Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 June 28

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June 28

Color schemes

Someone "colorized" the List of people indicted in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Personally I find the color scheme used less than desirable. Do we have a guide to color usage for Wikipedia somewhere? Rmhermen (talk) 01:43, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

WP:COLOR. Half the list fails color accessibility. I use the ColorChecker add-on for FireFox. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 02:32, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Taking another look, it would be better to have a separate column for status. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:09, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Fantasy Suicide Football

Hello, My name is Jim Butz and I am one of the owners of Suicide Fantasy Sports and many other linked domains. My brother and I have a trademark on the name suicide fantasy football, as well as a process patent in place for our game. One of our competitors- fantasy Suicide Football has violated the trademark, used our name and our game, and authored a page on your site. They do mention us, but this is a violation. I would ask that it be rem-oved. I can not contact the site -because the are non-responsive and I am trying to avoid litigation. Please email me at <Email redacted>

Thank you fpr your prompt attention,

Jim Butz — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.81.76 (talk) 03:45, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I deeply regret that I cannot respond through e-mail, but if you could just show me what the article name is, that would be great. Copyright reproduction is, obviously a quite serious violation of not only Wikipedia policy, but also in the actual real world. I will place a deletion notice on the article as soon as possible. Thank you for reporting this to Wikipedia, as this is, as I said above, something that is quite serious. While you're waiting, we hope that you can view and possibly edit perhaps one or two or a few of our 3⅔ million articles wonderful articles in the English Wikipedia! Thanks again, A comment by a person who has been editing Wikipedia since October 28, 2010. (talk) 05:04, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Now at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fantasy suicide football -- John of Reading (talk) 07:19, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Un-redirect needed for Kit house

Kit house redirects to Sears Catalog Home. However, this is very misleading; Sears was a big seller of kit homes, but was only one of a number of companies who sold such houses. If some fellow editor would please undo this redirect - I'm clueless on how to do that - so I can begin an article on kit houses in general, I'd be most grateful. Textorus (talk) 04:25, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Please go here and simply replace the text with your new article. Thanks. In the future you can circumvent redirects by clicking on the link at the bottom of the title of the page you were redirected to. The previous example shows as (Redirected from Kit house), just click the link on that message and you will be taken to the redirect page itself which you can then edit like any normal page.-- Obsidi♠n^Soul 04:30, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)You can just go to Kit house and hit edit. When a redirect takes you to its target, if you click the name of the redirect at the top of the page where it says (Redirected from Kit house), it will take you back to the redirect page and allow you to edit it. Monty₈₄₅ 04:32, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Duh, I feel so stupid, why didn't I see that myself. On track now, thanks mucho guys. Textorus (talk) 19:35, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Nicholas Cooke

Nicholas Cooke, my ancester was the first elected gov. of Rhode Island. We have letters he wrote to George Washington during the war. Also, letter in the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.Please contact me at . Thank you. Sincerely. Ellen Rodgers Topping — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.238.4.83 (talk) 08:03, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Nicholas Cooke (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I'm assuming that you are mentioning these here because they could be used to improve your ancestor's article? I think this would be tricky unless the text of the letters has been published outside Wikipedia first; see WP:PRIMARY. The article mentions that some of Cooke's papers have been published by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Perhaps you should contact them? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:38, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

can someone please make an article on US Marine company echo 2/5

They were my unit and were brave selfless men. Please create a page for them. They have been fighting for this country for a long time hopefully forever. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.5.190.58 (talk) 08:16, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia aims to cover all subjects that have been written about in sources such as books, newspapers, journals and such like. Sadly, this means that very many people, groups and organisations do not appear in Wikipedia despite the worth of the work they do. According to the guidelines at WP:MILUNIT, a military company cannot be the subject of its own Wikipedia article unless it has attracted exceptional media coverage. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:34, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

How to add a link to a wiki page which has an apostrophe in the URL?

When I try to add a wiki page URL which has an apostrophe, it says page does not exist. The following doesn't work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie's_Song http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie%27s_Song — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.31.114.252 (talk) 09:54, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Where are you trying to add the link? If you are linking one Wikipedia page to another, you should use links such as [[Annie's Song]], which is displayed as a standard blue link - Annie's Song. See Help:Link or the Wikipedia:Cheatsheet. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:18, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I wish to be offered a sholarship by the academy

I you real have the heart of helping,i beg for it.Hear my cry — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.24.111.251 (talk) 12:44, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 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.--Orange Mike | Talk 12:54, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Please fix your grammar, because I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Also, please take such questions somewhere else, becuase, Wikipedia help desk is for Wiipedia only. You're welcome, A comment by a person who has been editing Wikipedia since October 28, 2010. (talk) 22:42, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Wiipedia? I think that's a new one 10-28-2010 ;-) - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 11:23, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Hillsborough Disaster Inaccurate

Dear Sir/Madam, My attention has been drawn to the "Hillsborough Disaster" section of your web site. Under "Causes" it states that "Overcrowding of confined pens on the terraces caused by a human stampede". This is an untrue and highly inaccurate statement. Even the same page opposite clearly states "The inquiry into the disaster, the Taylor Report, named the cause as failure of police control". I have tried to amend this myself, but it has been changed back. Can you please therefore amend the page to show the Cause as "Overcrowding of confined pens on the terraces caused by failure of police control". I don't need to emphasise that this is a very serious and sensitive subject, which on countless occasions has been "misunderstood", with various inaccurate reasons given for the disaster. I'm sure you take the families and survivors' feelings into consideration when you do amend this. Thank you - Debi McMillan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.253.199.167 (talk) 13:23, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I've downloaded a copy of the Taylor Report and used it to add a brief cited quote to the sentence you edited. Just changing "The cause was X" to "The cause was Y" isn't going to stick; readers and editors need to know where the information is coming from. See Wikipedia:Verifiability. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:26, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I never actually amended that section. The section I amended was the info box on the right hand side, under "Cause". This seems to have stayed and not been changed back though, so I assume this is now a permanent change. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.253.199.167 (talk) 12:58, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Very few changes on Wikipedia are permanent, particularly to articles that get a lot of views, or when the subject of an article itself is changing, or when the subject is controversial. However, some changes on Wikipedia persist longer than others. Even when an edit is the "best" it can be, someone else might happen along later who is unaware of the consensus established earlier, who edits it in good faith without "improving" it. We also have vandals who purposely try to introduce nonsense into Wikipedia, so we need constructive editors to watch articles and revert vandalism. --Teratornis (talk) 18:20, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Problem

I can't edit the page World War II. It says that the page is locked. How do I edit it? Help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hurricanefan25 (talk • contribs) 14:38, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

World War II is semi-protected. You can edit it when your account becomes autoconfirmed (four days old and at least 10 edits). Until then you can post suggestions to Talk:World War II. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:41, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I am grateful for your help. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hurricanefan25 (talk • contribs) 14:44, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

How did you become an administrator PrimeHunter? Hurricanefan25 (talk) 14:47, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Also I look at the recent change page a lot. I see lot of vandalism in there in the past. How do I get rid of it? Do I have to get permission? Hurricanefan25 (talk) 14:53, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

You are free to make any article better, including removing vandalism, at any time you want. You don't need any permission to fix or improve anything around here, see WP:BOLD. --Jayron32 14:56, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Editors can request to become administrators at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship where other editors can support or oppose. Past votes indicate that only editors with months of experience and thousands of edits have a chance to get enough support. My request is at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/PrimeHunter. Anybody can revert vandalism but if you want to do it well and efficiently then check out Help:Reverting, Wikipedia:Vandalism, Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol, and the tools mentioned there. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:31, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

What is the "adopt user" program?

I was browsing user pages, and I saw a box that said "This user has been user adopted by Worm That Turned". What does that mean? Do I have to get permission to get adopted or meet requirements? I looked at the Wikipedia:Adopt a user pages. It looks good. Am I allowed to be adopted? Hurricanefan25 (talk) 15:16, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, you can, and it is a good idea. See Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user. --SPhilbrickT 15:21, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply! Hurricanefan25 (talk) 15:21, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Need 2 images cropped

Resolved

 – My pleasure. – ukexpat (talk) 20:54, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Hey, I am terrible at image fixing, but there are two that I need cropped for improving some articles:

• File:Jim Plunkett.gif: Need this to be a tighter crop on Plunkett's face, he's the guy on the telephone. Would make a more appropriate infobox picture if it were just him.
• File:Doug Williams.jpg: Same basic idea. Need a picture of Williams by himself, rather than with the two unnamed gentlemen, which would be more appropriate for the infobox. He's the man in the center. If possible, could we crop this one to have just Williams in it?

Thanks in advance if anyone can handle these. --Jayron32 16:02, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Jayron, if someone doesn't respond shortly here, I've found the editors hanging out at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab/Photography workshop to be helpful, competent and timely.--SPhilbrickT 16:56, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

I'll have a go, give me a few minutes. – ukexpat (talk) 17:41, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

 Done, see File:Jim Plunkett (cropped).jpg and File:Doug Williams (cropped).jpg. – ukexpat (talk) 18:06, 28 June 2011 (UTC) ------------->

Thank you, ukexpat. You sir are an officer AND a gentleman. --Jayron32 20:02, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

An officer? A comment by a person who has been editing Wikipedia since October 28, 2010. (talk) 22:43, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Roger Simon (journalist)

A correction to my entry: It is my right leg that was amputated below the knee and my left foot was also amputated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ralph124c41 (talk • contribs) 17:25, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

This request would be better made at Talk:Roger Simon (journalist). It will be easier to have an editor make the correction if you include a source to back up your statement. Ryan Vesey (talk) 17:28, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

The existing inline citation verifies this information—the person who used the source just got mixed up.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:50, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Appropriate content for an article about a place.

At Talk:Royal Leamington Spa#Article content, you will see a debate about putting information about a neighboring school that is not strictly located in the city that the article is about, but that seems important to the city. Is there an existing policy on Wikipedia about place articles stating that they either should or should not include information on facilities nearby (but not within the place proper) that may be important to the place? --Arg342 (talk) 17:47, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

It's rare that I see a dispute and find myself unable to pick a side, but this looks like a toss-up to me, at least on first glance. Wikipedia:Summary style might apply to some extent. When two articles contain overlapping or redundant content, it's better to pick one article to be the primary description, and replace the redundant instance in the secondary article with a summary and link to the primary instance. That doesn't address the question of whether an article about a particular geographic area should say anything, or how much to say, about locations or institutions in adjoining areas. Maybe Wikipedia:WikiProject Geography or one of its subprojects such as Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities might provide guidance. Look through the style guides under Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:Manual of Style e.g. Wikipedia:Manual of Style (British Isles-related articles) (which does not appear helpful, alas). If you can't find a codified rule, look to the "case law" by reading some featured articles or good articles about cities, to see if they mention things that are just outside their boundaries. Featured articles are supposed to reflect the best practice on Wikipedia, so whatever they do should usually be safe to do in similar articles. Even if studying the featured articles does not answer your specific question, the exercise is useful because you may see other things to aim for in your editing. A possible precedent might be when a city has a strong relationship with another city or institution, you would expect the article to mention that somehow. For example, there are bedroom communities whose main purpose is to house people who work in neighboring areas. To mention a bedroom community with no reference to the neighboring areas on which its economy depends would make no sense. Thus the strength of relationship might be a deciding factor. --Teratornis (talk) 19:13, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks for the insight on this. After looking in the direction you suggested, I found something useful. As I posted at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools#Royal Leamington Spa: After a bit more searching I found Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements which states in its opening paragraph

Similarly, a town or city may spill out of its administrative boundaries, and where this occurs, suburbs and significant places of interest and employment outside the city boundary should be mentioned in the article (though it should be noted that they lie within different administrative areas).

IMHO, this is good guidance regardless of the country we are writing about. --Arg342 (talk) 20:57, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Arcadia Arcadian Order

I was a memmber of a Adcadia Arcadian Order Church in the 1995 approx.year and as i know that all Churches of that Division has to be registered in China and all memmbers to and was wondering were that registration branch is Located. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.27.194.40 (talk) 18:53, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. For general knowledge questions, ask on the Reference desk. For questions about religion, ask on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Editor review

I'm trying to post my second editor review but, I can't locate instructions regarding further request, does it automatically template your request "UserExample (2)" or "UserExample (3)" ? also when I enter my username in the input window and click "Request a review" my first review is displayed, do we just delete the old statements and type in the new ? Mlpearc Public (talk) 19:34, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
Nevermind, making my own :P. Mlpearc powwow 01:31, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

my saved edits didn't appear

I just edited an article --- previewed the edits --- saved the edits --- saw the edits on what looked like the original page --- and nothing changed in the original article.

What did I do wrong?

Jkirman (talk) 20:08, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)XLinkBot reverted your edits to the last edit before those edits.

The url http://howapoemhappens.blogspot.com/2010/04/maggie-anderson.html was the trigger the action. Jarkeld (talk) 20:15, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

You were apparently reverted by a bot (User:XLinkBot), probably because one of the links you added is in the spam blacklist or because you added an excessive amount of external links. See here. Please only add external links directly related to the subject. See WP:NOTREPOSITORY and WP:EL for relevant guidelines.-- Obsidi♠n^Soul 20:21, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Everything seems OK now. All the content is present. Thanks. Not sure what happened but it worked itself out, I guess. However, the "bad" link is still there. Should I delete it? Jkirman (talk) 20:25, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

User:Fuhghettaboutit restored your previous revision. As long as your edits are saved, they never really gets lost. You can also actually easily see what happened by checking the history of each page in Wikipedia. See Help:Page history.-- Obsidi♠n^Soul 20:33, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

OK, then. I guess all's well that ends well. THANKS again! Jkirman (talk) 20:46, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Finding about about your user stats

Hello, I was trying to find out how many pages I've added, and other statistics like files uploaded etc., but I couldn't find where those statistics are placed. Any help would be deeply appreciate. Side note- I know that the quantity of those things does not make you a better Wikipedian, I was just curious. Magister Scienta (talk) 20:12, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters probably has what you seek. --Jayron32 20:14, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

You can also click the My Contributions link at the top right, it lists all your recent contributions much in the same way as your watchlist lists recent changes to articles you are following. A more in-depth view is also given by external affiliated sites at the very bottom of that page. Particularly Edit count, Articles created, and Global contributions. -- Obsidi♠n^Soul 20:42, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Magister Scienta (talk) 02:02, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Request to include surname belonging to GBS community

Respected Sir, I am a member of Gowd Saraswat Brahmin community. I live in Ponda, Goa. I was very disappointed to learn that our surname hasn't been included in the list of surnames of Gowd Saraswat Brahmins. My surname is Shiravanthe. Shiravanthe is the name of the village where we belong; and they are Konkani speaking GSBs. Most of the Shiravanthe either got converted or changed their surname to Rao or Shanbaug. We are too an important part of this community and therefore request you to add our surname to this mentioned list and oblige me.

I assure you that the information I've provided here is absolutely correct up to my knowledge.

Hoping to hear from you soon.

Thanking you,

Yours Truly Abhay Shiravanthe — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.203.78.231 (talk) 20:58, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, Wikipedia needs to be built upon more than "You can trust me". We do understand that some of our existing articles are well below standard, for example, List of Goud Saraswat Brahmin surnames is almost entirely unreferenced, without any indication as to how someone came up with that particular list. Quite simply put, this is unacceptable at Wikipedia (see Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Citing sources). However, adding your addition of your name to that article, without any verification from a published, reliable source (see Wikipedia:Reliable sources) doesn't improve the article, it compounds the problem of a substandard article by making it have MORE problems rather than less. If you have reliable, published sources which list your surname as belonging to the list, please feel free to add it. Even better, if you have reliable, published sources which list all of the names on the list (or any reliable, published sources which can confirm anything in that article) that would be even better! --Jayron32 22:40, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Sandbox for User Pages/Problem with signing with 4 tildes

I have had trouble using the Wikipedia Sandbox, so I want to use my user page sandbox so newer editors can learn with the Wikipedia one without being distracted by my test edits. I am an anonymous editor. Do I need an account in order to use my own sandbox page, or is it possible to use an IP Address User Page Sandbox? If it is possible to use my IP Address for a Sandbox Page, could someone instruct me how that is done? If clarification is needed, please request it and I'll try to do so. Thanks. Oh, P.S. I signed four tildes, previewed my post, and the following (paraphrased) message came up: "Please do not provide your e-mail address or any other contact details in your post since the Help desk is a highly visible page." I decided to not sign the 4 tildes in case this information is sensitive; however, I thought anonymous users should sign the 4 tildes, even in pages like these. Much appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.182.237.57 (talk) 23:51, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, you need an account to create new pages, which includes a personal sandbox. There are many other advantages to creating an account (and no cost!) so you're welcome to do so. As for the contact detail issue, you may notice that since you didn't sign the post yourself, a bot has done so for you - the signature created by four tildes gives no more information than is available in the History tab of the page - your IP address and the time you edited. While this is enough to provide some corroborating evidence on who you are, it's nowhere near as identifying as an email address. The "do not provide your email address" warning appears to everyone who edits the Help desk, it wasn't specifically linked to your use of the signature. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:59, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for answering both questions. I guess I assumed the contact warning was a warning that showed up specifically for me since some of the info was in bold and/or blue. Another couple of questions about user accounts: I created one about 5 years ago, but I haven't reactivated it in a LONG time. I can see my User Name under the history of an article that I created long ago, but I can't find my User Name when I search for it ("Yoshi Kart" or something like that). Does the searching for User Names in Wikipedia only work for active users? As soon as I find the login info for my account (written on a pad of paper in my room somewhere), I wanted to login again, but I don't want to bother searching for that paper unless logging in would work again. Is there some way you could find out if my account (which hasn't been used in about 5 years) would still login OK? If you trying to find out if an account THAT OLD would still work is not productive use of your time, I completely understand. I do acknowledge you are a volunteer, and as such, there are probably more pressing questions you need to help answer. Thanks for reading--sorry about length of my post. 67.182.237.57 (talk) 00:17, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

It looks like you registered the account, but didn't create a user page - this is by no means necessary, but it explains why you can't "find" yourself. You're definitely in the user creation logs, so once you find your password there should be no problems logging in. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:29, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The user still exists, you can see its log here and the contributions here. If you have access to the email address that you registered the user with you can request a new password at the login page, just type the username and then click the 'Email new password' button - frankie (talk) 00:31, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Oh good. Thanks to both of you for checking on that. I don't think I'll need a new password, because I just barely found that notepad in my room that has my login info on it. Much obliged for checking to see if I'm still on the server somewhere. 67.182.237.57 (talk) 01:00, 29 June 2011 (UTC)