Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 October 27

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October 27

Tank Overhaul

Dear Sirs, I have been watching, for some time now, with great interest, your program "Tank Overhaul". This subject has great interest to me, as my father served in World War Two in a tank batallion. Some of the programs that you televized have no ending. The Sherman Tank, that was cut in two, for example had no ending. Also, the German Panther had no conclusion. "What happened to these projects?" I am greatly interested in finding out. Are there any DVDs that I can purchase regarding these projects? Any help you can supply would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for you time...JD. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.24.126.199 (talk) 02:27, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 4 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. - Purplewowies (talk) 02:37, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

how to edit uploaded letters

Good day!

Greetings from SIPC Baguio City. I had uploaded an article from Sipc Baguio Site , but it seems the body of the article is not in order. May i request your technical staff to send me some hints on how to place the uploaded article readable and body of the letter is in order.

thank you for your prompt response.

Sincerely yours,

ELISA O. NAMOCA PRESIDENT Soroptimist International of Pines City (SIPC) Baguio City, Philippines — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sipcbaguio (talk • contribs) 06:00, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

User:Sipcbaguio

User:Sipcbaguio/sandbox

Don't put spaces at the beginning of lines; leading spaces have a special meaning on Wikipedia. If you really want to indent a paragraph, put a colon (:) at the beginning of the line. —teb728 t c 06:32, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

But the material you are trying to upload has a far worse problem than formatting: I'm sorry to have to tell you that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; it is not a web hosting service for Soroptomist's content. And if I understand correctly, you uploaded a copyrighted article from a Soroptomists site; that would be a copyright violation. —teb728 t c 07:24, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

When uploading a video game box art cover

Should the logo of the console system/PC be edited out? --WWETrishMickiefan (talk) 07:12, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

If the cover image has a valid non-free tag and a valid non-free use rationale, that's what's needed; so the logo shouldn't be problem. If you share what cover image you are asking about, we might be able to be more specific. —teb728 t c 07:40, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

It's the image in the infobox for this article. The image does have non free and fair use rationale. But the PC logo is visible below.--WWETrishMickiefan (talk) 12:32, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Correction to Surname

Tiana Coudray, American Equestrian, Olympics 2012. Wikipedia has this posted with Surname mispelled as Courdray — Preceding unsigned comment added by Getthiscorrected (talk • contribs) 08:51, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

 Done - Purplewowies (talk) 09:09, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

what software are you using for mathematical equations, mathematical symbols

I am trying to upload a text which contains mathematical equations and mathematical symbols but I can't figure out what software to use.

Please help me resolve this problem — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baemic (talk • contribs) 09:14, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

We use a subset of AMS-LaTeX. Does Help:Math explain what you want? —teb728 t c 10:15, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Turning off the watchlist pop-up messages

When I add a page to my watchlist by clicking the little star next to the search box, I get a pop-up message with this text (approximately):

The page"Wikipedia:Help desk" has been added to your watchlist, which will...

I understand that this useful for newcomers, but I would very much like to get rid of this message, partly because it's a bit annoying in itself but mostly because the pop-up message tends to cover the "View history" button.

Does anybody know if there is a setting for turning off these pop-up messages, and if there isn't how I could ask the MediaWiki developers to consider adding such a feature?

- Tournesol (talk) 11:38, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Judging by several threads at WP:VPT, the answer seems to be "no", however, I also find it annoying! Mdann52 (talk) 22:24, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Me, too! Lova Falk talk 07:56, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

Transclusion

As a newbie on Wikipedia, I'd be grateful for advice on whether what I've started to do is sensible, before I do it to lots more articles!

There are several cases where the same fact appears in more than one article, so when it changes it has to be updated twice or more. The case I'm looking at is the set of historical lists of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to other countries. There's also a page listing current ambassadors to all countries, so when there's a new ambassador, two pages have to be updated, which typically means that the list of current ambassadors gets out-of-date or inaccurate. So I've begun to put in code to transclude the name of the current ambassador from one page to the other. See List of Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Afghanistan and the entry for Afghanistan in List of heads of missions of the United Kingdom. Is this a good (or at least reasonable) way of doing it?

I've used Template:Onlyinclude rather than using bare onlyinclude and /onlyinclude tags, in case in future another piece of text from the page needs to be transcluded, although it does make the code more complicated. The code could be more straightforward, and clearer, if Labeled Section Transclusion was installed on the English Wikipedia, but it isn't, although it's been proposed from time to time (for example).

Thanks! ... Stanning (talk) 11:37, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

if you are using transclusion it will remove the need to repeat and reduce article size but increase server load. i strongly suggest using onlyinclde tags as the template could cause problems. no data isnt a problem you jsut put it wihtin the onlyinclude tags i use on tv episode show list all the time. although i cant see where the trasnclusion acutally is. it seems like only the current ambassor is using trasnclusion to which makes it pointless using it just for one person as both pages will need updated anyway unless you do it in reverse to what oyu have jsut nowAndrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 11:50, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. You can see where the transclusion is by looking at the code. The current ambassador is transcluded from the "list of ambassadors" page to the "heads of missions" page, thus only the former page needs to be updated. My intenetion is to repeat this transclusion from all the other "list of ambassadors" pages eventually.
Can you point to an example of what you've done with TV episode show lists? ... Stanning (talk) 14:25, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I can see the value of this function, but is it a function that the average editor would understand and use correctly? It is possible that a relatively new editor could go into an article or a table with intentions to make a valuable edit, see the coding and be discouraged from making the edit. Your idea make sense, but will it have side effects?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 14:29, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

That's what I'm not sure of, and why I asked the question here before continuing. As I said above, installation of Labeled Section Transclusion would make it much easier for the average editor. However, it's because the average editor has failed to update the "List of heads of missions" page that I looked for this possible solution! ... Stanning (talk) 11:37, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments above. As suggested, I'll simplify the transclusion code. Stanning (talk) 18:40, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

Category

Hi, I'm new to Wikipedia and while talking to a Canadian friend who resides in Vancouver, he told me of a renowned Canadian actor, young actor, who is member of the Vancouver Masonic Lodge, and I think it's Cory Monteith, so I added Category:Freemasons to his article. Is it right? Please consider I'm new to Wikipedia. Thank you. Iowafromiowa (talk) 16:24, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

No it isn't. We don't add categories to articles because we think that they belong there, based vaguely on what someone told us. Articles are based on published reliable sources, not hearsay. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:27, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Understood, I'm sorry. Iowafromiowa (talk) 16:35, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

And even if the information represented by a categorisation is reliably sourced, it is not necessarily appropriate: if a person has made a public point of personal facts such as their religion, their sexual orientation, their politics, their membership of particular societies, then it is almost certainly appropriate to mention them in an article about the person, and add the article to the appropriate category. But if they themselves have not discussed this matter publicly, or only mentioned it in passing, many Wikipedians feel that it is not appropriate for an article to mention it, or to be put in a corresponding category. This question is sometimes contentious, though. --ColinFine (talk) 16:15, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Categories in edit window

I just noticed that categories started to disappear from the bottom of the edit window, only to pop up again at some time (making it impossible to control the category display during preview). A glitch/lag? Btw, odd things are going on in the Category:Internet advertising and Category:Domain name system, where category suppression of User:Adrianeu's namespace doesn't work (the former category is not even displayed in the edit window). Brandmeister^talk 17:00, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Fixed. Some categories were added by {{Domain parking}} so I removed transclusion of that template.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 20:23, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Sock puppet suspicion

We have a discussion on an article's talk page. Basically, all "old" WP editors say one thing, and two new editors don't agree. The only contributions of both these editors are the remarks on the talk page. I suspect sock puppetry. Now, I really like Assume good faith and Don't bite the newcomers adn Civility, and I wonder if it is okay to voice my suspicions on this talk page, or if I should hold back a bit, just to prevent this discussion from becoming ugly and personal. What are your experiences with sock puppetry? What is the right moment to say that you wonder if two editors are the same person? Lova Falk talk 17:47, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

WP:SPI to start an investigation or checkuser to see if the are the same. It has some guidance on if/when to notify the account you suspect. RudolfRed (talk) 18:11, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Do I understand correctly from your answer and the link, that as long as it doesn't really matter that much (as in my case), it's best to continue assume good faith? Lova Falk talk 18:35, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I believe so, yes. RudolfRed (talk) 20:05, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Ipad app

One more question now that I'm here. :) In the middle of a section about a remedial program, an editor has written: The iPad app xxx is designed to offer training of this part, including a source. Is this good content for an article, or should it be removed? And if it should be removed, which guideline should I quote when I motivate the removal? Lova Falk talk 18:06, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

If it is clearly an advert you can cite WP:SPAM. Roger (talk) 18:13, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! Lova Falk talk 18:18, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

WP page editor

Where does one go to discuss issues concerning the WP page editor? Contact Wikipedia is not much help. i.e. Who is/are the individual/s that adds or removes features to the page editor? -- Gwillhickers (talk) 19:10, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I don't know. You might ask at WP:Village pump (technical); someone there might know or be able to help with your issues. - Purplewowies (talk) 19:40, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Two articles on the same person?

I just finished revising the article on Thomas Courtenay (1432-1461), Earl of Devon, adding references and in-line citations, and then found what appears to be another article on the same person.

This is the article I just finished revising:

Thomas Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon

This is the duplicate article in its unrevised state:

Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon

I think the duplication of articles arose because there's disagreement among reliable sources as to whether the Courtenay Earls of Devon were of a second creation, and should therefore be numbered starting from 1st Earl, or whether they weren't a new creation, and therefore should be numbered in sequence from the Redvers Earls of Devon. There seem to have been some redirection of articles in the past to have them conform to one or the other of these two numbering systems, thus resulting in two articles on Thomas Courtenay (1432-1461), who was 14th Earl under the one numbering system, and 6th Earl under the other numbering system.

Something should be done to regularize the numbering of the Earls of Devon, since it now seems (see the Talk page), that there's agreement the Courtenay Earls of Devon should be numbered consecutively after the Revers Earls of Devon.

However that's a more long-term problem, and the immediate problem seems to be that the duplicate unrevised article should be deleted (at least that would be my suggestion), i.e. this article should be deleted:

Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon

That would also involve redirecting the link on the disambiguation page for Thomas Courtenay.

Help with this would be much appreciated. NinaGreen (talk) 20:03, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I would strongly advise redirecting the new article's title to the old title. Then, revise the old article, taking advantage of the information you found for the new article, but thus preserving the long edit history of the old article as well as the new. That's pretty much standard procedure in a situation like this. --Orange Mike | Talk 01:15, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty confused.:-) I don't actually know which was the new page, and which the old page. All I know is that I spent a lot of time today revising one of the two articles on the same person, only to find, after I'd finished, that there was another article on the same person.

I did change the link on the disambiguation page so that it directs to the article I revised. That way Wikipedia readers will get the latest version. But beyond that, I'm unsure what to do. I went to Move page, and found this:

Note that the page will not be moved if there is already a page at the new title, unless it is empty or a redirect and has no past edit history.

It sounds as though I might muck things up if I attempted a move. Maybe I should just leave things be for the time being. NinaGreen (talk) 02:22, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

User Page Design!

How To Design a beautiful user page? Answer is awaiting.... RB-AXP talk 20:21, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

If you see something you like in another user page then you are allowed to copy it, but attribute the source page in the edit summary. Wikipedia:User page design center may also be of help. Please also work on the encyclopedia. That's what we are here for. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:31, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

fraise

Can you record the pronunciation of the word fraise with an Quebec accent please ? Fête (talk) 20:59, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Why? What useful purpose would such a recording serve Wikipedia? As has already been pointed out on the language reference desk, if you are interested in Quebec French pronunciation, there are better resources than an English-language encyclopaedia. [2] AndyTheGrump (talk) 21:09, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

logo box

Hello- how do i add a logo box (IBM, Nikon articles top right hand)to an article?

Thank you, Reg — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rpetit1230 (talk • contribs) 21:16, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

It's called an "infobox", and which infobox you use depends on what kind of subject. For a company like IBM for instance, the infobox is {{Infobox company}}. —teb728 t c 21:27, 27 October 2012 (UTC)