Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 January 26

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January 26

Citations needed

Hi - Whats the code for the banner that indicates an article has an overall problem with a lack of citations or sources? Also, can you point me to a page that lists all the types of banners and markers that can be placed (like original research, etc) Thanks Maracle 01:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Template:Unreferenced, and the general list at Wikipedia:Cleanup resources. Ziggurat 01:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

thanks! I had missed it by searching on citations instead of references. Maracle 01:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Changing a title

Hello, A few days ago I started a new page for the National Physicians Alliance. I entitled it "National Physicians Alliance (NPA)", without realizing that when it is searched for as national physicians alliance, it doesn't automatically come up because of the (NPA) at the end.

How do I change the title from "National Physicians Alliance (NPA)" to "National Physicians Alliance"?

Thanks! Charlie

See the "move page" tab at the top? Just click that, type in the new title, click move, and presto! Otherwise, you can create a redirect at National Physicians Alliance. | AndonicO ^{Talk · Sign Here} 01:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I can't see the "move page" tab at the top- where is it? Charbergs 01:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You must be logged in to an account at least 4 days old to be able to move pages. You will see it once you have been registered for 4 days. Kamope · talk · contributions 01:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Once you are four days old (or more), it should be next to "edit this page". Ask me on my talk page if you need further instructions. Good luck! | AndonicO ^{Talk · Sign Here} 01:50, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Please remember the Wikipedia:Naming conventions. If it's not possible to mix up to meanings of a title, you don't need bracketed modifiers in the title. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Automobile articles

What are the main things an automobile article should have?Senators^{Talk | Contribs} 01:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I would include stuff about the car's history, its physical appearance, how it runs, some statistics (without making a huge list), and anything special about it. If you're interested in improving an article, especially regarding structure, check out the exemplary articles in that class -- featured articles and good articles, which have to go through a process to ensure that they're good.

• Featured articles about cars are: well, there's only one, De Lorean DMC-12
• Good articles about cars include: Caterham CSR, Ford Taurus, Mini Moke, Oldsmobile, MINI (BMW), Lincoln Town Car, Lancia Flaminia, Holden VE Commodore, Autobianchi Primula.

Granted, many of these articles about a car that is special, but looking through the structure of these should help. Also see this page and this page, the "Transport" section. Make sure to cite your sources, and good luck! Gracenotes^T § 02:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Can't Login

I can't seem to login, it logs me out as soon as it redirects. I tried changing my cookie settings to accept all but it still logs me out. I think it has to do with my IP address belonging to my satellite internet company and being used by a ton of people. Anyone know how to fix this or get around it? Any help is appreciated. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.142.130.45 (talk)

I think if you click "Remember me" when you log in, that should fix your problem. Raul654 02:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, because of abuse from open proxies, people aren't allowed to edit Wikipedia from one. See m:WM:OP/H for more information about that. Gracenotes^T § 02:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Try the secure login link. It's slower, but should retain your connection better on satellite. -- Kesh 02:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, secure login works like a charm. -- Ryan858 20:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The random article hotkey changed

The random article hot key (used to be alt-x) is now apparently alt-shift-x. Is this a Mozilla upgrade issue? or something with wikipedia? If it's the latter, can it be changed back?

sorry if I'm whining, I don't mean to.

Yep, it's an issue with the browser. See Wikipedia:Keyboard shortcuts for more information. Gracenotes^T § 02:53, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

HELP! Problems with Family Arena

The external links, categories, and template section, neither of them are showing up on display. They're all showing up on the editing page, but not on the display page. Any ideas why this might be happening? Tom Danson 03:12, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It was due to an unclosed <ref> tag. I've fixed it now and added <references/> under "Notes". G.He 03:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

templates

how do you make/get templates? I've been making do with copying userboxes from other users, but I'd like to make my own!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Link hyrule5 (talk • contribs)

Pretty much the same way you would create a new article. Go to a nonexistent user subpage like User:Link hyrule5/Template and create what you want. After that, you include your template in the source code with {{Link hyrule5/Template}} —Mitaphane _talk 05:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Of course, it's a good idea to check if the template you mean to create doesn't already exist. - 131.211.210.13 08:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, you can make a template by going to Template:Name of template here and simply use whatever you want to put in the template. Kamope · talk · contributions 12:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're looking for instructional info, take a look at Help:Template and Help:A quick guide to templates. -- John Broughton ^(♫♫) 14:34, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

help with email confirmation

I could not respond fast enough when I received "Wilipedia e-mail address confirmation" It said to confirm that this account really does belong to you and activate e-mail features on Wilipedia. Please open the link--- and I did not know how to put it in my Browser? Can you help me. I have a password. Wilma Mack - Coronado, Calif. 92118 (Removed email address for security)

You can already log in using your username and password. You don't need to confirm your email address to use Wikipedia. That is only to receive email from other users. I know that there are strange issues with email links and the AOL browser, and I don't know exactly what to do to fix that at the moment. I'll try to look around and get some help for you. But in the meantime, go ahead and log in, and post back here using your account so I can give you some helpful welcoming information. — coelacan talk — 06:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

tree nursery in nakuru

i wish to ask you if the green belt movement has a nursery tree in nakuru this is a friend who asked ,me to make the inquries on her behalf.am david mwangi and my email is [email removed]

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's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. --Joshua Chiew 10:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

How to suggest new editing button?

Where should I go to do this? I've seen a MediaWiki page that discusses this, but not one specifically for the WP editing toolbar. NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 12:16, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

General discussion about techical matters is at the technical village pump; specifically for suggesting changes to the toolbar, the page you want is MediaWiki talk:common.js. --ais523 13:00, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the prompt answer! NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 14:24, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Non-admin semi-protected a page -- where to report?

Hi. One of the pages on my watchlist has recently had the {{sprotected}} template added to it by a user who I'm pretty sure is not an admin, since he or she has an empty user page. My understanding, from reviewing the relevant page about semi-protection, is that only admins are supposed to protect and semi-protect pages. Where can I report this? --Tkynerd 15:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you talked to the user? Maybe it's just a newbie. Xiner (talk, email) 15:12, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Or maybe it's a vandal. Tkynerd, since you're sure that wasn't an admin who added the template, you certainly have the right revert the edit, no need make a report beforehand. Also, I would suggest warn the user a test1. This seems to me a clear vandalism. – PeaceNT 15:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh I've just thought of another possibility, based on your words about "empty user page", could it be an admin who got his/her page vandalised. Just to make sure, you know, maybe I have a weird imagination. :) – PeaceNT 15:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

There actually are at least one or two admins who refuse to have a user page (as in, if someone posts to it, which creates it, they automatically delete the page). If you have doubts about whether someone is an admin, one place to check is Wikipedia:List of administrators. -- John Broughton ^(♫♫) 16:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks -- that confirms beyond reasonable doubt that User:Oombiar is not an admin. I will remove the template from the page in question. Many thanks for the assistance. --Tkynerd 16:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Question

I have a few questions.

Does a wiki manage XML (imput and output)? Is it possible to create a hyperlink to an external file?

Thanx!

Gisela Van den Durpel

You may get more responses at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Cheers. Xiner (talk, email) 15:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Glossaries

Could someone please direct me to the guidlines on how these should look? So that's Wiki's guidlines for glossaries. Many thanks. ShizuokaSensei 15:55, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there is a presently a style guideline for glossaries (and someone will be along in short order to correct me if that is incorrect). However, a good way to tackle something new is to look at established examples. Please see: Glossary of pool, billiards and snooker terms, Topology glossary, Glossary of poetry terms or explore many others at Category:Glossaries.--Fuhghettaboutit 18:26, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If you mean an explanation of terms in a specific part of the article, this should generally be avoided. Instead, it is a common practice to link the terms to their own articles were further details are provided. Please refer to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links) for information on links and their usage. Michaelas10 (Talk) 18:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• • Many thanks for your replies. The article in question List of Japanese sex terms should in my opinion (if it has to exist at all) should be merely minimal explanation of each entry and a link to the article. Another editor believes details should be gone into on the conecpt of each entry. ShizuokaSensei 05:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
    • I'd say, WP:NOT#DIR would be the most appropriate thing. The article should be short, and its scope very well defined, if it exists at all. Any lists need to be narrow and brief, not long and overly complex. -- Kesh 22:44, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Harvard referencing and Cite.php

Does Cite.php support Harvard referencing. If so, is there documentation on how to use Cite.php in this way? --Gerry Ashton 18:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

No, it doesn't. You can do Harvard referencing by hand, though, if you want, or you can do it using the Footnote3 templates. See Wikipedia:Harvard referencing. --ais523 18:11, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Since each referencing system seems to be documented separately and without mentioning the merits of competing system, I was afraid I'd missed something. --Gerry Ashton 18:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Dimensions of an image

Hello,

I require to know the dimension in pixels of an image used on one of our articles, as it is of similar proportions to an image I want to request to be released for Wikipedia use. The image is Image:Transrapid.jpg, as used in the article 2006 Lathen maglev train accident. The image is currently being displayed as 188 pixels long, and how many wide? Blood Red Sandman Open Up Your Heart - Receive My EviLove 18:24, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The image as displayed is 188 pixels horizontal by 119 vertical. The original image on Commons is 833×526, and scaled down by the Wikipedia software to fit the article. The ratio appears to be, approximately, 1.6 horizontal to vertical. Nihiltres 18:33, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That's brilliant, thanks. Blood Red Sandman Open Up Your Heart - Receive My EviLove 18:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Article on Vietnam seems to have been vandalized.

in the heading...

"Vietnam War"

this line: "...The republician-held North Lansing was opposed by the Mexicans for its perceived ..."

I think should read "...The republician-held North was opposed by the Americans for its perceived ..."

(which is how the text does read if you click on the edit link).

The reason why it's correct when you clicked "edit" is that someone fixed it between the time that you read the article and the time that you tried to edit the article. Clear your cache and the article should be fine. Dismas|^(talk) 20:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

User Ratings?

As I was looking through the Recent changes, I noticed numbers next to people's usernames. What do these mean? I'll give an example. I saw someone who have a (-562) next to there name in deep red. Does that mean they vandalize or something. On the other side of the spectrum, I saw a (+200) or something like that which was in green. Does this mean they contribute a lot of good stuff? Thanks in advance. XP105

I really think someone should put up a link on the RC and watchlist pages to explain this stuff. It's poor UI design to leave it out, as everything else on those pages are self-explanatory. Xiner (talk, email) 19:54, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• I believe It means that those are the addition and subtraction of characters on a page. --D.H. ( T | C ) 20:28, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Watchlist#What do the colored numbers mean?. It's the amount of bytes changed. –Llama man 20:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• I wish it really was a user ranking. That would be... interesting to say the least. .V. -- (^Talk_Email) 20:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Cuidad Acuna

There is something wrong with the Article on Cuidad Acuna (city on the Texas/ Mexico border). throughout the article it references a person neamed "Grant Acuna" he is two presidents a doctor an attorney and a singer.

"presidents Grant Acuña and Grant Acuña met on the international bridge. Presidents Grant Acuña and Grant Acuña met for the dedication of Amistad Dam"

"It was managed by Grant Acuña, a medical doctor from Kansas"

"law offices of attorney Grant Acuña in Del Rio, Texas"

"Blame It On Mexico" a song performed by Grant Acuña"

• Fixed. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Help with content deletion issue for "TPG League"

Hello,

I am very new to this. I am trying to build a wikipedia entry for TPG League, but it looks like it is marked for deletion. I've tried to read your stuff on deletion, but frankly I don't understand it. CAL has a wikipedia entry here (they are a league similiar to ours) and I don't know what I need to do make the TPG League entry correct for proper addition to Wikipedia. Btw, I am Steve Bopple, the founder and general manager for TPG League.

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it :/—Preceding unsigned comment added by Sbopple (talk • contribs)

Right now the article Tpg league is being proposed for deletion. Looking at the tag's description, it appears an editor feels the organization's website doesn't meet any notability criteria for websites(WP:WEB). While notability is not official policy, it is a gauge many editors use to determine whether a article's topic has enough good outside sources to meet the policy for verifiability and original research. If you think the organization's website is significant in the world of online gaming, try finding other sources(other than its own website) to back up its significance. —Mitaphane _?|! 22:42, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Inappropriate picture.

Hello, I am a follower of the Baha'i religion. Today, I looked up the word "Baha'u'llah" in wikipedia.com. As you well know, Baha'u'llah is the founder of the Baha'i faith, the One we consider to be our prophet. In our religion, it is inappropriate to view the picture of Baha'u'llah, and on your website, there is also a link to a letter by our office of public affairs recommending to you not to expose that picture of Him on your website.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, I respectfully ask you to remove the picture of Baha'u'llah from your website. Even though you have the right to put His picture up, if you truely are men/women of honor and respect, consider removing that picture. Many Baha'is around the world would agree.

Thank you, and I hope you can resolve this issue.

Navid Newport (<email removed>)

PS: my wife looked at the same page last night and the picture wasn't there! are there different servers, one of which has a picture of Baha'u'llah?

• There's also billions of other people around the world who do not share your religion for whom it isn't inappropriate to watch that image. To accomodate both parties the lead section now includes a bolded warning to warn followers of Baha'i for the image. (See Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not censored)
  • That seems like a dodge to me. Other biographies include a photograph of the subject right at the top if available. Just because some people don't like seeing the subject's photo, why should we hide it? I'd bet there are a lot of biographical subjects whose photo is offensive to somebody. Since Wikipedia is not censored you should know if you read the article on Baha'u'llah, you might see a photo of him. —Dgies^t c 21:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
    • It wasn't me. The note was already there. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:10, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• It doesn't appear to have ever been at the top. I don't care much about the placement of the image, but his followers obviously do. So I think this is a reasonable solution. I do wonder where the image came from, though. The photographer must've looked at it at some point. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Category:Computer and video game covers

Hi, something has happened to put all images that are supposed to be in Category:boardgamecovers in Category:Computer and video game covers. I have no idea what's happened, is there any way to find out and fix it? Timkovski 21:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• As far as I can tell, Category:boardgamecovers never existed and neither did the properly spelled cat. Can you remember anything that was supposed to be in there? - Mgm|^(talk) 21:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • If you go to Category:Computer and video game covers, all the images in the first section (1) e.g. Image:100_mexicanos_board_game.PNG or Image:11bats.png are in that category because of the {{boardgamecover}} template (you can see it if you try to edit the image) this template used to put the images in a separate board game cover category. Thanks for the response. Timkovski 22:18, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
• I've left a note to the user who appears to be responsible for this. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:01, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Thanks for the help! Timkovski 00:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Unicode problem

Hi. When I try to edit articles, I get a message that "Your browser is not unicode compliant, which can make it difficult to edit pages with non-Latin characters. To work around this problem, non-ASCII characters will appear in the edit box below as hexadecimal codes." I am using Internet Explorer 7 ang it defenitely supports unicode. May be some settings are wrong? How to solve this problem?

Eugene.

View...Character encoding...Unicode? You may also want to try Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Xiner (talk, email) 01:09, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Of cource, browser encoding is set to Unicode. (Otherwise I couldn't see that message) As far as I understand, Wiki server doesn't recognise my browser and send numbers instead of letters. Thanks for the link, I'll try to ask there. Eugene.

Questionable edits to names

I came across a group of questionable edits (Special:Contributions/85.210.235.121) from a month or so ago, many of which seemed to be somewhat questionable adjustments of individuals' names (typically adding a middle name). Most of the adjustments appear to have remained untouched for the last several weeks. I have had trouble ascertaining the validity of these edits. I noticed that one edit (to Kenny Baker) appeared to be supported by information at IMDb, but I have been unable to confirm or refute the validity (based on IMDb or Google searches) of many of the other name adjustments, including the addition of middle names for James Belushi and Joe Pesci. Any suggestions for appropriate course of action? Would it be appropriate to undo all the name adjustments by this IP as unsourced? Thanks.--GregRM 21:55, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The IP's edit to Frank Lampard was reverted. This is suspicious. Xiner (talk, email) 22:00, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• I've come across such behavior before and documented the user's edits in my scribble pad linked on my userpage. I suspect they are related and I will investigate further. Please let me know if you find any other such accounts. -Mgm|^(talk) 22:51, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I came across a few similar edits from another IP: Special:Contributions/85.210.251.210.--GregRM 00:01, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Some Alt-Key combinations don't work

The following Alt-Key combinations do work for me:

• Alt-V for diffing an edit before saving.
• Alt-P for previewing the edit.
• Alt-S for saving the page after an edit.

However, the following combinations don't work for me:

• Alt-W for switching to my watchlist.
• Alt-N for going to my Talk page.

I'd particularly like to have Alt-W working. Can anyone suggest a remedy for this? I'm using IE 6.0 SP2. Thanks. Tanaats 22:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes, shortcut keys do not work certain skins. Kamope · talk · contributions 00:20, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I suggest you change your skin to Monobook (default) to use Alt-W. Kamope · talk · contributions 12:25, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

How do you submit an arbitration request?

I have a dispute with a registered user, can fill out the template for arbitration, but don't know how to submit it. Can someone who has done this before please advise? Thanks. 4.240.183.104 23:26, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Resolving disputes. Note that Arbitration requests are not accepted without prior attempts at dispute resolution. —Centrx→talk • 23:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Centrx: That link only gets me to the template to use. There's no instructions how to SUBMIT the arbitration request, and yes the dispute is with someone who refuses to discuss the change but keeps reverting back to his desired version.

Please see Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration. Follow the instructions there to request arbitration and, if it's accepted, an admin will open the actual arbitration page. -- Kesh 01:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Non-public references

If a web reference isn't accessible without registering first, should it be permissible? I'm referring to the two (newly added) references at Reading Fans, which is a page I have questioned the purpose of at Talk:Reading Fans. Antgel 23:55, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• It's permissible as long as the link states clear it is required. But the article should have some sources that are not the club themselves. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
• Having a subscription-only reference is allowed, but inherently problematic. Especially if fees are involved. Best to cite the actual contents, so folks can see the relevant text without having to subscribe. Plus, these should only be used in articles that are already well-referenced. If, for instance, a stub had two subscription-only links as its sole references, that would not help it survive an AfD. -- Kesh 20:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)