Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 June 18

Help desk
< June 17	<< May | June | Jul >>	June 19 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

June 18

changing page font size

I am partially sighted and MUST change page font for viewing as well as printing. I cannot find out how to do both. Please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fmcom (talk • contribs) 00:04, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

You can change the font size in your browser. In firefox, this is in the View menu, then Zoom. In Internet Explorer, it's Page, then Zoom. Both use the same keyboard shortcut of holding down the CTRL and + key to zoom in, or CTRL and - (minus) to zoom out. Hope this helps! Gazimoff ^Write_Read 00:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

They asked about printing too. Does that work with printing? I don't think it does. —teb728 t c 00:46, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

True. Page Setup from the file menu in both programs should allow you to adjust the scaling or zoom, depending on your printer driver. Having said that, the Zoom option has worked for me when printing in Internet Explorer. Hope this helps, Gazimoff ^Write_Read 00:49, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah, yes. The reason I thought it didn’t work for printing was because of the Shrink-to-Fit feature (bug?) in IE7. I disabled that, and now it seems to work fine. —teb728 t c 17:52, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Cancel Account

Hi how do I cancel this I thought it was something else thanks Kelly —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lemonaid21 (talk • contribs) 00:15, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Due to the fact that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. You do, however, have the right to vanish, which you can exercise by (1) requesting your user page (found at Special:Mypage) and/or user talk page (found at Special:Mytalk) be deleted, by adding the {{db-userreq}} template to them; (2) requesting to change your username to something that is unconnected with you (possibly a random collection of letters and numbers); (3) never logging in to your account again. If you do this, you are still free to register a new username if you wish to continue editing Wikipedia. Paragon12321 (talk) 00:24, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The only edit he's made was to request that his account be deleted. Shouldn't there exist a means to delete an account with zero edits (or essentially zero in this case?) Caerwine Caer’s whines 03:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure that would be necessary. Lemonaid could just not login anymore and there shouldn't be a problem. If someone else wanted the name, I think this one edit isn't GFDL signifigant. It should be usurpable. Paragon12321 (talk) 05:00, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Appropriate Infobox

What would be an appropriate infobox for Judith Sheindlin? There seem to be more than one that apply. I'm torn between {{Infobox Officeholder}}, which is said to cover "Congressman, Governor, Judge, Mayor, Politician, President, Senator, Vice President, etc.", because she is/was a family court Judge, or the more broad {{Infobox Person}} infobox, because she's no longer a Judge and is considered a "television personality" now... or even any other infobox. Any advice? Thanks. Save-Me-Oprah^(talk) 03:16, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Personally, I would go with Person. I think Officeholder would be preferred in Judge Judy had an elected judicial seat, like a Superior Court judge or something like that. Paragon12321 (talk) 05:02, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

This question should really be made on the article's talkpage, so I'm going to move it there now. Please make any additional comments there. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 18:35, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Is this article consider encyclopedic?

I found this artcle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Chan and the only thing he really has done is provide his voice for one of the power rangers. Does that make him "notable" enough? Also, there are no citations for other claims made in the article. Sorry if this is the wrong place, but when I registered I wanted to work on images but it seems I'm not allowed to do that. I thought this was an encyclopedia anyone can edit, not anyone can be in it. :p It's all very confusing trying to find anything useful to help edit. I mean using the wikilanguage markup.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Catagraph (talk • contribs) 04:04, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I believe that Jason Chan qualifies as notable under WP:Notability (people)#Entertainers in that he has had significant roles and has appeared in notable TV shows/ films. The citation issue is slightly more worrisome, you may want to tag the article with {{unreferenced}} to draw attention to that fact. When you say you want to work with images, to what were you referring? Also, what do you find confusing about the wikimarkup? I'd be happy to help answer any questions. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 11:49, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello Catagraph, and welcome to Wikipedia. One reason you may be temporarily prevented from doing some of the things you want to do here is because your account is not yet "autoconfirmed". You already have the ten edits necessary, so once your account is more than four days old (which will happen late on 19th June), you will become an autoconfirmed user. You will then be able to upload images, move pages and edit semiprotected pages. Don't be discouraged. Good-faith contributors are warmly welcomed here, there is plenty to do, and the technicalities of it aren't half as daunting as they seem (otherwise technophobes like me wouldn't have a chance). And there are plenty of people who will be happy to help if you need it.

Just one small tip - when you post a comment on a talk page, remember to sign your contribution with four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This is a quick way of producing a signature and date stamp, so other users can see who has posted the comment and when. Don't use signatures in articles, though. Good luck and happy editing! --Karenjc 18:25, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Coming back

Hello all i was once a seasoned editor of wikipedia articles i am now interested in continuing my work as a wikipedian. so i am wondering if i could just be told about any significant new changes or policies or anything that i should know about before i go article fishing. spesifically, what is new since the year 2006?? just a brief summary of what has become of wikipedia in the past 2 years. I would would greatly appreciate any responces, Randy6767 (talk) 05:35, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Hm. I'm not sure how much you need be concerned about policy change in general terms, if you're sticking by the 5 pillars then you're probably largely OK anyway, and it'd be easier to pick up any changed details as you go along. In my opinion anyway.

Here's a random sampling of events anyway (and some gossip ;-)). Were Oversight and OTRS around when you were last here? Bad Jokes And Other Deleted Nonsense had an overhaul in order to solve some GFDL problems (too many copy-and-paste jobs). Wikiversity appeared, as did a CD selection. A few rounds of controversy you may have heard about in the media (one even has an article); most are the usual "paid editing" and biography problems, although we did — entirely accidentally — block all of Qatar at one point. Had you seen that Larry Sanger opened Citizendium? Also I hear that Jimmy Wales is trying to concentrate more on Wikia at present. The German Wikipedia has been making its usual leaps and bounds, and was planning a print version at one point. I see you have one or two userboxes, there was some discussion on that subject. A few staff changes at the WMF.

Most importantly of all, though, we hit two million articles in 2007, and the Hungarian Wikipedia claimed the ten millionth across all the languages! --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 12:48, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I forgot to mention SUL, how silly of me. --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 13:07, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

And the requirement for use rationales for non-free images is now enforced. —teb728 t c 18:13, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The WP:EIW#Editor's index might be a significant tool addition (not a change in policy). --Teratornis (talk) 21:43, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I think you'll find that there is a far greater emphasis on providing reliable sources in articles, and greater restrictions on use of non-free images. Bovlb (talk) 22:19, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Exactly how do i create an informative image?? that is a skill that seems to completely have escaped me and im not sure why.. well i was never one for imagery in my old editing days but now i see a perfect opportunity to add an imformative image and i have the image i want to use, but i found it on google images so idk if that has an effect on weather or not its usable. but at any rate what is the formatting and the whole process i need to type through to add an informative image to an article? Randy6767 (talk) 22:52, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Summaries of changes to the Manual of Style since May 2008 are now at User:Tony1/Monthly updates of styleguide and policy changes. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 23:01, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

"I found it on Google Images" is almost guaranteed to be a fail for an image (and surely it was back in the day, too). Like Bovlb and TEB728 referred to above, any image that is not either public domain or freely licensed (GFDL, Creative Commons etc.) must have a fair use rationale that includes the source of the image, and an explanation as to why the image is so important to people's understanding of the article you use it in. You will probably want to read WP:IMAGE, WP:IUP and WP:10I. For more general catch-up, try the Wikipedia Signpost, which has covered major Wikipedia-related news for some time. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:42, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Then what are some good sources of imagery? it isn't hard to find an image to the affect im looking for, so where would you suggest i look to find it? Randy6767 (talk) 00:21, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

See WP:EIW#ImgResources. --Teratornis (talk) 01:36, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Randy6767 (talk) 02:03, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Repeated Deletions

On the Bill Kaysing page, an anon IP address user keeps deleting materal and reverting other people's edits (including mine). This includes deleting references, links to other Wikipedia pages, and statements that are supported by reliable sources. This person clearly has a non-encyclopedic agenda and is not interested in discussion. I have asked them to stop, now they are making personal attacks on me. How do I deal with this situation? Logicman1966 (talk) 06:01, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Could you state the IP adress. Anonymous101 (talk) 07:04, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Please note that Wikipedia is not a reliable source and the llinked Wikipedia article from the content you added does not seem to support the claim. Anonymous101 (talk) 07:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Huh? I am not saying that Wikipedia is a reliable source; I am saying that the 115 references cited on the "moon landing hoax" page ARE reliable sources. And as far as I am concerned, those references most definitely DO support the statement that "all of Kaysing's claims have been debunked". The "moon landing hoax" page lists all known hoax claims (including every one of Kaysing's claims), and then it provides a rational explanation for every claim, using reliable sources. Logicman1966 (talk) 07:59, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Function

What does <span class="dablink"> do?68.148.164.166 (talk) 09:35, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

This is used to add "disambiguation-link" formatting to a piece of text (i.e., currently this is "italic and indented"). See the example below.

example:

<span class="dablink">This is an example.</span>

result:

This is an example.

It is used in templates like {{dab}} used to add the disambiguation notes at the top of pages like, for example, Jupiter ("This article is about the planet. For other uses, see Jupiter (disambiguation).").

--_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 09:40, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The dablink class is defined in MediaWiki:Common.css. It formats in italics with indentation. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:48, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

FYI, as far as I know, the class not encouraged for actual direct dablink use on Wikipedia — instead, use the template {{dablink}} or one of its many relatives. That way, the format of hatnotes can be changed in one swoop if the need or desire arises.$\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 19:03, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Huggle

Resolved

 – I've granted rollback. Be careful, though, as any misuse will result in its removal. PeterSymonds (talk) 12:41, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes,I know that I am an inexperienced user (only 100 edits) but would like to tryout Huggle.If I make some destructive edits,I'll make sure to never use it again. I have never vandalised,and promise to use it for the good of Wikipedia only. Please,give me a shot! :D--Fireaxe888 (talk) 12:33, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, Huggle can be downloaded by anyone, but the user must have rollback rights in order to use it. So I think you must go to Wikipedia:Requests for rollback and make your case there.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:39, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

flowers

can u tell me what flower represents july as i would like a picture so i can get a tatto of the flower for that mounth done if u have a picture of it can u put that up to thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.0.63.0 (talk) 13:08, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I think it's Consolida ajacis, also known as the rocket Larkspur, according to sites here, here and here. Please note that this may not be accurate, as I've been unable to find any reliable sources to verify this as accurate. Sorry I can't be much more help, Gazimoff ^Write_Read 13:23, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

This is probably a question for the reference desk, but if you're looking this up for something as permanent as a tattoo then you probably want to check somewhere more authoritative than just us, as we're the proverbial "bunch of guys on the internet"! :-) --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 13:28, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Username history

Is there a tool for seeing what names a user has previously had, and since moved away from? Rambo's Revenge (talk) 16:56, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

In a way. There is the checkuser function that is limited to a very small set of trusted users that can be used to help determine this information (however, the results of checkuser are not perfect). However, it should be noted that checkuser is not to be used unless there is a very good reason and requests for checkuser without such a reason will be denied. Also remember that all users have a right to vanish -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 17:05, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

If a user has had their username changed by a bureaucrat, then their old username will include a log entry identifying the new name. You may also get a hint if their user page or user talk page includes moves due to name changes. But as far as I know there's no general tool. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:34, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Is this e-mail OK?

Can I e-mail this to the owners of a Spanish website who I think have violated the GFDL by translating the Wikipedia article World Bodypainting Festival to Spanish without citing a source, and claiming to reserve all rights? JIP | Talk 17:45, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello! I have noticed you have an article about the World Bodypainting Festival on your website at http://www.cosmetologas.com/detalle.php?contenidoID=193. Please be aware that your article is essentially a translation, and thus a derived work, of the English Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bodypainting_Festival, which is released under GFDL. The GFDL requires published derived works to also fall under the GFDL. Therefore you have violated the license by failing to cite the source of your material, and by claiming to reserve all rights. The GFDL does not allow the publisher to impose stricter restrictions on derived works based on GFDL material. You are advised to revise your license, or possibly face legal consequences. Sincerely, (my name).

Looks good to me. Well spotted. PeterSymonds (talk) 17:46, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

You might want to mention explictly that you are essentially the author of the Wikipedia article, so it's your copyright that's being violated. Algebraist 17:50, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Good idea. I will have to improve the message. I want to spend it in Spanish to make sure the website owners understand it, but I don't know Spanish myself. Therefore I'll have to make a final sketch in English and ask someone to translate it to Spanish for me. JIP | Talk 17:53, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Seems to me that there are some boilerplates for this. Let me poke around. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:57, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Standard GFDL violation letter --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Looks good (especially the "letter aimed at a specific violation"), but the fact that the violation is in Spanish causes two additional problems:

1. The website owners own the copyright to the translation itself, although not to its source. The standard GFDL violation letter does not acknowledge this.
2. I can modify the letter mentioned above to mention this, but I can only do it in English. Someone will still have to translate it to Spanish for me. I see there is a Spanish version of the standard GFDL violation letter page too, but it only has one version, which I think is much less specific. JIP | Talk 18:15, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Also: Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks#Non-compliance process. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:43, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I have sent them the message I wrote above, translated to Spanish. I'll have to see whether they reply. If they do, I'll ask someone to translate it to English so I can understand it. Otherwise, what can be done? Can we pursue legal action? JIP | Talk 17:32, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

You (not us, it's your copyright) are certainly (insert legal disclaimer here) entitled to pursue legal action. The link Gadget850 provided has some suggested follow-ups, including a DMCA takedown notice. All in English again, unfortunately. Algebraist 17:38, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! All this feels kind of strange to me, because the festival itself, the subject of the article this is all about, is all the idea and work of completely different people, and they are not involved in this matter. The festival's official website has lots of more material, but neither Wikipedia or this Spanish site can use it, because it falls under the organiser's copyright. Apparently they thought it would be easier to translate material from Wikipedia rather than from the official site. I plan to go to the festival in July and take lots of pictures. I'll certainly make sure to respect their copyright if I plan to publish any pictures. JIP | Talk 17:51, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

If they're your pictures, won't you own the copyright for them? Julia Rossi (talk) 02:08, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

The pictures themselves yes, but not their subjects. The paintings on the models' bodies are works of art laboriously created by artists and therefore under their copyright. JIP | Talk 04:06, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for replying, I forgot the body art content. : ) Julia Rossi (talk) 04:21, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

the player's guide movie unfair deletion

The Player's Guide is a legitimate youtube documentary. Just like any of the films currently found on wikipedia it should not be discriminated against by unfair deletion. could you please undelete or explain.

Sneakygreek (talk) 18:11, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The Player's Guide was deleted by Athaenara as blatant advertising. If you disagree with this assessment, you could talk to the deleting admin, or just rewrite the page so it reads like an encyclopedia article rather than an advertisment. The subject would still have to satisfy the notability guideline, however. Algebraist 18:16, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

By "legitimate documentary" you mean some video that someone uploaded to youtube? There are millions of them, right? We have articles on movies, sure, but some random youtube video almost never qualifies. Has this film been reviewed in reliable sources? Without sources there can be no article. Wikipedia isn't here for people to advertise their home movies. Friday (talk) 18:18, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

How to add a filmography

How can i add a Filmography to a page please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Onegoodmonkey (talk • contribs) 18:43, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

:Thereappears to be no set format, but some examples:

• Cher#Filmography
• James Stewart (actor)#Filmography
• Danny Kaye#Filmography
• Robert Redford filmography

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 19:15, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lists of works)#Filmographies. --Teratornis (talk) 21:33, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks- had not seen that before. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:53, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Editing Article Titles

I recentyl created an article and Spelled the last nakme using a lower case letter, its embarrassing that i missed a minute detail like that, if I created the article how do i edit the title? Mike Spector (talk) 19:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

You use the move tab. See Help:Merging and moving pages for more help. Since this is a mispelling error, go ahead and make the move yourself. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 19:31, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Stupid bots

Resolved

$\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 19:35, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Various bots have been adding an interwiki link to this Swedish article in The Pillow Book. Unfortunately, the Swedish article is about The Pillow Book (film), not about The Pillow Book. (The Swedish WP doesn't have an article about Sei Shōnagon's work; I checked.) Is there any way to make them stop doing this? It seems not worth violating 3RR to repeatedly undo these mindless edits. Deor (talk) 20:04, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

You have to fix the links on all of the Wikipedias at the same time; any wrong link will propogate to the others. I fixed this on the English, Swedish and German, so let's see what happens. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:35, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that reverting bot edits will not violate 3RR. It'll just annoy the heck out of you. Paragon12321 (talk) 20:41, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I had to make a reversion at the German WP, but it seems to have stopped the bots for now. Deor (talk) 21:51, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

disappearing emails

Wikipedia Staff,

I have forgotten my password and have tried to get a new one by clicking the e-mail new password button. However, no matter how many times I try, I nver recieve an e-mail. Do you know what could be going on? Thank you,

Sir Sniper —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.104.192.57 (talk) 20:15, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

In order to receive email, you had to register your email address. If you didn't, then the software does not know your email and cannot email you a new password. In this case, you'll have to create a new account. If you did, wait a while longer. If you still don't, you'll just have to create a new account. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 20:37, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Check your spam folder. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:01, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

revert 3 edits

I'm sorry for the obviousness of my question, but how do I revert three consecutive edits, to the 4th edit down? If you look at [[Homelessness]'s history page, you'll see that one user made 3 vandalism edits. I'm not sure how to go back to my own edit, number 4. Thanks. Llamabr (talk) 20:57, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

• Open the page
• Click on history
• If you have rollback, click on rollback to revert all edits by that editor
• If not, click on the time/date you want to revert to
• Click on edit, fill in the edit summary and save

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:05, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. Doesn't seem to work for me. Llamabr (talk) 21:09, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The final edit by the anon IP seems to have restored the article to the same form as your previous edit. You can see this by clicking on history, then selecting the two edits in question by checking the circular boxes just after where it says cur/last, then clicking on compare selected versions. You'll see the same screen as this diff here [1] which shows that there are no differences between the two versions. --Karenjc 21:16, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

\