Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:46, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

You can make a table with no borders:

Name of United States President:	Abraham Lincoln
Years in Office:	1903 to 200

Note that the method with   depends on the font the reader views it with, and the line length can also cause bad formatting in narrow windows. Tables are the standard way to format web pages in columns when it must be readable by a browser without using a fixed width font. It's not specific to Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. The table with no borders might be a decent option. This question may sound ignorant or naive, but ... is there no other way to do something as simple (and as common) as a "tab"? It just seems hard to believe that one has to use this back-door complicated method (create a table, make sure it has no borders) ... to do something that would seemingly be very common and very simple (like a TAB). Am I missing something here? Please let me know. This is confounding me. Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:07, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

I believe the history behind this goes waaay back to the first HTML specs which prohibit control characters like tabs. Since wiki markup codes are a direct descendant of HTML (or maybe it is better to say "because wiki markup gets converted to HTML") the restrictions of HTML get carried forward. It's actually covered on Tab key amusingly enough, where it is pointed out that you can do <pre>&#09(semicolon)</pre> which is really not much better than four non-breaking spaces. —Noah 05:21, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks. Makes some degree of sense in a perverse sort of way, I guess. Thank you. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC))

I was just thinking "why isn't there a wiki template that does multiple spaces", and of course, there is! See Template:Space. Cheers, —Noah 06:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Notices posted at head of article

If any editors can please search the article, Ryan Allen, and read both the notices posted at the head of the article and responses on the talk page, I would appreciate it. I have written this article at the expense of time and effort in assembling facts and studying Wikipedia tutorials, guidelines, and posting questions on the Help Desk; and it is disheartening to read the notices. Anyone who can respond to my statements on the Talk Page could be helping me very much. It would be a blow to see my effort be wiped out. Is there hope for it to be saved? Thank you. Voiceperson (talk) 04:38, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I responded on the discussion page for the Ryan Allen article. —Noah 06:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Template replacement wikiquette ?

I have almost finished writing a new template to replace a number of very similar but all slightly different templates for a certain type of organisation. What is the protocol to announce / to get people to use the new better (IMHO!) standard template ? Should the templates to be replaced be tagged in some way ? Pee Tern (talk) 05:38, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Your first port of call would probably be at the relevant WikiProject(s), since they're the ones that would presumably (a) care, and (b) handle style-related issues like which templates to use on those pages. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Already there in the project's talk page and no bites yet. Somewhere I read about "depricated templates" but I cannot find it again. Is this something formal ? Pee Tern (talk) 06:50, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

See Category:Deprecated templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:06, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] shunt device

i know shunt is a device helps to pass current. but, i cant get a clear idea by this.. is there any relation present between shunt and resistor?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sendreams100 (talk • contribs) 07:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You probably should ask that over at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science as this page is for questions on using Wikipedia. Good luck, —Noah 07:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

See also Shunt (electrical). PrimeHunter (talk) 14:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How to create a free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones( like the Gobible)

Good morning Sir, My Names are Amechi Otutu and my e-mail is <email removed>. Am a christian and i want to find out how i can create a free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones Just like the Gobible, into Some other African translation so that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus christ can be Preached to all nation of the earth. Please i will be glad if i can get this information or be directed to where i can get it. Thank you God Bless you. Bro Amechi Otutu —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.54.202.174 (talk) 08:37, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. —teb728 t c 08:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Windsor chairs in U.S.A

84.253.237.121 (talk) 09:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)R09:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)84.253.237.121 (talk)

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. Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 11:48, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Odd vandalism?

It would appear that a named user has vandalised Help:Redirect. I have reverted it. I am relatively new but it would seem to be a strange one off for a registered user ? Perhaps an admin needs to look to see if someone is poly user naming. (I do realise that Help:Redirect is not a master.) Pee Tern (talk) 09:27, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Registering accounts for the purpose of placing spam on Wikipedia (which is what this is) is unfortunately all too common. Revert on sight and warn user is the correct response. Report to WP:AIVif they will not stop. SpinningSpark 13:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Moving a page to an existing page??

I have already read the help page for that. It says that ADMINISTRATORS can do that. I just don't know if this is the proper place to ask an administrator to do the job. The page I want to move is Policies, activities and history of the Philippines in the Spratly Islands. I want to remove the second "the" article such that it becomes "Policies, activities and history of the Philippines in Spratly Islands". Somebody moved the page lately for what I deem as inappropriate title (maybe the user who moved it must request the move first). I tried moving the page again but I haven't noticed that I inserted the second "the" article. I can't move it to the original title because it is already a redirect, as the case of all former titles. Can somebody help me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Estarapapax (talk • contribs) 10:00, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend gaining some consensus on the articles talk page. Then an admin can delete the re-direct and move the title. You can report these kind of issues to Requested Moves Pedro : Chat 13:33, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reporting IP Socks

Not sure if I should report this to AIV or not: 124.181.64.190 admits to being a sockpuppet of User:Jc iindyysgvxc. Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 11:39, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

That's not a sockpuppet, it's someone asking for their talk page to be unblocked so they can appeal. WP:SOCK is quite clear "A sock puppet is an alternative account used deceptively. In particular, using two usernames to vote more than once in a poll or to circumvent Wikipedia policies is prohibited." An IP used only to appeal a ban, and making no secret of who it is, is not a sockpuppet. So no, not to be reported. Skittle (talk) 14:10, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nochex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nochex.com

the Account types information is all incorrect and causing damage to our brand

can i please submit new content?

Matt Waterman —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.36.212.109 (talk) 12:14, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Take a look at WP:FAQ/Business and WP:COI, and then your next step should be to post at the article's talk page: Talk:Nochex. Charlie-talk to me-what I've done 13:04, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

can you please review our site www.nochex.com and update the info —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.36.212.109 (talk) 13:33, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

My recommendation to you, is once you've read the above links, post the changes that you feel are necessary to the talk page, so the community can consider them. As of right now, I don't know what you feel is incorrect in the article, so there isn't much I can do without some careful reading and research: and it seems like you're in a position to circumvent this work. Charlie-talk to me-what I've done 13:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] viagra spam is being sent out from German "lists.wikimedia.org"

th28feb8@ 9:42a I received this spam message. It is for viagra. Someone is spamming the german wiki list. Below is the email with header info. I removed my email for privacy. ~a wiki user 70.108.100.102 (talk) 14:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I removed the text of the spam mail. It can be seen here. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:05, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi primehunter. Y did u rmv the text of the spam? Isnt the header info needed so wiki can trace it? Where did u move it 2? Thx. 70.108.100.102 (talk) 15:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but it's in the page history now; all pages are recorded. So the link that PrimeHunter has given shows what the text was, and so it can be removed from this page to prevent it taking up space. (To answer the precise question, it's in the page history ('history') tab at the top, and the link in PrimeHunter's comment is another way to access it.) --ais523 15:31, 28 February 2008 (U T C)

Ahhh ok. Thx! =) 70.108.100.102 (talk) 15:55, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

PrimeHunter's diff-link was one diff too new, I think. I believe this is the correct diff to show the spam. —Noah 16:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes. My link went directly to the section with the spam (if your browser works with anchors), so the text could also be seen there, but I should have used the preceding diff anyway. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:53, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Does anybody know how to tell if the two IP addresses listed as the sender of the message – 10.50.32.243 and 91.198.174.5 – belong to Wikimedia? • Anakin ^(talk) 13:38, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Using maps and photos

I am a new comer to Wikipedia, Can I use maps and photos as well as information form documents without modifying them for my project as long as I give credits wherever possible to the owner of the photos and maps? Thanks lee 15:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)Kelee2 (talk) --Kelee2 (talk) 15:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)--Kelee2 (talk) 15:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/button_sig.png

If you click on an image, you'll get copyright information about reusing it. The common licenses used on Wikipedia are 'public domain' (you can do anything), various Creative Commons licences (which will have links explaining what restrictions there are; generally speaking, that you must credit them to their author and that you mustn't change the license), and the GNU Free Documentation License (which in addition to credit and no change of license, requires that you keep track of the document's history, enclose a full copy of the license with the image, and that you make a machine-readable version available if you make many non-machine-readable copies). If you need full details of what the licenses do, though, I recommend reading their text, which will be linked from the license information obtainable by clicking on the image. --ais523 15:59, 28 February 2008 (U T C)

[edit] frustrated new user

I'm a new user who just wrote my first article and I'm very frustrated.

I've read all the help articles and RAQ pages and, frankly, it seems like lots of gobbledy-gook to me. For people who have been using your template for long time, this may make sense, but for a new person, it's incredibly confusing.

I wrote my first article, "William Attwood." It says that the article is unclassified and asks to classify it. I clicked on the appropriate link and rather than a redirect that gives a set of classifications, it redirects to a help page that talks about classifcation but gives no clear way to classify the article. Maybe it would be helpful to have a "wikipedia for dummies" area that simplified things, e.g. "click here to do this, then click here," etc.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to upload a simple photo. I clicked on the photo icon in the edit mode, but it doesn't give me an upload option.

I'm a very educated person who would like to contribute to this project, but my knowledge is not about web design and I'm not very computer savvy. Perhaps a more user-friendly interface would be helpful for people like me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nathanattwood (talk • contribs) 16:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I have added some categories in [1]. See more at Help:Category. Wikipedia has a huge number of categories and listing all of them in one place would not be practical. See Help:Images and other uploaded files. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:40, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

An image can be used on many pages so uploading an image and displaying it on a page are independent events. You looked in the page edit options which only shows how to display the image on that page. All pages have an "Upload file" link in the toolbox to the left. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:49, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Very few new users could possibly absorb all the instructions in one reading necessary to create a new article and give it a minimally complete set of features - this amount of know-how vastly exceeds any human's short term memory. A better approach is for a new user to work the necessary know-how into long term memory at a comfortable pace by editing existing articles before attempting to create an entirely new article. However, nothing in Wikipedia's user interface discourages new users from getting the idea to leap straight to one of our most difficult editing tasks: creating a new article from scratch that is good enough not to get deleted. We have seen time and again that for a substantial fraction of new users, the first incentive to try editing on Wikipedia is to create a new article. The articles for creation wizard should help, but creating new articles is unavoidably complex because there are almost infinitely many subjects a new user could write about, leading to an endless number of special cases requiring experienced judgment. There is also the problem that as the number of articles on Wikipedia increases (we're up to 2,409,341 now), the remaining number of suitable article topics decreases, making it ever more likely that new users will try to write about something forbidden by WP:NOT. It would be nice if we had some gentle way to warn users who (a) have low edit counts and (b) attempt to create a new article that they are likely to have a better experience by accumulating more edits on existing articles before trying to create a new article. --Teratornis (talk) 18:31, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia can be frustrating, but on another note, congratulations on your first article - it's lovely! Anchoress · Weigh Anchor · Catacomb 18:43, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] egress windows

Can a builder call a basement unhabitalbe space just to avoid putting egress window in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.214.25.176 (talk) 16:50, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

"Please be aware that we cannot, under any circumstance, provide medical, legal, or any other sort of advice that is normally regulated by governmental authorities." --Orange Mike | Talk 17:04, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

This is also the absolute wrong place to be asking such a question, even though it treads on the legal advise line - Try the reference desk, but be wary of your phrasing. Wisdom89 _{(_T / ^C)} 18:22, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ca.

I was just wondering if i could use c. or ca. for numbers as well as for dates. see wp:mos numbers & dates.Ardeshire Babakan (talk) 17:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

PS:sorry if I should have asked this elsewhere

Depends on the context, I suppose, but generally if it is not a date you should use "about" instead of "c." or "ca." -- jwillbur 21:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How do you make a list of articles started?

I'd like to make a list of all the articles I've started. What's the easiest way to do this? The Transhumanist 18:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Check your contributions. If you used the edit summary box correctly, the pages you created would have something along the lines of 'created page' as the edit summary. If you haven't it will be a lot harder, you might have to resort to memory. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 18:27, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

WP:COUNT gives this tool. (it only counts creations in mainspace) Algebraist 18:47, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Can I use this?

I have a webpage about rock music in America which I made, but I want a experienced wikipedia admin to see if it is alright for Wikipedia.

removed

Thanks alot! --WereNoStrangersToLove (talk) 19:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Link removed and user warned. Gtstricky^{Talk or C} 19:17, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Shame on you, Gtstricky, for your bitey response. This was the newbie’s first post, and he was asking if it was OK. Your {{uw-vandalism4im}} warning on his user talk page was uncalled for. And it doesn’t even explain what was wrong with his his link to Youtube. —teb728 t c 20:39, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

It was a Rick Roll. I should have put that here. Gtstricky^{Talk or C} 21:02, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that is quite fair to Gtstricky. This has been the third time in the last couple weeks that someone has Rick Rolled the Help Desk using a user name that is a reference to the song. —Noah 21:48, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] new article help

Resolved.

Hi. I just created a stub on a SCOTUS case and I unfortunately forgot to capitalize some stuff in the title. My account isn't four days old yet, so I can't edit the title myself. I was wondering if someone could do it for me. The stub title is "Haynes v. united states" TIA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dammit, all the good user names are taken! (talk • contribs) 20:24, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Done, Orangemike got to it before I could. jwillbur 21:39, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article name

There is an article with my name already but I want to write about something totally different with that same name. How do I add an article with the same name of a previous written article when they are on different subjects? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ebrinkman (talk • contribs)

Name it like Topic (parent topic) instead of Topic. Have a look at Torchwood and Torchwood (series 1). _{WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN} ^{aka john lennon} 21:09, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

For the full explanation on how to differentiate between two things with the same name, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 21:59, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Finding Heather Hall

Heather Hall who lived at <location removed> - in December 1997 is my half sister's sister -

For personal reasons my half sister - previously known as Penny Guthrie was forced to change her identy and we lost contact.

The only way to locate my half sister was through Heather Hall - are you able to help or offer any advice.

Many thanks for your help

Regards

Ivor Guthrie

Tel: <telephone number removed> (UK) Mob: <telephone number removed> (UK) e-mail - <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.38.121.254 (talk) 21:21, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of removing your email address and telephone number as we are unable to provide answers by email or 'phone and these are highly visible across the internet. Harland1 (^t/_c) 21:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

This question would be more appropriate for one of the reference desks.-- Diniz (talk) 21:53, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

It still wouldn't be very appropriate though. The Wikipedia reference desk deals with knowledge questions and stuff, not locating people. Perhaps search the web for a lost friends contacting service of some kind. • Anakin ^(talk) 14:21, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hangon tag

Resolved.

Are you allowed to delete {{hangon}} tags from articles, specifically Math Homework Help: $1/Question? George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 21:35, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

In my experience of patrolling new articles, blantantly unencyclopedic pages will be quickly deleted regardless of whether the hangon tag is used. The template itself says that "Note that this request is not binding, and the page may still be deleted if the page unquestionably meets the speedy deletion criteria, or if the promised explanation is not provided very soon".-- Diniz (talk) 21:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Diniz is correct - my opinion is that it's mostly discourteous to remove hangon tags - best to just leave them be. It's always a good idea to WP:AGF. Besides, if the article obviously meets the criteria for speedy deletion, an admin will take care of it. Wisdom89 _{(_T / ^C)} 21:58, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 22:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Generally, you can leave a message on the editor's Talk page explaining that just putting a hangon tag doesn't do any good, and they need to explain on the article's Talk page how it meets notability requirements. Corvus cornix_talk 23:40, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Formula One/Newsletter/200802

I'm currently tidying up a WikiProject Formula One newsletter, but experiencing a couple of problems in the process. Another user created the newsletter initially, so I'm not too sure of the formatting which has been used.

Is it possible to make the newsletter collapsible? I've tried some codes that I have used for other templates in the past, but none of them have worked. The help page on Wikipedia mostly seems to be about tables, not templates.
The cell on the bottom right is slightly too wide, and I can't see how to fix this.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!-- Diniz (talk) 21:49, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Here we go:

Your newsletter is a table. You should be able to add class="collapsible collapsed" to the top of the newsletter, after the {|. You will also have to designate the first row as a header by converting the vertical pipe ( | ) to an exclamation point. So, your code should start like this:

{| class="collapsible collapsed"
|-
! colspan="2" valign="middle" ... | rest of header ...

I don't see any problems with width on my screen. If something is messing up with yours, you can try adding a width="50%" or parameter, adjusting the percentage to whatever you need to. I've already added a 100% parameter to the top, which should guarantee that the whole thing fits on your screen regardless of what screen resolution you're using.

If you still need help, let us know! Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! The newsletter (which I can't believe I didn't realise it was a table!) is now collapsible. I still can't get the width to work: the 100% parameter had no effect, and when I gave the specific bottom-right sector the same parameter, it fixed the width problem but removed the background colour and section border. Since the offending section only extends about half a centimetre off the screen and isn't noticeable for you, then it's probably better for me to leave it alone. Thanks again.-- Diniz (talk) 22:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

That's really... strange. I think what you may have done was try to put the width parameter inside the style parameter. "width" should be separate, like this:

valign="top" rowspan=2 style="border: 1px gray solid; padding: 1em; background: #ffffb1;" width="75%"

I've tested this out (without saving anything, as I'm not sure if you still want to try this) and it appears to work fine. Just don't set it much higher than 75%, as it'll force the cells on the left side to get really scrunched to make room. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 23:44, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but it still doesn't work for me. The left edge of the cell moves as one would expect when I change the width parameter, but the right edge stays tantalisingly out of reach!-- Diniz (talk) 23:51, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I'm looking at it in Internet Explorer and getting the same problem you seem to be having. The worst part is, I can't figure out for the life of me why it's doing it, or how to fix it. The most apparent reason for why is that Internet Explorer simply sucks, but that doesn't help at all, nor is this the place to go ranting on about inadequate browsers, however much I would love to do so. I'll keep messing with it and see if I come up with anything. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:35, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, it's fixed, but I had to mess up the format a bit to do it. For some reason, the border refused to show unless the cell had a fixed size. Because different people use different screen resolution sizes, however, having one cell at a fixed size while everything else is proportional could make bad things happen. So, what I ended up doing was this: The whole table is 800 pixels wide. The offending cell is now stuck at 550 pixels, with everything else metered out accordingly. The reason I chose 800 is because the lowest resolution any same person would have is 1024x800 pixels, and some rather unscientific testing (involving me setting my own resolution to that and seeing what happened) showed me that that's the biggest number that will fit when you take into account the tool bar to the left and the scroll bar on the right (I actually had to guess at the scroll bar, as mine decided to go on holiday without telling me - thank goodness for the invention of the scroll wheel).

Long story short, it's fixed, I don't know why it was broken in the first place, but it's fixed, and I now leave it to you to decide whether you like it that narrow or would rather live with the wonky border. If the latter, just revert my last three edits. Either way, I now hate IE even more than I did before, and so recommend Mozilla Firefox to you. Good night. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all of your help. Unfortunately, the problem is still persisting with the reduced width (see image). If it's a problem with IE, then I suppose there's nothing we can do. At least the newsletter is now collapsible.-- Diniz (talk) 11:37, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article

How do I create an article???? Gorillazx1 (talk) 22:13, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

The pages at Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article should have most of the information you need. Before you begin, please carefully read through our policies and guidelines on notability, citing reliable sources for verification, neutrality, and formatting and article layout, where many new users commonly make mistakes. You may also want to consider checking out what Wikipedia is not, the deletion policy and criteria for speedy deletion so you know specifically what to avoid when writing your article. I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Signature in templates

The signature I am currently using is not properly displaying in templates, often showing only "talk" with a link to the talk page with four tildes. The following is my .sig: [[User:Seicer|seicer]] | [[User_talk:Seicer|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Seicer|contribs]] I am not for sure why it is not displaying in templates such as {{resolved|1=}} Any .sig help much appreciated! seicer | talk | contribs 22:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the problem is caused by the use of pipes in your signature. I used to have a pipe in mine, and experienced a similar problem. When the template encounters another pipe, it thinks you're trying to define a new parameter, even though it's actually part of your signature. This could also cause an issue with tables due to how wikimarkup works. Replacing the pipes in your signature with & #x007C; (minus the space) should correct the display problem, like so:

Resolved. seicer | talk | contribs

Hopefully that works. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:30, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks :) seicer | talk | contribs 22:39, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Another thing that might help: when using a template, instead of just saying {{quote}My name is ~~~~}}, you can insert "1=", for {{quote|1=My name is ~~~~}}. "1=" means you're defining the first parameter for the template; by default, if you don't name the parameter, whatever appears after the first pipe is the first parameter. However, explicitly saying "1=" will save you if your text includes equals signs. Maybe it helps if there are pipes, too – I'm not sure. --Coppertwig (talk) 13:55, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tables and hiding/showing

I don't know if this is the right place, but I'll ask here. I'm trying to create a table which would look like this. The top one being when it is hidden and the middle one being expanded. And plus that, i want many many rows of the same things being together like the bottom one, but being able to expand them separately... Haven't found a way to do this yet. Any idea's of templates, table classes or codes to make it happened?

2006 CPL Winter Championship
2006 Dec 16 - 20	Dallas	fnatic	Meet Your Makers	Pentagram

2006 CPL Winter Championship
2006 Dec 16 - 20	Dallas	fnatic	Meet Your Makers	Pentagram
		Archi	elemeNt	kuben
		cArn	juven9le	Loord
		dsn	prb	LUq
		f0rest	REAL	Neo
		Tentpole	Xione	TaZ

2006 CPL World Season Nordic
2006 Nov 30 - Dec 3	Jönköping	Ninjas in Pyjamas	H2k-Gaming	69°N-28°E
2006 CPL Winter Championship
2006 Dec 16 - 20	Dallas	fnatic	Meet Your Makers	Pentagram
2007 CPL Winter Championship
2007 Dec 19 - 22	Dallas	X3O	Mug N Mouse	PhrenetiK

Chandler talk 22:44, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Not in a single table, that I am aware of, however you can cheat your way around it by using multiple tables. Set the class to include "collapsible collapsed", add margin:0px; to the style code, and fix the width to a specific pixel width. For example:

2006 CPL World Season Nordic
2006 Nov 30 - Dec 3	Jönköping	Ninjas in Pyjamas	H2k-Gaming	69°N-28°E

2006 CPL Winter Championship
2006 Dec 16 - 20	Dallas	fnatic	Meet Your Makers	Pentagram

2007 CPL Winter Championship
2007 Dec 19 - 22	Dallas	X3O	Mug N Mouse	PhrenetiK

Hopefully that's the kind of effect you were looking for? I know the code is a bit ugly, but unfortunately that's the only way I know of to do it. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 23:31, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

P.S. - You'll also notice that this is going to require a bit of extra work making sure the columns line up neatly - again, defining specific widths - and you'll have to make a new table for every additional collapsible section. You can add additional data to each collapsible section, however without making the code even uglier, it will be expanded along with everything else. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 23:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Though no way to have two rows showing while "hidden"? Chandler talk 23:45, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

You can stick another table in between that has the style="margin:..." stuff, but not the collapsable parts. There's no way to include those visible rows in the collapsible table without them also collapsing, so again, we just cheat our way around it. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:12, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Commercial article

The following article appears to be spam:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Plus

I tried to report it as suggested but I couldn't understand how to "tag" an article as spam. Sorry.

Sollertia51 (talk) 22:50, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

{{db-spam}} for blatant adverts (but recently created ones). Use {{advert}} to tag an article as advertising so it can be removed. You can also go to WP:AFD or WP:PROD the article to delete it. Xenon⁵⁴ 22:55, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

It should be noted that the article creator was User:PrecisionPlus; and when that editor was blocked indefinitely, the torch was picked up by User:PPlus! --Orange Mike | Talk 00:12, 29 February 2008 (UTC)