Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 2

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March 2

Is there easy way to get diffs of my contributions on particular articles?

I've been falsely accused of not contributing to our articles about climate change. Is there an easy way to get a list of diffs for my contributions on particular articles? I have this[1] but would like to narrow it down some. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:01, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Gather together the names of the climate articles you've contributed to and then you can post the results of this type of search for each .--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:16, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

You might also check out Soxred's tool for your username. And see WP:EIW#Count. --Teratornis (talk) 06:33, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Create new tables

Can someone help me to make new tables with more than one columns on the national champions section for this and this article? The current tables are too long. Thank you to whom are willing to help. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 03:27, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

What kind of help do you need? Is there some reason why you cannot edit the tables yourself? --Teratornis (talk) 06:02, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't have the time and I'm not a table expert. I made this request to find people who are willing to help, who have the tools. I never force anyone to do it. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 06:24, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Here is one way to do it with an outer table having a single row of 3 cells which each contain a table: [2]. Is that OK? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:29, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Looks nice, thank you very much. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 01:18, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

What do you consider to be unauthorized copy right information

I am trying to write a page about one of the oldest hardware and locksmith stores in NYC and I have express permission from the owners to use and and all content they have on their websites as well copies of their receipts of any famous person who has ever shopped in their store. I don't understand why you keep deleting my page when I have provided you the contact info of the owner to verify the information if you so feel obliged to do so. I think this is very ridiculous that you would just lump everyone and everything they say as stolen information without taking time to verify it. Dayan —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdayan (talk • contribs) 04:28, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you see the notice at the bottom of the blog page which says "© locksmithnyc"? That is an express claim of copyright unlimited by any free license also stated there. So, you assert you have permission. Do you think that every time someone asserts permission we then bear the onus of checking whether that unsupported claim is true? Of course we can't. Then, we also have seen many times people claiming they do have permissions when they in fact do not. In order for us to allow this material to be used, we would need to be shown in a way that substantiated the authority of the person making the claim that they are releasing the material under a free license compatible with ours (or into the public domain). Do you and the owners you claim you have the permission of understand that in order for us to use the material they have to irrevocably license it not just for use here, but use anywhere, including commercial use by others? If they want to, the ways of showing permission and release under a free license are set forth at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted material. Essentially, the website owners need to post a free license at the external website, or they need to send an email from an email address linked to the website to permissions-en@wikimedia.org, ideally with text from the template at WP:CONSENT. We can't use it even if you do have permission if it isn't released, and we can't base whether it has been properly released on someone simply saying it is so.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:55, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Deleting a "votes for deletion page"

Dear Indopedia users,

Several years ago as a practical joke, a friend in high school made an offensive and inaccurate wikipedia page in my name and it has since been picked up by Indopedia. There, it was recognized as an insult-page and given a speedy trigger. Still, the record of it being deleted remains its own page, with an excerpt of this insulting original page, and is the FIRST google hit when my name is searched. This hurts my career and I want it off but have no indopedia account to get rid of it. Can anyone help or give advice please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fred167 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

If the information you want to have removed exists only on Indopedia, you should take it up with the administrators there - en.wikipedia (where you are now) is a separate project and we have no jurisdiction over that site. If there is a page here on Wikipedia that needs attention, and it is not possible/satisfactory for you to simply remove the information from the page (which would be the case with a deletion log, which is what I believe you described above), then you can make a request for suppression, which if granted would remove the material completely from Wikipedia. Does this answer your question? Gonzonoir (talk) 08:55, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

There is a list of Indopedia administrators here; I'd suggest contacting whichever one deleted the page about you on Indopedia in the first place. Gonzonoir (talk) 08:58, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Fred167 subsequently contacted me, so I thought I should add a clarification here: there was never an article about him on Indopedia; the article and the discussion both took place here, I speedied the article on here as an unsourced WP:BLP violation, and Indopedia is simply holding a mirrored copy of our AFD discussion. The discussion has been courtesy-blanked on here, and I've advised Fred that we don't actually have any direct control over Indopedia to get the page deleted there. However, I do think that if possible, it would be appropriate for somebody from Wikipedia to assist him, if at all possible, since the issue does involve content that was posted here. Bearcat (talk) 17:16, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I misread in Fred's original post the location of the problematic page, and didn't want to ask what the page here had been called (to avoid asking the user to "out" his real-world identity). I left him a welcome note on his talk page and am very happy to help with anything else. Gonzonoir (talk) 17:22, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Oy; I also didn't realise that Indopedia is just a straight 2004-era WP clone to the extent that http://www.indopedia.org/Indopedia:List_of_administrators.html here is actually just a list of Wikipedia administrators. So we actually really need someone with an Indopedia account who can delete (or at least blank) the page there. I will try and also find a contact email for someone with admin powers on there who could take down the content. Gonzonoir (talk) 17:29, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I won't name or link him here, since this is a fairly public space, but I'll pass on the name to you privately. I've also e-mailed the Oversight list to see if they can provide any assistance. Bearcat (talk) 17:45, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you kindly to both of you for your help. I appreciate the efforts. Sorry that I assumed you, bearcat, were an Indopedia user - you have a pretty detailed user profile on Indopedia that I now realize was just pulled from wikipedia in 2004. Thank you again and please keep me updated on whether it is possible to get rid of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fred167 (talk • contribs) 19:05, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

That's okay — it's pretty appalling that Indopedia would even mirror user profiles. Anyway, we're doing what we can, so hopefully we can get this resolved soon. Bearcat (talk) 19:11, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

One can find the SEVEN users here. If one looks at "New Pages" the last one was added Xmas 2007... Very odd site.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 19:48, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh, good gawd, even their VFD page is just a mirror of ours circa December 2004. This is nuts. Bearcat (talk) 20:11, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I think I have identified a contact address for Indopedia's one sysop as identified by Ronhjones - Bearcat, I will email you now to suggest a course of action for getting the page taken down. Gonzonoir (talk) 20:14, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Replied. Indeed, I think this is one of the oddest situations I've seen in a while now! Bearcat (talk) 20:45, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Related question, is that supposed to happen? Are mirrors allowed to mirror pages like this? That's really weird. SS✞^(Kay) 05:14, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Mirrors dispaly whatever they take. That's why it's suggested you post something on your User page indicating it's taken from your Wikipedia User page. Woogee (talk) 22:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Several templates are available for this purpose. I myself have added {{userpage}} to my user page. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:57, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Help with Categories

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

So, while thinking of names for my new fish, I decided to name them after some famous fictional sea-captains. While on my search for this, I found the Category of Fictional Captains. After reviewing the list, I noted one of the most famous fictional captains was not on the list; Capt'n Ahab. His info in not in a separate article. It is a section in the Moby Dick article. I tried, (unsuccessfully) to add him to this category, but failed miserably. So, I am asking for help/education; does something have to be an entirely separate article to be added to a category, or is there something I am missing? The Categorization FAQ was no help. --Avicennasis 07:51, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

There is a redirect to that section at Ahab(Moby-Dick), which I have now categorised for you. Sections of articles can't be categorised separately from the rest of the article, but redirects can be categorised. Bencherlite^Talk 07:59, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Aha! That's the trick. Thanks! --Avicennasis 08:40, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

See also List of sea captains#Fictional sea captains which can be edited and is a list in Wikipedia's terminology while Category:Fictional captains is not. The list starts with a piped link to Moby-Dick#Ahab:

Captain Ahab, fictional hero of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick

PrimeHunter (talk) 00:06, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Rollbacks without permission

I know that many scripts allow rollback to users - isn't that bad? It's supposed to be given by an administrator, not a click on the preferences... I have rollback, and now that I use Twinkle, it shows two rollback options.

My point is: Scripts like these let you do automated things. This could be VERY BAD if these scripts get into the wrong hands, or the wrong hands create such scripts, right?  Awesomeness  talk  12:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I was wondering the same thing when I first saw them. The rollbacks that you see (in WP:Twinkle probably) aren't really rollbacks. While they are called rollbacks, they are really only regular reverts. These are different from the rollbacking privileges that you were thinking of. —Akrabbim^talk 12:55, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

And in any case, problematic users can be blocked by admins from using Twinkle even as an option from the preferences menu. I don't think you need to be too worried about scripts getting into the wrong hands. Those who want to vandalise will do so with or without scripts, and will be blocked either way. Bencherlite^Talk 13:00, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Those tools are different from actual rollback (see WP:ROLLBACK for details). In case of misuse, rollback can be removed by an admin. There are ways to revoke these tools too (there is a blacklist for Twinkle, for example). Most of the tools also have some restrictions to prevent them from being misused (Twinkle requires users to be autoconfirmed, Huggle requires rollback). If somebody is deliberately using a tool for disruptive editing, they can be blocked easily enough, and the edits reverted just as easily as well. However, "wrong hands" creating them does happen; see meta:Vandalbot. ≈ Chamal ^talk ¤ 13:05, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

why is your website so god damned fucked up ?

i tryed to sign in , which i did the first time . then it automatically signed me out and refused to let me sign in again . six fucking times i tryed to log in but it just kept taking me back to the log in page . if you can't make a website that work's then fuck you and your site . i wont be using it anymore and i wont be telling people to use your site anymore . —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.215.13.69 (talk • contribs) 13:32, 2 March 2010

Please sing your comments with 4 tildas. At the end of your comments simply type four tildes (~), like this: ~~~~. Bus stop (talk) 13:55, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

And please don't use inappropriate language. I would suggest reading WP:CIVIL before commenting again. NerdyScienceDude :) (✉ click to talk • my edits • sign) 14:09, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't have the answer as to why this has happened to you, hopefully someone else will do. It would be good if you could ask politely though. The people who answer queries here are volunteers and don't actually have to do with the technical side of the website. --BelovedFreak 14:11, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Without knowing your user name, it's hard to actually check. My initial thought is that you have used the WikiBreak Enforcer - in which case, turn off javascript on your browser, log in, and edit your monobook.js (or whichever skin you are using). As we have many thousands of editors who successfully log in, then I would venture to suggest that the problem is not Wikipedia, but you - however, if you can give us your user name, we might actually be able to look into it, to see if there is a specific reason why you can't log in. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:15, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Your repugnant display above scarcely deserves the civil responses you've received.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:30, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Why is it 'vandalism'???

We are mentioned, as an architectural practice, in the Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Architecture_Festival among other winners of the 2008 World Architecture Festival.

Some of the other architects have a link to a specific page in Wikipedia, but when I tried to do the same for my office, I was not allowed to.

Why? What is the difference between us? Why some of them can and some others cannot? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Erikarr77 (talk • contribs) 14:23, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I can't find where this is called vandalism. This contributor only has two edits, both to this page. RJFJR (talk) 14:50, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

To answer the question about why some of the architectural practices have their own articles, and others don't:

It's possible that some, but not all, of the practices meet Wikipedia's notability criteria - i.e. that some have been the subject of substantial coverage in multiple reliable sources, but others haven't. If your practice hasn't, then it doesn't satisfy notability and cannot have an article.

It's possible that others may have an article in cases when they shouldn't, because nobody has got around to reviewing that article's notability yet.

For general advice, have a look at the page "Other Stuff Exists", which sets out why it's not always safe to argue by analogy that a certain subject should have an article. Gonzonoir (talk) 17:11, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Wrong period of time in table with release date

Location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_cache table in the right upper corner

What can I see: Stable release 3.1 beta / 3.0 / 2.7 / March 2, 2009; 11 month(s) ago

Today is: March 2, 2010

Time: 14:25 UTC

Question: So why is "11 month(s) ago" there? Shouldn't it be "12 months(s) ago"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.101.139.227 (talk) 14:25, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

It's using 31 days in a month to calculate how many months ago the release was. On a more technical level, this is a function of how {{release_date}} works, which uses {{time ago}}, which in turn uses {{time ago/core}}. {{time ago/core}} calculates the number of seconds between the current date and the date given, and divides that number by 2678400, the number of seconds in 31 days. Squid (software) should start displaying "12 month(s) ago" 7 days from now. --Mysdaao ^talk 15:27, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for investigation and your answer. Can someone change the code? It doesn't look good, i.e. it shows poor quality to Wikipedia users. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.101.139.227 (talk) 10:26, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

{{time ago}} and {{time ago/core}} are fully protected so only administrators can edit it, and I am not one. You can request an administrator make the change by putting {{editprotected}} on the talk page of one of the templates along with an explanation of the change you want to be made. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Twinkle

I changed my preferences to include Twinkle on sunday on a different computer than I am using now, and used it sucsessfully, but today, despite having Twinkle turned on in my preferences, I cannot see the Twinkle toolbar. Please help. Immunize (talk) 14:28, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

What browser are you using on the computer you're using now? Twinkle does not work with some browsers, like Internet Explorer. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:43, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Revert help

I am attempting to revert the Article The Accident Group. But for some reason I am unable to do so. I think that there may be a technical issue involved. But I have edited other pages and I cannot fix this one for some reason. Any ideas?

What are you trying to revert? If there is no change made by your revert (i.e. the previous version which you are trying to restore is identical to the current version), nothing will happen. TNXMan 16:43, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Barbara Baird-Filliter

I wandered into the Wiki material concerning my biograghy and there are errors which affect me profoundly. Aside from the misleading gratuitous comments, I wish to advise that I was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench in 2007, not to the provincial Court. Please coorect your records. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.139.0.53 (talk) 16:51, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

First, please note that Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that ANYONE can edit. By "ANYONE", it means "YOU." Yes, just click that little "edit" link at the top of the page and make the changes you like. Second, ensure that the changes you make are backed by reliable resources. Third, do not justify your claims by stating that you are the person the article is written about. For all we know, you are a hedgehog in a zoo in Portugal that has amazingly learned to type at a computer keyboard. Use reliable references to back your point. If you are the person, you should have ready access to many reliable resources. -- kainaw™ 18:20, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a policy that specifically related to biographies of living people, whereby any unsourced negative material should be removed as soon as possible. You certainly could have done so yourself, as Kainaw says, but asking here for it to be removed is a perfectly reasonable course; and I see that several editors have worked on the article today.

Should you be considering expanding the article yourself, please read WP:COI first.

Kainaw, to me your response looks just short of downright rude. Please remember WP:CIVIL and WP:AGF.

--ColinFine (talk) 21:17, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

My edit didn't happen

I logged in, did an edit on "Melanin." I previewed it, it looked fine. Then I pressed "Save". However, it did not change the main article. My edit did not appear on the article.

So, what did I do wrong, and how can I get it to take?18:19, 2 March 2010 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.51.74.89 (talk)

Do you mean this edit that was quickly reverted? -- kainaw™ 18:22, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

If not then what is your username, what did you change (did you try to add a url?), and what exactly happened when you pressed Save? For example getting an error message, remaining on the edit page, or returning to the article page with no change. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:03, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

One possibility is that you clicked on the "Save page" button, but before you let go, the mouse pointer slid off the button into a neutral area. For me, this usually results in the save not going through. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:09, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Template deletion notification

Hi there! I'd like to know something about notifications of templates that are nominated for deletion. Here for example:War_on_Terror. The template right under the infobox displays a notification that messes up the article layout. Where can I possibly find the notification template and see if I can fix it. I know this is only temporary, but still it doesn't have to be like this, even for a little while. Thanks in advance. --JokerXtreme (talk) 20:31, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Take a look at Template:Tfd-inline/doc; there appears to be at least one way to make the template smaller. Xenon54 / talk / 20:39, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I'll see what I can do. --JokerXtreme (talk) 20:42, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I can't find the actual template that says this: "‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›". The example is there on that page you provided, but the actual notification template is nowhere to be found. Take notice that this is automatically added before templates in pages where it is used, when the template is under TfD. --JokerXtreme (talk) 21:19, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

The actual message is "The template below (Campaignbox War on Terror) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.". The first link takes you to the actual template. The second takes you to a page where you may comment on the proposed deletion. The message is generated by the {{Tfd}} template, which is the very first line in Template:Campaignbox War on Terror. The appearance of the Tfd message differs according to which namespace it is transcluded to, which is why it's a single line in the article, but a big box in the template. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:34, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I have "noincluded" the notice on the template page, so it still shows there, but does not show when the template is transcluded. I think that's fixed the layout problem. – ukexpat (talk) 21:37, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes it did, thank you! So, there's no way of displaying a small notification without a line? I think that's what causes all the damage. --JokerXtreme (talk) 21:40, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

In the {{tfd}} template, the one-line message is generated by this chunk of code:

<div class="boilerplate metadata plainlinks" id="tfd" style="background-color: transparent; padding: 0; font-size:xx-small; color:#000000; text-align: center; border-bottom:1px solid #AAAAAA;">‹ The [[Help:Template|template]] below {{#if:{{{1|}}}|(''[[Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]'')|}} is being considered for deletion. See [[Wikipedia:Templates for discussion#{{{2|Template:{{ucfirst:{{{1|{{PAGENAME}}}}}}}}}}|templates for discussion]] to help reach a consensus. ›</div>

Perhaps you could put a suggestion on Template talk:Tfd concerning the formatting of that line? --Redrose64 (talk) 21:44, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

So, it's the border bottom. I feel the urge to change it myself, but I'll do as you advice. --JokerXtreme (talk) 21:48, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

/=> I tried to do it, but the aligning was a little distorted, and I don't see an easy way to fix it. You might just leave it all distorted if you want to notify people about the article being possibly deleted. –turian^{обсудить} 03:58, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Looking for information about painter

Hi! This is mawgipawgi. I have four paintings by Ian or Jan Korthale or Northale. One is titled "Rue Geoffroy L'Anqguin Paris. I believe it is a watercolor. I did a search some years ago and found out about him, but forgot the correct apelling. The picture was printed in Holland. copyrighted by Donald Art Co. N.Y. H 1839. It was sold at Limbert's in Lebanon, Indiana and aren't in buiness anymore. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Mawgipawgi (talk) 21:29, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 21:31, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Creating redirect page

I am creating two articles that need to be redirect pages, how do I make it automatically redirect? I ROCK! WHOOOOHOOOO!!! KOF :) 22:34, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Simply create a page for the redirect name, just as you would if you were writing an article, then either copy and paste or type the text #REDIRECT [[Target page name]] as the only text on the page (obviously replacing "Target page name" with the article name you wish to redirect to), or place the same code in the page using the button above the edit screen which looks like this: . Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:35, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

If you wish, you may write here the names of the two redirects you need to create and established editors could go over them.▒ ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ ▒ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 05:49, 5 March 2010 (UTC)