Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 December 8

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December 8

Toolserver Acct

I'm having difficulty creating a toolserver acct request as per the instructions. — CpiralCpiral 01:20, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

• I just created an account with no problems at all. I assume you went through here? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 02:01, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes and no. Your's works for me to create some kind of account somewhere. Who knows what I did. Thanks; but the documentation I seek help with says use http://toolserver.org/accountrequest, and the rest of the documentation correctly describes a summary field, which your answer lacks. You offer https://wiki.toolserver.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&type=signup&returnto=Talk:Account_approval_process but with no procedure for getting a toolserver account approved, the process of which contains the summary field lacking in your pointer. Thanks, but please see the original question. — CpiralCpiral 00:23, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

A possible homework question

Two surveyors with two-way radios leave the same point at 9:00 A.M., one walking due south at 2 mi/hr and the other due west at 3 mi/hr. How long can they communicate with one another if each radio has a maximum range of 1.80 miles? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lpeaks (talk • contribs) 06:05, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

On Wikipedia you should Do your own homework but you'll need to apply the Pythagorean theorem to this one. --Teratornis (talk) 07:31, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I can give the answer: They can't communicate with each other at all with the radios, as the question makes no mention of the radios having batteries or being charged. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:31, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Likewise, it makes no mention of their inability to yodel long distances, use semaphore flags, carrier pigeons, or other means of communications. It also doesn't rule out the possibility of them having non-2-way radios. OK, I'm being silly, Teratornis beat me to the punch with a serious answer. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 01:41, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

How to dispute fairness of an entry?

I want to put a heading on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_e-mail_hacking_incident

...stating that it may be "inaccurate in or unbalanced toward certain viewpoints," as this article is headed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide

I would also like to *remove* that heading from the latter page. How is this done?

Thanks...

P.S. - I find Wikipedia's information on how to edit and contribute to be unnecessarily complicated, and it took way too long to find the best place to send this message. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.245.22.104 (talk) 07:02, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Responding to your postscript, what do you mean by unnecessarily complicated? Can you point to any manual on Wikipedia which contains unnecessary instructions? Note that Wikipedia has 48,344,573 registered user accounts. This is not a site designed with the needs of any particular person in mind. Wikipedia's users write all of Wikipedia's manuals, so if you find instructions in our manuals, you can be sure they were put there by users who needed them. The problem is we have millions of users with many different needs, so our manuals reflect that complexity. If you know a superior way to design a user-editable encyclopedia, by all means build it and knock Wikipedia into second place. --Teratornis (talk) 07:37, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Hi. You can indicate that an article might not be neutral by adding {{POV}} to the beginning of the article source, which will display this message. Removing the {{POV}} will remove the message. After adding this message (or removing it, for that matter), you should leave a comment on the article's talk page explaining why.

Having looked at both the articles, I noticed that Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident already has the relevant message on it. Please do not add a second one, as this will just confuse editors. Also, I'm not sure that you should remove the POV tag on Democide at the moment; try discussing it first.

With regards to Wikipedia's editing guides, I think the information is quite easy to understand. If you want some simple advice to get you started, why not try the tutorial?

Cheers, CarrotMan (talk) 19:40, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

draftspace to mainspace

im really confused... i have moved my document into the userspace.. how do i get it on to mainspace? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tina.mari.larsen (talk • contribs) 07:41, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

You would move it once again dropping the "User:Tina.mari.larsen/" from User:Tina.mari.larsen/Fairbridge Western Australia and using just the name of the article when ready Fairbridge Western Australia. This will move the articles history along with it. KindlyCalmer Waters 08:07, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I suggest naming the article Fairbridge Western Australia Inc. and also adding it the the disambiguation page Fairbridge Calmer Waters 08:10, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

There is no need to include "Inc" in this article's title - there is no other Fairbridge Western Australia article so no need to go against the naming convention for companies that "Inc", "Ltd", "PLC" etc should not be included. – ukexpat (talk) 14:09, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Optimization of Search for "AIMS"

Checking Wikipedia for AIMS I realized that "AIMS = association of international management search" is found when you search for "AIMS". In the same search "AIMS International" is not found. Most correct would be if you searched for "AIMS" and had the search result "AIMS International" at the position of "AIMS". How can we manage this?

88.79.129.42 (talk) 09:12, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

• I have added AIMS International to the disambiguation page. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:35, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Watch list and languages

I have wiki pages I want to watch in more than 1 language. In my case, some in English, some in Dutch. So far I have found that I need to switch language in order to access the watch list with the articles from/in that language. Is there a way to maintain a single watch list, and not a watch list per language? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gsandberg (talk • contribs) 14:00, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Help:Watching pages suggests using the multi-wiki watchlist at http://toolserver.org/~luxo/gwatch/login.php . Nanonic (talk) 14:04, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Captcha

Hello,

I am trying to edit a page but keep getting the captcha come up, how do I edit the page and get round this? I have put in the word and clicked save but it just goes round like a loop and the edit I have made does not get saved. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Honey1979 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I see you have edited Paul Hervey-Brookes several times since posting here. Is your problem solved? Your acount should become autoconfirmed when you have made 5 more edits to any page and then some restrictions will be removed. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:31, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes thank you for your help, I have worked it out now.

Lost page

I created a page about motorcycle insurance and when I search for it, nothing comes up. I realize that there is a review process but how do I know if and when my page was approved/disapproved? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blancour (talk • contribs) 17:19, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Dairyland Insurance Company was deleted for being both non-notable and unambiguous advertising. You received a notification of this on your talk page at User talk:Blancour. --Mysdaao ^talk 17:23, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

No, I created a generic motorcycle insurance page yesterday. I know why the Dairyland Insurance page was deleted. How do I know if my generic motorcycle insurance page is acceptable?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Blancour (talk • contribs) 20:33, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Your account has no saved edits at the English Wikipedia between 24 November and your post here. On 24 November you created Dairyland cycle insurance, SentryWorld and Dairyland Insurance Company. They were all deleted the same day. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:23, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I didn't sign in to make the page. How will I know if it's approved or not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blancour (talk • contribs) 22:30, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

If you weren't logged in, you couldn't create a new page. You may, however, have put an entry in at Articles for creation. Looking at recent AFC submissions, I suspect that the page you made was Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/motorcycle insurance, which was declined because it appeared to by copied from another website. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:53, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

"This article is written like an advertisement

I've been edting an article that was indeed written like an advert and it has that warning at the top about its 'advert-like' quality. I've tried to make it more neutral (successfully or not I don't know). How can I ask for it to be reassessed in terms of its neutrality? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MyselfonSaturday (talk • contribs) 17:27, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

There is no formal process for this. Any user may remove maintenance tags at any time. You are free to remove it yourself, as long as you explain why you are doing so in the edit summary or on the article's talk page. However, if you wish to discuss it with others first to be sure there is consensus that the article is neutral, there are a few options, which are described at Wikipedia:NPOV dispute. You can ask the user who added the tag for feedback on his/her talk page on whether the article is neutral now. The user who added it is HaeB who added the tag with this edit in November 2008. You can also ask for feedback on the article's talk page at Talk:Mumsnet and wait at least a few days to see if anyone objects. You can ask your question at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard to see if users there think the article is neutral now. You can also do all three at the same time. --Mysdaao ^talk 17:46, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

what to do with really long citations

Resolved

Hi, what should be done to improve citations like number 2 at this article it is really really long? Off2riorob (talk) 17:29, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I've formatted it using {{Template:Cite Web}}; whether it qualifies as a reliable source for the fact it's attached to is another question. Gonzonoir (talk) 17:36, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, ill have a look to see how you did it, the article is short of supporting third party citations and I think it was added in desperation, but that is another issue, many thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 17:39, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

How do I put an admin who is doing a bad job up for review?

Everywhere has too many requirements. One venue only the admin themselves can put themselves up for review, the other requires a current dispute issue with 2 involved editors. Where can I simply report an admin who shows no understanding of what it means to be an admin (And who is abusing their rights when they have a conflict of interest with me)? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 19:28, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I would begin by discussing it with the admin themselves on their talk page. If this does not work, either mention it at WP:ANI - and provide diffs to show the problem, or go to Wikipedia:Third opinion (or one of the other Wikipedia:Dispute resolution venues) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:34, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Agree with Phantomsteve, ANI is the best place. However, please be sure to present the issue in a neutral way with diffs to support your position. TNXMan 19:36, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. ANI it is then. Thank you :) - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 19:38, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Apparently there was a proposal for exactly this kind of thing, Wikipedia:Administrator Review (note the capitalized R in Review). Dunno what became of it though.. -- œ^™ 09:52, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Facebook Problems

i am on face book i am having problems getting into my farmville and vampire wars and mafia can you help me retreive my games thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.60.53.97 (talk) 19:31, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

• I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:34, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

You might find an answer at the Facebook help page. --Teratornis (talk) 19:44, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Image upload isn't appearing properly

I have a corporate logo I'm trying to upload for inclusion on a new page and for some reason it's not appearing correctly. The colors don't appear the same in the thumbnail, but when I click on it, the correct colors appear. What am I doing wrong? KDR 20:00, 8 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kdrichards (talk • contribs)

The colors look the same (or at worst, slightly different) for me. Could you please describe further what the problem is? (For interested parties, the image is File:Optimer Corporate Logo.jpg.)

You should probably look over the criteria for using non-free content, as the image is a copyrighted logo. Your image doesn't meet several of those criteria - specifically 3b, 7, 10a, and 10c.

A quick explanation: 3b is "is the picture as low-resolution as possible?"; 7 is "is the picture used in any articles?" - see Help:Image for information on how to do this; 10a is "is the webaddress of the source of the image listed on the image description page?"; and 10c is "is a fair use rationale written for each article the image appears in?". Not meeting these criteria, especially criterion 7 and criterion 10c, will lead to the image being deleted. I understand that the area of copyrights and image uploads is complicated, so please do come back here if you have more questions. Xenon54 / talk / 20:18, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Pictures

There aren't any pictures on Wikipedia! Even your trademark logo(globe puzzle) isn't there! It's just a blank space! Help! Sara378 (talk) 21:48, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Browser and OS? Do you see pictures elsewhere on the Internet? Xenon54 / talk / 21:53, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

my userpage

i need help making my user page i would like to add a table and some pictures please help me!!!--RIVER 21:49, 8 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rio44 (talk • contribs)

Read Help:Table and Help:Image, then feel free to come back here if you still have questions. Xenon54 / talk / 21:53, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:User page design center may be interesting if you want to get really "crazy". --Jayron32 23:34, 8 December 2009 (UTC)