Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 August 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.

August 21

User's stats

Did there used to be a menu of user stats at the bottom of the user's page or talk or was it in a dream? hydnjo (talk) 00:10, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

You may well have dreamed about it, but it's quite tangible. Try the bottom of your user contributions page. Haploidavey (talk) 00:21, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

*Slaps forehead.* Still feel small even after /smalling - thanks for the awakening ;-) hydnjo (talk) 00:31, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Enjoy the wakefulness... as dreams go, that one sounded, um, a little dull! Haploidavey (talk) 00:42, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Don't rub it in, I know it seems crazy but it was combined with a bit of friday night forgetfulness. Thanks again for guiding me through my unreality. BTW, why are we doing <small>? hydnjo (talk) 01:07, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Can not log in

I have an account, but I'm receiving an error message whenever I try to log in: "Login error There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please hit "back" and reload the page you came from, then try again." I've done as it says, but the error keeps coming up. Any idea as to what this problem is, and/or, should I report this elsewhere? I'm bringing it up I have no idea where else to ask this. 71.200.226.96 (talk) 05:49, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

• Nevermind, it's working now. 71.200.226.96 (talk) 05:55, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

How to add another disambiguation or contact the admin to add it?

Hi,

I browsed to Fakebook just to see if such variation exists. I found one but got doubts if I installed any malware by visiting that page. So I searched Wikipedia for "FakeBook". It only has two entries and neither of them refer to the website. I am wondering if someone (or me) can research the site to see if it carries a malicious payload (as it is variation of Facebook) and write a little about it. I also want the Disambiguation page to list the website so users can be aware of that site - that will make the information complete. But I don't know how to go about it? How do I get to add it the disambiguation page and if I am authorized to do so. Also, if I can create a page of the said website after checking on the website to see if it is malicious.

Please clear the doubts above.

Thanks

-- Best Regards, DreamsCentral Signed: Saturday, August 21, 2010, 2:30:50 PM IST —Preceding unsigned comment added by DreamsCentral (talk • contribs) 09:04, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Before you add an entry to the disambiguation page an article should be created. Before you create the article you should make sure the subject is notable. Notable for Wikipedia generally means that the subject of the article has been written about in reliable sources. If this has happened please do start an article on it. I would suggest you also read WP:FIRST, it gives an overview of writing your first article. Please ask if you still have questions. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 10:54, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

how do I make an entry about myself?

Julietteangelique (talk) 11:44, 21 August 2010 (UTC)I can find no clear guidance on the most obvious question: how do I contruct a biographical page, giving, for example my title, academic qualifications and publications? Julietteangelique (talk) 11:44, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

The question you need to answer first is do you meet Wikipedia's notability guidlines. There are two you should look at, WP:Notability and WP:BIO. THe first one is the general notability and the second is the biographical specific guideline. You don't have to meet both just one. Next you should read our conflict of interest policy. You obviously have a conflict of interest in this situation. Then if if you think you meet the notability guidelines and you can write a neutral article about yourself, then you should read about writing your first article. Hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask. ~~ GB fan ~~ 11:57, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

There is another page which you should also read about writing autobiographies. TNXMan 13:25, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

WikiBios may suit your needs better. – ukexpat (talk) 13:33, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Uploaded a file

I've uploaded this file. I'm just pointing it out here so that anyone can put it up for deletion and keep you from having to look for it. Thanks, I look forward to the pain in the ass of justifying keeping it here, Dismas|^(talk) 13:20, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

It looks good to me - not only the picture (which looks very nice), but the tags all seem correct as well. TNXMan 13:24, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

help needed help in font size

I accidentally pushed something on the keyboard while browsing to another page and then when I got back from the wikipedia page, the font size have been changed. I'm trying to change it back to normal size but apparently have not been successful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.200.66.22 (talk) 16:26, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried pressing Ctrl and 0 at the same time? TNXMan 16:27, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

yup tried pressing them both... still no changes —Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.200.66.22 (talk) 16:50, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

It's ctrl and zero not oh. Also use ctrl and + or -. Also use zoom in view.--141.155.148.156 (talk) 22:01, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Also, if you have a mouse that has a little 'wheel' between the two mouse buttons, try holding down Ctrl and moving the wheel forward to zoom in (make text larger) or backward to zoom out (make text smaller). Hope this helped --- cymru lass ^{(hit me up)}⁄_{(background check)} 20:18, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Categories

Is there any way to create a category without putting in nonesense or something, just to get it started? MR. PreZ 18:00, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

If at the bottom of an article, you type [[Category:Name-of-category]] the category will be created. When you have saved the page, and look at the categories, it will be red-linked, but if you click on the category then a list of all the pages in that category will be shown. This may be a useful guide, especially "Content of category pages" -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:35, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

You cannot save a category page with empty source at creation (this is the same in other namespaces) but as Phantomsteve writes, you can see pages placed in the category even though the category page has not been created yet. If it's a category for articles then the category page should be created right away to avoid confusion, but you can for example create it with arbitrary content and then blank it. Or create it with an undisplayed comment like <!-- This category page has no displayed content -->. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:40, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

The vast majority of categories should be subcategories of other categories. (Special:UncategorizedCategories lists the current exceptions; there seem to be just 409 at the moment.) If you want to create an initially empty category, you can make it a subcategory of at least one other category that exists. That gets the category started without the need to put nonfunctional filler in the category page. What category do you want to create? Be sure there is no existing category already that does the job you need. Also see WP:CFD and note that Wikipedia deletes lots of categories just like Wikipedia deletes lots of articles. It's best to discuss the category you want to create, with other interested users, so you can avoid wasting your time with needless disputes later. --Teratornis (talk) 03:09, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Authority to Semi-Protect Articles

According to WP:PROTECT, "Administrators are able to protect a page ..." However, in the Hugh Jackman article, on January 26, 2010, User:Jéské Couriano added indefinite semi-protection to the article. However, according to special:ListUsers, Couriano is not an admin. Is it that only admins are supposed to add protection but others can (improperly) do so? To be clear, I'm not saying that the Jackman article didn't merit semi-protection as there was a fair amount of reversion history preceding the protection (although I'm not sure that indefinite semi-protection was warranted), I'm just questioning how the policy is intended to work and whether the editor had the authority to add the protection. As an aside, Couriano didn't specify a reason for the protection, which also doesn't conform to policy.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:45, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Jéské used to be an admin, but is no longer. The protection you mention was placed before he resigned his adminship. If you'd like, you could discuss the issue with him on his talk page, but I would read the notes he has placed on the top of the page first. TNXMan 21:48, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the history. Is there a way to find out whether someone was an administrator and from when to when? I don't think I'll bring up the issue on his Talk page as my question was more about how things work than the merits of what he did. Honestly, it doesn't bother me all that much to have BLP articles semi-protected. As to the notes on his Talk page, wow!--Bbb23 (talk) 21:55, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Generally, once someone is an admin, they remain so as long as they are active on Wikipedia. The easiest way I know to discover whether someone used to be admin is to see if WP:Requests for adminship/Example User (replacing Example User with the relevant name) is a redlink or a bluelink. If there is a successful request there, they were at one point an admin. The only one that comes to mind, although I'm sure there are more, is WP:Requests for adminship/Archtransit (was an admin and is not any longer). As for Jéské, it was a shame to see him resign the tools - he was a good admin. TNXMan 21:59, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:19, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Administrators have the link "user rights management" on contributions pages, for example leading to Special:UserRights/Jéské_Couriano (admin only). It includes a list of when rights were assigned and removed. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:55, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

And now that you mention it... I don't see where Jéské Couriano's admin right was removed, either here or at Meta. Odd. I do seem to recall that actions performed at Meta aren't logged here, but I can't find the relevant log there either. TNXMan 23:07, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

PrimeHunter: Forgive me, but I'm not sure how that helps me. The link you provide apparently only works for admins, and I'm not an admin. And if I go to Couriano's contributions page, I don't see any information on his former adminship.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:11, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

See also WP:FORMER which provides a list of former administrators and links such as this: Jéské Couriano (talk · contribs · former admin: blocks · protections · deletions · rights · meta · local rights). The last of these is a link to the user rights log at meta. Bencherlite^Talk 23:20, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't understand the user rights part, but if I read the line for Couriano correctly, he stopped being an administrator sometime in July 2010.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:28, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

My link was for TNXMan (a fellow administrator) as the indentation vaguely hinted. This should also work for you: Go to Special:Log, select User rights log in the drop-down list, enter User:Jéské Couriano in the Title field (not in the User field). As TNXMan pointed out, the adminship removal is not logged here at the English Wikipedia. To see that, you can go to meta:Special:Log, select User rights log and enter User:Jéské Couriano@enwiki in the Title field (not the user field) to get [1]. The "rights" link in the above list of links for Jéské Couriano is rights Jéské Couriano has assigned or removed to others (or to himself). PrimeHunter (talk) 23:34, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to explain in such detail. I doubt I'll ever remember any of it. It looks like the easiest thing for me to do is link to WP:FORMER if needed. I wrote that down in some (cheat) notes I keep on how to do unusual things in Wikipedia.--Bbb23 (talk) 23:42, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Lasting links to specific sections of often-archived pages

As an old hand I should know this, but I haven't seen a solution to this: if I want a lasting link to a specific section of an often-archived page, is there a way to do this? For instance, Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#Name of section. This link will work only until the section is archived, which happens quickly at the pump. I could post the permanent link then say "scroll down to the "Name of section" section", but this is awkward. Is there a better way? Citing a diff also seems awkward. Herostratus (talk) 23:37, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

You can click Permanent link and then the section link in the TOC before copying the url. Of course this will not show edits made to the section after you clicked Permanent link. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:41, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Oh yeah! That works! Thanks! Herostratus (talk) 00:52, 22 August 2010 (UTC)