Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 August 26

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.

August 26

a list of medical device companies

Hi, I see that you provides a list of pharmaceutical companies. Do you have a list of medical device companies. I did a quick search and could not find such a list.

Thanks and regards Cynthia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zhuzheyu (talk • contribs) 01:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

This is the help desk for questions about using wikipedia, not answering questions. However, I can tell you that List of medical device companies does not exist, so the answer to your question is no, we do not! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 01:16, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates for information about the various ways that Wikipedia editors group related articles together. A list article tends to come late in the development cycle; usually we start by creating categories to group related articles. A little searching around finds an example of a medical device company: Becton Dickinson, so we scroll to the bottom to see what categories it is in. Not too surprisingly there is a Category:Medical equipment and it has a subcategory Category:Medical equipment manufacturers which might be the nearest things to a list of medical device companies on Wikipedia just now. There is also Medical device#List of medical devices but that only lists devices, not manufacturers. Note that Medical device#See also has had a red link to List of medical device companies for at least several months, so at least one other editor is thinking along these lines. You could create the requested list article, or you could also create a navigation template for medical device companies. You might discuss this on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine with other editors who have an interest in this subject. --Teratornis (talk) 01:51, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Cnote2 display issue in Firefox

Can someone else using Firefox take a look at the notes section of User talk:Fuhghettaboutit/Mingaud? What I'm seeing in Firefox is a strange spacing issue which appears like this:

...used in carom billiards                              games

The error is not reproduced in Safari or Internet Explorer for me. I checked whether it could be some java thing in my monobook producing it by logging out, but the same error appears. Also, other articles that use {{Cnote2}} (such as Jane Austen) are rendering fine in Firefox for me.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:46, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Looks fine to me. Firefox 3.0.13, Ubuntu 9.04. I wonder if it's something caused by 3.5 - I'll go upgrade now. Xenon54 (talk) 01:55, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I see similar but different spacing in that note, under XP/FF 3.0; the spaces appear between after and Mingaud. The expanded spacing occurs in a different place again under Vector. --AndrewHowse (talk) 01:56, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm. Let me go upgrade Firefox. The thing is, there shouldn't be a problem in any version. And a different error is seen in vector?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:11, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Does {{cnote2}} produce notes in 2 columns? It certainly does for Jane Austen. Is the strange spacing perhaps a column break, to form 2 columns? You might add a few more notes, or even some random text, in order to test it. --AndrewHowse (talk) 03:41, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

My first time using it. I have no idea. Maybe that's it, though if that is it, it's strange that it works fine in other browsers. I upgraded to Firefox 3.5.2. (then got a blue screen of death, uggg) and I still see the error but now it's in a different spot.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:53, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Huh - IE8 renders Jane Austen's notes in 1 column, whereas FF (3.0) renders 2 columns. If I add a whole bunch of random text to the note in your Mingaud page, then, in FF, it renders 2 columns sensibly in preview. Also in FF, if I zoom in or out, the extra spacing moves in the note sentence, to keep the first word after the spacing aligned with the 2nd column of references.

The template documentation mentions that the colwidth= setting doesn't work in all browsers. IE might be one of those for which it doesn't work. --AndrewHowse (talk) 04:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

IE does not support the CSS column selector. The documentation does not mention that the column selector is broken in Safari— linking into successive columns does not work properly. I don't see the problem— try a purge. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:18, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks all, as always. I'm a long way from going live and I'll be adding more notes, so there's no pressing issue now. It'll work itself out I think.---Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:25, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

How to publish my page?

I wrote this article, but I think it is not pubished, I can't find it on "search", how can I publish it? Thank you! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courage_Marine_Group_Limited —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cindy Kwong Wing Yan (talk • contribs) 02:16, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It's published. The reason you can't find it using search is that it hasn't yet been indexed (and there's nothing you can do I know of to speed up that process but donate a few million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation to speed everything up). You will be able to reach the page using the go button, and in the normal course the page will be indexed and become searchable. By the way, you can link any existing page on Wikipedia by simply surrounding it in doubled brackets, like so: [[Courage Marine Group Limited]]. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:26, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Going around in circles

I'm a new user who has written an article on a veterans' organization, put in the references and all the other necessities, and cant for the life of me figure out how to make it an active article! The various help topics seem contradictory at worst and confusing at best. Is there a simple explanation of what I do when I'm done editing...it seems I need to MOVE the article, but the MOVE tab doesn't appear anywhere! Jlallyssp (talk) 03:21, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I moved it and made two changes (a formatting issue and a broken link). -- kainaw™ 03:36, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

For the record, you don't see the move tab because you're not autoconfirmed yet. You need 10 edits (which you already have) and your account should be 4 days old for that to happen. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 09:24, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It would be nice if the "move" tab did appear for new users, but grayed out with a link to WP:AUTOCONFIRM so new users could figure out what the heck is wrong. --Teratornis (talk) 18:40, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I think that's a great idea, Teratornis! I can't imagine it would be too hard to implement it (there's presumably code that basically says IF autoconfirmed(user)==FALSE THEN do not show move tab ELSE show move tab?). Does anyone know where someone can make this suggestion? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 23:24, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I guess you could try asking on Wikipedia talk:User access levels. I don't know if there is a better place. Maybe WP:VPT. --Teratornis (talk) 04:05, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Roster template question

Hi guys I'm trying to update some basketball rosters and I have a question.... Take this one for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCM_Elba_Timi%C5%9Foara - both links for the 2 players in the roster shouldn't be there (they link to different people). How can I remove them? Because of this "player2" template I can't seem to be able to do anything about it. Same question for this roster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSU_Asesoft - how can I make the link for player Mike Jones to link to the actual basketball player, and not the whole list? Thanks a lot. Cristian Cristane (talk) 10:49, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The documentation is at Template:Player2 which is linked at the bottom of the edit window when you preview or click "edit this page". Player2 has a link parameter. See my fix in [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:08, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. Cristane (talk) 11:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Cannabis (drug) protection

Can we get Cannabis (drug) semi-protected? In 2 days after it expired, there has already been 2 incidences of vandalism. Thanks for your help Tdinatale (talk) 12:38, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

2 incidences in 2 days likely won't be nearly enough to get re-protected, but you can try at WP:RFPP. Xenon54 (talk) 12:41, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It won't be protected. 2 vandalisms in any period of time will not get an article protected. Protection only generally occurs when the level of vandalism becomes high enough to be unmanagable. 2 vandalisms in 2 days can easily be held off by reverting. --Jayron32 13:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I understand Tdinatale (talk) 13:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Tick symbol

I was having a look at and I noticed that Rugby471 uploaded a new version of the file without the whitespace around it. The whitespace makes the box centered though so it would probably be better to have thewhitespace. Besides has the whitespace around it so shouldn't they both be the same? Hintswen  Talk | Contribs  12:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If you have concerns, you could discuss it with the uploader; he may have his rationale... --Jayron32 13:07, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Alright, I'll ask him about it then. Hintswen  Talk | Contribs  13:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

My new page does not show up on Wikipedia except in my contributions

I set up an account yesterday and had it autoconfirmed through my email I wrote a new page called 'Outlet property Services' But if i do a search on wikipedia, it does not appear. I have saved it and made a few edits so far. I have put as many internal links to places and terms in text which are in Wikipedia

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong or forgetting?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Markgraindorge (talk • contribs) 13:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The article is still in your userspace (here) and has not been moved to the mainspace. However, reviewing the article, it reads very much like advertising. I would encourage you to read our info on advertising and why it is not allowed. You may also want to read our info on writing your first article. TNXMan 13:18, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia Artwork

Is there a listing of all of the artwork used on Wikipedia? I need a way to search just the artwork. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.242.194.34 (talk) 14:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Is Category:Works of art what you were looking for? ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 14:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Or maybe Category:Wikipedia images? Note, however, that most of the images used on Wikipedia are actually at Commons. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 14:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Non-free image used in two articles, but with a rationale for only one of them

I've just noticed that File:OKMag.jpg is being used in the articles OK! and Jade Goody. It has a valid fair use rationale for use in the former image, but no rationale at all for the second. Despite looking at all the related pages I can think of, I can't find how or where to properly note this. Everything I've found talks about speedy deletion for images that are missing a rationale, but that is not appropriate as it appears to be being used properly in OK! and so I'm not looking for it to be deleted. Equally I don't want to just remove it from the Jade Goody article as it is entirely possible that someone who knows why it is there can write a proper fair use rationale for it's inclusion in that article. Thryduulf (talk) 14:10, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Usage in an article without a fair use rationale is not okay. One needs to be written for each article in which the picture appears. (I think the reason for this is because usage in two different articles could theoretically have two different "purposes of use".) Xenon54 / talk / 14:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I know it's not OK, which I why I've raised the issue here. What I'm looking for is how to properly note the problem so it can be rectified. Thryduulf (talk) 17:52, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

A good place to start would be to contact the uploader, Dalejenkins. Xenon54 / talk / 18:00, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

How to spell out link to shortcut "CAT:CSD" ?

OK, this is silly and stupid, but if anyone has a minute.... I've added a "toolbox" to my User page with links to a bunch of useful noticeboards, templates, etc. In the wikilinks I've created I've spelled out the whole name of the Wiki page and piped it to an abbreviation, to make the box smaller, as so: [[Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism|AIV]], which looks like this: AIV. So now if I forget what the abbreviation means, I can just hover over the link and my browser status bar shows me the name. This has been successful for all the WP links except one: [[CAT:CSD|CSD]], which links to the category for candidates for speedy deletion. I tried several variations on [[Category:Candidates for speedy deletion|CSD]] but all gave failed to resolve to a successful links, they're either blank or redlinks. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks in advance. --Captain Infinity (talk) 15:08, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Category:Candidates for speedy deletion (which looks like [[:Category:Candidates for speedy deletion]])? The leading colon makes it a link. TNXMan 15:10, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

FANTASTIC, thank you so much. --Captain Infinity (talk) 15:14, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The reason it didn't work was because you were actually putting the page in the candidates for speedy deletion category when you added that link. That's how all cat links work. Putting the colon there makes it a link to the category's page. This works for files/images, as well (links to them instead of putting them on the page). hmwitht 16:16, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Category#Putting pages in categories. The same rule applies to making inline Interlanguage links, for example: fr:Wikipédia:Guilde des Guides is the Help desk on the French Wikipedia. You could also have solved your problem by looking at the wikitext of the CAT:CSD shortcut, which is available from this URL and contains the code:

#Redirect [[:Category:Candidates for speedy deletion]] {{R to other namespace}}  {{R from shortcut}}

--Teratornis (talk) 18:49, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

facebook

how do I share to facebook 15:21, 26 August 2009 (UTC)~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by LAURIELEMAY (talk • contribs)

What are you trying to share: a Wikipedia link or something else? TNXMan 15:35, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

You can add a sharebox to the toolbox that will include Facebook. I suspect you are new here— if you give me permission, I can add it to your user account.

For those who understand how to edit your .JS, simply add this and purge:

importScript('User:TheDJ/sharebox.js');

---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:12, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Seeking a way to contact a person who added to a page

There was an addition to the USS R-14 page with information from the grandson of Lt Alexander Douglas, acting CO of the USS R-14, stating he lived in Colorado and had his grandfather logbooks. I am seeking a away to have this person contact me so I can talk with him about the grandson. I am researching for a book about the event and would like to make it complete as possible.Pigboats (talk) 17:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If you're referring to the USS R-14 page, simply click on the tab at the top that says "history". This will list every edit that has been made to the page. You can click on the timestamp by each entry to see what was added or removed by the edit. You'll also see who made the edit, along with a link to their talk page, where you can leave them a message. TNXMan 17:20, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the person that added that comment has only made five edits ever, and none since the edit in February when that sentence was added. You can try leaving a message at User talk:Jazzpjd, but it does not look hopeful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.217.188.20 (talk) 22:32, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Unknown File Type

This is a recent problem: either since I upgraded to IE8 or Wiki added the en. to search results.

For instance, if I do a search and want to view the Wiki page that results, I notice the prefix en. When I click on the link, I often get an Unknown File Type pop-up window "File Download Security Warning" asking if I want to "search the internet to find a program to open it;" Save it;" or "cancel."

If I opt to "search..." eventually an IE page comes up with File Association FAQs.

Ted Kennedy - no problem Joan Jett - no problem archibald macleish - pop-up Sinbad - pop-up

Is this the new Explorer, a Wiki problem (perhaps with older files) or am I doing something wrong? I will check back for answers by searching for the subject. Thanks in advance. Cpmgrp (talk) 18:07, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It occurs quite often, and usually randomly. However, it happens a lot more on IE, since Microsoft can't make a decent web browser to save their life. Firefox FTW! Dendodge _T\^C 18:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

See here.----occono (talk) 19:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, thanks for the rant, but what do I do to open these articles that I want to read? I'm pretty well locked into IE. Cpmgrp (talk) 19:38, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Please read the page I linked to, it's not know what triggers the problem.----occono (talk) 19:59, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you searching at Google and clicking the links on the Google search results page? Several users have reported problems with that. If it's your problem then manually copy the url to the browser address bar instead of clicking the link. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:28, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks, I clicked on your username instead of the link. I have tried copy/paste, but the same thing usually happens. I'll try the purge (if it will work on IE). If not, I may switch back to IE7 or another browswer. IE8 has some neat features, but is very slow and does not seem to allow as many tabs/windows to be open simultaneously as IE7. Cpmgrp (talk) 21:59, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know whether it makes a difference but you could try the secure server at https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Main_Page. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:56, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

posting pdf references that do not link to an external web site

I have a pdf that I want to list as a reference. I want to create a link but not to an external website, just to the pdf itself. How/where do I upload the pdf?Ngposter (talk) 18:19, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If the PDF file contains free content and meets other requirements (is not a vanity piece, etc.) you can upload it to Wikisource. --Teratornis (talk) 18:51, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Please be sure, though, that the pdf is a verifiable, reliable source. Most original documents I've seen linked to fail that measurement. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:08, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Putting about myself

Hello,

Can I put information about myself on Wikipedia?

Thanks,

Matt —Preceding unsigned comment added by Freerider2009 (talk • contribs) 21:28, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If you were notable, you would probably have an article already. Autobiographies are discouraged because of the conflict of interest involved. So the answer is "If you're notable, wait for someone else to write it; otherwise, no." Xenon54 / talk / 22:02, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

There are other options, for example Wikipopuli and Wikibios. – ukexpat (talk) 22:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The editor can put it on his talk page, right? Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 06:32, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

His user page would be better than his talk page but there are also restrictions about that. Freerider2009 has no other edits and may not be interested in building the encyclopedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:31, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Merging Accounts

I recently found the previous account I had with Wikipedia, but had created a new account in the interim. Is there a way to merge the "my contributions" of both accounts? (StacyInBoston and StacyOnEarth). StacyOnEarth 17:44, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I think it used to be possible but isn't anymore. Xenon54 / talk / 21:59, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Right, edits cannot be reattributed. There once was a process at Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Noinclude showing up without explanation

A /noinclude tag is currently present between the top two stub tags at the bottom of St. Paul's by-the-sea Protestant Episcopal Church, but I can't figure out where it comes from. It's not in the text of the article itself, and there's no dangling /noinclude tag at the bottom of the upper stub tag nor at the top of the lower stub tag. There are no other templates located so that they could be placing this noinclude tag, as far as I know, and all other templates present on the article are present in many other articles without producing this tag. Any ideas where it comes from? Nyttend (talk) 22:52, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Fixed.[2] I also saw the noincludetag on other articles. You often have to view the source of a template to see what it does. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

CNN Story

I'm not sure if anybody here knows much about it, but a recent CNN online story cited that the Wikimedia foundation plans to set editing restrictions, especially concerning WP:BLP. The best way to know about this would be through the Wikimedia Foundation itself, but does anybody know about this change, or is it simply an exageration of the already existant WP:RCP organisation, which I'm an active supporter of. If anybody knows anything about this, can they please copy the response onto my talk page?

Ojay123 ^{(Talk•E-Mail•Contribs•Sandbox)} 22:56, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Flagged revisions will be enabled on biographies. Basically what it means is that editors will have to "sight" (review) edits by anonymous and new editors in order to prevent (possible libellous) vandalism. As is typical with stories about Wikipedia, the mass media a) is having a field day and b) have little to no idea what they are talking about, leading to exaggeration, misleading claims, and outright lies. Oh well - just another day in WikiWorld. Don't worry too much about it. Xenon54 / talk / 23:04, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, if we have an article on the controversy, remember that the threshold for inclusion is verifiability, not truth. :) A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 23:45, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe it's referring to Wikipedia:Flagged protection and patrolled revisions. Copied to user talk. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It was noted in this weeks Signpost Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-24/Technology report. Nanonic (talk) 23:32, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The German Wikipedia has been using this system for some time now; it's a little hindering to me when I add images there, but I'm happy to have someone who speaks German check before my attempts at the language appear publicly. Nyttend (talk) 03:34, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

This is long overdue. It should curb the constant nonsense on bios of popular figures and hopefully help keep wikipedia out of potential hot water. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 06:31, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

How can I get my original account back?

I know I created an account several months ago with a username that was not in use and is very unusual, as is my password.... I tried to log in but could not - it said "wrong password".. but when I tried to have it (password) e-mailed to me it said "no e-mail associated with this accnt". I know for a fact that I entered my e-mail address. Long story short... I had to create a different accnt with a different username. HOW can I get back to my original accnt and reclaim my original username?? I want to use my old accnt name.. What can I do if anything?? Pongopuss (talk) 23:39, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Have a look at an article that you know you edited. Look at its history (scrolling back to when you would have edited it) and find your contribution. This will give you the user name you used. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 23:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If you made no edits with the old account you can usurp the old username at WP:CHUU. decltype (talk) 23:54, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

What do you think the old account name was? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:03, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I think he knows it, but he forgot his password and didn't associate it with an email address, so there's no way to get it back (other than trying to resurp). hmwitht 04:35, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I know he thinks he knows it but some people forget exact spellings (for example capitalization), mistype passwords, don't know which site they created an account at or which sites have different accounts, and so on. If we knew the account name he thinks it is then we could check several things such as: Was it created several months ago here at the English Wikipedia, are there similar account names he could have confused it with, does it have email enabled, is it likely to allow usurpation. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:09, 27 August 2009 (UTC)