Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 July 11

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July 11

Responding to another user's question on my talk page.

Hello,

I got a message from another user about some edits I made recently. How do I respond to her message? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tommy9281 (talk • contribs).

Please sign messages here and on talk pages with ~~~~. This automatically makes a link to your user page. The editor apparently signed the message on your talk page, so you can click there and (assuming it's the right editor) get to User talk:Arwen undomiel. There you can reply by first clicking + at the top for a new section, or "edit" to the right of a section you want to continue discussion in. You can also answer on your own talk page in the same section, but it's possible the other editor will not notice the answer there. PrimeHunter 03:43, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

content overlapping taxobox

I added some images to the Pileated Woodpecker article and I'm having trouble with the formatting. The images are overlapping the taxobox.

David.margrave 05:45, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

One fast option is to use this wikitext right above the gallery: <br clear="all"/>

This will push the gallery below the taxobox. For now this will create some white space between the article text and the pictures. However, if you are planning to lengthen that text this might be a good solution. --JayHenry 06:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Lyrics redirect

--71.82.147.213 06:30, 11 July 2007 (UTC) Background: On LyricWiki, there is a song (an older one) that is known as a sort of false name (due to it's internet distribution) The song is "Conversation with W. Cullen Hart," better known as "Conversation with Robert Schneider" by Neutral Milk Hotel

Problem: I want to be able to redirect a lyric search from "Conversation with Robert Schneider" to the W. Cullen Hart page. I cannot get the tag right to send it to the lyrics, instead of sending it to the wiktionary page...

Proposal: If you could assist me by explaining what #redirect is looking for to send the user to other lyrics, I would be appreciative.

If LyricsWiki works like Wikipedia, you'd use #REDIRECT [[Conversation with W. Cullen Hart]] --Haemo 07:10, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Image copyright

I uploaded an image at the request of another user. You can see what I've done here. Is there anything I, or Tom, now need to do to correct the copyright/licensing status? You'll see that the licence itself contains my user name, although the situation is explained in the narrative. AndyJones 07:08, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

This question seems to belong on Commons, but never mind that. I think it's enough to replace the image copyright tag with {{PD-self|author=I, [[:en:User:Tom Reedy|Tom Reedy]]}}. I'd do it, but I think it looks less suspicious if you do it yourself. --Pekaje 10:51, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Aircraft Navigation

An airline which is flying on an international route is under which countries atc? Before entering the international air border what procedures the pilot had to undergo?

Your question is better suited for the Wikipedia:Reference desk, but I can give a bit of information. It depends on where you are... the control services over the North Atlantic, for example, are shared between Canada and Europe. See this link and this link for information about this specific case. Sancho 07:18, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Forgotten password

My computer dumped all of its preferences the other night. (Not my doing...it just got a wild hair.) Since I generally have Wikipedia remember me I don't often log in and couldn't remember my correct password. I clicked the button to have a new one sent, but what was sent to me doesn't work. I have both typed it in (case sensitive of course) and cut-and-pasted it, and either way I get a notice saying that it's the wrong password. The same thing happened the few other times I've forgotten my Wikipedia password. Any clue what I might be doing wrong? PurpleChez 11 July 07 7:35 AM EST

I'm not sure. The system is such that, temporarily, your chosen password and the password in your email will both work. On that principle, I recommend that you ask for yet another new password and try that one. If it still doesn't work, try posting your question on the bureaucrat noticeboard because the b'crats handle username issues. Shalom ^Hello 12:18, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

External Links

Hi,

Our company have recently developed a range of Talking Mobile Phone Phrase Books which are absolutely free for people to download and we notice that there are external links on some of your pages to other languages products.

For example:

The page on German Language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language has an external link going to http://www.german-flashcards.com/ which requires registration amongst other things.

We feel our offering is relevent to this page and many others and since it has many advantages both socially and environmentally we would like to put up some external links.

We have tried this ourselves although they always appear to go the next day although other, premium services seem stay.

Can you help?

Many Thanks

Roy Forsdick —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.9.156.13 (talk • contribs)

Projects

How do I tell other Wikipedians about my idea for a project in a way that makes the project possible? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.204.179.219 (talk)

What's the idea about and do you mean a Wikipedia:WikiProject? There are many places to make different kinds of suggestions, for example Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals, and the idea may already have been considered. Other editors may take you more seriously if you register an account and sign your messages with ~~~~. PrimeHunter 13:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Also see WP:ACCOUNT, WP:SIG, and WP:PROJGUIDE. If you want to tell some specific Wikipedians about your idea, you can leave messages on their user talk pages. If you told us (the Help desk) the idea you have mind, that is if you made your question definite rather than hypothetical, then we could give you some correspondingly definite advice. Hypothetical questions get hypothetical answers, not to say that the hypothetical answers are bad, they just might be wide of the mark depending on what you really have in mind. --Teratornis 16:20, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Who edits Wikipedia?

How will you edit your site regularly? Does all the topics which are updated done by the users only? Or is there any comittee for updating? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.7.115.222 (talk • contribs)

See Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia. --Teratornis 16:08, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

will i get banned

hi My brother likes vandalising wikipedia i dont. If he keeps vandalising using our ip adress will i get my name get banned because of him? --Gustyfalcon 14:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Fortunately, what's likely to happen is that only unregistered users from your IP will be blocked from editing - you'll be fine, you won't be blocked or banned. :) I remember when that wasn't possible and everyone on an IP was blocked - it was once a frustrating issue. I recommend that you monitor your brother's activities and revert his vandalism if it isn't corrected immmediately. Hope that helps, Nihiltres^(t.l) 14:10, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Looking for a "My Wiki" type of interface

Hello all.

I am looking to create a type of "My Wiki" for my employees where I / my employees can choose items relevent to our jobs / company and have them listed in one place for all employees to access.

Therefore, my employees use a single username and go to this location to view info that I / we select. We can also modify the info, etc.

Is this functionality available?

Thanks!

jgaleza —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jgaleza (talk • contribs)

Yes. See that "Powered by MediaWiki" icon at the bottom of the page? Click on it, download MediaWiki, and install it on your company's web server. Then, you will have your own company version of Wikiepdia. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:28, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

See Corporate wiki, b:Wiki Science/How to start a Wiki, mw:Manual:Wiki on a stick (to install MediaWiki as your own personal wiki to experiment with), and search the Help desk archive for: start wiki. (Also see TWiki, because while the MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia is excellent wiki software by any measure, MediaWiki may not have as many business-specific features your company would want as TWiki might.) Be aware that while it is fairly easy for any competent system administrator to install MediaWiki and start your own wiki, initially your wiki will be very plain, and your employees' initial attempts to edit on it may be very uneven. To build your own wiki with quality similar to what you see on Wikipedia requires a lot of work. It also requires your employees to comprehend how they can exploit wiki technology in their work, and they may take some time to get it. Most people have never edited on a wiki before, so they have a lot of habits which need updating, and they may not realize this at first. I call this the "jet engine on a balloon syndrome," where people see a new technology, and initially try to force their existing tools and work habits onto it, rather than re-thinking what they do and developing new habits more suited to the new technology. This is analogous to a hypothetical culture of balloonists who suddenly find themselves with jet engines, whereupon their first reflex is to try strapping jet engines onto their balloons. Jet engines obviously don't work very well with balloons; to use a jet engine to full advantage, one has to throw out the old platform of the balloon and design a completely new airframe to work with the new kind of engine. Someone who straps a jet engine to a balloon is likely to develop an unfairly negative impression of the new technology. With wikis, you may have people who reject the technology because it doesn't let them continue typing their documents in Microsoft Word, for example. Another example is communicating on talk pages; new users may be more likely to think in terms of communicating via e-mail which is familiar to them. The whole notion of collaborative editing takes getting used to as well; most people have no experience with a system that lets anybody in a large group of people edit everybody else's stuff, and a whole bunch of expectations and assumptions have to change. --Teratornis 16:03, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Writing an Article

How do I gte started with the article. How do i create a page for it?

-Saad —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saadwarraich (talk • contribs)

Read the instructions on the top of this page - especially the one with the link to Wikipedia:Your first article. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:30, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Removing a Copyright Tag Notice

Thanks for the info regarding removing a no-copyright-tag warning from my photo, Image:AdamSolomonArt.JPG. However, I do not know how to remove the notice (I have already added the requested tag). Any suggestions?

Thanks Goldengooseproductions 15:06, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia

Where do I get the template to welcome other Wikipedians?

The Ronin 15:15, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Welcome templates. tiZom_(2¢) 15:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Retire

I hd recently notced a retired user. How does one retire from Wikipedia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cheesecake92 (talk • contribs).

To retire, you simply stop editing with your account. There is no need to do anything further, except possibly you might like to indicate on your userpage that you have retired so people are aware of this. Will (aka Wimt) 15:58, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Like by adding the {{retired}} template.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Add new External Link to Coca-Cola article

how do I add to the External links for the Coca-Cola article?

What is my Coca-Cola collectible worth?

Good resources to get more information about Coca-Cola collectibles and determine potential value.

Available at http://www.2collectcola.com/page/ACC/value

Copyright Always Collectors Corner 2collectcola.com must be noted in the article. Written by Linda Harry. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mymaddison (talk • contribs).

External links should satisfy the guideline Wikipedia:External links. If you have a Wikipedia:Conflict of interest then don't add it. You can suggest it at Talk:Coca-Cola instead. Many people would probably like to have their link in Coca-Cola, but Wikipedia is not a directory. PrimeHunter 17:36, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Barber's pole

why is the barber shop`s color red, blue and white —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.100.234.170 (talk • contribs)

See Barber's pole. --Teratornis 16:33, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Size of wikipedia

How many terabytes of data does Wikipedia take up? —User:AL

& yes, I read Size of Wikipedia

Dunno how many terabytes, but at the current moment, Wikipedia has 6,917,203 articles and 48,333,550 total users. —« ANIMUM » 16:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Size comparisons mentions words and estimated characters in 2006. Images must require a lot of the total data but I don't know the size. PrimeHunter 17:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Technical FAQ#How big is the database? says: "As of late August 2006, database storage takes about 1.2 terabytes" PrimeHunter 15:55, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

where to get the latest ver of Vermunt's ILS

(I deleted the question. This page is for questions about using Wikipedia.) Shalom ^Hello 19:48, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

See Learning styles and David A. Kolb and follow their links. Also try Google:Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles. (It's probably worth noting that even though education reformers have been continuously reforming education every few years for more than a century, children today still learn with about the same efficiency as did the children of Ancient Greece.) Even though the Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer#Questions belonging on the Reference desk suggests trying to answer Reference desk questions anyway. In many cases, answers are available from a simple search of Wikipedia or a search engine. I wonder how many more educational reforms and gimmicks will be necessary to enable everyone to do their own Web searches? --Teratornis 20:05, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

How can I remove a box?

Like on this article?

The indenting spaces that were at the beginning of each line is interpreted as a box. Removing the spaces seems to have taken care of that problem, although some content & formatting work is still needed. jeffjon 19:15, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!Shikyo3 23:06, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

No Fair Use Rationale/No Source Tags

I was just wondering, what were the names of the templates for not having a fair use rationale or source? I used them once but I can't remember them (though I think it was {{subst:nfux}} or something among those lines). Also, it would help if I could find the link to the page that listed them. Thanks! SmileToday☺(talk to me , My edits) 19:49, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind. SmileToday☺(talk to me , My edits) 20:34, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

redirect

can you tell me what's wrong? trying to redirect inkwells to inkwell #REDIRECT inkwell but comes up with text #redirect Palmiped 19:51, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict x1) Fixed it, you just added an extra line after the redirect, and redirects should be just what you put, except without extra text, including spaces and new lines. SmileToday☺(talk to me , My edits) 19:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

cheers Palmiped 20:09, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

secure.wikimedia.org

I am forced to log in through secure.wikimedia.org to make edits because I use HughesNet. I am wondering if there is a way for me to change my computer settings to stop the annoying "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items. Do You want to display the nonsecuse items?" It comes up every time I switch pages on here, and is very annoying. It gives me no option to stop asking me or anything. (67.142.130.43 20:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC))

All you have to do is click yes. If there is a button with text that says "do not show me this message again", click on it. Razorclaw (talk · contribs) 20:40, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

That is the problem, there is not the normal "do not show me this message again", and frankly it is annoying clicking yes every time I switch a page, make an edit, et cetera. On this site, my answer will always be the same. It seems insane that I would have to click yes every time. (Mind meal 21:10, 11 July 2007 (UTC))

There might be an option in the "Internet Options" section of the tools. SmileToday☺(talk to me , My edits) 21:13, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

There might be. But, as of now I can't find it. This is nuts! There must be a way to stop this security box from coming up every single time I switch pages. It nearly defeats the purpose of having broadband for faster editing, et cetera. An extra click that is not necessary. (Mind meal 21:27, 11 July 2007 (UTC))

• I found the answer to my question. I went to Internet Options > Security> Custom Settings > Miscellaneous > Display Mixed Content> Clicked "Enable". No more box! :) (Mind meal 21:34, 11 July 2007 (UTC))

Membership Confirmation email expired before stated expiration time.. Trouble reregistering.

I received from you:

Wikipedia e-mail address confirmation

Someone from the IP address 70.19.56.253 has registered the account "Anitanyc" with this e-mail address on the English Wikipedia.

To confirm that this user account really does belong to you and to activate e-mail features on Wikipedia, please open this URL in your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Confirmemail/013a20563d7aad53cb51439b694d913b

If you did not recently register for Wikipedia (or if you registered with a different e-mail address), please do *not* click on the link.

This confirmation e-mail will automatically expire at 19:02, 11 July 2007 (UTC). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I tired to confirm well within expiration time at least 4 times in manner described. Each time got following response:

~Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org

e.g. 17:20 EST 7/11/07 Invalid confirmation code. The code may have expired. Anitanyc 21:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

---

What is the proper format for citing magazine articles?

What is the proper format for citing magazine articles? Globalinfo 23:24, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Use this template:

{{Citation | last = | first = | author-link = | last2 = | first2 = | author2-link = | title = | newspaper = | pages = | year = | date = | url = }}

--Haemo 23:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)