Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 July 30

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July 30

Template for a user using more than one account

I have a two users that keep inserting material into articles, both account are relatively new so I was looking for a warning template to explain that using more than one account is not allowed. Both accounts are relatively new and i dont think this is malicious socking but rather uninformed socking Weaponbb7 (talk) 00:40, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Why use a template when a short note will suffice? I think it's common courtesy to politely let a user know that what they are doing is wrong and give them a chance to fix their behavior before stuffing bold text and red stop signs down their throat. Xenon54 (talk) 00:47, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) Using more than one account is allowed, though from the way you've couched your post, it sounds like the use here may fall under inappropriate uses, though I can't say without real context. I don't know of any dedicated template, but you can tailor a message yourself—maybe something like Hello ____. Based on your edits, I suspect that you and [[Uesername2]] are the same person with two accounts. Though multiple account use is permitted in [[WP:Multiple Accounts|limited ways]], the manner you have been using these accounts falls under the [[Wikipedia:Sock puppetry#Inappropriate uses of alternative accounts|illegitimate uses listed in our sockpuppet policy]] because you have been __________________. Since I think this sock puppetry violation is inadvertent on your part, I am here to ask you to stop using both accounts to make these edits, from now forward. Thanks.~~~~ Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:58, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

thank you for you assistance, I am never sure how to approach these issues so i personally favor templates but that message is perfect. Weaponbb7 (talk) 01:12, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Glad it fits.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Universal time

I would like your help with regard to universal time. I am not talking about the rotation time or about the time on earth.. I am talking about universal time of the universe. Is there such a time or does this question not make any sense at all? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harruk (talk • contribs) 01:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't think this is what you are really looking for, but does it help at all to know that current theory and observations suggest that the universe is 13.75 ±0.17 billion years old?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:31, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

The OP may also want to consider that there is no universal time in the sense that there is no reference frame in the universe where we can say that the clock in that frame keeps the universal time. On earth, we arbitrarily call UTC (Greenwhich mean time) the universal time, and base our clocks on that. Because of the implications of special relativity and general relativity, there is no where in the universe which we can use as a reference point in a similar manner. All time is local time, and your local time is dependant on the velocity you are moving relative to others. So not only is your clock not at the same time as places which are moving at different speeds than you, your clocks are moving at different speeds! That means that what is one hour for you can be 45 minutes for a person moving faster than you are. See twin paradox for just one example of the counterintuitive problems this creates. Also see Relativity of simultaneity, which says that we cannot even say which of two events in different parts of the universe occured first. Its pretty weird stuff, this universe we live in. --Jayron32 02:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

That explanation makes my head spin... Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 02:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

The key is question is how much time does your head spend spinning. Is it spinning faster than the person next to you? I'm much older than you, and my head tends to spin slowly. In fact, in my case creaking is probably a better term than spinning.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:52, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Help explaining speedy criterion F2

Could someone help explain speedy deletion criterion F2 to someone who finds it very confusing? Stepho-wrs created a local description page for an image on Commons, and when the local description page was tagged under F2 (which permits the deletion of "empty (i.e., no content) image description pages for Commons images"), s/he placed a hangon. When I tried to explain on Stepho's talk, s/he began with "Sorry, but you lost me on this one" and produced a response consistent with someone who thinks that his/her image, rather than a useless description page, is about to be deleted. I've added a response trying to explain that only the local description page was deleted, not anything with the actual image or its actual description page, but somehow I doubt that this explanation will be sufficient. Nyttend (talk) 01:36, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I added something but don't know whether the user will understand. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Juan Williams biography

No where in the Juan Williams bio does it state his citizenship status. It staes that he was born in the Republic of Panama. Is he or is he not a naturakized US citizen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.181.100.93 (talk) 01:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Being born in Panama doesn't necessarily make one not an American citizen from birth. If both of his parents were American citizens, for example, he may have not have needed to be naturalized as he may have been considered a citizen since birth. See John McCain for a similar example. It is unclear from the Wikipedia article what that status is specific to Juan Williams; however it may also not be relevent enough to have ever been noted by anyone. --Jayron32 02:08, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Template F to C

What's up with that? I was reading Burke and Wills expedition and happened on "90 (32.2 )", the result of Template:F to C. I switched it to template convert, but now I'm wondering if there's some not-so-obvious reason for the original choice. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:04, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

The F to C template is used for different locales, in different countries. For example, if your account is set to Celcius/your computer is recognized as being from a Celcius area (ip tracing), it will convert the temperature to the appropriate scale.  A p3rson ‽ 05:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)It looked correct for me when I just checked the revision prior to your changes. {{F to C}} uses a single unicode entity for the units (contains both the "degree" symbol and the F or C letter": \u2109 is "DEGREE FAHRENHEIT" and \u2103 is "DEGREE CELSIUS", and they render in a bold-like character. Not all browsers seem to be able to handle full unicode correctly:( {{convert}} as you specified uses normal ASCIIish ° and F/C characters, which is a more portable way to display it. {{F to C}} has been unicode since this change years ago. Worse, it has only limited controls for rendering options. I guess there are reasons it's only used on ~20 pages. Might be a nice cleanup task for someone with a few minutes to spare. Could then push for deletion of the template that gives a poor user experience. DMacks (talk) 05:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

That's a good answer, too.  A p3rson ‽ 05:37, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Grammatical Error(s) in the "About RfA" Page

Please take note of the following grammatical mistakes in the About RfA Page:

1.

Nomination standards There are no official prerequisites for adminship, other than having an account and a basic level of trust from other editors. The community looks for a variety of things in candidates, and everybody has their own opinion. For examples of what the community is looking for, read some successful and some unsuccessful RfAs.

--- "everybody" is always singular...therefore, it should be "everybody has his or her opinion"

2. avoid using these: and/or, his/her.... these are awkward and have already been outlawed. Therefore, avoid using "/".

3. Never begin a sentence with a preposition such as "To"

I hope you can appreciate this gesture.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stardustalpha2010 (talk • contribs) 06:05, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Um, for the first one, we are trying to use 'their' in a non-standard way. For the second, can you think of a better way to express the same thing concisely without the forward slash? For the third, I'm not so sure. You see, our policies and guidelines are not the kind of policy with so formal vocabulary that you have to check the dictionary. Sometimes there are jokes in guidelines (see the mango in WP:AGF for example.) Kayau Voting IS evil 06:23, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I've heard (much too frequently) the old "rule" about not ending a sentence with a preposition, but this is the first time I've encountered someone who thinks it's wrong to begin a sentence with one. To each his own, I guess. Deor (talk) 21:32, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

In formal grammar references I've heard/seen it written about:) The beginning case doesn't even appear to have the "Latin origin" type of legacy underlying it. DMacks (talk) 22:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your opinions Stardustalpha. Some people agree with you. Others do not. See for example Singular they (though that is not a good article, I admin). --ColinFine (talk) 20:09, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

Varan(malayalam 2010 film)

I want to tag the above page but i'm not sure what criteria to put it under.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 07:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

What problem do you perceive? DMacks (talk) 08:09, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

There's not enough info and a couple of red links.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 08:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Tagged with expand, wikify, uncat, onesource, copyedit and notability. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I have PRODed it per WP:NFILMS. – ukexpat (talk) 14:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Currency conventions

Is there a page describing how to designate currency on Wikipedia, for instance whether to use USD or US$?

--Mortense (talk) 07:49, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

MOS:CURRENCY. DMacks (talk) 08:09, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. It redirects and the specific location is Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style, Currencies. --Mortense (talk) 08:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Adding figures to an article

How does one add figures to an article, and what formats are supported (e.g., EPS, JPG, ...)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Boute (talk • contribs) 08:42, 30 July 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. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

KATHIRAVAN BOYS CRICKET CLUB(KBCC)

Is the above page a test page?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:03, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:23, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

creation of article

vijayz

This is known as tamil film hero. but here vijayan is known as vijayz..!

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:34, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Archiving my talk page

Can someone who knows how to,archive my current talk page and make me a new talk page.I have read the page about archiving talk pages but am still confused.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

 Done. Kayau Voting IS evil 11:01, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

My also, please archive till 50 section. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 12:06, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

 Done. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Redefinition of the Metre in 1983

What has happened to the references on this page.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:53, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

The creator is working on it. He has not copied the content of the references yet. Please be patient. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:57, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Renomination

Can anybody please renominate Portal:Star for featured status. Reason: More improved now and open more new supports than the last time. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 11:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Done myself, (see here). --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 04:51, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

File:Asd.jpg

Resolved

 – Thank you, passing PrimeHunter. – ukexpat (talk) 18:19, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I tried nominating this page File:Asd.jpg for deletion, but I seem to have botched things up. I do not mean to delete any file, just this page - an unnecessary redirect to a file that is creating a bug with another completely different file in commons. Could someone please nominate this page for deletion for me? Thanks, --Santosga (talk) 13:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

PROD does not work for files. Please try WP:CSD, WP:RFD or WP:FFD instead. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:22, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I have removed the PROD and the redirect. Would a passing admin please delete the Wikipedia file info page?  – ukexpat (talk) 14:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I have deleted it and fixed [1] the only use. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you all, --Santosga (talk) 18:54, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

retrieve booklet

I was creating booklet to print when I was bumped off line; where can I find my booklet?

Renee Priest —Preceding unsigned comment added by Renee Priest (talk • contribs) 14:33, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it looks like this post is your only contribution. The book may still be saved in your browser's history, however. TNXMan 14:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Your account is not autoconfirmed yet so you cannot save books. If your book is not visible at Special:Book then you may have to start over. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:13, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

ERROR IN ARTICLE!!

In your article for former Gov. Rod Blogojevich the hyperlink for his Lt. Gov Patrick Quinn is incorrect. It takes you to an actor's article named Patrick Quinn when in actuality it should take you here ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Quinn_(politician) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.249.47.198 (talk) 16:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. I looked through all of the wikilinks for Pat Quinn in the article and they all look like they're pointing to the right place. Can you be more specific with the location of the incorrect link? TNXMan 16:29, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Here on Wikipedia, articles such as Blago's that deal with current events change quickly, sometimes several times every minute. That appears to be the case here; someone else noticed the error at the same time as you did and has already fixed it. In the future, please do not be afraid to be bold and fix simple problems yourself. Here is a quick list of basic markup. Xenon54 (talk) 16:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

 Fixed - The link in question was in the Impeachment trial and removal from office section of the article. - Happysailor ^(Talk) 16:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

CentralNotice

Anyone knows if there's more information about this? They don't even say what the jobs are, except "a series of important senior and entry level positions"? 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:22, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

We are especially looking for:

• Current Wikimedia community contributors and leaders,
• Insightful observers of Wikimedia and other collaborative communities,
• People with specialty skill sets (e.g. statistics, ethnography, and probably a lot other things we've never thought of),
• People belonging to language communities of new and growing Wikipedias and other Wikimedia projects,
• People with insight into reaching groups currently underrepresented in Wikimedia contributor communities. ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

I read that already, but it's obviously vague as to what the whole thing is about. 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:56, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

The page could be clearer, but here's my take on it (which could be wrong). While I cannot speak for the unidentified author(s) of the foundation:Special:CommunityHiring page, my impression is that the Wikimedia Foundation wants to hire people who will at least partially define their own positions. I.e., people who understand online collaboration on a deep level and have their own ideas about how to improve it. In other words, if you have to ask this question, that is if you can't decode the somewhat roundabout descriptions on the page, you're probably not what they are looking for. Just my opinion. Note that Wikipedia and the other WMF project wikis have a lot of contributors with amazingly advanced skills who work for free, so anyone who wants to get paid to work for Wikipedia had better be at least as good as the volunteers, to have any credibility with the user community. Anyway, if you want the real answer, you'll have to track down whoever wrote that page, which looks to be difficult because it's a special page and therefore has no easily visible history. --Teratornis (talk) 18:01, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Do you think they really expect people to apply without even knowing what the jobs are, though? 86.18.101.246 (talk) 18:21, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

That's a very good question. Again, only the people who wrote that page can tell us. Here's a quote that might explain the (purposely?) vague job description:

“ Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

”

Maybe they aren't looking for "people", but geniuses. I did get an "are you kidding me?" chuckle when I read this: "Candidates who are not already deeply immersed in online collaborative communities will have to show an aptitude for quickly gaining a deep understanding of our communities' technologies, practices, traditions and culture ..." I've been editing on Wikipedia since 2006 and I'm not sure my understanding is "deep" yet. --Teratornis (talk) 18:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Downloading photo from Flicr

I hope I'm posting to the right place. I would like to download a photo from Flicr to commons and don't have the first idea how to go about it. I have an account at commons. Thanks. Jack 1314 (talk) 17:48, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

First you save the picture from Flickr, preferably the highest resolution possible, then you upload it as normal to Commons (but you need to watch out for the licensing; Commons only accepts CC except the ones with the 'nc' (non-commercial) clause.) 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:52, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Upload! Follow the instructions written in the document please! ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:54, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks guys! Now, what's this keyboardy thing in front me? Nah, just kidding. :) Thanks again. Jack 1314 (talk) 17:59, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

See the links under Commons:COM:EIC#Flickr if you want to use one of the various automated or semi-automated tools. For example, I documented some examples of my uploads using Flominator's Flinfo tool (see Commons:User:Teratornis/Flickr examples). You can only upload photos from Flickr to Commons if they have the correct (free) licensing; you can search for such photos with {{Flickr free}}. The great majority of photos on Flickr are not free; however, since Flickr has billions of photos, that still leaves millions of free photos that may land within the project scope of Commons. --Teratornis (talk) 18:07, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Images in a Featured Article

Is there a minimum number of images needed for an article to be a Featured Article?--Olduch (talk) 19:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

From reading WP:FACR, it would appear not. – ukexpat (talk) 19:55, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

There should be an appropriate number of high-quality images used in an appropriate way. That is, there shouldn't be too many given the length of the article. That being said, FA promotion is done via consensus discussion, and if enough people find a complete lack of images to be a problem, it will not be promoted. I have never seen a featured article with zero images, so functionally, the minimum number would appear in practice to be one; in nearly all cases FAs have more than that. --Jayron32 21:37, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Change name of a page

I would like to change the name of a page (Ministry of Health [British Columbia] ---> Ministry of Health Services [British Columbia]). I can't do this with the 'edit' function. Do I need to request that someone else do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.31.112.214 (talk) 21:52, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Pages are renamed by moving them to new target names. This procedure preserves the page's edit history. Please do not rename a page by copying/pasting its content to a new page name. If you have an account that is at least four days old and have made more than 10 edits (autoconfirmed), you can move a page yourself, but please first review Wikipedia:Naming conventions. If you still wish to rename the page, go to it and click the move tab at the top (near the history and watch tabs). You can then specify a new name for the article. The old page name will automatically become a redirect to the new page. However, if the desired target page name already exists and is other than a redirect with only one edit, you will need an administrator to move the page for you, which can be requested at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Hope this helps. --Mysdaao ^talk 22:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)