Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 January 12

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January 12

pictures

why i can't see picture son wikipedia anymore? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.6.72.253 (talk) 00:36, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, they are there. But browser setting can change the displaying of images. Or it might be a connection problem. Chamal ^talk 00:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it just some pictures that don't display, or are all images on Wikipedia not loading? Can you see images on other websites? Also, what browser are you using? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It must be a Firefox thing, because when I use Wikipedia in Firefox, I can't see any images. However, when I use IE7, I can see all the images. Alex (talk) 04:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:GA

What's wrong with the WP:GA team? I have a couple of articles nominated, one from January 5 and nothing. Is there a problem? Mario1987 09:15, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You just have to wait and be patient. I've seen nominations that have never been reviewed in over a month before. Also, I think asking at WT:GA would be the best place to ask that. — RyanCross (talk) 09:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience. Mario1987 09:51, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

No problem at all. — RyanCross (talk) 09:52, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Signpost on my Watchlist?

Resolved

I used to have Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Single on my Watchlist, so every week I would see the update and read the Signpost. Now this doesn't work as that page is automatically updated. Which page I should Watch to get the same effect?--Commander Keane (talk) 11:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• If the page is updated automatically, chances are a bot is doing it. Does your watchlist watch bot edits? You might also want to take a look at the top of my talk page. I have a template there that shows the latest stories and updates automatically too (it's much easier to notice if the update is shown in a visible place. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:39, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• In your watchlist, it's possible to turn on and off minor edits, anonymous user edits, registered user edited, etc. One of those choices include bot edits. You might have that on. Try turning it off. — RyanCross (talk) 11:54, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is automatically updated by transclusion. I found Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Issue which is what I think I need, so it is ok now. Thanks for your help anyway Mgm :-) --Commander Keane (talk) 11:55, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Company listing has disappeared

The entry for NetCracker Technology no longer exists. I last touched it in November, I believe, and it was fine then. Why did it get deleted? What do I need to do to restore (and modify) it?

Thank you. Donna Bastien, Director of Marketing at NetCracker Technology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Donnabastien (talk • contribs) 11:41, January 12, 2009 Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)— Donnabastien (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.

NetCracker Technology --this article was never created. We need to know the exact title of the article if you want to know the exact reason why its missing but I can tell you that if it was deleted it was probably due to or notability or "advert tone" issues. –Capricorn42 (talk) 11:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is NetCracker I believe. It has been speedy deleted on 9 December 2008 under criteria G11 (blatant advertising). Please read Wikipedia:ADS for more info. Wikipedia is not the place to advertise your business or organization. Also, our articles have to be neutral and verifiable. Wikipedia:Conflict of interest might also interest you. Chamal ^talk 11:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:FAQ/Organization has a good overview of the applicable policies and guidelines. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Uploading images without being auto-confirmed

I would like to upload 2 images for a company page but I do not fall under the status of auto-confirmed due to the '10 edits' criteria. Is there any way that I can do this?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brendanbourke (talk • contribs) 12:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

If the images are free, you can upload them at Commons. You can immediately start uploading images there. Also there is a special user right, Uploader, that allows you to this here too. I'm not sure how you apply for this user right, I'll look into it now. Chamal ^talk 12:31, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean, might I ask, by "a company page"? --Orange Mike | Talk 14:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I edit a Category title?

Hello,

I am wondering how to edit a category title. A trademark is being used as an uncapitalized generic term in a category title, which implies business associations where none exist. This kind of generic use could damage the trademark (i.e. calling copy machines xeroxes)

I need to edit the category title to remove the trademark and insert a generic term in its place, but I can find no information on how to do this.

Thanks for your time.

Greg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:23, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Categories cannot be moved or renamed. Just create a new category, replace the category tags in articles with new ones and then request deletion of the old category. See the help page –Capricorn42 (talk) 13:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Many Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• Surely Wikipedia:Categories for discussion is the place to go? Once a rename is agreed, a bot goes around changing the category tags in the articles for you. DuncanHill (talk) 14:58, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Agree - that's a more organized and less tiresome way to do. –Capricorn42 (talk) 15:03, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Discussion pages and policies

Resolved

 – per this diff

Hi. Can someone point me to a policy page on discussion pages (if such exists)? Discussion pages are useful to find the NPOV between different POVs. But what if it is a personal attack like "He should be shot." referring to the person the discussed article is about. May such edits simply be deleted? Michbich (talk) 14:45, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you're looking for Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Article talk pages are used for discussing matters related to the article only. Such comments are not, and therefore can be removed. Chamal ^talk 14:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Can and should be removed, and the user posting such a comment should be given an appropriate warning on their user page. Such behaviour is unacceptable. – ukexpat (talk) 15:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the above and would also mention the no personal attacks guide. It's content that matters, not the contributor or personal opinions about the subject. TN‑X-Man 16:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does it matter who the article is about? Granted, writing one's unfavorable opinions about the subjects on Talk:Adolf Hitler or Talk:Osama bin Laden would probably do little to improve the associated articles, but would there be a problem with citing reliable sources that find X% of poll respondents favor shooting some individual? Can we list some of the prominent politicians who have vowed to kill Osama bin Laden? We already know, of course, that many people want to shoot many major world figures, which is why major world figures tend to have heavy security. I read somewhere that every U.S. President receives at least 1000 death threats per year. Having people who want to shoot you seems to be a natural result of attaining a position of political consequence. That some wannabe assassin would tip their hand on Wikipedia may be imprudent on their part, but should hardly surprise us. We have articles about people who have enemies, some of those enemies may find their way to us. --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Notice

Has the fundraising notice been put on pages again? I thought they removed it on the 9th. 212.219.0.20 (talk) 16:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It just reappeared for me too. DuncanHill (talk) 16:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, me too. Hm, I thought they disabled this. Anon, if you sign up or login, you'll be able to collapse it. The gadget for users has, however, been removed. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Which answers my question about why I can't get rid of the bloody thing. I shall not contribute to mainspace until I can remove it. DuncanHill (talk) 16:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I suppose the code for the gadget could be used as a .css skin in individual monobooks. See simple:MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice.css for a copy of the code (just one I have available). PeterSymonds (talk) 16:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The gadget appears to have reappeared. DuncanHill (talk) 16:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

random on mediawiki -- how/possible?

Hello,

I would like to put in an article an image that randomly changes among a set of images. I found some info on how to randomly pick among ALL images, but how about randomly pick among a set (or even a category) of images? Is it possible, and if so, how?

Thank you.

--Agamemnus (talk) 17:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to do this in an article. Where and why do you want to do it? Algebraist 17:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, in terms of Wikipedia, nowhere quite yet. This is for a different wiki. (sorry..., and thanks again in advance!)--Agamemnus (talk) 18:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

One way of doing this is shown at Portal:Middle-earth/Random-article. How often it'll update will depend on exactly how this other wiki operates, though. Algebraist 18:14, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

But, that relies on caching. How do I make it do something different every time without having the user having "reset" it manually? --Agamemnus (talk) 20:20, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does the {{Wikipedia ads}} template do something like you want? Also, what do you mean by "every time"? --Teratornis (talk) 20:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

By "every time", I mean every time a page loads. And yes, that is what I want. However, I am *extremely* confused by how exactly I would use this... I need to make a new template, right? ... what would that template look like? I don't know which code to cut out, and which to leave...--Agamemnus (talk) 22:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis's example works in essentially the same way as mine, and has the same caching problems. I doubt what you want is possible with pure wikicode. You might be able to do it with javascript, but that's beyond my ken. Algebraist 22:35, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The principle behind {{Wikipedia ads}} could work in your case. You can try something similar to the following in your article:

[[Image:Rotating image {{#expr:{{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}} mod N}}.png]]

where N is the total number of images. This would show a pseudorandom image between Image:Rotating image 0.png and Image:Rotating image (N-1).png when called. This method of pseudorandomness only works in MediaWiki v1.10+ and generates a number between 0 and (N-1) depending on the number of edits made since MediaWiki was installed. Clearly, you can adapt this to your specific implementation. That algorithm is only really effective on wikis with high edit rates – if your wiki is less frequently edited, something like the formula at Algebraist's example might be more effective. haz (talk) 22:47, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you again (and the rest of you, too!)-- I will try this.--Agamemnus (talk) 01:36, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Addition of climate information

I notice that many city locations have graphical information added to their climate sections. I too would like to add such graphs, yet catn seem to find where the current "standard" graphs often added are located. An example is found under Atlanta, "Climate" it shows that the graph comes possibly from The Weather Channel. However, on their website, the graphs are very different. Where do i find the graphs found here on wikipedia?

The data within the climate table at Atlanta come from this page at The Weather Channel. One of the article's editors has created the table from that data. – ukexpat (talk) 18:16, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, the table was made using {{Infobox weather}}. Algebraist 18:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How to write an article in Wikipedia?

How can I write an article on Wikipedia then subbmitting it? So when I like open Wikipedia and open the article I wrote it would be there. Thanks. AKhShaheen (talk) 18:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC) "

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. TN‑X-Man 18:28, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Polish Question

I have problem switching to polish languish

Are you possible looking for the Polish Wikipedia? TN‑X-Man 18:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Or do you mean that you cannot change your default language to Polish here on English Wikipedia? – ukexpat (talk) 18:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit Count

I've been on Wikipedia for a while and I would like to know the total amount of edits I have done, does anybody know where I can I get that information?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 20:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:EIW#Count. --Teratornis (talk) 20:50, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

At the top of the page, you'll see "My Contributions" .. once there, scroll to the end of the page and you'll see links to edit counts, summary and so forth. Ched (talk) 20:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

For your specific link, go here. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 21:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Canada Election Map

Hi, I'm trying to upload a map of the 2008 Canadian federal election but it's going all weird. It's not showing the page and I can't display the page anywhere... Could someone look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong? It is here, I suspect it has something to do with the SVG being given a different name of the file, but it auto renames it to have no spaces... TastyCakes (talk) 20:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks like you made the same mistake I did (while trying to upload File:VASR 7 map.svg). I get

        Error creating thumbnail: 
        librsvg-ERROR **: _rsvg_acquire_xlink_href_resource called for external resource:         
       Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png base: (null)
       aborting...

when clicking on this link to the image. Your SVG references a png on your computer (probably some sort of base map); it can't be accessed, and an error message is thrown. I fixed this problem by using File-Import rather than copy and paste. Try that and see if it works. Xenon54 21:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, what is file import? I uploaded by clicking the "upload file" on the left bar in the commons main page. Could the error have been caused by me leaving the file open on my desktop while I was trying to upload it? TastyCakes (talk) 21:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for not being clear. The SVG references Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png, but the server, when it goes to make the thumbnail, can't find it. Likely what this means is you copied and pasted the png into whatever program you used to create the SVG, and it wasn't embedded correctly when you saved the file to upload. I rectified this problem by going to File -> Import in Inkscape and imported (rather than pasted) the images, which embeds them. You can also embed (again, in Inkscape) by going to Effects -> Images -> Embed all images. I hope I didn't confuse you more! Xenon54 23:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Great, that worked. Thanks a lot. TastyCakes (talk) 15:27, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

StatusBot

Is there a bot that updates your status as to whether you're in or out when you edit? I'm almost certain I saw something like that before. TopGearFreak 21:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Soxred93 (talk · contribs) used to run one such bot, but it was blocked. –Juliancolton ^{Tropical Cyclone} 21:30, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I use a script -- User:Misza13/statusChanger.js - it requires you to set up the appropriate subpages first, but it works great. It installs "in", "busy" and "out" links at the top in the same row as your user page, user talk page etc links. – ukexpat (talk) 21:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

There's also Wikipedia:QUI. It's used to keep track of your 'friends' status and you're able to update your status easily and quickly. I don't use it, but it sounds handy. — RyanCross (talk) 04:14, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Some problems caused by renamed image

Resolved

I just noticed a red link to Image:LoCiconRevised.svg, and it turned out it was deleted because the editor had replaced it with Image:LoCiconRevised.png. Now, I could seen that because I have admin rights; but this is something everybody should be able to see. Ideally, this should just automatically be changed to a redirect. But I can imagine that that may not be possible technically. Is there any way to at least make users aware of that move? Also, I did not see a "what links here" button. Is there a way to see if this is actually used? (If so, I'm thinking of requesting a bot to crawl this list after each image renaming.) — Sebastian 22:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The way to make users aware of the move is for the deleting admin to mention it in the deletion summary. Unfortunately, the admin here did not do so. What links here works fine for me. Algebraist 23:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Good to see that there is no live page left that's using the picture. — Sebastian 01:43, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Use of references inside templates

Where can I find documentation on how to use references - <ref> etc. - INSIDE templates? Iterator12n ^Talk 23:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It should generally work as normal, though you might have to use {{#tag:ref|reference content}} instead of <ref>reference content</ref> in some circumstances. That's documented here. Algebraist 23:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Re. "It should generally work as normal": Trouble is, in a good number of cases it does NOT work as normal, I've seen MediaWiki do some strange things with references inside templates. (I would admit that I've been dealing with some quite complicated templates. Nevertheless...) Re. "use {{#tag:ref|reference content}}": This tells me that its use is deprecated for current versions of MediaWiki. Altogether this part of MediaWiki looks like a muddle. And in cases where things do work now, what guarantee does one have that it'll work the same with a next release of MediaWiki? OK, this is a rhetorical question. Thanks. Iterator12n ^Talk 04:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, the feature is not deprecated, but I did send you to the wrong documentation page. meta:Help:Magic words is the correct one. Can you give an example of broken behaviour of references in templates? Algebraist 04:34, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm going to study meta:Help:Magic words (with a bit of reluctance because elsewhere I try to avoid software documentation as much as possible, never mind). Will get you an example of broken behaviour, but it will take a little time to reconstruct the case - if I still can remember how I wormed myself into the case.... For now, thanks!! -- Iterator12n ^Talk 04:47, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I have seen some templates where the reference tags will work, but the use of a citation template break things. Give us an example and we can probably help to fix it. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:52, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Username conflicts

Hi,

I am using "IndiaWiki" username for Wikimapia.org

I want to use the same for wikipedia for contributing in it.

I am not able to create this user name or any other user name with my email id which I used while creating ID for wikimapia

do I need to create a separate one which is not mapping with wikimapia ? if user database is same, why am I not able to use the same username and password for wikipedia..

Please assist

Thanks Amit Dhumash —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.10.219.38 (talk) 23:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean, you are 'not able to create this user name'? What exactly happens when you try? The name 'IndiaWiki' is not taken here, and WikiMapia is nothing to do with Wikipedia, so I can't see any obvious problems. Algebraist 00:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the computer won't allow names containing "Wiki"? I thought that administrators could create accounts for people who request them. Let's see... WP:USERNAME and WP:ACC are two pages you should read for more information. LovesMacs (talk) 00:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

User:Indiawiki is registered and IndiaWiki is too similar. See Wikipedia:Request an account. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)