Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 December 13

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December 13

First time Commons user, help por favor!

I have gotten email permission for an image (citing the license, using boilerplate request for permission). How do I get a Commons account? The instructions talk about a unified login, but it doesn't seem to work when I tried to ask for one. Help! Please.  :) TCO (talk) 00:28, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

OK. It seemed like the directions would allow me to sign up for one general account. But I went ahead and signed up for the Commons and then merged the two. So I think I'm cool. Just need to upload the image, provide email proof, blabla. Wish me luck as the turtle tries to cross the road!TCO (talk) 00:34, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Need help..

Is it true any USA soldier that is serving in the forces..and wants to go on leave to Britain, thier partners have to pay a deposit? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.93.16 (talk) 02:23, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia: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, select the relevant section, 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. --Mysdaao ^talk 03:04, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

embedding photo in article

I have downloaded a photo but for the life of me can't figure out to embed it in the article Erni39 (talk) 03:05, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

• If you want to add an existing image to an article, add [[File:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text.]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information.
• If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must determine the proper license of the image (or whether it is in the public domain). If you know the image is public domain or copyrighted but under a suitable free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure of the licensing status, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy. I hope this helps. --Mysdaao ^talk 03:08, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Assuming you mean "download" as in "taken from the internet and put it on my computer", you should likely NOT put that photo in an article. Under most circumstances, Wikipedia will not accept photos which are downloaded from somewhere else on the internet. See Wikipedia:Image use policy for more details. --Jayron32 03:10, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Links that have square brackets in the URL

How do you include links that have square brackets in the URL? Thanks. --- Sbmeirow (talk) 03:14, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Replace the left bracket with %5B and the right bracket with %5D. See meta:Help:URL. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 03:37, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Redirect

We love you all whoever is eager (voluntarily) to help readers and writers on wikipedia. Well, I am eager to know: How do you redirect an article? Ex: ABC search leads to XYZ because of redirection. Is it possible to keep it ABC or any way to stop redirection? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.117.129.120 (talk) 05:53, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

At the top of the XYZ page it says "Redirected from ABC". If you click on "ABC" there, it will take you to the ABC page which has the redirection. - David Biddulph (talk) 06:17, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

... and you can then edit that page like any other page. --ColinFine (talk) 00:10, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Conflict of interest

How (and where) can I declare conflict of interest for an edit on apage? For my first edit (Hyland Language Centre) I have chosen the company I work for (for almost 20 years!) and have tried to make the article as neutral as possible. Any suggestions as to how to make it more neutral? — Preceding unsigned comment added by HLCMad (talk • contribs) 08:58, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I just answered on your talk page. You declared it here, and on your talk page. It wouldn't hurt to put a declaration on the talk page of the article also. ~~ GB fan ~~ 09:07, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

forensic doctor

Dear Sir, I am looking for a forensic doctor or facility who could ascertain a teeth bite: wheather this teeth bite is an human bite, insect bite or an animal bite.217.12.225.25 (talk) 09:15, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our 3,500,655 articles, and thought that we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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. Please be aware that we cannot give medical advice. Best of luck. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 09:38, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd be curious to see the insect whose bite pattern can be confused with that of a person. Dismas|^(talk) 10:32, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd wondered that too. But... Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 13:25, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

A single insect, or a group of insects, could bite several times to form a larger pattern. A human could leave a partial bite mark by biting just a pinch of flesh. Post-bite swelling, infection, or necrosis could alter or obscure the original bite patterns. For example, the bacteria left by the tick responsible for Lyme disease produce a characteristic bullseye pattern around the original bite which is much larger than the tick itself. --Teratornis (talk) 20:35, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Editing WP with Kindle

Has anyone tried to edit Wikipedia using the Amazon Kindle browser? I hear it's rudimentary.   Will Beback  talk  10:29, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Table subjugated to external links

I have been working on a substantial edit of the Mekong page. I created a table of existing dams in the basin, and Wikipedia then pushed it down into the 'external links' section, no doubt because it does contain many external (coordinates) links. In edit, it still appears under 'The Development of the Mekong'. How can I get it to show under the latter title heading, and not as a separate, external links table?

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rechmaduong (talk • contribs) 10:47, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I expect the formatting got confused because you accidentally deleted the |} from the end of the table. I have fixed it. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:09, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Flattr

Hi, was just looking at the stats on Limkokwing University of Creative Technology using the traffic counter ( Article -> History -> Page view statistics ) and noticed a flattr micro-payment tab... struck me as odd.

Looking at the URL of traffic counter, it appears to be an off-site tool (and perhaps outside of the remit of wikipedia), although wikipedia does link to it on every article. Is there any policy that says yay or nay about incorporating the tool and the tool having a micro-payment thingy set up? For the record, I don't have any problem personally with the tool creator making a couple of quid from the tool, just curious about the WP position on it Darigan (talk) 11:06, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any explicit policy, but can cite a similar example: the "Geolocate" link listed on every IP talk page and contributions list points to ip2location.com, which offers a free service but also links to a paid one. Since we're OK with that I'd be really surprised if there were any serious objection to stats.grok.se, the external host that offers the pageview stats service, adding a tip jar link to that tool. Gonzonoir (talk) 12:15, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Makes sense - Cheers for the reply Gonzonoir Darigan (talk) 12:28, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

According to this Signpost article, a handful of image files on Wikimedia Commons have Flattr links. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:06, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

That was an interesting piece, thanks for the link John of Reading Darigan (talk) 15:22, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

TV channels

Is it appropiate to list the current TV programms of a certain TV channel at the article of such TV channel, or is that trivial information in some way? MBelgrano (talk) 11:58, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

With how often they change, I would think that a link to the channel's official site would be better. See WP:EL. I'm specifically thinking of the following: "Sites that contain neutral and accurate material that is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject and cannot be integrated into the Wikipedia article due to copyright issues, amount of detail (such as professional athlete statistics, movie or television credits, interview transcripts, or online textbooks), or other reasons." (emphasis mine) Dismas|^(talk) 12:08, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

That would be a clear "No"; see WP:NOTTVGUIDE. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:57, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Navigating among languages in which Wikipedia articles are written

I have looked through FAQs, but can find nothing directly related to this suggestion.

Would it be possible to link each Wikipedia article to to other language versions of the same article?

For example, I have been doing quite a lot searching in German subject matter. Despite Google settings to the contrary, only English language versions of Wikipedia articles are retrieved. In general, I have found German-language articles on German subject matter to be superior to the English versions.

There are at least two good reasons for cross-linking language versions: 1) simple convenience; 2) to provide additional incentive to improve the standard of weaker articles by more immediate comparision with stronger ones. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.143.206.29 (talk) 12:55, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi, in the left column of this page there is a tab "Languages" with a drop down list of different languages, the different languages in the drop down list link you to that language version of the page you are on. The list will be there on all article pages as well.Darigan (talk) 12:59, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

If you've found an article that should have these links and doesn't, you could be bold and add them yourself. See Help:Interlanguage links. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:10, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Inclusion of indian rupee

I live in India and I like to donate to wikipedia. Please include the rupee currency option in wikipedia. Also is there a way to pay from debit cards in India.

Thanks... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.236.216.15 (talk) 13:46, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

It's always worth looking further up the page at questions that have already been asked and answered; see above, and further above. - David Biddulph (talk) 13:52, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Or, if those aren't enough, try the archive search. - David Biddulph (talk) 13:55, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

If Wikipedia is ad-free, as it claims, then why are we bothered by countless "personal appeal[s]" to stuff Mr Wales pockets?

. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.183.228.164 (talk) 15:10, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

This conversation has been had a number of times, one of the more recent ones Darigan (talk) 15:18, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like time for someone to make a new WP:FAQ entry and another Help desk template. --Teratornis (talk) 18:53, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

What gives you the idea that any of the money goes to Mr. Wales? The Foundation is a duly-accredited organization which must keep all of it sfiscal transactions public. Any money which would go to Mr. Wales would surely be criminal actions, therefore your assertion is slander. Corvus cornix_talk 07:29, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

No. Libel. Kittybrewster ☎ 13:17, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Why is Jimmy Wales prohibited from getting a penny? I was under the impression that he could neither get all of the money, or get any of it directly to his pockets. But what's preventing the Foundation from giving money to Jimmy Wales as an official, duly noted payment? JIP | Talk 15:44, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

The fact that he declares publicly that he does not accept a salary from the Foundation, and does not intend to accept any money from it, should be a bit of a clue. In theory he could be paid for work for the Foundation, but in practice, after all that has been said on the subject, it seems unlikely that the situation will arise. Karenjc 15:57, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I managed to miss that bit. It would be a bit stupid for him to go against his word. Thanks for the explanation. JIP | Talk 19:35, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Thumbplay

I do need to cancel my Service with Thumbplay. because I'm not using the service. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.92.1.251 (talk) 16:13, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our 3,501,059 articles, and thought that we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:16, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Question about reliable sources

Is this a reliable source for this article? I'm trying to improve the article's referencing, since it's currently a Good article candidate. Thanks, The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 22:04, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

The place to ask about reliable sources is on the reliable source noticeboard. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 00:47, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

showing Arabic and Hebrew

I have a website that uses the Wikipedia software and I would like to know what software does Wikipedia use to keep the languages like Arabic and Hebrew to show their page from right to left. I don't want to put tags on every page of the above languages. I want it to be like Wikipedia. My software shows it from left to right. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.149.142 (talk) 23:26, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

This page is for help with Wikipedia. Use the MediaWiki support desk for questions about the MediaWiki software. Algebraist 23:37, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

I asked in Wikimedia and I didn't get an answer. I would like to know how Wikipedia is dealing with this issue. I invested a lot of thime and efforts and so far no luck. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.149.142 (talk) 17:25, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I've never dealt with the issue in my own edits, but there seems to be some kind of explanation and instructions at Help:Arabic. Perhaps it will help? Karenjc 20:58, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Temporary strip references out of text

I'd like some tool or way to view articles with the ref stripped out of the text so that I can cut/paste to online/offline spell-checkers(they are presently confused by the refs). Is there a way of doing this? Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:56, 13 December 2010 (UTC).