Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 November 21

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.

November 21

How to customize my signature?

I have always wondered how people were able to customize it to their liking rather than having the same blue text. Do you by any chance know how what I am trying to say here? Pickbothmanlol (talk) 00:57, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

There's an option to customize your signature in Special:Preferences.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 01:00, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Further advice can be found at Wikipedia:Signatures. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 06:47, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Report vandal account

Resolved

 – Q0k (talk) 04:58, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

I haven't really used wikipedia enough to know how to report someone for vandalism or how to fix it... so I was posting it here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Killiansullivan

Thanks ^_^

00:26, 21 November 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Navysealltblue (talk • contribs)

Warned user. For future reference, you should warn the vandal, and then later report them to WP:AIV.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 00:37, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Name in template {{coord}}

I cann't figure out why the inline-name is displayed on the interactive map here, but not there.

The first (working) code is
{{coord|20.1601|-87.488|dim:200_region:MX-ROO|display=inline|name=Cenote Esmeralda}} (20.1601°N 87.488°W / 20.1601; -87.488 (Cenote Esmeralda)), whereas the second one is
{{coord|20|17.92|N|87|24.22|W|dim:100_region:MX-ROO_type:waterbody|display=inline|name=Cenote Nohoch Nah Chich}} (20°17.92′N 87°24.22′W).
I suspected problems with the DMS-notation, the dim- and type-attributes, and the name consisting of four words (instead of two). But a second version (which is identical to the working one - except the coordinates and the name, of course) again displays no name on the map:
{{coord|20.2987|-87.4037|dim:200_region:MX-ROO|display=inline|name=Cenote Nohoch}} (20.2987°N 87.4037°W / 20.2987; -87.4037 (Cenote Nohoch)). Any ideas? →Alfie^±Talk 01:31, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The map at here returns a 500 toolserver error. Intelligentsium 01:41, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

How odd; it no longer does, but instead links to GeoHack...Hmmm... 01:44, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, I see what you are saying. Investigating... Intelligentsium 01:50, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

THX; I don't see a difference in the syntax I used. →Alfie^±Talk 01:55, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I believe I have found the problem: The program used to generate the interactive map does not recognize that site, and so shows no name. See for example, 20.1601°N 87.488°W / 20.1601; -87.488. Even though I removed the name argument, the site is still labelled. The solution would probably be to get someone to edit the program to recognize that site. Unfortunately, this is only easily possible if WMF owns/runs that program. Cheers, Intelligentsium 02:37, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

You are right about the labeling issue. Two German users maintain the program (on meta); I will contact them. THX for the help. →Alfie^±Talk 03:13, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Which Cleanup template to use?

Resolved

 – Q0k (talk) 04:57, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Not for the first time, I've encountered a page like this one apparently written in non-native English (possibly via machine-assisted translation), with so many garbled words and phrases that a mere copyeditor like myself can't understand the meaning in order to rewrite clearly. I suspect the task requires knowledge of the source language for reference. Which is the best Cleanup#Style_of_writing template (or other?) to post? -- Deborahjay (talk) 07:36, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I think one of the Wikipedia:Template_messages/Translation tags would be more appropriate. If it is a machine translation of another language Wikipedia's article, and you know which one it is from, Wikipedia:Copying_within_Wikipedia#Translating_from_other_language_Wikimedia_Projects may help as well. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:57, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The edit summary of the article creation is "translated from Italian, please proofread". The Italian version at the time is here. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:02, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah, great - I hadn't thought to look at the initial edit summary. Good advice; thanks, all! -- Deborahjay (talk) 15:58, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

President of India

who is the president of india —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.198.103.179 (talk) 13:39, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

See India. Please take any future factual questions to the reference desk; this page is only for questions relating directly to Wikipedia. Xenon54 / talk / 13:43, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Inconsistency of autocomplete in search box

I recently created a new article: "Roger Sprung". However, I notice that the autocomplete function in the Wikipedia search box does not return this title. That is, when I begin typing "roger spr..." the list includes only the entry for Roger Springer, but not my Roger Sprung article. This is not the case with articles I published previously -- those for Stefan Jackiw and Martha Settle Putney, for example -- where the autocomplete works fine. Note that typing "Roger Sprung" in full in the text box and clicking Go does open the article. But I am puzzled as to why autocomplete doesn't find it.

RStephenK (talk) 13:45, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Give it some time and see. Wikipedia:Searching#Delay_in_updating_the_search_index. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 13:56, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Roger Sprung was created November 3 and has been indexed by the normal search function when you click Go or Search. I don't know whether the search suggestion function can take much longer to update, or whether it is meant to always show at least one article when there is a match. It shows Roger Springer when I type "Roger Spr" and nothing when I get to "Roger Spru" or more. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:29, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there seems to have been a problem with updates on drop-down suggestions, but it's been resolved now. Thanks for the report. --rainman (talk) 11:05, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Claim Anonymous Edits

A few hours ago, I had an issue with my computer not keeping me logged into Wikipedia. When I thought it was all working fine again, I noticed after making some edits that I was still logged out and had made my all edits anonymously. I have since corrected my computers problem but alas I have no knowledge of how or if its possible to claim my anonymous edits into "My Contributions" list.

Is there a wizard out there who can help restore order to my lost kingdom? lol

OH, if it helps, HERE are my Anonymous Contributions I wish to reclaim.

AnimatedZebra (talk) 14:22, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but it is no longer possible to reattribute anonymous edits. It used to be done, though. TNXMan 14:27, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou fellow Wikipedian! AnimatedZebra (talk) 14:51, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

See WP:LOGGEDOUT. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:59, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Citing an audio recording as a source

I've looked around all the referencing pages and couldn't find any advice on citing an audio recording, specifically a radio broadcast, as a source. I'm not too bothered about the exact citation style as Wikipedia accepts a variety of styles and I think the most important thing is to have as much information down as possible: station and airdate, URL where it can be replayed, time in the broadcast at which the quote appears, etc. What I am concerned about is that someone will come and take the ref out when the broadcast disappears from the web. Like many broadcasters, the BBC has a "listen again" feature by which you can find much of their broadcast material on the web after it goes out, but it usually only stays up for a limited time, often a week although in this case it's been a couple of months so perhaps they're leaving this particular production up for good. The article in question is Peter Bruinvels (a BLP) and the quote is one that I would certainly want to challenge if I saw it in an article without a source. If the radio broadcast disappears from the web at sometime the casual reader will no longer be able to verify the quote. Someone has already gone and removed it apparently because they didn't see it in the text on the page linked to and didn't understand that it appeared in the audio linked from that page. For sources such as this, which are technically verifiable but to the average reader are effectively ephemeral, what can we do? Is there some way that a reliable 'trusted' user can verify that the quote appears in the broadcast so that no one need be in any doubt if the audio vanishes from the web? Rovaniemi-5 (talk) 14:52, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The reference has the url http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mpmm4#synopsis where #synopsis is a link to an anchor below the box with the "Listen now" link. If the reference requires clicking the button then I suggest omitting #synopsis so the link goes to the top of the page. See Template:Cite episode#Example of use for non-episodic broadcasts. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:16, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, you're right about the link having an anchor in it. I took the URL from the unformatted reference that had previously been removed and didn't catch this, so I'll fix it now. Thanks also for drawing my attention to {{cite episode}}, which I didn't see linked from any of the pages I looked at. Rovaniemi-5 (talk) 18:58, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

How much of the broadcast material is relevant as the source? If you could excerpt the relevant portion, you might try your luck with the copyright holder by following the procedure at Commons:COM:OTRS. That is, find out if the copyright holder will agree to release the relevant excerpt under a free license. The shorter the excerpt, the better the odds of getting the copyright holder to agree I'd think. You might also look at Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine to archive a copy "permanently". --Teratornis (talk) 23:30, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

christmas wish

i am trying to find the wish list for wtry98.3, please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.224.115.92 (talk) 14:54, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 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 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. TNXMan 14:56, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

• You might find what you are looking for in the article WTRY-FM. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:08, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Submitting An Article

Hello, I am a new wikipedia user and I have not been autoconfirmed so I cannot upload an article I wrote. I would appreciate your help on it. Thank you very much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beowulfballadeer (talk • contribs) 22:52, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

What's the article about? Make sure it's not one of the forbidden things on WP:NOT. Also see WP:YFA and WP:AUTOCONFIRM. When you get autoconfirmed in a few days, your best bet is to start by editing the article in what we call a "sandbox" page: User:Beowulfballadeer/Sandbox. Then come back to the Help desk and ask for experienced users to evaluate your article. --Teratornis (talk) 23:36, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

If the article you are writing is not appropriate for Wikipedia, there are thousands of other wikis with different rules for content. We'll know when we see what you have in mind. --Teratornis (talk) 23:39, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

However, to the best of my knowledge, one does not have to be autoconfirmed to write articles. Intelligentsium 00:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Beowulfballadeer actually created the article The truth about moviestars two hours before posting here. You cannot upload files (for example images) or move pages before being autoconfirmed, but you can create pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:45, 22 November 2009 (UTC)