Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 January 29

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.

January 29

Tom Bergeron

Hello! How does a viewer state an opinion? I feel that this so called Tom is sure a horse's ass when he is on AFV and when he puts his head on some other person is such a turn off it makes some of us sick, out here that do not know how to get in touch with you people, I sure would hope thta you people will put him in his place, which should be in control of the out house, he just make such a fool og himself, it is getting mighty hard to watch the AFV any more also he is no prince in Dancing with the stars, some time he just trips on his own two feet, it also make it hard to watch, cause just like to take to the side and tell him, he is no longer needed on this show!

So I am now hopeing that some body up there will take some steps to improve the shows, with out him get him to clean up his act or I may have to report the whols thing to the FCC> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.18.6.118 (talk) 00:18, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.5 million articles and thought 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. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:24, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

How do I mark a line as original research?

I would like to mark a line in the Elizabeth Zimmermann page as original research/citation needed, because I have reason to believe from personal experience that the information may be incorrect and would like to see a source for it. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to do this. (It might also be helpful in the future) Ullpianissimo (talk) 03:18, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

{{fact}} or {{or}} CTJF83 03:19, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank you!Ullpianissimo (talk) 03:35, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Disturbing definition of autism on google search

I searched autism on Google and the definition that came up under Wikipedia's definition used the F-word. This is not ok. This has to be corrected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.115.77.124 (talk) 03:39, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Looks like Google cached a vandalised version of the page, which wave live for all of 2 minutes. It's down to Google though I'm afraid - I'm not sure anything can be done. Will just have to wait until Google update their listings again. Rehevkor ✉ 03:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Google does this sort of thing all the time. They take snapshots of Wikipedia pages at random times. Even though most blatant vandalism on Wikipedia gets reverted within a few minutes at most (because we have software tools that detect curse words and so on), with the thousands of pages getting vandalized, Google occasionally catches one in a naughty state before it gets fixed here. Because Google's indexing is automated, there is no human in the loop over there to catch this stuff. Wikipedia might someday solve the problem for the most part with flagged revisions, which would presumably keep most of the blatant vandalism from ever reaching the top revision that Google sees.--Teratornis (talk) 06:25, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

watchlist in chronological order

Hello, I have been using wikipedia for many years and I find it extremely useful in researching topics which interest me. However, sometimes I want to view again items i have saved on my watchlist but am not able to bring up those items in chronological order. I would be grateful if you could let me know if this is possible and how one might be able to have one's watchlist presented in the order in which it was saved. That way I can start my new research session with ease by looking at the last set of pages I have saved. I very much appreciate your help. Yours sincerely, w0421006 W0421006 (talk) 05:16, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

For maximum flexibility, make a user subpage with links to pages in any order you like. That's more work than adding pages to a watchlist, but we get a lot of questions from people who are disappointed with the extremely limited flexibility of the watchlist feature. If you're serious about researching Wikipedia (or anything else), you have to write. --Teratornis (talk) 06:07, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Incidentally, the pedant in me wonders if many can be more than ten. Wiktionary defines "many" as "An indefinite large number of people or things." Wikipedia has only existed for ten years, so for someone to have used Wikipedia for many years, the value of many would have to be less than or equal to ten. Unless one had invented a time machine many years before Wikipedia existed. --Teratornis (talk) 06:42, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

You seem to want to use a watchlist for something that it wasn't designed for. The watchlist is for watching for changes to articles. It's not really intended to be used for research and bookmarking purposes. Dismas|^(talk) 06:54, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

New tab

Wikipedia loads in a new tab without any input from me. How do I stop this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.117.8.26 (talk) 07:28, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Please, I do not want Wikipedia to load without my input. I have had it load in a new tab when it is already open in another tab/window. Please help me stop this.192.117.8.26 (talk) 07:42, 29 January 2011 (UTC)Ubberfrustrated

Are you clicking a link somewhere when it happens? If you make a normal click on a link to Wikipedia from another website then the other website usually decides whether Wikipedia opens in a new tab. Browsers I know also have options to control it manually by right clicking a link or holding down Shift or Ctrl while clicking the link. And browsers have settings to control the default behaviour. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:00, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

No. I load, what seems like any page to include while in inPrivate browsing and Wikipedia will load in a new tab. I have even been away from my computer and when I return Wikipedia has opened several new tabs. It started with solicitations for donations and has not stopped. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.117.8.26 (talk) 05:48, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

The only problem I can imagine is that you have a virus/trojan/etc. on your pc. maybe you should update your antivirus software. mabdul 12:41, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Are you running any add-ons in your browser that are looking things up for you? Elen of the Roads (talk) 12:43, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Help regarding WP:AUTHOR

Could someone who is familiar with WP:AUTHOR take a look at User_talk:Smartse#Simon_Higgins and User:Smartse/simon_higgins and try to work out whether this guy meets the guideline. The author has provided information about himself and is trying to correct past mistakes after his biography was deleted via PROD earlier this month. I'm really not sure whether the guideline is met and don't want to start an article unless it is. (I thought about asking at WT:BOOK but it doesn't seem very active). Cheers SmartSE (talk) 11:19, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Mobile site on Windows Phone 7?

Can the mobile redirect be taught to recognize Windows Phone 7? It works fine on my Samsung Focus. User-agent for all WinPho7's includes "IEMobile/7.0" and "Windows Phone OS 7.0". David Brooks (talk) 16:42, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Given the technical nature of the question, you may want to ask at WP:VPT or WP:RDC. --Jayron32 18:46, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Biography Correction

So I corrected wrong info in biography of Jay Manuel and was reverted right back to incorrect info immediately. Why? The person could not possibly have checked the facts that quickly and my info came straight from Mr Manuel himself via his verified Twitter page. One would think he would know where he was born and raised. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.89.227.205 (talk) 17:32, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Why? The reason given was "Cite source please", which is a legitimate request. Generally Twitter is not a reliable source for anything. If you require further discussion on the subject the place to do so would be at the article talk page. Rehevkor ✉ 17:40, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

The problem is that we have no way of knowing whether the information did come from Jay Manuel, or whether you made it up, or whether you got it from somebody who said he was Jay Manuel, or ... This is not meaning to be rude to you: on the internet we don't know who anybody is or whether they are who they say are. So Wikipedia has a rule that all information must be verifiable from independent published sources. Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 22:09, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Twitter is an acceptable source for factual info such as this provided it is clear that the account really is Jay Manuel's - as it is in this case since his official site links to it. Just put in the correction then click on "Template" on the menu above the edit box; select "cite web" and fill in the web page url and any other info you can. You don't have to fill in every box on this form. Hope this helps filceolaire (talk) 23:32, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

The mentioned edit feature is only present for logged in users who have enabled refTools under "Gadgets" at Special:Preferences. See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners and Template:Cite web instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:35, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

What url to use Wikipedia as a "Research Site" in Microsoft Word 2010 Research Options?

Microsoft Word 2010, Research Options, provides the ability to enter a url for Word to use when called upon to research words or phases. I would like to setup Wikipedia as a "research site". Is there a special url I should enter into Word? Example - The url to use Bing is, http://api.bing.com:80/officequery.asmx NVmemor (talk) 19:13, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

I don’t think Wikipedia provides such a Research Service. Back in 2003 there was a suggestion for one at Wikipedia:Suggestion box/Archive 2#Wikipedia integration with Microsoft Word and a question and reply at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 3#microsoft word 2003. But I can’t find anything about the idea being implemented. I get the idea that although Microsoft is pushing the idea, it hasn’t caught on outside Microsoft. For reference, MSDN has an article Creating a Research Service for Word 2007 in C# with Visual Studio 2008. —teb728 t c 05:53, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Please help with collapsed navbox

Resolved

 – anyway...-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:15, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

hello,

I have a few questions about this {{Masters of Russian Animation}} template:

• How do I add "4" instead of only "2" images (2 to the right and 2 to the left)?
• Why the titlestyle background in each group doesn't display?
• How do I add pictures in a group?

If I will find anything I don't understand, I will add here more. Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 19:30, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

In the template there had been placed a non-free image, where non-free content cannot be placed (see Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria#9. Why do you need so many images in a navbox, surely one free image is sufficient for decoration purposes? Rehevkor ✉ 20:06, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

This is not fair to remove the picture from the template! However, my questions were still not solved...-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 10:47, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Translation errors: Non-Western script

In some pages where an Indic script has been tranliterated, the roman transliteration character does not tally with the Indic script. How to correct this error? For the most part, it is unlikely that the original authors were in error, rather, they typed in the nearest character they could, probably without realising that a different font was available.

It seems (I may be wrong here), that article pages appear on the Edit page in the Latin font, whereas Latin Extended would be more appropriate, giving as it does, a greater range of transliteration characters.

I would also like to know how authors get Indic scripts (or any other non-Western script for that matter), into articles in the first place, as the Edit page certainly doesn't show anything of that nature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.163.109.128 (talk) 21:47, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

As for the first part: WP:SOFIXIT. Perhaps that is all they had available on their computers or they didn't know how to access the Latin Extended characters (they are not on the keyboard).

As for the last part, using the system's character palette (or character map, as some operating systems call it), like this: דוגמה (means "example"). -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 02:32, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Translation help

Hello; Can you translate this into English, please?

Tout le monde!

Ola, belle assemblée qui a envie de bouger Pour se laisser aller au rythme de l’année Allez allez allez, il faut en profiter C’est une bonne journée et on va la fêter

Chouchou, faut te lever et bouger ton fessier Danser, collé serré pour un baiser salé Prends-moi par le côté, fais-moi ton déhanché Lala, ça va chauffer, je sens le truc monter —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.112.128.153 (talk) 23:16, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

I can't, because I don't speak French. But if you move this question to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language, I'll be surprised if you don't find a French-speaking person who can translate it for you. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 23:20, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

here CTJF83 00:20, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

It's actually lyrics from some musical event. See here. For me, it's pretty much gibberish in either language, but what do I know?--Bbb23 (talk) 02:24, 30 January 2011 (UTC)