Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 May 16

Help desk
< May 15	<< Apr | May | Jun >>	May 17 >

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.

May 16

Square bracket in external link

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 01:35, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I want to add an external link, but it doesn't work. This is because there is a square bracket "[" in the url, and so the link gets cut off. The link I want to use is <http://pauwenwitteman.vara.nl/Archief-detail.113.0.html?&no_cache=1&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2071&tx_ttnews[backPid]=111&cHash=00cc04cea1>. Can someone think of a solution? Baldrick90 (talk) 00:35, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I sorta know how to fix this. You'll need to replace the bracket with some code that equals the bracket. For the life of me, I cannot remember what it is. ASCII? Unicode? I've seen this done for ampersands, but cannot remember what it's supposed to be. TNXMan 00:39, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Ah-ha! Found it! You'll need to use the code &#93 instead of the closing bracket. For the opening bracket, I'll quote from WP:HOW, because I don't fully understand it. "If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hex code of the character, which can be found in the table of ASCII printable characters". Hope this helps! TNXMan 00:49, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

See Help:URL#URLs in external links. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:59, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot guys, it worked. Baldrick90 (talk) 01:26, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Sources needed

Resolved

 – Corruptcopper (talk) 16:48, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Is there a place to go to find all the articles that have been tagged as Unreferenced or Sources Needed? I would like to work on some of them. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 00:50, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Category:Articles lacking sources. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:55, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Just so you know for future questions in this vein, almost all maintenance tags place an article into a category or categories associated with the issue the tag identifies. So, to find this category yourself, all you needed to do was look at at the bottom of any article displaying the tag {{unsourced}}. The same is true to find the equivalent "all articles lacking" categories for, say, {{NPOV}}, {{OR}} or {{Wikify}}. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)

Maintenance categories are hidden so this assumes you have enabled "Show hidden categories" under Misc in preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:47, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Why would maintenance tags be hidden? GeorgeLouis (talk) 16:31, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

They are considered to be kind of "behind-the-scenes" categories. They are categories reflecting the present status of the encyclopedia article, rather than classifying the article subject. TNXMan 16:38, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Delete the older version image

I want the older version of this file File:West Ham United FC.svg and for this file File:Sunderland AFC.svg uploaded by me to be deleted, just leave the most current version (used on articles). After the older version are deleted, can my older contribution (of the older file) be specified on the file (for example the "Original Upload Log" section on File:Reading FC.svg)? I wont mind if the latter cannot be done. Thank you Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 04:13, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, you can't delete older versions of a file (shown under the "File history" heading). Xenon54 (talk) 15:53, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I've seen it happen before Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 16:54, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, administrators can delete selected file versions. They are usually kept unless there is a special reason to delete them. In this case you can tag with {{Non-free reduced}} if you think the larger resolutions should be deleted for copyright reasons. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:31, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

pgp encryption and decryption?

hi i need to encrypt and decrypt a file using pgp.but i dont want to give encrypted keys given by pgp desktop i want to pass the normal public key and private and need to do encryption and decryption with that.so can anyone guide me with this issue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pavankumarkavety (talk • contribs) 06:35, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer 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 and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. -Optigan13 (talk) 07:01, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Increased attention to articles

How do editors draw increased attention to articles? If Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. becomes Ambassador to China, which seems likely, then Lieutenant Governor Gary Richard Herbert will become Governor. To judge from the talk pages and the rankings, both of their articles have deficiencies. I would like to draw increased editorial attention to those articles, but I am not clear about how to do that, beyond the fact that those individuals are going to be in the national news. --DThomsen8 (talk) 11:01, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

WikiProjects are always a good place to start. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography/Politics and government would probably the best fit, but not quite as busy as some other project. You can try posting to their main pages, or picking off a couple of their top contributors, if you ask nicely enough. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 11:55, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Is there a template for more attention? --DThomsen8 (talk) 12:11, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Not for use in articles, no, sorry. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 13:06, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

You can use {{Search subpages link}} to search the template messages documentation pages. For example:

• search Wikipedia's template messages for: attention

That search finds Wikipedia:Template messages/Maintenance#Articles requiring significant attention and other issues for example. If you find specific deficiencies with the articles you mention, you can add the appropriate message templates; there probably isn't a message template calling for attention in general, but there is a Wikipedia:Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive. I don't think you have to worry about attracting more editors, if the article subjects begin getting lots of news coverage. Wikipedia usually has plenty of recentism with respect to newsy events. --Teratornis (talk) 03:40, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

I have made a huge mistake!

I recently joined Wikipedia to produce an article on the Japanese Anime Movie, "Spirited Away", and I changed only a paragraph then when I saved it, the page was blank with my paragraph set horizontally and travelling off the page. Is there any way I redo this and set it back to it's original form? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ThomasGrass (talk • contribs) 12:54, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

You did the same thing here, you left a space as the first character. I've fixed it here and there. Where you do need to indent for a thread on a talk page, use a colon. But don't indent normally in articles. I do worry about plot summaries that add descriptions such as 'awkward' or 'greedily', because that is a personal interpretation and thus original research -- see WP:OR. If you have a good source that says that, add it. I'm leaving a menu on your talk page that should help you. And don't forget to sign with four tildes, ie ~~~~ Dougweller (talk) 13:01, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

how to upload a artists drawing dated c.1830 AD?

am exhausted and my head is spinning from searching how to upload a jpeg of a drawing of Wyberg village c 1830? - to illustrate an article on WYNBERG [south africa] in the history section! HELP! i'm about to give up! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hoh321 (talk • contribs) 12:52, 16 May 2009 (UTC) hells bells this is in the wrong place i'm giving up! appologies..........zzzzzz —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hoh321 (talk • contribs) 12:53, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

You cannot upload images until you are autoconfirmed: 4 days and at least 10 edits. You can check your status at Special:Preferences; member of groups will include Autoconfirmed users. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:27, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Upload it to Wikimedia Commons. That way every language version of Wikipedia can make use of your drawing, and you will not have to wait for 4 days and 10 edits either. Just remember to provide the correct licence (in this case it seems to be PD-Old). --Saddhiyama (talk) 14:53, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Demands for quality of pictures?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Are there any demands for the quality of pictures that is allowed to be used in articles on the english Wikipedia? (Regarding the size, resolution etc.). Fanoftheworld (talk) 14:58, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

That's a good question. I've seen some pretty low-quality images on Wikipedia, but that doesn't mean they are "allowed." (Wikipedia doesn't "allow" a lot of things that nonetheless appear on Wikipedia for varying amounts of time, a consequence of being an encyclopedia that anyone can edit.) If there are such criteria, we would like to link to them from WP:EIW#Image. The page Wikipedia:How to improve image quality#Checklist might be useful. --Teratornis (talk) 00:12, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

You might find more information on Wikipedia:WikiProject Images and Media or its talk page. --Teratornis (talk) 00:15, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Please, look at this page User:Fanoftheworld. (I am using my own user page temporarily). Two users claim, that [[File:Rachmaninoff at Steinway grand piano.jpg]] (the first picture on my talk page) is of "poor quality". I don't think that "poor quality" is the correct description, I think "poor" is too strong a word in this case. The users claim that they can remove the picture from the article because of "poor quality". I can not find anything on Wikipedia that support the claim about the picture being of "poor quality", and that pictures of "poor quality" can be removed. Fanoftheworld (talk) 13:48, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Had to do some searching to find the original image at the LOC. You cannot just add a link, as the database searches render temporary links. Please use {{LOC-image}} and the digital ID. The LOC does have a higher quality JPG image that you could use. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:19, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for letting me know about the problem with temporary pages.

I don't know what you mean by the LOC has a higher quality JPG image. As far as I can see, the image on Wikipedia is 67 KB, but the image on LOC is just 10,4 KB. Am I wrong about that? Hope you will help me improving the quality of the image. Thanks. Fanoftheworld (talk) 15:38, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Follow the LOC link; click on the image and it opens the low-res version. Click on "Retrieve higher resolution JPEG version". This is probably as good as it gets, and is typical of this era. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:55, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

When I click on the link "ggbain.30158" in the template here below, I can not see the "Retrieve higher resolution JPEG version" on the library's page. What do I do wrong? {{LOC-image|id=ggbain.30158}}

Fanoftheworld (talk) 16:04, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

• Click on the link and open the LOC page
• Click on the image and it opens
• Above the image is some text— click on "Retrieve higher resolution JPEG version"
• The larger image opens— you browser may resize it to fir the screen, hovering over the image will show a + icon, click to enlarge

---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:10, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much for helping. Now I understand how to do it. Fanoftheworld (talk) 16:19, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Delete the changes made

I request for deletion of the changes made by Wkboy in the Georgetown, Penang article. He/she change the word "Georgetown" to "George Town". I can't revert it, so I need it to be removed by an admin. Arguments on the "Georgetown" and "George Town" usage can be found on the article talk page. Another thing is, can someone put a message on the top of the article asking people not to change it to "George Town"? Thanks Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 18:32, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

This seems like a content dispute. I would encourage you to discuss the issue on the article's talk page (it looks like their was some preliminary discussion a few years ago) or if you can't work it out there, you can request a third opinion. TNXMan 19:20, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Infobox overload

Is there a tutorial somewhere about how to edit infoboxes. The article Nanyue is rather overloaded with two big infoboxes, I would like to edit things so that the infoboxes are normally collapsed (in this article at least). Thanks. KTo288 (talk) 19:31, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Large navigation templates work better (in my opinion) as navigation boxes at the bottoms of articles, which are easy to make collapsible. I prefer infoboxes to be small so they don't extend past the typical lead section. See WP:NAVBOX, the {{Navbox}} base template, and some examples that use it such as {{Peak oil}} (moderately complex) and {{Global warming}} (rather more complex). --Teratornis (talk) 03:28, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

I should say that I prefer infoboxes to contain merely data rather than navigation links to related articles, for the reason you see in the Nanyue article. When navigation links start piling up, there's always room at the bottom. --Teratornis (talk) 03:31, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I guess the solution is to create flattened versions of these infoboxes that can go at the bottom of the page. Okay so its off to the sandbox to work out how to edit infoboxes.KTo288 (talk) 23:06, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Removing an alternate name from an existing article in order to create an article on that subject?

Hi, I need to find out how to remove the alternate name Yakovlev Yak-5 from the Yakovlev Yak-1 article. I've written an article specifically about the Yak-5 and have had to title it Yakolev Yak-5 in order to avoid the conflict, which is a deliberate misspelling of the company's name. The Yak-5 was not associated with the Yak-1 and should have never been included in the article, or posted as an alternate name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ken keisel (talk • contribs)

I have moved Yakolev Yak-5 to Yakovlev Yak-5. You could have edited the redirect directly instead of creating another page. See Wikipedia:Redirect#Navigating redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:10, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Font colour

Is it possible that the font colour to a link (for the article that I've visited stays in blue colour? It usually becomes purple and I wonder if this can be changed. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 19:47, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

If you want to change the link colors, seeWikipedia:Link color. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:51, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

I've already done it. Thanks a lot ya ! Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 20:15, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Footnote issues

Jesuati is generating footnote error messages, although the tags seem to be written fine to me. The second error message (lack of a <references/> tag) may be an issue with the template that creates the References list. NeonMerlin 22:22, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

The last ref was not properly closed with , which "eats" the rest of the article including the {{reflist}}. See Help:Cite errors for more help. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:36, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

You fixed it in [1] before posting here. If you still see an error message on the article then you may have to bypasss your cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:38, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Today's Featured Article, Super Mario Bros.

Resolved

Today's featured article is on Super Mario Bros.. I found the discussion of this featured article nomination here: Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/New_Super_Mario_Bros.. Where can I find the discussion of its good article nomination? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:23, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

On the talk page, look at the second message box down and show the Article milestones. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:31, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:39, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

new entry - Kevan Shaw

I use Wikipedia a lot and decided to put up a page for a contact, Kevan Shaw. I ended up editing it right down to try to meet the guidelines. The page got deleted and I have to say that it put me off Wikipedia somewhat. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, entries on people like Kevan Shaw is one of the key uses I put Wikipedia to. There are many less notable entries and it makes one wonder how consistent the process is. KS is very active in the field of lighting design being actively involved in standard setting and environmental policy issues. When I come across someone like this in my work, one of the first things I do is look the person up on Wikipedia - my own area is environmental protection. My second gripe is that the process itself. For example, the comments by "Delicious carbuncle" were not helpful (and to be frank news entries in Google should not have the weighting he gives them). Some helpful advice to me would have been good. Unfortunately, I can't find the page to rework it. Some help would be appreciated as I know that the entry was appropriate but didn't make it because of my lack of experience. Many thanks, Alex —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fiunary (talk • contribs) 23:19, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Nothing egregious here, just needs more work on references to indicate notability. I would be OK with userfying this for you. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:52, 17 May 2009 (UTC)