Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 October 18

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October 18

Un-redirect an article

User ALTcake created a malicious redirect on the I-23 article. How can I undo this, because there was not an undo or rollback option.

cf38^talk 20:58, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Undo/rollback is for page content changes and not for page creations. The redirect was tagged with {{db-r1}} and deleted. See more about redirects at Wikipedia:Redirect. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:09, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Request that a page be deleted

How do I go about requesting that page with no encyclopedic content whatsoever be deleted? --AtTheAbyss (talk) 00:18, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Editors often disagree about when such a condition is satisfied. See Wikipedia:Deletion policy and Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion for some possibilites. Which page do you have in mind? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:30, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

the tag {{speedydelete|reasonwhy}} is used to request the deletion of an article. in the part where I put reasonwhy, put in your reason for requesting the speedy deletion of the article.

advantage of career planning program

what will be the advantage to the company if it sets up a career-planning programme?60.48.45.230 (talk) 00:24, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

They will not do your homework for you, but: Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:33, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

We have a Career planning article but its quality at the moment is far below that of Wikipedia's best content. --Teratornis (talk) 03:28, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Friendly template

If a new IP user has been making inappropriate comments on more than one page, is it okay to use Friendly with a welcome template that warns users about vandalism? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 00:50, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't see why not.   jj137 (talk) 01:06, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, of course. In fact, I think that would be the right thing to do. The important thing here is to stop the vandalism rather than the welcoming. A lot of IP adresses get a level 1 vandalism warning as their first message, because of this. Chamal ^talk _work 02:51, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

create disambiguation page?

Hi. I can't find anywhere how to set up a disambiguation page. I want to name a page Zoo Story. However it is saying that name is taken. It isn't. I had to name my page Zoo Story (Band). There is another page already set up called Zoo Story (Play). I need to set up an disambiguation page so when Zoo Story is typed in it will show all pages with Zoo Story in their title.

Also, can you help me rename my page from Zoo Story (Band)to just, Zoo Story?

Any help would be great. Thanks... Mykool1 (talk) 02:29, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Disambiguation will give you all the details you need about disambiguation. Cheers. Chamal ^talk _work 02:44, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Zoo Story does exist - it is a redirect to The Zoo Story, a page about Edward Albee's first play. There's also a page named The Zoo Story (Frasier episode). I would suggest that you don't turn Zoo Story into the page about the band, particularly as the new article about them currently has questions about their notability. Zoo Story (band) seems an appropriate title for their page, so I'd leave it as it is. Instead, consider turning Zoo Story into a disambiguation page with links to the play, the band and the Frasier episode articles. Or use hatnotes to disambiguate. Chamal's link above will guide you to more information. Karenjc 22:54, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

protocol

which protocol is used to connect the web server on the internet? i have to choose either http or tcp/ip from the option. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dahalrk (talk • contribs) 03:16, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer 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 and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Chamal ^talk _work 03:23, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

See TCP/IP and HTTP, for starters. Also try asking the mighty {{Google}}:

• which protocol is used to connect the web server on the internet?

If you need more information, ask at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. --Teratornis (talk) 03:24, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Somebody take a look

Rezai_Family --66.222.239.117 (talk) 09:22, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for posting this, I'll put a deletion tag on it. cf38^talk 09:38, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

I've removed the deletion tag because the Rezai family is, to my mind, notable enough. The article just needs tidying, referencing etc.--A bit iffy (talk) 11:56, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

You can't remove deletion tags once it's nominated; if you want the article to remain, just explain why you don't want it gone. Thanks, A _talk 15:12, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

I will, however, help fix the article if you'd like, but you should contribute as well. A _talk 15:14, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

On second thought, never mind - it's quite impossible for this article to exist. In YOUR mind it may be notable, but pictures and names doesn't make an article, sorry. A _talk 15:18, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Who

who is willy on wheels. is it someone like jimbo? i saw this name on many pages, mostly userpages but no idea who it is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.124.190.153 (talk) 12:44, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Willy on Wheels was a vandal on Wikipedia, whose activities generally involved moving pages to add the suffix "on wheels" to the title. He is currently banned, and his former editing activities are not similar to User:Jimbo Wales, Wikipedia's founder. PeterSymonds (talk) 12:48, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

See Persona non grata. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 18:16, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

For lots more you can search the Help desk archive for: willy on wheels. --Teratornis (talk) 18:19, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Jacobo Morales

I would like to update the tribute we could give to this our Portorican most representative cinematographic producer, forwarding you the site of the event and the beautiful press media releases link that are subject of that ceremony. Thanks and regards. Sigrid

www.capalbioart-laparguera.com

http://www.capalbioart-laparguera.com/documents/images.html

Press releases where you will see Jacobo Morales ceremony

http://www.capalbioart-laparguera.com/documents/84.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.61.131.205 (talk) 16:30, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. :) Go ahead and edit it, or create an account. Sunderland06 (talk) 16:32, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Additionally, you should be aware that though anyone can edit, that does not mean that anyone can add anything they wish. The anyone can edit policy applies to the person, not the content. Wikipedia does have strict content related policies, and violations will be removed. Please read WP:V, WP:NPOV and WP:BLP for more information on some of these policies. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 18:14, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Just to clarify, Wikipedia's software allows you to add anything you wish, but anyone else can also edit or remove anything you add. To keep order, Wikipedia has detailed rules that govern what should be here. Out of the infinitely many types of content you could add to Wikipedia, only a subset will comply with the rules and therefore stick. That is, when you interact with the software on Wikipedia, it seems incredibly permissive; but after you click the "Save page" button, you begin to interact with the other (human) editors on Wikipedia, and they are collectively not permissive. In addition to the pages that Jayron32 linked to above, you should read WP:NOT. At least you don't have to worry about the notability of Jacobo Morales; his article has existed on Wikipedia for several years while avoiding deletion. If you wish to add more information to the article about him, please read the following pages so you learn how to make proper citations: WP:RS, WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:CITET. If you are new to Wikipedia editing, start by taking the tutorial and read Help:Editing and Help:Wikitext examples. --Teratornis (talk) 18:33, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Code Enforcement Bureau

Hello everybody: I am interested in creating a department on Wikipedia titled "Code Enforcement Bureau (CEB)". it will be a department of established users who specialize in handing out citations, i.e. they will be recent changes patrollers. Although it may not be liked, the goal of the CEB is to alert users that what they did/edited was wrong, so to save the user much emotional pain when it is deleted. What is your opinion? --Archeopteryx (talk) 19:52, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

How would this differ from the long and well-established practice in the community of warning users as vandalism/inappropriate edits are found and reverted and with the already established patrol dedicated to recent changes?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:51, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

This group already exists. Feel free to create a new one if you like, but WP:NPP and WP:RCP already do this work. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:15, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

I also don't like the "Enforcement" or the "Bureau". The former sounds very unfriendly, heavy and rule-driven, whereas Wikipedia editing is regulated by a variety of policies and guidelines which are fluid and frequently changing, and which are meant to be implemented in a positive, friendly and encouraging way towards gf users. And the "Bureau" sounds exclusive, and in some way official, which it wouldn't be any more than NPP and RCP. Groups of this type on Wikipedia are by their nature open to all who wish to sign up. Unless you're planning to restrict membership to admins (which will exclude you and me both) then members will have no special status or tools. How could you restrict it to "established users"? And how, otherwise, will it differ from current RC and NP patrols? Karenjc 22:30, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

It also sounds like a police force. Only admins have real power around this place, so such a group would be limited to giving warnings only, which everyone can do already. As others have said, NPP and RCP do this already, and many people (including myself) patrol both recent changes and new pages. So I don't see how it's any different from the current system. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 00:40, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Editing {{Reflist}}

I did search for how to edit {{Reflist}} in the FAQ etc. so apologies if I missed a similar resolved query.

Is there a method to edit {{Reflist}} - I've noticed a dead reference link at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingushetia#cite_note-36 and I want to fix the link to point to http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2956275520070829.

Thanks 86.45.205.239 (talk) 22:22, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Hey. I removed the broken link. Generally, if you want to change a reference, you have to edit the section of the article where the relevant <ref> tag is placed. You can't change a reference by editing the {{Reflist}}, as that's just a template (Template:Reflist). Hope that helps. Regards, —αἰτίας •discussion• 22:37, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The trick is to edit the reference itself, not the reflist. Click on the small bluelinked ^ at the beginning of your citation note 36 in the reflist, and it will take you to the point in the article where note 36 is referenced. If you then click on "edit this page" and navigate to that point in the text, you'll find the text of the reference embedded in the text of the article, and you can edit it there. Karenjc 22:38, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

To make it a little clearer; {{Reflist}} basically takes the information contained between the ref tags inside the text and collates that info into footnotes at the end of the article. The refs are placed next to the text that it references. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:46, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

See more at Wikipedia:Footnotes. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:45, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Hidden cats

How do I make a hidden cat a subcategory another hidden cat? For example, I want Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Federal Standard 1037C to show as a subcat on Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from public domain works of the United States Government. I tried Help:Category, but either the answer is not there, or I cannot understand it Thanks—G716 <^T·_C> 22:35, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Edit the page Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Federal Standard 1037C and add Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from public domain works of the United States Government to it. Categories are placed inside of other categories the same way that articles are placed into categories. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:41, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. This doesn't seem to work for hidden cats. Any other ideas? —G716 <^T·_C> 22:57, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

It seems to work fine to me. As usual when there is no sort key, it's listed alphabetically by title so it can be seen by clicking 'W' at Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from public domain works of the United States Government: [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:43, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

THANKS! I thought this was a feature of hidden cats, but I just needed to use catsort to get the subcat to show of the first page of the parent cat.—G716 <^T·_C> 23:54, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

why cant Wikipedia have a 'did you mean' spell checker?

on Google, if you typed in something incorrect, it will come up 'did you mean _____'. But as soon as you type something incorrect on Wikipedia, sometimes nothing will come up, and you dont know how to spell the thing that your looking for (do you know what I mean?)

so why is it that wikipedia doesnt have that sort of thing? I cant see why not!

if you can tell me when you answer on my talk page, that would be great! Aflumpire (talk) 22:37, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Perennial proposals#Search should detect spelling errors. The Mediawiki software has this ability, but IIRC, given the size of the Wikipedia database, it puts too much strain on resources to make it practical. See also this bugzilla thread and this bugzilla thread. Good day! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:44, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

If you want to search Wikipedia with Google's search features, then you want to search Wikipedia with Google. You can put the {{Help desk searches}} template on your user page if you want to keep this search handy. I use it so often that I added a link to it in my Firefox bookmark toolbar. --Teratornis (talk) 00:46, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

where do you find maps?