Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 January 25

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January 25

Another new article question

What should I do with individual school articles that are created? I was thinking redirect to the place they are located, but I'm not sure of the correct procedure. Bluefist (talk) 02:33, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Quite often they are redirected to an article about the school district. This works for US schools but may not for other countries. Dismas|^(talk) 02:52, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

That's true for grade schools, but high schools and above are generally considered de facto notable enough for their own articles. – ukexpat (talk) 15:45, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

How to cite: a corner case

How do you cite a book which has what are aparently principle authors on the front but the book is effectively devided into chapters/papers with their own authors listed which can in turn have subsections with further authors? The book is "Our Changing Cost a survey of the intertidal archaeology of Langstone Harbour Hampshire". In the past I've managed to wedge in simular cases by using the plain {{Citation}} template (see Warship 1994 in the HMS Argus (I49) article) but that requires the higher level authors to actualy be editors and only allows for two levels. I'm kinda out of ideas.©Geni 03:27, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Do something like this:

{{cite book|authors=(authors of chapter)|chapter=(title of chapter)|editors=(names of editors for book)|title=(book title)|publisher=|year=|isbn=|url=}}.

This will give you a citation that looks like this:

Pappaioannou, Virginia, E. (2004). "Early Embryonic Mesoderm Development". In Lanza, Robert Paul (ed.). Handbook of stem cells, Volume 1. Gulf Professional Publishing. ISBN 9780124366428.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Is this what you were after? ..... Mesoderm (talk) 03:30, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

(ec)Personally, I'd use the WP:CITESHORT method, listing all the chapter authors as co-authors (the "cite book" template allows for any number of co-authors) in the primary cite and listing making it clear in the short cite itself who is the chapter author:

• Author A; Author B, Author C (2006). "Title," Publisher, 51(78). (Primary)
• Author A; Author C 2005, Chapter X, p. 47. (Short)

Hope that helps. Rehevkor ✉ 03:38, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

The problem is subsection of chaperters also have authors and the editor/author method doesn't allow you to go down three levels.©Geni 04:26, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

DOWNLOADING ALL THE CONTENT

CAN I DOWNLOAD ALL THE CONTENT OF WIKIPEDIA FOR SELF EDUCATION PURPOSE

PLEASE HELP ME OUT SO THAT I CAN HAVE ENCYCLOPEDIA THOUGH I AM OFF-LINE. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vhkk2gupta (talk • contribs) 05:22, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Database download. ... Mesoderm (talk) 05:41, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

And please stop SHOUTING. Typing in all caps is considered shouting and is seen as rude by many people on the internet. Dismas|^(talk) 05:47, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Thousands of AWB edits in a few hours

Where do I report a problem with another user's abuse of AWB. (redacted to stay on target with the question I want help with) ---Kleopatra (talk) 06:15, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I think you should wait for User:Koavf to respond to your message on his talk page before taking this anywhere else. He will see it as soon as he logs on next. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:14, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

True I am in the process of reviewing and correcting errors right now and I am reviewing my AWB list(s) prior to using it again. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 14:44, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

He can respond to the report when I post it. Now, back to the question; where do I post a report about the abuse of AWB? --Kleopatra (talk) 03:38, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

There have been discussions about AWB use and mis-use by various editors at WP:ANI. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:13, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I am posting now at the Bot board to get all of the information, then I will post at AN/I to attempt to get this users AWB rights revoked at least until he/she fixes the potentially 1000s of errors he/she has so far created. Thanks for the information. --Kleopatra (talk) 16:14, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Grey stripe

What is that grey stripe that has lately begun appearing at the top of every article page? Its appearance makes the page jump slightly, which can cause link-clicking errors or momentary difficulty while editing. Can we lose it?Kelisi (talk) 08:26, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

What gray stripe? Could you be more specific about what you're seeing? Also, what OS and browser are you using? Dismas|^(talk) 09:05, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I've been seeing it too, and although I know very little about such matters, it seems to be (at least for me) something that appears whenever Internet Explorer shifts, for some reason, to "compatibility view" (whatever that is). It's definitely a browser thing rather than a Wikipedia thing, though its starting to show up only within the last few weeks may have something to do with the WP software. If I pull down the IE "Tools" menu and click on "Compatibility View", it goes away until the next time IE decides to make the shift. Restarting the browser also seems to help. Deor (talk) 13:59, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Others have reported it at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 84#Mysterious 'Grey' Bar at top of pages with no solution. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:14, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I wonder if it might have something to do with IE's having trouble dealing with the code we use to hide banner notices (like the one about the steward elections that is currently being displayed). Such notices are the only thing I can think of that regularly appear in the region of WP pages where the gray bar shows up. Deor (talk) 16:57, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Overloaded photo

File:Loretto.jpg looks like someone uploaded a 2010 color photograph of unknown copyright status on top of a 1908 b/w pd photo of a totally different subject. What do we do in such a situation? The tag obviously does not apply to the new photo. —teb728 t c 10:24, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Sanest (in my mind) is to download the newer image, then re-upload it to a new name and add proper tags to it for its actual uploader, etc. Then revert old-name image to its previous one, with an edit-summary pointing to the new-name location. Well, really the sanest is just to ask original uploader of second image to re-upload at a new name his/herself:) I left a note on user-talkpage. DMacks (talk) 11:38, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Until recently I lived about twenty paces from the door to the Loretto campus. I don't mind whatever you guys want to do with the image. Feel free to rename it. If you want to delete it, you would have to change the Loretto article. Renata (talk) 12:08, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

If we keep the new photo, it needs its own license tag. —teb728 t c 12:48, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I moved the new photo to File:Loretto campus door.jpg, reverted File:Loretto.jpg to the old one, and updated the link in Loretto School to point to the new one. I copied over as much of the sourcing info as was available for the new, but as teb728 notes, we need a clearer statement of licensing for it. DMacks (talk) 13:05, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

It also looks as though you re-reverted the file back (or forward) to the new image again, so the original one is gone...? The sourcing still shows incorrectly. Cheers, Lindsay^Hello 13:27, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I was having a weird caching problem, made me keep thinking it hadn't been reverted, but it had--had to purge local cache a few times. For me now (and confirmed on another machine using different WP account) File:Loretto.jpg is the b&w old building. DMacks (talk) 13:34, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Lovely, thank you. I don't know why the cache wouldn't be purged for me either, but going elsewhere has proven i was wrong. Cheers, Lindsay^Hello 13:44, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

How to split a page

I haven't been able to find any instructions on how to split an article into two separate pages. In this case, the article is "Antiques Roadshow," which is primarily about the British version of the TV show. We believe the PBS version should have its own page as well, and apparently there's already been a suggestion made to that effect. Thanks for your help! Judy Matthews Judy Matthews (talk) 15:10, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Define "We", do you have a connection to the PBS production? --Jayron32 15:13, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

For the "how-to", see Wikipedia:Splitting. But I don't see a consensus, or much discussion, on the article talk page. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:17, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Per WP:BOLD, we don't need to discuss everything. The U.S. version gets quite enough reliable press, so I just went ahead and performed the split for the OP. However, given the chance that Judy Matthews has a connection to the American production (her use of the word "We" is troubling), she should read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest before editing the article in question. --Jayron32 15:38, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Five seconds on Google returned this hit, revealing a clear COI. – ukexpat (talk) 16:04, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

True, but Judy Matthews is using talk pages and the help desk, which is what people with a conflict of interest SHOULD be doing. They have, so far, done the right thing, and should be encouraged to keep going in the vein. --Jayron32 16:14, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree completely. I was merely confirming that the OP does indeed have a conflict. – ukexpat (talk) 17:51, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

BENEFICIARY ON REAL ESTATE

hello, i am trying to find out a particular answer on inheriting a house. my mother wants to make me sole beneficiary on her house because my sibling owe money to companys who have judgements against them and my mom is afraid they will take their portion of their hereitance. she wants to leave the house to me, i'm to sell it, and divide the monies between us however she's afraid the if i were to die before the house was sold, that my husband would get the house. i'm trying to research what i can do that in the case of my death that my father picks up where i've left off and finishes the sales and disbursements of the monies to my surviving siblings. (my mom and dad have been divorced for over 15 years) can you guide me on where to get information on this? THANK YOU!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.43.38.82 (talk) 16:38, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

We cannot offer legal advice. Please see the legal disclaimer. Contact your lawyer. Bencherlite^Talk 16:41, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Change type point size

My eyes are not as sharp as they once were. I need a large type version. What can I do to make the articles readable to me?

--68.105.187.36 (talk) 16:52, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

You can change type size in your browser itself using several methods. In Internet Explorer, for example, you can use the little "magnifying glass" in the lower right corner. --Jayron32 16:54, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Pop up banners

I can't take it anymore. The pop up banners for all manor of things ( currently I think scholarship applications and steward nominations) is making navigating and editing from my Ipad very difficuly. It was way worse during the fundraising drive, glad that is over. The problem is that the banner loads last, sometimes several seconds after the rest of the page. When it loads the whole page shifts down and I click on the wrong link. I do this over and over, apparently I lack the patientce to wait for it to load. Trickier is that it doesn't always appear. Is there some way I can permenantly turn them off? Admittedly editing and typing from the ipad is a pain in the ass anyway and I shouldn't be doing it. Beach drifter (talk) 17:39, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Are you referring to pop-up banners on Wikipedia (there aren't any) or some other website? If the latter, your best bet is to ask at the Reference Desk. – ukexpat (talk) 17:48, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, pop up is something of a misnomer. To me they appear to "pop up" at the top of the page after it would otherwise appear the page was done loading. Beach drifter (talk) 17:53, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

You can turn them off at Special:Preferences-->Gadgets--> Suppress display of the fundraiser banner. mabdul 18:02, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks so much! It took a few minutes to kick in but it appears they are now gone. Beach drifter (talk) 18:28, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

SVG-thumbnail preview broken

 Done Hi, can somebody help me with a big knolege about SVG files. I constantly update the File:Timeline of web browsers.svg and yesterday after some changes the PNG preview function of Mediawiki is broken. If open the SVG directly there are no problems in my web browser. (Opera 11/Win 7). Can somebody help me? I made already a request at Wikipedia talk:Graphic Lab#Problems with a svg file‎ but there is nobody responding at the moment... mabdul 17:47, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

User:WOFall fixed my problem. mabdul 21:42, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Liev Schreiber

hi.I'm gonna translate Liev Schreiber's article to persian.the problem is I dunno the correct pronunciation of the name and family name in english.would u please help me with this? thx in advance--jasmine (talk) 18:11, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I would render it in IPA as /liːev ʃraɪbɛr/. But I'm not an IPA expert. --Jayron32 19:11, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

You could try asking at the language refdesk, where there are many IPA experts. — jwillbur 22:40, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

spikenard in the 20's of December, 2010

I looked up spikenard around Christman 2010. I think before Christmas. at bottomm of page you had a link to a woman in India who had just finished massive research on Spikenard uses. I can't find it anywhere. Can you check it out for me I really want the link. 18:21, 25 January 2011 (UTC)Maybe you could link it in again.96.245.10.222 (talk) 18:21, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Does the Spikenard article help? – ukexpat (talk) 18:23, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

If the article has changed since then, you can check previous versions by using the History tab. RJFJR (talk) 21:00, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

How do you change your user name

How do you change your user name ==== — Preceding unsigned comment added by Burwash (talk • contribs) 18:50, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Changing username. --Jayron32 19:02, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I think mobile wikipedia needs inter wiki link.

Mobile wikipedias( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/ http://ko.m.wikipedia.org/ etc. ) don't have international wikipedia links. I think mobile wikis also have to have inter wiki links. Because non-English wikipedias don't have many articles. Even their articles don't have enough texts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gnulinux (talk • contribs) 19:00, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

The mobile port of Wikipedia (which contains the exact same article text as the non-mobile Wikipedia, but rendered for tiny screens) doesn't have all the features of the regular wikipedia because of the space restrictions. However, I can understand your frustration. You could raise the issue at WP:VPT, which is a noticeboard for technical issues like this. --Jayron32 19:07, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Guideline question

I'm looking for the guideline regarding relevance -- a fact that might be relevant in one article but not relevant on another. For example, it is notable/easily verifiable that Jane Goodall studied gorillas. This fact would be highly relevant on the Jane Goodall article, but not necessarily relevant on the Gorilla article. I remember reading a specific guideline regarding this kind of thing, but I can find it anymore. Help? 75.196.37.202 (talk) 20:39, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't know what guideline you're looking for, but I must say that your example wouldn't fit into either article since Jane Goodall studies chimpanzees, not gorillas (that would be Dian Fossey). Sorry, I know that's not helpful, but it was bugging me. Matt Deres (talk) 21:04, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Okay, this is a little more helpful :-). Perhaps you're thinking of the essay Wikipedia:Inherent notability or the user-space essay User:Stalwart111/Notability in context, both of which seem to touch on what you're referring to. Matt Deres (talk) 21:10, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

It sounds like Wikipedia:Relevance of content#Interactions between subjects or Wikipedia:Handling trivia#Connective trivia. Both are essays. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Although not formally a guideline, WP:TOPIC is also relevant. Deor (talk) 21:48, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

And where guidelines alone do not provide definitive guidance that everyone can agree on, you can propose your additions to articles on their talk pages and let other editors hash them out. Even though Wikipedia has lengthy guidelines, they do not resolve every possible case. And even where guidelines seem clear, someone else can always ignore them and respond unpredictably to your edits. Thus it is prudent to sample the range of editor opinions before doing anything that might be controversial. --Teratornis (talk) 03:19, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

FFC

According to a recent news article, that can be found on Yahoo!'s main page, rapper Flava Flav has opened his own chicken restaraunt. The restaraunt, known as Flav's Fried Chicken, or FFC, is not mentioned in Flava Flav's Wikipedia article, and does not have a Wikipedia article of its own. Since FFC has connections to a notable person such as Flava Flav, and there is a plethora of information regarding FFC, is it OK to create an article for FFC? Or should I just mention it on flava Flav's wikipedia article? Thank you for your time.Gizzardinmymouthhole (talk) 21:34, 25 January 2011 (UTC)me

It's unlikely that such a venture would inherit notability from a rapper, see WP:NOTINHERITED. You'd need to show it's independently notable, usually with significant coverage from reliable third party sources, see WP:GNG. But you have to ask yourself, does it really need an article? Can the information not be placed on Flavor Flav? As for the info not being in the article, you are free to enter this yourself (with sources), or bring it up on the talk page. Rehevkor ✉ 21:43, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

copying articles

When I find an article in wikipedia that I want to copy for a presentation I use copy/paste. When it copies in to word for example the print has large numbers of links. how do I eliminate the links but still keep the information? Chrisdenterprise (talk) 22:44, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried downloading the article as a PDF (see link in the toolbox on the left hand side of the window) and then copying and pasting from the PDF file? – ukexpat (talk) 22:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

I think Microsoft Word also has a function to paste as text, and remove fancy stuff like hyperlinks. Another option is to paste text first into a plain text editor that does not support Rich Text Format. That will strip out things like hyperlinks. Then you can copy from there into Word. --Teratornis (talk) 03:11, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

I use Extended Copy Menu for FireFox.[1] It has a plain text copy feature. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 07:45, 26 January 2011 (UTC)