Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 August 1

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August 1

Please help me sort out complaint and Complaint (disambiguation)

I'm struggling with the proper way to disambiguate these concepts. I feel that complaint should be an article about the legal term, since that is how it is mostly used on wikipedia. So I created Complaint (disambiguation) and moved all the other stuff there. However, I'm not sure how to structure that page. My problem is that these aren't really "ambiguous" concepts; they all refer to complaints, but vary in terms of specificity and context.

I'm going to set this aside for a little while; if you have any ideas, please be bold! Thanks. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 01:16, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Huh? really? In real life though, it usually refers to consumer complaints right? Kayau Voting IS evil 02:09, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

I took a crack at the form. It is a bit of an odd duck as a disambiguation page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:24, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

I would say very few people outside of a legal environment know what the legal definition of a complaint is and that the page should go to consumer complaint first. EdEColbert^{Let me know} 04:48, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like time to start a move-request discussion to see if the legal term should be used as the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. DMacks (talk) 06:49, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

DMacks, hold on--I'm not (yet) convinced that we should initiate a move-request. While I do agree that most people don't immediately think of the term "complaint" as referring to the legal concept, it happens that about 80% of the usages of complaint on Wikipedia are referencing the legal concept. Perhaps that's because people are only inclined to wikify the word when it's used as a technical term. To me, this is a strong argument in favor of not renaming the pages. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 08:20, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Exactly--my comment was directed to EdColbert. But (to Agradman), WP:RM process is to open a discussion on the article's talk-page to get consensus if there is uncertainty about whether to have a primarytopic vs the dab-page at the simple-name. This help-desk is not widely viewed by editors (as far as I know:)--better to discuss this sort of thing on the article's talk-page, where people who care about it have it watchlisted. DMacks (talk) 08:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Aha! Understood. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 09:05, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

MLM Network Marketing

Hello and have a nice day,

There is a company which is start to be a well known company and has many people shoping from it. its a MLM Network Marketing Company called: Quest Net, their website is: www.qnet.net

This company give commissions for people who buy products from it and bring customers. (its Network Marketing)

Is this company true? can we trust this company?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.150.25.218 (talk) 07:59, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge 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. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:21, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Website with the Wikipedia Template

I want to start a website that looks and functions like Wikipedia, but that has a different purpose. Is this allowed? If so, how do I incorporate the Wiki template? Also, I'd like my domain name to include the word 'wiki'. Is this allowed? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.66.33.228 (talk) 09:42, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

1)yes; see mw:Main Page. 2)yes; you can read it up on Wikis for Dummies. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:09, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Unattended article

Sir, i was making an article which is based on an Indian Mobile Company. It is the third largest company in market share in mobile phones. It has done many new things in the industry. But when i was searching this company on wikipedia. I couldn't find. So, i decided to write about the company. So that people can know the booming mobile industry in india. So, i want to know why it is being deleted. If i can't make this article. Then i request you to make an article on this company. It is very nice company as it has already beaten market shares of other companies like sony erricsson, motorola etc and soon it'll beat Samsung also. According to its raising popularity.. So i want you to make an article. For more information visit http://www.Micromaxinfo.com/

thank you,

regards, Naveen Saini —Preceding unsigned comment added by Naveennaveennav76 (talk • contribs) 11:58, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Please read WP:V, WP:NPOV, WP:RS, WP:N and WP:AD. They are important guidelines and you must follow all of these when writing an article. Thanks Kayau Voting IS evil 12:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Indeed, read all of those pages, and in addition, please read {{Nothanks}} which is a warning you could also have received. In short, the text you posted was a blatant copyright violation, having been cut and pasted from preexisting text.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:32, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Collapsable Nav Boxes

Resolved

I like my tidy user page, made possible with wonderful collapsable nav boxes. I use the {collapse top} {collapse bottom} templates. Only problem is their green colour annoys me. Is there any way to change this default colour? I've tried the usual syntax; maybe I'm just getting it wrong. I've searched far and wide for documentation on how to do it. Thanks! --Whoosit (talk) 12:03, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

I replaced {{collapse top}} on your user page with the template code itself, and changed the color from that green to "NavajoWhite", so where you see that listed, you can replace it with any color you'd like. See web colors for a list. There may very well be a better way to do this, but it works for the moment.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:26, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Terrific! Thanks! --Whoosit (talk) 12:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

{{collapse top}} has a bg parameter for background color. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:35, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

If it can be done with a parameter, then that'd be a much better way of doing it:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:36, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Yep, should have looked at documentation. I replaced it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, but your first hack keeps it text-free. No "Extended Content" dialogue. Which I kind of like. --Whoosit (talk) 14:06, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

See the documentation at {{collapse top}}. Many templates have documentation displayed on their template page. You can avoid a title by making an empty unnamed parameter (by adding a pipe | and nothing else) or by assigning nothing to title as in |title=. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Civil List

Firstly, I don't want to edit Wikipedia. I want to find out something. I'm led to believe that Scientists and others of Eminence have been receiving a pension from the Civil List since 1696. If this is so, I would like to know more about that history and process. I'm led to believe that some of our greatest scientists are or have been pensioned in honour by that list. As Wikipedia describes the Civil List as not income to the Monarchy, but an "expenses" fund, it would be interesting to be made aware of the proportion alloted to pensions for non-royal recipients. If my point is valid, then information should be added to the description of the Civil List as its main function is far from its only one and requires further explanation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.105.188.178 (talk) 13:51, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, this desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. You can ask at the miscellaneous reference desk or on the talk page of Civil List, as they may be able to help you. TNXMan 13:55, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Or the humanities reference desk? Kayau Voting IS evil 14:05, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Userbox categories - noinclude, incude etc

Resolved

 – Remove the cat from the userbox. TFOWR 19:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Long time answerer [sic], first time posterer [sic], unsure whether this belongs here or at WP:VPT...

So — I have a userbox which I created. It has Category:Wikipedians in Scotland within the <includeonly> section, so the userbox itself doesn't appear to be a "Wikipedian in Scotland". Which is good.

However... this category gets used whenever the userbox is transcluded. The userbox is transcluded on User:TFOWR/Userboxes. This means that User:TFOWR/Userboxes gets listed at Category:Wikipedians in Scotland. The same is true for Category:Wikipedia administrators open to recall, though, in my defence, I didn't create the userbox responsible for that.

Is there an easy way to prevent this? What am I doing wrong? Help! TFOWR 15:01, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Userboxes#Caution about user categories says: "Userboxes should not automatically include categories." But many userboxes don't follow it. See Wikipedia:Category suppression. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:23, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Aha! That's just the pointer I needed. Thanks! I think the easiest thing is simply to remove the cat from the userbox, but it looks like there may be some cunning technical way to get it to behave. Thanks again. TFOWR 19:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Add <noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude> to the end of the template and put categories on the documentation page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

No joy, I'm afraid - unless I've missing something (entirely possible...) I created a copy of the original userbox, with a /doc page, and the damn thing shows up at Category:Wikipedians_in_Scotland. It's no great problem - I've removed the cat from the original userbox, and added it manually to my userpage. Thanks anyway (and, obviously, if you have any further ideas they'll be very gratefully received). TFOWR 21:51, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

The suggestion by Gadget850 is a way to do something else: To add a template page to a category (for example Category:Place of residence user templates) without adding the pages transcluding the template. Your goal was to add some of the pages transcluding the template to a category but not all of them. This is what Wikipedia:Category suppression is about. There are different methods depending on the wanted default behaviour. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:14, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm slightly less confused now, thanks! Aye, I did wonder - I've got another userbox that uses the <noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude> idiom, so I was familiar with it but couldn't understand how it would help here - that'll be why ;-) I'll return to cat suppression when I've got time to look at it in depth. TFOWR 08:14, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Publishing a document

I have a page ready for publication but am at a loss as to how to get this shown. I have mentioned names already in wiki but cannot see what I should do next —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bluejay700 (talk • contribs) 15:46, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

It looks like you figured out how to get the article into main space, although, IMO, it wasn't close to ready. You might ask for help at Requests for feedback, although they are a little backlogged. You need references (see Referencing for beginners) and a glance at Manual of Style would help.--SPhilbrickT 22:03, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Numbered Lists

Resolved

I know to use the # symbol at the start of each new line to get a numbered list:

1. Apples
2. Bananas
3. Grapes

But what if I want a numbered list to go down say 10 items and then start a new column and go down ten lines and then start a new column? Instead of having a long thin column of one word items I would like to have several columns side by side, but with decent spacing between columns. Any ideas? — Fly by Night (talk) 16:22, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

WP:COLUMN would be first place to look. There are several ways to do it. Some may not allow continuous numbering flow into each column. Different options might let you select a fixed column width (letting browser decide how many columns will fit on user's screen) vs a fixed number of columns (their widths adjusting to fit the screen), etc. DMacks (talk) 16:39, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Super, thanks! I used {{colbegin}} and {{colend}} at the beginning and end of my numbered list and it split it into two columns. It even kept a continuous numbering. Thanks again. — Fly by Night (talk) 17:29, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject

Resolved

I am a fairly frequent editor on Wikipedia. I mainly edit on certain topics, but I am not a listed member of any Wikiproject. Is that a problem?Us441 (talk) 19:28, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

No, it's not. You may join or not join WikiProjects as the spirit may move you. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 19:30, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Article traffic statistics

In the last five days there is no any information about article traffic statistics. All af the article stats are 0. Could you answer me what should be the reason ? It seems to be unbelievable that for example Rolling Stones from 11,1K 20100726 has fall down to 0 and stay there.

Whith best regards:Vezér —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vezér (talk • contribs) 20:25, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

They're being counted but it seems from Henrik's talk page that there is an error with dammit's results. stats.grok.se not providing results has already been reported to WP:VPT. Nanonic (talk) 20:47, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

HOW DO I PUBLISH FROM MY USER PAGE?

I have an article that I am ready to launch but have no idea how to do that. Where do I go for help? Seems to me it should be easy but it's not. ````THOMAS BONTEThomas Bonte 20:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomas Bonte (talk • contribs)

You should be autoconfirmed, so the way to "publish" the article is to move it. There is a move button, admittedly not very evident, at the top of the page. You might have to click on a down arrow to see it. However, while you have done an enormous amount of work, it is not yet ready.

A glance through Manual of Style will highlight a number of problems.--SPhilbrickT 21:22, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

• You have quite a number of spelling errors. I've fixed some, but some are within quotes and within references - I don't want to fix those if the error is in the original. (I went ahead and fixed them, revert if I got any wrong)
• I fixed the quoted poem so it doesn't appear in the blue box. If your indentations were important, I can figure out how to restore them, just let me know. (Fixed indentation.) I didn't see the name of the poet, so I used "student poet" if you have the name, it would be better.
• I fixed some of your section headings and the capitalization.
• I removed the example external link, it was just an example, not a real one.
• It still isn't ready--SPhilbrickT 21:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
• Your footnote #22 lists page 368. Shouldn't it be page 382?--SPhilbrickT 22:28, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
• Now it's ready—I added some further comments to your talk page--SPhilbrickT 22:48, 1 August 2010 (UTC)