Help desk
< October 22	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	October 24 >

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.

October 23

Spacing in tables

Hi, does anyone know how to add more "cell padding" when using the "class=wikitable" table format? In other words, I want to change this:

A	B
C	D

into this:

A	B
C	D

but using the "wikitable" thing. 86.171.43.215 (talk) 01:29, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"cellpadding" has been deprecated in the HTML standard, it should have never existed to begin with. Padding should always be done with CSS. I'm not sure if Wikipedia has a class for padding wikitable cells but you can do this for now:

{| class="wikitable"
| style="padding:1em" | A
| style="padding:1em" | B
|}

It produces this:

A	B

Scarce2 (talk) 09:10, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'd really prefer not have to specify it separately for every cell. That does not seem a good way to do it at all. The thing about "cell padding" is that it applies to the whole table. However if that's the only way to do it.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.160.208.15 (talk) 11:20, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sunil Gangopadyay passed away today please update

Mr Sunil Ganguly,the famous bengali poet & writer, passed away today.Kindly update.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.184.101.14 (talk) 02:01, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for letting us know - but we'd need to see a published source for this before updating the article. I'll see if I can locate anything myself, but if it has been reported, let us know where. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:03, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

justin p wilson

The family portion of your article for JUSTIN P WILSON is incoreect and decieving--- Justin is married to barbara englehardt but THEY ONLY HAVE TWO SONS. JUSTIN'S OTHER TWO SONS ARE FROM HIS FIRST MARRIAGE-- HIS FIRST WIFE IS NAMED DONNA DANNER WILSON AND THEY HAVE TWO SONS TOGETHER. PLEASE CORRECT THIS STATEMENT. — Preceding unsigned comment added by The texts (talk • contribs)

First, please, there's no need to shout. Second, the source says that he has four sons but isn't more descriptive of who gave birth to those children. So, I've changed the text to reflect that. If you can provide another reliable source that clarifies whose children they all are, we could include that info. And finally, the article is editable by anyone. You could have made this correction yourself. If you'd like more info on that, please see Help:Contents/Editing Wikipedia. Thanks for pointing out the need for a correction, Dismas|^(talk) 03:37, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:HAMISHRB

Hi, this user HAMISHRB vandalized the article Batman: Earth One yesterday. Thought you might want to know.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 07:24, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can place warnings on user talk pages yourself. See WP:MLT. Then other people who might see this person vandalize again will be able to see that they have done it before and been warned about it. - Purplewowies (talk) 07:46, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Template

Hello, I haven't edited on Wikipedia for a long time so I nearly forget something:

I want to create a template with a part like this

*Search on {{{wikipedia|}}}

but how can I made the part "*search on" also disappear if "wikipedia=" are empty?--Lê _{talk-contributions} 08:48, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

{{#if:{{{wikipedia|}}}|Search on {{{wikipedia}}}}} Scarce2 (talk) 09:02, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

20000leagues under the sea film

The organist playing the organ music in the film was E Power Briggs David Marquis — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.26.93.165 (talk) 10:20, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a reliable sources for this information, you are very welcome to add it to any relevant article. I suspect you mean E. Power Biggs (not Briggs) - and make sure you get the right one of the six films listed at Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (disambiguation). (Note that IMDB is not generally reckoned as reliable). --ColinFine (talk) 11:26, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Asking about what initials stand for

I put on the talk page of the article on Alison Krauss, shouldn't it be said that she performs religious songs such as "Down to the River to Pray"? Another Wikipedian responded with the comment "IMHO I wouldn't call that a religious song. My query here was simply what IMHO stands for. I was thinking, literally just now, it probably stands for "In my humble opinion" - am I correct? Thank you in advance for any feedback at all. All the very best, ACEOREVIVED (talk) 10:41, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, in common internet parlance, IMHO = in my humble opinion. IIRC. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:43, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(If I Recall Correctly) Yunshui 雲‍水 10:43, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And before common internet parlance, it was common fanzine parlance – I first saw it in 1982. —Tamfang (talk) 16:51, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Surveillance Detection Unit

Actually it started in May of 1999, not in 2000. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.116.22.54 (talk)

Surveillance Detection Unit says: "In the year 2000, at least 22 United States (US) embassies and consulates...", and "Since 2000, former leaders of the police force of Oslo...". What exactly started in 1999 and do you have a reliable source that it started there? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:12, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bot source code list

Do we have a list of all bots on Wikipedia that have their source code published? If yes, where can I find it? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 12:18, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It probably isn't complete but we have Category:Wikipedia bots with source code published. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:02, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

image copyright (PC game box art)

I want to upload an image of box art for an article on a PC game. I contacted the publisher of a game and they directed me to their press pack which contains a suitable image. However I am confused by the wikipedia categorisation of images copyright. I simply do not know what category this image would come under. Can anyone tell me? it must be common to all PC Game box art. --AeronwenTrewent (talk) 12:18, 23 October 2012 (UTC) [reply]

I think I misread the question in the first reply -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:26, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Difficult to give an explicit answer. There is Category:Video game covers, but generally a better categorization might be possible. I can't give a better answer without knowing of which game. Also generally the image is copyrighted and thus regarded as non-free content on Wikipedia. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 12:26, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I think I misread your question. By categorisation of images copyright, do you mean the license under which the image will / must be uploaded to Wikipedia? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:00, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

An image of a game cover will almost always be copyrighted, which means you have to upload it to Wikipedia (not Wikimedia Commons) under a claim of fair use. Such an image has to satisfy a number of criteria which need to be met, listed at Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria. If you can't make heads or tails of it, let me know and I can take a look at where you get stuck. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:19, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

vanished web page

Hello, Sorry, I don't know who else to write to for assistance. An article about me, Molly Cutpurse, has vanished. I am a popular author of twenty-four novels. Can you help please or pass me on to someone who can? Molly — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.246.140.207 (talk) 12:35, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you click on the red link Molly Cutpurse it will tell you "01:06, 21 September 2012 RHaworth (talk | contribs) deleted page Molly Cutpurse (A7: Article about an eligible subject, which does not indicate the importance or significance of the subject)". Wikipedia:Notability (people) will tell you about Wikipedia's requirements for notability for an article about a person, and WP:BLP refers specifically to biographies of living people. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:43, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's also a specific inclusion guideline for authors at WP:AUTHOR, for what it's worth. However, self-published authors are almost never notable enough for articles here. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:53, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

David Bolduc

Good Morning,

My first article User:syrinxia/david bolduc got reviewed by Go Phightins! and was declined, so i followed his advice and made changes.

I re submitted my updated article and it got reviewed by SarahStierch who declined it as well and deleted it! Her comments where that i used copyright, anything used in the article i have written authorization for and also she did not tell me what she thought was copy right part. The thing that upset me the most was that she deleted the whole article! Can someone help me and tell me why it was deleted and how i can get it back to improve it. I can not understand the specifications, i have looked up many wiki articles regarding artists and mine fits all the criterias.

Also, when i do a wiki search on David Bolduc this comes up : User:Syrinxia/David Bolduc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Syrinxia/David_Bolduc If anything should be deleted, should be this weird post that was created by me a couple of years ago that for some reason is online and i never had it submitted for review.

Thank you in advance for your help, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Syrinxia (talk • contribs) 13:16, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You should only include content you created by yourself on Wikipedia or from public domain resources. I suggest you rewrite the article without using content copied from another source and consider asking SarahStierch to restore your page as a user subpage. She probably deleted it instead of doing this before because it contained copyrighed content. Scarce2 (talk) 13:37, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your help. I feel hopeless with this.. I do not know how to contact her, i go to her page and there is no where to post a comment. Can you help me please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Syrinxia (talk • contribs) 14:17, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Note that Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/David Bolduc was deleted not by User:SarahStierch, but by User:Vejvančický, because of copyright violation from http://www.ccca.ca/bios/bolduc_bio.html. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:05, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:Syrinxia/David Bolduc is what's called a user subpage. This what Scarce2 is talking about above. User subpages are a useful place to draft articles or keep notes, but once created they don't get deleted automatically. If you want rid of it, add the code {{db-g7}} at the top. This requests that the page be speedily deleted by an administrator under criterion G7 (you're the author, nobody else has edited it significantly, and you don't want it anymore). However, if you want to redraft your article that page is the obvious place to do it, so you might want to keep the page and and reuse it.

User:Vejvančický was the admin who deleted your article. To communicate with another user, you leave messages on their User talk page, not their user page. So, go to User talk:Vejvančický and leave a message by editing that page exactly as you have edited this one, complete with a header. Wikipedia does not permit any text that violates someone else's copyright anywhere on the site, whether in articles or userspace, but you may be able to get the non-copyright material back to work on.

One thing - you say you have "written authorization" for the material in your article. That rings a few alarm bells here. What exactly has been authorised, and by whom? If you are writing on behalf of David Bolduc, please read WP:COI. People shouldn't write about themselves or people they are close to on Wikipedia, and people who are the subject of Wikipedia articles have no direct control over the content - they cannot "authorise" it. If what you mean is that you have authorisation from a copyright holder to reuse their work verbatim in a Wikipedia article, then there's a process to go through. The copyright holder must contact Wikipedia personally to release the material under a licence that will allow other people to take it and reuse it in turn. See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. It can be done, but unless it's absolutely essential for some reason to use the copyrighted material unchanged, it's much simpler just to write an article entirely in your own words, citing the copyright material as the source of your information. This is explained at Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. - Ka renjc 16:54, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

President Obama

Disgraceful to spell his name OBANGO !!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.89.97 (talk) 13:25, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please give a link to where you see "OBANGO". The only occurrence I can find of that string in Wikipedia is the unrelated "Tango from Obango" in Vienna Art Orchestra. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:34, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The only connection of that term I found via Google is at Yahoo! Answers here. To the OP: Please note that this is a help page of Wikipedia and we have no connection with Yahoo!. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:53, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inuktitut syllabics / Google Chrome

I've been trying to get Inuktitut syllabics to display in Gogole Chrome. I run the latest version of Chrome (Version 22.0.1229.94m) in Windows XP. I've downloaded and installed all the fonts that seem relevant at Help:Multilingual support... but I still boxes where I should be seeing letters! What do I need to do? Tompw (talk) (review) 15:19, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm running the same version of Google Chrome but on Windows Vista, and Inuktitut syllabics display just fine. A boat that can float! (watch me float!) 15:31, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Edit saved"

Today, though not in previous days, I'm getting the floating "edit saved" notice when I hit Preview and sometimes when I hit Edit, which would seem to defeat the purpose of alerting newer users as to which mode they're in. I'm not getting it when I hit Save. Is this happening to anyone else, or is it a quirk of my aging computer's increasingly quirky personality? Cynwolfe (talk) 15:54, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's not something I've experienced myself so far. In which browser does this happen? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 16:04, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:VPT#Small_new_feature_coming_on_Thursday, that is a better place to ask the question. GB fan 16:18, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Audio Player

What codec do I install to play audio in Wikipedia? Thanks, Joe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jgaldo12 (talk • contribs) 16:19, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's a list at Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg), but that page may not be up to date. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:26, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To play audio on an article requires no codex. It requires a modern open browser such as Firefox, Opera, Maxthon or Chrome. Regards, Sun Creator^(talk) 05:45, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Title in italics

Homosexual behavior in animals is an article title in italics, but the article title is not the title of a book or something else. How to get rid of the italics style? Lova Falk talk 17:24, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is fixed now, but I am unclear what caused it to be fixed. Astronaut (talk) 17:48, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) The italic style, together with the inclusion of the page in a couple of inappropriate categories, and some garbled entries in the list of references, were the result of an editor using "{{journal ..." and "{{book ..." where he presumably intended "{{cite journal ..." and "{{cite book ...". I've corrected the ones I found, & will let the editor know. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:50, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Lova Falk talk 18:18, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

slander

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_Eastern_High_School. It says clearly that Encyclopedic content must be verifiable. None of the first paragraph on this page is verifiable. We are NOT the worst school in 8 yrs, we do NOT have gangs, smart kids are NOT harrassed (1/2 the school would be harrassed), and NO legal action is going on. Where is they proof for this post? Looks like Jenison has chip on their shoulder. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.43.59.203 (talk) 18:18, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have undone today's edits and placed a warning at User talk:68.42.218.247. Thank you for reporting this. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:25, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Someone deleted this page ...

Hi ~ could someone tell me why this page was deleted? and by whom? ... I went to see what had been talked about on the talk page, but that was also deleted. Last I looked, the voting was 4.8 average to keep. Can someone explain? Thanks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Black_Nativity_-_In_Concert:_A_Gospel_Celebration&action=edit&redlink=1

Music4ibc (talk) 18:46, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Black Nativity – In Concert: A Gospel Celebration. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:52, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Article Feedback Tool ratings are not used to determine whether to keep or delete an article. PleaseStand (talk) 22:50, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mitra (gastropod) formatting

The formatting at Mitra (gastropod) has a large amount of unneeded white space. I assume it has to do with the interaction of the columns and infobox, but not sure how to fix it without removing one or the other. Can someone smarter with code take a peek? -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:04, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As it happens, I just accidentally created the same issue by adding an image to Mylabris, so perhaps it's the combination of infobox, image, and columns. Still not sure how to fix it, though. -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:10, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What browser are you using to view these pages? Have a look at the warning at Template:Div col. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:11, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Google Chrome. Do you mean you're not seeing a half-page of white space? -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:14, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. Opened in Firefox and it's not an issue. Still, I wonder if there's a way to fix the coding here so it displays properly for users of Chrome and IE also? -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:15, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What exactly do you mean when you say it "has a large amount of unneeded white space"? It looks fine for me in Safari. In Internet Explorer 8, however all the bullet points are aligned at the left side of the page. I believe this is because IE8 does not support columns, according to the information at WP:REFCOLS, none of the versions of Internet Explorer below 10 support columns. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:29, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, like I said, I'm using Google Chrome. There's a long gap of white space between the sentence "According to the World Register of Marine Species, the following species with accepted names are included within the genus Mitra:" and the columns which list species names, which begin well down the page, in line with the first image (Mitra (Strigatella) paupercula). (The columns are showing up, they're just starting much, much further down the page). If it's not showing up on other browsers, though, it's probably not a big deal. -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:38, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am using Google Chrome, and seeing what Khazar2 describes. Maproom (talk) 22:23, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The list of Mitra species is headed with {{div col|colwidth=20em}}; I can understand that, if the width of your window is such that there's less than 20em between the left margin and the infobox, a browser might legitimately refuse to try to fit the column in there. —Tamfang (talk) 05:05, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Chrome as well. If I change the display size by one tick (ctrl-mouse wheel one position) it moves all three columns up and closes the white space. I guess this is legitimate, and not an error, still anything that can be done?Naraht (talk) 11:26, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see anything that would be a problem with IE9.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:59, 26 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Moving a particular portion from edit history to new article

I regularly check and fix articles with dablink Bengali (since this is mother tongue. Today I found the link Astra there. I fixed the dablink and saw the article has more issues like uncategorized, no lead etc. I started fixing those too.
After making 4-5 edits I discovered the article is created on an existing article. In short, a Bengali film is released on 19 October, this year and someone has turned the dabpage into film article.
I have restored to last good version I have found.
Now, I want to move that anonymous editor's edits (and my minor copyedits) too to a new article. I can copy paste content to new article, but, that'll show I am article creator. Mentioning in edit summary does not seem to be a good idea. Any suggestion? -Tito Dutta (talk) 23:13, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think there's a good chance that the film isn't notable. However, if you find sources that show otherwise, you should request a history split at Wikipedia:Cut and paste move repair holding pen. I'm not an administrator, so I can't merge or split article histories myself.

A history split, just like a history merge, would involve temporarily deleting the page. Then only the revisions of the new article would be undeleted, and the page would be moved to the new article's proper title without leaving a redirect. Then only the revisions of the disambiguation page would be undeleted. I think the IP's initial revision (of 14:55, 23 October 2012) could just be left deleted. PleaseStand (talk) 00:32, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have asked there. Thanks! --Tito Dutta (talk) 09:00, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done I history-split off Astra (2012 Bengali film). Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:00, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

volume

Can you turn up the volume of the file File:Fr-Normandie-badminton.ogg please ? Fête (talk) 23:20, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Download Audacity (audio editor) and edit there. I do not have the software in my computer now. --Tito Dutta (talk) 23:25, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

caisse

Can you record the pronunciation of the word caisse with an Quebec accent ? Fête (talk) 23:29, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It has already been recorded and added to the word's entry on our sister site Wiktionary. I have linked there from our Caisse disambiguation page. PleaseStand (talk) 23:44, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cite book with multiple volumes: 2 questions

When citing a book in multiple volumes, but with continuously numbered pages, is it necessary to mention the volume name/number?
When citing a book in multiple volumes, but with no fixed volume names or numbering style, which style is preferred: Roman numerals or Arabic numerals?

Thanks! Ratzd'mishukribo (talk) 23:30, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please give a specific example. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:08, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Example 1: ha-Ḥasidut mi-dor le-dor (a work that I cite often) has two volumes, but is the pages are numbered continously; that is, volume 2 starts at page 387. If I want to cite page 574, is it necessary to mention that the citation is from volume 2? (This would make footnotes very cumbersome on some pages.)
2. No example necessary, really - what is the default volume numbering style? Ratzd'mishukribo (talk) 13:38, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'd go with whatever numbering scheme is on the spine. —Tamfang (talk) 19:55, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The spine has Hebrew numerals, not very useful for the average reader. Ratzd'mishukribo (talk) 10:43, 26 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Print Edition

I'm just wondering if a "Print Edition" could me created for some pages, as sometimes it may be helpful to have the option of printing out the information (eg the rules to a game, like Four Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_square) so that you take the information somewhere else, in order to put it to use? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Axeliz (talk • contribs) 23:45, 23 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For a single article, you can either use your web browser's print function or download the article as a PDF file. The PDF file download link is located in the "Print/export" section of the sidebar. If you want to print out other Wikipedia articles as well, you can make a "Wikipedia-Book", which you can either print yourself or have PediaPress professionally print for you. PleaseStand (talk) 00:06, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You also asked this question at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Print Edition. In the future, try to keep your question in a single place. If you really have to ask in multiple places, at least add links between them. PleaseStand (talk) 00:49, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 October 23