Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 July 10

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July 10

Liverpool Gay Quarter and Stanley Street, Liverpool articles

Hi, I started on wikipedia today, and have made two articles, one called Liverpool gay quarter, and one called Stanley Street, Liverpool. The Stanley St article has a big sign on it, which appeared about half an hour ago saying it is a candidate for deletion. Why is this so? It was cleared earlier yesterday by one of the admins called jimfbleak. Can you help to remove the deletion notice please? Also, when I try and upload an image, it says 'unauthorized', and I'm not sure why? Can you please help? (Richie wright1980 (talk) 00:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC))

Comment: It would be helpful if the speedy template linked to the previous deletion discussion, given that this is the reason speedy deletion is being proposed. It may (or may not) be the case that the editor who re-added the previously deleted material is aware of the discussion, but certainly others in the community, like me, who would like to assess the situation would be aided by such a link. --Tkynerd (talk) 00:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

For purposes of this discussion, the relevant deletion log entry is here. It's worth noting that the article does not appear to qualify under G4, as the article was previously speedied and there was apparently no deletion discussion. There is also relevant material on the talk pages of the deleting admin and the user who posted this question. --Tkynerd (talk) 00:48, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I have acted boldly and removed the tags. G4 only applies to articles deleted per Afd not to those speedily deleted.  –  ukexpat (talk) 00:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

We have a long-standing problem with misapplication of G4. I recently changed the admin drop down menu of automatic deletion summaries to highlight that G4 only applies to XfDs. I would guess that almost half the time articles are tagged with G4 the article was only previously speedily deleted. The speedy template ({{db-g4}} does have a parameter for indicating the deletion discussion but gives a generic message if you don't use the parameter. What would really help is if the tag breaks when you don't supply a link to the discussion discussion. This would help in another way; no admin should ever delete an article under G4 without checking that the deletion discussion exists, and further that the the repost doesn't address and ameliorate the reason for deletion reached. So anytime the template is used without the parameter, an admin is (we should hope) inevitably going to have to track down the deletion discussion themselves.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Problem signing talk pages

Whenever I sign a talk page with four tildes, it always comes out without a link to my page, like this: Metakraid 01:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone know why it does that? If it helps, I'm running a PowerPC-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and using Firefox 3 for my browser. Metakraid 01:42, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not too sure why that is happening, but try change the raw signature in your preferences. (change it to something like this: [[User:Metakraid|Metakraid]] ([[User talk:Metakraid|talk]]) Hopefully that helps. Midorihana みどり はな 01:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Or uncheck the box "Raw signature" at Special:Preferences and leave the Signature field blank. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:52, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

That was the problem: the raw signature box was checked. It works now. Metakraid (talk) 14:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

List of articles needing copyedits?

I came to the Altairnano page from a list of articles that needed copyediting. I patched that one up, and wanted to do another, but now I can't find the original page again. Anyone have a link? Maury (talk) 02:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You can find the backlog at CAT:CE. Someguy1221 (talk) 02:49, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

long missing friend

good pm sir madam..i would like to ask for your assistance to locate my friend <redacted> i was watching the program reunion in which they seek the missing person through your kind assistance,,,, i will be in very deep favor if you can give me some information about my bestfriend,,<redacted>,,he likes to sing and also a quite handsome person,,,we lost contact for so long and only your help is my result,,,THANK YOU VERY MUCH,,,,<redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.127.121.236 (talk) 03:09, 10 July 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.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:38, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Gameplay

Is "Gameplay" a proper compound word? --AeronPrometheus (talk) 03:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Please ask this question at the language section of the reference desk. This page is for questions related to using Wikipedia.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, thought I was in the right place. Not very well marked. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 03:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It couldn't be much better marked. The top of the page says, in gigantic letters: "This page is only for questions about USING Wikipedia." :) --Tkynerd (talk) 04:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

is there a search feature for village pump discussions?

I use Firefox on Ubuntu. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fourtildas (talk • contribs) 04:03, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You might want to look at a discussion on User:Teratornis's talk page here, that discusses this very thing: User_talk:Teratornis#Search VP? The answer there is very complete. I can't directly speak for Teratornis, but this user is extremely friendly and helpful (and a frequent patroller of the help desk to boot). -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 05:37, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Also -- if you look on Teratornis's user page, you'll find a link to do a Village Pump search (look under "helpful searches"). -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 05:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

To add to the above information: you can transclude the {{Help desk searches}} template onto your user page, like I did in User:Teratornis#Useful searches. If you want to know the technical details behind the search, read the documentation on the {{Google custom}} page. Let us know if you have any questions or find any problems with the search(es). --Teratornis (talk) 12:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

What's that image?

What is that image that appears on a Wikipediapage before the contents fully load? It is NOT the Wikipedia logo, but rather some strange watermark. Does anyone know what this image is? 64.136.26.230 (talk) 04:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC) (User:Gnorthup)

It's an open book. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You can see it here if you want. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

And at Image:Headbg.jpg: PrimeHunter (talk) 16:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Spaces vanishing after links

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Ocean#Reception In this section of this article, spaces vanish when putting a word after a wikilink. For example, this-- [[blahblahblah]] blah-- ends up looking like this when the page is saved or previewed-- [[blahblahblah]]blah--. I can't figure out why. Thanos6 (talk) 04:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

There is a wiki table just before that text. I'm not quite sure what that table is supposed to look like when it's working — it's obviously broken and I don't want to just remove it — but I do know that tables must end with "|}" on its own line. Placing that to its own line fixed the proceeding text spacing issue. I'll let someone else sort out whether the table should stay (or even what the hell it is).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

How to create a wiki profile

Hi,

I want to know how to create a wiki profile...

I am very much eager to know about this. Please help me out.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.169.146.133 (talk) 05:22, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Please see Your first article.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. You need an account, however, so you can't do it yet. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 07:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "profile." We don't use that word on Wikipedia. You can, however, create an account, make a user page, and edit your preferences. --Teratornis (talk) 12:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I should clarify: we don't use the word "profile" in the same way you may have seen other sites use it. If you mean something like a "user profile," then that falls under creating an account as in my answer; if you mean something like the profile of a company, a band, a famous person, etc., then that falls under creating a new article as in the first answer above. --Teratornis (talk) 13:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Article deletion

Hi there! I've been involved in editing Shadow Host article. I added band history, photos, discography and many more. But now it's all gone, and none of it is mentioned in the article history. The page looks just the way it looked in 2006! Can you please tell me what's wrong with it? Look how it looked recently (it's still in Google cache): http://74.125.39.104/search?q=cache:nwz3A_4DIMMJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Host+shadow+host&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3 Thank you! Ironguardian (talk) 05:54, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Your contributions to that article were deleted from the history as copyright violations since you copied them straight from the band's official website. Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted material. Someguy1221 (talk) 06:23, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

user name

How do I change my user name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diz67knee (talk • contribs) 06:34, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

At WP:CU...... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 07:43, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that page will be very useful, try Wikipedia:Changing username instead (WP:CHU). The hazards of shortcuts! --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Calculating Seconds to YDHMS

Is there any template that aids in converting raw seconds to YDHMS (Years Days Hours Minutes Seconds) format? Not the current time, but an expression derived from it. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 06:35, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the ParserFunction #time may be able to do something like what you want. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 08:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Template:Ft to m is out of order

At Cloud Gate {{Ft to m|33|66|42|wiki=yes}} is suddenly generating huge erroneous text. What is going on?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 08:25, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I've removed the template for now - I'm no good with parsers so I can't help further. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 09:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You'll have a better chance of getting a solution to this at the village pump. For what it's worth, {{rnd}} has been redesigned recently, so that might be the culprit. Algebraist 09:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

For the moment, adding a precision parameter unbreaks it:{{ft to m|33|66|42|wiki=yes|precision=2}} produces {{ft to m|33|66|42}}. Algebraist 10:05, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Able to access deleted page through google Search

Dear Sir/Madam,

One of my colleagues had wrongly created one page for Bharti AXA General Insurance on wikipedia and published it. The person had wrongly named the page as BhAarti axa general insurance. Althought the page has been deleted from wikipedia.org, though it is searchable using the keywords- bharti axa general insurance+wikipedia which takes it to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BhAarti_axa_general_insurance

requesting you to plz remove the link so that no one can access this page.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Rgds,

Abhishek Sinha Manager- Website Marketing Bharti AXA General Insurance co. Ltd. India — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bhartiaxa (talk • contribs) 09:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It will probably be gone next time Google combs the website. There's no need to panic now. weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 09:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Right. The html source at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BhAarti_axa_general_insurance contains: <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />. This tells search engines like Google to not index the page. Clicking "Cached" on the Google search results page shows that Google cached it June 12 which was before the deletion June 16. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Summary deletion of template

I am the creator an maintainer of, what was, RIP, Template:Fish market topics. This has just been through the deletion process and has been deleted and removed from all its article4s. However, although I have been thoroughly active during the deletion period, I had no idea this was happening. Can you please tell me what is the standard procedure for template deletions. Can anyone just go ahead and put templates up for deletion without the people who know about them being informed or being any part of the process? --Geronimo20 (talk) 09:30, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes messages are left on user talk pages, but the basic way to announce an XfD is to put the appropriate message on the page in question. It's assumed that users will put any pages they care about on their watchlist. In any case, the deleting admin has undeleted and relisted it. Algebraist 09:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... I have over 2000 articles on my watchlist and it's easy to miss something if it appears only once. That sort of makes watchlisting unpleasantly tense. --Geronimo20 (talk) 10:15, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Multiple AFDs

I want to do some multiple AFDs - how do I set them up? --Allemandtando (talk) 09:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion#How to list multiple related pages for deletion.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:35, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Searching for a special template

Hi! I want to include a note into the article Mitteldeutscher BC about the team's name. "Mitteldeutscher" is an adjective meaning "central German" and therefore makes no sense without a noun to which it can refer to. I often see it misused by people who probably consider "Mitteldeutscher" to be the region's name or sth., so I'm wondering if there is a template for such cases as I haven't found one. Best regards, --Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 11:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I fixed the article so that "Mittledeutscher" is never used singly. If you like, simply put a note on its talk page, describing why this is bad. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 13:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. I had just searched for something a little bit more striking, but it might be enough for now. --Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 14:55, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

changing main headline

how can I change the main headline of an article I wrote? ... the headline which is used in the search feature of wikipedia.

I made a misspelling as English is not my mother tongue.

Thanks for your reply

(Runner&Skater (talk) 11:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC))

I don't see any misspelling in the name of Firstbeat Technologies — is this the article you are referring to? I did, however, rename it to capitalize the "t" in Technologies. Is that what you were after? Note that the article is currently tagged for speedy deletion as a company that does not indicate the importance of the subject (section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion). The way to rename an article is to move it to a new title. However, your account must be autoconfirmed in order to do so, meaning it must have at least ten edits and be four days old, so you would have needed to make a few more edits and wait 3 days before you could have moved the article yourself.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Also, just as a friendly heads up, the "main headline" is generally referred to as the "title" of the article. Cheers! — Pie4all88 (talk) 18:21, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

what is the max amount of times you can change your username?

what is the max amount of times you can change your username? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.112.162 (talk) 17:33, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

There's no limit that I am aware of; however, as the rename is done manually by bureaucrats, they reserve the right to deny a rename if they feel that you are making an unreasonable amount of requests. You should create a name that you will want to keep to avoid the confusion surrounding renames in the first place. Xenon 54 18:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether I completely understand your question, but you might find some answers here: Wikipedia:Sockpuppet#Alternative accounts. ☺ Coppertwig (talk) 01:12, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Death certificate

HI, this is L-E-O-S

My questions is I'm 7 months pregnant now , I finally built the courage to order my child's father death certificate because I have absolutely no recollection of how he passed, (he passed in March)not getting full story from family. Not only do I need to know how for myself and my child for when she gets older,but I would like to have it for my records.

I'ved checked with multiple death record services on line but he isn't listed why is that and how do I go about finding him?

Thankyou your advice would be greatly appreciated!

HAVE A GOOD DAY — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.58.250.221 (talk) 19:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

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. -- Natalya 19:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You don't say which country you are in, but your IP address suggests you are in the USA. It could take some time before recent records appear online, and depending on local laws you might have to show a family relationship before you can access the records. Astronaut (talk) 23:11, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Your story sounds like the sort of thing that might get you on a talk show like Maury (TV series). Then you would have the show's staffers to track down such details. --Teratornis (talk) 04:43, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Stanley Street, Liverpool

Hi, I made an article called Stanley Street, Liverpool yesterday. However, when I type in 'Stanley Street' in the wikipedia search, my article doesn't show up. It shows Stanley Street, Brisbane; Stanley Street, montreal; Stanley street, Hong Kong etc....but no Stanley Street, Liverpool. Does anyone know why this is? (Richie wright1980 (talk) 20:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC))

I currently see Stanley Street, Liverpool wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmnbvcxzlkjhgfdsapoiuytrewq fixing the category on commons of the image. -mattbuck (Talk) 00:44, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

so you're saying that if a free image is used off of commons we shouldn't bother categorizing it here? that doesn't make much sense to me, since there exists large numbers of images on both databases and while image transclusion is already incorporated into the software, categories are reasonably not. Does there exist any actual policy/guideline on wikipedia that explictly discourages this? (Heck, even a Wikiproject's guideline would be useful) -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 02:04, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

well, i found what i was looking for on WP:COMMONS. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 03:57, 11 July 2008 (UTC)