Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 May 15

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May 15

Why was bobba reverted

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 00:40, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I can't seem to figure out why Boba Fett was reverted back to the redirect, The message just says "rv. to redirect" Hintswen (talk) 00:32, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

I originally tagged it for speedy deletion as it did not indicate the importance or significance of the subject. Rather than delete, the reviewing admin redirected. – ukexpat (talk) 00:56, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Aah ok, Thanks. Hintswen (talk) 01:00, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Creating a Template

Resolved

How do I create a page for a template I want to use?

I want to use this template:

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Stepusual (talk • contribs)

It sounds like you want to turn that instance of the {{Navbox}} template into its own template page. See for example similar templates such as {{Steven Spielberg}}. If you want to make it a little fancier, look at other navigation templates such as {{Peak oil}} which contain documentation subpages and collapsibility options. I suggest you keep your template name simple by just calling it {{Mamoru Oshii}}. (Change the name= option in your {{Navbox}}, then just click on the tiny "e" link in the upper left corner to open an edit window to create your new template. Be sure to categorize it, on the documentation subpage. --Teratornis (talk) 01:25, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you.--Stepusual (talk) 01:36, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Invisible picture

There seems to be an invisible picture atthe article Mathematics. If you go to the History section, there is supposed to be a picture of a not-so-old Isaac Newton. However, it isn't there; the space where the image is present, but it is blank. This may just be my computer, but is this picture really defaulted?--Ractogon (talk) 02:05, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

It displays fine for me. Maybe it was a momentary server glitch. If the problem persists try a server purge and/or a cache bypass. – ukexpat (talk) 02:47, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Merger of two articles that are about the same darn thing

Theoretical physics deals with natural phenomena in mathematical form. AS you'll plainly see, there is an article about it. However, there is another article, Mathematical physics, which describes "the scientific discipline concerned with the interface of mathematics and physics." Aren't 'theoretical physics and mathematical physics the same thing? And if they are, should there be a merger?--Ractogon (talk) 02:11, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

You may want to bring this up on the articles' talk pages(the discussion tabs at the top of each of those pages, or at WP:WikiProject Physics. See Help:Merging and moving pages -Optigan13 (talk) 02:32, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Russ Laribee

Please consider Russ Laribee as an article for deletion. As a likely living person, it seems mean spirited. <redacted> How is that a special place in baseball history? It's not right that is the whole article. I would delete myself but I can't figue out how. --24.119.32.80 (talk) 02:38, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

It's a valid stub, pro baseball players are notable per WP:ATHLETE. I toned down the language a little. – ukexpat (talk) 02:54, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

I have removed the specific material from the article (as well as from your post) per our policy on biogaphies of living people, as it was unsourced and negative.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:51, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Tuanku Jaafar Power Station (Port Dickson) 2009 UNITEN Trainees

</gallery>
General Description: there are 8 Mechanical Engineering Students as well as 2 Electrical Engineering students involved in the program. The training started on 6th April 2009 ends on 26th June 2009. Students were given exposure on every aspect of the plant from power production to the systems involved in the power generation.

Students involved in the program:

1.Tengku Nur Hafizah (Mech Engg)
2.Suguna Balakrishnan (Mech Engg)
3.Nur Suryani Bt Ramli (Mech Engg)
4.Azrul Izwan b.Zulkifli (Elec Engg)
5.Nurul Aini bt.Mohamad (Mech Engg)
6.Siti Khadijah bt.Zakaria (Mech Engg)
7.Mohd Shukri b.Mohd Resedi (Mech Engg)
8.Siti Aminah bt.Amanan (Mech Engg)
9.Aliff Irsyad b.Ngah (Mech Engg)
10.Ishan Bharat Kumar Patel (Elec Engg)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.82.79.104 (talk • contribs) 03:29, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Er, do you have a question that we can help you with? – ukexpat (talk) 03:39, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Your post probably has something to do with Tuanku Jaafar Power Station, but I can't figure out what. —teb728 t c 03:45, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Specifying a date/time range for Recent changes

I'd like to show all changes for a particular time frame (a few days ago). I tried to use the from= parameter on the recent changes page (example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&from=20090512000000), but that didn't work. How can I get the date window I'm looking for? -- Tcncv (talk) 05:18, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Actually the link you give "works", but the "from" date apparently refers to the bottom of the list, which you cannot see because it is many thousands of changes below the bottom of the list that fits on the screen. The history of a page has an "earliest" link which is what you want on the recent changes page, but I don't see any way to do that on recent changes. I tried sticking a &dir=prev option in the URL (which is what the "earliest" link does to a page history URL), but that does not work with recent changes. I'm surprised the recent changes page does not work more like the history page. On an extremely busy wiki such as Wikipedia, the built-in recent changes page is a comparatively weak tool. See mw:Extension Matrix for possible improvements (not that they would be available on Wikipedia). And see Wikipedia:Syndication which might lead you to other options. --Teratornis (talk) 00:39, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

publishing an article , modify it , make people vote for these changes

Hi I will try to explain what I want to do and by this way your will know exactly how you can help me. 1.I wanna publish an article and to ask the people to modify it. 2.After each modification , I wanna make make people vote for these modifications whether they agree on them or not. Can I Wikipedia help me with these two tasks? Regards, Mostafa —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toofee82 (talk • contribs) 09:35, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Well, we can help you with one, but not the other. We definitely help you publish an article (as long as the subject is notable and the article is supported by reliable sources). Once the article is published, anyone can modify it. However, because this is Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia anyone can edit), there is no method of allowing to people to vote on changes. Once a change is made to an article, it either sticks or is reverted, initiating the bold action, revert, discuss cycle. I hope this helps. TNXMan 11:54, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Make this file transparent

Could someone please make this file transparent, File:Soccerball mask.svg ? As for the soccerball, I want the background to be transparent because it take up spaces. If it can't be transparent, maybe any of you can help me to cut a bit the white background so that it fits the soccerball size. The file is from commons, and if any of you know any help pages that you think you can forward this question to, fell free to do it. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 09:56, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Please request this at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:08, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Referencing a webpage that changes frequently

Resolved

 – Goodraise 13:05, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I'd like to reference this page – the BBC Radio 1 Rock Albums chart – as it appears today. However, in a few days it will change and Wavering Radiant will no longer be at number 17. That information will seemingly be lost, as The Official UK Charts Company archive doesn't cover these sub-charts, per se. I understand that there's a chance the Internet Archive will gobble it up, but that will happen in weeks or months. So, wise helpdeskers, what should I do? Thanks. Seegoon (talk) 10:09, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

You should be able to archive it with WebCite. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:44, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, that's exactly what I was after. Seegoon (talk) 12:08, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation page or Other source page for Multiple-Part Article?

I want to add several topics that are all related, but worthy of their own articles due to content and length. Making a disambiguation page doesn't seem appropriate, but I'm not sure how else to create a "table of contents" page that would direct readers to each of the individual articles. Can you help me?

Specifically, I want to create an article which lists different types of orthoses (braces). That page would be titled Orthoses, and link to individual articles about Ankle foot orthoses, foot orthoses, wrist orthoses, spinal orthotics, etc., as well as orthoses for pets, .... How would you suggest I do this?

Thank you Kluger2 (talk) 10:14, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Start with the main page and the later do 'sub' pages, see e.g. water which have sections for 'Water cycle', 'Fresh water storage' and so on. --Stefan ^talk 10:19, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

I also suggest you start at orthotics and expand from there. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:29, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Summary style. Make sure each page satisfies Wikipedia:Notability. Otherwise it may be deleted or merged. You can make a category and maybe a navigation template for the pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:34, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Remember, we are trying to create an encyclopedia, not a textbook. Therefore, we generally start with an overview article, which will have paragraphs about each sub-article: this allows the reader to quickly determine if they are interested in the sub-topic. If a sub-topic is too large for the main article, we still have a summary paragraph in the main article, with a link to the articla on the sub-topic. -Arch dude (talk) 01:36, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, folks!! Kluger2 (talk) 17:58, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Spaces

I know its not that important, but after a full stop do you put one space or two spaces? I've been reverting whenever I see two spaces, but then I thought I shouldn't. Or does it not matter. And should I watch this page or will it be answered on my User talk--Spongefrog (talk) 13:25, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't matter on Wikipedia. When the page is displayed in the browser, it formats the text with one space only, regardless of how many you add (see Wikipedia:Mos#Non-breaking_spaces). Some editors put 2 spaces to add readability when working on an article, so it's probably safe to leave them in, as they don't affect the public appearance of the article. --Kateshortforbob 14:16, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Can someone look at a suspected copyvio?

I came across When Corruption was King when doing some gnome work, and the prose style immediately stuck me as being somewhat wrong. A search on a phrase turned up this page as a first result and this. It seems that the article has been a complete copyvio since it's creation in 2006, but this appears to have gone unnoticed by the various editors who have revised it since, and by the participants in the AFD which was raised shortly after it's creation, and (presumably) by the various 'bots which look for this kind of thing. Am I missing something? Is there a release for this somewhere? Did the website take the article from Wikipedia? (In fairness, I am quite tired, so please feel free to mock my obvious mistake) --Kateshortforbob 13:30, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

It looks wrong to me too. Your first link seems to be the author's website and the second link contains the publisher's PR blurbs. Also the book was published in 2004, two years before the Wikipedia page was created. Since you're tired :) I took it back to a stub with your links as references - if you disagree you can just undo it. Hope this helped, WikiJedits (talk) 15:18, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for taking a look; that looks much better. I thought I was going cross-eyed there (or a bit mad :-/) --Kateshortforbob 15:39, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Remove warnings

Is it vandalism to remove warnings from talk page? Amplitude101 (talk) 13:56, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

• It is not really considered vandalism, but it is against Wikipedia policies to remove warnings (especially if it is not your), because administrators may need to see them for future reference. If you have any more questions, just ask. Cheers. GandalftheWise : Talk Page 14:07, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Actually, according to WP:UP#CMT, you are allowed to remove warnings. It's viewed as a tacit understanding that you have read the warnings. TNXMan 14:13, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I've restored my warnings Amplitude101 (talk) 18:55, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

because administrators may need to see them for future reference - No, no, no: administrators (and others) should use the history tab to review what was posted to a user talk page; if nothing else, that will show when an editor (quite acceptably, per above) deleted stuff.

What is visible at any given time on a user talk page should be whatever that editor decides is useful, or hasn't got around to removing by deletion or archiving. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 13:55, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

can a DVD cover be used without copyvio?

Hello friends. I've been going through all the help pages I can find about images and still have no idea about my specific question. I would like to add an image to an article about a TV series. There are images of the DVD cover all over the internet, plus I have the DVD myself and could scan the cover again. Is either one of these options a valid, non-copyright-violating method of getting an image for the article? Or not? Thank you, WikiJedits (talk) 15:00, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

If there are no free images available you may be able use a copyrighted image locally under fair use. Generally, this means the image can be used once, at the beginning of the article about the subject itself. See, as an example, File:The House That Dripped Blood.jpg, and its use in the article: The House That Dripped Blood. Note that theatrical posters are much preferred to dvd covers. For an overview, see Wikipedia:Non-free content Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:15, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you Fuhghettaboutit. I could make a scan then and follow the pattern of the image you linked when explaining its use. I do not have a poster and do not know if there ever was one; the series (Vishnu Puran (TV series)) did not air in my country. I will read the page you linked first and hope I can understand it :) Thanks again for the very clear answer and examples! WikiJedits (talk) 15:29, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, it says there must be critical commentary, it can't be used for identification alone. I think the article will have to change first. Thanks again for the help, WikiJedits (talk) 15:47, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Help

How do I upload my bio to Wikipedia? Fifego (talk) 15:32, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Have you read WP:AUTO? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 15:38, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia. There are two kinds of "bios" here. One kind is a regular biographical article about someone. It's not a good idea to create such articles about yourself ecause it often causes arguments - click WP:AUTO for the explanation. The other kind is not a full biography, but just a few personal comments about yourself on your userpage that explain why you work on the Wikipedia articles that you do. See WP:UP#NOT and WP:UP for the explanations of this. If it is your user page that you would like to edit, just click on your name Fifego to get started. Best, WikiJedits (talk) 15:45, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

There are alternative places to post your bio, such as Wikipopuli and Wikibios. – ukexpat (talk) 00:35, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Deleted page by Speedy Deletion - would like help on making the article exist

Hi there,

A page I created, VSP Vision Care, was deleted. I would like feedback and help for the page so it adheres to guidelines and not considered advertising.

Thank you.

Elizba (talk) 17:49, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Verifiability is important. I recommend google news searches and using google finance to find relevant, noteworthy, and reliable (not press releases) stories on VSP. I do not know the notability guidelines for business but I am sure someone else will chime in for that. Its claim to fame looks to be that it is the (or one of the) top eye care benefits providers in the US. If an article is created, please keep in mind that if you have an association with the company you are discouraged from working on it.Cptnono (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I would encourage you to read our guide on writing your first article, writing from a neutral point of view, and what constitutes advertising. Also check out our business FAQ. Those should be good first steps to writing a good article. TNXMan 18:06, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Question

When I went on the Main Page recently the only stuff on it was "table style="width:28". How the hell did this happen? Was it a bug? Dexter000 ^{Hop, Skip} 18:20, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Likely your browser timed out, I think. Mine did that a while ago, it wasn't displaying the bars on the left (with the boxes), the tabs or the userlinks (top right)... probably linked with the downtime.  GARDEN  18:50, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

the house on the rock

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 00:41, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

The background information about Alex Jordan Jr and Frank Lloyd Wright's association with an architectual project could not have happened since the timeline of this meeting from 1914-1923 coincides with Alex's childhood years (he was born in 1914). The biography according to Sid Boyum does mention Alex Jordan Sr. but we have no knowledge of this from his son's notes and documentation. In the archive information there is no mention of Alex Jordan Jr., the creator of the House on the Rock, or his family with any meetings with Frank Lloyd Wright since no one in the family was a student of Wright's or did official business with him. We find this to be a common question at the attraction when people tour but there is no evidence of it in our paperwork from Alex and his family in our archives, and we have done rigorous studies on this recently to confirm the story either way. We would like to have it known to the public of our stance on these stories and that it is not what we tell our guests from our firsthand knowledge. If you have any questions we can send you more information. Thank you for working with us to express our view of this background information. The House on the Rock Archives DepartmentHOTRarchives (talk) 18:45, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Please see WP:COI. Hate to just throw it at you but someone will inevitably.  GARDEN  18:48, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

HOTRarchives permablocked as a WP:SPAMNAME. – ukexpat (talk) 00:33, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Changing incorrect info

How do i change incorrect informationon a page?( sorry new to this) —Preceding unsigned comment added by JLee1114 (talk • contribs) 19:40, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Getting this posted is a good start ;). Just click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page, and type in the box that appears. Best of luck. ;) — Ched :  ?  19:50, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

But first make sure the information really is incorrect and cite a reliable source for your edits especially if they are potentially controversial. At the very least make sure you complete an edit summary explaining your edits. – ukexpat (talk) 00:31, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Any way to retrieve a password without an email attached to the username?

I could provide IP addresses, etc...

I have tried every known password I've ever used...

207.105.129.3 (talk) 23:19, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, there is not. – ukexpat (talk) 00:29, 16 May 2009 (UTC)