Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 May 14

Help desk
< May 13	<< Apr | May | Jun >>	May 15 >

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.

May 14

EDIT BAR

If I use the MonoBook skin, why the edit bar is not as used to be? but rather is the new look -- even after i select it as my preference. I emphasize that I can get back everything else except for the edit bar. By the way, did the logo change too? didnt the words underneath it used--"The Free Encyclopaedia--used to be italicized. --Pgecaj (talk) 02:42, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Try purging (see WP:PURGE if unfamiliar with purging). Yes the logo has been updated in a few ways, information on the updates to the logo can be found here. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 02:47, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

password recovery

how does one go about resetting their password if they do not have an email account linked to their account? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.170.185.65 (talk) 05:39, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

They don't, unfortunately. If it's the username you want, that can be fixed by making a new account and renaming; if the contribs, the best you can do (afaik) is make a new account and say that the previous one was your old account. {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 07:17, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Searching without mouse

How do we search the new Wiki interface without having to grab the mouse or sign in?? 211.199.129.58 (talk) 06:10, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Alt+Shift+F works for me. --ColinFine (talk) 07:39, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that you can use whilst using Wikipedia - see here for more details. Chevymontecarlo. 11:52, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Can't log into my account, why?

I can't log into my account, why?? This sucks big time Please restore my account <redacted> malcolmp malcolmpalm thanks in advance

Malcolm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.124.179.68 (talk) 07:10, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you want them to be permanently removed from the page history, please email oversight-llists.wikimedia.org.

It is very unlikely that anybody has done anything to your account. Are you sure that you have the password right, and you haven't got the CAPS LOCK key engaged? --ColinFine (talk) 07:41, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

• Malcolm, in case you've forgotten your password > How can you recover a forgotten password! ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 10:14, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Special:MergeAccount

Resolved

 – ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣}

Does changing your password on one project change it across all of them? What about email? Also, is there a way to set my language to en by default across all projects? {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 07:21, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

According to Help:Unified login, the answer to the first two questions is yes. For the last question, "The wiki where the account of that username has the most contributions will become the home wiki (however, sysop status takes higher precedence than edit count), and its email address and password will be exported to all other accounts." Apparently, edit count determines the default language. Goodvac (talk) 07:42, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

No, not the homewiki... like, if you visit another wiki, the interface is by default in that language. I have set it to en on some, but would rather not have to manually set it to en on all. But thanks for the rest of the help, reassuring :) {{Sonia|talk|simple}} 08:02, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

If you visit another wiki, the assumption is you know the language well enough to use the interface in the native language. It would be annoying if I set the interface to English here, then I went to German Wikipedia only to find that I have to set the interface back to German. I don't think it works like that. Xenon54 (talk) 10:17, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

gemma jones

Hello there! we love gemma jones in the "The Dutches of Duke Street. " does she have any more series or movies like that particular one? Our absolute favorite. I would appreciate any help. Is she in any more series like that! thank You! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.250.46.231 (talk) 12:23, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Does Gemma Jones help you? Astronaut (talk) 12:41, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Return to page logged in from

How do I get login to return me to the page I logged in from, e.g. Main Page, instead of dropping me into a "login successful" page and forcing me to return manually? kcylsnavS (kalt) 12:54, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know that it's possible (that is, I think it's hard-coded). However, you may want to ask at the technical village pump, as they will know more than I. TNXMan 14:16, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I was told

         You can force the redirection on your monobook.js / vector.js by adding

         

         if (wgCanonicalSpecialPageName == "Userlogin")

              addOnloadHook( function() { document.location =

         document.getElementById('mw-returnto').getElementsByTagName('a')[0].href; }

         );

Edit bar error

I have a problem with my edit bar. I have not been able to do any editing of my articles. Also, the article pages in wikpedia and wikicommons appear disorganised. Will some one resolve this problem so that I can continue contribtuing articles to wikipedia at my fast pace. Please leave a note in this regard on my talk page so that I can try to rectify such errors on my own in future. I am writing my user address User:Nvvchar since my signature is also not getting recorded. Thanks.

How to create the table of contents

I am writing my first page. I cannot find the markup codes adding the table of contents. Could you direct me to an introduction to this topic?

JWprogr (talk) 17:16, 14 May 2010 (UTC)JWprogr User:JWprogr/I3

It is too easy, as the ToC will be automatically created when you have more than two or three sections.--SPhilbrickT 17:23, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I thought I was four sections. Rock drum (talk·contribs·guestbook) 17:30, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

It is automatic once there are four. Which is the same as "more than three".--SPhilbrickT 18:52, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

See WP:TOC. – ukexpat (talk) 17:58, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

If you put __TOC__ at the begining of an article it will force the TOC to be rendered even if it has less than 4 sections. Zell Faze (talk) 20:24, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes it will but I don't think it should be widely used. If an article only has 2 or 3 sections, does it really need a ToC? – ukexpat (talk) 20:33, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Most articles that are more than stubs should end up with at least four sections. The standard footer sections often give two or three by themselves. An article with only two or three sections total could benefit from a ToC if the sections are too long to fit on a single screen. However, if the sections are that long, the article probably needs more section headings to subdivide the long sections, in which case the ToC would appear automatically. Thus I wouldn't expect to see many articles that really need to include the __TOC__ directive. It might be useful to include during the very early stages of editing an article, when you plan to add more sections but there aren't enough yet to make the ToC appear. --Teratornis (talk) 02:48, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

(←) Some comments on the draft in User:JWprogr/I3:

• See WP:PEACOCK. Some of the prose borders on promotional language. If you are affiliated with the subject, see WP:COI and WP:BFAQ.
• See WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, WP:CITET, WP:RS, and WP:V. The draft contains a number of assertions with no footnote citations to support them. The draft cites no sources at all.
• See WP:LAYOUT for the standard article layout to follow.
• The article is about a company so it can have an {{Infobox company}}.
• See WP:YFA for general advice.
• Various typos:
  • "old fashion" should be "old-fashioned", but that is not a very encyclopedic term. It would be better to quantify the age or date that the term refers to only vaguely. Exactly when was the old-fashioned practice still in fashion?
  • "Irresistible Ink was Started in February 1991..." the word "started" should not begin with a capital letter.

--Teratornis (talk) 02:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Eddie Glaude

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 18:43, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I started a new article: Eddie Glaude. The title of the article presents the subject person's last name in lower case (glaude). How can this be changed so that the title of the subject person's name appears in title case? (i.e., Eddie Glaude, rather than Eddie glaude). MujamiMuJami (talk) 17:48, 14 May 2010 (UTC)MuJami

I moved it to Eddie Glaude. – ukexpat (talk) 17:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

• • thanks so much!!MuJami (talk) 18:39, 14 May 2010 (UTC)MuJami

Someone keeps undoing my edits. What can I do?

Hi,

On the article about the Josh Ritter album So Runs the World Away there is an empty gap (you can see it here: http://twitpic.com/1nqmhx/full), which in my opinion looks really bad, and un-wikipediay. It can be fixed by putting the reviews in the info box. Most other albums have the reviews in the infobox (all Josh Ritter albums do apart from Josh Ritter, and lots of other albums do also, for example Modern Times, Country Music and Dear Heather).

Two or Three times I've put the reviews in the info box, but Bovineboy2008 un-does it.

The last time I did it I asked him not to undo it without discussing it on the Talk page first.

He did undo it and said on the talk page The use of reviews has been deprecated by the project and by the template. Sorry!.

What does that mean?

What can I do?

JoseySmith (talk) 18:21, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

He's telling you that some editors at WikiProject Albums have come to a consensus not to use the Reviews field of Infobox album anymore. The template's documentation reflects this consensus. There is really nothing you can do at the moment. (This is precisely the reason I try not to use jargon without at least linking to relevant pages, as I have done here. It doesn't require much effort!) Xenon54 (talk) 18:54, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The user means that the documentation for {{Infobox album}} says not to use the Reviews field anymore (see Template:Infobox album#Professional reviews) and that the WikiProject dedicated to musical albums has a consensus to put professional reviews in a separate section in the text and/or a separate table (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Albums#Reception. You can continue to discuss it with the user and/or bring up the issue at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Albums, but please do not repeatedly revert another user's edits. That is considered edit warring and can lead to being blocked. --Mysdaao ^talk 19:02, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Resolved

Thanks JoseySmith (talk) 22:44, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

user contributions

I'm using the "new features", but "user contributions" on the left to show contributions of registered users seems to have disappeared. Has it moved or is it gone? Bubba73 ^{(You talkin' to me?)}, 19:22, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Contributions is still in the "Toolbox" on the left-hand side. You may have to click on the word "Toolbox" to reveal the links contained therein. Xenon54 (talk) 19:32, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Resolved

thanks. Bubba73 ^{(You talkin' to me?)}, 19:40, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Cite an application

How would one go about citing an application?

Lets say for example that I am writing an article in which I need to cite a source for the IP address of a server (I am not but bear with me here), how would I cite the nslookup command as my source?

What I am trying to do is cite the UI of a computer application directly rather than scouging the web looking for an article that talks about the specific portion of the UI in question.

If someone happens to know the answer could they leave me a message on my talk page to let me know you posted the answer here? Thank you, Zell Faze (talk) 20:22, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Normally you should not do this, as it is a primary source, Wikipedia preferably references secondary sources. --ColinFine (talk) 23:13, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know that you can "cite" it, but could you give it as an example? kcylsnavS (kalt) 23:40, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

"A primary source can be used only to make descriptive statements that can be verified by any educated person without specialist knowledge. For example, an article about a novel may cite passages to describe the plot, but any interpretation needs a secondary source." Let us for example say I need to write that the IP Address of Google is 127.0.0.1 (I know it isn't). Could I cite an NSLookup command for it? Now I understand this is a bad example, but it hopefully gets what I am trying to do across. (talk) 17:59, 16 May 2010 (UTC) Done without logging in because I am lazy from (206.251.13.111 (talk) 22:00, 16 May 2010 (UTC))

Why was the search box moved to the top right?

The search box was, in my humble opinion, much more practical in its previous location. Is there a way to move it back the way it was or should I just go on to the German wiki where they haven't messed it up yet? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.58.222.188 (talk) 20:57, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

If you register an account you can go back to the old default skin (Monobook) (See here for details).

As far as I know, it's not possible for non-registered users to go back to the old skin.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 21:04, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Wrong photo link

In the article for Andrew W.K.'s album I Get Wet, [[1]] the cover art on the main page is correct, but if you click on it, there's an entirely different picture there. Anyone know how to fix this so it links to the right photo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.108.90.136 (talk) 21:37, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Fixed (I reverted back to the previous version of the file; the version used was too big as well as being ... odd (I don't know why different images were being displayed...))

Thanks for pointing this out!

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 21:43, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Feedback repository

On the New features page in the site notice regarding the switch to Vector it says "We would love to hear from you. Please visit our feedback page. Anyone know to whom/where the feedback goes; if it's accessible?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

(repetitive message removed) ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣}

I cannot believe this blatant display of biasness and downright racist way of conducting wiki all Information was substanciated

Your famous persons from michigan city concerning The Rev Tina Redden first deleted all the African Americans 3 times. Then when I revised it according to your specifications giving ample citations and over 20 links to provide information you wanted,. you still deleted it.

Yet you have a white man on there that is DJ for one lousy small radio station but rejects an internationally known award winning singer, Your "free encyclopedia' is exactly as i was told "racist, prejudice and behind all manners of intelligence". I am a white girl and i did not believe when the African Americans at my church told me this would happen. I hate wiki and you need to shut down. your totally a bunch of biggots, I dont believe this and i defended wiki I will let the church know what was done here today. I cnt believe you. we need to move forward to be prejudice is dumb. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samanthakas (talk • contribs) 23:58, 14 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samanthakas (talk • contribs)

No one here is prejudiced, racist, or unintelligent. Making personal attacks against specific editors or general attacks against the community will get you blocked. Consider this your only warning.

Lists of famous people have always had issues with inclusion criteria. Consensus is that in order to be listed in a list of famous people a person must meet the relevant notability guideline -- in this case, notability for musicians -- and have an article here at Wikipedia. Every list of famous people has the same criteria. We're not bigoted, and we're not out to slight the African-American community. You just have to meet our standards, which you still have not done.

Let me elaborate further: there is a correct way and an incorrect way to establish notability. The way you did it -- by throwing dozens of links all over the place and generally making a mess of the article -- is seen as unconstructive and will always be removed, especially since your addition did not have a neutral tone and most of the sources you provided would not be considered reliable, or otherwise questionable or not substantial enough to establish notability. You need to write a neutral, verifiable, encyclopaedic article that cites reliable sources in order to establish notability. Put another way, you must prove that Ms Redden is "internationally known" and "award winning", and you must do it correctly. See also Your first article and the tutorial, and it is a very good idea to read and understand every page I have linked in this post. Once you write a good article (it doesn't have to be very long), and it "sticks", or is not deleted, then you are free to add Ms Redden to the list. Xenon54 (talk) 00:14, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

You have been responded to with a smiling actor. Hopefully this will assist you in lightening up. This notice is intended to be humorous and not to be construed as an attack.
~~~~

Ks0stm (T•C•G) 00:30, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

OK, try this for an explanation and a suggestion as to how to move forward.

1 - Look at this. It's the section you edited immediately before you edited it. See how it's a basic list of names, almost all of them bluelinked (i.e. the person concerned already has an article about them on Wikipedia)? Just a name and a word or so outlining who they are.

2 - Now look at this. It's the same section after you finished with it. What you added is a hodge-podge of notes, broken sentences and links to external websites. It doesn't look anything like the other entries in the list. It doesn't read coherently. It's trying to write an entire biography of the subject in entirely the wrong place. Can't you see why it's not appropriate, and what a mess it makes of the section? And can't you accept that this was the reason another user reverted it, rather than leaping to the conclusion that there is some sort of evil racist conspiracy to keep Ms Redden out of Wikipedia?

If you're sure she meets the notability guidelines Xenon54 has linked to above, the right way forward is to start a new article called Tina Redden. Write it in your userspace, so it won't be deleted by others, and so you can work on it until it's ready to go live. To start your article now, click on this red link: User:Samanthakas/Tina Redden, type something in the edit box that appears, and save the page. Write it in neutral, factual language, avoiding loaded terms like "award-winning" unless you give specific examples of exactly which important awards she has won, with references to prove it. Refer back to WP:MUSIC to see what the guidelines are for articles about musicians, and try to ensure your work ticks all the boxes. Look at existing articles about similar musicians and see what's in them. Once you think it's ready, go to Wikipedia:Requests for feedback and ask the friendly folk there to check it over and suggest anything that could make it even better. If you do all this, and do it carefully, there is every chance that such an article will survive here without any difficulty.

Wikipedia has lots of rules and policies about content. They can be difficult for new users at first, but they give us a structure to keep the encyclopaedia organised and manageable, and we couldn't do without them. A little common sense and a bit of searching should make it clear that we have articles and images featuring notable people from every ethnic group, and on just about every topic under the sun. If you make a successful article about Tina Redden, then we will have one more. Karenjc 08:27, 15 May 2010 (UTC)