Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 June 2

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1 June 2

[edit] June 2

[edit] creating article lead section that is not included in article outline

My question is the following: How do I create an article title and lead section without them being included in the article outline?

There is a lot of information on wikipedia on the style, content, and format that a lead section should have. However, I can find nothing on how to create a lead section. For example, if I use the sectioning syntax (=, ==, ===, etc.) to create a title, then this title will be included in the article outline. Using the "edit this page" tab does not help as it does not show the source for the lead section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Koures (talk • contribs) 01:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Click "edit this page" and write the lead at top of the edit box before the first section heading == ... ==. The article title is automatically the name of the edited page and is not written in the edit box. By the way, the list of linked section names is called the table of contents. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:29, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

And see: WP:SECT#Section editing and WP:SECT#Editing before the first section. I will look at WP:LEAD and make sure it tells how to edit the lead section. --Teratornis (talk) 02:39, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Amazingly, it appears that WP:LEAD does not tell anywhere how to edit the lead section. It just talks about what the lead section should contain. Obviously that could confuse a new user who reads WP:LEAD before reading WP:SECT. I will fix that later this evening, unless someone else beats me to it. I'm thinking to add a small section: WP:LEAD#How to edit that will summarize this: WP:SECT#Editing before the first section. --Teratornis (talk) 02:44, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually there were a few sentences in WP:LEAD#Sections and table of contents that mentioned how to edit the lead section, but they were probably not clear to new users, so I expanded them into WP:LEAD#How to edit. I added some section shortcuts to it (for example, WP:LEAD#EDIT). --Teratornis (talk) 02:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] problem with search bar

Recently there has been a change in the response I get from the search bar.Instead of getting a list of previous enteries starting with the same letters I get a long alphabetic list of subjects I had never entered.This list covers the Go and Search options so all I can do to get to a page is press the enter key.How can I get back to the previous enterie list? 24.251.64.139 (talk) 03:08, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

If you have an account, you can click on "My Preferences", then click on the "Search" tab, then click on the checkbox labelled "[] Disable AJAX Suggestions". This will allow your browser to fall back to its original behavior (which is actually a browser function). -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 04:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Need help

I'm looking for some help to prepare for this:

Coming July 15th to the Awards Center: The Around the World Competition. Three types of awards will be presented, including a World Champion Trophy! Hone your advanced tools skills, 'cuz you'll need them! If you'd like to be kept up to date on this and other happenings at the AWC, sign up to receive the AWC Newsletter here.

Specifically, I need someone who knows how to edit images.

Please contact me on my talk page.

The Transhumanist 07:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Left user a note to contact me. Jaakobou^{Chalk Talk} 15:01, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Page listing

Is there a way to get a list of pages I have created? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:49, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Right here. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk ♦ contribs) @ 07:52, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 15:42, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sort user contributions

How do I get a list of a particular user's contributions sorted by the number of characters they added in each contribution? Thanks! --Pascal666 (talk) 09:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

That's an interesting question. Special:Contributions does not seem to display the number of characters per edit at all. I guess that information is only in the history of a given page. Most likely, to generate this kind of information for a given user, you would have to figure out the links under WP:EIW#Query. I haven't gotten that far myself, so unfortunately I can't help you yet. However, the Help desk gets a steady trickle of requests for reports that evidently could only come from SQL queries on Wikipedia's database. Therefore, it would be nice if we had a good answer for these types of questions, as in actually being able to run the queries ourselves. You might try asking again on WP:VPT where there are usually more technically-inclined people. --Teratornis (talk) 16:25, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] User Box

How to make user boxes on the right side of the page like the one used in Jimbo Wale’s Page Tyw7, formerly Troop350 (talk) 09:41, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

That requires you to use a certain userbox template. I use it on my userpage too. Put this into the edit window of your userpage;

And then copy & paste your userboxes inbetween them. See how that works, & tell me if you get stuck. :-) Lra drama 10:22, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] mars moon was it eclipsed

mars moon was it eclipsed I have seen a flying saucer and it left some information in my head (downloaded) now sounds Nuts now THE INFORMATION LEFT WAS MY RETURN TO EARTH as they left vision of leaving a golden planet then over orange planet (pressumed Mars )then the moon dazzling bright now sceptic myself as they even shown me my mother bearing me as young woman now if faulse as most people I would say well who is playing games now this occured over 14 years ago now if true proves I have returned from another planet if faulse I am man enough to understand what ever came was some kind of joke well laugh as I will as unlike many whom dont question things I want to find the truth as a family man father of 4 children logic would say keep mouth shut keep marching now on the other hand proves life continues beyond our realms and futher more flying saucers do exist and of course I am from Fyegoir a golden planet in another universe that would be a big surprise indeed anyway where the planets eclipsed in May 1958 or maybe time conception as who would know as time of entery to the body now I seen my enterey my birth this is really questionable phenomina now please respect my privacy as a family man some things are sensitive as many say in questioning we learn life is but a question unfolds the days we live our lives whom has the answers is indeed questionable within its self as we are all learning beings on the learning planet for the wise ones make it too the higher worlds for the greater knowlage we must question as the truth is out there ! so it is said ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.100.198.131 (talk) 11:43, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow - that's just one massive sentence...rather confusing...erm... Lra drama 12:24, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello. You may not realize it but your stream of consciousness post appears to be just shy of word salad to outside readers. The subject also, shows a lack of touch with reality. I know you believe what you are saying to be true and you already stated that it may "now sounds Nuts"— well I wouldn't have put it that way—but I hope you will give at least some consideration to seeing a mental health professional.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:07, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] referencing my edit to the article on Carmenere wine

Hi I'm a grower of this grapevine and yesterday made a change to the text to correct an error (about why the grapevine has a name derived from the french word for crimson). I attempted to reference this to myself - essentially a personal (though well qualified) comment - with a link to our website. The source of the information I was trying to reference to was our website page (http://www.amietta.com.au/nbspnbspnbspnbspnbspWines/AngelsShareCabernetblend/tabid/64/Default.aspx).

The change to the text has remained, but the reference and link have gone. So now the author of the incorrect data is referenced as the source of the corrected data. My ego isn't troubled - it's just that it's not an accurate reference. If you think it's worth changing, perhaps you could let me know how to do it. Regards Nicholas Clark Amietta Vineyard and Winery www.amietta.com.au —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.179.170.135 (talk) 13:20, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Looking at the article history, it was removed as a spam link. Please discuss this with concerned editors at Talk:Carménère. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sort table by numbers

I can't seem to get sorting by number of deaths to work at List of events named massacres. Any ideas how to fix it? Thanks! --Pascal666 (talk) 13:25, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I think you want Help:Sorting#sorting with hidden sortkey. Algebraist 13:44, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

You can use {{nts}} to do this. The problem is that you are sorting number, ranges of numbers and text. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:46, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for welcome message

Where would I go to request a welcome message for a new user? Here's his/her talk page: User talk:Jain puneet. He/She seems really keen and I'll help with the specific requests regarding WP:Verifiability but it would be nice to put up a welcome note. Also, who determines whether a new user receives a welcome message? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 15:32, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

You can use any of the templates listed at Wikipedia:Welcoming committee/Welcome templates. Any user can be given a welcome note, and although there is a welcoming committee, there's nothing to stop any user welcoming. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 15:39, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Peter! Zain Ebrahim (talk) 15:45, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

The template in question could be {{subst:welcome}} Mr. Green^{Hit Me Up}Userboxes 15:51, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I find WP:Friendly a useful tool. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy deletion of Vladimir Pak

--123FM (talk) )

Whay do you deleted Pak Vladimir??[1]--123FM (talk) 16:25, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Vladimir Pak has not been deleted, but it should be. See Wikipedia:Notability. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:40, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Whay??--123FM (talk) 16:41, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

There is no assertion of notability. Who is he? What makes him important? He is the mayor of Nevelsk, but that is another article with similar issues. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:49, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I added back the speedy tag and cautioned 123FM about removing it. – ukexpat (talk) 16:54, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Missed that. Its gone now. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:57, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] matlab problem with nonlinear curve fitting

Hi I made two functions

gaussian_rational.m

function [f]=gaussian_rational(q,p) An=[-0.0013 0.0136 -0.0550 0.1002 -0.0067 1.0000]; Bn=[-0.0091 0.0882 -0.3080 0.4143 0.0002 0.4364]; Cn=[-0.0071 0.0636 -0.1946 0.1961 0.0268 0.3036]; f=(polyval(An,p)+polyval(Bn,q))/(1+q*polyval(Cn,p));

transmittance.m

%funtion for calculating the transmittance function output=transmittance(coeff,z) %some other necessary data Imax=0.5787;leff2=1;leff3=1;z0=447; output=pfun((sqrt(2*coeff(1)*Imax^2*leff3))/(1+(z/z0)^2))*qfun((coeff(2)*Imax*leff2)/(1+(z/z0)^2))*gaussian_rational(((coeff(2)*Imax*leff2)/(1+(z/z0)^2)),((sqrt(2*coeff(1)*Imax^2*leff3))/(1+(z/z0)^2)));

then i used the second one in my main program

%loading input data load D:/B-62.5um-60-220uw-T200uw-1.dat zinp=B_62(:,1);tinp=B_62(:,2); tmax=max(tinp); tinp=tinp./tmax; figure plot(zinp,tinp,'r.'); figure tinp=smooth(tinp); [tmin,tposmin]=min(tinp); temp=zinp(tposmin);

for i=1:length(zinp) zinp(i)=zinp(i)-temp; end

plot(zinp,tinp,'.') XLABEL('Z in micro meters'); YLABEL('Transmittnce');

%some other necessary data Imax=0.5787;leff2=1;leff3=1;z0=447;

%initial guess

coeff0=[0.064 12.5];

[newcoeff,error] = lsqcurvefit(@transmittance,coeff0,zinp,tinp);

figure

I am getting the following error.

??? Error using ==> lsqncommon at 101 LSQCURVEFIT cannot continue because user supplied objective function failed with the following error: Error using ==> mpower Matrix must be square.

Error in ==> lsqcurvefit at 182 [x,Resnorm,FVAL,EXITFLAG,OUTPUT,LAMBDA,JACOB] = ...

Error in ==> program1 at 39 [newcoeff,error] = lsqcurvefit(@transmittance,coeff0,zinp,tinp);

can somebody please help me out............

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. Gtstricky^{Talk or C} 18:35, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Does this page need wiki cleanup?

The English on this wikipedia page is quite bad, and seems a bit stilted. But I don't know how to mark it for cleanup. Do you a) agree it needs cleanup, and b) if so, mind putting the tag in? Thanks - andrew. --212.183.134.210 (talk) 19:05, 2 June 2008 (UTC) THe page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_%C3%A0_responsabilit%C3%A9_limit%C3%A9e

{{copyedit}} certainly looks appropriate there. I'll add it for you. --ais523 19:16, 2 June 2008 (U T C)

Ah, someone else already tagged it (with the stronger {{cleanup-rewrite}}) while I was writing that. --ais523 19:18, 2 June 2008 (U T C)

(edit conflict)I added {{cleanup-rewrite}}, as I couldnt even make sense of a lot of it. I'd imagine this has been translated (poorly) from French. Fribbler (talk)

Administrations,Whay did you poorly translated from French?--123FM (talk) 20:51, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

For future reference: Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:14, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

outdent - I will try to clean it up a little tomorrow when I have more time. – ukexpat (talk) 00:08, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Becoming a wikipedia page patroler

How? Do you become a wikipedia page patroler 142.58.81.157 (talk) 21:29, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

All you have to do is monitor Special:Newpages. Also, you can add {{User wikipedia/NP patrol}} to your user page. Just mark the pages as patrolled (there's a link in the bottom right) as you look at them. Good luck! TN‑X-Man 21:33, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Well that might have been throwing the new guy into the fire :-) Your first step is probably to create an account - see here - and then read up on the Recent Changes Patrol instructions/guidelines. You will also want to familiarize yourself with applicable Wikipedia policies - start here. Let me know if you have any more questions! Tan | 39 21:40, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Fire, schmire. Just kidding. Tan39 is absolutely correct, though. Read up on the guidelines and create an account, but always feel free to jump in! If you have any questions, there's plenty of people willing to help out. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 00:47, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Superhero boxes

Hello. I am new to wikpedia and I believe there is something reffered to as "Superhero Boxes". They show the stats of superheroes and villains and whatnot. However I don't know how to make them. Help me please? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Techno^Punk (talk • contribs) 21:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia. I believe what you are referring to is what we call an "infobox". Infoboxes provide a standardized way to enter in summary data about an article's subject. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of infoboxes for all kinds of things, from politicians to plant species to comic book characters. The infobox you are probably interested in is {{infobox superhero}}. Also, please look at our information on templates on how to use all kinds of templates, including infoboxes, on Wikipedia. Lastly, you might be interested in Wikipedia's project on comics. The people there should be happy to assist you with comics/superhero-specific questions. Good luck! -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 22:10, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Usually an infobox appears in the lead section of an article, and sometimes this confuses new users, who don't see an obvious way to edit the text at the top of an article. See WP:LEAD#EDIT for tips. --Teratornis (talk) 02:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Changing Template?

Hi. I've uploaded the SVG version of an image on Commons.

now I see the "SVG image needed..." template can be changed with "SVG image available..." but I really can't work out how to do that.

can anybody help? thanks

this is the page I would like to edit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Germanen_50_n._Chr.png —Preceding unsigned comment added by Qiovanni (talk • contribs) 14:43, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your contribution to Wikipedia. You might be having problems changing the template because the image is actually not on Wikipedia, but on commons at commons:Image:Germanen_50_n._Chr.png. From here, you can click on "Edit", then just replace {{svg|map}} with {{Vector version available|new image name.svg}} -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 22:39, 2 June 2008 (UTC)