Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 October 27

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 27

Cannot edit

Something is not letting me edit the page. When I try it tells me it is not found. How am I going to edit the lead? Cheers.Leave Message orYellow Evan home or User:Yellow Evan/Sandbox 00:12, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

How to report sabotage/abuse?

I cannot find a way on Wikipedia to report a sabotaged or abused page.

Yesterday I looked at the page on "Hamsterdance" and it was normal. To-day it has been sabotaged with all kinds of things, and the talk page with all sorts of foul material.

This should be corrected, I do not know how to do it.

Does Wikipedia have a way to report sabotage/abuse to its pages? 24.117.91.92 (talk) 03:04, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for spotting this. What you encountered was an instance of vandalism. We do our best to keep that sort of thing at bay, but sometimes a bit slips through. Fortunately, it's very easy to undo vandalism once it's been spotted. You can learn how at Wikipedia:Cleaning up vandalism. Although, certain pages exist for reporting rampant vandalism and abuse, we generally encourage individual editors to revert vandalism as they find it. In this case, User:Sigma 7 undid the vandalism two minutes after you posted here. Canderson7 ^(talk) 03:23, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

When did France prevent the US from using its airspace?

When did France forbid the US from using its airspace? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.231.58.150 (talk) 04:45, 27 October 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. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:46, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

CAN NOT LOG IN

I AM NOT ABLE TO CREAT AN ACCOUNT.IT GIVES ME ERROR. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.16.27.136 (talk) 07:07, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• It would help if you told us what kind of error. I've looked at the logs and your IP address doesn't seem to be blocked, so you should be able to create one. Perhaps the name you chose is too much like an existing one, or perhaps you didn't repeat your password correctly during sign up. Without knowing the error message it's very hard to find out. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:00, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
• You may request an account at WP:ACC, just follow the instructions there. :)--PeaceNT (talk) 09:21, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

help getting started

I just bought this game about an hour ago and once I opened it there's not a book so I don't know what code it's asking for. I got the Sims life stories for my lap top and don't know how to get it started. help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.173.241.105 (talk) 08:45, 27 October 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. —teb728 t c 09:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Stuffed left alignment while editing table

I just edited a the match officials table on 2008_Rugby_League_World_Cup and the left alignment for everything following it is now stuffed (moved to the right). What have I done? How do i fix it? --Zig c (talk) 11:40, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

You forgot to close the table; everything was contained within it. Fixed. Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 11:45, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

author

Who was the author that originally created wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.109.25.131 (talk) 12:03, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• There's not a single author. If you want to cite Wikipedia in a paper or essay, you can use the cite this article link to the left of the page when you're reading the article. Just make sure whoever set the paper allows Wikipedia as a reference. You're better off citing whatever sources the Wikipedia editors used to create the article. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:16, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Who writes Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:03, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

When Will A Ban Be Unblocked AutoMatic?

--Dude4689 (talk) 12:41, 27 October 2008 (UTC) WHEN TOMMROW OR TODAY OR SOME DAY?--Dude4689 (talk) 12:41, 27 October 2008 (UTC) WHOS UNBLOCKES YOU?

Can you rephrase that coherently? I have no idea what you're asking. Algebraist 12:43, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

If you're asking "When will a blocked user be automatically unblocked?" then it depends on the block. Admins block users for a certain amount of time after which the block expires. Some users are blocked indefinitely so an admin will have to manually unblock them to remove the block. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:54, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Follow up questions

I recently asked a question on the science reference desk page which was answered. I would like to ask another question based on the answer provided. How do I post a follow up question? Terran2034 (talk) 13:03, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• You can simply post a follow-up question on today's page with a link to the previous question. If it is not in your contribution list, you can search the refdesk for the question. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The question is so recent that you could try editing the existing section by clicking the "edit" link at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Photons released while burning?. Just post the follow-up under the existing text without changing it. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:25, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

rogor gadavitano gadmoTargmnili gverdi wordidadn wikishi

rogor gadavitano gadmoTargmnili gverdi wordidadn wikishi, tu acadnusxis shriftist mitseria? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Irakli khabe (talk • contribs) 13:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• This is the English Wikipedia. If you want an answer, please ask the question in English or visit a Wikipedia edition in your own language. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:22, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Try here: ka:ვიკიპედია:ცხელი ხაზი (Georgian helpdesk) --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 14:14, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I think the language used is Malaysian!.--intraining ^{Jack In} 14:21, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I recognized this language as malay JJ Cool D 14:56, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the article on Malaysian and compare, this is probably not Malaysian --24.211.242.80 (talk) 22:22, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Unable to edit account preferences

I am unable to uncheck "editing" preferences I have set in my account I no longer want. Whenever I try to do so, I am refered back to the "user profile" with a warning about my password being invalid (which it isn't according to what it listed there). When I edited my PW, it went through and then when I went to edit the "editing" section, it again brought me back to "user profile".Jinnai (talk) 13:38, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

That sounds odd. Can other preferences outside User profile be changed? Are you still logged in after clicking Editing? Which skin do you use? If it's not MonoBook then does http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences?useskin=monobook work better? Are you using "Remember me" at login? Does it help to completely clear the cache before logging in? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm not the original poster, but I have the same problem. It seems I can't change any preferences (though I haven't tried every tab). I'm still logged in when the error message appears. I use Monobook and don't use "Remember me". Clearing the cache while logged in doesn't help. I'll try the other suggestions later. I use Firefox 3.0.3 on this computer, but I have the same problem on another computer with IE (on that computer I do use "Remember me"). Full text of message:"Your password is invalid or too short. It must have at least 1 character and be different from your username."Sjö (talk) 06:00, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

It seems to work now, but I didn't change anything.Sjö (talk) 12:26, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm another sufferer. Everything I've tried to change has the same result: it thinks I'm trying to change my password to blank. The attempt does not log me out. Monobook yes, Remember Me yes. Tried clearing the cache; tried bypassing cache. —Tamfang (talk) 04:13, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

User:PrimeHunter made a suggestion that worked for me. Firefox likes to fill in password boxes, and the Preferences page interprets this as an attempt to change password. So I blanked the box and saved successfully. —Tamfang (talk) 20:05, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Refs

How can I format the references in Everybody Is Different : A Book for Young People Who Have Brothers or Sisters With Autism? Schuym1 (talk) 13:55, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I'll go have a look... Ling.Nut ^{(talk—WP:3IAR)} 13:57, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• You can check the references and citations section on my my userpage. You can also look for citation templates that autoformat its contents. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:58, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Help request for image source on Wikimedia

I am reviewing an article, but one of the images, which is taken from the Wikimedia Commons athttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:LarryOBrienTrophies.jpg, doesn't have a source listed. In this diff, the uploader informed me that he took the picture. I don't have a Wikimedia account, though, so I was wondering if someone could add the fact that the uploader is the person who took the picture to the description page on Wikimedia (I couldn't find any relevant projects to do this, so I am asking here). Thanks, GaryColemanFan (talk) 14:24, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• The uploader can add the information to the image themselves, or you could inform the OTRS mailinglist (the contact details are in the contact wikipedia link on the left menu bar. - Mgm|^(talk) 16:29, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • He uploaded the file to Wikipedia and someone else uploaded it to Wikimedia. I'm just hoping someone here has a Wikimedia account and can just add "Photo taken by original uploader (User:Dknights411)". GaryColemanFan (talk) 01:52, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Replacing Incorrect Image

The Wikipedia page for "William Stephenson" contains an image of the wrong person. I'm webmaster for the "Intrepid Society", dedicated to honoring the memory and achievements of Sir William Stephenson, a man popularized as "A Man Called Intrepid". I cannot find a way to replace this incorrect image, seemingly blocked by an error message:

"The action you have requested is limited to Autoconfirmed users, Administrators. "

A click-thru on this indicates I need to make 10 edits to qualify as an Autoconfirmed" user. Unfortunately, the site in question is quite OK otherwise. I don't need to make 10 edits.

So how do I simply upload the correct image as a replacement?

I've read the confusing array of instructions regarding copyright of images, and still have no idea how to satisfy these requirements.

For background, see:

http://www.intrepid-society.org

Advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Terry Smythe Webmaster The Intrepid Society

Terry Smythe (talk • contribs) 14:47, 27 October 2008 (UTC) 

I see what you mean, I can not find an image uploaded of Stephenson on commons thus there is not one currently available here on Wikipedia. Do you know who owns the rights to the picture on the Intrepid Society site, if that is a public free image or you own the copyright and would like it displayed on Wikipedia I will be happy to add it myself.--intraining ^{Jack In} 15:52, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

For your information here is the source of the image currently being used.--intraining ^{Jack In} 15:55, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

++++++++++++++++

Not quite sure how to "reply". However, your kind offer will be appreciated. You can pick off the correct pic of Sir William Stephenson off our web site:

http://www.intrepid-society.org/

The pic on the Wikipedia site is of "Big Bill" Donovan, the father of the CIA. "Little Bill" Stephenson worked with Big Bill to build an organization in the mid-40's that President Harry Truman later formalized into what is now known as the CIA.

BTW, Sir William Stephenson's granddaughter, Kris Stefansson (she changed her surname) lives here in Winnipeg and is a member of our Intrepid Society, as our Society Secretary.

Regards,

Terry Smythe Webmaster, The Intrepid Society —Preceding unsigned comment added by Terry Smythe (talk • contribs) 04:38, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

What is wrong with article?

A user said that Everybody Is Different : A Book for Young People Who Have Brothers or Sisters With Autism needs a bunch more cleanup. What is wrong with it? Schuym1 (talk) 15:54, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Where was it mentioned, On a discussion page, A article, A user talk page?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 15:58, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

An edit summary for the article above. Schuym1 (talk) 15:59, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Well I see there is a stub notice placed on it, I have seen a lot worse (as far as stub articles go). Seems to have lots of good references. Anyone else got any thoughts?--intraining ^{Jack In} 16:11, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

An admin posted a notability tag on it and a citation tag even though it has 8 refs and everything has a citation. Schuym1 (talk) 16:15, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

And I removed them. Schuym1 (talk) 16:15, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bob_Dylan_songs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bob_Dylan_songs

The list has a song "Every Grain of Sand" which appears in the subsection C, but should appear in the subsection E.

I tried to correct it but could not work out how to Edit that sort of page.

Glenn Oliver (talk) 16:07, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. One of the categories was listed incorrectly, causing it to display incorrectly in Category:Bob Dylan songs. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:10, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The fix was to remove [1] an incorrect sort key in the song article. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:17, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

User categories

So instead of being (maybe overly) bold and MfD this category I'd like to ask whether I'm wrong in thinking that such categories don't have any encyclopedic value or is there some consensus that allows such pages to stay? I'm just wondering why similar categories in relation to video games were deleted on the other hand, as well. -- Mentisock 17:28, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• Is this category attached to a userbox? - Mgm|^(talk) 21:01, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

While not a perfect match, user categories and associated userboxes that say "This user likes X" are, I think, generally considered useful in the context that someone who likes X is likely to be involved in editing articles about X, so in that sense there is an encyclopedic purpose for having them. I think the ones that get deleted are the ones that stray from that purpose, e.g. by having five different boxes just to match up with five favourite characters or something. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:07, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, in this case the category is similar but still it was deleted. -- Mentisock 11:54, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Re-direction problems (repositioned so I have a chance to get a response)

Roscommon town is the county town of County Roscommon, but if you type in Roscommon into the search engine it automaticly goes to the town and not the county as the page name is simply Roscommon. I would like Roscommon to direct to the county page and the town page to be called 'Roscommon (town)' but I am not particularly competedent with re-directing and would appreicate a bit of help in this matter. thanks in advance! Syferus (talk) 02:13, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

• You should probably look up some naming conventions. I think this was done because when people type in such names, they more often tend to be looking for a town instead of a county, so the name is reserved for the most commonly searched for article. Whatever you do, it's probably a good idea to discuss this at the relevant articles before someone makes the move. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:58, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

No one has ever dicussed anything on the article discussion page so I doubt anyone would ever respond within any suggested timeframe. It would be more far productive to be bold in this case. It is a central county that I live in in Ireland and clearly the county itself should be the result of searching for 'Roscommon', not the relatively small county seat town. In Ireland, if you say 'Roscommon' you almost always mean the county and if mean the town you almost always suffix it as 'Roscommon Town'. I'd still appriecate you or anyone else helping me in this matter. Syferus (talk) 13:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Why not have Rosscommon as a disambiguation page, with Rosscommon (county) and Rosscommon (town) linked from it? DendodgeTalk^Contribs 18:11, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's much chance of your suggestion being accepted. It looks as though all the Irish county articles are titled "County X" and the cities with the same names are titled just "X" (see County Wicklow and Wicklow, for instance). WP naming conventions can sometimes seem awkward, but there's usually a reason for them. If you want to press on with your suggestion anyway, you should list the requested move at WP:RM and initiate a discussion on the Roscommon talk page. Folks who monitor WP:RM will comment on your request. You should probably also place a notification at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ireland. Deor (talk) 20:18, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

in fact when i type in Roscommon into the search engine it automatically goes to a disambiguation page that helpfully clarifies that the town article is called Roscommon (town) and the county article is called County Roscommon. i perceive no (0) problem with that. Sssoul (talk) 20:48, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

That's because I fixed it after this query was posted. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:01, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

oh. well, it works! 8) swing on & don't mind me Sssoul (talk) 21:34, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

I think that the town's article should go back to Roscommon, since the dab page is at Roscommon (disambiguation). Surely we don't usually redirect a bare name to a "(disambiguation)" page. Either the bare name is used for the dab page, or it's used for an article on the primary topic. Deor (talk) 21:21, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

WP nomenclature

What is the name for those messages at the top of article pages, like

or

? And where do we find a list of them? Sincerely, a long-time editor who does not know eveything, or even much of anything. GeorgeLouis (talk) 18:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Those messages are templates and they alert other editors/readers to possible issues within the article. You can find a directory of them at WP:TEMPLATE, sorted by usage. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 18:07, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

(e/c) Category:Cleanup templates. DendodgeTalk^Contribs 18:08, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

You can find a top-level list of almost everything in the Editor's index, although you have to be familiar with a lot of Wikipedia jargon to use it efficiently. If you want fast access to the template messages, you could put {{Wikipedia template messages}} on your user page. The bottom line of that template has a nice {{Google custom}} search on the template messages, which worked pretty well the last time I tried it. (Anything can break at any time, so your results may vary.) --Teratornis (talk) 23:42, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

A catalog of templates of the specific type you cite can be found at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup. Deor (talk) 19:59, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Copyright vio (mirror)

As I discovered from this link, smso.net is copying wikipedia improperly (They 'reserve all rights' to content according to the site footer.) I'm not really sure what to do about this so I leave it to you guys. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^(talk) 19:02, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Sending an email... DendodgeTalk^Contribs 19:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I sent the following email:

Hello,

As a committed editor of the English Wikipedia, I would like to inform you of your violation of the GNU Free Documentation Licence, which Wikipedia is released under.

The GFDL requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license, and your website's footer asserts that you own the copyright to the material and reserve all rights.

Please amend your footer accordingly.

If you wish to reply to this email, please contact me on my Wikipedia user talk page, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Dendodge.

Thank you sincerely for your time and cooperation, George Watson (User:Dendodge on the English Wikipedia)

DendodgeTalk^Contribs 19:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

It's already listed on Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks, looks like people have been chasing it up recently. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:04, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

How do I contact a specific Wikipedia member?

I would like to intelligently discuss a topic with another member. Although I am not new to the internet, I am new to Wikipedia. It's fascinating. I looked through this persons pages, but am unable to see a clear way to engage them in conversation.

Can anyone help me?

Thank you in advance. ELM —Preceding unsigned comment added by ELM1401 (talk • contribs) 19:51, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Every Wikipedia editor has a talkpage which will alert them to any new messages automatically by the software that runs Wikipedia. This can be found with the prefix User talk: . So, for me that is User talk:Woody, for you it is User talk:ELM1401. This can be found as one of the tabs at the top of a userpage. See WP:TALK for more information. Regards. Woody (talk) 19:55, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much Woody. I hope I've got it figured out! ELM1401 (talk) 20:26, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

It looks like you have bold text figured out, at least. However, we don't normally use a lot of bold text on Wikipedia. See WP:EIW#Format and in particular:

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (text formatting) – bold, italics, underlines, etc.

Also see WP:EIW#Talk for everything else there is to know about talk pages on Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 03:32, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Graphical Timeline Template Not Editing Correctly - part 2

I'm having the same problem as Mac128 (above). I've been working on a bot to update Template:Trivia progress. I get the same missing text as Mac128 gets. This revision works fine, but this one doesn't. The only difference between the two is a single number that's been changed. I can't see how this is anything other than a bug. For a few days before this started happening, it was taking a very long time to update changes - up to several hours sometimes. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 20:04, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, that looks interesting. If nobody on the Help desk can help, you could try on WP:VPT where a larger number of technically-oriented users hang out. If this is a bug, it may be affecting more people, and they might already be discussing it. I've never used timelines before, so the first place I look for more information is the Editor's index, specifically: WP:EIW#Timeline. That leads to mw:Extension:WikiTimeLine. I see you've already found mw:Extension talk:WikiTimeLine, which is where I was about to suggest you could try asking next. There may only be a few people who know how to debug this extension. --Teratornis (talk) 23:21, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. You were right: WP:VPT#problem with the timeline tag? is about this problem. There's also a bug open about it. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 00:32, 28 October 2008 (UTC)