Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 February 17

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February 17

Agnosticism

Resolved

I have a problem with your definition of Agnostic. I was seven years old when I accepted the definition as my belief. That was 45 years ago and at that time the definition I read and took to heart said that an agnostic was a person who BELEVED in a Higher power ( something higher than Human) but did not believe in or condone any organized religion. Later in life a Phd in theology explained to me that that was then in fact my religion, which I couldn't argue with but which doesn't change the fact that I self describe myself as "Agnostic" defining it as a person who believes in a higher power but not in organized religion. If Wikipedia doesn't define my belief structure as agnostic, then what would Wikipedia define it as?

P.S. I believe Jesus could be defined as Agnostic if it weren't for the fact that he didn't believe in a higher power, he claimed to have personal knowledge of its existence. I believe Jesus lived (Human), I don't presume any relation he claims to of had with any diety. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.252.200.32 (talk) 00:28, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we can't discuss article subjects here. The help desk "is only for questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia". Feel free to discuss the matter on the article's talk page if you have any suggested content changes for which you have reliable sources. However, per WP:TPG, please keep in mind that "talk pages are for discussing the article, not for general conversation about the article's subject. Keep discussions focused on how to improve the article". Good luck! --76.189.111.199 (talk) 00:34, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, published reliable sources are critical to Wikipedia. I have never seen a source which used your definition, and lots which use Wikipedia's definition, so I don't think you would get support for a change. I don't know whether there is a term for your belief. That question would belong at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:55, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't want to register, for fear of getting something wrong. Is there a link to suggest a topic, if so where? I couldn't find it.

I want to know more about a topic and i came here to see if i could find it. It is not a topic and i would love to know more about it. I searched around the site for a good hour, looking for a button to suggest a topic that hopefully someone would write about. Is that a thing on this site, or am I out of luck? 174.55.63.62 (talk) 01:11, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Look at WP:RA. That's the place to suggest new articles. But, only things that are notable get articles, so its possible what you're looking for doesn't qualify. RudolfRed (talk) 01:23, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

can a lawyer if he changes the contents of a will be charged for doing so?

That will depend on the laws of where you lived or where the lawyer works. You can try asking at the reference desk, if you provide more info, but the answer will only be in general terms. We can't give legal advice. RudolfRed (talk) 02:16, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

search box

simple question - how do i get rid of the drop down list on the search box? It's suddenly reappeared after years of using wiki and now i can't get rid of it.

Go to your preferences page, under the search section check the box to disable AJAX suggestions. RudolfRed (talk) 02:46, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Morgan Freeman's daughter not wife in that picture

The woman attending the Academy Awards with Freeman is not his wife, it is his daughter. Please change it. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.30.6.159 (talk) 01:57, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

 Done. I have corrected the caption in the article and on the image info page. That image is a crop of a bigger image that does include his wife.--ukexpat (talk) 02:45, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

oddity in Special:Search

When I do a search for "talk utc" in the Special:Search page with the default namespaces checked (including article) it returns nothing. However if I limit the search to only the article namespace, it does give me results. Why should reducing the namespaces increase the number of matches? (Note, I'm searching for this to find places where people have signed incorrectly on articles.Naraht (talk) 02:01, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm not seeing this. Here you've added quotes around "talk utc" - did you search with or without the quotes? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:18, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I see what Naraht is talking about, but I don't know why it's happening. To replicate this you have to click the "Advanced" tab from Special:Search and then enter "talk utc" without quotes into the search field. If only "(Article)" is ticked then results show, but if any other boxes are ticked in addition then no results show.
The same result can also be seen if you switch from "Content pages" (the default setting at Special:Search) to "Everything". Presumably "Everything" should cover "Content pages" too, yet whereas "Content pages" gives search results, "Everything" gives no results. -Thibbs (talk) 08:53, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Thibbs, thank you. That is *exactly* what I am talking about.Naraht (talk) 15:31, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Noob Under Attack by an Old Pro

I'm new to the game and I think I've spotted a problem with an article but each time I make a change or propose a change, "SlimVirgin" undoes it with either no explanation or an argument based on demonstrably incorrect information.

For reasons I do not understand, "SlimVirgin" now seems to be accusing me of "harassment" and is threatening to contact the "admin".

I don't know what I did to earn this seemingly hostile and irrational response.

I'm willing to learn but I'm not being offered any explanations or assistance.

Please help! MalibuSurfKing (talk) 02:09, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You are not under attack, you need to read WP:NPOV and WP:BLP. Heiro 02:31, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Is this about Candace_Dempsey? If so, please follow the advice that you were given on the talk page there to read WP:NPOV and WP:BLP. You can also follow the advice at WP:DR to resolve the dispute. RudolfRed (talk) 02:34, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

• See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Candace Dempsey. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 12:19, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

why has mad bot deleted my article

I spent hours creating a page about my great grandfather which you have now deleted,MADBOT wahtever that is. some computer program no doubt|?? and there is no body else even called his name let alone being defamed or whatever, I HAVE GENEROUSLY DONATED TO YOU IN THE PAST AND FEEL extremelly let down to be treated in this way. and wikipedia has gone down in my estimation as result and now has no credibility. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thorp12 (talk • contribs) 03:34, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

The message from User:MadmanBot is a little confusing, but I think it's saying that you tried to recreate a deleted article without making changes to address the reason it was deleted in the first place. The article Bernard Andrew O'flynn was speedily deleted by User:Jimfbleak due to the criteria at Wikipedia:CSD#A7. If you disagree with that deletion, you can leave a message at that user's talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 03:46, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Thorp, you should fully educate yourself on Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines, which explain that "you should not create or edit articles about yourself, your family or your close friends". Therefore, you should not attempt to re-create an article about your great grandfather. Also, the guidelines instruct that if you are participating in an article in which you have a conflict of interest, you should disclose it on both your user page and the article's talk page. Good luck. --76.189.111.199 (talk) 05:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

@76.189.111.199: The guidelines do not so instruct as you assert: "Also, the guidelines instruct that ...". In fact, the guidelines (currently) say

COI editing is strongly discouraged. [...] Editors with COIs who wish to edit responsibly are strongly encouraged to follow Wikipedia policies and best practices scrupulously. They are also encouraged to disclose their interest on their user pages and on the talk page of the article in question, and to request the views of other editors. If you have a conflict of interest, any changes you would like to propose that might be seen as non-neutral should be suggested on the relevant talk page or noticeboard.

— Conflict of Interest guidelines

So, please don't bite the newcomers. You may be interested in my own views on such help-desk behaviour --Senra (talk) 12:07, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Senra, I provided relevant information which was intended in a friendly manner. I'd suggest you re-read your own comments to see a much more applicable example of biting. The bolding and excessive wikilinking can be considered shouting and, therefore, uncivil. I'm sorry you objected so strongly to a single word (instruct), but I would have been happy to change it had you requested it. Perhaps I could've used a term that was more accurate. In any case, this issue was rather simple: Thorp created an article about his great grandfather and the guidelines say that "you should not create or edit articles about yourself, your family or your close friends". Pretty straightforward. In terms of the rest of the COI guidelines, anyone can of course read the full text for themsselves if they so desire. I chose to allude only to the ones which I felt were most relevant to Thorp so that he wouldn't be unnecessarily flooded with information. --76.189.111.199 (talk) 05:34, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Who gave the right to a bot to leave messages on a user talk page that chews them out for re-creating a deleted article? This can really confuse new editors which doesn't help the project. Should we look for a shut-down slam-dunk button and clue that bot in?--Canoe1967 (talk) 06:24, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Now, I'm not sure that's what happened. The message from the bot is confusing, so that was my guess. I see now that the bot left its message before the speedy delete happened, so I think I was wrong. It's still a little confusing as to why it says the one article was a copy of itself. I'm going to ask the bot operator for an explanation. RudolfRed (talk) 06:32, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

The bot operator is very lucky I just got off a block for civility BS or my comment on her talk page would be far harsher.--Canoe1967 (talk) 06:37, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm a he, by the way; otherwise, I suppose I'd have to change my username to Madwoman. Cheers, — madman 07:10, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Thorp12. I may be able to help you. I have left you a message on your talk-page --Senra (talk) 11:13, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

• The article is userfied at User:Thorp12/Bernard Andrew O'flynn. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 11:45, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

reference page numbers

Is there a way to specify a reference and assign it a name, and then use it multiple times, each time with a separate page number? Or do I have to repeat the entire reference, with only the page number changed? PAR (talk) 06:15, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Look at the examples here: Help:References_and_page_numbers. I think the rp tag or the sfn method would do what you want. RudolfRed (talk) 06:24, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Basically, you can use a References/Notes approach. The References section contains book information, for example, in Template:Citation. the Notes section can link/refer to the book in the Reference section and the page number listed in the Notes section can link to the Google book page showing the sourced information. See this article for an example of the References/Notes approach. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 11:38, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

For the references/notes approach to work via the {{sfn}} template (do not enclose {{sfn}} in <ref> tags), ensure that each citation (in the references section) has a |ref=harv parameter and either a |year= or |date= parameter --Senra (talk) 16:42, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Problems searching multimedia

I am trying to add pictures to an article and using the advanced search multimedia setting but no pictures come up and the message: "There were no results matching the query." appears. If I try refreshing the search, the pictures can come up some of the time. Could this be a poor internet connection?, too many people on Wikipedia to ask for pictures (be that pictures are a lot of data)?, or did one of my roommates somehow blacklist this computer by trolling or doing some kind of mischief? Biobrit (talk) 06:24, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Biobrit. Are you searching Wikipedia for images? Could you possibly give an example of an article you would like to add an image to? That would give a start on answering your question. --Shirt58 (talk) 09:18, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Yeah I noticed that yesterday. Most of the time it finds nothing I'm looking for. I did some searches on "margaret court" and "ken rosewall", tennis players whose images I uploaded awhile back. margaret court seems to find nothing for me and ken rosewall finds some pics the first search, but if i re-search for 50 images it finds nothing at all. Wikimedia Commons search has the same problem right now and is very frustrating as i know there are a bunch of pics that I uploaded. Fyunck(click) (talk) 09:48, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I was looking for sketches by Leonardo da Vinci for fun by searching “da Vinci” and I was going to put an infobox on the article on thumb sucking reflex in babies using the search “thumb baby” (note I already put infoboxes on sneezing and yawning). Thinking about it I was searching for a solution to this problem. I found that Wikipedia maybe reducing servers to save money, can this be why? On the trolling suggestion 1 I find it unlikely and 2 wouldn’t Wikipedia make some accusation of ill will coming from this computer?Biobrit (talk) 07:21, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

references

Resolved

Hello,

I wish to insert article references is my contribution about I.J. Berthe Hess. Which I have done, but this message appears: Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a <references /> tag; see the help page

I don't understand what I should do.

Thank you very much.

That happened because you didn't add {{Reflist}} at the references section. I have fixed it now. Sincerely. --Ushau97 ^{talk contribs}

Thank you very much!--Gregpec (talk) 11:35, 17 February 2013 (UTC)GregPec

Personal data or profile

How can I upload a personal data or profile93.186.31.239 (talk) 11:40, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

What format is it in? If it is in Microsoft Word, then copy and past would work. If it is an image in a .jpg, .gif, etc. format, then those can be uploaded via Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 12:43, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

For what purpose? If you're talking about putting a full résumé or c.v. on your user page, please read WP:UP first. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 18:22, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You should probably post it at WikiBios instead.--ukexpat (talk) 15:21, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Picture Sizes in Galleries

Wherever there are pictures on Wikipedia organised as "galleries" they are a bit small for me. Obviously I don't want to edit the pages involved every time, but is there something I can do (e.g. in my preferences) to make them appear bigger, by default, just for me. AndyJones (talk) 12:44, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

No. The template "{{Gallery}}" image sizes cannot be changed using preferences. The size of images in the gallery default to a maximum of 180x180 pixels unless modified by the person creating or editing the gallery. Your own user preferences can affect the display of other non-gallery images on Wikipedia. For example adjust your preference settings

• Preferences->Appearance->Image Size Limit (320x240px–1280x1024px default=800x600px) and
• Preferences->Appearance->Thumbnail Size (120px–300px default=220px)

then "Save" to enable the changes --Senra (talk) 13:49, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

measurement and instument.

a copper resistor at 20 degree centegrate is used to indicate the temperature of bearings of a machine.what resistance should nt be exceeded if the max. bearing temperature is nt to exceed 150 degree c the resistance temperature coefficient of copper is 0.00393/degree centigrade at 20 degree. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.195.104.98 (talk) 12:50, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You need work on your spelling and proof reading skills. If no-one answers the usual procedure is to tell your teacher that your dog ate it. Britmax (talk) 12:58, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science may be able to answer your question. To follow up, please post there. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:10, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

But they won't help you with your homework unless you show that you have tried to answer the question, and need help with something particular. --ColinFine (talk) 21:36, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

List of Jewish Actors

About your Lists of Jewish Actors and Jews in Sport. You have to understand something a Jew is someone with a Jewish mother, regardless of the father. If you have a Jewish father and a non Jewish mother, they are not Jews, some may consider them half Jewish. If you had a list of Italian actors you wouldn't include half Italians now would you. But Jews don't think there real Jews unless your mum is Jewish. It comes from your mothers side. Strictly! So I think you need to change all your Jewish Lists of people to only ones with a Jewish blooded mother. And why do you have a list of Jews in industry anyway. Are you trying to make a point? I think you are? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.250.123 (talk) 12:59, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

The issue you mention has been widely discussed multiple times in the past over many years and probably will be in the future. Also, there is no "You" in Wikipedia as in "Are you trying to make a point? I think you are?" Per Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia, the total number of users as of this post is 18,431,685. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:07, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Much of what you wrote is the viewpoint of some (not all) people. You might want to read Who is a Jew? to discover the others. There are other viewpoints. Talk:Adam Yauch § Request for comment is one such large-scale discussion on the subject. Personally, I don't like the religious/cultural categories, either. Throughout history, such lists have almost never been used to benefit the subjects. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 18:16, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Strange redirect

Why is Media Communications Processor redirected to nForce? There is nothing in article nForce about Media Communications Processor (or media communications processor or MCP). One instance of a link is from article Northbridge (computing), section Recent developments --Mortense (talk) 13:24, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

The redirect is explained in the 00:25, 24 May 2009 edit summary here. - Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:01, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Template for maintenance category

Resolved

Is there a template to tag a maintenance category for files that advices not to add files to that category manually and where I can indicate how files are being added to that category? -- Toshio Yamaguchi 14:15, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I've seen this kind of thing done using category headers mainly. For example, Wikipedia:WikiProject Mississippi/Article alerts/Header includes a warning not to manually edit the list and it's transcluded in this page. You might be able to model something similar based on these pages. -Thibbs (talk) 15:09, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I think I'll leave that categories I had in mind as is for now. It's probably not that important. Thanks for the links anyway, I do appreciate them. I might get back to it at a later point. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 18:08, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

How to join WikiProject Singapore?

I thought about joining Wikipedia:WikiProject Singapore. How can I do this? Or can't this project be joined like other WikiProjects where I just add my name to a list of participants and add a userbox to my userpage? -- Toshio Yamaguchi 15:06, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You may have noticed that there is no direct Wikiproject Singapore project page. The link you provide above actually is a redirect to Wikipedia:SGpedians' notice board. There does not appear to be a list of participants on that page like some Wikiprojects have, but there is {{User WP Singapore}} which will add you to Category:WikiProject Singapore members. Given that only four people use the template and are in the category, it looks like it's not well recognized.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:56, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I added the userbox to my userpage. Thank you. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 17:58, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

How to edit a page?

how can i post or edit on Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dalton Wienhoff (talk • contribs) 18:05, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, in general just as you did when you edited this page: Click the Edit tab at the top of any page and enter your post or the changes you want to make into the edit window. You can click Show preview below the edit window to check whether your edit does what you want to do (note that the edit won't get live at that point). If not, simply make any changes necessary. If the edit looks good, click Save page and the edit will be saved. As a note, it is sometimes considered a good practice to leave an edit summary in the field below the edit window (see Help:Edit summary). For more information, you might also want to check Help:Editing and Wikipedia:How to edit a page (concise). -- Toshio Yamaguchi 18:17, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Also it is considered good practice to sign your posts when posting a comment to a talk page. You do this by simply typing four tildes at the end of your post like this: ~~~~

Help:Using talk pages covers everything one needs to know about talk pages. Note that only edits to talk pages should be signed, not edits to articles. Note that, for that matter, this Help desk also counts as a talk page. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 18:25, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Procedure for referring to a person who appears on Wikipedia, but in another language

I'm preparing a biographical article in English on Pierre Schwartz whose descendants Pedro Schwartz and Juan Schwartz Díaz-Flores are the subject of biographical articles in the Spanish version of Wikipedia. Is there a way to attach a link toward the Spanish articles when their names appear in the English one?Lisaby 20:02, 17 February 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lisaby (talk • contribs)

Use the :es: prefix for the Spanish Wikipedia, so [[:es:Pedro Schwartz]] for es:Pedro Schwartz. Note that it does need the leading colon, or else otherwise it would treat it as an interwiki language link for the article where you are inserting the link. - David Biddulph (talk) 20:18, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, you'd really want to pipe that link into [[:es:Pedro Schwartz|Pedro Schwartz]] (which shows as Pedro Schwartz), wouldn't you? At any way, that's how those links are created. If the use is for within the article space, though, I generally prefer the redlinked way, as redlinks tend to shout "Hey, I'm about someone notable! Create me!" To do that, just use [[Pedro Schwartz]] (which shows as Pedro Schwartz). – Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 04:48, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

If you want to pipe you can shorten the syntax and use the "pipe trick", so [[:es:Pedro Schwartz|]] gives Pedro Schwartz. You can, if you wish, combine the redlink and interwiki links, as shown at Help:Interlanguage links#Inline interlanguage links. -David Biddulph (talk) 05:09, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't think I'd seen that before - that's a good way to do it! – Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:27, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Some Bio Info If You Like?

Hi---seems whomever posted about the book I co-wrote with Howard Rosenberg (link below) is having difficulty finding bio info on me....so, second link below is from the website of a media consulting company I am affiliated with...pretty up to date bio . I write under the name Charles S. Feldman (Stuart) --but you can also find stuff about me by just Googling Charles Feldman or Charles Feldman KNX or even Charles Feldman CNN. FYI

No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle

http://dunlopmedia.com/charles-feldman/

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.123.234.226 (talk) 21:53, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the information, Mr. Feldman! The Help Desk is really a place where people are supposed to come to ask questions about how to use Wikipedia, but it looks like User:Maproom has cross-posted your above comment at this page. Hopefully someone will soon update the page as needed. Thanks again. -Thibbs (talk) 00:05, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Antipsychotics

You have some horrible material on this page about Antipsychotics, including brain shrinkage and lower mortality and bad for heart. No psychiatrist on the planet thinks that and believes that. And they should know. You scare people because lots of people take them including me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.250.123 (talk) 23:06, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Whether or not the material in the articles scares people like you isn't really something Wikipedia is concerned about because this is not a censored encyclopedia. But it is supposed to be an encyclopedia based on reliable sources, so the claims that are made in these articles need to be properly attributed and are subject to removal if they are not properly sourced. The claim about brain shrinkage in the article, for example, seems to have a "citation needed" tag next to it. This means that if no reliable source for this claim can be located then it should be removed. I'm not sure where you see the claims about reduced mortality and heart problems, but if these claims do not have sources then you can edit them to affix "citation needed" tags. -Thibbs (talk) 23:54, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I removed the unsourced sentence about brain shrinkage from Antipsychotic. The phrase "possible increased mortality (death)" had a source. I did not find "bad for heart". -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:17, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Category:Incest in fiction: moving pages to subcategories where applicable.

Dear administrators

I tried to move articles within Category:Incest in fiction by myself to subcategories where applicable. However, I do not have the time to move them all, but if anyone who could help it would be great.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 23:28, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

The Help Desk is a place where people can come to ask about how to use Wikipedia. It's not a notice board where you can recruit other editors to make edits. I think the best place for you to post your request is either at Category talk:Incest in fiction (although that's probably not a very commonly visited page) or at Talk:Incest in popular culture. Good luck. -Thibbs (talk) 23:58, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Since the category is tagged with WikiProjects, you might also post for help on the projects' pages if there isn't a response on the category talk or article talk. – Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 02:37, 22 February 2013 (UTC)