Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 May 26

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May 26

correcting footnotes

How can I correct a footnote in an article? I have tried to correct footnotes for 2 articles and in both cases I could not insert anything in the note, but could only add the citation. Help. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Icjfc (talk • contribs) 02:26, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Numbered footnotes are automatically generated by the <references/> or {{Reflist}} code in the references/footnote section from citations enclosed within <ref></ref> tags. So to amend the footnote, you amend the inline citation and it should automagically be corrected in the numbered list. – ukexpat (talk) 03:10, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Yep, beat me to the post again UK. As Ukexpat mentions, just click on the little arrow beside the footnote " ^ " and it will take you to the section that has the reference. Then follow the directions that Ukexpat describes. — Ched :  ?  03:35, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I think the problem might be clicking on the [edit] link right above the list of footnotes, rather than above the section the footnote refers to. This can be confusing.

Note that when you click [edit] only for the section where inline citation is, you won't get to see a preview of the changes you made to the inline citation, because the section you're editing is going to lack the {{Reflist}} tag that auto generates the list. You can temporarily insert {{Reflist}} so you can preview, then delete it before you click Save page, or you can start your edit by clicking Edit this page at the very top. It's cumbersome to edit a whole page at once, but it's also cumbersome to insert and delete a {{Reflist}} tag. Yet it's risky to make an edit that you can't see when you preview it, especially since a Citation template can behave in ways that might not be obvious from the source code, making a preview vital. Sorry.--Dbratland (talk) 23:02, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

What name is it for the words that are spelled the same forward and backward

What name is it called for say ( bob, mom, dad, pop, sis....) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.10.5.197 (talk) 02:37, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

It's called a palindrome. Dr.K. logos 02:50, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

A man, a plan, a canal—Panama!--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:59, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

And to quote Napoleon: Able was I ere I saw Elba. – ukexpat (talk) 17:35, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

expanding an article

I just spent a great deal of time logging in, editing an article, previewing it, and then hitting "save" multiple times. When I went to the article, "Leo Mackay Jr." it was unmodified. I am also not able to find my work...and I saved it. Why is my work not saved, and why is the article not updated. You ask for help expanding articles, and then straightforward buttons don't give expected results. Are my updates in some kind of edit cycle or are they lost? Eagle3315 (talk) 03:00, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, in your case, they got lost. It could have been a browser problem. There is no edit cycle of any kind that restricts edits. Dr.K. logos 03:06, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The edit history of the article Leo Mackay, Jr. shows no sign of you editing it. This is quite unusual. I'd speculate that you interrupted the transmission of your edit by hitting the button again before the transmission was complete. I would suggest doing the edit again, hitting the save button only once and waiting until you are automatically brought back to the article. Goodraise 03:11, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You write you hit "save". The save button is below the edit box and is called "Save page". Your account is not autoconfirmed yet so if you tried to add external links then clicking Save page leads to a screen where you have to enter a CAPTCHA before the page is saved. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:40, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

deleted article

There was an article on Wikipedia regarding my grandfather. Now it is completely gone. How can I find it again, or how would I know if it is deleted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.100.167.71 (talk) 03:58, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

What is your grandfather's name? —teb728 t c 04:36, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Go to the deletion log and type in field marked "Title:" the exact spelling of your grandfather's name in the form that was used as the article's title. The deletion log is case sensitive so if you don't find it using proper noun capitalization, try it with his surname in lowercase. If you find the deletion entry, it will show show who deleted it, when, and typically the reason. Various reasons include speedy deletion under various criteria (for a biography, most likely criterion A7), an expired proposed deletion (prod) or a decision to delete at articles for deletion (AfD). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:46, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Merging Articles

Where do I go to request two pages be merged together? ---Shadow (talk) 06:39, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Just put the {{mergeto}} and {{mergefrom}} tags on top of the articles in question. Discussion takes place on the talk page of the article to be merged to. +Angr 06:53, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

• If it warrants discussion, WP:MRFD to draw more attention after you placed the tags, Wikipedia:Proposed mergers - Mgm|^(talk) 11:03, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
  • WP:MRFD has been tagged as rejected, though, so just use WP:Proposed mergers. +Angr 11:10, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Advice on good-faith edit/bad-faith edit summary

I'm in a quandary concerning this edit. The edit itself is a positive contribution – "developments" is definitely a more appropriate word than "adventures" – but the edit summary is highly offensive. Part of me says "Just leave it alone: the edit itself was positive and that's all that matters." But another part of me wants to delete the diff (I'm an admin) and do the edit over again myself. What do other experienced users think? +Angr 06:51, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I believe using 'developments' would be appropriate --Notedgrant (talk) 06:55, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

That's not my question. +Angr 06:56, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Then edit the article and protect it (If required )Notedgrant (talk) 07:13, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm not an admin or anything, but my thoughts would be leave the edit and then take relevant action against the person who made it (the IP, anyway), FWIW. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 07:54, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Okay, good point. I'm leaving the edit, but putting a {{uw-npa1}} tag on the IP's talk page. +Angr 08:27, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

• Since they've contributed something that is helpful, I would resort to deleting it or slapping some punishment on straight away. Just educate and they might remain a constructive Wikipedian without the cusswords. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:02, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
  • I trust you mean you wouldn't resort to deleting it. Anyway, as I said, I gave them a {{uw-npa1}}. +Angr 11:06, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Offline Wiki updates

Every 2-3 months I download updated Wikis (the Bzipped XMLs) for offline browsing (I am not on the internet at home). Where do I look to find out what articles have been added (for Wikipedia, Wikisource etc) from one download to the next? Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.194.221.231 (talk) 08:42, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

screenplay contest

Dear Sir,

How are you? I am interested to participant in screen play short film contest,so if possible pl mail me how i participate in short film screenplay contest.

Thanks & Regards

Manjul kapoor —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manjul kapoor (talk • contribs) 09:07, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 2.8 million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:35, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Squash

I am currently collecting information and photos from the women's squash players worldwide. They will provide me with their information, background, number of titles, photos etc. The source must be reliable because it comes directly from the player. They have agreed to provide me with the information via a site. The problem is, can the information that comes from the blogspot.com domain be considered reliable? But the info really comes from the player themselves.

As for photos, they have agreed to put it under the GNU license and I am the one who's responsible to upload it. And how should I do that? How to upload them? Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 11:49, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Trough WP:SPS there are several restrictions of self published sources. The first restriction is that an article can not achieve true Notability based upon self published sources only - to establish notability man must provide third party reliable sources that are independent from the person(s) in question. The second restriction applies to the content itself: when using blogs as self published sources the guidelines in WP:SELFPUB come into play.

They do not self-publish it. I and some other pals (from several squash bodies throughout the globe) have asked them personally about their bio (what is their full name, DOB, place of birth etc.) so that we can put it on wiki and on squash bodies site (yes, at first we will put it in a blog). Some other info is taken from the player directly and the others from various professional squash bodies. Can the info be considered reliable? If it isn't, I want some of you to provide me some suggestion on how to make the sources reliable. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 12:59, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

As long as you can Cite sources then i see no problem - the rule on third party sources is made to prevent people from writing an autobiography and then sourcing it with their own material. Par WP:NPOV those article's would likely be quite positive biased. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 13:37, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Images themselves can be uploaded trough Wikipedia:Upload - make sure you give the image a new descriptive file name, and make sure you fill in the data requested including liscence and details - this is required for copyright reasons. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 12:17, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I know how to upload, but I do not know how to write it down and which template should be used because it is not self made. The pictures is theirs, they gave it to me to upload in on Wikipedia under the GNU license. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 12:59, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

An issue with images on Wikipedia is that they should be released into the public domain. Wikipedia cannot accept images that are free for use only on Wikipedia, nor can it use images that are only free for non profit uses. One of the reasons for this is that Wikipedia is also distributed on low cost media such as Cd's; Yet this would not fall under non commercial usage.

For the liscence there are 4 options:

• Creative Commons Attribution 3.0: Everyone is allowed to share and adapt the image, as long as the original creator is credited.
• Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0:Everyone is allowed to share and adapt the image, as long as the original creator is credited, AND the image is distributed under an identical liscence.
• GNU Free documentation liscence: Image may be shared and adapted as long as changes are logged, the image remains under the same liscence and the original author is attributed.
• Public Domain: Public domain image, no restrictions on usage.

As for the liscence summary block i would advice looking at examples from other images: For example the text on this image had been approved Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 13:37, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I've found an image that the format and license is similar to those that I wanted to upload, File:Thierry Henry 2008.jpg. The problem is I couldn't provide references (in the Summary section) for the Permission and Source column similar to the file mentioned earlier. I know the source and I have the permission, but the problem is that it is not in the net or in any website. Can I provide them without references? Can you give me any example on how should I write it down? Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 09:13, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

quoting a different part of a named reference

Hello, I'm trying to accomplish the following: I've got a book citation, which refers to a particular quote on a particular page. I'd like to reuse this same book citation, but quote a different passage and different page. Is it possible to do so, and if so how? I've tried using <ref name="name-of-other-ref">{{cite book |page=19|quote=The quote...}}</ref> but it doesn't work. In a way, I'm trying to override some properties of the previous ref. Can it be done? Thanks, Laurent (talk) 11:58, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You can list the book once without being an inline citation, and then make a shortened inline citation each time the book is used. See the second bullet at Wikipedia:Footnotes#Style recommendations, and Wikipedia:Citing sources#Shortened footnotes. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:06, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Don't know if it's listed at one of those ^ links, but you can also use {{rp}}, but as long as you have consisistency within your article few people really mind which system you use. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 12:40, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Reliable Source???

Is the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) considered a reliable source? I see it frequently on pages, however, some people say it is not reliable. Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 15:11, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

It depends. There is a proposed guideline on the issue, which can be found here. I would say IMDb can be used for writing credits, actors' names, etc., but the trivial info would need to be sourced elsewhere. TNXMan 15:14, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

passport need

please tel me if there is any other way i can go india from kathmandu without a passport —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.70.77.35 (talk) 15:31, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. TNXMan 15:35, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

idea

I am not a science person -- but love to learn.... -- looking up galaxies I realized that it was all very fascinating-- and I actually understood 1/2 of it.... BUT--IDEA!! wouldn't it be nice, on the more complex articles, to have a children's (or just simpler) definition section. It took 4 articles before I realized our sun was THE SUN... and other stars were it's cousins and we are part of the Milky Way Galaxy-- I am sure I have heard that 100 times -- but it never sank in. A simple, quick, down & dirty explanation would have not been so overwhelming for us non-science types. We could go to the simple details and if that doesn't give us what we need -- go to the more complete article. Love Wikipedia and thank you, thank you, thank you for all I have learned!

Betty Nolan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.112.17.232 (talk) 15:57, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

There is a Wikipedia that has simpler explanations of topics. It's called Simple Wikipedia and you can find it here. I believe a help desk regular, Teratornis, is a contributor there as well, although I could be mistaken. TNXMan 16:01, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Alas, simple:Special:Contributions/Teratornis indicates otherwise. (I'm a little more active on Commons, perhaps you were thinking of that.) I have, however, responded to some questions on this Help desk that involved the Simple English Wikipedia. When this type of question has come up on the Help desk before, the usual response is to mention Wikipedia:Make technical articles accessible and give the illustrative example:

• Special relativity - a technically dense article
• Introduction to special relativity - an attempt to reach the nonspecialist

I might also suggest to the original poster that if she finds anything confusing in a Wikipedia article, to ask for clarification on the article's Talk page or on the Reference desk. --Teratornis (talk) 21:08, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Also, libraries are full of introductory books on subjects such as Astronomy, with books for all age and grade levels. It will be difficult for Wikipedia to duplicate the depth of introductory material in any library (but maybe in 25 years we will have done that). After you read some introductory books, you will be much better able to read (and improve!) Wikipedia's often-dense articles. Also check out your local Astronomy club and Planetarium; they may have meetings with lectures and viewings. If you are interested in any subject, you should always find other sources in addition to Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 03:51, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Main Page question

Who edits the main page of Wikipedia? Is there one person, admin or editor, responsible for its content? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.11.36.87 (talk) 16:13, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

It is protected so that only admins can edit (to prevent vandalism on main page) but anyone can suggest content or improvement, at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates, Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors,Wikipedia:Did you know and other pages. —Amplitude101 (talk) 16:22, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Suggestions can also be made at Talk:Main Page. +Angr 16:25, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

See also the top of Talk:Main Page. Many administrators make edits to different parts displayed on the main page. Wikipedia does not have a hierarchical structure and there is not one person in charge of the main page. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:28, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

how can I move an article from the sandbox to real wikipedia?

Where and do I have to do for that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fupazuzi (talk • contribs) 19:13, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You could either click the move tab on the top of the page, right next to the "edit this page", "history" and "watch", tabs, and move it to the desired title. If you are the only contributor, you could just take the text and copy and paste it to create a new article. Please make sure the article meets WP:V, WP:N and WP:OR before you move it into the mainspace please. Hope this helped, ƒingers^on_Roids 19:20, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

If you mean User:Fupazuzi/Method y, then don't— it will certainly get deleted. I read it twice and have no idea what concept you are trying to convey. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:58, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Blimey, absolutely right. The article is almost 100% jargon an unintelligible to the layman. The creator should also take a look at WP:YFA and WP:MOS and the related manual of style pages for advice on formatting, particularly relating to internal wikilinks and citations. – ukexpat (talk) 20:43, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Young players

Hey, I have a question about young football players, who will be deleted because they do not play pro football yet. It mainly concerns young Arsenal players who are being hyped a tad and because of that they have wiki pages. But I have noticed others have them as well but they are not up for deletion. That seems a bit unfair to me. Lauri Dallle Valle and Phillipe Coutinho amongst others... What can be done about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.61.62.157 (talk) 19:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

The others likely just have escaped the gaze of the deletionists for now :) weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 19:52, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

See WP:ATHLETE and WP:NOTCRYSTAL. However, of the young athletes getting hyped at any given time, in several more years at least some of them will surely sign pro contracts. Thus it would be a waste of effort even for deletionists to spend too much time attacking articles that might just bounce back shortly. It would be better to wait a few years and then delete the articles of athletes who failed to make good on their early hype. If it were up to me, the only criteria for an athlete would be the availability of reliable sources. If the sports media are hyping a young athlete, who are we to second-guess the professional judgment of sports journalists as to the athlete's notability? The journalists are better-positioned than most of us to identify and evaluate talent. For example, they were correct about LeBron James while he was still in high school. Our WP:ATHLETE notability criteria, applied strictly, would have denied the young LeBron an article at a time when virtually the entire basketball establishment was predicting a bright future for him. --Teratornis (talk) 20:57, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Deletion is without prejudice; there is no deadline we have to meet. This repeated violation of WP:CRYSTAL is encouraging clutter for every hyped "up and coming next big thing" young jock in the sports world, to the detriment of this project. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:59, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

translation

First time user. How do I translate a phrase from English to French? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.249.201.67 (talk) 20:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You seem to have the wrong website. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia. You need a website like Google Translate. Xenon54 (talk) 20:28, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Hebrew font

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 22:02, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I noticed the page 'Elisheva' has the Hebrew but uses a 'sin'[dot on left top] instead of a 'shin' [dot on right top]. I was going to change it, copied the right way to spell 'Elisheva' [אֱלִישֶׁבַע ] {I see the dot on the right top} and tried it in the sandbox. The page changed the dot from right to left. So, how can this be changed? Aroger4that (talk) 20:26, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Would <div style="direction: rtl">אֱלִישֶׁבַע</div> work? (I'm not too familiar with Hebrew). Dendodge _T\^C 20:31, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

That comes out as

אֱלִישֶׁבַע

—is that how it's supposed to look? Dendodge _T\^C 20:34, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

There are templates that help with that - {{Hebrew}} and the others mentioned on that page. – ukexpat (talk) 20:38, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You should used {{Script/Hebrew}} for this. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:42, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I tried that in sandbox and noting happened. All letter Shin's have the dot on the top left, whether they start on right or left. This makes the Hebrew spelling inaccurate on the page. {{אֱלִישֶׁבַע}} [I see dot on right, using brackets] Who else might know how to fix this? Aroger4that (talk) 20:53, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I added {{Script/Hebrew}} in Elisheva; that makes it display better on my computer. —teb728 t c 21:08, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, it looks right on my computer as well!Aroger4that (talk) 21:55, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

What is the procedure to suggest that an article be moved to Wiktionary?

Ullu ka patha seems like a dictionary entry. How do we move it to Wiktionary? Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 21:26, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

There is a process, see {{Copy to Wiktionary}}. However, this does not look to me like just a dic def, so it may not meet Wiktionary's inclusion criteria. – ukexpat (talk) 21:39, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

New user question

Is there any way to easily find articles in need of editing? I'm willing to help, but I am unsure how to help without just accidentally running across a mistake and fixing it. Alucardwolf (talk) 22:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You could take a look at one of the many categories of articles at WP:BACKLOG. This lists articles in need of wikifying, proofreading, reference checking, expanding, categorization, etc, etc, etc. --Floquenbeam (talk) 23:26, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I personally find satisfaction in WP:NPP when time permits. It was how I got started here, and I'd like to think it was a good learning experience. — Ched :  ?  23:33, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

You might be interested in the cleanup campaign, or helping out with peer reviews. You could browse the many projects, look at the newest articles, or maybe just something random. We have a list of requested articles, requests for feedback, and a huge backlog of tasks.

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas.  Chzz  ►  11:57, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism on the Phenylalanine page

Resolved

 – Vandalism reverted. – ukexpat (talk) 16:12, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I don't know how to fix it. Robert

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

In the article, see the Elvis reference...

Other biological roles

L-phenylalanine can also be converted into L-tyrosine, another one of the DNA-encoded amino acids. L-tyrosine in turn is converted into L-DOPA, which is further converted into dopamine, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and epinephrine (adrenaline). The latter three are known as the catecholamines.

Phenylalanine uses the same active transport channel as Elvis to cross the blood-brain barrier, and, in large quantities, interferes with the production of serotonin.

Broncazonk (talk) 23:12, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

It was vandalism in the most recent edit in the page history: [1]. I have reverted it. See Wikipedia:Vandalism. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:28, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Skateboard

skateBOARD,who and where was it invented98.165.97.246 (talk) 23:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

See Skateboard#History. Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:24, 26 May 2009 (UTC)