Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 October 21

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.

October 21

Barney's picture

A few years ago I started the bio article about Bernard M. Oliver. I naively included an image of the man which I found on several websites about him. Well you can imagine how that went :( so I deleted the image. So I'm here asking the following question: just how does one go about getting an acceptable image?

I've tried contacting [1], [2], [3]. [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] (with image), [10], [11], [12] (with image), [13], [14] and some others to no avail.

Is this like rocket science or am I just a dinosaur in these matters? -hydnjo talk 00:01, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Honestly, when it comes to living people, you just have to find them and take a picture. Sorry. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 00:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Oliver died in 1995. Try contacting HPs publicity department and asking for them to release a photo. That is how the Jerry Falwell article got the main photo after he died. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

No, you're not a dinosaur, but Barney is. Joe 22:31, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your responses - you too Joe ;) hydnjo talk 00:01, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

User box search...

Hi. Are there userboxes hat exist that say:1.) This user is a member of the National Geographic society, and 2.) this user is a middle scholer; or will I have to create them myself?--Archeopteryx (talk) 00:36, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Here you go: {{User:Barfbagger/Userboxes/nat_geo}}

The closest I know of to middle schooler is {{User:Scepia/teen}}. You could always get a userbox that says your age… — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:32, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Although identifying yourself as a youth on the internet can be problematic. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:02, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Yeah; thanks for the temps.! --Archeopteryx (talk) 00:31, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Indentation

This question actually relates more to Wikisource, but you here at Wikipedia are generally brighter: is there a way to make an indentation WITHOUT MAKING A SPACE BETWEEN LINES OF TEXT. To explain this, I'll use the following examples of ways I already know to make an indentation:

---

1. :

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

2. <div style="text-indent: 1em">Text</div>

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Sugar is sweet;

And so are you.

---

I simply want it to look like:

    Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
    Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

which I accomplished using multiple & n b s p ; (without spaces, of course). The m-space ( ) does not show up as any longer than an ordinary space in Wikipedia or Wikisource, so it will not serve. The use of & n b s p ; has the perfect result, but is messy when editing. Is there some means of creating an indentation WITHOUT creating space between each new line of text (and that isn't so messy as & n b s p ; & n b s p ; & n b s p ; & n b s p)? — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 00:46, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Can you rewrite your question so it is shorter and simpler?--Archeopteryx (talk) 01:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Okay, now I understand. Maybe you should take your question to WikiMedia directly.--Archeopteryx (talk) 01:12, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Okay, simpler wording: how do I make an indentation that does nothing more than indent? — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 01:16, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Ordinary spaces within the <poem> tags, before the apostrophes, seem to work:

    Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
    Sugar is sweet;
And so are you.

The following also works:

<poem>
<div style="text-indent: 1em">''Roses are red,</div>Violets are blue.
<div style="text-indent: 1em">''Sugar is sweet;</div>And so are you.
</poem>

- SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:38, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes: the poem extension is the simplest way to do this, and it is installed on Wikisource. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:14, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Troubles with new submission

I work at the South Bend Tribune and was troubled that the newspaper's only mention in Wikipedia was a stub that contained no usable information. I asked our promotions staff to remedy that. One of the staff members put in the information he thought readers would need to know -- about our circulation, coverage area, etc. Now it is labeled with three problem areas: 1. It needs additional references. 2. It reads like an advertisement. 3. It may need to be rewritten to meet quality standards. We're confused because sources are cited, more or less, when needed. We consider this fairly objective stuff -- numbers, dates, names, etc. Can someone check the South Bend Tribune listing and tell us if there truly is something wrong with the posting, or is this just a message than always pops up? KenBradford (talk) 01:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC) KenBradford

First of all, the main reason it was tagged as reading like an advertisement is probably because of the in-line address and phone number. There is a place for this in the infobox — do not have it in the text, ever. Furthermore, the entire article is not remotely encyclopedic in style (nothing against the contributers…). It needs to be written in an engaging and, more importantly, incorporated manner. That is, write paragraphs, not bullet points. All information should either be incorporated into full sentences and paragraphs that flow, moved to the infobox on the right, or deleted. Also, several "sections" are simply stated in the text. To create a section, place two equals signs on either side of the text (like this: ==Section==). — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:08, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and about it needing citations. While it may have citations (I only skimmed the article), they, too, are unincorporated. In-line citations are formatted like this: <ref>SOURCE</ref> — This will put a link like this: ^[1] next to whatever it is in the article that needs citation. I see that this has already been done once. Where I have written "SOURCE" above, cite your source. If it is a website, use {{cite web}} (click to learn how); if it is an article, use {{cite article}}, etc. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 03:18, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Before you edit articles about your business, you need to read WP:BUSFAQ. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 08:58, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

See Template:Infobox Newspaper for the information you can put in the infobox. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:39, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Article Size Graph

This is a somewhat esoteric request but I don't want to underestimate the ingenuity and energy of Wikipedians.

Is there a utility to create a graph of the size of an article as a function of time?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 02:46, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia article traffic statistics may help. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:00, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

I was making one, but it seems Wikipedia doesn't want me programmatically accessing history pages. Does anyone knows how to get around the 403 - Forbidden errors? Louis Waweru  Talk  10:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I guess I shouldn't try to get around them if it's forbidden to begin with. Anyway, I made you a webpage! It works, kind of. Louis Waweru  Talk  14:32, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Javascript link

Hey how possible is it to have wikipedia generate a javascript link, ive been working on the list of house episodes page.. i used a multiline hide template(Template:HiddenMultiLine) to create individual show links for each diagnosis(for spoiler protection).. but I cant find a good way to have wikipedia reveal all of the hidden elements on the page at the same time. I know how to do it with a javascript loop like: javascript:var i=0;do{i=i+1;toggleNavigationBar(i);}while(i<=91) but i cant find a way to do this in wikipedia. Any ideas? thanks Rampagez99 (talk) 03:19, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Per Wikipedia:Spoiler you should not have "spoiler protection" in any articles. Sorry. - SigmaEpsilon → ΣΕ 03:42, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

And in general, you can't include javascript on pages. You can put it on your monobook.js file (found at User:Rampagez99/monobook.js) where it will work for you on all pages, but that won't affect anyone else. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 21:56, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Expressions that call on Sums of Parameters

Hello, this is my second call for help on here, the first of which was MUCH more than I would have expected and helped a great deal, but once again I find myself stuck. I'm looking to find a way to call on the result of an expression used in a template to calculate more expressions in the same template. Most namely, the first expression adds a number of values and then the following expressions find the percentages of each individual value in comparison to the sum of all values. To make myself a little more clear, I've been dabbling in my sandboxes and am at that point as of 11:15 PM EST. -- Sandbox with the template & Sandbox with a template call for testing -- Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks again! --Kallnohae (talk) 03:21, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

lost password and email i cannot reset my password please help

i have lost my password and so i decided to reset my password. unfortunately the email i registered with was my ISP email its expired as i moved to a different ISP. i dont know what to do how can i gain access back to my account? please help me. --74.12.123.130 (talk) 04:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC) immortals.

You can't. Create a new account. Algebraist 08:24, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Deleted images

Yes, it was my fault, I accidentally chose the wrong permission (I chose educational uses, thinking that's what wiki was, didn't read the text in red boxes that came next because I had uploaded so many images over the years I thought I knew what I was doing). Usually in the past, if I have made a mistake someone posted a thing on my talk page letting me know so I could fix the problem. But this time a bot just completely deleted it and I cannot figure out how to change the permissions because I can no longer find the image. I went to the owner of the bot's help page but, although s/he is an admin, the page says ATTENTION! IF YOU ARE REPORTING AN ISSUE WITH ONE OF MY BOTS, AND YOU'D LIKE IT TO BE FIXED BEFORE THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE:

   * Visit /dev/null
   * Don't come back

I don't know what /dev/null means and otherwise it doesn't seem very admin-like. Can someone tell me where to go to restore and change the permissions for Image:Condensedmudrawikisonya.jpg Digital Mudra (1988 – 1989) featured people making hand signs, here the lower two images feature the sculptor Kati Casida and her husband John E. Casida.

And how to change the permissions on this one.

thanks Saudade7 05:49, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

What admin? What bot? On Wikipedia, or on Commons? Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 06:03, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Oh, Sorry, I'm tired...I guess the person here: User talk:ST47 is the person that gave me time to fix the problem and is also the admin.

The bot here User:ImageRemovalBot is the one that removes without giving me time to do anything about the problem. Let me go apologize to the first person... Saudade7 07:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Image:Condensedmudrawikisonya.jpg was deleted by User:Stifle not by a bot. What User:ST47 is telling you is that he does not accept bug reports on STBotI at User talk:ST47. If you want to file a bug report, read the large gray box at the top of User talk:STBotI, and file the report as explained there. BTW, /dev/null is the Unix bit bucket. —teb728 t c 08:03, 21 October 2008 (UTC) ImageRemovalBot does not delete images; it removes links to images that have been deleted. —teb728 t c 08:08, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

PLEASE

Today, 21 October 2008, i saw a new message on my talk page. And i don't now why. You can see on my talk. Pedrovip (talk) 08:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)Pedrovip

There was some vandalism that was reverted. Then you added {{pp-dispute}} and {{editprotected}} for some odd reason. {{pp-dispute}} does not actually protect your page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 08:54, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

page go live

How can I make this page go live so users can see it and search for it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hillvic

Many Thanks

vicky —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hillvic (talk • contribs) 10:16, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

See WP:MOVE - you need 4 days' experience and 10 edits, then follow the instructions on that page. Densock|Dendodge^{in public} 11:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

please also bear in mind that PR pieces are against wikipedia policies - see WP:SPAM#Advertisements_masquerading_as_articles, WP:COI and related policies. Sssoul (talk) 15:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

My contributions were deleted

My contributions were deleted. I have posted an external link on September 12th which was stating debate on iphone 3G vs Nokia N96 in Nokia N96 wikipedia page.

Please explain me the reason, so that I don't repeat it again.

Thanks Rajdeep —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rajdeeprathod (talk • contribs) 11:51, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't know the specific problem in this case, but some relevent reading might be: Wikipedia's External Links guidelines. In general, Wikipedia is fairly conservative with regards to allowing external links in articles. Links that are only tangentally related to the subject (such as, for example, a debate on the relative merits of two products) are generally discouraged, so I can see why it was removed. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 11:58, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

The page in question has the following message commented into its external links section (you have to press the edit button to see it):

   ==========================(NoMoreLinks)================================
   | PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS IN ADDING MORE LINKS TO THIS ARTICLE. WIKIPEDIA  |
   | IS NOT A COLLECTION OF LINKS NOR SHOULD IT BE USED FOR ADVERTISING. |
   |                                                                     |
   |           Excessive or inappropriate links WILL BE DELETED.         |
   | See Wikipedia:External links & Wikipedia:Spam for details.  |
   |                                                                     |
   | If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or   |
   | replacements on this article's discussion page, or submit your link |
   | to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz . org) |
   | and link back to that category using the {dmoz} template.           |
   ===========================(NoMoreLinks)===============================

Of course, I don't know whether there's any connection between that message and the removal of your link. However I'd say discussing on the talk page would be a good idea. AndyJones (talk) 14:57, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Look at some of our featured articles. Those are the best articles on Wikipedia. They reflect the type of editing that all Wikipedia contributors should aspire to. Understanding exactly what makes up a featured article can be difficult, because a featured article embeds extensive know-how - specifically, knowledge of how to write for an encyclopedia. Wikipedia lets anyone try editing, but unfortunately only a tiny fraction of people have written encyclopedias before, so most of us have to learn how after we get here. To your specific problem: most of the featured articles have relatively few external links in their External links sections. Instead, most of their external links are in the form of footnotes. If you have an external link to a page with content that would improve an article, you should rewrite the content in your own words, add it to the article, and cite your source. To understand how, read: WP:CITE, WP:FOOT, and WP:CITET. Other editors are less likely to remove footnote citations than plain external links, as long as your content addition really improves the article. External links by themselves do not help an article much, because readers can only tell by following the links. --Teratornis (talk) 21:17, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

You can see a clear trend among featured articles to have many references and few external links by clicking this handy random featured article link repeatedly. --Teratornis (talk) 03:14, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Citing videos

Is it appropriate to cite video clips and how? Grsz^Review! 15:01, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

here's the "cite video" template. whether it's appropriate or not probably depends on what you want the citation to support 8) Sssoul (talk) 15:09, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Previous Searches

Is there any way that I can see a list of my previous searches? I located an article a few weeks ago that was very useful and now I can't find it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.100.48.210 (talk) 16:10, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

There isn't a way of which I am aware that allows you to view previous searches. However, if remember even a little bit of the term, you can enter it into the search box on the left. Alternatively, if you edited the page, it will show in your contribution list. Also, it may still be in your browser cache. TN‑X-Man 16:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Some more suggestions:

• If you create an account, you can add articles you like to your Watchlist.
• If you are using a capable browser such as Mozilla Firefox, click the "History" menu item and it should show your browsing history back for a week or two, maybe more.
• If you want better search capability, you could install a Desktop search program which can search your browser history.
• In addition to Wikipedia's search function, you can try searching Wikipedia with Google, which provides more flexibility with mispellings and word stems. Google caches copies of Wikipedia pages for a few days if they get deleted; Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles for violating various policies and guidelines, so if you can't find an article you are sure you saw before, maybe it got deleted.
• If you can remember the general subject area of the article, you can browse Wikipedia by content.
• If you can't remember it with all of those methods, you could ask for more help on the Reference desk. I'm sure the volunteers there could suggest articles that would fit even a sloppy vague description. Even we might have done that if you had told us whatever you can remember about the article.

--Teratornis (talk) 03:26, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Creative Commons-licensed wiki

Who can give me Creative Commons-licensed wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.235.137.205 (talk) 17:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Your question does not parse. A wiki is a type of Web site that is editable by its users. Whoever operates a wiki may either copyright its content, or license it to be freely copyable (for example, by declaring the wiki's content to be under the GFDL or a Creative Commons license). If you want to start your own wiki, see b:Wiki Science/How to start a wiki. --Teratornis (talk) 17:35, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Cannot use contents menus on articles

I am a long-time user of Wikipedia, and have encountered a new problem with a new computer. When I click a contents menu on an article, it will not bring me to the appropriate section below. Even when I enter a URL with a # in it, it will always bring me to the title. I am using Internet Explorer 8 BETA. Any reason for this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.240.89.80 (talk) 21:29, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't believe this is a problem on our end - I just checked on Firefox 3 and IE 6, and both work without a problem. Since you are using a Beta version, it's very possible they forgot to put that in or it's buggy somehow. You may want to let Microsoft know. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 22:09, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

This is a known problem with Internet Explorer 8. Emulate IE7 works according to Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 September 9#Contents Navigation links within articles - not working! :s. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:13, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

What is the best way of letting Microsoft know? Do you think the best solution to just switch to IE 7 then? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.240.89.80 (talk) 14:30, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft knows about it.[15] Doesn't your Internet Explorer 8 have an "Emulate IE7" button as seen at [16]? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:52, 22 October 2008 (UTC)