Help desk
< August 1	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 3 >

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.

August 2

Pop Up Ads

Does anyone know how to stop the annoying pop up advertisements that have begun to appear on every page of Wikipedia?24.209.194.7 (talk) 00:09, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There aren't any such ads. You've got some form of malware installed on your machine.—Kww(talk) 00:13, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible you're talking about Wikipedia donation advertisements. If you wish to hide those, make sure you have internet cookies enabled, and click the X button on the top right of the advert. After that, as long as your cookies are intact, you will no longer see the ads on that computer. For any non-Wikipedia ads, you have malware installed. ~Charmlet ^-talk- 02:37, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Check the URL (address) of the site very carefully - are you actually looking at en.wikipedia.org? There are several mirror sites (see WP:MIRROR) that display adverts alongside wikipedia content. Some of these have names very similar to en.wikipedia.org, so a simple typo and you are on their mirror site, rather than the real thing. Arjayay (talk) 12:53, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

franchise

To Whom It My Concern.

Dear Sir,

Am interested into opening a retail outlet of 7 eleven in malaysia, state of Sarawak. I wish to know the proceduce inorder to do franchasie under 7eleven Malaysia.

Waiting for reply and more info please.

THANK YOU.Rabeah marzuki (talk) 04:41, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is the help desk for Wikiepedia. We can't help with your question. The link http://franchise.7-eleven.com/ might point you in the right direction. RudolfRed (talk) 04:49, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

My profile

Hi I'm dan sarginson I play professional rugby for the London broncos and my profile hasn't been updated For 11 months and I am still actively playing and therefore is very inaccurate, would you be able to update it please. Cheers sarg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.127.8.226 (talk) 07:48, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

13 months. But yeah, you do still play. I've used that to fill in the next year, but I know almost nothing about rugby and don't care for tables. I've probably already gotten something wrong. If someone else would like to finish up, that'd be great. If it's not done in a week, I'll probably do it.

Everything else in your bio look accurate? InedibleHulk (talk) 08:37, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Error on front page again

The "On this day" section says

"Tower Subway (pictured), the world's first underground tube railway, opened beneath the River Thames in London."

It was not the world's first underground tube railway, see Metropolitan Railway. It was the world's first underground tube railway constructed by tunnelling rather than by cut-and-cover. I have tried to report this in the correct place, but Wikipedia:Main_Page/Errors refers me to Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/August_2 which refers me back to Wikipedia:Main_Page/Errors. Maproom (talk) 08:07, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Maproom. You can directly edit your wishes here not sure how it redirected you. I don't mind making the edit myself but is there something more going on here then a simple correct? Cheers.^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 09:52, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Maproom wants it changed at Main Page#On this day... which transcludes Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 2. That page can only be edited by admins while it's transcluded on the main page. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:59, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Aw, yes, never attempted a "curtains up" edit of "On this day". Read your post below, so agreed better to run it by that page.^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 10:07, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how "tube railway" is defined. Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors#Errors in today's or tomorrow's On this day... is the right place to report it when it's on the main page today. What do you mean by "refers me to Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/August_2"? PrimeHunter (talk) 09:53, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

As a former Editor of a Railway periodical (a long time ago and you won't have heard of it), my recollection is that a "tubeway" refers specifically to an underground railway built by tunnel boring, and not one built by cut-and-cover. This is the basis of the largely forgotten distinction made by Londoners between the "Underground" – whose earlier portions were mostly built by cut-and-cover and are necessarily shallow, and the "Tube" – the more recent portions, which had to be deeper (because of the pre-existing underground lines and other subterranean works) and therefore had to be bored.

On this basis, there is no obvious inaccuracy in the 'On This Day' entry. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 12:55, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A note in our article City and South London Railway says a similar thing: " A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below ground level". In which case the description "underground tube railway" is a tautology, since tunelling implies it must be underground. Gandalf61 (talk) 13:22, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Railway tunnels fall into two types: bored tunnels, where the ground above is largely undisturbed; and cut-and-cover tunnels, where the whole of the ground is dug away to make a trench, which is then roofed over. Each can have several different cross-sectional shapes, but the essential feature of a tube railway is that the tunnels have a circular cross-section. Virtually all tube tunnels are bored, but by no means all bored tunnels are tubes (for example, the Metropolitan's tunnels between Farringdon and King's Cross are bored but not a tube). A very few cut-and-cover tunnels are also tubes (a stretch of the Central line in east London is the only example I can recall). The Metropolitan's tunnels (most of which are cut-and-cover) are basically a flat floor, vertical sides and an arched roof. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:09, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How to add references and upload documents

Wanted to upload a new report relevant to the theme of the page and give citiations at the right places in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.140.50.82 (talk) 08:14, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi and welcome to wikipedia! First please sign your posts with ~~~~ so that we know which user is asking this and can access your user page/talk page, small but important point. To answer your query about adding references see Help:Referencing for beginners or if it is an internet source the temporary measure of adding the <ref> and </ref> to the website URL you paste onto the article will work for now.

Uploading documents are usually done at Wikisource and then linked into Wikipedia. However please realize that any uploaded documents must first either be copyright cleared or your own work that you wish to release publicly with few or no copyrights attached.^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 09:46, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It would not be appropriate to upload a document to wikisource (or anywhere else for that matter) and then to use that document as a reference. Scanned documents can be altered (although I am not saying you would do that). If the document has not been published elsewhere, it is not a reliable source in any event; if it has been published, just cite it using the appropriate {{cite}} template like any other source.--ukexpat (talk) 12:54, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

InfoBox

Dear Wikipedia,

I am writing to you because I am struggling to set up an infobox section on an article called Angels Den. I obviously read the FAQ on this matter, yet I still find it difficult. I do not seem to be able to set the box on the right part of the page (it sets it up on the left), nor do I seem capable of adding a logo.

Thank you very much,

Rhâmusker. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rhamusker (talk • contribs) 10:53, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's probably because you are using the Visual Editor. Templates like Infoboxes need to be entered and edited with the Edit Source button. - X201 (talk) 11:10, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Rhamusker. I added the infobox, all seems well, please always leave your signature on pages like this with ~~~~. You can fill out the details with simple additions on the other side of the =. If you have any other questions on it we are here to help!^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 11:02, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

LABRYS

In the header of the article about "labrys" I read: the neutrality of this article is disputed (november 2012). Where can I find why and how..............? In "view history" I couldn't find it. Thank you very much in advance. Peter Ooijen Rotterdam (tfn 010-4556321). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.211.174.123 (talk) 15:57, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The POV tag, among others, was added in this edit. The editor who did so also added a talk page comment at Talk:Labrys#This article can use some cleaning up. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:06, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Linking within the same page

Hello, I am new to MediaWiki, so I apologize if I overlooked the answer to my question.

I am currently trying to create a link on the same page that will navigate to another place on the same page. I am not looking to navigate to a new page, but simply a location within the same page. For example:

My content is located under one of the top sections of my page with the ==== Example 1 ==== heading

I have another section below that is under the = Example 2 = heading. I need to create a link under Example 2 that points to the position of Example 1 without navigating to a new page, but simply jumping to the location of Example 1

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.172.123.145 (talk) 16:38, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Use a link of the form [[#Example 1]] (with "Example 1" replaced with the relevant heading, of course). Deor (talk) 16:41, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just to use a real example, [[aardvark]] renders as aardvark.--ukexpat (talk) 19:33, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A real example of the question would be [[#LABRYS]] which renders as #LABRYS with a link to the preceding section. Or a piped link like [[#LABRYS|Labrys]] which renders as Labrys. The character '#' should generally not be displayed in article links to the article itself. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:21, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

DENNIES KAG FUTURE POPSTAR

WP:BLP material removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amankag (talk • contribs) 16:46, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Amankag. This is not a suitable place for posting a biography of anybody: it is a page for asking for help in editing Wikipedia. In fact, nowhere in Wikipedia is appropriate for posting an autobiography. You are perhaps looking for a social networking site. --ColinFine (talk) 21:18, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Furthermore, we can't have articles on events that have not taken place.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:25, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Error message: Database Error: User 'daniel_www' has exceeded the 'max_user_connections' r

After clicking View history I cannot click the Contributors link without getting the above error message. This happened momentarily in the past, but now it is constant. Should this be reported at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)? Thanks in advance. XOttawahitech (talk) 18:46, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Apteva (talk) 20:16, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

complaint

Dear Wikipedia

I was on the page of Fransisco del Rosario Sanchez and i noticed that there is a lack of information on a Dominican hero. I feel that his page should have more information on him. I am Dominican and i believe that it is racism to have such little information on a afro-dominican. That is two different cultures i am also. Afro-Dominican and thay makes me feel uncomfortable about it. So i am saying to please just add a little bit of more information on Fransisco del Rosario Sanchez and more Dominican and/or differnt cullture. I see that American heroes sometimes have pages that may take hours to finish so i believe it is racism. Please fix this issue. Before i do. Thank you for listening to me.

Sincerly Manuel Rodriguez — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.192.144.254 (talk) 18:56, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you have information on Sánchez that you feel should be added, and can cite a reliable source for it, you may be able to add it yourself - or alternately raise it on the article talk page. We cannot produce information from thin air. AndyTheGrump (talk) 19:04, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Manuel Rodriguez: Wikipedia editors are volunteers. There are other articles that have not been covered yet, because we need more volunteers to help. XOttawahitech (talk) 19:14, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I do think you raise a good point. Wikipedia has a general bias (from my experience at least) toward Western and "Global North" subjects. I think we can all chip in (that includes Western/Global Northern people) to broaden out the coverage. CaseyPenk (talk) 22:57, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In case you don't know how Wikipedia works, all editors are volunteers and choose where to contribute. We have few Dominican editors and lots of American editors. See Wikipedia:Systemic bias. People tend to write about their own country and culture. That's usually what they know best and are most interested in. I don't think this has anything to do with racism. Noone deleted significant content from Francisco del Rosario Sánchez or decided he should have a relatively short article. There just haven't been anybody who spent time writing a longer article. You are very welcome to do that. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:45, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hoverflies

I do not know why Wikipedia has decide to accept and use the common name "Hoverflies" for the group of Diptera belonging to the Family Syrphidae.

This is a limited and uninformative term used by only some EUROPEANs.

In the rest of the world, especially the USA and Canada, the proper common term for these flies are "Flower Flies," properly documenting their critical role as pollinators, etc.

Also, many flies "hover," etc. So, the term, hoverflies, is not very informative or precise.

And note that proper ENGLISH requires TWO words, as the noun is "Flies" and the adjective is "flower" or "hover."

Sincerely,

Chris

F. Christian Thompson Department of Entomology Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20560 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.243.102 (talk) 19:26, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We use the common name for article subjects, per the policy at WP:COMMONNAME. Flower fly is a redirect to hoverfly.--ukexpat (talk) 19:30, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The appropriate place to discuss this is on the talk page of that article. Please include a reliable source to support your claim.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 19:46, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Shantavira: The talk page of this article, located at Talk:Hoverfly is a very lonely place: it has had only 16 page views in the last 30 days - so is this really the place to ask? Just wondering. XOttawahitech (talk) 20:07, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there are a few ways of attracting attention to lonesome talk pages, a notice can be placed at the wp:village pump, for example. If the name of the article seems inappropriate, just open an RM, with a ? as the proposed title. See WP:RM. Apteva (talk) 20:14, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Unified login doesn't log me into French Wikipedia?

When I login, my account seems to be active on every Wikipedia project expect French. I cannot login using my normal credentials on the French Wikipedia directly either. Is this universal or just my account? Thanks! --Computermacgyver (talk) 21:31, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

According to Special:CentralAuth/Computermacgyver and SUL Info, you do not control the account on the French Wikipedia. According to the information shown at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Computermacgyver, that account is not registered, so you should be able to merge that account to yours by going to meta:Special:MergeAccount. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 21:38, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure Toshio's suggestion will help. What happens when you try to log in at fr:? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:14, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Length of a template parameter?

Hi -- I'm trying to code a template such as it checks for the length of one of the input parameters. Based on the length of that input parameter, it will perform differently.

Specifically, I'm trying to get Template:Userbox video game to resize the left side text (the abbreviation) to be larger or smaller depending on how many letters are used to form that abbreviation. So, if you have two letters the text should be big; if you have four letters the text should be small. The left side text is specified as a parameter to Template:Userbox video game; in this case, the "abbr" parameter.

I have been using Template:Str len but it doesn't seem to read parameters from the calling template (I think it reads {{{abbr}}} and looks for a parameter, but that parameter isn't defined, so it returns 0). Perhaps because the "abbr" parameter isn't actually defined until Template:Userbox video game is called as in User:CaseyPenk/UBX/VG/games/Halo/1.

Here's the structure of what I'm trying to do:

Template:Str len = low level (called by Template:Userbox video game)
Template:Userbox video game = middle level (called by User:CaseyPenk/UBX/VG/games/Halo/1 / calls Template:Str len by passing it "abbr" parameter)
User:CaseyPenk/UBX/VG/games/Halo/1 = high level (calls Template:Userbox video game by passing it "abbr" parameter, among others)

Let me know if you have any clarifying questions, and if you have an idea of how to get the length of a parameter. Thank you. CaseyPenk (talk) 22:54, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is not str len. You have to use #ifexpr and not #if. See the difference at mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're a huge help. I'll try it out. Thank you. CaseyPenk (talk) 00:31, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Works great -- that modification fixed it. I realized that if expressions are a bit of a kluge for this though. Where would I find information about simple expressions involving parameters.. I'm trying to do "19 - <parameter>*2".. do I need to use Category:Mathematical function templates? CaseyPenk (talk) 01:04, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you are computing a number and not making a comparison then just use #expr instead of #ifexpr. If you only have a single operation then a math template can sometimes be practical but for two operations like "19 - <parameter>*2", you would need two math templates. Then I certainly recommend #expr instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:21, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Great. That's exactly what I needed. CaseyPenk (talk) 01:33, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Deaths in 2013

How do I put in a name that is not listed without getting a weird message saying I am missing something? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.84.68.174 (talk) 23:14, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your question is missing something: the "weird message" that you are receiving. Having this information might allow us to better answer your question. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 23:28, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at Special:Contributions/74.84.68.174, for example [1], the message says exactly what you are missing and also links to a help page explaining it. When you start a reference with the code <ref> you must end the reference with the code </ref>. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:58, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 August 2

Contents