Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 December 4

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December 4

Cameroon

In Cameroon#History, it says (2nd paragraph) "Portuguese sailors reached the coast in 100000000000000 B.C.", but the edit part has it as "in 1472." The article history also doesn't show it in the most recent version. Is someting missing in history? Smarkflea (talk) 01:08, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The history shows the vandalism was reverted the next minute.[1] Articles sometimes have to be purged to display the most recent version. The problem disappeared when I purged it. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:20, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. How did you purge it? Smarkflea (talk) 01:37, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

My link on "purged" shows different ways to do it although my way isn't actually listed there. I have enabled Add a "Purge" tab to the top of the page, which purges the page's cache when followed at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:50, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Or, probably the quickest way is to append ?action=purge to the URL to purge that page. ~HueSatLum 03:55, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Putting in HTML notes

I want to put in HTML notes (the type only visible in source editing) in an article I'm working on so I can put page numbers in case I change the citation system later (which doesn't currently have them). How do I go about doing that? Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 1 Tevet 5774 03:01, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Help:Wiki_markup#Invisible_text_.28comments.29 and Help:Hidden text - Purplewowies (talk) 03:27, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Cheers. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 1 Tevet 5774 03:33, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

How to permanently remove a deleted page

Hello,

I had created a page last week at this link Tony Hsu Due to some reasons it was deleted. I would now like to permanently remove it from wiki, so that no users searching for 'Tony Hsu' gets directed to this page

Please advise

Regards Ranjeeta — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ranjeeta7 (talk • contribs) 09:16, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The page has been removed. However, it can take several days, even weeks, for search engines such as Google to catch up with that fact. Once they do, it will no longer appear in their search results. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:34, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

New

How di I make a new word fir a priduct in R&D right now?? Help !!!! Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nholder78 (talk • contribs) 10:25, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

A product that has not yet entered production is unlikely to meet Wikipedia's inclusion requirements, which require substantial coverage in multiple, reliable, independent sources. What is the product that you wish to write about? Yunshui 雲‍水 10:33, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

What are the numbers in brackets on submissions page

I have an article in submission process.

What do the brackets with numbers in represent after the (diff|history) brackets

See example below:

15:39, 26 November 2013 (diff | hist) . . (-9)‎ . . m Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/xxxxxx — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anstutim (talk • contribs)

That represents how much content was added or removed. "-9" means that nine characters (including spaces) were removed, as you can see here. Equally, you have one that is "+604", which means 604 characters were added, here. — Richard BB 13:08, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

To add to this, it's an overall change in characters, so if I added 10 characters but removed 5 elsewhere in the arrticle it would still show up as +5. Samwalton9 (talk) 13:10, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure it's counting characters rather than bytes? I've always thought it was the change in page size in bytes. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 14:23, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it is bytes, see Wikipedia:Added or removed characters. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:28, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

So it is, my bad, I assumed it was characters since it usually is! Samwalton9 (talk) 11:13, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

PolyEdit Lite

Is PolyEdit Lite still under development? I don't see much activity since 2010. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.88.202.190 (talk) 14:00, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

I assume that your question isn't about the Wikipedia page PolyEdit, but about the program itself? In which case the question belongs not here but at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:10, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost has not been published?

I always look forward to the weekly wp:Signpost, but now I can only find the one from November 20, 2013. Will it show up eventually? Just curious. XOttawahitech (talk) 16:23, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

It's being worked on at the signpost newsroom but hasn't been released yet. RJFJR (talk) 17:35, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost is out, yey!!! XOttawahitech (talk) 15:34, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Article name differs from how to be listed in a category

The article Bridge Murder case, is about the murder of John Bennett. How do you get the name 'John Bennett' to appear under the B's in the category 'People murdered in Missouri'? Newwhist (talk) 16:40, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Create a WP:REDIRECT titled John Bennett (murder victim) and add a {{DEFAULTSORT}} template and the category to the page. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:04, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

I have just done it, per WP:BOLD. -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:14, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

And I have added him to the John Bennett disambiguation page with a link to Bridge Murder case.--ukexpat (talk) 19:21, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

And now merged my entry with the existing one.--ukexpat (talk) 20:11, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

how to get a wikipedia page?

I am an author (not self-published) and would like to have a wikipedia page. how do I do this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.104.160.176 (talk) 17:09, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

To support an article, there would have to be high-quality published sources giving information about you -- book reviews in national publications, biographical pieces, interviews, etc. Beyond that, it would be much easier to give a concrete answer if you would let us know who you are. Regards, Looie496 (talk) 17:16, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

You can write/suggest an article, based on independent, reliable sources about you, at WP:AFC. Success is not guaranteed, it will depend, in part, on how well you have been covered in independent (from you) media. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:33, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

But you are discouraged from writing an article yourself: see WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY. --ColinFine (talk) 23:29, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

content "ping-pong" on article "FTI Consulting"

I almost never contribute to wikipedia. When, about a month ago, I read elsewhere about activity of FTI Consulting, I checked the wikipedia page to learn more about this company. The page turned out to be a kind of PR promotional press release. I didn't feel qualified to perform any comprehensive research to make the article less one-sided, so I added a section and paragraph paraphrasing the content (with footnote attribution) of a newspaper article implicating the company in incitement to violent criminal activity in Venezuela with the goal of destabilizing the government there. I did do some googling of the company and did see some other supplemental information about the company, but decided to start slowly - maybe others more qualified than I would pick up the job.

Like I said, I thought this would begin to incrementally balance out the tone of the wikipedia article, but what has been happening is that someone is just deleting my additions.

If the wikipedia staff feel that my additions are inappropriate, so be it; however, if the additions are appropriate, I would appreciate some way to to put a quasi-'lock' in the content. FTI Consulting isn't my life. I have limited motivation to check back and re-edit the page in a game of wikipedia ping-pong. If the other side are paid PR guns of that corporation, I will certainly lose.

Some reasons in favor of the content: 1] makes article less of a one-sided PR press release 2] potential investors and business partners and clients would want to know the nature of the company before getting involved with them 3] public interest to potential victims and bystanders — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.21.4.242 (talk) 17:54, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

The place to start a discussion is Talk:FTI Consulting. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:59, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Interestingly, the IP which has been reverting you (65.118.222.116) does apparently belong to FTI Consulting, so they would seem to have a conflict of interest. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:03, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Irrelevant to the issue, but just to help you understand things here. What you call "ping-pong" is not unusual, and is known as an "edit war". The side that can support its claims with references, as you have done, generally "wins". And we are all "Wikipedia staff", or rather, editors – David Biddulph, me, you, and even 65.118.222.116, despite his conflict of interest. Maproom (talk) 22:35, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

to continue the not quite on topic, be aware that just because you have sources, it does not give you the right to keep reverting see WP:3RR. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 23:17, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

So, you should try to engage with the other user on the article's talk page (use Talkback to draw the attention of the IP user to the fact that you are trying to discuss). If the other party will not engage, or you cannot agree, see Dispute resolution. --ColinFine (talk) 23:34, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Dilantha Malagamuwa

Hello fellow editors. This old Afc submission will soon be deleted under G13, but before letting it go I wanted to check with a Wikiproject because I know nothing about auto racing. Can anyone point me to the right Wikiproject? There doesn't seem to be "Auto racing". —Anne Delong (talk) 18:54, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Try Wikipedia:WikiProject Motorsport. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:04, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Which gives rise to the question whether it would be permissible to create a redirect from Wikipedia:WikiProject Autosport to Wikipedia:WikiProject Motorsport?--ukexpat (talk) 19:35, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Requested Articles (Wikipedia)

Where should I place Earthquakes in 2014 in Requested Articles? 78.156.109.166 (talk) 19:49, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

because we do not have crystal balls that tell us anything about earthquakes that have not yet happened, such a request will not be appropriate until reliable sources have written enough about earthquakes to merit a stand alone article. When the reporting has occurred, the place to request the article will be WP:AFC. or actually, as an IP Wikipedia:Requested articles would be the path that would probably work best.-- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 20:43, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Actually, TRPoD, the IP knows about Requested Articles, and was asking which section to put it in. The answer is surely Wikipedia:Requested articles/Natural sciences/Environment and geology, but TRPoD is right about waiting until there is reference material available for such an article. --ColinFine (talk) 23:38, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

adding info text box

hi there - how do i create an info text box that appears on the upper right corner of many wikipedia pages like this one: ISO/IEC JTC1 that has basic details about the page content/subject, i.e. formation year, type of org, purpose, location, etc.? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ansidotorg (talk • contribs) 19:52, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Those are infoboxes created by templates, in this case {{Infobox organization}}. See the documentation there for assistance.--ukexpat (talk) 20:07, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Judgment Day in the Reference Desk.

Where should I put a question about that in the RD? --78.156.109.166 (talk) 20:20, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

It depends on the context. For expample, Judgment Day from the Terminator franchise would go on the Entertainment desk. For a literary or bible reference, it would go on the Humanities desk. If you look at WP:RD, it lists the topics for each desk. RudolfRed (talk) 20:44, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Create account.

Create account link not working for me? --78.156.109.166 (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Could you elaborate? Are you receiving an error message for example? Samwalton9 (talk) 20:55, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

This particular IP address was recently blocked (but is no longer blocked). I suspect that the attempt to create an account was made during the time when the address was blocked. --TeaDrinker (talk) 21:04, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

"This page can’t be displayed". That's in Internet Explorer, can't access Wikipedia in Mozilla Firefox. --78.156.109.166 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2013 (UTC) TeaDrinker: It has not worked no matter if I was blocked or not. --78.156.109.166 (talk) 19:04, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Are you viewing Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org or https://en.wikipedia.org? Account creation happens at the latter for security reasons. Can you view the latter? PrimeHunter (talk) 01:44, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I am viewing http://en.wikipedia.org, and can't view the latter. --78.156.109.166 (talk) 10:11, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I guess something at your end is blocking https. Your IP address is in Denmark (like myself) so it isn't government censorship. I don't think it's possible to log in without access to https://en.wikipedia.org. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:03, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Main Title

How can you update the main title of a wikipedia page? I need to update a page's name but I don't know how to. Please help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ravensrock222 (talk • contribs) 23:21, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

You do that by moving the page. If you click on the small grey arrow just to the left of the search bar at the top of the page, click "move" and enter the new title in the box. ~HueSatLum 23:28, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

But please make sure that the new name conforms to Wikipedia:Article titles. If you're wanting to move it because there was a spelling error, or an organisation has changed its name, that's fine; but if you want to move it because you think the article should use a different form of their name, check the policy I linked to, and probably discuss the move on the article's talk page too, to reach consensus before moving it. --ColinFine (talk) 23:44, 4 December 2013 (UTC)