Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 February 15

=February 15=

Can anyone help me understand what's going on at the Levitron article?
I got one of these Levitron magnetic levitating spinning tops recently so I was interested to read the Levitron article, but it's just a short section detailing some lawsuit, with no mention of the Levitron itself.

I thought I remembered seeing an informative article about the Levitron months ago, but I couldn't find it. Then I looked at the edit history and it appears the original article was there all along, but someone keeps removing the complete article and replacing it with the lawsuit text. There's clearly something odd going on but I can't work out exactly what. Croxley 00:51, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Bear with me, I'm still going through the history, but a bulk of information seems to have possibly been a copyvio, and was removed by User:TheGreatScott ... then a bit of a revert war followed, , , etc etc, there seems to be active discussion on Talk:Levitron. Have a read through that (although theres lots there!) and maybe ther'll be some light shed. Post back if you need anything else, &mdash; D e on555talkdesksign here! 01:06, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * So at first I thought that this was a simple case of blanking. It looked like someone was just clearing the article and advertising their wholesaler website.  But then I saw the talk page, and Holy crap!!!  Looks like they're saying that we're infringing on their copyright by having some information here.  But really, Wikipedia is allowed to have a lot of this sort of information - because we're an encyclopedia...we're not selling their product.  What a mess though - feel free to join in the conversation yourself, but you won't see me there!  tiZom(2¢)  01:10, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I did try reading the talk page, but all the talk about Earnshaw's theorem and litigation history just confused me more. As it stands now, after having the content replaced, it's a good article. I fear there are some over-protective editors who will try to blank it again though. One of them even placed this warning at the top of the talk page People wishing to modify this article should do so only after familiarizing themselves with the litigation surrounding the trademark "LEVITRON".Croxley 01:58, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Category list
Is there a way to get a list of all items in Category:Wikipedia templates and its subcategories that I can use in Autowikibrowser?--Balloonguy 02:09, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, according to the lead section of AutoWikiBrowser: AutoWikiBrowser can create a list of articles from single or multiple categories. I have not used the program myself yet. If you have a specific question about how to use the program, you might inquire on its talk page, where presumably you might get the attention of its expert human users. --Teratornis 16:16, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Spacing Sentences Of The Same Paragraph
While editing, I frequently find the there are two spaces (rather than one) between sentences of the same paragraph. Is this a policy or what? --Seans Potato Business 03:13, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * That's just a difference in usage, and it doesn't actually show up when viewing the page, anyway. Guess where I put two spaces. -Amarkov moo! 03:16, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Just guessing, but was it between 'up' and 'when'? --Seans Potato Business 04:29, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Us old folks who leaned to type on typewriters were taught to put 2 spaces after . ? and !  Misha t x  *разговор* 03:50, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Key combination?
I was editing my user page and I had a couple of words highlighted. I tried to hit Backspace and missed, hit a different key (possibly together with Shift or Control), and the edit page refreshed with a preview of only the words I had highlighted being previewed. There's a screenshot of this here. What was this key combination? --⁪froth T 03:22, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It is just regular preview (Alt-Shift-P in Firefox), when you have text selected. I have never seen that before. I wonder if it counts formatting that affects what is highlighted, but that isn't highlighted... Prodego  talk  03:50, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Hm.. this is weird. I have the habit of randomly selecting blocks of text while I read web pages.. I was editing one of the above questions (the one about indenting preformatted areas) to see the wikicode behind it, and I was randomly clicking entirely within the text area and I did something weird with a highlight and a triple click or something and the block of text near my mouse click was live-previewed! My hands weren't even near the keyboard this time --⁪froth T 04:00, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * That just happened to me as well. I assume it just changed, since this did not happen a second ago. I noticed the code in svn, it must have just been activated on enwiki. Prodego  talk  04:07, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It just happened to me again. This is really useful; how do you do it on purpose? --⁪froth T 04:16, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * All you have to do is highlight the text and it is automatically previewed. You must have installed VoA's script pack... PTO 04:23, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I haven't touched my monobook, maybe it was added to popups? Also, since this is javascript, what did I see in svn? :) Prodego  talk  13:33, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It's a new feature in popups; there's discussion on WP:VPT at the moment. --ais523 13:44, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Restrictions on user page content?
I am considering adding a 2nd level user page that will be an index to a couple source books that are not indexed. I figured I'd do it there for my own use but also for use by other editors working on the same project. Is that an acceptable use for a user page? What restrictions are there, and where is that described? Thanks! John Cardinal 03:55, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Although not up to speed about exact restrictions, I can give you a link: User page. Hope that helps you a bit. Niels |en talk-nl talk (faster response)| 04:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Index? Search
I just created an entry for our public library is named "Newton Free Library." Most people search for it "Newton Library." How to I ensure that when users type "newton library" that my entry has the highest relevance?65.96.205.96 04:36, 15 February 2007 (UTC)Franklin4


 * Create the page Newton Library and put a redirect button on it. Only do this if you know that your article has the highest relevancy  #REDIRECT Newton Free Library . -- [|.K.Z|]  [|.Z.K|]   04:57, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Although probably not a huge issue in this case, if most people refer to it as "Newton Library", then the article should be on that page, and the redirect on "Newton Free Library" (see Naming conventions). If you haven't already created the redirect at "Newton Library", then you can accomplish this by moving "Newton Free Library" to "Newton Library" -- the redirect from "Newton Free Library" to "Newton Library" is created automatically as part of the move. –RHolton ≡ – 13:48, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikiproject
How do I add an article to a wikiproject? I tried finding the answer on wikipedia by myself but it wasn't anywhere, so would someone tell me. Prb4 04:53, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Add a appropriate banner, such as or  etc. ,on the article's talk page. Most WikiProjects should have the banner in their assessment section. -- [|.K.Z|]   [|.Z.K|]   04:59, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * If you can't find the appropriate banner template, tell us the name of the WikiProject, and someone will find it for you. To learn more about the organization of WikiProjects generally, see WP:PROJGUIDE. The section WP:PROJGUIDE describes project banner templates, and you are looking for one of those. --Teratornis 16:20, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Problems with references
I need to reference mulitiple sentences in a text to just one source. When I add the on each sentence the same link shows up multiple times under the reference section. I want the link to show up just once.

Basically I want to reference one source multiple times in the same wikipedia article.

Help!

Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mutaherazad (talk • contribs) 05:08, 15 February 2007 (UTC).


 * This can't be done. The best way to cite a source multiple times is to cite it fully the first time, then just cite the author, title, and page number (if applicable) every time after that. See WP:CITE for more information. Chairman S. Talk  Contribs  07:05, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The preceding answer is incorrect. It can be done. See Footnotes. PrimeHunter 12:08, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually, i think it can be done. Instead of using just tags, use (replacing "?" with some kind of identifier). The next time you want to use the same reference, do.


 * It doesn't matter what you put for the identifier, it's arbitrary, and doesn't show up anywhere except when editing. That way, both references will have the "[1]" (with the same number too) linking to the same reference line. The line will show up only once in the references section. here is an example of an article that does this. Scroll down to the bottom and look at how reference number 7 looks. Is this what you're wanting? -- `/aksha 12:11, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes this is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.138.45.217 (talk) 09:42, 17 February 2007 (UTC).

Question concerning vandalism
Hello Wikipedia, I thought it might relate to a technical issue when I typed the word "Hair" in the search box and when the page uploaded it said "You suck because you looked this up" and then there was a long artical about Nintando games or something like that. I thought maybe someone hacked this page. Please check it out. Regards, Sophia


 * What you saw was vandalism but it appears to be fixed now. You can revert it yourself in future, see WP:REVERT. --WikiSlasher 06:42, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Changing a font in a userbox
I would like to change the font of my userbox. It looks like this:

and I would like to change the text "This user loves Brazil" so it isn't in italics or that big. Thanks in advance! -- Ç iddl ə r 07:29, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Replace the userbox template on your page with this code:

.

Chairman S. Talk  Contribs  07:58, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Dashes & hyphens.
I saw somewhere in the instructions something about "en-dash"...or whatever. If I want to indicate a span of time : years 2006 - 2007, for example, what do I use–this or—this–or this or something else? Regards, and where will the answer to this question be found? I may have lost it!!Osborne 09:13, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * You want to use the en dash for spans of years (it's this one: ). See WP:MOSDASH for more information (which is probably the page you were thinking of). --ais523 09:17, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

how do i get started?
i was reading an article on violinist David Cross, and noticed one of his records was missing. when i hit that edit button i get an edit window, in no known language in it, to me. so what do you do to add a small piece of info to an article?? i need by step instuctions to do something the first time, and then usually i "get it". thanks, m.k. smith  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thrak7 (talk • contribs)


 * For the first time editting, How to edit a page and Your first article would be helpful pages. PeaceNT 11:12, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * If you haven't found them already, Introduction and Tutorial are even more basic step-by-steps. (The links PeaceNT has given are also worth reading.) --ais523 12:33, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Imagemap tag
Where can I find help and the syntax for the afterwards. I've done it for you. Xiner (talk, email) 20:44, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

IreneWyo 22:11, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Ziner! I am very grateful for your help.

Yankee Candle Company
Hi, I do the Public Relations for the Yankee Candle Company, and I have tried several times to update the history page. Every time I go back and check it, the old information is there. How can I make sure the new information stay's put? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Annmariehall (talk • contribs)
 * Please read Wikipedia's conflict of interest policy and spam policy. The article must have a neutral point of view and you are writing the article from the perspective of an employee, which you are.↔NMajdan &bull;<span style="font-size:9px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">talk &bull;<span style="font-size:8px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">EditorReview 21:23, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, it appears your are violating Wikipedia's copyright policy by copying information into that article straight from http://www.yankeecandle.com/cgi-bin/ycbvp/ycContent.jsp?page=/Navigation/Non%20Product%20Left/About%20Yankee%20Candle/Our%20Company/YC%20Today. Please read these policies before you continue editing. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.↔<span style="font-size:11px; font-weight:bold; font-family:verdana, sans-serif;">NMajdan &bull;<span style="font-size:9px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">talk &bull;<span style="font-size:8px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">EditorReview 21:25, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, Ann Marie. As NMajdan explains above, you are running into Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline, as well as its copyright policy.  Although you may well be able to waive copyright on the text of your website, you should be aware that if you do have the legal right to release copyright on Yankee Candle's text, Wikipedia's copyright allows future users to use that text for almost any purpose.
 * If you think there is information that the Wikepedia page on the Yankee Candle Company should have, Wikepedia guidelines recommend that you suggest the changes on the talk page for the article in question. Other editors can then review your suggestions and include them if they think they're appropriate.  In particular, your suggestions will be more successful if they are accompanied by references to reliable sources, particularly sources not directly related to the Yankee Candle Company, such as press clippings from newspapers and magazines.  If you need more advice, the Association of Members' Advocates would be happy to assign you an advocate to figure out the relevant policies and see what information is likely to "stick."  Thanks!  TheronJ 21:33, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Removing images
How can I remove an image I have uploaded to Wikipedia?
 * Place db-author in the image description.↔<span style="font-size:11px; font-weight:bold; font-family:verdana, sans-serif;">NMajdan &bull;<span style="font-size:9px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">talk &bull;<span style="font-size:8px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif; color:#000000;">EditorReview 21:20, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Sockpuppets
Hi, i am just saying i suspect these three users of being sockpuppets:


 * User:Mariegisellerafferty1
 * User:Quibbvlw
 * User:Elainegmarshall1978

The reason is that they have constantly set up deletion tags without good cause, althin minutes of each other once they have been reverted. How do i report this, especially as i do not know who is the master? Simply south 22:45, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

For evidence see the histories of Jessica Alba and Tom Brown's Schooldays. Simply south 22:47, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Looks like an admin has already indefinitely blocked all three of those accounts. In the future, though, this page has instructions on how to correctly report sock puppet accounts. Hersfold (talk 01:33, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

bibliographies
i am doing a bib and was wondering where the site information is cause this is for a project and when i say info i mean the author the email the post title the site title the post date th elast update an the sponsor the date accessed the electronic adress
 * See Citing Wikipedia. Dismas |(talk) 23:01, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Blocking users
If a user comes back about once a week to blank sections of an article, can they be blocked? Or does it have to be within a certain time limit that they get all four vandalism warnings? The article in question is Scout Taylor-Compton and the user is User:Lylith. I'd like to put the final warning on the user's talk page but if I'm going to be told that they need to be more persistant or whatever, then I won't bother. Dismas |(talk) 23:00, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * It's fine for you to give him/her a final warning, if they are repeatedly blanking the page. If they continue to vandalise after you have given them a final warning, you should report them at Administrator intervention against vandalism. Chairman S. Talk  <sup style="color:#177245;">Contribs  23:12, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, thanks. Dismas |(talk) 02:09, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Being Blocked
I hope you will be able to help me. I read everything I could and I am puzzled.

I joined today and made one small contribution to Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The next time I opened your page it said I was blocked and I was a suspected puppet. I have never made an edit to Wikidpedia prior to today.

Now it appears that I am not blocked but the contribution I made is now gone. There was nothing wrong with it nor did it violate any rules. It merely gave a short account that Babe Ruth played his last major league game there. (My father had attended that game.)

I want to avoid having this happen again. I spent time and thought to make my edit and now it is all wasted. I sure do not want that to happen again.

How can I avoid this and how can I prove who I am?

GrtPyr User ID 3571369

Thank you very much. I hope somebody can help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GrtPyr (talk • contribs)


 * I can't say why you were identified as a sock puppet. However, your contribution to the Baker Bowl article was removed because it was an unsubstantiated personal account of the event. If you read No original research, you will see that Wikipedia articles should not contain information that hasn't been published in reliable sources. Chairman S. Talk  <sup style="color:#177245;">Contribs  00:01, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Categories
How do I make a new category?

I would like to make: Category:Coastal towns in South Australia

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by ROxBo (talk • contribs)
 * Add an article to the non-existant category. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the red linked category.  You will then be given the opportunity to edit that category's page.  Add text describing the cat and save the page.  For more see Categories.  Dismas |(talk) 23:49, 15 February 2007 (UTC)